Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson

Description

From the National Constitution Center website:

"With the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states' rights views became the seventeenth president of the United States. In a surprising turn of events, Andrew Johnson was charged with the reconstruction of the defeated South, including the extension of civil rights and suffrage to African American Southerners. It quickly became clear that the president supported the enactment of 'black codes' and would block efforts to force Southern states to guarantee full equality for African Americans, igniting a fierce battle with congressional Republicans. Acclaimed author David O. Stewart returns to the Constitution Center to discuss the impeachment trial of President Johnson, which became the central battle of the struggle over how to reunite a nation after four years of war."

To listen to this lecture, scroll to "Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson," which is the June 26, 2009 post.

Clayborne Carson: The 2008 Election as History

Description

Professor and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Clayborne Carson, speaking at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, talks about his perceptions of the 2008 presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama, as a participant in the civil rights movement. He examines the place of race and ethnicity in the campaign and the civil rights views, events, and figures that led up to the present day and Obama's election.

Gil Troy: The 2008 Election as History

Description

Historian, blogger, and author Gil Troy, speaking at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, talks about his experiences as a historian blogging during the 2008 presidential election. He discusses his views on the role historians should play when contributing or responding to the media, providing studied, nonpredictive information and analysis, even in the face of demands for sound bites and snap judgments.

The Redemptive Imagination

Description

Donald L. Miller speaks with four fiction authors—Esmerelda Santiago, Arthur Golden, Charles Johnson, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.—about the challenge of finding narrative in history and the differences between an academic understanding of history and a novelist's understanding of history.

Contemporary History

Description

Donald L. Miller, along with a range of other historians and presenters, overviews contemporary U.S. history, from 1972 to 2000, briefly touching on the Cold War and its end, economic ups and downs, and the rise of AIDS and of personal computers. The presentation ends with a discussion on interpreting events as they happen, and on the difficulties of remembering history and engaging with the present in a media age.