Cap the 28th annual Lincoln Forum than by welcoming a dear friend and historys friend, the incomparable Doris Kearns Goodwin, and her very gifted producing partner, beth laski, now. Beth has been the coexecutive producer with doris for there for wonderful History Channel, a channel series, washington, lincoln, theodore roosevelt, and most recently fdr. Together they form pastimes productions, which will next be producing a new series on the west with kevin. I auditioned for that, but they chose kevin costner. They have already created a unique and appealing look and style to these shows. Youll see some of some sampling of it during this evening. Not only authoritative talking heads, but remarkable, authentic looking action scenes featuring performers and settings that evoke the colonial revolutionary periods, the civil war, the progressive era, the new deal, and world war two. Scholarship and scenery. Discussion and drama. And tonight, a special focus on their Abraham Lincoln, of course. So were glad beth is here and we thank our History Channel friends for coming as well, and also for History Channels truly generous sponsorship and support of the forum this year. Mary. Not only a wonderfully generous donation to help make this big forum work, but also in case you thought those dvds just appeared in your packages by magic, it through the generosity of the History Channel. Now, as for beths coproducer, what more can be said when emcees declare that this person needs no introduction . That might have been written for for doris. Not that thats going to stop me, because im here. She is really nothing short of a national treasure. Not only one of our most respected historians, but i would suggest our most beloved and trusted his story. And i suspect, you know the reasons. Wait till next year. No ordinary time. The fitzgerald and the kennedys. Lyndon johnson and the american dream. The team of rivals. The bully pulpit. Leadership in turbulent times. Classics by an author who has now added to her impact in nonfiction literature, including a pulitzer prize. A lincoln prize. Yes. A Richard Nelson current award. The definitive of motion picture. Because the oscar winning Steven Spielberg film of lincoln was on her. Her approach to the passage of the 13th amendment in the house of representative. And now television with the performance and docu dramas. History channel, in which with characteristic generosity, she shares the spotlight with lucky fellow historians. Allen guelzo, who is here today and Catherine Clinton and Edna Greene Medford for and offers fresh interviews featuring. Her featuring her latest reflection on the subjects she has mastered and obviously, as we all learn tonight, i dont have to convince you she shines the light further by utilizing very gifted actors who bring life to these heroes. So its its its not a team of rivals. Its kind of a bench of doris fans fans. If there is a medium she hasnt conquered yet, i dont know what it is. Ill just say that if i want to clone an exemplary, exemplary american historian, then they need look. No. Thats probably a dangerous thing to say legally. But we dont need a we have the original. So please join me in welcoming Doris Kearns Goodwin and beth laski. All right. So. Lets go back. Oh, were up to this. Okay, that was fast. So with all that doris has accomplished now with beth, the work has inspired this wonderful series of docu dramas. But so heres the elephant in the room. Why did decide to do television . And both of you, why did you decide that this was the next realm . Well, we really owe a lot to the History Channel because they came to us. How lucky we were. I see. Mary donahue there. Shes my great friend and our friend. And they came to us and they asked us if wed like to work with them on something. And they came up with the idea of George Washington, which was a little scary to me because i never had studied George Washington. And everywhere i went, people would say, why arent you doing George Washington . And i thought, oh my god, im now years old. It will take me ten years to do George Washington like it took me everybody else. And i write these big fat books and itll be another fat book. And then i thought, wow, what if i were able to spend two years, which they projected projected this might take to do a six hour miniseries on George Washington. I could learn about him from my fellow historians on their shoulders. We could sit. And so beth and i had formed we started to form a production company. Ive known beth for 25 years. It all began. You love origin stories, right . So ours is a great story. So when when i had not even married my husband, but he was in washington dc and he his son from his first marriage was going to the Georgetown Day School and had a best friend named Andy Blankstein. And i fell in love with Andy Blankstein, the best friend. We took him everywhere every summer. We took him whenever we were on vacations. He became my other son. And when we moved to california, after was getting the quiz show movie made, he came with us and he met beth laski and they eventually became husband and wife. So Andy Blankstein was eight when i met him. And as you know, the story, right. You can tell the rest of the story. Oh, well, i had a lot of pressure because before very early on in our relationship i had to get a stamp of approval. So had to come meet the whole goodwin clan. And i was very, very nervous. And it turned out well. But it was it was a little scary and a little intimidating for me. A month in, two on be on my way to cape cod to to spend time with the goodwins. So immediately said to andy, dont f this up. Shes great. Anyway so we started to work on George Washington and the thing was we had a team i mean, between history and two great guys who were working from, from rail spitters. Right right. From ralphs going, yeah. Matt ginsburg and, and oh my gosh. Tim. Tim hill i just went like, yeah. Tim healy and they were terrific. And they held our hand through this because we had not done this before. And so it was really great to have them by our side and to have mary and eli and all of the people on the history side to help us. And i think what mattered so much was that it was collaborative. I mean, before my husband died, which was shortly before we got involved in all this, i had him as a partner every day to work with. So it wasnt lonely because im not a very social person, id rather be with people than being alone. Im not the typical kind of writer, but i had all the time. But then when he was gone, it was really lonely. And then somehow i had that whole team to work with with History Channel. So it made a huge difference. And then we produced in two years i learned all about george. And so that began all of this. And i feel like its 75. I pivoted to another whole world of dementia and im very grateful to history as a result. So i think the question, one question that might be on the minds of your readers, im sure everyone here is a good one. Reader is, with all due respect to mary and the group. So how much how much editorial control do you guys have . And how much does History Channel you what you must do or should do . Well, we knew so little at the beginning, to be honest, and we had to hold their hand. They had to hold our hands. And sometimes we would say, wed like this or that. And theyd have to tell us, well, no, thats not really your role as an executive producer. And yet then they were really we really became partners. I mean, there was no question right from the beginning, right . They let us be involved in the early storytelling, the outline, everything. Yeah, that was really amazing for us because we were learning as we went along and yes, we did get our hand slapped maybe once when we went too far, but we didnt know what. We didnt know. So they, they really guided us. Its been really amazing, but weve been involved with every step of the process and its a lengthy process. And there are a lot of people involved. It really is a team, a big team of people that it takes to put these things together. So were going to together look at the opening of the next project, the lincoln series. So im going to cue the clip. Ladies and gentlemen, some you may have heard of him, his story has been passed down from one generation to the next. Fourscore and seven years ago, he felt that democracy in its purest form is for all people, all persons held as slaves shall be sent forward and forever free. But theres something deeper than what he did. Its about who he was. Lincoln grew up in poverty. Havent done anything to make anyone remember the day ever live. Hes living proof that americans can rise from obscurity to power with that wit and that charm and that intellect is better to stay sound and be thoughtful and to speak up and move down. He has a deep sense of empathy. He takes the declaration of independence. All men are created equal and turns it into a nation his moral compass. As the country is breaking apart, theres a turning point where hes going have to take a stand. Will be on your hand. Blood is already on my hand. You can learn how to be a commander in chief. I cant have a war to fight. He was willing to admit he was wrong. And to change. We can attack immediately. He was the right person at the right time. If we let this stand for one minute now, we might as well say goodbye to the whole thing. Union democracy. Oh. You you had. You had some pretty good gets there, right . I, i recognize one of those guys. I think, you know whats a lot like president obama . I thought you were going to say it looks a lot like, you know, no more glasses. Its out of sight. So what what might strike people for who this group watched . Every documentary series about lincoln and there were others as we know in the last few years. But this is a stylist this is stylistically different theres graham to add the drama and and clearly production value. So what how did you come to this format . The History Channel had done this before us and its a great they sometimes call it they sometimes call it docu dramas. But what it allows you to do is to have the ordinary experts who come. I dont meet that the experts are ordinary. The idea of experts who can provide the story, what what you really want, whatever youre going to produce is a story. I mean, storytelling, as lincoln said, people remember stories better than back facts and figures. Theres something in our brain that wires us to want a story that has a beginning, a middle and an end. So in looking for the story, were able to mix together in this new the combination of talking and the problem especially because george was first they didnt have any photographs of him they didnt have any film. All they had was stiff paintings. Theres no way youre going to understand who he is unless you get actors who can fill in the spaces that history cant. I remember when i was working with Steven Spielberg on on lincoln, he gave a talk, actually at gettysburg where he talked about the difference, a film and a history book. And he said the film can fill the spaces that maybe you dont know what somebody said in a conversation, you know, from a memoir or, you know, from a diary, what they might have said. And i when i was writing these books, i say, i know what theyre thinking. Im living with them. You know, my kids used to tease me when i was working on franklin and eleanor. Theyd hear me in my study and id be talking to franklin, said, oh, franklin, she loves you. Just be kinder to eleanor. Forget that affair that he had so many years ago. Its a long time ago. Hes your partner and they come in. What is going on here . And i do think that i think what they were thinking. But you cant do it in the history form. But in a drama form you can. So it allows the viewer to not only see the larger picture and the that the experts can provide, but to see the intimate details that an actor like graham and mary and the people who played stanton and seward and you feel that combination think of intimacy. 30,000 feet in the narrator and then the storytelling that act that the people who are the historians provide. I love the combination i think its it really allows both things to be enhanced in a way that they wouldnt be otherwise by themselves. You know, to me this the series is in a the the broader series the series are in a sense, based on leadership in turbulent times. And i just want to know if you were reminded as you both produced this series how much lincoln was influenced by washington, how much lincoln meant to teddy, how much teddy meant to fdr. Yeah. I mean, beth pointed out one time to me that they were like a big family tree, right . That you start with the last guy, Lyndon Johnson and his hero is fdr. In fact, he used to call him my political. Thats fdr. And theres a great of there was a one time when johnson was a young congressman and he met fdr and there was a picture of him and there was some guy in the middle and he cut the guy out of the middle. The picture was just him and fdr. But fdr said after meeting him, you know, i have a feeling theres something about that young guy. He may be the First Southern president or as incredibly something in him. And so then then you get fdr as hero and fdr as hero as Teddy Roosevelt. In fact, during this huge he just they knew each other because they were related to some extent. And of course, eleanor was related to Teddy Roosevelt because Teddy Roosevelt, her uncle, because eleanor his father had died and etc. And and so all mixed in together, the genealogy of the thing is incredible. But anyway, when and franklin got married, teddy her away and they said that teddy was superseded. Then there was nobody interested, the two of them. And all they cared about was teddy. Well, teddy loved to be, as you said, the center of attention. And so he liked to be the baby at the baptism, it was said and the bride at the wedding and the at the funeral while he did that there. So anyway. But the summer that he was going through a big then teddys teddy teddy himself is reading about lincoln and when he goes to a big coal strike he spends the entire Summer Reading the nine volumes of nicolay and hay. And then, of course, lincoln, we know connected to washington. So as pointed out one time, its a very short history that we have and they really did feel like big old family tree and of course teddy has they had an extra advantage of having as his sister inheriting as secretary of state Abraham Lincolns former assistant private secretary the author of the book they coauthor of the book that he can solve. It is a very close connection by way, you left out the best part of the story. Thats not the best part, but another part that teddy would only agree to be best man at the wedding if it was held on columbus day. So he could also be the grand marshal of the parade. Oh, i just think that st patricks day, st patricks day parade just i killed the story. But the same idea, same idea, same idea. And just a half a block away to fifth avenue. Youre right. So lets lets turn our attention back to lincoln, because thats why were here. And lets have a look at the early years of lincoln in a new salem scene from the Abraham Lincoln docudrama. It was always interested in politics and loved politics. Thank you. In little towns like new salem, politicians running for office would come on saturdays and, give speeches. Illinois needs railroads. You a railroad. You can get your goods to market all like me to stay assembly. And i swear ill bring the railroad right here to new salem. No, you. I beg your pardon . Who said that . I did see the way i figure it. If they do build that railroad, itll be near springfield. I saw as much in the paper. And how far away from springfield . By, what, 20 miles. I wont do us a lack of good. See this fella . Hes right about us needing to get to market. But what we need a new salem is to widen the river so the steamships can get here. Then this town will take off like a rabbit in front of a pack of wolves. Well, i could vote for both waterway and the railroad. I dont think so, mr. How much are Railroad Going to cost . A lot, right . This fellow, you might be able to talk the hind leg off a donkey, but if they build that railroad, there wont be a dime left. The tax money for our river. And well just be like the like a runt of the litter left behind, squealing a mule when theres nothing left to do maybe there was something about the way lincoln spoke, he was able to translate complex issues into something simple in terms of the daily life of the people within eight months of his being in new salem, the residents wanted him to run for the state legislature. So wow, thats. Tell us a little bit about the art and set design because its its simple, but its very evocative and i think its very true. Yeah. Who who are the involved in that project . Again, a whole team effort and do mood so for lincoln we work with this Wonderful Company called radical media dave saranac heads radical media and hes partner and all in in the teddy one in lincoln and in and hes incredible he puts together this Wonderful Team and it starts really with a mood board they do that right in the proposal stage and then work out from there and. They hire the best people to put together the best sets and that and they do a lot of studying and we weve done a lot of that. And mary and they they are able to really replicate, you know, for in a in a really its so hard to explain but in a very evocative way, theyre able to replicate something that in some cases we dont have all the information. And so, again