What's happened
The In Pursuit project has released essays on 43 presidents and 30 first ladies, with Obama and Clinton among contributors. Colleen Shogan curates the series to teach lessons from history beyond today’s politics, and the work is being published weekly through December.
What's behind the headline?
Brief
- The project curates essays on 43 presidents and 30 first ladies (all but Biden and Trump).
- Obama and Clinton contribute, underscoring cross‑political interest in historical reflection.
- The publication cadence is weekly through December, building a debriefing of the American story.
What this signals
- This is less a political statement than an effort to anchor civic lessons in long‑view history.
- It foregrounds humility in leadership and parallels with past power dynamics, including modern debates about accountability and loyalty to institutions.
Reader takeaway
- Expect more essays in coming weeks that connect historical governance to current governance challenges.
How we got here
The In Pursuit project marks the 250th anniversary of the United States by inviting historians and authors to craft essays on presidents and first ladies. Colleen Shogan, the US archivist, is curating the collection after Trump-era controversy that led to her firing. The project aims to present lessons from the nation’s history to inform the present and future.
Our analysis
According to AP News, Independent and New York Post coverage describe the project as a nonpartisan, archival exercise curated by Colleen Shogan. The Associated Press notes the lessons aim to reach a broad audience beyond political lines, while the New York Post highlights Obama and Clinton among contributors and the involvement of Higher Ground with Substack publication. The Independent mirrors this framing and emphasizes the historical lens over contemporary politics.
Go deeper
- What lessons from these essays feel most relevant to today?
- Which president or first lady’s legacy is most contested by historians?
- How might this project influence future public discussions about leadership?
More on these topics
-
Michelle Obama - Former First Lady of the United States
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who was the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. She was the first African-American first lady. Rais
-
Barack Obama - 44th U.S. President
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American President of the United States. He previously serve
-
George W. Bush - 43rd U.S. President
George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He had previously served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. Bush is frequently referred to as George W. Bus
-
Ulysses Grant - 18th U.S. President
Ulysses S. Grant was an American soldier and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. Before his presidency, Grant led the Union Army in winning the American Civil War.
-
Bill Clinton - 42nd U.S. President
William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the presidency, he was the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992, and the attorney general
-
John Roberts - Chief Justice of the United States
John Glover Roberts Jr. is the 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States, serving in this role since 2005. Roberts was born in Buffalo, New York, but grew up in northwest Indiana and was educated in a private school.
-
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - First Lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (née Bouvier; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. She redefined the previously mostly ceremonial role into a platform for arts and culture by hosting multiple high-profile events at the White House and leading its restoration into being a historical site. Through her fashion and cultural literacy, she improved the global standing of the United States during the politically volatile Cold War. Her personal style became known as the "Jackie Look", which inspired worldwide fashion trends during the 1960s. Born into the upper-class Bouvier family in Southampton, New York, Bouvier studied history and art at Vassar College before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in French literature from George Washington University in 1951. She then began working for the Washington Times-Herald as an inquiring photographer. The following year, she met then-congressman John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts at a dinner party in Washington. He was elected to the Senate that same year, and the couple married on September 12, 1953, in Newport, Rhode Island...
-
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 32nd U.S. President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945.
-
Theodore Roosevelt - 26th U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was an American statesman, politician, conservationist, naturalist, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909.
-
David W. Blight - Professor
David William Blight is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University.
-
Winfield Scott - American military commander
Winfield Scott was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early stages of the American Civil War and confl
-
Washington, D.C. - Capital of the United States of America
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington or D.C., is the capital of the United States.
-
Pierce - 14th U.S. President
Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States, a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation.
-
Hillary Clinton - Former United States Secretary of State
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician, diplomat, lawyer, writer, and public speaker who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, as a United States Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and as First Lady o
-
United States - Country in North America
The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country mostly located in central North America, between Canada and Mexico.
-
Ken Burns - American filmmaker
Kenneth Lauren Burns is an American filmmaker, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs in documentary films.
-
Abraham Lincoln - 16th U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln was an American statesman and politician who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.