By Nancy Spannaus Aug. 7, 2019—On August 7, 1789 Congress approved legislation for the first public infrastructure project in the just-born United States—our lighthouses! The legislation created the U.S. Light House Establishment, and it mandated that state lighthouses be turned over to the Federal government, which was charged with managing […]
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race By Douglas Brinkley HarperCollins, New York City, 2019, 528pp. A review by Nancy Spannaus Aug. 3, 2019–“Many Americans make the mistake of assuming that space research has no value here on earth. Nothing could be further from the truth.” […]
By Nancy Spannaus July 11, 2019—On this 215th anniversary of the assassination of Alexander Hamilton, the sad truth is that very few will publicly mourn this leading patriot, the founder of the American System of political economy. Yes, moving tributes are being sponsored in New York City by the Alexander […]
By Nancy Spannaus July 4, 2019—There was perhaps no more ardent supporter of the Declaration of Independence than Abraham Lincoln. He saw the Declaration as the moral foundation of the nation, upon which the Constitution was based. Thus, no matter how much the United States population fell short of its […]
By Nancy Spannaus June 19, 2019—The seminal role of Mathew Carey (1760-1839) in promoting and advancing the American System of political economy is a long and important story, mostly obscured in the United States. In this post, I concentrate on re-introducing him, with emphasis on one crucial aspect which is […]
By Nancy Spannaus June 16, 2019—In my Internet scanning today, I happened to note that it is the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s famous “House Divided” speech, which was given at the Illinois State Republican Convention in 1858. This was the convention which nominated Lincoln to run against Stephen Douglass for […]
Learning from FDR’s Emergency Action By Nancy Spannaus June 11, 2019—The 2008-9 period of mass housing foreclosures may be over, but the housing crisis in the United States is not. Exorbitant prices in the nation’s major cities, along with burgeoning homelessness centered in many of those same locations, attest to […]
By Nancy Spannaus May 25, 2019—Rand Scholet, founder of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness (AHA) Society, gave an insightful presentation on Hamilton’s 25-year military career at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia yesterday. More chairs had to be brought it to accommodate the crowd, which grew to more than […]
By Nancy Spannaus May 20, 2019–George Washington’s “Grand Idea” of uniting the country through developing the Potomac River as the gateway to the West, was the subject of a lively book talk last night. Author Joel Achenbach spoke to a group of approximately 30 people about his book The Grand […]
Aug. 13, 2019—A group of citizens representing an ad hoc coalition for a National Infrastructure Bank went to Capitol Hill during the last week of August, to lobby for the enactment of a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB). The more than a dozen citizens included activists from Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, […]
“A thoughtful, well-written argument for Alexander Hamilton’s financial system as a guard against tyranny.” — Kirkus Reviews by Nancy Spannaus Aug. 8, 2019–The opening quote is the conclusion of the Kirkus review of Hamilton Versus Wall Street, which was released this evening, and is now posted on their website. Kirkus […]
Lincoln: What Makes a True American
By Bonnie James July 22, 2019–Abraham Lincoln gave the speech excerpted here, which came to be known as the “Electric Cord Speech,” as celebrations of the nation’s 82nd Independence Day were underway in 1858. Lincoln was then anticipating his Senate campaign against the “Little Giant,” Stephen A. Douglas. The famous […]