speak german and tend to associate with each other with the german speakers that they tried to find the irish for the civil have their own brigades and regimens, the germans did come to met with the jews tried to spread out and fit in, so they felt they were fighting for their country, for their states'. they went to war for the same reason others went to war but they also want to work for special reason. the jews were thought of as people who were not loyal to the country they lived in, there was discrimination, prejudice and they wanted to show they would fight and stand up and be counted as citizens and there is not politically correct today to be identified with the considered a see the truth is they were fighting for reasons people generally find out of patriotism and a sense of duty

so they did fight, and some of them achieved a high rate. .. >> next, roger di silvestro describes theodore roosevelt experience as a rancher in the badlands of the dakota territory before he was president.

the author reports that president roosevelt's time in the range shaped his thinking on the american west and wildlife conservation. this is about an hour. >> are author today is previously confessed that he first became acquainted with our 26 president through the classics illustrated centennial publication called theodore roosevelt, the respirator. from that early moment in his youth, author was influenced by the carrot or in philosophy of dr. grossman heard the individual. like theodore roosevelt, roger di silvestro is both a naturalist and a raider. also, there exists another common denominator between them. roosevelt understood the american west from having lived and worked in the american west. the same is true of mr. roger

unshared silvestro knowledges take them all if our country. is that in the bronx, san francisco and many places in between. if it can be said that the later workings of theodore roosevelt can only truly be understood by understanding his time out west and his hiatus from politics, then i can also be said that one might well understand this critical in under -- under study. of roosevelt's life through the lens of mr. di silvestro. here to discuss his work on the theodore roosevelt, a young politician's quest for recovery in the american west is roger di silvestro. [applause] >> thank you. didn't have that wonderful introduction. you may be even somewhat interested in my own life. thank you for showing up in such a wretchedly hot and humid day. i know it's really tropical or

so i'm doubly happy that you are willing to weather that can come out today. my book about your roosevelt tells the story of personal tragedy and recovery we don't usually associate tragedy with theodore roosevelt. he wishes to a bully and for that, especially as president. i'm not writing about the iconic theater were shutout for made it to hashmark. i'm writing on a man in his 20s he went out last year and ranch in the badlands of dakota territory in what is now closed against the montana border, and extreme western north dakota. he didn't just go west as horace greeley might have urged as young man. he was compelled to go west. events forced him in that direction will get to that. before we head off into the badlands, i want to give you a brief background on theodore roosevelt, the roosevelt

aficionado. i think there are some high points in his life that we need to touch on. he started life as a city kid in new york city and was a member of the social elite, the knickerbockers who were people who could treat their ancestry in america back to the dutch were raised here in the midst 1660s. it is a fairly old new york family here his grandfather was one grandfather was one of the five richest men in manhattan. they produced a lot of the window class at new york city needed as a group. they were also into thinking and a lot of wise investment in new york real estate. young roosevelt was an outdoors person, almost from childhood and also an avid hunter, but he wasn't very healthy. he was very sickly as a child. he suffered from asthma and a stomach ailment that was related to stress, some sort of

enteritis do with the 102nd for days at a time. and this would pop up, as i said, during times of stress. even during happy times times if he had too good of a time he would sometimes get sick to his stomach and have to go to bed for sometimes -- sometimes for days. in his autobiography, which i quote in my book on the roosevelt i was physically delicate boy, suffered much from asthma and frequent had to be taken when trips to find a place where i could read. one of my memories is of my father walking up and down the room with me in his arms that night when i was a very small person and sitting in bed gasping with father and mother and all those years of sickness is a shell shaped a lot of his attitude later in life. when he was about 12 he started his strenuous physical fitness regimen that was designed to help them with his briefing and asthma. it didn't relieve him of asthma or enteritis, but he did he come much sturdier and much hardier

said that in his teens he actually won a boxing championship at the bottom he worked out and also took -- when he went to harvard, he tricks hunting trips to maine and would hike around and deep snows and mountainsides and so on. he was very rugged, but he was still not a robust person. he was about five feet eight inches and made 135, 140 pounds. his doctor told me that we cart should avoid rigorous activity. if we could go back to that tender 1883, we find 24-year-old theater roosevelt in the badlands of dakota territory. we see them riding on horseback, oftentimes in pointing, hunting buffalo on american base in if you prefer that term. the base and were nearly extinct in north america at that time and roosevelt wanted to kill them before they were all gone,

which was a typical attitude amongst were hunters at that time. they oftentimes are almost in a race to kill the last of the species. in 1883, one of the few places for pace and room was in the badlands of dakota territory, which is why roosevelt went there. he hired a guy who spent three weeks writing around tracking down pacing. during those weeks, roosevelt developed an infatuation for badlands. this kind of weirdly information they have there, the remoteness of the area appeal to him. it was a rich gas land so he knew you could raise cattle in this area and also the hunting. the dakotas are one of the last places where you can still find most of america's big game animals and shoot them. so before returning home, roosevelt for a check for $14,000 turned it over to men he met at their and told them to bison and cattle for him and put

them loose on the land that they claim as their own and they would manage his cattle for him and take a share of this process. he was pretty trusting innocent told the man if i didn't would give you this money because they said how do you know you can trust? i just do. at that time, a lot of a lot of wealthy easterners and europeans were investing in caddo because cattle in the 1880s or late tech stocks in the 1980s but much the same result for investors by the way. roosevelt that he found a way to make money quickly without any risk. now his uncle, james roosevelt who was his financial advisor told in cattle were a shaky deal and he should avoid them, but roosevelt forged ahead anyway. when he returned home to new york city in 1883 he was a rancher ory, man. he was such a good point in his life at this moment. in late 1883 his career was going well. he got himself elected in the state assembly at the age of 23

by making him the youngest person that ever held an office there. he became the leading political light of his time, household work across a state of new york. he was part of the group of mostly young politicians who are trying to root out corruption that plagued people, both the national -- i'm sorry, but the state and local levels. he was an anti-candidate because he was wealthy there is a sense he couldn't be corrected so he quickly became a hero. as a matter of fact, we held him as the dawn of a new era. he was sorry keo. the political success was the only thing he had going for them in december 1882, his first book was published, the history of the naval war of 1812. the first of about 40 books you would write in his lifetime and it sold three editions within two years and became a college textbook at several schools and could be fined at every vessel in the u.s. navy because it was required to be there by

regulation. he was already something of an accomplished author. and then there is alice, his wife and this is really the heart of the story here. she was a cousin of one of his harvard classmates when he first met her at her home outside boston in october of 1878 as a junior in college. alice hathaway lee was a member of the thinking family in the boston area, quite a beauty. a relative descriptor is having golden hair and gray eyes. she stood five for seven come with me during an shorter than theodore roosevelt. she was so energetic that her family cawdor sunshine. she likes long cross-country treks and was literate. she and roosevelt had nasty taste in literature. they like the same poets. the saga of king olaf, which was predictably about a warrior king.

so she meant alice and pursued her for well over a year. she kept encouraging him and discouraging 10 at times he got so herat that in 1879 in the winter that year, he didn't go to bed. he would just wander around the snowy woods of cambridge, massachusetts all-night thinking about what the fellow students as solanki was called out and contacted roosevelt latif country and family. contact to him, he is slipping. roosevelt himself would later say he was nearly crazy. finally junior 1880 as much lean on his part, she agreed to marry him. he wrote in his diary i focus on that. they are quite emotional, but he wrote in her diary that if loving alice with my whole heart and soul can make her happy, she shall be happy. there we have roosevelt in 1883,

the rancher is an author is married to a woman he deeply loves and she's pregnant with their first child. so everything good was theodore was about at this time. as people say for thousands of your, fortune is fickle. on the morning of february 13, 1884, roosevelt was in albany at the state assembly and received a message saying he was not the father of a little girl. later that afternoon he received another message saying that his wife wasn't doing very well and he should come home. so he got on the train and headed back to new york city on a very foggy night and didn't get home until midnight. he went to his mother's house where his wife is staying during the final weeks of her pregnancy and not on the door in his younger brother, elliott, who would one day be the father of eleanor roosevelt answered the door and said immediately there is a curse on this house because not only was roosevelt's wife gravely ill, but so is his mother. within the next 14 hours, but this mother and wife died.

his wife while he held her in his arms. his 22 your way from kidney failure. so during the days leading up to the funeral, roosevelt was in the days and around this time he wrote in his diary for joy or sorrow my life is now been left out. he really thought it was over for him. he was never going to love again and probably never going to be happy again. he concluded the only way to escape from the grief of activity, and a lot of hard work so he went back to albany and threw himself into a lot of political work. he produced a document something like a million pages long and just have generated space and also got involved in national politics. he was head of the new york delegation to the republican national convention that year and led the fight to keep the u.s. senator from maine. he tried to keep you from winning the nomination because blame corruption to the form republic.

my book details that campaign a little. i tried not to go into too much detail on things covered in most other books. but i do talk about that if you want more detail on it. at any rate, bowling did win the nomination and roosevelt was somewhat made. but nonetheless, this brings us to a major turning point in roosevelt life committee. when she emerged much more roosevelt world knows today. the moment the gop convention ended he headed back to the badlands in hopes that he could settle down in the west, run his ranch come to become a writer forget his service in and his health. now why he choose the badlands is another question. the badlands is in the area of the last frontier, which would be close only six years later. the badlands gave roosevelt a chance to live on the frontier in the a pioneer like his

heroes, daniel boone and davy crockett and so on. and it would give him a chance to hunt because of all the baking from which i suspect was a wonderful distraction from the depression haunting him that this time and it gave him a bucket five with a letter for a share, the hope he could recover his health and homicide rate books. he didn't titrate several books on who is out there and establish himself as an author. before we go on with roosevelt, let's take a look at the badlands environment to that time. i was cheering eight, 1884. he got off in dakota territory, which is a brand-new town. it had only been established about four or five months earlier. there were about 300 residents of this town, permanent and transient residents that included minors in lumberjack, former buffalo hunters and ranchers and cowboys. ranching was unlike any cattle operation in america today.

it was open range ranching, which you may be familiar with it just as roosevelt said, ranchers would buy a venture capital and turn them loose along the missouri river and the cattle would roll around like wild animals. in the rancher would build a house wonderworker come his, his headquarters with corrals in and out nothing. the ranchers didn't own the land. they were squatters. the land belonged to the federal government or american people or railroads. in fact, the rancher who applied for title was seen as suspect because they wondered why would he do that? said this was the wide-open west. twice a year of course the ranchers would have to round up cattle and brand them so they could tell -- is the only way they knew whose capital was where and what chip off the cattle to market. the roundup is almost a festival, one of the few times

that folks got together and usually were scattered across the three inches. the man who worked for cattle ranch could be divided into two classes. cattlemen are ranchers who don't cattle and there were cowboys who worked for the ranchers. they were employees. contemporaries in the 1880s took a dim view. the cheyenne daily leader in 1882 called cowboys timeouts, drunken lecture is an utterly corrupt. it's hard to be more negative than not. roosevelt does that cowboys were terrific and when it decides them. and it's outcome of ranch life and the hunting trail, he wrote the cowboys was hearty and self-reliant as any man who ever preach with bronze vases and keen eyes that look the world straight in the face without flinching as they flash out from under the broad river cats. he said he thought they were much better fellas and small farmers or agricultural labels and workmen of the great cities we thought shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath.

just as a quick site, there was a british fellow who came out to colorado in the 1860s and claimed he came from one of the sleepy as towns in england and one day saw a cowboy driving through town shooting off his gun at night, probably drunk. alongside them was a young woman wearing only a chemise in the british fellow looked and thought this is life with a capital l. some people really like this will mean. with the exception of some of the bosses and ranchers, cattle owners, the average age was 23 or 24 and there was little on the way of local law enforcement and many men cared trends in nice and looks and lives. syrinx in weapons, boozing young man which is the perfect combination for a civil society ensured. so it may come as no surprise that if you lived in a cab time you attend a 40 times more likely to be murdered than if

you lived in new york city or boston at that time. part of the process was the seagull had an exaggerated sense of honor and if you insulted somebody slightly, he blow you away or try to. roosevelt himself, it can i do want to run over, but it's a cool story. roosevelt was discouraged from carrying a gun. he was told don't bring your guns to town because there were people around who are really good with guns and the newspaper editor told him if you bring eternity time, somebody is liable to try and push their luck with you and will probably kill you because they'll be a lot better than you are. to prove the point the editor had a local government cannot enter toucans in the air and the gunman to a kind of shanna put five holes in each before they hit the ground. so roosevelt i think i'll leave my kind. he would check in with the editor of the newspapers when he

town. do you have this pretty violent region going on here. life is pretty raw, but wasn't necessarily broad enough for theodore roosevelt. the richie set up outside during this buffalo hunt was only seven miles south of town on one of the main trails. so he got sick of people stopping and. he established another ranch 30 miles north, we out in the middle of nowhere and that is where it is today. the rich is gone, but outside is still very remote. it's all too grossed out and takes about an hour to get there. seems more like three days, a long-term care. so that when she called unicorn ranch and put some cattle out there in both regions have managers who to carry this cattle cattle for him. and he didn't really -- you know, he was a rancher and did work on the roundups and would occasionally to work around the ranch, but mostly interested in writing and hunting. he knew he hunting and someone

to provide meat for his men. they almost never a cattle. they mostly wild game. he took long trips out to montana to hunt grizzly bears and mountain goats and he would write book could make quite a bit of money. he also made frequent trade solves so he never stayed in the badlands more than four months at a time. during the 33 years or so he was reaching to spend a total of 360 days coming and going. theodore roosevelt in 1884. his new york accent was greeting him into a lot of new yorkers. kind of a snob accent. also, that set them apart immediately, but then also he wasn't a man of much stature weighing under 140 pounds.

he also had an eccentricities of the cowboys couldn't understand. he shaped every day and brushed his teeth every day in this sordid eon their kin. he also slept with his head on inflatable rubber pillow, which is not exactly what my image of theodore roosevelt is, this tough guy. in fact, get inflatable pillow he took when he went hunting and the rubber bathtub shipped out to them so he could take baths. he also has some special soap that he liked and he would ask a sisters to send large quantities of the special soap that he wanted because he didn't want after used to steal info. to top it all off, he were classes, which cowboys did not request this. i was considered a real sign of weakness. as if all that weren't enough, he bought himself a fringed suede suit coming out, which is what he is wearing on the cover of the book here.

i was of course for him a major symbol because that is what daniel boone were. he had this fringed outfit and had a nice meet for him at tiffany's and guns he had ivory handles on with this initial cards and one. you can imagine tina boone going to tiffany's to order knife, but this is roosevelt. someone cowboy when they met at this time said roosevelt was a slam, and any make young fellow and the exaggerated style which newcomers affected in ways the rank tenderfoot. when you're running around with a bunch of guys, you probably don't want to be ranked tenderfoot. so roosevelt had to establish himself as a man among men and these were lawless unarmed men. chances to prove himself popped up again and again as you might imagine and proved themselves very well. arguably the most important incident, i talk about several attractions of people, but the most famous one took place in

minnesota, montana, where roosevelt stopped in the night after he spent the day riding around looking for love sources. he checked in a hotel in my name is immediately confronted by a man with a gun in each hand who was drunk and had been shooting holes in the saloon car. he also was intimidating at the bar for some people to buy drinks. the roosevelt came in and told him it's time to buy a round of drinks for everyone in the place. roosevelt tried to avoid the guide to the table behind the stove where he hoped he would be seen, but the fellow followed him and said hey, buy a brand of drinks. so roosevelt stood up and said if i've got two come that guy too. roosevelt was a trained boxer, so what he thought he had to do is punch the life out of the sky and he did. and then fell backwards as guns went off in the fellow his head on the bar and asked himself

senseless. roosevelt took his gun permit patrons in the bar who were probably much happier now than they were before it took the fellow and dumped him in a shed behind the saloon and the next day the fellow job and had to town. this story immediately spread all over the area and people become thinking, he may be a pretty cool guy after all even though he were classes and has the roots do. so that started to help his reputation alive. i found interviews with folks who would back and who are out west and said that was the stepping off point for him in the west. but he also proved himself an tamer race. he worked side-by-side with cowboys and ranchers and worked very hard. this is an area where you don't build your reputation and your family name for social connection or wealth. it was based on how you performed as an individual. roosevelt performed very well. on his first round up, the cowboys really began to have a good impression of him.

on the first round up about 60 cowboys went five weeks writing for 200 miles down the missouri river valley, scooping up other cattle they could find for 50 miles on each side of the river. it was several thousand cattle of course. they're also driving along horses as if you had 60 writers come you needed six to 10 horses per person to do this work. there was a lot of work in hurricane these animals along. he could ride all night long in the next day read another hundred miles. on one occasion he wrote for 40 straight hours and war outside of outside forces before he himself took it not. so the cowboys really admired his willingness to pitch in to the extent he could. u.s. rover because that almost takes a lifetime apart to cement his eyesight wasn't very good. but they recognize that he did what he could. one of the tougher ranch foreman

said, that ford maverick has sand in his craw appointee, which was a high priest in the west. the effort he put name paid off for this quickly. the pot and heat transfer and physically. when newspaper reporter told its readers with a change. las vegas at pale slim young man with a general but dyspepsia. he is now bradman is a bear and increase 3030 pounds in weight. the voice is hearty and strong enough. he was also busy in the eastern accent, which they thought was a good idea. the bad man's wasn't a complete success because he suffered emotionally over his death and told his ranch managers in regard to house he was beyond any healing in his ranch manager who had also lost his wife recently started to console roosevelt was not cut them off if they don't top to me that time will make a difference. time will never change me in

that respect. of course we know it's not a good idea to say never and always. the roosevelt had no intention to remarry. he felt that to remarry within months or even years after his wife's death would be a sign of ethical and moral pops any real lack of fidelity. this idea was as much a product of his times and social class as it was of himself. but he still had a serious temptation he had to deal with and this is a slim, essentially rounded women with wide mouth and have blue eyes and her name is edith caro. he had known her since they were both located. they'd grown up together. when he was in his teens he proposed more than once to determine down. or at least that's what she said later. it's probably true. edith was also a friend of roosevelt sister, anna. now and i was the sister with whom roosevelt had his daughter come his baby girl. he would stay with his sister

and her townhouse on madison avenue because he didn't have the house at this time. edith also would stay overnight in this house is the roosevelt said listen, when the fetus is going to show up because i make sure all that they are. one day there was no warning and humanity in his house and stepped inside and here came edith walking towards him down the main staircase. this is probably in early october, 1885 barely a year and a half after alice day. so they struck up a conversation in a relationship progressed quickly by quickly six weeks later he proposed rucci except day. so after that, he felt very guilty. the whole betrothal really ate at him because he would pace around at night and i have no constancy. he felt he was unfaithful to alice. consequently they kept their winning fantasy cricket. there were so secret even anna didn't know about anything to

get married in december where they could with the press, but the press wasn't ready because "the new york times" in august 1886 when he was in the batman published a story saying he was engaged to edith caro. there is a side story to this because and not immediately wrote a letter to "the new york times" editor instead we apologize and retract that's not true. and "the new york times" did retract the story. so when the news of this development to roosevelt come you can imagine his chagrin. he had to contact anna and contact anna and teller guess what, i am engaged. he said no one would approach me as much as i will for having gotten engaged and it's my fault, not edith. don't blame her. apparently the wedding was not a big political setback because the republican party ran in for the mayoral candidacy of new york in 1886, a three-way race

and no one really expected roosevelt to win or i should say the republican party to win. but roosevelt did lose the election and shortly after that he headed to england and he edith got married. so the question is now what's he going to do with the ranch? well, edith was in the type of woman who would live in a love cabin in the frontier. but nature kind of took over. i've just been given a five-minute warning, so i'm going to breeze through some of this. the price per cattle really collapsed and roosevelt knew economically economically wasn't tenable anymore and then came the winter of 1887 when the blizzard struck interests build up 100 feet deep along the missouri river. temperatures fell to minus 40 degrees fahrenheit in the spring 75% of the catalan bat mitzvahs dead. roosevelt lost 65%, some lost

95. so he knew it was pretty much over. at any rate his political career was reviving and he was going to probably give up the ranching thing anyway. but his experiences in the badlands stayed with him the rest of his life and certainly inspired his conservation ethic. as we know, he became one of our leading conservationists and not at the boone and crockett club to protect wildlife habitat. he knew from his experiences of the badlands that habitat was just been punished in those days. grasslands were completely destroyed by too many cattle and wildlife courses killed off. so they set out to protect habitat and protect wildlife. and they did so with a lot of success and is still at this today. at president hamid a lot to do with a wildlife refuge system in national parks.

the national park system r.d. existed, but he added five more parts to it. in his later years, roosevelt asked a friend rhetorically to guess what one part of his life, including his roles as new york city police commissioner, state legislature and assistant secretary of the navy come a war hero, new york governor in a u.s. prison in, what one role in his life would he want to remember if for some reason he were compelled to have all but one of his memories erased. interesting to think of that. and he answered himself, i would take the memory of my life on the ranch but this experience close to nature among the men who lived nearest. i've had to breeze through and just have some of the high points covered in the book naturally. i'd like to think he won't read it in half an hour, the time i had. but if you have questions or certainly be glad to answer.

[inaudible] >> yes, i skimmed past that because of time constraints, but he did go back and forth to see his daughter. but at first he would write letters home to canada and not mention her period is almost as if he didn't want to think about her. gradually she starts to appear in his letters. there'll be some phrase so say how his mask and doing. her name is alice also. and for a while it seemed like he was reluctant to call her alice. interestingly, when he wrote his biography, she was never in it. he just obliterated her from memory. one of his biographers says this is really kind of pathology almost to be so extreme in its approach to dealing with her loss and didn't tell his daughter for her. his daughter never heard a word. she heard it from hannah, roosevelt's sister. but she never heard anything

about her mother and she felt that was probably not good for her herself either. but when he married edith, he said you can keep alice and edith said no, we will take alice. so roosevelt had taught him that we are going to take her after all. so she was raised with this other children, but she always knew she wasn't one of that set of kids. always felt that alice really got shafted in the memory of his weight was treated kind of shabbily, but that's what he did. anything else? >> he lost almost all of his fortune in the badlands and then had to write in order to survive. >> i don't think we can say he lost all of his origin but he was definitely financially stressed. he lost about 20,000 at least plus interest and he did build a big house out at sagamore hill,

which in oyster bay in new york opened the public good you can see that of the buffalo he shot in 1883. but there were times when he got it out to sell the house. there were times when he thought about selling his favorite foxhunting horse and so on because he just was financially strapped and would occasionally mutter said really got to do some writing. i've got to make some money. and he did a lot of writing. you get like $1200 in 1880s dollars for a magazine story. i would say about $50 to the dollar by today's standards. if he was hurting after the debacle they are in the badlands. anything else? sure. >> 's attitude towards the american indians -- [inaudible] >> when he was in the badlands one day he came across three or four indians and he immediately

presumed they would attack him and got out his rifle and all of this. i use that as a launching point to discuss roosevelt in the race. so you talk about roosevelt which will save you to his old attitude towards raise an african-americans someone's. but with the indians, like i said, his first response was to grab his rifle and when the indians road towards manhattan he said naturally they kind of back off. but when his ranch and thought indians, they would go over and talk to when. at one point, some of this ranch hands a lot and do a whole village of indians. a lot of that was roosevelt and his title of this adventure and excitement and hostility going on there was much more fun. i'm just saying this is my opinion. i could be totally one because indians at that time in that area were treated and shot on sight and so on.

even though ostensibly wars were over by a number of years consequently occasionally in india in shoot back and one fellow was wounded by ambien at the time was about without they are. so you could argue maybe he was right. maybe he would've been roughed up. do you know, his attitude -- he said something about as far as i can turn, nine out of 10 indians -- he said i won't say that an indian is better off dead than alive, but nine out of 10 cases it's probably true and i wouldn't inquire too deeply into the 10th case. yet at the same time, he once told an indian woman at the white house that he didn't have any indian blood. you think that's me, but then he also had this idea that white people should marry with indians just to kind of wipe them out genetically. not roosevelt fans might get really annoyed at me for

bringing these things up, but that's what he said. his attitude was probably very complex. he invited george washington carver in the white house for dinner. booker t., that's what was, booker t. washington to the white house. vicious trash for that, reviled for doing that. at the same time when he ran in the bull moose party he tried to keep vioxx -- he tried to limit their vote because it wouldn't have done well for him. so it is a very mixed bag. i don't think what was well you can say he was or that. he seemed to be whatever he was at the moment. anything else? >> one more thing could. did he ever at the ranch or the presidency your average of the error callback -- [inaudible] >> yes, he did. in fact, close the book after

the prologue with this. he did go back. when he was running as vice president indicated no five. he went back, he visited the folks he did there. he picked people to come up on the stage with him and at one point in the journey he was crossing the dakotas and went on the back of the train where there is just this place and he wanted to be seated alone. he had porter closed the door that anyone out there to see him. he sat alone with his memories than i would've thought that was a great image. even up to six minutes before he died for me was in montana and thought one of the old people he knew from the ranch and i think it was november 1918 and he died in january 1918 and he saw one of his old house at the cashier at a hotel room with him and so on. i would throw this bothers, presidential stuff where it appeared in dealing with.

but i did that because he kept in touch with a lot of people he knew in the ranch for years. the right up till he died he was still writing letters back and forth. in fact, he promised he was going to visit in 1910 with a round up that summer, but he died before he got there. anything else? okay. >> we know so many presidents have shaped their images been conscious about it. and even the cover of your book presents such a dashing frontier frontier -- frontiersman image. can you talk a little bit about how conscious teddy roosevelt was the shaping of vintage, even in these early years? we know he was contemplating his return to politics and how this. we plan to that. >> politically coming in now, he kind of gave up his career and thought his career was over because he opposed going and laid back 10 so the reform politicians were really angry

for backing lane. the roosevelt felts you have to have party loyalty. there's no point in having a convention picket, if you will support the guy you want. so he decided to support a point after all. he thought that pretty much killed his career. at least that's what he said. at the same time, there were people trying to get them to run for congress so i'm not sure how much of that was his own drama. but in fact come you don't see evidence of that. you think even at this time the photo was taken when he was 24, 25, he was deplaning to come back to his political career. when he was in the dakotas come a newspaper reporter said you could president someday and roosevelt said yeah, i could hear he didn't treated as a surprise or anything. the editor had this impression that roosevelt was probably already thinking at this time he continued to be active. politically he campaigned for other candidates and so on.

in terms of image, he was very image conscious. he said don't ever let them take a picture of you playing golf or tennis. but you look good on a horse. but one of the famous photos of roosevelt asleep eating on a horse over a fence in result was where where it does a great image and you'll see a lot of pictures of roosevelt on a horse. the picture on the book is taken at a studio in new york. he got all suited up. he doesn't have his glasses. if you see the whole picture, you can see there is fake grass at his seat and so on. he had these shot for his new book, which he did after it only had about six months experience out there. so he was really pushing the savage land is frontiersman. if you read the story that he told in this book, how did the impression all by himself and he did this on its own when in fact

he is a guy who said she got buffalo right there where the yellow spotted behind his right leg and you'll kill it. but that's all missing from his account of that. so when the book came out, he was widely ridiculed for these photos of him in this new era on the other hand, it was not uncommon for guys back then would that not westray studio pictures taken of themselves and put them in books. it was really kind of a trend. he was part of it, but people still mocked him. [inaudible] >> attack at some length about his political decision in new york politics at that time because they are politics are terribly corrupt and the feeling was people were losing tons of money in tax dollars, but nobody cared because nobody bothered to take time to pay attention to what was going on. then there was a sense -- i mean, there's always this story that roosevelt was getting into

something unsavory, but he had relatives in congress would been senators -- a senator if i remember correctly, some in the house of representatives. but what he did was he was going at the state level, not the federal level and i suspect that's where things are considered a little unsavory. and he nailed that his family probably wasn't going to approve of this. the quote is relatives saying we thought this was terrible. his father never would've approved he said. but he did it anyway and he had quite a reputation for himself, quickly because he was uncompromising. i've done it, nothing to lose. i'll do whatever i want. people really respect that. he truly became a household word in new york state within a year or so. and he was nominated for a leadership position in the

party. didn't get it, but he was really a party leader a year or two. u.s. even 25, already leading the political life. >> to take on that plutocracy. >> what do you mean by that? >> the money controlling the country. >> later on, yeah. railroads and all of that. i can't comment because that is later than my period. i am dealing with his younger years and his ranchers up to 1887. you get into the trust busting presidential years and your outside my area of expertise, so i really can't answer that. i do know in my readings, you know, he felt there were more important issues in this is, that business should not be the main consideration that you should think about what is right for people and that sort of

thing and there were more important matters than just protecting business. but i can't really address that. sorry. anything else? okay. that's it. well, thank you again. [applause] >> that was transformed president roosevelt's time in the badlands, the dakota territory. for more information visit the author's website at roger writes.com >> book tedious in charleston, south carolina. up next a look at the u.s. customs house with dr. jason ryan. >> we stand in front of the u.s. customs house in downtown charleston. it served as headquarters for operation jack, what the largest

and first federal drug investigations in ronald reagan's war on drugs. it ultimately accused and convicted more than 100 south carolina's gentleman marijuana smugglers coming to munich for nonviolent methods and decisions to smuggle only hashish and marijuana, not or heroin. operation jack was unique for two things. one, a federal investigation that indicted agency is, the dea, fbi, irs and the u.s. customs committee cf and more. also operation jackpot was unique for using something called for a richer like to see his access before they were accused to crimes they were ultimately convicted us. b.c. luxury properties, saint barth and nantucket before filing charges against them in court. the gentleman marijuana smugglers had a successful run, smuggling 10 years without getting caught. by 1983 the government was catching up and putting them behind bars.

>> for more information about tvs recent trip to charleston, south carolina, they said c-span.org/local content. >> booktv has over 100,000 followers. father booktv on twitter to get scheduling updates, author information and talked record with authors i like programming. twitter.com/booktv. >> book time out of my attempt to answer a question that i was asked very frequently when i was talking about climate change, particularly after i had written the widow makers in 2005. and then what are our chances really of surviving the shifting climates that slimming and we are causing.

and the only way i could think of to answer that question was to really go back to the scientific fundamental comets go back to the process that created us and our planet. and of course look at the intersection between our species and we called planet earth as it is the same intersection that the issue of sustainability arises. i couldn't give a better way really is starting to look at the issue could go back to the work of batman there. that is charles darwin's tombstone westminster abbey, the great kind of secret house for the british women in the british people. it tells you something that he was buried in the church, but nothing are of his achievements. it's pretty unique actually that she wouldn't guess what he was

fair obviously, what he had done and written about was the theory of evolution was not kind enough to ponder. the reason i wanted to start with darwin was because he is the man who really explained to us how the process that made us on the process and made our earth. these great ideas for an extremely simple one. it was simply that in every generation there is. introduction and some of those and reproduce others and over the vastness of time people were just becoming aware of the history of the earth in the mid-19th century, but that must tell on irritability, and the sheep species is so cool as he put it.

so the very, very simple idea, but darwin, being a very wise man i had, a very perceptive person decided to sit on idea for 20 years. it was only when i went to darwin's house in kent but it really hinders a little bit more about why he waited so long before you know this fundamental idea that changed our view of the world. just outside his house, he built a little thing he called the sand walk and that is actually a pebble lot. i don't know why he called it a sandlot, but there you go. even great men can do a thing. and every day of his life he would walk for several hours around the sand walk and people have wondered why he did it. what was he thinking about? what was he doing at the walk

around the racetrack really. it's just a loop around the forestry. so i speculated that maybe he was perfect in his argument for constructing and has had the beautiful paragraphs and sentences that characterized the word. but the testimony of these children suggested in very different. they left memoirs where they talked about what they knew of their father they would play in the forest and often interrupt them and he always seemed out of the interruption. he sometime during the games with taking a bomb. and thus are not the actions i would say if a man who is deeply engaged in conflicts and critical thought. i think we darwin was doing as he wandered the sand walk was metaphorically fingering his worries. he was thinking about the implication of this theory for religious belief in this country, for the shape of civil

society and other big messes. i guess what he was worried about is if he destroyed faith by showing that we were not the unique mediation of lovely and caring god, but instead the result of an amoral and utterly cool process, that type destroyed faith teammate destroy hope and charity as well and have a very adverse impact upon society. he may never have published his theory if it hadn't been for this man here, in 1958, 20 years after darwin first stumbled on the idea of how we never got a living in on the planet was made, this man here, alfred russel wallace was working in indonesia. he was 20 years younger than darwin. he was working class lad,

self-made, went to the tropics to create biological specimens and while he was there on the island, he had a malarial attack in as a result of the attack as he was fairly fevered, the idea came to him, that perhaps species were created by seth at the same mechanism that darwin had chance to pond 20 earlier. when he recovered enough to write, he wrote a note to darwin's great excitement, his theories and asked her if he wouldn't mind transmitting to one of the journals to be published in britain. when darwin received a letter, he was horrified. he said you know, wallace couldn't have made a summary of my work at the atlanta in front of them. any thought perhaps that his whole life's work was about to be stalwart by his working-class man. as it was come he appealed his fans, particularly those who looked after journal publication since the voip including great

geologist but the results of the intervention, the pieces of work were copublished in july 1858, the tyrants of wallace's were extraordinary how similar they are. this theory is presented in fullness and completeness on both accounts. but for all of that, it was like a sweet going off in british society. no one took any notice. in fact, the man in charge of publishing the journal, or festive bow, who was an expert in the storewide chris dacia wrote in a summary in 1858 that there have been no scientific studies really published in the journal. nothing that would revolutionize the department of science they bear upon. of course he couldn't have been more wrong and i wish of the following year in 1959 to

published his book on the origin of species. and then, as darwin perhaps feared, diphtheria unleashed upon his society, everything began to change. within five years, herbert unser had coined in social darwinism and born. darwin didn't really hope in the subtitle the page from which included the line on the preservation of favored races. i can imagine in a bookshop in 1859, and englishmen picked up his book and on the preservation of favored races in my would have been thinking about forms that were slightly better than worms. you'd be thinking about british empire builders, wouldn't you and india and stuff like that. and so, there was the social impact. over time, i think what we saw

was a very, very deep impact on our society by these darwinian ideas. everything from national socialism to eugenics throughout our view neoclassical economics had worn some darwinian thinking, particularly as mediated through the legs of herbert unser. so why, as i was beginning to look at the process that created us, reread darwin and began to despair that perhaps we were selfish, shortsighted, ruthless entities, forged by an amoral and delete process, but it was this man here that really gives me hope that that may not necessarily be the case. alfred russel wallace