A Conversation with Lynne Cheney

Lynne Cheney has seen presidential leadership up close including eight years as second lady of the United States. In her new book, “The Virginia Dynasty: Four Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation,” Cheney, a best-selling historian and author, highlights the leadership of four of the nation’s first five presidents.

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Highlights

When asked if she still considers herself a conservative and a Republican, former second lady Lynne Cheney said, “Yes.” But she wouldn't say whether she's supporting President Trump's re-election, adding that she's keeping her vote private. “I’m not here to be a pundit…I sense those people in the media and probably in my circle of friends who might have been counting on a Biden victory are no longer so sure.” (Video: Washington Post Live)

Author and historian Lynne Cheney said she doesn't "mourn" the removal of Confederate statues because the men they honor were "traitors." “I personally don’t mourn statues of Confederate officers, generals, soldiers, whatever…These men were, to put it bluntly, they were traitors to the country and the Constitution." Cheney also shared her thoughts on The New York Time's 1619 project being used as curriculum in schools. "I haven’t seen the curriculum, so maybe they cleaned it up a little…But I was just struck from the very beginning. The 1619 project opens with words very similar to these. ‘From the beginning our country’s ideals were lies’…Those weren’t lies, they were ideals. We may not have lived up to them…But those are so important to remember and the 1619 project dismisses them out of hand in the first paragraph." (Video: Washington Post Live)

Lynne Cheney's new book, “The Virginia Dynasty: Four Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation,” explores the leadership of former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Adams and James Monroe. All four were from Virginia and lived in close proximity to one another, which Cheney says helped shape them. “Virginia...was unique in having these men so close together. Their proximity influenced them. They lifted one another up, they helped one another when things went bad, and they quarreled...those quarrels made them better statesmen." (Video: Washington Post Live)

When asked about Amy Adams’ portrayal of her in “Vice,” former second lady Lynne Cheney said, “I didn’t like the movie, but I have said being played by Amy Adams wasn’t half bad.” (Video: Washington Post Live)

Lynne Cheney, Historian & Author of “The Virginia Dynasty: Four Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation”

Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, has loved history for as long as she can remember, and she has spent much of her professional life writing and speaking about the importance of knowing history and teaching it well.

As chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1986 to 1993, she published American Memory, a report that warned about the failure of schools to transmit knowledge of the past to upcoming generations. “A system of education that fails to nurture memory of the past denies its students a great deal,” Mrs. Cheney wrote: “the satisfactions of mature thought, an attachment to abiding concerns, a perspective on human existence.” As a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, she emphasizes the particular value of knowing our nation’s history. “One of the important lessons we can learn is that freedom isn’t inevitable,” she says. “This realization should make the liberty we enjoy all the more important to us, all the more worth defending.”

Cheney is the author/co-author of 12 books, including six bestsellers about American history for children. Her bestselling biography, “James Madison: A Life Reconsidered,” was published in 2014.

Mrs. Cheney earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with highest honors from Colorado College, her Master of Arts from the University of Colorado, and her Ph.D. with a specialization in 19th-Century British literature from the University of Wisconsin. She is the recipient of awards and honorary degrees from numerous colleges and universities.

Vice President and Mrs. Cheney were married in 1964. They have two grown daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, three granddaughters, and three grandsons.