Theres a scene on the day of the vote where Fernando Wood is waving papers saying i have affidavits. Thats not 19th century congress. Thats what you realize when you see a movie like lincoln. Or think about mr. Smith goes to washington, almost all of what we think we know about past politics comes from movies. And popular culture, and we absorb it so much, we think its real. Thats why its so important to try to sort it out. I dont want to be one of those scholar squirrels that gore vidal used to make fun of, but thats what i have been doing, digging around in the script and pointing out the small differences, but ultimately, they matter. As much as i think youre right, the Lincoln Movie will produce good things, when we teach it, teachers need to be aware of how it departs from what we know about the record. Greg. You need to wait for the microphone. Sorry, how does it skew in terms of younger audiences . Because my experience, which could be which is only anecdotal, when i poll my que
Climactic scene on the floor of the house on the day of the vote, january 1st, 1865, they have james spader and john hay running to the white house to get the note from lincoln. None of that happened. The note, we think, is real, though we dont have the original of it. Its a recollection from james ashley, but James Spaders character, william bilbo, was in new york at the time, at the st. Nicolas hotel. The lobbyists were in new york in the final weeks of the fight working the press. The race scene is just a hollywood chase scene. Its no different than the airport race scene in argo and i have no problem with that, like i said, but key moments in this story are altered. And theyre altered for dramatic reasons. We need to understand that if were going to teach it and appreciate it. I call it fiction and i dont mean it as an insult, but i do think people need to appreciate the difference betweenviction and the record. The record is far more complicated. I think its just as interesting, b
Through the perilous fight is a gripping account of six weeks of dylans leaders and retails and fitted detail one of the burning of our capital at the heel of the british and the spectacular and improbable turn of events that will change the course of the war and the path of our young nation. Steve vogel has written extensively of military history in the wars in afghanistan and iraq as a graduate from International Public policy from John Hopkins School of studies represent steve vogel. [applause] it really is a great honor to be here when they think about it the library of congress which you may or may not know was burned down as part of the story that i tell. Is erotic to be here ironic to be here today. The attack on washington and of the burning of the white house and the library of Congress Comment today colberts papers are at the library of congress so that is justice served of some kind. [laughter] but i do spend a lot of time there an equal resources both for the amount of mate
Theyre also very different. And i suspect that the truth is somewhere in the middle here, and i couldnt tell you which one is better. And this is another one. This is an image that came out of one of the books that i did and it is showing the british piling up material, and this is in the Capitol Building. And if youll notice, the guy on the left, on the back, hes carrying a backpack that would carry two cases for a congrieve rocket. Rocket and if youll notice the man standing on top of the pile, hes literally taking the projectile material that would have been inside of that rocket and hes sprinkling it over the top and then thats how they would light that fire and here is the actual account and this is by Benjamin Henry latrobe. There was no want of material for the conflagration. For when the number of members of congress was increased the old platform was left in its place and another raised over it giving an additional quantity of dry and loose timber. All the stages and seats of
In the war of 1812, obviously. So its my pleasure to welcome colonel eshelman to the podium. [ applause ] good morning, everyone. Thank you. That was a kind introduction. I have never been called colonel when im been introduced. Thank you very much. I want to add to the accolades expressed about the wonderful job the partners and all the individuals have done to put this symposium together. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you have as well. We still have an afternoon to go as well. Itis not over and im looking forward to it. Before lunch, which is an important thing for all of us, i have a few words i would like to say about some of the myth that surround washington, d. C. Specifically, im going to talk about three myths. Im going to present them to you in the form of a question. The first one is did the british really burn Washington City . Question number two. Is the white house really called the white house because it was painted white because of the scorch marks when the britis