Contributors
We’ve assembled the best and brightest to share their thoughts and lessons about American history with you. Our contributors include former presidents and first ladies, national leaders, cultural icons, and respected journalists. We’ve challenged them to come up with one lesson about the successes, failures, challenges, and triumphs of some of our most visible and revered leaders in American history.
George Washington — George W. Bush
Martha Washington — Karin Wulf
John Adams — Danielle Allen
Abigail Adams — Joseph Ellis
Thomas Jefferson — Andrew Davenport
James Madison — Jack Rakove
Dolley Madison — Catherine Allgor
James Monroe — Stewart McLaurin
John Quincy Adams — Lindsay Chervinsky
Louisa Adams — Louisa Thomas
Andrew Jackson — Jon Meacham
Martin Van Buren — Lonnie Bunch
William Henry Harrison — Sharon McMahon
John Tyler — Christopher Leahy
James K. Polk — Matt Costello
Sarah Polk — Amy Greenberg
Zachary Taylor — Michael Cohen
Millard Fillmore — Steve Israel
Franklin Pierce — David Blight
Jane Pierce — Diana Carlin
James Buchanan — Drew Faust
Abraham Lincoln — Barack Obama
Mary Todd Lincoln — Lois Romano
Andrew Johnson — Annette Gordon-Reed
Ulysses S. Grant — Stanley McChrystal
Julia Grant — Yuval Levin
Rutherford B. Hayes — Stephen Skowronek
James Garfield — CW Goodyear
Chester A. Arthur — H.W. Brands
Grover Cleveland — Troy Senik
Benjamin Harrison — Evan Thomas
Caroline Harrison — Nancy K. Smith
William McKinley — Karl Rove
Theodore Roosevelt — Bill Clinton
Edith Roosevelt — Ed O’Keefe
William Howard Taft — Chief Justice Roberts
Helen Taft — John Bridgeland
Woodrow Wilson — Patricia O’Toole
Edith Wilson — Rebecca Roberts
Warren G. Harding — Robert Costa
Florence Harding — Jennifer Taylor
Calvin Coolidge — Amity Shlaes
Grace Coolidge — Colleen Shogan
Herbert Hoover — George Nash
Lou Hoover — Nancy Beck Young
Franklin D. Roosevelt — Ken Burns and Geoff Ward
Eleanor Roosevelt — Hillary Clinton
Harry S. Truman — Admiral Bill McRaven
Bess Truman — Anita McBride
Dwight D. Eisenhower — Bret Baier
Mamie Eisenhower — Marilyn Holt
John F. Kennedy — Alexis Coe
Jacqueline Kennedy — Michelle Obama
Lyndon B. Johnson — Michael Beschloss
Lady Bird Johnson — Laura Bush
Richard Nixon — Beverly Gage
Pat Nixon — Heath Lee
Gerald Ford — Richard N. Smith
Betty Ford — Maria Shriver
Jimmy Carter — David Rubenstein
Rosalynn Carter — Judy Woodruff
Ronald Reagan — David Brooks
Nancy Reagan — Ann Compton
George H.W. Bush — Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Barbara Bush — Susan Page
Bill Clinton — Sean Wilentz
Hillary Clinton — Lissa Muscatine
George W. Bush — Mark Updegrove
Laura Bush — Carla Hayden
Barack Obama — Doug Brinkley
Michelle Obama — Elizabeth Alexander