The only difference between them was a filthy nightshirt and a weird hat..
Rothman I find very problematical.
He has a radio show on KGO San Francisco, on late at night, on Friday and Saturday nights. I believe he is a history teacher at one of the schools in San Fran (UCSF or USF)
He is phenomenally intelligent and has an astounding memory for historical facts. He can tell you who James Buchanan’s agriculture sec’y was.
He co-authors the book you cite which, from everything I hear, is meticulously researched and footnoted and very well written.
Yet he is an absolute flaming liberal, thinks GWB was the single worst president in US history, thinks 0bama is probably the greatest, and provided he just keeps doing what he is doing (despite an obvious familiarity with Madison, Adams, Lincoln et al) will in likely dethrone FDR. He wants the Gitmo crew freed, if not granted scholarships to study humanistic sociology, is completely in favor of gay marriage, and any number of other issues that few here would agree with. But he supports Israel vs (for example) the rain of rockets from Gaza.
He’s probably the smartest liberal on the planet. I just find it odd how strangely distorted his obvious intelligence is from living in San Francisco.