By first Lady Jacqueline kennedy , dedicated to the preservation of the white house. And also educating american citizens about the white house and its diverse history. This evening, our guest is jim conroy, the author of jeffersons white house. Forwas a lawyer in boston 38 years before he began writing about american history. His previous book is lincolns white house, the peopless house in wartime, which won the prestigious lincoln prize. A you would like to ask jim question at the end of our broadcast, please type it in the comments section of the facebook feed and we will get to as many questions from our online audience as possible. Jim, welcome to white house history live. James thank you, it is a pleasure to be here. Colleen we are honored to have you. The first question in the is the setting for your book. There have been numerous books about Thomas Jefferson and about his presidency. Focus of thisque book on the white house as the s twog for jefferson terms in office. Can you t
Madison and james monroe were born. Grew to manhood and made their own. From this small expansive lands on the north American Continent came four of the nations first five president s and a dynasty whose members lead in securing independence, saving the constitution and building the republic. What a great way to start a book and i have said most of last night reading it and its a wonderful chronicle of four major leaders and the interconnected network that ties them together at the founding of this country and its a story that invokes the historian bill calls the story of hope and perseverance that runs straight through the American Experience and doctor cheney is a longtime member of ai faculty and let me acknowledge how much we all appreciate the scholarship and intellectual contributions to aei, not to mention the service he done for our country. This is the latest in a series of several works by doctor cheney and examine our countrys history with consideration and rigor. And James
Canonized her, she was my wife. It is quite remarkable, despite the fact that she has not had a particularly positive people remember her as being dignified, they remember her as one devoted to her family. They remember her as one who might not have worn designer gowns, but she was blessed with Natural Beauty so she didnt need them, she was criticize. She shouldve considered why didnt she make speeches . That shows she didnt have a mind of her own. But she is smart. She knows you cant have to voices out of the white house. She had her ideas and she express them privately. Critics among the leaders of the past, they wouldnt understand, they wouldnt appreciate it all, she was self assured, selfconfident, she didnt have such a big ego that she had to go out and prove that she had her own right, to her what was important was the career of her husband. We hear a lot of criticism about the president , the former president that much have went, in an friendly media. Thats not surprising, thats
Good friends at the Richard Nixon foundation, i would like to welcome the chairman of the board of the Nixon Foundation. Right up here on the front row. And the president of than Nixon Foundation, we will hear from in a few moments, we have many distinguished guests, many formal officials from the administration and we are honored to have you here tonight. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixon then becoming first lady, under her leadership the white house collection added over 600 paintings and furnishing elements to the white house collection, which is the most of any president. The significance of this will be in tonights program, but it was very important to us here in the White House Historical association, as a core part of our mission which, as most of you know by first Lady Catherine kennedy is the private nonpartisan partners to the white house, restoration for the state rooms in the white house. The acquisition of items for the Permanent Collection as well, and
Sarah polk was very up on diplomacy. Her strong suit happened to be intelligent political discussion. She made no bones about the fact that she took no interest in politics and she was her husbands partner. She grew up in a political household in tennessee. Her father was a local politician so she grew up loving politics. She married james after he won a seat in the legislature. She would not have married him had he been content to be a clerk. Unfortunately for james k. Polk, he died just three months after leaving the white house and sarah began a 42year widowhood. It became a shrine to her husband. She would invite anybody who wanted to to come for a visit to see the objects they had accrued over there long and illustrious career. She lived there for many years on her own and during the civil war, generals on both sides would visit her to pay their respects. It was very interesting commentary on what a beloved status she still held. She was earnest about her husbands work. She went t