Teaching American History Podcast

This lecture was given as part of the Sunday Night Lecture Series of the Master of American History and Government program at Ashland University. Peter Myers is a professor of politics at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He is the author of "Frederick Douglass: Race and the Rebirth of American Liberalism."

This session considers the legacy of the election for American politics and government. How did the 1912 campaign affect, not just progressives and the Democratic Party but also conservatives and the Republican Party? Tracing the wayward path of progressivism through the New Deal, the Great Society, and the Reagan Revolution, we consider whether contemporary political developments represent a contest between different strains of progressivism. Sidney Milkis is the White Burkett Miller Professor of Polit...

This session focuses on the election itself, a four cornered contest for the constitutional soul of the American people. Besides Roosevelt, the campaign included Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic Governor of New Jersey, who was elected president; William Howard Taft, the incumbent Republican President; and Eugene Debs, the Socialist candidate. All four candidates acknowledged that fundamental changes were occurring in the American political landscape, and each attempted to define the Progressive era's answ...

This session addresses two related questions: Did Lincoln violate the Constitution by unilaterally suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus? Did Lincoln use the suspension power to crush political dissent? Michael Burlingame is holder of the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He is the author of "Abraham Lincoln: A Life."

This session focuses on Lincoln's analysis of slavery, rooted in the natural rights tradition. We also examine the origins of Lincoln's deep-seated hatred of slavery and his evolving attitudes toward race. Michael Burlingame is holder of the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He is the author of "Abraham Lincoln: A Life."

This session surveys the three phases of Reagan's foreign policy: the first-term arms buildup and tough diplomacy, followed by a transitional period while Soviet leadership turned over, and culminating in four dramatic summit meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev that set the stage for the surprising and rapid end of the Cold War. Foreign policy conflicts on the periphery, especially in Central America and the Middle East, are surveyed, culminating in the Iran-Contra disaster of Reagan's second term. The c...

This session covers Reagan's domestic policy, especially his four-part economic policy, but also his initiatives in legal and constitutional reform, family policy, and his attempts to revitalize federalism. Steven Hayward F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute as well as a member of the Ashbrook Center's Board of Advisors.

Generally critics and interpreters of Uncle Tom have constructed a one-way view of Uncle Tom, albeit offering a few kind words for Uncle Tom along the way. Recovering Uncle Tom requires re-telling his story. Harriet Beecher Stowe's oeuvre, in partnership with that of her husband Calvin, constitutes a demonstration of the permanent necessity of moral and prudential judgment in human affairs. Moreover, it identifies the political conditions that can best guarantee conditions of decency. Her two disciplines—philosophy and poetry—illuminate the founding principles of the American republic and remedy defects in their realization that were evident in mid-nineteenth century. While slavery is not the only defect, its persistence and expansion indicate the overall shortcomings. In four of her chief works ("Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands," "Dred," and "Oldtown Folks"), Stowe teaches not only how to eliminate the defect of slavery, but also how to realize and maintain a regime founde...

Generally critics and interpreters of Uncle Tom have constructed a one-way view of Uncle Tom, albeit offering a few kind words for Uncle Tom along the way. Recovering Uncle Tom requires re-telling his story. Harriet Beecher Stowe's oeuvre, in partnership with that of her husband Calvin, constitutes a demonstration of the permanent necessity of moral and prudential judgment in human affairs. Moreover, it identifies the political conditions that can best guarantee conditions of decency. Her two disciplines—philosophy and poetry—illuminate the founding principles of the American republic and remedy defects in their realization that were evident in mid-nineteenth century. While slavery is not the only defect, its persistence and expansion indicate the overall shortcomings. In four of her chief works ("Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands," "Dred," and "Oldtown Folks"), Stowe teaches not only how to eliminate the defect of slavery, but also how to realize and maintain a regime founde...

Douglass's mature thinking in the pre-Emancipation period centers on two interrelated sets of issues: (1) his interpretations of America's founding principles and history; and (2) his strategy for bringing about the abolition of slavery. Contrary to the Garrisonian faction of abolitionists, Douglass took a strongly positive view of the principles and actions of America's Founders, and his positive view of the Founding in turn shaped his ideas concerning the proper strategy for ending slavery. These are our questions. For what reasons did Douglass affirm that the Declaration of Independence contains the true, universally inclusive principles of natural justice? For what reasons did Douglass affirm that the U.S. Constitution is "a glorious liberty document"? In the face of the series of setbacks encountered in the 1850s, for what reasons did Douglass affirm that slavery's abolition is imminent? Why did he believe that the Civil War was an inevitable, "irrepressible conflict"? Why did he believe that th...