Friends and intimates and developed a level of selfreliance that increased over the course of a life time and career. Elenor said he had no real confidants. Not me either. A speech writer for fdr was a very asstute observer of rogues roosevelt and wrote the classic bioography of roosevelt and hopkins. That is a bible in fdr history. He got to know roosevelt well. He said he has a thickly forestly interior. He didnt want anyone to penetrate that force to see what was going on inside. We was probably the most solitary president we have ever had. This is the contradiction that is fdr and wife Frances Perkins was such a complicated man and theres no episode in his presidency or his life which underscore is this duality more than this type does. Four days before the Chicago Convention opened on july 11th, 1940, Franklin Roosevelt called Felix Frankfurter down from the Supreme Court. They had a two hour session in the oval study adjacent to the president s bedroom on the second floor of the
Started by washington and continued by jefferson became pa paramount to law. It was a deeply respected practice and very few considered challenging and no one had succeeded. He was going to retire because he said that he was tired and he was broke. And he was both. He had already designed and was then building the first president ial library in america in hyde park new york which has been restored. I urge you to go see that. It is a fabulous experience. He built a retreat called top cottage at hyde park where he could get away from visitors he knew would come. He signed a contract to write regular articles and was going to write his memoirs and two of the top aids were going to come do this. He was thinking about retirement and he was enjoying. There were third term rumbles about whether or not he might run. But nothing to it. He didnt give it any serious attention. Then as kevin mentioned at the beginning of the book he was woken in the middle of the night, september 1st, 1939 to be t
And wrapping up is mitchell sue covers account of the attack on the u. S. Mission in benghazi, libya, on september 11th, 2012. For more information visit indiebound. Org. Gloos were pleased to be joined on our set right outside the history and biography room by former justice of the Supreme Court, sandra day oconnor. This is her fifth book, stories from the history of the Supreme Court out of order. Ourt justice oconnor, when did you discover that you enjoyed writing . Guest oh, goodness. All you do as a justice is write, so nothing changed there. And there were just lots of things to write about and tell about. Now, what are you doing at the book festival today . T because i dont think youre talking about your book. Guest no, not really. I know Jim Billington whos head of the library of congress, and my brother has a new book out. And so Jim Billington told me i had to bring my brother to the conference, so thats why were here. Host and you were in conversation with alan dray whn is a
Reject the scholar who doesnt give them what they want. It strikes me, in other words they are engaging in some way. Just on their own terms. You know, someone like Steve Mcqueen has an idea and he found this book. He had an idea. His wife found him the book and he put it all together and that is the narrative and the story and he has his ideas and scenes. I was struck powerfully by spielberg having scenes in his mind telling the historians what he saw. Was it possible . Could it be . What was the weather at the gettysburg address . Could the flag have been flying . And the several hundred page screen play gets shrunk down to a few months. So there are ways. Theyre saying can mary lincoln wear this . Can she wear that . Well, she was actually wearing black. She was in mourning. But the larger authenticity of the film was to portray her as a vain shopaholic, someone difficult. So she wasnt accurate. If i had been someone who said, no. She must wear the black, otherwise its inaccurate, y
Theyre really quite intelligent, very intelligent, but are trained in a way that theyve been trained differently from the way we have so that they are interested in, you know, the impact visually and what people hear. And the overarching story or theme or thesis they want to put forward. And so whenever they come to historians, its not as theyre writing the work. It is usually after theyve already worked out in their mind what the opening scene is going to look like and the rest of it. And the story holds together well for them, for what they like to portray in one way. And then on the other side of it is working with the producers to find out whether theyll finance so you have to take into consideration what the producers want to see in this film, too. So they kind of are very collaborative and were only one piece, a small piece of the collaboration because they do come in with this. And its interesting because i want to know whether or not Steve Mcqueen actually shot the opening sequ