Mark R. Cheathem's Blog, page 3
February 21, 2022
Are These Andrew Jackson Quotes Accurate?
I wanted to celebrate today’s Presidents’ Day by examining a list of alleged Andrew Jackson quotes recently posted by Mental Floss. Some of the quotes are accurate, but several are apocryphal. Not surprisingly, a couple of them come from our old friend and noted purveyor of historical lies Augustus C. Buell. “The bank, Mr. Van …
December 18, 2021
This Tariff Debate Is So Taxing!
I came across a Twitter conversation today that drew my attention. The topic was the role of tariffs as a cause of the southern states’ secession in 1860-61, which appears to have been prompted by this blog post. I won’t wade into the morass of opinions exchanged on Twitter, but I do want to address …
December 1, 2021
Review of And Tyler No More
Earlier this fall, attorney and author Stan Haynes offered to send me a copy of his newest book, And Tyler No More, which is set in the Jacksonian/antebellum period. Although there is some fiction set in this period (see my review of A Stranger Here Below), there isn’t a lot. With that in mind, and …
October 3, 2021
Books for Spring 2022
Jacksonian Democracy Mark R. Cheathem, Andrew Jackson, Southerner (LSU Press, 2013) ISBN 9780807150986 Cassandra Good, Founding Friendships: Friendships between Men and Women in the Early American Republic (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015) ISBN 9780199376179 Spencer W. McBride, Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom (Oxford Univ. Press, 2021) ISBN 9780190909413 Joshua D. Rothman, The …
January 10, 2021
Who Were the January 6 Insurrectionists?
On a Twitter thread with Sarah Werner, I mentioned four distinct groups of people that seemed to take part in the violent January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. I wanted to expand a bit more on those four groups. Tourists. These are the people who were taking selfies and wandering through the Capitol as …
October 2, 2020
Books for Spring 2021
Civil War America After taking a cycle off, I’m teaching the Civil War course in the spring. All three books are new to the course and will be supplemented with articles and essays. Kevin Levin, Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth (University of North Carolina Press, 2019) ISBN 9781469653266 Kellie Carter …
February 24, 2020
Books for Fall 2020
American Presidency Mark R. Cheathem,The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson(Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2018) ISBN 978-1421425986 Erika Falk,Women for President: Media Bias in Nine Campaigns, 2d. ed. (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2010) ISBN 978-0252076916 Jennifer R. Mercieca, Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump (Texas A&M Univ. Press, …
February 4, 2020
A Precedent for Presidential Censure
In his remarks on Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) called for his fellow legislators to censure the president. “Censure would allow this body to unite across party lines,” Manchin argued, “and as an equal branch of government to formally denounce the President’s actions and hold him accountable.” While there appears …
December 23, 2019
Review of A Stranger Here Below
Earlier this fall, author Charles Fergus offered to send me a copy of his newest book, A Stranger Here Below, which is set in the Jacksonian period. There’s not a lot of fiction that focuses on this period, so I agreed to read the book and write a short review about it here. A Stranger …
December 4, 2019
A Primer on Presidential Impeachment
As I wrap up teaching the first part of the U.S. survey, we’ve been talking about President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment. Because of the current impeachment inquiry into President Trump, my students were very interested in learning more about the impeachment process. I wanted to share some of what we’ve been talking about. The first thing …
