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John Strausbaugh

John Strausbaugh

By: John Strausbaugh
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Award-winning history writer John Strausbaugh tells fascinating stories about the past, bringing fresh perspectives to events and characters great and small.

© 2025 John Strausbaugh
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Episodes
  • Brother, Can You Spare a Rainbow?
    May 13 2025

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    In the 1930s, the Lower East Side's Yip Harburg wrote the lyrics for two songs that bookended the Great Depression, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and "Over the Rainbow."

    #thewizardofoz #overtherainbow #judygarland #yipharburg #brothercanyou spareadime #lowereastside #immigrants #iragershwin #hollywood #broadway #aprilinparis #bingcrosby #lydiathetattooedlady #grouchomarx

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    9 mins
  • When Donald Duck Heiled Hitler
    Apr 11 2025

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    During World War II, Walt Disney Studios produced many propaganda cartoons for the government, starring Donald Duck and other well-known characters. Their subjects ranged from the importance of paying your income tax to farting in Der Fuehrer's Face.

    "The Spirit of '43":

    https://archive.org/details/TheSpirit...

    "Education for Death":

    https://archive.org/details/youtube-l...

    "Der Fuehrer's Face":

    https://archive.org/details/DerFuehre...

    #disney #waltdisney #waltdisneystudios #donaldduck #derfuehrer'sface #derfuehrer #hitler #nazi #worldwarII #propaganda #cartoon #popeye #bugsbunny #mussolini #hirohito #internetarchive #stereotype #goering #goebbels #johnstrausbaugh

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    5 mins
  • An Isolationist Anthem: "God Bless America"
    Mar 24 2025

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    In 1938, with war looming in Europe, Irving Berlin offered popular singer Kate Smith a new patriotic song to debut on her radio show. It’s forgotten today that in the form she sang it, “God Bless America” wasn’t just a patriotic anthem, it was an isolationist one, about how glad Americans should be that they were far from the “storm clouds” gathering “across the sea.” Then, just one day before Smith’s broadcast, the Nazis made one of their most despicable moves yet, and everything changed.

    #irving berlin #katesmith #godblessamerica #isolationism #nazis #worldwar2 #johnstrausbaugh #kristallnach #hitler #jews

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    7 mins
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John Strausbaugh has such an in depth knowledge of NYC, and he paints a lot of context (tons) into his books and his old NYTimes videos, and these fantastic, short, interesting podcasts too. When you’re bored with the Schuylers and that scoundrel Hamilton, Strausbaugh has a million other stories from nazi youth camps in Long Island to Jimi Hendrix early days - some are really mind-blowing.

Culture & History of NYC

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