Historians and Presidents Aren't Always Good Matches

he five days between Election Night and the announcement that Joe Biden won the presidency were full of significant news stories. Donald Trump’s attempts to stay in power, along with debates about election results and Biden’s possible cabinet, rightly commanded the majority of news coverage.
But an unsung story from that period was the announcement that presidential historian Jon Meacham had been advising Biden and that he had even written his victory speech. Sure enough, Biden’s Saturday address was infused with references to American values and virtues, key themes running across Meacham’s 12 books.
As chroniclers of the past, historians have wielded tremendous power in shaping each generation’s understanding of the world they’re inheriting. Their works are the primary way we understand the past. But some of them have also attained power of a different sort: as presidential advisors.