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Elite Plays in Presidential Nominations

Marty Cohen (James Madison University)

If it’s not money or popularity polls, then what determines which candidates will be nominated for President?  Cohen co-authored The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform.

15 mins

President Lincoln, the Techie

Richard Lowry (College of William and Mary)

Famous photographer Alexander Gardner created the most iconic images of President Lincoln. Lowry examines why Lincoln sat for so many photos in his book The Photographer and the President.

13 mins

Civil War Selfies

Richard Straw (Radford University)

The story of one early photographer who broke the rules and took some amusingly candid shots. Straw studies these photos in his book Rockbridge County: The Michael Miley Collection.

11 mins

Voting Viva Voce

Don Debats (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Fellow)

In the nineteenth century, voting wasn’t just public; it was a raucous, drunken community festival. How did we get to the private event of casting secret votes we have today?

13 mins

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