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France’s attraction to right-wing populism has been a constant, if shape-shifting, presence in its politics since the end of the 19th century.This article appeared in the April 2020 edition of History Today. Read the article online or buy a copy of this issue from our website.Written by Martin EvansRead by Greig JohnsonProduced by History TodayMusic by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In March 1876, the young Sigmund Freud arrived in Trieste, looking for the testicles of an eel. For centuries past, these troublesome organs had proved elusive. Despite the most intensive – not to say intimate – research, no one had managed to track them down. This article appeared in the March 2020 edition of History Today. Read the article online or buy a copy of this issue from our website.Written by Alexander LeeRead by Greig JohnsonProduced by History TodayMusic by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

1848 was a wild ride. That year the Free Soil Party tried to force Whigs and Democrats to take a stand on the issue of slavery in the territories. Once and for all, politicians would have to openly declare themselves either in favor of Free Soil for free society or Slave Territory, for the planters’ personal dominion.Further Readings/References:Johnson, Reinhard. The Liberty Party, 1840-1848: Antislavery Third-Party Politics in the United States. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University. 2009.From historian Joel Silbey:The Shrine of Party: Congressional Voting Behavior, 1841-1852. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 1967.Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2002.Party Over Section: The Rough and Ready Presidential Election of 1848. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. 2009.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The average Free Soiler was a radical Loco-Foco, probably from New York, touched by more than a decade of early libertarianism. But always and everywhere there were also the opportunists, the schemers, the self-advancing office seekers, desperate to leverage free soil into greater personal power, and right there at the top of this magnificent new party was the schemer in chief, the little magician, the Red Fox of Kinderhook, the architect of the Second Party System itself, and now the perpetrator of one of the dirtiest double games in all of politics, Martin Van Buren.Further Readings/References:For an overview of the later Loco-Foco movementBlue, Frederick. The Free Soilers, Third Party Politics, 1848-54. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. 1973.Earle, Jonathan. Jacksonian Antislavery & the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2004.Mayfield, John. Rehearsal for Republicanism: Free Soil and the Politics of Antislavery. Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press. 1980.Rayback, Joseph G. Free Soil: The Election of 1848. Lexington, KY: The University of Kentucky Press. 1970.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Polk Administration was a strange time in the early history of American Libertarianism called Locofocoism. In many ways, it was the time of ultimate triumph. Polk was as committed to their economic program as anyone else on the national stage, including their champion, Martin Van Buren. He was a Republican nationalist and an expansionist, and so were many of the more hopeful and naive Locofocos. By 1844, Locofocoism was all over the country, from the shores of New England, through the mountains of New York, and out to the plains of Ohio and Wisconsin, right the way down, even in the South, to places like Montgomery, Alabama, and for at least a brief period, Polk was their man. Everything looked bright, but the peace within the democracy was uneasy at best. Then along came Polk’s war on Mexico, an unforgivable tragedy to some, and an insurmountable political disaster to most others. To set things aright, to protect the power and interests of the North’s free citizens, to expand the zone of liberty and Republicanism, in the face of both British and slave-holding aggression, Northern radicals rose up in political revolution.Further ReadingsBlue, Frederick. The Free Soilers, Third Party Politics, 1848-54. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. 1973.Earle, Jonathan. Jacksonian Antislavery & the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2004.Mayfield, John. Rehearsal for Republicanism: Free Soil and the Politics of Antislavery. Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press. 1980.Rayback, Joseph G. Free Soil: The Election of 1848. Lexington, KY: The University of Kentucky Press. 1970.George H. Smith, “The Liberty Party”Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the end, a few thousand early libertarians in New York made the Mexican War a possibility. And almost right away, Polk began betraying Van Buren defectors. He ignored Van Buren’s cabinet suggestions and supported the conservative faction in New York.Further Reading:For an overview of the later history of locofocoism“The Artist as Exemplar: Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life”A quick life of Thoreau in the Encyclopedia of LibertarianismWalt Whitman’s Democratic Vistas (1871)Polk’s Special Message to Congress (11 May, 1846)Lincoln’s “Spot Resolutions” at the National ArchivesMusic by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dr. Nima Sanandaji has a PhD in Engineering from Stockholm’s Royal Institute, and he has written over 20 books on policy, philosophy, current affairs and history. He joins me now to talk about his latest, “The Birthplace of Capitalism,” which explains how and why ancient Middle Easterners invented capitalism and entrepreneurship.Further Reading:Nima Sanandaji’s Wikipedia entryHis latest book, The Birthplace of Capitalism: The Middle East, Timbro (2018)Dr. Sanandaji’s 2016 speech on Nordic socialism at the Cato InstituteRoderick Long joins Free Thoughts to talk about libertarian themes in ConfucianismMusic by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Corporations are so commonplace, so ubiquitous, and considered so necessary that we barely stop to ask whether it’s ever been justifiable in the first place. Here to help us tackle one of the great, relatively forgotten questions in Libertarian history is Gary Chartier.Further Reading:Gary Chartier’s Wikipedia entryHis archive at the Center for a Stateless Society“Corporations: A Contractual Program” in Literature of Liberty, December 1979“The Limited Liability Corporation” in Literature of Liberty, September 1982William Leggett, “The Restraining Law and Its Abominations,” August 1836Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the grand catalog of 19th century America, there are few villains so worthy of a Libertarian’s scorn, as James K Polk. The Jacksonian period was one flush with eager upstarts, middling men who hit it big with cunning and peculiar talents. Polk, too, was one of these eager, young, upstart Americans.Further Reading:Frances Whipple, ed. Liberty Chimes. Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society of Providence. 1845.May, Robert. Manifest Destiny’s Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 2002.Morrison, Michael. Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1997.Sellers, Charles. James K. Polk, Jacksonian: 1795-1845. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1957.James K. Polk, Continentalist: 1843-1846. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1966.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We often learn that Manifest Destiny was the invention of racists and conquest-hungry imperialists, and there is some truth to that, but much as historians have ignored it and much as we might like to do the same, America’s first libertarian movement was also responsible. Jacksonian radicals called Locofocos provided the ideology that helped transform the United States from a limited republic into a continental empire. Uncomfortable as it might be, we will find that their early libertarianism was a jumping-off point for what only later became a much more typical racist imperialism.Further Reading:“Battling the Empire,” Part One and Part Two“The Oregon Question”“A Latent Leaning Toward Texas:” Republicanism vs. EmpireJohn L. O’Sullivan: The Great Nation of FuturityHorsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1981.Merk, Frederick. Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation. New York: Knopf. 1963.Stephanson, Anders. Manifest Destiny: American Expansionism and the Empire of Right. New York: Hill & Wang. 1995.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As we have seen over the last several months on this show, America’s first libertarian movement called Locofocoism was, but one among many reform movements dotting the Jacksonian period. For a century and a half, historians have diligently detailed the stories of abolitionists, working people, feminists, land reformers, prohibitionists, suffragists, and suffragettes, free lovers, communists, industrialists, progressivists, free thinkers, transcendentalists, socialists, and the Young America Artistic Movement that lent credibility to the broad cause of reform. This week, we turn to an example of yet more mixed success in which radical Locofocoism was both implemented and watered down at the same time. New York’s Anti-Rent War and the Revolutionary Constitution of 1846.Further Reading:“Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions,” 7 June 1629Stephen B. Miller, Historical Sketches of Hudson, Embracing the Settlement of the City, City Government, Business Enterprises, Churches, Press, Schools, Libraries, &c. Hudson: Bryan & Webb, Publishers. 1862.Anna Rossman Bradbury, History of the City of Hudson, New York: With Biographical Sketches of Henry Hudson and Robert Fulton. Hudson, NY: Record Printing and Publishing Company. 1909.Cheney, Edward P. The Anti-Rent Agitation in the State of New York, 1839-1846. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 1887.Huston, Reeve. Land and Freedom: Rural Society, Popular Protest, and Party Politics in Antebellum New York. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2000.McCurdy, Charles W. The Anti-Rent Era in New York Law and Politics, 1839-1865. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. 2001.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Frances Whipple was born into the quintessential American aristocratic family. On her father’s side, the Whipple line included Rhode Island heroes like Abraham, who led the burning of the British ship Gaspee in 1772, and some of the earliest settlers of the colony. On Frances’ mother’s side, the Scotts included some of Roger Williams’ earliest and closest associates in the foundation of the Rhode Island colony. In 1815, though, nature leveled the Whipple clan. A storm called the Great Gale ravaged Providence, flooding wharves and destroying crops within a 40-mile radius of the city. It was also the year without a summer, thanks to the Tambora volcano in Indonesia, which erupted so violently that the ash clouds actually cooled the planet. With a future of nothing but drought, sooty clouds and gloom, her father sold the family farm in 1816 and Whipple was destitute. Frances supported herself through odd jobs and self-education. She became a very different sort of Whipple, and over her lifetime, she helped make America a very different sort of place.Further Reading:Sarah O’Dowd, A Rhode Island Original: Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall, 2004.“Elleanor Eldridge: Folk Hero of African American Feminism”“Let Usurpers Tremble: The Unrepublican Anomaly”Whipple, Might and Right: By A Rhode Islander, Providence: A.H. Stilwell. 1844.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Little is known about the personal life of Ann Parlin, the woman who came up with the idea for clam bakes to raise relief money for the families of imprisoned suffragists. She married Dr. Louis Parlin on July 7th, 1839, in Maine before moving to Providence. In 1841, they appear in the city’s business records through Dr. Parlin’s homeopathy clinic. He’s considered the founder of homeopathy in Rhode Island, and he practiced there for two to three years while participating in the city’s bubbling radical politics. The Parlins were fairly well off and Louis was a landholder or a freeman allowed to vote, but both of them believed fully in the people’s sovereign power to reform their governments at will.Further Reading:“A Woman of Spunk: Ann Parlin’s Vision for Revolution”Russell DeSimone, “Lewis and Ann Parlin” in Rhode Island’s Rebellion: A Look at Some Aspects of the Dorr War, Bartlett Press. 2009.Comegna, “The Dupes of Hope Forever: The Locofoco of Equal Rights Movement, 1820s-1870s,” (PhD Diss.) University of Pittsburgh. 2016.Zagarri, Rosemarie. Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Earl American Republic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2007.Zboray, Ronald & Mary. Voices Without Votes: Women and Politics in Antebellum New England. Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire Press. 2010.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We are celebrating Liberty Chronicles’ one year anniversary with a special Free Thoughts/Liberty Chronicles crossover episode featuring Free Thoughts Podcast host Trevor Burrus. We’ll discuss the Dorr War and its Supreme Court Case Luther v. Borden.Further Reading:Luther v Borden (1849)—Taney’s Majority Opinion and Woodbury’s Dissenting OpinionDennison, George M. The Dorr War: Republicanism on Trial, 1831-1861. Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press. 1976.Gettleman, Marvin. The Dorr Rebellion: A Study in American Radicalism: 1833-1849. New York: Random House. 1973.Grimstead, David. American Mobbing, 1828-1861: Toward Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Steve Horwitz is the Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise in Ball State University’s economics department. He has a PhD in economics from George Mason University, and his most recent book is Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions. In the interest of more clearly identifying the relationship between his highly theoretical discipline and our evolving set of humane histories here on Liberty Chronicles, Professor Horwitz joins us now.Further Reading:Steve Horwitz’ personal websiteHis Libertarianism.org author’s pageHis FEE author’s page“Libertarians and ‘Unicorn Governance,’” A Cato Daily Podcast Interview (Jan. 25, 2017)Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of Liberty Chronicles, we are joined by Mike Douma and Phil Magness to discuss their new book “What is Classical Liberal History?”  Mike Douma is an Assistant Research Professor at Georgetown University and the Director of the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics. Phil Magness is a professor at Berry College’s Campbell School of Business and author of Colonization after Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement.Further Reading:Douma & Magness, eds. What Is Classical Liberal History? Lexington Books. 2017.“Creative Historical Thinking,” Mike Douma’s blogPhil Magness’ personal websiteBenedetto Croce, Selections from History as the Story of Liberty. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. 2000.Comegna, ed. Liberty and Power: A Reader. Washington, D.C.: The Cato Institute. 2017.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David M. Hart is the Director of Liberty Fund’s Online Library of Liberty. His latest book, Social Class and State Power, is a reader in libertarian class theory including documents from Richard Overton in the English Civil Wars all the way down to Libertarianism.org contributor Roderick Long.Further Reading:Hart, Chartier, Kenyon, and Long (eds.), Social Class and State Power: Exploring an Alternative Radical Tradition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.David Hart, ed. Tracts on Liberty by the Levellers and their Critics (1638-1660), 7 Vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. 2014. John Wade, The Extraordinary Black Book: An Exposition of Abuses in Church and State, Courts of Law, Representation, Municipal and Corporate Bodies; with a Precis of the House of Commons, Past, Present, and to Come. London: Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange. 1832. Republished by Liberty Fund.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In July 1842, Rhode Island had two state governments divided into armed camps. The rest of New England watched, wondering if what they called “The Rhode Island Question” would spill into a widespread civil war. The fight was over which of the state’s two dueling authorities was legitimate—the Charter government established in 1663 by King Charles II, or the People’s Constitution which bypassed the legislature with a popular convention and vote.Further Readings/References:Dennison, George M. The Dorr War: Republicanism on Trial, 1831-1861. Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press. 1976.Gettleman, Marvin. The Dorr Rebellion: A Study in American Radicalism: 1833-1849. New York: Random House. 1973.Frances Whipple & Levi Slamm: “Let Usurpers Tremble: The Unrepublican Anomaly” (1842)Ann Parlin, Speech at New York’s Shakespeare Hotel (1842)Marcus Morton’s Clam Bake Letter (1842)Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last week on Liberty Chronicles, we left off with May 19, 1842, when Thomas W. Dorr—The People’s Governor of Rhode Island, dressed up like Napoleon and carrying a sword—ordered his makeshift little army to storm the Providence state arsenal.. Most of Dorr’s warriors, though, were young men trying to impress girls in their neighborhoods. It was the furthest thing imaginable from a professional, committed army, and when met with even slight resistance, Dorr’s lines broke and his army scattered.Further Readings/References:Chaput, Erik. The People’s Martyr: Thomas Wilson Dorr and His 1842 Rhode Island Rebellion. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. 2013.Conley, Patrick T. Democracy in Decline: Rhode Island’s Constitutional Development, 1776-1841. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society. 1977.Dennison, George M. The Dorr War: Republicanism on Trial, 1831-1861. Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press. 1976.Gettleman, Marvin. The Dorr Rebellion: A Study in American Radicalism: 1833-1849. New York: Random House. 1973.Grimstead, David. American Mobbing, 1828-1861: Toward Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In Rhode Island, 1842, politician Thomas W. Dorr (calling himself “The People’s Governor”) threatened civil war throughout New England. His main target was the famous colonial Charter issued by King Charles II in 1663. In the 19th century the document of world historical importance—the planet’s oldest existing written constitution at the time, and surely the most liberal in its own day. Radical Jacksonian and America’s first professional historian, George Bancroft, declared, “Nowhere in the world have life, LIBERTY, and property been safer than in Rhode Island.”Further Readings/References:Chaput, Erik. The People’s Martyr: Thomas Wilson Dorr and His 1842 Rhode Island Rebellion. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. 2013.Conley, Patrick T. Democracy in Decline: Rhode Island’s Constitutional Development, 1776-1841. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society. 1977.Shalhope, Robert. “The Radicalism of Thomas Dorr,” Reviews in American History 2, No. 3 (Sep., 1974): 383-389.Dan King, “The Life and Times of Thomas Wilson Dorr” (1859)Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the Winter of 1837-1838, New York’s “Locofoco” or  Equal Rights Party tidily collapsed back into Martin Van Buren’s Democratic Party. It was the first libertarian movement in American history, and they’d fought a two-year political war against Tammany Hall to control the state and national party. In most ways, they were successful. But actually, 1840 was their year—their chance to permanently change America. It might just be the most important election year ever, and 178 years later, I’d say it still is.Further Readings/References:Comegna, “The Dupes of Hope, Forever:” The Loco-Foco or Equal Rights Movement, 1820s-1870s. (PhD Dissertation: University of Pittsburgh). 2016.Curtis, James C. The Fox at Bay: Martin Van Buren and the Presidency, 1837-1841. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. 1970.Silbey, Joel. Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2002.Widmer, Edward. Martin Van Buren. New York: Times Books. 2005.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Abram D. Smith is a forgotten figure in American history. Smith was born in either Lowville or Cambridge, upstate New York, in 1811, just before the post-war boom years of rapid social and economic change. As a young man, he experienced and contributed to a wave of nationalistic romanticism, enraptured with the wonders of American republicanism and democracy.  He was in these regards fairly unremarkable, and yet in September 1838, probably in some Ohio forest, surrounded by blazing torchlight, a circle of revolutionary conspirators called the Brother Hunters elected Abram D. Smith—Mr. Average American—to be President of the Republic of Canada.  Further Readings/References:“Abram D. Smith: Nullification,” on Classics of LibertyBonthius, Andrew. “The Patriot War of 1837-1838: Locofocoism With a Gun?” Labour/Le Travail 52 (Fall 2003), 9-43.Dunley, Ruth. “A.D. Smith: Knight-Errant of Radical Democracy,” (PhD Diss.). The University of Ottowa. 2008.Kinchen, Oscar. The Rise and Fall of the Patriot Hunters. New York: Bookman Associates. 1956.James Gemmel, “Two Years in Van Dieman’s Land”Benjamin Wait, Letters from Van Dieman’s LandMusic by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Young Americans were New York’s next generation of artists, intellectuals, and activists, and reformers, many of whom were inspired by the Loco-Foco movement, which challenged Tammany Hall for supremacy in the Democratic Party from 1835 to 1837. Their philosophies generally came from the great classical liberals, radicals like Tom Paine and William Leggett, equal in stature to most Young Americans, and they shared a deep faith in America’s world historical destiny. A Young American might have been in either party, but their philosophy [00:03:00] was almost always some strain of Loco-Focoism.Further Reading:Comegna, “Art as Ideas: Thomas Cole’s The Course of Empire” and “The Artist as Exemplar: Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life”John L. O’Sullivan, “The Great Nation of Futurity”Tymn, Marshall, ed. Thomas Cole’s Poetry: The Collected Poems of America’s Foremost Painter of the Hudson River School Reflecting His Feelings for Nature and the Romantic Spirit of the Nineteenth Century. York, PA: Liberty Cap Books. 1972.Walt Whitman’s “Democratic Vistas”Widmer, Edward. Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

During the painful Panic Winter of 1837, America’s first identifiably libertarian political party neared the end of its short life. After the February flour riots and facing nothing but dire circumstances, movement faithful gradually peeled away from the party.Further Readings/References:Byrdsall, Fitzwilliam. The History of the Loco-Foco or Equal Rights Party: Its Movements, Conventions, and Proceedings with Short Characteristic Sketches of Its Prominent Men. New York: Burt Franklin. 1967.Curtis, James C. The Fox at Bay: Martin Van Buren and the Presidency, 1837-1841. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. 1970.Hugins, Walter. Jacksonian Democracy and the Working Class: A Study of the New York Workingmen’s Movement, 1829-1837. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1960.Lepler, Jessica M. The Many Panics of 1837: People, Politics, and the Creation of a Transatlantic Financial Crisis. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2013.Roberts, Alasdair. America’s First Great Depression: Economic Crisis and Political Disorder After the Panic of 1837. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2012.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On 11 and 20 of January, 1836, the Equal Rights Democrats renounced all connections with Tammany and passed resolutions calling for ward me tings and delegate elections to a county convention.  Delegates assembled on 9 February in the Eighth Ward. Moses Jacques served as President and wrote the “Declaration of principles.” He was history embodied.  Moses’ father was a colonel in the New Jersey militia during the Revolution.Further Readings/References:Bridges, Amy. A City in the Republic: Antebellum New York and the Origins of Machine Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1984.Byrdsall, Fitzwilliam. The History of the Loco-Foco or Equal Rights Party: Its Movements, Conventions, and Proceedings with Short Characteristic Sketches of Its Prominent Men. New York: Burt Franklin. 1967.Hugins, Walter. Jacksonian Democracy and the Working Class: A Study of the New York Workingmen’s Movement, 1829-1837. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1960.Lepler, Jessica M. The Many Panics of 1837: People, Politics, and the Creation of a Transatlantic Financial Crisis. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2013.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The conspirators fully expected Tammany regulars would play whatever dirty tricks necessary to maintain control over the convention.  Each conspirator attended the meeting with pockets full of “Loco Foco” matches and candles. They were a new invention, friction candles ignited by striking the match tip against a surface. Locofoco supposedly entered the American lexicon as a bastardization of the Italian words for moving fire. And these people were definitely fireballs set into motion.Further Readings/References:Ashworth, John. “Agrarians & Aristocrats:” Party Political Ideology in the United States, 1837-1846. London: Royal Historical Society. 1983.Byrdsall, Fitzwilliam. The History of the Loco-Foco or Equal Rights Party: Its Movements, Conventions, and Proceedings with Short Characteristic Sketches of Its Prominent Men. New York: Burt Franklin. 1967.Hugins, Walter. Jacksonian Democracy and the Working Class: A Study of the New York Workingmen’s Movement, 1829-1837. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1960.Lause, Mark. Young America: Land, Labor, and the Republican Community. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 2005.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last week we explored the life and ideas of William Leggett—the founding father of America’s first identifiably libertarian movement. This week we begin with his attack on censorship as a gross abuse of government power, a sure sign that freedom was dying.Further Readings/References:Earle, Jonathan. Jacksonian Antislavery & the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2004.Grimstead, David. American Mobbing, 1828-1861: Toward Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. 1998.Sedgwick, Theodore III. A Collection of the Political Writings of William Leggett (2 Volumes). New York: Taylor & Dodd. 1840.White, Lawrence, ed. Democratick Editorials: Essays in Jacksonian Political Economy. Indianapolis: Liberty Press. 1984.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Somewhere during the course of his tour—somewhere in the Mediterranean—William Leggett developed a “life-long hatred of authority,” a libertarian spirit within him that revolted against power wherever it existed, wherever people attempted to constrict the liberty of others. Historians tell us the 1820s, 30s, and 40s was the Jacksonian Era, but this week and next we will follow Walt Whitman in declaring this “The Age of Leggett.” Further Readings/References:Leggett, William. Leisure Hours at Sea: Being a Few Miscellaneous Poems, by a Midshipman of the United States Navy. New York: G.C. Morgon and E. Bliss & E. White. 1825.Sedgwick, Theodore III. A Collection of the Political Writings of William Leggett (2 Volumes). New York: Taylor & Dodd. 1840.White, Lawrence, ed. Democratick Editorials: Essays in Jacksonian Political Economy. Indianapolis: Liberty Press. 1984.Worton, Stanley. “William Leggett, Political Journalist (1801-1839): A Study in Democratic Thought.” (PhD Dissertation): Columbia University. Columbia University Press. 1954.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nine Masons signed the Declaration of Independence, 13 helped draft and ratify the Constitution, George Washington and James Monroe were Masons, and for that matter so was Andrew Jackson. So was Henry Clay! Even the South American Washington, Simon Bolivar, was a Mason.  All four of Napoleon’s brothers joined Edmund Burke, Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Voltaire, Ben Franklin, and innumerable other important artists, philosophers, and scientists in the fraternity.Further Readings/References:Elder David Bernard, ed. Light on Masonry, Utica, NY: William Williams, 1829.Hugins, Walter. Jacksonian Democracy and the Working Class: A Study of the New York Workingmen’s Movement, 1829-1837. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1960.Pessen, Edward. Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics. Homewood, Illinois: The Dorsey Press. 1969.Wilentz, Sean. Chants Democratic: New York City & the Rise of the American Working Class, 1768-1850. New York: Oxford University Press. 1984.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

While the two parties gripped one another in mock mortal combat, struggling for votes more than for principles, some precious few Americans remained unimpressed. In corners all over the country, people saw through the myth making and the gamesmanship. Put frankly, American democracy was a sham and the evolving two parties were vast conspiracies against the public’s liberty, security, and well-being.Further Readings/References:Clay’s “American System” SpeechesKohl, Lawrence. The Politics of Individualism: Parties and the American Character in the Jacksonian Era. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.Pessen, Edward. Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics. Homewood, Illinois: The Dorsey Press. 1969.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We should not fool ourselves into thinking democracy was some benevolent aristocrat’s generous gift. Nor should we believe democracy was something average people heroically fought for and won. The truth is, ballots have never translated to real political power and influence—they never have. The near-universal patterns in these democratizing state legislatures and constitutional conventions were political pragmatism and opportunism.Further Readings/References:“The Votes and Speeches of Martin Van Buren” Kohl, Lawrence. The Politics of Individualism: Parties and the American Character in the Jacksonian Era. New York: Oxford University Press. 1989.Meyers, Marvin. The Jacksonian Persuasion. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1957.Pessen, Edward. Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics. Homewood, Illinois: The Dorsey Press. 1969.Music by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joel Mokyr is the Robert H. Strotz Professor of economic history at Northwestern University. He has a PhD from Yale, he has taught and studied all over the world, and has supervised many dozens of doctoral students in pursuit of the past. He joins us today to talk about his latest book, A Culture of Growth, and the creeping revolution that enriched the world.Further Readings/References:Mokyr, A Culture of Growth, Princeton University Press. 2017.Mokyr, Joel. The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1850. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2009.Prof. Mokyr’s biography & CVMusic by Kai Engel See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The boys talk about Klay Thompson’s 60-point game, pitch ideas for Chris Webber’s prank show, cast the Matthew Dellavedova biopic, and say disrespectful things about agent B.J. Armstrong. Joey loves “Impractical Jokers,” Dave thinks “My Giant” is about slavery, Sean gives Buddy Hield a nickname, and we still can’t stop talking about Sam Hinkie. Plus the Warriors battle Suicide Squad and we welcome a new sponsor - the new movie "Old Zeller."(Music: “Thug Poet,” by Kobe Bryant & “Moonlight Reprise” by Kai Engel) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.