he goes to lexington. it's curious, one of his generalscu wrote to the trustees and said it's great that you got lee to become president. he's going to be the a great figurehead. don't give him any work to do, just put him on the letterhead and let him be the figurehead of the college. the trustees became figure happieds. robert e. lee ran the place. he rewrites the curriculum from top to bottom. he basically sidelines the old classical curriculum and starts bringing in modern subjects. he starts bringing in chemical engineering, he starts bringing in journalism. and not only that, but he does away with the student code of conduct. he now says to all students -- and he interviews every student who comes to washington college. he says there is no code of conduct here, the only thing we expect of you is that you will behave as a gentleman. now, doesn't that sound generous? no. you know what that means? that means robert event lee is now the judge, jury and executioner of all student behavior. [laughter] he a

number he goes to lexington and it's curious. one of his generals wrote to the trustees and said it's great that you've got lee to becomepresident, is going to becomea great figurehead . just put him on the letterhead and let him be the figurehead of the college . you know something, the trustees became figureheads robert e lee ran the place . he rewrites the curriculum from top to bottom. he gets, he basically sidelines the old classical curriculum and starts bringing in modernsubjects . starts bringingin mechanical engineering . he starts bringing in turtles and and not only that but he does away with the student code of conduct. he now says to all students, every student who comes to washington college he says there is no code of conduct here, the only thing we expected you is that you will behave as a gentleman. that now doesn't that sound generous? number you know what that means, that means robert e lee is now the judge jury and executioner of all student behavior. he takes control of in everything at the college and you kn

he goes to lexington and its curious one of those generals wrote to the trustees and said it's great that you got lee to become president. he's going to be great figure and don't give them any work to do this put them on the letterhead and you know something that trustees say where burt ely ran the place. he rewrites the curriculum from top to bottom and he basically sidelines the classic curriculum and he starts bringing in modern subjects. he brings in mechanical engineering and journalism and not only that but he does away with the student code of conduct. he now says to all students in the interviews every student who comes to washington college. he says there's no code of conduct here and the only thing we expect of you is that you will behave as a gentleman. that does not sound generous? no. that means robert e. lee is the judge jury and executioner of all student behavior. he takes control of everything in the college and you know the place where he's the best? fund-raising. cole edwards thought of robert lee as it dealt mental officer. he shakes the apple side of the trees es

beginning with the signing of the declaration of independence or more accurately with the battle of lexington and concord but in your book you take the roots of it back not only to the french and indian war but even in the decade before that and you see the roots of this brewing bifurcation as going back long before there was an actual conflict whereas as you also point out for benjamin franklin well into 1775 he was still hoping for reconciliation with the british empire and that an arrangement could be achieved whereby the united states or what would become the united states and that's an anachronism but where the colonies would become partners with the british motherland in a world empire so i found that really really interesting and i was wondering if you could elaborate on that ache as i think that's also a very fresh approach. >> so yes i do start the story in lexington and concord in before the french and indian war because what i'm trying to get at is this question of what causes a person to turn their back on the country and take arms against it? how are these rebels created? i don't

particularly robertson county, sumner county, counties on the kentucky border began raising a lot, and the lexington foundation in robertson county where they owned 200 slaves. there is a lovely book about the plantation that enslaved people have lived there but one thing it brought to nashville, a market for enslaved people. a lot are advertising in the newspapers, there was a slave pen on the hill where the college is. there's a slave pen in the market where the bus transit building is, close to the state capital and slavery becomes a business and one of the most wealthy men in the united states is a man from sumner county named isaac franklin who became very wealthy buying slaves in alexandria, virginia and transporting them initially, he made them walk by land through here and they put them on boats later and took them around florida to new orleans and up the river but he became one of the wealthiest men in the country in the slave business and there's a new book called the ledger and the chain in which the historian is taken all the financial records, this would be such tedious work and really

out of here and then worse he shoots the horse of the union officer in front of him from like six —- lexington kentucky so back in those days they sure loved kentucky horses. the bullet hit the horse and it cannot be worse because we've got problems. so then and then fire back and they say why did they know who he was? he was wearing a raincoat and they could not see his uniform and he sounded like an officer so what the heck when officers say stop shooting he stop shooting so in my talking glorious passages there were instances of friendly fire is a common thing that could happen uniform confusion and everything else. so this quote actually comes from at the end of the long day of fighting thomas is closing in on a and tried to bring everything up and to be in position remember told you he was detail oriented? that would've kept pushing intel he pushed them in the river he said i pushed all day long we need to replace our losses we need to get situated and bring up some artillery and we have us willing cumberland river behind an asset that if you ever study horseshoe bend get back to a river