Transcripts For CSPAN3 History And Policy Makers 20150309 :

I remember a senator to rows behind me miss lynch, i dont want to get in the way of your confirmation. Ill talk to dr. Holder. The senator about three rows behind me said, reverend al also moment. I said, yes, it is. He said, for he is present to put his hand on lincolns bible and dr. Kings bible, he said its an aweinspiring moment. I said, yes, it is. I said, dont be confused. He said, what do you mean . I said, they are two identical bibles. Same amount of books, same amount of verses, same amount of chapters. There wasnt no difference in the bibles. The difference was lincolns bible had been on the mental place in the white house. Heads of states and captains of industry and men of military used to look at that bible, but dr. Kings bible didnt come that way. Dr. Kings bible came through the backwoods of georgia through the buying you bayous of mississippi. If you open up the inside, when he went to jail, they would check his bible and then send it through the necessary institutional obligation for him to have his bible. Little did the bailiffs know, when they were checking in dr. Kings bible in birmingham, one day that bible would be on the steps of the capitol swearing in the president of the United States. [applause] thats why we are in some. Selma. We are here not to celebrate something that didnt happen. We are here to celebrate a god that heard the cries of our parents. We are not going to let our parents and god down now. They died to give us the right to vote. Black and white died in this state to give us the right to vote. Goodman, cheney, viola died in mississippi to give us the right to vote, and we come back to alabama to let you know, you are not going to take that right back. [applause] one preacher said to me, reverend, we are all christians. We believe in the same thing. I said, you know, one of the things i never understood, one thing my mentors never explained to me im from up north why would the klan, when they would terrorize, why would they burn the cross . They are supposed to be christian, but they would burn the cross. A friend told me, because when some gave us christianity, they didnt know the spirituality that we had. Jesus, the one who stood up against oppression, the one who fed the hungry and clothes to the naked, the one who gave us Affordable Health care when we got through with jesus, they had to try to destroy the jesus we know. I know why they burned the cross. They realized it was at the cross when i first saw the light and the burning of my heart. You put me in the back of the bus. It was at the cross, at the cross where i got my strength. He walks with me. He talks with me. He tells me that im his own. He gave water when i was thirsty. Hes my rock, my sword and shield. Hes the bright and morning star. Yeah. Yes. [applause] im going to sit down for real but i heard strong reading my bible. Theres a part you didnt read. Thereve been times that i had to cry sometimes. He walks with me in my life. Ive had to cry sometimes in my life. Ive walked alone sometimes. Ive been lied on, cheated talked about. Ive been mistreated. Ive been up. Ive been down. Ive been level to the ground. Ive been bad. Ive been prosecuted. But through it all i learned to trust in jesus. Ive learned to trust in god through it all. Ive learned to depend on his word. He will make a way. He will make a way. Yes, he will. Yes, he will. Yes, yes yes, yes. When i came in today, i heard the choir sing. I saw the young man hit high octaves, then everybody standing up. I wish i could sing like that, but god didnt give me that gift. I heard the young lady do her song, but god didnt give me that gift. Sometimes, in the midnight hours, after my cell phone stops ringing, after the doorbell quiets down, i go out in the living room all by myself, and i sing my song. I cant sing, but sunday morning service, i sing because im happy. I sing because im free. I know he watches me. Yes, yes yes yes. [applause] all weekend, American History tv is featuring galveston, texas. In 1900, a category four hurricane devastated the city. It is remembered today as one of the worst hurricanes in American History. The cspan staff recently visited many sites exploring galvestons rich history. Learn more about galveston all weekend on American History tv. Our collecting policy is collecting anything related to galveston from its founding in the 1830s to the present, as well as documents relating to the history of the early republic of texas up to the civil war. Most of our patrons come in looking for genealogy information. Galveston was a port of entry for immigrants, so there is a lot of genealogists coming here looking for information on their ancestors. The first thing i want to show you is our oldest map in the collection. It is a map done in 1721. It is the earliest known rendering of galveston harbor and bay. The reason i wanted to show it is a lot of historians were unaware this was a drawing of galveston and the harper the harbor. They thought it was done of Matagorda Bay and have not acknowledged it as a map of galveston. But it is the earliest known rendering of the island, the harper, and the natural bay. Some of the other items we are going to look at today are documents from the founders of galveston. The earliest collections we have in the history center. We will head on out to the breathing room and take a look at the documents. The city began around 1836 after texas won independence from mexico. Galveston was already a major port did they wanted to start a city here. A group of men were entrusted with the task of setting up a city on the island. The next document is from the james morgan papers who was also an early founder of galveston. It lists the original stockholders of the galveston city company. Mckinney and williams were in Partnership Together and have their own business. Mckinney and williams were businessmen. They were cotton traders. They wanted to establish themselves as the primary route for Cotton Growers in texas to transport cotton out of the public of texas. They wanted to have the blessed be the primary transporters of that they wanted to be the primary transporters of that. They are businessmen. The next letter is from Andrew Jackson to sam houston. Andrew jackson at this point is in retirement at the hermitage in tennessee and sam houston is president of texas. It is written in january of 1844. Sam houston new Andrew Jackson from his time back east. He served under Andrew Jackson in the military. He was involved in politics in tennessee, so he and Andrew Jackson knew each other from before houstons time in texas. Circumstances pushed houston to texas. He became involved in the efforts here to gain independence the push for annexation, and joining the United States. That issue had gone back and forth tween prior president s of texas and u. S. President s. Both sides at one point or another refusing. There were issues going on. Annexing estate that kept slavery was an issue. Great britain getting involved was spurring the United States to annex the state of texas. Finally in 1844 during the election, it became a major issue. It gets revisited again. Andrew jackson writes to his old friend, sam houston, basically saying it would benefit the future prosperity of texas and the United States for this to happen. He ends the letter saying, god bless you and yours and grant is prosperity you prosperity in this life and the like to come. Your friend, Andrew Jackson. The next document relates to the 1900 storm. The 1900 storm for galveston is a major event in the islands history. Two has been a lot written about it there has been a lot written about it and set about it, but it still lingers today. It is still very much a part of galvestonians history alive today. The letter is a recent acquisition. It is from francis mlister, a railroad agent, written to his sons. It is a letter describing what happened to him and his family during the storm. It goes into great detail about the water rising and the wind taking up picking up and what happened to them through the night of september 8. It is basically letting the boys know he is ok. He had already sent them telegrams. But i guess he wanted to go into more detail and let them know what happened during that night. It is a poignant it is very poignant. The detail is descriptive and give you a good idea of the horrors these people suffered. To give you an idea of how horrible the night was we can read about the water rising and the wind picking up and how buildings move dr. Foundation. Off of their foundation. Mr. Lister writes that he needed to send his wife and daughter off the island because he was afraid of disease and epidemic. He writes we will send mthem to palestine as soon as i can get them out. The town will be visited the epidemic, i think. They are so terribly shocked they must be taken away from here. That gives you an idea of the trauma the family and so many others suffered during the hurricane. The Rosenberg Library is unique in that it has not only archives and a book collection but also a museum. We have approximately 8000 objects in the museum including textiles, weaponry glass, all sorts of wonderful things. Recently, the smithsonian portrait gallery had an exhibit on the war of 1812 and borrowed from us this wonderful portrait of him. He came here about 1815 or so. Relations between him and the u. S. Government soured. He and his brother were hired on as informants for spain. At the time, mexico was trying to gain independence from spain. He used galveston as a base of operation not only for spying but also his privateering endeavors as well. It is a unique piece. The provenance is interesting. A local family was building a mention between 24th and 25th street on broadway. When they tore down the old house laying the foundation for the new one, they discovered a number of confederate artifacts. This painting was rolled up. The family took this as a possible jean lenfitte painting and the piece was donated to the library. It was speculation that led the early folks to believe this was him. It caught fire. Much like the history with him, there is a lot of mythology difficult to disentangle from fact. If you experts have looked at the portrait a few experts have looked at the portrait and concluded it is likely not him for a number of reasons including the costume he is wearing. The hat looks like it more belongs in the 16oos rather than the 1800s. Also, the lack of the under short, sensual for early 19thcentury proper portraits. Also notice the way he is holding the dagger. The dagger would be facing down. This is a foreboding man. He will stab you when you are not looking. Some folks have speculated it might the a fanciful victorian interpretation of him. Another idea is it might be the famed actor, edwin booth, rather of john looks booth brother of John Wilkes Booth who came to galveston a few times to do performances. The next object is fascinating and ties in with the revolutionary period in galveston and Texas History. These are dueling distals dueling pistols that belonged to general sam houston. Very ornate. They were never used for duels still a wonderful piece. Given to sam houston by friends in cincinnati. At the time of the revolution, many in ohio and cincinnati supported the cause of texas independence. Those who chose to came down to fight. The remaining people raised funds to send cannons here. The twin sisters came and were involved in the decisive battle of san jacinto which saw the texans win independence from mexico. Inscription says general sam houston from your cincy friends and the date of texas independence, 1836. What i would like for people to take away when they visit is a little piece of history. So many people come here with a connection to galveston looking for a piece of Family History or connection. We play a very Important Role for galveston peewee we are the keeper of the history here. We play a very Important Role for galveston. We are the keeper of the history here. All week, American History tv is featuring galveston texas. Cspan staff recently visited many sites showcasing the city history. Learn more about galveston all weekend on American History tv. The first when for galveston came about in the 1830s to Michelle Menard and other investors. They had someone come in and lay out plots for the city of galveston and began selling lots in the late 1830s. Galveston was founded as a city by 1839. What was impressive was it was a natural harbor and the only one between veracruz, mexico, and mobile, alabama. There was a natural tendency to bring in goods and people into galveston that could go into texas and the United States. It brought an industry with the availability of ports and easy access to the gulf of mexico. It created an entire community that followed for 100 years. As the 19th Century Maritime world changed, the ships became larger and the cargo became much larger. What became particularly important for galveston is it was raining and all of the cotton from the central part of the state and other states around us and shipping it out of here. As shipping became so important they needed to get bigger vessels in an closer into the harbor to load them up with the cargo of cotton. By the late 19th century cotton was the largest and most common thing shipped out of the port of galveston. It was the thing that created wealth for the city and the state of texas for a long time. Oil was really a 20thcentury activity and industry. It is closely tied to texas today all over. Galveston is more closely tied to what now occurs offshore. Those platforms and things used offshore are brought into galveston today to be repaired, cleaned, and taken back out. There is not a lot of immediate drilling around galveston island. It is mostly a working port to support the industry offshore. Immigration into galveston is one of the overlooked stories of Texas History and American History is that without this port and its availability for 150 years, we would not have had settlement in the United States and certainly in texas. Early, im talking about precivil war 1830s, 1840s, you have lots of groups of europeans, mainly germans coming , into the port of galveston and as a group settling a different parts of the state of texas. If you had been here in the 1850s, german was the most common language spoken in galveston. On the streets, that is what people were talking in. You can see in galveston today if you go to the garden, you can see what became the center for german entertainment and social life. You can go to st. Josephs church, the first German Catholic Church in texas. You can see where they worshiped and where they were educated and how they spent their lives in galveston. But the height of immigration was the late 19th century and early 20th. And it continued up to 1954 when it was no longer a point of entry for immigrants. But the story of that is the backandforth between the state of texas managing immigration and eventually the federal government doing immigration. But it became a place where they wanted to push immigrants away from the northeast and bring them into the central part of the country. In the early 20th century, there was something called the galveston, a formal program to bring jewish immigrants to this part of the country. That movement continued for a while and was very successful. It brought development to communities in texas but all the way up into kansas. We see those immigrants that came through the port of galveston. The interesting thing about immigration here is that it wasnt they pulled a boat and everyone jumped off. Immigration was heavily regulated and created about a around a number of things in the nations history. In the late 19th century immigration was heavily inspected. You might arrive on a ship. You travel for months and you travel with the family or by yourself. You land here and look at the barrier island, pretty flat, almost no trees. You mustve thought, oh, my gosh. What is this place going to be . Then you would go through a health inspection. If you did not pass for some reason, and there were lots of ways you could fail, you would be sent to a quarantine station. Perhaps you would stay there until you were well or you would be returned to where you came from. There was a lot of process involved and there was a lot of angst and points of being carefully checked as you came in for Health Reasons as well as your ability to earn a wage and your ability to bring something to this new place you are landing. I think today we forget there is this connection to how we developed in the country and in the state of texas, in particular. We think of it as being a 20th century state and area with large cities in land. But if not for the gulf coast, if not for this transportation and the viability of bringing in ships, we would not exist. In galveston, you have to think about it as being the point of creation in texas for what we see as a modern state. Throughout the weekend, American History tv is featuring galveston, texas. Our staff recently traveled there to learn about its rich history. Learn more about galveston and other stops at www. Cspan. Org citiestour. You are watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. Join American History tv next saturday and sunday for live coverage of a conference focusing on the closing weeks of the civil war in 1865. Topics include the surrender and legacy of appomattox. That is live next saturday and sunday in virginia on American History tv on cspan3. Each announcer each week, American History tvs american artifacts visits museums and historic places. Next, we travel about 15 miles northwest of washington dc to great falls 10 United States<\/a>. [applause] thats why we are in some. Selma. We are here not to celebrate something that didnt happen. We are here to celebrate a god that heard the cries of our parents. We are not going to let our parents and god down now. They died to give us the right to vote. Black and white died in this state to give us the right to vote. Goodman, cheney, viola died in mississippi to give us the right to vote, and we come back to alabama to let you know, you are not going to take that right back. [applause] one preacher said to me, reverend, we are all christians. We believe in the same thing. I said, you know, one of the things i never understood, one thing my mentors never explained to me im from up north why would the klan, when they would terrorize, why would they burn the cross . They are supposed to be christian, but they would burn the cross. A friend told me, because when some gave us christianity, they didnt know the spirituality that we had. Jesus, the one who stood up against oppression, the one who fed the hungry and clothes to the naked, the one who gave us Affordable Health<\/a> care when we got through with jesus, they had to try to destroy the jesus we know. I know why they burned the cross. They realized it was at the cross when i first saw the light and the burning of my heart. You put me in the back of the bus. It was at the cross, at the cross where i got my strength. He walks with me. He talks with me. He tells me that im his own. He gave water when i was thirsty. Hes my rock, my sword and shield. Hes the bright and morning star. Yeah. Yes. [applause] im going to sit down for real but i heard strong reading my bible. Theres a part you didnt read. Thereve been times that i had to cry sometimes. He walks with me in my life. Ive had to cry sometimes in my life. Ive walked alone sometimes. Ive been lied on, cheated talked about. Ive been mistreated. Ive been up. Ive been down. Ive been level to the ground. Ive been bad. Ive been prosecuted. But through it all i learned to trust in jesus. Ive learned to trust in god through it all. Ive learned to depend on his word. He will make a way. He will make a way. Yes, he will. Yes, he will. Yes, yes yes, yes. When i came in today, i heard the choir sing. I saw the young man hit high octaves, then everybody standing up. I wish i could sing like that, but god didnt give me that gift. I heard the young lady do her song, but god didnt give me that gift. Sometimes, in the midnight hours, after my cell phone stops ringing, after the doorbell quiets down, i go out in the living room all by myself, and i sing my song. I cant sing, but sunday morning service, i sing because im happy. I sing because im free. I know he watches me. Yes, yes yes yes. [applause] all weekend, American History<\/a> tv is featuring galveston, texas. In 1900, a category four hurricane devastated the city. It is remembered today as one of the worst hurricanes in American History<\/a>. The cspan staff recently visited many sites exploring galvestons rich history. Learn more about galveston all weekend on American History<\/a> tv. Our collecting policy is collecting anything related to galveston from its founding in the 1830s to the present, as well as documents relating to the history of the early republic of texas up to the civil war. Most of our patrons come in looking for genealogy information. Galveston was a port of entry for immigrants, so there is a lot of genealogists coming here looking for information on their ancestors. The first thing i want to show you is our oldest map in the collection. It is a map done in 1721. It is the earliest known rendering of galveston harbor and bay. The reason i wanted to show it is a lot of historians were unaware this was a drawing of galveston and the harper the harbor. They thought it was done of Matagorda Bay<\/a> and have not acknowledged it as a map of galveston. But it is the earliest known rendering of the island, the harper, and the natural bay. Some of the other items we are going to look at today are documents from the founders of galveston. The earliest collections we have in the history center. We will head on out to the breathing room and take a look at the documents. The city began around 1836 after texas won independence from mexico. Galveston was already a major port did they wanted to start a city here. A group of men were entrusted with the task of setting up a city on the island. The next document is from the james morgan papers who was also an early founder of galveston. It lists the original stockholders of the galveston city company. Mckinney and williams were in Partnership Together<\/a> and have their own business. Mckinney and williams were businessmen. They were cotton traders. They wanted to establish themselves as the primary route for Cotton Growers<\/a> in texas to transport cotton out of the public of texas. They wanted to have the blessed be the primary transporters of that they wanted to be the primary transporters of that. They are businessmen. The next letter is from Andrew Jackson<\/a> to sam houston. Andrew jackson at this point is in retirement at the hermitage in tennessee and sam houston is president of texas. It is written in january of 1844. Sam houston new Andrew Jackson<\/a> from his time back east. He served under Andrew Jackson<\/a> in the military. He was involved in politics in tennessee, so he and Andrew Jackson<\/a> knew each other from before houstons time in texas. Circumstances pushed houston to texas. He became involved in the efforts here to gain independence the push for annexation, and joining the United States<\/a>. That issue had gone back and forth tween prior president s of texas and u. S. President s. Both sides at one point or another refusing. There were issues going on. Annexing estate that kept slavery was an issue. Great britain getting involved was spurring the United States<\/a> to annex the state of texas. Finally in 1844 during the election, it became a major issue. It gets revisited again. Andrew jackson writes to his old friend, sam houston, basically saying it would benefit the future prosperity of texas and the United States<\/a> for this to happen. He ends the letter saying, god bless you and yours and grant is prosperity you prosperity in this life and the like to come. Your friend, Andrew Jackson<\/a>. The next document relates to the 1900 storm. The 1900 storm for galveston is a major event in the islands history. Two has been a lot written about it there has been a lot written about it and set about it, but it still lingers today. It is still very much a part of galvestonians history alive today. The letter is a recent acquisition. It is from francis mlister, a railroad agent, written to his sons. It is a letter describing what happened to him and his family during the storm. It goes into great detail about the water rising and the wind taking up picking up and what happened to them through the night of september 8. It is basically letting the boys know he is ok. He had already sent them telegrams. But i guess he wanted to go into more detail and let them know what happened during that night. It is a poignant it is very poignant. The detail is descriptive and give you a good idea of the horrors these people suffered. To give you an idea of how horrible the night was we can read about the water rising and the wind picking up and how buildings move dr. Foundation. Off of their foundation. Mr. Lister writes that he needed to send his wife and daughter off the island because he was afraid of disease and epidemic. He writes we will send mthem to palestine as soon as i can get them out. The town will be visited the epidemic, i think. They are so terribly shocked they must be taken away from here. That gives you an idea of the trauma the family and so many others suffered during the hurricane. The Rosenberg Library<\/a> is unique in that it has not only archives and a book collection but also a museum. We have approximately 8000 objects in the museum including textiles, weaponry glass, all sorts of wonderful things. Recently, the smithsonian portrait gallery had an exhibit on the war of 1812 and borrowed from us this wonderful portrait of him. He came here about 1815 or so. Relations between him and the u. S. Government soured. He and his brother were hired on as informants for spain. At the time, mexico was trying to gain independence from spain. He used galveston as a base of operation not only for spying but also his privateering endeavors as well. It is a unique piece. The provenance is interesting. A local family was building a mention between 24th and 25th street on broadway. When they tore down the old house laying the foundation for the new one, they discovered a number of confederate artifacts. This painting was rolled up. The family took this as a possible jean lenfitte painting and the piece was donated to the library. It was speculation that led the early folks to believe this was him. It caught fire. Much like the history with him, there is a lot of mythology difficult to disentangle from fact. If you experts have looked at the portrait a few experts have looked at the portrait and concluded it is likely not him for a number of reasons including the costume he is wearing. The hat looks like it more belongs in the 16oos rather than the 1800s. Also, the lack of the under short, sensual for early 19thcentury proper portraits. Also notice the way he is holding the dagger. The dagger would be facing down. This is a foreboding man. He will stab you when you are not looking. Some folks have speculated it might the a fanciful victorian interpretation of him. Another idea is it might be the famed actor, edwin booth, rather of john looks booth brother of John Wilkes Booth<\/a> who came to galveston a few times to do performances. The next object is fascinating and ties in with the revolutionary period in galveston and Texas History<\/a>. These are dueling distals dueling pistols that belonged to general sam houston. Very ornate. They were never used for duels still a wonderful piece. Given to sam houston by friends in cincinnati. At the time of the revolution, many in ohio and cincinnati supported the cause of texas independence. Those who chose to came down to fight. The remaining people raised funds to send cannons here. The twin sisters came and were involved in the decisive battle of san jacinto which saw the texans win independence from mexico. Inscription says general sam houston from your cincy friends and the date of texas independence, 1836. What i would like for people to take away when they visit is a little piece of history. So many people come here with a connection to galveston looking for a piece of Family History<\/a> or connection. We play a very Important Role<\/a> for galveston peewee we are the keeper of the history here. We play a very Important Role<\/a> for galveston. We are the keeper of the history here. All week, American History<\/a> tv is featuring galveston texas. Cspan staff recently visited many sites showcasing the city history. Learn more about galveston all weekend on American History<\/a> tv. The first when for galveston came about in the 1830s to Michelle Menard<\/a> and other investors. They had someone come in and lay out plots for the city of galveston and began selling lots in the late 1830s. Galveston was founded as a city by 1839. What was impressive was it was a natural harbor and the only one between veracruz, mexico, and mobile, alabama. There was a natural tendency to bring in goods and people into galveston that could go into texas and the United States<\/a>. It brought an industry with the availability of ports and easy access to the gulf of mexico. It created an entire community that followed for 100 years. As the 19th Century Maritime<\/a> world changed, the ships became larger and the cargo became much larger. What became particularly important for galveston is it was raining and all of the cotton from the central part of the state and other states around us and shipping it out of here. As shipping became so important they needed to get bigger vessels in an closer into the harbor to load them up with the cargo of cotton. By the late 19th century cotton was the largest and most common thing shipped out of the port of galveston. It was the thing that created wealth for the city and the state of texas for a long time. Oil was really a 20thcentury activity and industry. It is closely tied to texas today all over. Galveston is more closely tied to what now occurs offshore. Those platforms and things used offshore are brought into galveston today to be repaired, cleaned, and taken back out. There is not a lot of immediate drilling around galveston island. It is mostly a working port to support the industry offshore. Immigration into galveston is one of the overlooked stories of Texas History<\/a> and American History<\/a> is that without this port and its availability for 150 years, we would not have had settlement in the United States<\/a> and certainly in texas. Early, im talking about precivil war 1830s, 1840s, you have lots of groups of europeans, mainly germans coming , into the port of galveston and as a group settling a different parts of the state of texas. If you had been here in the 1850s, german was the most common language spoken in galveston. On the streets, that is what people were talking in. You can see in galveston today if you go to the garden, you can see what became the center for german entertainment and social life. You can go to st. Josephs church, the first German Catholic Church<\/a> in texas. You can see where they worshiped and where they were educated and how they spent their lives in galveston. But the height of immigration was the late 19th century and early 20th. And it continued up to 1954 when it was no longer a point of entry for immigrants. But the story of that is the backandforth between the state of texas managing immigration and eventually the federal government doing immigration. But it became a place where they wanted to push immigrants away from the northeast and bring them into the central part of the country. In the early 20th century, there was something called the galveston, a formal program to bring jewish immigrants to this part of the country. That movement continued for a while and was very successful. It brought development to communities in texas but all the way up into kansas. We see those immigrants that came through the port of galveston. The interesting thing about immigration here is that it wasnt they pulled a boat and everyone jumped off. Immigration was heavily regulated and created about a around a number of things in the nations history. In the late 19th century immigration was heavily inspected. You might arrive on a ship. You travel for months and you travel with the family or by yourself. You land here and look at the barrier island, pretty flat, almost no trees. You mustve thought, oh, my gosh. What is this place going to be . Then you would go through a health inspection. If you did not pass for some reason, and there were lots of ways you could fail, you would be sent to a quarantine station. Perhaps you would stay there until you were well or you would be returned to where you came from. There was a lot of process involved and there was a lot of angst and points of being carefully checked as you came in for Health Reasons<\/a> as well as your ability to earn a wage and your ability to bring something to this new place you are landing. I think today we forget there is this connection to how we developed in the country and in the state of texas, in particular. We think of it as being a 20th century state and area with large cities in land. But if not for the gulf coast, if not for this transportation and the viability of bringing in ships, we would not exist. In galveston, you have to think about it as being the point of creation in texas for what we see as a modern state. Throughout the weekend, American History<\/a> tv is featuring galveston, texas. Our staff recently traveled there to learn about its rich history. Learn more about galveston and other stops at www. Cspan. Org citiestour. You are watching American History<\/a> tv all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. Join American History<\/a> tv next saturday and sunday for live coverage of a conference focusing on the closing weeks of the civil war in 1865. Topics include the surrender and legacy of appomattox. That is live next saturday and sunday in virginia on American History<\/a> tv on cspan3. Each announcer each week, American History<\/a> tvs american artifacts visits museums and historic places. Next, we travel about 15 miles northwest of washington dc to great falls 10 Visitors Center<\/a> where we will take a boat ride to learn about the history of the chesapeake and ohio canal. [horn blows] announcer i would like to introduce myself. My name is cassandra. And i am a seasonal park ranger at the chesapeake and ohio canal. I think we are going to cast off here shortly. Ill give you a brief history of the canal. Its the chesapeake and ohio canal. Does not reached to the Chesapeake Bay<\/a> or go up to the ohio river, which was the intention of the canal when we started billing it in july 1828. We wanted to try to connect the Eastern Shore<\/a> with what was considered the west back then. The west was ohio and pennsylvania, that area. We wanted to connect pittsburgh to the Chesapeake Bay<\/a>. It was George Washington<\/a> stream to use the Potomac River<\/a> as a way to transport goods. Ive been it was seen as a reasonable thing to do so he went ahead and had a can now system built on that side. However, it was not a very reliable usage. A did not actually have a long time use. It was kind of broken. Did not work very well. So we went ahead and took his dream and build a canal next to the Potomac River<\/a> so we could use that water source but have something that is more controlled and reliable compared to the Potomac River<\/a>, because you took a boat over the falls you would not last very long. Well use this canal and ran it from georgetown all the way up to cumberland. We kind of ran into some problems also known as the appalachian mountains. We did not take that into consideration when we were building the canal itself. So we kind of not stuck going to the mountains or trying to go around them. This canal is 184 miles long. Throughout that, there are 74 lift locks. We are going to go through one of them today. That is locked 20. What they do, there is a very big elevation difference between georgetown and cumberland. As you can tell, georgetown is at or below sea level. Where cumberland is along the edge of the appalachian mountains. It is about a 600 elevation foot difference. So what these walks do is they help us control that difference so that we are able to go both ways instead of dust having one big river rushing downstream. And only being able to transport goods from cumberland to georgetown. We have our bows in in the front. We do things differently. What he is going to do as he has a tow line that is connected to the lock itself. Hes going to take that line and start pulling that in, so we can pull that line in. He is going to go ahead and start pulling us in. Back then, they would have their mules connected to their boats. Mules would be walking on the path, and they would be the ones that would pull us in. We would not have the crew members doing that work. Once we were completely inside the lock, we would close the two downstream dates. And what that allows us to do is that allows us to make a sealed tight area so no water can exit so we can raise water in that area. This system was actually created by man way past our time. His name was leonardo da vinci. He created a lot of things unfortunately a lot of them did not work for it but this was something we decided was a really good idea. We did a few modifications to has drawn he had in his sketchbook. But most of it is all the same. And so what happens is this is one side of our lock door. With our lock door, there are two doors on the bottom. They are called wicked. These wickets are connected to stems. We need a key to open our lock. We take a key and put in top of our stem. We turn the doors so it lets the water from upstream downstream. We open the wicket doors. I did say every lock needs a key. This was a key found in the bottom of the canal. We found that when we took over the National Park<\/a>. Its made out of castiron. It is about 10 to 15 pounds. Pretty heavy. And this is what our lock keepers would carry around all day. Im going to stop talking because it is really hard to yell over the rushing water, ok . [water rushing] this part actually right here is the slowest part of the lock because the water is actually almost equaling out. So it is not rushing in like you saw when we first opened the doors. It takes longer for that water to equal out. Once everything is equaled out we also have to open up those gates. Then thats when we start moving. You would have lock keepers that we do that with the wicket doors. They would be in charge of opening up those doors and everything like that. Our locks keepers were always in charge of that, and they would live in lock houses, kind of like the one that is to my right. All right . The only difference about this lock house it was the only hotel on the canal. So, the middle section of the great falls tavern was the original lock house. Where the first lock family lived. In 1831, we finish the two additions on the north and south end. The north end is the hotel. And bottom floor where you buy your tickets was called the ballroom. And it was a tavern, so it did serve alcohol back then. That is when people would come from georgetown. They would take a four hour trip to great falls and they would ride boats like this one, a passenger boat. They would take those trips to escape the city and stay at great falls to get away, relax. And they would stay in the second or third floor. The second floor was for men and female quarters. They had to stay separately on the second floor unless they were able to provide a marriage license. If they were able to do that they could stay on the third floor which was the attic or honeymoon suite. So they, for an extra charge they could stay on the top floor. Then the south end of the tavern was the new lock house where the lock family stayed. So, with this particular lock, it was actually the lock keeper would tend to three locks. They would like 20 here and lock 20 here and 18 and 19 downstream. One man taking care of three locks is hard to do. He would, depending on how many locks he tended, depended on how much money he got paid. So with three locks, h e would get 150. That would allow him to hire an assistant so that he would be able to go ahead and have him help with the rest of the locks. But the Canal Company<\/a> was smart and they decided they needed to hire men that had large families. If you hire the husband of a large family you would get the rest of the family for free. So, the the rest of the family would help him as well, working. The wife would help and even some of the older children. And they would be able to stay here in the lock houses for free. They would get the 250 along with the house and he would also get an acre of land. What that acre allow them to do was to be able to provide for themselves heard they were able to do produce, have farm animals they needed like cows, chickens, pigs, so that they would be able to sustain themselves. That 250 was per year. In the peak of the canal in the 1870, if youre waiting at a lock in 30 minutes there were 15 to 20 point boats waiting. Theyre obviously not horses but people confuse them for horses or donkeys. There a combination of the two. The male is the donkey, the female is the horse. That is how you get a meal. A female horse and the male donkey. If you do it the other way around, you get something else. They do not have the same type of working genes we want mules to have. We decided mules would be a better fit. Throughout history there was uses of horses, the pony express would pull wagons. They were used for various things. The question that comes up as why were mules used here instead of horses . Various reasons. If you characteristics mules get from donkeys. Their ears make them aware of their surroundings. Their feet are a different shape, more ovalshaped. Horses are more circular. What that does it makes them circuitous. That allows them to know where they are placing your foot at all times. Theyre not skittish like horses. Horses tend to rear up and it takes a while to calm down. Our mules are not as jumping. Back then there would be snakes on the towpath. With a horse it would get reared up and you would have to wait for it to come down. With a mule, it would stop. It would go ahead and wait for you to move the snake out of the way so it would not cause any harm to itself. They are also very smart. Mules are smarter than horses. With a horse, you can work a horse to death because horses are there to please their master. They want to do nothing more than make you happy. If you had a horse on the canal you could run a dead into the ground from working. Mules, i am an sure you have heard stubborn as a mule. After six hours it is going to stop working. Say im not trying to hurt myself and you cannot push me any further. Im going to stand here until you change me out. Our mules are dolly and eva. Two of our youngest mules. Dolly is 11, eva is 10. They are connected by two chains in the middle. Eva, on the back, has a tree. Its a metal bar that connects our towline to our boat. Theyre pulling us at about two miles an hour. They could pull us faster but we usually do not want to go faster than this. Back end a could not go any faster because there was a speed limit of four miles an hour on the canal. Seems crazy but there is a good reason. And you look on the side of the canal, you can tell that some spot are covered up with rocks but most of the time there are no rocks. So, if we had a boat that when any faster than four miles and are, we would start to cause a wake. This that, since you had 550 boats on the peak of this canal, you would end up causing the water to rush upu the sides of the canal and damage the canal and make it not last as long. That four miles an hour was very enforced by lock keeperes. Thats why we could not go any faster than that. Our typical boats on the c anal, these are what barges would look like. They were 90 feet long and 14. 5 feet wide. I did say we like to cut things close. We are on a tight budget on the canal. So we had three inches of clearance to come in. So you had to be good at your job steering in as the tiller, because if you ended up doing any damage to the lock, that means you are doing damage to your boat. Therefore you had to pay for any damage to did to the lock and boat. The tiller would be located in the back, the stern. You have this cabin. Called the family cabin. It was 12. 5 by 12. 5 feet extremely small. The only space you had in their for room, you would have cooking would be done back here. Some cleaning of any sort you would have, a toilet. A bucket. On then you would have one or two beds. Up here in the front, this is our bow. This little barn here was the barn. It was where our extra set of mules were held. They would only work six hours. We would have two sets of mules, so we could change them out every six hours or every 15 miles. On top of that, the barn was also the place where most of the family would sleep because a were also big families on the canal boats. Since that was not enough room in the family cabin with the beds, they would end up sleeping in the barn. All throughout the middle, this is where our cargo was. Coal was the main cargo. It was used to heat the homes. Used for cooking. You would have goods coming from georgetown as well. Georgetown was the factory town back then. So, you did have mills that would produce grain. Timber would come from there. Any type of furniture, textiles, goods, clothing, all would be coming from georgetown shipped up north to the ports in between. So, this was a twoway traffic back then. And there was only one toe path that was used for mules. So, the question im sure you guys are thinking of is how are two boats if they are going in opposite directions going to pass each other . So, there was a very very logical way we did this here. Our tiller back there would yell tip yip yaw. Tee yip yaw that was our saying we used. All that means our mule stopped. What is going to happen is we are going to turn our boat around. Back then, you would not be able to do this because your boats were longer. We are cutting it close. So, like i said, these were very family oriented boats. We would the father would be on the front of the boat in charge of looking out for any dangers making sure the tow line was safe. On the back of the boat, you would have the mother. The mother would be in charge of steering along with doing tours, mostly sewing. So the men can no longer say women were no good at driving. The children, if they were of a certain age, nine years old, we would actually get the right to work. Wed go ahead and have been walking with our mules. At the age of nine, they would go ahead and start working. I promise it was not child labor. If they were any younger, we had to do something with them. They could not work, but they could not be running around causing problems. So, what we would do is wed taking something take something that looks like this. An old harness, take this top section and use it. You can see theres a rope attached. You might see where this is going. If not, i have a picture. So it is awesome. So, this is a family in georgetown. The mom is doing logic and she did not want her kids running around the port. So she went ahead and tied them up. Yep in the winter we are closed for four months. It would usually start in early november. Then would not open back up until april. When we did close down, there were a lot of times that we did our maintenance on the canal because back then it had to be kept six feet deep. You had to make sure you had enough room in between the bottom of the canal and the bottom of your boat. We have little creeks that run into the canal and they would bring in sediment that causes sandbars or making it hard for us to maintain six feet. In the winter, we drain o ut certain sections of the canal so that we would be able to use a shovel and dig out that dirt that was in there so we could keep it at the minimum of six feet deep. Once we finally got the maintenance all done, we would go ahead and let water back in. How we would do that is we couuld not use the the summit but is a good water source. It was a twopart system. The inlet locks connects to the potomac. And a dam connected to the locks. We would allow the water from the potomac to rush into the canal. And then we would have a backup source of water in case we had problems with the river. Of only the first 22 miles of the canal nowadays actually has water. Then it gets spotty. Kids, does not sound like they had a very good life. During the fourmonth they were closed, the canal, they would go to school for those four months. Our School System<\/a> back then was very different. You had a series of looks you had to go through. So, no matter how old you were a what grade you were in, if you could not get past the first book you had, you cannot move on to the second one. What the first book consisted up, mostly things like your abcs, how to count and how to write. Then once you got to the second and third books you learned how to put words together, how to add and subtract. So, they did not need to know much on the canal. But they did need to know adding, subtracting, reading writing and all of that. However, our locks keepers were on call 24 7. So they were constantly working. So, they always had to be ready to work. How they would know that they needed to have the lock ready is on the boat we would have the horn. Wed blow that horn. Our captain would yell, hey lock. It notified the keeper. The lock houses are all white. It makes them easier to see at night, so that people running 24 hours a day would go ahead and see them at night and would blow their horn to notify the lock keepers. The canal here has lots of history. We as the c o Canal Company<\/a> went bankrupt, as the potomac being our water source, it causes a lot of trouble and damage because whenever it floods, we f lood as well. This was a very pricey job to be done. It took a lot more money we had expected to finish the completion of the canal which stopped in 1850. So, we ended up going bankrupt. Our competitors at the time, the baltimore railroad, took over operations for us. And so, they kind of mae sure made sure we did not use it as frequently as we did in the 1870s, because they wanted to be the Main Transport<\/a> for any coal or cargo. They took over operations, and they did have to do a lot of reconstruction after flooding from the potomac. So the last flood that we had when they were in control of us was in 1924. They decided that it was too much money to do the repairs that needed to be done after that flood. So they went ahead and close down the chesapeake and ohio canal for good. In 1924. Back then, there are only six boats money. So its not really in use [horn blows] hey, lock so, it was not in as much use as it was because the railroad ended up getting a technology they needed like air brakes and couplings between the two carts. They became more efficient and transporting goods. In 1924, we were not used as much. So, we went ahead and close down the canal. 12 years later, the National Park<\/a> service actually went ahead and bought the chesapeake and ohio canal from a railroad for 2 million. They got steel a steal and all the acreage they got. Then in the 1950s they decided that with all of this land and all of it dug out already, that it would make a really good pathway to actually create a highway. Known as the seattle parkway. The c o parkway. They wanted to remove the Historical Properties<\/a> to create that highway to connect, let to cumberland to georgetown. Obviously, it was not a good idea. It is still here today. The reason why are canal is here today is because there is one man that was a very very fond of the canal. And he was a Supreme Court<\/a> Justice William<\/a> douglas. He loved the canal very much and was very hadnt about the fact the National Park<\/a>s decided it would be a good idea to turn this into a parkway he was very saddened. He challenged two Washington Post<\/a> editors that wrote an editorial saying that it would be a good idea he challenged them to hike the can al. 184 miles long. After that hike, they saw the beautiful things on the canal and decided that maybe it is not a good idea to turn this into a parkway. So, obviously, it stays here today. And William Douglas<\/a> was that he saved this park so you guys can enjoy today instead of sitting in traffic on a parkway. So, we are going to go ahead and do the same thing when we entered the lock. Instead of raising the water, we are going to lower the water. And do it the same way we did it. We are going to use those wicket doors. And go ahead and turn those keys so we can open the doors and let the water out. [water rushing] [whistle] announcer we went ahead and opened up our agtes. Our gates. Once our gates open, we have to get back to shore somehow. With that being said, i have to get off the bota. At. I hope you enjoyed your ride. If you have any last minute questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you guys for joining us on the charles mercer. I hope you enjoyed your ride ok . [applause] you did a fine job. Thank you. Announcer you have been watching american artifacts on cspan 3s American History<\/a> tv. You can view this and all our other programs online at cspan. Org history. The Political Landscape<\/a> has changed to the 114th congress. There are 15 new democrats in the house and 12 new republicans and one new democrat in the senate. There are one hundred eight women in congress including the first africanamerican republican in the house and the first woman veteran in the senate. Keep track of members of congress on the congressional chronicle. New congress, next assess best access. Announcer up next on American History<\/a> tv, Cornell University<\/a> history professor Fred Logevall<\/a> talks about how policymakers use and misuse the past. He cites a number of analogies and how they have been used by contemporary policymakers including neville chamberlains appeasement policies and the vietnam war. Southern Methodist University<\/a> hosted this event. It is about 80 minutes. Host my main purpose is to introduce you to professor Fred Logevall<\/a>, a professor of history at Cornell University<\/a> and the vice provost for international affairs. He is those things but much more. Those further attributes are the reasons why youre here tonight, here to listen to one of the truly great minds working the field of history today. Let me be more specific when i call fred one of the truly great historians of our day. He is in my opinion and i am biased but i have the microphone nothing less than a foremost historian of vietnam working in the country today. Vietnam, of course, vietnam that word which has come to mean so much in american society. It means a war, an era, a period when the United States<\/a> was perhaps ripped apart at the seams internally more than any other time in recent memory. It is a moment and bloodshed seemed endemic. Vietnam looms large over the field of american contemporary history. There are three basic types of american historians. Those who study the civil war. Those who study the vietnam war. And then there is everybody else. To be at the peak of one of these Three Pinnacles<\/a> i think is no mean thing and no small feat. Let me tell you why i think fred is there. Because he asks and answers not only the questions of what happened but why. Why the United States<\/a> intervened in vietnam an intervention that colors so much of the johnson president. Why france returned to vietnam after world war ii and why a series of american president despite the rhetoric of the colonization, why a series of president s continued to support the mission of reestablishing colonial rule in vietnam. And why, and this is of course the topic he will address this evening, why history itself loom so large over the oval office. And what the history means for the president of have to make decisions that affect the world. Fred is the author of numerous works in the recipient of numerous prizes, including the pulitzer. He is a gifted educator. He is also an inspiring lecturer. Let me add, he is also a dear friend and a mentor to a generation of rising diplomatic historians. It is a great honor to have known Fred Logevall<\/a> before he was Fred Logevall<\/a>. Thus, it gives me great pleasure to welcome him to the podium. Please join me in welcoming professor Fred Logevall<\/a>. [applause] professor Fred Logevall<\/a> jeff, you are much too kind. And that was more of an introduction and i shouldve received but i will accept it with gratitude. I am just very pleased to be here this evening and to have an opportunity at smu to share a few thoughts with you, to talk a little bit about president s and their use of history. Before i do, i want to express a special thanks to everybody involved in making this happen to the university and a special thanks to jeff engle. All you know that jeff is the director of the center for president ial history here. He is also on the faculty in the History Department<\/a> at smu. What some of you may not know is that he is a leading historian of u. S. Foreign relations history. And is at work on a book that i think is going to be profoundly important a study of george h. W. Bush and the end of the cold war. We now have the requisite amount of archival source material, Interview Transcripts<\/a> and a range of other bodies of evidence where we can do that subject justice. So jeffs book is already muchanticipated. I look forward to seeing between two covers before too long. Thank you for having me come. When jeff and i talked about the topic for this evening some months ago, the United States<\/a> was in the midst of a crisis that are googly still that arguably still exists in ukraine and crimea. Countless analysts analogized that situation to crises in the past. In particular to munich, 1938, in which the attempt to accommodate hitler, to appease him, only invited and guaranteed more aggression. In the same way, the commentator said a few months ago some are still saying president obamas in action in the face of ladder near 0 of Vladimir Putins<\/a> efforts amounts to dangerous appeasement. It is munich all over again. In fact, this crisis continues. Today, we could read the ukrainian and Russian Forces<\/a> are battling it out in the eastern part of ukraine. I think we are going to continue to have this debate. Other analysts, meanwhile, who were skeptics regarding a vigorous american response in the crisis invoked other historical examples. Hungary 1956. Czechoslovakia 1968. Urging president obama to follow the lead of Dwight Eisenhower<\/a> and Lyndon Johnson<\/a> who chose not to respond with force to aggressive soviet actions in those two countries. So, perhaps what i should do with the outset is to say that im grateful to Vladimir Putin<\/a> and barack obama for giving my talk this evening special contemporary resonance. What i want to do and by the way, i want to make sure we have time for discussion, because it is key for me at l east during these encounters to get a chance to interact with my audience. I want to make sure we do that. I will cast a glance at my watch. But i want to talk today about history and its uses by leaders, in particular american president s. A lot of what i am going to say this evening can be applied to decisionmakers in other countries as well, but the focus in particular will be on american president. Along the way, i want to probe deeper questions about we can and cannot learn from a careful study of the past and what utility that knowledge has for the pressing issues of our day. Now, as a student of u. S. Foreign policy, i have long been fascinated by, confounded by this interaction between history and decisionmaking. Especially at the president ial level. Fascinated by it. Because, by this process, the past becomes a kind of partner in the making of new history. So that is the part i find especially fascinated. But im also confounded by it because the role of history in this process remains both ambiguous and hard to fully comprehend. It remains perplexing. Why . Well, it is ambiguous because when you think about it, all thought which leads to decision of Public Policy<\/a> is in as its historical in essence historical. Public decisions in contemporary politics or more distance politics implies a guess about the future derived from the experience of the past. It implies an expectation or some might say a hope that certain actions tomorrow will produce the same kinds of results or similar actions produced in history. This guess about the future may be based on a copper has a theory of historical change, as with. Marxism or based on specific analogies and im going to talk about analogies drawn from the past. Or as a third possibility, it could be based on a more intuitive sense, an unstated sense of the way things ought to happen and typically do happen. But whatever it is based on, i think it involves either explicitly or implicitly historical judgment. History is bound to be utilized. So, that is why a think there is ambiguity. Its perplexing to go to the other word i use, its perplexing because when explicit historical judgments intervened, you immediately encounter a question, which is very, very hard to answer. Even with full access to official documentation in the archives. And of course, jeff and i and others, historians, depend on access and use of archives. That is our bread and butter. But even when you have that full documentation, you face the following question is the history that is invoked in the documents, is the history invoked really the source of the policy, or is it more the source of arguments designed to vindicate policies made for other reasons . Policies adopted for antecedent reasons. In other words, is history just being used to justify something europe decided to do for some other reason . Something you decided to do for some other reason . An example could be the bush administrations invocation. Use of munich, reference in munich in the lead up to the invasion of iraq in 2003. Could it be the bush team invoked munich not because it believes that Saddam Hussein<\/a> was another hitler, but because it thought referencing hitler referencing the nazi, would help close the deal with the populace, would cut off debate in congress, would reduce the matter to a satisfyingly clear danger between evil in the form of Saddam Hussein<\/a> and good in the form of the United States<\/a>. Moreover, even when history is the source of the policy, the lessons of history are often hard to fully pin down. They themselves can be ambiguous. And therefore, the antecedent reasons often determine the choice between alternative historical interpretations. So, for example, france between the wars. Thisll be my one reference to a nonus situation. In france, some senior french leaders through one set of lessons from world war i, while another set of leaders to another set of lessons. So history is the source of the policy, but there are differences about how to interpret that history. However, having said all of this, the cynical approach which dismisses the flexion of history in Public Policy<\/a> to that of near rationalization i think is insufficient. Because historical models often acquire a life of their own. Once a president , shall we say or a National Security<\/a> advisory for secretary of state begins to identify the present with the past, he or she may in time be carried away with take that analogy farther than she had planned to. She is a victim of the allure of the analogy. I will explain this a bit more as i proceed. So i want to focus on this. I want to consider why president s are so often captivated by analogy. Why indeed we all are. It is in some degree built into us as human beings. There is a deepseated human desire to believe or maybe in a something to believe that if the thing worked once, it will work again. Or if a thing brought disaster in the past, its also going to bring disaster the next time around. I want to suggest, ladies and gentlemen, that its imperative we understand both the limits and the utility of analogies in history. In other words, both what they can give us and what they cannot. And to guard against what has been called the suffocating power of the lessons that we carry around, or the lessons we carry around in our heads. Note what i am not saying here. Im not saying we should embrace the kind of historical nihilism, meaning the active forgetting of past episodes. Like many academic historians, i will confess im skeptical about the success of history as a means of prediction. I understand, i think like most of the historians in this room that historical confers no automatic wisdom, alas, in the realm of public affairs. I wish it did, but i am not sure it does. For me, history is in many respects its own reward. I love as an historian to be able to study the past for the intellectual for it brings me, hopefully also the reader. For the aesthetic for film and the historical study brings. I find in the disciplined effort to reconstruct and interpret the past just a marvelous opportunity for those who do it to consider both humanitys here was a a heroism and foolishness. But that is not the only reason why i do what i do. I do see. Here i would be interested to see if historians agree or disagree. I do think, i want to say that what i do has the utilitarian purpose. Because i do think that history can help us better understand the present and foresee the future. It is our collective memory. Just like a person who suffers from amnesia would have a difficult time knowing where she is and how she has gotten to where she is, unless she is told and then she would forget it again. So, society in this case, the United States<\/a> needs to understand its history. It can help us to better figure out where we are and where we are going. History repeats itself enough to make at least some historical generalizations possible. And because generalization sufficiently interconnected can generate insight into the likely shape of things to come. Mark twain famously said this, if history never repeats itself, sometimes it runs. It rhymes. Now, again, i think im probably on shaky ground with some professional historians in the room , perhaps jeff can set me straight. Some professional historians some historians elsewhere, will say on that contrary, fred history teaches nothing. They would agree perhaps with a great french historian, im not sure he would endorse that notion completely but he said this that for the historian, it is all about the thrill of learning singular things. Thats marc blanc. Its true it is precisely the commitment to reconstruction against abstract generalization that distinguish his history from the social sciences. Yet, i want to suggest it seems silly to insist that no generalization is possible. As the disinterested storing of france brinton once put it. The doctrine of absolute the absolute uniqueness of events in history seems nonsense. Or the great yale historian john lewis gattis is correct when he reminds us that theory is ultimately generalization and without generalization historians would have nothing whatever to say. The very words we use to generalize complex realities this is john gattis words like past, present and future, we cannot do without them as historians. And i think he is right about that. The key. Again, i will spend a few minutes comparing what we as historians do with what social scientists might. The approach they might take. I think we historians tend to embed our generalizations within our narratives. We draw, were theoretical, but we draw upon whatever theories we can find to help a show how past processes, past developers, past events produced the present situation. Explanation is our chief priority as the stories as historians. We are interested in what is general in the unique. Social scientists tend to do the reverse. They will implant their narratives within generalizations. What they want to do is they want to prove a hypothesis or, as the case may be, disprove a hypothesis. That makes narration for many social scientists secondary to that task. The theory comes first. Whereas for historians, it is generalization lost within time versus generalizations for all time. So, to use an example that is close to my heart, historians will generalize about ho chi mins revolution but all revolutions. They tend to be narrower in their resort to generalization. Ill come back","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia800208.us.archive.org\/35\/items\/CSPAN3_20150309_023000_History_and_Policy_Makers\/CSPAN3_20150309_023000_History_and_Policy_Makers.thumbs\/CSPAN3_20150309_023000_History_and_Policy_Makers_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240621T12:35:10+00:00"}