Us from history books as the great compromiser. During his 49year political career, clay served as secretary of state, speaker of the house, and as a u. S. Senator. And he was a contender, making sure president ial bids including the election of 1824. 1832 against Andrew Jackson, and 1844, when he ran against james k. Polk. Tonight we are on location at ashland. Henry clays home in lexington, kentucky. For the next 90 minutes, we will explore the life and legacy of this man. Unsuccessful in his long quest for the white house, yet having an outsized influence on American History. We are in henry clays parlor. Let me introduce you to jim klotter, 25 years now as kentucky state historian. Jim thanks for being with us. Glad to be here. Why henry clay . Why is he relevant to americans living in our time . Think a couple of counts. First of all, his famous counts, i would rather be right than be president , still speaks to us. Its a clarion call to people across whatever were during. Whether
Ashland. Henry clays home in lexington, kentucky, and for the next 90 minutes we will explore the life and legacy of this man, unsuccessful in his long quest for the white house, yet having an outsized influence on American History. And we are in henry clays parlor r parlor right now. Let me introduce you to jim plotter, historian. Thank you for being with us. Good to be here. Why is he relevant to americans living in our time . On a couple of accounts, his famous quote, i would rather be right than be president. Its a call to people whatever were doing, which is to do the right thing. In a sense, politicians need to remember the country and sacrifice for the country and i think that is still something that we need to remember, as well and the man known as the great compromiser, and a man that forges these compromises that not only kept the nation together, but were constructive and those are the kinds of things we need to remember about henry clay as well as the things that he did in
Captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 thats the job for a historian. Most historians, if they think about photographs at all, focus on them as images not material objects and as illustrations rather than as primary sources that can and should themselves be the subject of historical analysis. Watch ken burns 1996 series on the west and Pay Attention to his treatment of the pueblo revolt of 1680. While he uses engravings of spaniards it to visual issize the story he relies on 19th and 20th century sorry gave away my story there, trying to highlight this picture here, he relies on 19th and 20th century photographs to depict the pueblo protagonists. This approach conveys an insidious image. European people change with time. One would never use images from two centuries later to depict them, but native peoples live on in an unchanging past, a photograph made 240 years later is just fine. We are susceptible to this historical use of photographs when we do not know better. I
1844, when he ran against james k. Polk. Tonight, we are on location at ashland henry clays home in lexington, kentucky. For the next 90 minutes, we will explore the life and legacy of this man, unsuccessful in his long quest for the white house, yet having an outsized influence on American History. We are in henry clays parlor. Let me introduce you to jim klotter, 25 years now as kentucky state historian. Thanks for being with us. Glad to be here. Why henry clay . Why is he relevant to americans living in our time . I think a couple of counts. First of all, his famous counts, famous comment, i would rather be right than be president , still speaks to us. Its a clarion call to people across whatever were doing. Whether were in politics or Something Else, to do the right things. He also said, you know, that in a sense, that the politicians need to remember the country and sacrifice for the country. I think that is still something we need to remember, as well. The man known as the great
12 30 p. M. Welcome. I have the happy task of introducing your president and my friend marnie sandweiss. We will present this room and tell the story of marnie and me and her work, which got us all here. Let me start with the magical alchemy of graduate school. All of us leadheaded thinkers turned into scholars and teachers. The process works Something Like this. Imagine a group of students as a cohort. The cohort becomes classmates. The classmates become colleagues. And once in a while they become lifelong friends. So, colleagues, cohort, classmate, colleague, and that golden thing, a friend. I am cheating a little bit because she came to yale to study with Harold Lamarr a year after me and she was in the History Department and i was in that ragtag group in american studies. [applause] not a cohort exactly. We did become friends, puzzling throughdings, yawning brilliant, but sometimes excruciating seminars. Western history, some of you may know, was taught in the basement. And on frid