Even if it took a century and a half, there were hopes to make the White House green from the start. Just two years after George Washington took his oath of office as the nation’s first chief executive, there was… Read More ›
Individual Presidents
Kitten-Loving Lincoln & His White House Cat Team (Cats in the White House, Part 2)
There was no question he was an intelligent man and a sensitive one. It is hardly a surprise how he reverentially treated animals. In fact, before he left Springfield, Illinois for what would be hist last time home, president-elect Abraham… Read More ›
The President Who Loved to Beam: “Smiling Cal” Coolidge
“He looks as if he’s been weaned on a sour pickle.” It was one of the most aptly memorable and highly quotable quips ever used to describe a President of the United States, attributed to no less than the daughter… Read More ›
Five Presidents Who Went to War & Killed Themselves For It: LBJ (Part 5)
Lyndon B. Johnson and The Vietnam War It was under Truman in the early 50s that the U.S. sent its first military advisers into what had been known primarily as Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) when under French colonial rule, in… Read More ›
Five Presidents Who Went to War & Killed Themselves For It: FDR (Part 4)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II Even before he was permanently paralyzed by polio in 1921, Franklin D. Roosevelt had been inscrutable. He was sly in manipulating those around him with an infectious charm and wily in foreseeing long-range… Read More ›
Five Presidents Who Went to War & Killed Themselves For It: Wilson (Part 3)
Woodrow Wilson and World War I (this separate article appeared yesterday as part of one which considered William McKinley) A childhood dominated by the strict inculcation of pre-destiny by his father, a Presbyterian minister, and the deprivation of war which… Read More ›
Five Presidents Who Went to War & Killed Themselves For It: McKinley (Part 2)
This is the second part of a three-part series looking at five U.S. Presidents whose own lives were forever altered, for the worse, as a result of engaging the U.S. military in combat missions, whether it was a matter of… Read More ›
Obama’s Regional Identity Conflict: A Matter of Presidential Legacy
Perhaps President Obama’s 52nd birthday yesterday may help prompt resolution of a conflict which hangs heavier with each passing day of his presidency’s remaining three and a half years. His decision will forever frame his legacy, yet is ultimately a personal… Read More ›
Speculating on Presidential Sexuality & the first Lesbian First Lady
As early as 1802, when journalist James Callendar first published snide suggestions that President Thomas Jefferson was conducting something of a romance and sexual relationship with African-American Sally Hemings, who was enslaved by him, there has been no hesitation by… Read More ›
The first First Lady to Doll a Magazine Cover: “Hello…..Mrs. Madison.”
Elected to an unprecedented four terms, Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States longer than any one man, even in light of the fact that he died just less than three months into his fourth term, in… Read More ›
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