James M. McPherson

I wanted to mention that I also learn from these episodes, things that change the way that I think about stuff.

And I would mention an episode that we did with Ben Passmore about his graphic novel, Black Arms to Hold You Up, which like his take on black history is very different than James McPherson, who is sort of our leading professor that Suki and I both had at Iowa.

And so there were a lot of challenging ideas in Ben's work that for me, like caused me to rethink stuff that I had thought and read before and caused me to go back and relook at, for instance, the history of the Black Panthers in Kansas City.

And so that, like, I appreciate it when guests come on that I, that challenged me, my preconceptions and thoughts and ideas.

Now Karl, I wanna transition to Lincoln, because Lincoln is often called the Great Emancipator.

You know, children going through government schools learn from the mantra of James McPherson, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Eric Foner, and others that purport that Lincoln was like a uniquely moral individual that only operated to free the slaves.

But can you talk about Lincoln's, uh, you know, conceptions of slavery, maybe even leading up to the Civil War? Before we get into the Civil War, we can talk about, you know, his attitudes towards slavery in the states, the colonies, and what was the Corwin Amendment.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

You're always going to find something.

Look, I will tell you the same thing about some of the leftist kooks that write on the war and other things like James McPherson.

Read James McPherson.

You're going to find nuggets in there that are pretty worthwhile.

And McPherson's a good writer.

So you have this propagandist view of what the institution is, and therefore, because you have sort of this propagandized understanding of what it is, it shapes how policy is considered.

Historian James McPherson writes about the general misunderstanding of what the Emancipation Proclamation is, how it was understood at the time, and how it's even understood now.

McPherson writes this, quote, "Lincoln acted under his war powers to seize enemy resources.

He had no constitutional power to act against slavery in areas loyal to the United States.

Six times, Giles writes, the Federal infantry stormed that fatal Gibraltar.

Six times they were driven back, torn, bleeding, and dying," end quote.

James McPherson writes that the Federal troops never got closer than 50 yards to that stone wall.

Shelby Foote says they never got closer than 100 yards.

Now Karl, I wanna transition to Lincoln, because Lincoln is often called the Great Emancipator.

You know, children going through government schools learn from the mantra of James McPherson, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Eric Foner, and others that purport that Lincoln was, like, a uniquely moral individual that only operated to free the slaves.

But can you talk about Lincoln's, uh, you know, conceptions of slavery, maybe even leading up to the Civil War? Before we get into the Civil War, we can talk about, you know, his attitudes towards slavery in the states, the colonies, and what was the Corwin Amendment? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, the Corwin Amendment, uh, and, and it had Lincoln's fingerprints all over it.

The Freedmen's Bureau set up schools for Black people of all ages.

According to historian James McPherson, by 1870, there were more than 1,000 schools for freedmen in the South.

Bureau initiatives also allowed African Americans to gain political power.

An important outgrowth of the 15th Amendment was an influential Black voting bloc that translated into real political power.

up another one volume that I was curious about McPherson is that right yeah

yeah James McPherson's good

yeah I almost wanted to read it because we're going to get to it later

some of my other stuff I got little you know when you read something And you're like, oh, I want to learn everything about this now.