finally, edna green medford, our executive board member of the lincoln forum, speaker here. chairman of the department and professor of history at howard university, coauthor with me and harold holtzer on "abraham lincoln and the emancipation proclamation, three views." and her own volume, "lincoln and emancipation," part of the presser lincoln series. so before i ask each of them to make a few introductory remarks, i have asked each and they have agreed to pe fspeak for three t five minutes and then i will give them some questions and then we will open the floor to you. we hope there are many questions from you. but for many americans, reconstruction is still remembered, if it is remembered at all, as a period of racial anarchy, political failure and the humiliation of the defeated south. indeed, it is probably fair to say that americans' impressions of the era have been shaped, if only half consciously, by films such as "birth of a nation" and "gone with the wind" where their charact caricatures of scalliwags and carpet baggers, more than by what happened in the south in 1

eastern, presidential historian edna green medford, douglas brinkley and richard norton smith discussresidential leadership. >>

eastern, presidential historian edna green medford, douglas brinkley and richard norton smith discuss presidential leadership. >> the greatest american , isident, abraham lincoln bracketed by a the least successful american presidents. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. joshua hammer is with us. he is a freelance correspondent for "smithsonian magazine." we are talking about his piece in the april 2017 issue titled "a modern odyssey." thank you for joining us. you are joining us from germany via skype. tell us why you wanted to write this story and how you ended up focusing on these two particular refugees. been spending a lot of time in germany over the last couple of years. chancellor merkel opened up the floodgates allowing a million refugees to enter the country in 2015. wholeed to see how that -- how would would unfold given the power level, what's going on in the united states right now. i've been following it on and off for a couple of years. death was looking for a new way to approach the story and i talked to my editor and said, what about the refugees who

host: let's start with edna medford. thatr: not to the extent it occurred with president obama. always encountered stiff opposition from the opposing party's leadership. what happens with this administration however is unprecedented. we know that lincoln suffered his slings and arrows. different and i don't think you can remove race from this. i know we like to skirt around it. we are not comfortable talking about it. it's there. it is the elephant in the room. it's something we have to deal with and to be honest about. think a previous president have -- has seen that adversarial roadblock that senator mcconnell proposed at the beginning of the obama presidency? go ahead. guest: i was going to say to the contrary, there a reason why we talk about it. we elect someone, even amidst controversial circumstances. go back and look at the poll numbers. in the first weeks and months of the bush presidency, think back 1961 and the disaster of the bay of pigs. his numbers one up to over 80% approval. traditionally in the country, there has been a rallying around a new president, if only o

historians edna green medford, douglas brinkley norton smith discuss presidential leadership. >> it is interesting that the president,erican abraham lincoln, is bracketed by the least successful american presidents. >> this holiday weekend on c-span. civil war, ervin jordan talks about civil war and memorials. constructedn thoses to honor robert e. lee. he spoke at a symposium on the over civil war monuments hosted by the american richmond,museum in virginia. this is about 45 minutes. >> specialist in civil war and bestan american history, known in the community as the book calledfabulous "black confederates and afro-yankees in civil war virginia." out 22 years ago and it's still the best scholarly work on the subject. professor jordan has served on numerous advisory and good boards, including the thed of the museum of confederatesy. jamestownhe's on the yorktown foundation board of trustees, the jamestown yorktown commemoration9 committee. president's commission on slavery at the university of the gettysburg foundation board of directors. professor jordan is often called speak andnsul

. >> at 6:30, the presidential historians edna green medford, douglas brinkley and richard norton smith discussed the presidential leadership. >> it is interesting that the greatest american president abraham lincoln is racket hea be least successful president. >>> via "los angeles times" has been putting on the festival of books from more than 20 years, and it's become an institution anin this part of the community. it's a way we can celebrate the notion of reading and today when the idea of there being called something fake news i think books help us celebrate the way that the words and facts are grounded in storytelling and history. >>> the american dream of the black women mathematicians that helped win the space race. here are her journey about writing the remarkable story that combines the rich intersection of the civil rights era, the space race, the

eastern, presidential historian edna green medford, douglas brinkley, and richard norton smith discussresident to leadership. thet is interesting that greatest american president, abraham lincoln, is bracketed by arguably the least successful american president. sa. >> this holiday weekend on c-span. next on american history tv, the university of virginia presidential scholar barbara perry discusses the trades that make a debt the traits that make a great president. uses george washington, abraham lincoln, and fdr as examples of how great presidents cultivated their leadership and one popular support. the mcco

eastern, historians edna green medford, douglas brinkley norton smith discuss presidential leadership. >> it is interesting that the president,erican abraham lincoln, is bracketed by the least successful american presidents. >> this holiday weekend on c-span. civil war, ervin jordan talks about civil war and memorials. constructedn thoses to honor robert e. lee. he spoke at a symposium on the over civil war monuments hosted by the american richmond,museum in virginia. this is about 45 minutes. >> specialist in civil war and african american

eastern, presidential historian edna green medford, douglas brinkley and richard norton smith discuss presidential leadership. >> it is interesting that the greatest american presidents, abraham lincoln, is bracketed by accurately least successful american president. >> this holiday weekend on c-span. >> check out our c-span classroom website@c-span.org /classroom. it is full of free teaching resources for c-span classroom members. the improved leftist teachers easy access to ready to go resources for the classroom. including shortcoming event videos. the highly important events in washington d.c.. constitution clips that bring the constitution to life. social studies lesson plans. as well as on this day in history resources. outsource function allows teachers to filter by date, person, keyword, topic and grade level. our bellringers video our teacher favorites. in short videos. with vocabulary and discussion questions that make the federal government and politics more accessible to your students. >> i love the bellringers. a lot of time i do not use them like that but i use them in c

eastern, presidential historian edna green medford, douglas brinkley, and richard norton smith discuss president to leadership. thet is interesting that greatest american president, abraham lincoln, is bracketed by arguably the least successful american president. sa. >> this holiday weekend on c-span. next on american history tv, the university of virginia presidential scholar barbara perry discusses the trades that make a debt the traits that make a great president. uses george washington, abraham lincoln, and fdr as examples of how great presidents cultivated their leadership and one popular support. the mcconnell center the university of louisville and kentucky hosted this one hour, 10 minute event. good evening, ladies and gentlemen thank you all for , coming out to be with us tonight. i would also like to thank those who are watching on c-span who are tuning in. my name is bridget kim and i am a mcconnell's goner -- scholar. it is an honor for me to serve as mc for this program tonight. tonight we not only have a chance to think seriously about the american presidency and its req

edna green medford, douglas brinksly and richard norton smith. is interesting that the greatest american president, abraham lincoln is bracketed by arguably the least successful american. >> this hollywood weekend on c-span. >> three former pentagon officials tfy

edna green medford, douglas brinksly and richard norton smith. t. >> it is interesting that the greatest american president, abraham lincoln is bracketed by arguably the least successful american. >> this hollywood weekend on c-span. >> three former pentagon officials testify before a house committee on the future of the u.s. armed forces and recommendations to improve the services. including cost savings and efficiencies, incentivizing and managing the civilian work force. [ gavel ] >> committee will come to order. this week, the committee will hold two hearings that focus on the two major pillars of our agenda. tomorrow we'll hear from the service chiefs on repairing and rebuilding our military. today, however, we'll concentrate on the other pillar, which is defense reform. we've done a lot of reform over the past two years, that includes acquisition reform, a new military retirement system, major changes in military health care, commissary reform, a rewrite of the uniform code of military justice as well as significant organizational reform. w

eastern, presidential historians, edna medford, douglas brinkley and richard norton smith discuss presidential leadership. >> it is interesting that the greatest american president, abraham lincoln is bracketed by arguably the least successful american presidents. >> this holiday weekend on c-span. >>> this weekend, c-span cities tour along with the help of our comcast cable partners will explore the literary scene and history of charlottesville, virginia. saturday noon eastern on book tv, we visit the university of virginia to see their exhibit on william faulkner, nobel prize winner and uva's first writer in residence. >> we have wonderful artifacts, of course. many from uva sources. among other things, the typewriter issued by the university even with the university property stamp on the back. we have a jacket that he wore. he as you can see when you look at the jacket, it's pretty torn up and ratty. he liked to keep the clothes for a long time and left the jacket hanging in the office going on the last trip to oxford, mississippi, when he passed away. >> on sunday at 12:00 p.m. eastern on