One of the consequences of the Election of 1800 was the downfall of the Federalist Party. They will run losing campaigns for the next four elections but are soundly defeated by the Republicans. After the War of 1812, they will stop running candidates altogether and disappear. Their party will never resurface, but their ideas will … Continue reading Class Notes
Author: James Finck
Dr. James W. Finck was raised in the shadows of history in the great state of Virginia. Growing up it was difficult to travel too far without running into a monument or battlefield from the Revolutionary or Civil War. In this environment, Finck developed a love for studying the past and from his youth knew that he wanted to make it his life’s work. Finck received a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He then studied under James I. Robertson and William C. Davis at Virginia Tech, while earning a Master’s degree. Finally, he received his Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas, under the direction of Daniel Sutherland. For five years, Finck taught at the University of Texas-Pan American before accepting his current position as American Historian at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in 2011. At a small liberal arts institution, Finck considers himself a generalist in history, but his specialties are the Civil War and American Politics. Finck has established himself in Oklahoma with the creation of the Oklahoma Civil War Symposium, which has brought in leading Civil War scholars for the past eight years, and he has spoken at many venues around Oklahoma, especially working with the Honey Spring Battlefield. Finck is the author of Divided Loyalties: Kentucky’s Struggle for Armed Neutrality in the Civil War, as well as Images of America: Chickasha. Finck is also the author of the syndicated newspaper column “Historically Speaking.”
Executive Orders II
A couple of years ago, after President Trump backed out of the Paris Climate Treaty and the Iran Nuclear Deal, I wrote a column for "Historically Speaking," justifying his actions because those deals had been made by executive orders so could legally be overturned by executive order. At the same time, I argued that modern … Continue reading Executive Orders II
Class Notes
“Dalia had long believed in Einstein’s words—that “no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” For Dalia the key to coexistence lay in what she called “the three A’s”: acknowledgement of what had happened to the Palestinians in 1948, apology for it, and amends. Acknowledgment was in part, so … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
When Eisenhower was elected president, he and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, took a different approach to foreign policy. He learned from Korea the difficulty of sending troops everywhere to stop the spread of Communism. Wanting peace, but not wanting to ever look weak, Ike used the threat of nuclear war as his … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
One of the major issues Adams faced for his reelection bid in 1800 was that he was not the head of his own party. It is rare for the president to not lead his party, but the Federalists were created by Hamilton and he sat at the head of the table. This fact bothered Adams … Continue reading Class Notes
Book Review
Book Review, Lesley Hazleton. After the Prophet: The Story of Muhammad (New York: Riverhead Books, 2013) After reading Lesley Hazleton’s book, After the Prophet, I knew I needed to read her biography of Muhammad. Hazleton has lived in the Middle East for years and has experience with the culture and stories of the prophet. She … Continue reading Book Review
Class Notes
Eighty-one years ago this month Senator Joseph McCarthy, while speaking to a Republican dinner in West Virginia, held up a list which he claimed had a list of high ranking government officials who were communists. McCarthy became an instant success and one of the most powerful men in the nation for a short time. The … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
In the history of the Holocaust, Bulgaria stands out among other European nations. King Boris attempted to remain neutral, but in order to remain independent, in 1941 the nation sided with the Germans and elected a fascist government. With the new alliance, Bulgarian Jews were stripped of their rights and had many of the same … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
In 1948, Stalin closed the road and rail line between West Germany and West Berlin. Having a democratic city behind the Steel Curtain was an embarrassment to the Soviets. It was now President Truman’s time to respond and to see if his foreign policy of Containment would work. For almost an entire year American planes … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
The two men responsible for the creation of political parties were Jefferson and Hamilton. One of their issues was that they differed on what America should be. Jefferson wanted to keep America an agricultural nation, where everyone owned their own farms. If everyone was self-employed then they would be free and could vote. Jefferson’s worst … Continue reading Class Notes
