PowerPoint of "FDR and the Isolationists"

FDR and the Isolationists, 1919-1941

Today we looked at the decades between the World Wars (1919-1941) and we evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the foreign policy pursued (primarily by FDR) in an age of isolationism. Although Roosevelt at first largely continued the isolationist course of his Republican predecessors (whose policies also receive some attention here), his struggles against the isolationists after 1937 show him at his most clever, effective and (for some) infuriating. We will examine the charge that, in his diplomacy, he sometimes played fast and loose with the Constitution.

Click here for the vodcast in the iPod format

The Second New Deal and its Evaluation, 1935-1941

In this vodcast we compare the two New Deals, from the first 100 days through the reforms of 1935. We examine what the New Deal changed and preserved about America, and we analyze whether FDR could have achieved more given the obstacles to reform confronting him and the New Dealers.

Click here for vodcast in the Ipod format

From Hoover to FDR

The hapless Herbert Hoover was actually a progressive president in his response to the Great Depression-- compared to the previous presidents in their response to economic downturns. But he was swamped by his disgnosis of the depression, a diagnosis shared by all the experts. We detail the Hoover response and the Roosevelt alternative.

Click here for vodcast in the Ipod format

From the Great Depression to the New Deal

The economic problems of the 1920s and the causes of the Great Crash in 1929 are detailed here, using John Kenneth Galbraith's 1955 book as our principle source. We see how the politics of the 1920s also played a role in the coming of the Great Depression.

Click here for vodcast in the Ipod format

From the Politics of the 1920s to the Great Depression

in this vodcast we look at the urban-rural kulturkampf in America during the 1920s, including immigration restriction, the rise of the second KKK, and the political scene in the decade of Republican presidents and so-called "Nortmalcy." we look at how the spirit of progressivism was still alive but voiceless thanks to the urban-rural conflict.

Click here for vodcast in the Ipod format

Opponents of War and Radicalism at Home

How were opponents of the first World War treated and how did the war lead to a postwar Red Scare? These events colored the subsequent politics of the 1920s, and not in a good way. We look at these events in this recording.

Click here for vodcast in the Ipod format

War to End War: Woodrow Wilson's War, 1917-1919

The tragedy of Woodrow Wilson, progressive, idealist and war president is spotlighted in this vodcast. As Thomas A. Bailey remarked, Wilson commited the "supreme infanticide" with his destructive leadership over the fight for the League of Nations.

Click here for a vodcast of "Wilson's War" in the iPod format

America's Rise to Globalism, 1890-1917

The watershed decase of the 1890s was also a watershed in America's rise to imperial status. We look here at how new that change actually was (not that new, actually), and the controversy over whether America's rise to globalism carried benefits that were worth the cost.

Click here for vodcast in the Ipod format

The Progressives, Part Two

Here we look at the presidential Progressives, TR, Taft and Wilson, as well as Progressive foreign policy in Latin America. Did they carry the big stick for democracy in foreign policy and national affairs? The answer is that they did not as often as they did.

Click here for vodcast in the iPod format

The Progressives, Part One

The middle-class Progressives dominated all levels of American politics between 1900 and 1920, local, state and national. Here we look primarily at the first two levels, and the relationship between the Progressives and the city bosses. We look as well at the way in which the Progressives increased the power of each vote and persuaded the Supreme Court to prioritize human rights over property rights in its rulings for the first time since the Civil War.

Click here for vodcast in the Ipod format

The Populists: America's First Modern Reformers

Were the Populists right-wing cranks, crazy, or our first modern reformers? Hisotrians have offered these explanations and more for the market farmers who upended the political scene in the 1890s and who foreshadowed the coming of the progressives.

Click for vodcast in the Ipod format

The Politics of the Gilded Age

Why was the late nineteenth century an era of political deadlock? Elections were close and the presidency was a revolving door. But the political scene offers many clues as to the meaning of the Age of Excess.

Click here for a video podcast of the Gilded Age political scene, in the ipod format