PODCAST: HISTORY UNPLUGGED
J. Edgar Hoover’s 50-Year Career of Blackmail, Entrapment, and Taking Down Communist Spies
John Hancock's role in the American Revolution was pivotal before the war actually began. In contrast to most of the other prominent revolutionary leaders, Hancock did not have the gift of the pen, and was not a great speaker. But because of his personal connections through the House of Hancock, he…
Patrick Henry, above any accomplishments before or after the Revolutionary War, is known for his "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" Speech. The speech was given when Henry and the other members of the Virginia convention decided to meet in March 1775 at St. John’s Church in Richmond. This…
On 15 January 1783, General George Washington stood before his officers in a moment of crisis. His men had toiled and suffered for months with little pay, and Congress did not appear willing to ante-up. Washington could sense the growing possibility of mutiny. In a basic wooden structure that the…
The columnist George Will wrote in 1992 that, “There is an elegant memorial in Washington to Jefferson, but none to Hamilton. However, if you seek Hamilton’s monument, look around. You are living in it. We honor Jefferson, but live in Hamilton’s country, a mighty industrial nation with a strong central…
Few figures in American history are studied or debated as frequently as Thomas Jefferson. A colleague once remarked that American history and American politics are simple: you are either a Jeffersonian or a Hamiltonian. He might be right. Little has changed in two hundred years. Modern political ideology has blended…
Thomas Jefferson described John Adams as irritable and vain and a “bad calculator of the force and probable effect of the motives which govern men.” On the surface, he was in almost every conceivable way the antithesis of Jefferson, though the two would find common ground later in life. They…
James Madison is perhaps the most enigmatic of the Founders. Patrick Henry called him a “theoretic statesman,” a slap at Madison’s character and reclusive nature. One Spanish ambassador said Madison was “full of subterfuges, evasion, and subtleties. . . . ” Another contemporary described him as “studious” and “the master…
Other than George Washington, Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American of his generation. Any noteworthy activity in Philadelphia had his fingerprints, including the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Franklin was a philanthropist, entrepreneur, scientist, philosopher, diplomat, statesman, printer, and reluctant patriot whose morals and social activities…
“Samuel Adams is a beer.” This response appeared on countless essay exams given by instructors of American history. While funny, it typifies what most Americans know about Samuel Adams; very little, if anything. Yet, Samuel Adams has been one of the more controversial and debated figures in American history. Some…
“Place your John Hancock on that line.” We have all heard that phrase dozens of times, but you may have asked, who is John Hancock? Hancock was a wealthy merchant, a patriot, a president of the Continental Congress, a governor of Massachusetts, and a mild Anti-Federalist. He has been described…
