Michael Beschloss

Michael Beschloss weaves colorful anecdotes and brilliant inside analysis of U.S. presidents with an informed, detailed understanding of their leadership styles. He provides a perspective on today’s leadership from the vantage-point of history. Trained in leadership at the Harvard Business School, Beschloss demonstrates how the qualities of political leadership lend themselves to more effective leadership in business as well. Beschloss is NBC News’ Presidential Historian and appears regularly on Meet the Press, Today and other NBC News programs. Beschloss is a prolific author of many best-selling books including Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989, which describes crucial times when courageous presidents took career-threatening risks and overcame obstacles to dramatically change the future of the United States.

The Washington, D.C. You’re Not Hearing About
From his talks with presidents, Supreme Court justices, diplomats and members of Congress and his quarter-century in the capital, Beschloss reveals the hidden side of important personalities and behind-the-scenes developments that may soon have a major impact on your life.

Leadership From the Board Room to the Oval Office
Drawing on his years studying leadership at the Harvard Business School and as a presidential historian, Beschloss, customizing his presentation for each audience, picks the most brilliant successes and the most lethal mistakes made in business and politics – and shows what they can teach us.

Presidential Courage
What makes a great U.S. president? Michael Beschloss believes the answer is “presidential courage”: the willingness to take a political risk that might end a president’s career-and the wisdom to do that for reasons that later Americans will admire. In a presentation based on his book Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989, Beschloss describes crucial times when courageous presidents took such risks and overcame obstacles to dramatically change the future of the United States. From George Washington to Ronald Reagan, the presidents Beschloss focuses on addressed some of the most paramount, abiding issues in American history-war and peace, human rights, and the proper balance between government and business. A natural storyteller, Beschloss details the outstanding traits of these presidents, and then compares them to the current crop of presidential candidates, for in insightful glance into America’s political future. He also uses what he has discovered about presidential courage to provide leadership lessons for all of us.

Great Presidents Past and Present
As a master in his field, Beschloss brings us inspiring, humorous and tragic never-before-told stories of American presidents – from George Washington to George W. Bush – as they struggle with war, peace and domestic crisis. He reveals the qualities that have made great presidents in history and shows how to find leaders who have them now – in politics, business and civic life.