work through the nook. authors can also sell their publications through nook press and receive royalties. the city of new york will pay the occupy wall street movement and can their librarians $47,000 to settle a lawsuit over stolen and destroyed books. occupy wall street sued the city after about 3600 books were seized during an overnight raid in november of 2011. according to the lawsuit, the city returned only about a thousand books to the occupy library. the city will also cover lawyer fees for occupy wall street for this case. stay up-to-date on breaking news about authors, books and publishing by liking us on facebook at facebook.com/booktv. or follow us on twitter at booktv. you can also visit our web site, booktv.org, and click on news about books. >> up next on booktv, charlene meyers recounts the united nations search for a location

for its headquarters from 1944 to 1946. [applause] >> thank you very much. thanks for coming, everyone. while we change the slides in the front, let me say thanks to all of you. those of us who write and do research are dependent on a vast network of support, and i want to express a public thanks to archivists, to historians, colleagues and friends and the editors and publishers who helped me on the journey that i'm going to be speaking with you about tonight. um, and i want to start out by saying something you probably have never heard at the beginning of a history lecture which is that it's okay to laugh. as the cartoon on the screen suggests, there are some laughable moment toss the story -- moments to the story that we're going to be thinking together about tonight. some of it is going to strike you as a little bit funny, and it is from our vantage point.

tonight we're thinking back to the years 1944-'46, the end of the second world war and the transition to peace. and in the midst of that transition when, of course, there were many pressing issues for the world to face, i was covering a story after a rather fantastic idea, that there should be a capital of the world, a place that would be the center for diplomacy but a place that would, um, house the united nations and be grander, that it might be its own identity, its own city or at least an expansive suburb. it might be sort of like a world's fair, or it might be like a compound of fashionable embassies. sometimes i get the impression that people were thinking of the emerald city from the land of oz. [laughter] as they were thinking about the capital of the world. in 1945. but this is the story we're entering into, and if there were to be a capital of the world, where would it be? this was a proposition that

civic boosters in american cities and towns could not resist. including philadelphia, but also many others. no one announced a competition, least of all the united nations. but a race began. even before the u.n. officially existed, a race began to try to get the attention of the world's diplomats and to win the prize of becoming the capital of the world. it was a race of civic boosters trying to get attention for their hometowns, and it was a race of newspaper reporters who were covering the story, but in many cases often creating the story. so as to boost the campaigns for bringing the united nations to their own localities. the race went to san francisco where the u.n. charter was drafted. it went to london where the u.n. met for the first time. it went to mack gnaw island where the nation's governors had

their conference in 1945. it went to new york which became the base of operations for the site-searching teams who would determine the outcome. it went to potential sites, um, especially in the northeast and including philadelphia. and while civic boosters were running their own race to win a prize that no one had announced, the world's diplomats were on their own parallel track, a more deliberative course of determining whether the balance of power would lie in europe or in the united states, of trying to get an international organization off the ground and of dealing with the very serious issues of transitioning from war to peace all the while with the american civic boosters nipping at hair heels. their heels. now, there are, i think, some serious, substantial lessons to learn from all of in this. it's about the ways that local,

national and global identities are formed, it's about the ways that ideas and time and space change as communications technology changes, as transportation technology changes, but it's also a great story, as the cartoon on the screen suggests. it's full of drama and surprise and a few comic turns along the way. as the boosters were racing onto the world stage and as the world's diplomats were trying to negotiate local politics and the american real estate market. so to begin at the beginning, i'm often asked why i became interested and how i became entered in this topic. -- interested in this topic. and so this is a story from the archives. it begins in philadelphia at a time when i was researching an entirely different subject, although i came to discover it was not entirely separate. i was working in the archives of independence national historical park going through news

clippings, trying to assemble the history of independence hall. and i came across this clipping: philadelphia, home of the united nations. from the front page of the philadelphia record in 1945. and by only response was, what? [laughter] i have lived in philadelphia for a while. and i thought i knew something about philadelphia's history. but this was news to me. um, and i wanted to find out more. just from a little investigation, i found that philadelphia in addition to san francisco was among the earliest and most assertive and longest-lasting competitors for the honor of becoming the host location for the united nations. the inspiration was, as you can see somewhat in the clipping and can see more clearly now, independence hall which was seen by philadelphians as an inspiration to the nation and, therefore, presumed to be an

inspiration to the world. what better reason could there be to locate the united nations than to put it within the vicinity of the cradle of liberty? and i came to discover that this kind of attachment to local and national history was 'em pedded in many of -- embedded in many of the competitors that came forward offering themselves to be the capital of the world, that often they were acting from a basis of their local history which they saw as contributing to the nation's history which they saw then as having international significance. and it was especially true of places that have historic connections to the colonial era, to the american revolution and to founding fathers. so in addition to philadelphia, into the race come boston, morristown, new jersey, saratoga, new york, charlottesville and williamsburg, virginia, to name

a few on that basis. here we see philadelphia yangs on the steps of independence hall looking forward to their future. they are holding a map of the city, and if we could see the other side of the street, we would see an aging commercial district that had yesterday to become independence national historical park. they are imagining that future will build from the past that they have, um, already in place. and i love this kind of gaze up and forward as if they're seeing the future. and this was true of other cities as well. in detroit that was another competitor where, um, the boosters really saw the potential of the world capital as being a step forward from the city into future. so this was intriguing. and i read a little bit in histories of the united nations and got a little bit into the records of the early organization and saw some references that there were maybe

30-50 of these self-proclaimed world capital competitors. and that seemed enough to look a little farther. i came to understand, though, that there were many, many more. a greater variety, places in every region of the country, um, and not only large cities that you might expect like boston, chicago, st. louis, new orleans, denver, san francisco, but smaller places that i never would imagine would be in a contest to become the center of the world. tuskahoma, oklahoma, for example. clearly, i needed to find out more about this. so far as i know there were at least 248 localities that became involved in this episode to one degree or another by either making a suggestion or issuing a, an official invitation or embarking on a full-blown campaign to make their hometowns

the capital of the world. so here i could see there would be a wide variety of materials that would allow many me to see what was -- allow me to see what was happening in the united states, in the society and the culture in this transitional moment from war to peace. and it would also touch on issues that were compelling, like how we develop ideas of a place, how that is related to local identity, how that makes us feel a connection to the world. um, so off i was on my adventure and search for the capital of the world. now, one of the places that i'd like to introduce into the conversation is sort of a counterpoint to the story of philadelphia, because it is also one of the earliest and most long lasting competitors is the black hills of south dakota. meet paul bellamy. paul bellamy is in the driver's seat. now, he appears in some

histories of the united nations, and he and the interest of the black hills are always sort of the throwaway line, right? they're the stand in, the shorthand for expressing the ridiculous lengths that the american booster campaign, um, went to. how much, i spent a little time in south dakota and a little time getting to know paul bellamy and his campaign, and i came to have a different idea about this. and this was true for me of a lot of the campaigners that seemed just a little out there, right? just a little wacky to be on the list for the potential capital of the world. this is paul bellamy in 1936. you can see he's driving finishing dr -- fdr, and they are on their way to a dedication of one of the carvings on mount rushmore. bellamy was the owner of a transportation company, so it often fell to him to drive the celebrities that came to mount rushmore or other sites in the region. but he also organized tours for

other visitors. he was a big local booster of tourism and, um, locally-beneficial projects. he was involved in the planning for mount rushmore, for the highways that snake through those hills if you've ever visited there, for the badlands national park. he was not the major player on those projects, but he was always in them, right? and always promoting the cause of the black hills. so paul bellamy became so compelling to me that he became the opening of the book for the capital of the world. and i want to read you just a little bit so that you get a feeling for paul bellamy and his story and the reason why the black hills of south dakota were a contender, at least so far as they were concerned. during the second week of september, 1944, the united states' army/air force delivered a telegram with tragic news to paul and lucy bellamy of rapid city, south dakota. just a few days short of their

40th wedding anniversary, the bellamys learned that their younger son, lieutenant paul herbert bellamy, had died on august 26th in a midair collision 17,000 feet over england. herb, 22 years old, had been the lead pilot of two groups of b-17 flying fortresses. in flight bellamy's crew observed a plane above them getting close, closer, too close to their own ship. the engineer and bombardier both raced toward the cockpit intending to grab the controls and dive the plane, but it was too late. the planes collided and exploded, and herb and his copilot went down with the ship. half a world away from the physical remains of his son, paul bellamy's search for channels -- searched for channels for his grief. his thoughts raced over his son's short life, the baby, the playful boy, the groom, the volunteer pilot in training at the air base on the outskirts of

rapid city. perhaps a future father, perhaps a partner in business. bellamy felt compelled to document this moment to try to make sense of it, to do something. immediately, he sat down and composed a tribute to his son. he struggled to justify the terrible loss. why did it take the tragedies of war to make those left behind stop and examine their priorities? how could the survivors be worthy of the sacrifices of their sons and daughters? and two months later, we find paul bellamy at the podium of his local chamber of commerce meeting proposing that the black hills issue an ini have tate to the united nations -- invitation to the united nations to bring its headquarters there to that region. it was a memorial act, um, to his son and to others who had died in the war. of so it was not as crazy as it may seem at first blush. it was, also, it's also a story that speaks to some of the themes that run through the book and this whole episode of the

search for the capital of the world, and that's the generational story. the people who are pursuing this dream beyond all reason, although it seemed perfectly reasonable to them, um, i think of them as the parent generation of world war ii. they were people who were born at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, and by world war ii they are the civic leaders of their communities. many of them had served in war. for paul bellamy it was the spanish-american war era. he served in the philippines. many others had served in the first world war which was to be the war to end all wars. and here they were in the 1940s sending off their sons and daughters to another war. and often seeing sacrifice, the same sacrifices made by their chirp. so -- by their children. so they were very committed to stopping warfare, to insuring peace for the future and to supporting the united nations as

a way of doing that. and this was a motivation for many of them to be involved in the race for the capital of world. now, in the paul bellamy's case, he was really in the race. here he is in san francisco at the conference to draft the united nations' charter, sharing a cigar and lobbying one of the delegates to the u.n. charter conference. he also made his way to london where the u.n. was first organizing. he was in the halls of parliament. he was going to receptions. he saw this really as another business proposition, and if he just kept maneuvering, um, and chatting with people, they would see the logic of his proposal. and he was very serious about it even though he was not always taken seriously, particularly by the news reporters who were covering this adventure. so the competition grew. the u.n. was in the news a lot in 1945, and with each wave of

headlines came more competitors. and i put this slide back up to you in order to describe the way that this wave hits the diplomat you can world in the fall of 1945. i call this chapter "blitz" because i think that's about how it felt to the diplomats. the competition to become the capital of the world, which no one has announced, reached london in the fall of 1945 with a bombardment of invitations that no one had solis sited. a let from the chamber of commerce of beloit, wisconsin, promotional brochures from boston, st. louis, miami and newport, rhode island, petitions from oklahoma and suggests from saratoga, valley forge, monticello and williamsburg. bizarre communications signed by chase osborn of positive some poke and possum lane somewhere in georgia. [laughter] site plans from south dakota and photographs from philadelphia.

starting with a smattering of five suggested capitals in 1-9d 45, the proposed locations increased by 13 in october, 17 more in thof and then a torrent of 85 in december. a few suggestions arrived for locations outside the united states, but most of the correspondence came from american public officials, publishers, business leaders and other individuals promoting their own hometowns. and the appeals became more and more elaborate. these are some examples of the promotional materials that landed in the mail in london. philadelphia is at this point, um, still promoting its historic significance as its main ea peel. you see chicago situating itself at the center of the planet. and on the right what san francisco called a pro sure finish. [laughter] but it's clearly much, much more than that. it's being displayed by a flight attendant who's sitting amid the crates of these that were headed off to london.

so here you see the, um, promotion being built around the promotion. so this is growing and growing and growing. once they got to the diplomats in london, the response they received only encouraged more. because diplomats are diplomatic. [laughter] no one said no. no one said go away. the response was your materials will be considered by the appropriate parties at appropriate time. if you are a civic booster, what does that sound like to you? yes. you're still in the running, you know? [laughter] try harder. and i think this was part of the spirit of americans at this time. having helped the allies win the war that anything -- they could accomplish anything if only they tried hard enough x. so no one was giving up, even those such as the people from the black

hills who really never stood a chance. they didn't know that pause no one said no -- because no one said no, and they were in the game all the way. if there was to be a capital of the world, what might it look like? not only did we have civic boosters producing brochures, we had architects devising plans for what united nations might become. this was the first plan, um, created in san francisco at the time of the conference there. and this is from a newspaper, so it is not, um, very easy to see. um, but this plan reminds me a little bit of the 1939 world's fair, and i think many of these plans reflect that sensibility of world's fairs either through their design or through their architects who had connections with world's fairs or lu their settings -- through their settings. some of them were literally on sites of world's fairs. the other ting i see in these

plans, and i'm going to show you two or three more of them, is a developing idea that a city, an existing place might not be the best location for a new world peace organization. that maybe it should be its own place. maybe it needs a more pastoral setting in order to do the work of peace. here's a second design for san francisco. this is actually in marin county on the bay, and here you see this is on the water front, sort of the space age sort of design there. i think these are all visions of the future. you know, what will the postwar world be like. this is chicago. this is northerly isle which is a little peninsula very near the town town. and what you're seeing here is the proposal for the world capital built on northerly isle. what i find interesting about this is you really can't see chicago. it's as if city is not there.

so there's an idea here that the peace organization needs to be in more peaceful surroundings. often there were proposals for islands. this is from sioux st. marie, michigan. there's a very similar design for niagara falls. these were border proposals that joined the towns on both sides of the border, so michigan and the twin town in canada and the same with niagara falls. modern buildings, symbolic traffic circles, right? linking roads from both continents are part of these designs. and finally, pack to our friends in -- back to our friends in south dakota. this is the design for the world capital in the black hills. this would have been in a valley in the black hills. um, and what you're seeing here is a central tower structure, and this, it looks like concentric circles, but it's actually a spiral to allow the

united nations to grow and grow and grow. in perpetuity. and here you see small office structures for the delegations which look to me a little bit like suburban cul-de-sac developments. will[laughter] in the hills, the would have been villages for nationalities, and straight through the middle is the world highway, the highway that would allow grow strife around the world which, of course, would go straight through south dakota. [laughter] so this was their proposal. for the plaque hills. the black hills. the philadelphians did not create an architectural design. part of their pitch was we're not going to tell you what to do, right? just, please, come here. they did recognize that the idea of the city a as a location was falling out of favor, and they needed to change the idea of putting it close to independence hall even though they did intend to create that expansive plaza

there. and so they moved, as charles said earlier, their aspirations to belmont plateau, and this is a current picture of belmont plateau which now i am calling the field of dreams, because it's all baseball diamonds out there now as you you see. and you can see the city skyline in the background there, and you can barely see memorial hall from the 1876 world's fair also is visible from this location. so they proposed location as well as additional acreage in northwest philadelphia and into montgomery county in order to put together as much acreage as they could to try to entice the united nations to come to philadelphia. so here is a question, if you're going to put the capital of the world somewhere, how do you decide where the center is? in 1945? among the diplomats, the debate was really between europe and the united states.

would the united nations be in the traditional center for diplomacy, or would it move to the united states? to make a fresh start? but the idea of center is a very transitional sort of concept at this time. ideas of time and space were being transformed by transportation, by communications technology. the world was coming closer together, but not everyone was thinking of it that way yet. and so there's some very interesting discussions where people are talking about distance. some people talk about it in terms of miles, but other people talk about it in terms of hours, and the hours distance was changing. commercial aviation was about to take off, and for that reason any place could make the argument that when they got their fabulous new airport, they were going to be the center of the world. and they could very easily accommodate the united nations. they make in this point with

maps as you see here. this is the black hills' campaign, and you see the concentric circles moving outward. and you see the airplanes coming in from if each continent. -- from each continent. no problem, everyone can get to rapid city. here's a similar promotion from atlantic city, um, which was very assertive in the competition as well. and you see them connecting everywhere. here is the st. louis promotion, weldon spring was the site outside the city that they were putting forward. and here's tuskahoma, oklahoma. again, with the concentric circles. they're at the center, and they're offering this very modern structure and the airplane is arriving to bring the world to tuskahoma. and you can see here that they're measuring air miles, right, in order to show how

accessible tuskahoma might be. now, tuskahoma is another one of those stories that on first glance seems like one of the crazy places on the list. um, but there's also a richer story behind it. some of you may know that tuskahoma was the capital of the choctaw nation, and it was proposed to the u.n. as a place where the diplomats could locate and make a statement about social justice. by being in the land of an oppressed people. and so there's much more going on to the tuskahoma campaign than might appear. so there are all these promotions about air travel, how easy it will be, how swift it will be to travel to any location that might want to be the capital of the world. but then there's a wrinkle. boosters were boasting about this as boosters will, but in

the fall of 1945 there were 16 groups of boosters that decided they really had to go to london in person in order to make their pitch. here are the philadelphians on the airplane getting ready to go make their appeal to the united nations. and one of the reasons we know about their trip is they kept a very detailed journal. it's now in the digital collection, it's at the historical society of pennsylvania, so i encourage you to go online and take a look, because it is really a fabulous description. but what i learned from the journal is that it was really hard to travel from philadelphia to london in 1945. um, first of all, they may be sitting on an airplane getting ready to leave, butter the not in philadelphia -- but they are not in philadelphia. they are in new york. you could not get on an airplane in philadelphia, right? and fly in 1945. that would come along pretty soon for philadelphia. but they had to take a train to

new york and then wait for the weather to be right in order to get on the airplane. and day after day they would just wait for a phone call to tell them whether the plane could go. and sometimes they would get a phone call that, yes, they could go, and then three minutes later they would say it would be called off. at one point one of them tried to book passage on the queen mary thinking it would be faster -- [laughter] to get to london than it would be to take the plane. but they did finally fly. so did the mayor of chicago, so did the governor of massachusetts, and each one of them is a tale of, um, adventure and difficulty and long, long journeys to get to london. so they were going to have of a little bit of a hard time making that case about transportation. but enough of them did get there that they did, they forced the u.n. to have hearings pretty much just to make them all go away, right? someone had to listen to them. it was a formality.

the diplomats, for their part, narrowed down the field fairly quickly, and it was a matter of geography. if the united nations were not going to be in europe, the europeans were determined that it should be as close as possible. ..

>> they were considered to be too close to washington d.c.. the diplomats did not want the united nations to be in the influential realm of the national capital. the philadelphias never thought of themselves that way.

but they did not take very well when they got this news from the united nations. hello. we was robbed. here is our colonial figure philadelphia. [laughter] being unfairly treated or so they thought by the united nations. but all was not lost. and i will go back to the map to explain this because as the that the met -- diplomats look to the sites they did find a place they liked but of all the hundreds of communities that wanted to become the capital of the world, they chose one of the few locations that wanted to have nothing to do with it. [laughter] they chose initially fairfield county connecticut

involving parts of greenwich and stamford it had wanted to invite the human and they did but nobody asks the people of greenwich united nations encountered so much resistance in the suburbs north of new york with a particular location than that to adjoining counties north of new york that they had to go shopping again. they went looking around at some longtime contenders. they visited san francisco finally for the first time since the charter conference had been there. they went back to washington and they came to philadelphia. they came to look at the gravesite of the belmont plateau and this was very appealing. philadelphia had a great site, good for construction and available for free. it was easy commuting even today you get from center

city to belmont plot to go -- plateau in about 10 minutes.th were treated to lunch and everyone seemed to love this. it was such a contrast to what they were experiencing in the suburbs of new york. by the time the additional two were was finished philadelphia was the favored choice than the leading contender. of boat was imminent when i say how close did philadelphia come to becoming the capital of the world? pretty darn close. there were headlines in "the new york times" that new yorkers were alert to the risks. of course, they had their own booster committee and by this point* the new yorkers led by moses and rockefeller had enticed the when to a temporary meeting place at

flushing meadows right where they wanted the united nations to be. when the prospect seemed to be almost certain a phone call went out to nelson rockefeller. and if you know, any part of this story is the end. we do know the end we just don't know how we got there but rockefeller came back from the vacation and there was a quick huddle and discussion about what new york could do and the story you probably know it is rockefeller, jr. made a gift of eight point* $5 million to purchase a site in midtown manhattan which at that point* was the slaughterhouse's district and was parcelled together by real estate developer by the idea to build something new along the lines of rockefeller center and there

was an option on the property and john d. rockefeller made the gift because of bad that site is now the united nations headquarters. maybe not that space the world of their buddies streams but the planner who supervised the architectural work referred to it as a workshop of peace and just to conclude a want to read this because it projects my feeling the story of world war ii and a panorama of that era but it touches deeply into american culture because today capital of the world is a slogan rather than a place of dreams. as reporters noted on one of

the jurors the search could have been a movie or perhaps it should have inspired the broadway show with civic boosters and courses of anything you can do i can do better. i left my heart in different cisco and oklahoma and for the grand finale they could dedicate the united nations headquarters with a rendition to accentuate the positive from the 1944 film here, the waves. it all seems a little bit crazy and we have lost touch with hope and anxiety that characterized american society at the end of the second world war. we have forgotten the time when people across the united states and as in themselves on the world stage and not just on the stage but at its center as the stars of the show.

thank you very much. [applause] >> very insightful and i learned a lot and we do have time for questions since we don't have books, ask a lot of questions. >> i was just curious to the u.s. government or the truman administration talk about where it should be located? >> united states government took a position of neutrality on the site question that left a wide-open door for the local promotional committee that they would walk right through. the u.s. government the state department had a pretty good idea the un

diplomats would opt for the united states but to give the independent start let's leave the decision up to the diplomats. so the diplomatic committee had little familiarity with the united states and they were trusting the boosters to guide them along and they were more than happy to do it. there was a point* where they revisited the last group of cities where the united states government did become more involved at that point* and did step been to say the east coast is better than the west coast but there were still letting the decision go where the u.n. wanted it to go. thank you. >> why did they abandon to

be no closer than 25 miles to this city? was it financial? >> yes. part of it was a financial issue which was usually extensive. and these were people who had come up in the age of imperialism we're just used to going places but the land in fairfield and westchester would be very expensive and that was the cost issue. also they became wary of the commuting if they really wanted to be in manhattan to have offices in manhattan it would take too long to get back and forth to the suburbs the even dislike commuting from manhattan to queens so they were more acclimated to the needs of the inner city than the

suburbs and the new yorkers were very skillful to invest so much in renovating the world's fair grounds building that they could say we have invested these millions of dollars so we should stay here and they manage to beat up the sign that says welcome to new york. [laughter] so step by step as the suburbs pushed the un now then yorkers were ready to catch them. so they were willing to look at sam and cisco now there were willing to look at philadelphia and boston and finally they ended up but it was the guest that made that particular location in midtown manhattan.

>> i could not help but notice most of the boosters were white men did any city use the fact it had eight firsts population and multi-cultural as a selling point*? >> most were white men that they did use multinational populations as a selling point* and it is one of the significant things that they are bragging about all the different nationality groups that they have because the that the languages we can speak and we can get great secretaries and telephone operators for this organization to operate also the united nations had made a determination they did not want to be in a place where the delegates could be subject to racial discrimination said they drew a line at the mason dixon line that nothing in

the southern part will even be considered and it was about the prospect of racial discrimination they had a great discussion i you could find that anywhere but they drew the line. at that point* they had all their competitors claiming they had no racial discrimination in their communities so was built over time that way as well. that's a great question. >> in your research to come across information about the houston family of chestnut hill fame wanting to bring viewed added nations do chestnut hill? >> that part was in the territory i aid for housing and i will go off my

prepared speech to show you a map and up here in this territory is the additional land they were looking at low and behold the people said sure you could have my house which is not at all what was happening in the suburbs of new york. they were very skillful to arrange that and i have not looked at the houston paper in particular but i am told there is good material there >> i have heard they were the two big money powers. >> interesting reading. >> that would add to the competition. >> thank you for that.

>> since we're in philadelphia i cannot help but ask among the boosters was there a mention from that article in the beginning but william penn had been his famous essay on world peace is in 1693 and it was the concept to what the united nations was to them. did the promoters mention that? and the fact that the united nations actually shares the new calendar birthday as the booby prize? >> they did make that connection with the first day but from the beginning there was reference to william penn especially as a world citizen and then franklin as the same way. they were playing all the historic cards in portraying

philadelphia as a world place which is a contemporary concern as well. there was also another promoter who was promoting the area around the media that was very persistent and his argument is all about william penn. the should be in pennsylvania but he did not want it in this city and did not want that setting. said he pushed the area around and brought a number of northeastern pennsylvania communities and to the competition like places then the pope knows that came in at his urging to make that connection but to try to be modern and historic at the same time the diplomats were

in the business suits flying on the airplane that is the perception that philadelphia has of itself and even when it got this far as it did there were some diplomats who would not have been really happy to come to philadelphia. >> philadelphias proposal was from mayor samuel and at that time did ministration had a reputation for being incompetent and corrupt. [laughter] but the proposal is terrific it is a beautiful piece of work. how will they able to do it? to the city administration to it did others get it together?

>> it originated with the philadelphia record so that clipping was the origin of the campaign and david stern, the publisher of the philadelphia record every day in that newspaper is a manufacturer -- story how great it would be and how natural an idea for the united nations to come to philadelphia every day they found something new and the mayor had another idea that should happen at independence hall, he readily transferred that interest in to these ideas. so within a few weeks you have a big meeting of the politicians and the leading citizens of philadelphia at the time in the reception hall to push this idea along and it was there when they

had to send people to san francisco to begin lobbying right away. so there is an interesting coalition of newspaper people and politicians and when talking about belmonts plateau you enter into the area of city planning for philadelphia. it went from being a sentimental reflection on this city's history to a sophisticated statistical measure argument for bringing the united nations to philadelphia it had to reshape the image it was projecting to the world and did it within one year from the liberty bell of independence hall to belmont plateau and northwest philadelphia. thank you for that. continuing on the philadelphia theme but

looking into the future is there a sense that the independence national historical park is the booby prize instead of the united nations? >> no. the idea because some of the same people are involved with that great depression and the war and all these plans and it by 1945 in favor or a lobbying for the state parks and national park are around independence hall and this was the kicker.

that would have been the plan to. but the plans went forward for the park the state park and the national park the same state and federal officials that philadelphia was dealing with were the ones who also were going to sign off on the part. >> being aware of time we would love to continue the dialogue. thank you again for your presentation. thank you very much. [applause] >> we at the conservative political action conference in washington d.c. with the

author of the communist. who was frank marshall davis? >> he was born in kansas 1905 died 1987 and ended up in chicago then