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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep300: Guest: Ronald White. Chamberlain returned to Bowdoin as a professor, where he prioritized critical thinking over strict regimentation and married Fanny in 1855. During his tenure, he witnessed significant pre-war events, including a visit by Jefferson Dav

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Arts, Books, Society & Culture, News

4.62.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Guest: Ronald White. Chamberlain returned to Bowdoin as a professor, where he prioritized critical thinking over strict regimentation and married Fanny in 1855. During his tenure, he witnessed significant pre-war events, including a visit by Jefferson Davis and Harriet Beecher Stowe reading early chapters of Uncle Tom's Cabin. When the Civil Warbegan, Chamberlain felt compelled to serve, abandoning a planned sabbatical in Europe to study languages. Despite the governor offering him a colonelcy, Chamberlain modestly requested a lower command to "earn and learn" the military trade, eventually joining the 20th Maine regiment in 1862.
1863 GETTYSBURG

Transcript

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0:00.0

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with Indeed. I'm John Batchel. I way with Indeed.

0:44.7

I'm John Batchel. I'm with Ron White. His new book is On Great Fields of Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. If you've heard that name before, yes, we're headed

0:49.3

to Gettysburg. But right now we're at Bowden College, one of the esteemed higher learning centers in America,

0:57.3

and Bowden College sees the talent that Lawrence Chamberlain represents and invites him to be a member of the faculty temporarily.

1:07.4

He marries in 1855 to Fannie, and they go to Bowden College, Brunswick, 100 miles south of Brewer.

1:14.7

And right away, he has interest in the pupils.

1:17.9

Was that unusual for an educator in these days, Ron?

1:22.0

Well, he had a wide-ranging interest, although he very much valued his own education as a student, he felt that

1:29.2

as a teacher, he had to open up a wider range of possibilities, both in terms of what the

1:35.2

students read, but also in the way that he taught. Sometimes the students were viewed simply by

1:40.8

the other faculty as boys who needed to be regimented.

1:44.2

He wanted to teach them what we might call critical thinking.

1:47.5

Let them think for themselves.

1:49.8

He was on probation with the faculty.

1:52.5

How did he think of it?

1:54.4

This is a temporary position.

...

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