Sarah polk was very up on diplomacy and her strong suit happened to be intelligent political discussion. She made no bones about the fact and she really took an interest in politics and that she was her husbands partner. She grew up in a political household in tennessee. Her father was a local politician. So she grew up loving politics. She married james after he won a seat in the legislature because she would not have married him if hed been content to be a clerk. Unfortunately for james k. Polk, he died just three months after leaving the white house and sarah began a 42year widowhood. Polk place became something of a shrine to her husband and she would invite anybody who wanted to come for a visit to see the objects that they had collected throughout their long and illustrious political career. She lived there for many years on her own and during the civil war generals on both sides would come and visit her to pay their respects to her. Thats a very interesting commentary on what a
Beverly so, we will go ahead and get started since the moment has arrived. Others may trickle in from lunch, but thank you and welcome here to this panel on the Church Committee at 40. My name is beverly gage. I am a history professor at yale. And i will be up here mostly timekeeping and asking some questions. Before i introduce the panelists, i just wanted to say a few words about the genesis of this panel, the idea behind it and some of the issues i hope we are going to be able to address. So this year, 2015, marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most important congressional committees certainly of the 1970s. And i think arguably of the latter half of the 20th century and that was the Church Committee. The Church Committee which was chaired by Senator Frank Church began its work in the spring of 1975. And for the 16 months between the spring of 1975 and when they delivered 14 volumes of reports in 1976, the Church Committee held hearings, performed investigations, dug into Backgro
Sarah polk was very up on diplomacy and her strong suit happened to be intelligent political discussion. She made no bones about the fact and she really took an interest in politics and that she was her husbands partner. She grew up in a political household in tennessee. Her father was a local politician. So she grew up loving politics. She married james after he won a seat in the legislature because she would not have married him if hed been content to be a clerk. Unfortunately for james k. Polk, he died just three months after leaving the white house and sarah began a 42year widowhood. Polk place became something of a shrine to her husband and she would invite anybody who wanted to come for a visit to see the objects that they had collected throughout their long and illustrious political career. She lived there for many years on her own and during the civil war generals on both sides would come and visit her to pay their respects to her. Thats a very interesting commentary on what a
Thank you to all the panelists for participating in this fascinating discussion. [applause] youre watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation like us on facebook at cspan history. American history tv is featuring cspans original series, first ladies, influence and image at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time on sunday nights throughout the rest of the year. Cspan produced the series in cooperation with the White House Historical organization. We tell the stories of americas 45 first ladies. Now circle, Margaret Taylor, and Albert Fillmore. Sarah polk, Margaret Taylor and Albert Fillmore on the first ladies. This is 90 minutes. Sarah polk was very up on diplomacy. Her strong suit happened to be intelligent political discussion. She took an interest in politics, and she was her husbands partner. She grew up in a political household in tennessee. She would not have married james if he [inaudible] unfortunately for james polk he died and sarah became a
She talks about the motivations and charity work of mid18thcentury north american and british philanthropists and humanitarians. This event was cohosted by the Woodrow Wilson center and National History center. It is just under 90 minutes. All right. It is great to have such a large crowd here on this day for the before the election, as we are all sort of anxiously awaiting what happens. It is a genuine pleasure for me to be able to introduce amanda to you. She is the associate director of the National History center. I have worked with her for the past 2. 5 years. I could sing her praises ad nauseam. I will simply say she has been indispensable to the operations and success of the center over the years. For someone who is so young, she has had a really interesting and varied career. Before she became an historian, she was a pastry chef and worked at some prominent restaurants. Then got her phd at the university of michigan and a postdoc at yale. At the same time, she has continued her