Category: Memoriam

The Age of Schlesinger.


“History is a doomed enterprise that we happily pursue because of the thrill of the hunt, because exploring the past is such fun, because of the intellectual challenges involved, because a nation needs to know its own history. Or so we historians insist. Because in the end, a nation’s history must be both the guide and the domain not so much of its historians as its citizens.” Arthur Schlesinger Jr., 1917-2007. After Galbraith passed on last year, this seemed like it would soon be in the cards. Still, it’s a sad day. Update: Via Ted, David Greenberg weighs in on Schlesinger’s passing.

Unsinkable Molly.

“She believed in democratic politics and hated it when people didn’t exercise their rights to vote and protest. She believed in government and hated it when people ran it down.” Molly Ivins, 1944-2007. “Her columns and essays — and for that matter her wonderful, low, smoky voice, if you were lucky enough to hear her talk — used her regional sensibility and experience to illuminate the wider world. She talked Texas but her subject was the universe.“

Model Ford.

“As President, my primary concern must always be the greatest good of all the people of the United States whose servant I am. As a man, my first consideration is to be true to my own convictions and my own conscience. My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only I, as President, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book.” Gerald Ford, 1913-2006.

A Heart bigger than Texas.

“We’ve been told that the interests of the South and the Southwest are not the same interests as the North and the Northeast. They pit one group against the other. They’ve divided this country and in our isolation we think government isn’t gonna help us, and we’re alone in our feelings. We feel forgotten. Well, the fact is that we are not an isolated piece of their puzzle. We are one nation. We are the United States of America.” Governor Ann Richards, 1933-2006.