Teapot Dome: First Major Presidential Scandal, 1920s

HCR: "In the 1920s, President Warren G. Harding’s secretary of the interior, Albert Fall, went to prison for a year for accepting a $385,000 bribe from oilman Edward L. Doheny in exchange for leases to drill for oil on naval reserve land in Elk Hills and Buena Vista, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming. Fall was …

April 12, 1861: Civil War Officially Started, With Firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC

"At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort built on an artificial island in Charleston Harbor. Attacking the fort seemed a logical outcome of events that had been in play for at least four months." -- Heather Cox Richardson reminds us of the momentous events, well worth reading. …

Trump and Andrew Johnson Compared Themselves to Jesus

Donald Trump compares himself to historic martyrs Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. He "is not the first president to compare himself to Jesus Christ. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson famously did, too...." Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln after the 16th president was murdered in April, 1865, was an egotistical, enigmatic man unpopular with …

Biden Kicks Off Election Comeback With Strong State of the Union Address

For much of 2023 and 2024, President Biden has polled behind Donald Trump in key-state opinion polls. His supporters hope that his 2024 State of the Union message on March 7 kicked off a comeback. He attracted a large audience watching it live, 34 million Americans. He is unlikely to get a larger audience until …

Carnegie and the ‘Gospel of Wealth’

Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-American industrialist, led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century, became one of the richest Americans in history and a great philanthropist. More from Wikipedia. In 1889, he published "The Gospel of Wealth" in which he asserted "great inequality…[and]...the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the …

J.P. Morgan, One of World’s Richest Men, Faced Regulation By Teddy Roosevelt

J. P. Morgan (1837-1913), a financier and investment banker, dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as J.P. Morgan and Co., he was a driving personal force behind the wave of industrial consolidations in the United States at the turn …

Optimistic, Pessimistic About 2024? Whatever Happens, It’s Not Inevitable

Happy New Year! I’ve spent a lot of time pondering whether 2024 will be an extraordinarily good year or an extraordinarily bad year. Whatever happens, I tend to believe it will be a historic turning point for the United States and possibly the world. “The future is never inevitable,” historian Heather Cox Richardson observed in an interview …

Veterans Day Sparks Concern About Military Recruitment

Around Armistice Day, aka Veterans Day in the US, and Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth, there is concern that the US military isn't recruiting enough volunteers. Americans Don't Want to Fight for Their Country Anymore, Newsweek reports. It could mainly be because unemployment is low and military salaries (not including all the benefits) are …

‘Democracy Awakening’: Heather Cox Richardson’s New Book

On a road trip, I listened to "Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America" by Heather Cox Richardson. Splendid. Though I've taught American history and paid close attention to the news over the last seven decades, I still learned things from it. Richardson makes sense of this current moment and what's at stake in …

Has History Professor HCR Started A Social Movement?

Boston College History Professor Heather Cox Richardson is phenomenal. Her new book, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, has rocketed to bestseller lists. Her initial book tour included at least a dozen stops, and was absolutely packed with fans. Many events were recorded and posted on YouTube. They seem fresh and authentic, not …