while i was listening to you describe shaving your head i was thinking 'why is he describing this when he can show us'. if a picture is worth a thosuand words then a video of you shaving your head is bound to satisfy dollar shave club's talking points.
@Timothy McCaskey - Nast was famous for his editorial cartoons; he didn't criticize only Tweed. He also almost single-handedly invented the image of Santa Claus as we know it.
I am at work right now. It is 1:30 a.m. and I am trying to keep my laughter down for the guests who are here so they can sleep. It is very difficult as Mark Twain is funnier than I have given him credit for. And I have given him a lot of credit.
@@shyguy4no1yes Yes Mark Twain was an Awesime writer..read Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist..those movies are nothing like the books. There's a certain grittiness, back then that would definitely not have been a center by the Publisher back then. Thd history about those homeless orphans was brutal. You really have to be thoughtful.and aware when you read them.
One of my heroes is Thomas Nast. In High School I had wanted to be a cartoonist. My study of the art led me to the work of Thomas Nast. Not only was he the father of the modern cartoon but he was a master for crafting editorial cartoons that communicated the problem in a short single frame sound-bite. The Tammany Hall corruption, and Boss Tweed specifically, was one of his primary targets.
Great point . Although Thomas Nast didn't invent the political cartoons, he definitely took it to another level with his talent for art , humor and satire. Even by today's standards I believe he would be the best political cartoonist. He was ahead of his time ⏲
I’ve been living in NYC for 7 years now and locals here are always talking about my hometown Chicago’s political corruption. I always say we learned from the best: Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall!
“I don’t care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don’t know how to read, but They can’t help seeing them damned pictures” William ‘Boss’ Tweed on Thomas Nast’s cartoons
I read about Tammany Hall in a book about the rise and fall of Prohibition, but never really looked into it after, so this was very interesting. Thank you for always putting out such high quality content ❤
We "learned" about Tammany hall in school. Don't remember any of it. Learned more in 20 minutes than years in school. Also, can't imagine you with hair.
Another fine Biography. Well done, as always! May I suggest another notable man whose name is all but forgotten... Thomas Francis Meager. Meager was a leader of Irish Revolutionaries during the great famine. Seized by the British, he was tried for treason - which could have left him drawn, beheaded and quartered. Instead he was transported to what is now New Zealand. Drama, drama, drama... then he escaped New Zealand making his way to New York City. He was well received, yet dissolute in his inability to make a real impact. Despite the fact that Southern slaves generally looked down on the Irish and had great pity for the bias against the lowly Irish, many Irish decided to fight on the Union side, raising companies of soldiers and Meager was no exception. He raised a company of Zouaves, and as the Civil War progressed he gained more notice as a great leader. That's just a whetting of the appetite, I hope, as Meager was a fantastic character... the movie would be a blockbuster. I do hope you'll give this suggestion a thought, as I think it would fit into your lineup of biographies very nicely. By the way, my personal interest is in medical history, and two individuals who are sadly forgotten are a huge part of what has made medicine so much safer today are the first head of The Department of Surgery at the then-new Johns Hopkins University and Medical Centre, William Halstead. Halstead was a stunningly excellent surgeon who saved countless lives with he development of the radical mastectomy, popularized the use of rubber gloves by surgeons, and saved his own mother's life with an emergency operation on the kitchen table(!!!) Halstead had a lifelong addiction to cocaine., just to keep things interesting. He even had a second home not far from me in Highlands, North Carolina called "High Hampton" which has been in use as a bed & breakfast type resort since the earlier part of the 1900's. Great character with lot's of fun twists and turns. The other physician is Dr.Thomas Dent Mutter. Mutter is the physician and surgeon who donated the collection now known as The Mutter Museum of Medical Oddities at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Philadelphia, PA. While best known for the museum, Mutter himself was an astoundingly important part of the growth of medicine as we now know it. He was the first to use ether in a surgical operation, developed the Mutter Flap still used in the treatment of burns and so much more. He was really an outstanding surgeon unafraid to do what he felt best for the patient even if it went against current medical practice. We owe so much to this orphan who grew up to ease human suffering. I hope you will consider Thomas Meager, William Halstead, and Thomas Mutter as future subjects for your superb series of biographies.
One quibble: Many contemporary accounts of Tweed that I've read seemed to agree that "charismatic" was the last term the writers would use to describe him. Instead, they described him most often as a very cold, taciturn man; whose silence intimidated more than his imposing size and reputation would. He had a coterie of friendlier, more gregarious underlings around him everywhere he went, though; and they did all the socializing his presence required outside of his Hall crowd. He was always more feared than admired, and his oft-cited prodigious memory was most effective at storing political grudges he could carry for decades, which he coldly exercised whenever it was possible to do. His memory for political favors was slightly less sharp, unless it was for ones that were owed him.
Thomas Nast also drew an image of Santa Claus that became well-known as the prototype of our modern Father Christmas ('though he seems to have based his drawings, in turn, on traditional northern-European impressions of Sintaklass and Wuotan [Odin]).
Wow. I really enjoyed this! Another famous 19th century New Yorker was Robert Green Ingersoll, the Great Agnostic, who could pack a large hall with people willing to pay $1 per head to listen to him. In today's dollarettes, that borders on rock star status. Curiously, Ingersoll died in the summer of 1899 at age 66. That strikes me as a bookend to what many people perceive as The Golden Age of Freethought.
Please do a video for Alexander von Humboldt! The Prussian polymath has over 400 species of plants and animals named after him, was the first person to identify man-made climate change (in the early 1800s!), and invented biogeography. He is known as the "Second Discoverer of Cuba" despite spending just 8 months there in the 19th century and is said to be the last person to ever possess all knowledge then-known to human society. He is a crazy cool character that has had a finger in the history, or at least naming, of what seems to be a tremendous amount of planet earth.
So this is what Lincoln(2012 Spielberg movie) meant when his staff would "grousle and heckle and dodge about like pettifogging Tammany Hall hucksters!"...
What an excellent and informative video!!! I truly learned something: the ‘volunteer fire departments’. I didn’t know the history of these clubs. A friend of mine from New York served in one, ad it was a bit like a frat... Also amazing that they actually prosecuted him and caught him based on a cartoon!! His rise n fall mirrors the Mexican drug lord of today...great ride at the top, until your peers decide you are better as the fall guy...
"Big Tim" Sullivan is the second most infamous Tammany Hall figure after "Boss" Tweed. Where Tweed was mostly a grifter, Sullivan was a full-on crime boss in politician's clothing, with direct involvement in gambling, prostitution and extortion rings. He was known for getting the Sullivan act of 1911 put into law, which required anyone who wished to carry a handgun in New York City to get an expensive license. Sullivan was known to use this law against his political opponents, by having an agent plant a gun on his target's belongings, and then denouncing them for possession of an illegal firearm. That scumbag would be another good historical figure to do a biography on.
The first I learned of Boss Tweed and Tamany Hall was when I watched The Gangs of New York. While I'm not entirely sure just how accurate that movie is, it was interesting to see just how the rackets he ran and helped with worked.
Yes, I'd personally like iteration and dept to when sir David says something like this, voice over on old video: ..of course i would not behave like that today..", when handling animals rough decades ago. It shows insight to the changing attitudes.
Just so you know, it is Greenwood Cemetery, not Green - Wood. It is in Brooklyn, not just NYC. It has two main gate entrances, one on Fort Hamilton Parkway just off McDonald Ave, the other on 5th Ave around 28th - 31st street. Yes, he is in there as are many, many other famous and notable people. Had many an adventure romping, fishing and exploring there back in the 60's. Very, very cool place. Lots of history, tons!!! People should look it up.
Do you have a Patreon or something where the videos are cut without the ad in the middle. I'd rather pay directly to support your videos than see adds. Very informative with an entertaining method.
Yes, this is Biographics, History One Life At A Time and in some sense, Simon's life as a raconteur has an impact on history, but I think that I'm on safe ground when I assert that Simon doesn't want to insert himself into the process. This channel isn't about him. Simon's bio may be reserved for someone in the future, 50 or 100 years from now, who continues the mission of this channel.
Great video. Loved all your content on this one. Very well researched. One side note and perhaps info for another video. During Mr. Tweed's 'tenure' there was someone from your home country Simon who knew him. It would seem that a certain, Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, ran afoul of Boss Tweed and his 'city politics'. Had some info on Waterhouse b/c someone I knew did a school report on him. The famed p/t archeologist-artist and nature sculpturist wanted to put up what we today would call a sculpture garden in the newly 'sculpted' Central Park, in New York City. Don't remember all the specifics of the story. However, the gist of it ended up being that either he or Boss Tweed and his 'gang' busted up and destroyed sculptures partially erected by Waterhouse Hawkins. In disgust and disappointment Waterhouse returned / retreated back to his native England never to return to NY or America, again. "Bonus Fact" (SMILE) - A fully completed sculpture garden still exists in Crystal Palace Park, in So. London.
Just put your sponsored ad before or after the video so we don't have to always have the video interrupted. I've seen others say something too so I don't think I'm the only one who'd rather get it over with at the start.
When can you do one on Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the Bourbons, Catherine the Great, Louis XVIII, and John Adams. These would be excellent choices for Biographics.
This is an interesting video. Thanks. However, I am compelled to point out an error in your titles. Decades are plurals, not possessives; thus, it is wrong to write 1780's or 1840's. These should be written as 1780s, 1840s and so forth. No apostrophe. This seems to be a common mistake that has been exascerbated by the Internet. I hope you will take this in the helpful spirit it is intended.
Excellent piece... I'm trying to locate the court transcripts from the 2 trials NY Supreme Court with Justice Noah Davis and NY Governor Samuel Tilden testifying. Would any of you know where I can locate the actual transcripts?
You guys might like to know that your Dollar Shave Club link doesn't work. The link timed out. I'm in Australia, and they DO work within Australia, so it _should_ work. Shoulda, coulda, woulda, huh?
No joke, allegedly my brother-in-law is descended directly from Boss Tweed. Also, he shares the same last name as well. AND! GET THIS: His father's name is also William Tweed! 😳
