Category: History

Author Joseph Cummins‘ new book traces the various ways in which American elections have been influenced through chicanery. He joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to discuss Anything for a Vote: Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Election Campaigns. After the 2004 campaign and the “Swift-boating” of Senator John Kerry, Cummins said he wanted to write a book that describes some of the country’s least flattering examples of democracy, and the result is a year-by-year catalog of various dirty tricks that have helped elect our presidents – from both parties.

Some fun insults are used in this interview: hermaphrodite, atheist, and “lady of the night.”

The year was 1856, a pivotal year in American political history. That’s when the Republican Party formed, and the year that Abraham Lincoln decided to become a member. Historian Julie Fenster joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about her new book, The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder and the Making of a Great President. Read more of Fenster’s work at her blog at American Heritage.

Jon Kukla received his master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and from 1973 until 1990 he directed historical research and publishing at the Library of Virginia. He then followed up as curator and director of the Historic New Orleans Collection, before becoming the director of Red Hill, the Patrick Henry National Memorial in Charlotte County. Now he lives in Richmond, and recently published a book called Mr. Jefferson’s Women. He joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to discuss the new book.

Slave narratives are extremely rare, with only 55 post-Civil War narratives surviving with only a handfulG,V of those are in the first-person. Two newly discovered accounts and the biographies of the men who wrote them join that exclusive group with the publication of the new book A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom. The author of the book, David Blight of Yale University, joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about the work.

Alan Axelrod is the author of The Real History of the American Revolution, which seeks to portray a more complex view of the war that gave Americans independence from Britain.

True crime author Vincent Bugliosi has written a new book called Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The man who prosecuted Charles Manson joins Coy Barefoot to talk about why he thinks JFK was killed by a single assassin, and debunks many of the conspiracy theories. Bugliosi says its the most important work of his career, and explains why.

Woolen Mills resident and Realtor Roger Voisinet joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about the recent destruction of the Woolen Mills dam.