Larry Glickman
@larryglickman
Historian at Cornell University and author, most recently, of FREE ENTERPRISE: AN AMERICAN HISTORY. Working on a history of backlash politics in the United States, from Reconstruction to the present.
Only 70 years ago, a white Virginia librarian was arrested for sitting next to a Black person at a public political meaning in Arlington, VA.
In spite of it being nearly four decades into the New Deal Order by 1971, Powell had a hard time comprehending a mixed economy that would not, in slippery slope fashion, tend toward totalitarianism.
From Lewis F. Powell Jr.'s famous 1971 Memo to the US Chamber of Commerce. Powell was concerned that young people were attracted to attacks on "the free enterprise system." Notably, today it is rare to hear even democratic socialists talk about the "socialization of basic U.S. industries."
I imagine that they'll discuss the legacy of C. Vann Woodward's 1955 book and his argument about the "Mississippi Plan" in his 1951, ORIGINS OF THE NEW SOUTH, 1877-1913.
This is from the start of the Obama/Gladwell podcast on Reconstruction. I'm looking forward to listening, mostly because of the excellent set of historians who appear. I hope in the course of the series, they do more to distinguish between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow.
In 1991, William Rusher, who had recently stepped down as publisher of National Review, claimed that many conservatives opposed Pat Buchanan’s “American First” policies. I wonder if the same is true in the era of Trumpism?
Obviously, Buchanan put forward here a conservative wish list, but it is notable that 4 (which says that judges and justices should be reconfirmed every 8 years) and 5 (which allows Congress to override Supreme Court decisions) focused on constraining the power of the Courts.
In 1988, Pat Buchanan, unhappy with the direction of the Supreme Court (although at that time 6 of the Justices were GOP appointees), proposed a massive remaking of the Court, called for "selective civil disobedience" against "evil" laws, and sought to "diminish the power of unelected judges."
I've been warned by @gregsargent.bsky.social about amplifying these things, but at one point on Ross Douthat's podcast Rod Dreher, who graduated from LSU as a journalism major in 1989, claims that "leading universities" have "become woke madrassas." Douthat responds by saying the following:
It’s been fascinating and thrilling over the last 3 weeks to witness a bird (I think, Robin) build a nest on our front porch ceiling fan. This am, for the first time, I witnessed the babies stick their mouths out above the top of the nest as they expectantly waited for food, which soon arrived.
IMO, the Times too often centers some stories around Trump’s putative emotions (he’s “furious”) and frequently frames other articles on the basis of what Trump said (“he describes”). But in this lede Tyler Pager does both.
This argument by Tom Edsall has been made for well more than half a century. You could read nearly identical analyses in the 1960s. This must be a very slow-motion “takeover.”
Finally, I'm not exactly sure what evidence Vance is adducing to make this claim about "the men who won the Second World War." Of course, soldiers had many motivations. But the "Four Freedoms" and the "Double V" campaign were certainly big motivators for many soldiers (and civilians) too.
Would like to know more about the specifics of his argument that regionally "divergent interpretations of the Civil War are simply `part of the complicated diversity of the United States'," and, what if any, role Reconstruction plays in his narrative.
This celebration of Confederate "tragic heroism" can, I think, be read as an example of how "the forces of reconciliation overwhelmed the emancipationist vision", to quote from @dblight.bsky.social's RACE AND REUNION.
Significantly, Trump’s “1776 Commission” report also did not include the word “Reconstruction.” Note the use of passive voice (“Constitutional amendments were passed”) and the seeming implication that this period marked a “denial of core American principles.”
I was researching something totally unrelated (from the Pampa Texas Daily News in 1948) but now I really want to find out why Sarah left Mac, whether she returned, and whether Mac was, in fact, good to her, if she did.
Important to prioritize Trump’s Reaction to the Balogun Reinstatement.
Back when politicians were gave speeches in Opera Houses, Rep. John Bingham in 1872, at perhaps the high point of Reconstruction, argued that the period from 1860-1872 “constitute an epoch” analogous to the Founding era, with a “vindicated and amended Constitution“ that ensured ”equal rights.”
As an American history professor, I regularly read new books, articles, and dissertations, and also evaluate unpublished manuscripts for journals and book publishers. I would not categorize the recent and emerging historiography in the binary way that Ezra Klein does.
Around the same time as Russell, Senator John Stennis, in a major Senate floor speech, offered a similar assessment of JFK's proposed bill: it is "punitive and oppressive and it far exceeds any of the vicious plans devised by Thaddeus Stevens in Reconstruction Days.”
A year earlier, after JFK proposed what became the Civil Rights Act, Sen Richard Russell responded by saying: "This is the most viciously sadistic, monstrous suggestion made since the Reconstruction….This can only lead the country to totalitarianism."
In response to Justice Arthur Goldberg's claim that "equality and liberty were the 'twin themes' of the American Revolution," Thurmond said, "Nothing could be further from the fact" and called it a "widespread illusion."
A throughline to the upcoming July 4th celebrations is that critics of the civil rights bill tried decenter the preamble of Declaration of Independence. In his lengthy floor speech opposing the CRA, Strom Thurmond was annoyed by "the mystical preoccupation with equality."
OTD in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Here is a photo of LBJ handing a pen to Martin Luther King, Jr, at the signing ceremony. As the caption says, this was "the strongest civil rights legislation since Reconstruction Days."