Episodes
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"It's the economy, stupid" - Clinton advisor James Carville, 1992.
Bill Clinton left office with a 66% approval rating. This was in large part because 81% of Americans approved his handling of the economy - 71% said the 1999 was the best economy of their lifetimes (according to Gallup).
But how much credit does a president really deserve for an economy? And how does Clinton's record on free trade, welfare reform, and deregulation hold up today?
Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein, author of A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism, joins me to discuss the economic legacy of Bill Clinton.Support the show
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“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.’” — Bill Clinton's inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1993.
Bill Clinton has the highest end-of-term approval rating of any president in modern history - 66%. But that doesn't mean things came easy. It doesn't even mean he succeeded in what he set out to do! Follow along as Clinton rises from Arkansas poverty to become the youngest governor in the country and a dark horse presidential candidate on his way to the White House. Once there, he will contend with a revolution in opposition politics, a government shutdown, and the first presidential impeachment trial since 1868. And then, after all that, he'll try to resolve one of the world's most tragic intractable struggles - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He won't succeed at that either, but damnit, he'll try.
Bibliography
1. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House - John Harris
2. Bill Clinton - Michael Tomasky
3. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
4. Bush - Jean Edward Smith
5. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan AlterSupport the show
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Episodes manquant?
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For the third consecutive year, four podcasters got together to record their annual Friendsgiving History Podcast Spectacular. Tune in as I'm joined by three fellow history podcasters and friends for a roundtable discussion on U.S. and presidential history. The other podcasters are:
Howard Dorre, Plodding through the PresidentsJerry Landry, Presidencies of the United StatesAlycia, Civics & CoffeeHappy Thanksgiving!
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George H.W. Bush presided over 4 of the most consequential years in world history. Before he entered office, a Cold War divided East and West: Democratic Capitalism vs Dictatorial Communism. After he left office, Democratic Capitalism had won. How did Bush usher in an age of American hegemony? And what role did he play in dramas ranging from the reunification of Germany to the independence of former soviet states like Russia and Ukraine?
Jeffrey Engel, Director of SMU's Center for Presidential History and author of numerous books on George H.W. Bush, including When the World Seemed New: George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War, discusses how Bush kept the peace without sacrificing American idealism at a time of dangerous global change.Support the show
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“The Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again. And I’ll say to them: ‘Read my lips, no new taxes.’” — George Bush's GOP Nomination Acceptance speech, Aug. 18, 1988.
"Poor George [Bush], he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." - Texas Governor Ann Richards at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.
George H.W. Bush may have lived one of the most personally moving stories in all of presidential history. There's war. There's loss. There are great heights and great defeats. Through it all, Bush often appeared somewhat wooden. Unreachable. Unavailable. But beneath that was a man of deep emotions. Follow along as Bush fights in World War II, builds an oil empire in Texas, and rises through the ranks of GOP politics to the White House, where he contended with the end of the Cold War, the aggression of an Iraqi dictator, and an economic reckoning that threatened to be the undoing of his career.
Bibliography
1. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
2. When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War - Jeffrey Engel
3. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House - John Harris
4. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
5. Bush - Jean Edward Smith
6. Richard Nixon, the life – John A. Farrell
7. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter
8. Gerald Ford – Douglas BrinkleySupport the show
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Americans have long had a complicated relationship with taxes. We don't like paying them, but we love the things they pay for. In the decades after World War II, both political parties agreed - taxes are worth it.
Then came Ronald Reagan and the anti-tax movement.
Michael Graetz, a Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale University and Columbia University and author of The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America, discusses how an American consensus was shattered and a new era of low taxation and deficit spending was begun, and the impact that era will have on Americans today and tomorrow.Support the show
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On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned recently-resigned president Richard Nixon of any crimes he may have committed in the presidency, and the pardon has never been the same since. Law Professor Kimberly Wehle, author of the new book Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works - and Why, discusses the origin and history of the presidential pardon and the danger its potential abuse poses to the future of democracy.
If you'd like to read more from Kim, check out her Substack at https://kimwehle.substack.com/Support the show
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Pandemics, political violence, partisans recognizable by the color of their hat - it may sound novel, but it's been with us practically since the beginning of the republic. Historian Lindsay Chervinsky, author of the new book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, discusses the wildly volatile John Adams administration (1797-1801) and the lessons it offers as we face our own modern political moment.
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"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem," - Ronald Reagan's inaugural address, January 20, 1981.
For the first 50 years after the onset of the Great Depression and the election of Franklin Roosevelt, the United States had been led by politicians who believed government held the power to make life better for the American people. Then came Ronald Reagan, one of the most talented political orators in American history. Follow along as Reagan rises from the great depression to realize his dreams in Hollywood, then takes his talents into politics, where he upends a half-century of big-government consensus and pivots the United States toward a small-government future.
Bibliography
1. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
2. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
3. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter
4. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
5. Richard Nixon, the life – John A. FarrellSupport the show
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When unemployment and inflation began to rise side by side in the 1970s, nobody knew what to do. Economic theory suggested it should have been impossible, and yet the numbers couldn't be denied. Stanford Historian Jennifer Burns, author of Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, discusses how American presidents of the 70's tried and failed to curb stagflation, what led Carter to Paul Volcker, and how Volcker's medicine may have saved the economy, but doomed Carter's presidency in the process.
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It's commonly accepted wisdom that presidents are less effective in their second terms, when the term limits of the 22nd amendment turn them into Lame Ducks who cannot be elected to office a third time.
But what if that common wisdom is wrong?
Former NYU economics professor William Silber, author of The Power of Nothing to Lose: The Hail Mary Effect in Politics, War and Business, argues that lame ducks only appear less effective because, with nothing left to lose, they pursue goals that are more ambitious and more difficult. And nothing-to-lose, gamble-it-all-on-the-win behavior can also be seen in presidential campaigns when candidates trail badly in the polls or fear a defeat will end their careers.
With two former presidents on the ballet this fall, Silber forecasts what to expect from the campaigns and potential administrations of the contendors.Support the show
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When Jimmy Carter won the presidency, his Democratic party held a 61-37 majority in the Senate and a 292-143 majority in the House. Why then, with such a clear governing majority, were his relations with Congress so poor, and his agenda so challenged?
Jonathan Alter, a long-time journalist and author of numerous books on the presidency, including His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life, discusses how Carter's outsider status and a healthy heaping of luck swept him to the presidency, but betrayed him in the White House.Support the show
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"The erosion of confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and political fabric of the nation," - Jimmy Carter, July 15, 1979
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Jimmy Carter may have been the luckiest presidential candidate and unluckiest president in American history. Chasing the presidency after Watergate and the pardon of Nixon had crushed American faith in its leaders, Carter's outsider message was the right note at the right time. But once in office, a combination of economic headwinds and international disasters doomed his administration. From Plains, Georgia, to the White House and back, follow along as Carter navigates southern politics and national disenchantment to try and set the nation on a path for the future.
Bibliography
1. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter
2. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
3. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
4. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
5. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House – John F. HarrisSupport the show
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From 1953 to 1969, the Supreme Court was a vanguard of progressive change for the United States. But then came Tricky Dick.
Michael Bobelian, author of Battle For The Marble Palace: Abe Fortas, Lyndon Johnson, Earl Warren, Richard Nixon and the Forging of the Modern Supreme Court, discusses how presidential candidate Richard Nixon and senate conservatives blocked LBJ's efforts to cement a progressive court for years to come and, in 3 short years, transformed the once liberal bastion into a conservative bulwark, forever changing how justices are nominated and confirmed in the United States.Support the show
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A 24-year career in Congress crested at a tumultuous time for Gerald Ford. He was the GOP leader of the house during the Nixon administration, then Nixon's VP, then the president who had to heal the country after Watergate. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum director Brook Clement discusses the crucible Ford walked as a national leader.
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"Our long national nightmare is over." - Gerald Ford, August 9, 1974
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Gerald Ford is the only person in American history to reach the vice presidency and the presidency without being elected to either. Despite this, he was a popular president - for 1 month. But then he pardoned Nixon, and it was all downhill from there. Follow along as Ford rides his athletic gifts from Grand Rapids to The University of Michigan and eventually Yale, serves his country in World War 2, then embarks on a quest to become Speaker of the House, only to discover the presidency instead. Once there, he'll grapple with the legacy of Watergate, and a bedeviling rise in unemployment and inflation that threatened to send the country's economy over the cliff.
Bibliography
1. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
2. Richard Nixon: The Life – John Farrell
3. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
4. The Vietnam War – Ken Burns (documentary)
5. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
6. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream – Doris Kearns Goodwin
7. Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency – Mark K Updegrove
8. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan AlterSupport the show
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It didn't take long for Richard Nixon to earn the nickname "Tricky Dick," but was he really any more tricky than the typical politician? You bet he was!
John Farrell, a long-time journalist and author of numerous books on political leaders, including Richard Nixon, The Life, discusses the many campaigns of Richard Nixon, from the red scare tactics that swept him to office, to the southern strategy that changed America's political map forever.Support the show
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Richard Nixon was sworn in as President with a Democratic House and Senate across Capitol Hill, which you might expect to lead to legislative impasse. Instead, it was one of the more prolific legislative stretches in American history, including such accomplishments as: Lowering the voting age, Title IX, creating the EPA, the Clean Air Act, abolishing the draft, and more. But were all of these laws passed because of Richard Nixon, or despite him? Historian Luke Nichter, a Chapman University professor who operates nixontapes.org, explores how Nixon and the Democratic Congress came together to pass so much meaningful change.
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"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." - Richard Nixon, November 17, 1973
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Richard Nixon's life is a drama unlike any other. A desire to win at any cost earned him the name "Tricky Dick" and carried him from Whittier, California, to the Presidency of the United States, but it also proved his undoing. From Alger Hiss to Checkers, the Chenault Affair, "Nixon goes to China," and Watergate, we will dive into the remarkable rise and fall of the only American to resign the presidency, Richard Milhouse Nixon.
Bibliography
1. Richard Nixon: The Life – John Farrell
2. The Vietnam War – Ken Burns (documentary)
3. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
4. Eisenhower in War and Peace – Jean Edward Smith
5. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
6. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 – Robert Dallek
7. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream – Doris Kearns Goodwin
8. Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency – Mark K UpdegroveSupport the show
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Migrating to the United States used to be as easy as buying a boat ticket. Getting settled was the hard part, and it became far more daunting when the United States was torn asunder by Civil War in 1861. As more and more northerners were conscripted into the Union Army, Lincoln realized a friendlier immigration policy might be the key to sustaining economic and military strength through the long years of war.
Harold Holzer, director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City and Chairman of the Lincoln Forum, discusses his new book Brought Forth on this Continent Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration, which delves into the role immigration played in killing the Whig party, building the republican party, and how Lincoln's views toward immigration changed during through his career and into the Civil War, when he attempted one of the first major overhauls of the American immigration system in U.S. history.Support the show
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