Hi. See, you got a little hat. Mother would have loved it. While we re on the subject of mothers, i d better warn you up front. I m not going to be like other mothers. But i promise i ll never make you wait until [laughs] until after the cake to open your birthday presents. [music playing] we were all together, making this show, which was the birth of this child. We made it funny. We made it emotional. And we all felt like, gosh, we did a good job with that. A lot of people in america were watching this and moved to tears. And then literally the next day, our world changed. It doesn t help matters when prime time tv has murphy brown mocking the importance of fathers. Bonding? i can t tell. I probably shouldn t have said that dam mistake number one. And now i just swore so that s 20 god who are you well, it certainly throws me back to the set holding that little baby. And we were in thrall to this baby cannot watch the thing to this day that either i cannot yeah. Yeah. Well, what s more
[laughter] guest i think we have so little perspective on this moment that it is quite impossible to say. I think the perception that many people in the United States and, of course, also around the world have that this is an extraordinary uni shall time is something that we are in a time out of time will be a curiosity in the future. People will look back and wonder about that very sense i think it is kind of an interesting phenomenon. I think that will be studied. Host when you think about today, do you compare it to any other period in history . Guest no, you know, as a historian, im interested in analogies. I think we have a cognitive tendency to enjoy analogies to find one thing to be like another, all the time, just in the same way, you know, im the kind of person that sees likenesses in family members. I look at a new baby and say oh that looks just like great grandma so and so. But at the same time, even as i say that, i recognize that a lot of that is my need for familiarity.
So little perspective on this moment, its quite impossible to say. I think the perception that many people in the United States and of course also around the world have that this is an extraordinary unusual time something we are the time out of time, will be curiosity in the future people will look back and wonder about that very wonderment i think its an interesting phenomenon. When you think about today do you compare it to any period in history . Jill lepore as a historian im interested in analogies we have a cognitive tendency to enjoy analogies to find d one thing to be like another all the time. Just in the same way and the kind of person that sees likenesses and family members, and look at a new baby and say, that looks just like great grandma someone so. Have the same time, even as they say i recognize a lot of that is minded perception, my need for familiarity. I think there has been for most of my career as a historian the question to ask historians is what time is this like.
You today by your television profess provideer. And now on book tv we are live with author and Harvard University history professor jill lepore who over the next 2 hours will be taking your calls and comments. Professors book include secret history of wonder woman, these truths, history of the United States and the newly published if then, about the cold war origins of data mining and social manipulation. Harvard professor jill lapore, before we get into the substance of your book, as a historian, what is your contemporary view of how our world is going to be viewed . [laughter] guest i think we have so little perspective on this moment that it is quite impossible to say. I think the perception that many people in the United States and, of course, also around the world have that this is an extraordinary uni shall time is something that we are in a time out of time will be a curiosity in the future. People will look back and wonder about that very sense alienation. I think that would be
Hate. [laughter] it is a little daunting. Trace the arc. Im going to do a historian thing and think generally. I guess i would say if yo they e looking at american politics from the beginning, we could even go past the civil war, we are talking about paradoxes and conflict and improv. The periods but i tend to focus on more at that part, its the improvisational nature of that fascinates me more than anything else. Its because the nation was founded in the world of monarc monarchy. What that means wasnt so clear at the moment. There is a lot of improv in those early decades about what the nation is, how it functions, the tone of the f government, hp a nationon is going to stand out among the nations of the world. What does it mean to be in a world of monarchies and was the nation going to get any degree of respect and equally and if not more significant as far as the inside of the nation is concerned, what kind of nation is tha it going to be and that s true on every level you could s a