George Washington Was A Reluctant President. He Did Not Want To Seek Re-Election in 1792

The Premodernist YouTube Channel points out that "George Washington did not want to be reelected in 1792, but he was anyway." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSkUqMddgo&t=1940s 0:00 Washington's decision to retire after one term 4:18 Hamilton's proposals: Funding 7:01 Hamilton's proposals: Assumption 7:57 Centralization vs. state autonomy 9:53 Hamilton's proposals: A national bank 11:21 The underlying cultural divide 14:10 …

Two (Not Three) Cheers for the French Revolution

Persuasion is a Substack community that seeks "to persuade, rather than to mock or troll, those who disagree with us" and believes that "a free society is worth fighting for." It posts a defense of the French Revolution by Cathy Young, a Russian-Jewish-American writer for The Bulwark. "Americans misunderstand France’s important—and complicated—place in the history …

How Mad Was King George III?

7 Minutes in History is a Youtube channel. This video is actually 8:42. "George III was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25th October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms in 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. …

Napoleon: Man of Destiny

One of the best documentary series on Napoleon was by PBS in 2000. Click for episode guide. The episodes are posted on Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrbiSUgZEbg

Russia’s Legendary ‘Potemkin Villages’ May Have Relevance to War With Ukraine

The powerful czar or monarch Catherine the Great, who ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796, appointed one of her boyfriends, Grigory Potemkin, to rule over Ukraine and Crimea. He reported that the people were happy and flourishing and invited her to visit. In preparation for the visit, he created model, portable settlements along the Dneiper …

What Caused the French Revolution?

Jack Rackam: "Welcome to my channel, filled with the Wikipedia-cited "great man" history your teachers warned you about. I think we're going to have a good time here." He uses light-hearted humor to describe momentous events. The Life & Times of Louis XVI, "the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during …

Catherine the Great: Enlightened Princess

"Catherine II, most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the last reigning Empress Regnant of Russia (from 1762 until 1796) and the country’s longest-ruling female leader. She came to power following the overthrow of her husband and second cousin, Peter III." Wikipedia. Interestingly, she reigned at the time America was going through the Revolution and the …

Boss Tweed, Tammany Hall, NYC, Urban Political Machines and Corruption

"Tammany Hall was a political powerhouse in New York City from 1789 until its slow unraveling in the mid-1960s. Boss Tweed and others would become infamous for corruption and the embezzlement of millions in taxpayer dollars." -- Daily Dose Documentary. Many videos on Youtube.com. Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the …

Distortions of American History: Betsy Ross and the First American Flag

This meme, popular on Facebook since 2019 when Nike purportedly cancelled a sneaker design after protests from social justice warriors, is mostly false, according to Snopes.com and other sources. (Click.) Did Betsy Ross really make the first American flag? "The well-known story that Ross sewed the country's first flag at the behest of George Washington …

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793: Black History #10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcdOWKiKgWU Crash Course Black American History: "One of the ways that the US Constitution baked the institution of slavery into the very core of the new United States was through the fugitive slave clause. The clause required that people who escaped slavery be returned to their enslavers. In parts of the US that didn't want …