Tony Horwitz, who speaks at the New York State Museum tonight, talked Tuesday on the PBS NewsHour about his new book on John Brown's raid.
Tony Horwitz, Pulitzer-winning journalist, will present his bold retelling of John Brown's anti-slavery raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, tomorrow at the New York State Museum, free and open to the public.
November 17 (Thursday)Reading/Discussion — 7:30 p.m., Clark Auditorium, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center.
Tony Horwitz, the featured speaker for the 2011 Researching New York Conference, will discuss his new book, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (2011). As a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Horwitz received the Pulitzer Prize in 1994. He is the author of four national nonfiction bestsellers including A Voyage Long and Strange (2008), Blue Latitudes (2002), Confederates in the Attic (1998), and Baghdad Without a Map (1991).
Sponsored by UAlbany’s Department of History, the NYS Archives Partnership Trust, the NYS Writers Institute and NYS Museum. For additional information on the Researching New York Conference click here.
"When pressed to characterize Brown as an American hero or an American terrorist, Horwitz refused. 'He was neither,' he said. 'Or both. He was a complicated man.'"
The Washington Post Arts Blog covered Tony Horwitz's book release party last Saturday for Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (2011). More.
Horwitz speaks tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 17, at the New York State Museum downtown.
"My complaint is that textbooks do a fine job of communicating the facts that students need to know to pass tests. But they don't do enough to make history exciting and engaging to students. Here's a story [John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry] that's got vivid characters -- men and women, white and black -- risking their lives for a cause they passionately believe in. You've got a violent, dramatic climax with the raid and wonderful speeches by Brown and others."
"It's also a great teaching tool, because Brown and his raid spur eternal questions that are great for the classroom. Do ends ever justify means? Is violence ever appropriate in resisting evil? Who was right? I think it's a pity that this episode isn't used more appropriately in textbooks."
Read more of Elizabeth Floyd Mair's conversation with Tony Horwitz (who visits Thursday 11/17) in Friday's Times Union.
"Brown really touches many of the hot buttons in our history and culture: violence, race, religious fundamentalism, the right of the individual to defy their government," Horwitz says. "He's that stone in the shoe of our history."
Pulitzer-winning journalist Tony Horwitz, who visits Thursday, November 17, talks with NPR about his new book, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War. More.
And click here to visit the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in the Adirondacks.