he knows what leadership looks like, i think. you know, he's the smartest guy you'll ever meet, but he can't seem to manage it. ..

>> where he digs in to say

it is not a matter of the competing interests he is acting on a conviction. we have heard that. there is something to that. the idea of babblings -- balancing a competing interest ritchie is very good at, and is better shape to him and the bottom line is the way power and interest is in the country to balance semblance of interest are so more powerful than others to get you the same equations rather than the actual course correction of. one more question. >> first of all, her might have been nice to get a call

from mr. wolf but i did not need a call to know the something was happening because i found myself being evicted from my apartment in cambridge '08 winter early spring as a result of the mortgage foreclosure that foretold what was coming in and not very happy way but interesting. i like in the situation situation, summarized in the following way we needed fdr and got to obama. if you think about the differences, one of them that people talk about that has come up with leadership is fdr was at harvard and applied to the most excited -- exclusive sino club just a few blocks down and was rejected and his

family was members and he came from a class who understood he did not need to be afraid to challenge the same class but obama's maybe better understood as someone who wants to be accepted by a the class. that may help to explain some of this the difference of that character but then there is a larger explanation that the individual character which is the political movement that arose about connected but is not seen as being committed to. >> give to let people feel and give voice to the paid the people a feeling around the country. the unemployment rate thomas 16 or 17%.

people are still suffering under enormous loads of debt and income is dropping dramatically, we find out one make a go 2009? some advantage of the top 1% and almost everybody else is slipping. the cries for something to be done is one i cannot imagine he does not here. the question is, is that an agent of change of him digging deeper may be? we all hope we grow, we fall to see things we could not see just yesterday or the week before. that is the hope and the hope that we've all -- feel it all lives and it is the mother of invention moment no doubt. he sees the way the cards are falling and the country is just limping.

you mention roosevelt's lybrel finished reading three paragraphs which i think goes right your question and the people are thinking. of all the changes that have occurred on roosevelt's watch, one of the most important was the government realization not simply between certain rights but to protect and promote a desirable balance on a virtuous equilibrium. forms enacted that were different from those who had come before to shift the basic balance of power between washington and new york and public and private and worker and owner and speculator if sabre. not regulatory guidelines guidelines, subject to bureaucrats but tightly drafted in clear matters of legal and illegal just as the founders have done to

carefully weighed down the fabric of checks and balances within the government itself. the most off quoted lived mob have nothing to fear but fear itself was followed by stern words all but forgotten to history for the president's enemies in new york. faced by the failure of credit, they have proposed only the landing of more money. stripped of the war of profit the voyage to induce our people to follow the false leadership they have resulted to exhortations to plead cheerfully to restore confidence. that may be a nice title for a book. [laughter] they know only the rules of a generation of self seekers which is what some of us have been called with the baby-boom generation in. they have no vision than the people perish have the final

paragraph, many ways to understand what the vision may mean. the insights technology or medicine or the distant consequences or the prudent man reserve about the extent to which complexity can be mastered and of the future known. people's gut level sense something better is on the path of hard work and fair play. the confidence of the nation rests on trust and can into were four years after the trust has been broken, but it cannot endure indefinitely a. if the foundation of trust is not earned, confidence is the immaterial residue of material auctions. justly enforce laws and sound investment and solidly built structures, the decisions of experts of

professionals and confidence is the public face of competence and separating the two, gaining the trust without burning it is the age old work of confidence. [applause] thank you >> the title of your book is called growing up southern. my first question how does this out the shape its writers? >> we ask that question to

the 13 writers that we interviewed and what is a southern lawyer? any different than the writer out west or in the store something like that? the writer is in the south may classify themselves as a writer but they view themselves as southern writers but they are americans nonetheless very american and very southern but place and home and people where the west may have a larger themes and everything. and to be a little more compact. but at least these writers all were born before world war ii. that was their definition.

i am a southern writer but american also. i write about themes of all americans can appreciate. when we interviewed shelby foote to the great southern author from memphis, tennessee we asked the same question about being a southern writer and what is it that makes a writer southern? and he said when he was a child and he got into a fist fight, the fights that you lose are the fights the remember. of course, the south was on the losing end and that is the one we remember. you write about those to create tension and the south was wrong with that war but

it did not think that it was. so we have they built in kind of attention already. most of the southerners, that generation that we interviewed interviewed, recall -- we call readily this double boiler having a good grandparents are great grandparents that they could recall had either met or talked to or her door in shelby's case, even interviewed the civil war veterans. it is the presence of minder the connection to the land of the people or the history to create this tension in the south and we tend to write about that. >> there is the funny anecdotes about shelby drove -- striving to memphis

from knoxville and he lived in a house that looked like an old man gen. it was i guess. >> it was the. >> we came in the day did he leaned out the second story window and said good morning i will be right down. i was looking around the garden that was grown over, weeds, a fountain covered with moss and when he came down i said i love your garden. it is wonderful. he said it is in disarray now. of the man who took care of it has left. i said i am sure he will be back and he said no. he shot a man. [laughter] so many senators are just excepting of things like that. there is a closeness to grandparents many of those

were storytellers in a lot of storytellers the old people told them their stories and then they say you tell me your story which makes them think even more about their lives and growing up in the south. >> county respond to the criticism that people say the writers in the south get too caught up in the past? >> that war that we lost is the one that you remember. that they write a lot about but but lee smith andorra's, they told us the students today have a different to south. that they write about. they teach at the university

of north carolina. those students may come up to write stories that are very southern but yet the place since are like the great strip malls and the cities that have changed radically since those officers were born that we write about in this book been growing of southern. but it is still a southern theme. and shelby was right about the overall picture how the southerners are very close to their history and the family is big in the south as his extended family. to say we're all cousins in the south and the way. i think there is a certain extent we may be looking

back but these writers for the most part, you can read william faulkner today and be just as stunned as they were in the thirties when he was re teeing it and of his great-grandfather's which was the civil war. i don't know if we are looking in the past is not even passed. i say we are haunted by with what happened in the past and how we came through that to how it made us stronger

and i for one think we are better off and stronger for having gone through the civil war and civil rights movement. band if you look at the south and we have them blessed into have in hand all was the others to help us reflect what happened to us here.

>> on behalf of congress will come to the 2011 national book festival. we help you are all having a wonderful day to enjoy the great authors that we have here. before we began i want to inform you the pavilion presents station is being billed for the library of congress website and by c-span for airing on booktv. please be mindful as you enjoy the presentation and in addition please do not sit on the camera risers located in the back of the pavilion. please silence your cellphones. police. that is the disclaimer and we will move on. we have a wonderful writer who will speak to us.

first i am the national editor at the "washington post" npr proud a charter sponsors of this festival over the last 11 years and it is great to be with you. james swanson the first thing i noticed is that he is born february 12th which also happens to be the birthday of abraham lincoln. you can say inouye that he was destined to write the edgar award what -- award-winning manhunt, a version that it is based. manhunt was listed in 2006 as one of the 10 best books of the year in and cited in "newsweek" as one of the two

nonfiction and crime books ever written. his latest book, said "bloody crimes" the funeral of abraham lincoln and the chase for jefferson davis" is another thriller. it weaves together in ridding fashion, the jefferson davis and in the aftermath of the session eight -- assassination the 20 day rolling terrain funeral bringing his body back to spring ploy build. is 1600-mile journey. he has a degree in history it was sought by the eminent historian john franklin with a law degree from ucla and has worked in think tanks and in the government here in washington and has written for the "wall street journal", "l.a. times", smithsonian magazine , and active with the ford's theatre and the abraham lincoln bicentennial commission. but what i learned classmates at a celebration

for the authors and chatty with them made me like him even more. james swanson and talking with him they have posted a lot of book parties and like many of us who like reading collective books even when we didn't have this no-space to stack them up because they support writers. the word joking about going to both parties -- book parties and james does well with great food and whine and people, but then they don't buy the book. we were lamenting that because we support the writers because that is part of the way we learn about each other. write team is about discovery. in this great nation and the world and how we burn about

each other. he is a writer who deserves our support and a beautiful writer and he will also be signing books between two and 3:00 p.m. without further delay let me further introduce james swanson. [applause] >> thank you for that kind introduction. one thing kevin told me that he did not mention to you, he gave a dire warning of the dangers of collecting books. i have over 3,000 folks at our house in washington my wife was an economics professor must have 1,000 books on her subjects and kevin warned me of a book fanatic whose house literally exploded from the weight of the books with the support beams and beneath

the pile of books was found the dead body of a crazed collector of these books. [laughter] mihm getting worried in that room are 2,000 books i think i will call an engineer over because i don't want the house to explode. this is the third time i have spoken at the festival. i have seen some of the before. so if you have heard me speak before, the one thing i don't like to do is to a reading from the book. i go to a lot of book events and i get bored if somebody reads from the book. i will want to hear about the things that are not in the book, who they are, how they got started, what they learned, what surprised them , have they been threatened by any members of the public for doing the book? [laughter]

i will get to one of those. i will talk a little about how i did the two books which are really a trilogy of stories and how i got into this and how we do the stories and i will talk about my favorite themes of "bloody crimes" and what it means on the 150th anniversary of the civil war. i had not planned to write about abraham lincoln. there are other books and wanted to do when my agent said what do you want to do next? when i was a boy my grandmother was a great storyteller and worked for the tabloid papers with "the daily news" and when i was little she would tell me sometimes horrific stories. i was eight or nine years old and she said you know, during the world's fair of

1893 and insane doctor murdered 100 girls and dissolve their bodies in acid? i was nine years old. [laughter] i told the agent when i was a boy he said she told you that? i said yes i want to do that books. >> unfortunately do you know, who erik larsen is? [laughter] i said yes. i happen to know he is halfway finished riding a book that will be called double in the white city. you cannot do that. i said but i was a boy my father told me a great story and went to high school in chicago the teachers would point* to add desk to say at that desk sat one of eight nazis saboteurs landed on the shores of new jersey to sabotage and then he was

executed but lived in chicago. i always thought about that story. my first day working at the department of justice that during the reagan administration, my office was on the fifth floor with all of the great paintings and sculptures and there was an interesting thing on the wall with a brown plaque that said in this room were tried that a to nazis saboteurs. city would not believe that the office across from me put them on trial. i said i want to write about those eight nazis and he said the good news there is no author out there shortly after september 11 when there's a great resurgence of terrorism, there is none of their out there who is in the middle of writing a book but there are three authors simultaneously writing three books on the same subject.y# you have to give that up.

i said i remember when i was a little boy. [laughter] my grandfather who was on the chicago police force from the 1930's al capone era through the us civil-rights protests and anti-vietnam protests told me many wild stories. one day he came home and he whispered to the family don't let gdp the newspaper to night. of course, the boy that i was i had to read the sun-times so i read the headline bad manslaughters nine student nurses is with the nine is. you may remember the name of richard back the notorious murder. it was such a sad and and redeeming story because my agent to save you want to spend the next two years of your life with richard back?

[laughter] i said no. what else have you got? i said abraham lincoln was the first president ever murdered and there is an amazing 12 days for his killer. then there is a story he said go back to the manhunt. i bet people could read that book. that is all i came to the subject and i planned just to do the manhunt that is my take on the civil war but semifinished it occurred to me that the manhunt to the chase for john wilkes booth was only one of three great stories. a second was abraham lincoln that he undertook the funeral in washington and the great 1600-mile journey through all the great cities

seven north said it was unloaded from the train to put on public display as he laid on very 20 days from the time he was shot until he got twos springfield and bombers were put on the train because he was decomposing along the way. 1 million people viewed the corp.'s including 100,000 children. 7 million watched the train go by. the third journey was little known and that was of jefferson davis to near the end of the war left his white house on his six we sure need to save the confederacy. not trying to save himself otherwise could easily have escaped to europe for 2q but did not want to save his own skin but his country and his cause. we are convinced these three the journeys of john wilkes

booth and davis annaly dinar addis important whether lewis and clark, the building of a transcontinental railroad or the journey to the moon because these three journeys really set in motion the myth that live today. and what issues we still face so i decided to do the -- "bloody crimes" is a sequel or follow-up to manhunt can tell all three stories i thought of doing the book separately one on the funeral train and the embalming but i decided to combine them for two reasons the uncanny and bizarre similarities between the life story of abraham

lincoln and jefferson davis wanted me to tell this together. second, i was already in the mood after i finished "manhunt." said is just an american tragedy of death and the sadness and possibility of what might have been and i was not sure i could handle two more books about american assassination and death and strategy -- tragedies sell it really did not help me kph -- because i agreed fall 2013 with my publisher to publish a book on and president kennedy. i will still be on that theme but i did "bloody crimes" the way a novelist with everything being true and tried to tell it in realtime as it happened because people then did not know what would happen and

did not know in the first week what would happen the second week. i tried to keep "the reader" and suspense and jefferson davis does not win a civil war but try to know what might have bent like to read about those things day-by-day and the other technique is to have in my hand our original saying is the original civil war newspaper not but microfilm but i visited ford's theater over 100 times and jefferson davis grave and in the confederate white house. i went to the two men georgetown where abraham lincoln signed was buried after he died in the white house and there i discovered that during the civil war to

visit his tomb abraham lincoln had to write -- walk right past the grave and then i do that when i am holding in my hand a piece of the bloodstained fabric or write about his lock of hair given as a gift i am looking at that as i write about it. that is the technique that i use. even now i was born on in abraham lincoln's birthday, bloody crimes is my swan song and my dad said to me they did is we had on his birthday with "manhunt" comment "bloody crimes" and the kids' book and my wife and i just finished a but for the children's publisher

scholastic and my father said just imagine if you were born on grover cleveland birthday or even worse. [laughter] would you were born on hitler's birthday what would you have become more written about? but that did not happen. i went to talk about liggett and davis and their commonalities. went to begin to say i was much more of a lincoln person and learned more about jefferson davis but jefferson davis was truly one of the lost men of american history. we know the name probably and i found no one knows anything about him nobody reads biographies about him or his to volume nemours and then just

curious and the heart of the south how many people in this room have read the memoir of jefferson davis and one man and how many people have read a biography of jefferson davis? five 4/6 had read a book and that is very interested in history and knowledgeable of civil war but that was my great surprise. here are some of the things that linked them and both men born in kentucky in log cabins less than 100 miles apart and less than one year apart, in their use, those men were on disciplined fun seekers. when jefferson davis was at

west point, he was almost expelled on more than one occasion from the academy for drinking at the tavern a forbid and place of debauchery and almost fought a duel lasted abraham lincoln. both were excellent rustlers in as a boy he had learned from slaves how to wrestle and abraham lincoln became an expert russell their fiery he fought many batches and lincoln rail thin had prodigious strength from his years of physical labor. that is renegade diverged to epperson davis was privileged and then we forget this about abraham lincoln. from the time he was a young boy, abraham lincoln was worked as hard buy his

father as many american slaves were worked on the plantation and abraham lincoln was nine years old was handed the adults lies rail splitting acts and worked dusk till dawn to do manual tasks and chopping trees. his hatred of slavery began when he was a boy and considered himself his own father's enslaved and about that somehow he would rise from humble origins and not spend the rest of his life working in that way. they're both more of reason and restraint lincoln never acted rationally when he was president of the jefferson davis began it by being anti-secession and gave no

heed to the consequences and he was not at all a crazed abolitionist. they shared experience in the military with the humble elect did kappa 10 with jefferson davis as an officer in the regular army and they suffered in their use almost the identical tragedy that spare them and change them and made them different men and lincoln and davis were brooding melancholy men and had a fatalistic view of things and this is hamid began and in the case of jefferson davis, her name was sarah knox taylor the daughter of general taylor meeting here

ritchie was 17 or 18 years old and fell in love. they did not one heard to live the tough life of the western frontier and corresponded and then two years later, davis resigned from the army so he could marry her. and then to the citrus plantation and both fell ill from a form of malaria brought to the south from the slaves of africa from two centuries before and it is strange and now those who had enslaved them there are sick and other areas and almost died and he recovered enough to crawl from his bed singing and as he went to her bed and held her and his

zero arms, she died, 21 years old and labor married 12 weeks. then he went into my great seclude shin bet for seven years, a secluded on the plantation with the slaves, overseer and his brother who has the plantation and the attention they return to the world when he met to figure of she was not so thrilled to meet and to say i met mr. davis. i think he might be as old as you are. [laughter] and his manner offense me deeply and seems certain of his opinions thinking nobody can be right yet there is something about him and in the case of abraham lincoln and i apologize to any of the mary lincoln fans or in

the audience. the villagers thought the long walks together in say conversations in the little store that lincoln help to operate handing letters for his family at the post office, the villagers recognized the familiar signs of course, ship and then vanished they he came back to claim her and 90 scholars believe there is something between them but a and took sick and died suddenly and abraham, his friends confiscated his raisers because they feared he would commit suicide over

the death of an alleged. we have no pictures of her and photography was in its indices to would do a pitcher of the four elder girl on the western frontier? that is the only piece of physical evidence that links them at the library of context there is a copy of the title page of the book there is the description and ann rutledge is now learning grammar. that is in abraham lincoln's handwriting and was teaching her how to read. they'll the description comes from brother to say she was fair and has blue eyes. that tragedy changed and later experienced twin tragedies again. another thing they have in common, they were criticized by their own people when they were in power and cost of a tortured by their

generals and cabinet members who schemed against them fish's criticisms and politicians today said it is so tough. how can this be? the vicious things that we say we have it easy today and politicians today are thin skin compared to that criticism of going back to george washington and thomas jefferson it is perhaps not enough read the history to realize that to another interest gain fame both lay their heads on their palos just as they have been born the white house is now 100 miles apart each one is streaming and applauding

they suffered another said the tragedies lincoln's favorite son willie died in the white house and lincoln was crushed. no one in washington knew about a and rutledge. merry lincoln did but did not want to hear about it. he never discussed her or wrote about her. but the death of his son sent him back 30 years with the loss of devastation and it really made lincoln empathize with all of the dead of the civil war in if you read his letter which is by far my a single most beautiful written letter that lincoln ever wrote and

written to a young girl that the man was killed in battle but he was right team to himself and to the american people wonder if his low voice fell and only to hold hoods son in his arms siskel was crushed in the bones are broken and as he held him the boy died then that sent him back 30 years of they are both brooding and davis was once more famous than abraham senator and congressmen the unsuccessful one term congressmen but in the late 1850's to is the future president?

abraham lincoln you're jefferson davis? the majority of americans would say jefferson davis another said abraham who? because until late spring or early fall from abraham lincoln was not a famous national figure but rising in popularity but not the national figure davis was. one wonders what would have been to the party did not split and lincoln ran only against jefferson davis and wondering the possible outcome of that election. turning to the final journey now, the great difference between them and what they have in common. the great difference what is the nature of man? abraham lincoln said it slavery is not wrong than

nothing is wrong but jefferson davis believed slavery was right and fought a war but that forever separates the vision of america of lincoln and davis did equal rights for all or an equal for some. we do have a very frightening thing in common. we say this as a fact named as jefferson davis in abraham lincoln. each man would fight to the death to vindicate their cause. at least 620,000 men died in the civil war and a new report says it could be

750,000. i am absolutely convinced lincoln davis which has some 1 billion and to their deaths and been lincoln's case with liberty and union and in the case of davis, a state's rights, and the right to secede and to own slaves that is why ultimately that is a fundamental thing and lincoln has come down as abraham who fought -- sought compromise to say we should negotiate a once lincoln decided a principal was correct, rather than compromise abraham lincoln ordered a death and they felt terrible about it with tremendous guilt and responsibility to fight and die and that is how committed to their

principles they were. and in their final journey, i will just touch on that, it is why is the most intense emotional public event in american history. to this day. if you want to get a sense, remember the reaction of the nation to president kennedy and the murder of dr. kane and your reaction to 9/11. and amplify those emotions to get some sense of what it was like to be living in america when the train was taking lincoln home and in the case of jefferson davis his was a different kind. he was on the six week escape his entourage his wife can smell -- small children captured and imprisoned released after two years as we cannot have

wanted but then he went on to live a strange afterlife almost a quarter century after the civil war and becoming a live look-- a living symbol of historical societies and writing a memoir and dave this was galvanized would do to write his memoirs he died too soon and he said it occurs to me to write a history of the struggle of our people and did that. davis is at the peak of his reputation 1886 and he was a greater hero in this house and wins kanye triumphant speaking to our in gave the most important speech of his life when he left her the

vast audience with an interesting in a black touched him and collapsed at his feet those that laid hands on him and began trembling uncontrollably and could not speak. then to say i remember those days and those boys. of the rifles and the packs weighed more than the boy is referring to the 14 and 15 years old in the confederate army and many of these parents were in the audience then say the magical words words, but they are not dead but their crop that went to maturity. the audience rose up in a fuehrer and "the new york times" and we have never heard human being scream and

cheer that loudly. who knows where this will in? it ended three years later 18 teenine when davis died then later to decide his body should go home not to mississippi, his home, to richmond 32 rainn for ever as a symbol of a lost cause and 100,000 people attended the events in washington. 300,000 rat that davis events and said day that he died to believe his name would go down for ever in history as the great american hero we know that did not turn out to be as the 20th century came to belong to abraham lincoln and his cause of equal rights, no better illustration, we remember

the 200th birthday white house dinner hosted by a george and and at laura bush stamps and clients and symposiums and how many of you mark to insert 2008? the 200 birthday? knows stamps are avalanche or narrowed dinner at the white house and i will close by saying the civil war is very controversial we know the governor of virginia got in hot water for confederate history month and some people oppose and to them i would say all of this is american history and it is important to if you are

going to study abraham lincoln and you must then the jefferson davis. if you study the white man you better study the black man and the slaves, the free man and the men of color 200,000 and if you study the women of the north and study the limit of this house bill the way to understand the tapestry is how it still affects us today is to know all of the civil war and its history and that is in some small way is what i tried to do in these books. thank you very much. [applause] >> i first was like to say i

read your kids addition of "manhunt" it was featured in negative -- school and that is what got me interested in history and a civil war so they kiefer during that. [applause] that was my first children's book and i have done another children's book and its sequels redo get some advice that remember this, leaders want blood than the other one said and lots of lives. [laughter] if you have read my book but thank you for saying that. >> in your book i like this because it did not seem like

history but more like a fiction book so my question to you is within the strict timeline. and then tried to describe where things have been to. what was the wallpaper? what time was it? what was the temperature and elected the diaries and the newspapers in my morrice trial transcripts it is like a time capsule to surround do with everything that someone was living then may have seen or experienced.

>> but was the governor -- government's official stand for chasing davis and who was paid to chase him? and how do they differ in their view? >> he did not want to run down jefferson davis. the last cabinet meeting lincoln said of the top confederates, let them go. i don't care. he told general sherman if they just go they did not order the rest they did not want to try or execute. link them prefer the believe him of the problems but did not want to try or execute. fortunately win lincoln died one of the lifelong enemies

andrew johnson became president. johnson and davis despise each other for years. they announced a $100,000 reward and named jefferson davis as the lincoln assassin not involve but accused of treason and the reward was paid to the men of a caliber unit who chased davis down. everybody was hunting birth but davis got so far into the deep south only the new calgary was after davis and every penny of the reward was paid out to the man whose captured him. >> thank you for your talk. many years ago i went to the jefferson davis house and i went to the of building where he wrote his memoirs. how did he live to write his

memoirs? what were the people of the north what do they think of him while he was traveling around the south? >> too many people davis was a hated figure that was after the war the false rumors spread he was captured in women's clothing that took away the hatred. after the war he did not run for office ago on a speaking tour. he said i could be elected to any political office in the south but said if we were right to then how could i say we are wrong now? he did not speak out he was not in agitated with the miss treatment