garfield is one of the most intelligent presidents we have ever had. he is up there in the top half dozen and when we go through his life, by the end of the middle of it, and you re going to say no, that can t be. he can t be that good in that field. it s just not possible, and then we ll find something else, and you re going to no. he is just incredibly bright, and the hope for his presidency was enormous, and we re going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. i was chatting with a friend before, and he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. i don t know how you test something like that, and it s not as if you give presidents iq tests. it s a lot easier with things that are easy to measure, tall ask short. we all know that madison was our shortest president, lincoln was our tallest president because that s easy. i don t know how you know who the most intelligent. certainly the two adams , jefferson, madison and lincoln garfield is right up there.
this is a film about storytelling, about how we tell the story of our country s past. why do we want to believe one version and not another? maybe because it makes us feel safe at night. there s one episode of america s history that is told very differently, depending on who you are and where you live. it is the story of our civil war and what came after. the hot winds of war blew across the land, made of it a country divided. friend turned into foe, brother fought against brother. it was such a long and drawn out struggle and the feeling on both sides was so intense. we re all just romantics lost in contemporary time, you might say. every one of us feels like we were born 125 years too late. to introduce myself, my name is rachel boynton. this is nelson walker. we are in pen accident documentary filmmakers. we made a film about the civil war. we re going to places with a deep connection to this history. there s a lot more coming. what made you choose the civil war
one that i find the most absolutely fascinating and interesting is the one we re going to discuss tonight. james garfield. for quite a number of reasons. first of all, garfield is one of the most intelligent presidents we have ever had. i mean he is up there in the top half dozen, and when we go through his life by the end of it or the middle of it, you re going to start laughing because you re just going to say no, that can t be. he can t be that good in that field. it s just not possible. and then we ll find something else, and you re going to say no. he is just incredibly bright, and the hope for his presidency was enormous. and so we re going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. i was chatting with a friend before, and he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. i don t know how you test something like that. i mean, it s not as if you give presidents iq tests. it s a lot easier with things that are easy to measure. tall and short i mean, we all
robert: of all the founding fathers, thomas jefferson was the most controversial and confounding. loved and hated, revealed and reviled during his lifetime, he served as a lightning rod for dispute. even today, he serves as a lightning rod or dispute. few major figures in american history promote such a polarization of public opinion. supporters that organize festivals in his honor, they praised him in speeches and song. his detractors portrayed him as a dilettante and a demagogue. double-faced and dangerously radical. an atheist, hostile to christianity. characterizing his believes as un-american, they target with the extremism of the french revolution. allies call him the formerly anonymous author of the declaration of independence. image took shape because of his own creation. and because of factors out of his control. america positives about viewsson reflected their of america. robert s mcdonald is a professor of history at the united states military academy where he has
history promote such a polarization of public opinion. well he has supporters that organize festivals in his honor, they praised him in speeches and song. his detractors portrayed him as a dilettante and a demagogue. double-faced and dangerously radical. an atheist, hostile to christianity. characterizing his believes as un-american, they target with the extremism of the french revolution. his allies call him the formerly anonymous author of the declaration of independence. his bifurcated image took shape because of his own creation. and because of factors out of his control. america positives about jefferson reflected their views of america. robert s mcdonald is a professor of history at the united states military academy where he has taught since 1998. he is a graduate of the university of virginia and the university of north carolina at chapel hill where he earned his phd. a special on thomas jefferson and the early republic, he has published several journals and other ess