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Can't get enough of this video? Here are some related videos:
The Vietnam War Explained (Released 5/10/2024) What Was Watergate? (Released 4/1/2022) The Free Soil Party Explained (Released 9/21/2018) The American Presidential Election of 1820 (Released 7/15/2015) The American Presidential Election of 1824 (Released 8/3/2015) A Brief History of the Whig Party (Released 1/2/2014) Where the American Civil War REALLY Began (Released 9/5/2025) Party Systems: Crash Course Government and Politics #41 (Crash Course) Timeline of US Political Parties (Useful Charts) And as promised, here is the script from my video: What era are you in right now? My name is Mr. Beat, and I’m in my FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE FUTURE era. Anyway, what about the eras of American politics? Huh? What about them? Answer me, Cumberbatch! While political scientists and historians have divided up American political history into different TYPES of eras, arguably the most popular way they have done this is by what’s called “The Party System.” The Party System refers to the different eras in American political history in which both the political beliefs and voters of the two major political parties remained fairly consistent. The Party System gets its name due to the fact that Americans always like to party. (stare blankly at camera) Just kidding. The Party System gets its name due to the fact that it has political parties, or basically big teams that organize to elect people to public office that generally share the same political views. When the United States first started, political parties didn’t exist. In fact, the beloved first president, George Washington, warned against them. However, George must have got really sad when political parties formed anyway. But you don’t need to cry, George. There are only TWO political parties. Well, two MAJOR ones. There are at least dozens of smaller political parties which we call “third parties.” The two major ones you’ve probably heard of ‘cause you’re smart and stuff. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Clone (from above): But wait… Look up why are there only two MAJOR ones that tend to control everything? Punk! That’s because, at the federal level anyway, the United States has plurality voting, or voting in which a citizen only gets to vote for ONE candidate, and the candidate who gets the most votes, aka a plurality, wins the election. EVEN IF THEY DON’T GET THE MAJORITY OF VOTES. This “winner-takes-all” electoral system has historically discouraged third parties…and thus, the United States mostly just has a two-party system, and BECAUSE the country has had a persistent two-party system since political parties first became a THING….the country has gone through SEVERAL party systems. In the early years of the republic, there were totally different political parties. Over the past 171 years…give or take…we’ve had the same two major political parties, the aforementioned Republican and Democratic parties. But the Republican Party of today is VERY DIFFERENT than the Republican Party of 171 years ago, and the Democratic Party of today is VERY DIFFERENT than the Democratic Party of 171 years ago. I mean, you should have seen this channel 171 years ago. Back then, I was only posting videos of unboxing squishies. Times have changed. Anyway, party systems exist because political parties are constantly shifting their priorities in order to keep winning elections. In doing so, political parties evolve and even end up completely changing their minds about political issues. At one point, the Republican Party was the party of reform, then it slowly became more conservative over time. At one time, if you were a member of the Ku Klux Klan, you were probably a proud member of Democratic Party. Now? If you’re a member of the Ku Klux Klan, uhhh….yeah…you are almost certainly not a member of the Democratic Party. At various points in American history, the two major political parties actually weren’t that different at all when it came to most issues and policies. In this video, let’s break down the Six Party Systems of American political history. Clone: Wait… Look up Clone: I thought there were now SEVEN Party Systems in American political history. Six….seven -The First Party System (1792-1824)- The First Party System emerged soon after the Constitution got ratified. On one side, you had the Federalist Party, led by folks like Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, who favored a strong federal government, a national bank, and more trade with Britain. The Federalists were generally associated with the elites and those who lived in cities. On the other side, you had the Democratic-Republican Party, not to be confused with the Democratic Party or the uh…Republican Party of today…led by folks like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They favored a weaker federal government (which usually meant more states’ rights), more trade and better relations with France, and yes...were generally AGAINST a national bank. Well, the Federalists started to dramatically lose power during the War of 1812, and by 1820 the Democratic Republicans were so dominant that President James Monroe ran for re-election virtually unopposed. However, after the economy went to the crapper and after the passing of the Missouri Compromise, which increased tensions over the expansion of slavery out west, the Democratic Republican Party would begin to splinter, leading to the end of the First Party System. -The Second Party System (1824-1854)- The Second Party System is often associated with the sharp rise of democracy and populism in the United States and it all started because of one man. For example, for the first time, ALL white men could vote around the country instead of just rich, property-owning white men. And yep, the Second Party System is when we saw the creation of the Democratic Party, which completely revolved around Andrew Jackson, who kinda got screwed over in the presidential election of 1824. He won the PLURALITY of votes, but still lost the election. Well, Andrew Jackson absolutely FREAKED OUT a bunch of other American politicians. They’d end up forming their own political party literally known as the Anti-Jackson Party but aka the National Republican Party. They’re just really unoriginal with names, ok? After the country’s first third party, the Anti-Masonic Party, became a thing, it and pretty much all other Anti-Jackson groups united to form the Whig Party. So again. Yeah. Congrats, Andrew Jackson. You created the Second Party System. On the Democratic Party side, led by folks like not just Jackson but also Martin Van Buren, they tended to be for expanding democracy (obviously), VERY against a national bank, against high tariffs, against elitism, FOR a weaker federal government (more states’ rights), and FOR the territorial expansion of the United States, even if it meant stealing land and killing people to get it. On the Whig Party side, led by folks like Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, they basically were for everything Andrew Jackson was against. They wanted a national bank, a stronger federal government, higher tariffs, and were even implicitly cool with elitism. Speaking of a stronger federal government, the Whigs tended to support large infrastructure projects that could ONLY be financed by the federal government. Oh, and the Whigs generally were against the territorial expansion of the United States, especially during the Mexican–American War. Never as tight of a coalition as the Democratic Party was anyway, the Whigs began to splinter by the early 1850s, and the main thing they disagreed about? The expansion of slavery out west. In fact, new third parties emerged like the Liberty Party and Free Soil Party completely focused on the slavery issue. After the Kansas–Nebraska Act got rid of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, thus making a LOT of abolitionist northerners mad, the Whig Party completely collapsed and a new third party, the Republican Party, would form. -The Third Party System (1854-1896)- The Third Party System highly revolved around the American Civil War. The issue of slavery, which obviously was THE main underlying cause of the Civil War, caused the Third Party System to happen to begin with, but the war continued to have huge political influence even decades after it ended. Despite this being a distinct political era marked by rising American nationalism, a push toward modernization, and the Gilded Age, a period known for extreme wealth inequality and corruption, the Democratic Party survived, mostly because it adapted to the changing times. Still, it was the aforementioned REPUBLICAN party that DOMINATED during the Third Party System. The first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, who is often also considered the GREATEST American president was EXTREMELY influential, and pretty much every Republican politician following him during this era was tryin’ to be the next Lincoln. I mean, they even all had beards. Led by Lincoln and later folks like Ulysses Grant, the Republican Party generally was for equal rights for African Americans…well, African American MEN…, FOR a stronger federal government, FOR higher tariffs, and for Reconstruction policies, or when the federal government had a much heavier role over state governments as southern states got reorganized and re-entered the Union following the Civil War. This time, the Democratic Party didn’t have as tight of a coalition. You had folks in the party for the gold standard but others passionately against it, for example. Led by folks like Stephen Douglass and then later Grover Cleveland, they generally were against equal rights for African Americans, FOR a weaker federal government (more states’ rights), against higher tariffs, and against Reconstruction policies. And due to the Civil War, the two major political parties during this time were often split geographically- Democratic Party voters were overwhelmingly in the South and Republican Party voters were overwhelmingly in the North. By the 1890s, a new third party called the People’s Party and a broader populist movement had taken the country by storm, and new issues became more important to voters, such as ending monopolies, restricting the consumption of alcohol, worker rights, and consumer protection laws. While both the Democratic and Republican parties would survive this time, they only did so because they dramatically changed their platforms. Plus, the country had been going through its longest and most severe economic depression yet. -The Fourth Party System (1896-1932)- Most of the Fourth Party System was dominated by The Progressive Era, that period of widespread reform and activism between roughly 1890 and 1920. Sure, the economy had recovered by the late 1890s, but Americans had not forgotten the damage giant corporations had done to the country. Suddenly both the Republican Party AND Democratic Party had become reform-minded, supporting things like taxing the super wealthy, breaking up monopolies, ending corruption in politics, expanding worker rights, and expanding democracy, which included giving women the right to vote and letting citizens directly elect their U.S. Senators. Still, the two major political parties had their differences. On the Democratic Party side, led by folks like Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan, they tended to be against imperialism and more for free trade and deregulation, while the Republican Party, led by folks like William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, tended to be pro-imperialism, for MORE protectionism, and for MORE laws regulating businesses. Due to Republicans being more proactive on progressive legislation, they were the dominant political party during the Fourth Party System. I mean, Woodrow Wilson mostly got elected due to a split within the Republican Party between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Speaking of split, World War One and its aftermath momentarily saw the Republican Party unify, but flash forward to 1929 and now the country was going through The Great Depression, the worst global economic crisis in history. Because the Republican Party was the party in power and was at least partially to blame for making the depression worse, suddenly the Democratic Party became very popular. -The Fifth Party System (1932-1980)- The Fifth Party System is also often called the New Deal Party System due to its close association with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. The New Deal was a series of reforms put into place by Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. They not only had the goal of ending the Depression and aiding Americans hurt by it, but also creating laws and programs to make sure something like the Depression would never happen again. And sure, the New Deal didn’t end the Great Depression, but these reforms were so popular that Roosevelt became extremely popular. To this date he’s the only one to ever get elected president four times. And after Roosevelt died, future presidents and politicians…both in Roosevelt’s Democratic Party but also in the opposing Republican Party, mostly worked hard to preserve and even expand the New Deal. For example, the Democrat president Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs were basically just an extension of the New Deal. So yeah, on the Democratic Party side, led by folks like Roosevelt and Johnson, they generally supported expanding the federal government in the name of protecting social welfare, expanding civil rights, expanding worker rights, and social liberalism. The Republican Party, on the other hand, led by folks like Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, wanted to keep the federal government a BIT smaller when protecting social welfare, thought STATES should generally expand civil rights, generally supported business interests over worker rights, and social conservatism. But similar to the Fourth Party System, both of the major political parties had very similar economic and foreign policies during the Fifth Party System, especially with regards to strong opposition to the Soviet Union and its Communist government and command economy. After all, this era overlapped quite a bit with the Cold War. The Fifth Party System began to collapse for two reasons. First, events like the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal caused a LOT of Americans to lose trust in the federal government. And second, the rise of Ronald Reagan and similar limited government Republicans convinced tens of millions of Americans that https://youtu.be/G8jV_1G9Yj4?si=2ypTdbxvzS-a2J6I&t=242 Oh, and did I mention the country was also going through another economic crisis? Stagflation. -The Sixth Party System (1980-2016)- The Sixth Party System was dominated by two things: neoliberalism and neoconservativism. Neo and Neo. (looking over) Oh yeah, that Neo was popular during this time as well. Neoliberalism is a political movement that prioritizes personal liberty and free market competition. Neoconversativism is a political movement that promotes aggressively spreading American values…typically CONSERVATIVE values... around the world, even if that means military intervention. During the Sixth Party System, both the Republican Party and Democratic Party spent decades mostly on the same page when it came to both economic and foreign policy, whether people who lived through this time are willing to admit it or not. And yet, just like with the Third Party System, the two major political parties during this time were often split geographically, but this time Democratic Party voters were overwhelmingly in the North and Republican Party voters were overwhelmingly in the South. On the Republican Party side, led by folks like Ronald Reagan and Dick Cheney…yeah I’m not kidding….Dick Cheney….they generally supported more aggressive foreign policy, lowering taxes as much as possible, and social conservatism. On the Democratic Party side, led by folks like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, they generally supported a less aggressive foreign policy, higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for more social programs, and social progressivism. Indeed, the Sixth Party System is when we saw lots of progress on social issues…from same-sex marriage to the legalization of cannabis to the growing acceptance of the transgender community. However, it’s also when we saw growing polarization, polarization more dramatic than anything the country had ever seen going back all the way to right before the Civil War. Woah woah woah now, I’m not saying the United States is about to enter another civil war. But we are going through some major changes right now. More than anything, the collapse of the Sixth Party System seems to be a backlash to the extreme wealth inequality and increase in government corruption we’ve seen since The Great Recession, as well as a backlash to VERY unpopular foreign interventions like the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan. Over the last few years, we’ve seen both the Democratic Party AND Republican start to rebel against free trade and even capitalism itself. -The Seventh Party System (2016-present)- Yes, my clone was right Thank you! In my opinion, we are now in the Seventh Party System, and I think it’s mostly because of one man. (pause) Ok, maybe two. And that man was Donald Trump. Him becoming president has changed the Republican Party, man. It’s now more populist, nationalist, and protectionist. I mean, a great example of this is the fact that the United States currently has its highest effective tariff rate since the early 1930s. It has increasingly rejected internationalism, or the cooperation and collaboration among different nations. It has increasingly rejected both neoconservatism and neoliberalism while embracing postliberalism, a political movement that promotes the idea that both liberalism and individualism are hurting society more than helping it. But it’s probably not just Trump. The Democratic Party is changing, too. Folks like Bernie Sanders, who nearly got the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency in both 2016 and 2020, have also been influential in helping the party embrace populism and move further to the left on economic issues. During the Seventh Party System, the Republican Party has had more success reaching rural voters and the Democratic Party has had more success reaching college-educated suburban voters. Now, I should say that there are political scientists out there who disagree with me. But they’re full of crap. (What the heck?!?) I’m kidding. That was mean. They make good points. The fact that political polarization still persists, that yeah…sure…the PRESIDENCY may have changed but CONGRESS hasn’t changed so much since the Sixth Party System, or it’s just too darn early to analyze this since some of this stuff happening recently might just be temporary blips….these are all reasons why other political scientists argue we’re still in the Sixth Party System. Then again, there are even OTHER political scientists out there who argue we’re still in the Fifth Party System. So who the heck knows. All this stuff is made up anyway. (stare at camera) But what do YOU think? Do you agree with me that the United States is currently in the Seventh Party System? Or do you NOT agree with me? How dare you. But wait, why? Why the heck would you not agree with me you dillweed. Sorry. That was harsh. Look, just try to explain yourself in the comments and perhaps we have a constructive dialogue. We can work this out. Alright then. Go on. Start typing away. Thanks for staying curious. __________________________________________________ Sources/further reading: The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Development by William Nisbet Chalmers https://archive.org/details/americanpartysys00will The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History by Michael Kazin, Rebecca Edwards, and Adam Rothman Purchase here: https://amzn.to/3YQZ4Sp Parties and Elections in America: The Electoral Process by Mark D. Brewer and L. Sandy Maisel Purchase here: https://amzn.to/3NoWctm The Second American Party System: Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era by Richard McCormick Purchase here: https://amzn.to/4pgNmLu The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America by Elmer Eric Schattschneider https://archive.org/details/semisovereignpeo00scha https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/25/upshot/trump-era-republicans-democrats.html Parties, Interest Groups, and Political Campaigns by Matthew J. Burbank, Ronald J. Hrebenar, and Robert C. Benedict https://archive.org/details/partiesinterestg0000burb Schlesinger, Arthur Jr. (1999). The Cycles of American History. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_eras_of_the_United_States Creative commons: Jonathunder David Shankbone Ragesoss Fibonacci Blue Alec Perkins
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Wait, When Are Abortions Legal? | Planned Parenthood v. Casey (video released 7/9/21)
How Birth Control Became Legal | Griswold v. Connecticut (video released 12/18/2020) When Abortion Became Legal | Roe v. Wade (video released 2/19/2017) And as promised, here is the script from my video: Jackson, Mississippi March 19, 2018 The Mississippi state legislature passes a controversial law called the Gestational Age Act, which banned all abortions after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the pregnant woman. After Mississippi’s governor at the time, Phil Bryant, signed the bill into law, he said, “We’ll probably be sued here in about a half hour, and that’ll be fine with me. It is worth fighting over.”^1 Bryant and others who supported the Gestational Age Act, of course, had the true goal of banning abortion and supported this law because they knew it would be challenged and hopefully be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. Sure enough, within 24 hours after the Gestational Age Act passed, Jackson Women’s Health Organization sued Mississippi. Specifically, Sacheen Carr-Ellis, a doctor at Jackson Women’s Health Organization, sued state officials Thomas Dobbs of the Mississippi State Department of Health and Kenneth Cleveland, the executive director of the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was Mississippi’s only abortion clinic and was already underfunded.^2 In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, lawyers representing Jackson Women’s Health Organization said that the Supreme Court decisions of Roe v. Wade (1973) and Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992) had long established that abortion was a right protected under the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause. In addition, their lawyers argued that the Gestational Age Act went against a woman’s right to privacy as implied through the Ninth Amendment. And finally, they argued that Mississippi attempting to ban abortions before the age of viability, or the age when the fetus could survive outside of the womb on its own, was also unconstitutional as established in the Casey decision. Typically, a fetus is not able to survive outside the womb until their age is at least 23 weeks.^3 District Judge Carlton Reeves sided with Jackson Women’s Health Organization, stating that the Gestational Age Act was unconstitutional and Mississippi had “no legitimate state interest strong enough, prior to viability, to justify a ban on abortions.”^4 Reeves ordered Mississippi to not enforce the law. Mississippi appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, but it agreed with the lower court. In that decision, senior Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote, “In an unbroken line dating to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s abortion cases have established (and affirmed, and re-affirmed) a woman’s right to choose an abortion before viability. States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman’s right, but they may not ban abortions.”^5 Mississippi appealed again, this time to the Supreme Court with the goal of overturning both Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which was its original plan all along amirite. In its request for the Supreme Court, the state said that a fetus can detect pain and respond to it at 10-12 weeks gestational age and that the viability standard needed to be updated. After the Court agreed to hear the case on May 17, 2021, “pro-choice” advocates, or those who supported abortion rights, got pretty nervous since six seemingly socially conservative justices now sat on the bench. While none of them had explicitly said they would overturn the Roe and Casey decisions, millions of Americans had voted for socially conservative Presidents for decades to get justices in the Supreme Court that would do just that. The Court heard oral arguments on December 1, 2021. Arguing for Mississippi, Scott Stewart argued that the Constitution doesn’t explicitly guarantee a right to abortion. He added that the Roe and Casey decisions should be overturned since fetal research has revealed new discoveries. Arguing for Jackson Women’s Health Organization, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the Roe and Casey decisions should not be overturned because the Court “has never revoked a right that is so fundamental to so many Americans and so central to their ability to participate fully and equally in society.”^6 On May 2, 2022, Politico released a draft of a majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that revealed the justices had sided with Mississippi. Well, this immediately created media fanfare and protests around the country. This leak of a draft decision was unprecedented, in fact, and definitely upset most of the Supreme Court justices, who have traditionally been proud of their ability to keep decisions under wraps until the right moment. As of the time of the recording of this video, we still don’t know who leaked the draft. The big question the Court had to consider in this case? Well, pretty simple, really. Was Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act unconstitutional? The Court said “no.” On June 24, 2022, it announced it had sided with Dobbs and Mississippi. And yep, it was 6-3. Not only did the Court say that Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act was constitutional, but it said that the Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion. Justice Samuel Alito, who indeed wrote the majority opinion, used the Supreme Court decision Washington v. Glucksberg (1997) as precedent to back up this decision, writing, “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”^7 This was a pretty big freaking deal, because by deciding this way, the Court overruled both Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) and Roe v. Wade (1973). This decision caused several state legislatures to immediately pass laws to either severely limit or even outright ban all abortions. In fact, some states had passed laws already that did because they anticipated this decision. At the time of the recording of this video, at least 20 states have banned abortion or heavily restricted it.^8 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, as you could imagine, is an extremely controversial decision. According to one poll, 62% of Americans disapproved of how the Court decided.^9 Not only that, the decision has rejuvenated the “pro-choice” movement ever since. In the 2022 midterm elections, millions of Americans showed up to the polls specifically motivated to vote against those who wanted to ban or severely limit abortion.^10 The Dobbs decision revealed one thing for sure- the abortion debate isn’t going to cool off any time soon. I’ll see you for the next Supreme Court case, jury! Well I don’t have a sponsor for this video but I do have stuff to promote. First all of my videos are now on Spotify, so if you’re over there, find me there. I’ll be waiting there. Patiently. Second, don’t forget I have written a book about what I think are the 100 most important Supreme Court cases in history. And finally, behind me is a newly revamped Timeline of U.S. History poster that I helped make with Useful Charts. Hey if you’re looking for some last-minute Christmas gift ideas, these two things might just be what they never knew they wanted, eh? And now it’s time for a shout out for my Patreon supporters who donate at least $15 or more each month to my channel. Starting with my biggest donors in alphabetical order, thank you to… Thank you to ALL my Patreon supporters and channel members, and thank YOU for staying curious. _____________________________________________ ^1. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/19/595045249/mississippi-governor-signs-nations-toughest-abortion-ban-into-law ^2. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/774/the-pink-house-at-the-center-of-the-world/act-seven-13 ^3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11753511/ ^4. https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/20/health/mississippi-abortion-ban-15-weeks-ruling/index.html ^5. Claeys, Eric (March 2022). "Dobbs and the Holdings of Roe and Casey". Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy. 20: 286 (page 5 of the PDF) ^6. Shimabukuro 2021, pp. 3–4 and Heritage Reporting Corporation 2021, pages 84–85 (pages 85–86 of the pdf) ^7. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf ^8. https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/state-policies-abortion-bans ^9. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/07/06/majority-of-public-disapproves-of-supreme-courts-decision-to-overturn-roe-v-wade/ ^10. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/25/1139040227/abortion-midterm-elections-2022-republicans-democrats-roe-dobbs Check out cool primary sources here: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392 Other sources used: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/597us1r58_gebh.pdf https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/597/19-1392/case.pdf https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization https://reproductiverights.org/cases/scotus-mississippi-abortion-ban-dobbs-jackson-womens-health/ruling-overturns-roe-v-wade/ https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-files/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XjSawsyvYw Buy our Timeline of U.S. History poster? https://usefulcharts.com?aff=12
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And as promised, here is the script from my video:
Mr. Beat here. Basketball is one of my favorite sports. (throw up ball) (lands in clone’s hand as he makes the layup) Clone: Kobe! Mr. Beat: Bucket! (turning) Hundreds of millions of human beings play this sport (turning) BILLIONS watch it (turning) And yes, it brings in BILLIONS of dollars each year (turning) Heck, the highest paid athletes in the world are basketball players The National Basketball Association, or NBA, which is the top professional basketball league in the world (turning) made $11.3 billion alone last year. That’s just one league. $11.3 billion dollars. A billion is a thousand million. And they made 11.3 of those thousand millions. Holy moly. You can find basketball fans in every country Depending on how you look at it, it may be the third-most-popular or even SECOND-most-popular sport in the world. And yet, it didn’t even exist 135 years ago. And it began as just something to keep the kids busy indoors when it was too cold to go outside. Here’s the story of how basketball went from a weird gym class experiment to a global phenomenon, baby. (turn to look at clone) Clone: Kobe! Mr. Beat: Bucket! If you were alive in the 2020s like I was, you’d know that inflation has been bad, and since everything gets more expensive every year, I’m constantly trying to find new ways to save money and optimize my spending. And one way I’ve done that throughout the 2020s? Rocket Money, which is a sponsor of this video. And yes, I’ve literally been using Rocket Money this entire decade. It’s helped me track my spending and categorize transactions to see exactly where my money is going. I love using it to cancel unwanted subscriptions. Rocket Money will automatically scan your bills to find savings. In fact, Rocket Money has helped its customers save up to $740 a year when you use all of the app’s premium features. Rocket Money is free to download, but you can get a free premium trial when you sign up with my link. Go to Rocket Money dot com slash mrbeat or scan the QR code on the screen right now! Woahness! I’ll also include the link in my description. Thanks to Rocket Money for sponsoring this video. -The Shocking History of Basketball- Other than volleyball (which also started at a YMCA), basketball may just be the only major sport in world history that can definitively trace its origin to a single person. (turning) And who was that person? This guy. Dr. James Naismith. Hey, you want one of those fun facts? The guy who invented basketball spent most of his life in my home town and is buried here. In the fall of 1891, Naismith was an instructor at the (sing) YMCA school…seriously, the Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. It’s now called Springfield College. Anyway, Naismith’s PE students were bored. Stuck inside due to the cold and nasty weather outside, Naismith had tried to keep them active by doing gymnastics or calisthenics. But that wasn’t any fun to the students. They wanted something more competitive…something they could play with a team. And so, Naismith’s boss, a dude named Luther Glick, said Naismith should invent a new game that
And so he did. Naismith came to class one day in December 1891 with rules for a brand new game and taught them how to play. He nailed up two peach baskets on opposite ends of the gym balcony, grabbed a soccer ball, and split his class of 18 into two teams of nine. Even though the peach baskets were RANDOMLY about 10 feet (3 meters) off the ground because that’s how high the balcony was, TO THIS DAY nearly all official basketball hoops are 10 feet off the ground. Well, not this one. Yeah usually they let kids play on shorter hoops. Like myself. They had to pass the ball around and couldn’t run with the ball. And then, once they got near a peach basket, they had to throw or bounce the ball into the basket. Every time a team got a ball in the basket, it was a goal. The team with the most goals won the game. Naismith’s students weren’t enthusiastic. “Huh, another new game,” one said.^1 Soon Naismith typed out 13 rules for his new game and tacked them up on a bulletin board.
December 21, 1891- according to multiple sources, that was the date of the first-ever game of basketball. The final score of that game? 1 to 0. And that single point came when William Chase made a shot from about 25 feet away. Yep, we also know the first person to ever score a basket. Now, of course…someone had to climb up and RETRIEVE the ball from the peach basket after Chase made that shot. No holes in the bottom yet. That came later. Well, the boys loved this new game, and so did the YMCA…so much that it spread the word about it to other YMCA schools in the region. And the game wasn’t just for the boys. After reading about Naismith’s new game, a woman named Senda Berenson introduced it to her female students. Since she didn’t have peach baskets, Berenson used waste baskets for the girls to shoot in. The first recorded women’s basketball game took place on March 22, 1893. The players all wore bloomers, and no men were allowed to watch. Now, the game wasn’t called “basketball” right away. When Naismith decided to publish the new game’s rules in a local newspaper, he realized it didn’t have an official name yet. Some of his students suggested he should name it after himself: “Naismith Ball.” Instead, he went with the name “basketball”…since…ya know…the goal was to get the ball in the basket? Clone: Kobe! Mr. Beat: Make it rain! Next thing ya know, Naismith’s game was being played at YMCAs around the country. They even added holes to the bottom of the baskets. Still, compared to today, those early games were pretty chill and slow-paced. And BECAUSE the YMCA was a worldwide organization, basketball quickly became a worldwide sport, too. In less than two years, it had reached France, China, and India. The first known game between two teams representing college teams went down on February 9, 1895. Minnesota A&M, a college which later became part of the University of Minnesota beat Hamline University 9-3. Then again, that was when basketball was still played under the rules that allowed nine players to play on one team at a time. With the help of folks like Lambert Will, the rules evolved quite a bit in those early years. So these rules are outdated. Well crap! The first known game between two college teams in which players each had five players playing at a time went down on January 18, 1896 between the University of Chicago and University of Iowa. The first known “professional” basketball game...which means the players were basically actually getting paid to play…took place on November 7, 1896 in Trenton, New Jersey. The players each earned the equivalent of around $578 in today’s money for participating in the game.^2 Around that time, James Naismith took a job here, at the University of Kansas. Oh the job had nothing to do with basketball. The University hired Naismith to be a chapel director/P.E. teacher, duh. They paid him the equivalent of just over $50,000 a year in today’s money. (looking over) Cheapskates. Around the time Naismith first arrived at the university, which is in Lawrence, Kansas by the way…basketball was considered a sissy game…not even considered a real “sport” yet. But that didn’t stop Naismith from teaching his new P.E. students how to play. And wouldn’t ya know it, they ALSO loved it. Soon enough, Naismith started a campus league and then the university let him pick the league’s best players to form the school’s first official team in 1898. They mainly just played YMCA teams. Naismith would often step in as the referee during these games. But then the University was like, “uh hey James Naismith, would you like to, like totally, COACH, these guys?!?” And James was like, “Coach? These guys don’t need to be coached.” And soon enough, Naismith indeed became the University of Kansas basketball team’s first official coach. And here’s a crazy fact for you- Naismith was the only University of Kansas basketball coach in history to retire with a losing record. Let me rephrase that. The only person to coach Kansas basketball to ever have a losing record over his career was the guy WHO LITERALLY INVENTED THE SPORT. One of Naismith’s players, though, went on to become one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. In fact, he’d take Naismith’s job and then go on to win three national championships and 24 conference championships over 39 seasons. That man’s name was Forrest. (turn) No, not Forrest Gump. Forrest Allen…aka “Phog Allen.” Yep, that’s a statue of him. And today, the University of Kansas basketball team plays in this historic arena behind me…Allen Fieldhouse…yep…named after Phog Allen. It’s a special place, for sure, even if you’re not a KU basketball fan. It's the loudest college basketball arena in the country. The playing surface is named “James Naismith Court,” of course. Oh, and guess what that street’s called? (pointing) Naismith Drive. Very good. Extra credit for you. Phog Allen would go on to coach players who later became Hall of Fame coaches themselves. Ok, enough about KU. Do realize I only brought a lot of this stuff because I’m biased. I went to the University of Kansas and have cheered on my Jayhawks MANY times in Allen Fieldhouse. Anyway, over the following years, the rules of the game continued to change. For example, for many years, basketball was played in cages and there was no out of bounds. In 1906, organizers began replacing wooden baskets with metal hoops and nets, like THIS, which you’re probably more familiar with. By that time, many African Americans had begun playing the sport, but leagues would remain racially segregated for decades afterward. The first independently organized black basketball team was the Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn, New York. Smart Set Athletic Club…yeah that should totally also be a band name. Also by that time? Many realized they could make serious money off the game, and professional leagues popped up. Many came and went. The first ones were regional, with many cities having multiple teams. During World War One, the sport got introduced to A LOT more people as soldiers would play it during down time. In 1926, a team popped in the South Side of Chicago that called themselves the Harlem Globetrotters. They started out as a serious competitive team before evolving into entertainers, and today have fully turned the sport into an art form. The most famous professional team of the 1920s, though, was the Original Celtics…not to be confused with today’s Boston Celtics. Nah man, the Original Celtics were based in New York and even played at Madison Square Garden. Take that, Knicks. But yeah, the Original Celtics captured the attention of millions of Americans as they dominated nearly every game they played. In 1936, another notable team arrived on the scene. The All-American Red Heads. Yeah, that was really their name. The All-American Red Heads were the first professional women’s basketball team. But they played by men’s rules and played AGAINST men’s teams. They toured the country in a limousine at one point, and apparently really dyed their hair red…unless it was naturally that color already. Jump ahead to 1946, and a group of arena owners created the Basketball Association of America, hoping to fill their arenas during hockey’s off-season. Three years later, the league merged with its rival, the National Basketball League, to form the aforementioned National Basketball Association, or NBA. The first NBA game went down on November 1, 1946 between the Toronto Huskies and the New York Knickerbockers, a team that still exists that I mentioned earlier that we now just call the Knicks. Because syllables are difficult. I mean, hard. Back then, games were slow-paced and still low-scoring. There was no shot clock, so teams could just play keep away from their opponent or just dribble the clock down endlessly. That all changed in 1954 when the 24-second shot clock was introduced… Mr. Beat: At the buzzer…3, 2, 1, (passes) Clone: Kobe! Mr. Beat: Bucket! Forcing faster play and revolutionizing the game. The 1950s also saw the NBA integrate. Folks like Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton became the first African Americans to play in the NBA. Then came Bill Russell, who joined the Boston Celtics in 1956 and then promptly led them to 11 championships in 13 seasons. No big deal. And don’t forget Wilt Chamberlain, who yep, played basketball here at the University of Kansas. There I go on about KU again. He went on to the NBA to dominate, at one point averaging 50 points a game. To this date, Chamberlain is the only professional basketball player in history to score 100 points in a single game. Holy crap. I forgot about that. Yeah, he scored 100 points as his team, the Philadelphia Warriors, beat the Knicks 160-146 on March 2, 1962. At the time, college basketball was still just as popular if not more popular as the NBA, and just 4,124 people witnessed it. The game wasn’t even televised.^3 Then again, Wilt Chamberlain had quite the advantage over the other players. He was 7-foot-1. More and more, folks were realizing that if you had the height…AND…if you could jump high…you automatically had an advantage in this sport. That’s right, I called it a “sport.” By the 1960s it was definitely a sport. In the decades since, the players have gotten consistently taller and taller and taller. But hey, don’t forget about the ABA! In 1967, an exciting new league called the American Basketball Association, or ABA, started that brought in new ideas like the three-point line, (Kobe! Shoot three) the slam dunk contest (Slam dunk! Try to slam dunk) the full court press, and the shootaround before the game. The ABA was louder, faster, and frankly more entertaining…and it gave us future legends like Julius Erving, aka Dr. J. By 1976, the ABA and NBA had merged, and indeed, the NBA absorbed the ABA’s flair. After the NBA introduced the three-point-line in 1979, teams began to completely change how they ran their offenses. In 1979, teams averaged fewer than 3 three-point attempts per game. By the mid-2010s, teams averaged around 32 three-point attempts per game. (wearing yellow Afro) But let’s go back to the 1970s for a moment. This might surprise you, but around the time the NBA introduced the 3-point line, the league was struggling with poor ratings and a bad public image. And then came Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, baby. Their rivalry began in college and got reignited in the pros. Bird’s Celtics and Magic’s Lakers dominated combining amazing star power and teamwork on the court and mad rizz off the court. And then came Michael Jordan. (clips) When Jordan entered the league in 1984, he took everything to another level - athleticism, competitiveness, marketing, and style. Even shorts got longer after him. Jordan’s six championships with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, along with the “Dream Team” of American superstars competing at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, made the NBA a global brand. Now more than ever, kids around the world were picking up basketballs and playing wherever they could. After all, you didn’t need money to play the game- there were no barriers to entry. Professional leagues popped up in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Players like Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming showed the world could produce stars, too. Today, the NBA features a record number of international players and some of the best players to ever play the game…players like Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić, and Giannis Antetokounmpo….ok I just call him Giannis were all born outside the United States. Today, basketball is played in pretty much every country in the world and watched by BILLIONS. And the game continues to evolve. Players like LeBron James are now billionaires and have saved the economies of entire cities. Players like Steph Curry have made the three-point shot more important than ever. There’s also the WNBA, the most prominent women’s professional league in the world, was the fastest-growing brand in professional sports last year.^4 And new forms of basketball, like 3X3, are now Olympic events. From a small gym in Springfield, Massachusetts to the streets of Manila, from neighborhood parks to billion-dollar arenas- basketball’s 134-year story is one of constant innovation and global connection. What started as a simple game to keep some students busy in the the winter became a world wide language- one that unites people of a diverse range of cultures and ethnicities. And all it took…was a ball, two baskets, and a Canadian. (shoot backward) What about YOU, punks? Do YOU play basketball? Do you WATCH basketball? Do you SMELL basketballs? Well if you do that…that’s a little weird. Uh…who’s your favorite basketball player of all time? And I realized most of my regular viewers don’t care about basketball, but that’s what I do. I alienate my audience. Hey, but thanks for staying curious anyway! _________________________________________________ ^1.https://books.google.com/booksid=t55KEAAAQBAJ&dq=AIELLO+Hoops&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q=AIELLO%20Hoops&f=false ^2. https://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=10505 ^3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilt_Chamberlain%27s_100-point_game ^4. https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanmshaw/2025/02/04/the-wnba-was-the-fastest-growing-brand-in-professional-sports-in-2024/ Sources/further reading: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History by Bethlehem Shoals and Jacob Weinstein Purchase here: https://amzn.to/4o3OmTr Hoops: A Cultural History of Basketball in America by Thomas Aiello Purchase here :https://amzn.to/4ot0zRq Basketball: Its Origin and Development by James Naismith Purchase here: https://amzn.to/43wvcxp James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball by Rob Rains Purchase here: https://amzn.to/4o34epj https://about.fiba.basketball/en/news/fiba-celebrates-more-than-610-million-players-globally-on-second-edition-of-wbd https://www.topendsports.com/world/lists/earnings/athletes-paid-sports.htm https://www.sportsvalue.com.br/en/nba-teams-surpassed-us-11-3-billion-in-revenue-in-2024-total-valuation-reached-us-132-8-billion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_basketball https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09523369508713887 https://www.britannica.com/story/why-are-basketball-hoops-10-feet-high https://vault.si.com/vault/1991/11/11/when-the-court-was-a-cage-in-the-early-days-of-pro-basketball-the-players-were-segregated-from-the-fans https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2015/12/19/james-naismith-basketball-audio-springfield Creative commons credits: TonytheTiger Sandro Halank |
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