Assassination program on C-Span

[Sally]

C-Span’s American History TV is running a program this weekend called “Lincoln Assassination Conspirators.” Naturally, I recorded it. The event was sponsored by the Smithsonian Associates and the speaker was a gentleman named Ralph Nurnberger. He’s a professor of International Relations at Georgetown University, so obviously he’s an intelligent and well-educated man. His knowledge of the assassination and the conspirators though? Umm . . . not so much. I believe he may have prepared for the lecture by reading through O’Reilly and Dugard’s book. He presented many of the usual myths and legends as absolute truth, and added a few new ones I’d never heard before. I wanted to shout out to the people in his audience, “No, no! That’s not true! Get on the Lincoln Discussion Symposium or BoothieBarn and get the real facts!”

To his credit, Professor Nurnberger did recommend some books written by people who are well acquainted with the story, e.g., “Manhunt” and “Mourning Lincoln”. Still, it was kind of teeth-grinding for me to watch, particularly when he trotted out the fable that Lucy Hale was a good-time girl with the moral sensibilities of a Miley Cyrus. (But this is just a personal pet peeve of mine.)

At any rate, the program is available on C-Span’s website here

It’s long (nearly 2 hours) but it might be fun to watch with another “Boothie” and make a game out of it. You could play “Name That Historical Inaccuracy!”