Public school choice, to send their kids to a safe school. When you do make education the number one priority in our country antiqu and treat teachers like the professionals they are. Also this weekend at 8 00 eastern, cspan series the contenders, key figures who ran for the presidency and lost but changed political history. Tonight, the 1972 democratic nominee in former u. S. Senator from south dakota george mcgovern. We will come to admire this country not simply because we were born here, but because of the kind of great and good land that you and i want it to be and that together we have made it. That is my goal. That is my reason for seeking the presidency of the united states. Sunday, former texas businessman ross perot, who ran as an independent in both the 1992 and 1996 races. We must set the highest ethical and moral standards for the people who serve in our government. All that has got to be changed from rules of law in the next four years or we will stand at the gates and keep the pressure off and we will. For the complete schedule, go to www. Cspan. Org. Sunday night, a documentary film instructor talks with his students were many documentaries, similar to the grand Prize Winners in our annual student competition. He teaches at Jenks High School in jenks, oklahoma. Im not the kind of teacher them a look at something thats not very good in go, you did a really nice job of that. I will say what is not working. Eventually every single one of my kids makes it better peace and they did in the beginning. Eventually the kids who do really well, they internalize all this stuff so i along after say it to them. Their own brain says it to them. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q1 day. Q and a. You are watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. The cspan radio app makes it easy to follow the election wherever you are. It is free to download from the Apple App Store or google play. Get uptotheminute Schedule Information for cspan radio and cspan television, plus podcast times. Stay uptodate on all the election coverage. Means youadio app always have cspan on the go. Up next on American History tv, author derek beck discusses his book, igniting the american the war before american independence. In this hourlong talk in new york city, mr. Beck details the strategies on both sides of the conflict that took place in and around of boston, massachusetts prior to the declaration of independence. Tonight, we are delighted to have derek beck presenting the war before american independence. Derek has always had a passion for military history which inspired him to start his career in the u. S. Air force. He has served as an officer. In 2005, he earned a masters of science degree at m. I. T. Where he also fell in love with bostons revolutionary past. To further pursue writing, he later transferred to the air force reserve. He still remains quite active, presently holding the rank of major. Dereks first book, igniting the American Revolution, 17731775 was released in april. His second book was released in may. I would have like to welcome derek to the lectern. Derek thank you all for coming. It is an honor to be here. A very Historic Site so it is pretty cool to give a historic lecture at an Historic Site. As mentioned i have two books , and they together tell the entire boston campaign. Coversst is actually, it from the start of the war which the start of the action at the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Then the first shots are fired and it ends with the siege of boston just beginning. It is kind of how book two starts. Both books are standalone, they can be read independently, but they do together they tell the entire boston campaign. A little bit more of who i am and the reason behind this book. I was already kind of described the details. When i joined the air force, i was stationed at Los Angeles Air for space and i discovered an interest in filmmaking. I started working on some short films on the weekend, took some courses at the New York Film Academy both in l. A. And here. I wanted to focus on writing and storytelling. Then i went to m. I. T. , became interested specifically in the revolutionary history, and i thought it would make a great movie. I started a film script about the start of the war and that was the outline that became these two books. I was discovering a lot of details that cannot be captured in a film. I was going to the source material, the original letters, some of which had never been published. There was a lot of i would say underrepresentation on the british side. I was trying to tell the story from both sides so i felt like i had to turn this into a book which then became two books. , so, why history . That is a question i hear a lot. Why history . History is boring. I think that is wrong. If you think it is boring, you are not reading the right books because history is exciting. Look at mel gibson in the patriot. The fact is, there were people shooting at each other. If you are in these events, if you could see them, your heart would be racing for sure. They should not be boring. It is like an action event. Sure, it happened in the past, but it should be a very exciting thing. That was kind of my approach. I approach it from a cinematic way. I wanted to capture that excitement. The academic answers for why people study history is that we understand your culture where we , came from. This sort of Cultural Roots of everything we do today in this society. The other reason, of course, is hopefully we learned from the past. A lot of times we dont learn from the past. But hopefully we can take something from the past and learn from it. Not make the same mistakes. I think the reason is exciting and i have different approaches to make that happen. One of the key things, i think, is focusing on real people and make them real. George washington was the hero of the revolution, but he is not a superhero. He has flaws. If you read his letters are seeing his perspective he was , doubting himself quite a bit. That makes him more relatable in my mind. Seeing it from both sides, the american and the british side, gives you a real value and relatable understanding to the british. The british are not just robotic enemies, they have logic behind their decisionmaking. I am in the air force. I work with british officers today. They seem to be good chaps. I thought why is it that i would sort of learn that they are the bad guys and americans are the good guys . In fact that is the other approach. I actually avoid the word patriot. Patriot means a lover of ones country. So the british were fighting for their empire and their country. They were patriots in their eyes. The fact is sometimes the good guys look like the bad guys and sometimes the bad guys look like the good guys. I tried to portray it as though youre a journalist following the action along and you make the decision. You can decide who are the good guys ignore the bad guys. I dont make the decision for you. Finally, this is something that a little different from most history books. Lots of history books are bogged down by the details. We have this event, this event, and then this gap in information. We have to theorize how to connect these two events. Most history books explain the different sources and explain the different perspectives and it just bogs down the story. I go with my prevailing theory based on the evidence and i explain and defend it in the back. All of the things that you need as an historian, the endnotes, mine are beefed up. I have more appendices the most history books. As a result, there is this historic information in the back that historians love, but the body of the book reads like a narrative. Reviews of called it compare it to reading and action novel. I dont want to bog down the story. I want you to enjoy the action and the events and all of the sort of stuff that slows down most history books doesnt need to be in the body. Book i will recap the first book to catch you up to where the second book is. The first book starts with the Boston Tea Party. The ultimate result of the tea party is that the british tried to force boston to pay back the tea. They pass a series of acts or laws that effectively cripple one is the effectively cripple boston. One is the port act closes down the port of boston, putting many people out of work and creating a local economic depression. The second is the massachusetts government act. It restricts freedom of assembly and Something Like this event are now. Getting together and talking about the things the government hasnt sanctioned was not allowed. The big take away really was that the royal governor that was a civilian and american board is was replacedorn with general thomas gates, the first royal governor who is also a military governor. He is also the commander in chief of all British Forces in north america. Throughout 1774 the tea party is to the end of 1773. Throughout 1774 to enforce these acts, the british call them the colors of acts, the americans called in the intolerable acts. Previously, there were no troops in boston since 1770 and the boston massacre. The result of the boston massacre was the kick the troops out of boston. Now they have come back and it turns out that at the end of 1774, one out of five souls in boston is a soldier or officer. Imagine, you have a lot of people out of work, kind of ticked off, and they have nothing to do. And boston, by the way it is , hard to tell what boston looked like back then. It was a peninsula than. Then. In the 1800s, they lowered a lot of hills and filled in the mud flats and basically created boston as it is today. Back then it was a small peninsula. You had a lot of time on your hands. You have soldiers reminding you every day because you see them everywhere that you are in this predicament because of overbearing parliamentary decisions. So what is going to happen . You will have a lot of fighting in the streets. There are a lot of brawls that happen. Then escalation occurs both in and outside of boston. Finally, the new royal governor, general gauge the british , general decides that he has to take action. He learns of intelligence that americans are collecting weapons outside of boston in concorde. He is going to take a preemptive action to seize those weapons to prevent the americans from an uprising in boston. The leader of the revolution at this point is dr. Joseph warren. He is basically unknown today. That is too bad. He is my focus character for the first part of this book and into the second book. He is, in my mind, the guy that should be remembered. The names we all know john , hancock, samuel adams, john adams. In april 1775, right as they are about to seize the weapons in concorde, these men that you know from boston are actually outside of boston. They are not in boston. Dr. Joseph warren is in boston, the guy controlling the protests, not quite a full on revolution, but the reaction to british oppression in boston. After the first shot, hancock we the two atoms adams boston. Warren is the one left in charge. He becomes the de facto governor. Warren is the guy who sends these two men when he sees the british mustering on Boston Common preparing to go out to , concorde to seize these weapons, at first he sees indications throughout the town that this may be happening so we he sends the men on the left, William Dawes as a precaution to ride out to lexington to warn hancock and similar items. Samuel adams. Later, warren actually sees the troops and so he sends the man on the right in an urgent ride to lexington, and that man is very famous, i am sure we all know who he is. He is the famous actor, jack black. [laughter] i think they look the same. But, paul revere. Paul revere rides out and then they ride together to concorde going house to house yelling , and i think we all know what he says. The americans are coming. He says the americans are coming. You are all looking at me confused. If i came to your house in the middle of the night, knocked on your door, and yelled that the americans are coming, you would give me the same look. If you had a musket you would aim it at me because you think im crazy. Same with paul revere. He did not go to those houses and say the british are coming because they are all british. The big issue, the big reason why there is issue between american colonies in britain is because the american colonies want to be treated more like british. They feel like they are secondclass citizens. It is really not about taxation. The whole taxation with representation. Focus on the representation part. They are secondclass citizens and they dont have any representation in parliament. They see how they are treated in many different ways, just the way that George Washington complained that he couldnt have any kind of position in the government of virginia because he was americanborn. There are lots of indications that people are fed up with being secondclass citizens. They wanted to be treated like britons in britain. They were not and that was the major complaint. They were proud to be british, they were happy to not be french, and they wanted to be recognized as british. If you would have come up to any house at that time and say the british are coming, they would have looked at you very confused. It makes no sense. Paul revere said Something Like he leads three versions of a deposition of his ride that night. He doesnt tell us what exact he said. He may have said probably said Something Like the regulars are coming referring to the regular army. Where the redcoats are coming. Or as it is depicted in the reenactment in concorde every year the regulars are turning , out. He definitely did not say the british are coming. The british to come i have to use those terms because it is a modern audience. I need to make those distinctions. On their way to concord which is , over here, they meet up with the lexington militia on a green that is kind of like a park. The road passes through the south. The british should have stayed on the road and passed them. The lexington militia was standing in protest not really , intending for any skirmish. A shot rings out, the first shot. We dont know who shot first, but there are indications that it came from an American Spectator on the sidelines. At the end of the day, it didnt matter. First shot rang out. The americans used in the propaganda war to come. Who shot first is important , just like in star wars in 1977. It is kind of hard to see here. Han solo in 1977 shoots a Bounty Hunter that is after him for money on behalf of jabba the hutt. He shoots in cold blood this Bounty Hunter. In the 1990s, george lucas remakes the star wars movies and changes it, digitally altered the scene so that the Bounty Hunter shoots and han solo fires second. That is a big deal because george lucas felt that han solo needed moral authority. It is the same case for the americans. They felt like whoever shot first was vitally important that the british were seen as the one who started the war. The americans were the ones who had to be the victims to win the hearts and minds as it would be with the french later on in the war. After the first shot in lexington, the british do make their way unharassed to concorde. Then there are the militia thanks to paul revere and other riders, many other riders. They come to concorde and there is ambush upon ambush all the way to lexington. The original Expeditionary Force nearly destroyed and almost out of ammunition. Until they get to lexington and are relieved to see a reinforcement of british soldiers there. The british reinforcement and developed the occupational force and take them back toward boston. The worst fighting his house to house in a town now called then, now called arlington. The result of this daylong battle is that the british find themselves penned up in boston, besieged. All these malicious around boston. Malitia surround boston. By the way, they didnt find any of these weapons in concorde because they were all hidden ahead of the british arriving. For the next two months, the british are stuck in boston. They get new officers and new soldiers arriving almost daily in may. Two of these gentlemen are william howe and his deputy. Howe is going to lead in an siege of. Bust the that is what leads to a plan where the british are going to go south. This is the peninsula of boston, these are the americans surrounding them. There is a peninsula to the south. It is called dorchester. Now it is part of boston. It is a no mans land. There are no houses. The british are going to send troops by boat. They will take the american headquarters in cambridge. That is the land. There is a no mans land of charlestown. There is a real town there but because the troops are on one side and americans are on the other, the inhabitants realize they are stuck in a abandon the town. By june of 1775, it is also a no mans land. However, the american Intelligent NetworkIntelligence Network is pretty good. Instead of waiting for the british, they decide on june 16 that they are going to do a preemptive maneuver and create a ford or a redout out of earth on a hill in charlestown, very near the british in boston. Erey will put some canon th that will rain down on boston and put the british at risk. The british will decide that morning, june 17, when they discover this new fortification eds hill, thate they will meet the americans in first realpage battle real pitch battle of the war. Meanwhile, it takes the british a little while to cross the river by boat. There is a square four foot or five foothill of dirt they created here and they extended out into one long line. Then they build some little other fortifications. Here there is a fence. The fence is basically one fence they have reinforced with another fence ahead. T is stuffed with hay the americans think that they are ready. General howe is on the field and he is dismayed to see that this rail fence, which was his intended path he is going to try to circle around and surround these americans on the hill he is dismayed to see that this was put up as he was transitioning across the river, but he is happy to see a secret w