Congress, Politics, Books
and American History

C-SPAN visits the Secret Service headquarters for an exclusive tour of the Secret Service museum which is typically closed to the public.

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Yale history professor Joanne Freeman and University of Chicago political science professor William Howell are interviewed about acts of violence in the U.S. Congress leading up to the Civil War, and congressional checks on war powers in the modern era. Professor Freeman is working on a book titled "Field of Blood: Congressional Violence in Antebellum America." Professor Howell has written about congressional checks on presidential war powers. The interview was recorded at the Organization of American Historians meeting in Milwaukee.

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On May 14, 1607, 104 English settlers landed on Jamestown island, Virginia to establish a colony for the Virginia Company.  Thought to be lost to history forever under the James River, the original fort was rediscovered in 1994 by archaeologist William Kelso.  In this program, we join Mr. Kelso for an “In the Trenches” tour as he explains how he unearthed the original fort. And we visit Bly Straube in the archaeology lab where more than 1.5 million artifacts are studied to help reveal what life was like inside Jamestown fort over 400 years ago.

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The history of the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans is told at the Gilmore Cabin on the grounds of James Madison's Montpelier in Virginia.  Born a slave for President Madison in 1810, George Gilmore and his wife Polly raised five children on a small sharecropper farm after emancipation.  Built by George Gilmore and his sons, the cabin is one of only a few existing freedman's homes left standing in the United States.

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Chief Historian of the National Park Service Robert Sutton discusses how his organization is telling history in new ways by including more information about civilians and non-military events.

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 After a year of conservation treatments, the National Archives is returning a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta to public display. One of only four originals from 1297, the document is owned by Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein but is on permanent loan to the archives. Partnering with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the archives designed a custom case to protect the fragile document.  In this event, the new encasement is unveiled and details of the project are discussed.

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Charles Colson – who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon –  died on Saturday at the age of 80. In 2007 and 2008, he sat down with Timothy Naftali of the Nixon Presidential Library for two extended oral history interviews.

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