What's so enjoyable about Vidal is the range of reference from the classics to popular culture, from the serious to the mocking, and the capacity to make you think  again about the things you thought you knew

What a show! Gore is entertaining, eloquent, honest, glib and profound. I could listen to him for hours. What a magnificent and articulate historian and philosopher and artist he is

This man truly deserved so much more respect. What a true icon.

I've heard some great lectures IRL and on Youtube but I think this is the very best I've come across. It's said that Gore Vidal "loved to piss on his enemies, but from a great height." Leave it to Vidal to rip Abraham Lincoln to shreds while lecturing at Harvard University all the way back in 1991, not to shock and boos but rapturous applause. This was a herculean feat of persuasion and he pulled it off with astounding eloquence.

Vidal was a force unto himself.  A reporter once asked his father what he thought of some of the things Gore was saying, writing.  His father replied, "Well, one thing I can tell you is that it has nothing to do with courage; Gore doesn't give a damn what anyone thinks about him."

One of the best and most entertaining introductions I've seen

3:32. A man with true wit -- and very often true insight. I'm glad he's not here to see his country destroyed pretty much as he predicted.

Damn, I had been a student there just a few years before this. Can't believe I missed old Gore, one of my favorites.

Amazingly precient commentary thats so much more relevant in 2024!

As a former teacher, I must heartily agree with his revolutionary scrapping of the current educational system.  I am Canadian, and therefore was taught something of other counties' histories.  The poor Americans know very little of other nations, save that they won the war for the Allies...still trotted out in YouTube comments ad nauseum.

About ten years or so ago, I knew two people both in their 50's and college educated, who had never heard of Joseph Stalin. "Are you kidding me?", I asked. They weren't, and one of them got very defensive when I suggested they read a book on Stalin.

Vidal is so right about studying history of the world in the schools.

Unfortunately, Gore Vidal died four months before the release of Spielberg's Lincoln, one wonders what he would have thought of the film and Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal.

Title should have been: Gore Vidal; all by myself

Great book from a great author

What an amazing extemporaneous ( ! ) introduction from that gentleman!!! 😮 Who was that ?

Vidal an American treasure 🥃

One of a kind

Are the first two lectures available too?

A treasure.

Excellent