It is for people my age disorienting. For people, my children and grandchildrens age is the only america they have known and the most natural thing in the world. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. The wonderful thing about the gulf coast, is so underappreciate it and that is good because it gives us a lot to write about. If we were in new York San Francisco or chicago those cities and places are all so well known and new york is the literary capital but on the gulf coast we tend to think about from texas to the Florida Panhandle there really is instability, we have a similar environment, similar trees, long leaf pines, palm trees, sandy soil, salt in the air. The gulf of mexico and nourishes and supplies us with wonderful seafood, estuaries, wonderfully rich and tradition and culture. In and around these things for hundreds of years, it is an extraordinarily rich subject to take and of course along comes the oil spill in 2010 where all of a sudden we are in ce
Economy so keep that in mind today. You are your purchasing dollars account for events like this. Introducing steve vogel. Our student daughter and guess today is steve vogel, the author of through the perilous fight 6 weeks that saved the nation and he also wrote a book called the pentagon. He has written extensively about military affairs and the treatment of veterans from the wars in afghanistan and iraq. Is reported about the war in afghanistan was part of a package of Washington Post stories selected as finalists for the 2002 pulitzer prize. He covered the september 11th, 2001, terrorist attack on the pentagon and subsequent reconstruction. He also covered the first gulf war and the war in iraq. In addition to the u. S. Military operations in the balkans, rwanda and somalia please welcome steve vogel. [applause] thank you very much, thank you. We will make this instead of a lecture make this more of a conversation about steves book. You might have noticed the subtitle, through the
Then part of the land making up the district of columbia. This was a very wealthy port on the potomac. And they also could pose a threat to other targets in washington that hadnt been taken by the british army. Though they dont know this at this point. Georgetown had been left alone by the british and theres an important foundry that makes weapons for the u. S. Navy that is still sitting untouched. In any event, they were proceeding up river when theyre hit by the huge storm. The remarkable storm that comes through washington on august 25th sweeps down river and severely damages several of the ships in gordons squadron. And they have to stop to make repairs. They almost considered turning back at that point. But they keep coming up river. They sailed past mt. Vernon, which was just down river from here. And finally on august 27th, they come in sight of ft. Washington, which is the last fortress guarding the Potomac River as they on the approach to alexandria in washington. This was the
Arrive in washington. Theyre so great. They had a fire in the middle of the 19th century but you can see what remains of them in curved bookcases at the library of congress and its incredible. This man, this renaissance man, every subject you can think of is there. Archaeology. History. Art. Farming. Its all there in different languages. That was thomas jefferson. Amazing. Well, two days before the british arrived, the commandant ordered the navy clerk to get a hold of transport to take 124 barrels of gun powder out of the navy yard into the safety of virginia. Booth settled up across into georgetown and saw a wagon outside a store. He rode up and told the two apparent owners he was impounding it for the department of navy. This is wartime. And so some citizens who might normally have buckled to bureaucratic pressure bustled chasing off government officials with abuse and profanities. This is exactly what happened to booth. In a vivid chronicle written two weeks after the departure of
Hes been quite fearful that georgetown will be attacked. A a few days later, it is from this home that he would launch the mission to try to gain 8p maryland who had been taken prisoner by the british, a and this would ultimately lead to his eyewitnessing of the bombardment of ft. Mchenry and ultimately to thev f writing e national antent them. A big rainstorm hit the city that night after the n÷ britisd gone back to their camp, and extinguishes some of the flames including at the treasury. And coburn, the next morning, he rides up to the white house pretty much for the ae satisfn of seeing the burnt building and he also wanted to make sure that some of the parts of the building that hadt not been extinguished by the rain, and one party sent up to the navy yard, and coburn remarks that he is glad that the americansrn e÷d him the trouble of burning the place, but he sends some of his sailors and loyal marines there remaining buildings that had not been burned. Another party comesvel