terry boer were. he goes to south africa to cover the war as a journalist and after a couple weeks to get the ambush. taken prisoner and he escapes. not long after that returns to britain two years before the war is ended. a hero of the entire. newspapers have played up experts on the training covered his imprisonment in the escape. he is an amazing skill to bring in less famous historical figures. she givest teddy roosevelt, james garfield. her latest book, treated to mix the "washington post" process for its great storytelling, careful research and its fine detail.

[inaudible conversations]be >> i'm not going to read you the rules and regulations because they are deeper than three times already. my name is jonathan yardley and i am here but sensibly from the "washington post" but i left a long time ago. about 18 years ago my wife and i were living on capitol hill with my stepdaughter who was working at the time at "national geographic" in one day i came home from the office for dinner. i'm afraid that's a technical problem that someone else will have to cope with.

if i shout, does that help? >> my stepdaughter was working at "national geographic" and when they asked if she could bring a friend home for dinner. i said sure. the next day at dinner turn this lovely young woman shows up andu my wife and i were immediately enchanted with her. she was still lovely and enchanting but now she's one of the most respect it, must accomplish and most successful writers of serious nonfiction in the united states. candice, good to see you again. >> good to see you, thank you. [applause] can i say very briefly what an incredible honor it is to sit here with jonathan yardley, who while of you know if such a huge figure in the world of journalism and in the world of books and a few by some crazy chance don't know his work, i

urge you to go outside. he's absolutely brilliant, so it's very humbling. i should be interviewing him because he's a much more interesting figure than i am. >> flattery will get you. everywhere.ll >> we look it over to winston churchill and how you got to this point in life. you are at "national geographich or the -- for four or five years. you are added very newer brighter. what influence did you have on your own evolution as a writer? >> i always say that my real education actually happened at "national geographic." n i learned so much about storytelling, about the fact that the world is full of fascinating people, fascinating

events and stories. most of all, i learned about research and i learned that you need to dig deeply. you need to take the time toto understand it and you need to find the people who really know their subject that you are going to look into. at "national geographic," you can be working on something about meerkats one day, so it really fluctuated. the one thing throughout is that there is always somebody who knows the subject and does its really well and has spent most of her life studying at any need to find that person and make him maur friend. >> when an outcome studio, the river of doubt. you are not a trained historian.

the subject involve travel to a dangerous place, dangerous place for the dealings of languages other than year-round. tell us about apprehensions that confronted you. >> so i first heard the story i was having lunch with a friend of mine, james chase who wroteth the book 19th of august in now. really an extraordinary man. this is the election were roosevelt tried to regain the presidency and lost. she said have you heard about this trip by roosevelt to in the amazon after that election?d i had read about theodore roosevelt but because it was after his active political career i started researching it, went back to "national geographic." they have a great library there. way to the library of congress and i was stunned because they're smarter, drowning, they left a martyr in the rainforest gave roosevelt nearly took his own life.

it was said in the amazon with his ecosystem on earth, something i would love to write about. so i was just hooked right away. but it is daunting to take on theodore roosevelt, take on the amazon. >> take on a boat. >> right, to take on a boat, exactly. but i was really excited about it because i knew it had so muce to work with and i think that my years at "national geographic" i knew how to do research. that is the only thing as confident about. i went to this river which is still incredibly remote. i did some research and radio and then i went to this little town on northwestern brazil. i hired a pilot and i flew for hours over on broken rain forests, horizon to horizon.

>> this raises the question, where did she get the money to do that? >> well, i had been in the end. >> from doubleday. >> had gotten in an agent and space that night proposal with a very generous man. unfortunately, he passed away right before the book came out which is very difficult for me. so doubleday gave me this great event and three-part. one part of brittany selleck, one part when it comes out. i have that money and that's how i used it. >> i thought you would've flown the plane yourself. >> note, dallas nasa potterr of stability. >> in her other two books are incredibly generous. you seem to do with a great many people in travel to a great manf places.

>> that's not true. i actually have a lot of fears, but i think my fears are sort of shadow and the interest.to sout >> did you go to south africa? >> i went to read the mindless. it is closed now, but there is the whole whereabouts. >> so far you for it about teddy roosevelt, james garfield. are there any common elements >> we were talking about this earlier. i love to read biographies but as a writer i like to tell a tighter story because of the personal story where i can spend five years really focusing and i'm looking for a story that i hope is eliminating about the person and about the time in which they live.

specifically often when we look at history, we are drawn to then public moment the triumph of infamy. but what interests me are the more private moments of struggle when someone is sick late james garfield lake theater roosevelt or winston churchill. it is in no small men and for all of this something that we all share what the surge of great historical figures that is when your true nature is revealed. >> quite specifically -- [inaudible] >> i had heard this story 25 years ago. my husband actually began his

career in south africa covering the anc in the early 80s.al he said teaching no in south africa he escaped. i thought you were kidding me. how do i not know this? it stayed with me all these years and after he turned in the manuscript for my second book, we went to lunch and he said too you have any ideas for your next book? i think you know, i'd love to write about winston churchill and the word. so that's within there. >> i loved reading your wonderful book. with this nearly disastrous war. i wonder if vietnam war was in the back of your head when you're ready that. >> to be honest, i can see the

connection. i can see the connection. i see now, i have three kids. i have this very normal day to day life of laundry. i have an office outside of a home. when i close the door, it's like a time machine. i literally feel like i'm going back in time the documents i gathered in the pictures and i really only thinking about thisp moment in history. >> he seemed to be very strongly drawn to the late 19th. i think that is fair. i didn't set out the way. i didn't think this is what i want to write about and i nevers

do. i feel like that time. you can see it, you can smell it, taste it. but especially what interests me and it is there so much primary source material. just this enormous wealth of letters and newspaper articles. especially for the kind of writing that i do, you have to have not even a huge amount, but you have to be drowning in it. there are certainly times when i'm working on a book in the research takes the most of the time that i'm working on a book and i feel like a god, i will never get through all of this. >> i've done projects much less ambitious than yours. when you have the wealth of research material is a problem of what to use.

>> i would be interested to see if you agree. most of it i don't. you have to whittle it down and you have to be tough about it. all of it informs me because you have to truly understand it before you can begin writing about it. whether or not it makes it intoa the book does msn but i understand this is that much better because of it. >> one thing about the late 19th and early 20th century in his memoir, my early years is that it is really a lost world. it's the period when the world began to change. even more than it's changing now. do it from the horse and buggy to the car in that. >> that interest me because the world is changing so quickly and every conceivable way.

but our knowledge of the world, this is sort of the gilded age of exploration and said that is fascinating and right in the middle of it. he's right on the cusp of this incredible change and it's fascinating to see it through his eyes. >> a couple things are connected. the right to prisoner of war camp with base of grand adventure and that's one of the most romantic kind. the british ideas for as romance is a strong undercurrent in your un book. yet we in manchester had this ia introductory churchill in the earlier sets of experiences in a india and south africa back in to see the glorification of war. do you agree with that judgment? >> yeah, i do. at that time, the british empire was huge.was huge.

450 million people were spread all over the world and they were spread very thin. they were putting god recalls.td little colonials and it was all about talent tree and being -- and yet they thought the khakis look like the bus drivers said they were still when it began there is still fighting this perfect, precise lines. >> it absolutely was. the beginning of modern warfare not that many americans especially know much about the war, but it was some of the first guerrilla fighting, the first concentration camps, modernization of weapons and all those things. the british army going and was completely different from thero british army coming out that compared them for world war i.

>> most of us know very little is the presence of south africa is still very strong? >> obviously the prelude to thef africana is unfortunately things are changing a lot. the boys were interesting people. they were very independent. they were very religious and unabashedly racist. you may have heard of the great track in 183510 to from the cave hundreds of miles into the interior and that was set up primarily by the fact that years earlier the british empire had abolished slavery. even though the british empire promised people with native africans in the indian populations and the soonest a one award as we all know they

took much longer than anyone would've thought. and so, of course there is still a presidents, but you know, a huge breaking point for that and things have changed quite a bit. >> tell us about churchill. he did change the experience in south africa to change him. it would have been made it ambitious. >> absolutely. he was just a bundle of her main ambition. the one description that's absolutely true throughout his life. >> is that traceable. but ambition and well-to-do -- but it's not really all that common in that particular class. >> it is looked down upon and i've always felt that was

american and it's not fair, that beautiful socialite jennie jerome was american. and in fact, he told us that if this is a pushing age and we must push at the best. she was very connect to it. she had all these powerful man who adored her and so he was always have dinner, help me out here, not this person gave me an assignment. he thought that is the best way for me to win fame and propel myself to political power. he called it the glittery debris to distinction. >> the famous remark by his first love, pamela who said when you first meet wednesday and you see other things that are wrong with them and once you get to know him, you see all the things that are right with him. what were the wrong and great things since you came to know him? >> incredibly, incredibly

arrogant and now is evident throughout his life. it is absolutely all about him. in fact, again and again i cannot stand the kid. he's going to be prime minister of undead be prime minister one day but it drives me crazy. >> the story that she tells hehe was imprisoned in south africa. ordered a tweed suit. south the cases have champagne. >> and its ballet and 10 year old. so he's willing to risk his life, but he doesn't want to be while he sat at. but what is interesting about him to me at this point is if you look at pictures that have come you almost don't recognize

him.most don't r when we think of winston churchill, we think of the older winston churchill and his older and it's got a cigar and whiskey. this wind ese on and has red hair and a sort of energetic. he's the one throwing himself into war. but inside, he was already the winston churchill way now. it is fascinating to read the latter is that wrote at that time. there's one in particular that he wrote. so he ran for parliament before the world court and he lost. but during the election and is loving it. if of a novice opportunities to be on the stage. he writes to her, he says i don't know what's going to happen with the election. with every speech i gave, i feel like growing powers. >> something you don't go into the book because it occurs after the period that you convert, what happened between him and

pamela? >> this is a great story. she was a beautiful young women who matter in india when he was there fighting in british india. and she was sort of the toast of london and went back and said she had many admirers. she wanted to marry her, but her father wouldn't let her marry him because he didn't think churchill would amount to anything. >> finally, before we turn this over to questions from the floor, could you say a few words about history? and his favorable notice that the empire, the reviewer for "the wall street journal" last week describes it as ais quote,o compliment. but popular history has always seemed to me to be slightly pejorative and condescend and even that the best history being written these days is that they not have the mx, david

mccullough, yourself. do you ever feel defensive about being popular? >> i don't pay to be honest, i feel so incredibly fortunate to be able to do what i do. every day i go to work and say i can't believe this is my job. my job is to read most of the time and to dig into these fascinating is torres. i know a lot of historians. i read a lot of academic histories and i respect them. it's just not what i do. i hope that is actually a collaborative thing. i hope there are people -- a lot of people in that who say i thought i hated history. i was never interested in history and then i read something by david mccullough and i was to.i a lot of times they say it madeo me want to know more. so then i started to read my

deeply. i hope in a way that is a conduit for people who think they don't like history to realize actually they do and there are these fascinating stories that they will absolutely love. >> the so-called popular historians have stepped into a gap left by the decline of narrative history of the academic department. there are various theories about the cause of that. i see academic historians take my deeply into very specialized areas often political or ideological, in the field is left wide open for people who tell stories. >> that's what i love to do. >> there are microphones in the middle of the aisle and you areo about the two, and ask candice anything you would like to. you get the first question. >> being part of the title ii

teach history and other things, i appreciate your books because they are colorful. history to me as excited when he take figures are from telling figures secret about. when dealing with churchill, and the boer work, one of the primary sources as a lot of what churchill wrote. but i always find that he exaggerates things.hu he likes to put himself in the best light. how did she do with the challenge of dealing with that. >> the nice thing is for most of the time he wasn't alone. for the way he is captured for those of you who don't know, he went to the "hero of the empire: the boer war, a daring escape, an dthe making of winston boer very sad and was attacked and set his good friend had invited him in command of the train and he was very many of their men,

including the boers who are attacking him. i have their accounts as well and same thing when he was in a pow camp. even when he was on the run, he headed in the coal mine shaft. the men held them also write about it. so only saying that i found that he thought wrong and he was vern insistent about this. the man who organized the attacks was a man named louis post said.d. he later became the first prime minister of south africa and he was a very young, charismatic, exciting general. they became friends later in life. church has always had said that it is personally captured him. and later, churchill assigned started writing a biography of his father. i've done the research and i

don't think it could have been possible. he personally captured you. churches said it was. was therea both reorganize that saw everything and talked about it. but that is the main thing. >> thank you. >> to subscribe a general historical question in terms of your writing and hearing about e you don't use of media research. how do historical writers avoid revising history to their own liking? >> i'm sorry they avoid -- >> how do you avoid revising history to your own personal opinions about things? >> well, i do a lot of research.

i don't come out at with an opinion. i really don't. for instance i read a book abou james garfield and i honestly did come to admire him but i didn't even send out wanting to write about james garfield. i was wanting to read about alexander graham bell and i found that came into something called an induction mask to find a bullet in garfield. i thought i wonder what james garfield looks like. he was still so early into his first term and he/they been forgotten and so i started researching him and he was extraordinary, absolutely brilliant. he was kind, instrumental in bringing about lack suffrage. he was a descend, modest human being and i was impressed with him, but i didn't start out thinking i want to make people think he's an extraordinary man. i took them as they found him and that's what i try to do witi all my books. >> if i might interject, i know

what he's complaining about, not to pick on one person, but arthur schlesinger junior given this multivolume incomplete history of the roosevelt administration and then in his various writings on jack kennedy was spreading from a very distinct, ideological point. that may have been bending history to suit his ideology. >> absolutely. of course it does. >> my question is about the republic. i loved it and i came away after reading it, thinking they miss out on a potentially great president. i just wanted to hear your thoughts on that garfield had not been assassinated, what time the president would be if anybody have been different and maybe some of the other 19th century presidents. >> i agree. i believe he would have been one of our great presidents and i

believe he was an inspiration to the country because he had come from such poverty and he seemed to bring the country together in a way that is in sharp contrast on what happened after lincoln's assassination. it's because so many people admired them and had put so much hope into him. he was a very progressives tinker for that time. if you can imagine, and be shoved into this situation. because of that, he was uniquely powerful because he wasn't beholden to anyone. he hadn't made any promises or sacrifices because it is not something he hunkered fore. he is to call it presidential fever and a solid all around him because i do think that would've made him a uniquely powerful

precedent. i think it is quite a loss. >> i came to the end with a tremendous sense of loss that they had the opportunity to be the president he could haveesid. been. >> you made a brief reference to the british policy of concentration camps in the world for, which was really one of the most shameful episodes in the british empire's history, the bh particularly its impact on women and children to churchillthat? acknowledged that i did that affect him in any way? >> what effect it had was his own imprisonment. it affected him deeply and he never forgot it.

even though he was completely on the other end of the spectrum from the concentration camp andw those of you who don't know, the british had gotten into the war thinking it's going to last a couple of months. it started october will be up for christmas and ended up lasting almost three years. by the end they were desperate to get out and said they did some pretty horrible things. there is directed to the policy instead of concentration campson could the women and children supporting these men out writinm the field so that they wouldn't have been a supporter. native africans were also force into. his imprisonment showed the british that they were civilized, to pick the british had always dismissed them as being backward and ross then so they'll not this incredible leniency.

but churchill couldn't stand the idea of being captured. in fact, he said he hated that. in its life more than he had ever hated any other. in his whole life and he was desperate to get out. he remembered that so later on when he gets into public lifeco and he becomes home secretary, it was one of his missions to show compassion to prisoners. he made sure that they had access to books, they have access to the outdoors that they could exercise because the sad but there are not they are guilty of some horrendous crimeh they are still human beings. >> first off, i would like to say her first two books are wonderful, some of the best i've ever read. my question is early on in the book that asserted a passing reference to teddy roosevelt. the other journalists atkins had

met him in cuba and they just couldn't believe how close those two seed. could you contrast teddy roosevelt and winston churchill? >> cap, throughout the process i kept thinking how much they reminded me of each other, how many similarities there were at the xeon, incredibly ambitious young man, very arrogant, drive everybody around them crazy, incredibly well read, very, very talented writers. they have so much in common and i think that's why they really didn't like each other. two similar. and they did meet ended definitely wasn't a love affair. >> since churchill went to south african journalist, he is certain kind of preconceived notions about the british empire -- he experienced the

boer war, how did his view change about the british empire? th dgc evidence that he realized the sun was setting and the british empire at this time? my second question is if he did, did that contribute to some of the most amazing things he didt in my fight the battle of one and when hitler was trying to take over england.la the idea of either never want to be dominated. d dgc evidence of him changing his thinking goes that the britishwi empire was and how he wanted it to fit into the world? >> well, i think we all know that winston churchill was far from a perfect mood. one of the things about him was he was an unabashed imperialist. he was very proud of the british had hired and its standing in the world and felt that it wasdi part of his mission to keep it intact. i don't think the boer were

change that at all. i think that another thing on the opposite side that i will say about winston churchill, something i admire as although no one tries harder than he did during ward, no one was quicker to reach out a hand of hand of friendship afterward and he was incredibly magnanimous trying to help someone who had lately been his enemy and that was true during the world war and got him in trouble with his countrymen and it was true later in his life. you can see that was sort of a constant throughout his life. but he was sent that time and for many, many years absolutely an imperialist. >> hi. i just want to say that i felta. this was an extraordinary book

and how much i enjoyed reading it. as i was reading it, i totally marveled at the conversations that they care to chat with each other. as if you had a tape recorder in your room. i was wondering what you true opine to get such very similar to in terms of what these people were saying to each other or how you did that. >> that's interesting. my father says the same thing after you read this book. the dialogue you have a second novel or something. it is very, very important to me that everybody knows this is all absolutely factual and i getactl that dialogue firm letters, from the accounts that they wrote themselves. i was talking to churchill and he said this and i said that a mass brawl that comes from. i think that there started awh trend some time but in the notes

section you get a paragraph saying kind of in general these are my services. but in my book, you can look it up. and you can say how did she know he said that? turn to the notes and you can ha find out and look it up yourself. that is something that's really, really important to me going back to primary source material. it takes me a long time before i will commit suicide checked, even if i think it's a fantastic story. there have been stories that a broken my heart because i wanted to tell them that i had to give them up because i didn't have enough primary source material to have that dialogue, to have details that will bring his story alive. unless a deal, just don't commit to it. i had a wealth of information to work with. thank you. >> you may have touched on this

earlier concerning the river of doubt. as i was reading it, i was just amazed why theodore roosevelt was doing that. why do you believe -- what was his motivation for doing that? >> well, for those of you who don't know the story, peter roosevelt lost an election in 1912 and then he goes to south america in this incredibly, incredibly dangerous rapids river that no one knows where it leads. that's why the headwaters, the river of doubt and no one knew where it was going to take them and the reason they did is because peter roosevelt and winston churchill would have done it, too.

he had one and one and one throughout his life and he loses this huge contest and is a provider for the first time in his life. he spoke woodrow wilson and the white house to split the the wh republican vote and he has this depression that is sort of haunted his life and he was devastated. so he gets this invitation to go on a speaking tour in south america. he's written many books about birds and so he's going to take another trip. he could bear and nobody -- the spread of his who was a priest who hired an art of explorer to plan this trip in the amazon. so they are not even prepared for a collecting trip and it gets there in the foreign or says you can do that or you can bask in a mass river and theodore roosevelt will say no

to that question are the saudi throws himself into this outrageously dangerous trip. >> can you talk about how you reconstructed the events after president garfield was shot, particularly the medical care he received it i find it remarkable that the doctors had left him d alone he might hurry well haveli lived.ved. >> he would have. but those of you who don't know, it is very the national gallery and to my outrage, there is no notice at all that an americanal president was shot here. but the bullet that hit him, that when in the right side of his back didn't have any fun to work and come it didn't hit his spinal cord. his injuries were far less severe than reagan's when reagan was shot. but he had 12 different doctors,

especially this beautifully made dr. dr. who repeatedly inserted instruments and his back, probing for this bullet, even though sosa blitzer had discovered antiseptics 16 years earlier and came here and spoke to american doctors. it is sickening to watch this through the lands of 135 years happening to this extraordinary man. and so, i did a ton of research obviously at the library of congress because even though garfield was president for a short time he had been a lot of people surrounding repaired. i went to the national museum of health and medicine and they actually have the autopsy report there. more than that, i held in my

gloved hand garfield's spine but this red plastic can go into p where the bullet had gone through and it's astounding. strangely they have what i call it the assassin sure because they have to remain who assassinated garfield and they also have the remains of john wilkes booth in the same tour. they have a femur, ankle bone. it's just bizarre. they also have h.r. at the parade and he was insane. he was mentally ill and after he was executed, they exhumed his body and wanted to study up for science. to see if you could be physical signs of insanity. they cut open his brain and send it to experts around the country

and they sent it back and say you probably have but that's all we can tell. they put it in this jar. >> candyce told me before we started this program that she is still looking around for her next subject. i'm almost 77 years old and i want to reach her next book. thank you so much. >> thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

.. every person, 117,000 people have pages that contain all their video. and on that page is a link, a search box and you put in a word. so let's say you want to see jackson lee, you put in a word, they talked about climate

change. >> members of the congressional black caucus tomorrow will receive signatures and public statements demanding this body fully support president obama's clean power plant. >> you want ted poe who speaks a lot on the floor, talks about iraq, put in those words. that will get you to particular small pieces almost like paragraphs where they made their remarks. >> they were part of the 16th battalion of the field regiments of the first cavalry division. these american soldiers were volunteers that swore to protect the united states. >> across the top we have a link that says all or video or clips. you can find all the clips that people make are available for other people to look for. >> who leaves first, obama or assad? >> i certainly hope it is assad. >> i do, but i don't think so.

>> there's another tabitha says mentions and mentions are quotes that are valuable. >> what a bizarre decision by president pineto of mexico to invite donald trump down there. >> then on the far left side there are breakdowns, much like you would find on any other shopping website. you could say i want to see a particular person's name. i want to see a particular senate committee, or a tag for a policy. the left side is very valuable for narrowing down. >> search, click and play on the c-span video librariry, on c-span.org. >> in november the reagan presidential library hosted its young women's leadership summit to mark the 35th anniversary of sandra day o'connor's appointment to the supreme court. we'll hear from nancy mace, the