Whether they believed it was the word of god. This talk was part of a symposium hosted by the museum of the bible in washington, d. C. It is 45 minutes. Our Third Session today is the bible and the American Revolution with james byrd. In this presentation based on his latest book, he shows that the bible was a key text of the American Revolution when war came to the colonies, preachers and patriots turned to the bible for solace and exhortations to fight. Such scripture helped soldiers. Conferred on those who died for the revolution and he gave americans a sense of the Divine Providence of their calls. In this session, dr. Byrd will examine specific biblical text and how they were used especially in making the patriotic calls for war. James byrd is chair of ft graduate department of religion and associate professor for religion at vanderbilt university. The latest book is sacred scripture, sacred war. Join me in welcoming dr. Byrd. [ applause ] well, thank you. Im pleased to be here. A
He earned his hd at Johns Hopkins. His phd at Johns Hopkins. He is known for his 2008 efforts tried by war, Abraham Lincoln as commanderinchief. His most recent book which we have in the back is the war that forged a nation. Why the civil war still matters. Today, we will be focusing on the battle cry of freedom. It was published in 1988. 900 pages long, 1500 footnotes but that did not scare away popular audiences. It sold more than 600,000 copies. A thousand . James about. Peter you must have a ton of twitter followers. Peter battle cry of freedom was also in the New York Times bestseller list for 16 weeks and hardback and 12 weeks and paper. I believe that outcry freedom stands as ecb will best volume on the civil war. Before we delve into the book, i thought that this would be an opportunity for us to address your most recent book. The war that forced a nation, why the war still matters. And because of the tragedy that occurred in charleston, i thought it would be a perfect opportun
Worked in the white house in his early 20s. He seemed destined for great things and then came back to kentucky and was indicted for stuffing the ballot box. He went to prison. The incredible promise flamed out. We also visit ashland. Senator and secretary of state henry clay. The mansion at ackland is a unique story. It fell into disrepair and had to be torn down. He rebuilt on the original foundation. What we have is what is essentially a fivepart federal style home with architectural elements that are italian and an added layer of aesthetic details added by henry clays granddaughter and greatgranddaughter. See all of our programs from lexington throughout the day. Historian James Mcphersons pulitzer prizewinning book was published in 1988. The 900page hardback was on the New York Times bestseller list for 16 weeks. Coming up next on American History tv, James Mcpherson in conversation with Gettysburg College Civil War Institute director peter carmichael. Professor mcpherson reflect o
Did the north conduct the war justly . And you are free to a lot of other work here. Harry wrote a book called upon the altar of nation. Dr. Mcpherson of the nation. Harry stout is a history of American Religion and he called his book a moral history of the civil war. He talked about the just war theory going back to saint augustine. And he talked about the way in which, there are two ways to address the question of a just war. One is the reason for going to war in the first place. He came up with the conclusion that the only legitimate reason the only just reason for going to war was selfdefense. A defensive war is a just war. And the other dimension of just war theory is the conduct of the war. He came out with the idea that the confederates were fighting a just war in the sense that they were defending themselves against invasion. My answer to that would be, who started the war . You could define the union motive for going to war as defensive. Defending the flag, defending the union
To basically sustained 13 families. He did this for a decade. When the sanctions on the regime were lifted. And 2003 he became an outspoken advocate of the proposed attack on iraq. As a nuclear engineer, he was incredibly wellsuited, very credible to argue that saddam had no active program, that the war was being sold based on an in litany of misinformation about a rack about iraqi weapons of mass to russian, arguing that removing saddam by foreign powers would spawn human suffering, basically warning of everything that would happen. As a result he attracted a lot of attention from the u. S. Government. Blue, 35out of the federal agents showed up at his home, armed, while his two teenage children were there, showing a search warrant for his home, spending the next nine hours in his house removing everything they could find. Passports, documents, photos, marriage license, heirlooms, huge documents. Beenich they have never returned to them. Only three years later did he learn the charge