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What does history tell us about presidents who have tried to push the limits of the system?

Before Saturday Night Live, there was "Your Show of Shows."

Thirty years later, an Oklahoma native reflects on one of the deadliest domestic terrorist attacks in American history. 

As president, Dwight D. Eisenhower took a moderate position on many issues, believing that “good judgment seeks balance and progress.”

The Constitution is more than a legal code. It is also a framework for union and solidarity.

Classic Essays from Our Archives

Lincoln and Presidential Character | October 2020, Vol 65, No 6

By David S. Reynolds

Abraham Lincoln learned much of what made him a great president — honesty, sincerity, toughness, and humility — from his early reading and from studying the lives of Washington and Franklin.

lincoln

Did Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson Love Each Other? | Fall 2008, Vol 58, No 5

By Annette Gordon-Reed

To call it loaded question does not begin to do justice to the matter, given America’s tortured racial history and its haunting legacy.

hemings jefferson

Ike's Son Remembers George S. Patton Jr. | Summer 2012, Vol 62, No 2

By John D. Eisenhower

The author, who once served under General Patton and whose father, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was Patton's commanding officer, shares his memories of "Ol' Blood and Guts."

Gen. George Patton

The Conversion of Harry Truman | November 1991, Vol 42, No 7

By William E. Leuchtenburg

A child of the South's "Lost Cause," Truman broke with his convictions to make civil rights a concern of the national government for the first time since Reconstruction. In so doing, he changed the nation forever.

truman civil rights

Herbert Hoover Describes the Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson | June 1958, Vol 9, No 4

By Herbert Hoover

The great tragedy of the twenty-eighth President as witnessed by his loyal lieutenant, the thirty-first.

woodrow wilson

Lincoln As Commander in Chief | Winter 2009, Vol 58, No 6

By James M. McPherson

Even though he had no military training, Lincoln quickly rose to become one of America’s most talented commanders.

lincoln as commander in chief

    Today in History

  • Tuskegee Airmen squadron activated

    The 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first African-American Army Air Corps unit, is activated at Chanute Field in Illinois. The unit, later known as the Tuskegee Airmen, flew combat missions over North Africa and occupied Europe during World War II despite being segregated from the white units.

  • Earl Warren born

    Chief Justice and California Governor Earl Warren is born in Los Angeles, California. Warren, the son of Scandinavian immigrants, volunteered for service in World War I and later became District Attorney and Governor of California. In 1953 President Eisenhower nominated Warren to become Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, where he oversaw the Brown v. Board of Education and many other groundbreaking cases on civil rights and liberties. 

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