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Franklin Roosevelt went into the 1936 election confident, although he faced challenges from both the right and the left.

This was the first election in which pollsters used modern sampling techniques to predict the result. Some came quite close. Others, notably Literary Digest, flubbed.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Those Crazy Cats

Closing Theme

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The new leftist Popular Front government, elected in 1936, was aware that some in the military were plotting a coup and took steps to frustrate it.

Unfortunately for the government, the measures taken were insufficient and the coup began in July. It likely would have failed, were it not for assistance from Germany and Italy.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“El Pajarico”
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing Theme

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King Alfonso XIII fled Spain in 1931, following the declaration of the Second Spanish Republic. By the end of the year, the new republic had a constitution and had elected a Cortes.

The sudden change caught the Spanish right wing off guard, but soon they were fighting back.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Danza from La vida breve
Composed in 1913 by Manuel de Falla. Public domain.
Performed by Carrie Rehkopf and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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British King George V celebrated his Silver Jubilee on May 6, 1935. Less than nine months later, he died, at the age of 70.

His eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, succeeded his father as Edward VIII. There were serious doubts about Edward’s commitment to the responsibilities of the Crown, doubts that soon grew into a constitutional crisis.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Minuet from The Wand of Youth
Composed in 1908 by Edward Elgar. Public domain.
Performed by Steve’s Bedroom Band, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

“Old One Hundredth”

Closing Theme

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Hitler was quite popular in Germany in the early years of his rule. He got sacks of fan mail and drew crowds wherever he went. Documentarian Leni Riefenstahl’s films of the Nuremberg Rallies were hugely successful.

In 1936, the Olympic Games were held in Berlin, and the Nazis used the occasion to showcase the “new Germany.”

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla” from Das Rheingold
Composed in 1876 by Richard Wagner. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Over the first 13 years of Mussolini’s rule, and whatever its domestic policies, Italy’s international policies were conventional, and pursued with conventional diplomacy.

In 1935, that began to change. No doubt inspired by Hitler’s success in flouting international norms and getting away with it, Mussolini chose to pursue a war against Ethiopia.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Concerto in E Major, “La Primavera” from “The Four Seasons”
Composed in 1723 by Antonio Vivaldi. Public domain.
Performed by John Harrison, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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Nazi Germany was initially cautious in imposing limits on the rights of Jewish people and other “non-Aryans” in Germany. Hitler and his government cared about their international image, as they sought to negotiate their way out of the limitations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.

By 1935 though, with rearmament under way and the Allied powers unwilling to challenge Germany’s resurgence, landmark legislation was passed defining the terms under which a person was or wasn’t a “true” German. Those who were deemed non-Aryan were defined as subjects of the state, but not citizens of it.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Overture from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Composed in 1868 by Richard Wagner. Public domain.
Performed by The Skidmore College Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

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The first electoral test of Franklin Roosevelt’s Administration was the 1934 mid-term election, and it was a resounding vote of confidence.

Afterward, Roosevelt would promote another set of new programs, the Second New Deal.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Shenandoah”
Traditional. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Air Force Academy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

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When the nations of Spanish South America won their independence from Spain, they were left with a number of boundary disputes with one another, and with Portuguese Brazil.

During the 19th century, it took negotiation, and a few wars, to sort out those disputes. By the early twentieth century, only one border question remained unsettled: the Chaco Boreal, claimed by both Paraguay and Bolivia. In 1932, they would go to war over the territory.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“National Anthem of Paraguay”
Unknown composer. Public domain.
Performed by The United States Navy Band. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme

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Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.