Political Thought: T Roosevelt vs Wilson
Two presidents. One Progressive Era dilemma that still won’t go away: do you fix a modern economy by breaking up power or by controlling it with an even stronger federal government? We dig into Theodo...
15 Apr 21min
The Populist Moment
We trace what populism looks like in the 1890s and why it’s less a single doctrine than a coalition of anger, hope, and economic suspicion. We follow the money fight over gold and silver into the Pani...
14 Apr 18min
Sherman Antitrust Act
A law you can read in about five minutes still shapes some of the biggest fights in the American economy. We walk through the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 with Dr. Sean Beienberg and unpack what “res...
14 Apr 17min
Susan B. Anthony and a Constitutional Challenge
Susan B. Anthony’s most radical move was not that she voted, it was why she believed she had every right to. After she walked into a Rochester polling place in 1872 and cast a ballot, the state treate...
13 Apr 10min
Who Becomes President? Succession, the Vice Presidency, and Executive Power
The most fragile part of the presidency isn’t the election. It’s the moment something goes wrong and the country still needs a commander in chief, a working cabinet, and a government that doesn’t free...
13 Apr 41min
Plessy Vs. Ferguson
We walk through Plessy v. Ferguson and how a planned railcar protest helps the Supreme Court legitimize Jim Crow through the “separate but equal” doctrine. We also dig into Justice John Marshall Harla...
2 Apr 18min
The Lodge Bill of 1890 and the Rise of Jim Crow
The Lodge Bill of 1890 should be as famous as the Compromise of 1877, yet most of us have never heard of it. We sit down with Dr. Sean Beienberg to unpack how a federal election oversight plan, built ...
1 Apr 13min
What the Black Man Wants by Frederick Douglass
Freedom is easy to celebrate in slogans and hard to define when the laws get written. Today we sit with Frederick Douglass at the end of the Civil War as he delivers one of the most direct speeches of...
31 Mar 8min
