I Wish I’d Been There: Twenty Historians Bring to Life the Dramatic Events That Changed America

Byron Hollinshead

I Wish I'd Been There brings together twenty of our most distinguished historians' responses to the question "What scene or incident in American history would you most liked to have witnessed—and why?” The answers illuminate crucial moments in our past and give readers a front-row seat at some of American history's most dramatic events.The Salem witch trials, the raid on Harper's Ferry, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the voting rights march on Selma, the beginnings of the Vietnam War—all of these and more are vividly recreated here by a stellar list of contributors, including Mary Beth Norton, Joseph Ellis, Carol Berkin, Geoffrey Ward, Robert Dallek, Jay Winik, Robert Cowley, Carolyn Gilman, and William Leuchtenburg, among other luminaries of the profession. With imagination, insight, and vivid detail, I Wish I'd Been There is an engaging tour through key events in American history.

List of Illustrations Introduction by Byron Hollinshead BILOINE W. YOUNG A Day in Cahokia—AD 1030 MARY BETH NORTON The Salem Witchcraft Trials CAROL BERKIN George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy JOSEPH J. ELLIS The McGillivray Moment CAROLYN GILMAN Meriwether Lewis on the Divide ROBERT V. REMINI The Corrupt Bargain PAUL C. NAGEL The Amistad Trial ROBERT W. JOHANNSEN James K. Polk and the 1844 Election PHILIP B. KUNHARDT III Jenny Lind’s American Debut, 1850 THOMAS FLEMING WIth John Brown at Harpers Ferry JAY WINIK The Day Lincoln Was Shot MARK STEVENS Chief Joseph Surrenders BERNARD WEISBERGER La Follette Speaks against the War—1917 ROBERT COWLEY The Road to Butgneville—November 11, 1918 JONATHAN RABB Trying John Scopes KEVIN BAKER Lost-Found Nation: The Last Meeting between Elijah Muhammad and W. D. Fard GEOFFERY C. WARD The Sick Man in the White House ROBERT DALLEK JFK and RFK Meet about Vietnam CLAYBORNE CARSON Memory, History, and the March on Washington WILLIAM E. LEUCHTENBURG Lyndon Johnson Confronts George Wallace Acknowledgments Illustration Credits