How Hard Can It Be, Boys Do It? Plus, Fighting for Equal Rights After the Civil War, and Answers to Your Questions

The Preamble

Sharon McMahon

Government, History, Education

4.9 • 15.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s not something you’ll read about in most history books. Sharon tells the remarkable story of Florence Hall and her Women’s Land Army: the women who took over the farming jobs American men left behind when they went off to fight World War II. These women weren’t just fill-ins, in many cases, the farms they worked on were even more successful than when the men were doing the work. Plus, Sharon is joined again by Akhil Reed Amar, one of the nation’s foremost constitutional scholars, to talk about his newest book, Born Equal, and the battle over who had the right to call themselves American citizens after the Civil War. If you’ve been wanting to learn more about birthright citizenship, this conversation is for you. And Sharon answers your most pressing questions: Will we all be getting $2,000 checks because of President Trump’s tariffs? Could 50 year mortgages be coming? Can Chuck Schumer be replaced as the Senate Minority Leader? If you’d like to submit a question, head to thepreamble.com/podcast – we’d love to hear from you there. And be sure to read our weekly magazine at ThePreamble.com – it’s free! Join the 350,000 people who still believe understanding is an act of hope. Credits: Host and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks Audio Producer: Craig Thompson To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The sun was already high and hot over Oregon's Willamette Valley that summer day in
0:08.9	1944.
0:11.0	Florence Hall's legs carried her purposefully down the neat rows of trees, the scent of ripening
0:18.0	peaches wafting past.
0:25.5	Nearby, young women filled baskets and hauled crates.
0:33.4	Florence, now in her mid-50s, was there to check up on the program she built, which would help win the war for the Allies. The work will be hard and long, Florence said, but women bring dexterity, speed, and patriotism
0:44.4	to the job.
0:46.6	Little more than a year earlier, Hall had been handed what seemed like an impossible assignment.
0:53.4	Figure out a way to make up for the million men
0:57.8	missing from American farms. More on that story in a moment, but first, welcome to the
1:06.0	preamble podcast. If you're new each week, you'll hear some of the most interesting stories
1:10.2	from our weekly magazine, also called The Preamble.
1:13.8	This week we're focused on food and farming, and we have some fascinating articles for you, which I'll talk a little bit more about at the end of this episode.
1:22.1	Also today, I'm speaking with Akeel Reid Ammar, who has a very interesting new book called Born Equal. Professor Amar is one of the
1:29.5	United States's foremost scholars on the history of the Constitution, and this conversation about
1:34.5	the 14th Amendment is one you will want to hear and forward to your friends and family. Plus, I'll also be
1:40.0	answering your questions, like, will we all be getting $2,000 checks because of President Trump's
1:45.4	tariffs? Could 50-year mortgages be coming and could Chuck Schumer be replaced as the Senate
1:51.0	minority leader? How does that even happen? I'm Sharon McMahon, and this is the Preamble
1:59.0	podcast. Now, back to our story.
2:04.8	The unplanted fields and unharvested crops would be as dangerous an enemy, she was told by
2:11.4	officials above her, as the men from foreign lands piloting planes and commandeering ships.
	...

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