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1850s

Some of the biggest congressional fights in U.S. history

John Fea   |  November 16, 2023

Two fights almost broke-out this week on Capitol Hill. You can read all about them here. The most famous fight in congressional history happened in 1856 when Preston Brooks of South Carolina caned Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the Senate […]

In 1855-1856, the Speaker of the House was decided after 133 votes

John Fea   |  January 5, 2023

As I write, the House is completing its eighth ballot for Speaker of the House. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic candidate, continues to get a plurality of the vote. The GOP is still divided, with most Republicans behind Kevin McCarthy and […]

David Blight: “Dred Scott was the point of no return”

John Fea   |  December 21, 2022

I hope you get some time this week to read Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight’s piece at The New York Times Magazine, “Was the Civil War Inevitable?” Blight reflects on the 1850s, particularly the Dred Scott case, and wonders if […]

Goodbye Roger Taney

John Fea   |  December 16, 2022

Earlier this week my U.S. history survey students answered a final exam essay question on the short-term causes of the American Civil War. I haven’t graded their essays yet, but if their blue books do not contain something about Roger […]

The ever-usable John Brown

John Fea   |  April 28, 2021

Here is Yale graduate student Bennett Parten at History Today: …John Brown became an American sensation, a source of both fear and enchantment. Slaveholders reviled him; abolitionists wept for him, tolled bells in his honour and came to see him […]

If American democracy is in crisis, expect calls for Supreme Court reform

John Fea   |  April 14, 2021

Joe Biden wants to reform the Supreme Court. This kind of judicial reform also happened in the 1790s, 1850s, 1890s, 1930s, 1970s, and 2010s. Here is a taste of Syracuse University political scientist Thomas Keck‘s piece at The Washington Post: […]