making of the statesman and dawn of american power. what is the tact you're taking with lincoln? >> well, i mean, there are 15,000 books about abraham lincoln, but his foreign policy is almost never treated. my book is about lincoln and u.s. foreign policy. part of the reason there hasn't been about lincoln's foreign policy in nearly 70 years. a human narrative about it. that's before the lincoln papers were released and library of congress in 1947. so there's a lot of water under the bridge since then. but i think one of the reasons there's no book about his foreign policy. he a strong and competent secretary of state. he didn't do everything in foreign affair. but the things he did do are really important. and so i've sliced it a little

differently. i've taken look at the things that lincoln did do in foreign releases without saying he did everything or everything right, by the way. he made some mistakes too. >> was foreign policies all tied in to the civil war? >> well, we treat the civil war period in this. i have a chapter early on about the mexican war. lincoln was a freshman congressman in the house of representatives during the end of the mexican war in the 1840s. lincoln was opposed to the origin of the mexican war. one of the first speeches in the house of representatives was this very strided speech opposing the origin of the war and president. he became known for that speech. and political opponents, by the way, used it against him in later campaigns. steven douglas used it in the late 1850 when running against lincoln and came up in the presidential campaign as well.

>> during his presidency, what is an issue he worked on or had secretary of state worked on. that wasn't necessarily tied to the civil war? >> well, it was all tied to the civil war. the primary thing was keeping the european powers from recognizing the confederacy, which could have been changing the course of the war or american history if they recognized the confederacy. it was the biggest thing. lincoln also had to deal with a series of crises, with britain, france, spain. russians were friend at the time. it showed up in the middle of the war on the pacific coast. it was an issue. he used the russian ships to kind of play off the french a little bit. so it was a lot going on that i think people don't realize on the global stage. one of the things that interested me about this period there are similarities to our own times. it was not the parallels aren't perfect. britain was the world's kind of

economic superpower at that time. lincoln was living in his age of globalization. it was the dawn of the telegraph and steam ships and boom in newspaper publishing. the world shrinking like our own world. it's an age of globalization. at the same time it was an age of nationalism. you had auto ban bismarck. you have the national conflict going on against the backdrop of the shrinking world. and to me, there's a lot of similarityies with our own times when it comes to the dynamic. did lincoln leave soil during the presidency. did any leaders visit him? >> didn't leave u.s. soil during the presidency. he once went to canada to the canadian side of the falls.

spoke no foreign languages. had no friend in europe. he study a little bit of german to charm voters in illinois. you're right. he depended on secretary of state to some sense. what can d have in foreign affairs is useful is good judgment. he had an amazing sense of may patience and timing. he used to compare the decision making process to a pear riping on a tree. he would wait, wait make the decision. the kind of sense of tiling know where you can make a change to when it's not possible is an important skill in international relations. >> what is your professional background? >> journalism. in the middle east i was based in injury reduce lum. i reported on the growfned from ground from places like syria and yemen. came from the foreign policy side. went through the period where i

was interested in that tradition of american foreign policy. step back and take a 30,000 foot view of foreign policy and kind of sucked to the period. you have, you know, lincoln's minister to russia walking around with knives dangling from the waistband. charles francis adams in london. the grandson of john adams was lincoln's minister in lon dpon. you had an amazing cast of characters then you have lincoln who is always interesting. i think it's an aspect of his presidency under covered. you're watching booktv on c-span2.

really honored and delighted to be here at the bush library. happy to be among you, but truth be told. i'm happy to be anywhere where juan williams can't interrupt me. [laughter] [applause] [laughter] i'll be sure to tell him how you feel. [laughter] i want to begin by saying how much i appreciate, mr. president, what you did for the nation at the moment of maximum danger. how you were clear-eyed, courageous in rallying the nation against a new barbarism. you were never afraid to use that word and idea. managing to recognize islam as a

great religion while at the same time seeing no contradiction in denouncing opposing and rallying the nation to fight the perverted branch of islam which attacked us on 9/11. i wrote at the time, and i believe to this day, that historically treat you like harry truman. recognizing the depth of your achievement and creating the very infrastructure that will carry us through this war on barbarism. we will be seeing this today in the kind of back handed tribute to you. as those who so criticized you during those eight years. the very people who did criticize you in the eight years. when they came to power, they adopted the same tools you bequeathed in them and view in your administration had created exing in low in a moment of national confusion, and danger.

just as truman did in his day. providing the infrastructure, the tools, and the institutions that carried us through the cold war in those days and will carry us through this war. in this generation. if i can just repeat what i said to you in private, but i would like to say it in public, that i spoke to my wife earlier today. she asked me to convey to you her admiration and respect for what you did for our country. the steadiness 77 your voice, the depth of the "devotion" to the country, and determination to see things through. even when you were nearly alone. i know i'm supposed to be selling books but i had to say that first. [applause] especially the wife part. [laughter]

otherwise when i get home tomorrow night i'll be sleeping on the couch. [laughter] now about the book. it's called "things that matter: 30 years of passions." it's very good. [laughter] you should buy it and buy loss of copies. especially for your liberal friends. if you have any left. i don't. [laughter] so in conclusion, -- [laughter] no, that was just a test. i wanted to see whether i get the kind of applause that clinton got at the '88 convention. [laughter] after 50 minutes he used those words and the place erupted not just in applause but in celebration. [laughter] but i digress. [laughter] about the book. the book is several thick. the first thing, because it does span my career as a journalist going all the way back to as,

jim said, 1981. i started on the day that ronald reagan was sworn in to the presidency. it's a chronicle of the last three decades. and those three decades are historically a time of enormous as if nation. ..