An Evening With Michael Beschloss

On Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018, author and historian Michael Beschloss joined Friends of the LBJ Library members to speak about his latest book, Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times. The conversation was moderated by LBJ Foundation President and CEO Mark K. Updegrove.

Prior to the event, The Store at LBJ hosted Beschloss for a book signing of Presidents of War. 

About

Michael Beschloss is the author of nine books on presidential history, including the New York Times best-sellers Presidential Courage and The Conquerors, as well as two volumes on President Lyndon Johnson's secret tapes. He was also editor of the number one global best-seller Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy. Currently, he is the NBC News Presidential Historian, a PBS NewsHour contributor, and has the largest Twitter following of any historian, with more than 354,000 followers.

Taking 10 years to research and write, Presidents of War is a fresh look at a procession of American leaders who took the nation into conflict and mobilized their country for victory. From James Madison and the War of 1812 to recent times, it brings us into the room as they make the most difficult decisions that face any president, at times sending hundreds of thousands of American men and women to their deaths.

Beschloss’s interviews with surviving participants and his findings in original letters, diaries, once-classified national security documents, and other sources help him to tell this story in a way it has not been told before. Presidents of War shows how far we have traveled from the time of our founders, who tried to constrain presidential power, to our modern day, when a single leader has the potential to launch nuclear weapons that can destroy much of the human race.