Fact is that i write these history books often, many of the characters in the history book are political wives. There is a political wife who starred this book festival, it was laura bush who went to the fabulous library of congress and said i did it taxes a book festival, can we do one in washington. It shows you what a fabulous legacy political lie wives have left here in washington. That makes it more delightful for me to be able to participate in it. Also, we should just say the volunteers of this festival are the heroes. [applause]. By and large the heroes because there is no way this could go on without these wonderful hundreds of volunteers. Thank you all very much for what you do. I have written history books about women in history and i never was going to write about the civil war. First of all all of my ancestors fought on the losing side. So i didnt really have any interest in its. Secondly, its an awful war. It is a horrible, horrible time in our history, we lost more than