John Dickerson's Blog
I have been going through stacks of papers finding things I never had time to put in The Hardest Job in the World. Here is an exchange with John Lewis Gaddis on his latest book On Grand Strategy We had a wonderful, wide ranging conversation on the CBS This Morning podcast, but here’s a part […]
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I like this metaphor: This is from Harry Emerson Fosdick’s book The Meaning of Prayer.
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Reading President Obama’s book A Promised Land, I keep coming across passages that I wish I could drop into The Hardest Job in the World. Here is Obama’s passage on the mystery of his own schedule: Here is what I wrote about the presidential schedule when I was trying to help readers understand the job […]
Read the Full PostSorting it Out by Philip Booth Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent’s Narrow Room by William Wordsworth Good Bones by Maggie Smith The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot This is not a comprehensive list. It is this morning’s list.
Read the Full PostFrom Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nobel acceptance speech. Stories are about one person saying to another, This is the way it feels to me? Does it feel the same to you? pic.twitter.com/khwbGfVrtS — Tara Westover (@tarawestover) April 28, 2018
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Political scientists Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan have a piece in the Times: “The Real Divide in America Is Between Political Junkies and Everyone Else.” Those of you who have read The Hardest Job in the World may remember them. I referenced their work on the question of how split we really are. This piece returns […]
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President Trump reportedly ended his interview with Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes early. It reminded a few people of this exchange:
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This is from a sermon Lewis preached in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford in the Autumn of 1939 “The great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.” So much of this essay felt vital to our moment. It is not a perfect work, but […]
Read the Full PostI was reading James Dickey this morning. His poem “The Strength of Fields.” There is a line “Tell me, train sound,/With all your long lost grief,” It made sense to me. I associate a train whistle with grief. Why do I? I think I know, but I wonder if the train whistle is naturally sad […]
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Every now and again I Google “Is John Dickerson” to see what people have been searching. Usually people are searching to find out who my relatives are — my Mom or my wife. They want to know if I am associated with one show or another. Today I found “Is John Dickerson sick,” which is […]
Read the Full PostIn reporting out The Hardest Job in the World, I became fascinated with James Q. Wilson’s theory of character. One of its key aspects was empathy, which Wilson defined as a “willingness to take importantly into account the rights, needs, and feelings of others.” In the 11 weeks since George Floyd was killed by police […]
Read the Full PostHere’s a thing that just occurred to me about not having living parents (it’s been a while, but still). You don’t have to come up with a story of your life in the particular way that you do when updating your parents. For part of your life you speak in rhyme & then never do […]
Read the Full PostAn essay I wrote for CBS This Morning in 2018 about why voting is important and why I vote:
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I love Blackwing pencils. Some of my books are delicate enough that I only write in the margin in pencil. In poetry books I use pencil because I usually change my mind about what I first think. When I wrote the book–by which I mean my latest book on the presidency— I wrote a lot […]
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The Hardest Job in the World, now a New York Times best-seller, can be purchased from these purveyors: Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers. IndieBound, Powell’s, Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books A Million,
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All politics is local, as the saying goes, and eagle-eyed staffers at the Delphos Daily Herald found that to be true Monday. Reporters at the Ohio paper noticed their front page in my book, The Hardest Job in the World. “It is a big deal to have a book from such a well- known author […]
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We often think of presidents as Supermen. In 1958 Jimmy Olson thought so too and that was the topic of an entire Superman cartoon:
Read the Full PostThe Hardest Job in the World is now on sale and can be purchased from these purveyors: Barnes & Noble Amazon Books A Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers. IndieBound, Powell’s, Target, Walmart. June 10th: Slate Political Gabfest Live! 7:30 ET. Tune in here. June 11th: Adaptation of The Hardest Job posted on The Atlantic June 14: 9:00 a.m. CBS Sunday Morning […]
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The dirt bike enthusiast Refuses to let these lightened quarantine streets escape The thin, high whine of his urgent enthusiasm. — John Dickerson (@jdickerson) May 17, 2020
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