© 2024 WYPR
WYPR 88.1 FM Baltimore WYPF 88.1 FM Frederick WYPO 106.9 FM Ocean City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Unexpected President, Chester A. Arthur

Courtesy Ivy Bookshop

It was a tragedy that Chester Arthur became president. Not only the tragedy of his predecessor’s assassination in 1881, but the perceived tragedy by many that Vice President Arthur, a Republican party hack from New York, would bring his machine politics into the Oval Office. He had consistently opposed cleaning up the corrupt spoils system of federal jobs. But Arthur was inspired ... by letters of conscience from a stranger. We learn about those letters and Arthur's surprising legacy from biographer Scott Greenberger, who asserts Chester Arthur is worth remembering. 

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'