1950s. So when mr. s went out for runs mr. East went out for lunch, got in the door, someone was pounding on the drivers side window, and mr. East looked, and there was a very scary looking individual saying are you p. D. East, the the troublemaking newspaper man . [laughter] and with more courage than he felt, mr. East said, yes, i am. The man said, if you get out of this car, ill beat your brains out. [laughter] mr. East, said if you want me to get out of this car, youve got to give me a lot more incentive than that. [laughter] the roorld the the regard i have for the Virginia Historical society where i spent many, many weeks working on this book for nelson, for graham, thats all the incentive i needed to come. And again, i thank you for the invitation. The booth book grew actually from a class i taught on great crimes. And in that class we would take a different crime every week, the lindbergh kidnapping, haymarket riot the next week, then the lincoln assassination. Hands down, the
I really had always wanted to write this kind of sweeping saga of the civil war and for me as a military historian over the years what ive noticed is that as much as we are fascinated by what happens on the battlefield and the sweeping changes that take place because of this campaign or that campaign the soldiers want to know how soon they can make it home, did you get the crops income is the horse still lame, thats what they want to know about, and so i really come to the side in all of my writing that you have to look at those. You have to look at the soldiers and their families, the battlefront and homefront if you are going to understand the war. So, when i started the book, the primary goal was to leave the latest arguments, the latest historical theories and stories. So, that for example, one of the standard arguments for a long time in the field was one of the reasons the confederacy was defeated as they lost the will to fight, the confederate widow was broken and in part it was
I really had always wanted to write this kind of sweeping saga of the civil war and for me as a military historian over the years what ive noticed is that as much as we are fascinated by what happens on the battlefield and the sweeping changes that take place because of this campaign or that campaign the soldiers want to know how soon they can make it home, did you get the crops income is the horse still lame, thats what they want to know about, and so i really come to the side in all of my writing that you have to look at those. You have to look at the soldiers and their families, the battlefront and homefront if you are going to understand the war. So, when i started the book, the primary goal was to leave the latest arguments, the latest historical theories and stories. So, that for example, one of the standard arguments for a long time in the field was one of the reasons the confederacy was defeated as they lost the will to fight, the confederate widow was broken and in part it was
I really had always wanted to write this kind of sweeping saga of the civil war and for me as a military historian over the years what ive noticed is that as much as we are fascinated by what happens on the battlefield and the sweeping changes that take place because of this campaign or that campaign the soldiers want to know how soon they can make it home, did you get the crops income is the horse still lame, thats what they want to know about, and so i really come to the side in all of my writing that you have to look at those. You have to look at the soldiers and their families, the battlefront and homefront if you are going to understand the war. So, when i started the book, the primary goal was to leave the latest arguments, the latest historical theories and stories. So, that for example, one of the standard arguments for a long time in the field was one of the reasons the confederacy was defeated as they lost the will to fight, the confederate widow was broken and in part it was
School history teacher and i will try and probably feebley fail to do him justice in describing this beautiful room youve chosen for your 25th lecture. You have chosen a remarkably historic room. But first, i have to thank the offices of the senate cure rater and historian who prepare histories of our art and rooms. Without them this introduction simply wouldnt be possible. So to begin. In the early 1900s the house and the senate decided they had outgrown their space. They commissioned two architects from new york. To build them a house and Senate Office buildings. Those have now become the Cannon House Office building and the russell Senate Office building. Interestingly, if you know theyre sort of mirror images from above. But those two individuals were educated in paris and a part of that education brought this beautiful art that you see around this room. They took great care to design this room. In fact, they spent over a year finding this black vained marble that came from new jer