[View here as a Twitter thread]
I woke up on Nov. 9, 2016 to discover it was 1828—the year Andrew Jackson (white supremacist, dangerous demagogue, defender of slavery)—won the presidency against a brainy super-qualified policy wonk & former secretary of state.
2/ Plenty of people despised Jackson’s racism. Given the all white male electorate, though, most of them couldn’t vote. Of those who could, a small but vocal minority loathed his racism and treatment of Native Americans and were appalled that so many people could vote for him.
3/ I picked myself up on Nov. 10th with a purpose: combat ignorance with education. I was in the early stages of researching and writing a series of biographies for young readers, tracing American Constitutional history.
4/ The idea was that if seventh graders starts with Book 1, Alexander Hamilton, and read to Book 6, Thurgood Marshall, they’ll understand how our Constitution evolved and the nation changed. After all: “There is properly no history, only biography.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
5/ Each day, as I research & write the books in my series, I better understand Trumpism–which is NOT a momentary madness, but has deep roots in our history and culture. My twitter threads come from the research for my series.
6/ I now have the cover for Book 4 in the series (Susan B.) Book 3, Lincoln, will be available in the fall. Writing keeps me sane, because it helps me understand.
