The United States of Amnesia

What were the personal religious beliefs of Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, and what role did they see for religion in the United States? Why did Mason and Madison disagree on the "toleration" of religious beliefs? These questions (and others) arise as Blake leads the second part of our discussion of what selected Founding Fathers held as their rel...

What were the personal religious beliefs of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and John Adams, and what role did they see for religion in the United States? Blake leads a discussion of what selected Founding Fathers held as their religious beliefs, what they thought about the role of religion in personal morality and civic society, how they sought to achieve civi...

Is the United States of America truly a Christian Nation? Was it founded to be so? History has the answer! Blake, Marshall, and Mike break down the origins of each of the 13 original American colonies. We ask and answer the big questions: why they were founded, who contributed to the development, and, most importantly for this series, the religious affiliations (and lack thereof) carried by settle...

Was America founded as a Christian nation? Some say yes, some say no, and the real answer is more complex than you might think. Blake takes the reins as the leader of this series, discussing the role (or in some cases, perhaps, the lack thereof) of Christianity in the establishment of the colonies, the founding of the nation, and the early evolution of the United States. In this premiere episode,...

Marshall, Blake, and Mike wrap up the "Tea, Drugs, and Jesus" series with a review of how the United States misunderstood China in various ways at various times during the history of relations between the two countries between the late 18th century and 1972, as well as what broader themes of misunderstanding recurred throughout that history. They then discuss how the United States continues to mis...

When Chinese "volunteers" intervened in the Korean War in 1950, American relations with the People's Republic of China fell into an icy abyss from which they did not emerge until President Richard Nixon made his momentous decision to transform world politics by visiting Beijing in 1972. In the United States, the "loss" of China to what Americans thought of as monolithic "world communism" led durin...

Marshall, Blake, and Mike engage in a wide-ranging discussion of American policy disputes over what to do about China after World War II. President Truman, Secretaries of State George C. Marshall and Dean Acheson, Madame Chiang and her family, General Claire Chennault, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, the CIA, the domino theory, the American idea of monolithic “international communism,” and anti-colonia...

Mike walks us through the complex situation in China in the aftermath of World War II, with armed Japanese operating in the country, Soviet forces occupying Manchuria, and the Nationalist and Communist Chinese resuming their civil war with one another. The decisive phase of the civil war ensues, culminating in the Communist takeover of mainland China and the Nationalist retreat to Taiwan. Marshall...

Mike again leads us in our narrative of how America continued to fall short of its goals for China in World War II during the second half of the war. We meet General Claire Chennault of 'Flying Tigers' fame, whose ideas for how to fight in China contradict those of his bitter rival, General Joseph Stilwell, but gain favor with Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang and, for a while, with Franklin Roose...

Mike leads our discussion of the American experience in China during World War II. Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin Roosevelt, and General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell are the central figures in this episode, which explores many aspects of the war's often-overlooked China-Burma-India Theater and introduces us to the Flying Tigers, the Burma Road, Merrill’s Marauders, and the “Over the Hump” cargo flights from...

Marshall, Blake, and Mike discuss America’s view of China from the 1920s through the early 1940s and the strong influence Americans raised by missionaries in China, notably Henry Luce and Pearl Buck, had on that view. Chiang Kai-shek emerges as the leader of the Republic of China, and Americans contribute money to Chiang and his in-laws, the Soongs – who have become China's new "dynasty" – in the...

Mike walks us through the events of the Boxer Rebellion, a conflict in which Chinese rebels attempted to slaughter all foreigners and Chinese Christians in China. Marshall then explains how this drove missionaries into isolated compounds, from which they could look out on the Chinese — and judge them — without gaining any real knowledge of the Chinese people or their culture. Marshall also introdu...

As the Manchu dynasty weakens during the 19th century, U.S. missionaries arrive. Christian evangelization leads to the outbreak of the long, bloody, brutal, and genocidal Taiping Rebellion, whose leader claims to be the younger brother of Jesus, and (not for the last time) an American official gets fired for assessing accurately what it all means. Americans fear the “Yellow Peril” as Chinese immig...

Where trade goes, conflict follows! While Britain and the East India Company focus on the opium trade with China, Americans of the first half of the 19th century try to break into the Chinese market with...well...opium, but also with ginseng, sandalwood, furs, and even sea cucumbers. After the British crush the Chinese in the First Opium War, few Americans (other than John Quincy Adams) approve of...

Ben Franklin got China wrong, and America still does today! Marshall again will lead our discussion in a new series, “Tea, Drugs, and Jesus,” looking at how the United States keeps misunderstanding China, in no small part because American political leaders often refuse to listen to experts on Chinese affairs. In the first episode, we set the stage for what is to come by exploring the environment i...

Marshall, Blake, and Mike wrap up the America First series by dissecting the America First principles of non-involvement in World War II, then discussing the effect on America of the shockingly rapid 1940 fall of France, American support to Britain through Lend-Lease, Charles Lindbergh’s ascent to the leadership of the America First movement, the postwar lack of a reckoning for America Firsters, a...

Marshall leads our discussion of the disorganized and dispersed nature of mid-1930s America First opposition to FDR, the 1936 presidential election, Republican opposition to New Deal reforms and help to Americans during the Great Depression, Nazi Germany's penetration of German-American cultural groups and influence over some American politicians, and Roosevelt’s moves to prepare America for war....

Marshall, Blake, and Mike discuss the America First movement in the 1930s, including its relation to racial policies and lynchings. Marshall describes how World War I cast its long shadow over 1930s America and how new America First leaders and organizations arose to lead their followers in opposition to the New Deal. We also resume our narrative of the career of Charles Lindbergh, whose celebrity...

After a failed attempt at a Swedish accent, Marshall leads our discussion of the America First movement as it related to the 1928 election, the onset of the Great Depression, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, the Dust Bowl, FDR and the New Deal, the end of Prohibition, and the 1930's decline of the Ku Klux Klan. For a more immersive experience while you listen, visit our image gallery for this series at h...

Marshall, Blake, and Mike discuss how "America First" supporters influenced – and were influenced by – the Russian Revolution, the 1920 Wall Street bombing, anarchists and the Palmer Raids, the aftermath of World War I, The Great Gatsby , the elections of 1920 and 1924, Prohibition, the growth of cities, restrictions on immigration, and the Ku Klux Klan’s rise to national prominence in the 1920s....

In our premiere episode, Marshall, Blake, and Mike begin a series on the America First movement. Marshall takes us through the movement’s development from the earliest use of the term “America First” in the 1880s, when it advocated the protection of economic and business interests, to a growing emphasis on deeper issues of American identity, notions of American cultural and ethnic purity and a yea...