Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
William Jennings Bryan
It’s always been the Republicans.
A century ago this fall, voters were at one another’s throats in one of the hardest-fought campaigns ever.
I brag and chant of Bryan, Bryan,
Bryan, Candidate for president who sketched a silver Zion,
The one American Poet who could sing outdoors…
The foremost student of a belief held by nearly half of all Americans traces its history from Darwin’s bombshell through the storms of the Scopes trial to today’s “scientific creationists," who find William Jennings Bryan to have been too liberal.
The two-party system, undreamt of by the founders of the republic, has been one of its basic shaping forces ever since their time.
A clipping selected at random from a generous stack tells me that the would-be Democratic candidate Tom Harkin is pitching a “populist, sharply partisan message.” I get the impression that the two adjectives are interchangeable.
One hundred years ago many thoughtful people predicted the decline and disappearance of capitalism. What happened to make their prophecy wrong?
People nowadays interchange gifts and favors out of friendship,” says a character speaking from the vantage point of the year 2000 in Edward Bellamy’s 1888 novel, Looking Backward, “but buying and selling is considered absolute
Banking as we’ve known it for centuries is dead, and we don’t really know the consequences of what is taking its place. A historical overview.
For the last several years congressional committees and presidential task forces have been nattering back and forth about what should be done to change the legal order that establishes and specifically empowers and regulates the nation’s banks.
Presidential candidates stayed above the battle until William Jennings Bryan stumped the nation in 1896; they’ve been in the thick of it ever since
The most confident prediction that can be made about the 1980 presidential campaign is that the nominees will invest enormous energy, time, and money in stumping the country.
The “Monkey Trial” brought two ideologies into a great conflict, and it was very, very hot
He was promising at 25, prominent at 45, esteemed at 65, venerated at 85
I had quite a compliment on the street. As I was crossing the Avenue near the Capitol a very good looking man who was spinning by on a bicycle suddenly stopped and jumped off, and said ‘Isn’t this Mr.
What started as fun and games at spring roundups is now a multi-million-dollar sport called rodeo
The crowd roars. The bell clangs. The chute gate swings wide and a beleaguered animal dashes into the arena to put on an exciting exhibition of pain and panic.
exhibit one in a gallery of men who fought the good fight in vain
To the question of acquiring new territories overseas, and owning colonies, one group of Americans answered with a resounding “No!”
While Bryan stumped up and down the land, McKinley let the voters come to his lawn in Canton—and they came
In 1896, the depression which had followed the Panic of ’93 was in its third year. Debt, business failure, unemployment, and labor unrest were spreading; to many, revolution seemed just a step away.
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