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Prof. Greg Jackson

HTDS is a bi-weekly podcast, delivering a legit, seriously researched, hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories. To keep up with History That Doesn’t Suck news, check us out htdspodcast.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram: @Historythatdoesntsuck; on Twitter/X: @HTDSpod. Become a premium member to support our work, receive ad-free episodes and bonus episodes.

History That Doesn't Suck

"Too much praise cannot be given to the President for the prompt and resolute and skillful way in which he has set about reassuring the country after the financial collapse.” 

This is the story of Herbert Hoover’s facing the early years of the Great Depression.

Just after the stock market crash of 1929, people aren’t expecting the worst. Most, including the experts, believe that this little downturn will blow over with time, just like past economic troubles. Avoiding the word “panic,” President Herbert Hoover comes up with a new term meant to describe how minor this downturn will be. He calls it a “depression.” He also pushes volunteerism. Congress cuts taxes. The Fed cuts the discount rate. Americans feel they are in good hands.

But national productivity keeps going down. Unemployment keeps going up. Breadlines are getting longer and a drought has hit the heartland. Then major banks start going under, both in the US and abroad. Britain goes off the gold standard. As “Hoovervilles” spread and Great War vets march to DC, Bert Hoover—the famous “Master of Emergencies”—finds himself facing an economic challenge unlike any ever faced by a president.
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172: Breadlines, Bank Failures, & the Bonus Army: Hoover & the Early Great Depression

“First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

This is the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s journey to the White House.

Even as a young boy, Franklin admires his fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt and wants to follow in his footsteps. He seems to have a knack for it too. He attends the same schools. He serves in many of the same political positions. Even his failures only seemed to build his prestige. Ever congenial and likable, Franklin appears to have the world on a string.

Then the challenges arrive. Franklin’s affair rocks his and Eleanor’s marriage. Polio robs him of his physical strength, vigor, and ability to walk. As an independently wealthy Roosevelt, he has every excuse to fade into the background. 

But that isn’t who Franklin is. As Governor of New York, he’s as aggressive in fighting off the Great Depression as he is in fighting off the challenges of polio. Is he onto something? Is his “New Deal” what the nation needs? That’s a question for the American people to decide in 1932 as he runs for the White House.

Our gratitude to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum for its rich collection of speeches and other writings. Learn more at FDRlibrary.org.
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173: From Hyde Park to the White House: The Early Life and Election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“[We] had forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats. We were just a bunch of men trying to save the banking system.”

This is the story of FDR’s first 100 days in office. 

In early 1933, banks foreclose on thousands upon thousands of homes and farms every month. The banks have little choice–they too are failing! Meanwhile, unemployment is hovering near 25%. It’s a catastrophe. Capitalism itself and the American way of life appears to be on the precipice. 

Enter President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who calls an immediate “banking holiday” and an emergency session of Congress to face the hydra of crises sweeping the nation. During this 99-day congressional session that runs almost analogous to FDR’s first 100 days in the White House, they’ll pass 15 major pieces of legislation that create new organizations, regulations, and more with the hopes of getting the American people back on their feet. 

But how exactly, does Franklin navigate the divergent views, difficult personalities, and competing priorities to get this mountain of legislation through? That is precisely our story.
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174: The First “First Hundred Days:” FDR Kicks Off the New Deal

“I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet.”

This is the story of FDR’s first term after facing down the initial emergency. 

100 days down, about 1,300 more to go—for this term at least. After the whirlwind of new bills and “alphabet agencies” (AAA, CCC, etc.), the nation is adjusting to and examining FDR’s New Deal. As they do, the NIRA is upsetting both ends of the spectrum: company owners don’t love the Blue Eagle and regulations while workers are frustrated that their employers aren’t eager to see unionization in accordance with section 7(a). 

Meanwhile, back at the farm, devastating dust storms like “Black Sunday” are hammering the Great Plains and forcing many to flee to other states. Some migrants end up in California, where unionized dock workers and police are duking it out in San Francisco's “Bloody Thursday.” The president tries to set an example as a “Good Neighbor” in the Caribbean even as people erect signs that read, “Okie, go back. We don’t want you.” 

More time and a “Second” New Deal that is more progressive and Keynesian raises more serious questions: Is this really the correct economic course for recovery? And are some of these presidential actions even Constitutional? But despite the detractors, the decisive 1936 election proves that FDR is here to stay. 
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175: The Dirty Thirties (The New Deal pt. 2): Dust, Doubts, and the “Second” New Deal

“No matter how great and good a man may be, executive aggrandizement is not safe for democracy.”

This is the story of Franklin’s second term and his battle with the Supreme Court. 

It’s no secret that SCOTUS hasn’t really been ruling in the New Deal’s favor. But with such an overwhelming victory at the polls, Franklin feels confident that he can circumvent that by upping the number of judges from nine to fifteen and appointing people who see the vision. But what does the public make of it? What does Congress think? Is this court-packing plan a timely reform? Or is it a blatant disregard for the constitutional concept of checks and balances? 

It’s incredibly polarizing, so much so that members of Congress are willing to argue, filibuster, and even die over the bill. Literally. 

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176: FDR v. “The Nine Old Men” (The New Deal pt. 3): Court Packing and Closing the New Deal

A discussion of the recent HTDS narrative episodes on FDR and the New Deal. Think of it as a book club for additional insights into these latest chapters of the HTDS chronological story of America.

Professor Greg Jackson is joined by Professor Lindsey Cormack to discuss the government's response to the Great Depression and the legacy of the New Deal. They explore the causes of the Depression, the government's initial missteps, and the eventual successes of programs like the CCC.

The episode also features an interview between Professor Cormack and historian Neil Maher, who wrote a book about the CCC. They discuss the history of the CCC, its impact on the environment and the economy, and its legacy today.
 
Lindsey Cormack is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Stevens Institute of Technology and the former Director of the Diplomacy Lab. She is the creator of DCInbox, a comprehensive digital archive of Congress-to-constituent e-newsletters, and the author of How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It) and Congress and U.S. Veterans: From the GI Bill to the VA Crisis. 

Neil M. Maher is a Professor of History and Master Teacher in the Federated History Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University-Newark. He is an award-winning author, instructor, and public speaker interested in the environmental and political history of the United States. Maher’s scholarship and teaching explore how the natural environment has mediated power relationships between people over time. His most recent books include Apollo in the Age of Aquarius (Harvard University Press, 2017) and Nature’s New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement. 
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go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

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come see a live show

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HTDS is part of Audacy media network.
Interested in advertising on the podcast? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
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177: An Epilogue to the New Deal and CCC Deep Dive with Neil Maher

This is a conversation to kick off the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Retired U.S. Army Major General and history buff, Bill Rapp, drops some knowledge on how the colonies weren't exactly gung-ho for a full-blown revolution before April 1775. Turns out, they were mostly ticked off and feeling rebellious in response to intolerable British policies. But a tense situation and an itchy trigger finger set it off.

The episode covers the action-packed Battles of Lexington and Concord, George Washington taking charge of the Continental Army, the intense Battle of Bunker Hill (which was actually fought on Breed's Hill), and the clever move at Dorchester Heights that sent the British packing from Boston.

William “Bill” Rapp is a retired Major General of the United States Army with 33 years of distinguished service which included combat deployments in three wars, two Defense Service Medals, two Bronze Star Medals, Master Parachutist and Ranger tabs. He was not only a respected Army officer, but also a leadership developer who served as Commandant of the Army War College and Commandant of Cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point. 

In over 42 months in combat, Bill led an airborne engineer company in the first Gulf War, commanded a 3,000-soldier brigade in the Iraq War, served as General Petraeus' personal assistant during the Iraq Surge, and commanded over 17,000 troops supplying all resource needs of the 160,000 U.S. and international force in Afghanistan in 2011-12. He also served as the Army's senior liaison to the U.S. Congress.

Bill holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University and is the author of the book about the Boston Campaign of the American Revolutionary War titled Accomplishing the Impossible: Leadership That Launched Revolutionary Change. He now consults and teaches on leadership and is working on his second book on Sioux and Cheyenne leadership at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

join discussions in our Facebook community

get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

come see a live show

get HTDS merch

or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.
Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
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America 250: The Boston Campaign 1775-76: A Leadership Discussion with Gen. William Rapp

“I felt no distress whatever…I was perspiring freely and was as limber and helpless as a wet rag. It was an exhilarating experience.... It was then and there that I first conceived the idea of the reclamation of the desert.”

This is the story of the Hoover Dam. 

A wild, precarious, and dangerous river, the Colorado tears across the American southwest’s otherwise arid and largely uninhabitable desert. Yet, if tamed, the Colorado could reclaim countless acres; it could provide sustenance and hydroelectricity for untold millions! But that’s the catch: “if.”

From a dehydrated mirage in 1849, to the outgrowth of an overwhelmed canal in the early twentieth-century Imperial Valley, this is the unlikely tale of the dreamers; government officials; a consortium of six construction companies, blandly called “Six Companies; Frank “Hurry Up Crow; and the 21,000 workers—over 100 of whom will wind up dead—who defied the odds and pushed engineering to new heights to “make the desert bloom.” 

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HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

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178: “A Damn Big Dam”: Taming the Colorado River with the Hoover (or Boulder) Dam (Infrastructure pt. 1)

“Everybody says it can’t be done.”

This is the story of San Francisco’s two great bridges. 

The bustling cities of Oakland and San Francisco are separated by less than ten miles of water, but for early twentieth-century Bay Area residents, it may as well be thirty—that’s the distance traveling around the Bay. Meanwhile, the mile of water across the Golden Gate Strait makes communities directly north of San Francisco likewise inaccessible. Bridges across both stretches of water would change the game entirely, but between harsh winds, thick fog, strong currents, and over 300 feet deep water—to say nothing of earthquakes—crowded ferries seem to be the only even-if-imperfect answer. 

Or so they did. 

From deep-sea divers to catwalking “bridge monkeys,” from deeply-driven caissons to high rising towers, miles of cables, and deadly accidents–this is the tale of the unyielding dreamers and doers who pushed the bounds of engineering in the midst of the Great Depression to bridge the San Francisco’s Golden Gate Strait and Bay. 

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

 
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

 
join discussions in our Facebook community

 
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

 
come see a live show

 
get HTDS merch

 
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
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179: Bridging the Bay: San Francisco’s Golden Gate and Bay Bridges (Infrastructure pt. 2)

“If this is to be a skyscraper… why not make it scrape the sky.” 

This is the story of the race for the tallest building in New York City—in the world. 

Erstwhile partners-turned-bitter rivals, architects William Van Alen and Craig Severance are both looking to build the tallest skyscraper in New York City. William is working with automobile titan Walter Chrysler to build his Chrysler Building; Craig is working with George Ohrstrom, a.k.a., the “Boy Wonder” of Wall Street”, to build the Manhattan Company Building at 40 Wall Street. It’s a battle of engineering, wits, zoning, and egos, as each alters their plans with money being no object in the fight to construct the taller (and tallest) skyscraper in the world.

But as these two rival teams duke it out, the city’s beloved Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on 5th Avenue is going under. Something new is rising there—something that just might prove a late entry and dark horse winner in this race with… a mooring mast for airships at the top? Yes—the proposed Empire State Building is threatening to blow this race out of the water and change New York City’s skyline forever.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

 
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

 
join discussions in our Facebook community

 
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

 
come see a live show

 
get HTDS merch

 
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
 
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180: “A Race to the Sky”: The Rise of New York City’s Chrysler, Manhattan Company, and Empire State Buildings

“May God Almighty forgive her murderers as I know she forgave them. I never can.”
This is the story of a democratizing America. John Quincy Adams barely has his presidency off the ground and Andrew Jackson’s “common man” crew is already starting his presidential campaign. This election gets ugly fast as each side tells lies so vicious it’s possible they cause or contribute to Rachel Jackson’s death! After Andrew’s rambunctious inauguration, the now widower president stands up for the honor of Mrs. Margaret “Peggy” Eaton in the “Petticoat Affair,” and lets South Carolinians sounding off about states’ rights over some tariffs know that “disunion ... is treason.”
Too bad Old Hickory can’t completely quell that secession spirit … Finally, we end on a hard note as the Jackson Administration’s support of Indian removal results in the “trail of tears.” We’ll get the full story, but for a short description, I can’t do better than historian Jon Meacham. I’ll let him say it: “Not all great presidents were always good.”
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go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

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come see a live show

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or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

 
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28: Ushering in the Age of Jackson

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