Good evening everybody. Welcome to the American Enterprise institute. Im yuval levin, director of constitutional studies at ai and it is my great pleasure to commute to a discussion of the land of hope, the new one volume history of our country by the Great American story and Wilfrid Mcclay area is a book that comes a time when questions of who we are as a people, whether we can have a unifying rather than a divisive story and of how to tell the story of our country in a way that neither some shorts our National Greatness north white washes our national sins, are really live questions in our politics and what may be on unusual way and this book is clearly intended to speak to just that moment though there could be a better time to hear from bill about his sense of howto approach these questions. Bill mcclay is a national treasure. Pure and simple. He is first and foremost a teacher. Behold the blankenship care and history of liberty at the history of oklahoma. He has admired and bowl of five scores of students past and present. Hes also one of the great writers of American History. He is his book the master was self solving society in modern america was judged the best book in American Intellectual history here was published by the organization of american historians and among his other wonderful books of American History are a student guide to us history , figures in the carpet, planning the human person in the american and why place matters, geography, identity and civic life in modern america. Hes also been a historian active in the service of his country. Bill served for 11 years on the National Council of the humanities is the Advisory Board of the National Endowment for thehumanities. The number of the us senate quinn Centennial Commission which i tell you in order to challenge myself to pronounce that word read the Commission Planning a commemoration of americas 250th anniversary in 2026, bill is a graduate of john college in annapolis, he received his phd in history from johnshopkins. And with this latest book he has made an extraordinary contribution to our capacity to understand ourselves. Land of hope describes itself as an invitation to the Great American story and exists to fill the kind. Theres not a shortage of books about American History but an accessible narrative accounts of the art of the american story but understand itself as an invitation to the american looking to become a polar citizen of this country is nothing that were certainly always in need of my format tonight will be simple. Bill will talk about the book for a bit. He and i will then chat about it briefly and we will invite all of you in that conversation through questions and answers so with that lets welcome bill mcclay. This is my first visit to the new and improved aei. Im finding my way around. Its wonderful to be here. This is an institution that i hold very dear and have for many years and i think the fact that they appointed yuval to this post is a good sign about the future so im going to stick this up here, i may not be using it. You call mentioned in the introduction some of what i was going to say about the reasons why i wrote the book because for someone in the academy do, to write a book like this is a pretty insane proposition. Certainly not anything thats going to help your career and i didnt see to use it to do that. But it did seem to me that are we okay . It didnt seem to me that we have a problem. That the profession, the historical profession of which im a part has made i think many advances. Im not here to track the historical profession although we may do that in the question and answer period but its made many advances, particularly in articulating the experiences of the inarticulate. Of the marginalized, of those who have been neglected by historical studies in the past. But the results which is not necessarily the intention, intended result but the result has been a fragmented, fractured incoherence is continuous understanding of our, one that fails to convey the young people the larger art of that history as you open it. Or it reflects the outlook of writers like howard finn who is somewhat questionably research and politically contentious peoples history of the United States as sole almost 30 million copies area i had to check on this, approaching 3 million. Has been treated as authoritative and some of the best public and private high schools and other respectable classrooms. So the gist of this, the process of it is that were losing a general grass on the Public Meeting of our own history. Professional american historiography has made many advances in the breadth and sophistication of its approaches to topics that have been neglected in the past, but what now is neglected is shared historical consciousness, Public Knowledge that we need to be able to think of ourselves as a coherent political entity, to think of ourselves as citizens, to prepare peoplefor citizenship. Not just in terms of the civic 101 understanding of citizenship as a set of particular Political Rights and responsibilities but in a sense of membership, being members of the society, members of the country, part of a great story of which america, american story is constituted. So this is the state of affairs that can go on without producing serious consequences. A great nation need and deserve a great narrative. It needs to convey that narrative to the rising generation, to do so effectively. If its to perpetuate itself and sustain itself. In face of the challenges that are inevitably drawn up in the present and future. It goes without saying that this story, this retelling cannot be a fairytale. It cant whitewash the past. It has to be fruitful to be convincing. But theres no necessary connection between a truthful account of poor excuse me, no necessary contradiction between a truthful account and anaspiring one , especially when the subject is americanhistory. And we see to provide that area either one, either truthful or convincing or inspiring in our schools today. So this combination of truthfulness and inspiration is what i was after in the land of hope which the title itself i think begins to convey. Im going to unpack that a little more as i go. I hope youll forgive me, im going to read some passages from the book beginning to get the flavor of it. The tone and direction of it because that was one of the hardest things about writing it was to find the right pitch that would be acceptable to High School Students because after all, they are ultimately, this is ultimately a high school textbook. Im happy, im delighted, im amazed at the reception that its gotten with general readers with the adult reading public for lack of a better term but its really meant for young people. Its meant to compete with not just howard zinn but with the larded up, glitzy and hyper expensive textbooks that are on offer. So the underlying aim to the book are clear in the house which is an app graph that i borrowed from and grabbed by john does passes who as you know, Great American writer for younger people but we havent encountered that name or ready read any of dos passos, i recommend him. It was a great radical in the 1920s and with the fullness of time he came to a more vivid appreciation of this country and a profound sense of connection to its past. And let me just read you from this essay. By the way, this passage, the title of the book was the first thing i wrote which is sort of unusual area ive never done that before and its usually the last thing i write but i thought this title mis what i want to achieve so i picked it up to my computer monitor and have that there in front of me and theother thing i added was this. And this required, sits on the side propped up by cardboard. This is dos passos. Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times, history is more or less of an ornamental art in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddlesof today. We need to know what kind of firm ground other men belonging to generations before us have found to stand on. In spite of changing conditions, of life, they were not very different from ourselves read their thoughts were the grandfathers of our thoughts. They managed to keep meat situations as difficult and those we have to face. To meet them sometimes lightheartedly and in some measure to make their hopes prevail. We need toknow how they did it. And this is continuing with those passages, this is a part im especially interested in. In times of change in danger, when theres a quick fear under reasoning, a sense of continuity generations going before can stretch like a lifeline. Across this scary present, get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional now. That blocks good thinking. That is why in times like ours when old institutions are caving in and being replaced by new institutions, not necessarily in accord with most mens preconceived hopes , political thought have to look backwards aswell as forward. Thats quite appropriate, isnt it. To our moment. Note that passage that i kind of marked out area dos passos is arguing that a sense of living connection to the past can be steadying and reassuring, a source of sustenance even in times of great upheaval. And a sense, that sense, that sense of connection with the past can free us from the illusion that we live in a time so different from all other times as to be completely without evidence from the illusion that the past has nothingwhatsoever to teach us. All of us who teach in the humanities struggle again. We are prone to think of this way about our present times, the steady flow of dramatic and unsettling events in Technological Innovations render the past irrelevant. Young people i think especially tend to think this way. Because frankly they have less experience and that means they havenothing but the present as a point of comparison. But discourages this view as an idiot delusion. We will take idiotic but because of an idiot delusion. And recommends the counsel of the past is something necessary and not merely desirable. It should add to the weight of these observations to tell you the year in which he wrote these words. 1941. This was a truly frightening moment in the history of the world, history of the western world particularly. Hitler in control of the europeancontinent. The very face of european civilization seemed to hang by a thread. He could have been forgiven for thinking and this time that the past in the midst of this unprecedented war that the past had nothing to do such a moment but thats not what he said. Part of the point of looking backwards as he counsels us to do is that in doing so we not only recover a sense of where we came from but we learn to free ourselves from our mental imprisonment in the present. This provincial conviction that we have that what we are seeing and experiencing and believing today represents the pinnacle of Human Knowledge and human possibility. The natural or inevitable state of human beings. When we learn to incorporate the past and you are thinking we enrich our imaginations, even as we become far less susceptible to idiot delusions. We become better peopleand more appreciative citizens. So we need a different kind of textbook. One that does not condescend to the past but instead reaches back to it. Seeks to recover the roots of our great story and present that story in its fullness not merely in its coarseness, brutality and failure although not neglecting those things either but in its triumph and grandeur and World Historic exceptional importance. It needs to take into account the importance of history and is of a reservoir of shared memory that makes possible our cohesion as a people. Makes it possible for us to Work Together towards the achievement of common goals and common goods. It needs to teach us how to balance criticism with appreciation, an old word that i like very much. Taking into account the perennial challenges of statesmanship as well as the conditioning role of circumstances and context, in the conduct of policy and the making of laws and politics. Above all it needs understand historical knowledge as an essential element in the life of a citizen. A knowledge not only of institutions and rights but a sense of membership, both belonging an obligation. In addition the book is unusual and the extent to which assets reader reflect on the meaning of the past. Tries to show them that they historically, how to understand that history is not just an inner account of indisputable and self explanatory details. Instead, as dos passos understood history is the firstselective humanity. Not tell us what you think about the past never morality play. Means learning to appreciate ,. The circumstances within which historical actors are constrained. It means asking questions and asking them again and again and again. And asking questions as the experience of life causes questions to arise in our minds. So let me talk now about some of the books more specific distinctives. First of all, theres the fact that its a book. Its a tangible, physical object rather than an intangible election of pixels on a flickering screen. Thanks to my publisher encounter books, wonderful books. They is a very handsome book. I do think for the cover art however. But its a handsome book, one that i if people continue to have personal libraries in the future it will make its wayinto their. And in family collections. By taking a stand with the permanence of the traditional printed and bound book, manifold and against the growing tendency of publishers and School Systems rely on digital materials only. And come find students experiences of reading the ever more omnipresent screen. As youll see this is a matter of no small social significance. Digital text can be altered in the linking of an eye. George orwell was thought about this. The permanence of a printed book is an expression of durability of the subject addresses. Also land of hope was not written by a committee or youre looking at the committee. With its pacing together like a hostage note. And to please different constituencies and Interest Groups and stakeholders and Political Action committees and all the other local interested parties. The book was written by me, all by myself, typing away in my without a gang of graduate students or Research Assistants assisting the process. Book reflects that fact. Readers will hear in its pages but human voice of an actual author. And not a false imitation of the voice of god with an echo chamber synthetically added. The writing has not been dumbed down although it has in some cases been simplified and i take pains to make it as lively and approachable as possible. Ill let you be the judgewhen i read some past. Many of the books the mac distinctives are hinted at in the title. As i mentioned the title is the first thing i was about the book and it does express the emphasis that i knew i wanted to huge you as i proceeded. First there is the word land. America is a land. Its not only an idea. True, it is in some respects the expression of an idea or a of ideas about liberty, the quality, self rule and other such things and the universal standards thus set out in our declaration of which in turn initiated the greater class for liberty equality etc. In the nations of the world. Not to discount the historical influence, the transplanted International Worldwide influence of the declaration even unto todays protests in hong kong. But america is also very particular nation, with a particular structure in a particular history. Which in turn means that its particular triumphs suffering , sacrifices and our memories of these things are important factors that draw and hold us together. This precisely they are the sacrifices and suffering victories of all humanity but ourselves, of us alone insome cases. Arlington National Cemetery is the place to manage our devotion only because of the nobility of the american idea but because the remains of our great country, some of whom are fathers and brothers and and relatives are entered there. Second there is the third work in the title, hope. The concept of hope. This is part of the arguments , from the outset that the entire western hemisphere came to be inhabited bypeople who came from somewhere else. Most willingly, but with great exceptions that people who came in bondage but most willingly, restless and exploratory. Unwilling to settle for the conditions in which they were born and drawn by the prospect ofa new beginning. The lower of freedom. The states to pursue their ambitions in ways the respective old world did not permit. Hope is a world, a very powerful word. Has both the logic and secular material meetings. As well as spiritual ones. All of these meetings that existed and still exist in abundance in america. And in fact nothing about america better defines the distinctive character that the ubiquity of hope. A sense that things as they are initially given to us in life cannot be the final word about them. That we can never settle for that. Few qualities are more american than this. And its the spiritual quality above. An aspirational quality, possibly the adequately accounted for in nearly material terms. Of course, hope and opportunity are notsynonymous with success. Being a land of hope sometimes means being a land of disappointment, of dashed hopes. This is unavoidable. A nation that professes such ideals takes itself vulnerable to searing criticism when it falls short of them. Sometimes very far short of them as we often have done. But we should not be surprised by this. Just as we should not be surprised to discover that many of our heroes turned out to be deeply flawed human beings. All human beings are flawed as are all human enterprises. To believe otherwise is to be 90 and much of what passes for cynicism in our time is a little more than nacvetc in the disguise. America hope is far too consistent and Compelling Force to be defeated for long by such passing sentiment. And finally theres the theme also in the title of the story. America has a story. And its vitally important that our young people be acquainted with that story. That story on how we organize the world. We organize them around stories that our constituents have of our social existence. We are at our core remembering ace story making creatures and stories are one of the chief ways to find meaning in the flow of events what we call history and literature are merely the refinements and intensification of that basic human need an impulse. So now let me give you a fuller sense of the book by presenting some excerpts. Each dealing with an issue or event that especially important and yet problematic in our view of the american past. Perhaps the single most sensitive subject in the presentation of American History is the place of slavery in the nations past. The challenge in presenting the subject accurately is one of balance. Insisting on the way the importance of slavery without exaggerating its enduring significance. There is a tendency among the young to imagine that slavery was a uniquely American Institution but this of course is a profound misconception. The United States did not create slavery, did not create racism or racial prejudice. These people are as old as Human History. The default position of human nature absent some strong countervailing moral force. But the United States while having a history touched by the peoples and having participated in them is also a country that has a larger history of which you can be proud seeking to overcome such things. Yet how does one deal of failure of the constitution framers to example to deal with the problem decisively at the time of the country beginning by the time of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the institution of slavery had already become deeply enmeshed in in the national economy. Despite all the ways that its existence and glaring contradiction to our nations commitments to equality and selfrule as expressed in the declaration of independence. Hence there was a real fight in Samuel Johnsons famous jibe, how is it that we hear the loudest notes or liberty among the driversof negroes. How we wonder today that such otherwise enlightened and exemplary men as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. A practice so contradictory to all that they stood for. And as i write in the book, now im putting the book, there is no easy answer to such questions. But surely a part of the answer is that each of us is born into a world we did not make. And it is only with the greatest effort and offer that very great cost we are ever ever change that world for the better. Moral sensibilities are not static they develop and deepen over time a general moral progress is very slow. Part of the study of history involves the training of the imagination. Learning to seize political actors as speaking and acting in their own times rather than hours and learning to see our heroes as an all too human mixture of admirable and other admirable qualities. People like us who may like us be constrained by circumstance beyond their control. And continuing here, the ambulances regarding slavery built into the structure of the constitution were almost unavoidable in the short term. In order to achieveeffective Political Union of the nation. What we need to understand is how the original compromise no longer became acceptable to increasing numbers of americans, especially in one part of the union and why slavery ubiquitous institution in Human History came to be seen not merely as an unfortunate evil as a simple impediment to human progress, a stain upon the whole nation. We live today on the other side of the great transformation in moral sensibility. A transformation was taking place but not yet completed the very years the United States was being formed. Hence it would be profoundly wrong to contend as some do that the United States was founded on slavery. Number it was founded on other principles entirely, on principles of liberty and selfrule that have been discovered and defined and refined and enshrined through the tempering efforts several turbulent centuries of european and british and American History. These foundational principles would win out in the end though not without much struggle and striving and eventual bloodshed. The United States and join a miraculous birth but it was not the product of an understanding in section and an uncle delivery. Few things are. Either of these words before the publication of the New York Times 1619 project that i suspect you all are somewhat familiar with each does in fact insist on the idea of america is founded on slavery and a project that will we are told be producing and discrediting materials foruse in american schools to promote that idea. Absent countervailing arguments from like mine, theres not a genuine danger that part of the education of American Students will be the teaching that slavery is part of the nations enduring makeup. Its dna is the metaphor that they use rather too clumsily i think. A lesson that would not only be false but pernicious. A related lesson of history is that the lesson of the states may be less than obvious to contemporary observers precisely because only the reader is in a position to understand all the essential forces at play. Being a great leader requires courage andimagination , even darren especially when the outcome seems doubtful and the public is leaning in a different direction. It may mean courting the displeasure of the multitudes and accepting unpopularity as the result. Contains many examples of this i can deduce but lets takethe case of lincoln. We are so accustomed to thinking of working in her own terms that we forget the depth and breadth of his unpopularity. During virtually his entire time in office. You great leaders have been more conference ugly is staying, load and underestimating. Other views of lincoln is to be expected but it was widely shared in the north to. Are today cant hold a candle to that. Lincoln was convinced there was good reason that he was doomed to lose that election with incalculable consequences for the war effort in the future the nation and all that he had done and all that he had sacrificed. Let me quote from the book again. We need to remember that this is generally how history happens. This is very much directed towards young people but i think all of us can benefit from us. We need to remember this is generally how history happens. It is not like a hollywood movie with the background movie swells and the crowds in the room applause. The order suspense is timeless words and the camera pans the roomful of smiling faces. Real history the background music does not swell and the trumpets do not sound and the critics often seem louder than the applause. The soldier has to wonder did he act in vain . Are that criticisms of others in fact true . Welltimed judge them harshly . Few great leaders have felt this burden more comprehensively than lincoln. I do this a lot with other statesmen to try to get people to appreciate what it might be like to be someone in the shoes as the man in the arena as roosevelt said. Let me say land of hope relates the story of the civil war in 1865 and away better lessons for our fellow countrymen today who seem to regard the best years of the american past with contempt. Heres how i describe it in the book. A somewhat longer passage here. On april 9 after the last flurry of futile resistance lead arranged to meet grant at the appomattox courthouse to surrender his army. He could not formally surrender but the surrender of his army would trigger the surrender of all others so representative the end of the confederate cause. It was a poignancy dignified and restrained and sad as when a terrible storm had finally exhausted itself leaving behind the strange reverend calm purged of all passion for the two men had known one another during the mexican war and its not see one another in nearly 20 years the leader writers wearing his elegant dress uniform soon to be joined by grant clad in a mud spattered coat and his trousers tucked and his muddied boots. Always a fashion plate today showed one another deeply respectful courtesy and grant generously allowed a peace officers to keep their sidearms in the mend brought horses and none would be arrested or charged with treason. Four days later when lees army marched into his rented their arms general Joshua Chamberlain of maine wrote gettysburg was present at the ceremony and the later reflected on the soldierly respect for the man before him each passing by and stacking his arms men who only days before had been his mortal foes and here i quote from chamberlain who cannot be improved on. The forests and proud humiliation stood the embodiment of mans head. Men who neither toiled with the sufferings from the fact of death or disaster nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve. Standing before us now famished. Waking memories that brought us together as no other bond. Was not such manhood to be welcomed back into the union . On our part not a sound of trump or the role of the drum, not a cheer not a word or whisper of glory. An odd stillness as if it were the passing of the dead. Thats chamberlains observation in my account at picks up from there. Such deep sympathies and a victory so heavily penned with sadness and grief and death. War was and remains americas bloodiest conflict that generated at least 1. 5 million casualties on each side combined including 620,000 and far more than that deaths equivalent of 6 million men in todays american population. One in four soldiers who went to war never return home. One and 13 was returned home with one or more missing limbs. For decades every village and town in atlanta could see men bearing such scars of mutilation and lingering reminder of the price up that others had paid. And yet chamberlains word suggested there might be room in the days and years ahead for the spirit of conciliation, the spirit that lincoln had called for in his second inaugural speech, the spirit of winding up wounds of caring for the many afflicted him bury it and then moving ahead together. It was a slandered hope that ghetto hope worth nursing and pursuing. We all know it didnt turn out that way thanks in large part to john wilkesbooth the assassin of lincoln but the story i think is illustrative nonetheless. If chamberlain and his troops could find it in their hearts to be that forgiving, that generous that respectful of men who had been only days before their mortal enemy we ought to be able to extend similar generosity towards men for what is now for us a far more distant past. We can be encouraged to miss disposition by lincoln himself has said something similar on april 14, the very day of his assassination. I hope, lincoln said, hope there will be no persecution, no bloody work after the war is over. Enough lives have been sacrificed for the must extinguish a recent months and cat arminian union. There has been too much of a desire on the part of some of our very good friends to be masters, do it if you under gear and dictate the states to treat the people not as fellow citizens. There is too little respect for their rights. I do not sympathize. Perhaps lincolns hopes were unrealistic. Perhaps such an outcome was impossible. Perhaps it would have been too many concessions. We can never know for sure but given the high regard in which lincoln has rightly held by most americans and most of the worlds greatest leaders it would be a mistake not to Pay Attention to the statesmanlike example. Not only in understanding the past in which he lived with the president which we live as well. Lincoln never lost sight of the fact the war consumed his presidency and finally his life would be a failure if it were not in the end of the war of the unification and reconciliation and not merely a war of conquest and vengeance. We will fear for our own debates in internal conflicts if we get called to do the same thing. Finally another act of statesmanship, one that was not all that controversial at the time. Its become highly controversial in the year since president harry truman developed an atomic bomb to bring the war against japan to an end. So seeker was the development of this weapon the new president had not even been informed of its existence after roosevelts death and found himself has the one who had to make the momentous choice whether to use these weapons against japan and if so how to use them. In todays debate over the morality of using these new fearsome weapons we have none fortunate to be the decision apart from its content and the way the responsibilities of the National Leader like truman had to fulfill under the circumstances. I try to counsel readers as i try to counsel my students against such weightless moralizing. Heres my description in the book of trumans decision. Chairman was a blunt straightforward and decisive man and did not agonize over his choices and he quickly decide it would be imperative to use this new weapon is something that would save lives particularly in light of ruinously bloody experience in okinawa for the conventional occupation of japan. How best to use it given the fact that only two bombs were then available and the real possibility the pics load properly. It did not make sense to prove the weapons awesome power. For one thing the detonation might fail entirely. Even if the demonstration bomb to explode it might not have the desired affect in any way. And how can this usually scores, how could truman possibly justified to the world declining to use this weapon . It resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. He concluded the only realistic choice was to demand japanese surrender to start is the most threatening terms with the deadline attached and whether they drop the bombs without warning on the japanese target and thats what he did. There was a warning on july 26 to surrender or face the grim reality that the alternative to surrender his prompt and utter destruction and then when there was no surrender forthcoming early in the morning of august 6 at b29 bomber dropped the first bomb on the city of hiroshima and major war industrial center. So a few words in closing and i would welcome your questions and discussion. Come back to lincoln again and one always does this. It was lincoln who articulated in his first inaugural address the hope that what he called the mystic chords of memory would swell the courts of unions and in the prospect for the union staying together with diminishing by the minute. Its appealing in a moment of Grave National crisis to the Great American story. The nations grateful memory of the generation of 76 of the revolutionary patriots that created the nation and all those others who sacrifice so much to make the nations democracy into a success. Link at spurs beach did not succeed in ending the war at the time but that does not mean his prescription was the wrong one for other times including our own. We too live in a fractious period of this unity bullet disturbing one in which theres loose in irresponsible talk of the civil war. We also have even longer and more illustrious National History to appeal to now even in our current time of national discontent and strife. To put it this way we have an even more impressive orchestra of mystic chords to hear and heed. The declaration of the lapel philadelphia to the constitution. We have so much more, and gettysburg Promontory Summit hiroshima west berlin, and dozens of other places that serve as markers for the progress of the american. But we cannot draw effectively on his true to have forgotten or worse had never known at all. Such comprehensive ignorance such abject erasure of the past is no longer hypothetical dangers but a clear and present one. In that sense i hope land of hope can be a small but helpful contribution a much larger project of national declaration, and i thank you. [applause] there are alligators in there eight thank you very much bill. Wonderful overview and distress fantastically would also jumps up from the book itself which is the sense that our history can be a source of unity. Let me start out by asking you about that. Cementers a way in which her politics now is using history as a source of division whether thats to describe the american story is rooted in sin so next version of suppression or really whether its to draw out the american story proving that other side is the american tradition. Has our history been used as a source of unity traditionally . Is this something new or is it always the danger in history itself . I think its always a danger. To have history goes back to the civil war period but there were debates and interesting debates, not without intellectual merit about the meaning of the constitution and was a compact or does it reestablish the state so a different basis so that they sacrifice their sovereignty that southerners increasingly insisted that it had not. These are debates with unifying interest and nobody ever encases a historical debate in a completely disinterested way but there are legitimate issues. I often feel theres a teaching about the development of the American Institution. We really have to see a dialect between opponents that the most salient of which being today because they are so much the antifederalist critiqued in the constitution that is not only sensible and valid at the time but is more so now and of course we have the bill of rights among other things thanks to those antifederalists. Even though we tend to always look to the federalist papers when we are in a period of constitutional upheaval as we have been lately the antifederalists, maintaining that debate and dialectic and attention as part of her understanding of the past and is very important. By the way i want to remark on that. Its interesting how i guess i try to be evenhanded from a hardison standpoint how people who are quite willing to dismantle the constitution, when we have times of federal crisis whether its really Critical Issues that go to the foundations of our existence are at play why is it they always come back to the federalist papers and the legal scholars who testified not long ago for the house. They were talking about the federalist and their every other breath. There is a way in which those documents and documents for which is they serve as a common are an anchor that we always come back to even though its a very contested anchor. The constitution is not a symbol of documents that are yielded to any casual leader. Everything in it has been fought for and will continue. Talk about extraordinary passages start with. What jumped out at me that quote is history as the grandfather of our thoughts. Its a wonder what wonderful way to get over this tension between us and our fathers and learn from the past. It and glad you caught that because every time ive read that i say notices his grandfather to not fathers because if you think about the difference in the relationship of grandparents and grandchildren there something really special about that. Theres an inherent that takes over at the sort of freudian mothers and children over that dialectic with less friction and i wont say disinterested but its a more generous less conflict shall transposition or transfer of knowledge and sense. Yeah i think you are right. It does take us out of this sense that we have to do things exactly the way our fathers did. We are operating within a paradigm of broader and specific things that our fathers did. They embody values and aspirations that are more broadly and deeply part of the story. Im going to open things up to people in the room but you mentioned that you chose the cover art. The image of the cover is a hamiltonian idea of america. Is that the hope inherent in america . Is america the land of that kind of material commercial urban promise versus would have been a wheatfield . And i tell you a story about this . When the magnificent designer and i cant think of his name right now but a wonderful freelance person they hired and he did a version of this using a translucent painting. It was a beautiful landscape and from a design view i said yeah i like this but we cant do this. Its bad enough its going to be called land of hope but if i put this pastoral scene on their the conclusion people are going to drive this is all about this american past that never was kind of thing and dealing with american as an Agrarian Society so i said i want to find something that is urban but has some of the upward feelings you get when you walk into a cathedral. Staff was very helpful and we looked and looked for weeks and finally i fell upon this and i have never seen it before. It did seem to me to have that upward thrust, that sense of ambition. I wasnt thinking in the terms of americas commercial republic for thinking of it as a land of desperation and of opportunity and bustling Energy Rather than the sylvan and peaceful and agrarian land. And want to bring people into the room so rager hansen we will get you the microphone. Tell us a you are in try to ask a question. If there are questions. Theres one in the back right there. My name is. Thank you bill for this magnificent book and thank you to the American Enterprise institute for this occasion for us to hear your remarks. He spoke about landen he spoke about land of hope and you spoke about hoping he spoke about the story. He didnt say anything about the invitation and i want to ask you about that. Another high school texts about the american story less attention it seems to me is paid to the 17th century english context and i would say the religious divisions are not treated with the seriousness with which you treat them. I wonder what you intended an invitation to the background in europe of religious strife and whether the imitation is not merely an american story but the invitation to a story that perceives that story into the grandfathers of the grandfathers . Was that intentional . Well i want to say yes because the want to take credit for it. Heres what i had, two things in mind. One was i wanted to make it clear im not pretending to produce the definitive one volume. This is not a followon. Its longer than i wanted it to be and i couldnt make it any shorter but i wanted it to be shorter than i wanted to speak compact and accessible. I did not want to strive for a short text. An invitation of the party is not the party and thats the other thing is that i do feel for a lot of people young and old the story that either they dont know, they are afraid to go into it because they have the sense that they will be dragging this and and theres nothing much to be proud of or have the sense that the american past is a sort of endless procession of confederate flags. Nothing one can avoid having to apologize for in that respect. Its absurd that it is what it is is where we are. Is there an expectation when you teach and be been teaching history for a while is a distinctly a time people think of American History as a procession click. I have a way of formulating that is absolutely correct and have to do with i call it the true fall fault. I started teaching in the 1980s and i taught the American History survey. I am one of those types. Part of what you are dealing with in history as sequence a narrative and the connections between ideas. I do occasionally but you get simple questions invited Andrew Jackson feel that way about the bank. I have no clue. I dont remember any of that so this is the fault number one. In 1980 and two jackson was a brave american indie cared about america and de la thought the bank of the United States was not good for america. It was the greatest nation in Human History they did in the databank. With the stare decisis forever conclusion. Well you know you they pulled on my heartstrings a little bit and i gave at the d. And its not because that was necessarily what they believed but its what they thought i wanted to hear that would help them get out of this jam with the minimal amount of damage. Obamas apology to her sort of like Andrew Jackson was a violent man who showed more knowledge by default and he was an imperialist and so on and so forth. Therefore he opposed the bank of the United States because america isnt. List nation and this has to do the bank of the United States. There is a sense that they say this is what i want to hear. This is the sense i get coming out of high school. I think we have switched from default and either one is worth a hill of beans if i may put it in somewhat anodyne form. They are both posturing and they are both reflecting complete absence of historical knowledge or interest of the political past but again interesting that the fallback, the default is to say america has been arrogant. We have been arrogant whereas the fault number one would be forever. That tells you something. Its a crude measure but it tells you something about the general set of expectations that we are up against. Some of my daughter was dating and the first thing he said was how are you doing in the book, the first question and its import subject. Its not the only subject. Good grief. We have marginalized American History in our interest in better understanding the markets which are real but i dont want to put down people in my profession many of whom have done very good work. You may have noticed that several leading historians including historians of slavery have come out against the professions because i think people know that this is bad history. Even in a leftwing historical presence it went too far. Maybe didnt cover this. Not that there were dozens of other places that served markers for the american. And i wondered what you got from that period since 1970. Well id have to think about that for a minute. In a period that doesnt jump out at me as being full of heroes. What i do which you might find kind of interesting is i talk about i talk about watergate defeated vietnam or the sense of defeated vietnam. The general sense of the ebbing of American Power that is the kind of culmination of the Carter Administration that the extraordinary role of the bicentennial celebration and some of us who are old enough to remember what a tremendous broadcast on television watched by millions of people hanabusa most interesting effect. They spent 10 years working on it in fairly nearly didnt produce anything. The tall ships fixed many peoples lives. What does that have to do with the National Story . A cant exactly say. Its the story of National Promise and possibility and it did so by drawing on the past, by drawing on the magnificent past. Im very favorable to Ronald Reagan not completely uncritical after the end of the cold war the intensive narrative stops and what i ended up doing with the last chapter arguing that in fact from the standpoint of writing a textbook we are still dealing with the end of the cold war and we have completely resolved it. I really feel the harder it is to avoid partisanship but i do present reagan in a very positive way except for the deficit. Spent the last chapter was interesting for the cold war ended 30 years ago. A book of American History written in 1960 wouldnt have stopped in the 1930s. Theres a sense in that chapter that we havent found our way. That i think and i am talking about all the polling data about the distrust of our institutions acrosstheboard and are 23 trilliondollar debt and so on. I do add in a less than happy way really these challenges are not beyond us. Im glad you added that about the 70s. I remember a lot of good things about the 70s but the 80s i do. Will take another question. Thank you lovell. Im with the cato institute. Professor mcclay you open your remarks by alluding to the state of the teaching of American History today in the colleges and universities. I want you to say a little bit more about that, the source of that and whats to be done about the part from the adoption of your book and again how it is but that may change. Yeah i think at that point i was talking more about high school and the fact that young people are not getting a sense of their past. Especially with the colleges and universities one of the things that nobody in the History Department wants to do is teach a course. In American History, nobody wants to an part of the reason is its time spent away from my specialty in my research but its actually the hardest story to teach well because it involves constantly trying to integrate fresh insight. Yet keeping perspective. I think one of the things about our history is i was thinking actually one of the problems is not only that young people dont know america but they dont know the history of the world. Slavery is the teaching of all Human Society until fairly recently. They think im crazy and just a limit to her they have no idea what the history of the world looks like. To study American History without studying the larger context is to fail to see what they live in a great deal of darkness that history is. The historical profession places a high premium on specialization and nationalization is ever more feeding into a strong sense of the public meaning of history. There are a lot of very good historians to point this out. They dont seem to realize that the way that they do things is a big part of the problem. You need to come to the subject with some kind of sense of the story within which the elements of Research Take on their meaning. There is an ideological element. One of the things when i was working on it i looked at 25 or so textbooks than what i expected to find was this great example of an ideologically driven caricature, really a cartoon version. You dont actually find that in the textbooks. The problem is they are so heavily written so convoluted. I compare them to a hostage note to appease various people that are going to influence the textbook the holy grail of textbook publishing and other states that have large textbook selection. You have this incoherent account. How do we expect young people to read this . This is horrible. I cant read it. I actually think ideology is less of a problem. It does become a problem after i would say 1954 including 1954. From that point on even though the best and im not faster not so good clearly its transparently ideological and i wouldnt want to use them. For a long time i published a little book 20 years ago called the students guide to u. S. History and it was published and got a lot of circulation. People wrote to me and said i know youre half of bibliography but you dont have textbook. And i said thats because there is not an example i would recommend. I would detail Paul Johnsons book when i came out. After a while i started feeling guilty about the fact that if you have vacation why dont you write a textbook . I felt the guilt can be a good thing. Guilt can make you do the things you ought to do so i think that was part of the reason i finally broke down. Thats its better to light a candle as they say although it might be more painful sometimes. We are almost at the end of our time. Are we still went of hope and are you hopeful about america and the prospect of americans . Yeah. I am. I think other problems we face our first World Problems that are the problems of all humanity and how we are to figure out the appropriate limits of our imposition of nature which is a bioethical Environmental Concern to these are things that i think they are going to preoccupy us in the years to come in the a world in which we have the capacity to transform so much about what we are and the biological complement that is given to us, everybody is going to struggle with it. I think we are better equipped than most things to the past of course. But yeah and thats all i will say about that. Well. Will. Will thank you very much predicted by the book right outside and please hope me to think Wilfred Mcclay for a wonderful evening. [applause] good evening everyone. We are happy you are here tonight. We are very happy to have megan nelson because with her new book the threecornered war the union, the confederacy and the native peoples in the fight for