Shogan, fired by Trump, instructed essayists against partisanship
George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton each contributed an essay to the In Pursuit project, a 250th-anniversary series in which each writer produced an essay about a president or first lady, according to the Associated Press.
When Bush wrote his essay this year about another president named George, he avoided mentioning the one named Donald. So did Obama and Clinton. The three former presidents joined a roster of historians and authors contributing to the project.
Colleen Shogan, the U.S. archivist whom President Donald Trump fired without explanation last year, curates the project. Shogan instructed contributors not to be partisan or ideological.
“Everybody took those instructions and that guidance very seriously,” she told The Associated Press. Shogan said the goal was for all Americans to “feel welcome to be able to read these lessons and essays and learn something from them.”
The project was explicitly designed to transcend today’s politics. The Associated Press reported that some of its essays nonetheless address questions about the use of power, the health of the democracy and the integrity of the presidency.