My Talk With James McPherson

More or more these days you hear people drawing comparisons between our era and the 1850s, the decade before the outbreak of the US Civil War. There are great differences of course. But in both eras you see an intense political polarization, violence creeping into the realm of politics and a general failure of political institutions to contain or absorb great public controversies and disputes. To discuss this question and comparison I spoke to James McPherson, one of the preeminent Civil War historians of the last forty-plus years. I found it a fascinating conversation both about this pivotal decade from our past and about today. You can listen to it here.