“When the Constitution was written in 1787, there was this supposition that American politics would be above party. The people who would staff the positions in government would have the interests of the country, or at least their states and congressional districts, at heart, and so they wouldn't form permanent political parties.”

American historian and author

H. W. Brands is an American historian and author. He holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin, and earned his PhD there in 1985. He has written more than thirty books on U.S. history. His work has twice been named a Pulitzer Prize finalist, reflecting a career focused on American political and historical writing.