Podcast appearances and mentions of Elizabeth R Varon

James Longstreet spent the American Civil War as one of the leading generals in the Confederate Army. But after 1865 he became a supporter of reconstruction and black voting, even leading an interracial force in battle against former Confederates in New Orleans. In this episode, Longstreet's latest biographer, Elizabeth R Varon, talks to Rob Attar about his remarkable life and extraordinary change of heart. (Ad) Elizabeth R Varon is the author of Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South (Simon & Schuster, 2023). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Longstreet-Confederate-General-Defied-South/dp/1982148276/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

120 years ago today, Confederate General James Longstreet died, leaving behind a complicated legacy as a former slave owner who later supported Black suffrage and Reconstruction. What does his story have to tell us about how someone can change their mind? Author Elizabeth R. Varon joins us to discuss her new biography, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South.

We are joined by Dr. Elizabeth R. Varon to discuss her new book "James Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South" 

This week we're going back to the Old West with The Ballad of Buster Scruggs! Join us as we learn about dry counties, whether or not birds can count, bank robbery, the Chautauqua, and more! Sources: A.V. "Why America Still Has 'Dry Counties'," The Economist, available at https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/06/05/why-america-still-has-dry-counties Nancy Kay Tisdale, The Prohibition Crusade in Arizona. MA Thesis, 1965. Full text available at https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/551788/AZU_TD_BOX252_E9791_1965_251.pdf?sequence=1 Chautaqua: An American Narrative. PBS. Available at https://www.pbs.org/video/chautauqua-an-american-narrative-chautauqua-an-american-narrative/ Kelsey Ables, "What is Chautauqua? The Site of the Rushdie Attack Has a Long History," Washington Post, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/08/13/chautauqua-history/ Jacky Emmerton, "Birds' Judgments of Number and Quantity," Avian Visual Cognition https://pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/avc/emmerton/  Hank Davis and Jeff Memmott, "Counting Behavior in Animals: A Critical Evaluation," Psychological Bulletin 92:3 (1982): 547-71. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hank-Davis/publication/232453414_Counting_behavior_in_animals_A_critical_evaluation/links/555b44e808ae8f66f3ad5120/Counting-behavior-in-animals-A-critical-evaluation.pdf  Joe Nickell, "Animal Shows" Secrets of the Sideshows, 299-321 (University Press of Kentucky, 2005). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jcf40.16  Michael T. Caires, "Building a Union of Banks: Salmon P. Chase and the Creation of the National Banking System," New Perspectives on the Union War edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Elizabeth R. Varon, 160-85 (Fordham University Press, 2019). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh1dnpx.10  E. Michael Rosser and Diane M. Sanders, "Overview of Banks and Mortgage Banking in the United States," A History of Mortgage Banking in the West: Financing America's Dreams, 19-40 (University Press of Colorado, 2017). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1vz4910.7   John Warnock, "Tucson: A Place-Making," Journal of the Southwest 58:3 (2016): 361-616. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26310194  Brian D. Behnken, "Bandits Everywhere: Anti-Mexican Violence, Mexican and Mexican American Resistance," Borders of Violence and Justice: Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Law Enforcement in the Southwest, 1835-1935 (University of North Carolina Press, 2022). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469670140_behnken.11  Robert M. Utley, "Who Was Billy the Kid?" Montana The Magazine of Wester History 37:3 (1987): 2-11. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4519066  Stuart H. Traub, "Rewards, Bounty Hunting, and Criminal Justice in the West: 1865-1900," Western Historical Quarterly 19:3 (1988): 287-301. https://www.jstor.org/stable/968233  Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_ballad_of_buster_scruggs  Peter Bradshaw, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs review - the Coens' brutal salute to the western," The Guardian, 31 August 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/31/the-ballad-of-buster-scruggs-review-coen-brothers-western  Glenn Kenny, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," RogerEbert.com 9 November 2018, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-ballad-of-buster-scruggs-2018  Terry Gross interview, Fresh Air, https://www.npr.org/2019/02/08/692636652/filmmakers-joel-and-ethan-coen-on-singing-cowboys-and-working-with-oxen  Claire Lampen, "All the Allegations Against James Franco," The Cut 13 July 2022. https://www.thecut.com/2022/07/all-the-sexual-misconduct-allegations-against-james-franco.html  BBC News, "Liam Neeson bemoans sexual harassment 'witch hunt' in Hollywood," 13 January 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-42675667   BBC News "Liam Neeson in racism storm after admitting he wanted to kill a black man," 5 February 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47117177 

Elizabeth R. Varon, Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia, discusses James Longstreet's influence in the early era of Reconstruction after the Civil War.

The Civil War created a complex tradition of remembering the most disruptive event in United States history. Different memories played out in various ways, including the creation of a memorial landscape that in time generated controversy. The Lost Cause memorial landscape in Charlottesville occupied a central position in recent debates and controversies regarding the memory of the war. Gary W. Gallagher, John Edwin Mason, and Elizabeth R. Varon, all members of the Department of History at UVA, will discuss the creation, development, and continuing impact of the various Civil War memory traditions at the University, in Charlottesville, and across the nation. Speakers: Gary Gallagher Cavaliers' Distinguished Teaching Professor of History; John L. Nau Professor in the History of the American Civil War, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; Director, John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History John Mason Associate Professor of History, Corcoran Department of History, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Elizabeth Varon Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; Associate Director, John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History https://alumni.virginia.edu/learn/program/civil-war-memory-charlottesville-and-beyond/

On june 5, 2014, Elizabeth R. Varon delivered the banner lecture "Lee at Appomattox" Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House evokes a highly gratifying image in the popular mind—it was, many believe, a moment that transcended politics, a moment of healing, a moment of patriotism untainted by ideology. But as Elizabeth Varon reveals in her latest book, this rosy image conceals a seething debate over precisely what the surrender meant and what kind of nation would emerge from war. In Appomattox, she deftly captures the events swirling around that well remembered—but not well understood—moment when the Civil War ended. Did America's best days lie in the past or in the future? For Lee, it was the past, the era of the founding generation. For Grant, it was the future, represented by northern moral and material progress. They held, in the end, two opposite views of the direction of the country—and of the meaning of the war that had changed the country forever. The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

A brief summary of this episode

Elizabeth R. Varon, author of 'Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859.'

Elizabeth R. Varon, author of 'Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859.'

Elizabeth R. Varon, author of 'Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859.'

Elizabeth R. Varon, author of 'Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859.'