[Abridged] Presidential Histories Kenny Ryan
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- History
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From Yorktown to the Civil War, Pearl Harbor to 9/11, discover the pivotal moments that defined each president's life and legacy and the lessons we can draw from them. New episodes available the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month.
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37.A) Nixon's Domestic Agenda, an interview with Luke Nichter
Richard Nixon was sworn in as President with a Democratic House and Senate across Capitol Hill, which you might expect to lead to legislative impasse. Instead, it was one of the more prolific legislative stretches in American history, including such accomplishments as: Lowering the voting age, Title IX, creating the EPA, the Clean Air Act, abolishing the draft, and more. But were all of these laws passed because of Richard Nixon, or despite him? Historian Luke Nichter, a Chapman University professor who operates nixontapes.org, explores how Nixon and the Democratic Congress came together to pass so much meaningful change.
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37.) Richard Nixon 1969-1974
"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." - Richard Nixon, November 17, 1973
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Richard Nixon's life is a drama unlike any other. A desire to win at any cost earned him the name "Tricky Dick" and carried him from Whittier, California, to the Presidency of the United States, but it also proved his undoing. From Alger Hiss to Checkers, the Chenault Affair, "Nixon goes to China," and Watergate, we will dive into the remarkable rise and fall of the only American to resign the presidency, Richard Milhouse Nixon.
Bibliography
1. Richard Nixon: The Life – John Farrell
2. The Vietnam War – Ken Burns (documentary)
3. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
4. Eisenhower in War and Peace – Jean Edward Smith
5. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
6. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 – Robert Dallek
7. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream – Doris Kearns Goodwin
8. Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency – Mark K Updegrove
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16.F.) How Lincoln changed American immigration, an interview with Harold Holzer
Migrating to the United States used to be as easy as buying a boat ticket. Getting settled was the hard part, and it became far more daunting when the United States was torn asunder by Civil War in 1861. As more and more northerners were conscripted into the Union Army, Lincoln realized a friendlier immigration policy might be the key to sustaining economic and military strength through the long years of war.
Harold Holzer, director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City and Chairman of the Lincoln Forum, discusses his new book Brought Forth on this Continent Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration, which delves into the role immigration played in killing the Whig party, building the republican party, and how Lincoln's views toward immigration changed during through his career and into the Civil War, when he attempted one of the first major overhauls of the American immigration system in U.S. history.
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36.B) LBJ's Great Society, an interview with Mark Updegrove
Lyndon Baines Johnson is one of the most legislatively accomplished presidents in American history - possibly the only president who actually did so much winning, people got tired of it. But how did he make legislating look so easy?
Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation and author of 5 books on the presidency, including Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, discusses the impact and legacy of LBJ's Great Society.
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36.A) LBJ & Vietnam, an interview with Mark Lawrence
Few presidents have a darker mark on their resume that LBJ's handling of the Vietnam war. Though overwhelmingly popular at first, the war divided the nation and broke Johnson's political power just 4 years later.
How did the United States get into Vietnam? Why didn't LBJ see what the American people saw as public opinion turned against it? And what can we learn from Johnson's handling of the war in Vietnam?
Mark Lawrence, director of the LBJ Presidential Library & Museum in Austin and author of The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era, discusses the legacy of LBJ's leadership of the Vietnam War.
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36.) Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969
"There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem." - Lyndon Baines Johnson, March 9, 1965
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Lyndon Baines Johnson was thrust into the presidency at a moment of tragedy - the public assassination of his predecessor. With the nation in panic, Congress in deadlock, and Civil Rights seemingly out of reach, the challenges were long, but Johnson used his mastery of the legislative process to overcome them. He may have gone down as one of the greats if not for the war that consumed his presidency, the war in Vietnam.
Bibliography
1. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream – Doris Kearns Goodwin
2. The Years of Lyndon Johnson and the Passage of Power – Robert Caro
3. Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency – Mark K Updegrove
4. The Vietnam War – Ken Burns (documentary)
5. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 – Robert Dallek
6. Richard Nixon: The Life – John Farrell
7. Eisenhower in War and Peace – Jean Edward Smith
8. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
Support the show
Customer Reviews
Abridged Presidential Histories
This is a very fine report on the life history of the Presidents. I am a history nerd, so of course, I am going to love it. For a solo effort-kudos!
The Jerry letters???
What happened to my favorite episode on Harding about the Jerry letters??? Never laughed so hard about presidential history but went to play it for a friend and couldn’t find. Bring back Jerry!!!
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