There isnt one. That was me being very diplomatic. We are done. Thats it. I apologize. [applause] this is hopefully not a forever conversation. Professor claudes book is available. He will be with us until 6 00. Into the conversation of who we are, where we are going, and how we get there. Please join us again july next year for the 19th harlem book fair. We are working very hard towards our 20th year celebration. We are excited about that. The book fair is becoming a public conversation. Not so much the their but what happens in the book fair, such as with the professor today. So we are hoping that what we do, what we all do together is engendering many more public conversations and perhaps some ideas of how we can maneuver, manage, create a new sense of self as we move forward. So thank you for supporting the harlem book fair. Please day for the next part of our presentation, and then the award. Max rodriguez, thank you so much. [applause] this is booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Heres our primetime lineup for the sunday night. That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. During booktvs recent visit to hartford, connecticut, we toured of the special collections unit of the Harriet Beecher stowe center which houses the letters and books related to the novel Uncle Toms Cabin. So here we are in the Harriet Beecher stowe centers archive vault, as our archive storage area. It is home to our archival and printed books elections, also photographs, pamphlets, any sort of work of art on paper as well. Including broadsides, posters of the 19th century. Our collections focused around Harriet Beecher stowe, or famine and active reform work in the 19th century. So you went collections around antislavery and abolition in new england, specific connecticut, as well as womens history as it relates to the suffrage movement. The center began collecting works on and by Harriet Beecher stowe and come as early as our founder in 1930s and 40s. She found our organization in 1941 and we have been collecting ever since. This archives vault was built in the 1970s to howells house rare collection, paper this collection. Today we are looking at how she came to write Uncle Toms Cabin, her most famous antislavery novel which really galvanized the Antislavery Movement towards abolition in the 1850s. These materials we look at today really on the platform for which we are able to tell stowes story. Without the historic collection of the building that you lived in, we can tell her story as best we know it, but these are a tangible reference to the past. User papers and documents she touched. These are books that people all over the country and beyond red, waiting for the next installment and coffee in addition to come out so they could give as a gift. These objects will speak to the power, Harriet Beecher stowe, and her story Uncle Toms Cabin had on american and international society. So the first thing we will talk about is whats called a circular letter. Its a rather large letter. Theres a series of about 40 of them in the face of the mountain is it was started by one person in the family who mailed, folded it up and mailed it to the next sibling and family who added their portion of the story or their news, and passe pass on te next and the next and the next. As they got added onto it became very much filled document to the point where they are cramming in last minute notes. So the family really was an Amazing Group of reformers are her father was the foremost calvinist minister in new england when she was a chil child. So he raised all in 11 of his children to be moral forces in society. They had to do good, make positive change within the appropriate seers of course apply to the 19th century, which meant that the four girls have defined of acceptable platforms to speak. Harriet beecher stowes way of speaking was through writing and publishing stories. From the early 1830s in a series of letters, at this point in her career she was writing short stories. She was the mother of five children at that point and she, with struggling to make ends meet. Her husband was a professor which wasnt a career that paid well. She needed to supplement and check to take care of the household words and her children. The best thing she could do was right. She knew she was good at it and thats what she did. She decides to write a short story of four installments, meaning four chapters, for a newspaper called the national era. Heres one right here. She begins to write about she quickly realizes that its going to be a much longer story. So she needs to provide substance and documentation. She wants it, even though its a novel, to be stated in reality. So she writes to formerly enslaved people like frederick douglass, and while shes writing materialization at the national air we have a letter dated july 9, 1851, where she states you may perhaps have noticed in your editorial reading a series of articles i am furnishing for the era entitled Uncle Toms Cabin. She goes on to ask for information for true life stories about really what its like to be enslaved and be in a system on a plantation, as he is one who has that experience. Another person who stowe used their true Life Experiences for, took from for the character of uncle tom was just like henson. Josiah henson, whose photograph is here, was an enslaved person in maryland who found his way, escaped through to canada to dresden, ontario, informed the settlement. Theres a museum of their today in his honor. In his narrative really speaks to, of course as they all do, struggle to make a decision to change your life and to get through to freedom. So Harriet Beecher stowes story Uncle Toms Cabin was published as a serial in the national era, and it took over almost quite figured you wouldve published the, much longer than she expected. She missed two deadlines, t. Weekly deadlines. Those stories that subscribes to the newspaper were up in arms because they really wanted to the next installment. It was that popular. It was so popular that by march of 1852, three months before the end, stowe decided to contract with a publisher, a book publisher to publish it as a book. It was finally published as a two volume book, senior, march 20, 1852. Very simple. These two are clothbound, examples. Published by john p. Jewett out of boston. The publisher also cratered a shorter version for children called pictures and stories of local toms cabin. So very quickly the popularity takes off and merchandise starts to appear. First simple thing such as childrens books and then theres International Editions come very quickly french and german come out first, and then on to other countries. It is still published worldwide today. In over 70 languages. But the mass commercialization moves us into all types of things for the home. Now the story and the characters because of copyright are no longer under stowe star station. s local toms cabin wallpaper was one of the neat piece of merchandise that was produced outside of the control of Harriet Beecher stowe. This is a british print, very cheaply made because it was quickly produced for the mass market, and the only examples of it exist in a nursery outside of melbourne, australia. So that speaks to the International Power the story had, worldwide success of the book that people wanted to have an emotional piece, a connection to this story in their own homes into much as they are teaching their children in a nursery, including scenes with a dagger and the death of uncle tom. So what does that tell you about society at the time . Abolitionists such as William Lloyd garrison did not of course not notice of Uncle Toms Cabin. Is antiabolitionist newspaper, the liberator, published a story in january of 1853 called Uncle Toms Cabin mania. In which he goes, im paraphrasing, that is such a manic love of this book in that folks have really attached himself to the characters, that he says its taking away from the power to end abolition. Folks are getting lost in the human connections theyre making with these characters and the melodrama in the style future. Uncle toms cabin was so popular as a stage production that more americans saw the play then read the book. It also, speaking to the popularity, one of the first movies ever made in the United States was a Porter Edison film, Uncle Toms Cabin, in 1903 the everyone knew the story. Was going to sell. People would buy the tickets for stage production for a film, and he was just part of anakin culture and still is today. Her characters, you will see you on the poster, this is supposed to be the lives of in her son harry and there are enslaved people who are escaping to join her husband, her father, the north canada. They are stopping over in a cabin, excuse me, a bar. Hiding their but they realize the gentleman who have come to find that are there, so they are escaping out a window period its very colorful. You can see the theatricality of the image, very rosy cheeks, red lips, heavy makeup. This dates to the early 20th century, and you can see that the specific Stage Company has chosen to put a photograph of Abraham Lincoln on one hand of the title and Harriet Beecher stowe herself on the other end of the title to give this adaptation of the play real authority. There is one story that she went to a production here in hartford i think the late 1860s, and she left before it was finished because she didnt recognize her characters. They have become so theatrical that they were not proving the point her novel was supposed to make in her mind. Because Uncle Toms Cabin was such an international bestseller, it became very popular in Great Britain, in england, before any other country because Great Britain had ended slavery and the slave trade in the 1830s. So british abolitionists invited tran went over to england and give her the grand tour. This is someone who would never been abroad at all. Remember, shes the daughter of a yankee minister, so not coming from me, and her husband and she did not make a lot of money so this is quite something, first, for her to be thrown into celebrity and receive money all of a sudden, but also to be taken and invited over and treated as royalty in such a way. She was presented with a number of gifts, one of which was 26 large volumes just like this. This was one of them. They are a petition signed only by women. They contain about half a million signatures of women who believed that slavery should and in the United States. The idea was stowe was to take this petition back and use it as a political, use it for political purposes to really end slavery in the United States. So this is a year after Uncle Toms Cabin comes out as a book, and all of these women, half a million signatures, were collected in a grassroots effort. We believe by Womens Church groups, by sewing circles, however sort of womens groups met. It includes not only the womans name but the name of profession or occupation of the father or husband. This is the time when most women did not work outside of the home unless they were unmarried or a widow. And also the residents. So you will see everyone from school mistresses down to the duchess of sutherland and the duke of argyll. She was presented with this small brooch here as well. This brooch is gold and is encircled around a lock of hair that was thomas clarksons. Thomas clarkson was a major british abolitionists, beginning in the 18th century. And when stowe goes to england he has already passed that his widow wishes to present her with something other of his so she hs made a big it is engraved on the back with the date of the meeting. So we know stowe treasure to this ngo a print of clarkson as well, and it hung in her home as well as other british abolitionists and folks are really worked towards human rights during the time she lived. Stowe is a celebrity author who really changed the way americans look at slavery. She was the one through her writings who gave enslaved people a human eye stealing. White folks really didnt understand in a lot of ways that enslaved africanamericans were people. They were thought of as a property. So for her to humanize and making people and for readers to understand that, this is wrong, that the breaking up of human families is morally wrong and unchristian, that was the goal she set for herself in showing the wrongs of slavery in Uncle Toms Cabin. You are watching booktv on cspan2. This weekend we are in anaheim, california, with the help of our local cable partner time warner. Next, oc weekly editor Gustavo Arellano author of ask a mexican talks about some of the stereotypes he has witnessed as a latino american. The idea for ask a mexican actually came from an editor at the oc weekly at the time the he would always ask you questions about mexicans, because im the only by people on staff. The only person of color on staff for the meta. I would always answer them so stuff like what does this word mean in spanish . Why do mexicans like readers and focus of much . Give him an edge. He said theres a lot of ignorant people about mexicans who have questioned that we should make fun of them so why do we do a column called ask a mexican, an advice column where people send you questions about mexicans and youre able to answer them. I wasnt offended by the idea of ask a mexican but i did want to do it at first because i didnt think anyone would care. In journalism you want to do stories that people will care about one way or another. You dont care if people like you or hate you as long as they are reading. Whos going to want to read an advice column about mexicans . He kept insisting and we needed to fill in a space in the paper that week so im like fine, ill go back. They said its only going to be one time, a satirical column, not true at all. So i thought to myself what could be the dumbest question some of you asked me about mexicans . I remembered, he had asked it to me before. Cycle back and since its supposed be an advice column, we have to start off with, so give mexican, why do mexicans call white people gringos . My answer was a slightly harsher word for gringo, mexicans dont call gringos gringos. Only gringos call gringos gringos. I wrote it, i felt it, i thought whatever. I could stand by this, its funny but i dont have to do this again. A fine. I was wrong. People just went out silly nuts for some people loved it, some people hated it. People were queuing to at the very bottom of the column it was both a joke on them a, got a spicy questions about mexicans . Asked me, im the mexican. People called me on my block. They started send in questions like crazy and really. What part of illegal that mexicans understand this is a trip george w. Bushs grandpa, prescott bush, still have bon jovi at . What is a dish of the tortillas . What have you could possible imagine from g. Rated to triple x. People asking to me. People continued asking questions. Questions. To me the funniest one was why our mexicans always so damn happy . I can see them picking strawberries, packed 15 to a truck and they are laughing, busting others balls come all af that. Why isnt . Questions like that, how can you ever forgive them . That tv shows that america even more than 150 years after we took over the american southwest from mexico we are still obsessed with mexicans. Mexicans are still in history. You could either cry about and say were still misunderstood or turn it to examine what is coming from in answer peoples questions. Misconceptions have been around for one or 50 years. Would you want to start . We are criminals, the boys all become gang members and the girls members and the growth all lit up dropping out of school at 14 and become pregnant. We dont care about education, were all catholic, we are all super brown skinned. That we all hate white people. We all hate salvadorans and Puerto Ricans and cubans. Basically mexicans hate everyone except the people we hate the most our mexicans themselves. There are so many misconceptions. Some of them are just based on stereotypes. My job is to do the research. If people see mexicans love to drink and drive, lets look at the dui rates, that mexicans are more prone to criminality and other groups or ethnicities but lets look at the fbi statistics through the bureau of justice. What i try to do with my call is find the stats can get a serious answer, debunk the stereotypes live it up with some humor, some mexican cuss words. This is not an academic call column. Have to mix academic with a vulgar, humorist, in your face. Its a hardcoded but its a challenge soil of doing it. Criticisms of ask a mexican confronted were. It comes from the right saying this is an antiamerican, antiwhitecollar. You have criticisms from the left, this is an antimexican column, you are demeaning every season subject which is the treatment of mexicans right now in the United States. Some people think its not funny. Find. Some people say its not racist enough against mexicans, or its not racist enough against white people. Diminishes the column is doing its duty. I think the question of race, is something that is there. Mexican special i so with a Monkey Wrench in the american racial relationship. Historically and was black and white, maybe asian and, of course, the indians are all on reservations so who cares about them . Did you get mexicans. Americans have never been able to figure out mexicans to do we hate them more than blocks . Either lower or higher than blacks . A lot has been written about it. The great oral historian once interviewed a mexicanamerican in chicago and he said we were the buffer zone between the ethnic whites at chicago and africanamericans at chicago, like africanamericans relate to his mexicans because we were not as racist as the white folk. The white folks to relate to us because we were not black folks. Were right in the middle. Whats happening is especially mexicans been in the south, white republican politician will go to africanamericans and see we havent liked you for almost 200 years but now have this new group. We will like to know because lets unite in taking these mexicans. Those questions are the type of questions i think on. What i would say is look on a special comes to Race Relations in this country, always been a game of maneuvering and using the newest people to dehumanize the people fall after so lets get over the. Will never be a postracial society but at the least we can do okay this is what we have to do. We have more similarities than differences. Lets unite against to racism or discrimination. Hume has been an amazing tool belt to talk about serious issues. I always lets not doctor until people satire is a way to play the fool to the very important points about political humor and satire have been part of the United States since before 1776 for that matter. People dont like being lectured. People dont want to read war and academic texts. They want to laugh. They want to get outraged. More important they want to laugh. It can bishop hill to swallow when youre laughing. No one wants to be tackled. No one wants to be reprimanded. People might read it and say screw you, you got us with that but that was really funny. People say i dont agree with your politics at all that you were really funny and i like reading it. For me its all incremental victories. If youre always reading what i have to say, that means youre paying attention, which is far better than what this country is right now where we are not even want to listen to the other point of view. We just dehumanize it and say because its coming from this person or from this political point of view its not even worthwhile of me to even Pay Attention to. I think thats toxic. There will always be opportunities to bring humor into the most racist or horrific of question. One time somebody asks why didnt mexican men like to rates of much, which the absolute nuts. When you get those types of questions, you know theyre trying to goad you into just yelling. Yelling doesnt do anything. Yelling does not do anything. I got the question, okay, you think youre really clever. Lets play ball. I ended up debunking that question. Just a real quick answer, in american history, men of color have always been demonized by the hypersexuality and for their criminal sexual the. The stats just dont merit such a stereotype. So stats prove that white men are twice were likely to commit Sexual Assault that mexican men and are more likely to commit Sexual Assaults the africanamerican and but you never do that in the media because its the truth. A special with demagogues. Demagogues dont like the truth. Thats what i do. I didnt get flustered by that horrific question. I wa was able to answer it and s able to answer it and i was able to cuss akin in many wonderful spanish words. I always get the last word. I always get the last word. People want me to get angry or just hyperventilate but i will never be like that. Some of the most outrageous questions ive got have been mexicans trash talking on africanamericans. I am not an apologist. I tackle a new matter what. I asked people, if anything what i get racist or homophobic mexicans i let them have the more than a racist white people. White people, youre a racist, you did it, youre done, goodbye. What ive learned from doing this ask a mexican column is the american people, it is a lot of racism out there, there is, but not as much as you would think which makes me glad. Theres a lot of questions and i get it. You live in north dakota your entire life with all scandinavians and then all of a sudden theres all these mexicans, living dentistry, you will have questions. I divided between innocently ignorant and willfully ignorant. At this point my job is to educate those folks, and a lot of americans are like that, they are ignorant of a lot of the questions they have. And, what i want them to take away, mexicans are more like amount ager if not more so. This stereotype, not buying like previous generations, its right across the border. But, were in a globalized society, you just get a plane ride and youre in thailand, and, mexico answer have always been assimilating in this country. They are american, with nachos. And, mexicans are asim mill lating into the United States. Its, its not something that you have to read from cover to cover, you can pick it up, and read it and, have have a couple lasts and do it again. Its at book that will always sell little by little because people will always have questions about mexico, and you get entertained. During book t. V. s recent visit to alabama, we spoke with fred gray, about his role in the boycott. In the heart of the deep south, the pattern of i lived on the westside of town, and the ghetto area, the montgomery, the two basic professions that males would be considered wellrespected. One, is a preacher, and two, is a teacher. And you did both of them on a segregated basis. I had gone, that i was quite early, they say that i baptize ediquettes and dogs, so, i was sent to a boarding school, in nashville tennessee when i was twelve to learn how to become a preacher and i did all of my High School Work after going to Elementary School until montgomery. He had to solicit students. And i was elected to be one of his preachers, who would travel with him all over the southeast and the southwest, raising, those and recruiting students. When i finished there, i knew a Little Something about preaching. So i made a secret commitment that i kept secret for about 40 years, and that is, i was not only going to be a preacher but, i was going to become a lawyer. I didnt know any lawyers, but i understood lawyers rendered service and they could help to solve the problems and everything was segregated, at the time. So, my commitment was, finish alabama state, enroll in somebodys law school, and dont even apply to the university of alabama, because i knew they wouldnt accept me. And finish law school, come back to alabama. Take the bar exam, become a lawyer and destroy everything segregated i could find. The book talked about rosa parks, and it talks about doctor king and all these other persons. But those were not my first case. My first civil rights case was the case of claude debt, a 15 yearold girl who lived in a part of montgomery, the northeast part of the city. And at that time, there were only about 3 streets up there, in that section, surrounded by white people, where these black people live had, and these children had to use the Public School system to take a bus downtown, and then go to booker t. High school. One day on march 2, 1955, nine months before mrs. Rosa parks did what she did, claude debt was coming from school. She had to change buses downtown. When she got on the bus, where she lived. More white people than usual got on the bus. She was not seated in one of the ten seats. But, when they fill all white seats up, the bus driver asked her, she was sitting, asked her to get up and she said she wasnt sitting in the white section and she did not get up. She was arrested. Her parents, called mr. Nixon, and i represented her before george hill in the court in the early spring of 1955, that was my first civil rights case. Let me ask this question, what do colored people want to gain by pressing the segregation fight at this time . What results do you hope to achieve . Well, we hope to achief equal rights for any human being. What do you think the prospects are for achieving that goal . How long do you think it would take. I have no idea. I became involved with mrs. Parks because two or three things. One, she was a very good friend with e. D. Nixon. She was the secretary to the branch of the n. A. A. C. P. She was the youth director of that branch. I was interested in civil rights cases and had met her when i was in college before i went to law school. So i knew of her interest and i was young too, so i wasnt too far removed from the youngster she was dealing w. So i knew her and she encouraged me to become a lawyer and, of course, once i became a lawyer, she our church was only about 3 blocks from where she lived. But, even more importantly, as she worked downtown, at a department store, so each day, five days a week, during our lunchhour she would walk up to my office. I wasnt that busy and we would talk about things. Youth, and, the problems on the buses. After she had been arrested. So she was well prepared and was willing to do whatever needed to be done, to end segregation on the buses. So, it was a logical thing for us to talk. When i got back in town, i had phonecalls from her, and i had a lot of messages, telling me that why need to do whatever it takes so we wont have this problem again. She had come it aid of claw death and so had i, and, nixon, so i knew we were interested in doing something permanent limit so, when i talked to mr. Nixon, he was into the man who did a lot of planning. But he was an action plan. I said, well, what im going dorks let me talk to joanne robinson, and see what she thinks, and see what we can do about getting the community involved. One, weve got to get the message out and there were more people, that go to church on sunday mornings, where you had more black people together and it could be made so we need to get the black preachers involved. If we can get them involved and they make an announcement so the people will stay off the bus on monday that will be fine. That was no problem because we knew all the black preachers, and, secondly, we concluded if were going to tell people to stay off of the buses we need to have somebody, to serve as a spokesman for him. Everybody cant talk. And the question is, who should that person be . Now, e. D. Nixon the largest following of people. But there was another man named lewis, and, he lived on the eastside of town. He was an educated man. He was interested in getting people registered to involvement getting people elected and holding them responsible to the people. He had a nightclub, in the name, it was the citizens club. And, in order for you to get in that club, you had to be a registered voter. So, we knew about them. So between those two, who are we going to get . Joanne said, well, i tell you, who, we need both of them. We were afraid if we get nixon, we would lose lewis people,. So why dont we get my pastor. Doctor Martin Luther king. Havent been involved in any civil rights activities. And theres one thing he can do. He can move people with words. Thats the man we need. Thats fine. So we decided, that, what we would do, ask people to stay off of the buses for a day. Two, we would end up joanne said, as soon as i get through here im going to get some leaflets made out. And then we assign each of us u reresponse built tills to talking to people so that there could be an official meeting called. He was selects at lawyer for the movement in charge of the legal activities, and, when the trial took place i knew we were going to lose a case and appeal t. And after the appeal and after the official meeting, when they met at the Baptist Church for the mass meeting, and when doctor king spoke, joanne and i, and mr. Nixon realized, what we had planned, in her living room was the right thing and the rest of it is history. Thats how i became involved in it, and thats how the bus boycott got started. There were 40,000 and 50,000 africanamericans, in montgomery, and many used the Public Transportation system. Those who used it, stayed off of the buses, and those who didnt helped to transport people and for 382 days, we stayed off of the buses until we could return on a non segregated basis. That was the beginning of the civil rights movement, and even more, it was an introduction of doctor Martin Luther king to the city, to the state, and to the nation and to the world. Next we visit the last home of f. Scott fitzgerald. Well were in the last of four houses, and, this is montgomery, alabama. It is registered in the register of places. When you come, you will find a house thats been saved from demolition. This couple averaged, about five months for 14 years. Now this house has been offered, fitzgerald a 1,000 a week contract, he had no choice but to leave cell dal behind, and, the hospital and travel across the country, to begin life anew as a 41yearold man. He spent the next 3andahalf years working in hollywood. He had one film critic, he had a girlfriend named shelllat graham, and she was every bit of his second wife but he would never divorce zelda, so it remain he, clandestine, with only insiders knowing about it. The night before he died, they went to go see this movie, it was the only film of 1940, that they put on their blacklist. It was as raucous, and funny film, and, fitzgerald enjoyed it, when he stood up to leave the theatre, he experienced a fainting spell, that is believed for have been a heart attack. Sheila, wanted to call an ambulance, and have him taken home. However, because it was the premiere of the movie, and the theatre that night was filled with alisters, and the highest paid actors, fitzgerald did not want to be seen being carried out. So, he had Sheila Graham wait until the theatre was empty and help him to the car. The next morning he woke up, they had brunch together, and he died of a heart attack. He was 44. In the end, montgomery, is the beginning and end of the fitzgerald story. Thats where they met, and tried to live, when they found out they were pregnant and its where they came when the wheels fell off the relationship, and off of zeldas mental state. But, more and more, what really seems to be the part of the story that visitors find the most poignant, is that their daughter, who grew up on the road for the first 14 years of her life. When she needed a place to call home, montgomery was where she landed. If you come youll find out that he is more than a writer. Not the gene genius, he needed someone to give him a life, full of ideas. That woman was zelda, a woman that fitzgerald felt exemplified the spirit after age in which they lived and allowed him to chronicle to be the great voice of the new youth generation following in the footsteps of world war i. Youre watching book t. V. , this weekend were in long beach with the help of our local cable partner. Next, president ial speechwriter, for ford shares behind the scene stories, in the white house and the important tans of speechwriters. How did you get started in speech writing. Thats an amazing kind of story. I was a high school debater and then in college, and, i went onto double my major, from history into Communication Studies and graduate school, but i never thought of speech writing, i just taught speech and got interested in various areas of the field. And then when i was at the university of virginia i was asked to give a guest lecture, at the university of north carolina. So i went down to chapel hill and gave my lecture, and president fords was speaking on the campus at noon. All of us decided to hear him. Because how often do you get to hear a president live, and the president gave a speech that was not very good. It was disorganized. And my colleagues, kidded me a lot. How could you support a man who cant give a speech i wrote out a five page critique of the speech. And then i mailed it to the white house. The president of the United States, the white house, and a week later i got a call and was asked to come up and interview for a speech writing job that was open. They had checked me out. Because i was a debate coach. And then i came up and went through the interview and i got the job. It was just amazing to me, that, the first time i was writing a speech for anybody but myself was the president of the United States. My first speech writing gig. Making a match between a speechwriter and the client is something that happens after youre hired. Some of the best speechwriters in the world did not get along with their clients. Its when you find a match, and you only learn that through the writing process. So, for example, john kennedy. Through a number of speechwriters, before his aid became his speechwriter and then it clicked. What happened with me was, i my first speech that i was assigned was to write the president s speech for the Southern Baptist convention. So here you had a catholic, writing for an epis ka pal indian, and we went down down to norfolk, and, he was about a minute and 30seconds into the speech and he was interrupted by applause. It threw him off and he got back on script. And he was interrupted 15 more times. The Washington Times wrote up, the speech as one of the best, that ford had ever given, so, ford, president fords and i were together as speechwriter and client. It went on successfully from that point forward. Why did that speech resonate with. [crowd noise] i understood that audience analysis is critical to giving a good speech. Tells us that the strategies that you use in the speech should come out of the audience. So i had done advance work, and, there were a lot of ministers there. I had talked to Southern Baptist preachers, and, i think, adapting to the audience was the first step. The second step that made the president very comfortable was the organization of the speech. He knew where he was going. Speeches are invisibly. People only retain about a third of what they hear. So you have to repeat yourself and say heres where we are now, and heres where were going. And it makes the speaker feel comfortable, and the audience, and i think thats what happened with that speech. After we lost the presidency, i lined up a job at the university of alabama, while i was teaching, bill harris, the new head of the Republican Party said would you help me out . I would have to self republican i. To them. Reagan said no. And then we and bush to come in and he said yes. He spoke, in the civic center. Now birmingham was a republican city. And we went to the civic center, and i was sitting at table and near me was this nerdy young man, with blondes hair, and he said why dont you tell us what you think of bushs speech. I said ill do that. So i took notes as bush spoke. When the speech was done, the nerdy young man said, what did you think of it . Hes a very nice man and very bright. But he needs some organization, and he needs a sense of style. Its obvious that speech wasnt rehearsed and he said, well, my name is karl rove and i work for him. How would you like to meet him . So i went upstairs, and i shook hands and he invited me to come to houston, to meet him, with him and his wife in january. So, i flew to houston, and came to the house in, a three piece suit. All very formal, in the morning. Mr. Bush came to the door and he was in an i sod teeshirt. And he said if you will get out of that silly vest ill cook you breakfast. She says george that young man is standing there with a cup of coffee, no saucer, and we have the chinese delegation, mrs. Bush, i came to your door in a three piece suit and im not going to spill a drop of this coffee, and she laughed and i laughed, and we were friends. So i became a consulting write are, and right up to 1980. He pulled out and then, reagan became the nominee and he put bush on the ticket with him. So, i couldnted to consult with mr. Bush , vicepresident bush all that time, and then into his next president ial run. The biggest challenge for me, was that he didnt like rehearsing. He thought it was unmainly to rehearse and i had to convince him that power people i had worked for had rehearsed and he had needed to. In fact, the wednesday night of the convention he gave a terrific speech and that helped him get on the ticket. He said i didnt know the guy could speak that well. The american people, regardless of party want a winner in the white house after four years of jimmy carter,. We have [cheers]. We have such a winner, and his name is ronald reagan. [cheers]. But every once in awhile, he would lapse into not rehearsing, and i have to tell you the best speech in the world, if delivered badly is a bad speech. Sometimes a bad speech delivered very well is a good speech. So, delivery is a bottom line for me when i work with client. One of the things i do, i deliver the speech to them before i let them look at it. So they can hear it and then look at it. They can see the rhythm and the phrasing. Because thats really important. When do you know when a speech doesnt work . Its usually pretty obvious. Im lucky, it rarely happened for me. But my speeches went very well, because i monitored them and i made sure that i rehearsed with the client. But when i was working for president ford the representatives of boys nation came to the rose garden to give him an award. And i had written the speech for him. He took it out. And he delivered it beautifully. The next week the mormons came to give him a little statue. And he went out same thing, i had given him the speech, and he flubbed. And what happened . So we were talking back from the rose garden, and i said mr. President , with all due respect, the boys nation speech went terrific. Today not so much. And he said well they had a Motion Picture camera going. I dont understand. He said it makes me nervous. So here was a man who had given 530 speeches, and nobody had determined that he was camera shy. So when we went to kansas city, for him to give the acceptance. We rehearsed him in front of five cameras live and we kept going through the speech. So, he had gotten his camera shyness and gave a great speech. Tonight i can tell you thks nation is sound, this nation is secure. This designation on the mark to full economic recovery and a better quality of life for all americans. Pete add had a very short campaign. We had trouble fundraising, and, it was given in front of the statue of liberty. He talked about law and order, how much he supported police and illegal immigration, which is one of the things he was trying to shut down the speech made the frontpage of the new york times, there he was standing there, and i must say thats the best reaction i have ever had. Now, the bicentin knee a speeches,. By the time we find, it, we were only tenpoints behind. At the end of the acceptance speech, ford was only about five points behind and after the first debate the race was dead even. So you can make a difference with the speeches that you deliver it is very difficult for speechwriters to do as much good as they can, with stumpspeeches. I felt so bad for senator rubio, when they gave him a line and he kept repeating the line. It wasit was the beginning of te unraveling of his campaign. You also have someone who is ignoring them. Donald trump, making fun, as if he was in junior high of people, saying women dont look very good. Referring to carllys face and speechwriters would never write things like that. So theres been this deterioration, of the candidates. Clinton has gone from a wooden speaker in 1996, if you look at her victory speech, that speech is well written. Extremely well rehearsed and very well delivered. Its the best speech i have ever seen her give. We need to be tearing down barriers. [cheers]. We need to show that we are in this together. So theres a place for the speechwriters. Theyre still working and doing things. I know that jeb bush called in some people, and it improved him in the debates but it was too late. The debates are difficult. Things can go wrong. When i was coaching president ford, we won the first debate, and the race was dead even. We were very optimistic. In the second debate we knew it was foreign policy. We knew the president was going to be asked, about the soviet union. He said, look, yugoslavia, and romania, is moving in that direction. Poland is not dominated, and then, pad and followup. Im sorry. Could i just,dy understand you to say that the russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence, on our side of the line, the italians, and french. I dont believe, that, the ewing ewing go slav view answers, consider themselves dominated. And i dont believe the romanians consider themselves dominated. And i dont believe that the poles consider themselves. Well, after the debate we went up to the president , and, said, mr. President , you misspoke yourself. Youre going to have to hold a press conference and explain what you meant. And he said, what did i say . We played back what the president said. I thought i said, in their hearts and in their minds. Well hold a press conference and clear this up. Henry kissinger said whats going on. We explained, what had happened. And he said you cant say that. It will insult the soviets and im trying to get him out of the soviet union. They debated for five days and during those five days, the election slipped. The people were reminded that the president had tripped and fallen and he was made fun of, and all of that came back. He became the mistakeprone president. He did correct the record five days later but it was too late. So debates are really dangerous. Speechwriters are very important to the current campaigns, to start by saying that. Speechwriters are important to terms of getting the phrasing down so that it means something. Hillary says we shouldnt be building walls, we should be breaking down barriers. You have breaking down barriers, thats a well turned phrase. It becomes a slogan. So, i think, those are the kinds of things that speechwriters can do, to give it cohesiveness. Bush and de caucus on crime. Not only opposes the death penalty, he allowed first firste murderers. One was willie and despite a lifesentence he received ten weekend passes, and he fled, kidnapped a young come on, and stabbed a man, and, raped his girlfriend. And the name of my book is in defense of negativity. I wrote it as response to what was unfolding in the late 1990s, where we had the sudden rise of attack politics. It was undermining democracy. Thats overstated. They play a Critical Role because the people who are out of power need to attack those in power. Those attacks, checked. They provide accountability, and so, to say that all these attacks were bad, struck me as, a false assumption, and we needed to figure out what was going on. There was a huge amount of attention, being paid to the power of negative ads and we didnt know how they worked and how they compared to positive ads. So i sat out to study that and looked at huge number of ads, at the president ial level to figure out whats going on, some worked, and some didnt, and at the end of the day, they play a Critical Role, in the function of a democracy. Without them, we would be a lot worse off. First of all, negatively, has been with american politics, since its invention. You take it, and the constitution is you know, recommended out of the convention. The anti fed ral lists go on an attack. Jefferson faced attacks. Jackson, and, lincoln faced attacks. But within the current environment, thats a platform of television. When it came in the 1950s, the First Campaign was 1952, though, truman made a get out the vote aye peel, the very few people had television. But, in 1952, the First Campaign, there were negative ads. Eisenhower attacked, stevenson, and, he did ads, and he didnt think they weres in. He was wrong. But, there was a steady period from 64 to about 84 where you had about 20, 30 of ads were negative. And then started in 1988, which is a watershed election, you see an increase, and it it continues to increase. I suspect 2016 will break that record. The primaries have seen a increase in attack ads. And thats reason to think theres probably going to continue. One of the things that people sometimes assume is that attacks are made up. That you decide to go after somebody because thats a weakness you go after. Thats not quite right. You have to have some basis of evidence for the attack to work. Theres never been anybody who has attacked bill clinton for not being informed on public policy. He is. But they might attack him for certain personal infidellies, because they exist. They work because were all, we have flaws and we have some sort of weaknesses. Were not perfect. We need to know that information to make a informed decision. Thats where negative ads come into play. Hillary clinton will tell you why shes a great candidate, but shes not going to tell you why she shouldnt be. That falls on the republican nominee, the reasons y. Its that backandforth thats central to the politics. You have to be careful, when you figure out the power of an ad its hard hard to know, because, so many things are going on. You cant say, oh, this moved public opinionand ads that shape the conversation are the famous daisy ad from 1964, where johnson raised doubts about gold waters views about weapons. 1, 2, 3. 4, 5, 7, 6, 8, 9. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 zero. These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of gods children can live or to go into the dark. We must either love each other or we must die. Vote for president johnson on november 3rd, the stakes are too high for you to stay home. In fact that ad which is still run today, never mentioned barry gold water by name. Because gold water had made these statements about using weapons, and throwing them in the mens room, and, the force, in vietnam, and he said this. But, his name didnt need to be used and still talked about today. More today than it was in 1964. Another famous ad would be the swift boat ad which was used to attack john kerry, not aired by bush. It was aired by a thirdparty group. They raped, cut off ears and cut off heads. The accusations that john kerry made against the veterans, who served was just devastating. Shot at civilians and hurt cut off limbs. And, blown up bodies. Q. That was part of the torture, that you committed war crimes. Raised villages, and, john kerry gave it, what i and many of my comrades, the prison camps, torture. That ad reached only 1 million americans, yet by september of 2004 over 80 of americans, knew the term
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