Originally Posted: October 11, 2018
Most days, you can find Dr. Jeffrey Engel in his office surrounded by history tomes. The Director of the SMU Center for Presidential History at SMU has filled his office with the work presidential historians, including his own.
Dr. Engel was attracted to this area of study because he believes in the concept of narrative history. That is, an idea that history should be told in a form where it is accessible to people from all walks of life.
“I remember feeling a profound sense of shame because a proper human should know events from the past,” Dr. Engel said, while reflecting on a moment from his childhood that reinforced his desire to study and make a living as a historian.
That desire still drives Dr. Engel and will be evident in his latest book,Impeachment, which Oct 16 by Penguin Random House. The section he authored is about the Constitution and its description of impeachment. Engel’s co-authors, Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali and Peter Baker, explain the historical precedent for impeachment by examining three cases from U.S. Presidential History: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
All of Engel’s research overlaps with his role in the Center for Presidential History,which came about with the creation of the George W. Bush Presidential Library.The Center for Presidential History exists to research and provide a better understanding of American presidency. The center engages with the community by putting on regular events and bringing in experts. Dr. Engel regularly gives lectures for the Center for Presidential History, in addition to organizing the Center’s public programming and mentoring post-doctorate fellows.
Professor Thomas Knock, a colleague of Dr. Engel, was a member of the hiring committee that brought Dr. Engel from Texas A&M. Knock said he was grateful for the opportunity to recruit Dr. Engel.
“It was almost as if he was waiting for us to tap him, given his experience,” Knock said. READ MORE