This is a podcast from deep in the past of this podcast; in fact, it's the second ever episode. It in I talk with my old friend and colleague Michael Connolly about "Presidential History." It's a category I'm not particularly fond of, no more than I am "presidential historians". But Michael pushes back here against me and other skeptics, arguing that given public interest in presidential history, Connolly asserts, historians disregard it at their own risk. He argues that presidential history is a very real and necessary sub-discipline.

He also surveys past presidents, and argues that the way in which we assess them is often mistaken. Where else can you find a discussion of Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and James Buchanan?

Books, Articles, and Links to Things Mentioned in the Conversation

Michael Connollly, Capitalism, Politics, and Railroads in Jacksonian New England

Jordan Michael Smith, "The Letters the Harding Family Didn't Want You to See." The New York Times, July 7, 2014.

The Harding-Fulton Correspondence, Library of Congress

The Center for Presidential History, Southern Methodist University

The Miller Center, University of Virginia

Warren Harding House and Tomb

Calvin Coolidge Historic Site

Wheatland, Home of President James Buchanan