the next thing she knew she spent a decade of her life working for newt gingrich. you never know who you might be at one of these events. make sure you may know. interestingly enough she is married to its abundant, for those of you that our symphony lovers, the first chair, first violinist for the washington symphony for a long, long time. he retired year ago. they met at a meet in three and fellow love and live very happily in georgia. you never know when these events might lead to a happily ever after. so, again, my first memory and deasy was in the 70's. this was way before my dad won. i'm going to take you on a little bit of a reminder of my background and his career for us to understand where we come from and why it is important to me lessons.

if you can imagine the 1970's, around 74, we lived in carrollton, georgia. we live in georgia because my father went to lane and got his ph.d. part of the deal was the essence dollars of money if he promised to come back to georgia and teach when he finished. fair deal. well, he finished up his dissertation and found a job offer at one place, carrollton, georgia. that is where he went. two young girls. my mother and i'll live in carrollton georgia. we pack up to come to washington on this big train trip. as you can imagine, a big chip for us. my mother's mother was going as well. we are getting ready and coming down the big kill. pretty steep, not very long. my grandmother trips and broke her arm. broken leg. her leg. broker leg. my sister had to get someone to push around the entire time.

luckily there was no problem with that. grandmother got on the train. the whole way here. we kept our family vacation intact. what i remember, and the reason i'm telling the story, if you can imagine a girl from carrollton georgia riding the train up, going into the dining car in the morning, sitting around what appear to be a very elegant table at that time in a little flour and looking out of the window and seeing, as you cross the bridge, the potomac, the washington monument. the feeling that i had knowing that i just entered our nation's capitol. later i learned, as i'm sure many of you know, that on the top of the washington monument is the capstone. on the capstone on each side it says praise be to god. as the sun rises over washington every day the first light of sun strikes the words praise be to god.

i try to remember that as i come to washington because it really is a special city. i think for those that live here you can occasionally forget that, but i think it is very important for us to remember that it is a very special city. so, my first political memories are not of the trip to washington but the 1974 campaign. again, little girl from georgia, 1974. my father decides to run for congress as a republican. now, back then there were no republicans from georgia. there was rodney cook, mack mattingly, bill kelly, and my father. all three of them in a room together and that was the entire republican group. that was it. he decided to run. because he was in west georgia, that meant he would run against jack find it at the time was the dean of the georgia delegation. he was the most senior person.

i'm sure many people told him it wasn't a good idea. i know that we actually had the granddaughter of someone who remembers when he announced he was going to run. he ran. ran really hard. for those that remember 1974, history books or real life, 74 was the time of watergate. you can imagine what it must have been like to run as a republican in georgia. really hard. he ran, ran, ran, ran. at the end of this we went to the victory party. i can remember dad sitting there with his yellow legal pad. back then we didn't have this great maps. we had someone call from the precinct. they would say, hey, here are the votes. so dad write-down.

i can remember him adding them up. he is a pretty good mathematician. he is pretty good at math. you add them up again. as if it would change the answer. unfortunately it didn't. he lost with 48 and a half percent of the vote. it doesn't matter how much you lose by you lose. the next morning he didn't complain. the next morning we got up really early and went over to the ford factory and shook hands. thank you for your help. we'll be back again next time. next to the same thing happened. it would sure he could beat jack plant. he said he knew he really had a chance until the republican primary. jimmy carter was really getting ahead. he knew it was going to be a tough race. we're in georgia again. jimmy carter had a great race.

worked really hard. dad said he thought he had a chance until election day when he stood in front of the library, our polling place, and he saw the buses pulled up. you realize that the buses or in their to vote for newt gingrich. there were there for somebody else. so, again, that night he added up again and again and again. again he lost. 48 percent of the vote. so what do we do the next morning? we get up again, go to the ford factory. thank you very much for your help rebuild the back again. now, great story. i heard this recently. we are talking about the history and the family and what we went through. at this point there lost twice. decided not to run again. mom says she can run going and running into a friend and saying, you not going to let him run again, are you? he just can't.

if he loses it's going to be embarrassing. mom has such a great answer. she goes, who am i to kill the dream. of course he's gone to run. he wants to run. as we now know he ran, he won, and in time the republican resurgence on the hill. the reason i ever tell the story is not to see my dad lost because i know it's kind of embarrassing and i don't like to highlight that. my point is very clear. i want you to understand that persistence matters. very important that we as a people are optimistic. persistence. in the and that is what makes a difference. as thomas jefferson said, all tyrannies to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. i think we need to be very, very aware of this because we have to

understand we can plant the -- can be silent. complicity is just as bad. we have to have the ability to stand up and speak about what we think is important as a nation. today more than ever conservatives and in particular i talk about this -- in particular, no offense to a man's here. my kids always say that. it's not any offense. i think particularly women conservatives are incredibly important. important for a long time, but women really, it is our time to step up and be proactive. i'm going to talk about that. on a journey. we are on a journey. we have an incredible, rich history, a lot of which is in this book, "the essential american." i think we have are really bright future return going to talk about as well. if you think about it, we are the link. we are it. the people in this room, we are

the link between an incredibly wonderful mystery and an incredibly bright future. it is our job and i think our future is based on our ability to speak up, articulate a very clear vision of a great future that everyone can be engaged in. i think we have to paint such a compelling picture that people want to join in and be helpful and be a part of it. we have to inspire and remind people of our rights. responsibilities of americans. our future is predicated. americans understanding and belief that we all have an equal opportunity to share the american dream. we have to understand that we have to articulate and convey a vision that resonates, it has to resonate. when i say resonate. my little girl plays violin.

she plays and plays well. you can feel it. you feel it resonating. let me tell you. the first chair really does resonate pretty place with such passion. well, we have to be able to convey and articulate a vision that resonates with the majority of americans so that they can understand and feel it in their bodies. i want to talk a little bit about the founding of our country that i'm sure you all know about, but i'm going to talk about it anyway. also about where i think we need to go. we think about the declaration of independence which clearly states that we have self-evident truths, our creator gave people rights. we did not london to the government. when you think about this as we are and what we are not. self-evident means truthful. we understand that we need to have governments based on truth. when we say people come not created equal, not that in the end very cool. this is a challenge for us.

this is going to hurt people's feelings. people like for people to be happy. the reality is in the end you have to have people that do better than others because they work hard. you can't have a society where everyone gets the same thing in the end. that is not a free society that creates independent and entrepreneurial people. we are talking about being in doubt by creator. we're talking about a guy giving as power. it comes from god, not that the government decides what power we're going to have. a very different paradigm. and we think about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to think about the freedom to act as you want and do, but also you have to happiness is really important. that means you can pursue it. that doesn't mean that you have it. and that is very, very different. i have a nine and 11 year-old. great ages. really fine. the 11 year-old is a girl. nine is a little boy. we get into these discussions.

they get really frustrated with me because they are not happy. i have to remind him that that feel, what they're doing and how they work. what she is able to do is pull

all their strengths and figure out how to use them together. she is an incredible, incredible manager, very talented woman. women often have the skill of figuring out how to do it together and create a team versus how you create a group that always compete against each other. a very different dynamic. another thing that women do is, because they are, by nature, they give birth and are the mother, women are much more forward thinking because we are always thinking about, especially when you have children, the next generation. we can't help ourselves. we worry about our children. we worry about their future. we worry about how we can make sure things are ready. by design the way god created as we do worry about what is coming out. we care for children which makes as either crazy sometimes, which has happened. also develop patience. one of the big stories i have with having children is that i

am developing a little more patience. i have a lot more to get, but one of the things i haven't experienced this weekend, and my husband and i laughed over this. we once had someone watch our children. they were running around doing something. the kids my stuff rapidly and it whatever told to do which was amazing. they turned off and said, tell them and they do it. i'm like, right. tell them for a thousand times. one of the things about parenting is you begin to realize that you do have to repeat yourself. very repetitious. very deliberate. you have to say it over and over again. if possible without screaming. so, some of that ability to say the same thing over and over again in the hopes that eventually you will hear someone saying, you know, they have the nicest manners. i say yes ma'am and no man and thank you very much.

you hear that and think, gosh, after that 4,000 time something stuck again. the other thing that women do is create maps. i know guys like to laugh at that. part of the reason that we create places of safety or relaxation is that allows a place for people to be able to knit together as a community of family. a lot of times in society we laugh at that. we don't need a nice place on whenever. it is true. you need that sanctuary. in fact, i was talking to a teacher last week. she goes, you know, it's interesting how much information you get when you are carpooling. some of my best discussions are during carpooling. you hear about what is happening and what they're doing. she goes, the nice thing about that is it leaves the home as a place to be safe. i don't know that all people have that ability. i think one of the things that i have tried to do as a mother is to make sure my home is a place

that is safe children feel loved. that is what women try to do. go places that a safe. and i think we as a conservative the next generation. we need to use those same skills. we need to deal to think about how we can get together communities and help each other. how can we figure out how to over and over and over repeat the same thing without giving frustrated because it may take revlon time. how can we make sure that we build on strengths and don't teardown people because of their weaknesses, because i have allowed of witnesses. we all do. those core fundamental values of very importance. one of the reasons that i wrote "the essential american" in one of the reasons i think it is so important is because it reminds us that words matter. and know it sounds very shocking to hear that, but i think we

forget a lot of times, especially when we e-mail and text that words have great importance. ponce and ideas create reality and therefore results. so be very careful, not only will we read but what we think and our ideas. these documents remind us of our sectionalism and ask us to do more or be more. they also provide clarity. when reagan said, mr. gorbachev, tear down that wall, he didn't say, gosh, i hope one day it falls down on its own. he said, teardown the wall. very, very clear in terms of what should happen. i think as we think about our future it is very important for us to understand our past. again, that is the core belief behind "the essential american." there are nation stories. we have family stories. i told you about my dad living twice, obviously a family story.

i tell that to my children when they fail to remind them they have to get up and be nice and gracious and work hard again. they can't give out. we also have stories, a few family stories. my grandmother, man who, was raised on a farm. in a rural area of georgia that metropolis. everyone around her was probably related to work. eleven or 13. not really sure. we don't have good records. born in either 1911 or 1913. in any event, part of a fan -- part of the farming family. it did not own the land. that meant everybody had to participate. everyone was involved. when she told her dad that she wanted to go to columbus, georgia, and get hurt are in degree he was not happy. he needed the san spirited needed her to help him out. her mother gave her her egg

money, literally her egg money, and aztec. her father said -- and she went off and got her degree. from a woman from a family never had a high-school diploma, it was a huge event. i tell the story to my children so they and the sentry value education and it is important, as is doing what you think is really right for you. now, you will be glad to know that when her father became sick later in life and needed someone to help and she, of course, was there and took care of him, for which she was grateful. really important. education is important. a mother who is the oldest of four children was told when she went to college, you have two choices they beat you may get out in three years are your sister wait another year. there is enough money to send to children the same year. i'll give it a try.

she went to auburn and graduated with a degree in math. unusual for a year teeseven a girl her age and got out three years and became high-school math teacher. again, we've got your education. my sister who i mentioned earlier, a story about raising money for cancer. my sister has arthritis. if you have never seen anyone that has this disease, it is an incredibly debilitating disease. she had days six our seven years ago when she literally could not get out of bed. we literally had to lift her out of bed. she began taking a drug called embroil and it totally transform perlite. she did not fix anything, but it stopped all of the progress of the disease. my sister having been -- having conquered that, decided she wanted to raise money for

awareness and awarded to rock a marathon. 262 miles. she asked me to go along. i said, sure, of course. and all i could think about the first year, i'm going to have to carry air. luckily she is little. 5-foot five and i probably could have carried her. chilly air will be able to carry air. but kathy, of course, made it through fine. it took her seven hours and 47 minutes. we have done it to other times. over the years we have raised $146,000. you really can do incredible things. those are some of our family stories. in terms of our nation's stories, a couple of want to highlight. there are some important. one is abigail adams, often overlooked. if you think about the revolutionary war, women were not in front of the group.

there were left behind with the children. when you look at abigail adams and her letter, you see a woman that clearly was very, very bright, highly educated, and asked a really great question. when you read your letters and see her questions you think, she is giving him the next thing to do. and one of the things, she reminds him that every member from a kind of like right now. remember the people in georgia, out in texas, in california. she reminded him of the people at home. see also reminded him if a form of government is to be established what one will be assumed? what is going to happen? how will you for this government? how will it be made up? but clearly their relationship, not only provided him with stability but also intellectually challenged him to think about the right form of

government. the other one is jeane kirkpatrick. i am really very fond of her. very interesting because very, very bright woman who was a democrat originally. part of a great party, part of the concern in the 70's because of the way foreign policy was unfolding. very, very concerned. ronald reagan's attention when he was running for office and became his national security adviser. and really 1984, the republican national convention, i think he could take that speech today in put in the faces and names and it is just as relevant today as it was then. it lays out the country cannot blame itself. i will talk a little bit about this. this whole idea we have to think about as a country because where we don't want to not have right or wrong, clearly in the forefront we must have truth and

understand that when we say two plus two as my dad says it will for, it really does. there has to be a standard of truth. but we have to, i think, move toward having truth without judgment. if you look at our history we have a cycle of victims and oppressors. if the next group cycle's over and the victims become the oppressors you have the same cycles and it reverses. the way to fix that and the way to think about possibly fixing that is to have truth, not necessarily without judgment, but with an open mind so that it will lead you to a more interesting and creative decision that will be inclusive and allow everyone to participate. it is a lot to think about. out back up and give you a little bit of abraham lincoln to help with that. my favorite selection out of the essential american is lincoln's fifth inaugural. you can tell i am overweighted

in lincoln. a bit of a discussion. i just could not figure out what to cut. i have lankans first inaugural. i have the gettysburg address, the emancipation proclamation and the second inaugural. i cannot figure out if you're really trying to cover american history, what do you leave out? i could not figure it out. i left the mall land. when you look at the transition and how he changes as a person from his first inaugural which is clearly a very legalistic case of why we should not go to war but will probably have to. he read his first inaugural it basically says, the states have seceded. we know it will end in war. i don't want to go to work. i wish it wouldn't go to work, but here is a legal outline of what is going to happen. you look at that. the gettysburg address were in less than two minutes into hundred 87 words never using the word i wore me, never talking about himself, he moved from the founding of our nation to the

future and wrapped it all in this great promise for tomorrow. unbelievable speech. he was not the keynote speaker that date. edward everett was. he spoke for two hours. don't worry. i'm not speaking for two hours today. if you can imagine linking getting up after a two-hour oratory, 287 words in less than two minutes and it's so short a photographer could not take his picture. today it's one of the ones we remember. the second inaugural to me is really heart wrenching. i want to talk to you about it because we are right here. but if you can imagine, the first inaugural, the capitol dome was have finished. the first inaugural, have finished, scaffolding up on the capital. and at that time decided to continue with the destruction. not.uld

we would be here. the second inaugural, all but assured the north would win. the dome was finished. he comes out. a cloudy day like today. a little overcast. the story goes that he comes out. as lincoln approached the podium the clouds actually broke and the sun shines. it must have been incredibly moving if you were there. he talks about a couple of things which i want us to think about. where we need to move for our next generation. he talks about let us judge not that we be not judged. you can tell in this address that he has become a man who truly understands that he is an instrument in the hand of god. you can see it in his speeches, his writings, how faithful he has become as a leader and president. he talks about that as judge not that we not be judged. he then goes on and closes with

that great line, with malice toward none, charity for all, firmness and the right that god gives us to see the right, let us try to finish the work we iran. now, you may think what does this have to do with me? you are college students, and in turn, working in an office. what does that have to do with me? the same thing myself. i am a writer, mother. i do a lot of laundry. although this weekend. you wonder what it has to do with us. i think it has a lot to do with us. first of all, we need to understand we are a nation about looking forward. we are a nation that was to reach out and include others. we don't want to lane. we know in the and that is not going to get is where we need to go. we also have to understand that if we really want to dream big and think about where we want our nation to be because when i

-- and much of our older, we have to think about a nation that can be focused on truth. part of saying we are truthful without judgment, the truth is still the truth. it doesn't make the truth go away. it doesn't make as focus on that trip and create a really creative solution. looking at the past and figuring out how to fix the past. let me tell you what. you can try all you want. you can't fix the past. it doesn't change. there is nothing there for us. think about how we can be creative and solve problems for the future. that is what we are about. then we can figure out how to make it so attractive that reabsorb the majority of the country and work together. it is about a solution instead. if we're going to do this, how do we do that? how do we work hard enough to make that happen? one of the things that does help

us with is our nation stories. talk about abraham lincoln and his second inaugural address or when he gave the brandenburg gate speech and why words are important. talk about jfk in this statement of ask not what your country can do for you. what you can do for your country. ask, are we really doing what we should? i think the example, that is the hardest thing i do every day. i still every day, usually by lunch. sometimes a little later. it was three children did you understand what that means. they see everything you do. they see how you ask them to do things and how you react to people around you were to them. i think we all need to understand that everyone of us has incredible network and we can be a good example. how do we do this? to learn every day. i don't know if you learn every

day. i try to learn most days. usually i try to learn from failing. i think one of the things we have to learn as a conservative movement is what resonates. we talk about building a movement big enough to resonate, what does resonate? dislike of violinist can hear the knows that the play, resonate. so we have launched last fall. i was talking about this earlier. telling a story. but the story was, the response was the violinist -- corrected the notes the fastest. what they did was they went back and listen to the tape and realized you slow the takedown you could hear his flaws. you could hear.

but his hearing was so good that he could correct it before the human ear could hear it. he was literally correcting as he played. we had to have that ability as a community in movement to figure out if we're going the wrong way, if it is not resonating, if we are not building positivity in optimism. it is got to all, just like a violin in the in the past of the fabulous and fantastic and pleasing to the year. you have to figure out how to do that. because this is going to be a long process and in the end we are never really over. life takes a long time. life takes a long time if you're lucky. we have to enjoy life. i am the worst of this. i have my to do list and my husband's. he is not so happy about that. he is the guy that gets up and sits on the couch. and i know that we are together for a reason.

god wants me to learn patience. but once me to do things on occasion. but it is good for me. i am very, very focused. i get too involved in activity. i try to do too much. he is there to iranian. you know, honey, that is not all life is about. it is about being with their family and having fun. my favorite story about my husband is the eighth story. we took our children -- card children grits in tustin eggs every morning because i'm from atlanta and we can do that. this morning i took the group this morning. many occasions to me does. for while we had this battle. you can imagine the pressure on those children to declare the best a maker. it was awful. i have to say, he won for quite a while. kind of embarrassing. finally i asked him. tommy to do this with that. honey, you have to love those

eggs. you have to love those checks. you have to pay attention and know what you're doing. that has become our code for no matter what it is you have to love the eggs. you have to love the committee release you're giving out, it does not matter what it is. you have to laugh. jimmy does love. of course he and i off the eggs for a while. the last thing we need to remind ourselves as we have to be true to who we are as the conservative movement. i think for women i listen to my mother talk about how she was the first math major. i don't understand because i grew up in an age where i have an undergraduate in finance, nba finance, i can do what i want to. but as women we have to figure out that we have choices. we can do that with this.

every woman is different and every woman can change a couple times during her life. i worked in corporate finance for 15 years. i ran a big corporate group. then i had two children and now i'm a writer. so the good news, nowadays you can reinvent yourself as you change and grow and decide that you have a different priority. in the and you have to be authentic, which means i am the same standing today in front of you as i am this morning. you have to be very clear about who you are and what you will and will do. i think you have to understand that it is important that no matter what you do you have to, and the end, love all the eggs are involved with. ladies, you know, we have a really big job in front of us. i mean that collectively. but i think that together i know that we are up to the task. the task is to be truthful --

truthful about judgment, created in solution, allow all americans to come in and join the movement and understand that everyone can pursue the american dream. i would like to thank all of you for your time, your commitment, your passion, and for serving what i think is an interval apart between our incredible rights of history and a regrettable future because we are the lank and a great american story. thank you so much. praise be to god as a said on the east side of the washington monument. may god bless you and god bless america. [applause] [applause] and i think melissa said that we would take any questions. and, yes, you may ask about how the eggs are cooked.

>> what is your favorite speech? >> my favorite speech is lincoln second inaugural address because it is so -- it moves me to tears when i read it because you can tell how hard the war was for him. you can tell how much he felt. we believe in the same got to read the same bible, pray to the same god. this is where we are as a nation. you can almost feel as heartbreaking. in the end he is very merciful, without judgment. he wants to stall work together and restore a for a bright future. >> thank you so much. in your interactions with people of liberal persuasion, what is some common ground you're able to connect on, especially with the material in this book? >> that is a great question. common ground in terms of liberals in terms of this book. we have a couple.

it is an american book, not a conservative but. in no case and the buck. his speech is incredible. we need to look a people that reach out to others and include them in the movement as room models. jfk, fdr. again, the idea was and is american stories. all of those that i mentioned, all of those authors ask us to be more. none of them says they were you are and don't do anything unless the government solve your problems. that was not their idea. it was really how we figure out together. another example. this is an area that we have a lot of opportunity and i've been involved for over a decade. my father was involved before me. it was an organization for people. i think organizations such as that that are conservation minded and do a lot of work on

land publicly for people to use, the conservatives have done a bad rap in terms of being environmentally aware. i love the environment and that created the environment. actually stewards of the earth and take care of the stewardship. we have to figure out how to do it in such a way that it makes sense. because if we just have rules and regulations we can control what the rest of the world does. we have to build and solutions that actually work not just for us that make sense fiscally and for others to adopt as well. we have to be very proactive in terms of the arguments. >> high. i am wondering what is the best way to take in those speeches. i know when i'm reading a book in my eyes glaze over the words i don't absorber completely. did you listen to a lot of these speeches on tape, read them aloud to yourself? what process to do half toes are of them? >> that is a great question. a couple of things.

i do have an introduction for each one. when it happened, why its importance, the outcome and why it residence today. in the other thing is for those that are, my husband and i spent a night listening to while reagan's cold water speech. and i also watched the speech on tv. the ones that are on video, that's the best way to see it clearly, all of them are. even when we look at the book itself, patrick henry, the first entry, very interesting that not only is there no written transcript, but literally what there is is someone else's recollection of being at the speech. that is all the record there is. that is where we get the phrase give me liberty or give me death. also i know that i, a couple of them, especially the documents, pretty long and not that exciting. the parts that are interesting.

and then the interjections are always about 700,000 words. pretty easy to get through. then figure out. the good news releases, and you can pick it up, everyone to read too, the rest later. a really easy to use. >> outage you go about picking the 25 documents? >> that is a great question. we do have 25. the original goal was 21. i fail. we have 25. it was really hard. clearly you have to have a difference of opinion. you have to have the constitution. some did you know you have to have. that was the first 15. he had to figure out based on that what worked. couple of things we tried to do, our history. patrick henry and george w. bush. we do have the coverage and

terms of what has happened. the other thing is we did want to have things that only that were clear, but things that were a little less well-known. the alamo speeches in there. so we tried to do a little bit of everything to make it interesting. [applause] [applause] >> for more information visit the office website. >> we ask, what are you reading this summer? here is what you had to say.

send us that tweet at book tv using hash tag summer reading to let us know what you plan on reading. you can also e-mail last book tv at c-span.org. and now world war one as it was experienced by the british. this is about an hour and 15 minutes. >> so, it is a pleasure to be here. also to be talking to an audience on c-span three these cameras here. i am going to tell you a little bit about this new book of mine and do so showing you some pictures. this is not music on this music stand, but just some notes for me. i think that writing a book is very often a matter of following

an obsession. figuring out just why you are obsessed by something. for me i have come all my life, had an obsession with the first world war as long as i can remember. it is something that has fascinated me. as i grew older and started to read history i realized that there are good reasons for being fascinated with the first world war. it left some 20 million people dead, military and civilian. six times, more than six times the casualties of any previous war that europe had ever known, the napoleonic wars 100 years earlier with the next largest. it left an even larger number of wounded soldiers behind, and it left large parts of europe in smoldering ruins in a way that