Books by Ted Widmer

I juli 1962 fik præsident John F. Kennedy installeret et skjult optagesystem i Det Ovale Kontor og Kabinetsværelset i Det Hvide Hus. Hans motiver kender vi ikke, men han kan bl.a. have haft et ønske om at sikre sig dokumentation for sine præsidentielle beslutninger i en tid præget af modstrid­ende synspunkt­er, strategier og taktikker.Resultatet er et uvurderligt historisk materiale, der omfatter 256 timers optagelser. JFK blev præsident i USA på et tidspunkt, hvor kravet om borgerrettigheder nåede kogepunktet, og man frygtede en atomkrig. Stillet over for komplekse, nye problemstillinger, der krævede hurtig handling, holdt præsidenten intense samtaler og diskussioner med sine ministre og andre rådgivere.I Medhør har John F. Kennedy Presidential Library og hist­o­­rikeren Ted Widmer udvalgt de vigtigste og mest in­te­ressante blandt disse bemærkelsesværdige optagelser. Bogen giver et enestående indblik i, hvordan præsidenten styrede nationen gennem en usikker og faretruende tid.

In a sweeping history of centuries, Ted Widmer's Ark of the Liberties recounts America's ambition to be the world's guarantor of liberty. The United States stands at a historic crossroads; essential to the world yet unappreciated. America's decline in popularity over the decades has been nothing short of astonishing. With wit, brilliance, and deep affection, Ted Widmer, a scholar and a former presidential speechwriter, reminds everyone why this great nation had so far to fall. It is a success story that America, and the world, forgets at its peril. From the Declaration of Independence to the Gettysburg Address to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United States, for all its shortfalls, has been by far the world's greatest advocate for freedom. Generations of founders imbued America with a surprisingly global ambition that a series of remarkable presidents, often Democratic, advanced through the confident wielding of military and economic power. Ark of the Liberties brims with new insights: America's centuries-long favorable relationship with the Middle East; why Wilson's presidency deserves reappraisal; Bill Clinton's underappreciated achievements; how America's long history of foreign policy immediately touches on the choices we face. Fully addressing America's disastrous occupation of Iraq, Ark of the Liberties colorfully narrates America's long and laudatory history of expanding world liberty.