On the latest episode of Repeating History, our guest is Dr. Lindsay Chervinksy, the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Bob and Dr. Lindsay discuss the transformative presidency of John Adams, the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts in the context of the vicious partisanship of the 1790s and their use again under the Trump administration. As this episode demonstrates, there are many lessons to be learned and insights to be gleaned from this often overlooked period in our nation’s history. Threats of and actual political violence, hyper-partisanship, threats of disunion, electoral chicanery–the 1790’s had it all and we dive right in!

Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a presidential historian and the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, co-editor of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, and the forthcoming book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic. She regularly writes for public audiences in the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Bulwark, Time Magazine, USA Today, CNN, and the Washington Post.