My big subject as a historian is how Americans divide themselves. What are the divisions that structure our political lives. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were perfect foils for that story.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We aren't as divided as we think we are. We're not just Republicans sitting in one corner, and Democrats sitting in the other corner.
So the same cultural and political issues that divided us in 1968 are still dividing us.
If you're sort of interested in politics but sort of upset about contemporary politics, it's kind of wonderful to read about periods who were very eloquent and admirable - generally. People are articulating ideas you can sympathize with or understand both sides of. Or at least feel like one side is saying the right things.
I happen to think that American politics is one of the noblest arts of mankind; and I cannot do anything else but write about it.
I grew up in a household where we talked politics a lot and argued politics a lot.
Politics, after all, is largely about power. And power goes to the core of our issues of control and narcissism and need to be right and tendency to divide the human race into 'us' vs. 'them.'
You have to talk about why things happened the way they did. You can't actually explain my political life except by a series of situations rather than by some carefully constructed, rigidly progressed ascendancy.
When it comes to dividing Americans on the basis of their gender, I know a little something about the subject.
The polarization of Congress; the decline of civility; and the rise of attack politics in the 1980s, the 1990s, and the early years of the new century are a blot on our political system and a disservice to the American people.
It's not about division. It's not about politics. My concern is how do we come together?