The Student Who Exasperated George Washington

Charles Clark, American Heritage magazine: "The president worried that his grandson had “an unconquerable indolence of temper, and a dereliction, in fact, to all study.” Although George Washington didn’t father any children of his own, he devoted years to caring for two privileged step-children and two step-grandchildren. Most accomplished of those elite offspring was George …

Attack Ads, Circa 1800

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zTN4BXvYI&t=102s ReasonTV: "Have this year's negative political ads really "taken dirty to a whole new level, as CNN's Anderson Cooper frets? Is a "return to civility...a relic of a bygone era," as President Barack Obama laments? Er, not exactly. If anonymous political speech, the other widely decried villain of this political season, helped found the …

Documentary About Sir Walter Scott, Scottish Historical Novelist, Who Created Popular Mythologies

Write Like: "Sir Walter Scott (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright, and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Waverley, Old Mortality, The Heart of Mid-Lothian and The Bride of Lammermoor, and the narrative poems The …

Liberty Leading the People: How Revolutions Turn

John Green, Crash Course co-founder, briefly lectures on 19th Century French history from 1800 to 1850 in the context of Eugene Delacroix's painting, "Liberty Leading the People." Delacroix (April 26, 1798 – August 13, 1863) "was the most important of the French Romantic painters." More. Topics in this four-minute lecture include "the French Revolution, the …

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

Why New England Almost Seceded Over The War Of 1812

WBUR Radio Boston: "New Englanders were vehemently opposed to America's second war with the British. So much so, that serious politicians openly discussed seceding from the Union." The Southern states were mainly agricultural and largely unaffected by tension with Britain. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, from Virginia, had little understanding nor sympathy for the …

Debates: History Vs. Napoleon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aq_gRfmjgY Ted-Ed: "After the French Revolution erupted in 1789, Europe was thrown into chaos. Neighboring countries’ monarchs feared they would share the fate of Louis XVI and attacked the new Republic, while at home, extremism and mistrust between factions led to bloodshed. In the midst of all this conflict, Napoleon emerged. But did he save …

Ode to the Federalist Party’s Dazzling Accomplishments in 12 Years

While it is true that after the election of 1800, the Federalist Political Party of Alexander Hamilton was beset by divisions and declined into a regional faction with its base in New England, Federalist ideas continued to hold sway, especially with Supreme Court Justice John Marshall for three decades. And, as Ron Chernow wrote in …

Most Transformative US Election? 1800. A Surprisingly Peaceful Revolution

Every four years, journalists and partisans hype elections, declaring "this is the most important election of our lifetimes." Few turn out to be that, but we don't often know exactly how important until well after we have cast our ballots, perhaps not for weeks, years or decades. Historians debate which elections were most transformative. As …

10 Cool Facts About the Lewis & Clark Expedition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVkHfn6-Zl4 Weird History: "American history is full of wild tales of adventure, genuinely ludicrous achievements, and no small amount of super depressing things. Caught in this tawdry tangle of sometimes violent and horrific, sometimes glorious and heroic history are Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, whose 19th century US Army unit Corps of Discovery embarked on …