jim and tammy fay baker and muhammed ali. thank you for attending our session on this beautiful friday afternoon. i ll have to compete with the outdoors and hopefully we ll convince you you ve made the right choice hanging out with us to talk about media and biography in political history. between the four of us, we have written at least 17 biographies and it might be more than that. i was losing count because randy roberts has written so many. more than half of our total number, i think. so we have a lot of experience in this genre that we ve been drawn to and have an affinity for it in some way or another. so before we begin let me introduce the panelists and 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 and what is it you love about the genre? and first we have larry masslon from the tish school of arts and as particularly interested in the history of broadway and comedy and written biographies.
c-span s campaign 2020. your unfiltered view of politics. this comes from purdue university with biographers looking at political history. this talk was part of a two-day conference called remaking political history. it s an hour and a half. welcome and thank you for attending our session on this beautiful friday afternoon. i will have to compete with the outdoors and hopefully we ll convince you that you ve made the right choice hanging out with us to talk about media and biography and political history. randy robert has written so many. you ve written half of our total number, i think. so we have a lot of experience in this genre. we ve obviously been drawn to it and have an affinity for it in some way or another. so before we again, let me 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 larry maslin in the g
process. i knew i wanted to bring a lot of people into that room, not just my father and my family, but the chairman of the .ommittee and the fbi informant that was the nexus of the piece. in the end, it really was more is more history, but i knew a quotee i came across from a congressman from michigan who expressed surprise that someone from a good american family could be a member of the communist party, i said, that s it. i knew my family was a good american family in every possible way. juxtaposition to define the book. brian: i want to put up on the screen your mother and father. tell us when this picture was taken. when you look at them, what do you think about? in 1944hat was taken when father was on leave. it was in the army, it was during world war ii. think about how beautiful my mother was, first of all. , my dad was already going through a tough time, but he didn t show it much. he had been a radical at the university of michigan, but the division, intelligence
announcer: david, when did you decide to name your book a good american family? david: it was not the first title. i was calling it judgment in room 740, the courtroom in detroit where the americans activities committee conducted hearings in 1952 on communism in the detroit area. but i realized that that was early on in the process. i knew that i wanted to bring people into that room, not just my father and my family, but the chairman of the committee and the fbi informant and so on, so that was the nexus of the peace. but in the end it was more it is not a memoir, it is partly that but more history, but i knew that once i came across the quote from charles potter from michigan, who expressed surprise that somebody from a good american family could be a member of the communist party at any point, i said that is it. because i knew my family was a good american family in every possible way. so i wanted that tension to define the book. i want to put it up on the screen
programs that he supports. i like to think and recognize two of our guests. you for all you do on behalf of this great institution. thank you so much. program lasts about an hour and it will include a question answer session. you should have received notecards as you enter the auditorium. step isnot, stats still going through the seats, the aisles with notecards and questions will be your notecards will be collected later on in the program. following the program, there will be a normal book signing and books will be available for purchase in our history store. we are delighted to welcome william e luxenberg. he has taught as numerous universities over the course of six decades. including columbia and oxford universities. he served as presidential elections analyst for nbc and his presidential he was the first recipient of distinguished writing in american history of enduring public significance. he is the author of 16 books including the american president , from te