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Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Quotes

Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a specialist in American history, much of Schlesinger's work explored the history of 20th-century American liberalism. In particular, his work focused on leaders such as Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. In the 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns, he was a primary speechwriter and adviser to the Democratic presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II. Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian" to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. He wrote a detailed account of the Kennedy administration, from the 1960 presidential campaign to the president's state funeral, titled A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House, which won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

In 1968, Schlesinger actively supported the presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, which ended with Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles. Schlesinger wrote a popular biography, Robert Kennedy and His Times, several years later. He later popularized the term "imperial presidency" during the Nixon administration in his book of the same name. Wikipedia  

✵ 15. October 1917 – 28. February 2007  •  Other names Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. photo

Works

The Disuniting of America
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
The Disuniting of America
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.: 5 quotes3 likes

Famous Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Quotes

“Santayana's aphorism must be reversed: too often it is those who can remember the past who are condemned to repeat it.”

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

The Bitter Heritage: Vietnam and American Democracy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966) p. 91

“The use of history as therapy means the corruption of history as history.”

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. book The Disuniting of America

The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: W W Norton, 1993) p. 93

“The purpose of democratic statecraft is, or should be, to find the means of ordered liberty in a world condemned to everlasting change.”

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

The Cycles of American History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986) p. 422

“Let us by all means teach black history, African history, women’s history, Hispanic history, Asian history. But let us teach them as history, not as filiopietistic commemoration. The purpose of history is to promote not group self-esteem, but understanding of the world and the past, dispassionate analysis, judgment, and perspective, respect for divergent cultures and traditions, and unflinching protection for those unifying ideas of tolerance, democracy, and human rights that make free historical inquiry possible.”

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. book The Disuniting of America

The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: W W Norton, 1998) p. 104

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