In The Past Lane - The Podcast About History and Why It Matters

The Pit Stop is a weekly mini-episode from In The Past Lane, the podcast about history and why it matters. Every Monday, The Pit Stop tells you what happened in American history this week - in just about 5 minutes. We drop these minis in between our full-length episodes that feature interviews with historians about their latest books, feature pieces, and more. 

For more information about the In The Past Lane podcast, head to our website, www.InThePastLane.com 

Production Credits for The Pit Stop

Original music and Voice Over by Devyn McHugh 

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions, "Pat Dog" via the Free Music Archive 

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

This week at In The Past Lane, the American History podcast, I speak with historian Joshua Specht, author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America. It's a fascinating history of the beef industry and how it changed not just America's diet, but also its culture and politics. Beef was not always a centerpiece of the US diet. Prior to the Civil War, the most common meat source was pork. But after the Civil War, as white migrants, the railroads, and the US Army spread out across the Great Plains, cattle ranching emerged as a major industry. Over time, as entrepreneurs and investors figured out how to get cattle from Texas onto the Great Plains, then to the great slaughterhouse operations in Chicago, and then how to move large slabs of beef to regional wholesalers, who then sold to local butchers, who in turn sold retail cuts of beef to local customers, beef became affordable and widely available. Americans came to expect beef several times a week. So, too, did immigrants, who wrote letters home to their homelands in Europe extolling America as a place of freedom, opportunity, and beef. Today, even though beef consumption has declined by about one third since the mid-1970s, Americans still consume more red meat than any nation in the world.

In the course of our conversation Joshua Specht explains:

How beef went from a special occasion food that was raised locally, to an everyday staple produced by a vast, national market.

How dispossessing Native Americans of their land was a crucial early step in the formation of a booming beef industry.

How that process relied not on plucky pioneers, but rather the raw power of the federal government via the US military and support for a national railroad network.

How and why massive, heavily capitalized industrial ranching in the Gilded Age failed, causing investors to shift capital to the meat processing industry, centered in Chicago.

How as beef became cheap and plentiful in the late 19th century, it became a key cultural marker for white middle-class success, especially along immigrants to the US.

The emergence of the four great beef packing companies, including Swift and Armour, and how they used new technology and government policy to revolutionize their industry.

How the insistence on low prices led the beef packers to ruthlessly exploit their workers, a process famously chronicled by Upton Sinclair in The Jungle.

How one of the great challenges today is to reconnect the costs of low beef prices to the conditions that make them possible – exploited workers, government subsidies, and environmental damage.

Recommended reading:

Joshua Specht, Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America (Princeton University Press)

James R. Barrett, Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packinghouse Workers, 1894–1922.

Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West

Jimmy K. Skaggs, Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607–1983.

Louise C. Wade, Chicago's Pride: The Stockyards, Packingtown, and Environs in the 19th Century.

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)

More info about Joshua Specht http://joshuaspecht.com/

Follow In The Past Lane on

Twitter @InThePastLane

Instagram @InThePastLane

Facebook: InThePastLanePodcast

YouTube: InThePastLane

Music for This Episode

Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com)

Kevin McCleod, "Impact Moderato" (Free Music Archive)

Andy Cohen, "Trophy Endorphins" (Free Music Archive) Blue Dot Sessions, "Sage the Hunter" (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, "Winter Trek" (Free Music Archive)

The Bell, "I Am History" (Free Music Archive)

Production Credits

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Podcasting Consultant: Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting

Podcast Editing: Wildstyle Media

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

Recommended History Podcasts

Ben Franklin's World with Liz Covart @LizCovart

The Age of Jackson Podcast @AgeofJacksonPod

Backstory podcast – the history behind today's headlines @BackstoryRadio

Past Present podcast with Nicole Hemmer, Neil J. Young, and Natalia Petrzela @PastPresentPod

99 Percent Invisible with Roman Mars @99piorg

Slow Burn podcast about Watergate with @leoncrawl

The Memory Palace – with Nate DiMeo, story teller extraordinaire @thememorypalace

The Conspirators – creepy true crime stories from the American past @Conspiratorcast

The History Chicks podcast @Thehistorychix

My History Can Beat Up Your Politics @myhist

Professor Buzzkill podcast – Prof B takes on myths about the past @buzzkillprof

Footnoting History podcast @HistoryFootnote

The History Author Show podcast @HistoryDean

More Perfect podcast - the history of key US Supreme Court cases @Radiolab

Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell @Gladwell

Radio Diaries with Joe Richman @RadioDiaries

DIG history podcast @dig_history

The Story Behind – the hidden histories of everyday things @StoryBehindPod

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen – specifically its American Icons series @Studio360show

Uncivil podcast – fascinating takes on the legacy of the Civil War in contemporary US @uncivilshow

Stuff You Missed in History Class @MissedinHistory

The Whiskey Rebellion – two historians discuss topics from today's news @WhiskeyRebelPod

American History Tellers ‏@ahtellers

The Way of Improvement Leads Home with historian John Fea @JohnFea1

The Bowery Boys podcast – all things NYC history @BoweryBoys

Ridiculous History @RidiculousHSW

The Rogue Historian podcast with historian @MKeithHarris

The Road To Now podcast @Road_To_Now

Retropod with @mikerosenwald

The Pit Stop is a weekly mini-episode from In The Past Lane, the podcast about history and why it matters. Every Monday, The Pit Stop tells you what happened in American history this week - in just about 5 minutes. We drop these minis in between our full-length episodes that feature interviews with historians about their latest books, feature pieces, and more. 

For more information about the In The Past Lane podcast, head to our website, www.InThePastLane.com 

Production Credits for The Pit Stop

Original music and Voice Over by Devyn McHugh 

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions, "Pat Dog" via the Free Music Archive 

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

The Pit Stop is a weekly mini-episode from In The Past Lane, the podcast about history and why it matters. Every Monday, The Pit Stop tells you what happened in American history this week - in just about 5 minutes. We drop these minis in between our full-length episodes that feature interviews with historians about their latest books, feature pieces, and more. 

For more information about the In The Past Lane podcast, head to our website, www.InThePastLane.com 

Production Credits for The Pit Stop

Original music and Voice Over by Devyn McHugh 

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions, "Pat Dog" via the Free Music Archive 

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

It's Independence Day! The perfect occasion for a special episode of In The Past Lane! This week, we take a close look at the document at the heart of the July 4th celebration -- the Declaration of Independence. There's a lot more to this patriotic piece of parchment than you might think. So here's the lineup: we'll start with a look at three key things about the Declaration and how it came to be -- including the fact that America's actual Independence Day is July 2, not July 4. Next, we examine the fascinating story of how American's understanding of the Declaration changed after 1800 and as a consequence, how it has inspired countless rights movements in the US (women's rights, labor rights, civil rights, etc) and around the world for more than 200 years. Happy July 4th to all!

Episode 154 notes and credits Recommended Reading Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence Edmund S. Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89 Backstory podcast, "Pursuits of Happiness" - especially the feature on Frederick Douglass and his famous speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Music for This Episode

Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (courtesy, JayGMusic.com) Kevin McCleod, "Impact Moderato" (Free Music Archive) The Bell, "I Am History" (Free Music Archive)

The Pit Stop is a weekly mini-episode from In The Past Lane, the podcast about history and why it matters. Every Monday, The Pit Stop tells you what happened in American history this week - in just about 5 minutes. We drop these minis in between our full-length episodes that feature interviews with historians about their latest books, feature pieces, and more. 

For more information about the In The Past Lane podcast, head to our website, www.InThePastLane.com 

Production Credits for The Pit Stop

Original music and Voice Over by Devyn McHugh 

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions, "Pat Dog" via the Free Music Archive 

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

This week at In The Past Lane, the American History podcast, I speak with historian Jill Lepore, author of a one-volume history of the United States titled, These Truths: A History of the United States. Lepore is one of the nation's most prolific and widely read historians. She combines a brilliant and engaging writing style, with extraordinary reading, research, and analysis. Over the past 20 years she's written books on everything from King Philip's War that tore apart New England in the 1670s to the history of Wonder Woman. She also writes insightful essays on history for the New Yorker. This latest work, a sweeping, 900-page one volume history of the United States, has garnered widespread praise and a spot on the NY Times bestseller list.

In the course of our discussion, Jill Lepore explains:

Why she chose the phrase, "These Truths" from the Declaration of Independence as the book's title.

What those three key truths are – political equality, natural rights, and consent of the governed.

How concepts of rights like liberty and equality develop over time.

How these key American ideals were defined and codified to guarantee them to some Americans, while at the same time denying them to others.

Why she chose to emphasize and weave together both political and social history, rather than treating them separately.

How US history has been shaped by famous people like Thomas Jefferson, as well as lesser known people who lacked formal political rights like Maria Stewart.

How developments in technology has played a key – and often underappreciated – role in US history.

How social media and a 24/7 news cycle in contemporary society has diminished Americans' sense of the past.

Recommended reading:

Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States (WW Norton)

Jill Lepore, The Story of America: Essays on Origins

James West Davidson, A Little History of the United States

Robert V. Remini, A Short History of the United States: From the Arrival of Native American Tribes to the Obama Presidency

Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States

More info about Jill Lepore - website

Follow In The Past Lane on

Twitter @InThePastLane

Instagram @InThePastLane

Facebook: InThePastLanePodcast

YouTube: InThePastLane

Music for This Episode

Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com)

Kevin McCleod, "Impact Moderato" (Free Music Archive)

Andy Cohen, "Trophy Endorphins" (Free Music Archive) Blue Dot Sessions, "Sage the Hunter" (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, "Winter Trek" (Free Music Archive)

The Bell, "I Am History" (Free Music Archive)

Production Credits

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Podcasting Consultant: Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting

Podcast Editing: Wildstyle Media

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

Recommended History Podcasts

Ben Franklin's World with Liz Covart @LizCovart

The Age of Jackson Podcast @AgeofJacksonPod

Backstory podcast – the history behind today's headlines @BackstoryRadio

Past Present podcast with Nicole Hemmer, Neil J. Young, and Natalia Petrzela @PastPresentPod

99 Percent Invisible with Roman Mars @99piorg

Slow Burn podcast about Watergate with @leoncrawl

The Memory Palace – with Nate DiMeo, story teller extraordinaire @thememorypalace

The Conspirators – creepy true crime stories from the American past @Conspiratorcast

The History Chicks podcast @Thehistorychix

My History Can Beat Up Your Politics @myhist

Professor Buzzkill podcast – Prof B takes on myths about the past @buzzkillprof

Footnoting History podcast @HistoryFootnote

The History Author Show podcast @HistoryDean

More Perfect podcast - the history of key US Supreme Court cases @Radiolab

Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell @Gladwell

Radio Diaries with Joe Richman @RadioDiaries

DIG history podcast @dig_history

The Story Behind – the hidden histories of everyday things @StoryBehindPod

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen – specifically its American Icons series @Studio360show

Uncivil podcast – fascinating takes on the legacy of the Civil War in contemporary US @uncivilshow

Stuff You Missed in History Class @MissedinHistory

The Whiskey Rebellion – two historians discuss topics from today's news @WhiskeyRebelPod

American History Tellers ‏@ahtellers

The Way of Improvement Leads Home with historian John Fea @JohnFea1

The Bowery Boys podcast – all things NYC history @BoweryBoys

Ridiculous History @RidiculousHSW

The Rogue Historian podcast with historian @MKeithHarris

The Road To Now podcast @Road_To_Now

Retropod with @mikerosenwald

The Pit Stop is a weekly mini-episode from In The Past Lane, the podcast about history and why it matters. Every Monday, The Pit Stop tells you what happened in American history this week - in just about 5 minutes. We drop these minis in between our full-length episodes that feature interviews with historians about their latest books, feature pieces, and more. 

For more information about the In The Past Lane podcast, head to our website, www.InThePastLane.com 

Production Credits for The Pit Stop

Original music and Voice Over by Devyn McHugh 

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions, "Pat Dog" via the Free Music Archive 

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

The Pit Stop is a weekly mini-episode from In The Past Lane, the podcast about history and why it matters. Every Monday, The Pit Stop tells you what happened in American history this week - in just about 5 minutes. We drop these minis in between our full-length episodes that feature interviews with historians about their latest books, feature pieces, and more. 

For more information about the In The Past Lane podcast, head to our website, www.InThePastLane.com 

Production Credits for The Pit Stop

Original music and Voice Over by Devyn McHugh 

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions, "Pat Dog" via the Free Music Archive 

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

This week at In The Past Lane, the American History podcast, I speak with historian Terry Golway, author of, Frank and Al: FDR, Al Smith, and the Unlikely Alliance That Created the Modern Democratic Party. It's a remarkable story of two unlikely allies – one a patrician who went to Harvard and the other the son of immigrants who did not graduate 8th grade – and how they came together to remake the Democratic Party in the 1910s and 1920s. This transformation led to the New Deal, a revolutionary period in American history that changed the relationship between the American people and the federal government. In the course of our conversation, Terry Golway explains: Who Al Smith was and how he played a key role in the transformation of the Tammany Hall political machine into an agent of reform in the 1910s and 1920s.

How Franklin Delano Roosevelt transformed from an elitist, good government reformer to a committed advocate of progressive reform. How Al Smith and FDR pioneered in making the New York State Democratic Party the agent of progressive reform and how these ideas and programs formed the foundation of the New Deal. How Al Smith played a key role in resisting the KKK's influence in the Democratic Party.

How Al Smith and FDR, once great allies, had a falling out once FDR became president. And how they later reconciled.

How the constituency that made up the new Democratic Party – the urban, immigrant, African American working-class – came to be known as the New Deal Coalition and how it played a key role in national politics from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Recommended reading:

Terry Golway, Frank and Al: FDR, Al Smith, and the Unlikely Alliance That Created the Modern Democratic Party (St. Martin's Press)

Robert Chiles, The Revolution of '28: Al Smith, American Progressivism, and the Coming of the New Deal

Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939

Terry Golway, Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics

William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: 1932-1940

Eric Rauchway, Winter War: Hoover, Roosevelt, and the First Clash Over the New Deal

Robert A. Slayton, Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith

More info about Terry Golway - website

Follow In The Past Lane on

Twitter @InThePastLane

Instagram @InThePastLane

Facebook: InThePastLanePodcast

YouTube: InThePastLane

Music for This Episode

Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com)

Kevin McCleod, "Impact Moderato" (Free Music Archive)

Andy Cohen, "Trophy Endorphins" (Free Music Archive) Ketsa, "Follow the Course" (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, "Winter Trek" (Free Music Archive)

The Bell, "I Am History" (Free Music Archive)

Production Credits

Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer

Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson

Podcasting Consultant: Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting

Podcast Editing: Wildstyle Media

Photographer: John Buckingham

Graphic Designer: Maggie Cellucci

Website by: ERI Design

Legal services: Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

Social Media management: The Pony Express

Risk Assessment: Little Big Horn Associates

Growth strategies: 54 40 or Fight

© In The Past Lane, 2019

Recommended History Podcasts

Ben Franklin's World with Liz Covart @LizCovart

The Age of Jackson Podcast @AgeofJacksonPod

Backstory podcast – the history behind today's headlines @BackstoryRadio

Past Present podcast with Nicole Hemmer, Neil J. Young, and Natalia Petrzela @PastPresentPod

99 Percent Invisible with Roman Mars @99piorg

Slow Burn podcast about Watergate with @leoncrawl

The Memory Palace – with Nate DiMeo, story teller extraordinaire @thememorypalace

The Conspirators – creepy true crime stories from the American past @Conspiratorcast

The History Chicks podcast @Thehistorychix

My History Can Beat Up Your Politics @myhist

Professor Buzzkill podcast – Prof B takes on myths about the past @buzzkillprof

Footnoting History podcast @HistoryFootnote

The History Author Show podcast @HistoryDean

More Perfect podcast - the history of key US Supreme Court cases @Radiolab

Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell @Gladwell

Radio Diaries with Joe Richman @RadioDiaries

DIG history podcast @dig_history

The Story Behind – the hidden histories of everyday things @StoryBehindPod

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen – specifically its American Icons series @Studio360show

Uncivil podcast – fascinating takes on the legacy of the Civil War in contemporary US @uncivilshow

Stuff You Missed in History Class @MissedinHistory

The Whiskey Rebellion – two historians discuss topics from today's news @WhiskeyRebelPod

American History Tellers ‏@ahtellers

The Way of Improvement Leads Home with historian John Fea @JohnFea1

The Bowery Boys podcast – all things NYC history @BoweryBoys

Ridiculous History @RidiculousHSW

The Rogue Historian podcast with historian @MKeithHarris

The Road To Now podcast @Road_To_Now

Retropod with @mikerosenwald