helen tapped was more ambitious about getting to the white house than her husband, william howard taft, and was willing to get personally in bald in politics to get him elected. as first lady, she overcame a serious illness directly mounted the white house. invited top classical musicians to perform their, and support it causes that matter to her. helen tap also has one of the most physical legacies of our first ladies. washington d.c. s famous japanese cherry trees, the ones that frame the tidal basin in the nation s capital and brings tens of thousands of visitors to washington every year. good evening, and welcome to first ladies. influence and image. the life of hell and taft, her husband served in the white house from 1909 to 1913. here to tell us about her life and her legacy is her biographer lewis gold. his biography of her is helen taft, our musical first lady. you open the book by making the case that of the 20th century first lady, she s the most obscure but you sa
staying in his post until 2024 a second extension. i m matt miller in berlin here for francine lacqua. let s check in with the markets. after the emerging markets rout my gmmes, take a look at screen. first off on the equity index you can see asia s equity index falling 4.5% there. the lois, hong kong down 2.5%. singapore down 1.5%. are seeing emergency market indexes getting absolutely thrashed and clearly not for the first session in a row. hong kong approaching 10% year to date. through this is coming in currencies. you can see in the middle of the screen, the indian rupee down again and all of the other emerging-market currencies taking a hit over the last few weeks. but you haveback to look far and wide to find them. in commodities, copper gaining a little bit but brent crude down. nymex is down back below $70. crude is a space to watch and then sovereign bonds, all down the column. these black boxes signify the asset has moved more than three standard deviations away fr
white house. american history tv features c-span s original series, first ladies. c-span produced in the series in cooperation with the white house historical association. through conversations, video tools, and questions from c-span s audience, we tell the story of america s 45 first ladies. next, helen taft. this is about 1.5 hours. helen taft was more ambitious by getting to the white house than her husband. willing to get personally involved in politics to get elected. she overcame a serious illness to directly manage the white house, invite a classical musicians to perform, and supported concerts that mattered to her. helen taft also has a visible legacy. famouston, d.c. s japanese cherry trees, the ones that frame the title basin in bring visitors to washington every year. good evening and welcome to first ladies, influence and image, the life of helen taft. he served from 1909-1913. here to tell us about her life is her biographer. is our musical first lady. you op
taft: our musical first lady. you opened the book by making the case that of the 20th century first lady, she s the most obscure, but you say she deserves better from history. tell me quickly why she deserves better than being obscure? mr. gould: well, because she did some things that were, as you ve mentioned in your opening, about that were very constructive, i mean, the cherry trees, bringing the classical music musicians to the white house, and, generally, trying to make washington the cultural center of the nation. that was her ambition. now, it didn t work out because of medical reasons. but she had an agenda that would have made her rank with eleanor roosevelt or lady bird johnson in terms of transforming washington had things gone the other way. ms. swain: she also seemed to have an agenda to get her husband to the white house. mr. gould: yes, the story is that she decided when she visited the white house in the hayes administration, hey, i want to do that as well
since then, he has written books on, may be best book on the united states senate, may be further maybe for the republican party. president taft, roosevelt, mckinley. he s written the history of wyoming, the written history of the first lady. she is an extraordinary historian. on the back quotes modern american presidency which might be the one book you ought to have on the presidency. . original,st and most steve neal, compelling analysis , robert who is also been here, where achievements rare achievements, a pleasure, strong and provocative. highly readable, refreshing, required reading. and last but not leaving, as i introduce our fred, a friend of the library, formerly professor at the university of texas, a wonderful writer. i want to read what richard norton smith says. ould does not hesitate to offer sobering conclusions and i want to say i know he will stay sober tonight. gentlemen, lewis gould. [applause] lewis gould: thank you for that kind and generous introduc