Open That Scab David Cross

Allen C. Guelzo is the Senior Research Scholar at the Council of Humanities at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books about the Civil War and early nineteenth century. He has been the recipient of the Lincoln Prize three times, the Guggenheimm-Lehrman Prize for Military History, and many other honors.

What we cover –

Allen C. Guelzo is a premier historian and well known for his seventeen books as well as his riveting lectures offered by the The Great Courses. In his new book, "Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy and the American Experiment," Guelzo looks at our greatest president and his thoughts on democracy. (Says George F. Will: "It is altogether fitting and proper that, with this meditation on democracy and its most subtle defender Allen Guelzo again demonstrates that he is today's most profound interpreter of this nation's history and significance." Join us as we discuss not only the past, but what that past has to say about our extremely precarious present.



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Maria Smilios is the author of The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis. Working as a development editor in the biomedical field, Smilios came upon the story of the African-American nurses who played a key role in the cure of tuberculosis and she just had to share it. The result is a gripping account of the lives of the women who came to New York and performed heroically against tremendous odds.

What we cover –


The scourge of tuberculosis in the early 19th century and how it threatened the lives of millions of Americans.
Why a medical institute in New York that was dedicated to combating tuberculosis looked to African-Americans living in the south to fill its nursing positions.
The effects of Jim Crow on these nurses and the continued racism they combatted in New York.


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H.W. Brands is one of the pre-eminent historians today and has written numerous books that have not only won plaudits and awards but have changed the way we look at figures as diverse as Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. We discuss his new book, Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of the American Politics. With one eye glued to our current political situation – in particular, the events of January 6th, 2021, in which, for the first time in American history, citizens were encouraged to defy the results of a presidential election – Brands delves into the political views as well as the personal proclivities of four individuals who hd a profound impact on how our country evolved.

What we cover –


How Alexander Hamilton and James Madison turned the “fiasco” of the Annapolis Convention into the triumph of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
The birth and rise of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist/Republican Parties.
How the Hamilton-Madison alliance turned into one of the most impactful disputes in American history.
How Thomas Jefferson and James Madison created an alliance that took on the alliance of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton.
What we can learn today from the country’s initial birth of partisanship.

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Fergus Bordewich is one of the premier historians currently living, and his prior seminal works include Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America; Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad and The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government. His new book, Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction may be his most important book yet. In this book, Bordewich destroys the self-serving shibboleths about Reconstruction that have been offered by Lost Cause historians and describes, in gripping detail, the war that had been waged by Confederates againstAfrican-Americans and southern Republicans after the Civil War.

What we cover –


The origins of the Klan.
Ulysses Grant and his eventual decision to wage war against the Klan.
The numerous barbarous atrocities waged against African Americans in order to nullify the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
The eventual failure to enforce Reconstruction and the results that ensued.

You can purchase this book at your local bookstore.

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When David Garrow – Pulitzer Prize winning author of the Martin Luther King Jr. biography Bearing the Cross – first saw Barack Obama on television making his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention, he was intrigued. He immediately read Obama’s book Dream’s From My Father and felt that the book read more like a novel than a piece of history. Garrow eventually went on a nine year journey to deconstruct the mythology that surrounded Obama, and this journey resulted in the book Rising Star, a 1,460 page exegesis into Obama’s pre-presidential years.

What we cover – 


What will the historical perception of the Obama presidency look like?
Why does Obama take so many “shots” at President Joe Biden?
What is Obama’s view on Israel and its current war with Hamas? 
What do Obama’s prior romantic relationships show about Obama?

Watch this special episode at openthatscab.com.