Transcripts For CSPAN2 Summer Series With David McCullough 20240712

Programs. In 1982 he appeared on book notes to talk about his biography of president truman it won the Pulitzer Prize for biography and to help change the view of the truman presidency. Here he is from 1992. Cspan you start off by saying as far back as he could remember truman held onto the mythical roman heroes. What is that all about . The mythical hero who left in time of war with the great general and was victorious and renounced all of his power and returned to the farm. Thats a theme the country was founded on. If you are at the capital with the great painting of George Washington turning over his powers as commanderinchief of the Continental Army to congress the symbols earth all throughout that painting because they believe this is what democracy entailed that any citizen should be called upon at any time to serve b ultheir country in any capacity and the power belong to the people and would bepo returned to those who held it. He like to say i never forget who i was, where i came from and where i gogo back to. That is his theme obviously that he knows who he was. And he was proud of he was. And the return to independence after he left the office of the presidency in 1953, was his way to let his actions speak louder than words. Living up to that idea was not as easy as he expected. And then the harry truman of independence missouri. He missed washington and the pressure in the segment of washington. He live nearly 70 years but he was 20 years in washington a senator and Vice President and president. Cspan ear that he left to go back to independence . 1953 when eisenhower took the oath of office. When truman walked down he was citizen truman. He had no pension. No allowance for office space. No secret service. The income was is an army pension of 119 a month and he got on the train the new president eisenhower loaned him the president ial car that belong to roosevelt to ride home to independence and all the way across the country he was greeted one town after another by crowd to came out to seeee him. The he got restless and walked around the train he would just say hello toto everybody. And returning to what he had been. S interesting as all the rest of it. I mass sometimes what drew me to truman but one of them certainly for me it is a wonderful story and the story of his retirementt years is as appealing for me to write as any in the book. Cspan 117 pages. Including sources. Its a slim volume. [laughter] but the problem is to keep it to one volume i was determined it would not be a twovolume biography. I wanted it to be a big book i didnt know it would be quite this big but the span and the arc of his life is a chronicle of American Life with the jeffersonian agrarian which he experiences directly as a boy growing up in a small town. With power based primarily on scientific accomplishments. A 19th century man. And manner of speech and have it and thought before the First World War and yet the most momentous of all of the 20h century but he is not prepared. We were not prepared as a country either. He had the various ordeals he had to get behind. And thats what symbolizes the history of our country. Theres a lot of things we can do with this book i will skip to the last chapter in some of your notes. Because its relevant you talk that harry truman and his wife got in their own core after he was president and drove back to new york . Talk about that. He loved to drive an automobile which is interesting because its one of the few recreations. He didnt play golf or tennis and didnt know how to dance. Driving an automobile and reading and walking where his primary recreations. He bought a new chrysler and wanted to get a workout. So they decided they would drive from independence to washington and friends try to stop them from doing that. But they were determined and set off on the car it was an adventure because and then assure them out of town as rapidly as possible. So that as a consequence people would pass them by former president of the United States driving along the highway the cars would drop back and pass them again to see if their eyes are playing tricks on them he turned and said there goes our incognito. Now the press corps that had covered them drove out to maryland and heard that he was coming they all followed him and he loved that and then with his short sleeves on driving the car the crowd all gathered around and then drove up to new york that was on the town and went to restaurants just like anybody visiting new j york taxicabs and pullover and drivers way to jump out and say hairy. You are my man and on the way back a state trooper pulled him over because apparently he was cutting to close when he pass them he said the trooper just wanted to say hello and shake his hand. That was the last automobile trip after that they go by train or plane or boat. There was the attempted assassination. Why wouldnt the government have protection at thates time . It just wasnt done why wouldnt they have a penchant for Army Officers . In fact he had very little money. He had to borrow some money secretly that dean atchison cosigned to pay for the move back home. This is not wellknown it doesnt mean he didnt have money. He did that he neededave cash o cover the expenses. And then with theg autobiography memoirs which no other president has done except for Herbert Hoover that was much prefer it was far more mulch on tumultuous. Then to undertake the twovolume and more which was very ambitious. And then he built his library. So truman was the first president to officiate over the library. Something i tried to imply or emphasize in the book is that truman was very creative public figure and president presidency. He built roads and court houses then he built the famous truman balcony back at the white house that was a great flurry of criticism and then he entirely rebuilt the white house what we have today is the house that harry built except for the outer shell which was maintained. The entire interior is reconstruction. He took part in every detail of that. He loved building and creating. And of course in a larger way his presidency is marked such as innovative acts of the marshall plan. So to be a builder in the last chapter of his life appealed to him tremendously. Having his office at the library and to take people aroun around, except when he traveled. Did you ever meet him . S no. I saw him once when i was a youngster my first trip to new york i was starry eyed and god said job at the magazine called Sports Illustrated he came out of the st. George hotel a big car pulled up and i stood with the crowd i had never seen a governor before so i was excited about that. And then former president truman. I remember thinking my god he is in color. Because he only had black and white television. And i think he had very high color. He radiated good health that makes him seem very vital. He did not seem like a little man to me. He seemed like he was 6foot 8 inches but i never met him. I often thought would it be interesting to gobe back and then to say mr. President i will write your biography some day. What do you think he would othink . This after all is an honest attempt to see the complete man and his faults. I understood him better than other people it was a much more complicated and complex and keenly intelligent the spirit manrr of the truman implies. He is an just a salty down home missouri will rogers. Guest in total perhaps either margaret truman, his daughter or else he and Clark Clifford and some of the secret service peoplsecretservice peope invaluable because they were with him all the time. Many of them had never been interviewed before. Host are the secret Service Allowed to talk after the fact . Guest apparently so. Cspan you found nothing guest no. And they were wonderful because they sold them off stage. They saw him under all conditions and often under enormous pressure, tension. You mentioned that attempted assassination. Two of the secret service men who are still here in washington, walked me through the whole event from both inside and outside of the warehouse where it took place and spend a better part of one saturday doing that, and i dont think, im sure thats never been done before. So my account of that is based on material that can only be han by reaching thats time for living people. And their devotion to harry truman is a very compelling thing to listen to. And its true of all the people that work for him at all levels. I didnt find a Single Person that knew him well or worked with him who wanted to tell me what his terrible backstage temper was or what an ungrateful or difficult boss he was to work pwith. The closer people were to him, not thatm they liked him but ty were devoted to him and in a way i kept hoping i would find some people who didnt like him or have some skeletons to pull out of the closet, but that never happened. Bria cspan when did you start w this . Guest 1982. Cspan what was the reason . Guest well, i was looking for a subject. I started working on it book about pablo picasso. I had to go around and find up with harry truman. I quit that didnt stop after a few months because i found i disliked it so. He was a propelling human being and it didnt really have a story of the kind that interested me. There wasnt a one volume biography of if i were going to do a 20th century president it wouldnt be truman and he said why not carry truman. So i looked into it and i found there wasnt a good biography of harry truman. It was the complete life and times. The last chapter that you are talking about has never been ab about before. Its a very important part of his life. And beyond that, there was this collection of letters and diaries that he poured himself out on paper all of his life and left a written personal very revealing record unlike that of any president i know of and im sure we will never have another president that believes anything like that. We dont write letters much anymore and they dont keep diaries much anymore. He did with his whole life and long before he ever realized it. When his wife was back looking after her mother, harry truman, the president of the United States wrote 37 times and these were not just simple how are you, the weather is turning cool, these were real letters. Cspan with a long and . Guest is from actualwr letters. He had wonderful straightforward strong handwriting just like he was. But very legible so there was never a problem reading his handwriting as there was very seldom ever a problem understanding they called their daughter every night in new york. Guest yes they were very close. With secret Service Agents or as white house staff, domestic staffaf have said they were by r the closest family that they had ever known in the white house and though they dont want to be quoted by person they all say truman was their favorite. She was the first president ever to walk out into the kitchen, the first president in their memory to walk out toane the kitchen to thank the chef or to cook for dinnerat that night. They remember Calvin Coolidge coming out once or twice. They thought perhaps i was to see if anybody was [inaudible] truman knew everybody by name, knew all about their families. This wasnt a sort of politicians device. Its just the way he was. The whole give them hell, harry, harry truman on the job come in the office, at the white house with his people, the lowest level or highest level, he never gave anyone help. He never raised his voice. If anything he is remembered for how considerate he was. Then for small favors and courtesies he would do. Cspan and me ask a few things about yourself and then we will get back to president truman. Where were you born . Guest Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in 1933. Im the third of four sons. My family lived in pittsburgh for many, many generations, and i grew up in a very heavy household. My own children have told me you have no chance of ever being a serious writer because you have to have the childhood. Cspan what did your parents to . Guest i father had an Electrical Supply business whih is still in business. One of my brothers now runs it and i went to Jail University and when i got out i was determined to go down to new york and get a job either at a magazine or newspaper. Cspan how did you get into yale . Guest i guess i did well enough on the College Board exams and had a pretty good grades in highgh school and my o older brothers had gone there and that seemeded to help in the days. Cspan what did you study . Guest english major and minor in art. I was torn on whether i wanted to be a writer or painter. I never imagined i would wind up writing a history and biographies, but i feel in my work im working in the School Following a tradition or school if other writers who have been trained academically as historians butd who are writers who work in the past of the way foreign correspondents might workor in another country. People like barbara and bruce and paul and robert care of. I suppose they are not journalists. Cspan you can fo do with reason . Guest to findfi a job. Out in the streets i tried to get a job at the Herald Tribune and the colliers magazine and time life and was hired to be a trainee at Sports Illustrated. Guest i stayed almost five and a half years and then when john kennedy was elected i came down to washington to be part of the frontier. Very lovely number. N worked at the u. S. Information when admiral was running it which was exciting and wonderf wonderful. But after the president was killed and giving his post, i went back to new york to work as an editor and writer at the heritage magazine, the heritage publishing company. My major effort there is the picture that history in world war ii which is still in print all these years and then at that point i started writing my first book which was the johnstown flood. Cspan how many other books . Guest this is my sixth book. Cspan giving the ten year pure co. From 1982 to 1992, did you write any other books guest i published a collection, anthology of essays which came out last year called brave companions, is no other books. But i did a good deal on television. The host of the smithsonian world series on Public Television and lately that lasted five years for the American Experience series. And ive narrated a number of other documentaries like lbj programs and the civil war. Cspan voice, you can hear the voice over 11 episodes of the civil war. Did you get reaction from people . Guest often im on an Airline Ticket counter or order something in a restaurant and somebody will step down and say thesn civil war, that was a big undertaking. Its almost walltowall narration. I felt i had been in the game of 60 minutes but was never seen. But it was a privilege to be part of that into such a wonderful project. Ken burns is a major figure in broadcasting today and he defied all the experts. The conventional wisdom about television is that nobody was interested in this curiousob programming, and certainly nobody would watch anything that went on for that many hours. Cspan how much time did you devote to that . Guest i was involved from the beginningth and as i recallt took about four r and a half years. I think it took longer than it took to fight the war. Cspan in the notes in the back, you talk a lot about your family and rather than me read it, how many kids and how many were involved . Guest we had five children and they all helped in one way or another. Some extensively. One son drove me all through france to follow the war. Trumans part in world war i and that same young fellow who took the photograph of me on the back of the book. Thats bill mcauliffe. And jeffrey is another sign to help with research on capitol hill at the library of congress. Others hold with either research or sustaining their father through difficult times, and the book is dedicated to our youngest daughter who did a very valuable work in helping with the research on the restoration of the white house, but more than that, it was with my wife and me all the time for those ten years. We moved to washington to do the smithsonian series of when i was 50yearsold, which is exactly the time truman came to washington as a senator. We came with one daughter who was a teenager, just as margaret was, we lived in a small apartment and making all the adjustments one does to living in washington. So i felt a certain empathy whenever i think of truman and his senatorial heres invading it was valuable for me because they talwe talk about the presi. In order to better understand the records and study. In the study the way the bureaucracy works at the press works and everything about washington itself to study the living form as well as the historical record. Host cspan you said with historian dick baker you wrote after roosevelt. Spinnaker was one of the most dramatic moments in the story when truman the evening of roosevelts death he is summoned from the white house by press secretary when he was having a drink with sam rayburn and euphemistically known as the board of education it was the hideaway beneath outside where they would b meet for a drink after work every day. Truman, getting the message earlier he was coming to the white house, left rehbergs bute and ran back to to his own office fo of the Vice President s office on the senate side. I wanted to make a run. For one thing ive wanted to do in order to find out what time he mustve been at various places. B i knew how fast he walked, so i could tell how long it took them to walkpl over and im the Vice President s office over two the hideaway. But you cant just start running through theea capital. With the Capitol Police remained on and we were coming along through the hole if youg run through the stone halls of the capitol, it is a thunderous sound. We came to a point where the Capitol Police have a kind of rest area in office and they heard this noise. Four or five of them came out into the hall to see what was going on. Its very apprehensive as we toward them. As we got up to them, the capital officer who was out front said it. I could ever possibly explain to you what we were doing but they did make the run. Its an interesting point because truman said later that he didnt think that, it didnt occur to him that the president was dead. He thought it if you didnt know, what did you think he was running towards and what was he running away from . If it were a movie or film you could almost see the freeze frame where he i hes running dn the hall. He is president of the United States and hes running alone. Hes running alone. If he goes up to the family quarters and steps off of the elevator and mrs. Roosevelt comes forward and puts her arm around him and says softly the president is dead, i think it is a very revealing moment about him because if you think about how they might have responded first he couldnt say anything. Is there anything i can do for you and then of course she says to him now is there anything we can do for you, you are the one in trouble now. And he is a director who was in trouble at one time or another much of his life and trusted the jobs he doesnt seem up to but then has to rise to the occasion whether it is to run the family farm or to be the officer is an artillery battery or whether to be a senator emerging. This is the biggest hole that hes in because roosevelt told him nothing. Most people know they would have been told nothing about the atomic bomb but that was only part of it if he was told nothing about anything they roosevelt when she says they were the one in trouble now, she knew what she was talking about. Host cspan you write about the 1944 elections and also mention a number of times how the people around roosevelt knew he was a very sick man and it was commonly known at the convention so when they all convened in 44 i think it is one of the most dramatic stories in the political history that they know the nominee for the presidency is running for his fourth term isnt going to survive isnt going to last very long. This is kept secret. It is a coverup as we would say that three very good reasons. It was absolutely essential that we verwe are allies or to say te least the enemy got the ideago that this powerful was being led by a dying man but they know its worth everything. Atat the end of truman doesnt want to be nominated. He was playing a tricky game because he told wallace and burns you are my man. You go to chicago and you will get the nomination. Thethe more theyou are the man. But the political bosses who wanted truman, one of the misconceptions he was an accidental president that he wasnt at all. The baby didnt want him because he was too conservative about segregation. They wanted truman. Roosevelt finally under tremendous pressure agreed okay but it will be truman. At one point he said i hardly knew truman. So it was very much a creation of a smokefilled room. One cant help but feel that it was the way to go about business and that the bosses knew what they were doing because they were extremely fortunate. Truman was there to replace them in 1945. Even though they hadnt been told much by a conventional resume his background would seem to be inadequate he had in many ways been compared because of his life experience. He had been through so much about the country had been through. He knew from firsthand personah experience in surviving the period financially as the memoirs in advance. Guest by the time he paid his taxes he wound up with not very much. Would finally see tim come in and its one of these great circles of the story is the old family far farm outside grandviw which was sold to make way for a Shopping Center in suburban sprawl. In the long run it with the value of land that would see through the hardest of times. The family held on through terrible times with depression and drought and the rest because they thought this is what has real value. Cspan has been to ask the same hell is the financials at this point . Guest it is the way that it works and television. Cspan what will make this a success . Guest i dont know how to answer that. What makes the success as it reaches readers is a bestseller and it became rapidly a bestseller within weeks with 922 page serious biography to go right to the top of the bestseller list. In the summertime i wont say that its unprecedented but its certainly rare. And i think that in part that is because he still had a high standing but in this Political Year he represents something that the country more than in other years perhaps wants to reach out for an authenticity and clarity, a lack of artifice in his personal and president ial manner. Truman stood for something. You might not agree with his position, but you knew where he stood. Cspan wh was he loyal to his life . Guest never, never. There is a scene where he gets into his car and drives back to the quarters and the army officer puts his head in the winwindow of the car and late at night. Fullstop i can arrange anything you like while you are here. I wanted to ask you about that. I married my sweetheart, he said. She doesnt run around on me and i dont run around on her. Dont ever mention that kind of stuff to me again. By the time we were home, he remembered, he got out of the car and never even said goodbye to that guy. What in the world with an officer be doing saying this to be president . Guest who knows. Almost unimaginable. He was offering to be cspan did you find this out . Thats never been published . Guest no. Many of the secret Service People have never been interviewed before. I spend one more night with the head of the secret service at the end of the evening i thank him for giving me three or four hours of his time. I said i want to particularly thank e. One asked how ofte oftn youre asked these questions and he said ive never been asked theseou questions. Trumans affection and devotion is a major part of his life and its a very touching aspect of the story and it is entirely true. The reason we have all these letters is because he was so devoted. His courtship is one of the Great Stories that i know of the middle america. This young fellow out on the harm that is in love with a daughter of a prominent in terms of independent welltodo family. It is an uphill struggle. The family doesnt want her to marry him. It is the First Campaign and he pursues her n and doesnt let defeat discouragement. He is cheerful and devoted and loyal. He seems always to want to please her and the letters. Its always asking how am i measuring up to. Cspan you share a lot of inside information. With his mother and sister. Imagine the president of the United States sitting there writing from where hes meeting with churchill for the first time a key had no small experience with stage fright that he quoted himself very well cspan what does this cost . Guest 30. Except discount stores. In the wintertime you can put it in your trunk and break down the back of your car on an icy day. Cspan geek you know how many of these are going to so . Guest how many copies are out there now . Is it a bookofthemonth globe . Guest yes, bookofthemonth club selection. Number one bestseller as they talked at least from a number three on the new york times. Just unheard of this would happen to a book of this kind of. What are the things people ask you the s most about . At the moment it is about ross perot. And the question does that he remind you of harry truman . It is the underlying wish that i will say yes and to say yes ross perot is another harry truman. Because we are hungry for that authenticity that is represented. We have had it with what truman called the we of politics, the creation of candidates and persona and personality by ghostwriters and experts and so forth. In the ultimate expression and then campaigned across the country at the whistle stop campaign. All along the way 22000 miles. Little towns. Physically a shattering experience for people who were on the train with him. He spoke to the people directly. And spoke in complete sentences. That speechwriters would be very proud. If you read those today wouldnt it be reassuring if somebody was direct with us . Every day five or 615 times a day. Talking about problems and solutions. Never blaming his star. And the dogged determination and that conviction was shared by nobody. None of the experts or professional politicians. Cspan in the last chapter you write a lot about at the end of his life to reconcile there is one incident near the end what was that about . And former president truman came to washington for kennedys funeral. They spent an hour together at blair house. They made up and reconcile their differences. Cspan was that net on that meeting written anywhere . It has been not the way here. Its important to understand truman made up with everybody he had a fight with. He was a very forgiving person. His temper was hot but it blew over very fast the only person he never had a reconciliation with was General Macarthur but he did send him birthday greetings on occasion but they would go unanswered. He made up with nixon and critics of thed Washington Post. And writing about that experience himself. What other instance was most interesting when president truman was the car with president and pointed out you could be president then they try to get him to run as a democrat to make even offered to run in 1948 as a president ial candidate imagine that. So when they hadid their breakup it was very painful to truman. And the breakup came because eisenhower refused to repudiate joe mccarthy when he attacked general marshall and called him a s traitor. That he was a greatest man of the a 20th century and truman knew and everyone knew he made eisenhower and elevated him to that position from world war ii. And for eisenhower to sit on the same platform and not include a paragraph from the prepared speech was repudiated was a moment of betrayal. And was a lifelong reader. And said what is the idea of heaven . And the comfortable armchair and a reading lamp and a stack of new history and biography. He wants said all the readers cannot be leaders but all leaders must be readers. It is a crucial aspect. And that was the judgment of history in the long run. In the sinking polls when he fired General Macarthur. Because he knew the judgment in the long run. He did have a couple of jolts of suburban . That is one discovery apparently he would drink quite early and it was his way to get the engine going he would go for his walk which was a vigorous fast walk and do some exercises and aerobics and then drink. When i was first told this i thought no, it couldnt be. But it was confirmed by two or three other accounts as well. He was very stubborn holding on long after he died in the hospital in the miraculous part. And a model patient. But a complete breakdown. Cspan how long did his wife passed away quick. He lived ten more years and died 1972 right after christmas. I cannot speak to her because she was unable to. Cspan another book in mind . Several but i havent decided what would be next. At the moment there are two different Television Networks it will be a dramatization of a book on television. Not only vote for him my word work hard. He did make mistakes. It wasnt just that he made decisions but accomplished but again and again and again in the korean war which cause the downfall and standing with the country. But looking at the cover who did it . Wendell who is the immensely gifted man doing the jackets for all of my books except for one. And important portraits on dash from the farm to the white house and then from the agrarian nation. Thank you very much for your time. Thanknk you. I am a writer and Senior Editor and with great pleasure to introduce davidce mccullough one of the finest living historians its my pleasure from eight years ago to be on the committee with truman to award the biography in 1993 and thats and i got to meet him more briefly and come to admire his work. I know all of you do as well. Awardwinning biographer historian and lecturer and then as a Historical Society on series distinguished contribution and is twice received the National Book award. The most recent book Simon Schuster other books include the johnstown flood, the path between the seas and truman him and his wife live in massachusetts. Ha and all leaders everywhere. [applause] thank you. I am thrilled to be here and honored to take part in this historic and marvelous, what a thrilling day this is. Here on capitol hill right in the heart of the greatest library of the world. And all ages from all parts of the city and a the country and the miraculous. And that has never been a National Book festival in the history of our country. There has never been the first lady who was a librarian toan start and then got behind books and made a festival like this happen. She deserves all of our heartfelt. [applause] i am extremely partial to librarians. They have been my guiding stars for 40 years now ive been trying to become a writer of history and biography the Great Library of congress while i was employed in a government job. And first discovered my vocation. V so i can never ever expressed efficiently my gratitude so when you think of what we have in this country in the Public Library system theres nothing like it in the world. When you walk through the doors of a public, no library anywhere in the country, and then walking through the portals of freedom. Its all there. Those touching experiences all there and all free in a time in society when very little is ttfree anymore. So think god for the Public Libraries and librarians and its all give more support than we do to the Public Library system. If you ever get down about the state of society or culture there are still public light more Public Libraries in america than mcdonalds. [laughter] [applause] i wouldnt be here. Or have the life that i had a rich and the books that i have or discovered that led to my first book. And with Mission Control and chairman of the ethics committee. [laughter] and my wife rosalie. I would like you to meet her. [applause] and just talking to a reporter to the Washington Post outside and said shes my editorinchief and you should call her your editor and chief. I have been privileged all along the rear chance to write about the american turning points and figures that have been a protagonist in times past. And are almost without equal and with the sources of understanding and who we are and who we comein w from. And with those times past to find out what was it like. So those that are t a biography harry truman and john adams they felt Barbara Tuckerman described when she said and it should be someone who serves through which you can see a whole era or time. In every on i have never had six more enjoyable years. I should really say john and Abigail Adams i never had so much material to work with. It is a journey such as i have never had before. That that is what is advantageous. Dv in the 19th and 20th centuries. Nt there are no photographs or outtakes from television. And then newspaper reporting there is very little resemblance that came strong in the 19th century. But what they do have an 18th century in many ways make supper more than makes up for the lack of other sources are the letters and diaries. And in the case of the adams it is possible because of what s they wrote and two other members of the family to know them better. Noddy van franklin even takes us into his confidence the way adams did. And sometimes to hison detriment. And as a wonderful writer and to have a career as a reporter as a biographer or a novelist. But then just to get through a day in the 18th and to get through one security in theveryday life in the beginning about 5 00 oclock in the morning and filling up with the inconveniences and it never even enters our mindset then they would sit down by a candle at the Kitchen Table and write the letters that they wrote. And it is humbling and one of the reasons i tried as best i could and that was a very different time. We can never know enough about the founding generation. And we must never take it for granted. So against the personal sacrifice and the danger and the risk of life when one to the declaration of independence. And thought you would be paying at best. Legally you thought drown on bound and quartered. Temptation is to look back at times past as events happening in a prescribed order. Where we are often taught that way in School Follow this and follow that and get it straight because it will be on the test on thursday. [laughter] and therefore you come away thinking its all on a track. Its preordained in fact nothing was ever on a track and it is great moments that they could have gone off in any never of directions along the way. Now there is a kind of hubris worry look back or why did they realize this would happen . And that is the arrogance of hindsight. They dont know how it will come out. None of them. And then in 1776 with the declaration of independence and then scrap the whole thing. But then the other third are waiting to see how it came out. [laughter] and italy reach 50 miles inland no colonial people had ever successfully broke away from the empire i think he had any experience inti nationbuilding. Or to launch a broadway show. It was a country. [laughter] but the miracle is that they did as human beings. The very first smile of the declaration of independence but where in the course of human events the all the they were inconsistent and contradictory that with vanity and ambition and simply doing dumb things. Each of them. None of them were perfect by any means. They were not superman. If they had been gods then they went deserve much credit because god can do whatever they want. They were human beings and the fact they rose to the occasion they were in the middle of the greatest drama of allam time and they better play their part well. That is the miracle that they did it and succeeded. Now john adams was born 1735 lived until 1826 to the age of nearly 91 he lived longer than any president in our history. Commonly thought of as a rich boston and blueblood he was rich not a bostonian not a bluebird on blueblood by the farmers son hollis on scholarship to harvard. John adams was the most under red american of his time and lets to remember today john adams second president of the United States that signed legislation that created the library of congress. Remember john adams altogether appropriate. Amanda billions and great heart and humor and devoted to is wife and family and godfearing and one of the bravest in our history. Was abrasive sometimes temperamental overly concerned in the estimate of his friends are prosperity and also a man to his credit but also to his disadvantage that never considered popularity his mistress. He never quoted popularity. Man of principle and the courage of his convictions and with that behavior the only founding father as a matter principle. And in the context and historically the sound thing to do but lets not forget Abigail Adams were of their time and opposeim slavery. Abigail even more than her husband at one point she says irh wonder if all the suffering we are going through is gods punishment for the sin of slavery. The San Andreas Fault of slavery that runs through before the revolution so me people seem not to understand with the declaration of independence. John dickinson opposed was in many ways launching into a storm of us gifts madeng of vapor. And then the fact that we succeeded in the revolution in the war. We fought for and succeeded to gain our independence he would have said independent and free. And of course by nature but fiercely independent people. And soul was religion. And we believe strongly separation of church and state and so today that the separation of church and state it did not mean the separation of church and statesmen and if we really want to understand that we have to understand the part religion played in their life and their whole outlook. And had very Long Distance communication and is almost beyond our reckoning. Communication which cross the ocean they were separated cumulative ten years and that was created by the Atlantic Ocean and communicated across the Atlantic Ocean. And what does that mean cracks and then to be more responsible than we understand rtoday. Abigail adams running the farm in the family balancing accounts, tkeeping people working to make the farm work. That was really means of subsistence come educating children, making decisions whether to get smallpox shots. She couldnt pick up the phone and ask her husband what should id do. That was part of life. The assumption ofas responsibilit responsibility. And then serving in france and england and as a diplomat he had to make decisions nothing could be communicatedat any faster we think of communication and transportationas as two different things. Then it was the same thing they are not like we are because they lived in a different time. I try to read not only what they wrote and they do right. Neither john nor Abigail Adams is capable of writing a double sentence or a short letter. [laughter] and they roll over 1000 letters to each other all with the massachusetts Historical Society all on rag paper and they are as good as a day they were written. You can hold them in your hand. Youre holding it from the same distance as they did with two hands and believe meey d something tactile and very important and visceral happens it isnt the same as microfilm or reproduced in the book. The mortality. The vulnerability and the bravery. Think of that at 11 00 oclock at night being up since 5 00 a. M. For all that she did to sit down and write the letters. And nearlyea always inserting into her letter a quote from a favorite poet from shakespeare at almost always getting it a little bit wrong which shows she didnt look it up she wasnt taking a book down off the shelf to copy it and say this will make me look erudite. It was a part of her. Equally important and equally rewarding experience not just with what they wrote but what they read. All those writers and those that are required from high school or college. And then to be reminded how terrific they were. And we talk about progress and heaven knows we live with the benefits of progress all the time. When i think about john adams not a tooth ins his head everyone had to be pulled. Long before novocain. And then reading what they were in the 18th century i dont think anybody does it any better today. And what ought to make us sit up and shape up is that the Literacy Rate in massachusetts was higher in their time than it is today. Man the work you still had to be done about that. And they affected their lives. And the notion of truth and heroism and right and wrong and how you write the letter and john adams said dont try to writeto literature. Dont strain for frills. Right the way you talk. Its a letter. s when you read his letters you hear them talk. One of the things i have done in my books and in particular this book, one of the ways i approach biographies is to let them talk as much as possible. And how they talk and the words they use, the freedom of speech and cadences a reflection of personality and style. And is usually influenced by the writings of samuel by which was of the 18th century and say you ought to read clarissa and write your letters like they are in an awful. The whole novel is just letters. And thats is happening right now all the letters were written in large part they were suffering but even when she wasnt separated from her husband, she would write to somebody else. Her sister and then she had to work her feelings out and then you find you have insight but there is something about writing that focuses the brain in a different way. And when they wrote those letters, it was a need they wereey fulfilling. Write it out and then i will understand it better. Adams encouraged his son john quincy was a little boy to keep a diary. And he kept it for 68 years. John quincy is one of the greatestnc treasures in american literature. It can be said that anything more brilliant than his father or Thomas Jefferson if all the president s were given the iq test john quincy would come in first. Not particular the successful president and then to come back to washington to serve in Congress Something that no other president has done. And he died on the floor of congress that is now called statuary hall. The same theme running through the adams family. And he wanted to be there because he wanted to serve. He saw no stepping down from the presidency. None. Nor i dont think that john adams father but a word about his final years, every biographer and with the gathering of information that writing questions. Man who had served his country for more than 25 years maybe 35 if you added up and has never not answered the call. Who returns to massachusetts after leaving the white house the first president to occupy the white house and then lives another 25 years after having which with no individual american gets back home and never goes anywhere ever again and never does anything on the surface of no power just living on the farm south the boston in massachusetts. I thought how will i handle that he just went home from the white house and didnt do much of anything he lived on 25 years. [laughter] or if it was all entirely day after day nothing happening and i expect the intelligent reader with another 50 pages awabout that. There are things we shouldnt worry about in fact the final years of his life the last two chapters of the book are the most interesting part of the whole story it begins the inward journey because he was a man of such depth and turmoil who needed to resolve a lot about himself and hisut thoughts and his own mortality and be set one below after another children and grandchildren and they had one child and john quincy became president and also had another son charles, very popular affable fellow who killed himself with alcohol by the time he was in his early thirties. His beloved daughter died in the house in quincy that we can visit as the consequence of a mastectomy performed in the house and the day before anastasia the horror that you cannot even imagine of course her mother and father were right outside thehe door. And then the death of hisn wife abigail that the flame blazed right through the end and interestingly he he had been called a pessimist became increasingly optimistic. There is a wonderful time with the spirit of st. Paul and says i am bound i vowed to rejoice evermore. [laughter] but your heart goes out to him. And then died on the fourth of july, the same day as Thomas Jefferson. Adams died Late Afternoon and among his last words words were jefferson survives. Its a great story these two friends that began his Close Friends very Close Friends while serving as diplomats abroad the new government and George Washington administration finds themselves on the opposite of a twoparty system with political rivals and political enemies and then they refused to speak to each other. And then to rekindle the friendship and to bring about a reconciliation. One of the great correspondences that last to the final year. Not just present at the creation they made it happen. Adams was the voice and jefferson was the plan and to striking men from two very different worlds of massachusetts andts virginia. If you understand those times who we are and the way we are it is extremely important to understand t how different parts of the country are. I want to finish by reading something in the 14th century which jefferson and adams both knew almost for certain and written to a friend in the year 1346 john adams and one and jefferson two of the best booklovers of their day very large private library in the Public Library in boston and the jefferson books are here. Those that have survived. This was 400 years before jefferson and exactly the same spirit of which so many of us feel today and one of the reasons we are here to celebrate a National Book festival. Writing in 1346 it has rescued me from human desires. This is heavens doing although my character in the passage of time has contributed i have seen many things and meditated much and i began to understand the worth of those activities that agitate the human race you may not think i am immune to all mens failings that one passion possesses me nor would i repress i flatter myself with a longing for were the things. You expectct the name of the disease but i have a list of books now i have more than a need but as with other things the more one gets the more one wants but there is Something Special about book books, gold, silver, broad lands and paintings and rich trappings all the things that bring a superficial pleasure. But books thrill you and talk to you and counselel you and admit you to your living in speaking or do they insinuate themselves into the readers spirit . To introduce other books each creates a desire for another. Thankk you. [laughter] [applause] on behalf off everyone here thank you for that extremely eloquent and moving talk. As a catholic in the last signer of the declaration of independence. Charles was the last surviving was he not . Yes. I did find something that doesnt mean there isnt with his catholicism or anything adams and jefferson had. And then to attend the Catholic Church that is still very much a part of philadelphia. And to write a wonderful letter to describe the entire mass which lasted two hours. [laughter] he didnt leave. Interestingly georgede washington attended the same mass but theres no explanation why that might have been or if they went together. We just know they were each there the same day. In a letter backes to abigail he describes the full mass says i found it both moving and awful. [laughter] and understandably many people who read that were have written about it take that to mean another narrowminded. In fact he meant full of our. It did not mean the same you have to be very careful about the vocabulary and the language in the 18th century with different meanings with very serious mistakes could be made. In the preface you started to say you wrote between adams andio jefferson so at what point did you realize you just want to write about adams and why do you reach that decision . I was going to write a dual biography between the two very interesting men. My worry and my concern was jefferson with his fame and his gifts and romance and how some of mountaintop and what appeals to it would counterbalance c and command the stage for john adams who has been in the shadows the several hundred years wouldnt have a chance. How can i give them equal time or importance . It should have been the least of my concerns. But adams is a store i wanted to tell. He is there and was john Don Jefferson reaching out all the time to try to find a human being. He is not there. Adams for example wrote extraordinary letters to his wife and she to him virtually their whole marriage and their whole lives they are all very informativeli and revealing. Jefferson by contrast destroyed every letter and dont even know what she look like a very guarded and private man and doesnt want people to know very much about what hee felt those innermost fears and worries. We dont know and there are shelves of books but relatively few by john adams. But not the book i wanted to write. As soon as i saw it should be adams it was as if i had an open tracking could just go it was a liberating feeling this is more about the nature of thee biographer then the material that i have learned over the material is. [laughter] otherwise you are resorting to y conjecture we were all readers before writers i w have always to say it is conceivable but possible. That is skating on thin i. C. E. And it gets tiresome after a while and also with the presence of adams. Somebody said to me are you giving any thought to writing a biography about abigail . Honestly i have written one because you cannot read the life of john without abigail. As a product of Public Education and then to be dismissed as a part of this federalist and then think of the depth of the person to the Jefferson Memorial it seems like something is missing. The question is if we have a symbolic expression. And then i feel strongly that gwe should. And that willl be decided the house is already voted for this that remains to be seen and now to have a sufficient number of arguments. I do have an idea what the memorial. And i would like to tell you what it is. Au [laughter] i think it ought to be a library of american letters. My idea of heaven is a library inib a garden here in the city somewhere and is an oasis not a temple butle a library with changing exhibits. The letters were literary accomplishments of other people of other americans a few times. Very tacky doctor billington and direct erica massachusetts Historical Society as conceivably library of congress. Willing to have some of those treasures alone. Northerners cases of these wonderful spirited documents and you browse look. Living with the card not to be partly one of the kind that i have some fruit trees. The kind they had. Remember you heard it here first. [laughter]. [applause]. Guest you have a building by the name of the Adams Building help. For mr. Adams. And we talk about how he helped, he was the beginning of the library of congress. And wondered if in fact, reading, did you find letters about how he wanted this library to me. David i think it was always for it. Last night, i read the letter that he wrote to jefferson when jefferson sold this library to replace the library of congress that had been destroyed by the british during the war of 1812. And adams are back to simulate and view it no mortal, writing books. He loved them. Thank one of the happiest and proudest moments when he signed his signature was signing legislation. Yes are you have been very patient. Guest . [inaudible]. I wonder if you would do us a favor of writing. [laughter]. David thank you. [laughter]. Im going to take a little breather from biography. When asked what was going to go back to writings in history and next time. Not going to tell you what it is just a viable state 18th century. I am very happy there. [laughter]. Im going to stay in the revolution. So to be in the year 1776. Beyond that them outside. [laughter]. Would like to conclude with one observation. The huge advantage of growing up in pittsburgh, pennsylvania where the first thank you. [applause]. Refers library was established. New not just down the street, there were also in every school. It was library the school. On the right school. The first day that i went to school. Remember those long falls, and stairways be very grand way back recently to visit the school treated they found that the school very always were very long and just as impressive as i had remembered it as a child. Merging in the hall into library. We sat down little tables. The library introduces to the library into this is where you come read books. A few minutes i will tell you table by table the book and had him get up and go pick the book of any choice you want. She said have you all brought your library shoes. [laughter]. And sinema god. [laughter]. My mother didnt tell me about any about library shoes into the state i can come in thinking have a life library shoes on. [laughter]. So manually, number two bring your library shoes pretty. [applause]. [applause]. Host thank you again for coming. Inside the room and orders. His ideal the library and garden. Not for many reasons but also tells about library shoes. Please go out and enjoy the rest of the book festival pretty thank you pretty. [applause]. [background sounds]. Host excuse me ladies and gentlemen. Theres on the Program Starting soon. We need to leave this room. Theres a book signing a debacle at oclock. The book signing as by David Mccullough. Need to cleanse from now. [background sounds]. Host . Ellipsis saturday evening, book tv has taken an opportunity to show you several programs from our archives. Featuring a wellknown author. Tonight this is David Mccullough. Bestselling book, including biographies of adam countrymen. A history of the flood as well as the construction of the panama canal. Up next from 2005, mr. Mccullough sits down to talk about this book on the american revolution. 1776. This is from cspans q a program. This week on q a, august is offering historian David Mccullough. On the genera general henry knom in maine. Host David Mccullough, you told audience outside of this general henry knox museum, days ago that everybody in american should know who henry knox is pretty white. David because these extraordinary historian an american who seem to be miscast. Seem to be fellow not prepared for the role of the history and for him to play and who not only lived up to the rule, but when over the top as it were. And as an example of a man who came from very humble origins, very little advantage in the way of education, or connections. Heroes to be one of the most important americans of his day read the men that George Washington discovered. And amanda George Washington counted on. Through nearly eight and a half years of the revolutionary war and who then counted on him as his secretary of war during the time of presidency. And he started out at the boston bookseller. Very stout gregarious robust, friendly, popular fellow who had about the equivalent of a fifth grade education. And who love books and never stopped reading. He became one of the best officers in the whole work. Washington singled out to young men. Almost within a week or two weeks after he had taken command. And cambridge massachusetts. These are people as he could count on pretty one was nathaniel green rated was a 303 yearold quaker but and made a major general. Having no military experience at all in the second one was henry knox. Involved 25. In no military experience at all. But both of them had been reading books. In the new about the military , was entirely from books those nara those are the best ways to learn things produced three books at the age of enlightenment. Anyway, wonderful examples personifications of the enlightenment faith. If you want to learn something, pick up a book, several books. Is during both physically and intellectually, is remarkable. He ingrained were the only two general officers. Who became generals. Estate with the war and with washington. Through the entire war, not necessarily physically, personally. But with him in the sense of still fighting the war. All the other seated dropped out widely for some other reason. And with those two, right beginning, and he admired for the perseverance. Perseverance is the end. Its amazing story. But knox had the idea of going and bringing back the great cannons and mortars there. Which was preposterous thought. Middle of winter. The hall those guns nearly 300 miles from Hudson Valley to upstate new york and across the mountains and all the way to boston. That was a feet almost like something of a myth but it was real. He did it. Penny did it by saying that the solution to the problem was in the problem rated the problem itself was a solution rated newsletter. How can you drink those huge cannons all of the way in winter and answer course was to build giant sleds. And thats what he did against every imaginable quite a challenge both from the elements and from sheer exhaustion. And is one point they were hauling him over the mountains when the teamsters that he admired refuse to go on because it was too ris risky. Failure to see. Coming out of the hard part. These things could get away. It would kill anybody that was in front. They were not one. They said no it is too dangerous. We woke one. So this 25 yearold bookseller, mounted discourse, canon or something. And gave them at ten after three hour speech on why they should keep on going. And they did. He wouldnt give up. That was a great quality with both he and brain. Once in the washington, but that was among his strongest traits. Host this henry knox, remain, is a place that he spent almost seven hours on the friday afternoon evening signing autographs and speaking to a group. Your best seller, they are book came out, number one is the number one ever since. Why would you after all the travel that you did. David i enjoy it. I like to do it. I like to meet people who like to read my books. I like to meet people who read books. They care about American History so that i was very happy to make a book tour. It is exhausting but is also exhilarating. Is also very heart warming and gratifying. To see what interest in American History there is. Everywhere. Los angeles, 3000 miles in 229 years away from the year 1776. In a world that is so different to be unimaginable to those people who dissipated in the revolution. There are people in los angeles in the year 2005, who turn out in sizable numbers because of their interest in that founding time. And thats me is exciting. Very gratifying. But here, in the knox house, i feel strongly that these Historic Sites and museums are very important for even major participants in how we educate our children and grandchildren. To bring people here to this house and bring people to the president ial home were the great battlefield or Historic Site of one kind of another. Is to inspire and open up the mind in a way that is not exactly like a book or movie. Or an original letter. It is Something Else i think these places speak to us. I think they speak to us in a very moving way. The idea that this house for example was designed by general knox, that this was an expression of their time and their culture. What mattered to this oval room here for example. Which would have been a familiar to knox. Because of the white house lets say. It is a very. Peace speaks to us today. These two big fireplaces. Girl very important. Because it is a different time and different values and different notions of proportions, scale. The good life can be. This of course was the home of the very wealthy people. There is a high in the eyes of the country but it is amazing example to go to mount vernon or monticello and here grownup visitors say they are surprised to find neither jefferson nor George Washington had indoor coming or electricity. And so when you come into a room like this, people might say what they have two fireplaces. And that would open up the realities of that earlier time. We forget how much more difficult life was then. And how much more inconvenient and comfortable closer to the vagaries and hardships of living in a rough climate such as maine. Because where so insulated from the facts of life as they knew them as they were insulated from the cold in the heat where we are protected by wonderful drugs and medicines. We dont have to worry much about epidemic diseases about like the way they did. We dont have to give up a 5 00 oclock in the morning to start fire to make the breakfast. And we dont have to blot to cure of things. Plan have to the premises for the call of nature. Where softies compared to the people that time. Just to get through the day peacetime. One of the best of conditions, and now the respondent to the real adversity. That tumbling. Abigail adams, and letter to her husband when he was at philadelphia read the second congress. If future generations will reap the blessings somebody will have no conception of how of the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors. That is true. Even for someone who lived is a handsome of skill and style as did knoxs. Host you give a speech back in april a good quote written down the want to be back to you. But all that matters, being number one, getting ahead and getting to the top attitude is getting to stop. And do whatever awful thing in the material get to the top right you think we have changed since john adams arrow rated the henry knox area. See what i do. Host in life. David for many reasons. And for one, their education, the notion history was based on the classical history of greece and rome. Understanding of virtue, honor, character, is all derived from roman history. The idea this forecast the parts reminder parts to live up to the role you have been assigned. Is there on the stage of history. If you have a sense of history, and isnt it just get along stop stuff before you came on the scene. But you also realize that when you pass from the scene, you will be part of what constitutes history. Spring 14. 3 they think of themselves as being someday judged by history. If you go into the old congress on capitol hill, in the capital. Now statuary hall. Open the door, there is rendition of cleo, the goddess history. Shes in a chariot. Penetrated pulling oclock. It was installed or about 1515. The members of congress, for they look up to see what time it is, in their moment, basically oh raining in the big book, a book of history to remind them these members of congress and representatives of the people that they are not just being judged by their own time, the term of 4foot the judge for all times by history. Washington captioning outage can also be said for their permission the loyalist just convinced that they were the true patriots. An educational to combat perspective. Wonderfully expressed in the play plato. Most popular plate of the day. In the play, theres language goes, i cant guarantee success. In this struggle is war. But we can do something better. We can deserve it. What that is saying is that the outcome is not in our hands. Too many other factors involved including providence. [inaudible conversation] chance or circumstance or whatever. Cant control that. As individuals. Individualism is essential to this whole idea of enlightenment. But we can control the week behave and we can deserve it. So even if we lose, i deserved to have one, we will have one in that sense. Very different from the present attitude. And think a very healthy reminder mothers economy humorous about the present. Everything we do the right way to do it free. On those who preceded his were not quite as bright as we were. The reality of what matters pretty is an arrogant and i think ignorance view of life. Theres so much that we can learn from history. Theres so much we can learn from those people. The people interest me. Seven but when the cost attitude of today. David is been caused by an enormous variety of choice. Just sometimes be numbing. The thing is been caused by the stepped up momentum of life. But by materialism. Too much luxury. General johnson said really just people with too much luxury. Too much of a much. Elected leaders, but just thought of all kinds of all fleets, genders, patients race,e the expression, and ways of people moved to bali. People said will be admissible time. I saw it just the other day. I cannot those who the the support on. There was no simple time. I can make a good case of the 18th century was a far more complicated time, a far more challenging time. Because of how much someone had to know just to survive to get by. Somebody said to me, knew the blood red wagon, from here to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, in december would you like to longview. I would say can make a list people from the 18th century. Presented know how to do so much pride that we dont know how to do. We are the simpler times in some ways. Where no more revved up sign. Were more selfconscious time. Traded, reported, analyze, endlessly. Everyday. Constantly. So much attention from the press and the television about things of no real consequence. And its very confusing. Not so i think it lends to many people a sense that whatever you can get away with, if you get what you want to its. Somebody does something is offtrack, some i will say that she tried. An attitude is outspread honesty, kindness, generosity. Ambition to exceed her itself. Thats different. Its what adam said, he said i wish there were more ambition in the country. Ambition to excel. That is a lot different than ambition have a lot more stuff. Signature number one or whatever. Host if you stall up the 2. 25 million or whatever books on it use at least 2 million. On 1776. Thats more people that were even alive in that time in this country. How do you explain your success such about time, your number one. Number one john adams reread dupree. David im not sure of a measure of that whether we are in a good time or not. It wind event time. They were a very exciting time. I think work a little off course in sydney sydney, which age you must want to live in, right now. There are many similarities between right now in the 18th century. Both are times of the tremendous change and stress. Technological change. Exchanging like that in our time. Whats different is the speed changes for the speed of information. The speed and throwaway culture. You dont just throw away us styrofoam cups. Throwaway ideas in history. We want to run today. Will we americans believe and what is new in the future. Places, plywood is old. Is it was new. As american. Debbie turns over no leave. So in her attitude towards life. I think the difference between writings is the success of the history channel. The wonderful popularity of the films. All of that can be, in part a measure the fact that about the generations or more, give them an education our children every will industry pretty solo people and 20, and 30s and 40s are trying to get caught up dont know who Theodore Roosevelt was, have a very idea of what exactly he did or why he was somebody of importance pretty soon they do want to revoke or see the documentary and television. I think some of the movies that come along been very effective. I think we human beings are interested by nature really think it is very hard about human nature. We want to know what happened before. Once upon a time, long time ago, the Children Stories begin. The two most popular movies of all time, though not necessarily historically accurate funds historical in spirit and in setting. God what the wind and the titanic. I think those are a very important measure. Tom hanks is now going to be producing a big multihour movie for television of john adams of my book tom hanks is very solid conscientious man of great integrity and taste. I expect that movie for each them on way that maybe nothing else could. Hundred times within a book of mine or other authors. Tennyson right, that will be a huge step forward in my view. Host Palacio John Adams without any teeth. David i hope so. So far and all i have suggested about the details, they have taken very seriously in their efforts to make everything as authentic as possible is the most remarkable. Mosthat ive seen in thefield. Host any parts. David i think it is 1130. Host what will run pretty. David hbo. Host when. David are going to start filming i believe this fall. How long it will be after that i dont know. There building backlogs. A lot of it will be filled in williamsburg. In some location in europe. Host john adams, what are the chances of having a monument in washington of him. Soon pretty will be just on adams or abigail or jeff with the adams or entire adams family. David this is still open for discussion and the congress has passed a bill making it possible. And the president has signed the bill. Now at work out location. We become part of the group was trying to see this happen. It has to be location in keeping with the importance principally disgrace. There is no monument, no stature nothing of john adams in my opinion the opinion of others, except for George Washington. As the most important american the time. But if you to know what i think it should be read i think it should not be another marble tomb or Something Like thats. I dont think it should try to rival either the Washington Monument of the Lincoln Memorial the Jefferson Memorial and skill. I cannot be 18th century skill. Noises should be modest in size. The name promoting is mistaken, the idea that it will be adams Library American letters. It will be a library open to visitors in a garden. And some more as idea of was a library in the garden. John adams thought that to read i know you been to the house and seen a library that is in the garden there. So this would be a library we become in a look at the. The real letters of jordan Abigail Adams or John Quincy Adams are jefferson and evans of display. In these exhibits will change from time to time. And you can go out and be in the garden. So nice mentioned there would be a garden the time of that of ago had with fruit trees and flowers and herbs and so forth really i would be sort of an oasis in the midst of washington there would be other exhibits as well from time to time read the library of congress and the massachusetts Historical Society which are the great adams family papers. Thus far said, it would be very happy to have some of their treasures unloaded the library read and think would be in keeping with our their great contribution to imagine life. It is just my view. John Abigail Adams did with the did as patriots print as believers in the cause of america and independence and equality. They reported what was happening. They describe the people and the feelings at the time. In a way that no other couple dead. And that in itself, thousands of letters for an enormous disservice to their country. Dont think they root them with that in mind read and that is in the result. Host a couple minutes ago, one of the leaders of this museum on ace around upstairs in the bedroom of henry knox. Asking him how old he was. He said 56 he died of chicken bone in his throat. I wanted you to talk about medicine earlier but go back to the time when he blew a couple of fingers often at what age did he do that. And what impacted pretty soon his book the rapids and the rest of his life in advantage. David yes. David life was tough then. And the way life better people was apparent in their parents. People a connect then something wrong with them when i started missing teeth missing fingers. A partner year. Because life be tough on you and there were no cosmetic surgeons. Their work nor orthodontist. Sixtys and the rest. That he listen to thought you lost a tooth. If you lost it at 25, there was. You read the description of the deserters for example. The most vivid of all of those instructions of the 18th century soldiers. And again and again, there is something physically noticeable about them. Henry knox lost two fingers of his left hand. The third and fourth finger of his left handed and averred shooting expedition what is about 22 i would guess. He kept it wrapped because he felt it was unsightly read he didnt want that to be distracting thing. Nathaniel greene, decided limp because of a childhood accident. John trouble, the Great American painter, at the use of only 19. Because of a childhood accident. , and predict with they did this with them. John trouble became one of the great painters of the sun. Despite few had the use of only one eye. Greatly altered his depth perception. Very interesting to see that the small versions of his famous paintings. The sightings of the declaration of independence with the death warrant of a bill. In the small meeting art much stronger than the large paintings that are on display the rotunda of the capital. Large part because of that problem. A boxing ring it would have been rejected because they were physically unacceptable. But they didnt let that stand in the way read in any way, it makes them more vivid somehow. The more identifiable. Like characters. You would know them the minute they walked in the room pretty certainly no henry knox because it would be the biggest fellow the world. Host mentioned earlier that knox was 25 when he first lesson of George Washington. And 43 for George Washington. He also mentioned, only mention Alexander Hamilton and three pages in your book you say he was 19. What were the parameters. What did you not write and was a little on Alexander Hamilton. David is a never writing theyre going to become later. Husky said the point. Writing about what they are doing at that point. Alexander hamilton and james monroe but they are briefly because they were very minor parts of the story that point. They were very good officers. The potatoes that. But they were the people of real consequence and what happened the wake knox agreement another sports. I also write about people like that who was a farmer from connecticut John Greenwood from boston and joseph hutchins, massachusetts shoemaker is one of my favorite characters of all point in most people, the real part in the time period that moment. And we know because the road about a pretty all that we know is what with having diaries and letters. There were no correspondents covering the war. Reporting what a terrific job Alexander Hamilton just did. Nor were there artists correspondence Winslow Homer covered the civil war read all we have are orderly posts, the government records various times. In greece diaries letters of somebody kept a diary, or a lot of letters, really force it out and tells you what it was like describes the scene in the viewing said suffering hardships. And that person is taking us into the times. Try as best i can to be the moment and how human returning the moment because i think is intellectually more honest no way id and that these people dont know what is going to happen next anymore than we do in our time. The docent with the outcomes going to be pretty a non dont know that Alexander Hamilton will be secretarytreasurer print but he can even thinking about that pretty theyre thinking tysabri the next hour. In the very often the situation they dont know what is going to happen. Infusion rains all around. Thats important to remember if youre trying to get inside of that time and understand the humans and situation and to feel it. I dont think you can really know anything until you feel that. I think you have got to care. Otherwise you can get all the facts and figures and statistics and insights, they are necessarily the truth. It is those people. Will they read what i wrote . Yes. You got it. Thats the way it was. Or will they say, luck. You are way off mark here. Thats not what it was like. Let me tell you what it was like. And if there is a hereafter , he did all right. Cspan2 when did you decide there would be a book 1776 . When i was writing john adams. He was in philadelphia and they get reports of what was happening in new york. When it comes back the battle of long island is a fiasco. 1000 americans taken prisoner and 300 killed washington has been outflanked and outsmarted and then they escape from brooklyn when i read all of that which was happening and writing a biography you cannot stray off ten pages he has no involvement in i thought i would like to write about all that was going on besides and Independence Hall in philadelphia and how much of what was happening and that depended on this ragtag army under washington and how they were performing and how much of a chance they had. When did you decide to call it that . People say the revolutionary war in the year 1776 what is your theme . I have no idea what my theme is. I hope by the time i finish writing the book i would know what it is but also that i can step back and look at it and that this might be the title. What is your reaction . It took my breath away. It was extraordinary. It is in the ninth printing now. How many books . One. 5 million. The first printing was 1 million copies. When the publisher told me tha that, i said i dont know what youre doing. I couldnt believe it. But the reward and the pleasure is in the work. Really that is what matters. When did you finish . November 2004. You said made a decision when you are of john adams did you make the decision about that book . No i have not of still thinking about it. Cspan2 what on how they wish her book tour . 20 for cities. Cspan2 what is a 72 yearold man going to 20 for cities when you didnt have to . I enjoy it. I thought i cant do this with an i thought lets go. I like meeting people i like seeing whats happening in the country. I can tell you i went to many of the same cities five years ago when adams was published to see how they are changing and what exciting things are going on new libraries and Convention Centers and cities look better than i have seen them look, there is much to be encouraged about by modern presentday america i really do and people are proud of their cities. And optimistic it is very reassuring that i have come back feeling better about the country and the time we live in and more confident about the future. What next book do you thank you want to do . So what kind of a book does the country need . I never think about that. Thats it because you have to live with the subjects day after day if you are not enthusiastic about their work what is your inclination right now . This morning i had 24 ideas for a book i would like to read. Books that dont exist that i would love to read which is part of why i have gone about it my full writing career in life ive been doing it 40 years and i just trusted you could Say Something this morning i would say thats what i want to do and i dont push it i dont just get going for the sake of getting going. So to give you an example you are to got a guy not to give you one example. I would love to read a book everything going on in london during the revolution the loyalist thousands of americans who were there people of considerable consequence trouble goes over during the war they think hes a spy he might have been put them in the tower of london for a little while. There was a lot of spies french, british, great material and of course all the politics of the time and others who are on that point of view, to a point. But the same kind of book could be written about the civil war for all that was going on. I would love to read a book about Charles Wilson peel the philadelphia painter who was into everything. Talk about the 18th surgery century enthusiast who was a painter and tinker of mechanical advice on devices and an archaeologist a soldier and politician. He knew everybody. And the idea who is not a general or a politician or soldier appeals to me. Cspan2 no interest in the present . Or in your lifetime or truman . No. That wasnt quite present. Cspan2 in your lifetime . Not particular i will stay in the 18th century. I like it there and im starting to know everybody i like the change in the literature. How did you get to know henry knox . To his letters. They are in a variety of places. Most of those are at the Morgan Library in new york but the diary of his track from ticonderoga which i have reproduced in the book in the picture section of the book in its actual size thats at the massachusetts Historical Society. Cspan2 are you on the board . Ive never been on the board but im actively involved. Thats one of the most wonderful collections in the country three president ial libraries in one all of adams papers, john adams and John Quincy Adams and then jefferson papers. You pop up everybody wants you on their historical boards how many do you serve on now . At the moment im on none but as i can stay working for mount vernon and the library of congress and the massachusetts Historical Society interest for preservation, the new york Historical Society, monticello Public Libraries in general. I do as much as i can to support and help and make known the opportunities presented by Public Libraries but also responsibility communities out to support them im an honorary member for a big drive for the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library which was the first Public Library ever went to. Also the library of congress i will do what i can to help the library of congress as long as i can. Cspan2 you probably gave henry more publicity than he ever had in his life with your book . I dont know. Cspan2 this has 14000 visitors in the last year that is relatively small but allied of libraries are going down the new Lincoln Library but what do you have for a place like this route one in maine . Easy to see montpelier to get people to come here . To encourage everyone that does come here to tell people its a worthwhile place to stop and you cant miss it coming up route one. Anything they should do here to get people in entertain them or inform them . I think the people come into the spaces and rooms and know the story that supports people in. If you dont buy a house you say thats a Beautiful House and nothing ever happened is not too interesting you could drive firehouse that looks like a shack until the story of what happened and people would be interested. I think our affection as a people for historic landmarks and buildings of all kinds has increased tenfold if not more in the last 34 years. And then that movement to protect Historic Buildings every part of the country isnt just tearing down buildings because their Old Buildings we lose something of ourselves. And vandals thats not the right thing to do. Cspan2 you talked a lot lately about teachers he testified in front of congress have to do far better job teaching teach teachers those that graduate with degrees with an education they go to school and education a major and they know something called education but they dont know a subject. We have teachers that cspan this summer and they were very happy when they heard you say that. There should be a good liberal Arts Education or spanish or physics or whatever or a young teacher going to work for the first time in a classroom who doesnt know history or biology and is required to teach that subject has a handicap the list to say not because they dont know the subject but they have no enthusiasm for the subject. Most of us have been lucky enough to have teachers in our experience that were enthusiastic about what they were teaching. It is that love of the subject that is infectious and opens the door or the window for us. Furthermore if the teacher doesnt know biology or history or mathematics, then they are much more dependent on textbooks with that are far less that which we would wish some are abysmal some are designed to kill any interest a youngster may have in history you have to have teachers who love what they are teaching and use good books the essential for education is not a fancy building or a lesson plan the essential is a great book a great teacher and the midnight oil of hard work we dont emphasize work enough in teaching. These are all generalizations. There are superb teachers and i have said in that same speec speech, there is no more important person in our society than teachers they count more than anybody doing the most important work than anybody in our way of life. I have a son who is a teacher im proud as can be he is a teacher and i know how much he has to put up with and its less then one word want. He teaches English Literature in high school in massachusetts and hes a very good teacher. Cspan2 i was sent a lot of questions. What are the rewards for teachers if they have historical knowledge and excellent in their field do they get anything special . I think they get the same thing no matter what line of work you are in the reward is the work itself with the knowledge they are influencing hundreds, thousands of Young Americans in the course of their career. I dont know the statistics on how many lives a teacher will touch in the course of a career of 25 or 30 years but it must be a sizable crowd. Thats very important. And the love of learning thats the most important. Because education only gets rolling after you leave college or graduate school thats when you really began to learn and read. If you have that instilled in you. Cspan2 some teachers are not happy with no child left behind. One asks can any exam give meaningful data of the students understanding and willingness to participate in democracy . No. It is simply a measure of how much is known or not known when a youngster cannot tell you or a senior at a Good University cant tell you the commanding American General was at cornwallis at yorktown you know there is a problem. Weather knowing it was George Washington will make a better citizen thats immaterial. But the fact washington was the commanding general they probably dont even know what it is or why it was important and clearly doesnt know much about the history of the revolutionary war. And thats a pretty serious flaw and indicates we are not educating our children as well as we should. No question about the historic ignorance of Young Americans it has been shown in countless studies and surveys and anyone who teaches are lectures to spend time on campus knows that from firsthand experience. Cspan2 57 percent and history should start at the dinner table how do you start at the dinner table . How do you allocate your time how much time is that same Family Spending watching television . The average family spends three and four hours a day watching television dont tell me you couldnt give up an hour of television to do something of this kind. I think dinner table conversation, i have had many people say they agree their own memories and experience it can be over the lifetime at home could be more important than school. What if they dont have a history of knowing history . Note they know the history of their own lives they know what they are grandfather did where they came from what part they played in American Life or American History where they could go to the library and get some books. The Public Library. Look at the Public Library. There they are in every community free. Free to the people. All the knowledge, all the information and art and literature and ideas of history of all time are available in the Public Library to everybody for free no other society or civilization ever had such an advantage and we take that for granted. People say theres not enough money. First there is. Do you know what we spend on lawncare or potato chips . Of course there is how society spends its money thats also said for how the individual spends their money its an example of what that matters to them. You to get a complete College Education graduate School Education just by going to the Public Library for free. Which was part of the idea in the first place there should be no lead on people because they cant afford to go to college and university so we will have a public place they can all go. When do you expect us to see another David Mccullough book . I have no idea how long it takes is how long it takes somebody said how long your legs . He said long enough to reach the ground. I have no idea depends on how large the subject is. 56 years of his life what one thing looms the most important . The man had a capacity for a great idea innovative idea and the capacity to make it happen. Ideas are pretty easy but doing them as hard. He had the idea and he had it. Cspan2 thinking mr. Mccullough. Thank you. Going back to 2011 speaking about the history of american expats in paris. Good afternoon. You are here on the first National Book festival in history on its second day. Thank you for coming. [applause] thank you for bringing the sun out and make it clear sheer humanity can overcome the most accurate of weather predictions. [laughter] thank you to our new sponsor wells fargo specifically sponsoring the new history and biography on pavilion was 1h annual National Book festival all of us at the library of Congress Hope you enjoy it as much as we have planning and bringing it to you with so many great sponsors and partners but its also an important because building a key reading is essential not just to enriching our own lives but extending horizons of society to sustain that democracy and we are grateful to those 115 riders bringing us the creative spirit and collective in a national way here at the mall. At the 11th National Book festival not only a success but the unprecedented number of people participating with the work of over 100 volunteers giving of their time with more than 1000 it is a record in that respect as well as people like you who have been here. Also special recognition to the wonderful librarian the executive director Jennifer Gavin project manager long time head of the fifties the senators and Office Coordinator director of development and the 1000 volunteers made up of Library Staff on their own time. And also members of the Junior League and those who love the book festival. Many of these volunteers return year after year because we cannot manage a book festival without them. And all of the logistics to get up the tents and the technology to make communication possible. Our security staff works hard to make sure this is a safe and happy experience for all booklovers joining us this weekend. We are spatially grateful for those who brought their children to celebrate the multi generational task of reading to each other and extending the conversations. So it where grateful to the many sponsors that contribute to the resources and those that made this event not only possible but sustaining and the cochairman of the new board for the festival David Rubenstein has been a great benefactor and cannot be here today but deserves a great things cochairman of the new board we have for the festival and its many members are here and we thank them. Finally thank you to the authors and their publishers for making the books and coming alive here at the book festival at the National Mall making in a landmark and continuing event here in washington. [applause] and Nobel Laureate we begin the festival this year the Nobel Laureate in literature yesterday and Nobel Laureate and neuroscience talking to the library of Congress Said i have reached the conclusion that the human brain is wired for narrative so we close the festival today with a man who has drawn more of us than you can imagine into a fresh and in new ways many parts of the unique narrative that is the history of the United States of america. Twice won the Pulitzer Prize for truman and then john adams. But pulled them out of the relative neglect they had received compared to the president s preceded and succeeded them. Adams was president between washington and jefferson truman between Franklin Roosevelt and eisenhower. These are all iconic figures but with new narratives to humanize history and more than that, also celebrating the human stories and great events like the building of the panama canal, Brooklyn Bridge and historic tragedies. David mccullough is our citizen chronicler his latest book is the greater journey. Nineteenth century story of americans journeying back across the atlantic to discover the learning of the old world even at a time when other americans word journey to the pacific to discover National Resources and Natural Beauty of the american frontier. America was opening a new world physically in the west while enriching itself culturally and intellectually in the great city of light in the journey east across the sea. Ladies and gentlemen since mccullough came into my office two days after the first National Book festival to say how important it was to continue to do this kind of event nationally, he offered to help in any way he could. One day after that unspeakable tragedy of 9 11, one of the dark days in the narrative of our national life, he came back the next year to give the final talk at the book festival one year later and he ended it in a way we will not forget. Some will argue he suggested you have to regulate what people think and write and even read but in the end it was just two words. We dont. [applause] [cheers and applause] we are glad to have him here, the medal of freedom winner to end the first two day National Book festival we ever had and start the second decade of this wonderful event that we are so privileged to share with you all. Ladies and gentlemen, David Mccullough. [cheers and applause] [applause] thank you very much. What a thrill to be here among people who believe in ideas and the printed word and the useful language and the human spirit as expressed in books and writing. And what a tremendous pleasure and thrill and honor it is to be introduced by james billington. [applause] we have had a number of imminent distinguished librarians of congress, the famous for it poet, a famous scholar and historian and attorney, but we have never had an a more accomplished, productive, inspil or farseeing library of congressman james billington. [applause] i like to think of our library of congress as the Mother Church for the national Public Library system, one of the greatest institutions in American Life. Free to the people. [applause] just imagine, every single citizen everybody of every age in this country can essentially get a Free Education by going to the Public Library. [applause] and furthermore after one has finished once formal Education One can begin the greatest adventure of learning which is the rest of your life through the Public Library. [applause] and please lets not ever forget there is an just books in the library but manuscripts or the back issues of newspapers and maps that are of value that the people that work there, the librarians. [cheers and applause] it took me a while to catch on to this when i first started doing research for my work that if i went up to the librarian and told her or him what it was i was trying to do and what it was i was trying to achieve and how much i dont know they went right to work for me and solved all kinds of problems and still do and i am forever indebted to them. [applause] i would like to begin with a couple of lessons from history there are innumerable lessons of course, but just a few to set the scene. One of them is you can make a very good case and i try, nothing ever happened in the past nobody ever lived in the past. They live in the present it was they are present, not ours. Different. Washington, adams, jefferson did not walk around say is in this fascinating living in the past. [laughter] picturing us in our funny close. [laughter] nor did they have any idea how it would turn out any more than we do. A very important point. They could not foresee the future any more than we can theres no such thing as a foreseeable future just as no such thing as manmade woman or man. It doesnt happen. Life is a joint effort. Great accomplishment is a joint effort. Education is a joint effort. Progress is a joint effort, a nation is a joint effort and we have to see it that way and one of the key factors of all of our accomplishments all our life has been are teachers. We are more indebted to our teachers than anybody in societ society. [applause] and lets not do anything that makes their jobs harder. [cheers and applause] each and every one of us has had one or two or more teachers who has changed our lives to make a c in a way we never did to open the window and change our outlook and change my love of learning. It is about curiosity. Curiosity is one of the essential elements of being a human being. Curiosity is what separates us from the cabbages. [laughter] and it is accelerated by gravit gravity. The more we know the more we want to know. And those teachers who encourage their students to ask questions. Not just to know the answer answers, but to ask. To ask questions is how you find things out. And later in life especially i have never embarked on a project for one of my books i have never embarked on a book of a subject that i knew about i knew enough it was interesting to me to be compelled to write about it if i knew all about it i wouldnt want to take on the book to tell you how this president book of mine does start or at least a good nudge in the right direction it happens right here in washington driving down massachusetts avenue one morning during the rush hour and all of a sudden right by Sheridan Circle just passed embassy row there was a horrific traffic jam and everything stopped there was general sheridan up on his horse the requisite pigeon on his hat and i began to wonder how many people go around the circle every day or twice a day have any idea who he was . And as i was thinking that gershwins rhapsody in blue began playing on the radio and suddenly the power of that music not only lifted me out of the doldrums but sent me soaring so i thought is more alive today cracks sherman or gershwin . Is more important to American History . And of course they are both important. But we must not leave gershwin out of it. History is much more than politics and the military. Say it again history is much more important than politics and the military. There are as many of you that appreciate and know far more about it than i do where are we on all we know is are in architecture. Our interaction texture and poetry and music and dance in science and ideas, take them seriously as a subject for history. Its take away gershwin or mark twain or those of our time walt whitman it says if you took away the Mississippi River or the Rocky Mountains we would it feel the same way about who we are. And of course some of the greatest of all in their own way are masters of the literary form. And here we are in this magnificent capital , surrounded by science, art, science, art, music, history, al part of the story it could be a more appropriate place to give our respect that we have to then you have to teach the culture that we profess to cut back the book programs and theater. And we must concentrate with the children and grandchildren are reading. When i set out to try to understand somebody about my writing i try of course to read with a rope. Because of the wonderful libraries and library of Congress Come university libraries, letters and diaries to take us into the lives and to get to know people and real life and in some ways you get to know them better because in real life you dont get to read other peoples mail. [laughter] and its very revealing part of who they were and what their time was and we are what we read to a far greater extent than any idea. We walk around all of us quoting shakespeare alexander pope. And what we are reading to shape what we think. And then we have a student body whose for capillaries are declining and to have a very serious problem that has to be faced and then to make sure what they are reading and to encourage them to read the best work possible. And encourage those showing what you love with those who went to paris writing about a generation going into 1902 generations went to paris not because they were alienated not because they were angry with the overwhelming sense of self. Pity but quite the contrary. To better serve their country and say so again and again and to serve their country to perform the best of their ability, the desire to excel the ambition to excel not to be wealthier famous and powerful but to excel but painters or musicians or writers or sculptors anywhere in one case a politician name sumner who wanted to come back with a greater sense but the potential of civilization. There is a statute for trial sumner all it says is sumner theres no explanation of who he was or who the sculptor was. And to have no idea who he was probably. Charles sumner went to paris and then to become quite fluent to take notes on everything imaginable and one day his mind began to strain a little because the professor is moving longer than expected so looking around at the other students it is still there by the way. Close to 1000 students in the hall. If you notice the black students talk the same as everyone else and dress the same as everyone else with the same ambitions to write in the journal that night the way we treat black people at home has more to do with how we have been taught than the nature of things. And to transform him overnight is an abolitionist and elected to the senate 40 years old and right up there on the hill and in the Abolitionist Movement second only to how he felt as a force in the country and almost paid the price for it with his life almost beaten to death by a congressman from South Carolina who attacked him blindsided with a heavy Walking Stick and virtually killed him. Which is sumner never really recovered physically or psychologically. That remarkable man was change by his experience in paris that we were changed as a people as a consequence and if you think that is an exaggeration and then heard what had happened that is what caused them to attack and then known as the pottawatomie massacre. One of the lessons of history one leads to another just as it does in real life which is why among the many reasons to teach children and grandchildren history almost 21 years old not quite, who had no money, no friends in high places, new no one in paris, no contacts or were the french. So he went to paris to study art to study in a magnificent fashion. And those far off days and very few pictures on exhibit i knew no one in france i did not know what i should do once they are but i had a great stock of courage which is sometimes a great help and a strong desire to do my very best strong desire to do my very best that young man became the most accomplished on those on the both sides of the atlantic painting virtually anybody on both sides. Right now there are seven paintings in the white house 17 portraits by george healy and the National Portrait gallery and all of this and then Abraham Lincoln and illinois springfield just after lincoln and found out he was president and then painting and that he would allow the letter from the young woman telling him that he would be much handsome or if he grew a beard. And said would you like to pay me with the beard . Healy and commendable honesty said no sir i would not. [laughter] and another he the portrait hangs over the mantelpiece here is a young man who has no advantages never been to college or school to take it upon himself to do this. But Oliver Wendell holmes senior is a poet and essayist writing a famous popular poem called old ironside which kept the uss constitution the famous ship in boston from going to the scrapheap. And to get the finest medical education and possible he has to go to paris not because the medical training was far advanced in our terms but from the 19th century and in particular way ahead american medicine over half of the doctors in the United States have never been to medical school and trade with other doctors who had never been to medical school. And when we got to paris in medical school was several thousand students being taught by the greatest physicians in france were the greatest in the world and if they could go there in two years they could learn as much or more than general practice here in ten years. There were two very Important Reasons for this. And the Cultural Capital of the world both of these had to do with our culture and society and moral rules and regulations most american women at that time truly would have preferred to have died then have a man examine their bodies since all doctors were men, thousands of women died unnecessarily because of that. There was no such stigma about women being examined by a male physician. And equally important and as they make the rounds with a trained physician in the hospital to watch the physician attending those examinations and the second very important roadblock for us is the use of cadavers and in many states more than half of the states are illegal and what that meant was there was a black market for human bodies and because of that the bodies were very expensive and because of that students not to thought to dissect the body were in paris again or france there was no stigma so dissecting every day years at a time was enormous part of their training. With Oliver Wendell holmes senior. And then to teach anatomy at harvard more than 35 years devoting his entire professional life to science. And then to teach in art schools and medical schools and law schools and they came home to teach english and writing and universities and the educational system to a much greater degree and they have any idea. One of my favorite characters of all was Elizabeth Blackwell the First American female doctor in our country another was the wonderful creator in troy new york the first woman to champion Higher Education instead of her full life and education. So with that and need ability to pay the greatest pictures ever by an american still in his twenties in paris working primarily under a french painter who was his master sent him down to spain because he said everything you need to know was in alaska goes on and on so again to avoid growing up in the streets of the city put to work all of 13 years old very little education a great deal of talent but also this desire to excel and he became the Great American sculptor 19th century and the greatest american sculptor ever. And his monuments to our history and the most important stops in america. Those on beacon hill in boston which is the first work of american art of a sculptor or painter which portrays black americans in a heroic role the h regiment from massachusetts which served under captain shaw and then to see the movie glory you know what thats about. It is really a duplicate of in the national gallery. And that figure over the head which also is to be seen in a duplicate version at the National Portrait gallery. To stand at the entrance to central park to plaza hotel is also the greatest equestrian statue in america. Here is a boy who was a shoemakers son and indeed desire to excel and bring it home. And to redo something that he wrote. Years after coming back from paris after completing the sherman statue. And the fellow to tell them im coming home. Wonderful experience in paris and this is surprising in many respects one of which is to find out how much of an american im. I belong in america he continued. That is my home. He was ready to come home. As he felt it was impossible if he stayed home. We all know about lafayette. And the french army in the revolutionary war was crucial and that the surrender under washington. And the money they loaned us and the fact the country was more than double the Louisiana Purchase and the greatest tribute to our creed if you will it was a gift from another country, from france the statue of liberty which is the greatest port of entry in the country. The french left their names all over the states colleges and university we dont pronounce them correctly but they are french names. [laughter] lets not ever forget more of our people are buried in france in any other place in the world except her own country because of those died in world war i and world war ii. The battlefield at normandy for the First World War. Because nobody goes to see them anymore. We know what a toll it took. We are more indebted to people than we have any idea we are particularly indebted to all those who preceded us with artists and musicians and left us the poetry we love and the architecture we love and the buildings that have shaped us after we shaped them and to have the fundamental nobility and character to express the best of our intentions that have survived and not just just to tomorrows toll or reading in the faces on television and trying to do whats best for the country. And then to serve in medicine and painting in the theater and into the best of their country it is inspiring and then to express that this afternoon for you. On we go. [applause] every saturday evening this summer beginning at 8 00 oclock p. M. We are featuring a wellknown author in their programs tonight the featured guest is historian David Mccullough. And talk about the americans spirit the speeches he has given over the years he spoke at the Jf Kennedy Library in boston. [applause] i was about to say how special this night is that you all beat me to it which is great. Welcome. I am the executive director of the Jfk Library Foundation and on behalf of our colleagues in the library we are thrilled you could be here all forms are great but tonight it is a treat because its also the beginning of the centennial weekend and we planned this months ago we literally thought would be the best pair a speaker and moderator we could get for this historic time . This is we have and we are thrilled they are both here. [applause] first a few brief announcements first the underwriters and sponsors including our media is spent on sponsors and for the centennial. We are kicking off the centennial about what were doing over the next few days but over the next few days there are opportunities from seeing a new exhibit with 100 items with those that have never been seen publicly before opening tomorrow. Doing a peace corps day we have an astronaut here as part of the attribute to nasa and then the navy to honor the service in just 100 years to the minute to have two teams flying overhead and then we will be eating a cake. We need help with this to serve 1000 people designed by the same company that did the cake for their engagement many years ago. So tonight literally standing room only in this auditorium and an overflow any other auditorium and we are also thrilled we are streaming this and watching parties in places including the jfk museum in hyannis and others and those that are participating in line we have many distinguished guests and at the risk of offending some but there are many members of the board and because its our centennial we invite the colleagues around the country. And with the president ial library from Franklin Roosevelt, harry truman, carter, george h. W. Bush and Clinton Library for the foundation. Former United States senator and wife and former ambassador Nicholas Burns and several members of the new england consul general for us. After the first hour of dialogue there is a chance for questions and microphones on either ill. If you are streaming tweeters somebody read the question i get up in line. And then to graciously sign books afterwards if you have them great, if not the bookstore has them. Go out to help the traffic flow to go smoothly. If you havent read this yet the americans spirit who we are and what we stand for i just asked mr. Mcculloch question in our but i promise i wont do that the mr. Charlie gibson. Based on the apposite inca speak for most people who know him even though i just met him listening on the news 34 years anchoring abc news cohosting Good Morning America interviewing anybody including nine us president s it is a remarkable history he and his lovely wife are here tonight and David Mccullough first i feel bad he has a been recognized very much in his life. [laughter] everybody has two Pulitzer Prize. And to National Book awards and the Francis Parkman price twice, and the president ial medal of freedom, the nations highest civilian honor. Everyone i know has been recognized by 54 honorary degrees actually no one else i now please join me to welcome this amazing panel. [applause] and as they come up and take questions those are pretty concise questions. But the most famous tweeter in the world probably isnt watching. [laughter] i will get one of those i shudder to think what it might be. But we do look forward to this it is a treat for me as a very undistinguished history major and college to talk to david who is something of a legend. And we do together in the Kennedy Library which leaves me to wonder how many books will be in the trump president ial library . [laughter] [applause] and in an interview with the Washington Post said he never read a book about a president either biography or a book about the presidency. He might someday he said. [laughter] he doesnt read books because his mind reaches beyond that. [laughter] i began to think about the great president s over the years who have been avid readers of history, many wrote history including kennedy and even those who didnt have the benefit of College Education like truman reading history all their lives and then realize the role of a leader the presidency or leadership of any kind history matters. If i have one message to get across in my work in gatherings like this is that history matters. A lot. [applause] we are slipping in our responsibility of teaching history a number of us are evangelical preachers. And i am astonished that the jean people dont know about the country and its story. One young lady came up to me after i gave a talk and said she wanted to thank me for coming to campus because until she heard my talk that day she had no idea all the original 13 colonies were on the east coast. [laughter] and another one asked in the q a. Aside from truman and adams have any other president s have you interviewed . [laughter] there may not be many books in the president ial library but one hell of an edifice. Which leads me to the second question. What steps did jackson have taken to prevent the civil war . [laughter] we could go all night. [laughter] i have no more questions. [laughter] can you believe it . I want to restore our recognition why we are the way we are. And that is important as grade school and high school and college and university and advanced degree isnt essential, and how it we were brought up at home and raised to behave. [applause] kindness, tolerance, empathy and hard work. And in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where people worked hard but that counted how you appreciated by other people my father used to say charlie drinks too much but hes a good worker or fred is a terrible exaggerator telling stories but if youre a good worker that gives all other feelings. We got to working very very hard doing the right brothers book two young men never had the chance to go to college ever finish high school that brought up to have a purpose in life. And then to use the english language. And so you read the letters that have survived. And humbling and the quality of the vocabulary and then to boast about yourself. Or get too big for your britches. And it impresses me even more given the situation we are in now. That kennedy almost never talked about himself. Did not use first person singular. No. Almost never. And then to go on and on to say the least with justification. You mentioned that and you say im searching for the quote that the first person singular never entered into so many others since. Name names. [laughter] and its what you do in public life and in many cases it is justified. You mentioned for 50 years youve been given a lot of speeches many extemporaneous. But i am curious why you want to do a book of speeches now and why you chose these 15 . When writing my book about harry truman i love the idea he went out for a walk every morning. So i thought to try that and then to start thinking in a way so last summer when the comments made by the republican candidate for the presidency to me were not only appalling but unimaginably out of place. So what can i do to provide to the counterpoint . And those on National Occasions such as a 200 anniversary of congress and the anniversary of the white house kennedys Memorial Service in dallas which i was asked to be the speaker. And commencement speeches i have given a particular occasions and the history of other organizations or universities. And found there were a great many i was voicing what really matters to me and history is fascinating and essential what it means to be alive. Why should we live our lives with this little bit of time that her biological clocks provide to have access to the whole realm going back hundreds of thousands of years . So looking where the speeches made the appropriate. And the help of my daughter who arranged all these talks that i gave and kept the records of what i said. The first time i finished and put it down he is writing in the times to be apropos to the current time and i have heard you say before and that they dont have a role of current politics. But i was talking before it came on the scene. And to read them a second time thinking what is a sentence or the paragraph or the point that could be taken to heart in politics right now . So each time looking in the speech whats the one point that could be taken to heart . I wont do each 112 out of but the first speech 1989 putting Margaret Chase smith and then ride the political victory on the four horsemen. Fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear. Maybe is perfect only if you had a sense of humor. [laughter] can you imagine somebody reading that currently . It would be wonderful. [laughter] and shes a woman and most people today who Margaret Chase was the most admirable political figure weve ever had. We dont have enough standing up now 1998 speech Benjamin Rush as other patriots of that time with original signers of the declaration of what mattered most to human relations and said i include candor and gentleness and disposition and then to add in 1998 words to the wise more than ever Benjamin Rush is one of my favorite characters from my past one of mother remarkable man of 18th century and the accomplished physician with the fair and humane treatment and to put them away in a cell as if they were animals. And extremely courageous in the ability to go into places with their yellow fever epidemic and one of the signers of the declaration of independence and was all of 30 years old forget how young those people were jefferson when he wrote the declaration was 33. Imagine. Washington at the Continental Army was 44 years old. We see them later with their white hair and very very young. A very encouraging fact of our story. I think we can ever know enough about the american revolution. By the way the new museum just opened in philadelphia is a must for all of us. And as a place to take your children and grandchildren for history. And brilliantly organized spectacular building and right in the center of the historic neighborhood just steps down the street. But we lived in the boston area take the reality of that era as part of the environment. Thats great. But i love kennedys profiles in courage and not aware yet what i wanted to do with my life and John Quincy Adams for example. And the first word i like and that quotation is civility which is a lost are in the Public Discourse of america today. And that that existed beyond people and their needs to be a common end. And those deep chasms of division in this country. The two sides seemed unalterably opposed when politics trumps policy. But the sense of National Goals is gone and party goals matter more than National Goals. What brings us out of this quick. Leadership of the best kind. To stand up for their convictions the backbone to do whats right irrespective and its mainly for the people. And the three segments of government legislative judicial and executive. But the fourth is the people. Maybe even decisive when someone reads about mortgages is what im going to do. Some in the government right now. Guilt happen of the necessity to survive. David will expect that pretty c7 to me, i