were sometimes even more generous than i wanted them to be on what we could get away and when but i grew up with no money and when i found a part of the attractiveness is it does give you freedom and you can help worthy causes but robin hood is a model i will share one other one with you i am particularly taken with and this has to do with education which i think how we reform education in america will depend on a public-private partnership. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. charles flout recounts the final year of ulysses s. grant the former president at terminal for road and mouth cancer and was in streets when he began

writing his memoirs an attempt to restore his family's wealth. the author examines the writing process and the success of the memoirs finished four days before his death and published posthumously by mark twain. this is just over an hour. >> good evening from everyone. in 1953 lighter a good friend made his debut upon the national literary stage with his "new york times" best-seller love is a bridge. and a law student at harvard having graduated 1951 from harvard college where he was mentored by, he left of the law forever setting his sights on the pursuit of a full-time author. the winner of the literary fellowship award, his novel was described by one critic as a first novel of exceptional and another wrote when it is

considered of love is a bridge is a first novel by a writer now when his 23rd year it is a performance to hearten anyone that looks to the future of a novel of the united states. nearly 50 years later one of my copies of love is a bridge urges me to keep the reviews contained in the front flap as a reminder that the race is to the swift and also the patient. in his nearly 60 years as an author fiction, history and biography he struggled his own company is abandoning when his views no longer respect fiction embracing instead the satisfaction from an historical research and breaking the will of nonfiction with the same narrative skills and sharp eye that made his novel's best sellers. his autobiographical tales that he injected at the paper are as fascinating as the inside he's given to robert e. lee, adolf hitler, sherman and ulysses s.

grant. hillman living souls out of will lead to legal woody allen's midnight in paris can recount having shared a cocktail hour with ernest hemingway in paris for a steam bath with arthur miller in new york? three great men captured charlie's fancy and she set out to meet them. tertial from hemingway and the pope he batted three for three. charlie is a past president of the pan american center, an organization founded in 1922 to have the advanced literature, defense, free expression and foster a literary fellowship whose members has included the literary start of the 20th century. he covered the olympics in milbourne, rome, tokyo to the associated press. he was a senior scholar and

ultimately led to our victory won an american revolution round table for the best work of its genre during the 1976 bicentennial. no biographer what that meant the bonds in the road but the drama and emotional roller-coaster. in 1970 although the publication of the war of the innocent charlie's personal account was an attached army of the company in the jungles of vietnam and cambodia. the narrative took no sides in the political controversy surrounding vietnam war and the charley book remains one of the truest honest accounts of the border his lack of explicit and culberson to met. during the use the before the publication on hitler's rise to power and the deep friendship. charlie where wrote one of the most compelling novels i've read. the subject was mathilde tuscany

tie and just as remarkable jenny king or prince. unfortunately it was published in germany, not the united states say you'll have to take my word. in 2009 the 1864 at the gates of history earned rave reviews including a three quarter page review in "the new york times" to be undersold by the publisher in the wake of the economic recession. throughout these achievements and occasional setbacks, charlie's most stunning success has been his wife kathy and three fantastic children and more recently grandchildren. when cathy can to the blue cross he quickly adopted the state of kentucky. he's performed most research at eastern kentucky university is faithful to our briefing and in spring or fall he can be found handicapped in and fought the

good fight for them to make center el-haj kentucky. to his friends he was the citizen patriot always ready for the most trying task shutting the limelight speaking up when necessary. charlie nsa ability which adds tremendously but may have served in builder a world of insatiable. although chiarelli has been his own man, as a scholar, author, husband and friend. being true to himself he's never been driven by publishers of reasonable demand or the perception of what he should be writing or how he should be writing it. pursuing his own creative inspiration, he's earned many times over the accolade he's received from the critics, colleagues and an adoring public

i probably present to you my friend. [applause] and much your opinion of myself than five minutes ago. [laughter] i really wish this had been in reverse because i would like to introduce jeremy to you. i will try to do a little bit. when i moved down here, i had one connection before metcalfe de coming and it was for seven years with my 20s was something

to visit to the english department at harvard and the professors were not pleased about this. it was like the regular army. he was this guy coming in to look at it and what fell asleep. but there is one who is a man whenever i meet somebody from kentuckians around the united states. after i had been here a short time. he had asked me to come over here for three or four days.

as these couple of days went by, i became aware of this young man, very young man then who was sort of always around and going to the right class asking the right questions and that turned out to be when sherry, the very young and able lawyer here in little phil and we became friends, and when i see friends, i mean we have been very close over the years. he and his wife have visited calfee and me up a and mean and we have had a lot of fun together. of the many times and they're

terrific meals. one evening stands out in my mind. a few years ago and jeremy alludes to the fact this new yorker does go to king lynndie was one of the bonuses i found coming down here unexpectedly. so what are the facts that every spring over here despite what we think there is an event called the kentucky derby said they were good enough to have us over and jerry had terrific seats about 200 yards from the finish or perhaps a few of these middle seats. the problem was there was no overhang and it happened to be a day that would completely eclipse their rain today so he

went off to a hardware store and appeared at the track with a huge t.a.r.p. and i mean there were 12 lescol under this during the day so the derby itself and i'm sitting there under this and we are in the perfect place to see the race if you can just keep wiping the rain out of your eyes and in comes in with a horse of the name smarty jones and i was able to see him as close of the perfect place about 200 yards in the finished he was looking around behind him to wonder where the other horses were. a great, great race and then we all felt that. the 12 of us and some other people and of all of the dinner parties i've ever been to this was that evening with the highest morale. everybody came in like ground

rats and each person in each group had a story of how they had survived this and how it had all happened and it's just symbolic to me and the great friendship, so why do think that many years of friendship, so now i will turn to what brings us all here coming and ivory appreciate the opportunity to be here and appreciate you breeding the rain and i will try to make it all worth your while. you are aware of this book i think. my book begins in may of '84. 29 years after, 62-years-old and the most famous man in america he's also on his way to being the most photographed man in the 19th century. in addition to his enormous contribution to winning the civil war he has served two

terms as president of the united states. grant was not in good health and among other things the slender stature he gained 40 pounds since his weight of 146. he used crutches as the result of falling on the new york sidewalk however no one had any idea that he had only 14 months left to live. as we open on a grand he and his wife are living very comfortably in manhattan because of the generosity of new yorkers including jpmorgan and they've got together quite a bit of money so they could have the same kind of lifestyle they have and they did this because they saw in ulysses s. grant the same kind of determination, the same kind of vision and concentration that he brought them great success in entirely different fields. as the richest man in the world

vanderbilt said he is one of us. that is the way that he struck these people. the plan now is to take you back to the beginning and give you some of the highlights on the way through the 1884. i want to give you the man as he really was rather than he has often been portrayed. he's been described as humorous, a person who would never laugh at himself in a note to toombs, one is yankee doodle and the other is [inaudible] [laughter] he was the son of the operator in a small town in ohio and graduated from west point. after serving with distinction in the mexican war he married the highly intelligent olivaceous lacrosse fight daughter of the prewar slave holding a family in misery. the civil war historian called their marriage as i quote one of the great romantic american love stories and so what was.

separated while serving of the remote army post in the west coast he became desperately lonely and was drunk on duty during the payday. to give him the option of facing court-martial weigel resigning from the army command grant said to some of his comrades i would rather resolve to leave could resign from the army than half julia know that i was court-martialed for being drunk. so he did indeed resign. seven years later when the civil war began in 1861 he returned to the army starting as the commander of a regiment with less than a thousand men he rose to become general chief of the entire union army of a force of more than a million. in the process, and here's the point that so many have missed, he became a transitional figure in history of warfare, in 1862

he was writing back-and-forth right behind the lines of his infantrymen firing of the nearby confederate ranks. by the time that abraham lincoln came in 1864 to command the entire union army and to oppose robert e. lee in northern virginia he was communicating with his corps commanders by telegraph from his headquarters miles behind the front. contrary to the myth that he was often drunk had at no time during the war was he incapable of effective action deutsch to consuming alcohol. i see at the top of this page a handwritten note that says taking a drink of water whether you think you need it or not. [laughter] >> during his rise grant not only developed enormous administrative skills but became a great strategist.

more than any other side he understood that the rivers of the south or of any part of a vast battlefield area and can be used as avenues for penetrating and cutting of the confederacy once grant gets hold of a place he acts as if he had inherited it. among the great impressions of the grant that is mistaken is that he really wasn't very bright. during the last year of the war he incorporated into his headquarters at city point virginia what he called the bureau of military information this was a sophisticated and highly effective 64 man intelligence gathering and that union that surpassed anything the considered as voted on. the attacks it's also worth remembering what we thought about that.

when his subordinates were telling him about the way that a grand was recklessly piling up casualties he replied i think general grant is managing things very well. every american knows the story of the way in which ulysses s. grant set new standards of military honor by the kind of gracious way in which he set to surrender the courthouse but many are unaware of what came next. the success for andrew johnson intended to have him tried for treason a crime and a punishable by debt. they went under the white house and told john thune that he was protected by the parole that he had given. if he were arrested he would immediately resign from the army and protest. johnson and his prosecutors had no intention of arguing with the immensely popular victorious

commanding general of the united states army. lee was never arrested the remaining years of his life he never allowed a word against grant to be spoken in his presence in 18694 years after the war ended grant was sworn in as president of the united states, the position he held for two terms the first term as a success and the second was not. during the second term his political opponents launched 37 separate investigations and corruption in the administration. despite their efforts to could not demonstrate he was involved in any of the scandals many of them resulting from the politically naive grant misplaced trust in those he believed honest men taking the action of the presidential history he writes to congress

for the state of the union address he apologized to the nation's legislators and to then to the american people. grant begin with this. it was my fortune or misfortune to be called to the office of chief magistrate. it is reasonable to assume errors in judgment must occur. he added that he claimed, quote, the fact every instance from the desire to do what was right, constitutional within the law and for the very best interest of the people. as for ending slavery in the subject of civil rights, soon after the grant was sworn in, he announced to the congress for ratification of the 15th amendment designed to protect the rights of blacks to vote.

at the highest tribunal land to the united states eligible to become so is indeed a grindle importance than any other active kind from the foundation to the present day. it's worth noting in the recent long overdue movement among biographers and historians for his rightful place in history the professor at princeton that he did more for civil rights than any american president between lincoln and lyndon b. johnson. once more in going to bring the last to your attention. after his white house days in 1979 ulysses s. grant and his wife and worked on the two-year tripper of the world as a

sightseeing journeys he turned it into a an immense tribute to grant. he symbolized the post civil war america and the military power to be reckoned with. he spent to hours on the bismarck who grant characterized as, quote, the greatest statesman of the time. with great respect as a military and national leader who possessed firsthand knowledge that he was eager to acquire. all of this brought grant and juliet to what neither of them thought would be the last chapter of his life. 1884 found them living in manhattan and at a townhouse just east of the fabulous millionaires' mansions on fifth avenue. this was the era in the history known as the gilded age.

they become partners a new wall street investment firm. the moving spirit of the enterprise was ferdinand ward known as the young who william of wall street. grant had put all his money on his management and encouraged all of his immediate family to follow his example. at that moment, he was showing perspective in the papers indicating that the firm had the capitalization of 16 million. on the basis grant had reason to think he was personally worth as he put my on to a million. this when servants were paid $5 a week. the financial catastrophe struck swiftly. overnight in may 1884, his financial house of cards collapsed. he had been running with a leader generation mccaul ponzi scheme. they lost all their money.

the description as he was at this juncture was left by robert underwood johnson a brilliant editor on the staff of the century magazine. johnson met with grant of his and julia's summer cottage in new jersey to discuss the possibility of the articles of the famous battles and campaigns. johnson found a man far different than the warrior ki expected to encounter. they had been reserved and showed himself to me as a person of the sensitive nature and the most human expression of feeling. he gave me the impression of a wounded lion referred to the quick in his name and his honor. he told me frankly and simply he had arrived at long branch. at long branch for eight years the at the white house staff at the disposal did all of the cooking for her ulys as she

called him. the grand guiding him he began to write about shiloh describing his victorious battles. he found he enjoyed it and johnson was the first to discover the same man who could write the clearest most direct military reports and after action reports and more what reporters are capable of descriptive writing that transport to the reader into the middle of gunfire and calvary horses. as he focused his concentration on the articles for the century he began to think of expanding this initial effort to what became his massive and personal memoirs. mark twain enter the picture. twain already greatly famous for his adventures of tom sawyer and others was about to publish huckleberry finn. he made a grant in never the was

both the generous to grant and although speculative potentially lucrative himself he would publish the memoirs with small publishing firms won by his nephew charles webster and give grant $200,000 as an advance on the venture. always a man for images he described the arrangement this way. if these chickens should ever hatch the low royalties of the four and $20,000 would make the largest single check ever paid treen author and the world's history. if i paid the general and silver coin at $12 per english pound it will raise 17 tons. as grant continued writing in the summer of 1884 he suffered increasing pain and discomfort in his mouth. by late october he had been diagnosed as cancer primarily of the tongue. and the resoled was thousands of

cigars. this was infected at sentence. dramatic question now facing brandt and the american public when they later learned of it was could he completes his memoirs before he died? during the spring of 1885 as grant pushed himself ever harder as he rode in his house at manhattan the people of both the north and the south while still decided could send postwar political issues began to come together and an example of the american respect for courage and the native instinct for the underdog. mark twain had been writing that he could recount his civil war experience effectively but he was bowled over by what he now saw averaging the production of 750 words a day to, quote, mulken web. that was putting on paper the remarkable quality. he compared these memoirs with

julius caesar's commentary saying the same high merits that distinguish the clarity of statement, directness, simplicity, and interest truthfulness, fairness and justice to the friend and foe alike and avoidance of florida speech. general grant's book is a great community and unapproachable literary masterpiece. there was no higher here than the modern symbol memoirs. the style is flawless. no man can improve upon it. during the months it became evident that americans not only in the north with the south had come to have a special feeling for grant. he always had his critics but other than during the white house years he was referred to and thought of as general grant. learning of his grave illness crowds gathered outside his house on east 66th street when he sometimes appeared to go for a carriage ride in central park

the reactions would range from a loss to solemn silence with men in the crowd taking off their hats. excuse me while i take another sip. >> and thank you. nobody knows this when people look at their watches or move their feet more than the speaker that has not happened once. at the time of grand's 63rd birthday on april 27, etd five, 20 years after the nation's great redemptive moment at the courthouse it was clear that a new generation not born of the times of surrender was growing up with a feeling toward a man who had preserved the union. typical the letters he received from young people was this one from maggie of louisville kentucky. she said in part i'm a little girl who likes you so much. general grant, please get well.

i don't write you to get your autograph of anything of the sort. i only write to let you know how we love you. i hope you won't suffer a bit. general grant, please accept the best wishes and love of this little girl. he also received this birthday greeting from the confederate survivors' association meeting in augusta georgia. when remembering him now was the generous victor who at the memorable meeting conceded liberal and magnanimous terms of surrender dewey standing by the graves of our confederates respectfully tender to general grant assurances of our sincere and profound sympathy in this the season of his extremity. because of the coming summer in manhattan, they were made to taken to a cottage - in the hills above saratoga springs in upstate new york and what was known as mount mcgregor a big resort hotel they had been built

into the cottage was on the slopes some 200 yards from it. here the grand duc and for what was literally a do-or-die effort. finding that riding with a pen and ink weakened the condition he resulted to dictating as he neared the end of his massive volume work. at one point he had a brief discussion with his son frederick concerning the dedication. grant had it as the volumes are dedicated to the american soldier and a sailor. frederick suggested this should be changed to specify he meant the soldiers and sailors who fought for the north. grant replied it is a great deal better that it should be dedicated as it is. as it is the dedication is to those who fought against as well as those we fought with and they serve a purpose in restoring harmony. grant felt a passion for the nation he fought to preserve.

what proved to be the last weeks of his life his mouth and throat choked with mucus and bleeding from cancer he sometimes dictated in a fairly audible whisper and finally resorted to writing his faults on pieces of paper. on one of these he wrote a summation of his feelings to the former confederate generals who came to see him at mount mcgregor. since they suggest what i wish to see since the war harmony and good feeling between the sections. i believe myself that the war is with what all it cost, fearful as it was since it was over i have visited every state in europe and every member in the far east. i know as i did not before the value of our inheritance. on july 25th, 1885, ulysses s. grant finished the last changes he wished to make in his

manuscript. three mornings later with his family surrounding his bed his last moments began. he died. a temporary resting place had been selected on manhattan's cliffs high above the river in a circular brick mausoleum had been built. on the day that grant's coffin closed was brought up from where he had been down in the city hall the largest crowd ever to assemble on the north american continent estimates range from half a million to 1.5 million people lined the five my lives of the funeral procession. what they witnessed was the united states showing the world how to honor a natural hero. thousands of carriages followed of which grants coffin riss did. past presidents and the justices

of the supreme court the government of all the student union in which the states had come at the union. on the military side there was a general 40,000 troops passed including the west point cadets wearing black armbands music provided by to entered 50 vans and goncourts'. proof of how they brought the nation together was a fact that confederate generals joseph johnson and simon boulevard were among the participants. the last large the segment of the democracies tribute from ohio was a column of 8,000 elected appointed officials from all over the united states. the combination of military strength and representatives of the constitution of law would please grant who believed so

friendly in the prosperous future he's all for the country. in addition to the public outpouring those who knew grant well had been or private reactions on the day grant died mark twain wrote in his notebook he was a great man and superlative the good on their own. many citizens north and south realized they already knew there was possible to be sometimes and an effective president but a great man nonetheless. what has the legacy bin? despite the rise and fall of the schools of fought the obscure and diminished his role in history he and lincoln remained the men who did the most to ensure the country would remain one nation rather than to become too nation's one of which was committed to maintaining slavery as the legal institution. his memoirs were published and

the sales mark twain hoped for guaranteed julia would live comfortably for the rest of her life. this is an educated audience so i will take a minute or two to explain this legacy. 126 years after grant finished it just this far in 2011 personal memoir of ulysses s. grant sold close to 50,000 copies. this is just this year in three hardbacks and to paperback editions the figure is even more impressive when one considers the copyright has long since expired and an unknown copies from the internet. how do we sum up his life? in the speech given 15 years after grant's placed him in the first rank of americans agreeing men like benjamin franklin and thomas jefferson reserve to be

regarded as an enormously valuable citizens peace all brand as something more than that and spoke of in this way. as we look back with wisdom and the nation's past the figures of washington, lincoln and grant these greatest men have taken their place on the great men of all nations of all the time the greatest crises of the history of the great occasions when we stood in the van of humanity and stock the two most effective blows that have ever been struck for human freedom under the law. the heartfelt memory. julia said ali, his wife, arrested in may and was warned in the sunlight of his loyal loved and now even though his

beautiful wife is out it is as if some plan that disappears from the heavens but later still reaches out to me, falls upon me. thank you very much. [applause] let me say again i very much appreciate the note twitching. [laughter] i am ready to deal with your questions. as far as i am concerned there are no dumb questions and if i don't know an answer i will tell you that and in a group like this i'm sure there always is somebody that knows something i don't know and that is the time for me to learn. in any case, please come out

with your questions. yes, ma'am, sorry. >> go ahead, please. >> the first state president was the governor's wife delia cleburne and then researching and finding pictures of all of those previous residence with virginia and then using she was from richmond. >> i made a mistake. it should have been right but they were wrong and it was me, i'm from richmond, she's from richmond, put it in the book. >> from eastern i was thrilled to think she was from richmond. >> i was, too, briefly. [laughter] but a good catch.

very good. please, somebody else. behind you, gerry. sorry, please. i always found the civil war so fascinating and grand and lincoln. can you speak with you know about their relationship? especially needy during the war how often did the meat? what was their relationship? >> excellent question. the answer is a little bit disappointing. but nothing both men and the responsibilities they didn't meet often and however, grant had called lincoln's detention

and aplington sit at the time a little transposing of the words but in effect he said if a grant polls this off he is my man and i am his for the rest of the war and that is what happened. the fact is all predecessors command the army also had these advantages and did very little with them than almost anybody else i don't want to digress for a moment. this touches on the question of the relationship. lincoln very much appreciate to grant and a grant appreciate the opportunity. he told lincoln when he came to washington in effect i'm going to do the best i can and i'm going to ask you for not anything more and let's see how

it goes. also the story was around during the war but the delegation went fairly early in the war and said this man is a drunken and he replied if you can get me the kind of liquor he drinks somebody else went to lincoln during the war and said is it true and the lincoln who loved a good story said i wish it were but it is not. so there you have that one. but excellent question. anybody back there? pleased to get yes, sir the white-haired gentleman. >> i remember as a young boy we hearing about grant as a drunk and all throughout school he was not portrayed as a very significant president and you

certainly elevated to the year to a more successful human. >> that is a really good question and it's been a lot more recently about this. he was what the roosevelt said. there was a perception, a valid perception, and then the reconstruction era, all these historians decided to become revisionists and other raw media i think it translates into this was going to elevate robert e. lee who deserved it. he was a great man and a general and a noble figure but they thought that in order to get him up the had to push a grant down and as late as 1992 out of their respective number historian saying i don't see how ulysses s. grant could ever look himself in the mirror to read this would

suggest earlier in my pocket is long overdue but that's what you have here. very good question and it's really on what is going on among the historians and biographers. i hope anybody else back there before i come up to a trustworthy one. please. >> [inaudible] -- college and was there any contact between >> very good question. i didn't plant it but that would be what i enjoy it to read a few weeks after grant, he invited robert e. lee who had then been for five years of the washington, which had become the and his death was going to be in a few months.

he invited max hastings and this was the last thing he wanted it to do because if you look across the mall or the river you see the house which is his wife's family, the core of the alarming ten cemetery movant washington held no pleasure for him and he had written shortly before the war to explain his reasons. i could take part in the invasion of the south. the fact is. the first thing taken in the invasion of the south was the blue clad union army crossing the river and taking a arlington circuit was out of pleasure for lee.

.. and at. >> speedup just a little bit

>> i have enjoyed a breeding as many books as i can find. several books if i have read about grant. it was terrific. but five of the crowd may be interested one night i was watching "booknotes" on sunday night the british historian, i think her john keegan was being interviewed by brian lamb and he was asked to would you say is the greatest general of all time in the united states? and then he offered the thought is it eisenhower? he said no. eisenhower was a great general but without question the greatest general ever

was u.s. grant. because without grant there likely would not have been a united states. >> i concur. >> that is the ultimate complement. >> i believe that also coming from a gifted historian. i did not know about that exchange but i buy into it. >> do i understand he made application for restoration and granted never acted on that? >> writing in of book called lee and the last year he was in a pigeonhole the early that would not be discovered for more than 100 years and the one man and interestingly enough was gerald ford. he did do that but i don't know how much difference

there really made since grant was protecting him every inch of the way. and in a sense almost protecting his reputation. another very good question. that shows quite a lot of knowledge on the subject. thank you for the question. i think it is time for my good friend. >> taking it back to the year 1864 could you tell the folks about the temps to tempt grant to follow the pattern of mclellan and other generals who had turned on their commander-in-chief and what that did or did not say about the purpose and he did

not necessarily say therefore that is it but i feel very strongly i don't think brand was in error get man at all but to see others fail and then to do the best he could that a little bit dodges the question. >> he had his job to do that is exactly what happened. >> with a follow-up question did he retained his friendship? >> very tricky. there was some back and forth that sherman wanted

his position as commander of the army and other positions to which he succeeded to be better defined and grant was not prepared to do that at the time when employment she was going to die within a few months so there was a falling out for a time when the chips were down, and grant was mortally ill, i guess who came from new york? sherman. and they met a number of times and he said grant said my visit is doing good than all of the visits combined and when we have the final moment from the tomb tomb, sherman was the

marshall of the parade. last moments before the coffin was put in the mausoleum, a bugle was playing taps and sherman, who was always a good figure was standing absolute and his whole body was convulsively shaking from sobbing. that is all that ended. >> how much of the amicable nature of the surrender came from grants and how much came from abraham lincoln or higher up? the decisions? >> entirely grant. there is no evidence abraham

lincoln other than this may have been taking parallel very shortly before he was killed and he said to the union general, let them up easy. let them of pc and grant may have been thinking in parallel but grant understood if he did not let them all go, if he decided to make them prisoners, it could still be going on today. although they were starting their brave to the end lettuce out again and there is neighbors and in then to say this is over. we are finished. >> one more thing occasionally after the war

war, the whole subject of how a constitutional was secession there is a lot of diehards in a statement you can imagine to say that issue has been decided by force of arms and that is the most wonderful way to close the subject forever and it is accepted that way at the time. thank you again for that. >> i am with you as long as you want to ask. >> where does sheridan figure in this? >> he was very important and i myself think it is the booster club for thomas but they overplayed their hand and i agree union generals

were sherman day scranton number one, sherman number three and -- number three and sheridan number four i know thomas was neglected and that is my belief. and then eisenhower and anybody else. and asked after the war and then alexander or macquarie and how did you rate? it depends on the task. but marshall had to do entirely different from macarthur which is different from patton which was different from eisenhower. who knows? each man came to what he

ought to be doing. >> anybody else? >> anything you could speak where was grant or reaction to the assassination? >> a very interesting question and then going into details of my book, he was taking his wife to a house that they rented in new jersey. stopping at the station to switch trains the career came up and looked at the telegram and he went white and julia said what is it? he said the president was shot but don't act as if a thing as happened and nobody has known that i will get you to the house but then i

will go back but he was supposed to be in a box with a wink and. now with a grant later said comment he was a very muscular guy and he said i wonder if i could have stopped is the man from doing it? or captured him or wrestled him to the ground? there are other things about the day better uncanny but that gives you the reaction in he was truly grieved. no question about that. >> >> what are your thoughts that is quite a diversified. >> maybe they serve breakfast for it is a route wonderful story.

i feel very strongly joshua chamberlain was a professor from bowdoin college in maine before the war and at a choice or to join united states army and was a terrific example of a complete amateur we just had a tremendous military gift. and he was the outfit i have mixed feelings a great grandfather the second canvas calgary had three house is stage forces shot underneath him to spend the last year of his life in a

prison camp and do have a warm and sympathetic study of robert d. the but on the other hand, the historical society in at the reunion 20 years later but this is a very serious group of men but then reincarnation but the confederacy naturally wanted to have their union with the grand army and the republic and chamberlain, the other part and what to do with each

other and then to go back to washington have the me and left to except confederate surrender was chamberlain. but of little split days of the bid to downplay his men were lined up to receive the surrender and across the stream came the remnants of the army of northern virginia but some of the regiments were so decimated that the flags were so together it looked like a bunch of flags. and just a few men behind each flag.

so here comes a man that is a confederate general. and chamberlain on his horse they may have to come up and turned from what was scheduled to happen to start it everybody of the thousands of troops to put up their arms. once gordon got it in his

men got it, they'll street and up and marched up the very smartly it is wonderful stuff and gazing into each other's eyes from 24 feet away, there was a bond between them like no other bond. they understood what they have both been through and people cried on both sides. and if only we could have kept the spirit we could have been healed within a year or so and he is a grave digger i am glad that you mentioned it. >> he went on to be governor of maine.

>> i guess we should make one of these the last. >> did grant have any relationship with jefferson davis? >> nine. to the best of my knowledge they never saw each other. i am sorry. [laughter] maybe it is just as well that they didn't. mentioning jefferson davis, if you want to do the what if of history, but had jefferson davis not gone to west point, he thought he knew more about military matters than he really did. he said in the beginning you are the commander of the old confederate army. i don't know. it sounded like he was

fooling around with a signing and reassigning general's. it was to the enormous advantage they haven't a man that was not very competent and also a man who long after people who are ready to sign a surrender and that should be it. thank you very much to all of you. [applause] >> when congress was debating after the 2010 elections, if the bush tax cuts would be extended, because of the recession and if it is a bad idea to raise anybody's taxes in this down the

economy, one of the things the republicans said is tax cuts are always wonderful in a down economy but spending cuts don't hurt at all which is self-evident a crazy. and when they go to the austerity response for the current circumstance. one of the things they wanted to get rid of was the tax credit and to say it was suspending program. the kind of that argument to be held in a cemetery of some obscure provision in my opinion the you be that judge the republicans say they should get rid of 60 no three. in this but it is that. when the congress does

things like the loan guarantees for new energy companies, the solyndra loan guarantee during the bush and administration signed buy president bush and supported at the time but almost all republicans on the energy committee, it is hard sometimes to pick winners and losers. that is not what 60 no three does. it recognizes a lot of people building solar and wind are startup companies. if you give the 30 percent tax credit you'd ordinarily give it is worth less because they have noted come to claim the credit. 693 basically gives them the cash equivalent if they are us start up. if you just don't like solar and wind energy or any of

the other tax credits you can make that argument but a very significant number of new solar and wind projects have used 60 no three. -- 1603 because solar and wind is becoming more economical every time it drops 30 percent every time you double capacity and solar in particular has had technological advances over the last three years ironically one of the reasons the lender went down because the other technologies got cheaper, faster than anybody figured. and took them out of the competitive max. i'd like 1603 and i think it

should be continued because i think we should be supporting start-ups as well as existing companies and a significant percentage over the last 20 years comes not just from small business but from those that were five years old were younger. this, of my argument is where do you want to go? and then back up to say how do we get there? what is the government and private sectors of those to do? to say government are no government comment 1603 is a good deal we should keep doing it. >> since you mentioned the end of 2010 on to give you the opportunity to repeat something that the one part of the book they fell you gave the president a bum rap. >> i was really upset i was

unsure if it was the white house or the congress. after we lost the election. >> when we still have the majority. >> i knew if they waited until january to the republicans would drive a hard bargain. so i said in a new to weigh in reasons that were still unclear, it did not have been. i received an e-mail that said that we tried. we did not make a big deal out of it because the main subject was the bush era tax cuts going to be extended? i try to force myself to say once a day either i donald

or i was wrong. [laughter] because i think it would be therapeutic if everybody in washington did that. [laughter] i want to be as good. something i was wrong about. since raising the debt ceiling simply ratifies the decision and congress has already made to spend money. since the budget is the only thing that the senate votes on that is not subject to a filibuster, i thought it to raise the debt ceiling vote was not to a filibuster and i was wrong. gene sperling said vms it says said mcconnell would filibuster unless we agreed to the budgets. it turns out he could not raise the debt ceiling and i was wrong. it did not hurt too bad. [laughter]

that is one way to get less 80 logical politics. >> one of the things you do frequently in the book is cite examples of where this superbly a partnership and shared responsibility between government and the private sector works at the state level could you talk about your theory and share examples from what worked then and what has not worked in arkansas. >> we americans are used to the state and local level trying to locate businesses it is largely a bipartisan tv -- with varying levels of the exuberance one reason i could stay governor for a

dozen years and never got bored with the job visible economic development aspect. the interesting thing is in most every state in the country although it has gotten more partisan now since 2010 but i think that will settle down, it is largely bipartisan activity. i try to cite some areas in the book for example,, to give one practical example, there is a long section in the book about what i would like to see done to clear the mortgage debt more clearly. i should back up to say these financial crashes hysterically take between five and a 10 years to get

over we should be trying to beat the clock we cannot do it in my opinion even if we take the president's jobs plan which has a lot of good ideas, it will give us 1.5 or 2 million jobs according to the economic analysis but to return to full employment economy, a 240,000 jobs per month three average just under that you have to flush the debt to get the bank lending again. kenneth broke off at harvard recommends some but if we lower the mortgage rates at the value of the house common than those who hold the mortgages will lose money. who will compensate? what will it be? he suggested that the banks

are who hold the market is a and instead of breaking them down, cut them in half to take the ownership position so when the house is sold those who issue the mortgage will share in the profit and you get the same practical results and the homeowner has a mortgage he or she can pay and i said i know this will work because when i was governor the farmers were in trouble we have hundreds of small state chartered banks. they knew they had a couple of bad years and could not pay off the farmns