David Kaiser – States of the Union

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0:00 The many, many books of David Kaiser

3:01 David: Claudine Gay is a symptom, not a cause, of what’s wrong at Harvard

6:09 Western Civilization and elitism at Harvard

10:03 Meritorious elitism and luxury elitism

12:35 Intellectuals in the wild

14:28 How James Bryant Conant built the modern Harvard …

17:33 … and how it was broken

18:52 Glenn’s previous conversation with Omer Bartov

24:12 Why David thinks the Gaza War falls short of genocide but maybe not ethnic cleansing

25:51 What Claudine Gay could (and maybe should) have said at her congressional hearing

27:51 Why David thinks originalists will have a problem rejecting attempts to remove Trump from electoral ballots

32:38 David: Mitch McConnell should have impeached Trump when he had the chance

36:07 David’s new book, States of the Union

41:03 Have state of the union addresses always been as boring as they are now?

44:55 Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Reagan, and their legacies

57:37 Why Obama didn’t propose a New New Deal after the 2008 financial crisis

1:01:01 Biden’s silence

Recorded January 10, 2024

Links and Readings

David’s book, Economic Diplomacy and the Origin of the Second World War: Germany, Britain, France, and Eastern Europe, 1930-1939

David’s book, Politics and War: European Conflict from Philip II to Hitler

David’s book, American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War

David’s book, The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

David’s book, Baseball Greatness: Top Players and Teams According to Wins Above Average, 1901-2017

David’s book, NFL 1965: The Most Exciting Season

David’s book, A Life in History

David’s book, States of the Union: A History of the United States through Presidential Addresses, 1789-2023

Glenn’s previous conversation with David

Fareed Zakaria on elite universities

Glenn’s conversation with Omer Bartov

David’s blog, History Unfolding

David’s blog post about the Fourteenth Amendment

Howard Zinn’s book, A People’s History of the United States

John F. Kennedy’s June 11, 1963 address on segregation