Shows / American Political History
American Political History
The full story of this country, told through the people who lived it. From the soldier in the mud to the statesman at the table. Chronological, self-contained seasons, built on the primary sources. New episodes Tuesdays and Thursday.
Episodes
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - Nine States
Article XIII of the Articles of Confederation required the consent of every state to change anything — and the whole decade died of that sentence, one Rhode…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - Interest Alone
“Religion and humanity had nothing to do with this question. Interest alone is the governing principle with nations.” With those sentences, John Rutledge of…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - The Committee of Detail
On July 26th the convention handed 4 months of resolutions to 5 men and adjourned. On August 6th it got back a constitution — 7 pages, 23 articles, wide…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - The Supreme Law of the Land
The branch that today holds the power to strike down acts of Congress was born without a fight — “that a national Judiciary be established,” agreed…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - Sixty Ballots
No question defeated the Constitutional Convention like the question of how to choose a president. Across the summer of 1787 the delegates balloted on it some…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - An Elective King
On June 1st, 1787, the Constitutional Convention reached the resolution nobody had wanted to write: a national executive. James Wilson moved that it consist of…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - All Other Persons
The most notorious fraction in American history did not begin as a claim about personhood. It began as a tax formula — proposed in 1783, in the same…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - One Vote
On June 11th, 1787, Roger Sherman proposed the settlement — population in the House, one vote per state in the Senate — and the Constitutional Convention voted…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - I Will Never Confederate
In the second week of June 1787, the small states stopped losing votes politely. David Brearley proposed erasing every state boundary and redrawing America…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - Merely Federal
On May 29th, 1787, Edmund Randolph — 33 years old, governor of Virginia, owner of the finest voice in the room — rose to open the main business of the Federal…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - An Assembly of Demigods
4 prisoners from the Walnut Street jail carried Benjamin Franklin to the Constitutional Convention in a sedan chair — the oldest delegate, 81, riding above the…
- American Political History
The Grand Convention - Eleven Days Early
James Madison stepped off the New York stage on May 3rd, 1787 — 11 days before the Federal Convention was scheduled to open, and 22 days before it actually…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Sole and Express Purpose
This is the finale of A Failed Nation. In February of 1787, the Confederation Congress faced the most awkward decision in its short and unhappy life: whether…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - A Convention of the States
The convention that produced the Constitution was born, improbably, out of a fishing dispute and a failure. This is the story of the strange chain of events…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Vices of the Political System
While the Confederation staggered, a small, sickly, soft-spoken Virginian sat in his study and tried to think his way out of the crisis. This is the story of…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - On an Equal Footing
The Confederation has failed at nearly everything — paying its debts, defending its frontier, commanding the world’s respect. This is the episode about the one…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Thirteen Nations
There were thirteen United States — and to the rest of the world, there were thirteen nations. This is the story of what that cost. In 1785, pirates out of…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Driven into a Separation
The Treaty of Paris handed the United States a wilderness empire running to the Mississippi and the Great Lakes — and the bankrupt Confederation needed to sell…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - The Closed River
In 1784, Spain closed the lower Mississippi River — and with it, the only road to market for the tens of thousands of Americans pouring into Kentucky and the…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Shays’ Rebellion
In the winter of 1787, a few thousand indebted farmers in western Massachusetts marched on their own government — and though they lost their one real battle in…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Rogue Island
In September 1786, a Newport butcher named John Weeden refused to take paper money for a joint of meat, and demanded silver. Under Rhode Island law, that was a…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Pennies on the Dollar
In 1786 the Congress of the United States asked the thirteen states for 3.8 million dollars to pay the debts of the Revolution. It collected 663 dollars. This…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - The Financier
He was the richest man in America, and for most of the Revolution he was also its treasury. When the United States had no money and no credit, it borrowed on…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - A Dangerous Instrument
In the spring of 1783, with the Revolution all but won, the most dangerous enemy of the United States was its own army. Unpaid for years, cheated of their…
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - A Rope of Sand
On December 23rd, 1783, in the Senate chamber at Annapolis, George Washington did the thing conquerors never do: he laid his commission at the feet of the…
- American Political History
Interlude
If you've listening to this, you been with this show a while, scroll back to the beginning of the feed. Everything down there is new.Every episode from the…
- American Political History
Washington's Second Term - The Whiskey Tax Crisis
Does the federal government have the authority to use military force against its own citizens?Or can states, or counties, ignore federal taxes they believe are…
- American Political History
Washington's First Term - The Election of 1792
Short, Simple, Duty. President Washing accepts his second term.
- American Political History
Washington's First Term - Neutrality Crisis
The French revolution breaks out, then France declares war on England. America is unprepared for war.
- American Political History
Washington's First Term - Western Troubles
We cover the battles to secure the Ohio territory ceded to America in the Treaty of Paris.
- American Political History
Washington's First Term - The Emergence of Political Parties
We detail the emergence of political parties from Washington's own cabinet.
- American Political History
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…
- American Political History
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.
- American Political History
Washington's First Term - The People's Shield
We cover the story of the ratification of the Bill of Rights
- American Political History
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.
- American Political History
Washington's First Term - Building The Machinery
President Washington selects his cabinet and sets the precedent on how cabinet meetings work.
- American Political History
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.
- American Political History
Ratification - Virginia
We move to Virginia, whose ratification will complete the supermajority required for ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America.
- American Political History
Ratification - Massachusetts
We turn to the debates in the Massachusetts ratification convention.
- American Political History
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…
- American Political History
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
- American Political History
Ratification - Introduction
Without records of all of the debates, I give the context of the materials we will cover in this season.
- American Political History
The Constitution of the United States of America
The completed constitution of the Unite States of America.
- American Political History
Road to The Constitution - Rising Sun
The Philadelphia convention will close with a draft of a new American constitution.
- American Political History
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…
- American Political History
Road to The Constitution - Disillusion
The convention begins to breakdown, delegates threaten each other, and cannot find compromises on distribution of voting power
- American Political History
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.
- American Political History
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…
- American Political History
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…
- American Political History
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.
- American Political History
Road to The Constitution - The Federal Convention
In May 1787, the Federal Convention begins to assemble in Philidelphia.
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - The Wedge
We discuss the bitter negations for a Spanish trade treaty and how the Philidelphia convention eventually got support.
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Westward
We discuss the westward immigration and the tensions with native nations and European powers out west.
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Rebellion
We cover Shey's rebellion and how Massachusetts was brought back into order.
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Riots
We discuss the growing crisis in Massachusetts, as rioters close down country courthouses across the state.
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Debt
We examine the growing debt issues and the closing of trade from European powers.
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Coup
A letter begins to circulate without the army officers discussing threats towards political officials
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - IOU Economy
We explore the post war economy and introduce the growing political factions. the Federalist and the Anti -Federalists.
- American Political History
A Failed Nation - Abolitionist
Desicuss the abolitionist movement and is growth around the revolutionary era.