Whether childhood is idealized or a time of work who gets to be an adult with that package of rights unresponsibilities. What does it mean to have chronological age something like you can drive at 16 but back in the earlier periods. We ve studied you re not an adult until 21. What does that all mean? in we ve also been talking about old age, right? what people s expectations were and as you know, i ve been researching old age. So today. I want to talk a little bit about what i ve been doing, but i also want to put it in the perspective of childhood because this semester we spent a lot of time thinking about each life stage. And its expectations, but we haven t done a lot yet to try to put it together. So i thought i d try to do that heavy lifting and we talk about it in terms of the american revolution. So the first thing a lot of people who haven t had this class say is they didn t even think about age at all. Maybe you re just making something up that we care about today. That they d
What people s expectations were and as you know, i ve been researching old age. So today. I want to talk a little bit about what i ve been doing, but i also want to put it in the perspective of childhood because this semester we spent a lot of time thinking about each life stage. And its expectations, but we haven t done a lot yet to try to put it together. So i thought i d try to do that heavy lifting and we talk about it in terms of the american revolution. So the first thing a lot of people who haven t had this class say is they didn t even think about age at all. Maybe you re just making something up that we care about today. That they didn t care about. Well, that s not true. You can read their diaries and they talk about achieving certain ages expecting for instance. Achy bones and thinning hair as they get older. Not only do they think about age. They think about generations too. So i chose this quote. It s john adams. And he s essentially saying i have to study politics in war.
good evening, every saturday night throughout the summer booktv is putting on several hours of a well-known author. kind of our twist on binge watching. tonight s featured author s historian david mccullough the author of a dozen books including best-selling histories on the american revolution, the invention of manned spaceflight the settlement of the northwest territory and the creation of the brooklyn bridge. he is a two time winner both pulitzer prize and national book award and appeared on booktv and c-span over 75 times. coming up over the next several hours we will show you some of those programs. first up in 1992 he appeared on c-span s book not programmed to talk about his biography of president harry truman. the book won the pulitzer prize for biography and hope to change the view of the truman presidency. here is david mccullough from 1992. david mccullough, and your last chapter called citizen truman truman had held to the idea of the mythical roman heroes c
programs. in 1982 he appeared on book notes to talk about his biography of president truman it won the pulitzer prize for biography and to help change the view of the truman presidency. here he is from 1992. cspan: you start off by saying as far back as he could remember truman held onto the mythical roman heroes. what is that all about? the mythical hero who left in time of war with the great general and was victorious and renounced all of his power and returned to the farm. that s a theme the country was founded on. if you are at the capital with the great painting of george washington turning over his powers as commander-in-chief of the continental army to congress the symbols earth all throughout that painting because they believe this is what democracy entailed that any citizen should be called upon at any time to serve b ultheir country in any capacity and the power belong to the people and would bepo returned to those who held it. he like to say i never forget who i
mr. mccullough sits down to talk about this book on the american revolution. 1776. this is from cspan s q&a program. this week on q&a, august is offering historian david mccullough. on the genera general henry knom in maine. host: david mccullough, you told audience outside of this general henry knox museum, days ago that everybody in american should know who henry knox is pretty white. david: because these extraordinary historian an american who seem to be miscast. seem to be fellow not prepared for the role of the history and for him to play and who not only lived up to the rule, but when over the top as it were. and as an example of a man who came from very humble origins, very little advantage in the way of education, or connections. heroes to be one of the most important americans of his day read the men that george washington discovered. and amanda george washington counted on. through nearly eight and a half years of the revolutionary war and who then counted on him