By Nancy Spannaus March 17, 2020—The United States, and its predecessor colonies, have ample historical precedents for taking aggressive action to protect public health. It’s high time we put appropriate modern versions into effect. One of the first significant actions came during the Revolutionary War itself. The Continental Army had […]
By Pamela Lowry General Washington Enters New York City as the British Troops End their Seven-Year Occupation On November 25, 1783, General George Washington received the final word from Sir Guy Carleton that the last of the British troops would be withdrawn from New York City. It had been a […]
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 […]
By Nancy Spannaus Feb. 27, 2019—February 25 was the anniversary of a momentous event in American history—George Washington’s signing of the bill establishing the Bank of the United States. This action was crucial to establishing a government-backed source of national credit and a uniform currency in the United States, and […]
By Nancy Spannaus Feb. 22, 2019—George Washington deserves to be celebrated in his own right, but I am going to devote this brief Washington’s Birthday post to the Washington-Hamilton alliance. The two men shared a vision of developing this vast country into a strong continental republic, committed to the “blessings […]
American Dialogue: The Founders and Us, by Joseph J. Ellis. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018. 283 pp. Reviewed by Edward Spannaus , November 29, 2018 This is both an ambitious and a provocative book. Joseph Ellis, who taught college-level American history for decades, takes the major debates among the […]
By Nancy Spannaus Oct. 2, 2018—Two of our greatest Presidents—George Washington and Abraham Lincoln—chose October 3 to issue proclamations for a national Day of Thanksgiving, to be held late in November. The settings in which they took this action couldn’t have been more different. Washington’s came in 1789, a relatively […]
By Nancy Spannaus Sept. 19, 2018—The quotation that forms the headline of this post comes from George Washington’s letter to “the people of the United States,” subsequently known as his Farewell Address.[1] That letter was published in the American Daily Advertizer (a Philadelphia newspaper) on September 19, 1796 as an […]
By Nancy Spannaus* Oct. 14, 2020—The Oct. 2 release of Arthur Wilmarth’s new book calling for a new Glass-Steagall law is timely, and critical. Unfortunately, it is not clear that the relevant political figures are yet prepared to listen. Wilmarth’s book is entitled Taming the Megabanks: Why We Need a […]
September 19, 2020–I am pleased to announce that on September 23, I will challenge the myths about Alexander Hamilton in a lecture sponsored by the Treasury Historical Association (THA). My talk, addressed to the Treasury group via internet platform, will be based on my 2019 book Hamilton Versus Wall Street: […]
What Would George Washington Have Done?
By Nancy Spannaus May 2, 2020—The upsurge of public demonstrations against the public health measures being taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 – and even denouncing them as “tyranny” — triggered this question in my mind: What would George Washington have done in the face of such resistance? General […]