We met a year ago at a conference put on by the Buckley Program at yale, and i can see that she at the time she has a real affinity for trying to understand the connection between the Communications World and the media world, on the one hand, and different elements of the conservative movement on the other. So its this is a natural kind of outgrowth of her previous work, looking at that general area. Open to debate is the book, heather has watched not maybe every single one of 33 years worth of firing line episodes but pretty close to it so probably the reigning expert on all things related to firing line. So help me welcome Heather Hendershot to the program. [applause] thank you so much. Its really great to be here, particularly here at the hoover institution, because the hoover was so important to the research i did on the book. I was out at stanford where all the papers are, and of course they have preserved all the episodes and son but the papers and transcriptscouldnt have done it
Hayden, and i loved your response to that. Well, thank you. Does anybody else have a question . Do you have a question, sir . Thank you. Just a question about the Montgomery County Library System which is really important here. Since one out of three people here were born in another country, here in gaithersburg and a few others called the english conversation club, ive been with it for about ten years where we teach immigrants english, we help them learn the culture, help them, you know, get a drivers license, help many of them become citizens. And recently were talking about technology, i started broadcasting our meetings live on facebook live, and weve had thousands of people around the world watching the meetings from the Montgomery County library. Thank you. Gentleman in the back. I just wanted to say one of the best things about living in Montgomery County is the great Library System and the great Staff Members they have there. How with libraries offering an everexpanding variety
About france . We love france. I will start and you will finish. France is really important. Did people hear her . We are talking about france. The pivot of our book we would agree. What we needed to do was get jefferson out of virginia. He was having a rough time there as you know, and give him a chance to be a visionary, to get some perspective on the American Revolution and the state of virginia. Being in france enabled him to do that. To suddenly see that a space that he wanted, had great doubts about his fellow virginians and they are all over his book about the state of virginia. In france those doubts diminished because he saw something much worse. He saw the old regime and he said what we have in america, we have wholesome families, farming their farms, this is the foundation of a healthy, Natural Society and also, this is the crucial argument we make and it is one of annettes great contributions of course it is all her book, to our understanding of jefferson, that is how jeffe
And no political power. There is in france no legislature, theres no way for the people to be able to actually speak and to change things. And so he sees a decadent political system that he locates as decadent because of the family. The family life in france is decadent to him. Women, women out in the street scary. Was scary. He liked them, you know, obviously. [laughter] women out in the street, all these things. Sigmund was not around then, zig money freud was not around then Sigmund Freud was not around then, but women out in the streets looking for pleasure, they should be back in their nurseries, theyre not attending to whats at home. Is so he has this idealized version of family. We talk about the importance of home, of family, hes not at home until he gets to retirement. Hes there 17 years. Family, heath idealizing the women. His wife is dead and hes there by himself. He begins to look at the world, at virginia, in a very, very through a sentimental haze. And he begins to look a
Volunteers for working so hard, especially hard this year given weather to make today possible. And thank you all, really, for coming out. Youre all a very hearty, hearty bunch. A few quick administrative notes. Now would be a good time to turn off your cell phones or anything else that might go beep. Second, if youre tweeting today, please use hashtag gbf. And, third, we really want your feedback. So, please, at the end fill out a survey. Theyre available at the back of the tent or on the gbf web site. And if you complete a survey, you have a chance a chance to win a 100 visa gift card. Finally, Juan Williams will be signing books after this presentation. Hell be, theres a signing line on the other end here of the festival grounds. And copies of his book, we the people, are on sale in the politics prose tent which is just out here, over there. Now, a quick word about buying books. Even though this is a free event, theres no charge for the festival, it does help the book festival if yo