History, Natural History & the Arts
Pax Americana came into being over the course of fifteen weeks in 1947.
Within that brief period of time, President Harry S. Truman and a remarkable group of homegrown statesmen – George Marshall, Dean Acheson and George Kennan, foremost among them – reoriented American foreign policy from the perspective of an insular fortress to that of a global hegemon. [Read more…] about Elise Stefanik’s Last Crusade: Dishonoring American History
In 1946, New York and the nation were in the throes of what was generally being called “reconversion” – redeploying workers and the industrial base away from the largest war in U.S. history toward a peacetime economy.
A moment in time: on January 25, 1946, the venerable dreadnought U.S.S. New York (BB-34) slipped her moorings at Pier 26 in the North River, at the foot of Beach Street in Manhattan, bound for the Pacific. [Read more…] about In 1946, New York Sailed into Troubled Postwar Waters
Today the state of Minnesota is engaged in the first General Strike in nearly 80 years. There have been thousands of strikes in American history, but only about a dozen General Strikes. One of the first strikes took place in the city of New York in 1677. Afterward a dozen cart-men (one-horse cart operators) were criminally prosecuted “for not obeying the Command and Doing their Dutyes as becomes them in their Places” and fined.
About 80 strikes in the U.S. have involved over 100,000 workers. Here are 13 strikes every New Yorker should know about: [Read more…] about Strike! 13 Strikes Every New Yorker Should Know About
What follows is a speech given near the New York Central Railroad station in Syracuse, NY, by then President Harry S. Truman on October 10, 1952. Truman gave several speeches from the rear platform of his train as he campaigned for Democrats during the election of 1952, in which he himself did not run.
I am happy to be here today again. You gave me a wonderful reception four years ago, even if it was raining cats and dogs all the time I was here. [Read more…] about Harry Truman’s Remarks on Socialism in Syracuse, 1952
During the United States Supreme Court’s 1944-1945 term, the Justices heard three final days of oral arguments in the week that began on Monday, April 30, 1945. Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892 – 1954) missed some of these arguments. He might not have been fully prepared for those that he did attend. In that week, the Supreme Court work was not his primary concern.
Beginning on April 25, 1945, President Harry S. Truman had recruited Justice Jackson to represent the U.S. as its chief prosecutor, with allies, of the Nazi German leaders who were on the brink of being defeated militarily and captured. [Read more…] about Justice Robert Jackson & The American Legal Tradition
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt developed New Deal programs to hire unemployed men to work on public works projects. In the South, New Deal jobs typically provided higher wages than those in the private sector and under those programs black men were paid the same wage as white men. [Read more…] about FDR, The New Deal, And A Mass Lynching in Georgia
Seventy-five years ago on April 4, 1949, foreign ministers from the United States and 11 countries (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom) gathered in Washington, DC to sign the Washington Treaty.
Also known as the North Atlantic Treaty, the treaty derives its authority from Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which affirms the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense. [Read more…] about NATO History: A 75-Year Alliance
This week on the Historians Podcast, author Christopher C. Gorham discusses his biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman aide Anna Rosenberg, The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WW II and Shape Modern America (Citadel Press, 2023).
Anna Rosenberg was dubbed by Life magazine as “far and away the most important woman in the American government.” From New York City, Rosenberg devised a plan that helped diversify the ranks of factory workers during the Second World War. She also served as deputy defense secretary during the Korean War. [Read more…] about Anna Rosenberg: A Key Aide to FDR and Truman
The Seagle Festival will present the contemporary opera “Fellow Travelers” in Schroon Lake, NY August 3rd through 6th.
“Fellow Travelers” is set in the Washington, DC of the 1950s, as the anti-communist crusades of Richard Nixon, Joseph McCarthy and their ilk infiltrate and all but overwhelm every department, agency and office in government.
I can not help but reminded of my own family’s experience with “the Red Scare” during the administration of President Harry Truman. [Read more…] about The Red Scare: A Personal History
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