William J. Sharkey’s Not-so-great Escape

The 1946 Oakland General Strike was part of a massive wave of strikes that took place in the U.S. in 1945 and 1946. Over two days in Oakland, California, and the surrounding area, thousands of strikers shut the city down. Research: “Oakland General Strike (1946) (Part 2).” From Golden Lands, Working Hands. Part Seven: We Called It a Work Holiday. Written by Fred Glass. CFT. Via YouTube. 7/23/2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-yFDzKzLfE “Oakland General Strike (1946).” From Golden Lands, Working Hands. Part Seven: We Called It a Work Holiday. Written by Fred Glass. CFT. Via YouTube. 7/22/2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfUmIeCTJTA “World War II Homefront Era: 1940s: Post War Workers Protest Salary Cuts & Layoffs.” Picture This: California Perspectives on American History. Oakland Museum of California. https://picturethis.museumca.org/pictures/oakland-general-strike Barbash, Jack. “Chapter 6: Unions and Rights in the Space Age.” U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/chapter6 Borden, Timothy G. "Strike Wave: United States." St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide, edited by Neil Schlager, vol. 2, St. James Press, 2004, pp. 273-277. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3408900275/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=033d396d. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025. Boyden, Richard. “The Oakland general strike.” Libcom.org. 11/4/2012. https://libcom.org/article/oakland-general-strike-richard-boyden Glass, Fred. “"We Called it a 'Work Holiday:" The 1946 Oakland General Strike.” From “Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement.” June 2016. Glass, Fred. “Latham Square renovation commemorates the 1946 Oakland General Strike.” California Federatoin of Labor Unions. 8/3/2016. https://calaborfed.org/california-history/latham_square_renovation_commemorates_the_1946_oakland_general_strike/ Miller, Gregory M. "Taft-Hartley Act." St. James Encyclopedia of Labor History Worldwide, edited by Neil Schlager, vol. 2, St. James Press, 2004, pp. 292-295. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3408900280/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=014855b4. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025. National Labor Relations Board. “1947 Taft-Hartley Passage and NLRB Structural Changes.” https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/who-we-are/our-history/1947-taft-hartley-passage-and-nlrb-structural-changes National Labor Relations Board. “1947 Taft-Hartley Substantive Provisions.” https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/who-we-are/our-history/1947-taft-hartley-substantive-provisions New American Movement and Oakland Study Group. “The Oakland general strike of 1946.” California Revealed. Pacifica Radio Archives. https://californiarevealed.org/do/a5f71c35-85c9-4f8e-83f4-77e49cc287cc Rosalsky, Greg. “Price Controls, Black Markets, And Skimpflation: The WWII Battle Against Inflation.” Planet Money. 2/8/2022. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/02/08/1078035048/price-controls-black-markets-and-skimpflation-the-wwii-battle-against-inflation The National World War II Museum. “The Smith–Connally Act and Labor Battles on the Home Front.” 6/22/2023. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/smith-connally-act-and-labor-battles-home-front The Oakland Standard. “Notes on the 1946 General Strike.” https://vimeo.com/43192608 Tomlin, Justin. “The 1946 Oakland General Strike.” Socialist Alternative. 2/10/2022. https://www.socialistalternative.org/2022/02/10/the-1946-oakland-general-strike/ Weir, Stan. “Oakland 1946 General Strike.” FoundSF. https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Oakland_1946_General_Strike See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24 Maalis 43min

This late 2021 episode covers a strike in Flint, Michigan, which was at the heart of auto manufacturing for General Motors in 1936. And while the strike was largely centered around Flint, it also involved workers at GM factories all over the U.S.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

22 Maalis 41min

Holly and Tracy discuss the creepy nature of the Children's Morality Code project. Tracy covers the varied conflicts that Mary Hunter Austin had with numerous people. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

21 Maalis 23min

Mary Hunter Austin was a U.S. writer known for walking throughout the American Southwest. But her life of activism was far more complicated than brief bios usually mention. Research: "Mary Hunter Austin." Encyclopedia of the American West, edited by Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod, Macmillan Reference USA, 1996. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2330100082/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=6a4f821e. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025. "Mary Hunter Austin." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 23, Gale, 2003. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631008133/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=ceca42e0. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025. #0840: Willa Cather to Mary Hunter Austin, June 26 [1926]. https://cather.unl.edu/writings/letters/let0840 Austin, Mary Hunter. “Earth Horizon.” Houghton Mifflin. 1932. Austin, Mary Hunter. “Experiences Facing Death.” Bobbs-Merrill Company. 1931. Blend, Benay. “Mary Austin and the Western Conservation Movement: 1900-1927.” Journal of the Southwest , Spring, 1988, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1988). https://www.jstor.org/stable/40169782 Davis, Lisa Selin. “The Loneliest Land.” National Parks Conservation Association. Spring 2015. https://www.npca.org/articles/942-the-loneliest-land Egenhoff, Elizabeth L. “Mary Austin.” Mineral Information Service. November 1965. https://npshistory.com/publications/deva/mis-v18n11-1965.pdf Fink, Augusta. “I-Mary: A Biography of Mary Austin.” University of Arizona Press. 1983. Hoffman, Abraham. “Mary Austin, Stafford Austin, and the Owens Valley.” Journal of the Southwest , Autumn-Winter 2011, Vol. 53, No. ¾. Via JSTOR. http://www.jstor.com/stable/41710078 Lanzendorfer, Joy. “Searching for Mary Austin.” Alta. https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a8713/searching-for-mary-austin-joy-lanzendorfer/ Online Archive of California. “Austin (Mary Hunter) Papers.” https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c85t3ppq/ Richards, Penny L. “Bad Blood and Lost Borders: Eugenic Ambivalence in Mary Austin’s Short Fiction.” Richards, Penny L. “Disability History Image #3.” 8/30/2005. https://disstud.blogspot.com/2005/08/ Romancito, Rick. “The Image Maker and the Writer.” Taos News. 10/2/2024. https://www.taosnews.com/opinion/columns/the-image-maker-and-the-writer/article_7805f16a-8ab9-5645-9e84-4a189e18ac23.html Siber, Kate. “The 19th-Century Writer Who Braved the Desert Alone.” Outside. 1/22/2019. https://www.outsideonline.com/culture/books-media/mary-austin-mojave-nature-writer/ Stout, Janis P. “Mary Austin’s Feminism: A Reassessment.” Studies in the Novel , spring 1998, Vol. 30, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29533250 The Ansel Adams Gallery. “Visions of Taos: The Making of “Taos Pueblo” by Ansel Adams and Mary Austin.” https://www.anseladams.com/visions-of-taos-the-making-of-taos-pueblo/ Viehmann, Martha L. “A Rain Song for America: Mary Austin, American Indians, and American Literature and Culture.” Western American Literature , Spring 2004, Vol. 39, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43022288 Wynn, Dudley. “Mary Austin, Woman Alone.” The Virginia Quarterly Review , SPRING 1937, Vol. 13, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26433922 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

19 Maalis 45min

In 1916, the National Institution for Moral Instruction had a contest to see who could come up with the best morality code. For kids. Evolving views on childhood, child labor laws, patriotism, and eugenics influenced this effort. Research: “$5000 Prize Winners Announced Oct. 1” Dean Bennion in Race.” Daily Utah Chronicle. April 23, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/289878324/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%22%20winner “93 Virtues Make the Perfect Man.” Tulsa World. Dec. 22, 1919. https://www.newspapers.com/image/884436330/?match=1&terms=Iowa%20%22character%20education%22%20 Brimi, Hunter. “Academic Instructors or Moral Guides? Moral Education in America and the Teacher’s Dilemma.” The Clearing House, vol. 82, no. 3, 2009, pp. 125–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30181093 Character Education Inquiry. “Studies in the nature of Character.” New York. Macmillan. 1928. https://archive.org/details/studiesinnatureo0001char/page/n7/mode/2up “Character Education Methos Research.” Atlanta Constitution. Sept. 30, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/26907400/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%20Competition%22 “The Children’s Morality Code.” Virginia Teacher. March 1924. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2194&context=va-teacher “College Professors and Others in All States Take Part in Contest to Decide Best Method of Character Building in the Growing Generation.” Washington Post. March 4, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/28849374/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%20Competition%22 Davis, Emily C. “Why Children Lie.” Springfield Daily Republican. May 20, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1062989775/?match=1&terms=%22Character%20Education%20Inquiry%22 “Dean Competes in $5000 Contest.” Daily Utah Chronicle. Nov. 23, 1916. https://www.newspapers.com/image/289875150/?match=1&terms=%22National%20Morality%20Codes%20Competition%22 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF EDUCATION. “Character Education.” REPORT OF THECOMMITTEE ON CHARACTER EDUCATION OFTHE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. Washington Government Printing Office. 1926. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED541955.pdf “Educational Body Offers Big Prize.” New Britain herald. April 4, 1922. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014519/1922-04-04/ed-1/seq-12/ “Efficiency Methods Applied to Task of Codifying Ethics.” Times Herald. Jan. 27, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/79883841/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%20Competition%22 “Educating Body Offers Big Prize.” New Britain Herald. April 04, 1922. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014519/1922-04-04/ed-1/seq-12/ Fairchild, Stephen G. “Character education in the United States.” University of Georgia, PhD Dissertation. Mary Frances Early College of Education. 2006. https://esploro.libs.uga.edu/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Character-education-in-the-United-States/9949334479002959 Hartshorne, H., & May, M. A. (1930). A Summary of the Work of the Character Education Inquiry. Religious Education, 25(7), 607–619. https://doi.org/10.1080/0034408300250702 Hutchins, William J. “The 5,000 Prize Code of Morals for Children.” The Mahoning Dispatch. September 13, 1918. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84028473/1918-09-13/ed-1/seq-4/ Jackson, Allison. “THE CHARACTER EDUCATION WORK OF MILTON FAIRCHILD: A PRISM FOR EXPLORING THE DEBATE BETWEEN LIBERAL PROGRESSIVES AND CONSERVATIVE PROGRESSIVES IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY.” Notre Dame of Maryland University. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/character-education-work-milton-fairchild-prism/docview/2125417636/se-2 “Keating-Owen Child Labor Act (1916).” National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/keating-owen-child-labor-act “New Statement of Old Principles.” Democrat and Chronicle. April 4, 1916. https://www.newspapers.com/image/135312787/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%20Competition%22 “The plans of the Interstate Character Education Method … “ Kansas Teacher. April 1, 1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/390015780/?match=1&terms=%22Character%20education%20methods%22 “VERIFIED AND REVISED CHILDREN’S MORALITY CODE.” The Journal of Education, vol. 100, no. 5 (2491), 1924, pp. 130–32. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42750282 “What a Child Should Do in a Moral Emergency.” Richmond Times-Dispatch. May 21, 1916. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1916-05-21/ed-1/seq-49/ Yarrow, Andrew L. “History of U.S. Children’s Policy, 1900-Present.” First Focus. April 2009. https://firstfocus.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Childrens-Policy-History.pdf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

17 Maalis 35min

This 2019 episode looks at Couney's incubator sideshows of premature babies. This is complicated; Couney made money from this, and his medical experience was questionable. But premature babies weren’t getting a lot of care otherwise.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

15 Maalis 28min

Tracy notes the wild array of incorrect information that circulates about Lillian Exum Clement. Then she and Holly talk about childhood reading habits. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

14 Maalis 25min

Gertrude Chandler Warner's most well known writing is "The Boxcar Children." But that series is far from the only professional writing Chandler did – she made a career as a writer while also teaching elementary school for decades. Research: Abate, M.A. Not Hoovervilles, But Hooch: Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Boxcar Childrenand The Roaring Twenties. Child Lit Educ 47, 257–266 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9275-5 Braccidiferro, Gail. “The Boxcar Children: A Museum Caper.” New York Times. June 20, 2004. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/nyregion/the-boxcar-children-a-museum-caper.html Crowe, Chris. “Young Adult Literature: Rescuing Reluctant Readers.” The English Journal, vol. 88, no. 5, 1999, pp. 113–16. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/821799 Ellsworth, Mary Ellen. “Gertrude Chandler Warner and the Boxcar Children.” Albert Whitman & Company. Morton Grove, Illinois. 1997. Lindberg, Mary Anne. “Survival Literature in Children’s Fiction.” Elementary English, vol. 51, no. 3, 1974, pp. 329–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41387166 Meese, Ruth Lyn. “MODERN FAMILY: Adoption and Foster Care in Children’s Literature.” The Reading Teacher, vol. 66, no. 2, 2012, pp. 129–37. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23322722 Tolentino, Jia. “’The Boxcar Children and the Spirit of Capitalism.” The New Yorker. June 2, 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-boxcar-children-and-the-spirit-of-capitalism#:~:text=The%20second%20time%20that%20Gertrude,and%20family%20and%20life's%20rewards. Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “The Box-Car Children.” Rand McNally. Chicago/New York. 1924. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42796/42796-h/42796-h.htm Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “Good Americans: First Lessons for the Littlest Ones.” Educational Publishing Company. Boston. New York. London. 1926. Accessed online: https://books.google.com/books?id=gONow7KFCB0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “The House of Delight.” Pilgrim Press. 1916. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/62714/pg62714-images.html Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “Star Stories for Little Folks.” Pilgrim Press. Boston, Chicago. 1918. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/starstoriesforli00warn/page/8/mode/2up Warner, Frances and Gertrude. “Life’s Minor Collisions.” Houghton Mifflin. Boston and New York. 1921. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/lifesminorcollis00warnrich/page/n9/mode/2up See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

12 Maalis 39min