At the kennedy institute, we are committed to engaging the public in a conversation about the role each one of us plays in our democracy and in our society. We do that through Civic Education programs that bring the United States senate to life and conversations like tonight that bring American History into focus. We are very proud to partner with the Massachusetts Historical Society on todays program. They are an invaluable resource for american life, history, and culture. All of us at the institute are also proud together together a group of panelists for the program, including our moderator, fred tice. He covers news related to politics and Higher Education at wbur where he has been since 1988 serving as a trusted source of truth and information. He previously was the nbc news bureau chief in mexico city and the south america reporter for cbs news based in argentina. Joining fred on the panel are four scholars who provide erspective on, and knowledge of, our nations founders. Togeth
This book the anatomy of blackness, sites of slavery in the age of the leather. And then came last year the much diderot and the art of thinking freely which is now in paperback and im holding it up. Its a beautiful cover. Andrew, how did you go from, im curious about the through lines of the three books. How did it start with the first book which is about an intellectual history of monstrosity in literature and ideas which have a lot to do with bitter row, to what the enlightenment figures thought about race and onto the third book diderot and the art of thinking freely . First, thanks, jim pick a truly great to be here today. I have always been attracted to which my call intellectual history, tracked down an idea over time, both of the affects people and the people are affected by the idea. So very quickly about this first book, how to monstrosity was incredibly important for people of the 17th and 18th century because it was this hotly contested topic. Was god responsible for human
Programs. In 1982 he appeared on book notes to talk about his biography of president truman it won the Pulitzer Prize for biography and to help change the view of the truman presidency. Here he is from 1992. Cspan you start off by saying as far back as he could remember truman held onto the mythical roman heroes. What is that all about . The mythical hero who left in time of war with the great general and was victorious and renounced all of his power and returned to the farm. Thats a theme the country was founded on. If you are at the capital with the great painting of George Washington turning over his powers as commanderinchief of the Continental Army to congress the symbols earth all throughout that painting because they believe this is what democracy entailed that any citizen should be called upon at any time to serve b ultheir country in any capacity and the power belong to the people and would bepo returned to those who held it. He like to say i never forget who i was, where i ca
I was about to say how special this night is that you all beat me to it which is great. Welcome. I am the executive director of the Jfk Library Foundation and on behalf of our colleagues in the library we are thrilled you could be here all forms are great but tonight it is a treat because its also the beginning of the centennial weekend and we planned this months ago we literally thought would be the best pair a speaker and moderator we could get for this historic time . This is we have and we are thrilled they are both here. [applause] first a few brief announcements first the underwriters and sponsors including our media is spent on sponsors and for the centennial. We are kicking off the centennial about what were doing over the next few days but over the next few days there are opportunities from seeing a new exhibit with 100 items with those that have never been seen publicly before opening tomorrow. Doing a peace corps day we have an astronaut here as part of the attribute to nasa
Cspan why wouldnt the government at that time have protections for him . Guest why wouldnt the government have a pension. There were for pensions for nobody else and not a penchant for the present in effect he had very little money. He had to borrow money quite secretly which dean acheson cosigned to pay for the move back home. This is not wellknown and it doesnt mean he didnt have any money. He did have money but he needed cash to cover all the expenses coming out of the white house. When he got home in order to provide himself some income he undertook the writing of his autobiography, his memoirs which no other president had ever done except for herbert hoover. Hoovers time in office was much briefer than was trumans presidency and covered far more tumultuous history so to undertake the 2volume memoir was a very major ambitious task and then he build his library. There had been a previous president ial library, Franklin Roosevelt library at hyde park established after roosevelt had d