Im president of flair and i am so happy that you joined us for this very interesting. Look at four different first ladies and some of their rhetorical responses. Um before we begin this afternoon, id like to thank floyd flares inaugural institution lifetime members American University Rider University the White House Historical association, the Massachusetts Historical Society and our newest inaugural lifetime institutional member the Gerald R Ford president ial foundation. Were glad to have you with us. In the interests of time. Id like to take this next few minutes to introduce the four people who will be part of the afternoons program. Were going to be starting with nancy keegan smith. Nancy is former director of the president ial Materials Division at the National Archives and Records Administration. She has written lectured and published on first ladies. Since the 1980s including Lady Bird Johnson Michelle Obama and the records of modern first ladies a Founding Member and inaugura
Author jeff, you opened your recent book with this quote from Rick Perlstein the historian. Crosscutting motives and narratives the complexity that defies storybook simplicity that is usually the way history happens. I think it is the most cogent ive ever heard. Rick does a tremendous job himself, and its true no historic event happens in vacuum. Its tied to many other things and that is the fascination in research and writing on the narrative nonfiction history. To read a quote from you as well and this is from 2021 in the cleburnene times review a lt of people no longer want to buy nonfiction to learn things. They want nonfiction bks to reflect what they already believe, books to reinforce their opinions. They want books that tell them everything they believe is absolutely right and that the other side is even worse than they thought. If you take a look at the bestseller list for nonfiction for the last several years, theres three categories generally represented. The first books by
Door of the white house. Today, we have a wonderful guest, pete souza, who is the bestselling author and for eight years was the chief White House Photographer for president. Obama headed the White House Photography Office and was a president ial photographer for president reagan. We have much talk about gathered with us here today. Indicator house is a wonderful audience. Friends of the White House Historical association. Many of you have the white house for years in either journalism, television, radio, photography and its great to have you with us as well. So lets dive in, have our first question to pete. Do you remember what the circumstances were, how old you were, the very first time you visited the white house . I do. I was a 1965. Okay. My parents took myself and my sister, jane to d. C. And we we toured washington and we visited the white house. We went on the white house tour. We have no oh, no visit. Do you know why . Why is that . Because photos were not on the white house
So matt its wonderful to be with you and its a delight to be able to get to do this with you. And weve known each other for years, and i find you to be a singularly happy, hopeful and patriotic person. And i think anyone who cares about our system of governance and representation will learn a lot from your hard work and your deep research. Despite the subtitle, the swamp creatures, latte liberals and ruling class elites cashing in on america, you do not aim with filthy rich politicians to enrage your fellow citizens. You instead outline rational, doable, commonsense reforms that we can all support and we should. So lets dig right in. Why does it matter that politicians are rich, even if theres a perception that they are allowed to feather their nests . Yeah, well, look, i think that the reason it matters is that it is eroding trust in, liberal democracy and elected officials. And we have seen a correlation. I would say in the last four or five decades between the gap widening, between
On lafayette square. Just 200 yards from the north door of the white house. Today, we have a wonderful guest, pete souza, who is the bestselling author and for eight years was the chief White House Photographer for president. Obama headed the White House Photography Office and was a president ial photographer for president reagan. We have much talk about gathered with us here today. Indicator house is a wonderful audience. Friends of the White House Historical association. Many of you have the white house for years in either journalism, television, radio, photography and its great to have you with us as well. So lets dive in, have our first question to pete. Do you remember what the circumstances were, how old you were, the very first time you visited the white house . I do. I was a 1965. Okay. My parents took myself and my sister, jane to d. C. And we we toured washington and we visited the white house. We went on the white house tour. We have no oh, no visit. Do you know why . Why is