Thai im Judy Woodruff im thrilled to be joining these three amazing others today. You see them on the screen. They are George Packer whose latest book our man Richard Holbrooke and the end of the American Century and Susan Glasser and peter baker his book is out this fall the man who ran washington the life and times of james a. Baker to third. Two brilliant books about too complicated and fascinating men. They were born a decade apart baker in houston in 1930 and holbrooke in manhattan in 1941. Baker a republican trained as a lawyer holbrooke a democrat a Foreign Service officer a student of foreign policy. Their lives took very different trajectories but they both ended up in washington where they became major power players. Picking up on that this is a man with great vision and it was there before he came to washington. It was. He was a family feud aristocracy. He was expected to great things. He had a very dominating father who imparted on him the legacy of his family or the bakers
How have you been. We call ourselves partners in crime. That we are not going to talk about the crime part of it, just to the partner part. What has been interesting since ive been in the position of library of congress is the fact that people ask me what does the National Archives do. What does the archivist do a and then theres a confusion around the history and the role of each of the institutions, and ive learned a lot about that even in coming up to reclaim the declaration of independence, the bill of rights. We call it the constitution. And that was held by the library of congress and the type of thing. It wasnt until the 1930s the United States got serious about its records. Iwas Franklin Roosevelt was passionate about records and that we actually created and he signed the legislation that created the archives. The charters had been in the custody of the state department independent of library of congress when the archives building was built, a beautiful tabernacle was created f
Conference called remaking american political history. Welcome. Thank you for attending our session on this beautiful friday afternoon. I will have to compete with the outdoors. And hopefully will convince you that you have made the right choice hanging out with us to talk about media and biographies in political history. Between the four of us we have written at least 17 biographies, it might be more than that, i was losing count because Randy Roberts had written so many, more than half of our total number. We have a lot of experience in this genre, we have been drawn to it and have an affinity for it in some way or another. Let me introduce the panelists. As i introduce each of you, if you could spend a minute or two telling the audience, what was it that drew you to biography . What is it that you love about the genre . First we have larry, professor in the graduate acting program in the New York University of the arts with an affiliate in the graduate musical theater writing progra
Introduce the panelists, and as i introduce each of you, if you could just spend a minute or two telling the audience what was it that drew you to biography, and what is it you love about the genre . First we have a professor in the graduate acting program at new york universitys tish school of the arts with an affiliation in the graduate musical theater writing program, and is particularly interested in the history of broadway and of comedy. He has written biographies of xoeter Richard Rogers and p playwright. His most recent is a documentary film sammy davis jr. Ive got to be me. So, larry, tell us what has drawn you to biography. Well, i may be a little different from the rest of the panel. My venue is really entertainment. So obviously in entertainment youre dealing with the public persona of performers, what they sang, what they danced, what they acted. And then, of course, what happens off stage or behind the curtain is equally fascinating as you try to make some sense out of wha
Randy roberts has written so many, hes written more than half of our total number, i think. So, we have a lot of experience in the genre and weve been drawn to it and we have an affinity for it in some way or another. Let me introduce the panelists, i will introduce each of you, if you could spend a minute or two telling the audience what was it that drew you to biography and what is it you love about this genre. We have larry who is a professor of the graduate acting program at school of the arts in new york in the musical writing program. Hes particularly interested in the music of broadway and has written biographies of Richard Rogers and playwrights and in addition to several other books. His most recent biographical work is the documentary film, sammy davis junior, i gotta be me. So, larry, tell us what drew you to this. Hi. I may be a little different from the rest of the panel. My venue is really entertainment. So, obviously, in entertainment you are dealing with a public person