Trump Is Hijacking America’s 250th Birthday (w/ Kevin Levin)
6/21/202639 min
Bill Kristol sits down with Civil War historian Kevin Levin to examine Trump’s effort to reshape America’s story ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
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First 90 secondsBill Kristol· Host0:01
Hi, Bill Kristol here. Welcome to Bulwark on Sunday. Very pleased to be joined today by, uh, Kevin Levin, a Civil War historian, or American historian, but, uh, with excellent Substack Civil War memory, which I recommend everyone read and subscribe to. Uh, written several books on American history. And I guess, uh, Kevin, your most recent book... Well, not recent, your forthcoming book, uh, is out in September. Say a word about that because I think it's, it sounds fascinating.
Kevin Levin· Guest0:25
Yeah, great to be here with you, Bill. Uh, forthcoming book, September with the University of North Carolina Press called A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. So many of you probably remember him from the movie Glory in 1989 with, uh, Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman. But, uh, first biography of Shaw to be published in about 25 years, so I'm really excited about it.
Bill Kristol· Host0:45
Yeah, that's great. I've, I've admired the, the Shaw Monument in the Boston Common, and as I was saying to you before the show that I, I was up r- just doing something else in Boston, I guess about half a y- a few months ago and- Yeah ... walked over to look, as you were saying, you're in the Common, so looked over to look at it again. Really a fantastic- It's staggering ... thing. And, and that was, and that was put up... I mean, he was famous right after the w- Civil... Uh, in real time, right? And that was- Oh, absolutely.
Kevin Levin· Guest1:08
He becomes a martyr to the emancipationist cause almost immediately, in large part because of his mother, and she's largely responsible for that, uh, memorial in the Boston Common that was dedicated in 1897. Still, I think, our greatest piece of, uh, Civil War art, perhaps after the Lincoln Memorial.
Bill Kristol· Host1:24
Wow, that's an interesting way to think about it. Yeah. The cen- central... You've written about this a lot, the centrality. We'll