I was about to say how special this night is that you all beat me to it which is great. Welcome. I am the executive director of the Jfk Library Foundation and on behalf of our colleagues in the library we are thrilled you could be here all forms are great but tonight it is a treat because its also the beginning of the centennial weekend and we planned this months ago we literally thought would be the best pair a speaker and moderator we could get for this historic time . This is we have and we are thrilled they are both here. [applause] first a few brief announcements first the underwriters and sponsors including our media is spent on sponsors and for the centennial. We are kicking off the centennial about what were doing over the next few days but over the next few days there are opportunities from seeing a new exhibit with 100 items with those that have never been seen publicly before opening tomorrow. Doing a peace corps day we have an astronaut here as part of the attribute to nasa
Phones were all theho rage. [laughter] facebook was founded the world war ii memorial was dedicated, george w. Bush was reelected president. Major League Baseball retur to washington as the Washington Nationals. [applause] fast forward 15 years the Washington Nationals are in the world series. [applause] and David Rubenstein is back as we all know cofounder as well as chairman of the board or the boards of trustees of the jfk center for performing arts. The Smithsonian Institution and the council on Foreign Relations and we all know he is a engaged in many many many other philanthropic activities too numerous to mention. David coined the phrase patriotic philanthropy with generous financing of the restoration of the historical landmark including the Washington Monument the Lincoln Memorial the Us Marine Corps war memorial Washington Library and monticello in montpelier and the arlington house also purchasing copies like the declaration of independence, the emancipation proclamation and
You are watching book tv on cspan 2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Book tv, television for serious readers. [applause] good morning. Im director of the center for learning, literacy and engagement at the library of congress. One of the major programs of this new center at the library is oversight of the National Book festival, whose overall theme this year is change makers. This is why im especially excited to introduce our new panel devoted to change makers. The focus of much of the programming at the library of congress this year. We are currently celebrating change makers at our Thomas Jefferson building, with an exhibition called shall not be denied, women fight for the vote, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment. And this december, we will mount an exhibit devoted to the life and influence of one of our great civil rights icons, rosa parks. I invite you to visit the library to see these exhibitions. You can also view our
[applause] welcome, michael. How many people here have been here all day . [applause] very impressive. How many people came just to hear michael . Okay. My wife is here. Im sure she did. [laughter] one of the countrys most distinguished most respected and most admired president ial historians and let me tell you a little bit about the background before we talk about presidency and latest book president s of war, highly recommend and we will go through that, michael is native of chicago area, he went to williams where he came under the influence of a famous historian and subsequently went to Harvard Business school, after Harvard Business school he did not go to private equity which he should have done, higher calling. David it did it the right way, he was inclined to history, 30year hes historian for nbc and youve probably seen him many times on television. Why did you decide to go and become historian if you went to Harvard Business school . I wanted to be a historian, no joke, since
ginnie thomas, conservative activist and wife of supreme court justice played a much bigger role than we previously knew in pushing the election results. virginia ginnie thomas pressed arizona lawmakers after the 2020 election to set aside joe biden s popular vote victory and choose, quote, a clean slate of electors, that s according to emails obtained by the washington post. that email sent by thomas to lawmakers in 2020 argued that legislators needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud. though she did not mention either candidate by name, the context was clear. thomas urged lawmakers to stand strong in the face of political and media pressure. she told lawmakers the chance to have lawmakers was yours and yours alone and had the power to fight back against fraud. that push by thomas in battle ground states ultimately culminated of alternate slate of trump electors being sent. the states are now under investigation by the justice department and they form