Civil War Stories: Doris Kearns Goodwin, E.L. Doctorow, Tim Tyson [60min]

John Brown was a terrorist, a man who led a raid in Kansas that butchered five unarmed men. He was also, arguably, of the few white people in 1850s America who was totally color blind. According to a new book he was"the man who killed slavery and sparked the Civil War." So, was John Brown a"good terrorist"? In this hour of"To the Best of Our Knowledge" we'll consider the legacy of this most complicated historical figure. 1) Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winning historian and the author of A Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, talks with Jim Fleming about the political genius of the man she considers America's greatest President. 2) Steve Paulson produced this report on Abolitionist John Brown which explores the question of whether terrorism is ever justified. What are we to make of this enigmatic figure who committed murder in his efforts to end slavery? 3) E.L. Doctorow's latest novel is called The March and is about the devastating effect on the South during the Civil War of General William Tecumseh Sherman. Doctorow talks about the book with Steve Paulson and we hear excerpts read by Karl Schmidt. Also, historian Tim Tyson tells Anne Strainchamps about the racially motivated murder that has informed much of his professional life. He writes about it in a book called Blood Done Sign My Name.