10 American Presidents Podcast

Roifield Brown

From Washington to Obama, 10 American Presidents a podcast narrated by guest hosts. The life and legacy of an American President. Each show is intercut with music and where possible archive news clips or dramatisations to set a feeling of place and time.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Society & CultureSociety & Culture

Episodes

EP:7 - United States presidential election, 1964
28-02-2016
EP:7 - United States presidential election, 1964
The United States presidential election of 1964 was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Democratic candidate and incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had come to office less than a year earlier following the assassination of his predecessor John F. Kennedy. Johnson, who had successfully associated himself with Kennedy's popularity, won 61.1% of the popular vote, the highest won by a candidate since James Monroe's re-election in 1820. It was the most lopsided US presidential election in terms of popular votes; and the sixth-most lopsided presidential election in the history of the United States[2] in terms of electoral votes. No candidate for president since has equaled or surpassed Johnson's percentage of the popular vote, and only Richard Nixon in 1972 has won by a greater popular vote margin.The Republican candidate, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, suffered from a lack of support from his own party and his deeply unpopular conservative political positions. Johnson's campaign advocated a series of anti-poverty programs collectively known as the Great Society, and successfully portrayed Goldwater as being a dangerous extremist. Johnson easily won the Presidency, carrying 44 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.Goldwater's unsuccessful bid influenced the modern conservative movement and the long-time realignment within the Republican Party, which culminated in the 1980 presidential victory of Ronald Reagan. His campaign received considerable support from former Democratic strongholds in the Deep South and was the first Republican campaign to win Georgia in a presidential election. Conversely, Johnson won Alaska for the Democrats for the first (and only) time, as well as Maine (for the first time since 1912) and Vermont (for the first time since the Democratic Party was founded). Since 1992, Vermont and Maine have rested solidly in the Democratic column for presidential elections, and Georgia has remained in the Republican presidential fold since 1996.No post-1964 Democratic presidential candidate has been able to match or better Johnson's performance in the electoral college (the only Republicans to do so since have been Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984), or Johnson's performance in the Mountain and Midwestern regions of the United States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ep:9 The Monroe Doctrine - Zack Twamley - When Diplomacy Fails
31-03-2016
Ep:9 The Monroe Doctrine - Zack Twamley - When Diplomacy Fails
The Monroe Doctrine was a U.S. foreign policy regarding domination of the Americas in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonise land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. The Doctrine was issued in 1823 at a time when nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved or were at the point of gaining independence from the Portuguese and Spanish Empires. The United States, working in agreement with Great Britain, wanted to guarantee that no European power would move in. President James Monroe first stated the doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress. The term "Monroe Doctrine" itself was coined in 1850. By the end of the 19th century, Monroe's declaration was seen as a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States and one of its longest-standing tenets. It would be invoked by many U.S. statesmen and several U.S. presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and many others. The intent and impact of the Monroe Doctrine persisted with only minor variations for more than a century. Its stated objective was to free the newly independent colonies of Latin America from European intervention and avoid situations which could make the New World a battleground for the Old World powers, so that the United States could exert its own influence undisturbed. The doctrine asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, for they were composed of entirely separate and independent nations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ep:10 Andrew Jackson - FT Fusco - Giants of History
23-05-2016
Ep:10 Andrew Jackson - FT Fusco - Giants of History
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He was born near the end of the colonial era, somewhere near the then-unmarked border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family of relatively modest means. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson, whose family supported the revolutionary cause, acted as a courier. At age 13, he was captured and mistreated by his British captors. He later became a lawyer. He was also elected to Congressional office, first to the U.S. House of Representatives and twice to the U.S. Senate. In 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, which became his political as well as military base. He owned hundreds of slaves who worked on the Hermitage Plantation. In 1806, he killed a man in a duel over a matter of honor regarding his wife Rachel. He gained national fame through his role in the War of 1812, most famously where he won a decisive victory over the main British invasion army at the Battle of New Orleans, albeit some weeks after the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed (unbeknownst to the combatants).[1] In response to conflict with the Seminole in Spanish Florida, he invaded the territory in 1818. This led directly to the First Seminole War and the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, which formally transferred Florida from Spain to the United States. After winning election to the Senate, Jackson decided to run for president in 1824. Although he won more electoral votes and more of the popular votes than any of the other three major candidates, he lost in the House of Representatives to John Quincy Adams, supposedly by a "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Speaker of the House Henry Clay, who was also a candidate. Jackson's supporters then founded what became the Democratic Party. He ran again in 1828 against Adams. Building on his base in the West and with new support from Virginia and New York, he won by a landslide. He blamed the death of his wife, Rachel, which occurred just after the election, on the Adams campaigners, who called her a "bigamist". As president, Jackson faced a threat of secession by South Carolina over the "Tariff of Abominations", which Congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his immediate successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union or to nullify federal law. The Nullification Crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and Jackson threatened the use of military force if South Carolina (or any other state) attempted to secede. In anticipation of the 1832 election, Congress, led by Clay, attempted to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States four years before the expiration of its charter. In keeping with his platform of economic decentralization, Jackson vetoed the renewal of its charter, thereby seemingly putting his chances for reelection in jeopardy. However, by portraying himself as the defender of the common person against wealthy bankers, he was able to defeat Clay in the election that year. He thoroughly dismantled the bank by the time its charter expired in 1836. His struggles with Congress were personified in his personal rivalry with Clay, whom Jackson deeply disliked and who led the opposition of the emerging Whig Party. Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the "spoils system" in American politics. He is also known for having signed the Indian Removal Act, which relocated a number of native tribes in the South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Jackson supported his vice president Martin Van Buren's successful presidential campaign in 1836. He worked to bolster the Democratic Party and helped his friend James K. Polk win the 1844 presidential election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ep:12 The United States presidential election of 1948 - David Pietrusza and Adam Vonnahme
23-07-2016
Ep:12 The United States presidential election of 1948 - David Pietrusza and Adam Vonnahme
The United States presidential election of 1948 was the 41st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1948. Incumbent President Harry S. Truman, the Democratic nominee, who had succeeded to the presidency after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, successfully ran for election for a full term against Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican nominee.The election is considered to be the greatest election upset in American history. Virtually every prediction (with or without public opinion polls) indicated that Truman would be defeated by Dewey. The Democratic Party had a severe three-way ideological split, with both the far left and far right of the Party running third-party campaigns. Truman's surprise victory was the fifth consecutive presidential win for the Democratic Party, the longest winning streak in the history of the party, and second-longest in the history of both modern parties (surpassed only by the Republicans' six consecutive victories from 1860 to 1880). With simultaneous success in the 1948 congressional elections, the Democrats regained control of both houses of Congress, which they had lost in 1946. Truman's feisty campaign style energised his base of traditional Democrats, consisting of most of the white South, as well as Catholic and Jewish voters; he also surprisingly fared well with Midwestern farmers. Thus, Truman's election confirmed the Democratic Party's status as the nation's majority party. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ep: 17 Teddy Roosevelt Q and A with David Pietrusza
21-04-2018
Ep: 17 Teddy Roosevelt Q and A with David Pietrusza
Steve VGuerra Given that it was a definitely possible that McKinley could have survived, what would have happened to TR?It’s hard not to think that TR would be against some domestic tenants of the Trump administration as he was against Trusts and pro conservation is his reputation as a Trust Buster deserved?Joe Jamsky I mostly just want to know how racist, and religious every president was, his impact on Natives and such?New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes was potentially a candidate to follow TR in 1908 who shared Roosevelt's progressivism, but Roosevelt disliked him and considered him to be too independent, why?The 1912 primaries represented the first extensive use of the presidential primary, why was this important for the progressive movement?Why did TR run as a third party candidate in 1912?Brent Hamoud What role did Elliot play?Niall Gargan I'd be interested to know a bit more about TR's relationship with FDR. Mostly looking at the reason why they are from opposing political parties. I know the old story that FDR ran as a Democrat simply because he said they asked to run for them in the state senate. I'm wondering how true this is or if the two family factions had a bigger part. I would have thought that FDR would have followed the same political ideology or had TR's troubles with the Republican Party in latter year dissuaded him from joining them?James R. Early If Roosevelt had survived long enough to run for president in 1920, do you think he would have won?If he had won in 1920 would he have continued the US isolationist policy after WW1?Joe Jamsky I would be curious to know if Roosevelt said anything interesting about the second amendment?Joe Jamsky Which president would win a WWE royal rumble?Brent Hamoud have we overlooked TR’s mind?Adam Vonnahme When was he happiest?Adam Vonnahme What was his legacy? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.