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The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

- H. W. Brands
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Author:
H. W. Brands
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American
Labor
Economy
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Reagan has been deified by the Republican Party, which is odd. The Reagan that modern Republicans revere is not the real Reagan.

People are interested in people. They buy biographies; they don't buy studies of presidencies.

In revering the Founders, we undervalue ourselves and sabotage our own efforts to make improvements - necessary improvements - in the republican experiment they began.

Reagan is the subject of ongoing political debate, and a lot of liberals don't want to take Reagan any more seriously than they did when he was president. I understand why they don't, but they should.

When you tell a story, there are imperatives of structure, of style, of pacing and all of this, that are there simply because you want to make it a good story. When do you introduce your characters? When do you put them onstage, when do you take them off the stage? How do you weave the different threads of the narrative together?

Reagan gave essentially the same speech from the beginning to the end of his political career, which was always, 'The American people are great, the government always screws things up, let's get the government out of the way.' On the foreign policy side it was, 'Communism is bad, and we're going to defeat it.'

Booker Washington was essentially the head Republican boss in the South. He was a power broker.

There is a certain kind of sobering, civilizing effect that being president imposes on people. There is a certain kind of dignity with which you comport yourself. As an observer of the presidency, I have to wonder if Trump would follow that pattern.

Every work of history is a combination of argument and narrative. The longer I write, the more I emphasize the narrative, the story, and the less attention I give to the argument. Arguments come and go.

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The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The historic dearth of labor was perhaps the central feature of the American economy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.