[Abridged] Presidential Histories

A 24-year career in Congress crested at a tumultuous time for Gerald Ford. He was the GOP leader of the house during the Nixon administration, then Nixon's VP, then the president who had to heal the country after Watergate. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum director Brook Clement discusses the crucible Ford walked as a national leader.A Little Bit de TodoA Little Bit d

"Our long national nightmare is over." - Gerald Ford, August 9, 1974~~~Gerald Ford is the only person in American history to reach the vice presidency and the presidency without being elected to either. Despite this, he was a popular president - for 1 month. But then he pardoned Nixon, and it was all downhill from there. Follow along as Ford rides his athletic gifts from Grand Rapi

It didn't take long for Richard Nixon to earn the nickname "Tricky Dick," but was he really any more tricky than the typical politician? You bet he was! John Farrell, a long-time journalist and author of numerous books on political leaders, including Richard Nixon, The Life, discusses the many campaigns of Richard Nixon, from the red scare tactics that swept him to office, to the s

Richard Nixon was sworn in as President with a Democratic House and Senate across Capitol Hill, which you might expect to lead to legislative impasse. Instead, it was one of the more prolific legislative stretches in American history, including such accomplishments as: Lowering the voting age, Title IX, creating the EPA, the Clean Air Act, abolishing the draft, and more. But were a

"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." - Richard Nixon, November 17, 1973~~~Richard Nixon's life is a drama unlike any other. A desire to win at any cost earned him the name "Tricky Dick" and carried him from Whittier, California, to the Presidency of the United States, but it also proved his undoing. From Alger Hiss to Checkers,

Migrating to the United States used to be as easy as buying a boat ticket. Getting settled was the hard part, and it became far more daunting when the United States was torn asunder by Civil War in 1861. As more and more northerners were conscripted into the Union Army, Lincoln realized a friendlier immigration policy might be the key to sustaining economic and military strength th

Lyndon Baines Johnson is one of the most legislatively accomplished presidents in American history - possibly the only president who actually did so much winning, people got tired of it. But how did he make legislating look so easy? Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation and author of 5 books on the presidency, including Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, dis

Few presidents have a darker mark on their resume that LBJ's handling of the Vietnam war. Though overwhelmingly popular at first, the war divided the nation and broke Johnson's political power just 4 years later.How did the United States get into Vietnam? Why didn't LBJ see what the American people saw as public opinion turned against it? And what can we learn from Johnson's handli

"There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem." - Lyndon Baines Johnson, March 9, 1965~~~Lyndon Baines Johnson was thrust into the presidency at a moment of tragedy - the public assassination of his predecessor. With the nation in panic, Congress in deadlock, and Civil Rights seemingly out of reach, the cha

JFK once joked, "the worst I do, the more popular I get." Historian Harold Holzer, director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City, Chairman of the Lincoln Forum, and author of The presidents vs. the Press: The endless battle between the white house and the media, from the founding fathers to Fake News, discusses how JFK used his mastery o