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Tracing The Rise Of The White House Spin Machine

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Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks in the spin room after the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)
Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks in the spin room after the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)

As the candidates try valiantly to sell themselves to Granite State voters, they often try to highlight their differences. But, there is at least one thing that they all have in common. Every single one of them, regardless of party, declared some kind of victory in Iowa.

Clearly, it's not new — politicians have been spinning their way through the presidency since the creation of Teddy Roosevelt's bully pulpit. And, in his new book "Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency," political historian David Greenberg goes deep into that history.

David Greenberg will be discussing "Republic of Spin" Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Newtonville Books.

Guest

David Greenberg, political historian and professor of history, journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. His new book is "Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency." He tweets @republicofspin.

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The New York Times: David Greenberg’s ‘Republic Of Spin’

  • "When George Washington was president, our forebears did not wonder what spurred his occasional ghostwriter, Alexander Hamilton, to make a particular argument in the general’s 1796 farewell address. Nor did many voters in 1860 try to deconstruct why Abraham Lincoln’s propagandists chose to present him as a backwoods rail-splitter, which he had not been for a very long time, instead of the well-heeled corporate lawyer he had, thanks to hard work and talent, become."

POLITICO Magazine: FDR’s Nate Silver

  • "How a self-taught data whiz from Michigan became the first person ever to poll for an American president—and turned into a national sensation."

This segment aired on February 3, 2016.

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