John Birch Society

Jacobs, Harriet

Jackson

Japanese Internment

Jazz Singer, The

And many more!

Thanks again for listening and we'll be back soon with our brand new series on the US and the Middle East!

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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We discuss the various legacies of Johnson, his Great Society, Civil Rights, Vietnam, and the long Sixties.

And we also provide a preview of our NEW upcoming series - tune in to find out what we'll be discussing next!

Thanks a lot for listening to this series and we look forward to bringing you the next one.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Books/Articles

Mark McLay, 'Reflecting or reshaping?: Landmark anniversaries and presidential legacy'. In: Cullinane, M. P. and Ellis, S. (eds.) Constructing Presidential Legacy: How We Remember the American President (2019)

Robert H. Wilson, Norman J. Glickman, and Laurence E. Lynn, Jr. (eds.), LBJ’s Neglected Legacy: How Lyndon Johnson Reshaped Domestic Policy and Government (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015).

Bernard von Bothmer, Framing the Sixties: The Use and Abuse of a Decade from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010)

Kathleen Belew, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Harvard UP, 2018)

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And on this occasion it's the letter T! Among the topics discussed on this episode:

• Truman
• Three Mile Island
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe
• Tupperware
• Tobacco

We hope you enjoy and we'll back next with our final episode of the LBJ's America series.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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On this episode we round out 1968, which sees Richard Nixon win the presidential election and be on his way to the White House. We chat about Nixon's record and how, after promising to bring the American people together, he ended up driving them further apart.

Also, was LBJ really trying to be a hippie in his final years before dying 1973? We answer this question and much more.

The final episode will dissect the legacy of LBJ's America and we hope you'll join us again.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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World War I & II

Watergate

The West Wing

Victoria Woodhull

And even, William Wallace.

We hope you enjoy and we'll be back soon with the penultimate episode in our LBJ's America series.

Cheers,

Mark

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We pick up the story in mid-1967 and discuss how Vietnam, racial violence, and a host of other contentious issues rise to the fore and overwhelm Lyndon Johnson, leading to his eventual withdrawal from office.

Along the way we compare 1967/8 with today's political climate, discuss race riots, Tet, the media, the counterculture, second-wave feminism and much more. 

Thanks again for listening.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading List

Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (2014)

Amy Wedlow, Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s. (1993)

Daniel Hallin, The 'Uncensored War':The Media and Vietnam (1986)

Christopher Gair, The American Counterculture (2007)

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Today - it's R!

Republicans

Rambo

Red Scare

Republican Motherhood 

...are just a few of things that we chew over.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm 

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Fannie Lou Hamer

Adolf Hitler 

Jimi Hendrix 

Hollywood

and many, many more!

We'll be back next month with another episode of A-Z!

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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The idea is simple. We've written down loads of names/events/developments that relate to American History that begin with the same letter. They have been scrunched up in a hat, they are picked at random, and we have 30 minutes to discuss whatever comes out the hat.

And today, we're all about the letter C!

We discuss everything from Lewis and Clark to China, Civil Rights to the CIA. And much more!

We hope you enjoy this new type of podcast. We plan to publish a new one every month alongside our main podcast.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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We're back!

And we're embarking on a six part series examining 'Lyndon Johnson's America'. Essentially, we're using the life and times of LBJ to examine and explore the United States over which he presided in the tumultuous 1960s.

This episode, however, explores the ascent of Johnson up the political ladder, while simultaneously discussing a host of interesting events and developments between 1936-1963. We discuss the Cold War Consensus, the use of the Atom Bomb, the 'loss of China', the Kennedy-Johnson relationship, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and much more!

In the next episode we'll be talking all about the Civil Rights Movement and the early success of Johnson's presidency. Moreover, as the series goes on, we'll get stuck into the societal and cultural developments that shook America in the 1960s. 

Thanks for sticking with us after our hiatus and we'll be back regularly in your podcast feeds with both this series and our new A-Z podcast!

Cheers

Mark and Malcolm

Reading list:

Robert Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson series (Knopf, 4 Books)

Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000)

Paul Thomas Chamberlin, The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2018)

Audra J. Wolfe, Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018)

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Discover more about the so-called 'Yellow Peril', Japanese Internment during World War II, and why these issues are still relevant to modern day America.

Look out for a NEW kind of AHTOO podcast landing in your feeds in January.

Until then, thanks again for listening.

Mark and Malcolm

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We examine JFK's 'Alliance for Progress' and whether LBJ really deserves the blame for its collapse or not, and how the 1965 intervention in the Dominican Republic fits into the wider story of Johnson's presidency. Tom also treats us to the story of LBJ, a sheepdog, a monkey, and the West German Chancellor - stay tuned until the end for that one!

We'll be back in December with a special episode on Japanese-Americans. 

Thanks again for listening.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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The podcast begins with a clip of Richard's interview with Braun in which she discusses her views on race and politics.  

Throughout the discussion Richard reflects on whether Obama was a political unicorn with his appeal to white and black audiences; how these five pioneers navigated the choppy waters of racial politics and what their candidacies tell us about the country in wich they were running; and finally, whether their candidacies - and, in some cases, spells in office - were able to inspire change in American society.  

Thanks again for listening, we'll be back next month, discussing barbeque diplomacy and Vietnam (all will be explained).  

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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One spring evening in 1838, formerly enslaved African American Moses Roper spoke to a crowded audience in Leicester, and during one section of his speech, declared:

"Many will say “This is the slaves’ side of the question. The slave-holders would tell a different story.” You have heard the slave-holders’ story 250 years ago. Now, I think it is time for the slaves to speak."

In an extraordinary chapter of the antislavery movement, hundreds of black activists – many of whom were formerly enslaved – echoed Roper’s bold decision to tell the truth about slavery. Many of these individuals sought temporary reprieve from American soil, others permanent; some raised money to free themselves or enslaved family members; others sought work with varying success. Black men such as Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Josiah Henson, and women such as Sarah Parker Remond lectured in large cities and tiny fishing villages, wrote narratives, stayed with influential reformers and ensured millions of words were written about them in the newspapers. The Victorian press is littered with coverage of their speeches, from the John O’Groat Journal to the Royal Cornwall Gazette, alongside with accounts of audiences cramming into tiny churches or town halls to cure an insatiable appetite about American slavery.

Even by the end of the nineteenth century this appetite had not abated. Activists such as Ida B. Wells built on the precedent set by Moses Roper and declared to a Leeds audience in 1894 that “it was her mission to tell the black people’s side of the story.” In a powerful and succinct summation, Wells echoed the reason why African Americans travelled to Britain: to champion their testimony against slavery and its legacies, and challenge white supremacy.

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Jeremy guides through what it meant to be a charismatic leader and, indeed, a charismatic follower during this era.

Why were these leaders both appealing and yet simulatanously destined to lose in presidential elections? Why did they die out from 1940 onwards? And who was the first ever radio star in the United States? (hint: it's not who you think it is!)

We touch on all these issues and much more.

Thanks again for listening and we'll be back next month.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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The podcast begins with an NBC broadcast you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hOoW0U6g_E

Thanks again for listening.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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In particular we examine The Conversation (the trailer for which begins this episode, 1974), The Parallax View (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and - of course - All the President's Men (1976).

We discuss why these films emerged, what they say about the United States during this era, and consider whether we might see a reemergence of the genre in the wake of Trump.

n.b. There is a slight issue with one of the microphones that crops up ever now and again, but it shouldn't be too distracting.

Thanks again for listening and we'll be back in a few weeks with an episode looking at the 'long, hot summer' of race rioting in 1967.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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Scholarship

Christopher Andrew, For the President’s Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency, from Washington to Bush (New York: HarperCollins, 1995)

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, The FBI: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)

Frank Morn, The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982)

S. Paul O’Hara, Inventing the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016)

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Indeed, his name lives on as the Capitol of Nebraska, as a popular car brand, and as a name for one of America’s two political parties. Beyond the United States, his legacy also has a powerful reach. Here in Scotland, there is statue of him in Edinburgh, while in 2009, the Rwandan government saw fit to issue a stamp bearing his face. And that face, which he took great pleasure in mocking for its ugly features, has been included at one time or another on the 1, 5, 10, 20, 100, and 500 dollar bill. It is sculpted on Mount Rushmore along with Washington, Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt.

And, perched high upon a grand seat and surrounded by Roman columns and his most famous words, he gazes across the National Mall at the Congress of the United States, acting as a symbolic conscience of the nation.

We are, of course, talking about Abraham Lincoln.

Today, on American History Too!, joined by the University of Edinburgh's Cat Bateson we ask whether the so-called Great Emancipator deserves such lofty and widespread recognition, and we also examine the uses and abuses of Honest Abe’s legacy since his assassination on Good Friday in 1865.

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Rachel guides us through the evolution of religion from the founding years through to the antebellum era and the effect it had on the emerging country. What effect did relgion have in justifying slavery in the South? Has religion in the US benefitted from not having a predetermined state religion? And what was the effect of the Second Great Awakening?

We then discuss how religion shaped the experience of the Civil War and how it impacted both the Northern and Southern cause. Finally, Rachel reflects on how the Civil War experience impacted upon religion going forward and offers us a sneak preview of next month's episode.

We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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Over the course of the hour we get stuck into the legacy of the Civil Rights movement, the origins of Black History Month and whether it is viewed in a positive light by black Americans. Finally, James offers us a fascinating insight into how corporations have advertised during BHM, and whether their efforts are cynical or genuine.  

Our apologies for the recording quality on one of the microphones for this episode - snowstorms and internet connections don't go well!

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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Joined by the University of Reading’s Dafydd Townley, we whizz through the CIA’s successes and failures in the 1950s and 1960s, when the agency was given free rein by Congress to do as it pleased without questioning.

With the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal fuelling public distrust in American institutions, however, it was only logical that the CIA – for so long shrouded in mystery – would come under the microscope. In 1975, three separate investigations were launched into the CIA, with the notable being the Church Committee, that raised new and troubling questions about the nation’s premier intelligence gathering vehicle.

In this episode of American History Too! we investigate the Committee’s findings and dig deeper into what would become known as the ‘Year of Intelligence’.

We’ll be back next month with an episode that will overlap with Black History Month.

Until then, thanks for again listening!

Mark and Malcolm

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‘‘You are coming to Britain from a country where your home is still safe, food is still plentiful, and lights are still burning. So it is doubly important for you to remember that their British soldiers and civilians have been living under a tremendous strain. It is always impolite to criticize your hosts. It is militarily stupid to insult your allies.’ – Instructions for American Servicemen (1942)

Equally, in December 1943, the novelist George Orwell wrote in the Tribune that ‘It is difficult to go anywhere in London without having the feeling that London is now occupied territory.’

Both extracts give a sense of uneasy alliance between two nations which have all too often been portrayed as locked together in a ‘special relationship’ for seventy odd years. But like all relationships, alliance warfare between the US and the UK underwent periods of severe strain as well as harmonious efficiency. In this podcast, with the help of Dr Frances Houghton (University of Manchester) we’ll be discussing the extent to which the 3 million US personnel who passed through Britain between 1942-45 were really perceived as ‘overpaid, over-fed, over-sexed, and over here’ in wartime Britain.

A huge thanks from both of us for tuning in for another year. We can't wait to get back to podcasting in the New Year, and we've already got many esteemed guests lined up for 2017 to discuss more fascinating topics in American History.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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Thanks again for listening and we'll be back next month to discuss the experience of American and British soldiers during World War II.  

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm 

Scholarship

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, The CIA and American Democracy, 2nd edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998)

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002)

Steven Long, The CIA and the Soviet Bloc: Political Warfare, the Origins of the CIA and Countering Communism in Europe (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014)

Kaeten Mistry, The United States, Italy and the Origins of Cold War: Waging Political Warfare 1945–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)

Christopher Moran, Company Confessions: Revealing CIA Secrets (London: Biteback, 2015)

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We'll be back next week with our regular podcast so look out for that, and thanks again for listening.  

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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Following our discussion of music, we then delve into a debate on whether the politics as entertainment - a theme so evident in this year's campaign - is a new phenomenon or whether it's been around since the beginning of mass democracy.  

We'll be back next month with a podcast on the history of the CIA. Until then, have a great election!

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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“Why do I not confine my efforts to the United States? My answer first, that slavery is the common enemy of mankind and it should be made acquainted with its abominable character. Slavery is a system of wrong, so blinding to all around, so hardening to the heart, so corrupting to the morals, so deleterious to religion, so sapping to all the principles of justice, in its immediate vicinity, that the community surrounding it lacks the moral stamina necessary to its removal. It is a system of such gigantic evils, so strong, so overwhelming in its power, that no one nation is equal to its removal. I want the slaveholder surrounded, by a wall of anti-slavery fire, so that he may see the condemnation of himself and his system glaring down in letters of light. I want him to feel that he has no sympathy in England, Scotland, and Ireland, that he has none in Canada, none in Mexico, none among the poor wild Indians…”

On this episode of American History Too! we're joined by University College London's Matt Griffin (@mattrgriffin) to explore the fascinating who, what, and why of trans-Atlantic anti-slavery campaigns in the mid-nineteenth century.

Cheers,

Mark & Malcolm

Reading List

R. J. M. Blackett, Building an Antislavery Wall: Black Americans in the Atlantic Abolitionist Movement, 1830-1860 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1983)

David Brion Davis, ‘Looking at Slavery from Broader Perspectives’, The American Historical Review 105:2 (Apr., 2000), 452-466

Don H. Doyle, The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War (New York: Basic Books, 2015)

Amanda Foreman, World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War (London: Penguin, 2011)

Van Gosse, ‘“As a Nation, the English Are Our Friends": The Emergence of African American Politics in the British Atlantic World, 1772-1861’, The American Historical Review

113:4 (Oct., 2008), 1003-1028

Caleb McDaniel, The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery: Garrisonian Abolitionists and Transatlantic Reform (Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 2013)

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Is the “old fashioned girl”, with all that she stands for in sweetness, modesty, and innocence, in danger of becoming extinct? Or was she really no better nor worse than the “up to date” girl, who in turn will become the “old fashioned girl” to a later generation? Is it even possible as a small, but impressive, minority would have us believe that the girl of today has certain new virtues of “frankness, sincerity, seriousness of purpose”, lives on a “higher level of morality” and is on the whole “more clean minded and clean lived” than her predecessors?

The Roaring Twenties in America are – in popular culture at least – seen as the era of the liberated flapper, Daisy Buchanan, and all night jazz. But is this really an accurate portrayal of womanhood, femininity, and beauty in the decade of “return to normalcy”? Today on American History Too!, we’re joined by the University of Strathclyde's Rachael Alexander to discuss how femininity and beauty were perceived in 1920s America, and what role mass-market women’s magazines had in reinforcing and changing stereotypes.

Thanks, as always, for listening!

Cheers,

Mark & Malcolm

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Joined once more by the University of Oxford's Paddy Andelic (@pkandelic) we take a deep dive into the recent history of the Democratic party and travel the road to Hillary Clinton. Beginning amid the chaos of the 1968 convention in Chicago, we talk through Humphrey, McGovern, Watergate Babies, Carter, Ted Kennedy, Tip O'Neill, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.  

Thanks again for listening. Next month we'll be back turning our focus to cultural history, but look out for an election special before November!

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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With the Republican party heading to their convention in Cleveland to nominate the billionaire tycoon, we're joined by the University of Oxford's Paddy Andelic (@pkandelic) to discuss the Republicans over the past half century as we look to map out the road to Trump.

On our travels we cover Barry Goldwater, Civil Rights, Richard Nixon, Watergate, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and both Bush I & II. We also delve into some of the issues and causes that have defined the GOP since the 1960s.  All this, and much more, on another bumper podcast of American History Too!

We'll be back soon with a podcast covering the Road to Hillary Clinton!

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

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“These countries cannot thank Schmeling enough for this victory for he checked the arrogance of the Negro race and clearly demonstrated to them the superiority of white intelli- gence. He restored the prestige of the white race and in doing so accomplished a cultural achievement. I for one am convinced that Schmeling was fully conscious of this fact and that he fought as a representative of the white race.... The victory of Italy in Abyssinia must be regarded in the same light.... After the war started there was only one thing left, the fight of a white against a black nation. This has become a racial fight. The same question must be asked: What would have happened if Abyssinia had won? The same answer applies: the whole black world would have risen up against the white race in arrogance and bestial cruelty.”

Were these horrific attitudes towards a man whom many experts regard as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time confined to Nazi Germany? Or did his own countrymen view the great Joe Louis as inferior, unworthy of the status of a great champion? And what of other great athletes such as Jesse Owens? How did white America react? In order to answer these and other questions, today on American history too, we’ll be exploring the complex, convoluted, and at often appalling history of race and sport in inter-war America.

Scholarship

In Black and White: The Untold Story of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens - Donald McRae

The Fight of the Century: Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and the Struggle for Racial Equality - Thomas R. Hietala

Ring of Hate: The Brown Bomber and Hitler's Hero - Joe Louis, Max Schmeling and the Bitter Propaganda War - Patrick Myler 

Beyond Glory: Max Schmeling vs Joe Louis and a World on the Brink - David Margolick

Joe Louis: Hard Times Man - Randy Roberts

Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes - Randy Roberts

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson - Geoffrey C. Ward

A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring Twenties - Roger Kahn

Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936 - David Clay Large

Hitler's Olympics: The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games - Christopher Hilton

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series - Eliot Asinof

The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth - Leigh Montville

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Sabin, a wealthy WASP socialite, who was New York’s first ever female member of the Republican National Committee, foresaw many positives to an alcohol-free society. Like many American women, Sabin viewed alcohol as a threat to the morality of her family, particularly her two young sons, and, in her own words, Sabin believed that “a world without liquor would be a beautiful world.”

Quickly, however, Sabin and many others realised that such utopian hopes were misplaced. Prohibition, it seemed was creating more problems than it solved. Looking around at the increased crime and disrespect for law and order in the country, Sabin came to the conclusion that Prohibition was actually creating a worse world for her sons as opposed to the beautiful world she had once imagined. 

By 1929, convinced of Prohibition’s failure, Pauline Sabin formed and led the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR). An organisation that quickly accrued over 1.5 million members and led the charge to repeal Prohibition. 

Women had played a crucial role in Prohibition’s passage and much to everyone’s surprise they would play an equally important role in its eventual repeal in 1933.  

Prohibition would throw up many such surprises throughout the thirteen years it remained on the books and many of its failures still hold important lessons for our society today.  As such, on this episode of American History Too, we aim to answer a simple question:  Why did American Prohibition fail?

Reading List

David Kennedy, Freedom From Fear (1999)

David E. Kyvig, “Women Against Prohibition,” American Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Autumn, 1976), 465-482.

Mary Murphy, “Bootlegging Mothers and Drinking Daughters: Gender and Prohibition in Butte, Montana,” American Quarterly, Vol.46, No.2 (Jun., 1994), 174-194.

Michael Parrish, Anxious Decades (1992)

Kenneth Rose, American women and the repeal of Prohibition (1996)

Wendy Sarvasy, “Beyond the Difference versus Equality Policy Debate: Postsuffrage Feminism, Citizenship, and the Quest for a Feminist Welfare State,” Signs, 17:2 (Winter, 1992), 329-362

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Reading

W. Bernard Carlson, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013)

Robert Lomas, The man who invented the twentieth century: Nikola Tesla, forgotten genius of electricity (London: Headline, 2000)

Paul Lucier, ‘The Origins of Pure and Applied Science in Gilded Age America’, Isis, 103:3 (September 2012), 527-536

Marc J. Seifer, Wizard : The life and times of Nikola Tesla ; biography of a genius (Secaucus: Carol Pub., 1996)

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‘On the 25th of September 1984, in one of the hardest-hitting speeches of his long Presidential campaign against Ronald Reagan, former Vice-President Walter F. Mondale spoke powerfully at George Washington University about the contemporary political landscape:

This election is not about jellybeans and pens pals. It is about toxic dumps that give cancer to our children. This election is not about country music and birthday cakes. It is about old people who can’t pay for medicine. This election is not about the Olympic torch. It is about the civil-rights laws that opened athletics to women and minorities who won those gold medals… This election is not about my standing in the polls. It is about my stand against the illegal war in Nicaragua. This election is not about slogans, like “standing tall.” It is about specifics, like the nuclear freeze – because if those weapons go off, no one will be left standing tall. This election is about values. I refuse to cut loose from my history and desert the beliefs I have always fought for. I would rather lose a race about decency than win one about self-interest.

Despite his best efforts, he did lose. The country, according to Mondale, was getting another four years of jellybeans and cowboy boots.’ So, today on American History Too!, we’ll be discussing the complex and often contested intersections between liberalism and conservatism in Ronald Reagan’s America.

Reading List

Doug Rossinow, The Reagan Era (2015)

Randall Rothenberg, The Neoliberals (1984)

Bradford Martin, The Other Eighties (2011)

Kenneth Baer, Reinventing Democrats (2000)

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The President in question was not Hoover’s successor,Franklin Roosevelt, nor was it Harry Truman or even John F. Kennedy.  ThePresident was Lyndon Johnson, the year was 1966 and Herbert Hoover, had, bynow, been out of office for 33 long years.

Hoover, who had been known as the Great Humanitarian beforehe assumed the office of the presidency in the 1929, was, for the rest of hislife, the symbol of an uncaring and aloof government, and the noose around theRepublican party’s electoral chances for over three decades.

Historians, most of whom lived through the Great Depressionand admired FDR’s New Deal initially played a key role in making sure that thisnegative image of Hoover stuck, but since his death in 1964, America’s firstQuaker President has gone through a reassessment that has attempted torehabilitate Hoover in the eyes of the American people.  

Today on American History Too! we ask the simplequestion, does Hoover deserve this reassessment, or does he deserve to beremembered as one of the worst presidents to ever occupy 1600 PennsylvaniaAvenue?  To help us with this task, we're joined once again by the University of Edinburgh's Alastair Duthie (@d_alastair)

We also discuss our favourite and least favourite campaign slogans - thanks to Dafydd Townley for the question! 

Cheers again for listening,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading List

-       Faushold, Martin L. The Presidency ofHerbert Hoover (Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas, 1985)

-       Jeansonne, Glen, The Life of Herbert Hoover: Fighting Quaker, 1928-1933 (NewYork:  Palgrave MacMillan, 2012)

-       Hoover, Herbert. The Memoirs of HerbertHoover. 3 vols. (New York: Macmillan Co., 1951)

-       Kennedy, David, Freedom from Fear (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)

-       Leuchtenburg, William E. The Perils ofProsperity, 1914-1932. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958)

-       Rauchway, Eric, The Great Depression and New Deal: A very short introduction (New York: Oxofrd University Press, 2008)

-       Wilson, Joan Hoff. Herbert Hoover:Forgotten Progressive, (Boston:Little, Brown & Co., 1975)

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and the United Kingdom?  And, if there

is, what actually is ‘special’ about it? 

Those are the two questions we seek to answer on this month’s American History Too!.  Tune in for a guided tour of the ups and the

downs of the US-UK relationship over the past 200 years – particularly during the post-World War II era – and come to your own conclusion on this fascinating

topic.   

New Year, New Format - we also introduce an opening question

to the podcast!

This week: If you could have dinner with three figures in

American History who would they be? 

We have our answers, but we are more interested in yours! Let

us know at @ahtoopodcast or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/americanhistorytoo

We’ll be back next month to discuss tumultuous presidency of

Herbert Hoover with Alastair Duthie. 

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading List

Aldrich, Richard J., ‘British intelligence and the

Anglo-American “Special relationship” during the Cold War’, Review of International

Studies, 24:3 (Jul.,1998), 331-351

Ashton, Nigel, ‘Harold Macmillan and the “Golden

Days” of Anglo-American Relations Revisited, 1957–63’, Diplomatic History,

29:4 (September 2005), 691-723.

Cooper, James, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald

Reagan: A Very Political Special Relationship (Basingstoke: Palgrave

Macmillan, 2012),

Danchev, Alex, ‘The Cold War “Special

Relationship” Revisited’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 17:3 (2006), 579-595

Dobson, Alan and Steve Marsh, ‘Anglo-American

Relations: End of a Special Relationship?’, The International History Review,

36:4 (2014), 673-697

Dumbrell, John, A Special Relationship:

Anglo-American Relations from the Cold War to Iraq, 2nd Edition

(Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006)

Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri, In Spies We Trust: The

Story of Western Intelligence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)

 Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri, ‘The End of an Exclusive

Special Intelligence Relationship: British-American Intelligence Co-operation

Before, During and After the 1960s’, Intelligence and National Security,

27:5 (2012), 707-721

Khalil, Osamah F., ‘The Crossroads of the World:

U.S. and British Foreign Policy Doctrines and the Construct of the Middle East,

1902–2007’, Diplomatic History, 38:2 (Feb., 2014) 

McGarr, Paul M., The Cold War in South Asia:

Britain, the United States, and the Indian Subcontinent, 1945-1965

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013),

Ovendale, Ritchie, Anglo-American Relations in

the Twentieth Century (Basingstoke: MacMillan, 1998)

Parr, Helen, ‘Britain, America, East of Suez and

the EEC: Finding a Role in British Foreign Policy, 1964–67’, Contemporary

British History, 20:3 (2006), 403-421.

Rossbach, Niklas H., Heath, Nixon and the

Rebirth of the Special Relationship: Britain, the US and the EC, 1969-74

(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009),

Ruane, Kevin and James Ellison, ‘Managing the

Americans: Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and the Pursuit of Power-by-Proxy in

the 1950s’, Contemporary British History, 18:3 (Autumn 2004), 147-167

Svendsen, Adam D.M., Intelligence Cooperation

and the War on Terror: Anglo-American Security Relations after 9/11

(Abingdon: Routledge, 2010)

Tate, Simon, A Special Relationship?: British

Foreign Policy in the Era of American Hegemony (Manchester: Manchester

University Press, 2012)

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On December 21, 1970, a man dressed in black and wearing

sunglasses entered the Oval Office of the White House. He desperately wanted to

bring a Colt .45 pistol with him, but even without it, his purpose was clear.

In front of him stood a craggy, slightly crumpled figure. The man in black

advanced, but his intent was not assassination. He had come seeking a badge. A

badge that he thought would give him power. The man he met had worked all of

his life to gain power, and now that he had it, he would do everything he could

to hold on to it. This was one of the most bizarre meetings ever to take place

in the White House, for the man in black was the King of Rock n’ Roll, Elvis

Presley and the craggy, crumpled man was President Richard M. Nixon. The

photographs of that meeting are some of the most requested images from the US

National Archives, but by the end of the 1970s, Elvis would be dead and Nixon

would have resigned in disgrace. Yet, the event has gained the status of a

modern myth and helps to illustrate the interconnectedness of power, politics,

and popular culture. So, on Episode 19 of American History Too, we explore the

fascinating, bizarre, and sometimes sad story of the meeting between the

President and the King.

Reading/Viewing List

Irwin

F. Gellman, The President and the Apprentice: Eisenhower and

Nixon, 1952-1961 (Yale University Press, 2015)

Iwan

Morgan, Nixon (Arnold: 2002)

This

is Elvis (documentary, 1981)

National

Security Archive: http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/elvis/elnix.html

Douglas

Brode, Elvis: Cinema and popular culture (London:

McFarland, 2006)

Peter

Carlson, 'When Elvis Met Nixon', The Smithsonian Magazine,

December 2010, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/history/when-elvis-met-nixon-69892425/

Peter

Guralnik, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (London,

Boston: Little, Brown, 1994)

Glen

Jeansonne, David Luhrssen, and Dan Sokolovie, Elvis Presley,

Reluctant Rebel: His Life and Our Times (Santa Barbara: Praeger,

2011)

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country than other ‘Western’ nations?  And, if so, have you ever wondered

why?  

On Episode 18 of American History Too! we

are joined by the University of Edinburgh’s Rian Sutton (@riansutton) to

discuss America’s more violent nature by looking at what one historian terms

its ‘homicide problem’ (n.b. it’s more complicated than guns and

cowboys!). 

The reasons for the US’s higher murder rate than Europe

since the mid-nineteenth century remain disputed and Rian, discussing her

research on women and murder, illuminates this ongoing debate. Rian also outlines

how women have murdered in the US, why some women have escaped

prosecution despite damning evidence, and how the public have often

reacted to such crimes.   

Finally, if you want to hear a whole lot of grizzly

anecdotes – mostly featuring a woman wielding an axe – then this is the podcast

for you!

--

We hope you enjoy this podcast and we’ll be back next month

with our next episode on ‘The President and The King’

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

@ahtoopodcast

 Reading:

Britton,

Dana M. ‘Feminism in Criminology: Engendering the Outlaw.’ American

Academy of Political and Social Science 571, no. Sept (2000): 57-76.

D'Cruze,

Shani, Sandra Walklate, and Samantha Pegg. Murder: Social and Historical

Approaches to Understanding Murder and Murderers.  London: Routledge,

2011.

Filetti,

Jean S. ‘From Lizzie Borden to Loren Bobitt: Violent Women and Gendered

Justice.’ Journal of American Studies 35, no. 3 (2001): 471-484.  

Halttunen,

Karen. Murder Most Foul:  The Killer and the American Gothic

Imagination.  London: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Lane,

Roger. Murder in America:  A History.  Columbus: The Ohio

University Press, 1997.

Lane,

Roger. ‘Murder in America: A Historian’s Perspective.’ Crime and Justice

25, (1999): 191-224

Linders,

Annulla, and Alana Van Gundy-Yoder. ‘Gall, Gallantry, and the Gallows:

 Capital Punishment and the Social Construction of Gender,

1840-1920.’ Gender and Society 22, no. 3 (2008): 324-48.

Monkkonen,

Eric H. Murder in New York City.  London: University of California

Press, 2001.

Monkkonen,

Eric H. ‘AHR Forum: Homicide: Explaining America’s Exceptionalism.’

American Historical Review 111, (2006): 76-94.

Roth,

Randolph. American Homicide.  Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2009

Shipman,

Marlin. The Penalty Is Death:  U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Women's

Executions.  London: University of Missouri Press, 2002.

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July 10, 1925 was blisteringly hot. Outside the country courtroom, a crowd of

around 1000 people had gathered. Squeezing through the throng came a young

schoolteacher and athletics coach, John Scopes. Scopes was accompanied by Clarence

Darrow, one of the most famous lawyers in the United States. But when a cheer

went up from the assembled mass, it was not for Scopes or Darrow, but for the

elderly, burly figure of Williams Jennings Bryan. Lawyer, moralist, three times

Presidential candidate, religious authority, and key figure in the Populist

movement of the 1890s. These two legal titans were here to defend and prosecute

John Scopes. His crime was admitting to teaching Darwinian evolution in

defiance of a state law banning the promulgation of evolutionary theory. 

The

Scopes Trial has entered popular myth and legend, claimed as a victory by both

sides, misrepresented and misunderstood in film and literature. So, in Episode

17 of American History Too! we’re going to look at the 1925

Scopes Trial and try to get to the heart of what was actually going on.

Reading List

Barry Hankins, Jesus and Gin:  Evangelicalism, the

Roaring Twenties and Today’s Culture Wars (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)

Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial

and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (Harvard

University Press, 1998)

Michael Lienisch, In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the

Scopes Trial, and the Making of the Antievolution Movement (University of

North Carolina Press, 2007)

Jeffrey P. Moran, The Scopes Trial: A Brief History With

Documents (Bedford/St Martin’s, 2002)

Ronald Numbers, Darwinism Comes to America (Harvard

University Press, 1998)

Charles Postel, The Populist Vision (Oxford University

Press, 2007)

Andrew Preston, Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith:

Religion in American War and Diplomacy (Anchor Books, 2012)

Adam Shapiro, Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks,

and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools (University of Chicago

Press, 2014)

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is back for a new semester and we’re examining the Irish-American experience of

the Civil War (1861-1865).  To help us

delve into this vast and interesting topic is the University of Edinburgh’s

Catherine Bateson. 

Cat guides us through Irish immigration to North America,

the different military and civilian roles played by Irish-Americans during the

war, and some of the music that emerged from the Irish-American experience of

the young nation’s most brutal conflict.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed listening

to Cat while recording it. 

Thanks again to all of our listeners; we are humbled to be

nearing the 10,000 listens landmark in our first year of podcasting. As always

if you have any questions or feedback then please get in touch at @ahtoopodcast

or ahtoo@outlook.com 

We’ll be back next month to discuss the fascinating Scopes

trial of the 1920s.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading List

David T. Gleeson, The Green and the Gray: The Irish in the Confederate States of America (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2013)

Christian G. Samito, Becoming American Under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship During the Civil War Era (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009).

Damian Shiels, The Irish in the American Civil War (Dublin: The History Press Ireland, 2013)

Christian McWhirter, Battle Hymns: The Power and Popularity of Music in the Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012)

Kerby A. Miller, Ireland and Irish America: Culture, Class, and Transatlantic Migration (Dublin: Field Day, 2008)

Paul Quigley, Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848-1865 (New York: OUP, 2012)

Susannah J. Ural, The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865 (New York: New York University Press, 2006)

Susannah J. Ural, (ed.), Civil War Citizens: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity in America’s Bloodiest Conflict (New York: New York University Press, 2010)

Irish in the American Civil War: Exploring Irish Involvement in the American Civil War, http://irishamericancivilwar.com/

Britain and the American Civil War, British Library online gallery exhibition, http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/uscivilwar/

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President Jimmy Carter and his times.  On

this episode we cast our eye beyond the United States and discuss the

tumultuous foreign events that took place during the late 1970s in Asia, Africa,

and Latin America.  Why is Jimmy Carter,

a president who brokered a historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt,

remembered as a weak leader who presided over American decline on the world

stage? 

We wrap up with a discussion of Carter’s post-presidency and

ask, is he the greatest of all the post-presidents? 

Also, we should note that we recorded this podcast before

the sad news that Jimmy Carter has been diagnosed with cancer.

Thanks again for listening,

Mark and Malcolm

@ahtoopodcast

Reading for both podcasts 15a and 15b:

Jimmy Carter, White

House diary (New York:  Farrar,

Straus and Giroux, 2010)

Andrew Scott Cooper, The

Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia changed the balance of power in

the Middle East (Oxford:  Oneworld

Publications, 2011)

Kenneth Earl Morris, Jimmy

Carter:  American moralist (Athens,

GA:  University of Georgia Press, 1996)

Scott Kaufman, Plans

Unraveled: The Foreign Policy of the Carter Administration (DeKalb:

Northern Illinois University Press, 2008)

Dominic Sandbrook, Mad

as Hell: the crisis of the 1970s and the rise of the populist Right (New

York: A.A. Knopf, 2011)

‘Jimmy Carter’, PBS

American Experience (2002)

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We’re back and we’re discussing President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)

and his times.  Such are the amount of

topics that we need to cover that the podcast will be split into two, with this

month’s release dealing primarily with the domestic issues of late 1970s.

Welcome to a land of self-doubt, oil shocks, and a tanking

economy, where the issues that would define the ‘culture wars’ for the next

four decades were taking shape. 

Presiding over it all is the Democratic President James Earl Carter, a

born-again Christian from Plains, Georgia who has promised to never lie to the

American people.  Was Carter’s presidency

consigned to failure by events beyond his control or was the ‘American moralist’

responsible for his own downfall?  Hopefully,

by the end of the two podcasts you’ll be able to form your own opinion!

Thanks again for listening,

Mark and Malcolm

@ahtoopodcast

Reading for both podcasts 15a and 15b:

Jimmy Carter, White

House diary (New York:  Farrar,

Straus and Giroux, 2010)

Andrew Scott Cooper, The

Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia changed the balance of power in

the Middle East (Oxford:  Oneworld

Publications, 2011)

Kenneth Earl Morris, Jimmy

Carter:  American moralist (Athens,

GA:  University of Georgia Press, 1996)

Scott Kaufman, Plans

Unraveled: The Foreign Policy of the Carter Administration (DeKalb:

Northern Illinois University Press, 2008)

Dominic Sandbrook, Mad

as Hell: the crisis of the 1970s and the rise of the populist Right (New

York: A.A. Knopf, 2011)

‘Jimmy Carter’, PBS

American Experience (2002)

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episode of American History Too! to

discuss a horrifying and shameful period in US history:  the outbreak and response to the HIV/AIDS

crisis during the 1980s. 

Academic impartiality

is at a premium as we delve into social and cultural reasons behind the US

government’s failure to tame the spread of the deadly virus.  We also consider the important cultural touchstones

that HIV/AIDS inspired and also the evolution of gay rights in the US.

For those interested,

the British broadcast about AIDS that begins the show can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqRNUUOk7s 

The broadcast stood

in stark contrast to official US silence on the issue.

We’ll be back in a

couple of weeks to start our series entitled ‘The Revolutionary Sixties?’

Thanks again for

listening,

Mark & Malcolm                 

Contact at

@ahtoopodast or ahtoo@outlook.com

Reading List

Jennifer Brier, ‘“Save Our Kids, Keep AIDS Out”: Anti-AIDS

Activism and the Legacy of Community Control in Queens, New York’, Journal

of Social History, 39:4 (Summer, 2006), 965-987

Elizabeth Fee and Nancy Krieger, ‘The Emerging Histories of

AIDS: Three Successive Paradigms’, History and Philosophy of the Life

Sciences, 15:3 (1993), 459-487

Randy Shilts, And the band played on:  politics,

people, and the AIDS epidemic (New York:  Penguin, 1987)

Films and Documentaries

And the Band Played On , HBO film based on Randy Shilts book (1993)

Dir. Jonathan Demme,

Philadelphia (1993)

Angels in America, HBO miniseries (2003)

‘The Age of Aids,’ PBS

Frontline (2006) – numerous interviews available on website.

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where episode six left off in our discussion of Nuclear Fallout.

Why did one researcher collect thousands of baby teeth and

why are her results quite terrifying? 

When and where did the US almost nuke its own citizens – and how was

disaster averted?  Were fallout shelters

a genuine attempt to help the population in the event of nuclear warfare or

were they merely ‘for show’?  Our

resident nuclear aficionado has all the answers.  

Finally, how was nuclear fallout represented in film and

literature during the 1950s and 1960s?  We

explore On the Beach, Dr Stangelove, and why the British government chose to censor Peter Watkins’ The War Game (1965) which depicted the

impact of nuclear warfare on Great Britain. 

And always remember, ye

cannae spend a dollar when your deid!

We’ll be back in a fortnight with a discussion of the

contentious decade that was the 1980s. 

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading List

Brown, JoAnne, ‘”A Is for Atom, B is For Bomb”: Civil

Defense in American Public Education, 1948-1963,’ The Journal of American History,

75:1 (June, 1988), 68-90

Chapman, James, ‘The BBC and the Censorship of The War Game

(1965),’
Journal of Contemporary History, 41:1 (January,

2006), 75-94

__________‘"The War Game" Controversy—Again,’
Journal

of Contemporary History, 43:1 (January, 2008), 105-112

Cordle, Daniel, ‘Beyond the apocalypse of closure: nuclear

anxiety in the postmodern literature of the United States,’ in Andrew Hammond

(ed.), Cold War Literature: Writing the Global Conflict (Abingdon, 2006)

Davis, Tracy C., Stages of Emergency: Cold War Nuclear

Civil Defense (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007)                                                              

Rosi, Eugene J., ‘Mass and Attentive Opinion on Nuclear

Weapons Test and Fallout, 1954-1963’, The Public Opinion Quarterly, 29:2

(Summer, 1965), 280-297

Shaw, Tony, ‘The BBC, the State and Cold War Culture: The

Case of Television's The War Game (1965),’ The English Historical Review,

121:494 (December, 2006), 1351-1384

Wayne, Mike, ‘Failing the Public: The BBC, The War Game and

Revisionist History, A Reply to James Chapman,’
Journal

of Contemporary History, 42:4 (October, 2007), 627-637

Weart, Spencer, Nuclear Fear: A History of Images

(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988)

Winkler, Allan M., Life Under A Cloud: American Anxiety

About the Atom (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1993)

Wittner, Lawrence S., The Struggle Against the Bomb, Vol.2:

Resisting the Bomb: A history of the world nuclear disarmament movement,

1954–1970 (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1997)

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War.  In discussing arguably the first

war that the United States ever lost, we consider the divisions the war created

at home and how Vietnam Veterans were treated by the general public. We also chat extensively about the Kent State Shootings - 'the most popular murders ever committed in the United States' - and the backlash to the antiwar movement.

Find out why the US was in Vietnam, why Great Britain never

joined the coalition fighting in Vietnam, and Malcolm explains why the massive

hit movie Aliens is in fact a film

about the war in Southeast Asia!

All this and much, much more on this week’s bumper length American History Too!

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading and Viewing List

-         

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Peace now!: American society and the ending of the Vietnam War

(1999)

-         

Stewart O’Nan, The Vietnam Reader: The Definitive Collection of Fiction and Nonfiction

on the War (1998)

-         

Platoon (1986)

-         

Born on

the Fourth of July (1989)

-         

Coming

Home (1978)

-         

Apocalypse

Now (1979)

-         

Aliens

(1986)

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History Too! we delve into one of the most chilling moments in US history –

the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963.  To aid us in the voyage through fear,

conspiracy, and legend we are joined by the University of Glasgow’s Fraser

McCallum.  

What is uncontested about that day? What are the most

plausible and most outlandish conspiracy theories to prosper in the fifty years

since the assassination?  Why do these conspiracies

matter?  And how were Lyndon Johnson and

Bobby Kennedy the original conspiracy

theorists? 

Finally, does the myth of the fallen President match the

reality of the Kennedy presidency?  Find

out all this and more on this episode of American

History Too!

We’ll be back with our next podcast on the Vietnam War in

the next two weeks.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading/Viewing List

-         

Kathryn Olmsted, Real Enemies:

Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War 1 to 9/11(Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2009)

-         

William Manchester, The Death of a President: November 20–November 25, 1963 (US:  Harper & Row, 2013)

-         

(Film) - Dir. Oliver Stone, JFK (1991) 

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American History Too! we arrive at the tumultuous 1960s.  To help us better understand this

controversial decade, Malcolm assumes host duties as Mark guides us through the

presidency of Lyndon Johnson and his ambitious search for the ‘Great

Society’.  What did Johnson mean by a

‘Great Society’?  What did he

achieve?  And why did he leave the

presidency as a ‘broken and dispirited’ figure? 

And what in the world does a bill about rat extermination have to do

with all of this?   

Serious academic rigour aside, we engage in a discussion

about the tallest and shortest presidents, Mark (briefly and horribly) attempts

a Southern accent, while Malcolm marvels in the historical amnesia of ‘Guns or

Butter’ advocates.

Finally, we depart to the dulcet tones of one-hit wonder and

apparent crystal ball owner, Barry McGuire, wand his eerily accurate 1965 song,

‘Eve of Destruction’. 

Thanks again for listening and we’ll be back soon with a

discussion of the JFK assassination.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading List

Andrew, John

A., Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society

(Chicago : Ivan R. Dee, 1998)

Bernstein,

Irving, Guns or Butter:  The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson,

(Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1996)

Converse, Phillip, Clausen, Aage R., Miller, Warren E.,

‘Electoral Myth and Reality: The 1964 Election,’ The American Political Science Review, Vol. 59, No. 2 (June 1965)

< http://www.jstor.org/stable/1953052 >

Dallek, Matthew, The

right moment:  Ronald Reagan’s first

victory and the decisive turning point in American politics (New York:

Simon & Schuster, 2000)                   

Dallek, Robert, Flawed

Giant:  Lyndon Johnson and His Times

1961-73 (Oxford:  Oxford University

Press, 1998)

Davies,

Gareth, From opportunity to entitlement :

the transformation and decline of Great Society liberalism (Lawrence, KS:

University Press of Kansas 1996)

Johnson, Robert David, All

the way with LBJ: the 1964 presidential election (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2009)

Patterson, James T., The

Eve of Destruction: how 1965 Transformed America, (New York: Basic Books,

2012)

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History Too! we turn our attention to a period in American history that has

become indelibly linked to one man: the Second Red Scare and Senator Joseph

McCarthy. But is McCarthy the be all and end all of anti-communism? What

influence did he really have?  And were

there other figures in the United States who played more prominent and

important roles in creating what the historian David Caute called ‘the great

fear’?  Is ‘Hooverism’ – or even ‘Nixonism’

– a better name to understand this period?

We take you through a tour of the interesting, and often distasteful,

figures that the Second Red Scare brought to prominence.  We also discuss the parallel rise of the  so-called ‘Lavender Scare’ which saw gay

Americans targeted – on some occasions more aggressively – than suspected

communists. 

Stay tuned until the very end when you’ll be treated to a

Cold War “anthem” from Carson Robison!

We will back in two weeks to discuss Lyndon Johnson and the

Great Society.

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading

-         

Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics (first published 1964)

-         

Kyle A. Cuordileone, ‘"Politics in an Age

of Anxiety": Cold War Political Culture and the Crisis in American

Masculinity, 1949-1960,’ Journal of American History, 87:2 (Sep., 2000),

515-545

-         

Jennifer Delton, “Rethinking Post-World War II

Anticommunism,” The Journal of the Historical Society (March, 2010),

1-41

-         

David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The

Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government (Chicago,

IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004)-

-         

Kathryn Olmsted, Real Enemies: Conspiracy

Theories and American Democracy, World War 1 to 9/11 (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2009)

-         

Nelson W. Polsby, “Towards an Explanation of

McCarthyism,” Political Studies 8 (1960), 250-271-

-         

Ellen Schrecker, “McCarthyism: Political

Repression and the Fear of Communism,” Social Research 71.

(2004),1041-1086.

-         

Gregg Marshall, Tricky Dick and the Pink

Lady: Richard Nixon vs. Helen Gahagan Douglas--Sexual Politics and the Red

Scare, 1950 (New York: Random House, 1998) Chp.1 - http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mitchell-tricky.html

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History Too! we delve into one of the great crisis moments in American

History – the Great Depression.  We’re

joined by special guest, Alastair Duthie (@d_alastair), who helps guide us

through the historiographical minefield that surrounds Presidents’ Herbert

Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt in their attempts to bring the American economy

and people back from the brink. 

We begin by explaining some of the reasons for the global financial

collapse of the 1920s and 1930s.  Malcolm

inspires his own great depression as he dips his toe into the cold waters of

economic history, Alastair reminds us that the 1920s was not all it has been

cracked up to be, and Mark wholeheartedly refuses to ever discuss the t*riff.  Also, it is decided that perhaps the much maligned

Herbert Hoover was not the twentieth century’s James Buchanan (more of a

Franklin Pierce, perhaps).

The second half of the podcast is devoted to a consideration

of Roosevelt’s New Deal and the surrounding historiography – what was the New

Deal trying to achieve?  What is its

legacy?  And how have the political leanings

of historians continued to influence the New Deal debate? 

Finally, after all the doom and gloom of the Great

Depression we end the podcast on the more optimistic note of Happy Days Are Here Again.

Thanks again for listening and we will back in two weeks to

discuss the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s!

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading List

-         

Brian E. Birdnow, “Hoover Biographies and Hoover

Revisionism”, in Katherine Sibly (ed.), A

Companion to Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover

(Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2014)

-         

James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion

and the Fox (New York, NY: Harcourt Brace, 1956)

-         

William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D.

Roosevelt and the New Deal (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1963)

-         

Eric Rauchway, ‘New Deal Denialism’, Dissent

(Winter, 2010), 66-72

-         

Amity Schlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New

History of the Great Depression (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2007)

-         

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., The Age of

Roosevelt, 3 vols. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1957-60)

-         

Morton Keller, “The New Deal: A New Look,” Polity 31 (1999), 657-663

-         

David M. Kennedy, ‘What the New Deal Did’, Political Science Quarterly, 124:2

(Summer 2009), 251-268

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all US Presidents – Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt.  We pull apart ‘T.R.’s’ legacy in the context

of American imperialism abroad and the rise of progressivism at home.  Malcolm argues that Roosevelt is a shining

example of why nuance is required when we discuss historical figures, while

Mark discusses the legitimacy of Roosevelt’s place on Mt. Rushmore alongside

Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.  What

legacy can we ascribe arguably the first modern president?  We give you our views but it’s left up to you

to decide.

Finally, find out the truth behind the ‘Teddy Bear’ story

and also how T.R. actually felt about the nickname!

We’ll be back in a couple of weeks when we’ll hopefully be joined

by another special guest to discuss the 1930s. 

Until then, thanks again for listening!

Mark and Malcolm 

Reading List:

-         

Michael Cullinane, ‘Imperial “Character”: How

Race and Civilization Shaped Theodore Roosevelt’s Imperialism,’ America’s Transatlantic Turn: Theodore

Roosevelt and the ‘Discovery’ of Europe, eds. Hans Krabbendam and John M.

Thompson (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

-         

Kathleen M. Dalton, ‘Theodore Roosevelt’s

Contradictory Legacies:  From Imperialist

Nationalism to Advocacy of a Progressive Welfare State,’ A Companion to Theodore Roosevelt, ed. Serge Ricard

(Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)

-         

Peter G. Filene, “An Obituary for ‘The

Progressive Movement’,” American Quarterly

22 (1970), 20-34

-         

Fabian Hilfrich, Debating American Exceptionalism: Empire and Democracy in the Wake of

the Spanish-American War (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Chp.2.

Also see Ken Burns’ excellent recent documentary series The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014)

Our Holiday Reading recommendations

-         

W. Bernard Carlson, Tesla: Inventor of the electrical age (2013)

-         

Eric Schlosser, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the

Illusion of Safety (2013)

-         

Gary Younge, No

place like home: A black Briton journeys through the American South (2000)

-         

Raymond Arsenault, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (2007)

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History Too! we leave the tawdry goings-on of the Gilded Age far behind and

for this cheery Christmas special we examine the subject of Nuclear Fallout in

the context of the early Cold War (1945-1960). 

Malcolm, who specialises in this area, guides us through the

history of the nuclear bomb:  How was it

first conceived and why was it deployed?  How close were the Nazis to securing the

bomb?  What’s so special about a hydrogen

(or ‘super’) bomb?  Is it conceivable

that a bomb could be constructed that would destroy the entire world?  In what ways have governments chosen to

educate (or not) their citizenry about what would happen in the case of nuclear

war?  Duck and cover as Malcolm takes us

on this tour de force of nuclear

history. 

We hope all of our listeners have a great holiday season and

we’ll be back with the force of nature that was Teddy Roosevelt early next year.  As usual, we would love to hear feedback on

the podcasts as we are very receptive to making improvements for future episodes. 

Thanks again for listening this year, we really appreciate

it!

Cheers,

Mark & Malcolm

Reading List

-          Hennessey, Peter, The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst, 1945-2010, 2nd

edition (London: Penguin, 2010)

-          Hughes, Jeff, ‘The

Strath Report: Britain Confronts the H-Bomb, 1954–1955,’ History

and Technology: An International Journal, 19:3 (2003), 257-275

-         

Jones,

Matthew, After Hiroshima: The United

States, Race, and Nuclear Weapons in Asia, 1945-1965 (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2010)

-         

Winkler,

Allan M., Life Under A Cloud: American

Anxiety About the Atom (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1993)

-         

Shapiro, Jerome F., Atomic Bomb Cinema: The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film (London:

Routledge, 2002)

-         

http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/index.html

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History Too! we dive into a time period that, economic history aside,

often gets lost in historical discussion – The Gilded Age.  We parse out the main issues of the era such

as the end of Reconstruction and the establishment of segregation in both North

and South, the prevailing culture of corruption, and the inexorable rise of big

business. 

We encounter colourful characters along the way, including

Boss Tweed and the Molly Maguires, while Malcolm reveals his distaste for one

of the Gilded Age’s shining lights (terrible pun intended), Thomas Edison.  In case you were wondering who invented the

modern world – it was all down to the Serbian Nikola Tesla.  Also, find out what presidential election,

according to Mark, featured the best named combatants in American History.

All this and much more on this week’s American History Too!

We hope you enjoy the podcast and we will be back in two

weeks with a Christmas special.

Remember to get in touch at @ahtoopodcast, @contestedground

and @markmclay1985

Cheers,

Mark and Malcolm

Reading List

Kevin Kenny, ‘The Molly Maguires in Popular Culture’, Journal of American Ethnic History, 14:4

(Summer, 1995), pp. 27-46

Richard Schneirov, ‘Thoughts on Periodizing the Gilded Age:

Capital Accumulation, Society, and Politics, 1873-1898,’ Journal of the Gilded Age and

Progressive Era 5:3 (July 2006)

Nicolas Barreyre,

‘The Politics of Economic Crises: The Panic of 1873, the End of Reconstruction,

and the Realignment of American Politics,’ The Journal of the Gilded Age and

Progressive Era, 10:4 (Oct. 2011)

Kenneth D.

Ackerman, Boss Tweed: The Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New

York (Carroll & Graf, 2005)

Podcast

Recommendation

In Our Time on

Social Darwinism - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vgq1q

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History Too! delves into the United States’ deadliest conflict to date –

The American Civil War.  To help us with

this mammoth task we bring on board University of Edinburgh lecturer, Dr David

Silkenat.  David teaches a course here at

Edinburgh on the American Civil War and, among his various publications, he has

published a well-received, award-winning book entitled Moments of Despair:

Suicide, Divorce, and Debt in Civil War Era North Carolina. 

David guides us

through how the Civil War legacy’s remains a contentious bone in the American

South.  We then turn our attentions North

and discuss the role of Copperheads (opponents of the war) in fomenting

dissension – both rhetorical and violent – against the both the conflict and

Abraham Lincoln.  In particular, David –

a native New Yorker – offers us his take on the New York Draft Riots of July

1863 that ended with roughly 120 dead and 2,000 wounded in the nation’s biggest

metropolis.

In addition, we

hear how the Bush Administration used Abraham Lincoln as a justification for

Guantanamo Bay, Mark tells the story of the first African American scientist

who now has a coffee shop named after him in Glasgow, and Malcolm lets us know

from which historical event the San Francisco 49ers took their name.  All this and much more this week on American

History Too!

Thanks again for

listening and as always any feedback is always welcome.  Find us at @ahtoopodcast, @contestedground

and @markmclay1985

Also, please check

out David’s podcast at @AHuntucked

Cheers,

Mark & Malcolm

Reading List:

-         

Jennifer Weber, Copperheads: the rise and fall of Lincoln’s opponents in the North

(New York:  Oxford University Press,

2006)

-         

Joan E. Cashin (ed), The war was you and me : civilians in the American Civil War (Princeton,

N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2002)

-         

Kenneth D. Ackerman, Boss Tweed: The rise and fall of the corrupt pol who conceived the soul

of Modern New York (2005)

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History Too! is all about one man – the seventh President of the United

States, Andrew Jackson (1829-1837).  In

particular, we debate Jackson’s role in the removal of Native Americans from

their ancestral homes in the East to newly allotted land west of the

Mississippi in the 1830s.

Before jumping into the Indian controversy, we bring you up

to speed with what’s being happening the US since our last podcast on the

Constitution – all in two minutes!  We

then dive straight into work of historian Francis Prucha and explain – with the

help of other historians such Mary Young and Jon Meacham – why his attempt to

rehabilitate Jackson’s image is greatly flawed.   We also debate Jackson’s legacy with regards to

the Native Americans – is Jackson a game changer or merely a colourful

character?

In addition, Richard Nixon is mentioned an obscene amount of

times for a nineteenth century podcast, Malcolm misguidedly attempts to rank Jimmy

Carter in the higher echelons of American presidencies, and we most definitely do not discuss the tariff. 

Finally, we answer our listener Francesca’s question on

whether – as suggested in The West Wing

– Andrew Jackson really did have a big block of cheese in the White House.

We hope you enjoy this third episode (which also features

improved audio quality from our first two efforts) and please let us know if

you have any comments, questions, or suggestions.

Cheers,

Mark & Malcolm

(Contact us on Twitter at @ahtoopodcast or by email at ahtoo@outlook.com)

Reading List:

         Francis

Paul Prucha, ‘Andrew Jackson’s Indian Policy: A Reassessment’, Journal of American History  56 (1969), pp.527-539 (available on JSTOR).

         Mary

Young, ‘The Cherokee Nation: Mirror of the Republic’, American Quarterly, 33 (1981), pp.502-24.

         Ronald

N Satz, "Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era," in Leonard Dinnerstein

and Kenneth T. Jackson (eds.),  American Vistas 1607-1877 (New York and

Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995), 211-227.

          Jon

Meacham, American lion: Andrew Jackson in

the White House (New York : Random House, 2008)

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eighteenth century Philadelphia way, we bring aboard our very own American, and

revolutionary scholar, Jane Judge. 

During the podcast we examine why the US even needed a

constitution, and whether it was all an exercise in elites getting richer or

just a way of giving the British the intellectual middle-finger.  Malcolm also gets put on the spot regarding

his comments in the last podcast, Jane tells us that Charles Beard is not a man

to be listened to, and Mark argues that this is the first moment in American

History where the axiom of the ‘New World’ is justified.  What’s more, we investigate whether

Anti-Federalists were indeed ‘men of little faith’ and why Massachusetts was

the most high-maintenance of all the former colonies.  

Finally, we leap forward into the twenty-first century and discuss

the relevance of the second amendment (hello AK-47s) and the legacy of the

Founding Fathers in modern America.

All this and much more on this week’s American History Too!. 

Thanks to all of you who listened to the first podcast and we will be

back in two weeks with a discussion of ever-fascinating Andrew Jackson.

Cheers,

Mark & Malcolm

      Saul Cornell, ‘Aristocracy Assailed: The

Ideology of Backcountry Anti-Federalism’, Journal

of American History 76 (1990), pp.1148-1172

     Cecelia M. Kenyon, ‘Men of Little Faith: The

Anti-Federalists and the Nature of Representative Government’, William and Mary Quarterly, 12 (1955),

pp.3-42

   Lance Banning, ‘Republican Ideology and the

Triumph of the Constitution, 1789 to 1793’, William

and Mary Quarterly, 31 (1974), pp.167-188

      Charles Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States

(New York: Macmillan, 1921 [c1913]) – for full text see http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433080136850;view=1up;seq=1

     Pauline Maier,

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, (New York:

Simon and Schuster, 2010)

     Pauline Maier, American scripture : making the Declaration of Independence (New

York:  Knopf, 1997)

      Edmund S. Morgan, Inventing the people the rise of popular sovereignty in England and

America, (New York: Norton, 1988)

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 All this - and yet we still manage to dodge an emergency and wrongly predict the outcome of the Scottish Independence Referendum!

 We hope you enjoy the podcast and stick around for the next episode - appearing in two weeks time - which will pick apart the debates surrounding the formation of the United States.

 Mark & Malcolm

 Historiography included in discussion:

 - Oscar and

 Mary Handlin, 'Origins of the Southern Labor System,' William and Mary Quarterly VI1.2 (April 1950), 199-222 

 - Edmund

 S. Morgan, 'Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox,' Journal of American History 59 (June 1972), 5-29. 

 - David Eltis, ‘Europeans and the Rise

 and Fall of African Slavery in the Americas: An Interpretation’, American

 Historical Review 98 (1993): pp.1399-1423.

 - Peter

 Kolchin, American Slavery, 1619-1877,

 (New York, 1993), Chs. 1,2.

 - Peter J.

 Parish, Slavery: History and Historians,

 (New York, 1989), Chs. 1, 2

 - T.

 H. Breen, 'A Changing Labor Force and Race Relations in Virginia, 1660-1710,'

 in T. H. Breen (ed.), Shaping Southern Society: The Colonial Experience

 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp.116-134

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