Six presidents we can learn from
Arthur, Buchanan, Carter, Lincoln, Monroe and Trump
Over the past 250 years, Americans have elected 45 men to the presidency. Their stories tell us much about ambition, achievement and failure.
Through their struggles, we can learn about how the United States has overcome existential challenges — and suffered defeats that still linger.
Presidents are a recurring theme for Now It’s History. Here’s a President’s Day sampling of some recent posts.
The president who failed — and the cabinet that abetted him
When Abraham Lincoln was elected president, he surprised his defeated rivals for the 1860 presidential nomination by giving them key positions in his cabinet.
Trump reveals what his presidency is all about
“Tell me what you think of my ‘Master of Ceremony’ abilities, President Donald Trump said Tuesday in a Truth Social post touting the “Trump Kennedy Center Honors”.
Who was James Monroe?
A hero of the American Revolution. A protégé of Thomas Jefferson. A senator. A diplomat. A governor. Secretary of State. Secretary of War. No other American had a resume quite as impressive as that of James Monroe when he ran for president in 1816.
What Lincoln would tell Trump
At dusk on November 18, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln arrived by train at Gettysburg, the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Huge crowds had gathered at the home of lawyer David Wills, who was hosting the president. Lincoln told the Pennsylvanians that he had no speech to make that night.
The president who amazed America
Elizabeth Jennings was running late for Sunday services on July 16, 1854 when she and a friend tried to board a horse-drawn streetcar on Manhattan’s Third Avenue. Jennings was a 27-year-old teacher at the African Free School and the organist at the First Colored Congregational Church.
How Jimmy Carter avoided checkmate
One afternoon during the Camp David peace summit in September, 1978, U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski walked over to the presidential retreat’s Birch cabin and challenged Israel’s prime minister Menachem Begin to a chess game.
