Author Larry Schweikart on his book "Dragonslayers: Six Presidents and Their War with The Swamp"

New York Times #1 Best-selling Author Larry Schweikart discusses his latest book, "Dragonslayers: Six Presidents and Their War with The Swamp."Show more

ABOUT THE BOOK

Dragonslayers, examines six presidents and their war with the “Swamp” of their day. At first glance, these battles seem unrelated. What did slavery have to do with the spoils system, for example? Or what did the Bay of Pigs have to do with the Russia hoax that Donald Trump faced?

Yet the size and scope of the government Abraham Lincoln inherited was so great because of the very spoils system created to prevent a war over slavery that it caused the war it was supposed to prevent. Lincoln beat slavery, but bequeathed a hugely growing bureaucracy to his successors like Grover Cleveland.

Meanwhile Theodore Roosevelt, alert to the equally dangerous power of business without competitors, warred with the trusts in part to protect them from the press. It would be that very press that would use its power to attack Donald Trump. The CIA that John Kennedy needed to fight communism soon escaped his control.

At every turn, first presidents, then Congress, then finally courts shrugged as they gave up power to the bureaucracy. By the time Trump came into office, promising to “drain the Swamp,” he found it had grown far too big—-and dangerous for any one man, even him, to defeat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Larry Schweikart, a native Arizonian, graduated from Arizona State University with a BA in Political Science, then went on the road with several different rock bands, opening for such 60s/70s acts as Steppenwolf. He abruptly switched gears in 1976 receiving an MA from ASU in history, then a Ph.D. from University of California, Santa Barbara. From 1985 to 2016 he taught at the University of Dayton. In his career he taught every grade from 7th through college.

He is the co-author, with Michael Allen, of the New York Times #1 bestseller, A Patriot’s History of the United States, now in its 31st printing, fourth edition, with a half-million copies in print. Patriot’s History remains the best selling homeschool history textbook in America, and is featured in numerous college courses as an antidote to Howard Zinn’s People’s History.