By Troy Segal
Ever since George Washington was inaugurated on a Federal Hall balcony above Wall Street, New York City has always kept a keen eye on the President, and on presidential politics. Discover some new takes on the men who have been our nation’s Commander-in-Chief throughout New York City this summer.
Several lectures at the Bryant Park Reading Room delve into our 19th-century leaders:
Learn about doubts concerning Abraham Lincoln back in his own day — even among Yankee troops, as revealed by historian Jonathan White in his book-based talk, Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln, July 30. Though Lincoln presided over the Civil War, the actions and attitudes of five of the previous Commanders-in-Chiefs (all of whom were alive during the conflict) cast a significant shadow over his behavior. Hear more about it in The Presidents’ War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War That Divided Them, August 13. Forty years later, the country was at peace, but the infighting within the Republican party was fierce. Hear how a new breed of politician was born at the turn of the 20th century, thanks to Theodore Roosevelt and his fellow Progressives, July 23.
Speaking of Teddy: Did you know he was the only U.S. President to be born in New York City? Near Gramercy Park, his home is now a museum, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, with guided tours of its period-furnished rooms offered by the National Park Service five days a week.
Roosevelt was born here — and Ulysses S. Grant was buried here, with wife Julia in the General Grant National Memorial (colloquially known as Grant’s Tomb). From July 19 to September 13, the site holds a series of Saturday afternoon lectures, Civil War to Civil Rights, with each talk focusing on a different era and group in the U.S.; July 19’s lecture, for example, focuses on the tumultuous period right after World War I.
Moving into the 20th century: John Dean, the White House Counsel during the 1970s Watergate scandal, talks about old secrets and new revelations, based on his just-published, provocative book, The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It, at Barnes & Noble–Upper West Side, July 30.
