The quest to rate the president

Plus: MLK and Richard Nixon |

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. SUBSCRIBE to TIME Magazine January 24, 2019 By Lily Rothman As the U.S. continues to slog through the partial government shutdown, there's been movement on at least one front: President Trump's approval ratings. In light of news that he's taken a major hit in that arena, TIME's Olivia B. Waxman took a look back at the history of how we assess feelings about the president. As she found, the desire to put a number on approval is an old one, and is part of a larger trend that took hold around the turn of the 20th century. You can click here to read more about it. Here's more of the history that made news this week: HISTORY ON TIME.COM David Treuer on the Need to Change How Indian Stories Are Told "We gave people permission to settle here in exchange for recognition of our tribal sovereignty. If that troubles people, they can move." Study Reveals What Canadians Really Know About the Holocaust A full 22% of Millennial respondents were less that totally sure that they'd ever heard or seen the word "Holocaust" What Martin Luther King Jr. Said About Walls on a Visit to Berlin "For here on either side of the wall are God's children and no man-made barrier can obliterate that fact" The Story Behind These Never-Before-Published MLK Photos The photographer's daughter found them decades after the day they capture in color The Striking Contradictions of Richard Nixon's Inauguration It'd been a year of assassinations and police riots and defeats that had led to the most unthinkable outcome of all: Richard Nixon's victory FROM THE TIME VAULT Today in 1977: America’s Mood “The quadrennial celebration of the near future is upon the U.S. From hamlet and city will come the bits and pieces of the American mosaic, and as they move down Pennsylvania Avenue this Thursday, they will reflect for one afternoon the diversity and genius of the nation, its joy and its confusion. There will be floats, mummers, horse platoons —and hope. But even while the nation is looking cautiously ahead, it is also reaching back, trying to get a grip on its soul.” (Jan. 24, 1977) Read the full story 75 Years Ago: Jimmy Durante “He may insult the Copacabana's boss (‘He can't even spell da name!’). He may insult the menu (‘Dere goes a load of ice with three olives. Twelve-fifty for dat load. Somebody's got to pay for da cocktail room!’). He may insult labor when a busboy knocks over a chair (‘He's gotta pick it up. No one else can touch it. Union!’). He may challenge the whole situation when a microphone is lowered toward his expectant and famous nose (‘Go ahead! Touch da nose! Just once! I'll sue da jernt for every dollar dey got! I'll turn da jernt inta a bowlin' alley!’). But the conspiratorial gleam which accompanies Jimmy's every imprecation (‘Surrounded by assassins!’) is a token of the vast human warmth he pours into giving pleasure and derives from having it received (‘I know dere's a million good-lookin' guys, but I'm a novelty!’).” (Jan. 24, 1944) Read the full story Today in 1972: the Howard Hughes Mystery “The tale was Rashomon in a James Bondian world, an intricate fantasy of scramblers on telephones and double identities, of 5 a.m. rendezvous in wigs and false beards, of exotic island fastnesses that pulse with secret electronics and the glint of fortunes in transit. Its protagonist could only be Howard Hughes, 67, the archetypal, anchoritic billionaire brooding over one of the world's great pools of wealth. He has always been an elusive, somehow haunted presence, sending out his commands from a bewildering entombment in desert or tropical hotels. Obsessively shy, devoted to intrigue, suspicious almost to the point of paranoia, Hughes last week had begun an emergence that was at least as strange as his radical withdrawal from the public world more than a decade ago.” (Jan. 24, 1972) Read the full story HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB Listen Up The Historical Records project by Dani Gal is truly a treasure trove, with hundreds of playable LPs of speeches and interviews. If you’ve never visited it before, set aside some time to listen. Cuban Commentary Speaking of historical interviews, here’s Tony Perrottet at Smithsonian.com writing about the time Ed Sullivan interviewed Fidel Castro. Touchdown Get ready for the Super Bowl with Erik Brady’s history-heavy USA Today interview with the retiring executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Surviving Artifacts Ralph Blumenthal and Joseph Berger at the New York Times have a look inside a chilling Auschwitz exhibition that will be coming to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York this spring, and what it says about the changing focus of a history museum in a time of all-too-present intolerance. Taking to the Streets In light of the Women’s March this past weekend, Bustle’s Madhuri Sathish spoke to historians how past protests helped contribute to the modern movement. To Unsubscribe Unsubscribe here if you do not want to receive this newsletter. Update Email Click here to update your email address. Privacy Policy Please read our Privacy Policy. TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. 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