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While the old spiritual 'Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last' was sung by blacks in the hours following the Appomattox surrender, racism sadly continues to be a crippling national scourge.
Douglas Brinkley -
In 2012, the city of Austin erected an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of Willie Nelson in the heart of the business district. Schoolchildren, churchgoers, tourists, slackers, conventioneers, tech geeks - everybody, it seems - now congregate around this ponytailed shrine to outlaw country.
Douglas Brinkley
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John Kerry can be absolutely ruthless. I would not want to be on his enemies list when he's ready to go after you.
Douglas Brinkley -
It's very important that we keep these special, wild places. It defines the United States. Imagine our country without our national parks and our monuments. Here in California, imagine if you didn't have in Southern Cal the Channel Islands or the great Highway 1, Big Sur up to Point Reyes up to the Redwood country.
Douglas Brinkley -
To Armstrong, constantly speaking about 'Apollo 11' only diminished the magic. That's why he worked overtime to avoid notice, living a quiet life in Indian Hill, Ohio.
Douglas Brinkley -
Everybody trusted Cronkite because he reminded them of their favorite uncle or trusted family physician. Being square in the age of the Beatles made Cronkite retro cool.
Douglas Brinkley -
It is a long revisionist road up from the bottom for George W. Bush. He is ranked toward the bottom rung of presidents.
Douglas Brinkley -
Broadcast radio was entering its own golden age during the Depression, with live programming on stations all through the day. Local stations needed singers, musicians, announcers, and whipcord personalities, along with Christian clergy to give prayers and pundits to speak on world affairs.
Douglas Brinkley
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The myth-making about Appomattox started from the moment Lee left the courthouse on his horse to travel to Richmond.
Douglas Brinkley -
Walter Cronkite had a golden rule for all wartime reporters: never self-aggrandize.
Douglas Brinkley -
In 1971, near the middle of Nixon's first term, he approved a plan to install a White House taping system as a way of preserving an accurate chronicle of important discussions and decisions. Except for Nixon, three aides, and the Secret Service, no one knew about the listening devices.
Douglas Brinkley -
Reagan never cottoned to dictators. He was pure in this notion in a true belief that democracy was the best solution in the world because it spoke to people's hopes and dreams and aspirations, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.
Douglas Brinkley -
In Austin, the eco-capital of Texas, residents tend to favor native plants and wildflowers to the sculpted lawns of the Palm Springs variety.
Douglas Brinkley -
What I was most curious about was why Armstrong, a top U.S. Navy test pilot, flying the most advanced aircraft in the world, would want to join the astronaut corps in 1962, which included chimpanzees and monkeys.
Douglas Brinkley
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John Kerry only went to prep schools because he had an aunt who had the money to pay for his way into those prep schools.
Douglas Brinkley -
History chalks up Mr. McKinley's War as a U.S. win, and he also polls favorably as a 'near great' president.
Douglas Brinkley -
President Abraham Lincoln never lost his ardor for the United States to remain united during the Civil War.
Douglas Brinkley -
The D-Day moniker wasn't invented for the Allied invasion. The same name had been attached to the date of every planned offensive of World War II. It was first coined during World War I, at the U.S. attack at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, in France in 1918.
Douglas Brinkley -
John Kerry doesn't think in terms of black-and-white. He's all gray, and he looks at all sides of the issues. That makes people think he likes to be devil's advocate. Whatever you say, he'll challenge you on.
Douglas Brinkley -
I'm not a historian who thinks Confederate memorials should be boarded up.
Douglas Brinkley
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Usually, one day in a century rises above the others as an accepted turning point or historic milestone. It becomes the climactic day, or 'the day,' of that century.
Douglas Brinkley -
There were three Selma-to-Montgomery marches in March 1965, and Rosa Parks had missed the first one. Parks, whose act of civil disobedience sparked the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, moved to Detroit two years later for safety reasons.
Douglas Brinkley -
The Middle East is the tinder box of the world, and to be able to remove a nuclear threat of any kind out of Iran, that would have been a big deal, very positive step forward.
Douglas Brinkley -
I'm not a partisan.
Douglas Brinkley