Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20130106

Fivehour presentation for your this evening, and decided to scale that back to a more manageable 45 minutes. So ill start by saying this, without newspapers, there would have been no American Revolution. Newspapers are what fanned the flames of the rebellion. They sustained loyalty to the cause, they provided Critical Response during the war and aid in the outcome. Historians know this very well. For 200 plus years, the historians have referred the footnotes. What this book was inverts the traditional history book taking the newspapers that have been in the footnotes and places them at the forefront for general readers like you to enjoy full access and newspaper from the period. The process for putting this book together was quite a journey for me. I started out as enthusist, then became a collector, then became an educator through a website called rag lynn. Com and through the book. The story how i discovered historical newspaper happened about five years ago. My wife and i took our first Family Vacation to georgia lee that, illinois, which is a koa koa city mississippi town. I found a rare book shelf and found a book full of newspaper. It was april 21st, 1865 New York Times i was reading the about the lincolns csh that triggered an intense passion for history i had never had. For the next five years it became a journey of meticulous of collecting of newspaper. Im tucked away in the midwest. I dont have convenient ak is eases to a lot of the wonderful archives on the east coast. I dont have access a lot of the originals that are found in the library and institution across the country. I made a point to collect them. Much like my other historical collectible. They are available for sale or purchase. If any has seen American Pickers i would say its like that. I would say im like that more along the license of historic documents and newspaper. Im traversing the earth trying to find and locate and take newspapers out of rare book shops and european book dealers and people dishoiferred them in at dicks and behind balls of old homes. Its an exciting discovery process. And these newspapers eventually accumulated to where they became a significant selection. One of the most significant private collection of American Revolution newspaper. And the story it told or they told is fascinating. One that deserves to be shared and with the general readership, which this book fully accomplishes. So tonight what i want to do is walk you through what i would consider to be the four buckets of discovery have made along the journey. And i categorize those buckets as one being the old mia versus knee. The journalism discoveries. The history discoveries and what i would call paper preservation discoveries. So well start with old media versus new media. Quantity. Were looking at practically limitless sources of news. Television, radio, social media, twitter. You name it you have access to a seemingly unlimited quantity of news sources. Back then, newspapers were the old mass media of the day. The first newspaper printed on american soil successfully was a news letter in 1704. It wasnt until fifteen years later we have the second american newspaper printed also in Boston Boston gazette. The third newspaper started in philadelphia. Circulation, the top 100 newspapers is approximately 200,000. At the time of the American Revolution, the average circulation was approximately 600. That sounds awfully low but keep in mind these newspapers were also read allowed at meeting houses and private homes. While circulation might be low, actual readership is quite significant. Distribution, we have internet, we are temp, im sorry, tv and radio today. Back then distribution of newspapers was done primarily through horseback and ship commonly called pack the timeline today news is instay contain use. Its on demand you can flip open your phone and have almost real time news at your finger tip. 200 plus years ago the news came weekly, and im sorry the news came weekly with a time lag you find news anywhere from a day old to several months old. A large paves the amount of transit time that had to go how far the news traveled to reach that printer. For instance, you might have news coming from ascroses the atlantic. The transatlantic voyage is four to eight weeks. The eleventh of length of the newspaper. We have newspapers roughly twenty to thirty pages. Back then the average newspaper was four pages long. Picture one large sheet of paper. That one large sheet of paper on one side of that were pages one and four, so the front and the backpack of the newspaper folded in half and on thed in you have pages two and three. What we think of today as kind of almost like a back tack the front page and the fourth page were typical typeset earlier in the week where as the interior pages pages two and three were typeset later in the week or closer to the actual publication date. What we would associate as being front page publish story news was found on page two or three not one or four you would have the evergreen type of content. Foreign news, essay, advertisement and such. The frequency we talked about the how today we have the daily and instant news. Bias today we have left and right leaning media. Back then you had patriot and loll newspaper it was it important to me that the book include both perspectives as well as american and british newspapers. This takes touts journalism discoveries. Today newspapers have paid professional staffs of reporters and editors, back then they department have professional paid staff. The number one news source was private correspondents. Here we have early 1774, pennsylvania newspaper that has an article that starts off with letter from boston complain about the fish being altered which suggested a humorous take on the Boston Tea Party. What you will find most commonly is an extract from the letter to lead in to the articles of the day. We note there werent headlines werent common in the 18th century. Most of the articles lead with the extract from a letter or a dateline. Another primary news source is once they would print the weekly edition they would send issues upanddown the colonies that would print off other ones. This it new york january 6, boston gazette issue. Here the new york 6 january dateline tells know came from new york and qiek likely the new york newspaper. There is a primary source of news once the war begins. So the reports are when the Commanding Office would write a summary of the event of the military engagement they were in the battle and send that up the chain. Often in america that would be the president of congress. The president of congress would share that report with the local newspaper printer. They would send them upanddown the continent. Which include George Washingtons own account of the battle and the crossing of the delaware. So you can see at the top dateline baltimore thats where congress was meeting at the time. I said earlier you dont see a lot of headlines in the 18th century newspaper. Mostly the dateline and extract of the letter. Here is the april 21st, 1775 issue of the New Hampshire gazette. Extraordinary for the content it reports the breaking news of the battle of lexington and concord but also historically significant for the journalism. The fact left colum is dedicated to more importantly its the centered headline of the twoword headline letting news. Which surely caught the attention of the columnist reading the particular newspaper. More so was the point i made earlier about how breaking domestic news was typical found on pages two and three. This is here domestic breaking news on page one. Another significant journalism piece to catch the readers attention. Illustrations you dont see often in newspaper. Where you see them in the name plate or e here we have paul reveres join or die name plate with the serpent and the dragon. You also see them in advertisements. For instance, the advertisement on the left is and right. There was; however, one illustration depicting an event that was the battle of bunker hill. The virginia gazette printed in the middle column an eyewitness account of the battle of bunker hill. It obtains vivid details of the actual batter field or the entremplegment that the publishers of the gazette put together a rude rudimentary illustration they had. This is what it looks like. Now periodicals coming from Great Britain like the london magazine, yesmens magazine. They are monthly peer odd call. You see maps and illustrations in there but not in newspaper. You would think after this edition that other newspapers would see this and perhaps take similar processes for developing some more types of illustration. We dont. My guess is that listically time wasnt on the side. This is the only known illustration to depict an event in the newspaper during the revolutionary war. This is also the age of enlightenment. We have journalism as entertainment and education. On the left is the new jersey gazette where the right two columns dedicated to the reestablishment of the continental army. It detail the speck specs of the infantry. On the left a column that indicates the mathematical theory. On the right, terrorist theres journal where the entire front page is dedicated to news of the surrender of cornwallis. Advertising is also something that struck me. In the sense that there are a lot of advertisements for run away slaves or servanteds for sales or soldiers. David is an advocate for primary sources and the general public and students reading primary sources. What he says is that these soldier advertisement newspapers where we get a lot of information where the unit enormous look like. They are describing the soldiers that have another interesting advertisement in that struck know in the january 20th, 17 1776th. We have Thomas Paines common sense one of the first advertisement for common sense. There it is. What is interesting to me about the in the same newspaper is another advertisement for a new edition of common sense which suggests how quickly this is moving. Which brings note history discovery. No taxation without representation. That argument springs to life newspaper. The 1764 issue of the pennsylvania gazette. On page two is one paragraph that details the forthcoming sugar act. In that article, it says a scheme of taxation, had had been previously debated in the parliament will weather they had a power to lay it on which had no representative on parliament. You get the teaser. Besides this an internal tax was cut off and cant see that. Besides this the internal tax is forthcoming. A stamp duty. Violence and mobs and rites are also something that struck me because of the sheer magnitude of the violence that is reported in the newspaper of the day. In particular, this is a supplement from the boston news letter from september 5, 1765. Extraordinary many reasons. On front page of the twopage issue is details of the direction of the Lieutenant Governor thomas hutchisons home the Lieutenant Governor of boston. But on page two from new port, rhode island we read of similar home direction of loyalists so here it reads for a threeday rite practical todo list. Day one assemble and erect gallows. Cart them through town. Choose the deputy of the town. Choose a committee to drn stay tune in the evening [inaudible] shattered the windows and break the doors. Damage par constitution and ruin the furniture. March to the home of hated loyalist number two. Tear the house to pieces and. Destroy all provisions and wine. March to the home of the stamp master. Threaten his home if he doesnt resign. Receive the promise of resignation. Return to the first two home to continue the destruction and the following morning within day three, listen to the public resignation. And wait for the loyalist and sell the real estate. So we have such violence reported in the newspaper and this is in a boston newspaper so surely the boston people were pleased to see what they had done previously was catching on in the other colonies. And this had the desired effect they wanted. It forced the masters to rewhat you see in the newspaper after this is all and down the colony of the other towns taking courses to prevent the enforcement of the stamp act. Along similar lines, was the fact that ben franklin was one of those targeted hated cool columnist who had a home that became close to being scroid because he showed sentiment of moderation compliance. He appointed a friend to be a stamp master and the sentiment of compliance and moderation come throughed in the newspaper. So for instance, ben franklin printed the pennsylvania gazette. 1729 to 1748. 1748 for the next sixteen years, he remained a Business Partner where on the back of that every pennsylvania gazette it listed his name. Printed by b franklin. While he wasnt active in the Daily Printing business, it still carried his name. That pennsylvania gazette was one of the first print full text of the stamp act. The pennsylvania gazette a few weeks later was advertising for franklins poor richard almanac. They were promoting it as having the full tax of the stamp act, which all columnist should become familiar with. Its going effect you all. There in the newspaper account you start to see sentiment of moderation and compliance. Also the Boston Tea Party, this is the december 21st 1773 ethics gazette printed in massachusetts. We have one of the most popular eye witness account of the Boston Tea Party. It was written by an impartial observer. Or a pseudonumb. It was common for them to be used. You read about the padlock being destroyed abort one of the ship and how the rebels quickly replaced the pad lick to remain blameless for anything but the direction of the tea. You learn in the same account of one of the columnist pocketing some of tea and quickly being seize bid the other participates and pommeled. We also learn that the Boston Tea Party was not universally celebrated. In the issue of the gazette we read the town minutes of a immediating where they label the Boston Tea Party illegal, unjust and dangerous. I learned that came close to happening on multiple occasions weeks and months prior to april 19, 1775. One case in particular that is covered in the book is how close it came to happening four months prior in New Hampshire. Also along paul revere lines i learned he went on multi. Rides. One in particular the ride to philadelphia and back to share the result. Another interesting tidbit this time in the british newspaper was printing of the decoration of independence. The arrival of the decoration of independence was on august 10, 1776 in london. Three days later the london chronicle prints the equivalent of a tweet today. The they have declared war against Great Britain. They chronicle the full tax of the decoration. Here is the january 23, 1777 issue. I mentioned this earlier. Its printed in boston. It was the front page account of George Washington crossing the delaware and the battle of trn ton. And produce who contributed the battles called out the phrase that washington used that venderred because they knew they were about to be cut to pieces. It was harsh language to come from the future president. We read in the british newspaper about john joans the First American navel hero. He was also an american pirate to the british. During the account of the bomb or you read is in essence a fashion report. Dennis conrad who wrote the con contextual ease ray for Benedict Arnold in that section of the book points to greene papers which he edited in all of the response he researched he found one instance where greene pointed to god intervening in the revolution their war. It was during the treason uncover i are of Benedict Arnold. Nathaniel green as suggested in the report feels that god had interviewed in the American Revolutionary war and helped the american uncover the treason of thought. You see after he becomes the hated Benedict Arnold during the raid of new london, the column nist point fingers and say we saw him over here doing this and this. And you see him everywhere. He was he was having a dinner with a close friend and set the house afire. Yorktown diane who is a National Publish Service Veteran she contributed the essay for the Yorktown Campaign and in there we learn there was a celebrity intervenges that the british commander Henry Clinton who was delayed in sending reinforcement to cornwallis at yorktown partially that was due to the fact that clinton was entertaining a celebrity in new york. That celebrity . King george iii sun Prince William henry. Diane comments on a bit of irony. October 19th, the the day of the surrender the day that graves and clinton sailed from new york to yorktown to provide the reinforcement. It happens that one of the ship in the fleet is commanded by cornwallis younger brother. Which thing brings note last bucket discovery. What i would call paper and preservation discovery. Prior to 1870 before the transsuggestion to wood pulp. They were printed on papermade of linen rags off the backs of people and the ship sails. This is rags were oiled and fisted to the sheets of paper and the durability of the paper prays the role in the preservation. We can find 250yearold newspaper in better condition than say last weeks boston globe who is probably already yellowing and brilgt. Thanks to the rag less rag linen paper and thanks to the constitution that bound them to the volumes we have the wonderful printed accounts of what transpired during the American Revolution. What i tend to do is look for newspapers that other might consider trash. They are extremely beat up. They have holes. They lived a long life, and through fire and flood and war and so theyre torn and tattered a little bit. I partnered with one of the top paper people out of d. C. Who is the head of conservation a major museum to restore these newspapers if close to the original condition as possible. You can do some Amazing Things with old paper. So, for instance, the hole at the bottom there. Completely filled. Stains are reduced. Scotch tape has been used on the paper can be removed and these papers can be preserved once again. At the beginning of the book, i point out there are no photograph of the American Revolution. We have photographs of the civil war and every major war thereafter but not of the American Revolution. I think thats a large part in making it unreal to some people. We have Beautiful Oil paintings and cartoonish engraving depoliticking it. And they tend to be unrealistic. Newspapers were timely. They printed vivid distribution of battle field account and what was transpiring throughout the whole course of the war. And very much so they are the photograph of the war for me. They helped make the American Revolution real to me and my goal with the book was that the newspapers help make the American Revolution real for others. Thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible] introduce the pam. Panel on the east side is the decoration of independence was [inaudible] just a few weeks after it was passed on july 4th. It a took a little while to get to boston from philadelphia. It got here and read. And Abigail Adams in the crowd off the balcony in the intersection and wrote to her husband john and said it was crazy. After it was read, everything british was wripped down and burned immediately after the reading including the you know form that [inaudible] that was put up in 188181. But immediately one of the first few thing ripped off as symbol of british authority. It was a little crazy in bogs ton. Before that in 1770 it happened outside of in that sprex as well. Something were familiar with. Something that bob allison contributed in the book as well as his own book on that. But another event in the city of boston. Right outside the building itself. But now were going turn to a Panel Discussion cho is going to be in the fashion of question and answer session. An the freedom tail and Commonwealth Museum in boston. He serves the Boston Society and the state house a member of the Board Advisory committee. With that, bob allison. Thank you. [applause] next we move to john the cure raters of 1775. Its a a site dedicated to the history analysis and goes sop about the start of the American Revolution in nenld. He recently completed a large through the siege of boston through the National Park service and written about new england during the revolution, the boston massacre, the wave of bankruptcy in 1765. Im sorry. John. And todd. Hes the among the nations leading authority on 18th century newspaper as you can no doubt tale. Hes one of the most significant collections in american newspaper containing the earliest printed report and battle of 1763 to 1783. Hes the cure rater and publisher of an Online Museum of historically significant newspaper dating back to the 16th century. Todd andrlik well open the up and answer panel. Let my say that todd has done something extraordinary with the book. I didnt know i got a call a couple of years ago from a guy who collects newspapers that he wanted to do a book and i said thats great, and what he has done in the book is taken these newspapers, these primary sources and published them, and in itself isnt unique. Those who are fortunate enough to live in boston or other places that have Great Research library we can got Boston Public Library and get a lot of newspaper. Todd has taken them and put them in a bock. He did something even more great which is to assemble just about every scholar on the American Revolution. People have a great detailed knowledge of a particular event or place that is the folk who the park service cure raters and interpreters at different site who know the site or people who know boston in 1775 and no one knows boston before the revolution better than john bell and around the country and i think it ised todds passion and enthusiasm and seemingly mid western innocence to guile us in to saying you take the book if you are a teacher or College Professor and teaching the American Revolution. Here you have probably the best account of the battle of utah springs youll ever find. Or any or event in the revolution. So this is the resource for teaching the American Revolution. I congratulate todd for putting it together. Yeah. Im not a degreed hiking began. I play one on tv. It was important to me that the newspapers be historically supported by the expert, the authorities on subject matter. And so i drafted 37 top historians to bridge the centuries and hold the hands of the general reader so that when theyre trying to consume 18th Century Media which isnt always the easiest thing for us today, they have the experts who can point out certain things they should be noticing and keep in mind these were also the number one propaganda tools of the era. They come with occasional errors and omissions and inaccuracy that the contributors to the book what they did is earve as ref free. They were calling fouls on the error and omission and pointing it out for the modern reader. These documents are alone can be dangerous. When they are context yulized by expert they are a beautiful thing. The newspaper of the time are an attempt to bring order to the events by showing the side the view of the side that the newspaper supported. They mentioned rite in the war and the newspaper would occasionally report on them. And they would down play the destruction or would say that the rite had been done by sailors and boys. People who were not respectable citizens of the town. But, you know, those newspapers are important because they say what the other people in that learned about the events. Question over here . Youre describing the media was loyal leaning the same way today we have left or right leaning media. Im wondering for you found in your Research Anything that semibled Opinion Pieces or column the way we know today. Or something that was introduced later. Defmght. Usually page one of the newspaper contained serialized ease is essay that go on for multiple issues, where they would provide one perspective of the certain argument and then sometimes you would also receive the counter argument immediately following often under pseudonym. I would say that everything was opinion. A lot of time that there was not really the sense of a it was usually being presented from the point of view of a one side the side afforded by the newspaper. He mentioned earlier the Boston Tea Party account written by an impartial observer. It wasnt impartial. It was very much presenting the people who destroyed modern dollars of worth of property and being very respectful private property and putting back the lock and making sure no tea was stolen for selfish reasons. The value of impar shallialty was there but it was seized by both for themselves. Msnbc and fox news are model to impartialialty. And you had a newspaper that attempted to remain knew thrall. Right. The boston he tried to be impartial and tried to public both articles on both sides. Didnt work. He eventually became the most strongest supporters of the royal government and driven out of town. On the other side we have so many different sources of media question kind of fact check. How often were the newspaper drastic exaggeration or lies in order gain support or to turn people directly to one side or the other . Well, i mean, youre finding exaggerations whether it was drastic or not a lot of them claim with disclaimable. They were reviewable sources. If the source was questionable, they would frequently print that with the article a disclaimer. I remember there are letters published after the battle of lexington that talks about the british soldier coming to the rampaging through and killing the barnyard animal. That never happened. Theres a letter about the battle of bunker. Some of them tried to desert and run away and hal had two of them strung up immediately. Those were propaganda pieces. Todd was right, the printers tried to provide the reader what they felt was accurate information. It was just that was it was as accurate as they understood. And you have to be on the fair side, at one point some letters from john and Benjamin Harris were sent to boston from phil they were brought by a young lawyer captured. The british got a hold of the document and published them and the john adams letters were rude to the other about the other Continental Congress they changed it to make it look as if George Washington was having an affair with a maid in tavern. Both sides were using propaganda in the newspaper. I happened upon a few london i guess is the fact checking. I was reminded what Thomas Jefferson said you can could divide a newspaper in to four section. First true, partial truth and lie. And the Fourth Section would be the longest. [laughter] there was a moment in the late 1760s that scottish printer so upset he came to the Gazette Office and clubbed win of printer overhead. It got personal. A lot of news account from coming from private spobt and eye witnesses what i was interested in learning from the essay is how shockingly accurate a lot of these were. But for one of the more common more propaganda tactic to inphilanthropic the number of enemy and deflate your own. Magnify any victory or numb any loss. Question along the same lines as the organized effort and propaganda leading up to the war. It occurs to me that several occasions we read about certain individuals meeting in print shot, the quote you had on the blog this morning. I wonder how pref lint was prevalent was organized propaganda and on the other side of that who is financing that . The newspaper are obvious the printers making money from the newspaper. Then we have things like broad sides and ive been curious who was funding it. A super pac from the patriot side . Somebody like hand cook financing certain broad side. Who is paying the paper in that instance . Okay. Ill start with the question of meeting at newspaper officers. It was a quoted a little bit of john adams in 1769 in the diary he spends sunday even agent the print shop and samuel adams was there and a man named William Davis and they were cooking up things from the newspaper. Essay, what adams what john adams called the currents. And i think that might be a refer to a concerted effort they wore wigs at the time had done to tell other newspapers and other towns what it was like to be living in boston under the owngs of the british army from 1768 to 1770. They would sent out what they call the journal of transaction every week saying it happened. This soldier was this bad here is what is happening with the soldier on trial for this. Those were not publish in the the boston paper. Everybody in boston knew about it already. Those were sent to new york and from the new york they were sent up awe done the coast. They were reprinted in boston. To bring the sympathy of the entire sea board to to boston. It looks like william cooper, was involved in writing some of those reports. Samuel adams being paid by the Montana House he was the work of the house. He was actually earning a salary as a politician rather rare at that time. In a way the governments were supporting the time that tbhept to writing those reports. There is an article by historian decades ago about the control of the boston press during the prerevolutionary period. And he found in British Government archives a letter from the printers to the boston post boy they were basically saying look, you are sending all your money. It was a letter to the custom you were sending your money to the boston chronicle. It has gone out of business. Why dont you support us. Why dont you give us the stationary contract you had . Why dont you buy our papers . And we will support it was implicit. We will support your side of the dispute. So again, of it was another arm of the government supporting this newspaper. And i believe there were also when Ezekiel Russell put out magazined called tbons sensor when was presented a loyalist point of view. I believe he was being supported by the rich loyalist in town through sub i did or everybody agreed we will buy sub contradiction for the magazine and that will allow somebody in ton to show our side of the dispute. I hope answers the question. In all of the discussion about the news sources, we get the impression we think of a newspaper today in terms of not only the public indication house but also being networkinged of professional syndicate and reporters and things like that. I have presentation talking about just printers relying strictly on whatever source they can whether the official government document that come in or letter or somebody who shows up and said hey, i was there i can tell you what happened. Is that the correct sense . Yeah. A lot of the first colonial newspapers were also printed by postmasters because they had access to the number one news source of the day, the private response. So you see that a lot. Yeah its pretty much the case. Frack lynn one of the most successful printer in the country and he became the deputy postmaster and it carries over to the newspaper they could travel free through the mail but it was to the interest of the government and have information flowing freely. You have they are doing a debate over the ratifying the the constitution massachusetts, as you probably know, was resistant the supporters happened to control mail. The most influential document was opposition of the pennsylvania minority to the pennsylvanias ratification and this circulated throughout the country except in massachusetts. The post office here held it up. They didnt want it to be enter together political discourse before massachusetts voted. Controlling a post office and controlling the flow of news is one of the essential things here. And this book really helps us see the connections between this the qek between the free throw of information which is different from the free flow of information today. I think that youre right in the observation there werent as far as the printers there were other people employed at the newspaper. There might be gentlemen coming twice a week to make sure the essays look good, there were no reporters. There norm editors as such. There was one moment in september 1774, when we know the printer of the massachusetts spy Isaiah Thomas out the print shop at the scene of an event something called a powder alarm. We know not because he came back and filed an eye witness report of what happened. We know that only because a customs official who was chased by this crowd and came bridge said it was mr. Thomas the spy who got them upset at me. And so thats the whole notion of journalism was evolving at the time i think in the early the first time im seeing people owning newspapers who arent as trained as printers. I guess joseph greenely, hes a magistrate justice of the peace from rural massachusetts. He comes to boston shortly before the revolution and a partner with Isaiah Thomas and magazine. Until that point, the magazine and newspaper everything was really the enterprise of somebody a printer. A man who had gotten or a few cases woman had gotten their fingers dirty putting types in lines and actually working the presses. It wasnt until the next generation we began to get the other professions of the reporter or the newspaper publisher who doesnt get the hands dirty but gets the money. Thinking about the differences and similarity i think we have the idea of imparablialty and professional journalist. But remember, the fundamental purpose of a newspaper in 1775 and today is very much the same. That is its a a moneymaking enterprise. Somebody wants to sell it. Nobody wants to pay for the church bulletin. You want people to pay for the newspaper. If it requires hiring staff. You do that. It its a onemap operation youre turning out. Thats how do you it. We may have an illusion of the press serving a higher purpose. Theres nothing wrong with that. I remind you to buy books. [laughter] when i say that the printer would probably have the advantage of the labor of the printers children, apprentices with to be wasnt a oneperson operation. It was a household operation. Youll see several women printing during the American Revolution, and lot of times they become printers because a husband or brother passes away and they resume it. The printer of the boston newspaper which was the only newspaper that keeps going inside boston during the by Margaret Draper who was the widow of the previous printer. And ben franklin he trained a number of widows. Women remain fairly dominant in typesetting. It was still open to women throughout the 19th century. One of the things if we read history prior to our lives we do so with knowledge of what occurred. The war took place andth. If you talk to someone who was alive during world world war ii we didnt know if united would enter or not. You can by speaking with an older person get a perspective you wouldnt have on your own. Paib what youre saying about the newspaper they wouldnt have that sort of perspective. I was curious not from the lead article about the battle, et. Cetera but from the ancillary article maybe what was happening in a town with the current town meeting events were, et how they might illuminate your understanding of the events we read about in history today. One of my favorite assignment is find a newspaper and read through it. Its usually not the front page article but the smaller stories or the ad that are alluring. I find it reassuring to read newspapers from 150 years ago there was just as much depravity and may ham then horrible crimes and other things going on. You are right, that we get a sense of this world and the every day world of people from reading the newspaper, and the other great thing for anyone studying history is read something and not know the outcome. The person writing the newspaper doesnt know theres going to be a war for independence or that the united is going to win the war, that George Washington is going to become president. You drop your knowledge of what happened. And you suspend that and immersed in the world. It makes the terrific tools for teaching and understanding history, because youre right you get the different perspective of not knowing everything that is happening since. Yeah. You dont know what is going to happen the next week. And you can see some people dont care. They want to sell you something. Its get the real its a wonderful way reading a full newspaper of immersing yourself in a life particular moment. Consumption and production goes throughout the course of the war and the advertisements do help provide much context with that regard. One of the ads that struck me was in a 1766, pennsylvania gazette you have under a dateline news of the very first sons of liberty meeting taking place in the capitol. You have unique ciewnd of juxtaposition with news of the sons of liberty the Organization Established to fight the tyranny and potential enslavement of the columnist alongside an advertisement for the sale of a servant. You get a lot of that in the book, by the way, the newspapers are presented in a fashion where you are allowed to kind of wander and discover and become your own historian where you can find other interesting tidbits along separate lines of the featured news of the day. Some of these exchanges, there are very reminiscent of on line exchanges where you have two people anonymous just sniping at each other for weeks on and. The opposing newspaper three days later, and so it always strikes me especially when i think okay these days we think its the anonymity that allows the people to back these answers so quickly because they are not again. Back then they had three days to think and they knew exactly who the other guy was. They still decided okay, i dont like his politics, im going to talk about his illegitimate child. [laughter] and. Please use the microphone. Was a terribly expensive than what would be the most prized possession in your collection regardless of any fee that you may have paid . And then what you hoping to acquire . What is the treasure you dont have in your collection at this time . Seawell, newspapers range in value based on a number of factors, condition, timeliness of the news, the milestone that is being covered in that particular issue whether its an American Issue or a british issue. So a friday of factors factors. They range anywhere from you know, tens of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on all those criteria. The kind of most coveted newspaper i would think to many although that is subjective, is the very First American printing in a newspaper of the declaration of independence, which is the july 6, 1776 issue of the Pennsylvania Evening post. So that is very desirable. [laughter] the American Revolution center, which is going to be building the First National museum for the American Revolution as one of their prized artifacts. You talk a lot about all the different sources and i just wanted to know, where did they get a lot of these sources . Where they send in then or were they just rifling through peoples mail . How did they get the documents that were put into the newspapers . I get the since when we talk about an extract from a letter from a gentleman, these were private letters but the gentleman had been probably gone to the newspaper or to a tavern to share the news from his cousins or whatever with the other businesspeople in the town. So anyway, it wasnt that they were rifling through the mail except in the case with john adams where they were capturing the mail. Another example of that was in wartime but its more of a gentleman sharing the news he had which of course made him more important with the printer and that leads to some interesting results. We have more details about the battle of lexington and pennsylvania perhaps the necessarily in the Massachusetts Press because gentleman for sending off details that they knew about and there was no pressure to keep some of these detailed secrets because there was a war on so the Pennsylvania Press talks about paul revere i had the opportunity to interview on video several of the contributors to the book and i asked one of them that same question. Conrad and he pointed to the manuscript letter that he had come across where the margin, it said print this, print this, print this to suggest exactly what the author of that letter wanted to be printed in the newspaper. I was just wondering since the topic of your question came up, how your collection of silence do good letters have all the originals . Those would be very desirable because those are earlier and outside of kind of focus. I thought they said as early as the 21st century. Those are not as indepth or not the quantity that is the American Revolution era. Oh sure. Do you want to reveal the secrets . Benjamin franklin when he was an apprentice and his brother James Franklins print shop here in boston, just up the street, apparently the relationship between the brothers was strong and the older brother didnt want benjamin to really have a role beyond the apprenticeship and benjamin wasnt up was an up and coming writer and contributed some pieces that he wrote and slid under the door to the print shop at night under the pseudonym silence do good and when his brother discovered those come, very much fell in love with the writing and printed them under the pen name silence do good. Interesting. This was during the smallpox epidemic in boston and the foremost advocate of inoculation for smallpox was Cotton Mather. The franklin started this newspaper and James Franklin started the current as the way of attacking inoculation. The mathers were the same people that wanted us to execute quakers and wanted us to hang which is and now they wanted to inject himself will smallpox and its the testimony of madmen and fools. So the newspaper is a packing particularly Cotton Mather calling him a baboon and other things you would not find in the newspaper today. [laughter] and under this torrent of abuse when of mathers daughters dies and he wrote a sermon about his daughter and preach the sermon at her funeral. The dignity of silence, silence harry and so this was mathers most recent publication. Is most famous publication was essays for the fascists and everyone reading this newspaper new silence do good mens Cotton Mather and in fact in the first of the letters silence do good describes herself as a middleaged widow and the clergymen as being a great lover of her country and clergyman and very adept at pointing out the faults of others and characteristics people knew that mather was the target. Franklin was a Brilliant Writer and a brilliant satirist. At the age of 16 he was showing great tendencies something which incidentally didnt stand with his brother. I dont brother. I dont know via any of you have a smarter younger brother who who is so a schilling for some of us may be the smarter younger brother so now we can see this from both sides. I look forward to the next edition of the do good letters and 1720 stuff after the success of reporting the revolutionary war. If its all right i would like to backtrack just one moment and ask for your commentary on the role of local newspapers during the bottle of lexington and concord are shortly thereafter and how you briefly mentioned how the newsletter was one of the only newspapers to continue its coverage through that so whats was the atmosphere like for the printers on the verge of war and just after the war starts . Well, printers in boston and a couple of the towns to the north salem, do report and when the war started, i think there were leaks from the British Government and they were telling general gauge the real governor to start cracking down and the printers, the most radical printers mr. Eads of that partnership and Isaiah Thomas got their prices out of boston just a few days in early april of 1775 and eads snuck out around the same time. Isaiah thomas knockout on the day of the battle of lexington crossing on the ferry in charles town. So they were outside of boston as it began and they quickly set up their presses in watertown and worcester in order to serve the patriot cause. Another came down from salem and renamed their newspaper the independent chronicle to again support the patriot cause. One of the ways they supported patriot cause, they printed reports for the government talking about how awful the british attack on concord had been and how many how they had fired without provocation on the soldiers or the farmers lined up in lexington and how they attacked houses on the afternoon of that day. A copy of the newspaper with a news report and the version of the battle of lexington concord and commissioned a shift from salem to carry this across to london. The ship sailed in ballast which meant it didnt have any cargo. Didnt stop to put in any cargo. The entire voyage would be paid for by the new patriot government in order to get there first and of what was happening to london first, and it worked. General gates has sent out his report but he sent it out on the slow boat to West New York and then across london so the london government, you can see in the london chronicle it is waiting and waiting for the official report, the report they think is more credible. Meanwhile the entire capital is talking about what the government had said. Over time, there is a bit its tough for some of these printers because its wartime and at one time i say a thomas and his apprentices are actually talking about the raglan used to make the paper. The printers would ask people, subscribers, to bring in their old rags in order to set these paper makers to be made into paper. At one point they were sleeping on these files because they didnt have beds during the war. So, meanwhile talking about inside austin, on the other side most of the printer shutdown and only Margaret Draper and her journeyman john howe kept the boston newsletter running and the pages are getting smaller and the type is not quite as good and its becoming a regular. They did their best so both sides were trying to support their side of the war. They were part of the overall political effort. An interesting observation that i made in the book was that the quality of the american newspapers kind of deteriorates, the quality of the paper that the newspapers were printed on tends to deteriorate or seems significantly less quality in the middle of the war. So if you flip through the book and you look just at the american newspapers, you can see in 1777 through about 1780, the quality of the paper is less than you would find before the war starts and at the end of the war. But, to your point about the ship, another interesting tidbit that i read in a 1766 london chronicle was the issue in which they announced the repeal of the sandbags. One of the causes of the repeal to the stamp act is the boycott of British Goods and what that did is in essence, made the london merchants become american lobbyists, lobbying parliament for the repeal of the acts. So youve read in the london chronicles how the london merchants were celebrating and how it as soon as the doors to Parliament Open the london merchants had a commission ship, a light fast ship ready to speed across the atlantic to tell the americans and all the customers that good news, you know . You can stop boycotting. Exactly. There was after the boston massacre, there was a brief induction in the boston town meeting to send the captain, and the bostonian said bostonians that i will carry this report to london. The Boston Company discuss this and it was a good yankeetown meeting and they decided they would support it. The royal government actually said bears is faster. When 1775 came around i think thats one reason why that magnitude is government was willing to spend that money, because they knew they could get if they didnt. We will continue questions downstairs while signing copies of the books you are purchasing. So, lets continue downstairs and ask more questions for the author and panelist, bob and todd andrlik. [applause] todd andrlik is the curator and publisher of raglan. Com, a web site for historic newspapers. Now from booktvs resident recent visit author and pulitzer prizewinning journalist mike stanton talks about his book the prince of providence the rise and fall of buddy cianci, americas most notorious mayor. The the prince of providence is the story of buddy cianci who was longestserving mayor in Rhode Islands history and one of the more colorful mayors you will find anywhere in the country. He was part tony soprano. He was the spur of lovable rogue who transformed the Industrial City of providence into a city that was rated one of americas most livable by a number of publications. He also presided over breathtaking array of corruption over three different that ultimately landed him in federal prison. Hes a very colorful character. I called him americas longest running wild jack because he would be squiring about the city in his chauffeur driven limousine with a Police Officer by his side and hewitt have he would have a cup of vodka in one hand and a cigarette in the other hand. And the keys to the city and in the trunk of a car. He was really to me when i set out to write a book about him, he was the embodiment of american politics, the good and the bad and he was in providence which is one of americas oldest city really embodies the american story. Buddy grew up with the privileged background as an italianamerican. He grew up in the neighborhood of providence, and all providence, an and olga tiant enclave and he went to moses brown, kind of the waspy private school on the east side near brown university. He became a lawyer. He became a prosecutor, prosecuting mobsters. He became a republican and a democratic irish city and then he ran for mayor in the 1970s, 1974 and he basically upset the providence democratic machine and he became this italianamerican republican mayor in the 70s. He attracted the attention of the white house at the time gerald ford was president jerry ford was taken with them. He saw him as a way to kind of embody what the republicans were trying to capture. Buddy had a featured role of speaking at the republicrepublic an national convention. He was the guy that was seen as potentially going places. He was very glib and very articulate. He was a champion of cities and urban renewal and some people audaciously said he could be a potential Vice President ial candidate or at least go to the u. S. Senate where he could have a very long successful career. But then some problems in suit. Of course gerald ford lost the election, and he went on to become mayor. There was corruption and a massive investigation in the early 80s. He had characters like buckles and blackjack him bobo who were running around stealing manhole covers, stealing city asphalt, cutting off the hands of cricket deals selling city trucks to private owners. And that sort of thing. There was massive corruption and several people in buddys administration went to prison. They never got to buddy because his top aide never ratted him out and went to prison and set himself. Buddy was kind of a personal marital dispute. He went her nasty divorce. He basically suspected this businessman had been a friend of his of sleeping with his wife, invited him into his house one night and with a city Police Bodyguard help a man prisoner for several hours, tortured him with a lit cigarette and try to hit them with a fireplace log, through an ashtray at them at one point and also he was charged with assault in that episode. That forced his recognition resignation in 1984. That seemed like it was the end of the once promising political career and it was only his first act. He spent the next years on talk radio is a very popular talkshow host in 1990 he ran for mayor again with the slogan, he never stopped caring. The wall street journal called his political comeback the envy of Richard Nixon and in 1990 he was elected in a threeway race by a few hundred votes. He came back and this was the 90s when providence was undergoing this remarkable renaissance. The concrete that smother them with being ripped up. As you see now the water fire display on the rivers and the beauty of the architecture. Buddy was a champion of that and is providence became a hot city he became a really hot mayor and things were going very well for him. But then just as he was celebrating becoming the longestserving mayor in providence history, the corruption reared its head again and the fbi found this local businessman who agreed to go undercover to city city hall and he wore a wired camera in the handle of his briefcase. Heat tape to various aides and buddy including his top aide taking bribes for city contracts and other favors. This became known as the federal fbi case called operation plunder dome. It was run by an sp agent named dennis akin who is originally from mississippi. He led this investigation that ultimately resulted in buddys conviction. After two months trial, in a city where people said he will never get people to convict buddy, in a city where of buddy went to prison with 67 of voters still thinking it done a good job even though he thought they thought it was guilty, when buddy was sentenced sent by the judge, the judge talked about how he was dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde. Buddy and his own way said well, privately or friendly, how come i didnt get to paychecks. What buddy was convicted of as racketeering conspiracy, knowing about it but not actually being physically involved in the underlying act. Buddy kind of framed it as, what did i do . Im convicted of being the mayor. Some of the jurors said otherwise. He was a guy who knew how to keep himself insulated kind of like a mob boss and that he once prosecuted ironically, and that he was able to stay out of the direct line but he knew everything that was going on. He was the kind of guy one juror told me who would know how many rolls of toilet paper there were city hall buddy said that was part of his aura, that he kind of convey that fear in the people he knew everything but he really didnt. So that was his defense but ultimately didnt play out with a jury and it didnt play out on appeal and he went to prison and relinquished his famous to pay, what he called his dead squirrel. He did his time and came out and he went on talk radio. He was on the local radio station. But its interesting, providence has changed a lot in he went from being a relevant political figure to being more like the quaint uncle who you kind of have around at the holidays. Most of the people in providencn he got out of prison didnt live here when he went to prison which says something about the remarkable transformation of the city. There are a lot more latino voters and we have a strong population. The city has really changed and the succession of the mayor who followed him was the first openly mayor of a large american city, david siskel amy who is now in congress and the mayor who followed him in joba there is who is in office now is the citys first hispanic mayor and reflecting that population. Buddy cianci, come pair into huey long in the sense that they were both incredibly charismatic figures. They were both politicians who are beloved in spite of their flaws and in spite of the corruption that went on in their administrations, who had a real popular evangelical fervor about them that spoke to the ability to be successful on a larger stage. He was often seen as a potential president ial candidate. Buddy as audacious as it seems, was actually seen as somebody who could be a National Figure in washington and one of his pivotal moments in his career in the 1970s, in his first term as mayor, there is a u. S. Senate seat that opened up in rhode island and he thought about whether he should run or not. He is ultimately outmaneuvered by john chaffee who want onto an illustrious senate career. A lot of people that was a real turning point for buddy because city of god not robbins then he would have gotten out of the place that breeds corruption and ultimately dragged him down and his culpability and gone to washington where you can be a showman and on the national stage. Remember he spoke at the Republican National convention in 1976 and again in 1980. He actually won out, it was funny before the 1980 election. He went out with Ronald Reagan and he pitched himself as a potential running mate for reagan. While he was out there, he went to palm springs and visited jerry ford who had been good friends with him when he was president. When he was there he also got invited to have dinner at Frank Sinatras house. Said he is having dinner at Frank Sinatras house and he tells the story, you know, he sees a picture on the wall behind the bar. The bartender says oh buddy you are from providence, how is raymond doing . There is though bizarre crosscurrents and buddies life of the people he would encounter. Buddy and i had an interest in relationship as i wrote this book. Because the one thing about buddy, two things that mattered to him where power and control and of course money. He didnt have the control over this book and he didnt get the money and he couldnt control his legacy and he didnt like some of the negative things that i found about him. I try to be fair because there are two sides of the coin and that is what makes them so compelling. But he always wanted to write his own book and he later did a few years ago called politics and pasta. He used to always kid me, im going to write my memoirs and im not going to talk to you about my inside stories and how are you going to write i remember he called me into his office a month before he went to prison. He had been convicted and was awaiting sentencing. Was his final days in in office and i was a summer afternoon, quite. As we are sitting in his office he starts to say hey, how about you rip up your contract and we write a book together . I will get you a sixfigure advance. How much you getting . Is that im not getting that much but im getting enough to make it fair. Its really about more than money and its about telling a good story. Buddy looked at me and he says, why isnt just about money . How can you sell yourselves a chief . At that point a thunderstorm started to play out over city hall in there was aloud crash of thunder. Buddy said, you know writing this book without me and my inside story is kind of like the thunder without the lightning. This book i think says american politics is a bloodsport, that its very entertaining. Buddy cianci at a saying when he was first elected mayor, he was the republican candidate. He was championed by kind of the upper crust liberal set that lived on the east side of providence around Breton University and they were the people that didnt need things from city hall. They werent looking for patronage or contracts. They were looking for Good Government, and buddy had a cynical thing. He was their champion when he was first elected. He had a saying, Good Government will get you Good Government. When you come down from collegeville across the Providence River you have to cut deals and you have to do things like that to get things done. When he came in as mayor the first time, he was a republican so you had an elected republican since the great depression. He was the first italianamerican mayor and the city that had been ruled irish democrats for decades. Yet a city council that was committed to his destruction just like a Republican Congress is to Barack Obamas downfall in his first term. He had to work with those guys and he did work with him. He also machiavelli and university had, he outlasted them. He outmaneuvered them. They refuse to confirm any of his appointments and then there was the famous massacre they called it where the city council at a meeting and they didnt have a quorum because there were three members who had been arrested or indicted or convicted of various crimes such as insurance fraud. And fixing races at a local