The Past, the Promise, the Presidency

Today’s episode is all about Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Actually, we have two episodes for you on FDR.  He’s that important, and being the only person ever elected to the White House four times, he was also in office long enough to have created several legacies when issues of race arise.  Just how important was he?  Well, here’s one way to look at it: there have been three true existential crises in American history, moments not just of stress or strife, but perilous times when the very existence of the republic seemed threatened.This week, we talked with Dr. Jill Watts, a professor of history at California State University San Marcos, and an expert on African-American history in the 20th century. She is the author of The Black Cabinet and talked to us about that work and how FDR’s black cabinet pushed him to include Black Americans in New Deal programs. Second, we talked to Dr. Natalie Mendoza, a professor of Mexican American history at the University of Colorado Boulder. We learned about the Good Neighbor program, labor demands and conflict in the southwest, and racial tensions along the US-Mexico border. Finally, we spoke to Jamie Ford, a novelist and author of Hotel at the Corner on Bitter and Sweet, a story about Japanese internment and the complicated history of Chinese and Japanese communities in the Pacific Northwest.To learn more, visit www.pastpromisepresidency.com.

Today’s episode is all about Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Actually, we have two episodes for you on FDR.  He’s that important, and being the only person ever elected to the White House four times, he was also in office long enough to have created several legacies when issues of race arise.  Just how important was he?  Well, here’s one way to look at it: there have been three true existential crises in American history, moments not just of stress or strife, but perilous times when the very existence of the republic seemed threatened. The first was when the nation formed; and when it was led by George Washington.The Second was when it nearly perished in the Civil War.  Abraham Lincoln was the man in charge then. The third was the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s time.  More than an economic crisis, the depth of the depression caused many in the United States to question if this democracy thing was really worth the effort—or even functional in a modern industrialized world.  You don’t have to take our word for it, the people at the time let us know that democracy had one more chance to work.  A quarter of Americans were out of work in March of 1933 when FDR took office.  Millions were homeless; millions more hungry. And it had been this way for years. Newly sworn in, Roosevelt told Americans they had nothing to fear but fear itself, but while that was the most-remembered line from his inauguration speech, rather it was his pledge to assume full executive authority if needed. And the crowd greeted this promise—to use full power—with a standing ovations and sustained cheers.The Depression lasted throughout the thirties, and World War II followed soon after. The country eventually triumphing over each under FDR’s leadership.  To discuss FDR's unparalleled presidency and legacy, we welcomed Distinguished Professor Eric Rauchway as our guest.To learn more, visit www.pastpromisepresidency.com.

After the events of January 6, 2020, we invited a few friends and historians to offer their interpretations of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building. While our understanding of this historic moment will continue to evolve, we invite you to think of this conversation as a first draft of history.Featuring Dr. Jeffrey Engel, Dr. Sharron Conrad, Dr. Adriane Lentz-Smith, and Dr. Timothy Naftali.For more information about our guests and the episode, please visit pastpromisepresidency.com.

Today’s episode is all about the roaring twenties. It’s a decade often recalled with wistful longing, and more than touch of trepidation. Longing, because that is what Americans largely felt in this era: a longing to move past the pain of the Great War and the great pandemic.  Trepidation, for us if not for them, because we know the traumas that 1930s and ‘40s would bring. Sometimes it’s no fun to know what comes next, and if you don’t know what we are referring to…well, then you better stick around for future episodes! The Presidents of the 1920s are largely not recalled well, if recalled at all. Indeed, we’ve chosen to discuss them en masse to leave a bit more time for more consequential presidents still to come.  Our three today, in the order they served, were Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.  If you needed a catchphrase to remember each as we go forward today, you could do worse than to say: one of the most scandal-ridden presidencies in American history; one of the intentionally least impactful; and one of the most callous.   Today's guests are Dr. Le'Trice Donaldson and Dr. Deborah Kang.To learn more about our guests and read show notes for today's episode, visit pastpromisepresidency.com!

Today’s episode is all about Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States and arguably the most consequential.  Note, I did not say one of the greats.  They aren’t holding a spot on Mt. Rushmore for him. Certainly not lately, as the national reckoning over race during 2020 has landed hard on Wilson, whose reputation has been sullied by the widespread realization that he might just vie for the unenviable title of most racist president of all. That’s a hard list to evaluate, especially given that numerous antebellum presidents owned people of other races, but as our friend Jon Meacham said in an earlier episode when discussing Andrew Johnson, if you are in the discussion for most racist president ever, well that’s a list you’d rather not be on. Wilson has not fared particularly well as our country rethinks its racial past, and has featured prominently in our national discussion about how to live with the harsh truths of the past in our own present day.  There is so much to discuss about this fascinating man. Today we are learning from two brilliant scholars, Dr. Paul Behringer and Dr. Adriane Lentz-Smith, about this complicated man and presidency. Together our scholars illuminated two points: First, that one can’t just look at American racial policy, and Wilson in particular, in black-white term—Wilson’s presidency invites us to consider questions of race in India, Africa, China, Japan and beyond;And second, that yes you can, at least in so far as the U.S. Army’s attitudes and policies were designed to wage and win a war for democracy yes, but precisely, for whom?Visit pastpromisepresidency.com to read more about Wilson, learn about our guest experts, and more! 

Today’s episode is all about Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States and arguably the most consequential.  Note, I did not say one of the greats.  They aren’t holding a spot on Mt. Rushmore for him. Certainly not lately, as the national reckoning over race during 2020 has landed hard on Wilson, whose reputation has been sullied by the widespread realization that he might just vie for the unenviable title of most racist president of all. That’s a hard list to evaluate, especially given that numerous antebellum presidents owned people of other races, but as our friend Jon Meacham said in an earlier episode when discussing Andrew Johnson, if you are in the discussion for most racist president ever, well that’s a list you’d rather not be on. Wilson has not fared particularly well as our country rethinks its racial past, and has featured prominently in our national discussion about how to live with the harsh truths of the past in our own present day.  There is so much to discuss about this fascinating man. So much indeed, that we’ve decided to break our discussion into two episodes. In Part I, we released an episode following our regular format, which offered a pretty critical view of Wilson’s history on race. In this episode, we are talking to Professor Thomas Knock, perhaps the preeminent Wilson scholar about Wilson’s life, legacy, and presidency. To be sure, it’s a more complimentary portrayal, but given that Knock has spent so much time thinking about Wilson and how to commemorate this complicated man, we wanted to share the conversation in its entirety. Visit pastpromisepresidency.com to read more about Wilson, learn about our guest experts, and more!

Today’s episode is all about William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States. The only person on our nation’s history to serve both as Commander-In-Chief and as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Taft is one of those people in history with the sad fate of having his name forever recalled…alongside someone else’s.  But really, what did you expect would happen to the man Theodore Roosevelt picked to be his successor.  As we’ll soon see, with friends like these…..Today we will hear from two experts, Dr. Christopher McKnight Nichols and Dan Okert, on Taft’s life and era, and how he dealt with the racial issues of his day. Together they highlighted two critical themes: The national conversation about race no longer focused predominately on African Americans and Native Americans, but turned toward Eastern European and Asian immigrants as well.The role of science in racial thinkingTo learn more about our guests, read show notes, and more, visit pastpromisepresidency.com!

Today’s episode is all about Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt, TR, or Teddy, was one of the all-time great personalities in American history. Larger-than-life, captured in stone on Mount Rushmore, inspiration for the Teddy Bear and featured in countless movies, he was at once is intriguing, frustrating, thoughtful and blustery, a man ahead of his times, yet also stuck in the rut of arcane thinking. TR left a legacy of economic reform, social reform, environmental reform, and a new standing for the country in the world. But…was he such a reformer on race? We’ll answer that question, and so much more, when we talk with Dr. Michael Cullinane and Dr. Leroy Dorsey on Roosevelt’s life and times. Together, these conversations highlighted two critical themes: First, the importance of the concept of the frontier to American nationalism, and American racial thinking. Second, why the president has an unparalleled bully pulpit—a term Roosevelt coined by the way—for shaping conceptions of race, citizenship, and ultimately, who could rightly claim to be an American.Visit pastpromisepresidency.com to learn more.

Today’s episode is all about William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, the president who brought the country into the twentieth century and whose death left the nation in the hands of one of the all-time-great leaders, and characters, in American history, Theodore Roosevelt.  Historians typically view McKinley’s time in office as a moment of, well less transition, than visible transformation, as the country entered the new century more industrialized, urban, and globally powerful than ever before.  And even more so by the time he left office. One example: as we’ve discussed in depth so far this season, American historians typically divide our past, and more important our survey courses, with reconstruction at 1877.  Foreign policy historians typically use 1898 instead.  On this episode you'll learn why this moment is so pivotal, and also why the politics and economics of the McKinley age in many ways starkly resemble our own.This episode features guests Dr. Daniel Immerwahr and Dr. Richard Maass. Visit pastpromisepresidency.com to learn more.

Today’s episode is all about Presidents Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison, the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th presidents of the United States—one of the most unusual transitions in US history. Cleveland served one term from 1885 to 1889, lost the election to Benjamin Harrison, who was in turn replaced by Cleveland in 1892.  Whew.  And you thought our times were complicated!Our two experts today will fill in the details of their stories, and how their politics continue to inform our current moment. For this episode, we spoke to two esteemed scholars: Dr. Greg Downs, Professor of History at the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Gordon Chang, Professor of History at Stanford University.   Together our guests highlighted two key stories from this period: First, the ongoing battle, and ultimately the ongoing erosion, of African-American civil rights in the South now a full generation after the Civil War’s end. And second, immigration’s increasingly key role in the fight over who could, in fact, be a citizen, or if you will, a real American.  Visit pastpromisepresidency.com to learn more.