grow he did. but the ingredients of growth were present from his earliest years. to be sure, young washington was a socially awkward aspirant to the colonial gentry, brave to the point of rashness, touchy where his honor was concerned, unsophisticated in matters of love. but even then he carried with him the seeds of sacrificial leadership. pregnant with character, this is washington at 22. the first of those three astonishing life-like figures. of washington, which anchored the exhibits in the reynolds education center here at mount vernon. here he is depicted in the forest, arguably his earliest true classroom. a skilled surveyor, stamping order on chaos by fixing his name to unchartered lands. washington was barely 15 when he pocketed his first 500 acres as a surveying theme. land he wrote about the time is the most permanent estate and is likely to increase in value. his attitude reflected a tobacco growing culture, an exhausted soil was the price of prosperity. thus, the
that s not a rumor. somebody here told me that they thought you had visited every grave of every former president? yes, i have. yes, i m one of those rare americans who can say that. it was it was a hobby as a child, a rather unusual hobby admittedly and sometimes an embarrassing hobby. i contracted heat stroke one day while visiting james k. polk on the grounds of the tennessee state capital in the middle of august. i would not advise viewers to do this. and i almost got arrested one night about 7:00 at night trying to find grover cleveland in a cemetery in princeton, new jersey. you know, when doug brinkley was talking about the bus and the students, you ve almost transferred to being a yearly bus user for other reasons. that s true. by the way, grover cleveland is not worth getting arrested for. i would just point that out. yes, i ve always said that the difference democrats demonstrate, republicans incorporate. and so while doug really pioneered in the educati
richard norton smith, gordon wood, historian, writes in the april edition of the american historical association magazine, the writing of academic history seems to be in crisis. historical monographs pour from the university presses at least 1,200 or so a year and yet have very few readers. sometimes sales of academic books number only in the hundreds. if it weren t for library purchases their sales might be measured in the dozens. most people it seems, says gordon wood, are not interested in reading history, at least not the history written by academic historians. start with that. i would say part of the problem is that there are not more gordon woods, distinguished academics who are held in high regard by their peers who are interested in writing for more than their peers. if you think of people in the past, arthur schlesinger, henry steele commager, you know, if you looked at the new york times bestseller list 40 years ago you would have found distinguished