in fact as governor it has been a sense of the possible that has helped us achieve many remarkable things against more than customary odds. in these exceptionally cynical times people are hungry for something more positive and a firming of than the steady diet of no that they get. it has implications of both policy level and a personal level. on a policy level without a renewed sense of idealism, with all the risk of failure and disappointment that that entails and a central part of the national character in our can-do spirit will be in jeopardy and none of the big challenges facing this country will successfully be faced. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> next on booktv and renewables explores the founding fathers interests in agriculture from washington's vigilant oversight

of the mount vernon estate to jefferson and adams study of agriculture and madison's understanding for conservation. she speaks at the home of 18th-century botanist john bartram whose garden was visited by delegates of the continental congress in philadelphia. it's just under an hour. ..

>> d10's i never thought of a new cat as a job the nation because shaped from 1987 when i went on a seven week road trip washington d.c. two san francisco. that concerns every cliche the chairman has in the late 1980's. but what really stayed with me the most was the best

fields and ovals like man had imposed its grip on nature anything seem to be a larger scale than what other issues to in zero. big houses on a large plot of land and not a lot of gardening but a big loss in but as a think of the larger than life industrial city and sunni living in britain because this is what i was used to it was the garden of my best british friends but i ask your to send me a picture and since may 132.

[laughter] this is the other issues to in britain. in america you are most likely to see this rather than somebody pruning roses but how long i was. that america at its roots is just as much as a governing nation but it is just a little different. but i not only discovered how important american trees and shrubs of the creation of the english garden but also the plans of the making of america. and a plant collector, from the 17th 30's one who began to send boxes of seethe over to england in over four decades completely changed the english landscaper go and it was through him that it was

discovered the remarkable connection to the founding fathers hong and as a good friend of benjamin franklin and through his connection that he was put in contact with the english burners. as they read through diaries and accounts i came across an account of the constitutional convention of 1787 and i will talk about that later and gave an invoice two '08 washington who had more than 100 to read trees and shrubs adams had visited and jefferson even found time to come here raw he was writing the declaration of independence.

you can see this is the back of the house of of their. only when i really follow the footsteps through the appalachian mountains through 2006 that i understood just how important plant had been for the founding fathers. i work-- when downed and i looked at my map and i saw that jefferson and live very nearby. so i stopped to look at the home of the writer of the declaration of independence. this is monticello. but when i came to the mountaintop i was astounded because what i saw was the work of a revolutionary gardiner and monticello

brings together are -- together with the productivity of the land and that combination of rugged and wild and it needs and useful is very uniquely american. big to be like a monument to almost read it like his letter so in a way bertrand became the inspiration of the buck. so i realize the past four presidents had all use nature one way or another in the fight some zero giving a completely new perspective george rushing tin whom i had known as a revolutionary hero but what i didn't know it is more likely to talk about trees and plants and

flowers rather than politics but go jefferson once said of monticello then there was james madison a brilliant legal mind i did not know that he was the forgotten father of american and garment listen trying to rally america to protect nature and the floor is. bed john adams and the second president of the united states. also a passionate gardener but then and they regarded themselves but not as politicians if you can see

every single letter and the employment stock being all the time, it is very much a part of the life. they were deeply woven into the fabric of america. so they did not just create the united states and a political sense the for the making of this nation and as such we can look at rose in rows of cotton farmers as a symbol says the independence from britain and as a reflection of a nation that is strong and young and independent bid also growing

from the natural world going into politics. it is all but impossible to understand the making of the united states without looking at the founding fathers as gardeners and farmers. this plays out on many different levels. so really it is the economic level, could agriculture crop to endow the ideological level is the i period republic in terms of national identity because of the spectacular landscape and literally and

symbolically fail use in their gardens as the campus to pay the political statements. let me give you an example and take you to the summer of 1776. manhattan to those in the streets and new york facing 30,000 british troops. the largest ever arrived on american shores. and the offices had -- officers have expected battle but then had faced those warships but then here is george washington. the city is bracing itself for the first two marriages battle of the war of independence and thinking about his garden. just a few days before the

battle of new york he pushes the way the military masks to sit down to write a letter to the state manager in mount vernon in virginia. said he asks people to design a new garden and he is talking about the mood to laurel's, hovering dogwood and crabapple the oak and the popcorn and magnolia tree. what is even remarkable from the timing is he is asking only four native species. at the very moment the nation is threatened by the almighty british army george groschen seems to think he should create the

all-american guard edgardo english trees are allowed to put in the soil. [laughter] he continues the idea after when he returns to mount vernon 1783 he builds a bowling green and a shrubbery around it and they are planted with native species only. we have to remember what he is doing is remarkable because until then american gardeners try to recreate the plant to plant the european plant. so bertram was growing here but his customers are english were french or german. the few american customers

he had they want to the european plants that he had received from his english customers. of the ornamental garden to make a very deliberate choice. when he returns from the war of independence, jeno's he is a revolutionary hero that mount vernon would be the nicest private of in the united states in making sure that it is the all-american guard in. you can just see the shrubbery legislative native species and if this is not a celebration of the american landscape and species, but i don't know what else should be. john adams and jefferson experience something very

similar when they go on a garden tour 1786 england. the american minister and the did it in paris. and to assist with the trade negotiations. but the british hated the americans and what-- to dallas is the former colonies. jefferson even speculated it bb the amount of meat consumed by the british that made their character insusceptible of civilization. [laughter] budget epperson despite the diversion that they had actually created the best garden.

they looked like an odd pair walking through the gardens because tall and gangly in towering almost 7 inches above john adams. despite the truth of the compared to being held accountable but despite they're differences it was the adored garden. maybe in a slightly different ways so you have adams who loves to get his the and sturdy and whenever he is away from the guarded guarded, it is terribly missing his farm and discarded it always putting himself into the orchard and whenever he is involved in political battles i would

rather be digging in my put it lowered. he is a ball with tile temper and works of his temper by digging in the tour. jefferson, but a little more theoretical but spends a lot of time coming up with very elaborate garden designs that never quite make it from his notebook to the soil. he is the obsessive list make your of certain types of vegetables harvest times over the years, when to plant them, counts the number of ps to fit into a glass. [laughter] but we also know from it isn't accounts that he is also out in the garden, baby dinosaurs backbreaking work but he is really out there enjoying it.

so that is allegedly true. so they travel every day between 40 and 50 miles. and every day they see several girtin's. this is a big landscape burden there of italy taking off as many as possible. what they see of the ornamental farms. with a be is the working and agricultural elements of a farm. so with the shrubberies at the same time, this is a depiction of the grecian valley and there are sheep in the garden.

it is useful with the very much beautiful with their vision of america there is a beauty that would feed the nation both jefferson and adams with ladies in their gardens in america. but what of the most exciting revelations was to discover the with skirted was not english at all. was densely populated with american trees and shrubs. i will flip through a pew's you can get an idea of what it is like. and has a lot of evergreens because they have no native evergreens pro the flowering dogwood is another one per

grow also seen what had grown over the past five decades from this. >> host: bertram. two everson discovered the english were crazy about american trees and shrubs% in a strange buttressed of fired yet the very moment the colony's declare independence, the american garden is filled with trees and shrubs. jefferson to had so long a buyer the english garden finds it easy to it meant he likes them because it was american. he could not create without feeling anti-patriotic. by the us slightly more secular example about the importance of plants in the shaping of america because

it is speculation to argue to jump up and change the course of history, it seems more than just pure coincidence what happens here in the summer of 1787 so they had assembled and made the future of america. one of the most controversial points during this time was how the power between the larger and smaller states was to be distributed. until then each state had one vote. now the larger states florist representation giving greater leverage in congress while unsurprisingly the smaller states wants to keep the one state one-vote rule.

by mid july that constitution -- convention was at the verge of collapse then someone devised the idea of the saturday party the july compass seven delegates arrived at 6:00 in the morning and to the guarded by which was run by bertram the sun. i will still show you a picture of the garden. it fired the trees and shrubs that had been collected and where they turned they basically see another specimen from another part of the country. it seems america's entire floor was assembled here from the trees that was collected to the flowering shrubs collected in florida.

here, they thought the trees and shrubs from those states a thriving together helped form the union. two days later they met again to vote to on the connecticut plan that was a compromise to suggest the house of representatives should be based on representation proportionately and while in the senate each state should have equal votes. they previously voted on the connecticut plan and dismissed it. but everybody's astonishment cover this time it took a surprising turn. three delegates switched their vote to. all of whom had visited

bertram's garden. they must change their mind after their visit because until then they always voted differently. we do not know how or if regarded influence them in their decision making, but we do know the three men to change their mind make the make compromise possible that all the work in the garden so i leave it up to you to make that decision. but to tell you something witches importance for agriculture, we all believe it should be the foundation of the american republic. to say i the governments would remain virtuous as long as they are chiefly agricultural. they were experimenting with

propositioned and also the first american with a specially designed clothing. >> it took me by surprise to see that all presidents were utterly obsessed. [laughter] eleven to a farm manager and said as the view of constant review, jefferson had a charming treatise and there is a more delightful picture than john adams as a midget -- imagined it blunted in this case driving out and jumping out of the carriage and jumping into a pile of the newer run of the same time the other ambassadors come rushing through the corridor and is

standing in a pile of manure to declare that those bios are not equal to mind. [laughter] suze obsession may seem a little strange to us by very much a part of their political agenda so firming provided the likelihood of most americans at that time. they believe the independent farmer was foot soldiers and with the elevation of the small farmer such as collecting when newark became an elementary part of nation building. putting him prowling and vegetable gardens was much more than occupation but important political aspect

with freedom and independence. so the improvement of agriculture was a republican in denver and medicis said the more free the more independent and the more happy must be society itself. at the same time, giving is the 13 states of a distinct national identity that resonates today. because after the war of independence certain states are not just those who come from truly a united nation but the constitution that welded them together economically and legally and politically but from the chance scented feeling in the new world sparked ideas

and found it in america. this was a perfect articulation of a young nation that has thrown off the shackles of tyranny. the founding fathers understood that very early on of the early 1780 strippers in a book called the state of virginia and wrote to about the passage through the mountains this was the most dependent scenes in nature and it was one of the most supply of natures work. so how could the natural scenery be used as a reflection of the strong nation? but what they called the national wonder and asking those two pay so they could

show the world the singular landscaped other that some bumbling englishmen would represent. [laughter] and previous generations of the untamed landscape the hostile environment now became the object of national pride. they began to plant america's landscape. until then they concentrated on historical moments i was a lawyer thomas cole and others as nature becomes the object of national time. what does it mean today? i think if you go to mount vernon and you see the

shrubberies entirely planted the native species and john adams and quincey are in the same sense. summers 1796 adams was redesigning his garden because he was approaching and tuesday in his life that washington was considering to retire and office of president himself because that is a picture of his farm. but they had several plows and acres and only around 500 acres but nevertheless very much inspired by what

he has seen on the guardian tour. u.s. to create the or amend the farm and the first thing he did was made of wall that keeps out cattle but allows surrounding the use of the countryside including the fields but also the mountains. so what adams is also doing but also looking as the prospect to see the meadows and accountants. with really celebrating america's landscape. there were also four hours in the girded but there were some versions that were

banned from the guarded because the name was too difficult. [laughter] but by the end of that summer adams finally names his garden peas field. i will read how he explains why he calls it the peace field. >> and commemoration of the piece a system of making in 1783 of the 30 years' piece in neutrality that i have contributed to preserve of the constant peace and tranquility which i have enjoyed in this residence. there is a political meaning even with the name. looking at monticello, which epperson retires 79 come it was very much a reflection of what he believes america had strong and beautiful independent agrarian and it

is a living tapestry so the majestic views across the rolling landscape, the plant's that go from the expedition reminded of the promises that lay in the west. from the pleasure grounds which was a manifestation of his belief in america and then there was the vegetable tariffs. this is the experimental hub of the scientific clap because jefferson very much believed the introduction of been do useful species says the greatest service that could be rendered to any country and is so important

that while he has services to his country, he has another left and includes a declaration of independence but also his introduction of the olive tree and thinks it is as important as his political acts. during the last years of delphi house he creates and ornamental farm in monticello and i am sure it is a slightly complicated plan but these are the past or the roads that go up to the mountaintop. he ascends the visitors on that complicated network and a magic use been three days writing to the virginia untamed forest and revive

there but who you plan to see is a drive by going straight up to the house. and is on a detour up to the mountain so that about halfway up he introduces the third one of agricultural element. so then enter a carefully planned road past the vegetable tariffs then into the flower beds. it is a journey from the rugged to the refined and attorney from the wilderness to civilization. we have to bear in mind he designs this while american is stock between britain and france and in order to avoid war and pressure, but they are introducing what expands

of foreign trade. suddenly it is incredibly important again. also then he draws this switches like 10 necklace that is just below the pleasure ground. of but he also created a of garden for his retirement that have scenes from washington and jefferson that the presidential whole really becoming a very important part of the tourist industry having a lot of strangers turning up in regarding dayton it was all carefully planned. businesses arrive at the front of the house walking through the parlor led to

the back porter co. they would see the centerpiece of the ornament zero landscape which was a plaque and a huge and beautiful which was literally in playstation braced silver washington had gone into the forest to plant into the shrubberies madison let's the forest comes to the house and celebrates. but most extraordinary of all there is a rather bad job so ignore those who look at the sixth building because what you see write in the middle of the ornamental landscape, these

buildings are very of light of these cabins elsewhere on the plantation and also facing decorated place impasse the entertainment to wander over to look around. as they have separated from the main garden and facing elsewhere right there in the village right in the middle of the garden.

because they have the idea of slavery with the belief in the quality and also knows there will be a lot of foreigners scrutinizing as well as those from the north because he saw that happening to washington and replacing them model village and presents himself as a slave owner whose our hopeful this by the other setter on the plantation. what is the greatest surprise which is even the environmental movement could be traced back to the founding fathers. 1818 medicis said the

protection of the buyer but was the essential to the survival of america. he did not suggest if man wanted to live off of nature in the long term, something had to change. he said it was from the ecological system pour the ruthless exploitation of the destruction of forest and fields nature's balance may become unhinged. and also man has to return to nature so these are ecological views the levying god has created animals and plants and at that time they could not expect that ban

passed to find a place in nature. thank. >> the research itself plowing through the letters that we historians, they are

very subjective what they choose to tout and so the 19 forties or fifties not really adams standing in a pile of manure because it was a demagogue of the revolution so you don't see a lot of them to go back to the letters and other historians had ignored. so what happened but it was

because of the bertram collection. any other questions. >> [inaudible] did they have a description of their trip? >> 5:00 in the morning at the indian queen tavern with two carriages they came out across here and met at 6:00. almost like the sleeves up and the two carriages rolled up.

and adverse a little taken aback in the beginning. and then shows them around for three hours. [inaudible] [laughter] >> my next book has nothing to do with guarding but the transit of venus when the planet venus moves between the earth and the son and 46 hours a looks like a black doc docked and it only happens wants per century the only way to measure the distance between the earth and to help decide the scope of the solar system. because several astronomers

work together to look at the same time to collect the data and calculate. it is a vast scientific global endeavor and two hundreds astronomers work together in the 18th century of france, england, as we did come american colonies all working together as a race across the world. but to be a was a logic collection. i just got the perspective of but sure enough benjamin franklin is involved. it was an interesting

outlook. although calling it to do the heavenly pleasure of pop. >> i am interested in your descriptions of the district of columbia. could you talk about that? i was surprised there is so much disagreement to what it should be that washington d.c. should be the organic place. basically i did not talk about that today because of that story but it will take three minutes on this question. we're all passionate gardeners. where to find the most amazing stuff. we didn't find anything which then to say a whole theory is not working. basically, when they decide

there will be a new capital in the district of columbia, they have two very different ideas and both of them agreed the capital should be a reflection of the power of the federal government. that the federal government should have a lot of power while its epperson believes the federal government should be as invisible as as possible. so if they have a grain and and amazing sweeping avenues and the market plan four or five times bigger from boston and new york and philadelphia but job -- boston believes it should be a small town. >> then washington working

with the architect has a 60-acre presidential task. then the first president to move in is adams would only have four months. such a percent is really the first to move in there as a gardener. quite frankly when he arrives he sees a building it exactly what he wants to convey. he spends all whole presidency trying to demystify the office this is a man who's always dressed beautifully but dresses down so much visitor say the toes sticking out of the slippers and her is disheveled and rolled is threadbare and

very intimate dinner parties. everything he does is demystifying. he doesn't do anything in the garden because he feels it should not be like for tsai. the only thing he does is to put all walk around the garden to make it only 5 acres. so his legacy is to make it small as he feels that is the most reflection of power there should be. a long answer to a short question. sorry. [laughter] any more questions? okay. thank you. [applause]

described as social work. i try to describe the phenomenon of the ordinary reader to look at the news to see what journalist called bang bang like afghanistan or the three cups of tea side of the war that what the military calls and on kinetics side and i want to get the experience

of people who get their hands dirty doing these kinds of things. digging wells, building roads fettered fundamentally not military missions. >> host: is u.s. military currently building schools and roads and nonmilitary functions? >> he would be surprised if they have embrace admission especially afghanistan where this is a cornerstone of the exit strategy to have a local government capable of delivering criminal-justice. the taliban could out cover the coalition so that is where civilians need to step been. >> host: where did the term nation-building come from? >> it is a very unsatisfying term but back in the 1990's there was a national

security said and when he was running for office george bush said we'd do not feel that the military should be appalled but by then he had embraced it to which even called for a civilian nation-building response in the "state of the union" address. it was a dramatic turnaround and part of that was because of the arms humanitarianism getting out of the mess that we have got it into. >> how is it nation-building became a political term where they said the donation build? >> or barack obama december 2009 saying he wanted to send more troops to afghanistan with the conneaut that the nation he wanted to build.

but in some circles that is the dirty word pro that is not the military is supposed to be doing the training for the force complex that they train around but also what they pined for because it is simple and direct in your opponent wears a uniform. this is more difficult involving navigating differences come the barriers, and it has proven o lot harder than theory. >> about the pentagon and its role? >> pc robert gates his worries of the military could become 19th century victorian type that it tries to master of what of the chores. it is not there yet but

there is a worry within the military establishment the pendulum may have swung too far in that direction that there's a need to come back to focus on the fundamentals. but mayor nonmilitary missions. more for the development agencies and therefore diplomats but aid workers are not necessarily trained is basically doing development work while being shot back. so rose seven on the department of state. >> so those built around the embassy. >> and we willing to volunteer.

>> so does this diminish the role of the state department foreign policy? >> i said there is a fundamental disconnect between the ambition to defend the ground and the ability of agencies as a simple matter of mass somewhere number '07 hundred billion dollars per year so of the release operations the equipment and training to get to places in a hurry. i describe it on the military side operations but part of the effort under way is we need to get the diplomats to be out there and we need to get along to go drink three cups of tea.

it is not that simple because you are getting shot at along the way. hasn't been effected foreign policy tool? >> governor q it is about who we are as a nation. >> armed humanitarian sparc. >> it is a contradiction. it sends a signal. >> and the developing world shouldn't the importance be about the military people who were doing the training? it says something interesting about who we are. i worry when it comes to operating in places like this. i talk a lot about protection and the military. inevitably because of the

risk to put the barriers between those that you tried to breach of. >> you have reference three cups of tea also reference thomas barnett. >> he was the guy who was best known, the pentagon's new math briefing. he was a kind of a guy who works for the department of defense and had some famous power point* briefings delivered to a military audience which explained how the post 9/11 world had shifted but now more into what he was arguing is there needed to be something of a nation building cadres to address the failing states. so you have the leviathan and the army and the big

forces to go into regime change. but did you need people who are on call and as a mix of boy scouts and u.s. marines and a mishmash of different things but they articulated in a lot of ways to explain what is the new reality to the department of defense. >> out as a center for new america security play into your book? >> it came out of the whole for the counter insurgency but those assertions was a rebellion by the rank-and-file within the military establishment, intellectual but nothing more than about. by people who have experience of first tour in

afghanistan and then try to grasp or refilling of losing iraq? seven is the intellectual antecedents, it really did talk about the roles and missions to get that the tricky problem. they played an interesting role and has become a farm team worthy administration's policy. my day job i work for the "wall street journal." >> finally but is this image on your book? weir day do get the image? >> i think it conveys