[Abridged] Presidential Histories

Americans have long had a complicated relationship with taxes. We don't like paying them, but we love the things they pay for. In the decades after World War II, both political parties agreed - taxes are worth it.
Then came Ronald Reagan and the anti-tax movement.
Michael Graetz, a Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale University and Columbia University and author of The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America, discusses how an American consensus was shattered and a new era of low taxation and deficit spending was begun, and the impact that era will have on Americans today and tomorrow.

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On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford pardoned recently-resigned president Richard Nixon of any crimes he may have committed in the presidency, and the pardon has never been the same since. Law Professor Kimberly Wehle, author of the new book Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works - and Why, discusses the origin and history of the presidential pardon and the danger its potential abuse poses to the future of democracy.

If you'd like to read more from Kim, check out her Substack at https://kimwehle.substack.com/

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Pandemics, political violence, partisans recognizable by the color of their hat - it may sound novel, but it's been with us practically since the beginning of the republic. Historian Lindsay Chervinsky, author of the new book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, discusses the wildly volatile John Adams administration (1797-1801) and the lessons it offers as we face our own modern political moment.

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"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem," - Ronald Reagan's inaugural address, January 20, 1981.

For the first 50 years after the onset of the Great Depression and the election of Franklin Roosevelt, the United States had been led by politicians who believed government held the power to make life better for the American people. Then came Ronald Reagan, one of the most talented political orators in American history. Follow along as Reagan rises from the great depression to realize his dreams in Hollywood, then takes his talents into politics, where he upends a half-century of big-government consensus and pivots the United States toward a small-government future.

Bibliography
1. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
2. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
3. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter
4. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
5.  Richard Nixon, the life – John A. Farrell

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When unemployment and inflation began to rise side by side in the 1970s, nobody knew what to do. Economic theory suggested it should have been impossible, and yet the numbers couldn't be denied. Stanford Historian Jennifer Burns, author of Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, discusses how American presidents of the 70's tried and failed to curb stagflation, what led Carter to Paul Volcker, and how Volcker's medicine may have saved the economy, but doomed Carter's presidency in the process.

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It's commonly accepted wisdom that presidents are less effective in their second terms, when the term limits of the 22nd amendment turn them into Lame Ducks who cannot be elected to office a third time.

But what if that common wisdom is wrong?

Former NYU economics professor William Silber, author of The Power of Nothing to Lose: The Hail Mary Effect in Politics, War and Business, argues that lame ducks only appear less effective because, with nothing left to lose, they pursue goals that are more ambitious and more difficult. And nothing-to-lose, gamble-it-all-on-the-win behavior can also be seen in presidential campaigns when candidates trail badly in the polls or fear a defeat will end their careers.

With two former presidents on the ballet this fall, Silber forecasts what to expect from the campaigns and potential administrations of the contendors.

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When Jimmy Carter won the presidency, his Democratic party held a 61-37 majority in the Senate and a 292-143 majority in the House. Why then, with such a clear governing majority, were his relations with Congress so poor, and his agenda so challenged?

Jonathan Alter, a long-time journalist and author of numerous books on the presidency, including His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life,  discusses how Carter's outsider status and a healthy heaping of luck swept him to the presidency, but betrayed him in the White House. 

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"The erosion of confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and political fabric of the nation," - Jimmy Carter, July 15, 1979

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Jimmy Carter may have been the luckiest presidential candidate and unluckiest president in American history. Chasing the presidency after Watergate and the pardon of Nixon had crushed American faith in its leaders, Carter's outsider message was the right note at the right time. But once in office, a combination of economic headwinds and international disasters doomed his administration. From Plains, Georgia, to the White House and back, follow along as Carter navigates southern politics and national disenchantment to try and set the nation on a path for the future.

Bibliography
1. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter
2. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
3. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
4. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
5. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House – John F. Harris

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From 1953 to 1969, the Supreme Court was a vanguard of progressive change for the United States. But then came Tricky Dick.
Michael Bobelian, author of Battle For The Marble Palace: Abe Fortas, Lyndon Johnson, Earl Warren, Richard Nixon and the Forging of the Modern Supreme Court, discusses how presidential candidate Richard Nixon and senate conservatives blocked LBJ's efforts to cement a progressive court for years to come and, in 3 short years, transformed the once liberal bastion into a conservative bulwark, forever changing how justices are nominated and confirmed in the United States.

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A 24-year career in Congress crested at a tumultuous time for Gerald Ford. He was the GOP leader of the house during the Nixon administration, then Nixon's VP, then the president who had to heal the country after Watergate. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum director Brook Clement discusses the crucible Ford walked as a national leader.

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