Season Two: Presidential Crises
Welcome to The Past, The Promise, The Presidency, Season Two: Presidential Crises. This season, we are exploring the presidential crises that you already know and those that are rarely talked about, from the Utah War to the government shutdowns of the 1990s. In the process, we will try to figure out:
What makes a presidential crisis?
What is the president’s role in solving the crisis?
What happens when the president makes the crisis worse?
How have presidential crises changed in the last 250 years?
We explore all this and more in The Past, The Promise, The Presidency: Season Two, Presidential Crises.
Episode 1: George Washington and Executive Power
Our first topic this season is our first president, George Washington, father of the country, general, surveyor, statesman, slave owner, whiskey distiller, debtor, and a man whose dental history every poor kid with braces hears about.
Washington was the first man to hold the office, of course, and some still argue that he was the best. Everyone agrees that he set the standard by which all other presidents would be judged. Today, we will explore the presidency of George Washington and his biggest challenge: the creation of the presidency itself.