And it is great to be back here all the time. A few years ago, after agreeing to write a book celebrating the centennial of Grand Central terminal, i casually suggested an audacious but catchy subtitle, how a train station transformed america. And almost immediately i was struck by second thoughts. Individuals and events shape history, but could a single building . Luckily, Grand Centrals 100 year imprint on commerce and culture, its pivotal role in urban development, and codifying landmark and air rights, in shifting manhattans Cultural Center of gravity from downtown in midtownstep manhattan, turned out to validate the subtitle after all. Aell, a building, albeit monumental one, was one thing. Could a single object be transformative . That question arose after the British Museum and the bbc collaborated on the history of the world in 100 objects. That inspired a spate of collections on subjects including bird watching, the first world war, cricket, the future, the beatles, shakespear
Full like this. I am the president of external brooklyn ere at the historical society. Really, really excited about tonights program. Iliar with the am society, it was founded we were founded 151 years ago. It was the middle of the civil war. Group of prominent they lynites realize that were witnessing history, and upon ed to take it themselves to found this organization in order to story. D that hi this building, actually, was built as the historical society. And was opened in 1881. Like we have here tonight, it place of specific dialogue; in fact, back then, room had an auditorium. Spoke, so, ere and right here, where we are president woodrow spoke, arthur doyle senator henry lodge spoke, and probably most tonight greely spoke. Which, of course, brings me to introduce our guest tonight. Has been at times urban Affairs Correspondent since 2005. Prior to the time, he worked at the daily news for fifteen years. Has won numerous awards. As a journalist, he has written books on Grand Cent
And ready to go, so let me ask you to start things off. All right, thank you michael. Do we have five hours . [laughter] i want to take this paragraph or two and pull it apart. One of the wonderful things about writing a book about the great gatsby is that i can purchase assume pretty much assume, as i think andrew can that were speaking to an audience who has read the novel at least at some point in their lives. So im going to read from the first chapter where nick decides to go visit his cousin Daisy Buchanan who he hasnt seen in a while. Hes invited for dinner, and he walks into the buchanan mansion. With tom buy canna who has to be one of the greatest characters in literature. We walked through a high hallway into a bright, rosycolored space, fragilely bound into the house by french windows at eitherrened. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh glass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room blew curtains in at one e
And pr, the field that supports the media. I built on his work and did what teachers and scholars say, i extended the his geography histiography. He would say that eisenhower was driven by a Public Relations mentality. Everything he did as a general and president , that was some facet of what he did. One of the reasons why i was telling people the title of the book and they were an eisenhower fan and they winced, because Public Relations can have a Bad Reputation in some circles. When i say that eisenhower embraced and was driven by Public Relations it was not a sense that he wanted to grab glory of it was not a sense that he wanted to fool people. Just the opposite. Eisenhower believed that Public Relations, if properly practiced, was he central to american democracy. And he wrote that in his book at ease. That Public Relations was good for american democracy. He saw it as a way for general eisenhower to get the American Public on board for the war. And he saw it as a way for presiden
Staff. Kevin bailey, thank you for being the best archivist on the face of the earth. The work so hard, that is such great skill, such expertise. Working with me, a green researcher, he had a lot of patients and i appreciate that. He had a lot of patience and i appreciate that. Millner, the archive technician, runs a fantastic research room. Kathy helped me with the photos. Literally everybody on this campus that is the Eisenhower Center i think helped me in one way or another. I would also like to thank retired archivist jim because you gave me the idea for this project. Without him the project definitely would not have happened because it was his idea. I would like to thank you were all a part of this village and thank you for helping me these past few years. Dwight David Eisenhower was born on october 14, 1890. We are about to celebrate the 125th anniversary of his birth. During this 125 years, one thing is clear to me. That he has a legacy from the war that is his greatest legacy.