{"value"=>"<p>Schlesinger kept current on a wide variety of subjects, including political, cultural and intellectual topics. Even as he researched and wrote his books, he was often called upon to write articles, lecture, and appear on panels, and he consequently maintained files on those subjects which interested him or had the potential to contribute ideas for one of his articles or lectures. His subject files contained clippings, notes, student papers, letters to and from Schlesinger himself, relevant third-party correspondence, and interview transcripts. This subseries offers a glimpse of how Schlesinger gathered data on subjects of interest, and how that data may have influenced his thinking.</p> <p>Some of the more extensive files Schlesinger maintained included those on international affairs, such as the Communist Party, the Cold War, Vietnam, and the Bay of Pigs. Schlesinger's interest in American governmental affairs manifested itself in files on McCarthyism, the presidency, the vice presidency (which Schlesinger believed should be abolished), and various presidential campaigns.</p> <p>Having continued his father's practice of polling historians for their rankings of the relative success of American presidents, Schlesinger kept records on both his polls and his father's, tracing the changes over time in how some presidents were viewed by American historians. His file on his own book <span class=\"title\">The Cycles of American History</span> provides support for his theory, also adapted from his father's, that the American electorate alternated between periods of liberalism and conservatism on a thirty-year cycle.</p> <p>In some cases, Schlesinger's subject files centered on individuals or organizations of both historical and personal significance. John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Reinhold Niebuhr, Adlai Stevenson, Averell Harriman and even Schlesinger himself have files dedicated to them, as do Harvard University and Americans for Democratic Action.</p> <p>Of special note are the subject files on multiculturalism, National History Standards, and Schlesinger's book <span class=\"title\">The Disuniting of America</span>. When Schlesinger was on the committee for establishing a set of history standards for American education, he publicly disavowed the results because of his differences with the rest of the committee over its application of multicultural principles. While not objecting to more inclusive curricula, Schlesinger believed that the new standards risked turning history into \"therapy.\" His reaction became enormously controversial, and the ensuing response to his statements led him to write <span class=\"title\">The Disuniting of America</span>, a treatise outlining what he saw as the shift from a shared American culture to a splintered one. These subject files provide insight into Schlesinger's thoughts on the matter, as well as the response to his public statements on the issue.</p>"}