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[Abridged] Presidential Histories - 38.A) Gerald Ford in the Maelstrom, an interview with Brooke Clement
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38.A) Gerald Ford in the Maelstrom, an interview with Brooke Clement

[Abridged] Presidential Histories

05/06/24

38m

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A 24-year career in Congress crested at a tumultuous time for Gerald Ford. He was the GOP leader of the house during the Nixon administration, then Nixon's VP, then the president who had to heal the country after Watergate. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum director Brook Clement discusses the crucible Ford walked as a national leader.

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undefined - 38.) Gerald Ford 1974-1977
38.) Gerald Ford 1974-1977

April 15, 2024

48m

"Our long national nightmare is over." - Gerald Ford, August 9, 1974
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Gerald Ford is the only person in American history to reach the vice presidency and the presidency without being elected to either. Despite this, he was a popular president - for 1 month. But then he pardoned Nixon, and it was all downhill from there. Follow along as Ford rides his athletic gifts from Grand Rapids to The University of Michigan and eventually Yale, serves his country in World War 2, then embarks on a quest to become Speaker of the House, only to discover the presidency instead. Once there, he'll grapple with the legacy of Watergate, and a bedeviling rise in unemployment and inflation that threatened to send the country's economy over the cliff.
Bibliography
1. Gerald Ford – Douglas Brinkley
2. Richard Nixon: The Life – John Farrell
3. Ronald Reagan: The life – H.W. Brands
4. The Vietnam War – Ken Burns (documentary)
5. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
6. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream – Doris Kearns Goodwin
7. Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency – Mark K Updegrove
8. His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life – Jonathan Alter

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From 1953 to 1969, the Supreme Court was a vanguard of progressive change for the United States. But then came Tricky Dick.
Michael Bobelian, author of Battle For The Marble Palace: Abe Fortas, Lyndon Johnson, Earl Warren, Richard Nixon and the Forging of the Modern Supreme Court, discusses how presidential candidate Richard Nixon and senate conservatives blocked LBJ's efforts to cement a progressive court for years to come and, in 3 short years, transformed the once liberal bastion into a conservative bulwark, forever changing how justices are nominated and confirmed in the United States.

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