Country Over Self

In this episode, Matt and Charlie talk about the 20th President, James A. Garfield.  While most Americans wouldn't be able to pick Garfield out of a lineup, and he was only president for a handful of months before he died of an assassin's bullet and the ensuing infection that came from the primitive medical care available in the late 19th century.  The wheels of motion for his assassination were set in motion by a decision that seems small and quirky today, but which was incredibly consequential at the time and shook the foundations of Machine Politics and the Spoils System that dominated American politics in the 19th century. Charlie Goodyear C.W.Goodyear is an author and historian based in Washington, DC. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and grew up abroad before graduating from Yale University. His latest work is President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier, a critically acclaimed biography of America's 20th President. To learn more about Country Over Self or to check out other episodes head to Countryoverself.com.  If you have an idea for an episode or want to reach Matt directly, please email podcast@countryoverself.com Country Over Self is edited and produced by Culture Collaborative Media. 

In this episode, Matt and Noah talk about the 4th President, James Madison, and how he set aside his long-held and fiercely-argued belief in the unconstitutionality of the Bank of the United States and extended the bank's charter because...it worked and had been accepted by others as de facto constitutional. Matt and Noah also talk about the story of Dolley Madison, the most famous of the early First Ladies, and how she did (or didn't!) save the famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington from being burned in the White House when the British invaded Washington D.C. during the War of 1812. Noah Feldman Noah Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law and Director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School. He is the Chair of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University and a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the co-chair of Harvard University’s Institutional Voice Working Group. He is a contributing writer for the Bloomberg View. He served as senior constitutional advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and advised members of the Iraqi Governing Council on the drafting of the Transitional Administrative Law or interim constitution. He served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court (1998 – 1999). He received his A.B. summa cum laude in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 1992, finishing first in his class. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a D. Phil. in Islamic Thought from Oxford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, serving as Book Reviews Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is the author of ten books: Arab Winter (Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2020); The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President (Random House, 2017); Cool War: The Future of Global Competition (Random House, 2013); Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices (Twelve Publishing, 2010); The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Princeton University Press, 2008); Divided By God: America's Church-State Problem and What We Should Do About It (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005); What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation building (Princeton University Press, 2004); and After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003). He’s also the co-author of two textbooks: Constitutional Law, 21st Edition (Foundation Press, 2022) and First Amendment Law, 8th Edition (Foundation Press, 2022). His newest book, To Be A Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel and the Jewish People was released on March 5th, 2024 (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2024).   To learn more about Country Over Self or to check out other episodes head to Countryoverself.com.  If you have an idea for an episode or want to reach Matt directly, please email podcast@countryoverself.com Country Over Self is edited and produced by Culture Collaborative Media. 

In this episode, Matt and Julian talk about the 36th President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and how Johnson used his detailed knowledge of the legislative process and his unique blend of personal intimidation and charm offensive to bring about what he considered the moral imperative of his day:  Civil Rights and Voting Rights.  In so doing, Johnson made a meaningful political sacrifice that hurt his Democratic party in a way that reverberates even today. Julian Zelizer New York Times best-selling author Julian E. Zelizer has been among the pioneers in the revival of American political history. He is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a CNN Political Analyst, a regular guest on NPR’s "Here and Now," a guest host on POTUS Sirius XM, and a columnist for Foreign Policy. He is the award-winning author and editor of 26 books including, The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society, the winner of the D.B. Hardeman Prize for the Best Book on Congress and Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974, co-authored and Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party.  The New York Times named the book as an Editor's Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books in 2020. His most recent books are Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement and The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment (Editor), Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Lies and Legends About Our Past (co-edited with Kevin Kruse), and Our Nation At Risk: Election Security as a National Security Issue (co-edited with Karen Greenberg). He is currently working on a new book about the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the 1964 Democratic Convention entitled ‘Is this America?’: Reckoning With Racism at the 1964 Atlantic City Democratic Convention. In January 2025, Columbia Global Reports will publish his book, In Defense of Partisanship.  Zelizer, who has published over 1300 op-eds, has received fellowships from the Brookings Institution, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the New York Historical Society, and New America. To learn more about Country Over Self or to check out other episodes head to www.countryoverself.com If you have an idea for an episode or want to reach Matt directly, please email podcast@countryoverself.com Country Over Self is edited and produced by Culture Collaborative Media. 

Welcome to Country Over Self: Defining Moments in American History.  Each episode we welcome a notable historian to tell us the story of a president and a choice that president made to strengthen the country without regard to the impact of that decision on himself, his power or his party. To learn more about Country Over Self or to check out other episodes head to Countryoverself.com.  If you have an idea for an episode or want to reach Matt directly, please email podcast@countryoverself.com Country Over Self is produced by Culture Collaborative Media.