History, Natural History & the Arts
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
The new book A Notable Bully: Colonel Billy Wilson, Masculinity, and the Pursuit of Violence in the Civil War Era (Kent State University Press, 2021) by Robert E. Cray is the substantial biography of a Civil War scoundrel and streetwise politico. [Read more…] about Colonel Billy Wilson: A Notable New York Bully
Sing along with me to the tune of a familiar nursery rhyme song.
Everywhere that Burleigh went, Burleigh went, Burleigh went – everywhere that Burleigh went the press was sure to follow.
The press followed H.G. Burleigh, a 19th century State Assemblyman, Congressman and political power broker from Whitehall and Ticonderoga, because reporters knew there would always be an entertaining story that more often than not came with a nugget of breaking news. [Read more…] about Henry Burleigh, Benjamin Harrison’s Peacock Feather & Political Reporting
Trivia clue: A First Lady who was a member of the Nyack (New York) Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Correct response: Who is Florence Harding? [Read more…] about Some New York Political History Trivia
This week on The Historians Podcast, the trials of Burr and Trump. Does the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump recall Aaron Burr’s acquittal in an 1807 treason trial? [Read more…] about Trials of Burr and Trump (Historians Podcast)
Trivia clue: He was reportedly the first New York governor to address contestants of a New York spelling bee.
Correct response: Who is Nathan Miller? On August 19th, 1922, The Post-Star of Glens Falls reported that Miller would speak September 12th at a dinner at the New York State Fair for contestants in the state spelling bee. [Read more…] about Humorous Reporting About Historic Politicians
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
Jill Lepore’s book, If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future (Liveright, 2020) is an account of the Cold War origins of the data-obsessed, algorithmic twenty-first century.
Launched in 1959 by some of the nation’s leading social scientists, the Simulmatics Corporation mined data, targeted voters, manipulated consumers, destabilized politics, and disordered knowledge ― decades before Facebook, Google, and Cambridge Analytica. [Read more…] about Historian Jill Lepore On Data Mining and Voter Manipulation
When in doubt, take a dinner break.
That was the strategy for reaching unanimity in 1888 at New York’s 18th Congressional District nominating convention.
And the strategy worked, although some of the politicians from Washington and Rensselaer counties may have eaten crow, so to speak. [Read more…] about Schaghticoke’s Congressman: John A. Quackenbush
Albany was a busy place on New Year’s Day 1883, the day of a collegial turnover of power from a Republican to a Democrat who had won election by an 11-percentage-point margin. [Read more…] about Grover Cleveland’s Albany Inauguration for Governor
Before President Trump retreated to Mar-a-Lago, the pundits were debating whether he would — or could, legally — pardon himself for any misdeeds committed in or out of office. Although he’s gone from the White House, the issue is not moot. [Read more…] about Presidential Pardon Power: What The Founders Thought
Donald Trump’s recent impeachment trial in which the President was accused of incitement of insurrection against the United States recalls to mind a case from more than 200 years ago.
In that case another New York politician, former Vice President Aaron Burr, whose personality was arguably not dissimilar from Donald Trump, was tried and acquitted of treason in 1807. [Read more…] about Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason