{"title":"Ted Widmer","description":"Ted Widmer is the director of the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. He is the author of Young America and the co-author, with Alan Brinkley, of Campaigns. Widmer served as senior adviser to President Clinton and director of speechwriting at the National Security Council.","products":[{"product_id":"martin-van-buren-the-american-presidents-series-the-8th-president-1837-1841-hardcover","title":"Martin Van Buren: The American Presidents Series: The 8th President, 1837-1841 - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first president born after America's independence ushers in a new era of no-holds-barred democracy\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe first \"professional politician\" to become president, the slick and dandyish Martin Van Buren was to all appearances the opposite of his predecessor, the rugged general and Democratic champion Andrew Jackson. Van Buren, a native Dutch speaker, was America's first ethnic president as well as the first New Yorker to hold the office, at a time when Manhattan was bursting with new arrivals. A sharp and adroit political operator, he established himself as a powerhouse in New York, becoming a U.S. senator, secretary of state, and vice president under Jackson, whose election he managed. His ascendancy to the Oval Office was virtually a foregone conclusion. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOnce he had the reins of power, however, Van Buren found the road quite a bit rougher. His attempts to find a middle ground on the most pressing issues of his day-such as the growing regional conflict over slavery-eroded his effectiveness. But it was his inability to prevent the great banking panic of 1837, and the ensuing depression, that all but ensured his fall from grace and made him the third president to be denied a second term. His many years of outfoxing his opponents finally caught up with him. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTed Widmer, a veteran of the Clinton White House, vividly brings to life the chaos and contention that plagued Van Buren's presidency-and ultimately offered an early lesson in the power of democracy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" ... Widmer (\u003ci\u003eYoung America\u003c\/i\u003e) paints a brief but elegant portrait of our eighth president, who, Widmer says, created the modern political party system, for which he deserves our 'grudging respect.' \" - \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51366140215519,"sku":"9780805069228","price":36.72,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/bVuY51PxEa9780805069228.webp?v=1789084387"},{"product_id":"lincoln-on-the-verge-thirteen-days-to-washington-paperback","title":"Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eWINNER OF THE LINCOLN FORUM BOOK PRIZE \"A Lincoln classic...superb.\" ---The Washington Post \"A book for our time.\"--Doris Kearns Goodwin Lincoln on the Verge tells the dramatic story of America's greatest president discovering his own strength to save the Republic. As a divided nation plunges into the deepest crisis in its history, Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Washington and his inauguration--an inauguration Southerners have vowed to prevent. Lincoln on the Verge charts these pivotal thirteen days of travel, as Lincoln discovers his power, speaks directly to the public, and sees his country up close. Drawing on new research, this riveting account reveals the president-elect as a work in progress, showing him on the verge of greatness, as he foils an assassination attempt, forges an unbreakable bond with the American people, and overcomes formidable obstacles in order to take his oath of office.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367965753567,"sku":"9781476739441","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/vwxckTFiGs9781476739441.webp?v=1789116981"},{"product_id":"the-living-declaration-a-biography-of-americas-founding-text-hardcover","title":"The Living Declaration: A Biography of America's Founding Text - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eINDEPENDENCE WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING: A historian and former presidential speechwriter traces the origins and legacy of the words and ideas that made America. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIllustrations and close readings of 68 original texts offer new insights on the American Revolution, the Civil War, and other key moments and figures in American history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWe hold these truths to be self-evident . . . all men are created equal . . . with certain inalienable rights . . . life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\" 250 years after they were written, these words remain at once familiar and startling. What do they mean to us today? Do we understand them in the same way the Founders did? Historian and former presidential speechwriter Ted Widmer seeks to answer these questions by returning to where the nation's story began, the Declaration of Independence, to trace the remarkable history of how it came to be and how it has shaped the democratic aspirations of Americans and others for more than two centuries. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWeaving together more than sixty fascinating original texts, Widmer finds in the words of succeeding generations of Americans--radicals and conservatives, revolutionary insurgents and civil rights leaders, presidents and philosophers--the key to understanding the extraordinary durability of America's founding ideas. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn expert guide, Widmer introduces us to: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003ethe revolutionary writings that set the stage for the Declaration \u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eNoah Webster, of dictionary fame, offering a surprising definition of \"equality\"\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003ethe true story of a fake declaration of independence \"discovered\" in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, in 1819 \u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003esearing challenges to the Declaration's philosophical claims by Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton \u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eradically divergent readings of the Declaration that contributed to the Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln's vision of a \"new birth of freedom\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe ways in which the Declaration inspired civil rights activists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ehow the Declaration inspired democratic aspirations globally.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe voices gathered here are impassioned and often disagree, but they are united in the belief that the Declaration has something crucial to tell us about the American people and the larger struggle for human freedom. \"They speak to us,\" Widmer writes, \"and they talk to each other as well, in a conversation that will never end.\"","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368958984415,"sku":"9781598538441","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/JF_9p4Rr3q9781598538441.webp?v=1789135950"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/ted-widmer.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}