Congress, Politics, Books
and American History

C-SPAN visited the Old Guard Leather Shop at Ft. Myer in Arlington, Virginia to learn about work on presidential and military horse-drawn funeral caissons, which are prepared according to century-old traditions. We spoke to Eugene Burks, who has worked at the 3rd U.S. Army Infantry Regiment Leather Shop as a saddlemaker since 1981.

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C-SPAN visited the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to learn about the craft of engraving and the process of creating currency. We spoke to James Brent, Chief of the Office of Engraving, Plate Printer Joseph Bongiorno, Letter and Script Engraver Gary Slaght, and Historical Consultant Franklin Noll.

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Princeton University history professor Sean Wilentz talks about his writings and books. He is the author of the Rolling Stone article, "The Worst President in History? One of America's Leading Historians Assesses George W. Bush."

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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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Hari Jones, curator and assistant director of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, talks about the contributions of African American Women during the War.

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On May 14, 1607, 104 English settlers landed at Jamestown Island, Virginia to establish a colony for the Virginia Company.  Thought to be lost to history, the original fort was unearthed in 1994. We visited Jamestown to learn how the story of the 1607 settlers is being revealed everyday through the study of artifacts, and how artifacts are conserved for future scholars.

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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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Mercury Seven astronaut Alan Shepard was interviewed as part of the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. Shepard was the first American in space, and the fifth man to walk on the Moon.    

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This discussion is from a conference on "The Presidency and Civil Rights'' held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Among the topics: What was FDR's reasoning on the World War II internment of Japanese Americans? Why did President Truman desegregate the Armed Forces?And -- in addition to his role protecting the rights of Little Rock High School students -- what other civil rights actions did President Eisenhower take while in the Oval Office?  

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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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