Transcripts For CSPAN2 The American Spirit 20170704

I shouldve gone on a little longer perhaps. Would you mind if i came in again . Its about to say how special this night is, but you wont beat me to it, which is great. Welcome. My name is steve rothstein, executive director of the john f. Kennedy Library Foundation and on behalf of other colleagues in the foundation and jamie roth and all the colleagues in the library, we are pleased you can be here. All of our forums are great, but tonight is a treat because the speaker here is also the beginning of the john f. Kennedy centennial weekend and we plan this month ago when we had data entry literally thought who would be the best pair are both speaker and moderator we could get for this historic time. This is what weve gotten, so we are thrilled they are both here. [applause] before he introduced them, a few brief announcements. First i want to thank our underwriters and sponsors is the lead sponsor, bank of america. The Lowell Institute including andrea wohl who is here tonight commend media sponsors and their media sponsors for the centennial to be cvp tv. We are kicking off the centennial and there are information when you information when the lever may be on your chair about what we are doing over the next few days. Over the next few days, there were opportunities from seeing a new exhibit with 100 items including 40 never seen by anyone publicly before opening tomorrow. On saturday in this room a special peace corps day. On sunday, we have an astronaut here is part of our tribute to nasa. On sunday we are having bands and music the navy to honor president kennedys service in the navy and at 3 00 p. M. , exactly 100 years to demand that president kennedy was born, will have to f18s flying overhead to honor president kennedy. And then we will be eating the cake. We need help doing this. The cake will serve 1000 people, designed by the same company that did take further engagement many years ago. I hope youll join us for some of those activities. But tonight we have a literally standing room only. We also have an overflow in her other auditorium. We are also thrilled we are streaming this and they are watching parties in places including the john f. Kennedy museum and others in cspan are here. We appreciate all of you here are those participating online. We have many to many distinguished guests and im not going to list them. I do want to highlight that the risk of forgetting some. We appreciate their leadership throughout the year and what they do. Because it is our centennial, we invited our colleagues at president ial colleagues around the country and we have representatives with us from the president ial library or their Accompanying Foundation from harry truman, jimmy carter, george h. W. Bush and bill clinton library. Former United States senator paul kirk here tonight. Former ambassadors alan solomon, Nicholas Burns and several members of the new england general quarter. John mccain followed them. [applause] so after the first hour of dialogue, there will be a chance for questions and if you can get up and ask us. If you dont want to get up or fewer in the other room or if you are streaming, you can also tweet us at jfk library. Stay in your seat, someone will read the question for you, get up in line. We will do as many as we can. After the event, if you have them come agree. If not the bookstore has them. And go out at the end, my left, youre right. Just to help the traffic flow goes smoothly. If you havent read this yet, this is a treasure. The american spirit who we are and what we stand for there are so many featured here. I promise i wont do that. Charlie gibson. [applause] based on the applause, i think i speak for most people who feel we know him even though we may have just met him in much of what i know i learned from listening to him on the news for 34 years the both anchoring the bbc world news and cohosting Good Morning America he interviewed everybody, including nine u. S. President s. We are honored he and his wife are here tonight. David mccullough. He hasnt been recognized very much in his life. Everyone has two pulitzer prizes. In two National Book awards in the Francis Parkman prays twice in the president ial medal of freedom from the nations highest civilian honor. Everyone i know has been recognized by 54 honorary degrees. Thank you very much. [applause] so we are going to do just a colloquy for an hour. If people are going to treat questions from outside the room, those are pretty concise questions i must say. The most famous tweeter and the world probably is not watching. I doubt they will get one of those and i shudder to think what it might be. But we do look forward to this and it is a treat for me as somebody who is a very distinguished history major in college to have a chance to talk to david or something of a legend as stephen mentioned. Im so pleased their representatives hear from so many different president ial libraries and we do gather in the kennedy library, which leads me to wonder, can i ask you, how many books do you think it would be a veteran president ial library . [laughter] [applause] as you sought in an interview with the washington post, said hed never read a book about a president or a book about the presidency. He might someday he said. He doesnt read books because his mind reaches beyond not. I began to think about the great president down the years who have been avid readers of history, many of them wrote this including john kennedy. Even those who didnt have the benefit of the College Education may carry truman read history all their lives. He realized it is essential to the role as the leader, whether it is the presidency or leadership at any time. History matters. If i have one message code like to get across in my work is History Matters a lot. [applause] we are slipping in the responsibility of teaching history to her children and grandchildren. Its been going on a good long time. A number of us become evangelical preachers of the importance of history. I have lectured colleges and universities agreed deal and i was astonished at how much these wonderful young people dont know about our country. I had one young lady, to me to talk and she said she wanted to thank me for coming to the campus because until she heard my talk that day, she had no idea that the original 13 colonies were on the east coast. Then another one asked, which may be my favorite. Does the university of california. Aside from harry truman and john adams, how many other president s have you interviewed . [laughter] so they may not be many books in the trunk president ial library, but therell be one of an edifice. With the name in big letters. That leads me to a second question. As an historian, what specific steps could enter jackson have taken to prevent a civil war . A week ago all night. Up we are not going to stick our questions are our questions on not come im not going to have any more. You could be interviewing president douglas tonight. Can you believe it . Really, well, i would restore our recognition of who we are and why we are the way we are and what we stand for. I think more and more debt as important as great school, high school, college of the university, all of that is essential, that may be as important as any of it is how we are dried up, how were we raise to behave, telling the truth, that treating people with kindness, tolerance, empathy and hard work. Picture up in pittsburgh, pennsylvania where people probably worked hard, but if youre a hard, good worker, that was hiding how you appreciated by other people. My father used to say charlie, he drinks too much, but hes a good worker. Or fred, hes a terrible exaggerator and tells stories i dont quite believe, but hes a good worker. If you are a good worker, that forget all of their failings. And that is how we got to where we are, by working very, very hard. I was doing my right rather spoke. Two young men who never had the chance to go to college. Never even finished high school, but theyre a product to have purpose in life. They were brought up with values at home to learn to use the english language on paper so that you read the letters that have survived in the library of congress. They are humbling in the quality of their vocabulary to express themselves superbly. The ferry to boast about yourself, never to get too big for your britches. One of the things that so impressed me at the time it impresses me even more, given the situation we are in now is john kennedy almost never talked about himself. Is the firstperson singular. Almost never use the firstperson singular. Commander couldve gone on and on to say the least with justification and what hes accomplished. You mentioned not actually in the book. You mentioned for 50 years since the age of 50 you have been giving a lot of speeches, many extemporaneous but you must have record of speeches you have written down. I am curious why you wanted to do a book of speeches now and why you chose these 15. When writing my book about harry truman i love that he went for a walk every morning. I thought maybe i should try that as a way of tuning up your head, not necessarily your body and you start thinking in a way that if you are not walking and so last summer with comments by the republican candidate for the presidency where to me, not only appalling but unimaginably out of place. I thought what could i do to provide some Counter Point of view to this . I started thinking about some of the speeches i gave at national occasion such as the 200th anniversary of the congress, the anniversary of the white house, kennedys Memorial Service in which i was asked to be the speaker and commencement speeches and speeches i have given at particular occasions of importance to the history of other organizations and found there were a great many where i was voicing what really matters to me and why i think history is so fascinating and how essential it is as a means to enlarging the experience of being alive. Why should we limit our lives to this little bit of time that our biological clocks offer, provide, when we could have access to the whole realm of the human story going back hundreds of thousands of years and so i set to work to take a look at which of these speeches might be appropriate and had the help of my daughter dori lawson who arranged all these talks that i gave and the records of what i said. When i read the book the first time, finished it and put it down, i thought he is writing in the times, making these speeches because they might be apropos to the current time and i have heard you say before historians basically dont have a role in talking about current politics but you are talking about current politics with these speeches. I was before current politics came on the scene, none of these speeches was written i went back and read them a second time thinking what is the sentence, what is the paragraph, the point he is trying to make that might be taken to heart by people in politics right now so i went back and read it a second time and each time i was looking again, what is the one point he is trying to make here that might be taken to heart by somebody who might be elected president , who knows . So let me pick out a few. I wont to each one but i think 12 out of 15 i found pertinent. First speech in the book, from 1989 you quote Margaret Smith of maine who had the guts to rebuke joe mccarthy. She said i dont want to see the Republican Party and she was a republican ride the political victory of the four horseman of fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear. Smear is the interesting word here. Why did you think that had application to the current times . [laughter] if you only had a sense of humor. Could you imagine somebody reading that in the current Political Climate . It would be wonderful. A republican to stand up and she did and she is a woman, one of the rare cases of women in the senate at one point in history and most people have no idea who Margaret J Smith is. One of the bravest, most admirable political figures we ever had. Not many republicans are standing up now . Not enough. 1998 speech quoteing benjamin rush, not as wellknown as other patriots of that time, one of the original signers of the declaration speaking of good nature mattered most in human relations, he said and you quote him in the book, this is his quote, i include candor, gentleness and disposition to speak with civility and listen with attention to everybody, then you added in 1998 words to the wise then but perhaps in our own day. Benjamin rush is one of my favorite characters from our past and absolutely remarkable man. Polymath of 18thcentury, interested in almost everything and an accomplished physician, one of the first people to encourage the fair and humane treatment of people with Mental Illness and not to just stuff them away in a cell as if they were animals. He was extremely courageous in his ability to go into places where plague was rampant, the yellow fever epidemic. Over and over. He was one of the signers of the declaration of independence was when he signed the declaration of independence he was all of 30 years old. We forget how young those people were. Different than when he wrote the declaration of independence was 33. Imagine. Washington when he took command of the Continental Army was 44 years old. We see them later on when they are whitehaired, weeks and old early statures and so forth, they werent that way then. They were very very young and i think that is an encouraging fact of that part of our story. I dont think we can ever know enough about the American Revolution. By the way, the new museum of the American Revolution just opened in philadelphia, is a must for all of us. It is marvelous, particularly as a place to take your children, your grandchildren to get them hooked on history. It is brilliantly organized, spectacular building by robert stern, excuse me. And right in the center of where all the historic neighborhood is. Only a few steps down the street from independence hall. We who live in the boston area sort of think reality of the miracle of that era is part of our environment, part of our world and that is good, that is great, but i love kennedys profiles encourage, still not really aware yet of what i want to do with my life. I love his regard for john quincy adams. What i like and that quote im not here to comment on anything but what i like is the word civility which is a lost art in Public Discourse of America Today and the sense of comity that existed among people who share a common goal and know that there needs to be a common end. It is gone. It is gone. You write that it has been evers us. We have many instances of deep chasms of division in this country but we come out of them. What is going to bring us out of this . The two sides seem so unalterably opposed. When politics trumps policy, when the sense of a National Goal is gone and party goals matter more than National Goals what brings us out of this . Leadership. Leadership of the best kind. Leaders who have the courage to stand up to their convictions, have the backbone to do what is right irrespective of what it means to their political future or their chance of being reelected and it has to come mainly from the people. We talk about three segments of government, legislative, judicial and executive but there is a fourth, the people, all of us. When we stand up and say no more of this. We dont take this anymore. When we stand up and say there is a person right there saying the right thing and doing the right thing and we are going to get behind her or him and make sure that attitude becomes potent and maybe even decisive. When someone reads about Margaret J Smith and says that is what i am going to do, somebody in the government it will happen out of the necessity to survive, we are going to expect that. We are, i believe, you actually write we are a centrist nation. We are basically a country where 30, 40, 50, 60 of the people once government to get something done. We are not doing it. That doesnt mean we wont which we have come through very hard times, very pessimistic times. Inappropriate behavior at times in the part of leadership but we have come through them all and very often when we do come through them, these difficult times, these dark, clouted times and we do come through, we are better off having done it. People talk about that was a simpler time back then, no it wasnt. There never was a simpler time, things have never been so bad, so dark, so foreboding, yes they have. If you dont understand that you dont understand the reality of our story. I like to point out the influenza epidemic which my parents and your parents probably went through, 191819, 500,000 americans died of that disease. The disease they didnt know where it came from, didnt know if it would ever go away at all or how to cure it. If that were to happen today given the size of our population, 1,500,000 people would die in less then a year. Imagine if that were on the nightly news every night, we would be even more terrified, who would be next in our family to die and just as the depression and the civil war, horrible times but we came through them because among other things we had the faith that we would and could and because we understood the nothing of much consequence is ever accomplished alone. It is to be a joint effort. That is what we have to understand. In the introduction to this book you write the fundamental decency, tolerance and insistence on truth and goodheartedness of the American People are there, still, plainly, you added a 2004 speech you assert that 90 of americans share those values. How does that square with what we did in the election last november. This isnt an answer, this is part of the answer. Lets not forget the popular vote, Hillary Clinton won by almost 3 billion votes. It isnt as though it were a landslide and donald trump really won by a very narrow margin. I think we have several major problems. One is the poisonous effect of big money in politics. The ideas that people, members of congress are dialing for dollars every day, half their time. The fact we are inclined to become or have become a nation of spectators. We sit around and watch things all the time, watch television, watch athletic events, let somebody else do the performing to amuse us, to entertain us, we are not doing things as much as we should. We are not making things on our own, we are not getting out there and helping solve these problems. That is not true of everybody of course. We are immensely generous. We are immensely philanthropic. We care sincerely and with fervor about education, we should be infinitely proud of what we have achieved in the last 200 years in the way of the greatest universities in the world, yes they have problems, the cost has gotten out of hand but there are no institutions of Higher Learning anywhere on are comparable to our own, never has been and in all of history. This is an immensely admirable and important accomplishment, just as it is immensely important and admirable that we have advances in medicine such as no one ever imagined. Future historians when looking back on our time will say politics, the military, political upheaval all over the world, very important to a degree but look at what was happening in medicine. Look at what happened in our lifetime. We were just looking at the diseases john kennedy in the new exhibit that is about to open, the diseases that mrs. Kennedy, rose kennedy, John Kennedys mother put on a little file card that he had as a child. My wife and i each had brothers who had infantile paralysis, doesnt exist anymore. Scarlet favor, all of that, not to mention the dna or successful transplant of organs. We are spoiled. We have been given so much that we just take it for granted that we should be grateful and we should be making our teachers heroes. We should be celebrating. [applause] we should have major awards, we should have statues in our towns to the Great Teachers that have shaped the lives of so many people. I feel that our teachers are doing the most important work of any of us and we all want to get behind them and make sure they understand we are all for them. [applause] being married to an educator i would second that, and they are to be paid more. Absolutely, no question. Before i leave the subject of our current president because we could stay on that forever. What do you think john kennedy would think of trumps actions. [laughter] you know, we all know. He would be embarrassed. He would be appalled. He wouldnt believe it. We have never had anything like this happen as a country. Never at at anyone even remotely so inappropriate to the responsibilities of the presidency in the job. Never. [applause] virtually every day he makes sure we know it is even worse than we thought. It is as if we put someone in the pilot seat who had never flown a plane, who doesnt think it is important to know how to fly a plane. Hes just a little surprised at how much more complicated it is. I love the fact the fellow who is going to solve all of our healthcare problems discovered that healthcare was complicated. I was a College History major and one of the things that always struck me where the differing prisons for which history is seen, social historians, economic historians, political historians, demographically historians, Natural Resource historians, it goes on and on but whatever prison you are looking through you see or can see history differently. In your mind, what are you . What kind of historian . I am not a historian. I am not. I have never been. I never studied history the way i would if i were an academic. I am a writer who took up writing about people, about real people and events that really happened. My job is to tell that accurately as possible with the basic conviction that history is human. It is about people. It is about the Human Potential and human limitations. It is about good people and bad people. It is about the whole mix and it is about stories that really happen. Barbara to akron had good influence on me as a writer of history, said that there is no trick to teaching history effectively or writing about history, tell stories. That is what i tried to do but also tried to bring down to front and center stage people who have been in the background more than they deserve to have been like john adams, like the builders of the Brooklyn Bridge or the people who made the success at panama happen. And women, abigail adams, emily roebling, the wife of the owner of the Brooklyn Bridge and catherine right, the sister of the Wright Brothers without whom i dont think they would have succeeded. She has never gone adequate credit for that and i hope my book does that and brings her to the point where she is recognized as not only having been important but interesting and admirable as a human being. Host im interested in how history gets revised over the years, there are people seen as heroes and then perhaps dont fare as well in historians eyes, they can come back in there is a renaissance etc. How do you think john kennedy is bearing . Very well but i also think we are only a point where we can start to pass judgment. Truman said you have to wait 50 years for the dust to settle. It has been 50 years and he will begin it is not just who went before him but who has followed him and how does he compare and what are the consequences of decisions he made or didnt make . We need to look much more at the importance of decisions president s didnt make that were as important as decision they did. The decision eisenhower made not to go into vietnam for example. The decision john adams made not to go to war with france which the whole country resigned to do which would have been catastrophic had he done so. This is all a big part of it. Kennedy, the problem with kennedy will be it is cut off so soon. We very rarely take a president as seriously as the others who has only served one term and here is a president who didnt even serve one term. Yet look what footprints, what a mark he left on our sense of who we are. Host as someone who read the volumes robert caro wrote about johnson which are terrific books and tell great stories, interesting that you really have to look at the kennedy presidency as a presidency that follows because johnson who might not have been inclined to be so ideologically attuned with his predecessor really took his predecessors agenda to heart and it became his. It is amazing how that really in many respects johnson may have been able to do things kennedy couldnt have done. Hard to find two men more different and whether you say you interviewed 11 president s. Nine. I started with john quincy adams. I have interviewed 7 or 6 or something and i have gotten to know those through the research i have done on past days. What strikes me is how different they are, one from another. Really different. Jimmy carter, compared to George Hw Bush or bill clinton. Some of them in my view deserve more focus, attention, a way that my instinct is that gerald ford deserves more attention than he has received. He deserves a first rate biography because when you think of all that happened in that brief time that he was president and when you think of what he coped with, they tried to kill him twice. His wife suffering alcoholism. I was here on profiles encourage panel the year we gave gerald ford profiles encourage award because of his pardoning nixon and when he did that he knew it would probably cost him reelection but he did it anyway. Did the right thing and saved us all kinds of grief and contentious behavior on the part of all people in all roles. And but the big difference today is start taking a look at gerald ford and i discovers this when working on harry truman, the volume of materials that you have to deal with as a researcher, as a biographer is overwhelming. Otherwise you are just skimming through all this material. What is in this collection here could keep one doing research for a full lifetime and never get through all of it. Not is not of importance that we have this wonderful material but it is a staggering fountain to try and climb. Every book of the kind that i write and others right, biography and history is a joint effort, it is a Group Project because you have got editors and copy editors and archivists and librarians and specialists you want to interview so when you see those acknowledgments in the back of a biography, those people arent just there to tip your hat to friends or something, those people all contributed enormously and to make one more point, we have the problem we are not teaching history as well as we should and not requiring history as a course that is required in college, universities anymore. 8 of colleges require no history to graduate and that is wrong. I believe in required courses because it is important Young Americans at that stage in life understand some things are required. [laughter] surprise surprise. But the satisfaction, the gratification that comes from working with good people such as our in this library of having the help of not just what they know but their ideas, their suggestions of which path you should take to make new discoveries are invaluable importance. And should never be underestimated and we have right now some of the finest writers ever writing marvelous history and biography, they are reaching a very large audience and that is encouraging, people like robert caro and many others, many others and we have superb documentary films being made and broadcast by pbs and other networks. All of that is important, in part because so many people today reach the age of 35, 45, 50 and realize i dont know much of the history that i ought to know. Im going to read that book or watch that documentary. Host talking about how history gets revised some interesting things going on today, i am a proud son of princeton, yale has taken the name calhoun off of one of its colleges because of his background and things he did in my life. Princeton has gone through agony trying to figure out how to depict Woodrow Wilson whose name is so closely associated with the college and there are statues in the south built to civil war leaders that are coming down to the consternation of many who live in the south. What do you think of that kind of revisionist history and are those things proper in your mind . You start renaming everything because someone did something that is no longer acceptable as being virtuous like owning slaves, there is no end to how much you will have to rename including the capital of our country and you have to take down the Washington Monument and so forth. I would much rather see us start to raise statues or rename New Buildings or monuments to those who didnt own slaves and did so contrary to the mode of the moment. Most importantly john adams, the only founding father president who never owned a slave out of principle. The next president in line who never owned a slave with his son, john quincy and there are no buildings named for either of them. No great statues for either of them. Taking statues down in the south is the right thing to do because most all of those statues as you doubtless read recently were put up during the jim crow era. They were not done at the time of the civil war. They were done in the early part of the 20th century and they were really saying we believe in any quality of racial citizenship, professing where we stand on this. I would not have renamed calhoun college. I certainly would not take wilsons name off of buildings if it were my decision. I dont want us to start renaming our cities and towns and the rest. I am more interested in giving more attention to people we ignored been getting too worked up about too much attention to the wrong people. You mentioned that you talked about the importance of history. And yet we are in a situation in this country where things are changing so fast. The dislocation of the job market for instance is incredible. There are those futurists who say in 20 years have to jobs, maybe even more, people will occupy havent been invented yet. Think of that. I was on the board of my college for eight years and the graduating seniors would stand up, we the board who can for the degrees would be sitting up on the day is looking at them and when i went on the for the first graduation i had was 2007 and there were a handful of graduates in computer technology. When i left the board in 2015 the number was huge. The number of engineers that stand up is growing exponentially. Bill gates the other day said if you are a student in college you should study one of three things, artificial intelligence, energy or the mile sciences, he didnt talk about history or the humanities or social sciences. The pertinence of those things, are they, given how fast things are changing, do you of the prince of those things stand up or should kids be more worried as they graduate about what is changing, how to change, how to adapt, how to prepare themselves for a job market that is so uncertain . I may be stuck in my ways and so out of rhythm with the realities of the modern hightech society and i confess to it. I dont use a computer. I dont know how to work a computer. I write on a manual typewriter. [applause] what kind of a phone do you have . Do you talk into a pop tart . Are you ready . Where is it . I am way ahead of all of you. There it is. [applause] they tell me all the things it can do. That is wonderful. I only once it as a telephone. I think the decline of the emphasis on the humanities is a very serious mistake. I really do. Because lets suppose you come out of the university with a degree in chemistry or hightech communications or whatever and that might get you a very good job right away and might lead you into a very important and constructive career. But if you come out of college knowing how to use the english language, you are going to be a rare bird of great value, no, truly. Almost half of the law school in our country today now require their Incoming Freshman who are College Graduates to take a course in basic writing because they dont know how to write a presentable letter or report or analysis or that sort of thing. They dont know how to express themselves in our language. This is not only a handicap, it is a risky trend in any reasonably civilized society. To be incapable of using the english language, expressing yourself in words and have no sense of the past of our country, our nation, is to be really held back, to have serious drawbacks to your qualifications for leadership in all fields. It must be encouraged among our students and universities and colleges and a lot of us are working hard to bring back the humanities and with good reason. Think of the jobs that are open to people who can use the english language, who know how to write, who know how to think in the english language. Words are what we think with. If our vocabularies are declining which they are, very specific proof of all this, children today have lower vocabularies, less than what our generation has. Words are what we think with. Thinking, by the way, is important. One of my favorite of all discoveries in the diaries of john adams, he kept a marvelous diaries, by the way, nobody in public life would dare keep a diary anymore. It can be subpoenaed and used against you in court. And entry for january 15th or whatever, at home, thinking. [applause] can you imagine somebody in washington today were to write that in his or her diary as an honest record of what they did that day . Thinking. Host i would have one addendum to what you said and it perhaps reflect the profession from which i come, there is no question that the ability to write is something of a lost art for students. A very good friend of mine who is a past president of princeton, i had dinner with recently and she was about to read five or have five oral argument presentations for Phd Candidates and i said how good where their cc and she said two of them were legibly written and three of them were not very good. The addendum i would add is also the ability to present your argument verbally. To be able to present, to be able to defend your argument orally. Warren buffett said recently he could predict that anybody who was a good speaker and could logically present an argument and do it verbally to a crowd and urge people to learn to speak publicly will make 50 more in your lifetime then you will if you cant do that. Worked for me. But lord knows what i could have done if i was able to write. But it is important, both of those things and i think what you are saying is so important because of that dislocation of the job market. You dont know what you will be doing 20 years from now. In a basic grounding in moral thought, in the humanities, the social sciences, history because the critical thing is that you be adaptive, that you can adapt your self to a changing environment in the workplace. I would like to read from one of John Kennedys speeches that could not be more valid or relevant to todays situation. This is a man who is new to the job still, but not new to what the proper objective of education and learning, civilized society, should be. I look forward to an america which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to and america which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but its civilization. This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. Art is the Great Unifying and humanizing experience. The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction to the life of the nation, is very close to the center of the nations purpose. It is the test of quality, the test of the quality of a nations civilization. I am certain after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities we too will be remembered not for our victories and defeats in battle or politics but for our contributions to the human spirit. [applause] host with that let me invite any of you who have questions, i ask you to keep them brief, dont make a speech and while you make your way to the microphone two quick questions for you. Most interesting person you ever met, ever researched. Guest one of the most interesting people was tom stargell who just died in the last few months. Tom stargell should have been a name everybody knew, tom stargell changed history in a way very few human beings ever do and largely unknown except within the medical profession. Successfully made the first double transplant organ transplant success. He changed that whole realm. One man who kept, who kept at it. If i have a theme in this book, it is a line i quoted from george total freedom of religion, there would be Government Support for education from grade school through college, since the beginning of the first state universities and there would be no slavery. Imagine. Even before we have a constitution or National Government we have eliminated slavery from half of our country. A phenomenal accomplishment, this one man virtually pulled it off. He was a classic polymath like benjamin franklin, really a botanist, he was an astronomer, you asked who was the most interesting man. He qualifies high. Four those five went for trump, Hillary Clinton, he had taken a pass. Over here. We belong to the most liberal state in the country, four years from now, there doesnt seem to be a leader of the Democratic Party. We have a guy named seth who looks good but is not married, he is single, and exmarine and i wonder what youre feeling was, the neck leader of the Democratic Party would be. I can tell you personally, absolutely, joe biden. [applause] he is a man of character. He also had experienced both personal and professional where he has been knocked down and gotten back up in a way that is admirable in the extreme. He doesnt want it right now. Somebody will come forward. Somebody of strong character and admirable attitude and outlook could come forward in the Republican Party if this present occupant doesnt last much longer. Host i am glad you cited gerald ford. It was the first time i had a chance to be a White House Reporter for abc when gerald ford was president. The decency of the guy, to do what he did with nixon, his first sentence when he went to the chamber of the house, he said our Long National nightmare, the day he assumed the presidency, our Long National nightmare is over. The right man for the moment. It is amazing the genius of the american system, how it tends to bring those people to the top. Guest he was a grown up and a gentleman. Host i dont know what that chuckle from the audience means but i think i do. Over here. Your books are based on newspapers and documents, letters, those sorts of sources, since so few people write letters today, newspapers seem to be in decline, what sources you think future writers of history will use . Guest i think they are going to have a lot of trouble. They will have no letters or diaries to go by. They wont know what we were really like. When we write by computer might not last. There is a good chance it wont last and it isnt exactly heartfelt personal expression of the kind that letters and diaries have traditionally been. It is too bad. If any of you by any chance are interested in immortality, start keeping a diary. Write about anything you want every day, and keep on doing it until you reach the point the curtain may be about to come down and give it to the Massachusetts Historical Society and it will be quoted forever. It will be the only diary in existence. Host as an aside you mentioned in the book and interview, reading the diary of Elizabeth Drake are, pennsylvania, late 18th century, early 19th. Guest i am not. Some other guy. Your book is about speeches. I wonder if you could comment on the ability of president kennedy in his capacity as a person who gave speech, he had a brief presidency yet it seems he gave many many many memorable speeches, more so than any other politician who was around in the Television Age where we can see here and listen to the speeches was i wondered if you could comment on that ability. If he had done nothing but give the he gave he would be immense value and importance in our history. He was extraordinary and his speeches stand the test of time in a way that isnt the usual case. Except for abraham lincoln. And Franklin Roosevelt too. No one has used words with such power and effectiveness and pertinence to the moment as kennedy did. When i gave the memorial address in dallas where kennedy was killed i devoted most everything i said to excerpts from what kennedys own words were. It is not only the nature of this man, his personality, his talents as a leader but the gift he had to use the language. He was, in his way, a master literary figure and a great reader and he understood the use of the language, the power of words. Host it is not a lost art. I carry no water for any current politician but Barack Obamas speech, 2004 Democratic National convention, and i thought of kennedys speech on religion in west virginias that was so important in defusing that issue. Obamas speech in philadelphia was one of the great speeches. Barack obama is a very powerful speaker. And thinker of considerable importance. He has been an inspiration to many young people in a way a president ought to be. With the 2004 speech i doubt he would have been president. Thank you very much. Pleasure to meet both of you. My name is carol cohen. Thank you for the information on john and abigail and john quincy. I was a park ranger at the Adams Historical site and everything you say and more about those people. The both of them need a president ial library. And as a mother of an actor. I want to further comment on your belief that history should be required and asked the question because i am a professor of social studies methods and i teach in service and future teachers who are going to be Elementary School teachers and you say it is the families and lack of learning about history and culture and learning to live with others and appreciate differences that is not going on in the house but what about in the Elementary School . I go to lots of Elementary Schools, no time for social studies. We have half an hour a week and have to do math, science and reading, i wonder what your answer is. Guest my strong feeling is the way to get young people involved in history, best time to get them is in grade school. They want to know about it, want to know about president s and heroes of accomplishment and they love stories. They are wonderful books that can be used at the grade school level. In my own case i was swept away as a Grade School Students viable called ben and me, absolutely marvelous book. Been grew up, in philadelphia. And going into that church, still behind those walls. One of those granddaughters in a class in hingham grade school. Pick a first lady president , we have to put on a pageant show, have to introduce yourself as president so and so, granddaughter caroline is harry truman. And Franklin Roosevelt, the night of the gathering for the parents, the use people came out there gave a wonderful account of who they are and what they did and what should be known about. All of them are just amazed and i know for certain not one of those children will ever forget which president they were. It is with them for the rest of their lives. The lab techniques, teaching history, this is true all the way through high school and college, get them involved in the project where they have to do the work, get their hands dirty and do the research and shouldnt hand them everything and say here is what you need to know and why this is important, this, that and takes months. Get them involved in a detective case aspect of it and works like nothing else. You mentioned the importance of universities and worldclass universities as a great asset to the country. There are two elements of universities today i find very dismaying. One is the emphasis on political culture, pc. Administrators seeming to fall under the trap of protecting their students from controversial opinions, providing double rooms. I wonder if you could comment on that. The second situation, it is dismaying to watch cspan in which their two africanamerican professors and two feminist professors, both as well known universities, talking about the irrelevance of the constitution, since they were not blacks and women were not part of the decisionmaking at the time. I wonder if you could comment on that as well. Guest very easy question, wouldnt you say . It is appalling, very disturbing, very unsettling. I personally, maybe this is too simplified a response, may indicate i dont understand the actual workings of a modernday president of the universitys life and decision but when that happens, lack of leadership on the part of whoever is running the university. Not just the president but the faculty. The politically correct vogue is thoughtful it is awful. It is unrealistic. It doesnt have anything to do with understanding reality. They were not that kind of a country. We are still able to express our opinions, let us hope, without fear of being attacked or degraded or made to feel like a fool. When speeches are canceled because of student uprisings in places like middlebury where 100 Students Walk out of notre dame graduation speech given by the Vice President or when speeches i canceled that california berkeley because students do not disagree, do not agree with the opinions of those who are about to speak i presume you would propose that but so too are people who are trying to be provocative in a way they do these speeches. Guest if i were president of the university or a member of the faculty where Something Like this happens, i would speak out strongly in favor of a different attitude and hope that the majority of students and members of the faculty and alumni would be persuaded that the stance i was taking was the right one. I am surprised how few University President s take any position politically. I dont understand that. It is because they are afraid it will damage their ability to raise money . I dont know. In the old days, that wasnt how it was. They spoke out and voiced their opinions. The second part of this question involving the constitution and the fact that perhaps there are people in this country, because it did not represent them or did not feel that they were fully represented in nearly days that it is not important. We have had 17 amendments to the constitution that have done a lot to level the playing field. Over here. One thing we need to do is teach the constitution. [applause] i dont know how many of you have seen the test new incoming americans applying for citizenship have to pass on the history of the country, i venture to say two thirds of the country couldnt pass that test. But they have to pass it and they do. Some of the most ardent readers and enthusiasts for American History that i have met over the years are immigrants who cant understand how few people among us how many people among us know almost nothing about the history of our country. It doesnt have to stay that way. When you are researching your books, visiting Historic Houses, where people worked and lived, what is the relevance in your mind, Historic Houses in society and why should we preserve them . Im sorry, i didnt the importance, you mentioned in the book, that when you are doing history of an individual, that you go and first of all you read what they read and you go and look at their houses and where they grew up and what their surroundings where, why is that important and how important should we consider that as people who might be interested in a particular historic figure . I think it is essential. And we dont realize how much we think they will say that comes from that environment. So if you want to understand somebody you have to go to that environment and see how many other people have, for example, many of the common, popular traits, characteristics, ways of harry truman, we could got to independence missouri and spend some time out there, you realize thats the way a lot of these people are. And the expressions they use, the language they use. I dress very strong not only get to read what they wrote, but you have to read what they read. And what with the books, what were they guiding literary spirits of their youth, their childhood that shape them . I remember reading a wonderful line in one of john adams letters to abigail in which he said we may not succeed in this struggle, we may not prove successful in this struggle, but we can deserve it. And i read that and i thought nobody thinks like that anymore. We can deserve it, even if we dont win. And i was then, some months later, reading a letter that George Washington wrote, and there was the same sentence, the same observation. Adams was a plagiarist . [laughing] no. And washington. But in 18 century they didnt use question mark scum or quotation marks. So often there quoting somebody that you dont know it. They know it. This was a line by Joseph Adamson from the famous play which they had not seen the play, that already. It was one of the most popular literary accomplishments of the 18th century. And this happens again and again. They are shaped by what they read just as we have been shaped by what they read and what we read. Its characteristic of the time in which they were living. Ive always felt i had to go where i could smell the night air, local smoke or whatever and i could walk the walk and feel im entering into the lives of these people who are just as real, just as alive as we are but are no longer around. A long, long time ago gerald ford was my congressman. So its nice to hear that kind words that you had to say about them because lots of people really do not appreciate the kinds of things that he did for this country. So thank you for those comments and ill be looking forward to the book thats coming out about gerald ford that you said would be written. [laughing] theres a wonderful historian Richard Norton smith he was president of the ford library, but i dont think is written a biography yet. No. This is been an amazingly profound evening for me hearing you talk. One of the issues that ive had for many, many years is that people, kids are not taught civics anymore. I took civics in the eighth grade. Ive been a political junkie all my life. When i talk to people about things like the constitution and i studied two semesters of common law. I was a history major. I am appalled at the total lack of knowledge and disinterest in the constitution. But if kids are not taught basic civics in grade school, the chances that theyre going to carry that interest and concern and responsibly on as adults i think is pretty slim. Id like to thoughts, and a love to know how, what can we do to bring it back . Make it required. Okay. Absolutely. [applause] it should be required. One of the things about the military academies is they all require that kind of course, and in many ways their graduates are coming away with an advantage, students in the regular universities are not necessarily going to happen. When i was in college i took, we had to take a science course, to come and the word was out, pretty, understood, that the easiest science course was geography. Excuse me, geology, geology. So i immediately signed up for geology. [laughing] its called rocks for jocks. [laughing] and the professor was, his name was professor flint, richard flint. [laughing] and, of course, he was known as rocky flint. And rocky flint a very tall, severe man, severe looking man. And very impressive. Ill never forget, and many of the others who went to the same course will never forget, the first day he walked out on the stage, and heres what he said. Imagine the Empire State Building. Now imagine a bible lying flat on top of the Empire State Building. Now imagine a dime lying flat on the bible. The Empire State Building represents the history of the earth. The bible represents the history of life on earth. The dime represents the history of human life on earth. Earth. Now talk about putting things in perspective. And i quickly found that i loved geology and signed up for another term. It wasnt required. Because its history. Its relevant to so much that we just dont even bother to try and understand. And i think thats what happens very often when young people are assigned to take some course or other, they find its great. Ive always advised students to take the teacher not the course here find that you are the great professors, who are the exciting lecturers, who are the inspiring, inspiring professors. That will make the biggest irrespective of their teaching. I would add one thing because its an important question. I covered a lot of local government in my time when i was a beginning reporter, and a covered City Councils and i covered School Boards. The interest in what School Boards are doing is, there is a lot depending on how controversial but School Board Members are very susceptible to lobbying by the public. And if you go to your local school board people and say you ought to require civics, and enough people do it, civics will be required. [applause] thithis is a question from twitter. Im a representative of the library. The question is if someone like jfk were to take office today how do you think you would approach the foreignpolicy challenges that we are facing right now . Knowledgeably. [laughing] [applause] he was a natural born to format, not to say that just smooth talking or something. He understands that diplomacy is essential in life and in relations between nations. I was just, i went back after i heard the inaugural speech delivered last november. I went back and reread jfks inaugural speech and i wont cite the wellknown quotes because they are much remembered, but he said one of the schools i dont think many people remember. To those peoples in the hudson villages struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever time is required. Not because we seek their votes to cut but because it is right the contrast that to last november. Every decision on trait or taxes come on immigration, on Foreign Affairs will be made to benefit American Workers and american families. Its a real contrast. Hello. One of the youngsters in the crowd. [laughing] [applause] and good golly, youve given me a lot of homework, sir. [laughing] so my question is, i have learned the amazing fact that you have 19 grandchildren. [applause] what is one message that you constantly tell them as they have grown up and as they are growing up . What is that message, that theme that such a wellknown historian and barter, what is that key that you think is so important nowadays and the future . Well, i am, fortunately, i have considerable irish blood in my background, and i dont just give them one. [laughing] i am incapable of just one, but one of my favorite quotes, and i have it framed on the mantelpiece in my house, they all see it, they all know it, is from Jonathan Swift who said may you live all the days of your life, live every day. Live all the days of your life. Thats what matters. Getting the most out of life while you are alive. And that feeds, energy feeds on expending energy. And Theodore Roosevelt once said, black hair rarely sits behind the writer whose pace is fast enough to you dont sit about moping for feeling sorry for yourself. Selfpity is an ugly human inclination. But get up and do things, accomplished something. Make the world a little better. Every day, if he can come in some small way or another. Help other people who need help. Be kind, have empathy, put yourself in the other persons place and try not ever to be boring. [laughing] its not fair to be boring. Its unkind to your friends or your family. And we will go here to the final question. Good evening, i have a history teacher. I hear in cambridge, massachusetts, and i had to brief questions for you. Number one, what are you currently reading right now, esther macola, for enjoyment David Mccullough for enjoyment . When im working on a book i dont read anything but all that i need to read in order to be competent enough to write that book. So right now i read all about the northwest territory. Im reading biographies and autobiographies of a whole cast of characters. Ive always wanted to write a book about people youve never heard of. I would love to have the capacity in the story itself to get you into the tent and not rely on historic whats the word . Celebrities, historic celebrities, to get you into the tent. I was greatly influenced a as a student in college by Thorton Wilder and his novels and his play and come particularly the play our tent. I thought what if you could write a book about real people in a real town and have sufficient material to get inside their lives, inside their nature, and drawing on the letters and diaries and so forth. And i found that in a collection in ohio, which was the first settlement in the northwest territory. By people who all came out from here, from massachusetts, and to a degree other New England States but mainly from here. They were veterans of the revolutionary war who had been inadequately compensated with what was then called script, instead of money, and it was worthless. By and large. So they were going to compensate for that terrible oversight or inadequate, unfairness, with the land. So most of these people were veterans of the revolution who had been to eight years of torment, difficulty and hardhearted slogging and then they go out and start this whole new community in the middle of the wilderness. Unable to get into their lives in a way that you couldnt do for a group of people today because we are not going to leave that kind of record. Every imaginable thing that could go wrong went wrong but they would not give up. They would not give up. And, and i think this is important. We tend very often to misjudge people because they are members of this group or that group or this religion or that religion. And one of the people, among those with tended to misjudge are the puritans. Theres this idea that all wore black and the office stopped being born and were against having any fun in life and so forth. Not true. They wore colorful close. Alike to the parties prepare like and dance and drink. And they had many admirable objectives in life, one of them was education pick it was essential it was part of their faith. And to see how they took that ideal of education and freedom of religion out to this hitherto unoccupied wilderness and create these towns, the civilization, was exactly what they try to achieve back here, is exciting. And i want to know more about it. Ive never undertaken a subject i knew much about. Quite a confession, if i knew all about i wouldnt want to write the book because thats the adventure, learning all about it. And im learning all about what it was like to be a pioneer in that day and age. So with that where going to wrap things up and im going to ask david to do one more thing before i send you all on your way, but i would do appreciate you spending an hour and a half being as attentive as you have been. As somebody used to do two hours of Live Television every morning, i can tell you that thats an exercise in bladder control. [laughing] so is being here for an hour and half and being as attentive as youve always been. But as i read the book i wanted to find something that would be a coda for the evening that would be a good way to wrap it up. And i think all of us profoundly remember that. After 9 11 pick it was a very special time in this country and it was a time there was wonderful unity, unity that i wish were still around in our society. We are in a position now where we cant talk to each other at times and eventually dismaying. And on a speech that he gave just after 9 11, david said this, and its just a paragraph but i put it in yellow there on the lefthand page. It said that everything is changed but everything has not changed. This is plain truth. We are still the strongest, the most productive, wealthiest, the most creative, the most ingenious, the most generous nation in the world. With the greatest freedoms of any nation in the world, of any nation in all time. Thank you all. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] heres a look at some of the current bestselling nonfiction books according to the washington post. Many of these authors have or will be appearing on booktv. You can watch them on our website, booktv. Org. What can we learn what to look at these searches . So if you remember and the 2008 president ial election all the way back then, barack obama was elected president. He defeated john mccain and there was a big question after this election, did race matter in the voting . Did people care that obama was black when deciding whether to vote for him . And this kind of classic question that could be complicated by social desirability bias, if you ask americans the overwhelming majority of americans, 98 or 99 of americans say they didnt care that obama was black in the election. And that was kind of like a lot of people concluded that we live in a postracial society back in the day. There was this idea that voters voted for obama and they said they didnt care that obama was black. So could you use Google Searches to potentially because people are so honest, because people tell google thinks it might not tell anybody else on socially unacceptable attitudes, could use Google Search to get the real answer of the effect that race may play in peoples voting decision . So what i did is i made a map of racist search volume on google and this is the percent of Google Searches that include very, very charged racist word, i wont say out loud but you can kind of guess maybe what it is, and the first thing that struck me about this data, first, was out common the search was, so the time i was using, people are making these searches, these races searches in about the same frequency as they were searching lakers, migraine, daily show and economist. It wasnt by any stretch of imagination a fringe search. Theres a mostly artichokes, mocking africanamericans, thats kind of the big theme of the searches take the other thing that struck me about this is it looked very, very different from the map i wouldve expected of racism. If you had asked me what racism was highest against africanamericans in the United States i wouldve guessed racism is predominantly concentrated in the south ticket think of the countries history, the civil war, slavery we think of racism is having a strong northsouth divide. Definitely racism is highest, one some of the places they despise are the deep south from places like southern mississippi and southern louisiana but you can also see in the map with a darker red meaning High Frequency of the searches that its also higher in many places in the north, and a western pennsylvania, in eastern ohio, international michigan, upstate new york, world illinois. I think real divide this search data reveals is not north versus south. Its east versus west. You see its much, much higher east of the Mississippi River and kind of dropped substantially west of the Mississippi River. So once i have this map i wanted to see, because people are so honest, could you use this data to measure how much obama really lost in the 2008 election . Of course you cant just compare racist searches to vote for obama because it might be places that have would have opposed any democratic candidate in 2008 so that wouldnt be a fair comparison. What i did is i compared obama was total to previous democratic candidate such as john kerry in the previous election who was aa white candidate and was ranked similarly liberal, and what you see when you do that and you can read the paper, read it in the book is a very, very strong, significant relationship that places that at highest racist search volume, displaces an appellation or places in industrial michigan support obama much less than previous democratic candidates. And you can start controlling for anything you would like to start controlling for education for demographics or political views or cultural views, nothing changes the relationship. That was a big factor, and overall i concluded that obama lost about four percentage point from racism which is much higher than youd get from really any other come and he got about one to two Percentage Points from increase africanamerican turnout. This paper kind of languished in the academic world for a little bit and then i very recently when the trunk phenomena was starting, trump was saying a lot of racially charged, making a lot of racially charged comments, and people were questioning how is he doing so well even when he sang these things you are supposed to say, and was racism driving some of his support . The New York Times asked before the date on the racist search volume. He had data on support for child in the primary. Whether age or educational economics or trade exposure, the single highest correlation he could find was the racist search volume for trumpet this of course does not mean everybody who supports trump is racist but it does mean that some of his supporters were and that it did drive some of his progress in the primary. [inaudible conversations] good morning, everyone. Ill come to the 33rd annual Chicago Tribune printers row lit fest. My name is thomas paschalis and id like to thank all the sponsors. Todays program is being broadcast live on cspan2s booktv, we will have some time at the end for audience questions, so when the time, please lineup at at the