About Realpolitik
George Washington was born to Mary Ball and Augustine Washington on February 22, 1732. As the third son of a middling planter, George probably should have been relegated to a footnote in a history book. Instead, he became one of the greatest figures in American history.
Before becoming President in 1797, John Adams built his reputation as a blunt-speaking man of independent mind. A fervent patriot and brilliant intellectual, Adams served as a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress between 1774 and 1777, as a diplomat in Europe from 1778 to 1788, and as vice president during the Washington administration.
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, spent his childhood roaming the woods and studying his books on a remote plantation in the Virginia Piedmont. Thanks to the prosperity of his father, Jefferson had an excellent education. After years in boarding school, where he excelled in classical languages, Jefferson enrolled in William and Mary College in his home state of Virginia, taking classes in science, mathematics, rhetoric, philosophy, and literature. He also studied law, and by the time he was admitted to the Virginia bar in April 1767, many considered him to have one of the nation's best legal minds.
When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, seven slave states left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, and four more joined when hostilities began between the North and South. A bloody civil war then engulfed the nation as Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union, enforce the laws of the United States, and end the secession. The war lasted for more than four years with a staggering loss of more than 600,000 Americans dead. Midway through the war, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves within the Confederacy and changed the war from a battle to preserve the Union into a battle for freedom. He was the first Republican President, and Union victory ended forever the claim that state sovereignty superseded federal authority. Killed by an assassin's bullet less than a week after the surrender of Confederate forces, Lincoln left the nation a more perfect Union and thereby earned the admiration of most Americans as the country's greatest President.
Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, was the dominant actor in American politics between Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Born to obscure parents and orphaned in youth, he was the first "self-made man" and the first westerner to reach the White House. He became a democratic symbol and founder of the Democratic Party, the country's most venerable political organization. During his two-term presidency, he expanded executive powers and transformed the President's role from chief administrator to popular tribune.
William Jefferson Clinton, the young President from Hope, Arkansas, succeeded where no other Democrat had since Franklin Roosevelt: he was reelected to a second term. Clinton also defied his critics by surviving an array of personal scandals, turning the greatest fiscal deficit in American history into a surplus, effectively using American force to stop the murderous "ethnic cleansing" wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and presiding over the greatest level of economic prosperity since the early 1960s. He also endured unrelenting personal attacks from the right-wing of the Republican Party, the loss of Congress to the Republicans for the first time in forty years, and a humiliating but unsuccessful impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate. He fashioned himself as a "New Democrat" and has frequently been referred to as the "Comeback Kid." Few Presidents have both raised more questions about the standing of the presidency and simultaneously presided over a longer period of sustained prosperity.
George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, led the country during a time of great challenge and change. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the global war on terror, the war in Iraq, and the economic downturn of 2008 are just some of the major events that Bush had to contend with during his time in office. At different times, President Bush was both the most popular president and one of the least popular presidents in American history, and his administration sparked both passionate defenders and vehement critics. His presidency will continue to be studied and debated for years to come.
By Michael Nelson
Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States—becoming the first African American to serve in that office—on January 20, 2009.
The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama grew up in Hawaii. Leaving the state to attend college, he earned degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, where he met and married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1992. Their two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha (Sasha), were born in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996 and served there for eight years. In 2004, he was elected by a record majority to the US Senate from Illinois and, in February 2007, announced his candidacy for president. After winning a closely fought contest against New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Obama handily defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for president, in the general election.
By Benjamin C. Waterhouse
Donald Trump was elected on November 8, 2016, in what was widely seen as a surprise upset victory. He was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. By the time he left office after losing the 2020 presidential election to former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s presidency was largely defined by scandal, investigation, and intense partisan division. Both supporters and critics often used the word “unprecedented” to describe his time in office.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was elected the 46th president of the United States after thirty-six years in the Senate and eight years as vice president. On January 20, 2021, at age 78, Biden became the oldest president in history to take oath of office. He confronted a divided nation wracked by the worst health crisis in a century with the coronavirus pandemic, a staggered economy, protests for racial justice, and internal threats to American democracy.
By Benjamin C. Waterhouse
Donald Trump was elected on November 8, 2024, in what was widely seen as a second surprise upset victory. He will be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025. By the time he left office after losing the 2020 presidential election to former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s presidency was largely defined by scandal, investigation, and intense partisan division. Both supporters and critics often used the word “unprecedented” to describe his time in office.
