Michael Richard Beschloss[1] (born November 30, 1955)[2] is an American historian specializing in the United States presidency.[3][4][5] He is the author of nine books on the presidency.[3]
He started a Twitter account, @BeschlossDC, in October 2012.[13][3] It appears on Time magazine's list of "Best Twitter Feeds of 2013".[14] He also has contributed columns on history under the title HistorySource to The New York Times.[15]
Beschloss is also the editor of Washington by Meg Greenfield (2001) and Essays in Honor of James MacGregor Burns (with Thomas Cronin) (1988).
Michael Beschloss was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2004 in the area of Communications and Education.[17] In October 2022, with a ceremony at the National Archives in Washington DC, Beschloss received the National Archives' annual Records of Achievement Award.
Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance (1980); started as Beschloss's senior honors thesis at Williams College
Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev and the U-2 Affair (1986)
Eisenhower: A Centennial Life (1990)
The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960–1963 (1991)
The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941–1945 (2002)
Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789–1989 (2007)
Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times (2018)
Co-authored Books
At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (1993); with Strobe Talbott.
Edited Books
Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963–1964 (1997)
Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964–1965 (2001),
Edited transcriptions of Lyndon B. Johnson's conversations, as captured by his taping system, with historical annotation and commentary. A third Johnson volume is forthcoming.
Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy (2011)
Reception
President Bill Clinton told People in December 1997 that the first audiobook he ever listened to was Taking Charge by Michael Beschloss.[20] In Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, President George W. Bush is quoted as telling the author Elie Wiesel in February 2003, "I read your views on Auschwitz in Michael Beschloss' book", referring to The Conquerors.[21] Bush also refers to Beschloss' book Presidential Courage in his 2010 memoir Decision Points.[22]