January 11, 1871 was Victoria Woodhull’s moment to shine. With Congress addressing women’s suffrage for the first time, Woodhull – thirty-three year old, strikingly beautiful and intensely charismatic – received the honor of addressing them. She had the blessing of … Continue reading How We Got Here: Victoria Woodhull’s War

Note: This week’s planned article, a follow-up on last week’s article about Vladimir Putin, has been postponed. I didn’t have time to write an original piece from scratch, so I’m revising something from my personal archive again.  On February 2, … Continue reading How We Got Here: The American Protective League, the Wobblies and the “War on Slackers”

“With the recent developments in Eastern Europe, do you think that Communism is on the decline, or is this just a temporary setback?” This was the question Mike Myers posed to the band Aerosmith on a Wayne’s World sketch on Saturday … Continue reading How We Got Here: Moscow Is Silent

Welcome back to How We Got Here! After surviving the Adams Administration, I’ll take it easy this week by reposting an old blog article. If parallels with modern events seem more explicit than usual, it’s with good reason, as I … Continue reading How We Got Here: Henry Clay Keeps America in Suspense

Part Five in a series; see Parts One, Two, Three and Four.  By fall 1799, John Adams no longer found the prospect of war with France desirable. He toned down his belligerent rhetoric and dispatched a new peace commission, headed … Continue reading How We Got Here: The Prospect Before Us

Part Four in a series; see Parts One, Two and Three. Following the XYZ Affair, war between the United States and France seemed inevitable. Diplomatic stalemate intensified French attacks on American shipping, triggering a vigorous response from American naval vessels. … Continue reading How We Got Here: Deceit and Weakness

Part III in a series; see Parts One and Two. On May 7th, 1798, a crowd of roughly 1,200 Philadelphians, mostly young men in their teens and twenties, gathered at Market Street for an impromptu rally. Some carried flags and … Continue reading How We Got Here: Deranged Affairs

Part Two in a series; Part One here.  Matthew Lyon, Republican Congressman from Vermont, represented everything Federalists hated. He had been born in Ireland, a sure mark against him at a time when Federalist politicians attacked “hordes of wild Irishmen… … Continue reading How We Got Here: Malignant Passions

Note: I planned to continue my series on the Adams Administration this week, but sadly, circumstances prevented it from being completed on time. As penance, here is another revised version of an old blog post that nonetheless dovetails with previous … Continue reading How We Got Here: The Hun’s Shadow in America

Welcome to the latest How We Got Here series! The next few columns will examined the frenzied politics and repressive policies of John Adams’ presidency, especially the Alien and Sedition Acts.  March 4th, 1797 was a glorious day for the … Continue reading How We Got Here: The Reign of Mr. Adams

On April 8th, 1916 elements of the 24th United States Infantry Regiment visited the border town of Del Rio, Texas. This all-black unit, veterans of the Spanish-American War and service in the Philippines, was among the soldiers mobilizing for John … Continue reading How We Got Here: Racism, Riot and Mutiny in Houston

In 1913, Woodrow Wilson took office pledging to curtail the gunboat diplomacy of his Republican predecessors, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Yet he inherited conflicts in Cuba and Nicaragua, experienced tensions with revolutionary Mexico and chaos in Haiti. To … Continue reading How We Got Here: How America Made Haiti Safe for Empire