Count 1191 books in. On Abraham Lincoln. More than john Kennedy Franklin roosevelt and Robert Kennedy combined. Guest i knew i wanted to live with him and i had to have a leap of faith that i could find something that would be my own way into it but the last one on Eleanor Franklin took six years longer than world war ii so i knew this would be a fundamental. He turned out to be the best companion i could imagine. Host how did you begin the process class guest at first i read. I hope its beginning to do a book about marriage the way ive done with eleanor and franklin but i realized they couldnt hold the public side of the story the way eleanor did. I realized he spent more time with the members of his than with mary. He was married to them more protected tense time theyd wait for news from the battlefield and go to the front of relax at night. These are the guys im interested in when it turned out theyd been as rivals beforehand that i finally realized that got my story. Host book came out by burton hendrix on lincolns war cabinet. Its different from a look. Whats different about what can this one . Guest he is secondary sources and there was a lot of good stuff in them. Its a good writer but he had one chapter on seward and one chapter on stanton. Mine is a narrative that goes to the beginning to the end. Jose uber the number of books that include primary sources and youre dealing with 19 figures as opposed to 20th century figures. Guest i have been so lucky at even the roosevelt time there were three dozen people who knew him in a family and Lyndon Johnson was able to talk to that giant of a man. How am i going to go back to period right cant cant talk to anyone but it turns out because they kept diaries and wrote letters and not time it was an intimate source. Historians 200 years and now well never know as much about us as we are able to know about these characters and 19th century or even stewarts family is secretary of state 5000 letters they wrote. I love reading letters feel like you are right over their shoulder. Host first of all use Abraham LincolnWilliam Henry seward and edward base were members of restless generation behind 18th century world. Thousands of miles separate the birth laces of virginia new york New Hampshire and kentucky are nonetheless social and economic forces shaped their past and also marked the number of similarities. How so . Was so interesting of members of that generation the American Experience when democracy was still new so heres the next generation coming along. Policies are a passion for people so its not surprising these characters and their political lives. When they would give a talk or there would be a debate 10,000 people might come and people would listen to them talk now would you would imagine today. Policies back then were what are for us today so thats what shaped all of them. They wanted to become lawyers so they could become politicians so they could participate in the public life of our country because thats where the passion was. Host why did he want to become a running mate, Abraham Lincoln . Guest partly because once they got there in the convention decided it was Abraham Lincoln and looking for balance they probably knew none of these guys would be willing to accept the vice presidency. The Vice President said was very powerful in those days so i can imagine they would wait and want to beat him next time around. Host who is William Seward . Guest he reminded me of churchill pretty good drink and smoke in the ad parties in the 18 50s where there is so much wind that even southerners would feel good about the northerners and he was the one who ever would he thought would be the nominee. The most celebrated name. So many people came to his house waiting for the news that he had been nominated the champagne had an uncorked preview is your cover play disappointed and yet when lincoln appointed secretary of state lincoln would be a mere figurehead but in the end he and lincoln became great friends once he realized lincoln was who lincoln was a special character and their friendship was one of the most prized. Salmon chase was a different kind of character because he didnt drink him he didnt smoke. He would practice and never quite deliver these had kept a diary from the time he was 20 years old and he was a very selfrighteous character. He had been gratis an abolitionist so he was a marble person for black equality. Even lincoln made him secretary of the treasury he kept running against lincoln and tried to maneuver against him and when the second time around. Host judge edward bates. He guest bates was an elder statesman from missouri and people thought he could be president because he was more conservative and came from a border state that he was a young man who is interested in politics like the rest of them but then he got married to this woman that he loves so much that he couldnt bear being away from her. When he was on his way to congress he was saying why did i why am i doing this . He wasnt away from her very long. They had 17 children. It shows a family life can affect public life. 19th century when men wrote about history they barely mentioned they had a wife or family but you can see in the 20s cases even chase has a beautiful daughter. He lost three young wives at 22, 23 and 30 i think and his wife becomes his campaign manager. She dies in poverty so i love the stories of the wives and husbands. Host 17 children how many live to adulthood . Guest nine looked into adulthood. Host youd dedicate this book to your husband kind old more than i can stress to my husband robert goodwin. He read and edited every single page for that argue with him good would it do argue about . Sometimes who would argue about whether lincoln was doing the right thing produced a huge lincoln fan. It was fantastic. He studied lincoln all the time. We are both writers and we work at home. He is in one section of the house and i was another section that it was fantastic to have someone like that reading every page. Host he thought deeply about lincoln as anyone. Did he inspire you to do this book or did you come up with the idea . Guess who i came up with the ibm want to get into it and he started writing about lincoln my husband was a speechwriter for john kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. He understands the value of words in public life. Nobody he felt more comfortable with than lincolns brilliance as awards and in the speaker. Host he came up with a tidal . Guest the title was a problem. For a while we wanted to call it master among men but given he was a great emancipator seem like that might be a worrisome word. For a while we were going to go with the great unifier or american classic and this has been a working title from the beginning. We went back to a working title team of rivals which is what its about. Host at the next three hours on cspan2s booktv in depth Doris Kearns Goodwin taking calls but if you live in eastern eastern and central timezones a number call is 202 7370001. You can email us if you have questions at booktv at cspan. Org. In your last conversation with Lyndon Johnson be talked about Abraham Lincoln. Guess who interestingly. He was reading sandberg spider family can couldnt quite bring him to life and he said if he couldnt bring lincoln to life in his mind no one was going to remember him. He was so hot in those clusters by weather history would remember him. I now realize more than i did when i was 25 years old what a privilege it was to have spent so many hours with this amazing line of a man. He had done so much in civil rights and felt in the end korea had been destroyed by the war in vietnam. I had those hours with him and it was extraordinary. I think is what propelled me to want to understand the man behind a public figure. Host when was this photograph taken . Guest this is when i was selected as the white house fellow. That false hair in the back of my head. That was at the celebration when the white house was announced. What happened worriedly was i didnt answer president johnson when we were selected but as a graduate student at harvard when we were selected during the vietnam war movement. Written in article which came out after the award of the white house fellow. I was sure he was taking out the program but surprisingly he said bring her down here for year and if i can win her over no one can. I started helping him on his memoirs. Host in the book Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, bull he responded i know what goes on up there and make cant dance like im dancing with you right now. Guess who he was so big and he had this habit of standing closer to human beings and normally people stand separated so i felt like i was in his when i was talking to me when i danced with tick me up from the floor and take me around the room. So lets get some phonecalls. First up oberlin ohio, good morning. Caller good morning. I just purchased the book two days ago. My question is lincolns ability to reach out to political rivals and the corporate them into a larger scheme. Would you comment on the possibility of that happening now. A great question. I think it would a much harder now. Now we have this Permanent Campaign so the minute the president is elected is thinking of the second term and lincoln today most president s have just had a single term so they were not so obsessed about winning. Today they are worried about getting a platform for their rival that can be used against them in the following four years with the other thing is that these guys were all rivals of one another not just of lincoln. They said terrible things about one another. Unmitigated scoundrel stanton talking to postmaster player. They were good each others offices. Can you imagine what would have happened if we hear on the news these guys from the cabinet saying these things about each other . I wish it were possible because what it meant was he about the different aspects of the Republican Party moderate conservatives liberals together in the same 10 so is easier to deal with them than if they were outside. Host this morning in the Washington Post and the review the book they set up the comparable to george w. Bush listing john mccain as defense secretary. Guest exactly knowing he was given a plaque from the first time around. It might have been a great thing. If you have people who are going to oppose you and debate you inside your cabinet then maybe you hone your skills and a rifle to deal with the country. He do well for country dont worry about the next election he will probably come to you. Host kansas city missouri, you are next. Caller thank you very much for taking my call. I was wondering if there was any historical document about how lincoln dealt with some of the savagery that happened as a byproduct of the civil war from the southerners like the quantrills raiders and things like that who did a lot of butchery. Did lincoln do anything of to try to stop it and how was his feelings about those kinds of rivalries . Guest i think its one of the things that was hard for lincoln as it should have been. Some point they decided in the north the only way the work could finally be the war could be won if indeed the southern capacity could make war and it meant destroying the roads destroying the crops and being sold to make money and i suspect from what we see from lincolns conversations of people as much as he knew that was a terrible byproduct of war he figured unless a southern capacity to make war was destroyed it would keep going on and on an even more people would die. Host what role did you have been writing and working on this book with Lyndon Johnson and the Vantage Point . I was one of various people helped him on his memoirs in particular worked on the civil rights and his relationship with congress which is the best part of Lyndon Johnson by went down to the ranch and stayed with him at the ranch sometime stayed in austin while i was at harvard. It was to listen to him recollect it is a great storyteller per day is to listen for hours as he would tell me doris is not just the Vantage Point that stories about his childhood. Miserably going to write a trilogy starting with his presidency going back to the senate and his childhood are a lot of our conversations over his whole life. The story was so fantastically colorful even though half of them were true. Host how much could you believe . Guest thats why he liked me there. I like listening to his tall tales. Host i wonder how much Doris Kearns Goodwin. The Vantage Point felt upon its publication to be lifted a presence of nearly one of a dozen people waited in the preparation of Research Writing and editing this book . Guest apsley now. There were far more people working on mmr than i was. Nixon more time doing it fulltime for there was just doing a parttime and only worked on those two chapters that but all that meant was they could talk to me and put down what you said and put it in some form. I thought that was more than enough recommendation for what i had done. That quote from Lyndon Johnson. For millions of americans i was still illegitimate. A man with no president ial coverings that were tendered to the throne and then there was my home, the home of the murder. Guest johnson always spoken somewhat graphic language. You can imagine what he thought it was was like to know that he loved john kennedy so much and if it has something to do with his fascination and then the murder of the murder. He said what was amazing even with all of that pressure on him he achieved an extraordinary transition in the next year 1965 was one of the great years in American History. If he had not gotten into vietnam he would have been murder but its a great present for next fall from ann arbor michigan on booktv, good place. Caller is this Doris Kearns Goodwin . Guest which surely is. Caller you are my hero. It dropped out of school and then i went back and i started studying history and i went back to a Community College and the more it learned about it the more it really loved it. What gets me is how historians can look at something and differ in their interpretation. You get them in the room and they dont agree but i want to ask you about how exactly do historians go about gathering evidence and one thing that always struck me about president lincoln this is just a laymans observation is east lake he has the ability to look outside of himself and to see how other people saw him. I always kind of wondered about that and then lastly what about what you hear in the news about plagiarism and stuff like that and i will hang up and god bless you and thank you. Guest thank you so much. To answer your link in question europes way right his ability to look at himself from the outside in it stretched from this enormous continent he had inside himself and a remarkable sense of humor. Anyone who is funny and has a sense of humor part of it is the ability to laugh at oneself but i think that was a great quality in him. What happens with historians is to go back and be like at many sources as we can which means using diaries in the letters and then you try to figure out yourself different conflicting ideas of what somebody did. You have to to truly understand. How do we think he responded and how we didnt respond in terms of your last question is a complicated process putting together huge book like this or any of her books. Theres usually thousands of footnotes lots of different sources and sometimes we can happen is happened to me as well is even though i had given absolute credit to the person for whom i had taken from the passage to not put the correct bookmark in the right place i credited her and what i found out about it i myself said she was right and i corrected it in the next edition and moved on. Its part of the process which is a complicated one in doing historical work that is worth every bit to hopefully give the reader making the people come alive. Host the what was the biggest revelation . The biggest lesson was, i had knowledge that the time and i corrected it read when it became public three years ago i acknowledge to begin. Theres nothing you can do to change the path other than to make sure for example in this lincoln book everything is fine. What can you do other than to do that . Host there are 100 plus pages of footnotes and bibliography . The reason for that would have been sure if david hadnt happened because there are so many primary sources there something about the lincoln world. They are very Generous Group of scholars to people whove studied lincoln all their lives so when youve done the things he wanted to put in the footnotes the sources they could look at themselves. Its really a sharing process. I think the lincoln scholars would be happy and hopefully some young scholar will say yes i founded hosea wrote in an essay in Time Magazine after was revealed in 2002 that a tight you about your own fallibility. Guest absolutely. I would like to believe in most of my books what ive been able to do is to never have a bias and not to be mean for them but you also want to make sure you credited every source fully and appropriately done learned about that and you make sure to do it right. Host the let me ask you about the fitzgeralds and the kennedys. Its a new document. Guest what happened was it turned out Teddy Kennedy gave me access to 150 cartons in the attic in hyannis port for over 50 years and it turns out they had saved every letter they wrote to one another check stubs movie cards letters from the family. Was really away into the Kennedy Family that i would have had without those so was worth spending another couple years. Thats what mills 10 years. Host you write in the b