Episode 64 — Benjamin Harrison: A New Map, New Laws, and a Wired White House

pplpod Episode 64 follows Benjamin Harrison—from Civil War general and Indianapolis lawyer to 23rd President presiding over a hyperactive, high-stakes Gilded Age. We trace the “Billion-Dollar Congress,” landmark laws like the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and the McKinley Tariff’s blowback at the ballot box. The map changes too: six new stars—North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming—join the flag. Abroad, Harrison backs a bigger steel Navy and convenes the Pan-American Conference; at home, he pushes (and narrowly loses) a federal elections bill aimed at protecting Black voting rights. We also track conservation milestones (Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks; new forest reserves), the first electric lights in the White House, and the personal chapters that shaped his tenure. Policy, principle, and the costs of governing at full speed.