Eric and Eliot discuss a new play about President Dwight Eisenhower, Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground. They discuss the changing evaluation of Ike's presidency by historians and the pluses and minuses of his 8 years in office. They consider the quality of press commentary in the 1950s and 60s and compare it (unfavorably) to what passes for commentary today. They muse about the declining enrollment in history courses across the nation and the disfavor into which traditional sub-disciplines in historical studies have fallen and its potential impact on national security policy-making. They discuss the spread of disinformation and misinformation about Hurricanes Helene and Milton and look back on the work of historian Richard Hofstadter and his writing on the Paranoid Style in American History to explain some of the status anxiety underlying today's penchant for conspiracy theorizing. They discuss the recent revelations in Bob Woodward's new book and analyze Woodward's journalistic methods and discuss the prospects for Israeli retaliation for the October 1 Iranian missile attack and the current situation in Ukraine.
Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground: https://www.olneytheatre.org/whats-playing/eisenhower-piece-ground
Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics: https://a.co/d/bTfpK3y
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
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