I would like to welcome you to tonights program. To our members we are so glad that you are here. And to you joining us for the first time and with the wide range of programs please turn off your cell phones during the program. Mary beth norton the author of five books and cowat it one call author several others and it has been published ten additions over 500,000 copies. As a Pulitzer Prize finalist and present of the Historical Association she is a professor america of American History at cornell and her new book it is available for purchase following the program please join me to welcome mary beth norton. [applause]. I want to show you the cover briefly because if you are a colonial historian on dash i dont know if anybody recognizes it but in the Massachusetts Historical Society the claims on the label but it contains t from the Boston Harbor the day after the party this is quite well known object in colonial america. Now i want to start with this verse from a poem that i discovere
Remembered for killing treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Recounting his political rise and downfall. This was recorded at the gallery of art in washington, d. C. In 201 2012. Thank you for having me back. Im delighted to speak here. I always like to speak in washington, where the audiences are well informed and engaged, but having just finished teaching a semester and for the year at the university of texas, im always delighted to speak to an audience of people who dont have to be here. There will be no test. I say this sincerely. Im very flattered that you took the time and took your evening to come listen to me. And i try to i think that my student, by and large, are interested in the subject but i know perfectly well that if they didnt have tests, if they didnt have papers, that they werent held accountable, then most of the seats would be empty. So none of you have to be here, but you did come. I find that to be very flattering. I could, i suppose, give you a test at
Flattered that you took the time, took your evening to come listen to me. I try to i think that my students by and large are interested in the subject but i know perfectly well that if they didnt have tests, didnt have papers, if they werent held accountable then most of the seats would be empty. None of you had to be here but you did. Come. I find that to be very flattering. I could, i suppose, give you a test at the end. The title of my talk, which i had forgotten until jamie just mentioned it is the unknown aaron burr. I am going to tell you about aaron burr and tell you why i wrote about a back about aaron burr. The title is the heartbreak of aaron burr. I will tell you about the heart break but i cant tell you the whole story without giving away the ending. I dont want to give away the ending because i will tell you why. It is not just that i want you to buy the book and read the book and enjoy it and hang around until the ends. But it has to do with the reason i wrote the book in
Out a Young Readers book called the fierce 44 . Guest look, for the undefeated, our platform, which focuses on race, sports and culture, we have done a digital project in 2017 that was kind of an ode to the first africanamerican president , hence the title of the fierce 44. So we had this idea lets do kind of an all my to an argument i think is the greatest achievement for africanamericans to become president. And youll should be on that list next we did a a list. It was a Interactive Digital process and it was well received, highly debated. And then mr. Flynn hardcourt publisher, said could you turn this into a Childrens Book . Because there are not a lot of africanamerican biography that that shone with that was popular, childrens biography collections and so they loved robert ball had his beautiful illustration and so we edited our digital project entered into a book. Host was the format of this book . Guest its basically a short bio sketches with a couplp with illustrations. It jus
Cspan. Org coronavirus. [background sounds]. Good morning everyone. More people are expected to arrive but i think i saw Michael Waller come i dont know where he is, hes in the back now. He is becoming shy. Is the Wilson Centers supporter best supporter of the planet predict and we are giving him a name tag. But welcome michael and welcome everyone else. I am jane harman, president ceo of the wilsonso center. It is the best job on the planet because i get to talk to geniuses every single day. One of them it was not in my script, she will hide somewhere is make king. Some may nothe know her but she runs our Science Technology Innovation Program and is responsible for the schools we have on fridays to teach capitol hill staff about cyber and Artificial Intelligence and today genius, that would be van buchanan is our go to guy and teach some of the schools. Lsben buchanan. And hes beeno trying to teach e for a while and think i have been the repeater of all time that some of those schools