Kenneth C. Davis's Blog, page 100
September 28, 2012
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Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as that document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.
Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Remarks at the Dartmouth College Commencement Exercises, Hanover, New Hampshire.,” June 14, 1953. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pi....
September 23, 2012
Who Said It? 9/23/12
President Dwight D. Eisenhower Press Release announcing Executive Order 10734 which ordered troops into Little Rock, Arkansas (9/24/1957) to enforce a federal court desegregation order via the Eisenhower Presidential Library
September 19, 2012
Don’t Know Much About® the American Presidents: Road Trip!
The grounds at James Madison’s Montpelier
(Photo: Kenneth C. Davis)
Autumn and a presidential campaign are here. That makes it a perfect time to plan a Presidential road trip. I recently wrote this piece suggesting some excellent presidential sites for Fodors.com
“How do I get my kids interested in history?”
As the author of a series of books for adults and children intended to make history less “BOR-ING,” I get that question a lot. Whether it’s a parent asking for their children, or a teacher inquiring about their classroom charges, one of my answers is: “Field trips!”
Read the rest of the article at Fodors.com
And you can learn more about all of these presidents in my latest book Don’t Know Much About® the American Presidents, released yesterday –September 18, 2012– by Hyperion Books.
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September 18, 2012
Who Said It 9/18/12
George Washington, “Farewell Address,” http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3462 (September 19, 1796)
September 17, 2012
Ugly Campaigns Go Way Back
Think it’s bad now? How about being called a “whoremongering jacobin?”
September 6, 2012
Who Said It 9/4/12
Abraham Lincoln, First Annual Message to Congress (December 3, 1861)
September 4, 2012
“A Mormon and a Catholic Walk Into a Bar…”
Sounds like the opening line of a stand-up joke, doesn’t it?
The fact that a Mormon candidate for President and his Roman Catholic running mate seem to be attracting very little attention over their respective religions is almost news in itself. And good news. After all, the Constitution says,
but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. (Article VI)
But in 1844, a Mormon and a Catholic certainly wouldn’t be running together for the top two offices in America. And if they walked into a bar in Philadelphia, they might get their teeth knocked out. Or worse.
That is the story I tell in this video about the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant “Bible Riots” of 1844 in the City of Brotherly Love.
We’d like to believe in that old “melting pot” myth of American religious freedom. But in fact, the nation’s history is riddled with religious intolerance –and it often reared its head in presidential politics. The “Christian Nation” fallacy is a subject I addressed in the article “Why US Is Not a Christian Nation,” published on July 4, 2011 –but as timely as ever.
A Nation Rising (Harper)
The story of the “Bible Riots” is told in greater detail in A NATION RISING.
The subject of religion and the presidency is also explored in my forthcoming book Don ‘t Know Much About® the American Presidents, available on September 18.
Don’t Know Much About the American Presidents
(September 18, 2012-Hyperion Books)
September 3, 2012
Don’t Know Much About® Labor Day
Just in case you still don’t know what exactly we are celebrating today, here are two ways to find out.
•A CNN.com article called “The Blood and Sweat Behind Labor Day” (Written last year, it is still timely.)
•A new ABC.com video called “Labor Pains”
August 13, 2012
Why a Vice President Matters
Does it matter?
Now that Mitt Romney has made his Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan his choice for running mate, we can move on to next question. Does the choice of a running mate rally make a difference? According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, a majority of voters says it does.
History is not so certain. But the choice really matters: Nine of the 43 men who became president –about one in five– were vice presidents who succeeded to the office.
In my latest video with ABC News.com I offer a little history behind the office that few say they want.
August 10, 2012
Don’t Know Much About® Herbert Hoover
European Children Fed by Hoover’s Relief Efforts (Photo Courtesy of The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum)
Born on August 10, 1874, Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States.
Herbert Hoover was born into a Quaker family in Iowa, and orphaned at nine. He went to live with relatives in Oregon. A college education at Stanford led to a career in the mining industry and a great personal fortune.
You may know that he was the Republican president when the Stock Market crashed in 1929 and he attempted to lead the country through the first years of the Great Depression. Hoover was defeated by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.
But you may not know that Hoover was considered a hero and savior to millions of people. First during World War I, he had organized food relief programs in war-torn Belgium. Later, in the aftermath of World War I, Russia was in the throes of Europe’s greatest calamity since the days of the Black Plague . More than five million died in the new Soviet Russia when famine struck. In 1921, Herbert Hoover led America’s response to the “Great Famine,” subject of this PBS documentary and is credited with saving millions of lives.
Hoover gets hard knocks for the hard times of the Depression and his flawed response to the problems confronting America. But others assess him more generously. Historian Richard Norton Smith once noted:
“Herbert Hoover saved more lives through his various relief efforts than all the dictators of the 20th century together could snuff out. Seventy years before politicians discovered children, he founded the American Child Health Association. The problem is, Hoover defies easy labeling. How can you categorize a ‘rugged individualist’ who once said, ‘The trouble with capitalism is capitalists; they’re too damn greedy.’ ” (“Remembering Herbert Hoover,” New York Times, August 10, 1992)
President Hoover died on October 20, 1964 in New York City. He was 90 years old. This is his New York Times obituary.
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum offers archival materials and online exhibitions.
You can read more about Hoover in the forthcoming Don’t Know Much About® the American Presidents, to be published on September 18, 2012 by Hyperion Books.
Don’t Know Much About the American Presidents
(September 18, 2012-Hyperion Books)
