Congress, Politics, Books
and American History

Author Christopher Bright opens his talk at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum by noting that the United States had 841 weapons in its nuclear arsenal when the 34th president took office, and 18,686 when President Eisenhower left the White House. Twenty percent of those weapons were designed to defend Americans against a surprise Soviet nuclear attack. Mr. Bright focuses his remarks on this lesser-known aspect of the Cold War story.

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Travel back to April 15, 1865—and the manhunt for Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. We visit the Center for Education and Leadership which opened this month across from Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. It was there that John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln as he enjoyed the play “Our American Cousin.” We see the 35-foot tower of Lincoln books symbolizing one of the most documented lives in human history, and walk through exhibits that contemplate Lincoln’s life, death and legacy.

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Professor Allan Lichtman teaches a course on the modern American presidency. In this class he used slides as he lectured about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

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A film biography about United States Army General Douglas MacArthur who served in World War II as Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific.  MacArthur’s military career came to a close in 1951 when President Harry S. Truman relieved him of his command.

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The twenty-six-hundred-acre estate of Montpelier was once home to the nation’s fourth president , James Madison and his wife Dolley. It lies about 90 miles south of the nation’s capital in Orange County, Virginia. American History TV visited the site for a tour with Michael Quinn, president of the private non-profit Montpelier Foundation that manages the property.

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The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is located in what was once the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, the building from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Museum curator Gary Mack spoke to a tour group led by historian Richard Norton Smith about how the museum presents the information about the assassination and ensuing investigations.

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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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Historian Frank Laumer speaks at a 175th anniversary commemoration of the Dade massacre that led to the outbreak of the Second Seminole War. The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, took place in central Florida from 1835 to 1842 and was the first American war fought partially over the issue of slavery. The event was hosted by the Tampa Bay History Center.

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Bjorn Skaptason presented a slide show of artifacts of Abraham Lincoln and told the stories behind them.
"Stories Behind the Artifacts: Lincoln's Early Life, Presidential Campaign of 1860, and First Inauguration" was the final presentation of the 150th Anniversary of Lincoln's Inauguration Symposium held at the Union League Club of Chicago, in partnership with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Chicago History Museum, Chicago Public Library, Civil War Round Table of Chicago, Lincoln Academy of Illinois, Newberry Library, and the Pritzker Military Library.

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The Cotton Museum of Memphis, Tennessee hosts historian D. Clayton Brown for a reflection on cotton’s cultural significance and how the crop has shaped the larger culture of the U.S. throughout the twentieth century.

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