history tv? visit our website, c-span.org /history. you can view our tv schedule, see upcoming programs, and view college lectures, archival films, and more. american history tv at c-span.org/history. next on lectures in history, texas a&m university professor lorien foote teaches a class about popular culture during the 1840's. she talks about the importance of theater to all classes of society during this period, including shakespearean performances and minstrel shows. she also describes the high literacy rate in the united states and the rise of serialized novels and ladies' journals. her class is about 45 minutes. prof. foote: so our topic for today is popular culture. we have been talking about the social changes that go on in the 1830's and 1840's in the united states.

and what we are going to do today is we are going to look at how popular culture reflects some of the conflicts that go on in american society over these social changes. we are going to be surprised to see that theater and what people read becomes a point of conflict over issues about gentility. last class period, we talked about the spread of gentility through american culture. we need to pause and remind ourselves of what that was. if i say "vernacular gentility," what do i mean by that?

>> vernacular gentility is the spread of a more common style of gentility in the american middle class that was originally taken from the aristocratic courts in europe. prof. foote: it is an aristocratic culture that spreads through the american middle classes. what are some of the key elements? >> comfort more so than beauty. britain and europe really focused on beauty and how you appear in public. in particular, it is about the household and how to maintain a comfortable there. prof. foote: what are some of the elements -- even in vernacular gentility you are supposed to be refined. what are some of the elements that would mark you as a refined? >> little boys and little girls would be raised to sit a certain way, stand a certain way. how to court in the future. how a man would court a woman and how a woman should appear to a man. prof. foote: so there are a lot of rules about manners and etiquette that even children are going to be trained in to follow these behaviors. if i say that everyone, even in the comfortable world of american gentility, that you

should have "taste," what do i mean by taste? elijah? >> reacting strongly to your experience and being overcome by feeling. showing how susceptible you are to the beauty of nature. prof. foote: that is a perfect definition of sensibility. that sense of indulging in your emotions and reacting strongly. what about taste? >> it is about adding more decorative items in the home. maybe having a vase on your table or upgrading your bathroom. whereas before it was bare necessities in your home. prof. foote: so everything should give a lovely impression. that is why they worked so hard on the way they carried themselves. even as i say this, i am trying to stand straighter and gesture more gracefully with my hand. everything needs to give a lovely impression. great. so that gentility is spreading through the american middle class, even among some people of the working and lower classes.

why did some people oppose gentility? if i say some people in the -- finiacrevival revival opposed gentility, why? >> you are too worldly. you're not giving yourself up to god. you are concerning yourself too much with worldly and personal possession. prof. foote: great. >> there was a widespread concern that gentility would lead to a more materialistic type of world. prof. foote: excellent. both concerns we talked about last time. and then there are also or to the concerns -- this is what we will touch on today. the spread of gentility relates to the widespread idea in american culture of improvement. that everyone can improve themselves. and we have seen among politicians in the 1820's and 1830's this idea that the nation can be improved.

so there is this general sense in the culture of improvement. this is going to come along right at the same time as we saw that many journeymen in the trades are beginning to feel like some of the economic changes are converting them into a class of wage laborers, and they no longer have a good opportunity to become master artisans themselves. do you remember that? so that is going to be another key to what we are going to see happen today. givenant to look at is, these broader social changes, how is this reflected in the popular culture of this time period? and the shocking conflicts over that? one of the samples we want to look at today is theater. and we will look at how theater reflects conflicts over gentility.

to understand this, we first have to understand something about 19th century theater. early 19th century theater. , many colonial period americans had actually been opposed to the theater. people who were calvinistic protestants were concerned about this world of make-believe and public performances. in the early 19th century, theater owners in major cities in the northeast undertook to spread the popularity of theater. they want to free it from stigma , brought in the appeal -- broaden the appeal of theater. so theater owners in the northeast are going to broaden the appeal of theater. so they begin to present plays that have moral themes and moral lessons. patriotic stage plays, as well,

that celebrate the united states and the union. and, they are going to produce a lot of shakespeare. all socialricans of classes loved their shakespeare. people read shakespeare, and they wanted to see shakespeare in the theater. he was a revered cultural icon in the united states. even though, of course, he is english. so a lot of shakespeare. in these early theaters, these performances last a long time. there will be shows before the main play. singing, acrobats, jugglers before the performance. and, in early 19th century

theater, as the owners attempted to reach this broad audience, the audiences are very rowdy. lots of noise during the performances. and they will yell comments to the actors during the performance. sometimes, they're going to yell at the character that is being portrayed. or, sometimes, they will yell their opinion of how well the actor is doing. in the middle of the play. and a great actor knows how to spontaneously respond. so if somebody yells at the character, a great actor knows how to stay in character and make a response in character, making up a line. or, if somebody is yelling a criticism, the actor can do will -- do a witty one-liner and really zing that person in the audience. audiences expected this interaction between the people on stage and the audience in

this noisy, rowdy, very loud production of shakespeare. what happens is has vernacular gentility begins to spread through society, there gets to be an audience for more refined theatergoing. more refined production of -- productions of shakespeare. what we're going to see that is so interesting -- the theater will become a point of conflict between those who embrace refinement and gentility and those who reject that as a value. so the theater is going to become this point of conflict between those people. -- between those who embrace refinement and gentility and those who reject that as a cultural value. because they like the theater as it was, those who reject refinement. so, many theaters are going to do several things to try to make

theater more refined and to reach a refined audience. first of all, they will ban the prostitutes who traditionally operated in the upper galleries of theaters. you see what i'm seeing about a rowdy, boisterous audience? [laughter] so these new theaters are going to ban the prostitutes who ply their trade in the upper galleries of the theater. they will implement dress codes. and, they will create an atmosphere where it is discouraged to make noise and to yell at the actors. so they will create an atmosphere where it is discouraged to yell and make noise at the actors. and, equally important, these theaters are going to bring over british actors to play in shakespeare so that they can offer the most refined

productions of shakespeare. the epitomy of the refined, new type of theater was the after house theater in new york city. so i have got a picture here on the slide of these new kinds of theaters. epitome of that is the after house opera company theater. this new theater is deeply resented by the working-class patrons of the theater. so if we look at new york city, the theater that represents the rowdy, boisterous kind of theater was the broadway theater. it was the favorite theater of

the bowery b'hoys. this is going to stretch back a couple of lectures. i don't know if this will come immediately to your mind, who were those boys? do you remember who they were and operated? >> they lived where all the factories and workshops were. prof. foote: that is a great description of that neighborhood. and of course a lot of them, as you mentioned, are farm sons who moved to the city. they are single, young men who have moved from rural areas to take advantage of the opportunities that the market revolution has brought to the major cities. so in this section of new york there is ae bowery, broadway theater which is the ys,orite of the bowery b'ho with their interesting hairstyles, sleekly gelled hair, tall hats, jewelry. their favorite actor, and i have a picture of him, is edwin

forrest. he is a favorite actor. he had a passionate, manly delivery style of shakespeare that the bowery b'hoys thought was the american way to do shakespeare. it is not refined. loud, passionate, almost virile in his way of doing his characters. so that is the setting for the worst riot in american history up to this point. so here's what happens. in may, of 1849, the afterplace theater decides to do a performance of "macbeth" starring charles mcgrady, a british actor.

so the broadway theater decides to put on a production the same night of the same play, "macbeth ," starring edwin forrest. after place is going to -- astor place is going to do play with a british actor. over in the astor house theater, the play begins but forrest fans have infiltrated the play. and as mcgrady begins to do his portrayal, they held the stage including this liquid nicknamed "devil's dung." it is a horrible stench on the

stage. macready has to leave the stage and is very upset and says he will not continue with the run of the play he was supposed to do. well, a group of wealthy new yorkers get together a petition begging macready to continue his run of performances at the astor house. it is signed by famous literary figures like hermann melville and washington irving, begging him to do his run. so, three days after the devil's dung was thrown onstage, he will take the stage again. the bowery b'hoys and their supporters were outraged and prepared for this. this is a flyer that was put up across the island of manhattan, and right before macready's

performance. americansen -- should -- at the english aristocratic opera house. we advocate no violence, but a free extension of opinion to all workingmen. freemen, stand by your lawful rights. american committee." in the wake of these flyers, the night of the performance, before it begins, over 20,000 people gather outside the astor place theater. 20,000 people. they are clearly rowdy and boisterous. and, a newspaper reporter who was on the scene is later going to describe the theater as

like a fortress besieged by an invading army. as this crowd surrounds the theater. they began throwing bricks and b ats at the building and also at people who are trying to get inside to see the performance. the police tried to quell the riots, but they are unable to do so. so the city leaders call in the national guard. and the national guard had been prepared, because for three days between the two performances, city officials knew about the unrest. so they had prepared the national guard. so the city officials call out the national guard that quickly takes up position outside of the crowd. most of the rioters do not disperse even as the national guardsmen take up firing positions.

everyone, surprise of the orders are given to open fire on the crowd. the national guard opens fire, directly into the crowd, and this newspaper, of course, is depicting that. so you can see the smoke from the muskets there opening fire on the crowd. 22 people are killed and 38 injured. and it is the deadliest riot in american history up to that point. 1849. the deadliest riot in american history, up to that point. so isn't this interesting that the most horrific violence that occurs in an incident of class conflict in american society -- it occurs over how to perform shakespeare. >> did the play still go on? prof. foote: it did not go on

that night. macready said i'm done. i got pelted with devil's dung the first night, people got killed outside the theater, i am going to england the next night. he did not complete the performance. >> was that planned? prof. foote: that was the point of the flyers. they were trying to agitate the crowd to come. so a lot of working-class men from the bowery come. and of course, what always happens in riots, a lot of people came to see if there was a riot and to see what would happen. part of the crowd is, we heard something is going to happen so let's go. it gets way out of hand. a lot of scuffling in the crowd. and it escalates from here. i want to pause for a moment. if you will remember, i talked about the jacksonian america and the aftermath of that in the 1830's and 1840's. it sees the most civil violence in american history. and we talked about how a lot of

the violence, for example, was made against abolitionists. and we saw that those were not put down by authorities. because there was a sense among the jacksonian democrats that the crowds represent the will of the people. and we talked about nothing should get in the way of the will of the people. i think one reason we see this riot turn deadly, and that the national guard actually fired on the crowd, is because here the popular will is not so clear. refinement and gentility is widely spreading through american society. and not only that, new york city, amidst the city, there is no clear consensus the way there are in some counties and rural areas. so this is a conflict where authorities are very concerned about getting out of control and the concern of other class issues that this could open up. so we see this handled very differently than in cases where the authorities just let

mobs run out their course. are there questions about that? so another example, actually, of the spread of refinement and the conflict over refinement has to do with literature. magazines and novels. so another window into this conflict over gentility is magazines and novels. the conflict over gentility and refinement. first, we need to understand there are changes in literature that go on in this time period that are going to make reading more accessible to more people than ever before. we have already talked about, because of the communication revolution, how there are

improvements in printing that make printing more economical, that make it more quick to produce and print things, so technological changes that have created a revolution in printing and the ability to create economies of printing and more quick printing. this is going to allow, as we talked about before, for the spread of newspapers across the country. but it is also going to affect how novels are presented. so because of these economies and mass production of printing, it allows for the rise of the novel as mass entertainment. because novels can be longer and still be affordable. novels can be longer and still be affordable. also, because of the spread of newspapers and magazines, most authors are going to serialize their novel. so, before they are printed in one volume or two or three volumes, they will be serialized in a popular magazine or

newspaper. because, as you remember, newspapers and magazines have cheap postal rates. and so these subscriptions are spreading across the country. so, people who live in remote rural areas can get magazines delivered to them. and these novels will be serialized. fitting into this change is that, by the 1840's, the united states has the most literate reading public of any nation in the world. the widespread literacy in the deted states that tocqueville comments on. you have a very broad reading public in the united states to create market for magazines and novels. so what we are going to see is that these magazines are going to reflect this cultural conflict over the spread of gentility.

so on one hand, we see literature that not only reflects genteel values but actually is used to spread and cultivate genteel values. the perfect example of this is godey's ladies' book. godey's ladies' book. this is the quintessential refined magazine, the most widely read magazine in the united states. its editor -- even though i have to pause there, because she did not call herself an editor. she said she was the "editress." she used the gender form of editor. godey'she editress of ladies' book, was sarah josepha

buell hale. has anyone heard of this woman before today? this is how they fades. -- how fame fades. this is the woman that is responsible not only for thanksgiving, because she used her influence to call for a national thanksgiving, but she also wrote "mary had a little lamb." now you know that she wrote it. she has a very interesting story. it is worth saying about something about her background. she is a small town new hampshire girl. she was born in a small town in new hampshire. and her parents believed in equal education for boys and girls. so she actually obtained the equivalent of a college education in her house by her parents. she obtained the equivalent of a college education. she married a young lawyer, david hale.

and they spent eight happy years together, having children, pursuing self-improvement, and his career. but he suddenly died after eight years of marriage. and like queen victoria, who, after prince albert died would wear black for the rest of her life, sarah hale wears black for the rest of her life. nothing will ever replace her husband for her. but she is a widow with children to support. and so she turns to her greatest asset, which is her literary skill. this amazing education she received at home. so she publishes a successful novel. of verseshes a book for sunday school children that includes "mary had a little lamb" -- only it was called "mary's lamb" which she first wrote it. and, based on the success of her

novel and her book of verses, she begins the first ladies' magazine. at first, she only publishes it in boston. the boston ladies magazine. but with the success of her magazine, she would become the editress of godey's ladies book. so, here's the irony of her career. and i have got a cover of godey's ladies' book so you can get a sense of the cover of that. let me get you to the thought of this ladies book. the irony of this book is that sarah hale is a hardheaded, successful businesswoman who understands how to run a business in the economic change of the united states at this time. very hardheaded, successful businesswoman involved in the

business world. who publishes a magazine that promotes and celebrates women's domesticity and gentility. her magazine will portray a female world separate from the male sphere. some of you may have heard that term, "separate spheres." sarah hale will promote the idea of separate spheres. that there is a world of competition that is male-dominated. and that women have a special of providing, in the domestic sphere, a place not dominated by competition but of comfort and beauty. comfort becomes essential to this gentility. and that is what she is going to promote. that women, in their separate sphere of the home, create an

atmosphere of comfort and gentility. so, men will come home from their business and their competition in that rough world out there to this place of genteel refinement. so what she is going to do in her magazine is tell women how to create that world at home. she will help construct the terms of "refined culture." so going back to the point that marcie raised about training your children -- she will have articles. here's the etiquette you want your children to learn, and here's the way you train them. here is the parenting tips to make sure you can get that rowdy 4-year-old boy to understand how to sit at the table and what spoon he will use. so she has tips about that in her magazine. roger? >> so she provides all of these tips. did she practice these tips? prof. foote: she does. she is a refined woman herself.

even as she is a hardheaded, successful businesswoman. but she has a genteel home. she is genteel and refined herself and how she lived. she also, though, does want to expand and enrich the women's sphere. so she does promote women's education. she helps to found bass or college -- vassar college. she promotes women's health. she advocates for property rights for women. but, not to vote. and as a mentioned earlier, she uses godey's ladies book to do a long-standing campaign for there to be a national holiday of thanksgiving. is going to publish -- and this gets us to point number 3 -- she's going to publish in godey's ladies book, "improving refined literature."

so, like other genteel people in this time period, they believe d that reading habits should cultivate and improve your mind. habits should cultivate and improve your mind. not only will reading help republican citizens be better citizens, but it was also help improve the tone of conversation. right? part of gentility was that you have refined and elevated conversation. so reading habits will cultivate the language that you need for that refined conversation. she will publish "improving literature" in godey's ladies' book. and an example of that was the most popular poet of the day, henry wadsworth longfellow.

a lot of longfellow's poems were about historic events. like paul revere's ride. but many of his poems were exhortations to self-improvement. i've used this word so often in this time period in their class, the word "improvement," that in the exam, i feel like if you do not know the answer, you could write "improvement" and you have good chances of getting something right. his poems are exhortations of self-improvement. i want to put up a few lines from one of his poems. there is a sketch of him on the screen. this is what he looks like. here's one of his poems. "the songs of life." lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime. and, departing, leave behind us,

footprints in the sands of time. let us then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate, still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait. modern literary critics find longfellow pedantic, trite -- they hate him. people in his time period valued him for just those qualities. tion totortion -- exhor self-improvement, the moral, elevated tone of his poetry. this is what sarah hale will publish in the pages of godey's ladies' book. at the same time, there was a type of literature that is emerging in this time period that is just as popular as longfellow's poetry. and, it is violent, erotic, sensational, escapist fiction. that critiques american society.

so, i have here is my fourth point sensation, violent criticism. because of the same time we have longfellow, we have george lippard. a picture of george lippard. he wrote the best-selling novel in the united states up until the time of "uncle tom's cabin." "uncle tom's cabin" will take over as the best-selling novel. cabin,"l "uncle tom's the best-selling novel is "the also calledk hall", "quaker city." sarah hale says in godey's ladies' book that george lippard is the most popular novelist of this time -- i will not be

printing any of his novels. george lippard is a pennsylvanian. he lived much of his life in philadelphia. he was a working-class journalist. he spent a lot of time with the journeymen in the city of philadelphia. we talked a lot about the journeymen. as we have talked about -- this is the time when the journeymen's world is changing. they are becoming more and more wage laborers rather than skilled men who are having, as a goal, achieving independence and mastering for themselves. there's a lot of crime and poverty emerging in cities like new york and philadelphia. so george lippard lives in a working-class, journeymen world, and he writes for newspapers that represent the working men's society that we have talked about. so he is going to write fiction that criticizes the hypocrisy,

the oppression that takes place in big northern cities. the themes of his novels will be about hypocrisy and oppression. he is going to write gothic tales about the lust and immorality of the elite classes in philadelphia. so they are gothic tales of horror about the immorality, lust, debauchery of the elite classes in the large city. -- cities. so this is what we see in "the monks of monk hall." he based this on a true story about a young man who murdered the man who raped his sister. and this young man was found not guilty by a jury. so he is going to take that incident, that happened in new jersey, and he is going to weave

a novel about philadelphia out of it. but what is important -- "the monks of monk hall" is a very difficult novel to get your mind around. because it is this rambling story. but he uses the rape and seduction angle as a metaphor for the oppression of the working classes in philadelphia. but what makes lippard a direct assault on gentility is not his theme of oppression, it is how he goes about it. because his novel, at times, goes into voyeuristic eroticism. he will spend paragraphs describing "heaving bosoms." he will spend pages, describing in minute detail, the brains of an old lady splattered all over a room. a lady that has been murdered and her brain is splattered across the room, lingering on the description.

gore, erotic material, lingering descriptions of that. and that is the most popular novel in the united states. this is not a genteel, refined novel. what makes this call for complex -- there are people who read godey's ladies' book and "the monks of monk hall." that is why it is the best-selling book of the period. it sold 60,000 copies in the first year. that is a lot for this period. it has an audience that appeals to both. it reflects very different cultural values than that of refined gentility. does that make sense? are there questions about that? so the final thing that i want us to do -- i want to take us back. we started with the stage. and we will return to the stage.

another entertainment venue that reflects these cultural conflicts over gentility that we have talked about are the minstrel shows. the minstrel shows. the most originally american stage production in this time period were the minstrel shows. these are unique to the united states. shakespeare productions occur in europe. are uniquelyshows american. this is a form of stage entertainment. very popular. word "minstrel" is a traveling position. but in the united states, the word becomes stage productions singing byits and white actors in blackface.

they will use burnt cork to blacken their face to make them appear like african-americans. they are white singers be a they will do sketch comedy. and they will blacken their faces with burnt cork to imitate african-americans. the racial elements of the minstrel obvious, and we will touch on that later in this course. what i want to focus on is how reflect thesehows conflicts over gentility and growing class conflict over gentility in the united states. because what is interesting is the original minstrel shows, even though they were gradually broaden their appeal and become the most popular kind of entertainment in the united states -- the original audience of the minstrel shows were urban, working-class city men. that is going to be the initial audience for these minstrel shows on the stage. an urban, working-class audience.

and the humor of that audience central to be defining what the minstrel shows become. the humor of that audience becomes central to defining what the minstrel shows become. so there are, actually, historians who study the history of comedy. and i often say, why did i not realize that when i was in graduate school, because that would be really fun and interesting? and instead, i sit around all day reading about civil war, which is depressing. instead, i could be reading about comedy. and so people that study the history of comedy, they study the history of the minstrel shows, because nobody today would find this funny. not only because of the racist elements but because of the lines, we would not find it funny. but when we look at why working-class urban audiences

find this funny -- i will get to these characters in a point -- we see that the humor is letting them get out and laugh at resentments that they have. and that there is an ultimate target for almost all of the humor. so the humor reflects these resentments, and there's a target for all of the humor. because almost all of the laughs in the minstrel shows are laughing at african-americans trying to improve themselves. do you see what i'm saying about the word "improvement"? here it is again. the target of the humor is the idea of improvement and refinement. at a time when many working-class people feel like there is no improvement in the economy for them, and there's this widespread sense that you need to change yourself, to be

refined, instead of leaving yourself as you are, there's a lot of resentment about that. and it is clear in the target of the humor. so we can see that if we look at the earliest minstrel shows. there are two stock characters in every show that -- they get all of the targets of the laughs. the one on the left is zip coon. zip coon is a free black. the laugh is always that he is trying to talk in refined language, he is trying to improve himself. , to thisoke is that audience, since african-americans are racially inferior, they cannot improve. so here is someone that is trying to improve, and he cannot do it. and so he always gets himself into humiliating and embarrassing situations, trying to be refined, trying to speak

properly. the other stock character, the one on the right on the screen, is jim crow. jim crow is a country bumpkin who is ignorant, and he is always getting in a situation where he gets a comic comeuppance from trying to look smart, or when he goes to the city and tries to fit in, but he is a country bumpkin. now think about what we have talked about, about all of the young men moving to the city. and so here is a character, jim to the country bumpkin city -- but because he is an african-american, this can get laughs among the urban class, working-class audience. so, we're going to talk about the songs of the minstrel shows and what those reflect in a later class period. but i want you to understand the

comic characters of the minstrel shows, one way to understand them is the racial views of isricans, but think of them the real target of the humor in -- is these working-class resentments against gentility and refinement. >> how long do the shows last? years, i mean. prof. foote: they're going to last until -- i will show you a film clip from the 1920's. i mean, the minstrel shows will be the most popular form of entertainment from 1820 into the 20th century. al jolson does films where he sings in blackface and has minstrel singers behind him. one of my colleagues, brian, he actually studies sailors who go overseas in the early and late 19th century. one of the most interesting

things is that the navy, the sailors in the navy, when they are stationed in the pacific island, they will put on minstrel shows for each other. this is so popular that americans even try to take it overseas, wherever they go. i keep referencing the research i do as a civil war historian so civil war prisoners of war, confederate and union prisoners they put on minstrel shows to , entertain each other in prison. one of the most famous prisons is libby prison in richmond, virginia, and we have the actual handwritten bill that describes the minstrel shows that the officers put on to entertain each other in the prison. who is going to play zip coon and who is going to play jim crow. they are immensely popular for a long time. we will talk about this later.

stephen foster is a white songwriter who writes the most popular song at this time. he wrote "oh susanna," and the and "the camptown races." things like that. james bland is an african-american songwriter who also writes songs for minstrel shows. these minstrel shows become so popular that they are able to hire the absolute best songwriters for the period. they are popular all over the country. are there questions about that? we will pick up on these minstrel shows next week. let me know if you have any questions about the paper that is due monday, and i will see you guys later. have a great weekend. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] today at 4:00 p.m. eastern on --l america, the president 1968. a film showing the tumultuous

of 1968, covering the activities of president lyndon b. johnson. >> at 3:30 a.m., the president was awakened with the news that senator robert kennedy, in the midst of victory in the california primary, had been shot and quickly wounded by an assassin. the day of the senator's death, president johnson sent letters to the resident of the senate and the speaker of the house which urgently implored congress to enact meaningful and effective gun control law. in june, much of the president's attention was focused on the paris peace talks. earlier in the month, american negotiators returned to report on the apparent impasse in those meetings. from vietnam, those reports were far from optimistic. instead of a slowdown in hostilities, the communists had launched a massive new wave of assault across the south to erode resolve on the home front.

at a news conference on june 26, the president announced that supreme court chief justice earl warren was retiring. in making his third and fourth appointment to the high court, the president knew that his choices would affect the destiny of the nation long after he himself had left office. >> watch reel america this weekend on american history tv on c-span 3. " washington journal." live every day. coming up monday morning, we will preview the week ahead in washington with politico white house reporter chris cadelago and stephen dinan. plus, we will talk about the cost of safeguarding nuclear materials with john donnelly. journal,"washington

live at 7:00 eastern monday morning. >> this year marks the 50th anniversary of robert f. kennedy's assassination. next, from the robert c. byrd center for congressional history and education, authors jules witcover and john bohrer sat down with u.s. senate historian emeritus donald ritchie to discuss bobby kennedy's political legacy a half century later. this is an hour and 10 minutes. ray: robert f. kennedy was running for president of the united states when he was assassinated in california, just hours after winning the california primary on june 5, 1968. and he died a few hours later on june 6. 1968 was one of those years that historians and journalists alike call a watershed.