Life, i would have written a book about Andrew Johnson, i would have told them they were crazy. Its not that i dont think hes an interesting person. He really is an interesting person. And not that i didnt know anything about him, but for most of my career as a historian, i have tried to avoid the period of reconstruction. And it sounds strange for someone who writes about slavery, which is a difficult topic to write about. But i find it easier to deal with the 17th century and 18th century and attitudes about race and slavery than i do dealing with reconstruction. Theres something about it that is just maddening to me, and i think what it is is that it was a moment of opportunity. When i think of the people in the 17th and 18th century who have very primitive ideas about many, many things in the world, and you know there are lots of things they dont know, i can not totally forgive them, but its not as irritating to me, exasperating to me as a period of time when you have photographs,
Partly in its genesis, hardly the kind of questions that arose, which for me, gave the book a kind of larger scope than i had originally intended. The quotations in the book, the slogans and catch phrases, up until 1955, were easy for me to remember. Because im a child of the 40s and thats what i learned in school. And thats how we learned history in school. Either the books we took out of the library in fourth and fifth grade or the way history was taught. But when i got to graduate school in the 60s, i discovered that some of my fellow students who were, who came from overseas, would come to me periodically and said who is this joe and why should he say it aint so . And so, i told him the story. And later, a friend of hour ours whos an immigrant doctor from south africa came to me and said why do my patients when they see me say whats up doc and laugh ma maniacally sm people who were under 30 had no idea anymore of what these slogans and catch phrases meant. Where they came from. Or
Im head of Government Relations and Public Policy at wells fargo and im pleased to be here with you today. Were pleased to serve for the 8th year as a charter sponsor of the book festival and even prouder to watch it grow into the incredibly popular and impactful event it has become. I wouldnt be surprised [ applause ] thank you. I wouldnt be surprised to see us move the needle on some best seller lists today. But its even more important to keep the book festival a free event that serves the community. Its real purpose is literacy which leads to learning and opportunity which helps our goal in succeeding. Learning to love books is what the book festival is all about. In this session, ron chernow will describe his biography and certain other popular founding fathers. One thing i learned from the story of president grant is how people can evolve and through persistence and hard work, acknowledge and overcome their imperfections. Its an incredible story that reminded me that a person can
U. S. Capital Historical Society in 2018. Im going to go ahead and start stuff. Excuse me, welcome to our latest lunchtime lecture. Im chief historian here with the u. S. Capital Historical Society. Welcome. Im really pleased today to introduce you, if you dont already know, jeanne and david heidler. Theyve been speakers before for their book on George Washingtons circle, and today were really honored that were one day in to the official existence of their latest book on Andrew Jackson the rise of Andrew Jackson was just released officially yesterday, so were at the threshold of greatness here with the book, and i hope you all consider buying it. Theyre going to be available afterwards to sign it for anyone whos interested, and i also want to point out that the previous book, i said theyve been here before, was washington circle. Were also selling discounted copies back there. Im told that the hard cover that were selling is 0. 05 more than amazons soft cover. So that sounds like a win
Including white House Counsel or kellyanne conway, and of course the formal acceptance by Vice President mike pence to serve another four years if reelected. That event in baltimore at fort mchenry. We will also hear from two members of congress, republican mike kelly and democrat Debbie Dingell, joining us from chevy chase, maryland is the executive editor for the wall street journal. Also the author of a brandnew book titled we should have seen it coming from reagan to trump. Ofst, your topline thoughts the speeches tonight, most notably that of the president Vice President. I think the Vice President gave a fairly conventional speech, but the kind you expect to hear and there have been a lot of unconventional speeches at this convention and i would say last week as well. He did what a Vice President is supposed to do when he is renominated. You praise the boss, you go through the policy achievements, then you attack the other guy. That is pretty much what he did in turn in that spee