Episode 56 – The US Supreme Court from Taney to Plessy v Ferguson

CC from Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to part two of our three-part series on the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. In this episode we discuss the Taney court (1836-1864) through the Fuller court (1888-1910). We break down two of the most landmark decisions of these courts with a discussion of Dred Scott vs. Sandford (1857) and Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). Join us for a discussion of judicial overreach, precursors to Civil War, and the codification of racial segregation in the Jim Crow era.

Episode 55 – The US Supreme Court – Jay to Marshall

John Marshall by Henry Inman via Wikimedia Commons

The justices that sit on the US Supreme Court may be nine of the most powerful unelected officials in the world. Join us for the first of a multi-part deep dive into the story of the US Supreme. We’ll cover that origins of the court as well as critical people and cases that fundamentally shaped the contemporary legal, political, economic, and social landscape of America.

This week we discuss the origin of the court and the tenures of John Jay, the first Chief Justice, and John Marshall, arguably the most importandt Chief Justice in the history of the court.

Episode 54 – Presentism

AdiJapan, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons

Join us as we kick off An Incomplete History season 3 with a discussion of presentism. This week, we do a deep dive into the divisive debate happening within the field of history as the result of the American Historical Association’s president who wrote an opinion piece regarding our role as historians. The piece received extreme backlash leading to the AHA having to lock their Twitter account and many members canceling their memberships to the association. This week we talk about the concept of presentism, why the accusation was offensive to many historians, and what we could or should be doing to promote respectful debate and an open sharing of ideas in such a politically charged moment.

Links to articles mentioned in the episode –

James Sweet Article

Lynn Hunt Article

Caroline Walker Bynum Article