Hello everybody:
I am up to episode four in my five part series on the fate of so-called "third parties" in the United States. Here is the full playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?list....
In this episode, I compare two smaller independent political parties in the nineteenth century: the Liberty Party, an abolitionist group, and the People's Party, which advocated for farmers in the 1880s and 1890s. Neither party made it to the White House, but one influenced US economic policies for decades, while the other served as a spoiler and helped get the country into a war of aggression against one of our neighbors.
You might want to watch this series, as I'm sure that discussions about third parties are going to heat up with the coming elections next November and in 2028.
BTW: I've now got my own online bookstore; please check it out if you want to support my YouTube channel: www.abebooks.com/servlet/StoreFrontDisplay?cid=861…
Thank you,
Matthew
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Dear excellent subscribers:
Seventy six years ago Adlai Stevenson, the newly elected governor of Illinois, found some strange newly passed legislation sitting on his desk. The "Cat Bill" as it was called, would criminalize felines across the state, allowing citizens of The Prairie State to hunt down outdoor toms, tuxedos, and shorthairs in the name of bird conservation. The commentary that Stevenson wrote in response remains one of the most eloquent veto messages in US history. I have made a video about it. I hope that you will give it a listen.
Speaking of US history. I have been busy posting my history lectures from UC Santa Cruz on this YouTube channel. Here is the playlist so far: www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
Next week I will start posting my lectures on the 1960s era - all seven of them. If you are my age (hint: old), I hope that you will share your experiences about some of the stories that I tell in those vids. And if you are younger than me (and a lot of people are), I've love to hear your reactions too.
Take care and thanks!
Matthew
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Happy Monday (or at least Monday PST) to all my YouTube subscribers!
As promised, I've posted a video about the rather strange eye miniature craze that rocked England and Europe in the late 19th- and early-20th century. It took off thanks to the trendy enthusiasms of George IV and his main squeeze, the beautiful and charming Maria Fitzherbert.
Now I'm working on the second vid in my Trump's Virtual Ancestor series. Who will virtual ancestor number two be? Here are three hints:
1. He had an uncle who disappointed the composer Ludwig Von Beethoven.
2. He had more than a little something to do with the history of Vietnam.
3. He hired an urban planner who didn't like narrow streets.
Can you name this person? If you respond to this post with the correct answer, I'll mention you (or at least your YouTube handle) and praise you in the video description section as someone who knows their history.
As always, thank you so much for subscribing to my YouTube history channel.
Matthew Lasar
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Dear history lovers:
Trump's been busy with America. I've been busy with Trump. Please check out, if you haven't already, my video comparing him to Kaiser Wilhelm the Second. Plus, attention all cat lovers: don't forget to watch my clip about the "Cat's Meat Men" of Victorian London: https://youtu.be/C0qbz4DdHVA .
Now I'm working on some short vids about owl art and eye miniatures.
Thanks SO much for subscribing to my channel.
Matthew
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Dear subscribers:
I am working on my next video, titled "the famous saying that Thomas Jefferson did not say."
Jefferson is the source of so many fake quotes that it even makes my cynical head do a 360 degree spin. Here are some of my favorite "spurious" Jefferson sayings, as the Thomas Jefferson Foundation likes to call them:
"I know nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle."
"Every man has two countries, his own and France."
"I would rather be judged by 12 farmers than 12 scholars."
"The first duty of government is the protection of life, not its destruction."
"Without God, liberty will not last."
You can read the rest of the Foundation's full list of bogus quotes here: www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jeffe…
None of the above are the Jefferson quotation I'm going to talk about in my upcoming video. But even legendary scholars of the 20th-century thought that the third president of the USA said it. Looking forward to releasing the vid soon!
As they used to say in letters back then: "I am yr hmbl srvnt."
Thanks for being my subscriber!
Matthew
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Dear excellent subscribers.
Here's my latest video product, a fun tutorial on how to read a history book. Yes, that's Burgess Meredith in the opening, starring in his classic Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last." The message of the show: that no person is an island (also that you should get shatter proof glasses). The message of my video is that you'll appreciate history writing more if you understand that no history book is an island, either. History books talk to each other. Having some sense of those discussions makes reading them more fun.
These days I'm reading Pekka Hämäläinen's fantastic tome Indigenous Continent. As I follow this impressive overview of Native American resistance to European colonialism, I'm coming to see it as a response to Charles C. Mann's influential book 1491. Indigenous Continent argues that despite the devastating introduction of European diseases, and despite Europe's technological prowess and wealth: indigenous nations and confederations in North America held off European aggression for centuries. In fact, the story of colonial America and the early USA should be understood not just as an impending war with Britain, but as a relentless series of conflicts with powerful first nation alliances. And in many of those showdowns, Europeans came in second.
I'm also reading Jack Kelly's Heaven's Ditch: God, Gold and Murder on the Erie Canal. My god (speaking of which), what a nuthouse upstate New York was in the early nineteenth century. Lot's of great stories: Maybe I'll tell one in an upcoming video.
BTW: Thanks for subscribing to my videos!
Matthew
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Dear valued subscribers:
I have published my final video on Andrew Jackson. I have to say that the Jackson administration's denouement in the mid-1830s feels like something of a road map for what is going to happen over the next four years. I say "feel" because, of course, I can't possibly predict say how things will turn out. I do the past, not the future. So please let me know what you think.
Whatever you make of the current situation, I cannot thank you enough for subscribing to my channel. Please have a wonderful holiday season!
Matthew Lasar
matthelasar.bsky.social
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Happy Tuesday history fans: A new video that explains why Andrew Jackson's career as an Indian remover helps us understand his career as a federal bank remover. Enjoy! watch video on watch page
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Dear valued subscribers:
More populism! The stuff about Andrew Jackson will get even more sordid with part two of this Myth #2 series. I'm just getting started on the Creek/Cherokee land grab and how it relates to banking.
Thanks for watching and enjoy.
Matthew
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Dear Histories of Everything subscribers:
I have interrupted working on my series on populism to offer a brief analysis of Donald Trump's victory last week. I see his story as emanating from the same historical place that gave rise of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping: the globalization policies of the 1990s. At the same time that the world celebrated the collapse of the Soviet Union, it moved towards "free market" policies that made life much harder for ordinary people, especially in Russia, China, and the USA. I even wonder if we in the states are heading towards the last chapter in the Cold War, one in which hitherto unthinkable possibilities could ensue.
Please let me know what you think.
Gratefully,
Matthew
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History: as in histories about presidents, dictators, toys, UFO cults, assassins, insult comedians, and cats. Nine, as in the Chinese number for longevity. All videos created by Matthew Lasar. Formerly called "Lasar's Histories of Everything."