Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speaks with Manisha Sinha, Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut, to discuss her recent book The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the major death toll coming out of Lebanon, the sending of US forces and aid to support Israel, US airstrikes in Syria, Hurricane Helene’s death toll and destruction, presidential polling, Gavin Newsome’s pro-Private Equity and Big Tech moves, labor news, Eric Adams’ legal woes, and the passing of Kris Kristofferson, before reading a message from Matt Strackbein AKA The Letterhack on the devastation of Hurricane Helene. Professor Manisha Sinha then joins, diving right into the major expansion of the typical Reconstruction time frame in her work, with the 1865-77 period failing to incorporate the initial challenge for interracial democracy in the South or the decades of challenges to the progressive project of Reconstruction that were required to overthrow this effort fully, and exploring the mythologizing of this era as an abject “failure” and the “Lost Cause” revisionist history that plays into. Expanding on the importance of understanding the project to unwind Reconstruction, Professor Sinha tackles the role of the Gilded Age and the late 19th Century revolution in Industrial Capitalism in pushing a shift in the Republican Party from Lincoln to anti-labor, laisse-faire liberal Republicans aligned with southern capitalists, all but abandoning the abolitionist project, stepping back from the South as domestic racial terror campaigns and targeted political violence ran wild. After touching on the particular crackdown on the public and civic institutions in the South – via both state and vigilante violence – and expanding on the role of economic populism in bolstering the white supremacist project against Reconstruction, Manisha walks Sam and Emma through the direct relationship between the anti-Black and anti-democratic violence of the era and the then-ongoing project of imperialist expansion and the genocide of Native Americans. Wrapping up, Professor Sinha tackles the glaring parallels with today’s fight for democracy and against White Supremacy, particularly regarding party politics and the Supreme Court, and centers the importance of knowing what you’re fighting against.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma dive into the obscene, excessive, and indiscriminate nature of Israel’s bombardment of Beirut and assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, and watch the Foreign Minister of Jordan respond to Bibi’s UN speech. Joe Rogan walks through his big conspiracy of Democrat corruption and accidentally gets all the facts wrong along the way, Donald Trump wants to do a “the Purge,” and Charlie Kirk fights the oligarchy with the power of oligarchy.

Follow Professor Sinha on Twitter here: https://x.com/ProfMSinha

Check out Professor Sinha’s book here: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631498442

Find more information on how to assist those in need as a result of Hurricane Helene here: https://x.com/why_sophie_why/status/1839789991075164483/photo/1

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