Historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony, author of the two-volume "First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents’ Wives and Their Power," reflects on Grace Coolidge’s influence on the 30th president and their personal and political partnership.

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The Harry S. Truman Library Institute sponsors a discussion on "Presidents at War: Korea to Afghanistan." Among the topics are the U.S. government’s post-World War II communism containment policies, the Cold War Soviet threat, and the post-Sept. 11th wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also during this conversation, Senator Evan Bayh recalls how – as a six-year-old – he met Harry Truman.

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Iver Bernstein discusses the causes and consequences of the New York City Draft Riots of mid-July 1863, that resulted from the federal draft for additional troops to fight in the war. Mr. Bernstein spoke at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society’s 2012 Civil War Symposium.

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Open for business in 1861 and located about six blocks from the capitol building, the United States Government Printing Office still prints the Congressional Record each day that the House and Senate are in session. We visited to learn the history of GPO and to see some of their historic printing jobs, including the "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," which took twenty years to print, and the twenty-seven volume "Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of President Kennedy."

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Historian and author Craig Symonds talks about the various naval aspects of the war – from technological developments, to the battles themselves; from the Union blockade, to the rivers of the Western Theater. Symonds is history professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy, and the author of “The Civil War at Sea.” He presented this talk at the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center, on the National Mall.

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Guests Charles Evans Jr. and Victor DeNoble discuss the documentary film that chronicles DeNoble’s unexpected discovery of an ingredient in tobacco which, the data revealed, when coupled with nicotine makes cigarettes more addictive. The research and the company’s attempts to keep it private lead to Congressional testimony before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The movie details how this public revelation of DeNoble’s findings led journalists, politicians, attorneys and scientists to join forces against the tobacco industry,  which ultimately resulted in the first ever federal regulation of the tobacco industry. Evans discusses how and why he went about making the film, which began when he first watched Dr. DeNoble’s testimony on C-SPAN in 1994. DeNoble talks about growing up in New York, his early work at the Philip Morris Company and what it was like to testify before Congress on such a controversial subject.

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Historians Craig Symonds, James McPherson and Harold Holzer discuss the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The three-day battle fought in Pennsylvania from July 1st through 3rd, 1863, was the bloodiest of the war, resulting in an estimated 51 thousand total casualties. This is the first in a two-part series on the battle, hosted by the New-York Historical Society.

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Douglas Brinkley talks about his book, "Cronkite," which chronicles the life of long time CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite, often referred to as "the most trusted man in America."

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Historians consider several developments in naval technology over the course of the war. They discuss ironclad gunboats, Confederate efforts to break the Union Blockade, and spar torpedo boats. This event was part of a symposium on Technology and the Civil War hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

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