Public and Private Presidents
Two exceptionally good counter-portraits, in challenge to popular opinion
Historical revisionism may be a lost art in the internet era. We would think - perhaps optimistically - that with 30 years of contemporaneous, public, and easily accessible reportage on the record, that the narrative that sticks, is the narrative most likely.
Two exceptionally good pieces of longform journalism have put the sword to that optimism this year. Nathan Pinkoski, writing for Compact, and David Samuels, for Tablet, have reinvigorated the study of Presidential history with their exceptional, and unexpected, counter-narratives. Both concern American Presidents: Richard Milhous Nixon, and Barrack Hussein Obama, respectively. The two pieces - released 4 months apart - are exceptional for their depth of research, comprehensiveness of thought, and clarity of writing. That is where the similarities end. Pinkoski’s piece is concerned with the machinations of the state that surrounded Nixon during his Presidency. Samuels is concerned with the inner life of Barrack Obama, projected against the narrative Obama himself promoted over the course of his career. Both are compelling.
Click here and here, to read two revelatory pieces of contemporary writing on the Presidency.