Good evening, everybody. My name is katie willard, and im part of the event staff here at politics and prose. Before we begin, id like to go over a few announcements. Announcements. Please type in your cellphones and other boys making devices. Not only is it courteous to the author, but we are also on cspan tonight, so you do not want to be the person whose phone goes off on cspan. Second, during the questionandanswer portion and in the interest of our video and audio recording if you could come up to the microphone over here and it is right here by the pillar that way we can all hear your questions and engage in a nice discussion afterwards. Lastly, once everything is done if you could please fold up your chairs and place them against something solid, our staff, as in me, would greatly appreciate that. Tonight im pleased to introduce jared cohen to politics and prose. The founder and ceo of jigsaw alphabet inc. As well as an adjunct senior fellow at the council of foreign relations. H
You. Before i go further, i am instructed to tell you to please turn off any cell phones, apple watches, what other gadgets you may have, so they do not interfere with our system. Thank you. As you know our host tonight is Justice Sonia sotomayor. We are pleased to have her with us tonight and want to thank or on behalf of the society for giving her time when we call upon her to participate in events like this. It is quite important to us and quite important to you. We very much appreciate it. I will tell you briefly a bit about the justice. She is a native new yorker, born in the bronx, very unhappy about last night baseball game, i gather. Undergraduate work at princeton and went to yale law school, then joined the District Attorney office in New York County as an assistant District Attorney. She was a litigator in the international and commercial law area. That attracted attention and before long, she had become a Federal District judge on the Southern District of new york. Six year
[inaudible conversations] good afternoon. Welcome to the museum of art. My name is ellen and i am a senior manager of adult programs. Its good to see everyone here today. And as many of you know, lunch and learn as a Monthly Program where we invite Community Experts to share their knowledge of interesting cincinnati history, culture and arts. This program was started on the suggestion of one of our members, one of you all. And at this institutions history for nearly 200 years the Historic House served as an Important Community Gathering Place for prominent cincinnati families such as those of martin boehm, nicholas longworth, david and of course charles and anna taft. Each played a role in shaping the history, art and culture of cincinnati and this series i ses rights that legacy as well as the new way of our city continues to evolve and change. The complete schedule of all of the programs including our upcoming lunch and learns are available on the website, which is www. Taftmuseum. O
Richard norton smith, why did you call your book that you wrote 35 years ago uncommon man . Well, its taken, actually, from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. Remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe43, about the century of the common man. And wallace, from a left of center perspective, was projecting, in effect, the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. And it wasnt enough simply to defeat the nazis, but to create at home a true democracy. A place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place on the political spectrum. He was, in effect, making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. But something to say, that i shouldnt paraphrase it, but, you know, when you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommonly able general. Yo
At things like artifacts, serial culture, paintings, fine arts, decorative arts, the white house has all of those things as well. If you are into politics, policy obviously, that is the big one people think about. Even in terms of pop culture, or political culture, understanding the white house is a symbol for american democracy. And how that symbol has changed and evolved over time. It says a lot about who we are, the american identity itself, and i think all of these different ways of studying the white house touches on all of these Different Things that you may not get in a traditional American History textbook. But if you dig deeper, there is an incredible history beneath the surface. Lindsay chervinsky, a white house historian and new in the role there, we will spend time with both of you learning about your work and about the association. I want to ask you to give the elevator speech about the association, how i got started and what its mission is . The association was founded by