From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners

across the country.

There's this kind of division that a lot of the historians writing about the 20s know between,

so to speak, the city and the country that the urban and rural divide between cultural sensibilities. And this is something that stayed

with us, I think, ever since. The revolution in manners and morals was not happening in the countryside.

This is your host, Scott Bertram. Welcome to the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, part of the Hillsdale

College Podcast Network. That was Bill Mcdale Hour, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network.

That was Bill McLeigh, author of the book Land of Hope, an invitation to the Great American Story.

He's also Victor Davis-Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College.

We talk in-depth with Dr. McLeigh about one specific chapter from Land of Hope on today's show.

Dr. McLean, thanks so much for joining us. Oh, Scott, it's always great to be with you.

We are taking this opportunity to get a little small inside your book, Land of Hope, and focus on a particular chapter.

And we're talking about from boom to bust, the 20s into the Great Depression, that era of American history. This period following

the First World War is synonymous with Warren G. Hardings. Now, malign campaign slogan of return to normalcy. As you note in

Land of Hope, there was a reason, though, that the American populace found this sentiment so

attractive. Why is that? And how does it set up this period? Well, for one thing, the colossal

ambitions of Woodrow Wilson, who had already done a great deal to change

the structure of American government in his time in office and that had evolved Americans

in the worst war in human history to that point. That alone would have been enough to make people long for a more normal form of

existence, but there's much more.

The economy was in a tailspin.

There was a sharp recession after the war. The returning soldiers found themselves unable to find work. Urban areas that like Tulsa and Chicago and then many, many others saw urban riots based around racial tensions.

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