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The Evolution of the Inauguration

angela n.
/
Flickr
Attendees wave flags at President Obama's first inauguration on January 20, 2009. With more than 1.8 million people attending, it drew the largest crowds of any inauguration on record.

As Donald Trump is inaugurated today, President Obama will be in attendance, following a tradition that highlights one of the most important aspects of inaugurations.

"It's an amazing event in that it signifies the peaceful transition of power, usually from one party to another," says Cary Covington, Associate Professor of political science at the University of Iowa.

In this hour of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Covington and Tim Walch, presidential historian, and former director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, about the history of the inauguration.

Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River