Stuff You Missed in History Class

This late 2021 episode covers a strike in Flint, Michigan, which was at the heart of auto manufacturing for General Motors in 1936. And while the strike was largely centered around Flint, it also involved workers at GM factories all over the U.S.

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Holly and Tracy discuss the creepy nature of the Children's Morality Code project. Tracy covers the varied conflicts that Mary Hunter Austin had with numerous people. 

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Mary Hunter Austin was a U.S. writer known for walking throughout the American Southwest. But her life of activism was far more complicated than brief bios usually  mention. 

Research:

• "Mary Hunter Austin." Encyclopedia of the American West, edited by Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod, Macmillan Reference USA, 1996. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2330100082/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=6a4f821e. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.
• "Mary Hunter Austin." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 23, Gale, 2003. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631008133/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=ceca42e0. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.
• #0840: Willa Cather to Mary Hunter Austin, June 26 [1926]. https://cather.unl.edu/writings/letters/let0840
• Austin, Mary Hunter. “Earth Horizon.” Houghton Mifflin. 1932.
• Austin, Mary Hunter. “Experiences Facing Death.” Bobbs-Merrill Company. 1931.
• Blend, Benay. “Mary Austin and the Western Conservation Movement: 1900-1927.” Journal of the Southwest , Spring, 1988, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1988). https://www.jstor.org/stable/40169782
• Davis, Lisa Selin. “The Loneliest Land.” National Parks Conservation Association. Spring 2015. https://www.npca.org/articles/942-the-loneliest-land
• Egenhoff, Elizabeth L. “Mary Austin.” Mineral Information Service. November 1965. https://npshistory.com/publications/deva/mis-v18n11-1965.pdf
• Fink, Augusta. “I-Mary: A Biography of Mary Austin.” University of Arizona Press. 1983.
• Hoffman, Abraham. “Mary Austin, Stafford Austin, and the Owens Valley.” Journal of the Southwest , Autumn-Winter 2011, Vol. 53, No. ¾. Via JSTOR. http://www.jstor.com/stable/41710078
• Lanzendorfer, Joy. “Searching for Mary Austin.” Alta. https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a8713/searching-for-mary-austin-joy-lanzendorfer/
• Online Archive of California. “Austin (Mary Hunter) Papers.” https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c85t3ppq/
• Richards, Penny L. “Bad Blood and Lost Borders: Eugenic Ambivalence in Mary Austin’s Short Fiction.”
• Richards, Penny L. “Disability History Image #3.” 8/30/2005. https://disstud.blogspot.com/2005/08/
• Romancito, Rick. “The Image Maker and the Writer.” Taos News. 10/2/2024. https://www.taosnews.com/opinion/columns/the-image-maker-and-the-writer/article_7805f16a-8ab9-5645-9e84-4a189e18ac23.html
• Siber, Kate. “The 19th-Century Writer Who Braved the Desert Alone.” Outside. 1/22/2019. https://www.outsideonline.com/culture/books-media/mary-austin-mojave-nature-writer/
• Stout, Janis P. “Mary Austin’s Feminism: A Reassessment.” Studies in the Novel , spring 1998, Vol. 30, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29533250
• The Ansel Adams Gallery. “Visions of Taos: The Making of “Taos Pueblo” by Ansel Adams and Mary Austin.” https://www.anseladams.com/visions-of-taos-the-making-of-taos-pueblo/
• Viehmann, Martha L. “A Rain Song for America: Mary Austin, American Indians, and American Literature and Culture.” Western American Literature , Spring 2004, Vol. 39, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43022288
• Wynn, Dudley. “Mary Austin, Woman Alone.” The Virginia Quarterly Review , SPRING 1937, Vol. 13, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26433922

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In 1916, the National Institution for Moral Instruction had a contest to see who could come up with the best morality code. For kids. Evolving views on childhood, child labor laws, patriotism, and eugenics influenced this effort.

Research:

• “$5000 Prize Winners Announced Oct. 1” Dean Bennion in Race.” Daily Utah Chronicle. April 23, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/289878324/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%22%20winner
• “93 Virtues Make the Perfect Man.” Tulsa World. Dec. 22, 1919. https://www.newspapers.com/image/884436330/?match=1&terms=Iowa%20%22character%20education%22%20
• Brimi, Hunter. “Academic Instructors or Moral Guides? Moral Education in America and the Teacher’s Dilemma.” The Clearing House, vol. 82, no. 3, 2009, pp. 125–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30181093
• Character Education Inquiry. “Studies in the nature of Character.” New York. Macmillan. 1928. https://archive.org/details/studiesinnatureo0001char/page/n7/mode/2up
• “Character Education Methos Research.” Atlanta Constitution. Sept. 30, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/26907400/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%20Competition%22
• “The Children’s Morality Code.” Virginia Teacher. March 1924. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2194&context=va-teacher
• “College Professors and Others in All States Take Part in Contest to Decide Best Method of Character Building in the Growing Generation.” Washington Post. March 4, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/28849374/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%20Competition%22
• Davis, Emily C. “Why Children Lie.” Springfield Daily Republican. May 20, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1062989775/?match=1&terms=%22Character%20Education%20Inquiry%22
• “Dean Competes in $5000 Contest.” Daily Utah Chronicle. Nov. 23, 1916. https://www.newspapers.com/image/289875150/?match=1&terms=%22National%20Morality%20Codes%20Competition%22
• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF EDUCATION. “Character Education.” REPORT OF THECOMMITTEE ON CHARACTER EDUCATION OFTHE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. Washington Government Printing Office. 1926. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED541955.pdf
• “Educational Body Offers Big Prize.” New Britain herald. April 4, 1922. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014519/1922-04-04/ed-1/seq-12/
• “Efficiency Methods Applied to Task of Codifying Ethics.” Times Herald. Jan. 27, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/79883841/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%20Competition%22
• “Educating Body Offers Big Prize.” New Britain Herald. April 04, 1922. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014519/1922-04-04/ed-1/seq-12/
• Fairchild, Stephen G. “Character education in the United States.” University of Georgia, PhD Dissertation. Mary Frances Early College of Education. 2006. https://esploro.libs.uga.edu/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Character-education-in-the-United-States/9949334479002959
• Hartshorne, H., & May, M. A. (1930). A Summary of the Work of the Character Education Inquiry. Religious Education, 25(7), 607–619. https://doi.org/10.1080/0034408300250702
• Hutchins, William J. “The 5,000 Prize Code of Morals for Children.” The Mahoning Dispatch. September 13, 1918. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84028473/1918-09-13/ed-1/seq-4/
• Jackson, Allison. “THE CHARACTER EDUCATION WORK OF MILTON FAIRCHILD: A PRISM FOR EXPLORING THE DEBATE BETWEEN LIBERAL PROGRESSIVES AND CONSERVATIVE PROGRESSIVES IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY.” Notre Dame of Maryland University. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/character-education-work-milton-fairchild-prism/docview/2125417636/se-2
• “Keating-Owen Child Labor Act (1916).” National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/keating-owen-child-labor-act
• “New Statement of Old Principles.” Democrat and Chronicle. April 4, 1916. https://www.newspapers.com/image/135312787/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%20Competition%22
• “The plans of the Interstate Character Education Method … “ Kansas Teacher. April 1, 1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/390015780/?match=1&terms=%22Character%20education%20methods%22
• “VERIFIED AND REVISED CHILDREN’S MORALITY CODE.” The Journal of Education, vol. 100, no. 5 (2491), 1924, pp. 130–32. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42750282
• “What a Child Should Do in a Moral Emergency.” Richmond Times-Dispatch. May 21, 1916. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1916-05-21/ed-1/seq-49/
• Yarrow, Andrew L. “History of U.S. Children’s Policy, 1900-Present.” First Focus. April 2009. https://firstfocus.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Childrens-Policy-History.pdf

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This 2019 episode looks at Couney's incubator sideshows of premature babies. This is complicated; Couney made money from this, and his medical experience was questionable. But premature babies weren’t getting a lot of care otherwise.

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Tracy notes the wild array of incorrect information that circulates about Lillian Exum Clement. Then she and Holly talk about childhood reading habits. 

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Gertrude Chandler Warner's most well known writing is "The Boxcar Children." But that series is far from the only professional writing Chandler did – she made a career as a writer while also teaching elementary school for decades. 

Research:

• Abate, M.A. Not Hoovervilles, But Hooch: Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Boxcar Childrenand The Roaring Twenties. Child Lit Educ 47, 257–266 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9275-5
• Braccidiferro, Gail. “The Boxcar Children: A Museum Caper.” New York Times. June 20, 2004. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/nyregion/the-boxcar-children-a-museum-caper.html
• Crowe, Chris. “Young Adult Literature: Rescuing Reluctant Readers.” The English Journal, vol. 88, no. 5, 1999, pp. 113–16. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/821799
• Ellsworth, Mary Ellen. “Gertrude Chandler Warner and the Boxcar Children.” Albert Whitman & Company. Morton Grove, Illinois. 1997.
• Lindberg, Mary Anne. “Survival Literature in Children’s Fiction.” Elementary English, vol. 51, no. 3, 1974, pp. 329–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41387166
• Meese, Ruth Lyn. “MODERN FAMILY: Adoption and Foster Care in Children’s Literature.” The Reading Teacher, vol. 66, no. 2, 2012, pp. 129–37. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23322722
• Tolentino, Jia. “’The Boxcar Children and the Spirit of Capitalism.” The New Yorker. June 2, 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-boxcar-children-and-the-spirit-of-capitalism#:~:text=The%20second%20time%20that%20Gertrude,and%20family%20and%20life's%20rewards.
• Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “The Box-Car Children.” Rand McNally. Chicago/New York. 1924. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42796/42796-h/42796-h.htm
• Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “Good Americans: First Lessons for the Littlest Ones.” Educational Publishing Company. Boston. New York. London. 1926. Accessed online: https://books.google.com/books?id=gONow7KFCB0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “The House of Delight.” Pilgrim Press. 1916. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/62714/pg62714-images.html
• Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “Star Stories for Little Folks.” Pilgrim Press. Boston, Chicago. 1918. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/starstoriesforli00warn/page/8/mode/2up
• Warner, Frances and Gertrude. “Life’s Minor Collisions.” Houghton Mifflin. Boston and New York. 1921. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/lifesminorcollis00warnrich/page/n9/mode/2up

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Lillian Exum Clement Stafford was one of the first women in North Carolina to practice law, and the first woman in the South to be elected to a state legislature.

Research:

• “Letter from Elias Eller Stafford to Lillian Exum Clement, 1920.” North Carolina Archives. https://fromthepage.com/ncdcr-ncarchives/women-s-history-v5/pc-2804-lillian-exum-papers-b2f25-corr-eller-1920
• “Lillian Exum Clement." NCpedia. Accessed on February 19th, 2025. https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/lillian-exum-clement.
• “Public laws and resolutions passed by the General Assembly at its session of 1925.” https://archive.org/details/publiclawsresolu1925nort/
• “Wouldn’t Vote?” Asheville Citizen-Times. 11/3/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/196317737/
• Asheville Citizen. “Society and Personals.” 4/5/1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/200917154/
• Asheville Citizen. “Speakers Heard at Suffrage Meeting.” 3/17/1916. https://www.newspapers.com/image/78407560/
• Asheville Citizen. “The Legislative Race.” 10/30/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/196310876/
• Buncombe County Government. “Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” Buncombe County Special Collectoins Flickr photoset. https://www.flickr.com/photos/buncombecounty/albums/72157641973318403/
• Calder, Thomas. “Asheville Archives: Lillian Exum Clement takes her seat in the House, 1921.” MountainXPress. 3/7/2019. https://mountainx.com/news/asheville-archives-lillian-exum-clement-takes-her-seat-in-the-house-1921/
• Chesky, Anne. “WNC History: Lillian Exum Clement's road to Raleigh.” Asheville Citizen Times. 8/3/2024. https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2024/08/03/wnc-history-lillian-exum-clements-road-to-raleigh/74615111007/
• Cline, Ned. “First Step.” Our State. Apr 28, 2011. https://www.ourstate.com/lillian-exum-clement/
• Cotten, Alice R. "Stafford, Lillian Exum Clement." NCpedia. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on February 19th, 2025. https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/stafford-lillian.
• Ellison, Jon. “Remembering Buncombe’s groundbreaking female legislator.” Carolina Public Press. 2/4/2014. https://carolinapublicpress.org/17570/remembering-buncombes-groundbreaking-female-legislator/
• Journal of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina. Session 1921. https://archive.org/details/journalofhouseof1921nort
• Kinston Free Press. “Buncombe County Woman Withdraws from Campaign.” 5/28/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/75778748/
• Letter from Elias Eller Stafford to Lillian Exum Clement, January 12, 1921. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/letter-from-elias-eller-stafford-to-lillian-exum-clement-january-12-1921/779584?item=779589
• Letter from Lillian Exum Clement to Elias Eller Stafford, January 17, 1921. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/letter-from-lillian-exum-clement-to-elias-eller-stafford-january-17-1921/772715
• Matthews, Mrs. A. “Mrs. Exum Clement Stafford.” The Sunday Citizen. 6/14/2025. https://www.newspapers.com/image/200026423/
• My Home N.C. “Lillian Exum Clement, NC's first woman legislator | My Home, NC.” N.C. PBS. Via YouTube. 4/18/2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgbroQAtM0Q
• Neufield, Rob. “Visiting Our Past: Personal look at Lillian Exum Clement, Asheville's pioneering lawmaker.” Asheville Citizen Times. 2/21/2021. https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2021/02/21/visiting-our-past-look-pioneering-lawmaker-lillian-exum-clement/4515306001/
• North Carolina Digital Collections. “Clippings related to Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” 1916. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/clippings-related-to-lillian-exum-clement-stafford/766860
• North Carolina Digital Collections. “Clippings related to Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” June 1920. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/clippings-related-to-lillian-exum-clement-stafford/762410
• North Carolina Digital Collections. “Clippings related to Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” 1921. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/clippings-related-to-lillian-exum-clement-stafford/764401
• North Carolina Digital Collections. “Letter from B. G. Crisp to Lillian Exum Clement, March 22, 1921” https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/letter-from-b.-g.-crisp-to-lillian-exum-clement-march-22-1921/761040
• North Carolina Digital Collectoins. Clippings related to Lillian Exum Clement Stafford's death. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/clippings-related-to-lillian-exum-clement-staffords-death/766201?item=766218
• Nothstine, Kellie Slappey. “Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” North Carolina History Project. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/lillian-exum-clement-1894-1925/
• Smith, Anne Chesky. “You Have to Start a Thing: The South’s First Female Legislator, Lillian Exum Clement.” Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center. https://www.history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/you-have-to-start-a-thing-the-souths-first-female-legislator-lillian-exum-clement/
• Swannanoa Valley Museum and History Center. “Lillian Exum Clement.” https://www.history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/lillian-exum-clement/
• The Asheville Times. “Chief Justice Clark Congratulates Woman.” 6/7/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/942373558
• The Asheville Times. “Miss Clement Takes Oath Tomorrow.” 2/16/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/61366064/
• The Sunday Citizen. “Brief Sketches of Four Leagues of N.C. Equal Suffrage Association.” 4/21/1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/200910113/
• Vander-Weide, Jacob. “Tombstone Tales: 1st female legislator in the South buried in Asheville.” 828 News Now. 7/27/2024. https://828newsnow.com/news/228822-tombstone-tales-1st-female-legislator-in-the-south-buried-in-asheville/
• Waggoner, Martha. “Inscription in Bible links Vanderbilts to Lillian's List.” Times-News. 12/25/2014. https://www.blueridgenow.com/story/news/2014/12/25/inscription-in-bible-links-vanderbilts-to-lillians-list/28325769007/
• Whittle, Ashley McGhee. “Asheville Women in History: Catalysts For Change.” Special Collections at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. https://libjournals.unca.edu/specialcollections/asheville/asheville-women-in-history-catalysts-for-change/

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This 2020 episode covers the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The Lost Cause was a distortion of the history of the U.S. Civil War that’s still affecting the world today.

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Tracy shares issues she has with overly reductive internet videos that misrepresent the story of nixtamalization. She and Holly also discuss the various ways they like to eat corn.

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