>> good afternoon, everyone. welcome to the afternoon session of the tee and into was about reading festival. .clark, supervisory archivist curator frank d. roosevelt library and i can't seem spent 10 years. it's the 10 anniversary of the building that allows us to host this event every year. this is one of my favorite bands because they get to showcase what we do in the archives of the roosevelt library, which is great writers and historians that the person you're about to your network. before we get started, a couple housekeeping matters. the first is will everyone please take etcher cell phones, pagers, thanks to pete that muscle imbalance and turn them off so that our program is an interactive. the second thing is i want to thank c-span for being here broadcasting this event today.

they are as great supporters of the programs we do at the roosevelt library and we appreciate very much. dictate the format of the session for those of you who haven't been to a reading before. will introduce a speaker and she will talk for slitted minutes or so after which if time permits we will take questions. if not for the season would be happy to speak with the one-on-one as she signs books at the new deal store, where after your wonderful discussion you want to flee the room so that you can buy one for her to sign. susan dunn is the author of "1940: fdr, wilkie, lindbergh, hitler- the election amid the storm." she is the parish the country professor of humanities at williams college where she's been teaching since 1973. she graduated from smith college and has a phd from harvard university. she is written and edited books that focus on two key periods in american history, the founding. and the presidency of franklin roosevelt. don is also the officer of how

fdr fight to change the democratic party. you should read that, too. she's co-authored with james macgregor burns of the three roosevelts patricia maters transformed america. she lives in williamstown massachusetts with jim byrnes and their dog, roosevelt. i know that just a personal note, for one thing susan is a great fan of the library and me as well, the james macgregor burns is seeking a versatile scholars. here is the first biography many, many years ago and i know he's back in williamstown massachusetts will be watching this program later, so we want to send our best ahead in williamstown, massachusetts. [applause] so with that, i am pleased to introduce, susan dunn. [applause]

>> thank you, bob. it's a great treat great privilege to be speaking in this magical place of hype part. have you ever seen offered hitchcock movie, foreign correspondent, story joe mccray and herbert marshall? many of my students had heard of alfred hitchcock or joel mcrae, that you may know them. for an correspondent made its debut in the summer of 1940. in the first scene, a newspaper editor asked his footprint lackadaisical reporter johnny chose the question. what is your opinion of the present european crisis, mr. jones? what crisis is the reporter played by joe mccray. i'm referring to the war, mr. jones. to tell you the truth i haven't given it much thought. you don't keep up with our

foreign news, gu? but how would you like to cover the biggest story of the world today? give me an expense account and not cover anything. you'll get an expense account. what europe needs a fresh unused mines. you think you can dig up some news in europe? i'll be happy to try commissary. later there are suspenseful and counters with saboteurs in dutch windmills and an amazing scene of an assassination that takes place in a heavy rain on the steps at the peace palace amsterdam. finally, joe mccray winds up in london, just a german mercer wreaking havoc on the city. in the last scene of the movie, johnny jones is no longer that footprint, detached reporter. instead he has this style of radio correspondent edward r. merrow. you speak seriously to americans on a radio hookup from london.

hello, america he says to the radio audience back home. after watching a part of the world being blown to pieces, a part of the world as nice as vermont, ohio, virginia and california and illinois. all that noise you hear is static. it starts coming to london. you can hear the bombs falling on this streets of the homes. this is a big story. you're part of it. too late to let them come. it's as if the lights are out everywhere except in america. keep those lights burning. cover them with steel. remember the times. but a canopy of unmanned planes around them. hello, america. hang onto your lights. they are there limits left in the world. hitchcock got it right. hitler's army and air force had

already crashed norway, denmark, holland, belgium and france. great writ was left standing alone. in august of 1940, the battle of written began. almost every night until may may 1941, planes had dropped hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs over london, liverpool, coventry, birmingham, southhampton, bristol after industrial cities poured. everything we value most in my stood on the brink of annihilation. the essence of judeo-christian reality, the precious legacy of the enlightenment and thomas jefferson's immortal affirmation of the inalienable human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. and we also value the survey

would creep written. in 1789, alexander hamilton said we think in english. but that brief statement coming encapsulated the profound intellectual and cultural ties that finds the united states and britain. in 1940, the fate of the world hung on the united states. and that summer, republicans and democrats would hold their convention in preparation for the november presidential election. so what are conventions? conventions are about dance playing for the delegates parading through the isles of the supporters cheering of politicians speechifying. but if both of the conventions to place in the summer of 1940, there was an elephant in the hall.

not the republican elephant, but the nazi outfit. there was an uninvited guest in his name was adolf hitler. the question on everyone's minds is whether fdr wanted the party nomination again in 1940. and he refused to give a clear answer. mr. president, would you tell us that if you accept the third term one reporter asked him point-blank. put on a dunce cap and go stand in the corner fdr replied with a laugh. not even the members of his own family knew what his real intentions were. of course one question was whether fdr deserved another four years in the white house. his attorney general, robert jackson was convinced that war and war alone compelled fdr to

brands for an unprecedented third term. jackson believed that the suicide's domestic policy was to, the president had already pulled everything out of his new deal bag of tricks. only the foreign crisis justified a possible third term. of course fdr's own ambition and also played role. some democrats had accused them of torpedoing all the other potential candidates here but in fact, the whalley presidents had had done the opposite. he encouraged them all to grind. secretary of state, cordell hall, former indiana governor, paul mcnutt. senate majority leader alvin barkley. herbert lehman and even his isolationist ambassador to creep written, joseph kennedy, who salivate at the idea of occupying the white house.

fdr cheerfully welcomed them all into the race and then let them twist and tangle and the lands until they gave up and dropped out and that left only himself. roosevelt had chosen a very shrewd strategy. by not declaring himself a candidate and by refusing to compete for the party nomination , he was saying that the democrats once again, they would have to draft him. and when he accepted the nomination on the last night of the convention, that was precisely the point he made. he told his listeners that he would have loved to retire and return warehouse, to hide park and work peacefully and quietly on his papers in his new presidential library. but he said he had no choice but

to accept the call to duty of the american people. he made it very clear that very soon he would have to drive to you then into military service and take them far away from their families. and since he was going to ask those young men to make huge sacrifices for their country, he had to be willing to do the same. and what happened at the gop convention? well, the best-known candidates for all isolationists. the most popular one was new york district attorney, thomas dewey, the famous gangbuster who had locked up notorious gangsters like lucky luciana antley tightening. do he was willing to give some aid to britain, but he sternly warned against any other aldermen in the war. his main competitor was conservative senator robert taft of ohio, who opposed the draft

and branded the democrats the war party. another senator vying for the nomination was sheikdoms author, being in eric. instead of calling himself an isolationist, they have been berg preferred to call himself an installation is, though no one could figure out what the difference was. the most unlikely republican candidate was former president herbert hoover, who is hoping to make a comeback. only one candidate was not an isolationist. and he was definitely the dark horse at the convention. his name was wendell wilkie. he came from and deanna and was the head of the commonwealth and southern utilities corp., a holding company that controlled the power supply is millions of americans.

wilkie had never before run for public office. and until very recently, believe it or not, he had been a democrat. unlike the other republican candidates, wilkie was a moderate who believed that the government needed to take some responsibility for the security and well-being of its citizens. he agreed with much of the new deal, but he claimed that he managed both programs more efficiently. on the subject of the war in europe, wilkie was determined to stand up to hit land supply of great britain with all possible aid. he said that a british defeat would be a calamity for the united states. on the fourth evening at the convention, delegations finally cast their vote. on the first ballot, do we held a significant lead.

taft, wilkie and the others trailed far behind. but the third ballot, wilkie jumped to second place and then on the sixth ballot that took place way after midnight, the dark horse, wendell wilkie sprinted to the finish line and won the gop nomination. later that summer, wilkie traveled back to his hometown of elwood, indiana to officially accept the gop nomination. he spoke to the huge vested crowd and just like roosevelt, he stressed the importance of compulsory military service. i cannot ask the american people to put their faith in me, wilkie said, without putting on the record my conviction that selective service is the only democratic way to get the trains manpower we need for national

defense. he explained that a volunteer system was neither adequate nor fair. only a draft would oblige rich boys as well as for boys to serve their country. he announced the fascist dictators and made the usual pitch that he hoped the united states could stay out of the war. but then he showed more spine. he said that if elected president, he would try to maintain peace. but he said, and the defense of america and of our liberties, i should not hesitate to stand for war. isolationists in the audience were not pleased. wilkie told the crowd in the little town of elwood but elwood seemed very removed from the shattered cities, smoldering buildings of the stricken men, women and children of europe.

it was the war really so far away? heated think so. she sat on the contrary, the war raging on the other side of the atlantic would inevitably affect the daily lives of all americans and then, directly attacking the isolationists, he said all americans instinctively knew they were not isolated from those suffering people. finally, wilkie wrapped up his speech by challenging president roosevelt to a debate. what fdr except that insight? i don't think so. fdr had nothing to gain from a debate and he let his pit gold secretary of the interior, harolda keyes put the ac down the cake. commented that if wilkie was the weaker for it to be coming here should debate the isolationists

in his own party, including his own running mate, senator charles mcnary of oregon. the conventions are over the prices had taken place the both of them, democrats with a two-term tradition and nominated fdr for your turn. the republicans nominated a newcomer who had never before held public office and never participated in gop affairs. and that both conventions, the delicate made waste releases. fdr and wilkie were intelligent, principled, courageous and skilled men. they shared a commitment to social justice. they had a clear understanding of the mortal fascist threat. they loathed everything that fascism stood for. despite their weasel worded

campaign promises not to send american boys into foreign wars, they both wanted to protect the world from the proto- fascists on the. roosevelt was more experience than he had the support of more members of his own party in congress and wilkie did. but both men were qualified in my opinion to lead the united states. in some commentators even proposed that the two of them ran together on a joint ticket. the suggestion are they both laughed off. but isolationists were not at all happy with the choice they now had between two internationalists and strong anti-fascists and they called the two candidates the wilkie felt twins. in fact, that dangerous conflict was not between roosevelt and

wilkie, who are in basic agreement on the war, but rather between the two of them on one side an american isolationists on the other. indemnity 30s, the united states was bitterly divided between isolationists and internationalists. it is a clash more are on from the debates over mccarthyism in the 1850s or vietnam in the 1960s. families and friends, churches and universities found themselves torn apart. and the spokesman for the isolation and for the national organization called the america first committee was none other than the charismatic, heroic aviator, charles lindbergh. lindbergh was the fearless young

pilot who was flown across the atlantic in 1927 in a single engine, single seat plane. when he returned to the united states from france, right after that flight, he was showered with a huge parade in new york and you can see the parade on youtube as well as his landing uber chez airport outside of paris, where thousands of people stormed onto the tarmac. after the kidnapping and murder of their young son, lindbergh and his wife, anne morrow lindbergh felt hounded by the press. in the early 1930s, they decided to move to europe. they look first in england and then in france, but they often visited germany. in germany, charles was winding down and am honored by the air force minister, hermann goering.

bottom line, lindbergh bodied to propaganda, hook line and sinker. he caught the spirit of the turkmen people magnificent. he was intoxicated with the dances in aviation and he especially admired their strengths. for lindbergh, german strength and virility with the keys to the future. when he returned to the united state in 1939, he became the public voice of isolationists on. he hammered roosevelt for failing to appease hitler and for alienating the powerful nations of germany and italy and japan. lindbergh standard line was that the united states was completely protect it by two vast oceans and was in no danger whatsoever

of any foreign invasion. that is unless the united states meddled in the affairs of foreign countries. he insisted that the only real danger to america was roosevelt and of. in any case, it was pointless for the united states to intervene in europe because he believed that germany's powerful army and air force, hitler was a readable. lindbergh was sure that the guy had dirty been cast. well, it was so complete the obvious to lindbergh that germany would win the word that he wondered why in the world roosevelt persisted in not accept being that simple fact. he thought about it and he rounded up the usual suspects and he decided that roosevelt was a big team of american jews

were conspired to push the nation into war. lindbergh accused jews at manipulating the entertainment media and advised americans as he said, to strike them down. now, lindbergh had added the final toxic ingredient to the isolationists recipe, a strong dose of anti-semitism. bravo. well, as if that wasn't enough, lindbergh's wife pitched in, too. in the fall of 1940 at the height of the election season coming and morrow lindbergh published a short book that jumped to the bestseller lists. the title was the wave of the future. can you imagine what the wave of the future was?

it was white house? dynamic and gasoline fascism. well, it was obvious that fascism and to tator should or infinitely more modern and energetic than old-fashioned pro-democracy. democracy is so quaint, so inefficient, so worn out. mara lindbergh argued that the conflict taking place in europe between democratic nations in fascist nations wasn't between good and the vote. now, it was between the forces of the past and forces of the future. believe it or not, she actually wrote that hitler, and i quote, is a very great man, like an inspired religious leader and as

such, rather fanatical, but not scheming, not selfish, not greedy for power, but in this state, a visionary who really want the best for his country. her book was beautifully written, but the message was repulsive. she argued that americans must embrace the wave of the future. she described her vision of fascism in the united stated as i quote, peculiarly american. crisp, clear, sunny as american people that doing good for the skyscrapers of new york and american small town says he is bald blue jeans. for mrs. lundberg, american fascism was sent to the environment brockwell cover on a saturday evening post.

her loyalty to her husband and her trips to germany had apparently blinded her to breathtaking evil. she didn't understand the history if not made by waves or lunar tides, but rather by free, rational human beans who are accountable for their political, moral and criminal decisions. trials supported wendell wilkie in the election of 1940, but wilkie was appalled by their vision of the fascist future. in a speech he gave at fault, he said, i see in america for which democracy will arise to a new purse, and america which will once more provide this war-torn world with a clear accordance of the destiny of man.

admin on tuesday, a tober 29th , exactly one week before the november 1540 election, a lottery to place in an auditorium in washington. a few weeks earlier, congress had passed the selective service act, for universal, compulsory military training and service. it was the first peacetime draft in american history. and now, the lottery would determine the order in which american boys would be called up. on a table in the middle of the stage, i cite a huge glass fishbowl that was filled with 9000 blue capsules. each one contained a different registration number. the audience was packed with catnip numbers, senators,

congressmen could make young men, hair and had reporters. the awkward quiet when they saw president roosevelt but clearly onto the stage on the arm of his assistant. he gave a short talk that was broadcast across the nation. this is a solemn ceremony he said. it is accompanied by no fan for, no blowing up ibos are beating the drums. he explained the reason for the select service lottery was to master all of the nations resources, man power, industry and wealth to defend america. he told the young men who would be called up for military training that they would become members of an army first came together during the war of independence to secure essential arise in the birdies for all americans. and then henry stimson stepped

forward. he was fdr's impressive new secretary of war and he was a lifelong republican. blindfolded, he published his left him into the fishbowl, took out the first capsule he touched and handed it to the president. across the country, a million and a half you read between the ages of 21 and 35 held their breath, anxiously waiting to hear if they were going to be called for induction. and you can watch the video of this library i need to and you can help roosevelt slowly same, drawn by secretary of war, the first aerial number is 158. in the rear of the auditorium, a woman let out a little scream. she just did the president announced a number of her son.

about six dozen other young men around the country hope that registration number, which became draft order number one. the lottery went on until 5:00 the next morning as dozens of people about the numbers of the 800,000 men who were called to service. 45 million young men would eventually register for the draft in 10 elion would be drafted. the head of a local draft board in tennessee, a man by the name of alvin york said that he had a problem. his small, rural county only needed to draft too bad, but for the boys showed up and wanted to serve. alvin york was of course the real hero of the 1941 movie, sergeant york starring gary cooper. in another 1941 movie called you are in the now, canadian

teenager rants he and bill silver, who my students have never heard of -- [laughter] .mac ..number "glad my number was called" you can see it on youtube. many people assumed that roosevelt, mac would delay the lottery until after the election. he showed tremendous courage and statesmenship in going ahead with it a few days before americans would cast their votes. but the day after the lottery he did drop in the polls. and willkie climbed up a few percentage points. pollster george gallop called the race neck and neck. across the country, willkie was the favorite of almost all the nation's major newspapers.

"the new york times" opposed a third term for roosevelt and endorsed willkie. the times wrote that willkie would preserve the traditional ballot of the american system of government. the "los angeles times" called willkie the indispensable man in the time of national crisis. one of the few newspapers in fdr's corner was the "chicago defender" the nation's largest african-american newspaper that was sticking with fdr and the new deal. so who would win on election day? fdr or willkie? in either case, the world would not lose. on election night, roosevelt was right here in hyde park. while his family members and friends chatted quietly in the living room and the library, fdr sat all alone in the dining room

listening nervously to the radio and reading the ticker tapes. finally a newspaper in cleveland called the race for him. roosevelt could breathe once again. he opened the door to the dining room and relaxed and laughed with all the others. a happy parade of dozen of his hyde park neighbors arrived at the big house about 100-yards from where we're right now. roosevelt went outside to greet them. he said to his neighbors, we're facing difficult days in this country, but you will find me in the future just the same franklin roosevelt you have known a great many years. my heart will always be here. the election was not the landslide that took place in 1936 when on two states voted for al. maine and vermont. in 1940 roosevelt still won by a

substantial margin. the vote was 449 to 82. he carried 38 states, willkie carried 10. my students think 12. [laughter] after the election, roosevelt said i'm glad i won. i'm sorry wendell lost. two months later, in mid january 1941, willkie flew to england as roosevelt's personal representative. his mission was to see firsthand what was happening there, and express american solidarity with britain. he -- birmingham, and liverpool, he inspected military factories, and he drank beer and played darts in pubs.

and while nazi bombs were falling over london, he dissented in to the underground shelters with hundreds of londoners. they loved him and nicknamed him the "indiana dynamo." the nazi blitz after the election in december 1940, winston churchill sent the most important letter he'd ever written to president roosevelt. he explained that britain desperately needed planes ships and munition in order survive. but it was broke. it couldn't pay for war material anymore. and so in order keep britain in the fight, roosevelt proposed that the united states simply lend them everything they needed

for free. look, roosevelt said at the press conference, if your neighbors' house is on fire, he can't put out. but so you a garden hose that you can attach to a hydrant, are you going say, hey, buddy, you have to pay me $15 for the hose? no. you're going to give him the hose and he'll replace it later for you. fdr's neighborrerly story about the garden hose was a master stroke in the fight. in jan -- january and february congress held hearings. after lindberg and joe kennedy testified against it, secretary of state wired willkie and asked him to leave england at once and return to d.c. to testify in favor of the president's bill. willkie immediately agreed.

he gave his full enthat's -- enthusiastic support. at the hearing, one isolationist senator wondered out loud why the g.o.p. candidate was now helping his former opponent. he grilled willkie about the all of things he had said about fdr during the campaign. but willkie casually slugged it off and said that was all standard campaign or oratory. after willkie's long day of testimony, he and roosevelt had kin -- dinner alone in the president's study in the white house. willkie stayed until after midnight. fdr's secretary later said that from the sounds of laughter that she heard coming from the study, she could tell that the two men really enjoyed being together. fdr and willkie became a team

and continued to work together during the war until willkie died suddenly in october of 1944. a few weeks before that november election. by then the g.o.p. wanted nothing do with their former candidate and they wouldn't even let willkie speak at the 19 e -- 1944 party convention. roosevelt's speech writer wrote that fdr admired willkie and was profoundly eternally grateful for his support in the battle against isolationism and fascism. once sherwood overheard fdr's closest aid harry hopkins make critical remarking about willkie to the president, sherwood wrote that roosevelt angrily slapped hopkins down and said don't ever

say anything like that around here again. don't even think it. you, of all people, ought to know that we night not have had selective service or a lot of other things if it hadn't been for wendell willkie. he was a god send to this country when we needed him most. i began the talk alfred hitchcock. let me close with a few more words about the movies. americans in the 1930s wanted light, sparkling entertainment. films with charlie, freds escaped stair, ginger rogers, and the marx brothers. starting in 1939, there were darker films too. films that informed american

audiences about the nazi terror spreading around the world. one of the first antinazi films was "confession of a nazi spy" with edward g robinson. it was followed by others like the "mortal storm "starring jimmy stewart" murder in the." "sergeant york" the great dictatorlet"let" blank some there was a hollywood conspiracy to whip up war his tar ya and propel the united states in to war. since many of the head of the hollywood studios were jewish, those isolationists decided it had to be a jewish conspiracy.

two passionate isolationists of montana and north dakota demanded and got congressional investigations and hearings. the hollywood studio heads needed an attorney to defend them. they hired as their lead council none other than wendell willkie. just a few month before pearl harbor, the subcommittee hearings were a nasty side show. but fortunately willkie provided a healthy dose of sanity and realism. he told the senators that the motion picture industry was happy to plead guilty to being 100% opposed to fashionism. i wish to put on the record this

simple truth, willkie declared, we make no pretends of friendliness to the route lest dictatorship of nazi germany. we abhor everything hitler represents. we plead guilty of a -- the industry desires to plead guilty tow doing within the power to help the united states defend itself and the world against fascism. so in conclusion, i personally would like to thank americans in 1940 for voting for franklin roosevelt or for wendell willkie . i thank them for having watched and i thank you for still watching great movies like "foreign correspondent" and the "mortal storm "and casa casa

blanca that remind us of fascism and what was at stake during the terrifying election year of 1940. thank you. [applause] >> this program was part of the 2013 roosevelt reading festival hosted by the franklin d. roosevelt presidential library and museum in hyde park, new york. for more information, visit fdrlibrary.marist .edu. >> this weekend on booktv we're marking our 15th anniversary and looking back at 1999. that year politics and prose was named publishers weekly's bookstore of the year. here are former co-owners barb radiomead -- barbara meade and the late kara cohen discussing their store.

>> when returned to washington in 1984, i was somewhat a reformed character and vastly more open minded and receptive to new ideas. but on a more mundane level, the first thing i needed was a job, and since i did not have the benefit of being part of carla's work seekers group or even knowing about carla, i took the more traditional approach and started reading the classified ads in "the washington post". carla and i, you see, spent a lot of time in the classified section of "the washington post." quite soon there was an ad there for a bookstore manager placed by anonymous source who was soon opening a new bookstore in northwest washington. i sat down, wrote a letter to a blind p.o. box sure that this was the perfect job for me. and just as i had hoped, i got a call the next day from the woman who said she had received my letter, and her name was carla

cohen, and she had already selected the name of the soon-to-be bookstore, it was to be politics & prose. as it turns out, this was our first agreement -- disagreement. i'm sorry, disagreement, right there on the phone. i said i thought she was making a mistake. [laughter] the name was much too limiting. as it turns out, like with almost everything else between carla and me, we were both partially right and both partially wrong. the name has created the mistaken impression that we are a political bookstore in an era in which politics tends on to bn anathema. in case any of you are under the impression that we are a political bookstore, we are not. we are a general bookstore, including ourdated children's

section. but i think in the end it's been a plus, especially for memory retention. very few people forget the name politics and prose. so carla called me, we met for coffee. i think we talked for about an hour. i don't think that i was with ever form -- i was ever formally hired, but somehow i found that i was the manager of the new store that was to open in a month. [laughter] carla never checked a single reference, i don't think. i never, i suppose if i had been a wise job applicant i would have done some financial checks on carla, where she was going to be able to meet her payroll. but none of us did anything to find out anything about the other perp. [laughter] i think we started right then a

modus vivendi which still stands us really quite well. everything we do starting right then, i think, is done on the basis of intuition and hunch. [laughter] one of my favorite stories, actually, is when we were considering moving across the street. i don't know how many of you know the small store that we used to have across the street. we had two very sophisticated -- at least they considered themselves to be -- financial adviser, men, who showed us that all the figures showed, all rational financial planning showed that it was the biggest mistake that we could ever make, that we were going to go out of business within two years if we moved across the street. and we said thank you very much, and we moved across the street. [laughter]

and within two years, i think, our business had doubled. if i'm wrong on that, carla doesn't have to correct me now, she can say it in her part -- [laughter] of later. so carla had started the store, and i was the manager. i look upon this as our dating period. [laughter] there was no doubt that the cultures we came from were very, very different. i was too overloaded with children during the -- young children during the 1960s to be even peripherally involved in the civil rights movement, and this is where carla had literally breathed during the '60s. and then, of course, there was a very basic difference that carla was jewish and i was christian, though we did have many common that neither of us were very faithful followers of our own respective flocks. [laughter] i could go on forever about our differences. one of our people at work

describes us as being a cat and a dog. i'm the cat who walks quietly into a room and then sits on the periphery intently studying what's going on. carla, the dog, bounds in and jumps up on everyone. [laughter] i'm always early for an appointment, carla is always late. carla's a pure enthusiast, i'm somewhat the skeptic. carla's a big picture kind of woman, i'm the one who reads the fine print. i'm the expert when it comes to avoidance and denial. carla has a modus vivendi of confrontation that just yanks my head out of the sand and makes me face be whatever has come out. it doesn't sound like the ingredients for a good partnership, but like in the

world of arranged marriages, i think we both had the wisdom that we could share our strengths and compensate for each other's weaknesses which made our dating period relatively smooth. and in 1987 we potentially became -- officially became partners. i want to make something very explicit here that i am using partners as a phrase for business partners, and it's just that. i can't tell you the number of people who assume that carla and i are lesbian partners also. [laughter] we're not. we need david around from time to time, a visible rebuttal to this misconception. so here we are, what started as a small neighborhood bookstore with the two of us is now washington's leading independent store with a staff of 60.

the one thing i think of as a constant is the limitations of our gender. i know if we were men, each one of us would have a wife and a secretary with all the services that they entail. but we still answer our own phones, type our own letters, do the grocery shopping and take our own clothes to the dry cleaners. but i think these are the only constants. as much as we have grown the business, the business has grown us. it has grown us in adapting to every new circumstance in a competitive environment. the most important quality we both have brought to it is flexibility and openness to change, good democrat attributes. and though i spoke of the limitations of our gender, we have also been blessed by the benefits of our gender. last week in the washington post

there was an article about partnerships which incidentally are much more susceptible to breakups than marriage. and it was said that the common wisdom seems to be that women make better partners than men. certainly, the flexibility and openness is a factor in that, but there is one more thing i'd like to leave with you. i think when you have a male partnership, there's a tremendous emphasis put upon be money; making it and keeping it. i can't remember a single quarrel that carla and i have ever had over money. i think the female perspective we both wring -- we both bring is that money pales in comparison to the quality of relationships we have with each other and with our can customers and with our staff, and that's where our energies belong, and the money will follow. thank you. [applause]

>> i have nothing to add. [laughter] that was great. i, i'll give you a little bit of the history of the store and some reflections. we're about to celebrate our 15th anniversary in september, and we, we've really spent a lot of time in this year assessing where we are now and where we're going. and, actually, we have been thinking about these things for the last three or four years, but there's something about a number 15 or 10 or 15 or 20 that makes you do that even more.

and i don't know whether any of you were here when i spoke to the women's democratic club before. a couple of you were here. i think that was about -- i think it was either 12 or 11 years ago. and the -- we had then been in existence three or four years, and we were growing very well each year. by year five it was clear that we had outgrown our store at 5010 connecticut, and we had looked at the space across the street for many months and final finally were able to get the landlord to lower the represent. it was actually at a time when there were a lot of vacant stores on connecticut avenue, and so we had a better chance of getting a decent deal. and and so we moved across the street. some of you may remember, we

enlisted our customers, and they were so enthusiastic. on a hot july morning, there were 200 people who came out to, on a sunday morning, to help us move the boxes. it was very touching. and then once we moved to the, to 5015, to the east side of the street, our business immediately jumped 40%. the new be -- new visibility, we had been somewhat hidden by the store next door and the presence of parking across the street just bumped up our sales tremendously. and that was 1989. by 1992 we knew that we wanted to expand again, and we decided to add a coffeehouse. and barbara and i went to -- both of us had northwest trips that summer, and we visited a coffeehouse in seattle that her niece was working at.

it was actually a café coffeehouse. and we knew that was -- barbara came back and said i visited the coffeehouse, and you have to see it. it's just what we want. and it was. so we had an idea very much -- max frankel had a piece last week in "the new york times" magazine in which he called us a comfortable old shoe. and that was the, certainly, the presence we were trying to achieve in the coffeehouse. so we added the coffeehouse in early 1993. we actually opened on inauguration day in 1993 with all those hopes that the new democratic administration brought with it. and we practically gave our manager a nervous breakdown as we rushed to open that coffeehouse on january 20th. and then our sales jumped 40% again. from the coffeehouse.

one of my young friends said it was the only place she knew where she got a $50 cup of coffee. [laughter] /-- and so then in two more years, the middle of 1995, we were able to take over the video store next door. and the world cheered as books moved into a space formally occupied by videos. and, again, our sales increased substantially. and we find ourselves able to do a lot of things when our sales increase. we're able to pay our staff better and have more division of labor and all kinds of good things happen to our store. later on we'll get to what the bad things are. anyway, this year -- last year we were really concerned about the effects of competition not

so much from the so-called superstores which i think people have discovered are not quite so super as they appear, but from the ease of buying books on the internet. and we were really concerned. in this year by a combination of hard work and some great luck we're proud to see our sales going up in a very, very satisfactory way. the hard work is that we've hired more staff, and we're selling more books outside the walls of the store at book fairs and churches and synagogues and many private events celebrating authors' books. the good luck is that we've been joined by the staff of the former cher shirqat which -- cheshire cat which closed after 22 years at the end of april. and we have been able to absorb the services of jules stoddard who is with charlotte berman,

was a founder of the cheshire cat. charlotte had retired some, several -- not too long ago, couple years ago, and jewel was the remaining partner. she said yes when we asked if she would like to join us. and also her staff has come over, too, and it's just been fantastic for us. so that's really good luck. and the thanks that think barbara pointed out, we call ourselves the mom and mom store. barbara says i don't think bobby be heft has his daughter coming into the store with her children, and i don't think that bobby receives phone calls about, mom, what's the recipe for -- in the middle of the day when you're in an important meeting.

so the mom and mom store is, has its -- i completely agree with barbara that we, that what we have brought to it as women has been incredibly important. and what we bring to it as booksellers is that we have a well-chosen selection of books, we know our customers well, we know what we like to sell. it's fun to shop at politics & prose. barbara and i have created what david calls a community space. when people come to politics & prose, they don't come just to shop, but to have a pleasant time, meet friends, rest a bit with a cup of coffee, hear a brilliant lecture about a new book, join with others to discuss a book. we perform a myriad of tasks, mostly gracefully. we give good, prompt service. we have two people who spend all their time ordering books for customers. we have 25 mostly full-time staff helping customers.