Chronology, so the saying goes, is the last refuge of the feeble-minded and the only resort for historians.

Because he could not afford to fail, he could not afford to trust.

Grand visions, even those as prescient as Washington's, must nevertheless negotiate the damnable particularities that history in the short run tosses up before history in the long run arrives to validate the vision.

Some models of self-control are able to achieve their serenity easily because the soul fires never burn brightly to begin with.

I would say readers can trust my work more than anyone else's.

Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what that proposition means.

Chronology, so the saying goes, is the last refuge of the feeble-minded and the only resort for historians.