Michael Beschloss is a presidential historian with a little bit of star power. He appears regularly on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. He is the official "NBC News Presidential Historian," frequently providing commentary on Meet the Press, Today, and NBC news programs. He speaks smoothly and charmingly in sentences that are rich, but not too complex. And last but by no means least, he is very good looking.

Despite his minor celebrity status, I was surprised to find that Beschloss drew a standing-room-only audience to the Book Passage Bookstore in Corte Madera on Tuesday evening. Beschloss came to speak on his latest book — Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989. If another author had written such a work, he or she would have attracted a hand full of people, at best. I asked someone in the audience why he thought so many people had come to hear a talk about history. He said people were of course interested in the subject, but they also wanted to see Beschloss, a public historian who knows how to speak to a mass audience.

Beschloss did not disappoint. The audience listened in almost rapt attention as Beschloss told stories exemplifying presidential courage.

Beschloss spoke, for example, about Harry Truman’s recognition of Israel. Nearly everyone around Truman was against it, including Secretary of State George Marshall, who threatened to resign if Truman went ahead with it. Since Marshall was so popular at the time, his resignation could have cost Truman the upcoming presidential election. Even Truman’s wife (Bess) was against it. Bess Truman, said Beschloss, was a bigot. She had a strict policy of never allowing Jewish people into her home. She did not want to see the establishment of a Jewish state.

But President Truman, for two reasons, wanted to recognize Israel. He thought it was the right thing to do, and he wanted to go down in history as a great man, a man who helped liberate a people from oppression. Truman disregarded his wife, his advisors, and the threat to his election. Truman instructed his ambassador to the United Nations to vote for the partition of Palestine, establishing both a Palestinian and an Israeli State. (The partition failed, resulting in a war that has continued in one form or another to this day.)

Beschloss said his book was not about the greatest presidents in U.S. history, but about pivotal moments where presidents displayed the kind of courage that "changed America in a big way." This is the courage to "look into the abyss" and undertake action that is unpopular, risks your entire political life, and in some circumstances your life itself (think Lincoln). This is the courage to act for the sake of the country when polls, advisors, and everything else suggests that a course of action runs against your own interests.

What are Beschloss’s own politics? He would only say that he was a registered independent. He made it clear that, as a historian, he does not render opinions about current events. And he said historical opinions can only be reached 30 years or so after an event, when hindsight (and declassified material) make informed judgments possible.

But Beschloss did have some general advice regarding the 2008 presidential election. Make sure the person you vote for has the potential to look into the abyss and show presidential courage in a critical moment of history. Beschloss’ advice may lack subtlety, but that does not diminish its truth.