Category: History

  • The Business Plots, Then and Now

    The Business Plots, Then and Now

    In 1933, a group of American businessman planned a coup to take down the new President, Franklin Roosevelt. In this scheme, General Smedley Butler would be tasked with orchestrating the overthrow. This attempted coup was called the Business Plot.  

    College students today may ask, so what’s so important about this moment in history?  The point is that we have entered an era again where big business has a dominating influence over American politics. In the case of the 1933 moment, the coup was reactive. American business had failed, a Great Depression was in progress, and businessmen were fighting to maintain control, a control that they were used to having under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. The man tasked to lead the plot, General Butler, squashed it before it happened. And the story largely faded away. 

    Eight years later, in 1941, the US would be fighting a world war against global fascism and imperialism.  In the aftermath of the war, a stronger nation would arise. Today, we are also a nation facing intense competition and conflict, this time against China, Russia, India and other nations, with global climate change being a factor that wasn’t apparent back then. 

    In 2024, US business people, some of the richest people in the world,
    did something similar, but more proactive and less controversial. Today, folks, in general are OK with American businessmen pulling the strings. The most wealthy man have succeeded where big banks and big business failed before. And they have elected a friend. Today, cryptocurrency is booming. The stock market is booming for now. Unemployment is at record lows–for now. Big business has managed to gain greater control of the US government with little or no uproar. 

     

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  • What a peaceful transition of power looks like

    What a peaceful transition of power looks like

    On 20 January, Donald Trump will take the office of president of the United States for the second time. It remains to be seen how this second term — interrupted by the four-year term of Joe Biden — will play itself out. 

    The first time around, President Barack Obama had left Trump a relatively stable nation and world. Trump’s term proved so disruptive, 41 of his 44 top aides, including his own vice president, refused to back him for a return to office. The next four years are likely to be a bumpy ride.

    Americans have long prided themselves on the peaceful transition of leadership.

    Traditionally, on the morning of the transfer of power, the outgoing president meets with the incoming president for coffee at the White House, they share a ride to the Capitol, trade places and say goodbye. Trump scorned that tradition by flying home to his Mar-a-Lago club in the state of Florida a few hours before the inauguration.

    Before Trump, outgoing presidents tried to ease the transition by leaving notes offering advice and best wishes to their successors in the top drawer of the desk in the Oval Office. George H.W. Bush’s note to Bill Clinton, with whom he’d waged a bare-knuckles election campaign a few months earlier, was especially gracious. 

    “I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you,” Bush wrote.

    Peaceful transition signals a healthy democracy.

    The tradition of a peaceful transfer of power, which dates back to George Washington, crumbled four years ago when Trump, refusing to accept the voters’ rejection of his bid for another four years of office in the 2020 U.S. election, inspired an angry mob to storm the halls of Congress. Their aim was to block certification of Joe Biden’s election to succeed Trump, something that is generally considered a formality. The would-be insurrection failed.  

    Trump is now poised to again assume the highest office in the United States. To the surprise and disappointment of nearly half the country, he narrowly prevailed over Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, in last November’s bitterly contested presidential race. Bowing to tradition and a sense of decency, Harris conceded the election.

    “A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results,” Harris said in her concession speech. “That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny.” 

    The current transfer of power has proceeded peacefully and the inauguration itself is expected to follow the historic norm.

    While the transfer is usually thought to include just a few procedural events and the presidential oath-taking, it consists of much more and begins almost immediately after voters cast their ballots in the fall. 

    Handing over the reins of power

    If the election winner is new to the office of president, they and their team are briefed on issues and challenges they’ll face and undergo background checks to assure their avoidance of conflicts of interest and qualification to handle sensitive information.

    Normally, the focus of a transition is on appointments to top government positions and on policy changes. 

    With the Trump transition, both have been controversial. Some of the people he’s chosen for some of the most critical jobs are far out of the U.S. political mainstream. And some of the policies he says he intends to pursue — a massive nationwide roundup and deportation of illegal immigrants, the annexation of Greenland and a takeover of the Panama Canal to mention a few — are raising alarms in the United States and abroad.

    With the recent passing of former President Jimmy Carter, I can’t help remembering a time of sharp contrast to the one we are in now. 

    The 20th of January 1981 was one of the more memorable days in U.S. history. Carter had lost his bid for reelection in large part because he had been unable to secure the release of 53 U.S. diplomats and citizens who’d been held hostage in Iran for more than a year. He’d been up until 4 a.m. that day trying to sew up a deal for their release.

    It was almost done but still incomplete as he and incoming president Ronald Reagan rode up Pennsylvania Avenue together for the inaugural ceremony in a big black armored presidential limousine known as “The Beast.”

    Front row seat to a presidential transition

    I was one of the newsmen covering Carter that day. So I got a firsthand view of how the transfer of power unfolded. When we reached the U.S. Capitol, one of the television networks aired a report that the hostages had been freed. It was premature. 

    In a final indignity to Carter, the Iranians waited until minutes after Reagan was sworn in to let an Algerian aircraft chartered to bring the hostages home take off.

    What the new president said in his inaugural speech was all but lost in the celebrations over the end of the hostage ordeal. Once the formalities were over, Carter and his entourage — his wife Rosalynn, family members, top aides and a small group of reporters — walked to a small motorcade waiting outside the Capitol building. 

    In place of “The Beast” and a long trail of support vehicles was a small sedan and several vans. We slowly made our way to Andrews Air Force Base in the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C. where a military transport plane waited to take Carter home to Georgia. 

    Although it was the same plane he’d flown on as president, its radio call sign was no longer “Air Force One.” Now it was identified as “Special Air Mission” followed by the aircraft’s tail number, “Twenty-Seven Thousand.” Reagan was president. Carter was history.

    Before turning south, the plane flew over the White House and dipped a wing. Many aboard were in tears. But the tears turned to laughter when a young Carter aide, Philip Wise, humorously borrowed a line from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the martyred U.S. civil rights leader. “Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last,” Wise shouted.

    Witnessing the most powerful office in the world change hands was like living a real-life version of the storybook “Cinderella” and seeing the coach turn into a pumpkin.

    Having witnessed so many times in so many places where a change at the top was brought about by armed conflict or a military coup, this turnover from Carter to Reagan showed the world the power of a peaceful transition.

     

    Three questions to consider:

    1. Can you think of a recent changeover from one national leader to the next that wasn’t peaceful?
    2. If a new leader is appointed by the old one without an election, would you consider that a peaceful transition of power?
    3. If you were in an important leadership position, do you think you would find it difficult to step down?

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  • Why the Study of Western Civilization Still Matters

    Why the Study of Western Civilization Still Matters

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    When my father, Jackson Spielvogel, first wrote the textbook, “Western Civilization,” now in its 12th edition, he hoped to craft a singular narrative that organized the complexities and contradictions of a vast historical legacy. Decades of teaching large survey courses at Penn State University led my father to value the power of primary sources in stimulating the imagination and critical faculties of his students. Today, over thirty years since the first edition of Spielvogel’s best-selling text, we launch “Major Problems in Western Civilization,” a new, first edition designed to enhance our understanding of Western Civilization at a time when its significance and relevance is being reevaluated.

    Why study Western Civilization?

    With the advent of globalization, many have questioned the usefulness of historical models centered on the “West” — which often translates to Europe and the United States. While today’s scholars rightly emphasize global connections and diversity to combat historical biases and colonialist (imperialist) mindsets, the centrality of Western Civilization as a foundational model for human development cannot be overstated. The people, writings, and culture that formed the core of the “Western tradition” laid the foundation for many of today’s institutions and contemporary efforts to reshape them. The value in studying Western Civilization includes understanding the development of our current systems — political, judicial, economic, educational, religious, scientific, and cultural — and how they shape our lives, both in the United States and across the globe.

    Western ideals

    The legislative systems of the United States and European nations are governed by the rule of democracy, ideals formed to challenge historic power structures and hierarchies. New concepts of sovereignty were proposed during the Enlightenment and American and French revolutions, particularly the right of the people to govern themselves. The idea that a nation, itself a new concept in the nineteenth century, should be governed by the people and not by a divinely ordained hereditary kingship, and that individuals owned the right to participate in choosing who led their government, were radical ideas. These Western ideals led to the formation of nations supporting democratic norms, free and fair elections, capitalist economies, robust educational systems, freedom of speech and the press, fair judicial processes, religious tolerance, and open cultural expression.

    However, despite the promise of freedom, many under the rule of European and American governments were forced to support the needs of the country, often suffering subjugation at the hands of racist ideologies and colonial networks. The provisional governments held by Western leaders in Southeast Asia, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America further attest to the complexity of the Western Civilization narrative and problems inherent when freedom is not accessible to all.

    Major Problems in Western Civilization: a complex and diverse first edition

    In “Major Problems in Western Civilization,” students will explore the words of those who built these systems and institutions. They will learn to place people and places within historical contexts by reading first-hand accounts of those who shaped, and were shaped by, Western influence. Students will encounter poetry and art that portray the human condition, religious relics and structures embodying spiritual devotion, and texts and artworks that challenged political regimes and social norms. Letters to loved ones, tales of heroic feats, law codes and novels all capture the spirit of the age. This text introduces students to these primary sources, providing a greater understanding of how history has been crafted while stimulating a nuanced consideration of its legacy.

    As students dive into this diverse narrative, they will be met by the contradictions of history. For example, while technology can advance humanity, it can also destroy it. Albert Einstein’s work on the atom revolutionized the way we viewed the world, but it also led to our greatest potential weapon, the atomic bomb. The Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave us the combustible engine, allowing us to more easily travel and produce goods that have enriched many people’s lives. This economic system of mechanized production developed into a capitalist financial system that has dominated not only the West, but the entire planet.

    The student takeaway

    What has been the cost of these developments on the environment, global economy, and public health? Western advancements in production, consumption, transportation, and communication have fueled globalization. However, we cannot understand the impact of these developments, or our current perspectives, without considering their origins. Similarly, the democratic ideals noted above represent attempts to ensure freedom from the tyranny that too often plagued human history.

    Yet the idea of sovereignty remains contested today, and the importance of studying Western Civilization stems from its relevancy, particularly during a time when ideas of nationhood are constantly revised. What freedom looks like remains an open question for today’s students, and their role in defining freedom can only be accomplished by understanding the systems and factors that bore its very premise. “Major Problems in Western Civilization” aims to help students take a purposeful step towards reaching this goal.

     

    Written by Kathryn Spielvogel, M.A. Pennsylvania State University, co-author of “Major Problems in Western Civilization,” 1e. 

    Kathryn Spielvogel earned a B.A. in history, and M.A. in Art History from The Pennsylvania State University. She continued her graduate studies in history at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, before working as a research editor on history textbooks for the past fifteen years. Passionate about historic preservation and economic development, Kathryn volunteers for several non-profit organizations while renovating historic homes and commercial buildings throughout Pennsylvania.

     

    Interested in this first edition text for your history course?  Keep an eye out for Volume I and Volume II of “Major Problems in Western Civilization”, coming later this spring, 2025.

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  • Q&A with Vanessa Walker – The Cengage Blog

    Q&A with Vanessa Walker – The Cengage Blog

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    We recently had the opportunity to talk with Vanessa Walker, new co-author of “Major Problems in American History, Volume I,” 5th edition. In this Q&A, Professor Walker discusses her background, why she’s thrilled to be a part of the “Major Problems” series and what sets this text apart from the crowd.

    Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. 

    I am the Gordon Levin Associate Professor of Diplomatic History at Amherst College where I teach classes on US foreign relations, politics, social movements and the history and politics of human rights. I became interested in these topics as an undergraduate student at Whitman College, where I wrote my thesis on Carter’s human rights policy, a subject that became my dissertation topic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I published my first book, “Principles in Power: Latin America and the Politics of US Human Rights Diplomacy” with Cornell University Press in 2020, and have written several articles on the Carter administration’s foreign policy and the role of nongovernment activists in influencing high level diplomacy. I live in Western Massachusetts with my husband, who is also a historian, and our two kids. I love to spend a lot of time outdoors hiking, skiing and swimming in lakes, especially in Vermont.

    Why were you excited to join the Major Problems in American History series as a co-author?

    I was excited to join the “Major Problems” series because I have used these volumes in the classroom, both as a student and as an instructor. As a student, I remember using them in my college history courses, relying on the competing perspectives in classroom debates, and combing through the documents and essays when writing my papers. When I began teaching, I turned to them again as a way to introduce my students to the ways historians think, and to help me curate and frame the core themes and ideas I wanted to integrate into my class. These volumes reflect the way I approach my teaching and learning, so I was excited to shape that for another generation of students and faculty.

    History encompasses such a vast array of topics. In what ways does your textbook offer something truly unique and differentiating to the field?

    I think one of the distinctive features of “Major Problems in American History” is in its name. Rather than synthesizing debates and interpretations, or offering a consensus position on a topic, this edition highlights the scholarly conversation and raw materials that comprise the fabric of producing historical knowledge. The text does not attempt to be comprehensive. Instead, by focusing on core debates within the field, it allows students to develop their own interpretations, and for teachers to challenge dominant or singular narratives and perspectives on complex topics and issues.

    Given the ever-evolving nature of history, how does your textbook discuss the complexities of current events and modern issues to remain relevant and impactful for students, and what are they?

    This edition engages with the creation of modern America. By studying its foundations and evolution, students unavoidably confront how many of the issues and debates we think of as contemporary problems have much deeper roots. The study of history is inherently one that involves change over time. Highlighting themes of gender, race, economic security and democratic inclusion, this volume invites students to consider major inflection points and persistent dynamics that have defined the modern United States.

    How do you see this textbook deepening students’ understanding of history and fostering a more active engagement with its core concepts?

    “Major Problems in American History,” by design, demands that students move away from the idea that history is the practice of memorizing names and dates. This text instead involves them in the process of integrating and prioritizing competing interpretations and arguments. Each chapter invites students to explore how different figures viewed critical moments and ideas, and really think about the assumptions and experiences that might give rise to divergent interpretations.

    With learners from diverse academic backgrounds, how does Major Problems in American History accommodate both those majoring in history and those encountering it through general education?

    Interpretation of sources—both primary and secondary—depends on a basic knowledge to frame and contextualize the issues at play. To support students regardless of their expertise, we have expanded the introductory essays to each chapter. We also provide a timeline for each chapter, highlighting key events and relevant dates. Additionally, we situate the secondary sources within broader themes and scholarly debates central to the chapter’s topic. These elements, together, empower students to explore primary and secondary sources, so they can become aware of their broader settings and the important dynamics at play.

    What do you hope instructors will take away from this textbook that will enhance their teaching?

    With this edition, we’ve given more focus to the idea of one or two “major problems” to shape the conversations around each chapter’s historical moment or theme. We hope this will provide instructors with the ability to go deeper into crucial topics, while also bringing in their own areas of expertise to broaden out the themes and ideas highlighted in each chapter. We’ve also included more primary sources that capture voices outside of government, which are often harder to find. Additionally, we’ve also increased the number of images to provide greater diversity of primary source materials.

    Lastly, what do you hope is the most significant takeaway students will carry with them after using your textbook?

    I hope that students will come away with an awareness that history, fundamentally, is about the ability to take in and explore different peoples’ perspectives, which might be radically different than their own. I believe that exercising critical thinking about the past can shed new light on assumptions and biases attached to current problems and issues. I believe that grappling with debates presented in the text will help students develop the skills and awareness necessary to apply these same approaches beyond their study of history. Additionally, I hope it will allow them to productively engage those who hold fundamentally different opinions, and use that as a foundation for pursuing their interests outside of the classroom.

     

    Vanessa Walker is the Gordon Levin Associate Professor of Diplomatic History at Amherst College, where she teaches classes on U.S. politics, foreign relations and human rights. She received her B.A. from Whitman College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of “Principles in Power: Latin America and the Politics of U.S. Human Rights Diplomacy” (Cornell University Press, 2020), and co-author of “Major Problems in American History, Volume I” 5e. She is currently working on a project exploring U.S. domestic human rights campaign as a response to the decline of the liberal state in the 1970s.

     

    Interested in learning more about “Major Problems in American History”? Explore this new edition for your history course.

     

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