Congress, Politics, Books
and American History

President Lincoln was wearing a black “Great Coat”, or overcoat, inscribed with the words “One Country, One Destiny” when he was shot by an assassin on April 14, 1865. American History TV recently returned to the scene of that fatal shooting for the coat’s return to public display in the Ford’s Theatre lobby.

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On April 14th, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln attended a performance at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. Actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth went to Ford’s Theatre and shot President Lincoln.

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Edward Steers talks about his book, “The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia.” The book lists in detail the people, events, dates and locales connected to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

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Author and presidential historian William Seale discusses life in the Lincoln White House – and how the Lincoln family’s  presence there during wartime reinforced the idea of the White House as the President’s official residence. From the Lincoln Forum Symposium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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On The Civil War, author and history professor Stephen Berry discusses the relationships of President Abraham Lincoln and the Todd Family – the brothers and sisters of first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.  He spoke at November’s Lincoln Forum Symposium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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Each week American Artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums and historic sites around the country. At the outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861, Washington, DC, was lightly defended and vulnerable to attack, with only one fort located 12 miles south of the city and the Confederate state of Virginia just across the Potomac River. By 1865, the nation’s capital arguably had become the most fortified city in the world, with about 70 armed forts and batteries encircling the city. We visited three of the surviving forts with Dale Floyd, author of a study on the Civil War Defenses of Washington for the National Park Service.

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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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Northeastern University history professor William Fowler looks at Early Atlantic Exploration, Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of the Caribbean and the Americas.

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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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