I think he just took emeritus status which means he has more , time to write and more time to talk and more time to educate all of us, and i am honored that he has come here again. Hes come here a couple years ago and im honored hes back today. [applause] thank you. What im going to do here is give about 25 minutes. I hope without get more time for questions and answers, but were moving towards the end. Reconstruction stayed alive in the popular memory largely through its portrayal in popular media. And i want to look at the politics of the portrayal of Andrew Johnsons impeachment. And my primary works are going to be the novel the klansmen, the film tennessee johnson, and john f. Kennedys profiles encourage. My thesis is that although political factors inevitably influenced impeachment, on the under the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors should conviction should occur only if there is a transgression threatening the welfare of the republic. Most of you are familiar with this boo
Death. [applause] good morning. Let me see what it says here. My name is douglas wilson. [laughter] im the codirector of the lincoln study center at knox college. It is my privilege to introduce the first speaker in the 2015 Abraham Lincoln institute symposium. He is a young scholar who has already earned an array of honors. He was educated at penn state where he took his bachelors degree in 2001 and at the university of maryland where he earned a masters degree in 2003 and a phd in 2008. The department of history at maryland awarded him its eb an jean smith prize in political history. He won the prize in 2010. He is already the author of several books including two lincoln titles. Abraham lincoln entries and in the and treason in the civil war, and most recently, emancipation the union army and Abraham Lincoln. More than two dozen articles have appeared under his name in scholarly journals and Popular History magazines. In 2005, he won the john t. Hubble price for the best article in
Its my feeling that what happened in brazil, which is so encouraging about citizens taking their destiny in their own hands, is not happening here. We have unemployment and hunger and crumbling infrastructure and a tax system out of whack and a corrupt political system. Why are we not also taking to the streets is the question. And i want us to. You wrote if youre not outraged, youre not paying attention. So are we not paying attention . We are paying attention to the wrong things. We are paying attention to infotainment, which is being spoonfed to us and sadly, frankly, we are enabling because we love the stuff. The infotainment narrative of life in america, you call. Yes. The tragedy of journalism now is that it is demand driven. And when you ask people what they want, were like one of those rats that have a lever to push and cocaine comes out. And once that happens one time, theyll stay there till they die, until more of the drug appears. We cant help loving lurid stories and suspen
Why are we not also taking to the streets is the question. And i want us to. You wrote if youre not outraged, youre not paying attention. So are we not paying attention . We are paying attention to the wrong things. We are paying attention to infotainment, which is being spoonfed to us and sadly, frankly, we are enabling because we love the stuff. The infotainment narrative of life in america, you call. Yes. The tragedy of journalism now is that it is demand driven. And when you ask people what they want, were like one of those rats that have a lever to push and cocaine comes out. And once that happens one time, theyll stay there till they die, until more of the drug appears. We cant help loving lurid stories and suspense and the kind of sex and violence which the news is now made up of. But you go on beyond the infotainment story. You say, our spirits have been sickened by the toxins baked into our political system. Powerful sentence. Our spirits have been sickened by the toxins baked
Why are we not also taking to the streets is the question. And i want us to. You wrote if youre not outraged, youre not paying attention. So are we not paying attention . We are paying attention to the wrong things. We are paying attention to infotainment, which is being spoonfed to us and sadly, frankly, we are enabling because we love the stuff. The infotainment narrative of life in america, you call. Yes. The tragedy of journalism now is that it is demand driven. And when you ask people what they want, were like one of those rats that have a lever to push and cocaine comes out. And once that happens one time, theyll stay there till they die, until more of the drug appears. We cant help loving lurid stories and suspense and the kind of sex and violence which the news is now made up of. But you go on beyond the infotainment story. You say, our spirits have been sickened by the toxins baked into our political system. Powerful sentence. Our spirits have been sickened by the toxins baked