(The following essay was written as a submission to a contest sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, in which contestants were to address how Hamilton had affected their lives. This essay came in second. I republish it because it will give you a sense of my orientation in running […]
Up From Obscurity: The Influence of Lincoln’s Early Life on His Thought and Politics (The following speech was presented on Feb. 11, 2018 by Michael Lynch, director of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.. The venue was a meeting of MOLLUS, the Military […]
By Rochelle Ascher A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1 1809-1849 By Sidney Blumenthal Simon & Schuster, 2016, 576 pp Feb. 10, 2018–As someone who has made the study of Abraham Lincoln a major part of my adult life, I can say that this book is one […]
By Nancy Spannaus Feb. 2, 2018–It’s headline news these days that dozens of incumbent Congressmen are retiring for what they say are the rewards of “private life.” What are we to make of this rush to the exits? There is no question but that things are insane and dysfunctional in […]
A Book Review Bobby Kennedy, A Raging Spirit Chris Matthews Simon & Schuster, 2017, 352 pp. by Angela Vullo Jan. 29, 2018—My purpose in this review, like that of author Matthews, is to address the question of Robert F. Kennedy’s true identity in American politics. I believe that Matthews, proceeding […]
by Nancy Spannaus Jan. 25, 2018—The Jan. 22 leak of an outline of President Trump’s national infrastructure plan, which he says he will announce at his Jan. 30 State of the Union address, has amped up the national discussion on infrastructure funding. On Jan. 24, the President told a […]
By Nancy Spannaus Jan. 10, 2018—One test of an individual’s genius is the enduring quality and validity of his or her ideas, lasting from one generation to the next. A Leonardo, a Beethoven, an Einstein—to cite just a few examples—produced insights and beauty which have borne fruit, and inspired many […]
By Nancy Spannaus Dec. 27, 2017–There was chilling news for Americans earlier this month, when the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics put out its latest report on life expectancy in the United States. For the second year in a row, life expectancy declined. A look at the details shows […]
By Nancy Spannaus Dec. 12, 2017—Ask any professional economist, or Congressman for that matter, about why the United States is facing a hundreds of billions of dollars deficit in basic infrastructure, and he will tell you that we “don’t have the money.” But how could that be true? Trillions of […]
By Nancy Spannaus June 16, 2019—Today, this blog turns two years old. Over the past two years, we have published 333 posts, ranging from reprints of key historic documents, to in-depth analyses of FDR’s New Deal and war mobilization, to more pithy analyses of current economic developments from the standpoint […]
by Nancy Spannaus June 15, 2019–In their June 12 column in Wall Street on Parade, Pam and Russ Martens reviewed the scandal of the century—the fact that the Federal Reserve has bailed out Wall Street to the tune of $27 trillion since the crash of 2008-9. They concluded, appropriately, with […]
U.S. Drug Epidemic: The Time is Out of Joint
By Angela Vullo March 4, 2018–When parents and grandparents are attending nonstop funerals for their children and grandchildren, something in our society has gone awry. As Shakespeare put it, “The time is out of joint.” It reflects some major dislocation in our country, and it’s time we got to […]