Professors here at the time. Im a home grown boy as most of you know. Lived just across the river here in Washington County. Grew up only a few miles from the antietam battlefield. Eshepherd as always been special to me. Its great to return here this evening to be here in the bird center. I knew senator bird well. I did quite a number of tours and programs for him at Harpers Ferry National Park when he would come and visit. And he became a big ally in helping preserve civil war battlefields. A really great honor to be here at shepherd, my home school. Im so thankful that 40 years ago i was taking finals and i havent had to take finals in 36 years. And its really good to be back in this prestigious bird center sharing with you this evening one story that happened right here. Did john brown elect Abraham Linco lincoln . I want you to think about that for a moment. Did john brown elect Abraham Lincoln . The first thing that came to mind is how can that be . Brown is dead. He cant vote, so
Years. And its really good to be back in this prestigious bird center sharing with you this evening one story that happened right here. Did john brown elect Abraham Linco lincoln . I want you to think about that for a moment. Did john brown elect Abraham Lincoln . The first thing that came to mind is how can that be . Brown is dead. He cant vote, so how could he possibly have anything to do with the election of 1860. Before were finished this evening, i think well see that john brown, the ghost of john brown, the memory of brown was very influential in what happened in that election, that watershed election in American History that ultimately gave us americas greatest president. A few days ago, december 2, three days ago, 15 years ago, here in Jefferson County, something very important happened. A hanging, an execution. You here in Shepherds Town would have known about the execution. Everybody knew about it. Because john brown was climbing the scaffold. To be executed in charlestown,le
Be sure to watch cspans washington journal beginning at 7 00 eastern on friday morning. Join the discussion. Next on American History tv, historians discuss general shermans march flew georgia. After that, historian dennis fry talks about the impact of john browns raid in the 1860 goals. The New York Historical society hosted this hour long event. Welcome, its great to be back in the same seats as we always occupy. For those of you who have come to a number of our sessions. We are promised and we are promising each other that well do more in the coming seasons. We have a topic today that we think is one of the best that weve come up with, its a neglected civil war story. Because of the focus on shermans march through georgia. Theres a little less attention on shermans other march, which followed the march through georgia. Take a look at this scowling man in a fantastic coat, as we begin talking about him. Im going to start with john who as you heard has written two wonderful books abou
Im talking just about the physicality. You can judge for the insight on your own. [laughter] but as nick said very cogently, this book covers a 30year span of American History in the middle of the 19th century when nothing much happened. [laughter] there was just, oh, i dont know, the Womens Movement and the country divided in two, and there were spiritualists and spirit rappers and p. T. Barnum all part of the same cultural moment. And then just in case you were getting bored, there was a war, a dreadful war where 750,000 people were killed, and thats probably, thats probably a figure that is not finished being revised upward. And, of course, there was the period of reconstruction that occurred in the south, and at the same time there was the settlement of the west augerred by the gold rush back in 1848 and completed with the slow and painful and very disturbing removal of the indians from that particular part of the country. Just a few things that i concerned myself with for the last
If you want to totally immerse yourself in black hawk down and hopefully in a year or so well have a feature film. Host mark bowden, thank you are joining us on booktv. Appreciate it. We are fascinated by every aspect of the matter in theory and this. Maybe not quite as much as ken starr is, but no less. I wanted to give the reader a chance to understand the process by which ive made decisions. The environment are legitimate decisions, decisions, the people i listen to effort made decisions. This is not an attempt to rewrite history. It is not an attempt to fashion a legacy. It is to be part of the historical narrative. Every single justice on the court has a passion and love for the constitution and our country thats equal to mine. Then you now but if you accept that as an operating truth which it is, you understand that you can disagree. For me, whats interesting is negotiation of a moral position. Do no harm, let somebody i respect yourself. All of that is reduced to simplify notion