1948 wasn’t so far away conceptually from our times. It was modern. Beatnik Jack Keroauc was writing his book about travelling the country by thumb. Monkeys were going into space. America was leading the world, and had just pulled off the Berlin Airlift. The election that takes place is a modern election, with radio, television…
Month: June 2020
Kent State: After the Bullets
Most of us know the famous photo showing the tragic student victim of Kent State May 1970 and the woman screaming. You may not know that the woman screaming was affected all through her life from her accidental and unexpected notoriety, with death threats, school and police discipline, and the governor of her state calling…
The Cabinet: George Washington’s Creation, with Lindsay M. Chervinsky
George Washington did not get a Cabinet as President. He created it. His precedents forged the institution and the President’s relationship to the Executive Departments. Washington didn’t fire a cabinet member, but he set the precedents in this area and in others. We are joined by Lindsay M. Chervinsky, a historian with the White House…
NOW ON PATREON: Whiskey Rebellion and Federal-State Power
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/mhcbuyp/whis2.mp3 On the Premium Podcast of My History Can Beat Up Your politics, we discuss both the Whiskey rebels that struck Pennsylvania in 1794, how they may have had larger aims than just repealing a tax and the conflicts it brought about. We hear the story of Washington leading troops into the countryside to save…
The Spanish Flu of 1918 and Its Aftermath – Conversation with Laura Spinney
We speak with Laura Spinney, science journalist and author of “Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World” and discuss the dreadful disease that claimed 50-100 million lives, more than the Great War that preceded it. The so-called ‘Spanish Flu’ caused global damage but also caused scientists to reflect and…
My History Can Beat Up Your Politics 