Decade of Discord: Dred Scott Decision Announced Just After Buchanan's Election in 1856
In the presidential election of 1856 Democratic party leaders, looking for a candidate who cannot be linked to bleeding Kansas, nominate James Buchanan, a party regular who was in England during the crisis. The newly-formed Republican Party nominate...
Decade of Discord: John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry
In October of 1859 John Brown and a number of his followers attempt to capture a town in Virginia named Harpers Ferry, hoping to strike a blow against slavery. The townspeople fight back and trap Brown, his followers and their 13 hostages in a fire ...
Decade of Discord: Lincoln-Douglas Debates, The
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas vie for the Illinois senate seat in 1858. Although U. S. Senators are selected by their state legislatures in the 19th century, candidates for the Senate try to increase their chances by appealing directly to thos...
Determined to be Heard: Counterculture, The
In the 1960s and 1970s, the youth counterculture openly scorns the values and conventions of middle-class society. This counterculture becomes identified with San Francisco, with Los Angeles, and later rural communes. Social experimentation, alterna...
Question of Sovereignty, A: Changing Expectations of the Federal Government
The national outlook towards government and what we expect from it has changed. Many areas once assumed to be the purview of state or local governments, like pollution control, now have federal and international dimensions. In tight budget situation...
Rights of the Accused: Court Takes More Conservative Position on Civil Liberties
The Supreme Court began to take a more conservative approach to civil liberties in the years following the Warren Court. There was even an unsuccessful effort to overturn the Miranda decision. Terry v. Ohio which recognized the right of police offic...
Rights of the Accused: Death Penalty, The
The death penalty is a divisive issue that continues to haunt the court. The basic divide is between those who think the system is so flawed you cannot know for sure that someone is guilty and others who think it is fair but object to the prolonged ...
Remembering Ronald Reagan
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker looks back on his eight years working in the Reagan White House. Secretary Baker explains that one of President Reagan's greatest strengths was his ability to make those around him feel good about themselves.
Rights of the Accused: Due Process as Protection for Disadvantaged Minorities
Most of the major advancements in due process protections coincided with the civil rights movement of the sixties. The Warren Court viewed the Constitution as a living evolving document, gaining moral authority on race issues in the 1950s and 1960s....
Republican Congress, The
Former Secretary of Labor and university professor Robert Reich talks about the abrupt changes that took place when the Republicans gained control of Congress in the 1994 congressional elections. "I had to stop a lot of bad things from happening and...