American Political History
With American Political History I'm committed to bringing you bite-sized, digestible episodes that make history approachable for everyone, not just the history buffs. My goal is to engage you, to make you feel connected with the past, and to understand how it shapes our present and future.
So, sit back, or better yet, take a walk or a drive, and let's journey through history together, one bite, at a time."
Episodes
160 episodes
Washington's First Term - The Election of 1789
This wasn't really an election... not in the way we think of elections today. This was more like... a coronation by consensus.
Washington's First Term - Building The Machinery
President Washington selects his cabinet and sets the precedent on how cabinet meetings work.
Washington's First Term - The Establishment of the Third Branch
We cover the creation of the court system and the earliest history of the Supreme Court.
Washington's First Term - The People's Shield
We cover the story of the ratification of the Bill of Rights
Washington's First Term - The Debt Assumption Fight
America still is buried by the accumulation of debt from the revolutionary war. Secretary of Treasury Hamilton has a plan.
Washington's First Term - The Bank Wars
Secretary Hamilton moves to create the Bank of the United States, in pushing so hard, the national divide over the issue marks the creation of political parties in America.
Washington's First Term - The Emergence of Political Parties
We detail the emergence of political parties from Washington's own cabinet.
Ratification - Introduction
Without records of all of the debates, I give the context of the materials we will cover in this season.
Ratification - The People's Attention
The proposed constitution hit the newspapers, and public figures start taking positions and or writing with pen names to argue their points in the public sphere
Ratification - Pennsylvania
The first major convention starts in Philadelphia with mobs forcing a vote for the date. Everyone knows, so goes Pennsylvania so goes the small states around them.
Ratification - Massachusetts
We turn to the debates in the Massachusetts ratification convention.
Ratification - Virginia
We move to Virginia, whose ratification will complete the supermajority required for ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America.
Road to The Constitution - The Federal Convention
In May 1787, the Federal Convention begins to assemble in Philidelphia.
Road to The Constitution - The Virginia Plan
The convention begins with the unveiling of the, which was to the shock of many, an outline for a new government.
Road to The Constitution - The Whole of the People?
The convention will discuss the makeup of the legislative bodies House/Senate while avoiding the truly contentious topic of the allocation of the votes of the states
Road to The Constitution - Fractures
The convention starts tackling the composition of the legislative branch. Fractures begin to appear as the convection gets closer to discussing appropriations of votes and power in the proposed federal legislature
Road to The Constitution - The New Jersey Plan
The opposition unveils their own plan, and we see the factions of the federalists and anti-federalists break into the open.
Road to The Constitution - Disillusion
The convention begins to breakdown, delegates threaten each other, and cannot find compromises on distribution of voting power
Road to The Constitution - Committee of detail
The convention settles on the Sherman compromise for the legislature and take up the issue of slavery. Washington will form a committee of detail to draw up all of the points agreed to into a new document.
Road to The Constitution - Rising Sun
The Philadelphia convention will close with a draft of a new American constitution.
The Constitution of the United States of America
The completed constitution of the Unite States of America.
A Failed Nation - Negro Soldiers
We discuss the fate of negro soldiers in the revolutionary war
A Failed Nation - Abolitionist
Desicuss the abolitionist movement and is growth around the revolutionary era.