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Joan E. Cashin on Obama and Lincoln
This year is rich with historical milestones. The U.S. has elected its first African American president, which is significant, to say the least. Next year we observe the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth in Kentucky in 1809, and this year marks the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates during the Illinois Senate race.
President-elect [...]
Paul Finkelman on the election of Barack Obama
[Portions of this blog appeared on Huffington Post and the African American Studies Center of Oxford University Press and are published here with permission of OUP.]
Very few presidential elections change America. The elections of 1800, 1828, 1860, and 1932 come to mind as the most obvious examples of elections that truly transformed the nation. They [...]
In the News: Barack Obama's victory speech
November 4, 2008
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around [...]
In the News: John McCain's concession speech
November 4, 2008
My friends, we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly. A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Sen. Barack Obama—to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.
In a contest as [...]
Herb Johnson on "manuscript grubbing"
Some three decades ago I was dragged off to Disney World by my five-year-old daughter,
who wanted to sample the delights of the Magic Kingdom; even more pressing was my wife’s interest in underwater archeology. And so it was that I found myself wandering through the underwater treasure museum at Cape Canaveral, fascinated by the objects [...]
In the News: Presidential debates
Last night in New York, Barack Obama and John McCain participated in the third and final presidential debate of this 2008 election. The focus was on domestic issues, including the economy. The debate transcript can be seen here, at the Web site of the Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization that conducts the debates. For [...]
16Oct2008 | mdblogger | 7 comments | Continued
Spotlight: Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, was born on March 15, 1767, just south of the border between North and South Carolina. His birth marked the beginning of an extraordinarily eventful life. While an orphaned teenager, he was taken prisoner during the Revolutionary War, leading to a lifelong animosity toward the British. [...]
14Oct2008 | mdblogger | 1 comment | Continued
In the News: Vice-Presidential Debates
At first glance, yesterday’s vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin appears to have lacked any moments of historical importance. This, despite the fact that prior to the debate, political commentators noted that interest in the debate was unusually high. While most presidential historians would say that vice-presidential debates generally have very little if [...]
3Oct2008 | mdblogger | 0 comments | Continued
Chester Pach on Eisenhower and the Little Rock school crisis
Sometimes presidents take actions that surprise just about everybody, including themselves, and a good example is President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s decision fifty-one years ago to issue Executive Order 10730. Within hours after Eisenhower approved this document on September 24, 1957, U.S. Army troops arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas, to stop the violence that had prevented [...]
23Sep2008 | mdblogger | 1 comment | Continued
Karen Linkletter on political convention speeches
It is striking how many of the speeches at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions used language to appeal to “average working folks.” Both of the presidential candidates, as well as their vice presidential nominees, positioned themselves as typical, everyday Americans (when this is, of course, not the case for any of them).
I was [...]
