[Abridged] Presidential Histories

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19.A.) Hayes' evolving views on slavery, an interview with Dustin McLochlin Aug 09, 2021

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Rutherford B. Hayes is known to history as the President who ended Reconstruction, but is that a fair monicker? What did Hayes think of slavery, the freedmen, and Reconstruction, anyway?
Join me as I interview to Dustin McLochlin, a historian at the Rutherford B Hayes Presidential Library and Museums in Fremont, Ohio, on Hayes' evolving views on slavery and how to best protect the former slaves, and bring peace, after the Civil War set them free.

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19.) Rutherford B Hayes 1877-1881 Aug 02, 2021

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How do you lead a nation when half the country thinks you were fraudulently elected? I'm not talking about 2021, I'm talking about 1877, when Rutherford B Hayes emerged the winner of an election that was so vigorously contested, he wasn't even officially declared the winner until two days before inauguration day. But what did Hayes win? A nation that didn't fully accept him, and a party so rife with corruption that the longest daggers were in his fellow Republicans' pockets.
Follow along as Hayes fights in the Civil War, becomes governor of Ohio, wins the craziest election in American history, and then faces down corrupt bosses within his own party and a violent crescendo of labor unrest triggered by the rampant inequalities of the industrial revolution.
Bibliography
1. Rutherford B. Hayes – Hans. L. Trefousse
2. Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior & President - Ari Hoogenboom
3. Grant – Jean Edward Smith
4. T.R. the last Romantic – H.R. Brands
5. The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur – Scott S. Greenberger
6. Destiny of the Republic – Candice Miller

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18.C.) Grant, Lincoln, and Reconstruction, an interview with Ron White Jul 19, 2021

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President Lincoln and General Grant formed one of the most successful president-general partnerships in American history, winning the Civil War and defeating the Confederacy. But before that partnership could turn to the challenge of reconstruction, Lincoln was assassinated, leaving the nation in the incapable hands of Andrew Johnson. Four years later, Grant was elected to pick up where Lincoln and left off and finish Lincoln's mission of healing the divided nation, and he'd lean on everything he'd learned from his late friend to attempt it.
Join me as I interview to Ron White, a New York Times best-selling author of presidential biographies, including his recently published Lincoln in Private, and American Ulysses: A life of Ulysses S. Grant, on the impactful friendship between Lincoln and Grant, and Grant's efforts honor Lincoln's legacy by rebuilding a better nation through reconstruction.

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18.B.) The evolving myth and reputation of Ulysses S. Grant, an interview with Joan Waugh Jul 12, 2021

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Ulysses S. Grant's reputation has been through a lot. While he was still alive, he was very nearly our first three-term president; after he died, the Myth of the Lost Cause repainted him as a drunk and corrupt butcher; in the past 30 years, he's started to become a Civil Rights Icon as historians gave him a long overdue second look. Join me as I interview to Joan Waugh, UCLA professor of 19th-century America who specializes in the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age, and the author of U.S. Grant, American Hero, American Myth on why Grant's reputation has changed so much, and what's still misunderstood about our 18th president.

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18.A.) The moments that shaped Ulysses S. Grant, an interview with Nick Sacco Jul 04, 2021

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Ulysses S. Grant led an Odyssey of a life. From the battlefields of the Mexican-American War, to the get-rich-quick frontier of the California Gold Rush, to years of poverty in St. Louis, Grant was shaped by a dizzying array of diverse experiences. Join me as I interview Nick Sacco, a park ranger at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis and an author for The Journal of the Civil War Era, on the experiences that prepared Grant to win the Civil War and lead the nation through Reconstruction as our 18th President.

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18.) Ulysses S. Grant 1869-1877 Jul 01, 2021

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They say history is written by the victor. Ulysses S Grant may beg to differ. For nearly 100 years, Grant was derided as an inept and corrupt drunk who won the Civil War by recklessly sacrificing the lives of his men and who floundered in a presidency rife with corruption.
In the past 30 years, that verdict has changed.
Follow along as Grant goes from Mexican-American war veteran to failed businessman, victorious union general, and eventually president of the United States. Along the way, he'll go nearly undefeated as a general, lead the fight against the Ku Klux Klan during reconstruction, revamp the country's native American policy, bring permanent amity to its relations with Great Britain, and, yes, oversee an administration rife with corruption. But as I think we'll see, the corruption is more of a footnote than a full-length feature.
Bibliography:
1. Grant – Jean Edward Smith
2. Andrew Johnson – Annette Gordon-Reed
3. Abraham Lincoln – David Herbert Donald
4. The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant – Ulysses S. Grant
5. Embattled Rebel – James M. McPherson
6. Rutherford B. Hayes – Hans. L. Trefousse
7. Destiny of the Republic – Candice Miller
8. The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur – Scott S. Greenberger

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17.A.) The impeachment of Andrew Johnson, an interview with David O. Stewart Jun 07, 2021

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Andrew Johnson is the only president to face a Senate impeachment in our first 200 years. What did he do to get impeached? Who were the men out to get him? And how did he beat his conviction and removal from office by a single vote? Join me as I interview David O Stewart, a lawyer, historian, and author of numerous books about presidential history, including Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy, on the trial that some say altered the balance of power between Congress and the president for a generation.

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17.) Andrew Johnson 1865-1869 Jun 01, 2021

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In the wake of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, former vice president Andrew Johnson was faced with a tremendous challenge: How do you mend relations between the north and south, two regions that had spend the past four years killing each other on the field of battle? And what do you do about the south's 3.5 million newly freed former slaves who owned no land or property and who were surrounded by 5.5 million whites who feared and resented them. And, oh yeah, all those white guys have recent military experience?
It wouldn't have been easy for any president to navigate these challenges peacefully. Unfortunately, when it came to the freedmen Johnson had no interest in that "peacefully" part.
Follow along as Johnson rises from poverty so deep, he was sold into indentured servitude, to city alderman, to the state house, to the White House. Along the way, we'll see how he put himself in a position to replace Lincoln's first-term vice president, how his influence during reconstruction helped cement a post-slavery racist society we're still haunted by today, and how he became the only president in our first 200 years to face an impeachment trial in the senate.
Bibliography
1. Andrew Johnson – Annette Gordon-Reed
2. Grant – Jean Edward Smith
3. Abraham Lincoln – David Herbert Donald
4. Rutherford B. Hayes – Hans. L. Trefousse

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B.) Jefferson Davis, The Confederate President May 15, 2021

Show notes

Jefferson Davis was never president of all the United States, but he was president of half of them.
Follow Davis as parlays his status as a Mexican-American war hero into a political career as a fiery southern radical, serves as Secretary of War, get's his dream job as general of the confederate Mississippi armies, and days later gets the job he never asked for nor wanted - President of the Confederacy. We'll take a close look at the major decisions he made that helped shape the outcome of the Civil War
While we're at it, we'll also look at the Myth of the Lost Cause - a bit of pro confederate revisionism that has tinted how we remember the Civil War in the friendliest way possible for the confederates who started it.
Bibliography:
1. Embattled Rebel - James McPherson
2. Abraham Lincoln – David Herbert Donald
3. Grant – Jean Edward Smith

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16.E.) Lincoln, the Union Army, and the election of 1864; an interview with Jon White May 06, 2021

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Six of the seven presidents who followed Lincoln served in the Union Army during the Civil War. In our final look at Honest Abe, join me as I interview Jon White, an associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and author of Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln , on Lincoln's relationship with the army and what its soldiers thought of Lincoln, the GOP, slavery, and the election of 1864.

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[Abridged] Presidential Histories

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