Tree, what kind of tree would you be . It was like a hardhitting interview question. President bush says well barbara, i am not a tree. I am a bush. [applause] and i said i am voting for him. So living life with that gentle, witty human it has been a plus to be around him and embrace my own humility and the importance of character. Elections are about character. The people you surround yourself with their character sticks out. I didnt realize i wrote a book about this until megyn kellys husband said this is a parent book about living with character and surrounding yourself with people of character. So i had worked on many other books. Before i was a White House Press secretary i was a deputy. I always say take a deputy job. You work holidays and weekends but you get to know the boss and learn the job so when there is an opportunity you can step up. I left the white house and i was called upon to work on doing publicity for karl roves book, laura bushs book and i got a call from 43 and
He brought 60,000 guest, the union army. Sherman had previously been to savannah and lost savannah. There was no burning, looting or destruction. Savannah was spared. Sherman just left savannah about four months later with those 60,000 troops. A significant amount of marriages occurred between savannah women and northern officers. So we come up past the American Civil War through the reconstruction period ending in 1876. By the 1920s cotton had failed because of overgrowth and lack of fertlization and in gave the weevil and savannah was back to being poor. Lady aster said savannah was a beautiful lady with a dirty face. By the 40s and 50s the old houses in downtown savannah were worth more dead than alive just to get the bricks to build new houses. One city planner said savannah was so poor she was not able to destroy herself unquote. Progress did make some hideous inroads in putting highways through one part of the old town and a street through three of the pressures squares. At one p
The founders are. In 1954, come to the rescue was the Historic Preservation society who had enough when the Old City Market was destroyed and they built an incredibly hideous looking parking lot. So, they band together and formeded what some called it hysterical save savannah foundation. Literally seven old ladies, some in tennis shoes, went around throwing their bodies in front of the wrecking ball to stop the progress and a Revolving Fund started to buy a house for 5,000, restore it to what it was and sell it for 25,000 or something. You got 20,000 and you do it and do it until at some point savannah now has the largest restored Historic District in america which is quite an accomplishment. What has been done since 1954 is an accomplishment. And i will not name any of those seven little old ladies. They are not twittering old lady. They have clout and it showed. Historic savannah is sometimes nogs meaning north of gaston street. My wife and i live on gaston street. We live on the sou
That. The guy who edits president bush, keep him in mind. He knew me and asked if i had a book. And he said what about your stories and he said you tell Great Stories about president bush. And i remembered i took the from the amtrak train and it was in my wallet for three years. All of a sudden i pulled it out and said i have do this. This is my book proposal a. Ripped up piece of paper folded in my wallet for three years. Sean looked at it and said leave this with me and went to this bosses and said we should do a book and they said that book will never sell and if you want to do something political we will help you. I said i am not doing that. I was a little humilitated. And then sean went to another publisher, my publisher. He said what if you did your book here. His team gave him a lot of room to run and he helped me structure the book. I wanted to fill in the gaps of history about president bush and provide mentoring advice to young people who didnt go to Ivy League Colleges or yo
Youre watching booktv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. BookTv Television for serious readers. From my father i inherited my confidence my resilience, my passion, and my audacity, looking back although it was never explained to me in this way, he taught me the spirit of which is greek idea of honor and doing the right thing, even when ones own interests or even ones own life is in peril. Growing up while i never fought anything but australian there were two stories about the Second World War and greece that i always kept close to my heart. The first was in 1940 when Benito Mussolini italys Prime Minister asked the greek Prime Minister for free passage through greece and on the spot at 3 00 in the morning without hesitation, without consultation he said oy he said no. It was spirited defiance and quite incredible when considering just how vastly outnumbered the greeks were by the italians. It prompted sir winston churchhill, the greatest figure of the 20th c