Honored that the Georgia Historical Society invited me to join you. There is really no place i would rather be on the summer night than in this lovely southern town. Although i now live in california, i grew up in georgia. It is wonderful being back. Seeing old friends, many old friends. , southernersw ones are warm and embracing. Dear, the south is a golden place. , there is al know darker side. In ind locked doors almost every southern town so that has been hidden. 100 years ago tonight, a stones throw from where we are gathered , the best men of marietta were sentence on ast damnable plot. They thought they were carrying out justice, but nothing about their actions would be to that. They wouldnt lynch a man, possibly innocent. They would traumatize a generation of american jews. Particularly atlanta jews. Sowed pain and misunderstanding across the country. Marietta. Came from their names adorn street signs, public buildings, monuments, not just in this town, but across georgia. Toni
He worked in washington, d. C. , lives in annapolis with his two dogs, and is known for his wellreceived book, intrepid sailors. That was named a notable book in 2012 by Naval Institute proceedings magazine. Lets welcome chip reid. [applause] mr. Reid thank you everybody. It is a pleasure to be back here again. Its a real honor to be here as part of the marine corps. I am both an army and marine corps veteran. I saw the light in 1982 and decided to become a man. [laughter] lion and the bay is a joint work. They approached me two years ago about taking on the manuscript which was incomplete. He had passed away prior to getting to what i call the meat of the 1814 campaign, the British Landing at benedict, maryland, the battle for fort mchenry and so on. It had incomplete accounts of joshua barneys flotilla. We will talk about that in a little bit. Most of all, what he did have, which folks in england have suddenly recognized is one of the most detailed accounts of royal Marine Operations
Thank you for joining us. Yesterday there were taxicab issues, subway issues, who knows what well have. I am a visiting professor at the university of saskatchewan where it was about 25 degrees warmer when i left than it is in washington, d. C. Saskatoon is 300 miles north of the montana border. It is way up there and on the great plains of canada, spectacularly beautiful place, of course since it is 25 degrees warmer than washington, and which we know has always been in the south part of the United States, it just shows there is absolutely no Global Climate change going on whatsoever, that is just so it is going to be. [laughter] it is a delight to be here and a delight to be interviewing people on this symposium. When we had our last conference, chuck and i sat down with Jillian Berkowitz who is also here from Ohio University press because she publishes the books that come out of the series, we sat down and talked about what we should do next year and we thought, well, lets go a litt
Ways about the war. And so its very hard to its very hard to pin that down. But i really think that the kinds of evidence that im looking at, it is not just data. These are the words that the participants used, and everyone says nothing but slavery. Now you mentioned in passing, reconstruction. Thats a whole nother book and whole nother field. But basically my take on reconstruction, very subjective. Just like Everything Else ive been saying. Reconstruction would not have been so bad if the southerners had done had responded appropriately to what the war was about, and that, in good faith, ended slavery and truly ended slavery, and slavery relate practices and provided blacks with the right to participate in politics, to vote, and to have representatives in government which was only allowed for the short time while the north was there to enforce it. So the stories about all the economic ravages on the south, there wasnt much left to ravage. And what the south was really concerned about
Emancipation. Its important to us. Because when we think about a reunified United States in the aftermath of civil war, what conclusion must we draw. Clearly, a large majority of the American Free population was not enthusiastic about emancipation. And to come back to a final theme that has been the bedrock of this course throughout, in a democratic society, where a large majority holds a particular value, that is inconsistent with the interest of minority, theres not much reason to be optimistic for the rights of that minority. Remember James Madison had said if majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure. I think that is a foreshadowing of the history of reconstruction on end through the rest of the 19th into the 20th centuries. So very fast whirlwind overview. Next time, were going to zero in on Abraham Lincoln and were going to enter into conversation with him because what lincoln is trying to do more than anything else is shape how we remem