On the executive director of the center for biography at the university of new york and we are sponsored from the leave the foundation to do events like this to arts and crafts of biography and a sponsor of the National Book festival and we are here with the 20th anniversary of the National Book festival talking tonight with two notable public intellectuals Harold Voelker the leading lincoln scholar and the director of the roosevelt house Public Policy of Hunter College today we will be discussing the latest book lincoln on the verge the story of the journey that lincoln took from illinois to washington dc to be inaugurated as president. These are two very different books this is a many paragraph the and this is harolds work on the president s. And that is the notion that american politics that is contentious and downright toxic. Toxic. Lets begin with you. So with the description of the dangerous train journey and at one point you refer to the toxic climate of 1860 is a worse toda tod