wila a have we read some books uggesting reconstruction was a battle? such as? zudzook. eric phoner . what is being attempted to be reconstructed? if you are talking from southerners. phoner's perspective. >> free labor. >> a free labor society in an image of what they concieve the north to be. tooething is going to have be rebuilt. >> social constructs., and rights. of land >> economically. plantation. of the about freedmen? eventually. is that a battle ground? a social and cultural battle ground. these are highly controversial. ground.rolina battle battle over? the whites trying to maintain control and the system before the war. t what was.uc it, economicses recontruction of power, defiance. is south carolina a literal battleground? war.tinuation of the >> just fought with different means. >> the confederact is a means to an end. the topl control from down. describe these means? >> violence. violence?ional >> like a guerilla war. begins immediately when the conventional war ends and doesn't stop. "battleground." rt is a state of struggle foer these things. what is a bloodfield? battleground is where the battle was fought and a bloodfield would be where you feel the effects. >> how a war fought an effect. aspect.is one do you like that answer? >> i agree. and the idea of a bloodfield leaving actual blood on a field, the image, it's talking about what was left in the wake of war and what was at stake. >> did you look that up? >> nope. word, a proposed word defined asyce, who uoyou did. >> we are also talking about the aftermath of the war, which gets different reconstructions. southerners do to prepare? >> creating a myth. >> a sort of story. of society, this lost cause myth. elements.ythic remember >> what are they reconstructing? their culture. >> their culture, as they see it. so, why did they lose the war? according to the story that is being crafted? why did the confederacy lose? >> overwhelming forces. >> overwhelming forces, overwhelming numbers, did not have a chance. it's a plantation ideal. where -- radise now you are thinking, oh my goodness, this goes from the 1880's and it is still alive and relevant. in some places, it is still taught. whyh is one of the reasons we are inherent talking about this kind of stuff, because it helps us with a history of that story and where it goes. technologyause meant builds something that was pure and ideal, and that they never could have one, and buffer principles and not interest us. ladies were ladies, angina men were jenna men, and what about slaves? >> paternalism reemerges. happy to be slaves almost. certainly, not the kind of behavior that we are getting ready to talk about for this book. that they are happy in it. that they are happy and slavery. all that is being built at the same time, write? the mythology might have happened anyway. after some of the events of reconstruction. this is how modern nations, or modern hopeful nations have coped in similar ways, which was the point of that book. that brings us to why we are here. talk is to continue to about a fourth book, which is mary chestnut's civil war epic. the twolso discussing books, because this book the mary chestnut book is about -- it is a much larger book, about her diary, her published diary. we -- that is what brings us here. what is mary chestnut reconstructing in this diary? >> for culture. >> for culture? a way to define her southern believe. >> why does stern say she is writing a epic? she believes that her culture is -- >> is a certain form that the story takes. it reaches to the same questions about identity. about defining a people. the characteristics of a people. also representative. it becomes central to the definition of a people. side ofattleground reconstruction, or is she on the blood field? very much and aftermath book, right? we say that about what we have read, but also about what we know about how it was proposed. do remember how it was composed? >> during the 1880's, mary chestnut said that she would write what she remembered. so this is not an actual diary of her wartime experience? >> it was not composed until decades later. host: it is two decades later that she goes back to a wartime journal, a series of wartime journals that she kept, but are very kind of skeletal and what they record. she goes back and she starts re-working these entries. sense, it is both a reconstruction of a wartime journal, some of which were burned, as you mentioned. it is something else. she is not trying to create something that has improved the daily experience or the daily lives of the confederacy. it has a literary ambition, not meant to be a simple recording of "this is what happened on this date." it is meant to do something else. it is meant to eventually be published, though it is not published in her lifetime. but it was published by her 1905.ry executor in what we are going to do here, as withe going to work probably the most famous chapter in this diary. to see if we can tease out some of the diary's themes and also see if we can tease out the questions that we are investigating today. we are looking for the relationship of this diary to the aftermath of the war. theis working on this in especially,1880's so what she is really doing is writing in the shadow of reconstruction, not writing in the shadow of the civil war. she is writing about a society that has changed fundamentally from what it once was. have been talking about a slave-based society. what kind of society is it now in the 1880's? is a biracial? but, what isl, missing? >> slavery. host: slavery is missing. if it still agricultural? is it rural? >> yes. host: what is missing? >> plantations. host: a large-scale agricultural unit exists, but plantations are much more than that. it's a lot more than the economic resources, it is primarily an economic -- it is agricultural and rural, but the plantation society looks like it has passed. it is biracial, but slavery has passed. if the democratic? not really. host: you say not really, and you say more so. so -- someone must be right. >> they are both kind of right. host: oh, they are both kind of right. it's like coaching a little league team, here is the trophy. >> i'll take it. host: ok. we will play with that. they are both kind of right. why do you say that? >> i don't remember what i said. why it wased democratic and you cannot really say much. >> the point where their truck to control the ballot? >> they're doing it in different ways. women cannot vote. free slaves are being pushed to the margins. >> well you have more federal .nvestigation even if they have to pull out things are kind of going south. [laughter] >> it was already going south in the 1880's. you have carpetbagger and it's a different atmosphere. >> you have all of those things in reconstruction. and you have the desire to turn the south into a more democratic society. what about by the 1880's? what is changing? >> the historic rise. >> the emergence of this. it's not as democratic as we tend to think from our perspective. but this is south carolina. carolina has a distinct past. it is sort of the ground zero of reconstruction. it has to work is south carolina. is the aristocracy of south carolina still what it once was? important to the chestnut class. .hivalry is this still shivery? whatever else we might say about , the town ofons politics has changed. the example of what a south carolinians was is shifting. >> and her entire lifestyle has been demonized. the whole nation, yes. the entire nation changes. has changed. >> was and it kind of romanticized more than demonized? they were talking about the novels written in all of this old southern class. i guess it was shifting but there is still the thought of the southern ideal. >> what do you think of that? >> i think it could be true but i think that idea mainly exists in the south itself, not necessarily other parts of the country at the time. >> they were entertained by the laissez-faire and enjoyed the prospects of that luxury but didn't agree unless they had it. >> that is one of the things the lost cause is morphing into. the whole country mythologized the south. politicization -- ation andz demonization are occurring at the same time and for ugly similar reasons. -- always similar reasons. the plantation as a society where the tone of the politics with obvious limitations is more carolinac than south had ever fully experience. that is again being fought over. >> is not as strong as it was. on the plantations fell, this idea of this great paternal figure that was in charge of his family and slaves was gone but it was still there. plymouth still didn't have rights that men had. >> it's still there but it's -- women still didn't have rights that men had. >> it is kind of replaced by a very different kind of approach toward african-americans. a far more aggressive what's armistice -- white supremacist inwpoint begins to take hold the 1890's and any other decade in american history. you see the ideological justification changes as society changes. this diary is written, reconstructed while those things are going on. it is part of that environment. >> let's see what happens if we read some excerpts and see we can get to exploring what mary and what wesaying have been taught about how to approach of the book. she gives us an approach to the book. let's see if we can come out with some ways by which we think about the book and how those themes may be tied to not just her experience in the civil war but what she's experiencing toward the end of her life. that the weatherspoon is a slave -- betsy weatherspoon is a slave mistress. before betsy weatherspoon? and when does it happen? she is strangled by her slaves in her bed. the slaves tried to frame her dentist. strangled by four of them. quite disturbing. this happens when? do we remember? early in the war, late in the war? 1861. nobody knows who will win or lose the war but it seems like the slaves had been awakened or could be. you -- why don't you start. how does he set this up? introduction are always judging. september 9, the opening scene of this chapter. >> at wilmington, met george. family,e with the moses a mother and son and a wounded soldier they were taking care of. the patriarch moses said he had lost 8000 men on the 21st of july. patriarch moses had crossed eyes. he looked both ways, seeing things into points of view at once. came home with a fever. absolutely in shame and disgust. woman what frantic i've seen somewhere, the most unhappy people are the people who have bad dots. >> so she comes -- bad thoughts. >> she comes home, she is sick. she has a fever. she is confined to her bed and dots.ith a bad -- thoughts. what kind of bad thoughts are possible in october 1861? >> not a good start in the war. >> it seems to start off ok but there are lot of people complaining we have not followed up but it's possible to think not going so well. what else? loyalty of slaves. >> is that possible to conceive of? we see that more after the murder. professor anderson: south carolina is populated by a black majority, and this is true in the low country, where we know there are movements afoot, federal invasions. what other bad thoughts? what are possible bad thoughts in 1861? just seeing both sides of the coin. gentility --is that a word? the hypocrisy in it. professor anderson: don't you love the way she uses the , always possible to see both sides of the question. moses becomes a reconstruction era governor. deliberate that might have been. she is in her bed. been helpless? who in here is a bad patient, besides me? i can't stand to be sick, to have people taking care of me. you get frustrated. no? good patient? morgan says no. i'm happy to be taken care of. [laughter] professor anderson: what else might you think? we might be surrounded by enemies -- student: death taking so many young people away from the home front? she mightanderson: die. that is how bad this is. she has got to be thinking about death. what does that conversation turn on? how many are lost? how many are killed and wounded? she is coming back from seeing the front, being at the front, being in richmond. she has experienced death that most of the people she is going to be around have not yet. student: many weren't even dying in battle, just dying. professor anderson: right, not the glorious shot in the chest and go out, just nasty stuff, disease, dysentery, diarrhea, fever. stuff you would prefer not to have on your death certificate. you want to go out a little bit more -- especially coming from chivalry -- you want to go out higher than that. any other bad thoughts? these are southerners, right? are they supposed to be thinking bad thoughts? tried in battle in a romantic era? confederacyt the could not stand -- prof anderson: are we strong enough? are we strong enough? not just are we strong enough, but littered throughout this chapter are references to fathers, the revolutionary fathers. ,hat scene with squire mcdonald dissented from jasper mcdonald, all that kind of stuff. founders ofy to be a nation of our own? that is a powerful, powerful it inif he think about the context of 19th-century romantic nationalism. thetill, to this day, founding fathers are enjoying a rebirth right now. they still cast a shadow. people somehow feel inadequate against -- imagine creating a nation that you say is the true america, the true vision of america, how much more significant that feeling might be? what does she do after it? she introduces it, she talks about crossed eyes, seeing things both ways. she is setting us up here. she is setting us up for uncertainty. go?e did she what do she end up talking about? from their forward? [indiscernible] prof anderson: people who visit her, images of those people. student: she goes into the commodores account, facing the charivari so gallantly -- prof anderson: yes, yes. seems that move along but she eventually ends up -- she doesn't begin by talking about the death of mary wurster, whichi find interesting, is clearly the most significant event -- i keep saying meriwether spoon, it is betsy weatherspoon. like betsy. she begins just like her. creating a sort of image around it. we finally get there -- we don't get there until september 9. this is 20 years later. chestnut knows very well how all of this proceeds. we have to think that what she is doing as a deliberate re-creation or reconstruction. we hear you -- where do about this? what you read that? september 19. we go a few pages in a diary, it 10 days of so-called core logical time. student: a small war and the ladies in society, president sue , time in full blast. at first there were nearly 100 members, 80-90 always present at a meeting, now 10-20 are all that they can show. the worst is they have forgotten the hospitals where they really could do so much good and gone off to provision and clothes the army, a job in the pocket or ocean. a painful piece of news came to us yesterday, our cousin of society hill found dead. she was quite well the night before. killed by family troubles, contentions, wrangling, among those nearest and dearest to her. she was a proud and high strong woman, nothing shabby in word, thought, or deed. of a warm and tender heart, too. truth and of brightness it self. few persons have ever been more loved and looked up to, a handsome old lady, i find presence, dignified and commanding, killed by family troubles. if so, it is a third of the family that same has been said of, so they said when john williams died, so uncle john said yesterday. takes fancy shots of the most eccentric kind near home. prof anderson: that goes to the point we just talked about. death is coming everywhere. there is a separation between home front and battlefront -- it doesn't really exist. killed by family troubles. don't you just love that? killed my family troubles. what is the allusion she is creating? don't we know how betsy weatherspoon dies? do we know that her slave strangled her? doesn't she know that? student: but she didn't know that on september 19. prof anderson: right. student: it creates suspense. prof anderson: we have to think that family troubles is meant to do something else. that we are supposed to think a family troubles not as descriptive, but as a commentary. or a motif. what introduces that? what is the ladies society about ? this is just a volunteer organization of ladies -- of ladies -- this is a status distinction -- and ladies who are supposed to be helping out with the war effort, alleviating suffering and what has happened already? we are only in september 1861. what has happened? student: people are deserting. prof. anderson: people are deserting, which i think is an interesting word. student: they are complaining about -- prof. anderson: they are complaining. student: they are not being helpful where they could be. prof. anderson: they are being selfish. secession. don't you love how she links the political atmosphere with the home atmosphere, and they forgot, right? people worthy of the cause? student: no. prof. anderson: was that your answer or mary's answer? both. she has been pulling it out. they are not being true to the cause, they are not true patriots. student: she is also saying forgotten, as in not actually true. i think when she is saying forgotten, it's like they don't want to see the destruction and death so they can still live in their fantasy. prof. anderson: blissful ignorance, better not to know. it is better not to know of the suffering, but it also might be better not to have to confront it. because then you have to confront your commitment to this thing. me,ent: it seems bizarre to though, that death by family troubles is more ok then death from your slaves? student: what could she doing -- it might be a play on paternal, could represent that. slaves would have been considered under paternalism part of the family. prof. anderson: so you are saying she is using it ironically? student: yes. prof. anderson: death by family. because paternalism -- the ideology of paternalism says that slaves are members of the family, it is like killed by family troubles, wink wink. that is possible. certainly, the metaphor, the image of family that is supposed to define these various features of southern society. it is supposed to define the political confederacy. it is supposed to define the plantation environment. who livethe whites there, but their so-called slaves. it is a very gripping kind of all-inclusive -- instead of having unity, we are starting to themselves orert at least desert the family. but again, she knows what is coming. that -- itthink that is both a literary device but also a commentary of sorts. might we make the argument that it is a metaphor? that it is a trope? based on what follows? it comes up again. that is a good indicator. but how does she build behind that? do we then find out what really happens to betsy? no. and talk about what instead? student: her own family, and the perkins. prof. anderson: how does she describe her own family? or lack thereof? -- o t: i guess, as unstable might not be the right word -- but how she talks about her mother-in-law. she speaks well of her but she doesn't respect her. same with her father-in-law, kind of. it is all just built on shallow ground, i guess. prof. anderson: it is a weird relationship because there is respect but it is also like she says very early -- we didn't --d this part of the diary she is almost able to separate herself out. there are problems in this. as there are problems and everything. there is respect and there, but also resentment. one of the big resentments is that the patriarch, james chestnut, is still the master. the chestnuts, james chestnut junior and mary still kind of live under that domain. makes this turnaround two days later by talking about her mother-in-law, and i'm going to ask jenny to read this one. are you come to a reading this one? later.8, 2 days she is trying to illustrate where this comes from, or this family trouble. student: last night when the mail came, i was seated near the land. mr. chestnut had a little distance call that to me -- look at my letters and tell me about them. i read them out loud. it was from meriwether spoon. i broke down. homer and amazement was too much for me. poor betsy was murdered. she did not bite easily in her bed, murdered by her own people, her negroes. i remember when dr. kitt was murdered by his negroes. very awkward, indeed. t alwayses kit complaining about the institution. how now? her household negroes were so insubordinate that she lived alone at home, she knew that none of her children would've had the patience she had with these people who had been so indulged by her until they were like spoiled children, simply intolerable. mr. chess on a date and williams -- prof. anderson: there we go, we finally get to the truth. and the truth is, she is murdered. very awkward, indeed. [laughter] don't you just love the way she reports? very awkward, indeed. what is she calling into question by inserting this story? kitt isy of how dr. killed by his slaves, and we later figure out in florida. being called into question here by that? by that coupling of the death of betsy witherspoon and the story of dr. kitt? or the fragments of the story? what is being called it a question? student: i think she is questioning the way the system of paternalism is functioning at this point because we take the position -- the slaves were part of the family and now they are murdering parts of their own family, it is falling apart. it is failing. prof. anderson: it is failing. it is not just that these slaves are a threat, it is that the whole notion of paternalism doesn't seem to stand up. beneficent when you are being murdered in your bed, either dr. kitt or betsy witherspoon. she then talks about -- and she goes in an entirely different -- are you ever going to tell us? it's like you are in third grade, tell me a story. story time. be like my wife. she reads the end of every book first to determine whether she wants to read the story. is anybody else do this? because i consider it very odd, very awkward, indeed. a book, read it back, then decide. student: what if it is a bad ending? [laughter] prof. anderson: you are already thinking bad thoughts. student: if somebody hasn't died by the end, i don't read it. [laughter] prof. anderson: how very "deli veryce" of you, how southern gothic of you. you do that? i know you do. so, instead of telling us -- the whole chronology that she established is in some ways a device. it allows her to keep this level of suspense going. her husband goes off to investigate what happens. so we don't know. we don't know immediately the details of what has happened to betsy witherspoon. so she takes that interferes off ?o an entire -- what comes next we don't hear about betsy witherspoon later. student: she talks about the perkins family. prof. anderson: the story of a mother and daughter -- a young lady -- in the mother will let her out of the house. student: or anybody in. prof. anderson: and then what did she talk about? student: the mother-in-law. prof. anderson: her mother-in-law. it is always dangerous to talk about your in-laws. let's just establish that right now, that it is one thing to have a conversation in the corner about them, that when it is in print. [laughter] this is mary chestnut. this is the woman with whom she has a very interesting relationship, because there is respect. but there is also detachment. portray her mother-in-law? opposites. never thinking bad thoughts. the happiest people the ones that never think that thoughts. what gives her that optimism? ignorance.r blissful prof. anderson: her blissful ignorance. which she describes -- how does mary describe her mother-in-law's determined, almost aggressive, blissful ignorance? student: she has created a bubble for herself. she does nothing but read all day. that sounds kind of nice, actually. prof. anderson: a highly intelligent person. always has the latest novels, always has the latest periodicals from europe. despite a blockade -- she always manages to get the good stuff. in genteel --self basically sticks her head in. what is she refusing to acknowledge? student: changes that are happening in society. prof. anderson: the hypocrisy she lives with every day? she had mentioned something about this hypocrisy earlier, but generally speaking, she is an optimist. we come to this middle portion of betsy's story where we have a person refusing to have a bad thought. knows exactlyhe -- prof. anderson: oh, she's not line, she just -- student: she is the cleverest woman i know. student: she pits mary up against perkins, and ms. perkins can see everything and does have bad thoughts, but the mother-in-law doesn't have bad thoughts, but they both do it to protect each other. prof. anderson: what is better, right? this is a question we always think, blissful ignorance or doubt? that is what is turned to creep in here, right? that is what is -- that is what she is building toward. they were sure that betsy witherspoon died a family troubles. the longer this thing goes on, the more this confrontation, this collision between blissful ignorance and doubt is -- that is what she is developing. those bad thoughts we started with? now look more possible after the death of -- student: even those of blissful ignorance are not safe. prof. anderson: good. student: you can be happy until you get strangled by your slaves. prof. anderson: you can be happy and not fearful, but that doesn't make you alive. that is a possibility. you want to say something... when you go to the chin, that is like a very academic thing to do. the mind is working. student: she starts to reference .he blockade around them prof. anderson: now you start to see these other themes layered on. everybody knows that if the federal troops land in south carolina low country, what might result in that slave population. chapter,lways in this though? rarely directly referenced? --dent: prof. anderson: the fear of slave rebellion. how about the actual experience? has canada had an incident like 1860, what is the connection she establishes? father-in-law's slave who revealed -- who ratted out -- even today, it makes you mad -- it was reported in a state legislator, even though he continued to live on chestnut land. some of the best parts of this book or when she is recovering these connections. very chestnut knows that surely as she knows the outcome of what she describes. possible that bad thoughts are not just in your head -- they might be real. they might be real. until eventually, she wheels down to october 11. page 213. all of these things -- we still, you know -- in the meantime, we find no it happens to betsy witherspoon by the time we get ande get that she strangled it is just horrible beyond words. very awkward, indeed. the campo.ets to still on the plantation, right? .he actually goes to worship we have had a slave insurrection , or fears of a slave rebellion, slaves hanging for this, and yet, she goes and includes this scene. go ahead. [in a southern accent] with his eyes shut, he clapped his hands at the end of every sentence, his voice rose to a pitch of a shrill shriek. still, his voice was strangely wrong outetimes it like a trumpet. there was literally nothing in what he said. the negro suede backward and -- --yed backward and forward yes, my god, jesus and savior, blessed lord, amen. much like to shout to jim nelson when he wrote from his knees, trembled and shook as if with policy, and from his eyes we could see and t ecstasy. prof. anderson: not as good as yours. [laughter] i am glad that there was some consultation. you do have the voice. we learn all these bad things, and all of these instabilities and quarrels and murder, and she in thisds up environment. why do you think that is there? to show the fleeting quality of everything that is being fought over, just like how she got swept up in the moment, and she realizes that this is fleeting and maybe she can apply it to the whole grander scheme of things. prof. anderson: she could not understand the words he was saying. she frames that as, they don't mean anything. but she does -- something happens. none of this leaves a trace behind. she also means -- she can't remember what the words really are. effect,re saying, in that it is an illustration of fleet? house so? student: everything that they are doing has no leave except for in relation to the idea of a blood feud, that they would be no blood shed in this case? prof. anderson: who is your "they?" student: the confederacy as a whole, the events that are occurring within southern culture. prof. anderson: everything is in doubt. every institution you held sacred, every believe you had sigurd, the future of the nation, the on you thought you had with your fellow rights -- all of it -- all of these are family troubles. student: the chivalrous husband. who apparently is not doubting? student: the slaves. prof. anderson: it would appear, but what are they not doubting? they are not doubting that things are not going to get worse. prof. anderson: they have a belief in something. what that is, she can't quite figure out because the words -- they have believe. student: it sounds religious. prof. anderson: it is very religious. what do you mean? student: they have a belief in like a higher power, which i so,d assume she would too, that she is -- she doesn't understand what he is saying seems a little weird given that yes, my god, jesus, savior." student: it is not articulated well. prof. anderson: it is not articulated in a way that she can process. student: but she still feels it. prof. anderson: she feels it, right. let me ask you a question, perfectly attuned to the college-age junior or senior. because that world is out there. what is belief? she goes on to tell this story later -- what is belief? is it truth? student: it is thinking that something is truth. student: it is your own truth. student: it doesn't have to actually be true. prof. anderson: it doesn't have to be true. student: but you trust and hope that it is true. prof. anderson: when you say think -- student: well, i can't say believe. [laughter] prof. anderson: i'm not saying it is a syntactical quandary by not defining the term by a term -- i got that, but, you said think. what does mary chestnut come right up against? student: logic? prof. anderson: she wants to think about what she thinks. student: but the slaves are not thinking, they are just feeling. prof. anderson: there you go. belief is something you give your heart to. that is why i jumped when you said it sounds religious, because belief is something you give your heart to, whether it is factually true or whether you wish it to be true. student: so because mary chestnut has these doubts and she can't believe, that is why the whole service of the church doesn't make sense to her. prof. anderson: she is aware of it, she includes it because she is aware of these things. let's pull out of all of this and see if we can't come -- if we have talked about the lost as a creation myth. is this excerpt, is this lost cause-ish? it doesn't seem so, right? it is almost counter to a lost cause. in what way? student: the ways in which she portray's the society and critiques the society in general. off. anderson: very critical -- not necessarily -- does she want the confederacy to win? yeah. is she a loyal carolinian? you say that word in south carolina -- she could be in trouble -- the words are always shifting. is she more loyal than some of the people she talks about? student: yeah, but she hasn't given her heart to a completely. she can see where the problems are. prof. anderson: why can't she give her heart to it? student: doubt. prof. anderson: she has doubts, she is willing to expose those doubts. what hurts her take enemy? harriet beecher so, uncle tom's cabin. because it is sentimental. the appeal to the emotions and not the head. is what sheat ultimately finds wrong in the confederacy itself. that it was an appeal to the maybe, i don't know, there is certainly room for that interpretation. this clearly is not a lost cause and story. this is a story that challenges as it iscause, even it emerging. these are happening at the same time, which tells us that by 1920, the lost cause is the fixed narrative. this is never published in the way she intended. it is published after she dies, a much shorter version. do remember all of this? student: this chapter was not in it. prof. anderson: now you should be able to see wide. this chapter or seen, the witherspoon murder, is nowhere to be found. in 1905 --instead can you imagine if it was possible to roll over in your grave? [laughter] is her literary executive. with friends like that, right? us away, giving -- thinking about -- gives us -- gives us a way to think about how -- what is a possible alternative to a lost cause nation? but then it also gives you an idea of how strong that lost cause mentality was. 1981 and thatl this diary is published to the form in which it was intended. if we ares that, going to think about reconstruction, it is those things that are struggled over. just power,ver not but the story becoming powerful in itself. who is in control? who was going to write it? story,can tell a good can't you create truth? leave no doubt? yeah. yeah. we will end on that. see you guys on monday. announcer: join us each saturday at 8:00 and midnight eastern for classroom lectures from across the country on different topics and eras of american history. lectures are also available as podcasts. visit our website. each week, american history tv's reel america brings you archival films to provide context to today's public affairs issues. >> tell us what the situation is right now. >> there is one continuous blow. she is blowing and shaking. >> at 11:46, power fails and the .ind gauge blows off the roof trees are knocking out telephone lines. by midnight, betsy is overwhelming the city, gusting at 150 miles per hour. church bells are tolling wildly in the wind. ringing] that rouge is next in line. -- baton rouge is next in line. >> wind near 100 miles per hour. >> governor john mckeithen and his staff and civil defense director marshall lapel are working with red cross and salvation army. the welfare groups and national guard. emergency calls are pouring in from all over the state, including one from national guard headquarters in new orleans. >> baton rouge? flooding now at jackson barracks. is bringing in danger from unexpected quarters. wind is pushing a wall of water, the greatest title search in louisiana history, sweeping over the delta, plaquemines parish, topping the highest levees, roaring across the canal into the southeast section of new orleans. nobody knows the full size of the disaster yet. and betsy's wake, there is only darkness and confusion and death. daybreak, and devastation. the church bells are quiet now. wind has done their worst, the title search has come. >> the fidelity list is as follows -- the fatality list is as follows. she was swept away by flood waters -- >> people being pulled off -- off of for -- off of roofs. >> [indiscernible] he screams, get out, the levy broke. >> it was flooded to the second floor. the water was coming that hide. refugees who,000 swamped overcrowded shelters. with live coverage of the u.s. house on c-span and the senate on c-span2, on c-span3, we complement that coverage by showing you the most relevant hearings and events. on weekends, c-span3 is home to american history tv, programs that tell our nation's story. the civil war's 150th ,nniversary, american artifacts history bookshelf, the history,y, lectures in and our new series, reel america. , created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. , a ceremonyext commemorating the establishment , 220e u.s. coast guard five years ago with the urging of alexander hamilton. the ceremony includes washington and hamilton reenactors, a performance and a of the coast guard marching song. the alexander hamilton awareness society hosted this event.