For American politicians, there is nothing more uncontroversial than a Presidents’ Day tribute to George Washington, the upright Virginian who may (or may not) have chopped down that cherry tree but otherwise stands as the embodiment of leadership and virtue.
But in an essay published on Monday, a more recent George W. is putting a little 2026 edge on the subject.
“Few qualities have inspired me more than Washington’s humility,” former President George W. Bush writes in the essay, which was released as part of a new nonpartisan history project.
“Our first president could have remained all-powerful, but twice he chose not to,” Mr. Bush writes, referring to Washington’s decision to relinquish leadership of the Army after the American Revolution, and then to step down from the presidency after two terms.
By “relinquishing power rather than holding onto it,” Mr. Bush continues, “he ensured America wouldn’t become a monarchy, or worse.”
These days, as Americans debate the fractured state of our democracy — and the actions of the current occupant of the Oval Office — that simple statement might seem long on subtext, or even shade.
Mr. Bush is not giving interviews. And Colleen Shogan, the leader of In Pursuit, the new history project, said the essay speaks for itself. “His ideas are his ideas,” she said.
The goal of the essay series, Dr. Shogan said, is to make history “relevant” while not speaking narrowly to the specifics of the present.
“We are taking the long view of things,” she said. “The lesson of presidential humility transcends time.”
In Pursuit, created for this year’s 250th anniversary of American independence, will post new offerings weekly on Substack. They will include chronological essays on each American president up to Barack Obama (and some first ladies) by a bipartisan mix of prominent public figures and scholars, including three former presidents and seven Pulitzer-winning historians.
Future installments will include Mr. Obama on Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton on Theodore Roosevelt, the Fox News host Bret Baier on Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on William Howard Taft, the only person to have served both as president and a Supreme Court justice.
For all of the project’s bipartisan bona fides, it is landing at a hyperpolarized moment when the already battered ideal of nonpartisan history is feeling additional strain.
Last fall, groups aligned with President Trump formed a new civics coalition to promote his Make America Great Again agenda, separate from the numerous cross-partisan efforts already out there. And for the 250th commemoration, Mr. Trump has created a new entity, Freedom 250, to organize efforts like a mobile “Freedom Truck” history exhibit that is touring the country and a planned U.F.C. fight on the White House lawn.
Doing nonpartisan history in today’s climate, Dr. Shogan acknowledged, “is not a walk in the park.” Last year, she was abruptly fired by Mr. Trump from her position as head of the National Archives.
There will not be essays about or contributions from Mr. Trump or Joseph R. Biden Jr., which avoids some minefields. But the roster does include two other cultural leaders who, like Dr. Shogan, have come under attack by the Trump administration: Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian, and Carla D. Hayden, the former librarian of Congress, who was fired last year because of her support for diversity initiatives.
Asked if she was concerned that In Pursuit would be dismissed as partisan, Dr. Shogan pointed to the fact that it is supported by More Perfect, a broad civics coalition including 43 presidential centers, from Washington’s Mount Vernon to the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
“But ultimately,” she said, “the project will have to stand on its own merits.”
Each contributor was given a tight 1,250 words (former presidents, Dr. Shogan quipped, “get an extra 100 words”) and one basic prompt: Create a “lesson” and then orient the essay around it. Mr. Bush’s is “For a leader, humility is the ultimate strength.”
Mr. Bush, who also recorded an audio version of his essay, does not shy away from the less attractive sides of his subject. He notes Washington’s limitations as a battlefield commander, and addresses Washington’s entanglements with slavery, a subject that the Trump administration has sought to suppress.
“He was — as were so many of his generation — a lifelong slave owner who never publicly condemned the institution,” Mr. Bush writes. Washington’s private views “evolved over time,” and in his will he did free the enslaved people he owned — the only major founder to do so.
“Still,” Mr. Bush writes, “slavery is a stain on an otherwise sterling private and public life.”
In Pursuit favors textured reflection over the hard math of presidential rankings. But the who’s up, who’s down approach remains a popular parlor game.
Last month, the conservative media platform PragerU unveiled its first presidential rankings, which it described as drawing on “voices and views that are often ignored.” (Among those polled were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; the media personalities Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly; and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House.)
Washington (surprise!) is ranked first, followed by Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge, a tariff-loving big-business conservative who is described as “the best president you don’t know.”
The PragerU rankings do not include President Trump, on the grounds that his presidency is not yet over. But Mr. Biden finishes dead last, behind Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan. Johnson and Buchanan finish at the bottom of most surveys. And In Pursuit, Dr. Shogan said, will deal frankly with their failures.
But the project’s early installments, which were shared with The New York Times, tend to focus on the ways the founding generation laid down precedents and norms as they figured out how the ideal of democratic self-government would actually work.
Writing about John Adams, the Harvard scholar Danielle Allen extols his willingness to elevate other leaders and defer to their expertise. (An 18th-century equivalent of the mantra “personnel is policy?”)
In an essay about Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Davenport, a historian who leads the research division at Monticello, highlights his “faith in the future,” which rested on his belief in the wisdom of an educated citizenry.
And the first ladies? Those essays, starting with a consideration of Martha Washington by the historian Karin Wulf, aim to transcend gowns and gossip and explore the ways these women did not just invent a role but shaped American political life.
It is easy to love Abigail Adams, who urged her husband to “remember the ladies,” and warned that women would “foment a rebellion” if he and other male founders did not. But the series, Dr. Shogan promised, will also include some sleepers.
Two words: Sarah Polk.
“I think that essay is really going to surprise people,” Dr. Shogan said.
Jennifer Schuessler is a reporter for the Culture section of The Times who covers intellectual life and the world of ideas.
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