Reading for Presidents’ Day

Presidents’ Day 2021 couldn’t land at a more auspicious time. The divisions in the country, including the just concluded impeachment trial, put a bigger spotlight on past presidential actions even as current-day crises (Covid, the economy, climate change, inequality) make it more important than ever to get future presidential actions right. That’s all the more […]

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Obama’s Promised Land

I have very mixed feelings after reading this. Obama is a superb writer, able to keep the narrative moving as he artfully mixes the story of his administration with the personal, historical, and social currents of the years covered. Though I was working in journalism and professionally following many of the events described, I never […]

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After 40 years in journalism, I thought I knew what it takes to pin down the facts in a story, to get the underlying context, and to get those telling details that put it all in perspective. But reading Working by Robert Caro made me wonder.

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Mark Willen