Suv and come down from the mountains and go to host university, the only role the americans had was to make sure the drivers drop them off at the university and took them back. That was 5000 bucks. We have time for one more question. You were were directing us to the photograph in this book. I was taken by this one here that shows bernies cereal bowl at the white house on a display in the bush library with a bunch of kia and mia badges and bracelets. Its a damning picture and it shows the attitude. The hardest question, at the end, youre the first person to ask me about the bush museum photos. I can talk a long time about how we manage which photos got in, potato factory bush. All im going to say is i went to the museum and i saw what i saw. So barney had a role in a runup to the world, how, he was the president ial dog when the city had the annual White House TelevisionCorrespondents Dinner and they had a spoof in the oval office about where is the wnd. I was in iraq at the time, it made me sick. It wouldve made me sick anywhere. But i was in iraq watching the powers that be, joking about weapons of mass distraction. When i went to texas i did not know what i was going to see. Again if i succeed in this book it will be if you voted for bush you still respect that i tried to be very measured in what i am doing as a guide. When i got to the main hall there in the museum, the many different cabinets, some gifts from the asian people, gifts from gifts from south American People and there is one cabinet with gifts from the American People. These these were items that president bush, george w. Bush, and perhaps First Lady Laura Bush decided to put in a cabinet. It did strike me also as a hard thing to thing. Kia, mia bracelets and barneys dog bowl. That is for him to answer. I also want to say that president george w. Bush come at a time when fear was rampant, right after 9 11 nine 11 what did he say about Muslim Americans . He went to a mosque but he also said they are not the enemy, it is who we are. To be variant to be be accountable, when we look into the mirror, this book is not an antibush books. It. It is to say, he put that in his cabinet for his own reasons, while at the same time as a president after 9 11, to his credit he did not do the easy thing. Which is to instigate fear. So i hope that answers the question. The photos were very hard, you put your finger on one and thats one reason why we talked a long time about becausephotos also show focus, they show what stories you are highlighting. I personally did not want as many potato factory photos and as my editor wanted. He is a great editor and he was probably right to say the ugly, horrific side of war needs to be in here not just to photos. On the bush museum, i wanted viewer. In fact the photo of the airplane on the World Trade Center is one important for me as a former new yorker because it says new york dean rebuilt while iraq and afghanistan are not being rebuilt. So one question im sorry, the potato factory became a morgue in falluja. There is a chapter called the potato factory, it literally was where the iraqis had potatoes they were turning into potato chips. When the battle started and the bodies were falling and we had real issues about how to dispose and a respect for ways we could, the refers where it was cooler became an easier place to store the bodies. While our Mortuary Affairs team tried to determine where they syrian fighters, were they local solutions, so the chapter of the potato factory is describing how the marine corps came to terms with this new mission that was very challenging after todd and alex dealt with it in the immediate hours. They were there even before the bodies were moved to the potato factory. The potato factory im getting asked a lot about because terry gross come in our interview based on the photos really focused on those images. And i think rightly so. The heroism of war is there, but the horror of war is probably more there, at least where i served. I think we have finished and i appreciate the Panel Members sharing part of your stories. I also want to appreciate all of you for taking time tonight, i will save you ordered a book from amazon the penalty is that you have to buy at least two. I bought two of my own books here and i know politics and imposes able to do these events because we all believe in the power of writing, the power of books, and the power of where we buy our books. Im not antimsi, but i believe that while we support goliath we can also support the davids out there. So thank you. [applause]. Books are available at the checkout counter and he will be up for signing. [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] when i tune into it on the weekends, usually usually it is authors sharing their new releases. Watching the nonfiction authors on book tv is the best television for serious readers. On cspan they can have a longer conversation and delve into their subject. A book tv, weekends. Weekends. They bring author, after all there, after author that spotlight the work of fascinating people. I love a book tv and i am a cspan fan. Now, book to be our coverage of the annual roosevelt a reading festival. Its hosted by the Franklin D Roosevelt library in museum in hyde park, new york. Today, several authors will discuss a range authors will discuss a range of topics related to the roosevelt administration. From new deal legislation to americas entry into world war ii. We kick kick off the day with paul brandis who provides a history of the presidency through the lens of 20 rooms in the white house. Welcome to the Franklin D Roosevelt president ial museum in hyde park new york today. Its assertive or roosevelt reading festival. We have 16 have 16 others here today, it is going to be a fabulous day. Fdr imagined the site as a place that would be the preeminent resource for researchers into the new deal and world war ii and the roosevelt era. I think its fan of authors we have represented here today indicate how vibrant and active that is. We have about 1000 researchers a year come through here and many the people speaking here today use the archives to help reduce their books. It is wonderful thing. If you like the reading festival we encourage you to become a member. We have a membership stand outside today. Membership else helps support these programs. June is also the 75th anniversary of the opening of the library. It opened on june 30, 1941 which was an unusual time for library to be opening since it was the first president ial library. He had assumed he would be leaving office at the end of 1940 and retiring at the end of year. Of course he was reelected to another president at their turn. This is the only president ial library that was actually by sitting president. It is unique and i hope youll visit the museum be really. I will quickly go over the schedule and how this works. 30 minute presentation, therell minute presentation, therell be a ten minute question and answer. Please, to the microphone to ask your question. Then paul will go and have a book signing over by the bookstore, the new deal bookstore. Youll have an opportunity to buy the book and youll sign up for you. Will sign a party. Our first author today, paul brandis is really am a this is a great book, i follow paul on twitter, his twitter account, west wing wing report is one of the most followed twitter, for all white house correspondents. It is a great way to keep in charge. I was watching his view last night and he was posting photographs from his president s landing in yosemite. I was thinking how does he going to get to hyde park this morning if he is a new 70. But of course it was a four to grab a new source out there. He is the author of the book, under this roof, a history of the white house and presidency. He is a awardwinning independent member of the press corps. His reports ago to radio, television, print organization, is a columnist for usa today marketwatch. His today marketwatch. His work is a. In the guardian, national review, and the week. One of the things that is great about his insight is that he understands how the presidency works, particularly in how the press covers the presidency. Its a great book. He has traveled to 53 countries and poor correspondent including some hotspots like iraq, chechnya, china and guantanamo bay. He started his career in washington d. C. On w nbc radio and he worked as a Senate Staffer at one point a Senate Staffer at one point which i do not know. He is also an early venture stage capitalist and was the first person to get that up all rights to the super bowl in russia. I am not sure, will have to ask him about that. He is here to talk about the white house and the presidency please welcome paul brandon [applause]. Thank you very much paul and congratulations i know it is the fdr library 75th anniversary. Congratulations morning and thank you all for coming. It is such an honor for me to be here at the fdr library. It is my first time here and just Walking Around hyde park on this magnificent ground you can really feel the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt i think its fear to say is clearly one of our greatest president s. Probably one of our top two or three. We can we can have a debate about that later. Of course i feel the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt every day that im in the white house. I am the member of the White House Press corps, dont hold that against me. Some people some people dont like reporters all that much. I really feel his spirit, particularly because i have the privilege of working in one of fdrs Favorite Places in the white house and that was the site of his Swimming Pool which he had built in 1933. It is. It is now the site of our Briefing Room in fact. But the pool is still there, it is covered over but you can go down. Has anybody ever gone to the white house . You can go into the Briefing Room and go down into a secret flight of stairs in the pool is still there, it is just filled with the television, and computer equipment and the green tile on the wall is still there. On one wall there is also a piece of plywood that is there and what is really cool about that is that you can get a pen, sharpie sharpie or something and you can write your name on the wall in the pool. So i would like to think, well it was turned into the Briefing Room by Richard Nixon and ironically the president who dislike the press more than any other. The fact that we can go and scribble our name on the wall of the pool, i would like to think Richard Nixon, unwittingly first bonding a generation of graffiti artists. Including me. That that is another story for another day. Why that became the deBriefing Room. Lets just state the obvious thing get it out of the way. When Franklin Roosevelt, except for abraham lincoln, fdr think faced more challenges during his 12 years in office than any other president. The big two of course was the Great Depression and world war ii. Im going to talk today about another measure of Franklin Roosevelts greatness and that is the influence that he had on a couple of his successors. Im going to mention to them. John f. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Both kennedy and reagan are regarded today as to very savvy, media communicators about both of them became that way in no small measure by studying and learning from Franklin Roosevelt. He was such an influence on future president s in terms of how they use the media. That is what im going to focus on today. First let me give you a little bit of the background. Radio is not exactly new when Franklin Roosevelt became president in 1933. Nor was he the first president to actually use the radio, that wouldve been Warren Harding in 1923. Roosevelt was not the first mass media president either, you know who that was . Those actually Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge was a mass media president because in the 1920s when movies started getting really big, americans flocked flocked to the movies of the 1920s. They always show the news reels ahead of the movies, coolidge been somewhat savvy himself decided man of everybodys going to the movies come i want to be in those newsreels they show ahead of time. So Calvin Coolidge had himself a film and doing all kinds of crazy things, milking a cow and whatever. It was in the news reel because he was the president and they filmed him. Calvin coolidge actually became, as more seen in the 1920s then even the biggest hollywood stars of that era. He was seen by more people than that saw Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and people like that. Calvin coolidge was in effect the first mass media guy, he was on every movie screen in america. Roosevelt did not exactly break any ground in terms of being a mass media president. What really made him different and better, i think was the way he used the mass media, the way he spoke, the words he used and also the context in which he took to the airwaves. That was completely different compared to his predecessors. Even today, radio is and more American Homes than even the internet if you can believe it. Radio still reaches more people than a lot of people still dont have internet if you can believe it. But everybody has a radio, if not, if not at home this early in their cars. Radio still reaches more people than the internet. Imagine how powerful and you big it would this it was in roosevelts day. It was really something. He was well well aware of that when he became president he took full advantage. He made it look really easy with these fireside chats but behind the scenes he worked so hard at these chats. In the decade before he became president in fact i mentioned hoover, harding, they were on the radio as well. Roosevelt spent a lot of time listening to those prior president s on the radio and thinking, well well i can do better than that. Harding was a bombastic, coolidge was was a little stiff, and Herbert Hoover lacked energy roosevelt in the meantime was governor of new york for four years, he was up in albany polishing his skills, by the time he arrived in the white house he was ready. He was smooth and he knew exactly what he was doing. He was thoroughly polished, thoroughly comfortable behind the microphone. Just before his first fireside chat in fact he told Carlton Smith who at the time was an abc reporter, he said that you will never have any trouble from me, i am an old into fist, and that is exactly what they were in there almost universally flawless. I mentioned how roosevelt made it seem easy with these chats. He made it seem easy because he works like a dog behind the scenes to make these fireside chats smooth. He spent days working on the speech. He read them aloud gettinghe rhythm and the feel of them just right, trying out words and phrases and so forth. He is a stopwatch to time his performance to make sure they would not run on too long. He spent so much time preparing these fireside chats in fact that aids asked him, mr. President are you spending too much time working on these speeches . Roosevelt said absolutely not, preparing for these is one of the most important things i can possibly do. Were just talking about twitter a minute ago, like twitter today, radio allowed for roosevelt to go over the heads of his critics. He certainly had his critics. There are a lot of Newspaper Publishers in the 1930s who could not stand Franklin Roosevelt, mccormick in chicago, probably the most prominent. Roosevelt knew that with radio he could actually go over the heads of these Newspaper Publishers with his own message that he could completely control. Kind of how these people use twitter today, they put out what they want nobody can challenge them. Roosevelt understood this in a way that his predecessor did not. Now be in an old radio guy myself, what im about to tell you is a really good insider trick for being on the radio. The trick to being really good and smooth on the radio is not to imagine yourself talking to millions of people, it is to imagine yourself talking with one person. One person. I tell this the barstool rule. Imagine your sitting on a barstool talking to one person. It should be that informal, that versace was, it conveys intimacy and work. Roosevelt understood that. He said i always see myself just sitting around in the hyde park talking to a dirt poor farmer. It forced him to keep his words simple, concepts easily understood, and that is exactly what he did. He was incredibly gifted at this, probably has never been equaled since in terms of just how effective he was. I spoke a minute ago about the power and intimacy of radio. Roosevelt, as i mentioned he spoke slowly, he used small words, he, he called his audience, my friends. The overall effect was friendly and conversational. A conveyed form and trust, his broadcast predecessor, the president s i mentioned gave speeches on the radio. And roosevelt had conversations with people. It was incredibly effective. When you think about this, when he became president in the previous 140 years of american history, most americans never seen a president , yet now they were hearing one in their own home. It was absolutely electrifying. The first fireside chat was just eight days after he was sworn in. It was march the 12th, 1943 and the topic was bank. The Banking System was shattered. He ordered what was known as a bank holiday. He shut on the banks while he could take some measures to shore them up, give people more confidence in the banks. That was a subject of his first fireside chat. Kind of a complicated topic but he knew how to break that complicated topic down and make it easy to understand. What he said was, i want to talk for a few minutes about banking, he began. I want to want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be. Again, he used a very small words, spoke very slowly and as always with a very confident tone. He said, i can assure you that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened at bank and then under the mattress. While the rest rest was history, the response was absolutely overwhelming. 60,000,000 americans come half the population back then listened to that first fireside chat. Let me put that in context two. 60 million americans, half the population. You know how many people watch the super bowl back in february . About one third of the country. One third of americans watch the super bowl, half of the country listen to Franklin Roosevelt. His reach and power were absolutely enormous. Its also possible i think overstate the influence of the reach that he had. Anyway, the next after that talk on the banks, there were long lines of people lined up at the banks all around the country wanting to put money back in their banks. So americans listen to fdr that first night, they believed believed him, they trusted him, then went back to the banks and he had been eight days into his administration and he passed his first key test. Another sign of how effective and powerful these fireside chats were, Herbert Hoover who is president before roosevelt first got about 5000 letters per week. That sounds like a lot. Frank then roosevelt got about 50000 letters per week. It went up by a factor of ten. There are so many letters in fact that they had to hire 70 people just to handle all of the mail. During the Great Depression it was a mini jobs program in and of itself when you think about it. Heres a typical letter effect from one man who wrote the president to mr. Simon miller. He wrote, and im quoting here, i want to to thank you for your visit at 10 00 p. M. Sunday night. I can see see you seated in the big armchair in my living room, pipe and mouth and talking about the crisis that confronts us all. Telling me in words that i could understand what you had done and the reasons for your action. You are the first president to come into our homes. Until last night to me, the president of the United States was merely a legend, a picture a picture to look at, but you are real. Quite a letter and he got those by the truckload. I think to reach people like that and to make a difference in one persons life like Franklin Roosevelt did, that ladies and gentlemen, that is leadership. I think perhaps the ultimate arbiter of how all of this played in your area came from bill rogers who may have been the only american then who is maybe as famous as it roosevelt himself. Will rogers was a movie star in his own right, he he had a nationally syndicated newspaper column, he was on the radio himself too. He knew what he was talking about and after the first fireside chat, rogers wrote in his newspaper column, he said quote, roosevelt hit a home run. He said fdrs check check not only a great comfort to the people, but appointed lesson to all radio announcers and public speakers what to do with a big vocabulary. What you do if you have a big giant vocabulary, vocabulary, leave it at home in the dictionary. Will rogers understood that. He said roosevelt made everybody understand it, even the bankers. So after the harding, cal village, the humorless hoover, americans finally had a president who possess what i think is the most powerful of political gifts, the common touch. Heres a stat that i find fascinating on top of all that. When the Great Depression started in 1929, the average price of a radio was 139. Thats a huge amount of money. Thats a lot of money for a dumb little radio. In 1929 that was more than one weeks pay. Just for radio. By 1933 when roosevelt was sworn in, things were so bad in the country, incomes had plunged by half but the price of radios have fallen even further. In relative terms, the price of a radio was of a radio was suddenly more affordable so everybody had radios that, in relative terms they were cheaper. About three fifths of the country had radios. All of that i think its fascinating but the one thing you may not know about the fireside chats that he gave, do you you know how many fireside chats roosevelt gave . It was only about 30 of them. He only did about two or three per year. It was not enough. He was so good that people were clamoring for more. Roosevelt was so media savvy that he understood something very important and that is, less is more. What i mean by that, roosevelt knew that fewer appearances would convey greater drama and attract more attention when he did appear, and and he was right. In fact the press guy, the press secretary steve earley set i do not want the bus to do very much, we want to conserve him. Roosevelt went on the radio only when theres something really big to talk about. During his 12 years, back there is only two big, two gigantic issues that was the depression in the war. With one or two exceptions that was about all he talked about. The first fireside chat it was eight days after being sworn in, and the last was june 12, 1944, about six days after dday. And that was it. Just 30 appearances in 12 years. He did them very rarely which added to the power in the drama when he did appear. That was it. When you think about the world in which americans lived in roosevelt. You are welcome to challenge me on this, but i think america changed more in the 12 years he was president then probably at any other time in american history. We think about he gave it to the white house with america on its knees, the economy in complete shambles and when he died, just a dozen years laters the United States was an economic, military, colossus, the world absolutely dominant to an extent never before seen or cents. All of that and a span of just a dozen years. Change it was just remarkable. I mentioned at the top. That theres another way of looking at roosevelts influence was to study the influence he had on his successors, the other president s that follow. I mentioned to in particular, john f. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Arguably, reagan. Arguably, both of these gentlemen were media savvy two. Were not for roosevelt, i wonder how savvy they would have been. One of the very first things that john f. Kennedy did when he came into the white house, he asked how many fireside chats did roosevelt give . When kennedy learned that he had only given about 30 of them, it validated kennedys own view that he should keep his own appearances on television to a minimum. Television television of course was the dominant medium when kennedy came in. John f. Kennedy, he could go on tv whenever you wanted but, like with roosevelt and radio, kennedy sense that bike keeping his appearances to a minimum it would maximize the drama when he did appear, very savvy observation. Kennedy actually declined to go on television when invited to do so he thought too many appearances on television would make him boring. You you know what they say, Familiarity Breeds contempt. That is what he believed. I think that was a lesson in restraint that modern president s to their detriment and perhaps ours, have failed to grasp. We see are president s all the time a television and we get kind of tired of our president s. Kennedy, and roosevelt that they understood they understood that. As for Ronald Reagan, he is known as the president who first made his mark in hollywood but of course reagan was quite big on radio before that. When roosevelt first came to the white house in 1933, Ronald Reagan was 22 years old. He was at a very he was at a very impressionable age and he idolized Franklin Roosevelt. Reagan of course was a democrat most of his life. He only became a republican at age 50, i think. He idolized Franklin Roosevelt. He was dazzled by the fireside chats. In the spring of 83, effective reagan was said to have memorized roosevelts first inaugural address. He recited it to his friends, he used a broom handle as a microphone. Of Franklin Roosevelt, reagan later wrote in his diary of fdr he said quote, his strong, gentle, confident voice resonated across the nation caught up in a storm he reassured us that we could lick any problem. I will never forget him for that. Decades later as a politician, reagan paid fdr the highest compliment by copy and roosevelts speaking style, like fdr fdr reagan used small words, he used concepts that could be easily understood by all. Reagan reagan became known as the great communicator. He never considered himself a great communicator by the way, all all he said was i communicate great ideas. He thought roosevelt was the true great communicator. Listening to Franklin Roosevelt, you have to wonder what would john f. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan have been regarded today as the savvy media communicators they are . Thats an interesting question. So as we study Franklin Roosevelt in his time, such an incredible. , we cannot forget lasting impression that he made our president s who follow. All all of this is just one small part of such a fascinating president and what made him i think a great president. I would like to express my sincere thanks to you and to the library for allowing me to share these views today. It is such an honor to be here. Thank you very much. [applause]. Will take questions now. Come up to the microphone and if you have questions he will be happy to answer. Theres always one question. Could you tell us a little bit about the book. What this is parts of the book, the book is called under this roof, it is the right house and the presidency. I picked 21 stories that i think tell not just the story of the president s of the issues in the times they are involved in, but the growth of the white house itself. The building itself. My theory is that the white house has grown and expanded since 1800 when john adams first moved in. The growth of the white house is really reflected of the growth of the country itself. It had electricity, telephone, solar panels and things like that. I told it in those terms as well when it got its first telephone, and funny stories like that. The telegrapher example which a lot of people do not know that abraham lincoln, one reason why lincoln had an edge in the civil war was because of military technology. Abraham lincoln use the telegraph and effective ways to communicate with his commanders which really gave him an edge in a lot of ways over lee and confederate forces, really fascinating. My question also relates to the book tynan to Franklin Roosevelt as well. Could you talk a little bit of someone who has researched the space of the white house so much, how did fdr use the physical space of the white house and how did he differ from some of his immediate predecessors and successors . That is a good question. The west wing of the white house was actually built by his cousin, Theodore Roosevelt who had a big family and it was too big for the mansion itself. The the president s office used to be in the mansion itself. Theodore roosevelt expanded all of that. He moved the office to the west wing. It was not an oval office by the way when Theodore Roosevelt was in the white house. It was a regular, rectangular sized room. Was in the center of the west wing. In fact today what is called the roosevelt room where president s have meetings and everything, that was the sight of theater roosevelts office. Franklin roosevelt, because of his polio, his wheelchair all of the time, he actually moved the oval office which was first built by taft in 19 oh nine and roosevelt, just to be able to access it easier, he moved the office to its current position which is the southeast corner of the west wing. If you know you have seen president s on television that they walked on the famous colony, the famous walkway which was an idea Thomas Jefferson since. They walk down it into the oval office. That was roosevelt because he simply needed to access it better with his wheelchair. President obama, previous president s would hold monthly meetings, press conferences, i do not do not get that with president obama. I know he speaks at crisis and whatever, but he does not seem to be the communicator that other president s were. Can you make a comment about that . In terms of the number of interviews he did. It was like a weekly thing with or monthly thing with previous president s but he doesnt really open himself up to the reporters in the news on a regular basis. Ive noticed that after eight years of being there. The whole landscape has changed in the white house, and this is nothing new, president s always want to try to control their own message. Technology has gotten to the point now that president s i think need journalists less. I mentioned before that the president s have 70,000,000 twitter followers. Followers. 50 million facebook friends and youtube channel. If you have channels, via platforms like that that you can completely control on your own with a message that is unchallenged by others, why would you want to deal with the reporter asking you challenging questions. I think the the next president , whoever he or she may be is really going to continue to do that. In terms of obama obama talking to reporters he does not hold as many fullblown press conferences as his predecessors have a but he has done a lot of oneonone interviews with regional, Television Anchors and Regional Television reporters and niche publications for this and that. Instead of talking to a National Press corps they will do a tons and tons of targeted interviews with people depending on the issue and things like that. Theyre very targeted and focus, they look at niches that they want to focus on and thats what they do. Thats a very good point, they dont do a lot of National News conferences anymore. Its a changing landscape. Not better or worse, its just Way Technology is. Would you comment on the influence of fdr on harry truman . And how would you evaluate Harry Trumans performance . Well as an orchard, theres really no comparison. Went truman took over when roosevelt died, he had only been Vice President for about five weeks when fdr died. Of course he had been senator from missouri for about a dozen years before that. He was was still largely unknown to most americans. When he became president there is sort of a collective move about harry truman. He did not have the oratorical gifts that fdr did