Quotes from H. W. Brands

Our love for the Founders leads us to abandon, and even to betray, the very principles they fought for.

I've been writing big stories of history, but there are a lot of fascinating little stories.

In the early 19th to the early 20th century, people had a lot of things wrong with them. Doctors didn't know how to fix them, and so they lived with them.

With my first few books, I was aiming at an academic audience, basically, to get tenure. You can presuppose a certain amount of knowledge; you can expect that there is this common background.

When a president was elected with foreign policy experience, it was usually less about his foreign policy experience than other things.

Interest in the Founders has risen and fallen over time, as has admiration for them and their accomplishments.

I'm often asked, 'Why didn't Benjamin Franklin ever become president?' My short, easy answer is: He died.

The candidate who promises the most has the best chance of winning.

It's not an exaggeration to say that Texas gets a lot more out of being part of the United States than the United States gets out of having Texas as one of the states.

President Obama ran a campaign in 2008 that was entirely expected from a non-incumbent. You promise, and you imply that if you elect me, everything good is going to happen.

If it's a good story, it's a good story, and it draws readers in.

Theodore Roosevelt, when he was out of office, he would do things to draw attention. But when you are president, you don't need to shout. When you are in office, you are the story.

I read in all forms: paper, computer, phone, audio.

The Reagan Revolution has had no second act.

Reagan conspired in the underestimation of his own ability.

The Republican Party has moved substantially to the right of where Reagan was.

Reagan is the subject of ongoing political debate, and a lot of liberals don't want to take Reagan any more seriously than they did when he was president. I understand why they don't, but they should.

Politics is not something most people have to do every day. Their daily lives are much more influenced by job opportunities, whether the country is in a recession or a boom period. If you really want to understand what drives American history, look at the economic... side.

The Founders were anything but demigods to themselves and their contemporaries, who recognized full well that the experiment in self-government had only begun.

Although this should not be so, historians reconsider presidencies based on how the presidents conduct themselves after leaving office.

If - heaven forbid - a shooter did come into my class, I wouldn't want to have to worry about getting caught in a crossfire.

Reagan refused to demonize his foes. Instead he charmed them, with a few exceptions, including Tip O'Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House and the embodiment of the liberalism Reagan sought to reverse.

The stories that I tell, the topics that I choose to write about, usually are suggested by something that I've done before.

The president is the one person who potentially could be the unifying figure in the country. And if the president or a presidential candidate basically writes off 40 states, then how in the world do the people in those 40 states feel like they have a stake in that person or that election?