Want to thank the commentators and everyone for assembling this deeply honor especially to be giving the William Roger lewis in the flesh. We were on the state Department Committee suffering through a lot of bows and arrows back in the decade prior, and i got to know him well and i feel really honored to give a lecture that is in his name. This book came about and so many of you, my friends, have heard this origin story. This came about because lewis liked the review i had done and mentioned the series that helen was doing that would use my biography to teach history that would pick biographical topics or would use a representative biography to get a broader subject of history. They had just published their first volume. It was on pocahontas. And issues regarding native American History, they were looking for somebody to do something on foreign relations, he offered me the opportunity to put together the perspectives. These were supposed to be short and concise books, that was the idea
That was a grand introduction. If you just want the major accomplishments of David Rice Atchison, thank you, it has been a lovely evening. [laughter] needless to say, his administration is a little less impressive than maybe truman or anyone else who was ever president. However, David Rice Atchison is someone you should know about. He was a significant player in the days leading up to the civil war and the term what we call bleeding kansas. He was one of the people who really began the push to get kansas as a state and he tried to direct it in a certain direction that he felt was beneficial for the union. Was he misguided . Very possibly. Was he successful . Absolutely not. And, but what is important was who this person was and why, unfortunately, he disappeared from everything. The library came up with the davidfor this program, rice atchison, president no one knows. Looking at that, i realized that long ago in another lifetime as a journalist, i wrote a column for the newspaper i wor
The aha is a membershipsupported organization, just a reminder. One has to say these things, anybody who watches Public Television or listens to public radio is ready for this. If you would like to become a member and support this type of content, membership links are located in the chat on zoom and in the comments on facebook live. I want to give an especially grateful thankful to History Channel for their generous sponsorship of this webinar. Lets get started. It is an honor to introduce todays panelists, Annette Gordonreed, professor of law and history at harvard university. And david blight, professor of history and director of the lehrman center for the study of slavery, abolition and resistance at yale university. The professors are Pulitzer Prize winning historians and they have won lots of other prizes as well. They have written and spoken frequently and insightfully on issues relating to monuments, history, memory and our nations continued failure to fully confront the implica
History tv, every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Americasreated by Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Next on American History tv, Nancy Thorndike greenspan talks about her book atomics by the dark lives of klaus fuchs. The Leon Levy Center for biography hosted this event and provided the video. She explains how she discovered klaus fuchs while researching her previous book. Lets go at it. I was asking you why klaus fuchs. I was interested in him when i was working on my previous book. Papers. Lot of family diaries during those late 1930s. He was always showing up in some piece of paper. Showing up as a very nice person. He took the children out to the movies. He played cards with them. He was in there he was in their music ensemble. People liked him. He was very quiet, very shy, but he was a nice person. All of a sudden, he was a spy, and they were dumbfounded. They did not know much about him when i was f
You are watching book tv on cspan 2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Book tv, television for serious readers. [applause] good morning. Im director of the center for learning, literacy and engagement at the library of congress. One of the major programs of this new center at the library is oversight of the National Book festival, whose overall theme this year is change makers. This is why im especially excited to introduce our new panel devoted to change makers. The focus of much of the programming at the library of congress this year. We are currently celebrating change makers at our Thomas Jefferson building, with an exhibition called shall not be denied, women fight for the vote, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment. And this december, we will mount an exhibit devoted to the life and influence of one of our great civil rights icons, rosa parks. I invite you to visit the library to see these exhibitions. You can also view our