Ourselves . I do not believe that being first lady should prevent me from expressing my ideas. Betty ford spoke her mind, pro choice and a supporter of the equal rights amendment, she and president gerald ford openly discussed her experience with Breast Cancer, through much oher familys public life, she struggled with drug and alcohol dependency and confronting it defined her postwhite house years. Welcome to first ladies, influence and image. Tonight, well tell you the story of elizabeth ford, the wife of our 38th president , president gerald ford, and here for the nebs 90 minutes to tell her story is Richard Norton smith, president ial historian. If you have been watching our series, you know him. Hes an academic adviser for the whole project and hes launched a whole number of libraries, among them the gerald r. Ford. Along the way, you developed a relationship with the fords. In the interest of full disclosure, i try to be as objective as possible, but yeah, i was very fortunate to
Forefront of this, so the book became a story about that point. Susan how did the idea come to you for telling this story . Jeff this is my 22nd book. What i try to do is go everywhere the people i write about went. Id rather drive, and that way you really get a sense of place. Somewhere along the line in the 30,000 or so miles i drive every year i started wondering how we got to be a country, a culture where we take for granted we are going to get in a car and go everywhere we want to. Since i did not know, i thought it would be a good idea to write a book about that. As always happens when you look into history, there is more to it than you ever expected. Susan your book begins and ends with someone thats a minor character in the book by the name of jep bisbee. We are going to show his picture on screen. Who was he and why was he interesting to you . Jeff one of the things that struck me as i researched the book was how the vagabonds, for ford, edison, whatever friends might be with
Susan jeff guinn, what is the story you tell in the book, the vagabonds . Jeff the story i meant to tell is how america morphed into a car culture, from horse and wagon to everybody wanting cars to go places. I did not know until i started researching that henry ford and Thomas Edison were at the forefront of this, so the book became a story about that point. Susan how did the idea come to you for telling this story . Jeff what i try to do is go everywhere the people i write about went. I always use my car. Id rather drive, and that way you really get a sense of place. Somewhere along the line in the 30,000 or so miles i drive every year i started wondering how we got to be a country, a culture where we take for granted we are going to get in a car and go everywhere we want to. Since i did not know, i thought it would be a good idea to write a book about that. As always happens when you look into history, there is more to it than you ever expected. Susan your book begins and ends with
Fords pardoning of nixon. They moved their Classes Online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Video of the class is courtesy of the school. We are ready to. Thank you for logging into class remotely during this unpleasant coronavirus situation, which will hopefully pass soon. Im glad to see you are all well and have safely moved out of the dorms. I took a little walk through campus today. Since we are social distancing here, dr. Kristin kuby isnt here with me in the room, but she is on zoom video. Say hello. There she is. She can answer any questions about your papers afterward or online. Today, we get into one of my favorite chapters in the whole year, and that is the chapter on Richard Nixon, followed by gerald ford in this president s in constitution book. The nixon chapter was written by the late stanley cutler. He was a professor of history at the university of madison, wisconsin. One of the great scholars of the watergate era. This chapter was one of the last things that he wrote be
There she is. She can answer any questions about your papers afterward or online. Today, we get into one of my favorite chapters in the whole chapter onhat is the Richard Nixon, followed by gerald ford in this president s in constitution book. The nixon chapter was written by the late stanley cutler. He was a professor of history at the university of madison wisconsin. One of the great scholars of the watergate era. This chapter was one of the last things that he wrote before he passed away in 2015. As you can see from the introduction,wa Richard Nixon was a man of many paradoxes, born in a modest home in yorba linda, california that his father built using a sears kit. Quakerher was a devout and tried to instill in him a set of moral values. His father spent his time as an argumentative unhappy man. Those were the qualities also passed along to young Richard Nixon. After attending whittier college, a Quaker College about 17 miles from his home, he went to duke law school, failed to get