Coming up tonight, booktv in prime time features books about the founding fathers. First, the author of first entrepreneur. And then the life of john quinty adams. And then lous louisa. Next, Edward Lengel talks about his book on George Washington. It took place at the president s former home mount vernon. [inaudible conversations] good evening, everyone. Lovely to get a full crowd like this. My name is Doug Bradford and i am the founding director of the study of George Washington which is where you are in the ruben stein hall. You made it. It is very exciting to have these book talks, free book talks, and thank you for supporting the book and mount vernon has never accepted any government money. They have been operating since the 1960s when they took over the estate of George Washington. They are on allwoman run organization and they are all built on private donations from individuals and foundations and the people that come there visit. It is a great honor to serve that mission to pr
It was a really sad moment. Washington saved the day with one of his famous speeches. You probably heard it in school. Ive gotten old serving my country and ive grown blind and the soldier said no whatever, well do it. Hamilton hamilton had tried to use this potential army coup to gain more power for the federation government. Washington walked wrote some very strong letters to hamilton in the mid 1780s. One line i do remember he said, its its like an older, very successful military officer talking to a young headstrong guy. He said remember an army is a dangerous thing to play with. In other words, this is out of bounds. At several other times, hamilton became a problem. I believe in the later years when hamilton thought there was a rising of people in pennsylvania, he manipulated washington into coming out of retirement and taking command briefly. It was a really ugly moment. There were no riders in rioters and washington was embarrassed. My reading was there was a man that washingto
Man who became his surrogate father and that was his brother. I think he saw that brother as a model. When he died washington was on his own. He was never close to his mother. In fact, they had not a pleasant relationship. Washington learned somewhere along the way of an extraordinary selfcontrol of his emotions, his speech, he was often guarded to the point of seeming aloof, but he had a sense of leadership that came across how pleasant it would be of some of our other political leaders had his characteristics. He listened and made counsel and reflected on what people said. Then he made his decision. Time and time again. He had no problem changing his mind. Nobody said washington was waffling. The thing thats deadly on fox news. He saw, several times, including the gentleman who asked about africanamerican history. He thought maybe we should use armed black troops. He said no way, but then he said actually that might be a good idea, lets do it. At the beginning of the war, he changed
Veteran. And that even ties boo what i will into what i will talk about in a moment about washingtons views of peace and how essential peace is. As a combat veteran, washington understands a number of things about the nature of war and what war does and what its impact is not only on those who are at the front lines, but on those who are at home who are also affected and in their own ways participants in war. What war does to a country and to a people. He also learns, i think, here too the extreme importance of fundamentals, of basics. This is one element of washingtons character that i saw early on and that ive, its taken a while to understand. If you look at this gentlemans fixation on detail, hes often dismissed as a micromanager, but theres a real purpose to that focus on detail which is that detail matters. If youre in the service and particularly if youre in a position of command, you ignore at your peril the basic fact that the men who serve with you must eat, they must have she
Of washington which is were you or, so you may get. Congratulations. And its very exciting to have these book talks, these free book talks, and theyre sponsored by ford. The forgetting the doctor and, of course, weve never accepted any government money. They been offered in mount vernon since the 1860s, since 1861 it took over the estate of George Washington. They were the founders of National Historic preservation but they are an all Woman Run Organization and they are all built on private donations unpatriotic individuals and foundations from the people who coming the people who coming to visit it at the great honor to serve that mission to preserve the estate at the highest level and to teach people all over the world about the life, leadership and legacy of George Washington. And we couldnt do without the generation of important donors like henry ford. As many of you know an early dont think he did not its first fire engine. And ever since weve gotten the fire engines from ford mot