susan swain: caroline scott harrison was born in 1832 in oxford, ohio, where she met benjamin harrison. married when she was 21, she grew into an accomplished artist, interested in women s issues. although the harrison presidency has been rated as fairly unsuccessful by some historians, those who track first ladies consider caroline harrison as one of the more underrated to serve in this role. we ll learn why in this segment of first ladies: influence and image. and here to tell us more about the story of caroline harrison are two guests who know the office well. edi mayo, first ladies historian, the director emeritus of that enormously popular first ladies exhibit at the smithsonian. edi, thanks for coming back. edith mayo: thank you. susan swain: and bill seale, white house historian, has spent his professional career understanding the history of that building. among his books is the president s house. bill and edi are both members of c-span s academic advisory committe
and you will hear more about shortly. to moderate tonight s program we are pleased to welcome susan swain, the moderator for c-span first ladies: influence and image. susan swain is president and co-ceo c-span sharing responsibility for all operations of the public affairs cablenet work. she oversees programming and marketing for c-span3 television channels and c-span radio. she helped launch the washington journal, booktv, it american history tv. she has also been involved in the creation of numerous c-span history series such as american presidents, the lincoln-douglas debate and american writers your for over 30 years she has been one of c-span s principal on camera interviewers. most recently on april 14 first ladies was released as a book by public affairs books featuring a collection of images from the television series. it is the ninth book susan ness edited for c-span and public affairs. and as you noticed when you came in, we will have copies of the book for sa
a little too much looking down and i think it was a little too fast. you were dropping her voice at the end of the sentences. there was a considerable pickup in drama and interest when the questioning began. your voice would build up and her facial expressions i thought your answer on vietnam was good. i really didn t like the answer on jobs. [inaudible] and therein lies the reason why we should talk about first ladies. because what other advisor could be that candid to a president? stu spencer maybe. wasn t there a family they owned television stations or something so she of the background and so as an advisor because first ladies in some ways are to their husbands whether it s in their official capacity or not. they bring that because she wants him to be as successful as he does. i think that clip show shoot, we talk about this rule of first ladies, the various attributes that as simply as human beings that they bring to the table. mr
say that she represents an important chapter in the country s history. i think we have seen in her and in the times she has inhabited obviously great progress towards a world that is a. built more fair, but let s keep in mind, took it was only a year ago that michelle obama giving a speech to commemorate the 60th neaves of brown versus board of education pointed out there s a long way to go. she said this is a country where too often the police will stop someone on the street because of the color of her skin. michelle obama has no illusions that we have sort of crossed the great divide, but her story i think, is part of that history and part of that progress. host: this is a wonderful book you have written. i know you want everyone in the world to read it. but who in particular would you like to see read this book that might give them better understanding, not just of michelle obama but of the american story. guest: i hope that the book will be read at a number of diffe
towson university is in maryland. this class is just under two hours. are going to talk today on our subject of white house communications operations, which is the name of our course. today we are going to look at a question of when reporters came to the white house and how they did. and it makes a difference, whether it was simply reporters came to the white house because an individual president was interested in bringing the men them in, or whether it was institutional forces bringing them there. at the same time we will be discussing this, we will be looking at a research question. ago, i had read about a reporter who was generally thought of as the beingwhite house reporter brought into the white house by theodore roosevelt. he was standing in the rain. roosevelt brought him into the white house and said, poor guy, standing out there. let s bring the reporters in and give them a room. the thing that bothered me about that story was, i just did not believe that was the way