Women yielding political power. Im with cspan, American History on tv on cspan 3 every weekend is happy to coordinate with the organization of american historians to moderate this panel discussion. And of course it could not come at a better moment in history with the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote passed by the house u. S. And u. S. Senate in 1919 and then ratified in 1920. Here we are a hundred years later, the 116th congress has the highest percentage of women ever making up a roughly quarter of each chamber. And we have a female speakr for the second time, and we have four women so far running for president. Todays panel will look at women, the role of women and the key turning points of women in american politics. I want to introduce each of our panelists and come back through and have each of them talk about their books or the period of time theyre writing about for about five minutes and then well open up the conversation to all of you. So let me introduce you t
Werent really going to have an instore event this week but then we heard ruths book was coming out so we decided we had to have it. [applause] so thank you very much for bearing with us. I am Bradley Graham the cone are of politics and prose along with my wife lissa muscatine. Thank you so much for coming. We were very excited when we learned after last years clematis hearings on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh and the Supreme Court that ruth marcus was writing a book on the subject because we knew that if anyone could deliver an indepth behindthescenes account of what happened and also put the whole drama into a grand and political context it would be roof. She hasnt disappointed. Her new look supreme ambition is fastpaced and makes for a really compelling read. In the acknowledge mens rev calls this a book shes been preparing to ride for her entire career and indeed she brought to it a wealth of knowledge and experience, educated in history at yale and harvard ruth went right into
Last summer washington saw a particular fierce fight over the nomination with Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony kennedy on the Supreme Court it was mean and ugly at times and we know how it turned out as he was narrowly confirmed along the partyline vote. But it was a memorable fight so why did you two decide to kill the story quick. We were both involved in the battle we knew we had a good story and we had good access and we wanted to lay it down for the record so we interviewed more than 100 people at the white house and Supreme Court justices and those in the senate we are so glad that we did because in the moment reflecting on those lessons to learn what happened behind the scenes. And working to replay those events with those allegations of a very similar pattern so what we have seen since the confirmation so they believe thomas over hill but that constant drumbeat to rewrite the narrative it is important to make sure the facts are up there to get part of revisionist hist
Kavanaugh was narrowly confirm on a largely part line vote. But it was a memorable fight, so why did you two choose to retell this story and n book lange form . Carrie and i were both involved in the kavanaugh confirmation battles, we knew that we had a good story here. We knew that we had good access, and we wanted to lay it down, get the record down, and so we interviewed more than 100 people, including the president , and various other people at the white house, self Supreme Court justices, people in the senate, and we are so glad we did because this was something that gripped the nation last year, and when youre in the chaos of it in the moment, its worth reflecting of after the dust settled about lessons to learn, some things that happened behind the scene busy were glad we got to do it. I think for me in particular, having clerked for Justice Thomas, i saw the real replay of many of the events from the types of attacks going on before the confirmation got crazy to the allegations
Come at a better moment in history with the 19th amendment granting the women the right to vote passed by the u. S. House and senate in 1919 and then ratified in 1920. Here we are a hundred years later, the 116th congress has the highest percentage of women ever making up roughly a quarter of each chamber, and we have a female speaker for the second time and four women so far running for president. Todays panel will look at women, the role of women and the key turning points for women in american politics. I want to introduce each of our panelists and come through and have each of them talk about their books or the period of time theyre writing about for about five minutes, and then well open up the conversation to all of you. So when we get to that point for questions, id like each of you to go to the microphone, line up behind the microphone to ask your questions. So let me introduce you to david perry. Journalist and historian working at the university of minnesota. Hes the descende