WEBVTT - FB 103: AC/DC: How Air Conditioning Changed the Landscape of American Politics 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.120 We all need a break from the constant cycle to 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:08.520 learn something new, to gain new perspectives. The Great Courses 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:11.399 Plus streaming service is an excellent resource to expand our 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.240 knowledge on a variety of subjects or pick up a 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.239 new hobby. I've been enjoying the Great Courses Plus while 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.360 researching this season of Flashback. Lectures like Playball, the rise 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.720 of Baseball is America's pastime, History of the Supreme Court, 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.920 and Battlefield Europe have helped me connect the dots on 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.640 several stories from history. Right now, they're giving our listeners 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.240 a special, limited time offer a free month of unlimited 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.519 access to their entire library. Sign up now through our 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.760 special U r L go to the Great Courses Plus 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.920 dot Com slash as. That's the Great Courses Plus dot 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.640 Com slash o z y the Great Courses Plus dot 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:56.200 Com slash as. Before we start today's episode, please be 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.880 sure to support Flashback by rating and leaving a review 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.840 for us right here in your podcast app. Also, do 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.960 you think you're getting the hang of history's unintended consequences? And, 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.000 if so, answer this question about next week's episode for 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.720 a chance to win a shout out. Ready fingers on buzzers. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.480 What event helped lead to billions and extra revenue for 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.640 the NBA. Think you know the answer, Take your best 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:21.839 guests and leave it as a comment in your podcast 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:24.960 app along with your five star review, Thanks for listening. 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.640 In nineteen o two, a young engineer named Willis Carrier 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.960 encountered a situation that many of us are all too 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:43.520 familiar with, the printer problem. Carrier had been hired by 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.119 a printing company in Brooklyn. Summer humidity was causing their 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:52.600 paper to swell, to jam in the presses to print incorrectly, 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.520 so rather than a crisp image, they were getting a blur, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.080 they were wasting tons of paper, missing deadlines. Uh, this 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:02.800 was a huge problem. Carrier was the son of a 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.880 farmer and something of an eccentric genius, the kind of 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:07.920 head in the clouds guy who would occasionally pack a 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.400 suitcase with just a handkerchief inside, or order a three 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.400 course meal and not take a bite. Carrier had just 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.919 graduated from Cornell when he was asked to find some 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.080 way to fix the company's printers. He molled over the 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.280 issue for weeks. Then one day, as he was standing 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.560 on a foggy railroad platform, contemplating the mist around him, 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:33.280 an idea struck him. Carrier solution not only solved the 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:37.040 printer problem, it changed the world, and his invention continues 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.160 to have ripple effects today that impact everything from the 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.040 comfort of your living room to the size of your government, 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.560 to even possibly the outcome of the US elections this fall. 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.840 Welcome to Flashback, the podcast from AZZI about Unintended consequences. 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:00.720 I'm your host in history instructor Sean Braswell. Up until 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.800 about a hundred years ago, a climate controlled environment was 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.960 a fantasy, the stuff of science fiction novels. Mark Twain 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.000 once said that everyone talks about the weather, but no 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.480 one does anything about it. Well, in nineteen o two, 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:19.200 Willis Carrier finally did something about it. Today's episode is 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.040 about something most of us take for granted, air conditioning, 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.280 but it's really about the power of comfort. Comfort can 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:32.120 move mountains, and more importantly, it can move people. Every summer, 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.640 millions of tourists and school children descend on Washington, d C. 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:39.240 To take in the sights and sounds of the nation's capital, 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.760 and every summer millions wish they had decided to visit 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.960 during a different time of year. Hundreds of thousands of 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.120 people celebrating Independence Day in the nation's capital will face 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.000 dangerous heat. Temperatures in Washington monuments and the lofty words 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.800 inscribed upon them just don't seem to matter as much 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.400 when you're baking in a pool of your own sweat hot. 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:05.600 It's really gross, silly hot. It's pretty warm today these days, 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:07.400 at least you have the option of going to a 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:13.120 museum or some other air conditioned area. But let's go 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.960 back in time for a moment, back to a simpler time, 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.359 a far less comfortable time. It can be hard for 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.760 us today to imagine Washington, d C. Or many places 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:27.239 in America before climate controlled buildings. In the days before 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.880 air conditioning, American life during dangerously hot weather wasn't all 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.599 that different from American life during beautiful cool weather. Salvador 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.240 Basil is a social historian an author of Cool How 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.040 air conditioning changed everything, and this was because people in 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:46.400 those days were operating under a Victorian standard. They did 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.160 their best to act as if they didn't notice the heat. 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.039 They were trained this way from birth. But a stiff 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.159 upper lip didn't prevent one from feeling the heat or 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.800 being affected by it. So every newspaper in America during 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.320 the summer months had it's daily column of heat prostrations 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.039 and heat strokes and heat fatalities. It was an unusual 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.159 for thousands of people to die during a major heatwave. 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.640 No one thought much of this. The upper floors of 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:17.600 office buildings, including Manhattan's dazzling new skyscrapers, were like ovens. 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:22.159 Most theaters lacked ventilation or windows, and audience members baked 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.279 in the scemmer months. But it went beyond that. Getting 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.560 a night's sleep was usually impossible. Some people went so 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.680 far as to climb to their rooftops for a breath 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.159 of air, where a few of them fell asleep and 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:37.760 rolled off to their deaths. To cope with the heat 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.880 during the day, people would congregate outdoors in the shade 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.400 or at a swimming pool. They drink ice drinks on porches, 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.800 take a quick dip in public fountains, take naps under 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:51.920 trees and parks. And the nation's capital was especially hot. 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.760 As soon as the plaster was dry, everyone in the 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:02.440 federal government realized that Washington was one of the worst 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.599 places to locate the nation's capital, and it didn't take 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.000 long for America's leaders to avoid the capital. Many presidents 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.160 used to skip town during the summer months. Teddy Roosevelt 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.440 like to go bear hunting in Colorado. Calvin Coolidge once 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.680 took his entire family, five canaries, two dogs in a 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.159 pet raccoon to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Members 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.760 of Congress also stayed clear of d C in the 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.800 middle of the summer, but working there was still a 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:32.400 miserable experience. A member of Congress would collapse and then 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.800 possibly die, and other wall makers simply assumed that he 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.159 had been done in by the temperature. Members of Congress 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.279 did their best to cope with the heat. Lawmakers would 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.880 adjourn for the day if the temperature got too uncomfortable. 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:52.440 They all adopted white linen suits. One congressman became famous 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.800 for the fact that at a certain point in the 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:59.120 calendar he would remove his two pay and spend the 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.599 rest of the time bold uh. They drank a great 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:04.800 deal of lemonade made for them in the cloak room, 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.359 along with other beverages, and if things got really tough, 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:10.840 they would sneak down to the Capital basement, where there 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.000 was a room of bathtubs, and they would take a 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:17.560 quick plunge to restore themselves. Sometimes even that was not enough, 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:20.560 but a number of those men dropped dead anyway, And 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:23.760 the buildings didn't help. There were rooms without air, there 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:28.600 were rooms without windows. One congressional chamber was so notorious 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:33.520 for heat that everyone called it the oven. The result 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.960 was absolutely unbearable, and it would be unbearable for the 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.440 next seventy years. As they kept trying to tinker with 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:45.880 the system, nothing helped, at least until Willis Carrier. Let's 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:51.400 go back to that foggy railroad platform in two. Now, 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.360 fog is really nothing more than water droplets that have 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:56.840 condensed out of the air, and as you may know, 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.640 cool air cannot carry as much water as warm air can. 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.280 So Carrier realized that if you could pass warm air 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.040 across a refrigerated object, then you could cool that air down, 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:10.760 reducing its humidity level, which in turn would cool the 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.400 surrounding air as well. Carrier built what he called the 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.120 Apparatus for treating air. It worked wonders for the Brooklyn 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.400 company that hired him, and this did indeed lower the 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.800 humidity and the printing plant. Interestingly, at the same time 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.600 the temperature came down, employees wanted suddenly to eat their 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:35.240 lunch in the workroom, and Carrier realized that he was 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.640 onto something. Of course, Carrier's invention not only removed the 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.720 humidity from the printing room, it also chilled the air. 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.560 But still this was considered something for business purposes, not 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:51.760 for the average person. But then Hollywood came calling. Up 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.679 until that point, moving pictures had always taken a huge 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.560 loss during the summer. No one wanted to spend the 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.600 hot months in a theater with no ventilation. By the 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:06.800 late nineteen twenties, the idea of summer movies was firmly established. 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:11.880 Hollywood was rolling in money, and an amazing thing happened. 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:17.160 For the first time in human history, people anywhere knew 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.559 that they had a place to go to escape from 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.920 the heat, and that costs nothing more than the price 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:26.840 of a movie ticket. This was momentous. Movie theaters advertised 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.120 their a c with marquees frosted over with fake snow 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:35.040 penguins and polar bears, signs with hanging icicles. Sometimes they 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.440 just propped the lobby doors open wide and let the 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:42.040 gush of cold air sweep over passers by. Remember, you 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.680 could enjoy great motion picture entertainment all summer long. In 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:54.239 cool comfort at this dinner. For decades, most Americans experienced 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.920 air conditioning only in large commercial spaces like movie theaters, 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:02.760 department stores, and hotels. Finally, in the early nineteen fifties, 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.320 it made its way into the home. R C A, 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:10.000 America's finest air conditioner, goes quietly about its business of 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:15.080 keeping you comfortable. Air Conditioning in the nineteen fifties was 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.760 not only a comfort item, but it was a real 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.559 homeowners status symbol. Whether it was a central system or 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.680 a window unit, everyone knew that you had it, and 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.760 everyone was impressed. Within five years, Americans were installing more 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.960 than a million units a year. For many, the home 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.480 a C unit was a revelation. At the age of six, 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.360 an aunt of mine bought two air conditioners, which was 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:41.920 a scandal in the family because air conditioners were only 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:45.440 for rich people. But I also noticed that at the 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.880 next family party, everyone flocked to her living room and 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.040 stayed there. So I sneaked over to the machine and 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.360 put my hand out to the grill, and there was 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:59.440 cool air, and I was hooked. Ever after, America's new 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:03.240 addictions set off an extraordinary chain of events. Places in 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.600 the country that had seemed uninhabitable during summer, now had 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:11.280 millions of new residents places like Washington, d C. Now 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:15.240 most objects tend to expand when they are heated up. Next, though, 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.440 we find out how the US federal government did not 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:33.640 start to truly expand until it was cooled down. Do 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.320 you have an interesting tale about unintended consequences from history 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:39.839 or your own life. Please share it with us by 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.959 emailing flashback at AUSI dot com. That's flashback at o 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:57.840 z y dot com. On the western slope of the 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.040 grounds that surround the U. S. Capitol Building, Washington, there 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:06.120 stand two unmarked stone towers. They are surrounded by large shrubs, 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.880 and most tourists on the mall walk by them without 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.600 even noticing them. These towers are the in caps for 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.640 two enormous air ducks leading four hundred feet up into 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.520 the heart of the Capitol Building. The air duck state. 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.440 When Congress voted for air conditioning to be installed in 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:26.120 both the House and Senate chambers, Willis Carrier himself was 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.640 hired to oversee the job. Next, A C came to 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:33.480 the White House, and then the Great Depression that gripped 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.840 America during the nineteen thirties required the federal government to 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.240 step up and assume new responsibilities for managing the country. 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.360 A series of federal programs, public work projects, and regulations 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:48.000 known as the New Deal were implemented under President Franklin Roosevelt. 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.560 Roosevelt presided over a massive expansion of the federal government 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.200 under the New Deal, and he also kick started a 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.880 new era of air conditioned government. Eight new cabinet to 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.400 partments and dozens of sub cabinet agencies have been created 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.400 since a C came to d C. They're about six 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:09.400 times as many staff members and aids for members of Congress, 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.199 who of course now work almost all year round. This 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.880 is Stan Cox, author of Losing Our Cool, a History 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:22.559 of air conditioning. During the twentieth century, the federal government 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:31.120 grew in size and probably could not have become the 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.600 big force that it is in our lives now if 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:39.720 people have not been able to work year round, whatever 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:45.520 the weather. In Washington today, the federal government directly employees 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.640 nearly four hundred thousand people in the DC area, and 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.640 the national bureaucracy that emanates from d C employees more 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:55.480 than nine million more and creates contract work for millions more. 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.560 Your life would be very different without that big government, 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.800 the one that cuts social secure city checks, administers medicaid, 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.199 delivers your mail, protects the quality of your air and water, 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:09.480 and provides for the national defense. Obviously, air conditioning is 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.360 not the only factor behind these trends. You can also 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.079 think war depression, population growth, and air travel for a 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.760 large federal government. Still, it's hard to imagine Washington as 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.360 it is today without Willis Carrier's invention. Think about it. 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.400 Carrier tries to improve the performance of an industrial printing process. 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.120 He winds up turning government into one of the biggest 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.600 industries in the country. So air conditioning helped usher in 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.560 a new era of cooler, bigger government in d C. 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.160 But it was not just a bigger government that air 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:43.120 conditioning helped create. The advent of a C also changed 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:54.840 the electoral map of America in profound ways. If you 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.680 cool it, they will come. Phoenix, Arizona, is a relatively 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:02.720 recent development. At the start of the twentieth century, Phoenix 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.320 was a town of five thousand people Salador Basil Again. 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.800 By nineteen fifty it had struggled up to a hundred 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:14.040 and six thousand people, But during only the next decade, 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.560 when air conditioning swept the country is population more than quadrupled, 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.560 and today Phoenix has over a million and a half 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:27.040 residence that is due to a c air Conditioning makes 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.280 a huge difference in Arizona. This is Nathan Sproul, a 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.840 political strategist in the managing director of the Lincoln Strategy Group, 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:38.440 a political consulting company based in Arizona. Before their stories 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.600 of folks who lived in Arizon in the nineteen twenties 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:42.560 and thirties that in the summertime, they would they would 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:44.480 literally sleep on their porch and they would make their 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:46.280 blanket wet, put a wet blanket on them and hope 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.360 that the wind blowing through the porch a screen would 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.760 keep them cool throughout the night. That's how That's about 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:53.800 the only way that you could survive in Phoenix prior 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.640 to air conditioning. Today, Phoenix is a sprawling metropolis, one 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:01.080 where summer temperatures routinely top one hundred and ten degrees. 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.840 Unrelenting heat bears down on Phoenix. As the temperature shoots 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.760 towards a record breaking one, fire crews are rushing to 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.560 handle a surge in heat emergencies. Without air conditioning, Phoenix 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.000 would not be possible The same can be said for 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.280 other large population centers that stretch across the so called 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:22.160 sun Belt, from southern California across the southwest to the 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:28.560 Gulf Coast and the southeast cities like Miami, Atlanta, Dallas. 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:33.280 We're not the metropolis is that we see today, stan Cox. Again, 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:38.640 it's no coincidence that that's the time when air conditioning 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:42.800 was becoming more common. During the nineteen sixties and seventies, 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:47.040 air conditioning spread quickly across the South. The combined population 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:50.480 of Gulf cities like Houston, New Orleans and Tampa went 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.200 from less than half a million before nineteen fifty to 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.720 more than twenty million today, and that mass migration of 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.560 people to the Sun Belt has had some major political 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:04.520 concert Pquinces Salvador Basil. There was a population shift that 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.760 completely redrew the political map of the nation, almost flipped 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.200 it entirely. So far, we've seen how air conditioning helped 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.600 grow the federal government in Washington. Up next, we learn 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.560 how states across the southern US managed to convert electric 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:37.600 power to electoral power in the late twentieth century. We 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.400 all need a break from the constant cycle to learn 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:44.800 something new, to gain new perspectives. The Great Courses Plus 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.760 streaming service is an excellent resource to expand our knowledge 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.720 on a variety of subjects or pick up a new hobby. 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.760 I've been enjoying the Great Courses Plus while researching this 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.840 season of flashback lectures like Playball, The rise of Baseball 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.800 is America's pastime. History of This Supreme Court and Battlefield 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.760 Europe have helped me connect the dots on several stories 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.160 from history. Right now, they're giving our listeners a special 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.679 limited time offer a free month of unlimited access to 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.080 their entire library. Sign up now through our special U 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.480 r L go to the Great Courses Plus dot Com 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:22.640 slash AUSSI that's the Great Courses Plus dot Com slash 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.919 o z y the Great Courses Plus dot Com slash Assy. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.480 During that time from nineteen sixty to say two thousand, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.760 stan Cox again, all of the major cities in New 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.520 England and the rust Belt, except for New York City, 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.919 lost population, whereas all of the major cities in the 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:54.040 South gained population very rapidly. That movement of people meant 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.760 that the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.960 needed adjusting. Cities in New England and the Rust Belt 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.920 lost House of Representative seats and they were picked up 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:10.520 by by states in the Sun Belt. In fact, there 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:15.920 were eight six um seats in Congress that went from 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.879 the northern region to the South. Now, one reason you 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.800 commonly hear for why the South switched from being Democrat 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.080 to Republican in the nineteen sixties was the exodus of 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:28.240 Southern voters from the Democratic Party after the passage of 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.080 the Civil Rights Laws, and that did play a part, 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.560 But the South was becoming more Republican before that, and 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.720 it was a trend powered not by ideology but by 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.760 temperature control. For nearly a century after the U s 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.239 Civil War, only a handful of the South's approximately one 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.320 House members were Republicans, just the ones representing some of 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.639 the mid Atlantic mountain districts and states like North Carolina. 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:58.480 The first district to break that trend and go Republican St. Petersburg, Florida, 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:02.560 in nineteen fifty four, three years after a c first 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:07.760 hit American homes wife Florida. And why St. Petersburg, Well, 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:10.840 what happens is that large numbers of wealthy northern Republicans, 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.080 ones who traditionally kept winter homes in places like Florida 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.280 start to move south and to stay there year round. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.360 So the South gets a massive influx of older conservative voters, 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:24.520 voters who would remake the political landscape over the next 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:29.200 two decades, culminating with a landmark presidential election in nineteen 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.560 eight President Carter, told by his poster Pat Cadell that 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.880 it is all over, reportedly is preparing to concede defeat 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:39.480 to Ronald Reagan in the nineteen eighty presidential election. When 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:43.040 Democrat Jimmy Carter was elected president in nineteen seventy six, 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.480 he swept the southeastern United States, including Texas and Florida. 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.679 Four years later, against Ronald Reagan, Carter won only his 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.920 home state of Georgia and lost several other states like Mississippi, Alabama, 0:20:56.000 --> 0:21:00.480 and South Carolina by extremely narrow margins. It's quite possible 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.680 that the growing power of Reagan and the Republicans in 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:12.600 the eighties was um fostered by this movement of people 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.240 from the North to the south. Air Conditioning may also 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.080 have had a hand in another important election, the one 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.760 in two thousand between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:26.200 Al Gore. If all the states had gone red or 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:29.080 blue the way they actually did in two thousand. But 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:33.479 if they had had the distribution of electoral votes that 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.959 we had had back in nineteen sixty before the migration, 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:42.800 then Gore would have won the electoral vote and therefore 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:46.080 the presidency. Forget the death of John F. Kennedy or 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.680 even the Iran hostage crisis that crippled President Carter. You 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:51.800 could argue that air conditioning was the worst thing to 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:55.480 happen politically to the Democratic Party in the twentieth century. 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.800 But a c is not done shifting the American political landscape. 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.840 There's a new type of Southern migration underway in the 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:06.199 United States, one that should put fear into the hearts 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:14.840 of Republicans. Ever since air condition helped grow cities like 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.200 Phoenix during the nineteen fifties and sixties, Arizona has been 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:23.600 a reliably Republican state. But that is changing. Nathan Sprul again, Yeah, 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:27.360 the Democrats definitely performed better in twenty than most uh 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.960 political observers in Arizona thought possible. Sprul knows what he's 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.679 talking about. For years, he was the executive director of 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:36.600 the state's Republican Party. For a long time, many in 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:39.919 Arizona assumed that the state's growing number of Democrats was 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:43.800 driven by its growing Hispanic population. But what we realized 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:46.720 about midway through this decade was an Arizona was beginning 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:48.840 to pivot a little bit. But it wasn't because of 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:52.560 the Hispanic growth. It was because Arizona was developing, especially 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:57.040 American County of the Phoenix area, m such a successful economy. 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.199 For years, Arizona's Republican leaders had worked to diversify the 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.040 state's economy and make it more welcoming to companies from 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.600 out of state, and it worked, perhaps too well. The 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:09.200 unintended consequence of that, though, is that you bring in 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:11.520 a lot of workers from California, a lot of workers 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:13.639 from Colorado, a lot of workers from the East Coast 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:17.840 that have more Democrats leaning tendencies politically, and may come 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:20.240 to occupy the job because their company just moved to Phoenix, 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:22.800 Arizona to make set up its corporate headquarters. And so 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:26.360 Arizona is an unintended consequence of its business diversification has 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:30.000 also had a political diversification. As a result, Arizona today 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:33.200 has a lot more young, urban and suburban white voters 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:37.159 who tend to lean Democratic, especially on social issues. Arizona 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:41.080 is likely to become UH for the next work from 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:43.879 the foreseeable future, a state that when it comes to 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:45.640 the U. S. Sen and the presidential campaign, is going 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:48.320 to be a battleground state for both parties. Both parties 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:50.240 are going to assume that they have a legitimate chance 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:52.920 to win it UH, and that wasn't the case seven 0:23:52.920 --> 0:24:04.760 eight years ago. Arizona's trajectory is indicative of a wider trend, 0:24:04.960 --> 0:24:08.440 a trend still powered by air conditioning. Last year, We'll 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:10.720 go down in History, is the second hottest year on 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:13.639 record in the United States, and yet people continue to 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:16.600 migrate south to warmer climates in the American Sun Belt, 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:20.439 to places like Arizona and, perhaps even more importantly for 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:24.280 the political map, Texas. As of July one last year, 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:26.840 more than three and a half million people had packed 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:29.240 their magazine headed to the lone Star state since two 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:33.679 thousand ten. That's the most growth over any other state. 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:37.919 Florida and California follow behind, and that movement continues to 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:42.160 have political consequences. Isn't just a presidential election year, It's 0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:45.159 also a census year, and this is what is going 0:24:45.200 --> 0:24:47.679 to determine how many electoral votes each state gets and 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:49.439 we already have a pretty good sense of where things 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:53.440 are headed. Census may have been delayed by the coronavirus, 0:24:53.640 --> 0:24:56.640 but early forecasts from the Census Bureau suggests that several 0:24:56.640 --> 0:25:01.760 Sun Belt states like California, Arizona, Florida, and Texas will 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:05.119 gain House seats in electoral votes, with Texas likely to 0:25:05.160 --> 0:25:07.600 be the biggest winner with a net gain of three. 0:25:08.520 --> 0:25:11.720 Texas maybe a red Republican leaning state right now. But 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:15.239 here's the interesting thing. The current Sun Belt migration, as 0:25:15.320 --> 0:25:18.560 Nathan Sprule points out in Arizona, is much different than 0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:21.640 the one that took place half a century ago. Today's 0:25:21.680 --> 0:25:25.280 migrants are not older conservatives. They are young liberal millennials 0:25:25.280 --> 0:25:28.400 in their twenties and thirties who are fleeing northern cities 0:25:28.400 --> 0:25:32.800 for southern metro areas like Dallas, Phoenix, and Atlanta. Many 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:35.840 demographers predict that we should expect states like Arizona and 0:25:35.920 --> 0:25:40.000