White house intern and then a speech writer. He has a long record of acclaimed books on president ial this has brought him to the helm of five president ial libraries and Centers Across this country and throughout his career. He appears regularly, as many of you know, im sure, on news is cspans inhouse historian. He will be on a president s and patriots history tour. He focuses this year on truman, eisenhower, and churchill. In his his tours and writing, he is able to bring history to life. The boston globe praises his writing as compelling and provocative and the New York Times says his writing has authority and is immensely readable. We are so pleased to have him here tonight, and ladies and gentlemen, i hope you will join me in welcoming Richard Norton smith to the free library of philadelphia. [applause] mr. Smith thank you for that more than generous introduction. Or disagree about what is a failed president , but this is a successful introducer, without a doubt, so thank you. [la
The helm of five president ial libraries and Centers Across this country and throughout his career. He appears regularly, as many of you know, im sure, on newshour and is cspans inhouse historian. Next month he will leave his semiannual president s and patriots history tour. He travels through the american heartland and focuses this year on truman, eisenhower, and churchill. Both in his tours and in his writing, he is able to bring history to life. The boston globe praises his scholarship as compelling and provocative, and the New York Times says his writing has perception and authority and is immensely readable. We are so pleased to have him here tonight, and ladies and gentlemen, i hope you will join me in welcoming Richard Norton smith to the free library of philadelphia. [applause] mr. Smith thank you for that morethangenerous introduction. We may agree or disagree about what is a failed president , but this is a successful introducer, without a doubt, so thank you. [laughter] [app
Veteran. And that even ties boo what i will into what i will talk about in a moment about washingtons views of peace and how essential peace is. As a combat veteran, washington understands a number of things about the nature of war and what war does and what its impact is not only on those who are at the front lines, but on those who are at home who are also affected and in their own ways participants in war. What war does to a country and to a people. He also learns, i think, here too the extreme importance of fundamentals, of basics. This is one element of washingtons character that i saw early on and that ive, its taken a while to understand. If you look at this gentlemans fixation on detail, hes often dismissed as a micromanager, but theres a real purpose to that focus on detail which is that detail matters. If youre in the service and particularly if youre in a position of command, you ignore at your peril the basic fact that the men who serve with you must eat, they must have she
Of washington which is were you or, so you may get. Congratulations. And its very exciting to have these book talks, these free book talks, and theyre sponsored by ford. The forgetting the doctor and, of course, weve never accepted any government money. They been offered in mount vernon since the 1860s, since 1861 it took over the estate of George Washington. They were the founders of National Historic preservation but they are an all Woman Run Organization and they are all built on private donations unpatriotic individuals and foundations from the people who coming the people who coming to visit it at the great honor to serve that mission to preserve the estate at the highest level and to teach people all over the world about the life, leadership and legacy of George Washington. And we couldnt do without the generation of important donors like henry ford. As many of you know an early dont think he did not its first fire engine. And ever since weve gotten the fire engines from ford mot
Now built on private donations. Its a great honor to serve. The teach people all over the world. We ever sense of gun fire engines from Ford Motor Company is a sponsor number of exciting things including this book talk. We always appreciate when they come out. Now we have a very special guest. An old friend. The editor in chief. This is one of the most extraordinary scholarly projects of the 21st centurys to copy, transcribe all the correspondence in a professional manner used by all the stories, and extraordinary collective work and scholarship has been going on since 1968. Funders and partial funders of the project since its beginning. In the recent past we renewed our partnership, i would like to think of friendship, help them create a comprehensive edition of Martha Washington spacers as well as other family papers. And that is really heading up the leadership of the programs as well and to fully encompass the scope they change the project from the George Washington papers project