Michael Beschloss
Michael Beschloss
Michael Richard Beschlossis an American historian. A specialist in the United States presidency, he is the author of nine books...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth30 November 1955
CountryUnited States of America
nominating
From the beginning of the presidential nominating conventions in the 1830's really through the 1950's, you had conventions that actually did real business.
center events historical
He's at the center of two big historical events.
adjusted adulthood almost bad given graceful nice reach
Given the experiences he had, for him to reach adulthood and be pretty well adjusted and be thought of almost universally as a pretty nice and graceful guy, that is not a bad accomplishment,
admire coming left plan understand vacuum
In retrospect, I emotionally understand where Morgenthau is coming from, and I admire him for it. At the same time, Morgenthau's plan was too vindictive. In retrospect, if it had been instituted ... it would have left a vacuum for the Soviets.
divided final oftentimes period
Oftentimes during the period in which conventions really did business, you had situations where the delegates were divided and you would have ballot after ballot before there was a final nominee.
aware change hear life snap
This a person who can change the life of all of us, really, in the snap of a finger, by writing one word. And it's something that Americans are not as aware of because we don't hear that much about these people. We don't see them interact.
kids remember tabloid
To kids of the 90's -- they probably remember him more of something of a tabloid celebrity,
party political firsts
First of all, there's no mention of political parties in the Constitution, so you begin American history with not only no political conventions but also no parties.
party aggravation president
As parties began to develop around the turn of the 19th century, you had party nominees for President nominated in caucuses made up of party members in Congress.
world united-states right-now
We [the United States] are the world's only superpower right now, so everyone notices every bit of what we do or don't do.
party leader half
Then you get to the last half of the 20th century, Americans are getting very skeptical about their leaders and their institutions, and another place that is affected is parties and conventions.