Knowing some very well, like my own motherinlaw, or one that i admired very much, is that we benefit, our country benefits by whatever our first ladys interests are. She is the wife of one president and daughterinlaw of another. Laura welch bush became first lady after a controversial election brought her husband, george w. Bush, to the white house. Less than nine months later came the 9 11 attacks while she helped comfort the nation with education, literacy and womens health. Welcome to cspans series, first ladies. Tonight, well tell you the story of the wife of our 43rd president. Here to do that are two people who know her well. Ann is a laura bush biographer. Her 2000 book the tells the story of her as she covered her since 2001. Welcome. Mark is a president ial historian, the author of several books about the presidency and is working on one about the relationship between president s bush 41 and 43. In your biography, you refer to the role of a job of first lady as, this is a quot
Host lynne chaney, we are showing influences in your life. We talked about margaret scheidler. Another is richard himmelfarb. Who is she . Guest an amazing intellectual who i have been interested in the taurean period. She is much more insightful than i think ive ever been about while we condemn as morality of the victorian period with this underway. How was important and what we gain when they move away and what we lose. Hes been a wonderful writer on the enlightenment in america. She resigned the national and im up for Humanities Council when i was there. You could just count on her to be incredibly perceptive about whatever the subject at hand was. Burchard as i call her miss mary to crystal and her husband as bill kristol of the weekly standard. It is a family that has made the intellectual life seem so energizing and reporting. Host when you were second lady did you maintain an office . Guest yes, but i didnt go down very much. This trouble to get secret Service Agent and a couple
Host lynne chaney, we are showing influences in your life. We talked about margaret scheidler. Another is richard himmelfarb. Who is she . Guest an amazing intellectual who i have been interested in the taurean period. She is much more insightful than i think ive ever been about while we condemn as morality of the victorian period with this underway. How was important and what we gain when they move away and what we lose. Hes been a wonderful writer on the enlightenment in america. She resigned the national and im up for Humanities Council when i was there. You could just count on her to be incredibly perceptive about whatever the subject at hand was. Burchard as i call her miss mary to crystal and her husband as bill kristol of the weekly standard. It is a family that has made the intellectual life seem so energizing and reporting. Host when you were second lady did you maintain an office . Guest yes, but i didnt go down very much. This trouble to get secret Service Agent and a couple
It just was from a different angle and it just seemed to me inappropriate and confusing to put out a book setting forth my ideas. It was such a hot topic for president bush, so i started writing a Childrens Book and that was an amazing and gratifying thing to do. I love those books till today. Host you are a history buff. Is that fair to say . Guest yes i am. Host you in your book, telling the truth which came out in the late 90s you wrote is sometimes said that a negative slant to what we are teaching now is overreaction to the two positive slant of the past and it is true that in the past we sometimes present a laboratory in our schools. Guest we did theres no question about it but i do think the reaction to that has been extreme. Sometimes i think our young people, our children dont learn about the greatness of this country, dont learn about what makes us exceptional. Host the beginning of telling the truth you are chairman of the National Endowment for the humanities. Guest yes, so
Host Medea Benjamin, one of the books youre reading this peter schrag dares clinton cash. Why . I am reading that book because i have been looking at saudi arabia. And why is it that there is all this talk about iran and the bad regime, but if you want to look at a really bad regime, look at saudi arabia. A country that has been responsible for spreading extremist ideologies all over the world, the country that is the largest buyer of u. S. Weapons, the country invading other countries and killing lots of innocent people in saudi arabia. Look again and, thousands of innocent People Killed now crush the uprising in bahrain where i have been tear gassed inside is crashing the beautiful nonviolent peoples uprising. And almost the hijackers on 9 11. I could go on and on. I should say what about the internal repression of women in saudi arabia. They are not even allowed to drive, cant vote in national elections, arent allowed to go out without a guardian. I forgot to say weve been doing a l