My History Can Beat Up Your Politics

Was the past better? Were the "Good Old Days" really all they are chalked up to be?  Gregg Easterbrook, author of It's Better Than it Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear, has a bold argument. Things are better now then they have ever been. A reminder about our sponsor Warby Parker eyeglasses - get your try on pack of 5 frames at www.warbyparker.com/myhistory Learn more about your ad choi...

We discuss all things Ike with William Hitchcock - author of "The Age of Eisenhower." We talk about how President Eisenhower was a surprisingly good politician, how he navigated Civil Rights, Social Security and other domestic programs, how he dealt with LBJ. We discuss the failure that upset him the most, and what he may have gotten wrong. We also get to the bottom of that Military Industrial Com...

Bruce is interviewed on Ohio v. The World Podcast, which is the creation of MHCBUYP fan Alex Hastie. The subject is Curtis LeMay. Politically we know him as George Wallace's reluctant running mate in 1968. But there was much more to him, as Bruce and Alex discuss.  His career spanned World War II, Kennedy, Vietnam, The Cold War and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

50 years ago, Medicare was created and some of it was recorded. We'll look at the original conversations that demonstrate LBJ's work on the bill, and compare the enactment of Medicare to the Affordable Care Act. And we'll contrast the two bill's passages and implementation, effect and popularity. Based on a previous cast called 'Medicare Atmosphere' from 2010... but updated and re-recorded. Learn...

A few questions, some from an older cast that now bears repeating in the wake of a new speaker election, and others from the premium channel now elevated. Was Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal allowed to happen by a quiet public, or was thee resistance? And what would Revolutionary protests look like.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Saturday Night Massacre was the name given to the triple firing of a special prosecutor investigating President Nixon, the AG and the deputy AG on the same night in 1973. After the firing of the FBI Director by President Trump, all eyes are looking back on this historical event. Are they right to do Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bruce takes a look at one day in the life and career of President George H.W. Bush - not in his presidency but in his vice-presidency. That day revealed his leadership style and set future precedents, perhaps. March 30, 1981 the day of the attempted assassination of President Reagan. We also look at Bush's Presidency and legacy.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bruce and Daily Beast/CNN correspondent Matt K. Lewis talk about midterms, and Presidents post midterms. Bruce tells a story about Lincoln that he told 11 years ago. (more information on that story in the premium podcast).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are joined today by David Priess, former CIA intelligence officer and author about his new book on the history and the realities of impeachment, what people think it is, and what has really happened in history. He is the author of How To Get Rid of a President: History's Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...

A law that may have given Billy The Kid a few more months of life, long enough to build a legend is still a part of today's politics. The rich history of the Posse Comitatus law that separated military from law enforcement and forbids, in some cases, the use of military on American soil. , Music by Lee Rosevere, Squire Tuck and Lucas Gonze at freemusicarchive Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

A look at one of America's earliest blockbusters, the little book that changed American minds: Common Sense, its author Thomas Paine, the impact it had at the time and what it might mean today. We also examine the creative differences Paine had with his printers, and how much it might have cost to advertise for a book in that time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Examining the moment in 1983 when nuclear war was possible with new research and stories from the Soviet side. How close did we come to war? And could that war have been accidental? w/ White House Correspondent for National Journal and Political Editor of The Atlantic Marc Ambinder, author of "The Brink - President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983." We double down on some of the points mad...

Chris Matthews of Hardball joins the program!! He has just finished his book Bobby Kennedy - A Raging Spirit. Chris talks about RFK and how his history and childhood, and his relationship with Joe Kennedy Senior that informed his own politics. Those politics, according to Matthews, were just starting to develop at the end of his life, as he sought to defend society's less fortunate, while keeping...

Everything you know about the Russian Revolution is wrong, and understanding that is the key to understanding today's Russia as well. A very interesting conversation with Mikhail Zygar, Editor in Chief of the TV Dozhd and the Author of All the Kremlin's Men. He joins us to speak about his book The Empire Must Die - Russia's Revolutionary Collapse. We talk Russia 1917 and the revolution before the...

Elbridge Gerry lent his name to a tricky political maneuver. Not that he wanted to, or perhaps, deserved it. With gerrymandering of congressional districts and state legislative districts on the agenda of the Supreme Court, Bruce discusses the court case Gill v. Whitford and then revisits his cast from 2013 about Elbridge Gerry  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this quick episode, a missing part from the Ark of Commerce series, we look at the role of money in the battle between Confederate and Union governments.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of the 1978 World Cup, a cautionary tale about democracy. The world spotlight on the junta that controlled Argentina that year helped focus some attention on the plight of the victims of a vicious dictatorship, but locally, may have enhanced support for the regime. We talk about soccer and politics, we talk about democracy and the dangers of losing it, we read a bit of Eduardo Galeano's...

Taft fails in trying to lower tariffs, setting up his successor to do it. In frustration, he walks away from the White House. Meanwhile, his opponent, William Jennings Bryan, destroys the tariff in several populist arguments. A look at Payne-Aldrich, the 1909 tariff bill that was as least as important as Smoot Hawley.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is infrastructure always good? We talk with Greg Young of the Very Popular "Bowery Boys NYC" podcast, about infrastructure. In particular the story of Robert Moses and his career reforming New York's infrastructure. Until he met his match. We also talk about Trump's career in NYC, and whether Mark Zuckerberg is the new Vanderbilt.  Music from Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band in this episode....

  We speak once again to David Priess, former CIA Briefer and the author of The President's Book of Secrets. While last time we spoke mostly about Presidents and intelligence, this time we get into the other people who use intelligence and how they support the President.  In the course of the discussion, we talk about what we can know about Trump's briefings, what it's like to be a briefer, and wh...

A look at 1944 and how intrigue, manipulation, misrepresentation, a few martinis, a song, an axe and a finger in the page of a book changed the history of the Presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Populism, Corruption, Citizenship and Immigration. Rome struggled with these issues in its Republic phase. Bruce is joined by Mike Duncan, host of The History of Rome Podcast, to talk about the pre-fall of the Roman Republic, period of 146 to 78 BC and the cast of characters that struggled for power at the time. Mike has come out with a recent book called "The Storm Before the Storm," which delves...

With the leader of China erasing that country's 2 term limit, we are taking a look back at the 2 term presidential limit in the United States, how recent it is and whether it's a good thing. This episode is from 2012.  BTW - As you listen this will make more sense - Hilmar Moore, Mayor of Richmond Texas - died in 2012 and thus is no longer mayor of Richmond Texas, his wife is currently mayor. Prob...

The Mexican War, current U.S. politics, Mexican history are all topics Bruce joins Bob Crawford of the Avett Brothers and Dr. Benjamin Sawyer of Middle Tennessee State University, hosts of the Road to Now Podcast in Mexico where they discuss Mexico relations in front of a live audience. But first a little commentary about Benito Juarez. Thanks to the Road to Now for hosting us at the Avett Brother...

In a day everything changed and a new President inhabited the chair in the White House. The country and the world were anxious. Russia and Asia Pacific were frightening foreign policy issues. We are speaking of 1945, but as A.J. Baime, author of The Accidental President suggests, there are some similarities to today. A.J. Joins us on the program.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...