Podcasts about Our American Cousin

Play by Tom Taylor

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Our American Cousin

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Best podcasts about Our American Cousin

Latest podcast episodes about Our American Cousin

The White House 1600 Sessions
105. Remembering President Lincoln: 160th Anniversary

The White House 1600 Sessions

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2025 51:23


On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Lincoln departed the White House and arrived at Ford's Theatre to see a production of Our American Cousin. After four long, tumultuous years, the end of the Civil War was in sight. President Lincoln was known for his love of attending live theater, and even though he arrived late that evening, the production came to a halt when the orchestra played “Hail to the Chief” and the audience took to its feet and cheered. Sadly, what was to be an evening of celebration and respite turned into one of the most solemn moments in White House history. Stewart McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association, hosts a special episode dedicated to the 160th anniversary of that fateful night when an assassin's bullet caused a mortal wound that would take President Lincoln's life the following morning. Stewart is joined by Paul R. Tetreault, Director of Ford's Theatre, who guides us through the events of that April evening, including a special look at the vestibule just outside the President's box where John Wilkes Booth stood moments before he pulled the trigger. Following the tour, Stewart is joined by Anthea M. Hartig, Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, who shares some unique objects in the museum's archives from that night. Those items include several not on public display such as the china cup the president last drank from at the White House before leaving for the theater, as well as the bloodied cuff of the young doctor who was at Ford's Theatre that evening and the first to attend to President Lincoln on the scene. Join us as we honor and remember Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

American civil war & uk history
Abraham Lincoln. The Assassination with (Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan)

American civil war & uk history

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2025 58:41


Send us a textAbraham Lincoln. The Assassination with (Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan)In this episode of the American Civil War and UK History podcast, host Daz was joined by historian and author Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan to discuss the assassination of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 am. in the Petersen House opposite the theater. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning.ACW & UK History's Website.https://darrenscivilwarpag8.wixsite.com/acwandukhistoryACW & UK History's Pages.https://linktr.ee/ACWandUKHISTORYSupport the show

Trivia Tracks With Pryce Robertson
The Day Lincoln Was Shot

Trivia Tracks With Pryce Robertson

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2025 4:36


On April 14, 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and died from his wounds the following day. 

A Better Life with George and Steve
Lincoln Part 2: His Last Journey (Audio): The Assassination and Funeral of a President. With Jack Stanley

A Better Life with George and Steve

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2025 61:27 Transcription Available


CLICK HERE! To send us a message! Ask us a Question or just let us know what you think!Abraham Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865, was more than just the murder of a president—it was a pivotal moment that launched an unprecedented national ritual of grief that would forever transform how Americans viewed their 16th president.What many don't realize is that John Wilkes Booth wasn't just any assassin—he was arguably the most famous actor in America, a genuine celebrity heartthrob "with women tearing at his clothes." His star status gave him complete access to Ford's Theater, where Lincoln had gone to see "Our American Cousin" despite looking physically ravaged by the war at just 56 years old. While Booth succeeded in killing Lincoln, his co-conspirators failed in their attempts to assassinate Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward (though Seward was severely wounded and disfigured).The three-week funeral journey that followed stands as one of the most extraordinary public spectacles in American history. Lincoln's embalmed body traveled by train through city after city, retracing in reverse the route he had taken to Washington in 1861. At each stop, his body was displayed for public viewing while an embalmer fought a losing battle with decomposition—by the final stops, Lincoln's lips had shrunk to reveal a ghastly grin that required constant touching up.Perhaps most fascinating is what happened after the funeral. For decades, Lincoln's remains faced repeated theft attempts, including a brazen 1876 plot that failed only because the robbers couldn't lift his 500-pound lead-lined coffin. For years afterward, his coffin was hidden under a pile of garbage in the tomb's basement. His son Robert eventually had his father permanently secured by encasing the coffin in ten feet of concrete—ensuring that the martyred president would remain eternally undisturbed, much like the mythologized image of Lincoln that Robert carefully curated by destroying personal papers and controlling his father's narrative.The funeral procession didn't just bury a president—it birthed an American icon, transforming a deeply controversial wartime leader into the marble figure we revere today. Subscribe to hear more forgotten stories that reveal the complex humanity behind our nation's most mythologized figures.

Psychopedia
Ep115: Other Than That, How Was The Play? (feat Chris DiStefano)

Psychopedia

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2025 86:04


Visit Patreon.com/psychopediapod for exclusive content and join our family of little freaks and semen demons! Joining us today is Chris Distefano, NY based stand up comedian. He is the host of Chrissy Chaos and the co-host of History Hyenas. Chris is headlining the world famous Madison Square Garden on September 11, 2025 and has a brand new comedy special out on Hulu. WARNING: Investigator Slater barely made it through the recording of this episode. It's a wild ride, so fasten your seatbelt and prepare yourself—this conversation takes some unexpected, "unpredictable" turns. So the real question is: Other Than That Mrs. Slater, How Was The Podcast?  On a crisp April evening in 1865, the play Our American Cousin was set to impress a full house. With President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, in attendance, the air was electric with excitement. But suddenly, the sharp crack of a Derringer pistol shattered the atmosphere, and a .44 caliber lead ball lodged into the back of President Lincoln's head, irrevocably altering the course of history in an instant. While history has rightly fixated on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the peripheral figures in that fateful theater box bear their own harrowing, often overlooked stories. The gripping tale of Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris, forever intertwined with the brutality of that night, is one of heroism, relentless trauma, and the insidious toll of mental decline, PTSD, survivor's guilt, and, tragically, murder.   Instagram + Threads: @psychopediapod @tank.sinatra @investigatorslater Patreon: www.patreon.com/psychopediapod Email: psychopediapod@gmail.com Website: www.psychopediapodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Art of Crime
Laura Keene and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Assassins)

The Art of Crime

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2023 38:14


In 1858, actor-manager Laura Keene bought exclusive rights to Tom Taylor's comedy, Our American Cousin, which became the smash hit of the decade. On April 14, 1865, Keene was performing the play at Ford's Theatre when John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln. As the assassin fled and the playhouse descended into pandemonium, Keene endeavored to manage the crisis.   Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com.   If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.   The Art of Crime is part of the Airwave Media network. To learn more about Airwave, visit www.airwavemedia.com. If you'd like to advertise on The Art of Crime, please email advertising@airwavemedia.com.

The Art of Crime
Good Friday, 1865: John Wilkes Booth, Pt. II (Assassins)

The Art of Crime

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2023 51:43


On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington. John Wilkes Booth shot him in the middle of the show and escaped from the playhouse, after which a dramatic manhunt ensued. His crime would not only cost him his life but forever tarnish the name of Booth, which had previously belonged to the nation's most celebrated theatrical dynasty. Show notes and full transcripts available at www.artofcrimepodcast.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast. The Art of Crime is part of the Airwave Media network. To learn more about Airwave, visit www.airwavemedia.com. If you'd like to advertise on The Art of Crime, please email advertising@airwavemedia.com.

Chrysalis with John Fiege
9. John Shoptaw — “Near-Earth Object”

Chrysalis with John Fiege

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2023 41:47


I'm continually amazed by the immensity of the world that a small poem can conjure. In just a few lines or words, or even just a line break, a poem can travel across time and space. It can jump from the minuscule to the incomprehensible vastness of the universe. And in these inventive leaps, it can create, in our minds, new ideas and images. It can help us see connections that were, before, invisible.John Shoptaw has conjured such magic with his poem, “Near-Earth Object,” combining the gravity of mass extinction on Earth with the quotidian evanescence of his sprint to catch the bus.John Shoptaw grew up in the Missouri Bootheel. He picked cotton; he was baptized in a drainage ditch; and he worked in a lumber mill. He now lives a long way from home in Berkeley, California, where I was lucky enough to visit him last summer. John is the author of the poetry collection, Times Beach, which won the Notre Dame Review Book Prize and the Northern California Book Award in poetry. He is also the author of On The Outside Looking Out, a critical study of John Ashbery's poetry. He teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.John has a new poetry collection coming out soon, also called Near-Earth Object.This episode of Chrysalis is part of the Chrysalis Poets series, which focuses on a single poems from poets who confront ecological issues in their work.You can listen on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms.Please rate, review, and share to help us spread the word!John ShoptawJohn Shoptaw is a poet, poetry reader, teacher, and environmentalist. He was raised on the Missouri River bluffs of Omaha, Nebraska and in the Mississippi floodplain of “swampeast” Missouri. He began his education at Southeast Missouri State University and graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia with BAs in Physics and later in Comparative Literature and English, earned a PhD in English at Harvard University, and taught for some years at Princeton and Yale.  He now lives, bikes, gardens, and writes in the Bay Area and teaches poetry and environmental poetry & poetics at UC Berkeley, where he is a member of the Environmental Arts & Humanities Initiative. Shoptaw's first poetry collection, Times Beach (Notre Dame Press, 2015), won the Notre Dame Review Book Prize and subsequently also the 2016 Northern California Book Award in Poetry; his new collection, Near-Earth Object, is forthcoming in March 2024 at Unbound Edition Press, with a foreword by Jenny Odell.Both collections embody what Shoptaw calls “a poetics of impurity,” tampering with inherited forms (haiku, masque, sestina, poulter's measure, the sonnet) while always bringing in the world beyond the poem. But where Times Beach was oriented toward the past (the 1811 New Madrid earthquake, the 1927 Mississippi River flood, the 1983 destruction of Times Beach), in Near-Earth Object Shoptaw focuses on contemporary experience: on what it means to live and write among other creatures in a world deranged by human-caused climate change. These questions are also at the center of his essays “Why Ecopoetry?” (published in 2016 at Poetry Magazine, where a number of his poems, including “Near-Earth Object,” have also appeared) and “The Poetry of Our Climate” (forthcoming at American Poetry Review).Shoptaw is also the author of a critical study, On the Outside Looking Out: John Ashbery's Poetry (Harvard University Press); a libretto on the Lincoln assassination for Eric Sawyer's opera Our American Cousin (recorded by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project); and several essays on poetry and poetics, including “Lyric Cryptography,” “Listening to Dickinson” and an essay, “A Globally Warmed Metamorphoses,” on his Ovidian sequence “Whoa!” (both forthcoming in Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Environmental Imagination at Bloomsbury Press in July 2023).“Near-Earth Object”Unlike the monarch, though the asteroid also slipped quietly from its colony on its annular migration between Jupiter and Mars, enticed maybe by our planetary pollen as the monarch by my neighbor's slender-leaved milkweed. Unlike it even when the fragrant Cretaceous atmosphere meteorized the airborne rock, flaring it into what might have looked to the horrid triceratops like a monarch ovipositing (had the butterfly begun before the period broke off). Not much like the monarch I met when I rushed out the door for the 79, though the sulfurous dust from the meteoric impact off the Yucatán took flight for all corners of the heavens much the way the next generation of monarchs took wing from the milkweed for their annual migration to the west of the Yucatán, and their unburdened mother took her final flit up my flagstone walkway, froze and, hurtling downward, impacted my stunned peninsular left foot. Less like the monarch for all this, the globe-clogging asteroid, than like me, one of my kind, bolting for the bus.Recommended Readings & MediaJohn Shoptaw reading from his collection Times Beach at the University of California, Berkeley.TranscriptionIntroJohn FiegeI'm continually amazed by the immensity of the world that a small poem can conjure. In just a few lines or words, or even just a line break, a poem can travel across time and space. It can jump from the minuscule to the incomprehensible vastness of the universe. And in these inventive leaps, it can create, in our minds, new ideas and images. It can help us see connections that were, before, invisible.John Shoptaw has conjured such magic with his poem, “Near-Earth Object,” combining the gravity of mass extinction on Earth with the quotidian evanescence of his sprint to catch the bus.I'm John Fiege, and this episode of Chrysalis is part of the Chrysalis Poets series.John Shoptaw grew up in the Missouri Bootheel. He picked cotton; he was baptized in a drainage ditch; and he worked in a lumber mill. He now lives a long way from home in Berkeley, California, where I was lucky enough to visit him last summer. You can see some of my photos from that visit at ChrysalisPodcast.org, alongside the poem we discuss on this episode.John is the author of the poetry collection, Times Beach, which won the Notre Dame Review Book Prize and the Northern California Book Award in poetry. He is also the author of On The Outside Looking Out, a critical study of John Ashbery's poetry. He teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.John has a new poetry collection coming out soon, also called Near-Earth Object.Here is John Shoptaw reading his poem, “Near-Earth Object.”---PoemJohn Shoptaw “Near-Earth Object”Unlike the monarch, thoughthe asteroid also slippedquietly from its colonyon its annular migrationbetween Jupiter and Mars,enticed maybe byour planetary pollenas the monarch by my neighbor'sslender-leaved milkweed.Unlike it even whenthe fragrant Cretaceousatmosphere meteorizedthe airborne rock,flaring it into what mighthave looked to the horridtriceratops like a monarchovipositing (had the butterflybegun before the periodbroke off). Not much likethe monarch I met when Irushed out the door for the 79,though the sulfurous dustfrom the meteoric impactoff the Yucatán took flightfor all corners of the heavensmuch the way the nextgeneration of monarchstook wing from the milkweedfor their annual migrationto the west of the Yucatán,and their unburdened mothertook her final flitup my flagstone walkway,froze and, hurtlingdownward, impactedmy stunned peninsularleft foot. Less likethe monarch for all this,the globe-clogging asteroid,than like me, one of my kind,bolting for the bus.---ConversationJohn Fiege Thank you so much. Well, let's start by talking about this fragrant Cretaceous atmosphere that metorizes the airborne rock, which is is really the most beautiful way I've ever heard of describing the moment when a massive asteroid became a meteor, and impacted the earth 66 million years ago, on the Yucatan Peninsula. And that led to the extinction of about 75% of all species on Earth, including all the dinosaurs. This, of course, is known as the fifth mass extinction event on earth now, now we're in the sixth mass extinction. But but this time, the difference is that the asteroid is us. And, and we're causing species extinctions at even a much faster rate than the asteroid impact did, including the devastation of the monarch butterfly, which migrates between the US and Mexico not far from the Yucatan where the asteroid hit. And in your poem, these analogies metaphors parallels, they all bounce off one another. parallels between extinction events between humans and asteroids between planets and pollen, between monarch eggs and meteors between the one I absolutely love is the annular migration of asteroids in the annual migration of monarchs. But in some ways, the poem puts forward an anti analogy a refutation of these parallels you know, you say multiple times things like unlike the, monarch unlike it, not much like the monarch less like the monarch. So So what's going what's going on here? You're you're giving us these analogies and then and then you're taking them away.John Shoptaw The ending of Near Earth Object is a culmination of fanciful comparisons. In this regard it resembles Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. And you probably know this, John, And that poem proceeds—Shakespeare's—through a series of negative similarities, which I call dis-similes. And at the end, the poem turns on a dime in the final couplet, which is, “and yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare.” Now, I didn't have Shakespeare's poem in mind—probably good—when I wrote Near Earth Object, but I was certainly familiar with it. And my poem goes through a series of far-fetched similarities between a monarch butterfly and the Chicxulub asteroid, we follow the lifecycles of these two and then a third character, the first person I enters the poem comes out the door, and then gets, you know, hit by the asteroid monarch on penisular left foot. That turn at the end, to comparing the asteroid to me, one of my kind, would seem equally farfetched. What can I have to do with the globe-clogging asteroid? Before climate change, the answer would have been nothing. This poem couldn't have been understood, wouldn't have made sense. Now, we're caught out by the unlikely similarity that, you know, humankind has the geologically destructive potential of the life-altering asteroid.John Fiege I love that the idea of that turn partially because it's so much pulls out the power of poetry, and the power of poetic thinking, where, you know, so much environmental discourse is around rationality, of making rational, reasonable arguments about this is how things are, this is how things ought to be. But when you have this kind of turn, you're you're kind of highlighting the complexity, and the complicated nature of understanding these things, which are really complex. And it really, you know, in such a short poem, you can encapsulate so much of that complexity, which I think benefits our ultimate understanding of, of what we're grappling with, with these environmental questions.John Shoptaw Yeah, that's very well put. I think that this poem is a kind of psychological poem as well, and that I'm playing on the readers expectations. And I think the reader probably has less and less faith in this persona, who keeps keeps being lured into these weird comparisons between the asteroid and and the and the monarch butterfly. And then at the end, we're thinking, well, this, too, is absurd. And then we're caught up, like I say, and that's the psychological turn, you know, early on, when people and people still many people doubt. The existence of climate change. It's just  because of a matter of scale. How can we affect Mother Nature, right? It's so big, it's so overwhelming. It does what it wants. We're just little features on this big, big planet. So that it's so counterintuitive. So that's why yes, we grapple and this poem is meant to take you through that kind of experience. That without saying that explicitly, and I think that's something that, yeah, it sets this apart from both the psychological essay and an environmental essay,John Fiege Right the other line I want to pull out of this is slender leaved milkweed. Which I love. and there is a musicality to it. How do you about that? sonorous aspect of the poem and the musicality and the rhythm of it.John Shoptaw Yeah, Thank you for that question. Its one of the ways I beleive that poetry is like music. We do have a musicality and one of the wonderful things about poetry and music is that it it works below the level of meaning. A way a song often does. You know you often will before you even know all the words will get the song. And understand what the song is comunicating and sometimes I am communicating delicacy in slender leaved milkweed. Not only by the image, but by the sound. Its a quiet line. Whereas when I say airborne rock, that's very tight. And very definitive, like globe clogging asteroid or bolting for the bus. These are dynamics that I can play with, and I can accentuate them by changing the rhythms making to very hard plosive as an explosion, you know, b sounds far from each other. And this is something that poetry can do, that prose can't. So well. And that, you know, it's one reason why you have soundtracks and film to help bring things across.John Fiege Yeah, and then in the midst of, of some of these grand images that you have in the poem of like monarch colonies and asteroid colonies, there's also your presence, and the glimpse of them of what seems like a moment in your life, potentially, you run out the door and catch the 79 bus, which goes through Berkeley where you live. And and you encounter a monarch butterfly, which also has a California migration route. The monarch impacts your, as you say, stunned, peninsular left foot. And so now you're shifting the metaphor from human as asteroid to human as Yucatan peninsula, which is the site the site of the impact. And the way you you play with scale. In this poem, I find quite remarkable moving from the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars to your foot. And in your peninsular foot makes me feel as if humans are both the perpetrators of the sixth mass extinction, but also one of its victims. And so I was curious, was this moment with the butterfly is something that actually happened? And how do you understand it? In relation to that, you know, this small moment with the butterfly? How do you understand that in relation with the broader context of the poem?John Shoptaw Yeah, thank you. I, I think, one way I proceed. And in poetry, which is something like chance operations that John Cage and poets following John Cage would use as I become very receptive to things happening around me. And if something happens around me while I'm writing a poem, then it gets to come in the poem, at least I am receptive to that possibility. And as I was going for the bus one day, on the walkway, I came across a dead monarch butterfly was very startled to see it. And I thought, Oh, my God, that pet needs to be in the poem, this butterfly has fallen out of the sky like the asteroid. And so and it turned out that the third thing I needed to link our personal, small felt scale with the astronomical and the geological timescale. And it's exactly the problem of scale, both in space and time. I'm constantly zooming in and zooming out. I actually wrote one poem in which I compare this surreal or unreal feeling that we have, if not a knowledge but a feeling of climate change behind the weather as a hit the Hitchcock zoom, where the background suddenly comes into the foreground, right?John Fiege Yeah, and it seems like, you know, the problem of climate change is a problem of scale like, like it's so it's so foreign to our kind of everyday human senses of, of what is danger, and what is something we should be concerned about or care about it. And that problem of scale both, both spatially and temporally. It really prevents us from wrapping our heads around what it means and how to respond.John Shoptaw It does. That's our challenge. I take it as my challenge, for the kind of poetry I write. And I think of of poetry as a science of feelings. And one of the feelings I'm thinking about and trying to understand and work through is denial. You know, people usually think of denial as refusal, you refuse to admit, but look at the facts just face the facts. But as you say, climate is on such a different scale. It's often a problem of incomprehension.John Fiege Yeah, and I think this idea of denialism I mean, we tend to talk about it in very narrow terms of, you know, people of particular political persuasions deny the existence of climate change. And that's one like, very narrow view of denialism. But it really pervades everything in our culture, you know, anyone who eats a hamburger, or flies on a plane, or, or even turns on their, their heat in their house, you know, is is in is kind of implicated in some system of denial. That, you know, ultimately, our societies completely unsustainable. And we have to function we have to move forward, even though even if we know how problematic those various things are. And so just living in the world requires, you know, some sense of denialism.John Shoptaw It does, if you think of the word we commonly used today, adaptation, though, it's really another word for denial. If you see what I mean, we're, we're moving into accepting, partially accepting the reality as it is, so we can live into it. And again, if we think of relativity, flying less, not giving up flying, emitting less, not stopping all the way emissions on a dime, right, but moving as fast as we possibly can, these are things we can do and without being incapacitated by despair. And again, I think, you know, hope and despair are two other very fundamental concepts that poets if they're serious about feeling, can think about and think through and help people we understand.John Fiege Yeah, and I love this idea of impurity that you bring in. Not just with poetry, but, you know, I feel like environmentalism in general is, it's really susceptible to this kind of ideology of purity. And it becomes about, you know, checking all the boxes of, of, you know, lifestyle and beliefs and votes and all kinds of things where solutions, solutions don't come with some kind of attainment of purity. They come with it a shift of a huge section of the way the culture works. And that's never going to be perfect or consistent or anything. It's going to be imperfect, and it's going to be partial, but it can still move.John Shoptaw That's right. So when people say net zero, carbon offsets, recycling, this is all greenwashing. I say, listen to the word all. Yes, there is some greenwashing going on there. There is some self promotion and maintenance of one's corporate profile at work. But there's also good being done. You can recycle aluminum, and you get 90% aluminum back. You can recycle plastic, you get 50% back, but you still get 50% back.John Fiege Well, in the poem, you also give life to what we ordinarily see as inanimate objects. So let me let me reread a section of the poem enticed maybe by our planetary pollen as the monarch by my neighbor's slender leaves milkweed unlike it, even when the fragrant Cretaceous atmosphere media rised the airborne rock, flaring it into what might have looked to the horrid Triceratops like a monarch ovipositing. So in your words, the lifeless, inanimate asteroid is given life and a soul really? Why take it in that direction?John Shoptaw To make it real, to make it real for us. And you will see poets, giving a voice to storms to extreme weather events, seeing things from potentially destructive point of view. And that's what I was doing here is seeing things fancifully from the the meteor's point of view, but I wanted to give that personification to make the link that this is personal. What's happening at this scale, is still personal, it still has to do with us and links with us.John Fiege Yeah, and you wrote this great piece for Poetry Magazine called “Why Eco Poetry” and you bring up these these topics a bunch. And there's one line. I really love, you say, to empathize beyond humankind, eco-poets  must be ready to commit the pathetic fallacy and to be charged with anthropomorphism could could you explain this, this concept of John Ruskin's pathetic fallacy and how you've seen these issues play out?John Shoptaw I think Ruskin had certainly the good sense of what the natural world was. And many artists and poets laziness, when it came to the describing the natural world. storms were always raging, winds were always howling, the words were always that's really what he was getting at. And I appreciate that. You want to make these things real, right. But there is there is a place for pathetic fallacy. But on the other hand, strategically, we often need for that monologue of the lyric poem, to be overtaken by this larger voice, almost like a parental voice from on high, speaking to us and saying, Listen to me, this is real. This is happening. I'm out here. Right? So you've forced me to take over your poem and talk to you about anthropomorphism is, is related phenomenon. And it's it's a word that I, I still find useful and making us really consider and experience the outside world, the world, particularly of other creatures, as they actually are. However, it's a belief it's not a scientific idea. And the idea being that we are ascribing qualities or human qualities to animals or plants, or even inanimate objects, like like meteors. When in fact, when it comes to animals, for instance, we're often identifying qualities behaviors, actions, motivations, we share anyone who owns pets knows pet they have a range of feelings that to say, my dog is happy. My dog is bored. My dog is feeling bad because it feels it's disappointed me in some way, you know, these things are real. And you need to act accordingly to keep things going along. In the canine / human cup, you know, partnership that you have going there.John Fiege Yeah, Descartes must not have had any dogs or cats or ever encountered another animal besides a human in his life.John Shoptaw That's right. It's partly, you know, one feels, how can we know that other world? We shouldn't be so arrogant in our knowledge. And so it seems like we're being modest, and it's a good thing. And we have this anthropological attitude toward the relativity of, you know, consciousness. On the other hand, it's a form of denial, right? anthropomorphism is a form of denial of what we share and poets need to overcome that denial.John Fiege You mean, you mean anti-human anti-anthropomorphism?John Shoptaw Yeah, it's what I know. We don't have the language for it. We don't have that word of the problem.John Fiege Anti-anthropomorphism, it just slips right off your tongue.John Shoptaw That's right.John Fiege Well this point you make about anthropomorphism reminds me really strongly of a story. I've heard Jane Goodall tell many times, she was hired to observe chimpanzees in the wild, and she gave them names. But she was reprimanded by by many in the scientific community, who said, a researcher should use numbers to identify chimps or any other animals they're studying, because scientists must be dispassionate to not confuse animal behavior with human behavior. And she identifies one of her most significant contributions to science as recognizing the individuality and personality and really the souls of non human animals. And that recognition fundamentally changed. Our scientific understanding of chimps and other animals in allow these massive breakthroughs in the field. And you seem to be arguing that with poetry, we're in a similar place in relation to the Earth where we need to find a new language that allows us to empathize more profoundly with the other than human residence of the planet. Does that sound? Does that sound right to you?John Shoptaw Very much, and really, with thinking and realizing that I'm an animal, as a human being. brought on a conceptual paradigm shift for me, unlike anything I've experienced, in my adult life, everything changed. And when I think, what are the animals think about this? How are they dealing with climate change? Etc. It's always revelatory for me to ask that kind of question. I'm looking at a book by Jane Goodall right now on my shelf called the Book of Hope. And something I've been thinking about a lot in relation to this, because animals have not given up and they don't give up until they they have to. An animal with say, a song bird in the clutch of a hawk knows it's over, and you shut down in order to minimize the pain and suffering. They know that, but they know not to do that prematurely. And I think, you know, often we met we think of hope and despair, as antonyms, but they're very intertwined with each other. I mean, the word despair, contains hope. It means that the loss of hope and there as there is a sense of false hope, where you, you keep hoping beyond the point of hope, where reality tells you there's no point in hoping there's also what I would call a premature despair. I don't know if you have run across the Stockdale paradox. I find it helpful. There's a writer on Jim Collins, who talked to Admiral Stockdale who was taken prisoner of war in Vietnam. And he, he survived through seven years and several incidents of torture. And he said, he was asked by Jim Collins, well, who didn't survive? And he said, well, the optimists who said the optimists were saying, Oh, we're going to because we're gonna be led out by Christmas. In the winter that didn't happen and say, Oh, well, we'll be released by Easter. When that doesn't happen and Christmas comes around again. They die. They die of a broken heart.John Fiege Oh, wow. I have heard that in broad terms. I don't remember that story, though. That's great.John Shoptaw Yeah, and the paradox is that you have hope, which is resolute. It's not pie in the sky hope, but it's hope that faces reality. And it's hoped that is more like courage. It's more like resoluteness hope. Hope is not easy. And it does not deny despair, and even allows you to relax for a moment and maybe weep. Maybe you say, Oh, my God, it's over. Before you come back and say, No, I'm still here. I can still help I can do what I can.John Fiege Right, right. Yeah, and I love how you say that. Eco poetry can be anthropomorphic, but it cannot be anthropocentric, which which flips both of these assumptions that are so deeply embedded in our culture.John Shoptaw Now, maybe I could say something about anthropocentrism.John Fiege Yeah, for sure.John Shoptaw It's a word that, I think is maybe in the dictionary now, but maybe not so familiar word, but you know, thinking of everything in the world, a revolving around us and and the universe. We're the universe's reason for being right. That would be the kind of the strongest sense of anthropocentrismJohn Fiege Another another form of heliocentrism.John Shoptaw Yes, that's right. That's absolutely right. That's why I one reason why I, at the beginning of Near Earth Objects, see things for the asteroids point of view, right? To give that kind of scale, but also shifting perspective. On the other hand, lyric poetry is inevitably anthropocentric. We as humans are inevitably anthropocentric. So our moving out of anthropocentrism in poetry is always going to be relative and strategic, and rhetorical and persuasive, never absolute.John Fiege Right and totally. Well, another interesting issue you confront in the article is didacticism and the risks of moralism in eco-poetry. And in talking about this, you evoke two poets. The first is Archibald MacLeish, the renowned modernist poet who wrote "a poem should not mean but be." But then you write, poetics wasn't always this way, for Horace, a poem both pleases and instructs. And I feel like this issue of moralism, and didacticism goes way beyond poetry to encompass environmentalism more broadly. How can a poem please instruct without preaching and being didactic?John Shoptaw Yes, that's, that's a question. Where there's no single answer every poem, for me poses the question differently. And part of the excitement part of the experimental nature of poems is you find a new answer every time to that problem, how not to be preachy, but to leave readers in a different place at the end of the poem, than they were at the beginning. my poem to move people from unlike to less like., if I if I can get them there, in a poem, I have moved him in a way and that's enough for me.John Fiege Well, let's look at the end of the poem. You write less like the monarch for all this, the globe clogging asteroid than like me, one of my kind bolting for the bus? It seems in some ways that you might be settling on an analogy in the midst of of all these intersecting parallels, the asteroid is less like the monarch and more like us, us who have killed the monarchs. Where Where do you feel like the poem lands in terms of making a statement like this and and offering up many conflicting ideas that readers have to contemplate themselves?John Shoptaw What would I say? I think when it comes to guilt or responsibility, as I was saying before, we don't want to think in absolute terms, where I'm as guilty as Exxon, I am not. But I still am right. I am still part of this, this world. That monarch butterfly died naturally after it planted its eggs. Its its, its days, her days were numbered. So, that that is part of this. But yet, I do. I do want to say and this is part of, I think, part of the one of the gestures of poetry in the Anthropocene, the era of climate change, a gesture of saying, I take responsibility, I take responsibility. And this is, this is one of the problems of saying, I give up, you know, there's no point in doing any more. We don't have that option. It's irresponsible to give up to ever give up. So I still, though want to say, even something who that has global potential for damage is connected with me good little me, had taking taking the bus because I'm wondering, I'm one of humankind, and we have this destructive potential. And on the other hand, we have this corresponding responsibility.John Fiege Yeah. And looking back on the title of the poem, it feels as if we, as humans, have what you might call like, a dual contradictory existence? As, as both we're both Earth objects. And we're near Earth objects. Oh, what do you what do you think about that?John Shoptaw Yes, I do. I like that ambiguity. I think, one of the, one of the chances, and the happy accidents of the monarch appearing in my poem, as I was writing it, without planning to have a monarch in it, one of the accidents was to take the monarch also, as a Near Earth Object Near Earth Object is one of these scientific concepts of usually a very large object, like a, like a comet, or an asteroid entering the Earth's gravitational pull. With potentially hazardous effects. But, you know, it can be anything near the earth. And if you take object, also in the title as a goal, my object is to bring us near the earth. not have us simply abstract ourselves, how do we do that - we abstract ourselves by saying, we're special.John Fiege I really like that too, because that also ties into this question of scale. You know, you can be near the earth by being, you know, 1000 miles away. Or you can be near the earth by hovering, you know, centimeters over it. And it can be conceptual to, you can be oblivious to the fact that you live on Earth, or you can be extremely aware that you are of in within and near the earth at all times. Yeah, I really like that. That's beautiful. I love how so many meanings come from this tiny little poem?John Shoptaw Well, may I say I was not in a godlike position with this poem. For me. poems are like gardens and that they're less intended and tended, and they they grow of their own and I just tried to be the best collaborator with the poem that I can and not to ignore when it's trying to tell me something like, I need a monarch in here. Not to ignore that.John Fiege Yeah. Well, can you end by reading the poem once again. I can thank you very much.John Shoptaw Poem“Near-Earth Object”Unlike the monarch, thoughthe asteroid also slippedquietly from its colonyon its annular migrationbetween Jupiter and Mars,enticed maybe byour planetary pollenas the monarch by my neighbor'sslender-leaved milkweed.Unlike it even whenthe fragrant Cretaceousatmosphere meteorizedthe airborne rock,flaring it into what mighthave looked to the horridtriceratops like a monarchovipositing (had the butterflybegun before the periodbroke off). Not much likethe monarch I met when Irushed out the door for the 79,though the sulfurous dustfrom the meteoric impactoff the Yucatán took flightfor all corners of the heavensmuch the way the nextgeneration of monarchstook wing from the milkweedfor their annual migrationto the west of the Yucatán,and their unburdened mothertook her final flitup my flagstone walkway,froze and, hurtlingdownward, impactedmy stunned peninsularleft foot. Less likethe monarch for all this,the globe-clogging asteroid,than like me, one of my kind,bolting for the bus.ConversationJohn Fiege John, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been fabulous.John Shoptaw Thank you, John, for the opportunity. And I love conversing with you.---OutroJohn Fiege Thank you so much to John Shoptaw. Go to our website at ChrysalisPodcast.org, where you can read his poem “Near-Earth Object” and also see some of my photographs of him at his house in Berkeley and find our book and media recommendations.This episode was researched by Elena Cebulash and Brodie Mutschler and edited by Brodie Mutschler and Sofia Chang. Music is by Daniel Rodriguez Vivas. Mixing is by Sarah Westrich.If you enjoyed my conversation with John, please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Contact me anytime at ChrysalisPodcast.org, where you can also support the project, subscribe to our newsletter, and join the conversation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.chrysalispodcast.org

History Goes Bump Podcast
Phantasmal Crime 13 - The Tragic Rathbones

History Goes Bump Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2023 15:02


President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary were not the only people sitting in their box at the Ford's Theater to watch the production of "Our American Cousin" on the evening that the President was assassinated. Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance, Clara Harris, were also sitting in the box and played witness to the whole horrible scene. Clara's satin dress was splattered with blood. The Major never  recovered from the horrific event and it may have led him to do a horrible thing later. That event and the assassination have all left behind an energy, part of which has spawned tales of ghosts and a haunted satin dress. Intro and Outro music: Bad Players - Licensed under a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-assignable, single-site, worldwide, royalty-free license agreement with Muse Music c/o Groove Studios. The following music was used for this media project: Music: Drama Intro 6 (Page Turn) by Sascha Ende Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/420-drama-intro-6-page-turn License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Lost In The Dark by Steven OBrien Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/10010-lost-in-the-dark License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Hor Hor by Alexander Nakarada Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/4739-hor-hor License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Shadows Of War [Original] by German Tretyakov Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9799-shadows-of-war-original License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Instant Trivia
Episode 696 - The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln - Science Timeline - Metal - The Steaks - Actual 911 Calls

Instant Trivia

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2023 9:16


Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 696, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln 1: (Alex walks the stage of Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.) Illustrating the difference in memories, some people said that Booth shouted this Latin phrase right from here, center stage; others said, "No, it was from the box"; Booth himself wrote that he spoke the words before shooting Lincoln; perhaps he said these words more than once. Sic semper tyrannis. 2: (Alex walks the stage of Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.) President Lincoln arrived late at Ford's Theatre; the show was already under way, but when he was spotted walking down the stairs toward the presidential box, everything here stopped; then the orchestra struck up "Hail To The Chief", the audience gave him a thunderous round of applause, the president waved and bowed, and then the performance of this play continued. Our American Cousin. 3: (Alex stands on the stage of Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.) Police work in those days could be a little bit shoddy: hours after the murder, a man named William Kent came back to the presidential box looking for his keys; what he found was the murder weapon, the small .44-caliber single-shot pistol bearing the name of this Philadelphia gunsmith who invented it. Henry Deringer. 4: (Alex reports from the Petersen House in Washington, D.C.) While Mrs. Lincoln and her friends sat vigil here in the front parlor, in the back parlor, this energetic Secretary of War took charge of the investigation and worked tirelessly through the night, coordinating the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth and his accomplices. Edwin Stanton. 5: (Alex reports from the Petersen House in Washington, D.C.) At 7:22 on the morning of April 15, 1865, President Lincoln died in this small bedroom; a prayer was said, and then, according to tradition, Edwin Stanton uttered these six famous words. "Now he belongs to the ages". Round 2. Category: Science Timeline 1: Around 480 B.C.:Anaxagoras explains the cause of these events, one of which darkened Greece in 478 B.C.. eclipses. 2: 1600:William Gilbert concludes that the Earth is a huge lodestone that acts as a bar one of these. a magnet. 3: 1608:Hans Lippershey applies for a patent for this, which he calls a "looker"; Galileo is all eyes. a telescope. 4: Around 450 B.C.:Empedocles posits that all matter is made of these 4 classical elements. earth, fire, air and water. 5: 1842:This Austrian physicist relates the observed frequency of a wave to the motion of its source. Doppler. Round 3. Category: Metal 1: Psalm 135 describes the idols of the heathen as not of God and merely made from these 2 metals. silver and gold. 2: The so-called tinfoil you buy at the supermarket is probably made from this metal. aluminum. 3: Legend says that the metal used to make these highest British military awards came from cannons captured in the Crimean War. the Victoria Cross. 4: Noted for its natural magnetism, magnetite is an important ore of this metal. iron. 5: In 1252 in Kamakura, Japan, all 93 tons of the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha, was cast in this alloy. bronze. Round 4. Category: The Steaks 1: This steak sauce was created in the 1820s by the chef to England's King George IV. A.1.. 2: Sometimes wrapped in bacon, this choice cut of boneless steak with a French name is from the end of the loin. filet mignon. 3: Found in the bottom sirloin and on the Sizzler's menu is this cut whose name comes from its geometry. tri-tip.

Instant Trivia
Episode 655 - Presidential Demises - Henry - The "Lightning" Round - The Beatles - Actresses' Middle Names

Instant Trivia

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2022 7:37


Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 655, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Presidential Demises 1: He preferred to be buried at West Point, but thought his wife couldn't be buried there, so NYC became his final resting place. Ulysses S. Grant. 2: At 46 years, 177 days, he died at the youngest age of any president. John F. Kennedy. 3: At his death on October 20, 1964, he had survived his presidency longer than any other president: 31 years, 231 days. Herbert Hoover. 4: In March 1930, a month after he retired from the Supreme Court, his funeral was one of the first heard on radio. William Howard Taft. 5: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated during Act 3, Scene 2 of this stage comedy starring Laura Keene. "Our American Cousin". Round 2. Category: Henry 1: Nominated for 18 Oscars, one of his first jobs was composing music for an Abbott and Costello movie. Mancini. 2: In 1957 he produced and starred in the landmark drama "12 Angry Men". Henry Fonda. 3: Flowery poems by Henry Gibson were often featured on this wacky 1960s sketch-comedy show. Laugh-In. 4: King Henry VIII had Anne Boleyn's head chopped off so he could take up with this lady-in-waiting, his next wife. Jane Seymour. 5: Henry Pu Yi's last years as the ruler of China were the basis of this 1987 film. The Last Emperor. Round 3. Category: The "Lightning" Round 1: It's another name for moonshine, cousin. White lightning. 2: A substance called Luciferin helps these creatures light up for their mates. Lightning bugs. 3: Blitzkrieg!. "Lightning war". 4: It's the full name of the only NHL team that fits the category. Tampa Bay Lightning. 5: Richard Pryor played race car driver Wendell Scott in this "fast" 1977 biopic. "Greased Lightning". Round 4. Category: The Beatles 1: Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary and others joined this Beatle and his new wife in the following 1969 hit:Ev'rybody's talking aboutBagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, TagismThis-ism, that-ism, ism, ism, ismAll we are saying is give peace a chance. John Lennon. 2: This 1964 film is a fictional account of 2 days in the life of The Beatles. A Hard Day's Night. 3: It's "waiting...", "hoping...", "coming...", and "dying to take you away". "The Magical Mystery Tour". 4: Since "Sgt. Pepper" was released in 1967, this was the year Pepper taught the band to play. 1947. 5: The girl of his dreams "called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy". Rocky Raccoon. Round 5. Category: Actresses' Middle Names 1: Mary Moore. Tyler. 2: Mary Place. Kay. 3: Mary Mobley. Ann. 4: Mary Hurt. Beth. 5: Mary Mastrantonio. Elizabeth. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

Criminalia
The Execution of Mary Surratt

Criminalia

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2022 34:09


More than a century after these events unfolded, there continues to be debate among historians as to whether or not Mary Surratt was or was not involved in the plot to assassinate U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. What we know for sure, though, is Mary was hanged for treason in the summer of 1865.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Instant Trivia
Episode 374 - "Fort"S - "Fre"-Dom - Just Write - Tv-Podge - Praise The "Lord"

Instant Trivia

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2022 7:40


Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 374, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: "Fort"S 1: This N.C. fort has reason to boast since airborne U.S. Army combat units are stationed there. Fort Bragg. 2: On May 10, 1775 Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured this fort on Lake Champlain from the British. Fort Ticonderoga. 3: This celebrated Maryland fort overlooking the Patapsco River is named for a signer of the Constitution. Fort McHanry. 4: Troops are processes for overseas duty at this New Jersey army base. Fort Dix. 5: This Kentucky army post is known as the "Home of Armor". Fort Knox. Round 2. Category: "Fre"-Dom 1: Wrigley's "extra" brand of cinnamon chewing gum bills itself as this on its wrapper. sugar free. 2: Lord Tennyson, or Batman's Butler. Alfred. 3: Elevun letr wurd fur the job thet wud b rezponzibl fir fiksin this clu's speling problims. proofreader. 4: Prestone makes one that provides protection down to -84 degrees. antifreeze. 5: It's the art of painting on a moist, plaster surface with colors ground up in water. fresco. Round 3. Category: Just Write 1: "Valley of the Horses" is Jean Auel's sequel to the novel "The Clan of" this. the Cave Bear. 2: Like the title of a 1962 hit by Dion, they call an Old English poem about a homeless and kinless warrior this. The Wanderer. 3: "My First Days in the White House", by this Louisiana political legend, was published in 1935, affer his death. Huey P. Long. 4: He wrote "Torch Song Trilogy" and got torched by aliens in "Independence Day". Harvey Fierstein. 5: This comic play, written by British dramatist Tom Taylor in 1858, sadly gained lasting fame in April 1865. Our American Cousin. Round 4. Category: Tv-Podge 1: It's the series that gave us the classic catch phrases "Yada, yada, yada" and "No soup for you!". Seinfeld. 2: Moon Unit Zappa and Wallace Langham co-starred on the TV series "Fast Times", based on this classic of teen cinema. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. 3: Mel Blanc supplied the voice of Cosmo Spacely when this cartoon debuted in prime time in 1962. The Jetsons. 4: (Hi, I'm Will Estes.) As "American Dreams" is based around "American Bandstand" in the 1960s, it's set in this city. Philadelphia. 5: Angus T. Jones, who plays Jake Harper, is the half-pint on this Charlie Sheen show. Two and a Half Men. Round 5. Category: Praise The "Lord" 1: The upper chamber of the British parliament. House of Lords. 2: Hardly idle, this poet wrote over 10,000 lines of "Idylls Of The King". Alfred Lord Tennyson. 3: It's also called the Pater Noster. The Lord's Prayer. 4: As Steve McGarrett, he often finished off wrongdoers with the words "Book 'Em, Dano". Jack Lord. 5: Clive Barker's cinematic thriller about the evil resurrected magician Nix. Lord Of Illusions. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

Having Read That with Brian Vakulskas
JOHN RHODEHAMEL – AMERICA’S ORIGINAL SIN: White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Assassination

Having Read That with Brian Vakulskas

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2022 10:38


Author: John Rhodehamel Book: AMERICA'S ORIGINAL SIN: White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Assassination Publishing: Johns Hopkins University Press (September 7, 2021) Synopsis (from the Publisher): On April 14, 1865, after nearly a year of conspiring, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln as the president watched a production of Our American Cousin at […] The post JOHN RHODEHAMEL – AMERICA'S ORIGINAL SIN: White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Assassination appeared first on KSCJ 1360.

Arroe Collins
John Rhodehamel Releases The Book America's Original Sin

Arroe Collins

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2021 13:21


On April 14, 1865, after nearly a year of conspiring, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln as the president watched a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln died the next morning. Twelve days later, Booth himself was fatally shot by a Union soldier after an extensive manhunt. The basic outline of this story is well known even to schoolchildren; what has been obscured is Booth's motivation for the act, which remains widely misunderstood nearly 160 years after the shot from his pocket pistol echoed through the crowded theater. In this riveting new book, John Rhodehamel argues that Booth's primary motivation for his heinous crime was a growing commitment to white supremacy. In alternating chapters, Original Sin shows how, as Lincoln's commitment to emancipation and racial equality grew, so too did Booth's rage and hatred for Lincoln, whom he referred to as "King Abraham Africanus the First." Examining Booth's early life in Maryland, Rhodehamel traces the evolution of his racial hatred from his youthful embrace of white supremacy through to his final act of murder. Along the way, he considers and discards other potential motivations for Booth's act, such as mental illness or persistent drunkenness, which are all, Rhodehamel writes, either insufficient to explain Booth's actions or were excuses made after the fact by those who sympathized with him. Focusing on how white supremacy brought about the Civil War and, later, betrayed the conflict's emancipationist legacy, Rhodehamel's masterful narrative makes this old story seem new again. The first book to explicitly name white supremacy as the motivation for Lincoln's assassination, America's Original Sin is an important and eloquent look at one of the most notorious episodes in American history.

Arroe Collins
John Rhodehamel Releases The Book America's Original Sin

Arroe Collins

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2021 13:21


On April 14, 1865, after nearly a year of conspiring, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln as the president watched a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln died the next morning. Twelve days later, Booth himself was fatally shot by a Union soldier after an extensive manhunt. The basic outline of this story is well known even to schoolchildren; what has been obscured is Booth's motivation for the act, which remains widely misunderstood nearly 160 years after the shot from his pocket pistol echoed through the crowded theater. In this riveting new book, John Rhodehamel argues that Booth's primary motivation for his heinous crime was a growing commitment to white supremacy. In alternating chapters, Original Sin shows how, as Lincoln's commitment to emancipation and racial equality grew, so too did Booth's rage and hatred for Lincoln, whom he referred to as "King Abraham Africanus the First." Examining Booth's early life in Maryland, Rhodehamel traces the evolution of his racial hatred from his youthful embrace of white supremacy through to his final act of murder. Along the way, he considers and discards other potential motivations for Booth's act, such as mental illness or persistent drunkenness, which are all, Rhodehamel writes, either insufficient to explain Booth's actions or were excuses made after the fact by those who sympathized with him. Focusing on how white supremacy brought about the Civil War and, later, betrayed the conflict's emancipationist legacy, Rhodehamel's masterful narrative makes this old story seem new again. The first book to explicitly name white supremacy as the motivation for Lincoln's assassination, America's Original Sin is an important and eloquent look at one of the most notorious episodes in American history.

Instant Trivia
Episode 204 - Chick Flicks - Talk Nonsense - Just Write - Inside Alex Trebek - Park Place

Instant Trivia

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2021 7:12


Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 204, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Chick Flicks 1: Mel Gibson was in a fowl mood when he voiced Rocky Rhodes, a "flying rooster" in this animated film. Chicken Run. 2: Singer Roger Miller played Alan-a-Dale, rooster minstrel, in this Disney classic. Robin Hood. 3: The tagline to this 2005 animated feature was "This time the sky really is falling". Chicken Little. 4: Kate Hepburn teamed up with this title marshal to track down her father's killer in a 1975 Western. Rooster Cogburn. 5: In "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken", this actor played a wannabe reporter who had to stay in a haunted house. Don Knotts. Round 2. Category: Talk Nonsense 1: This partner of "goo goo" in baby talk also means "foolishly enthusiastic". ga ga. 2: Completes the immortal words of Little Richard, "A wop bop a loo bop a lop...". bam boom. 3: In the dictionary this triple-talk phrase meaning "and so on" comes after bladder and before blanch. blah blah blah. 4: Children's taunt once used by fugitive Deborah Ulrich in a letter to police. nyah nyah nyah. 5: On '70s TV this was Charo's version of making whoopee. cuchi cuchi. Round 3. Category: Just Write 1: "Valley of the Horses" is Jean Auel's sequel to the novel "The Clan of" this. the Cave Bear. 2: Like the title of a 1962 hit by Dion, they call an Old English poem about a homeless and kinless warrior this. The Wanderer. 3: "My First Days in the White House", by this Louisiana political legend, was published in 1935, affer his death. Huey P. Long. 4: He wrote "Torch Song Trilogy" and got torched by aliens in "Independence Day". Harvey Fierstein. 5: This comic play, written by British dramatist Tom Taylor in 1858, sadly gained lasting fame in April 1865. Our American Cousin. Round 4. Category: Inside Alex Trebek 1: To loosen, as a grip, or just to take it easy. relax. 2: An 1852 Dickensian title "house". bleak. 3: This can be a large drinking vessel or a small lipped one used for science experiments. beaker. 4: Thai kings considered this a "royal tree" under strict protection. teak. 5: In the 1820s this British university's campus was a farm that served Devonshire cream to strollers. Exeter. Round 5. Category: Park Place 1: Longhorn Cavern State Park. Texas. 2: San Simeon State Park. California. 3: Manatee Springs State Park. Florida. 4: Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. Kentucky. 5: Crater of Diamonds State Park. Arkansas. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

Dans l'intimité de l'Histoire
Lincoln, les objets du culte

Dans l'intimité de l'Histoire

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2021 6:29


Toute visite de la Maison-Blanche comporte un passage dans la chambre dite Lincoln. Aujourd'hui encore, aménagée en style victorien, elle était en fait son bureau. Un fantôme hanterait encore ces lieux ! Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower et son épouse Eleanor ont affirmé avoir senti sa présence. Peut-être ne trouve-t-il pas la paix parce qu'il fut le premier président de l'histoire des États-Unis à avoir été assassiné ? Cela se passa le 14 avril 1865 au théâtre Ford de Washington. Abraham Lincoln est tué d'une balle dans la nuque par un sympathisant confédéré, John Wilkes Booth, alors qu'il assiste à une pièce de théâtre, "Our American Cousin". Il meurt le 15 avril au matin.

Stories From History's Dust Bin
Laura Keene: Actress, Entrepreneur, and Comforter - Episode 61

Stories From History's Dust Bin

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2021 6:34


British actress Laura Keene came to America around 1850, and established herself, first as a capable entrepreneur, and second as an admired actress.  When she leased Baltimore's Charles Street Theater in 1853, she became the first woman in America to manage a theatrical business, and in 1856, she opened her own venue, the Laura Keene Theater in New York. In 1858, a play titled Our American Cousin, opened to rave reviews at Laura Keene's Theater, and enjoyed a long run in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities – and in April, 1865 it opened at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. Well, you know what happened next.  President and Mrs. Lincoln attended the play where he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth – but there is something else that happened that you aren't likely aware of – for which Laura Keene was once again a leading lady.     Stories from History's Dust Bin is a 3-volume set of historical short stories.  These are the nuggets of gold that had fallen by the wayside… the little known and unusual.  Many of these gems were destined to be forever lost until they were collected, dusted off and brought back to life by author Wayne Winterton.   Each podcast episode features one of over 450 short stories from either Winterton's Award-Winning Stories from Dust Bin series* or the companion volume, From Ace to Zamboni: 101 More Dust Bin Stories, as narrated by either the author or his son, William, or daughter, Jana.   If you enjoy today's episode, please leave us 5 stars and a glowing review on iTunes!  And if you don't want to wait a whole week to hear another story from the Dust Bin, consider picking up the books on Amazon (either downloadable or good ol' fashioned ink and paper).   The Entire History's Dust Bin Collection Is Available On Amazon: https://amzn.to/3bDrip4

High Mystery
The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Part 1: Inconsistencies in the Official Report Mystery

High Mystery

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2021 73:07


President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by famous stage actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth from a pistol at point blank range while the president was watching the play Our American Cousin at Fords Theatre in Washington D.C. on April 14th, 1865. At least that's what we have been told...

15 Minutes with Lincoln
A Writers Symposium with Tom Taylor

15 Minutes with Lincoln

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2021 24:25


"Our American Cousin" playwright Tom Taylor (Alex Nichols) drops by to discuss elevator pitches and provide Abe with some notes on his screenplay.

The FrogPants Studios Ultra Feed!
TMS 2044: KrypKlanite

The FrogPants Studios Ultra Feed!

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2021 86:00


There WAS A Movie Called Dick. Dwayne The Groot Johnson. Marvel Cinematic Sausage Fest. Captain Shrinky Dink and the Tiny Lady. New Year, New Squirrrreney. Praying Ibbott. White House Plane Down on Filmsack. No one can forget Lincoln in Our American Cousin. Wipe and Restart was my High School wrestling name. He died, then went to Tahiti and then came back. Florence Whitaker. TikTok is more than just dancing teens. Bring back a Beau fetish. Building Bill With Bill! Major Spoilers and more on this episode of The Morning Stream.

The Morning Stream
TMS 2044: KrypKlanite

The Morning Stream

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2021 86:00


There WAS A Movie Called Dick. Dwayne The Groot Johnson. Marvel Cinematic Sausage Fest. Captain Shrinky Dink and the Tiny Lady. New Year, New Squirrrreney. Praying Ibbott. White House Plane Down on Filmsack. No one can forget Lincoln in Our American Cousin. Wipe and Restart was my High School wrestling name. He died, then went to Tahiti and then came back. Florence Whitaker. TikTok is more than just dancing teens. Bring back a Beau fetish. Building Bill With Bill! Major Spoilers and more on this episode of The Morning Stream.

Today in Theatre History, presented by Playbill
April 14, 2020: Our American Cousin gets interrupted; Guys & Dolls comes back to town; and more in theatre history.

Today in Theatre History, presented by Playbill

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2020 3:06


April 14, 2020: Our American Cousin gets interrupted; Guys & Dolls comes back to town; and more in theatre history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WBW Theater
239. WBW Theater Classic Old Time Radio - The Cisco Kid - Death Gun

WBW Theater

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 9, 2019 30:56


On Good Friday, April 14th 1865, during a performance of Our American Cousin, at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. a shot rang out which reverberated around the world. The gun which assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, was a 41 calibre double barrelled Deringer. Ten years later, its lethal use was widespread on the frontier of our west by gamblers, gunmen and grifters - in fact anyone who had need of a hideout gun... Starring: Jack Mather, Mel Blanc Broadcast Date: 1959 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dennis-moore9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dennis-moore9/support

I'm Horrified!
Episode 77: Henry and Clara Rathbone and Bad TV Finales

I'm Horrified!

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2019 52:03


This week we're pulling no punches and talking about two events with the greatest impact to American morale in the nation's history: Lincoln's assassination and the GOT finale. Well, not really Lincoln's asassinaton- more like the two guests they had at "Our American Cousin" and how one of them went bonkers. Also, Sam discusses what Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, and Game of Thrones all have in common: a terrible, series-ruining ending. Cancel your HBO subscription and stay horrified.

The Puffin Publishing Podcast & KeVern
Chapter Twenty-Eight: "The Puffin History Special"

The Puffin Publishing Podcast & KeVern

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2018 38:12


The Puffin Boyz decided to take a break from their regularly scheduled "being asinine" to bring you a bit of education. In truth, it's court-ordered community service. BUT IN ANY CASE, you the listener reap the benefits of our vast knowledge of the annuls of history. Subjects include... -The Lincoln Assassination in "Our American Cousin," -Post-presidential memoir in "Ben Franklin: America's Favorite Scamp," -The Industrial Revolution in "Puffin History presents The Industrial Revolution," & -The Spanish Inquisition in "Paolini's Creed"! Come back next month gone by for more of this crap! Patreon: www.patreon.com/tvskevin Ko-fi: www.ko-fi.com/tvskevin

Reportero en el tiempo
Episodio 146 - El asesinato de Lincoln

Reportero en el tiempo

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2017 8:11


La noche del 14 de abril de 1865, el presidente de los Estados Unidos Abraham Lincoln recibió un disparo a bocajarro en un palco del Teatro Ford de Washington DC, mientras presenciaba junto a su esposa Mary Todd Lincoln la pieza teatral "Our American Cousin" de Tom Taylor. El atentado fue planeado y llevado a cabo por el actor y simpatizante de la causa confederada John Wilkes Booth, que fue el brazo ejecutor una conspiración mayor destinada a reunir las tropas confederadas restantes para que siguieran luchando en una guerra civil, la estadounidense, que ya estaba llegando a su fin. Lincoln no murió al instante, pero falleció al día a consecuencia de las graves heridas que sufrió en el atentado.

2-Minute Talk Tips
Episode 023 -- Memorize Your Intro and Learn from Lincoln

2-Minute Talk Tips

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2017 16:45


  2 Minute Tip: Memorize Your Intro   Think back to a recent presentation you saw. Do you remember how it started? What do you remember about the speaker's effectiveness?  Do you remember more about the beginning of the presentation or the middle of it?  The first 2-3 minutes of a presentation are critical. That's when you have to hook your audience so they'll join you for the rest of your journey. You can make your intro stronger by memorizing it.  With a memorized introduction, you:   Already know how the words flow together Don't waste time on filler words like "um" and "ah" Project more confidence Make eye contact with more people   Plus, as you memorize your intro while you prep your presentation, you can continue to revise and sharpen it further.   When you memorize your intro you put yourself in the best position to be successful.   Post Tip Discussion: Learn from Lincoln   In light of the Memorial Day weekend we just had, I decided to take a look at the Gettysburg address.  Lincoln gave his famous speech at the dedication for a cemetery for veterans of the Civil War killed during the Battle of Gettysburg just a few month earlier. President Lincoln wasn't even the featured speaker that day, but his short speech has endured in the American consciousness.  What can speakers learn today from what the President said in 1863?   Be brief Keep revising Tie everything back to your theme   You can learn more about the Gettysburg address in this Wikipedia article.   The closing music on this episode is the Molly Lewis Song, "Our American Cousin" from the album, "I made you a CD, but I eated it." Molly has links to her various albums, projects, social media and more at MollyLewis.wtf   Call To Action:   Tell us your thoughts on the Gettysburg Address or on other historic speeches where you find inspiration in the comments below. Or you can email Bill @ 2MinuteTalkTips.com. You can also find me on Twitter @CurrentlyBill If you liked this episode, share it with your friends through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or the social network of your choice. Check out Molly Lewis and her music at MollyLewis.wtf If you heard anything incorrect about the Gettysburg Address, please let me know, and edit the Wikipedia page as appropriate Memorize your next introduction Learn what you can from President Lincoln Don't get best...get better  

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over
By the Seat of Your Pants (Rebroadcast) - 22 June 2015

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2015 51:10


Dude! We're used to hearing the word "dude" applied to guys. But increasingly, young women use the word "dude" to address each other. Grant and Martha talk about linguistic research about the meaning and uses of "dude." Also, the story behind the term "eavesdropping." Originally, it referred to the act of standing outside someone's window. Plus: by and large, by the seat of your pants, drawing room, snowhawk, Netflix o'clock, glegged up, quarry, and that's all she wrote.FULL DETAILSYou have 30 cows, and 28 chickens. How many didn't? (Yep, that's the riddle: How many didn't?)Back in the 1930s, airplane pilots didn't have sophisticated instruments to tell them which way was up. When flying through clouds, they literally relied on changes in the vibrations in their seat to help them stay on course, flying by the seat of their pants. The phrase later expanded to mean "making it up as you go along."The idiom by and large, an idiom commonly known to mean "in general," actually combines two sailing terms. To sail by means you're sailing into the wind. To sail large, means that you have the wind more or less at your back. Therefore, by and large encompasses the whole range of possibilities.After a long day of work, you settle in to binge-watch House of Cards, only to discover that everyone else in your time zone wants to watch the same thing, bogging down the Netflix stream. That's Netflix o'clock.Looking glegged up, with staring into space with the mouth agape, comes from glegged, which shows up in some old dialect dictionaries meaning "to look askance."Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle about subtracting letters from words.The term eavesdropping arose from the practice of secretly listening to conversations while standing in the eavesdrip, the gap between houses designed to keep rain dripping off one roof and onto the next.That strip of snow that you can't quite reach down the middle of your car roof? That's a carhawk, since it looks like a mohawk of snow.Our American Cousin, the farce being performed when President Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre, had some choice lines of bumpkin talk. One of them, "You sockdologizing old man-trap!," was the play's biggest laugh line, after which John Wilkes Booth fired the fatal shot. How about this riddle? A man leaves home. He goes a little ways and turns a corner. He goes a while and turns another corner. Soon, he turns one more corner. As he's returning home, he sees two masked men. Who are they?Research shows that dude, once associated exclusively with males, is now often used in the vocative sense when addressing groups or individuals, including females.Drawing room, known for people taking turns about it, is short for withdrawing room, as in, withdrawing from the dining room while it's being prepped or cleaned.Of all the ways to propose to your girlfriend, one way to do it is by tattooing her name and the words Will you marry me? above your knee.Cute, which comes from acute, once meant "shrewd and perceptive"--"sharp," in other words--rather than "adorable.""The Quarry," a famous painting of a buck carcass by Gustave Courbet, is a hint to another definition of quarry: the guts of an animal given to dogs after a hunt.An Apache proverb: It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand. That's all she wrote, a reference to old Dear John letters, pops up in this song by Ernest Tubb.How do sports idioms translate to other languages in cultures where the sport isn't popular?This episode was hosted by Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2015, Wayword LLC.

Imagen por la Historia
1x23_Ruta por la historia: Abraham Lincoln (30/05/2015)

Imagen por la Historia

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2015 54:35


14 de abril de 1865, el Presidente de los Estados Unidos de América es atacado mientras presencia con su esposa la obra "Our American Cousin" en el Teatro Ford de Washington DC. Tras una larga agonia de 10 horas, el hombre que otorgó libertades a la población negra de Estados Unidos y que venció en la guerra de Secesión Americana, fallecía. En el programa de esta semana intentamos desgranar como fue el atentado que costó la vida a uno de los grandes Presidentes de la nación estadounidense, y descubrimos que el atentado contra Lincoln solo era una pieza más de un entramado de asesinatos que buscaban desestabilizar al Gobierno del país. Igualmente, realizamos un pequeño repaso por la vida del Presidente y de la mano ejecutora de la acción, el actor John Wilkes Booth. Finalmente, recordamos alguna de las serendipias que unen la vida, Presidencia y muerte de Abraham Lincoln y John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Esperamos que os guste.

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over
By the Seat of Your Pants - 3 February 2014

A Way with Words — language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2014 51:25


Dude! We're used to hearing the word "dude" applied to guys. But increasingly, young women use the word "dude" to address each other. Grant and Martha talk about linguistic research about the meaning and uses of "dude." Also, the story behind the term "eavesdropping." Originally, it referred to the act of standing outside someone's window. Plus: by and large, by the seat of your pants, drawing room, snowhawk, Netflix o'clock, glegged up, quarry, and that's all she wrote.FULL DETAILSYou have 30 cows, and 28 chickens. How many didn't? (Yep, that's the riddle: How many didn't?)Back in the 1930s, airplane pilots didn't have sophisticated instruments to tell them which way was up. When flying through clouds, they literally relied on changes in the vibrations in their seat to help them stay on course, flying by the seat of their pants. The phrase later expanded to mean "making it up as you go along."The idiom by and large, an idiom commonly known to mean "in general," actually combines two sailing terms. To sail by means you're sailing into the wind. To sail large, means that you have the wind more or less at your back. Therefore, by and large encompasses the whole range of possibilities.After a long day of work, you settle in to binge-watch House of Cards, only to discover that everyone else in your time zone wants to watch the same thing, bogging down the Netflix stream. That's Netflix o'clock.Looking glegged up, with staring into space with the mouth agape, comes from glegged, which shows up in some old dialect dictionaries meaning "to look askance."Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a puzzle about subtracting letters from words.The term eavesdropping arose from the practice of secretly listening to conversations while standing in the eavesdrip, the gap between houses designed to keep rain dripping off one roof and onto the next.That strip of snow that you can't quite reach down the middle of your car roof? That's a carhawk, since it looks like a mohawk of snow.Our American Cousin, the farce being performed when President Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre, had some choice lines of bumpkin talk. One of them, "You sockdologizing old man-trap!," was the play's biggest laugh line, after which John Wilkes Booth fired the fatal shot. How about this riddle? A man leaves home. He goes a little ways and turns a corner. He goes a while and turns another corner. Soon, he turns one more corner. As he's returning home, he sees two masked men. Who are they?Research shows that dude, once associated exclusively with males, is now often used in the vocative sense when addressing groups or individuals, including females.Drawing room, known for people taking turns about it, is short for withdrawing room, as in, withdrawing from the dining room while it's being prepped or cleaned.Of all the ways to propose to your girlfriend, one way to do it is by tattooing her name and the words Will you marry me? above your knee.Cute, which comes from acute, once meant "shrewd and perceptive"--"sharp," in other words--rather than "adorable.""The Quarry," a famous painting of a buck carcass by Gustave Courbet, is a hint to another definition of quarry: the guts of an animal given to dogs after a hunt.An Apache proverb: It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand. That's all she wrote, a reference to old Dear John letters, pops up in this song by Ernest Tubb.How do sports idioms translate to other languages in cultures where the sport isn't popular?This episode was hosted by Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette.--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2014, Wayword LLC.

Stuff You Missed in History Class
Is there a real Macbeth curse?

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2010 21:40


Some actors believe it's bad luck to say 'Macbeth' in the theater unless the play is being performed -- but why? In this episode, Katie and Sarah explore the origins of the Macbeth curse and the life of the historical Macbeth. (And, an important note: The error regarding "Our American Cousin" and Abraham Lincoln has already been corrected in the episode He Was Killed By Mesmerism.) Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

curse abraham lincoln macbeth our american cousin
Cool Things in the Collection, Kansas Museum of History

T. D. Bancroft saved a playbill fragment with President Abraham Lincoln's blood from from the night the president was assassinated at Ford's Theatre.

blood abraham lincoln assassination bancroft our american cousin ford's theatre kansas museum of history
Military History Podcast
Lincoln's Assassination

Military History Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2008 12:56


President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer and a self-proclaimed modern-day Brutus, on April 14th, 1865 (five days after the end of the Civil War). Booth snuck into Lincoln's viewing Booth at the Ford's Theater while Lincoln was watching "Our American Cousin" and shot him in the back of the head. Booth then jumped down onto the stage and ran out the back door. The ensuing manhunt eventually caught up with him in the swamps of the Potomac River. He was shot, and his co-conspirators were hanged.The event has many interesting stories associated with it:Lincoln had a dream in which he walked into the East Room of the White House and saw a casket. He asked the soldiers why there was a casket and the soldiers told him that the President had been assassinated. He had the dream three days before being assassinated.Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, stood by his father's body as he passed away. Strangely, Robert Todd Lincoln would also stand by the sides of Presidents Garfield and McKinley (both shot by assassins) as they lay dying.Robert Todd Lincoln once fell onto the train tracks but was saved by Edwin Booth, John's brother.Boston Corbett, the soldier who fatally wounded Booth, shot him in the exact same spot that Booth shot Lincoln. There are also several conspiracy theories about the Lincoln Assassination:Vice President Johnson indirectly communicated with Booth on the day of the assassination. He stood to gain the most from the death of Lincoln.Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin might have ordered the assassination of the opposing head of state for tactical reasons. Benjamin destroyed all of his records after the surrender, and then fled to England and never returned.Secretary of War Edwin Stanton disliked Lincoln for his moderate stance on many issues. Stanton prevented Ulysses Grant (and his military escort) from attending "Our American Cousin" with Lincoln (and potentially saving his life). He also lowered security on the bridge that Booth used to flee into Maryland. He also destroyed a few pages of Booth's diary before it was used as evidence in court. For more information, read:The American Presidents by David WhitneyManhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (The History Channel)The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer