>> thank you to the dallas historical society for all you do to preserve our great history but in the state to have archives and memorabilia that nobody else has in texas and i thank you for being such a strong organization that really is and to preserving our history my book is about the spirit of texas and the spirit of the pioneers that build our state, and it is much like the people that build the country. ..

>> i moved around the country and around the world and i realized the other states do not revere there history like we do. not every state requires state history t w.

every school child learns about our history and that is the beginning of the interest we see in our children. passing through the generation is very important but i saw something that was very different. this happiness and i found that was not the norm in other places where you have to fight so hard against the elements, the partially and especially the comanches were very brutal. to fight those elements you would think they would be sober and somber bty re not. they were happy. they enjoyed life and to read some excerpts that just

made me realize how very special this happiness in the face of danger and even hardships came about. i will read first from an excerpt of holly's book. as we know the father of texas who wanted more immigration from the united states into the mexin ory ofas and trying to encourage people to come. so he asked his cousin to come and look at texas and wanted her to see everything and go back and distribute on the east coast. she did. here is what she wrote. coming in 1931 her book came out 18303. it is not uncommon for

ladies to mount there mustangs and hunt with their husbands to ride long distances on horseback, to attend a ball still dressed in the saddlebags. hardy vigorous constitutions a free spirit and spontaneous gayety continued a rich legacy to their children to it is hopeful sufficiently value the blessings not to squander away in there eager search of refinement of polite life. i just thought that was a fabulous thing that they had the gaiety way back then when there was nothing. i want to read an excerpt from my great great grandmothers letter. the daughter of the governor of tennessee and i found this was something that ran

through a lot of the women that came to texas from genteel families, a lot of luxury, and well educated. they came to texas where there was nothing. nothing. no amenities. henry editing who built the biggest branch in the world, the king ranch lived in a mud hut when she first married richard king because there were no trees nothing to build a log house wit and the others like my great great grandmother lived in a log cabin and here is what she said. that actually succeeded sam

houston matt left abruptly because he had a disastrous marriage and became the governor. his daughter married a new doctor just graduated from medical school and move to st. augustine taxes and she writes to her sister may first 1849, out in a new country i see no one but strangers. the kindest people i have never met with. society is as good as any portion. there seems to be as much refinement as you would meet at any place. there is no such thing a fine houses or furniture they have very comfortable houses but they cannot get furniture. it's too far away from navigation to get such sayings. by the time we make money they will navigate.

then we can get all the little things that we need. if i had been in tennessee i would have thought the house we occupied would not do at all. we live in a very small house with two rooms and have not even a plane overhead but with all theinnvene geing alg finally. for the people do not require impossibilities. now this log cabin is still standing in st. augustine and is clearly a two-room log cabin that at least have trees to do a log cabin but west texas was the mud had. you can begin to get the gist of what it was like in those early days. i was struck by the hardiness of these women.

when we were looking for the title of the bo, here is wh w wo clincher you although thomas rusk was the secretary of state of the war against mexico and sam houston was the commander in chief and they were very close, great friends in the first two senators from texas as well. john corrigan is in the sam houston line. there is not as much written about him but as the riches of sam houston but he was a wonderful writer. when he reported on the revolution here is what he wrote. this was 1836 right after the battle, the man of texas deserves much credit the more so the women facing a

foe but the women with there little children aound them without means of defense or power to resist faced the danger and death with unflinching courage. and i think that acknowledgement of the role of women back in the 1830's was so appropriate. i wanted to make sure that the role of women in texas just like america was part of our history. i do talk about the revolution and the women who were there and the love of sam houston but she loved the secretary of state so there is a part about her and pretty soon aer s

rejected him houston went to alabama and they had almost instant love the one that lasted for i have two chapters because they wrote so many letters she did not accompany him very much and also very cultured and a wonderful musician by all accounts and very educated but she like to be quiet and at home so they wrote a lot of letters so there was a great record about her. one of the things i never knew was margaret houston had two children and right after her second birth she had a breast tumor that became very, very painful and her brother-in-law was very worried.

and was in washington as a senator, 1847. they decided she needed surgery so the yale-educated position sam houston's great friend and started the texas medical association and the university of texasmecal school and came to margaret and said we have to take this out. she wrote to sam houston and said this will be a little surgery will not be bad i resolve to take it like a soldier and smith wrote to houston after he did take a breast tumor out because she refused even the whiskey that was offered to build the pain and should only clenches silver coin in her teeth. it was because they thought

she was so trct with sam houston about stopping his drinking, which he did she didn't want anything to mess with that so with a silver coin she endured that and had six more children. [laughter] another was back from the revolutionary time and the austin had no children that this was his sister and stephen kept writing to her in misery with a roar from and said come toxas because pretty soon the free land will close and you need to come now. whenever you do, don't bring heavy furniture you have to deal with it here and

everybody has the same thing. emily brought her piano from missouri. [laughter] by horse and wagon. it did take monthsbt again, she was well-educated and she was the pianist and was not about to lose her coulter and that was another example of the spirit. i also did a chapter on the comanche raid of four parker and all of us know cynthia and parker's story and adopted by the indians and clearly became an indian. love to the indians and married thehief and as her son was the last great chief of the comanches. but i wrote a lot about her

cousin who was 18 had more of the experience that others had the great historians that arose in the definitive history of texas that the people that were killed were the lucky ones because the captives were tortured, it was a very brutal existence and rachel was one of those. 18 years old, pregnant when she was captured, she had the baby and they killed the baby in front of her then threw it in her lap. things that make you cringe and she was ransomed and had a diary and that is why we have known so much about her captivity but after she came

home she was so weakened from the whole experience she died probably of a broken heart and had another babyhat died very shortly thereafter and then the baby died as well. but it was very much a part of what they endured. but then the trail drivers. talk about hardy when in. member not a lot but those who went on the trail drive in west texas raising cattle , they had to drive them up on horseback to kansas and colorado and misery and chicago to sell the beef and the cattle so i did a long chapter on the trail drivers and ranchers because they were incredible

one of those i've learned about from lindsay johnson when she was giving y children and me a tour of the lbj ranch. she told us the story of her great-grandmother lyndon johnson's grandmother, who again came from a gentle family in the east and moved into texas where a number of her cousins had moved for the land. and this couple was killed by comanche's in a raid and all the men went to search for the comanche's and she was alone with her baby and she heard the horses being wrestled out outside. she rushed to her basement

and cover the floor up opening with a rug put a diap in her baby's mouth so it would not cry and sure enough the indians came in they were smashing her china and everything she had in the house and then there was silence and then the next thing she heard was her husband coming home and he was devastated. so she merged and said i think we're going to move. [laughter] so they kept the land but she also move the trails with her husband then there was a letter from the couch and that's a i had the honor of writing with mrs. johnson 8 miles ahead of the heard. they were e scouts so i verified this story. this is been handed down through the family and i verified it was used in the

books and even more information i was able to t her in the book and write at the end of my riding so i was glad to have rebekah baines johnson. then there was that in chapter o the two great, not great but to women were a factor in the good night ranch and of course, henry added king hoots and a genteel woman with the ship captain but she did just like margaret houston and urn them into the productive entrepreneurs that they were mali goodnight and henry and kicking started out in a mud hut but the ranch is one of

the most beautiful parts of texas as you know, . the last chapter was the bridge to the 20th century and it was too great businesswomen aft emily austin who was the richest woman in texas when she died in the 1850's, the next time you had rich businesswomen was sarah from dallas and the other from houston and of course, she took the first very back and forth across the trinity river the first time to start going out west and then eventually built the bridge and was a great investor and a wonderful businesswoman and by all accounts very

generous and good person and revered and considered one of the founders of dallas d evita was much the same way. she was a national figure me negative she had married the governor but she ran the houston post and expanded into television stations for hundreds of million to the end of her life but also started the wax of world war ii it was the precursoro those coming into the military. and evita was the only woman with an inscription in the road work to memorial in washington d.c.. and was asked by president roosevelt to write a

description of what volunteer women would do in the war because they needed the men to fight and fly airplanes. and they wanted women to do the desk jobs with of pilot the wasps were also part of world war ii training pilots to fly and evita set up a plan and roosevelt looked at it and said you have to be the head and she said no, no, no. i am going back to houston and her husband found out about that. your country is calling and you need to be there. she did that and that is where she met eisenhower and so it mired eisenhower after meeting him and seeing what he did in the war that she

became the head o texas for eisenhower when he ran for president and if you ever want to hear tongue-in-cheek stories going to is first and only republican convention asking about that experience. he will give you a good story. that's is how i wrote the book by the era of texas. there is a lot of history but the main reason was to show the stand that women put on the spirit of texas which is so vibrant and so much fun much like what i did with the american women and a leading ladies. and by saying in washington sometimes people think texans are a little too loud and have too much fun and i'll be say it's not new

they did not like texas and washington actually when we came in to the nation by a treaty you cannot get the votes in the senate to ratify. said president tyler had to introduce legislation so it waa lot of fraud in texas but it only passed by one vote in the house and one in the senate so i'll is try to mention we probably are but our hearts are as big as our mouth. [laughter] thank you very much. >> i am happy to take questions.

>> somebody asked me at the san antonio book festival last weekend when i did a preview someone said which of those women would you trade with? i said nine. [laughter] all that they went through? we think we're on the cusp of getting there but will my gosh the obstacles we have learned nothing compared to what they entered i cannot tell you a favorite because each was so amazing in her own right. just strong and vibrant and brazilian people. >> [inaudible] i always liked the''

[inaudible] >> i could not find the source but it is in my book. [laughter] it is not mine but it starts the chapter in the very beginning that texas is seven for men and dogs but hell for women and horses. [laughter] >> what was the most difficult issue you felt you had to deal with in the senate? >>. >> the men. [laughter] [applause] >> immigration reform is

very difficult. negotiating noah -- the right amendment was very difficult. very difficult. you would get one piece settled then something else would pop up especially with the immigration reform was very hard. always always when you vote to give the president permission to send troops into combat, which we did and iraq because we were told there were weapons of mass destruction to be delivered, that is always a hard vote. there are so many times with two sides of an issue that both have merit but those are some of the hardest.

>> thank you for all of your hard work throughout the years and everything you have done not only the area but the state of texas the way represent the state is like nobody else. i am so proud of you and the work you have done and i say thank you we have a teenage niece and my father-in-law granddaughter to looks up to you and she is 16 or 17 years old so you may not realize is it today but you will have a lasting effect and for that, i say thank you. [applause]

>> to find presidential character writing a book on the first lady's it would be important to watch from a different aim goal why don't you study the person you know, them the best? so what possibly could i contribute to the body of knowledge on abraham lincoln or george washington? pretty much everything that could have been written probably has been. the great historians have pored over the letters in evidence to produce the hundreds of books on vinc in washington so why not look at the person who knew them the best? because historians have largely ignored the role of the first lady as well as

mistresses prices back to lot of my colleagues in many older men educated in a certain way with the matters of the heart. so by setting the first lady the first thing thomas jefferson did after spending 17 days writing the declaration of independence the first thing he did is went shopping. he missed martha she was pregnant and had a miscarriage and he missed her. then he begged off from serving the rest of the summer to go home to monticello to be with his wife. every winter of the revolutionary war right

there besides george washington and suffering through the cold weather was martha washington right there in canso by setting the first lady's make it in sight from the president and other things but i propose in my book washington's closest adviser was alexander hamilton about history of womanizing and for example, clinton was not the first and not the worst when it comes to this behavior there is a long history and eliot spitzer spitzer, arnold schwarzenegger, john edwards, david pretoria's had nothing on alexander hamilton. and she wasn't like of a soldier and was tough and did not complain about the weather were the heart ishihara conditions but there was a tomcat misbehaving and it was noisy

and kept her awake so she nicknamed it alexander hamilton because of all the young girls. i also did a book a few years ago called negative the white house about the president at each over what hobbies what are their fears and hopes? what were they like as fathers and husbands and how did their kids turn out to study presidential character. we're still trying to figure out nixon. >> he like to bowl alone and sometimes in a black suit that's begins to explain things so all books are trilogies so affairs of state i tried to take a different perspective we know about george washington

we study that at yorktown and the crossing of the delaware christmas night that saved the revolution but who was george washington's:friend when he was the kid? you will find that teenager basically goes back home in tears because he was turned down and writes roses are red types of poland's. the yet another girl turned him down during my degree is in steady my professors did not tell me about washington's teenage girlfriend and provides an important plans to understand the president. real though our country's leaders are shaped by the hand of a woman, often a mother, a wife, but

sometimes of a mistress as well. is in the news today general david betray is is still dominating the headlines with his alleged affair related to the book my first thought is during world war ii general eisenhower was having a long-term affair with an attractive british driver what general hires of model instead of a major or capt.? imagine if his affair came out during world war ii and what if we got rid of him before d-day? during the great depression franklin roosevelt was having affairs he had to.

his personal aide and secretary ann cook the dresser and un dresser. [laughter] what about fdr and what if we threw him out of office as the economy was recovering? all the way back the very young george washington was writing romantic letters to a woman who was not mrs. washington. sally fairfax, very attractive, older, sophistic ated neighbor. one of washington's letters had become public during the french and indian war? much as the the e-mail's? what about george washington? bill clinton is not the first or the worst ben there done that. there is a long history but it angers me to say even

abraham lincoln visited a prostitute. i know. say it isn't so but it happened. the details are sketchy not a lot of letters written about this but his best friend was as dashing and handsome and lucky with the lead is -- lucky says abraham lincoln was on mckee and romance. he felt sorry for lincoln and invited him to work at his general store and a speed did not have a place to stay so he let him stay upstairs and during a the friendship speed was using the services of a professional woman. and you imagine blink an upstairs with the palo over

his head trying to mind his own business and lincoln says to speed i have got to have a woman. only abraham want clinton would do this the past for a letter of introduction. [laughter] with a professional woman and a domain and agriculture as the oldest profession. what we piece together is lincoln visited a prostitute and had maybe $3 which was a lot of many -- money. and she charges $5 which is enormous so lincoln says i cannot afford it. i only have three but she knows speed booster is a possibility he pays the money but he doesn't have the money so either because lincoln bought in paris to

or the honor got the best of him but she said pay me later or it is on the house he ran out the door so with when you visit a prostitute if not a happy ending it is the good ending. so for my main body is to tell you a couple of my favorite stories not just about mistress's and history but presidential character but there are juicy stories here. one involves 22nd and 24th president cleveland when he was a young man there was a controversy because he fathered the child that of wedlock with a woman named maria from pennsylvania and she might have been a prostitute at the very least was casual about her relationships.

cleveland was a bachelor and '80s and '90s so fathering a child out of wedlock was a big deal at the time. it was such a big deal because the republican opponents and a group of preachers started as a campaign lock your doors. cleveland is prowling the streets with an aggressive campaign so it became a huge story they would not let it go. but it turns out they're likely had more affairs than cleveland and his wife miraculously gave birth six months after they got married so they were seeking the condemnation on cleveland and one thing we

dislike more than a politician who makes a mistake is a hypocritical politician. so it helped cleveland and another scandal is the republicans are pushing the issue and had a jingle or a song where is my paw? pretending he was a love child as the democrats complete the song to saying gone to the white house. ha ha ha. but what made it a scandal was grover cleveland best friend was the name of oscar born in new jersey and spent most of his career to become a governor of new york they were partners and practiced

law together and went out together drinking and eating together and it appears they join a the services of maria together. so when she gets pregnant she has a son and neither oscar nor cleveland knew who the father was an rea complicates things by naming the child oscar cleveland but oscar was married with the dollar. cleveland was a bachelor so he accepted responsibility to pay for the child to go to the orphanage. but here is the scandal. oscar dies a few years later in the carriage accident and is thrown from it and breaks his neck and leave so widow and the young girl grover cleveland makes an enormous amount of money as his partner and takes care of the widow and the young girl and pays for them to set

them up in a nice home for his best friend and former law partner and becomes the godfather to the go-go francis they're very close she calls them of cleveland he calls her frankie and says her two wells college when people were not educated but as francis is growing up clevelands relationship changes from the godfather to a romantic interest in cleveland starts to send her roses and it is a full-court press and in

new >> vinc you for coming. the story of how this book came about began six years ago when i read a sentence that changed my life. a russian singer was very popular the end of the first world war named alexander and popular in western europe and he described how in 1920 he escaped from the bolshevik and landed in constantinople then he wrote the following sentence which i will translate from the russians, i began to perform in the outdoor entertainment garden from the famous

mosque cool negro -- moscow negro this so surprise me i close the book to put it down i studied this period i knew something about it i had never heard of many famous black person in russia at this time. in fact, to this day if you ask a reasonably educated russian person to name the most famous black person is almost certain they will say it was a brown hannibal who is famous because he is a great great grandfather of the russian writer but lived in the 18th century so there were no other famous black people whether from africa directly or the caribbean or the united states who lived in