president? arthur called me on the phone and said you re in tennessee and james k. polk is a tennesseen. and he said i want you to do one thing. he said allen evans has done a paper back that excerpts his diary, his presidential diary. just take a weekend and read it and tell me no. and i read the excerpts from the diary and i could say no. i was fascinated about the man. did you know much about him before this? i knew his grave was behind the capitol. there is no marker in nashville except a plaque on the side of a dirty motel wall. his old home place in columbia is preserved and i ve been there many times and i ve been there since. but i knew virtually nothing about him and almost nothing that was good. result of what was done to him during his presidency over the mexican-american war left him a bad reputation. a reputation as a warmonger, and the attacks on him in congress in the latter days of his administration reminded me a great deal of the attacks on linden john
historians. mr. poke ranked 14th in c-span s story of presidential leadership. john seeingigenthaler, autho james k. polk. how did they talk you into doing a biography of this president? he called me and said you re a tennessean, james polk was a tennessean. why don t you write a biography for the series on the presidents. i said, arthur, i don t have time. i m retired. he said i want you to do one thing. he said allen evans has done a paper back that excerpts his diary, his presidential diary. just take the weekend to read it and tell me no. i read the excerpts from the diary and i couldn t say no. i was fascinated by the man. did you know much about him before you started this? i knew he was a tennessean, i m a tennessean. i knew that his grave is behind the capitol. there is no marker in nashville except a plaque on the side of a dirty motel wall. his old home place in columbia is preserved, and i ve been there many times and have been there since. but i knew vir
the president and ceo of the united states capitol historical society. i just took this job in february, so this is my new adventure. but this organization has been around for more than 50 years, and we are delighted to have you all join us for a celebration of the distinguished history of the senate finance committee. we begin the program tonight with the presentation of colors by the united states capitol police ceremonial unit and the pledge of allegiance. please rise. forward march. march. right shoulder. now please join in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you very much. you may be seated. our celebration this evening is possible because we have generous support from the bank of america, from grant thornton, from allergen, from the national retail federation, from the association of global automak
points of three remarkably insightful writers authors and scholars. professor virginia sharps and stephen woodworth. we are going to start with virginia, we are going to ask her to connect some of the things we are introducing, we introduced it yesterday and we will explore it more and highlight subsequent conversations throughout the morning and weekend ahead. the theme of this session was particularly focused on the pressures that built, and the mistakes that enlarged expansion following the louisiana purchase in the early 19th century, and the role of american-statesman, and pockets of pressure and state building. so virginia, what do you think when you hear these themes and particularly these phrase that horsemen go west young man. a couple of things, my work has mostly been on what ned might have called the on intelligibility of the out spans of the past meaning that all of the things that have either been ignored or suppressed or erased or obscured, and how do we look
her, but a brilliant woman. she got killed in a fluke auto accident in new orleans when the whole city blacked out. so her parents created a memorial lecture for her at a private school there. in metairie, louisiana, what they do is get guest speakers, two a year they pay for. and i did rosa parks biography, so they had me give a lecture on rosa parks. and ann was my chaperon. she took me around the school and introduced me to students, we had a dinner in my honor because they do for the speaker and all that. ask we started dating, and she was a graduate of tulane. and i was just getting ready to start teaching at tulane moing there. and ended up living together on jefferson aef across from the gnuman school where people like i think michael lewis and walter isaacson. nick went to country day. but any rate, with respect living there. i can walk to my office at tulane. i would run in audubon park at the zoo. and with respect very happy there. and katrina hit and i wrote about