Last Exit to Wheeling

The forgotten man.

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Hurry up and pay your union dues, because today’s Remnant is all about labor. It’s been more than a week since his departure, but Jonah’s still lost in the wilds of the heartland, vainly attempting to overcome his mid-life crisis from an RV living room. In these desperate times, Chris Stirewalt reassumes control of the program to bend it to his West Virginian will, but thankfully, he’s joined by a special guest who brings some leaven to the Goldberg-less loaf. That guest is renowned historian Amity Shlaes, who’s here to discuss the origins of labor unions, Lyndon B. Johnson’s relationship with industry, and the elections of the 1960s and ‘70s. It’s a crash course in US history that’ll leave you significantly more pro-Coolidge.

Show Notes:

– Amity’s page at National Review

– The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

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  1. K-man

    I agree that Shlaes should have fleshed out her criticism of Reuther. I think she is right but I want to hear her argument.

    Happy that we are finally getting a more balanced appraisal of Coolidge and the 1920s but I am wondering if the pendulum is beginning to go too far in the other direction. I don’t think the 1920s were the frivolous and malicious age pro-New-Deal historians portrayed it as for decades, but I don’t think they were a lost golden age either.

    What irritated me was the treatment of Nixon and the economic summit at Camp David. Shlaes dismisses his actions as entirely motivated by politics and blindly following “un-American” (i.e., non-libertarian) conventional economic thinking. Maybe her presentation is more sophisticated in her book. Was Nixon supposed to allow a run on the dollar? The postwar economic order was collapsing. And Nixon is responsible for the Great Inflation? LBJ is off the hook?

    There is only one book-length treatment of the crisis: Three Days at Camp David by Jeffrey Garten. He was interviewed about it in 2021 on the Nixon Library’s “Nixon Now” podcast, and he addresses several of these issues in depth. It’s worth a listen.

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  2. Randall Briggs

    So, are Amity and Chris saying that we should NOT have worn masks and should NOT have gotten vaccinated during the COVID epidemic?

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    Matt Y.

    Now that you've spoken to Amity, you should speak to Abnegation, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite to get their views.

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  4. Springstreetpreschool

    I was literally walking over the Coolidge bridge in Northampton MA when I heard this podcast. Calvin Coolidge was elected mayor of Northampton in 1909. What a great podcast and I have to admit that I never heard of Amity Shlaes but I will now be reading all of her books. Thank you for the opportunity to hear and learn so much from this wonderful conversation!

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  5. Eklees

    A correction: Michael Harrington's The Other America is the book that Amity is referencing, I think. I read that book in high school in the 1970's and it was a game changer for me in how to think about old people and Medicare. Harrington's book was a game changer for the Democratic Party, too.

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    SeanM76

    Great guest and podcast. I just downloading the Coolidge book and I am looking forward to listening to it.

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    Nmcvicker

    Can we bring Amity back to talk about all of her books? She was fantastic.

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    Rboard

    Loved this conversation.

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    Kbwilliams54

    I guess it's just me, but ....

    Why are labor unions bad for the country? She did not explain her reasoning, nor why Walter Reuther, despite being a 'nice man,' led a wrong-headed movement (none of which I particularly agree with). Lots of assumptions that the audience would get it and no explanation of what labor unions did during their heyday that might have been bad for America. (Not saying this was the case.)

    What exactly happened during that Camp David meeting? Wage and Price Controls -- and why were they bad? Jettisoning the gold standard -- and why was that bad? That is certainly what she was implying, without explaining why.

    You had to assume that everyone listening is cognizant on all these issues, or was a huge fan of hers and had read her books.

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    1. Vitaly.Furman

      I had just finished listening and I tend to agree... I know the history a little bit and I understand why closing the gold window (together with increased spending for both the Great Society and the Vietnam War) had helped unleash the Great Inflation of the 1970s. Nixon (apart from his actions to help Israel in 1973) is one of the worst people to be elected President. But, like you, I find her arguments about unions totally unpersuasive. She still preaches the "supply-side economics" gospel, which may have been needed in the 1970s but is totally inadequate today. In this story, "unions are always bad because they impede the free flow of labor". Given the hollowing-out of our community life and the near total control the tech oligarchy will soon have over our lives, I came to believe that a version of social democracy (with strong private-sector unions) is inevitable in our future. The other choice is continuing on the present course which will likely result in a populist revolution.

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    Ben Connelly

    I was so excited to see Amity Shlaes was the guest today! I loved The Forgotten Man! This was a great interview.

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