Foreshadowing Disunion (Ep. 42)

The radicalization of a congressional clerk in the 1800s and the introduction of the telegraph set a young country on a new trajectory. The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol stands as a prevailing symbol of the country's present-day polarization. But while the brutality of that day sits in the minds of many Americans as unprecedented, Yale historian Joanne Freeman reminds us that violence within the Capitol has a long history. In The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War, Joanne Freeman details the congressional brawls, threats, beatings, stabbings and gun play that emerged from the unsavory cocktail of slavery, regional and party politics, and dysfunctional codes of personal honor that permeated Washington in the decades leading up to the Civil War. The book, released four years ago, provides context to the congressional investigation of the attack and a fresh debate about the country's civic health