Welcome to the Ruthless, Cutthroat World of Paleoanthropology
Meave Leakey, now matriarch of the Leakey dynasty, made one of her greatest discoveries in 2001: the flat-faced skull of Kenyanthropus, a 3.3 million-year-old toolmaker.Credit.Annie Wells/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images
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By Steve Brusatte
By Kermit Pattison
By Meave Leakey with Samira Leakey
Among the riot of species that have lived on Earth over the last four billion years, only we can ponder our own origins and it often angers the blood. We’re long past any serious debate that humanity evolved from apes in Africa a few million years ago, but the scientists looking for ever older bones of our ancestors always seem to be squabbling. At least that’s their reputation. Stay away from paleoanthropology, I was told as a young student smitten with fossils, and study less controversial stuff instead, like dinosaurs.
today. in depth, sunday at noon eastern on c-span2 s book tv. with congress on break we re featuring some of american history tv s weekend programs. over the next few hours a look at the fight against slavery in the u.s. first, the life of abolitionist owen lovejoy who served in congress leading up to and during the civil war. then a discussion on the abolitionist and women s suffrage movements. later, the story of john willis menard, who was the first african-american elected to the u.s. congress. between 1971 and 1973, president rhythm are richard nation son secretly recorded nearly 4,000 hours of phone calls and meetings. always agree on the middle things. then you hold on the big one. hell, i ve done this so often in conversations with people. i say, i will concede that, make them all feel good, then don t give them the big one. every saturday this month hear more of the nixon tapes including discussions with future presidents, key wh
as the uproar continued, insults were shouted throughout the room. at one point barksdale of mississippi shouted at lovejoy, you shall not come upon this side of the house! congressman singleton called out, and a negro thief in the bargain. george n. martin crawford stepped away from his desk and cocked his pistol. the fray continued but lovejoy finally decided to gradually move back to the podium, but he called out no one can intimidate me. finally, once he was back at the podium the house chair was able to establish a degree of order. lovejoy finished his speech by saying that slave owners ruled the same as pirates, every slave has a right to freedom, every slave has a right to run away. i cannot go into a slave state and open my lips in regard to the question of slavery. no, yelled martin of virginia, we would hang you. that night and for the next few days washington was abuzz with what had happened. telegraph operators relayed the news of the uproar across the
in 1856, although democrat james buchanan had won the white house and the democrats controlled congress, as the majority party, they still had to deal with a formidable group of political rivals. lovejoy made his first lengthy speech in the house chamber on february 7th, 1858, let the mason-dixon line disappear, let the country be one united whole, he said, the rights of all equally respected. he attacked the dred scott decision and supreme court justice roger tawny s interpretation of the constitution. if human beings are property, lovejoy pointed out, why had the federal government declared the slave trade as piracy? the new york times made the speech the lead story called human beings not property. the speech became the basis of lovejoy s re-election campaign. on april 5th, 1860, lovejoy delivered his most controversial speech about slavery in congress. it resulted in a tumultuous fray on the house floor. he was barely finished with the first paragraph before a sou
okay, good okay, good morning. first of all, let me do a sound check. can i be heard? very good. well, welcome. good morning. i m don kennen, a vice president of the united states capitol historical society. and it s my pleasure to welcome you to today s lecture observing african-american history month. we are pleased to be joined by the illinois state society of washington, d.c. and the knox college alumni association of washington, d.c. in presenting today s lecture. i especially want to acknowledge and thank rod ross for all of his assistance in planning the event. and rod, are you there he is. thank you very much, rod. i want to invite everyone to attend our second african-american month lecture at noon on wednesday, february 15th, in room 121 of the cannon house office building. you can find further information about this and other upcoming events at the back table or by going online to the society s website at www.uschs.org. later this year, the u.s. capitol histo