Florida Atlantic University

Loss Of A Great Woman In American Diplomacy: Madeleine Albright (1937-2022)

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America yesterday lost one of its greatest ever women public servants–former United Nations Ambassador and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in the administration of President Bill Clinton.

Albright was brilliant, courageous, principled, and always spoke her mind as the first woman Secretary of State.

This author and blogger was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a public lecture at Florida Atlantic University by Madeleine Albright a few years ago on the role of foreign policy in the American Presidency, and I was immensely impressed.

Being a refugee from both Nazi occupation of her homeland, Czecholovakia, and then again from Soviet takeover after World War II, Albright demonstrated the great value and contributions of refugees who emigrate to America, and is an excellent argument against the ever present nativism of hatemongers.

Albright learned of her Jewish heritage in recent years, as her parents converted to Catholicism to promote protection of their family, and she appreciated greatly learning of her heritage, which sadly included Nazi murder of three of her grandparents.

Albright opened up avenues of opportunity for women with her amazing performance in high pressure diplomacy, and she warned us in a recent book about the danger of the rise again of Fascism, condemning Donald Trump as a threat to America’s future.

Her warning of the danger of Donald Trump must be part of a massive effort to insure that neither Trump or anyone of his ilk makes it to the White House and beyond!

Hooray! 12 Year Anniversary, And 6,800 Articles On “The Progressive Professor”!

Ronald 5 Comments

Today, August 11, is the 12th Anniversary of “The Progressive Professor”, and with this posting, exactly 6,800 articles have been published!

Along with the articles, there have been exactly 21,000 comments by readers and myself as I post this, and I wish to thank all those who have contributed to this blog with their insights!

This author and blogger has been passionate about this blog, and hopes to continue for the long haul, shooting first for 15 years, then 20, and hopefully, 25 years!

I want to thank my son, David Feinman, for inspiring me to begin this blog back in 2008. It keeps me intellectually engaged, along with my writings on my additional blog on History News Network, and my radio engagements, along with my lectures to various groups, and my continued teaching on the American Presidency at Florida Atlantic University.

Hopefully, the progressive cause will be advanced in the upcoming years, after setbacks on a regular basis in the past 40 years, from the election of Ronald Reagan to the disaster of the Presidency of Donald Trump.

It is hoped that Joe Biden will restore and improve upon the Barack Obama legacy, and that whoever his running mate is, may eventually become the 47th President to follow Joe Biden!

Celebration, As This “Progressive Professor” Blog Reaches Its 6,000th Posting, After Nearly Ten Years!

Ronald 6 Comments

Today, June 8, 2018 is a day to celebrate, as this posting you are now reading is the 6,000th posting since the author began this expression of his beliefs and of important historical and political events nearly ten years ago.

In two months and three days (August 11), it will be exactly ten years since my son, David Feinman, knowing my strong knowledge of history, and passion for politics, suggested that I start a blog.

Now, nearly ten years later, my blog not only includes the 6,000 postings, but also many intelligent and contributory comments by my readers and supporters.

It also includes a wide variety of web sites on the right side, as well as all of my History News Network articles, and those reproduced on Time and Newsweek, as well as articles on The Hill website.

Additionally, my C Span events on my Assassinations book, and a wide multitude of radio appearances are included, especially those on WWGH 107.1 FM, Marion, Ohio, over the past year, as well as others on Blog Talk Radio and other sites, and also relevant newspaper articles, and several videos of lectures on Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson at Florida Atlantic University Lifelong Learning in Jupiter, Florida.

This has been a fascinating and enriching nearly ten years, and I hope to continue to do this blog for many more years.

And I invite all of my readers to continue to contribute their comments and ideas, as they add a lot to this blog!

Major Features On “Progressive Professor” Blog

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Many of my readers may not realize, or be paying attention to, the fact that besides commentary on political and historical events, the blog also includes multiple radio interviews, as well as op-eds, relating to my recent book, ASSASSINATIONS, THREATS, AND THE AMERICAN  PRESIDENCY: FROM ANDREW JACKSON TO BARACK OBAMA (Rowman Littlefield Publishers, August 2015).

There are, as of now, 13  interviews on the right side of the blog, which a reader can click on to listen to many of my radio interviews in the past three months.  Additionally, there are 2 op-eds that I have published on the website THEHILL.COM in the past month .  Soon, there will be two C Span videos, one with the author interviewed for an hour by Brian Lamb to be aired on C Span on Sunday, November 29 at 8 pm, 11 pm, and 6 am on Monday, November 30 ; and a lecture and book signing on my book at Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Florida, lasting 90 minutes, to be taped on December 8, 2015, and being shown on C Span sometime in January.

There are also, on the right side of the blog, past radio interviews on other current events topics; several newspaper interviews in past years and one from a month ago; and three videos of 90 minute lectures I did at Florida Atlantic University on Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson in recent times.

There is also a new feature, CONTACT ME, which allows for anyone who is interested in requesting my participation in future lectures, interviews, or scholarly engagements to contact me, and is located on the top of the blog on the right.

Announcement Of Two C Span Events Related To My Book: “Assassinations, Threats, And The American Presidency”!

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I am pleased to announce two upcoming events relating to my new book–ASSASSINATIONS, THREATS, AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: FROM ANDREW JACKSON TO BARACK OBAMA (Rowman Littlefield Publishers, August 2015).

Next week, I will be visiting DC and going to the C Span studios and having a taped full hour interview with Brian Lamb on his Q & A show, which has been interviewing authors for many years, with one author per week, aired on Sunday night on C Span One at 8 pm Eastern, 11 pm Eastern repeated, and 6 am Eastern the next Monday morning.  After being aired, the hour is put on the CSpan.org website permanently for viewing at any time.

Additionally, my lecture and book signing on my book at my university, Florida Atlantic University , at the Lifelong Learning Center in Jupiter, Florida, on Tuesday, December 8 230-4 pm and 4-5 pm book signing will be covered and taped by C Span 2, Book TV, aired at some point later, and then put permanently on the C Span website for viewing at any time.

These are tremendous opportunities for exposure of my book, and I am thrilled and very appreciative of this double blessing!

Seven Years Of “The Progressive Professor”, 4,900 Entries, And Counting!

Ronald 9 Comments

Today, August 11, marks seven years of “The Progressive Professor”!

Over these seven years, there have been precisely 4,900 entries, with this entry being that number!

It has been fun doing this blog, and I thank those who have read it, continue to read it, and those who have participated and contributed in comments, numbering almost 9,350 in the past seven years.

With my book–“Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama”, Rowman Littlefield Publishers, coming out on this Saturday, August 15, I will be engaged in publicity on radio, tv/cable, and in print and on the internet, and will share links, both audio and visual, which will be placed on my blog on the right hand side, along with those radio interviews already there in the past, and my video lectures at Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter campus, on the Presidencies of Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

I hope many of my readers will listen and look at these interviews and programs as they are added, and I will be very busy doing lectures and book signings over time, which means there might be days when in travel or being overly occupied, I will not add an entry.

But one can be sure that I will be active on this blog, as it now enters Year Number 8!

So thanks everyone, and hope you will continue to follow me, read me, listen to me, and watch me over the next months and years!

Privatization Of Education And Of Prisons Makes Profit More Important Than Anything Else!

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The privatization movement, popular among conservatives and the Republican Party, produces disasters!

It creates charter schools which, only in rare cases, is better than public education, and gives children educators who are less qualified and lower paid. The results of charter schools are not good, based on statistics!

Additionally, for profit education on the university and college level is a boondoggle, ripping off taxpayers, and cheating gullible students who think they can get a degree worth the paper of the diploma, when instead they get inferior or no education, and tremendous debts that impoverish them.

Also, privatization of prisons is a horrendous idea, as the goal is to cut costs, recruit more prisoners, and mistreat those inmates in ways that have been shown to be extremely abusive!

The privatization industry caters to politicians who are willing to promote their unethical, immoral businesses.

An example is the GEO group, one of the worst prison corporations of all, making massive profits, and for awhile, was winning the contract to name the stadium at my institution, Florida Atlantic University, until there were student and staff protests, leading to the removal of the university president, and the cancellation of the contract.

Florida Governor Rick Scott is being catered to by GEO, in order to promote further expansion of their profits in the Sunshine State, an absolutely despicable event, which should be used by Democrats against one of the worst Governors in America!

Education and law enforcement, including prisons, should NEVER be privatized, as it makes profit more important than anything else, and lacks any sense of propriety, ethics, and morals!

D-Day 70 Years Later: Multiple Events Cross One’s Mind

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70 years ago today, the Allied troops of many nations, spearheaded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s directive, stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, on what came to be known as D Day, the beginning of the liberation of Europe from Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in World War II. At least 9,000 Americans and many soldiers of many nations died that day, and their sacrifice is commemorated by the cemeteries that hold their remains.

But June 6 has other meanings, more personally as well.

June 6, 1972, was this author’s D Day, meaning the beginning of what has now been a 42 and counting years as a college professor, retired for three years now, but still teaching part time at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

June 6, 2014 is a day in which the author is in New Orleans, planning to visit the World War II Museum this weekend.

Also, today, June 6, 2014, my son David and daughter in law Stephanie are on their honeymoon, and are close to the site of the beach landings at Normandy.

So June 6 means a lot in many ways to this author, and he salutes the troops who gave their lives at Normandy to allow this nation and the civilized world to have basic freedoms and liberties that we celebrate today and every day!

Five Year Anniversary Of “The Progressive Professor”, And 4,000th Posting!

Ronald 16 Comments

Today marks exactly five years since the inception of “The Progressive Professor” blog by this author!

It has been a wonderful, fascinating, and fun time expressing my views, opinions, and analyses of the political events of the years since the nomination and election of President Barack Obama as our 44th President.

It has been also an opportunity for this author to discuss and evaluate American historical events and personalities, including a detailed analysis of the Presidency and Vice Presidency, our Presidential elections, and of our Congress and Supreme Court, relating past historical events to our present times.

Along the way, it has been a pleasure to have debate and commentary with many readers, including some who are my “supporters”, and some who have been my ‘rivals” in my views and interpretations of the controversies which have been the subject of discussion on this blog.

And perfect timing, as it turns out on this 5th anniversary of “The Progressive Professor”, this posting is my entry number 4,000, a great accomplishment, considering my other professional responsibilities, as I continue, even in “retirement”, as an Adjunct Professor of History and Political Science at Florida Atlantic University, fortunate to have the opportunity to teach advanced courses on American Political History, American Diplomatic History, FDR and the New Deal Era, America in the 1960s, America Since 1945, The American Presidency, and other courses.

My intention is to continue this blog, writing on it nearly every day, and to continue teaching for many more years, as well as traveling this great country, and particularly, its Presidential sites, which included this summer a total of three visits, to the Museums and Libraries of Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as to the Congressional Visitor Center at the US Capitol and the Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

To this author and blogger, American History and Politics is his passion, and I look forward to many more years of contributing to the profession, and to imparting my views and interpretations to readers, and opening up the eyes and minds of students to the wonderful world of American history, government and politics!

The Growing Greatness Of Franklin D. Roosevelt, As His Renovated Presidential Library Enters Its Second Month!

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This author has spent his career, 41 years in college teaching, more intimate with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal and World War II policies than with any other historical figure.

Exactly 43 years ago, this author spent time doing research at the FDR Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, just outside Poughkeepsie, for his doctoral dissertation, which was completed in 1975, and published in 1981 by The Johns Hopkins University Press under the title: TWILIGHT OF PROGRESSIVISM: THE WESTERN REPUBLICAN SENATORS AND THE NEW DEAL.

This coming fall term, the author will again teach a course on FDR, THE NEW DEAL, AND WORLD WAR II, at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.

This author has, therefore, spent his life dedicated to study of FDR, and he has always taught that FDR was the second greatest President to Abraham Lincoln!

This day of this posting, the author is with his younger son at the FDR Library and Museum for the first time in 43 years, and exactly one month after its first renovation since its opening in 1941!

The thrill, the excitement, of this return visit, now as a tourist, not a scholar, is overwhelming, and makes me ever more appreciate the greatness of this man, who did more to change America in domestic and foreign policy than ANY President has ever done, including Abraham Lincoln!

Sure, FDR had his faults and shortcomings, as all Presidents, and really all of us, have, but still he is the most transformational President in American history,and richly deserves constant study and interpretation, which I have, and will continue to do, throughout my life of teaching, scholarship, and blogging!