This bleg originally went to Cole, who kicked it over to me:
Two close friends, who are avid readers of yours – Johannes and La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes) – suggested I contact you. I’m a writer and former Congressional staffer writing a book, “The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity and Enshrine Their Legacies.” I examine presidential libraries, commemoration, access to presidential records, open government and FOIA. It’s about – to use a marketing phrase – what presidents do to keep us from knowing what presidents do.
I currently have a Kickstarter project to raise funds for my final research trips for the book. I was hoping you could please take a look, and consider writing about it…
One of my recent jobs on the Hill was running hearings and investigations of the presidential libraries and National Archives for the Oversight Committee during the 111th Congress, when Democrats were in the majority. In the past few months I’ve written some articles at Salon, including about the George W. Bush Library and Darrell Issa.
I would appreciate your help in getting the word out about my project to your readers, who I think would be very interested in it.
From the Kickstarter page:
WHY the book is called The Last Campaign
When presidents run for re-election, they often call it their “last campaign” because no future electoral contest awaits them. However, they do engage in the fight to shape their legacy: to rewrite it, control it and enshrine it. For decades, former presidents have seen their approval ratings rise each year they are out of office, due directly to the aggressive, ongoing campaign at their library – and the fact that their most important records are not available to us.There are now thirteen federally-run presidential libraries in the United States, from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. President Barack Obama has begun plans for his own, and locations across the country are vying to be selected as the site. The libraries are the greatest sources of popular American history of the last eighty years, through their exhibits and educational and public programs, and the books, articles, theses and films produced using their resources.
Yet few books have been written about them, and none has examined the libraries’ politics and political history – especially the role that big, private money plays in their planning, development and operation, and the way that political parties use some of these federal institutions for their own purposes…
Yeah, I’ve kicked in. Enough of us do so, we might be able to capture Mr. Clark for a Book Chat next year, maybe…
MikeJ
Next up: help us fund a book to find out if professional wrestling might not be on the up and up.
Johannes
You are, as I have previously said, the best, Anne Laurie. I’ve kicked in, too, of course, and the Mrs. and I are grateful.
Anne Laurie
@MikeJ: I don’t believe our tax dollars are being spent to convince the rubes that the career of Randy Savage proves that estate taxes should be eliminated, or that Hulk Hogan’s celebrity is an argument in favor of NAFTA.
Alison
@Anne Laurie: #slatepitches
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Sounds interesting. I kicked in a little. Thanks for the pointer.
Cheers,
Scott.
Linkmeister
Heh. I live in a state which has some fervent believers that Obama’s library should of course be in Hawai’i. Certain forces are actively campaigning for it. When I say “Um, would Presidential researchers really want to fly 5 1/2 hours from the West Coast and pay our tourist room rates for who knows how long while they do their work” I get hurt looks.
Roger Moore
@Linkmeister:
You have the idea backward. You’re assuming that researchers either A) have a say in the matter or B) are spending their own money. More likely, they’re spending grant money and can justify it because there are resources at the Presidential library that really aren’t available anywhere else. That they’ll schedule their research on Obama for February is merely a happy coincidence.
Villago Delenda Est
It’s interesting that the whitewashing of Watergate at the Nixon library ended when the National Archives took over. One Nixon toady asserted that the Nixon library should be a “shrine” to Dick and Pat. Pat was pretty blah as first ladies go, but Dick was, absolutely positively a crook who got away with his crimes, thanks to his other toady, Gerald R. Ford.
The deserting coward library is similarly a pack of worthless lies celebrating the malassministration of a war criminal incompetent. The proper memorial for the deserting coward is his empty head on a fucking pike.
Johannes
@Roger Moore: Ironically, Anthony’s an independent historian, who’s been doing this without grants. He’s an interesting guy, and had to struggle even to get documents from the National Archives, which is what led to his involvement in oversight.
Anthony
Thank you for the support. And I would be honored and interested to do a Book Chat.
For those who would like to know more about the process of Kickstarter, History News Network published my article yesterday on how to use crowdfunding for research:
hnn.us/article/153361
As for stating the obvious, apparently it isn’t – not to the 2M+ tourists who visit the libraries each year, forking over admission fees they think are going to the National Archives and believing they are learning real history. And, like any part of the Right’s agenda, if not countered by reasoned, factual examination, well…there it stands, unchallenged and accepted.
Redshirt
Lady Bird was a Saint.
Chuck Butcher
I’d rather donate to this than the next plutocrat enabling “liberal” but it seems a broken leg and no income doesn’t leave much room for it – so I’ll just have to be satisfied with donating my best wishes…
Anthony
Best wishes also appreciated, Chuck. Get well soon.