Jeremi Suri: Civil War, Slavery, Freedom, and Democracy | Lex Fridman Podcast #354

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

January 25, 2023

Duration

2h 59m

Channel

Lex Fridman Podcast

Watch on YouTube

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📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Jeremi Suri is a historian at UT Austin. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

• Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings
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• Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex to get 1 month of fish oil

EPISODE LINKS: Jeremi's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremisuri This is Democracy podcast: https://podcasts.la.utexas.edu/this-is-democracy Jeremi's Website: https://jeremisuri.net Jeremi's Books:

1. Civil War by Other Means: https://amzn.to/3hRa3cT
2. The Impossible Presidency: https://amzn.to/3hTn5X8
3. Henry Kissinger: https://amzn.to/3WqkBOY

PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 0:27 - Revolutions and governments 18:06 - American Civil War 27:18 - Lincoln and election of 1860 31:08 - Slavery 44:17 - Freedom of speech 56:00 - Death toll of the Civil War 59:19 - Ulysses S. Grant 1:01:27 - Ku Klux Klan 1:13:10 - Robert E. Lee 1:20:53 - Abraham Lincoln 1:36:01 - If the south won 1:44:37 - Hypocrisy of the Founders 1:50:39 - John Wilkes Booth 1:53:54 - White supremacy 1:59:17 - Disputed elections 2:09:38 - Politics 2:18:03 - Donald Trump and Joe Biden 2:30:48 - January 6th 2:55:46 - Hope for the future SOCIAL:

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• Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Jeremi Suri

  guest

• Lex Fridman

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Jeremi Suri and Lex Fridman, Jeremi Suri: Civil War, Slavery, Freedom, and Democracy | Lex Fridman Podcast #354 explores unfinished Civil War: Institutions, Myths, and America’s Fragile Democracy Historian Jeremi Suri and Lex Fridman explore how the American Civil War never truly ended, but shifted into a long institutional struggle over who counts in democracy and who holds power. Suri argues that flaws of exclusion, deference to status over merit, and patriotic myths are baked into U.S. institutions and still shape conflicts over race, freedom, and elections today. They discuss Lincoln’s leadership, Reconstruction’s failures, the rise of white supremacist violence, modern election crises, and how war centralizes power in ways dangerous to democracy. Throughout, they return to the need for “inside outsiders,” courageous storytelling, and a new generation to reform institutions without burning them down.

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