preconceptions and prejudices and intentions when we tell a story from the past. that's what i think is really exciting about having popular reactions to the expedition of lewis and clark throughout time, ranging from literally just a moment or years after they returned to this day, at almost every decade in between. i think gives us really useful sense of what we bring to history. >> this is tom mccall waterfall park here in portland, oregon,, named after former oregon governor tom mccall who was known for his strong environment of policies. right now we hear from author richard clucas about the complexities of oregon politics. >> name of the book we have is "oregon politics and governmen government." we specifically chose the second

part of the progressive versus conservative populist after we discussed kind of what the state was like. actually it's an edited volume and there are actually 14 different scholars who involved in participate in it so ask a considerable discussion about how they describe organ. what we could've called it is just liberal versus conservative but we called -- we capture the character what oregon is about. oregon has long been as being a progressive state. that is doing things that is going somewhere, that it is using, education and the best practices to try to develop policies that work well. so that's why we chose progressive rather than just calling it liberal. we could've called the rule parts of the state conservatives. there's lots of types of conservatives and what we really wanted to emphasize was during about a 20-three here. a lot of the rhetoric from the conservative side of the state was very much a popular type of rhetoric.

to be honest oregon has had a lot of populism both within the conservative side and a little side. you did back even 100 years or longer, we have a very populist streak to us. and that the elite shouldn't rule, everybody should have a sake of everybody should participate, that we should have an open political system. we chose those particular times because we really thought it was the best is sort of capture the type of conservatism see here as both the type of liberalism we see here as well. like many parts of the country in the late 1800s, we had a lot of party machines in the state. the state was dominated first by a democratic party machine that was based out of salem that called the salem click. and then and the latter part of the 19 century it was a more republican machine, and they were all tied into the railroads, the transportation industry, i very corrupt party

organization. that was the early history we had. one of the things were known for is we had a progressive revolt in the state. initially, and the post-civil war. many farmers began to feel that the machines were mistreating them come the government wasn't thinking about them. there was revolt among farmers, among populist, eventually other groups besides farmers joined in, laborers, workers, middle-class who felt the government was to corrupt. portland, oregon,, oregon was part of the progressive movement. with progressive reformers who came along and introduced a a variety of different types of political reforms that really change the character of oregon and changed the character of the nation as well. the most important political figure in the state was william who was the father of democracy in the state. he was one you pushed forest have the initiative and

referendum and so that's hard not to talk about early history of oregon as the important role he had to play. the initiative process is a process in which a private citizen can gather signatures and if they get enough signatures they can put a proposal on the ballot for people to vote on. during the early part of the 19th century, 20 century, we used the initiative quite a lot to shape the direction of the state. there was a bit of a slowdown in that within beginning in the 1980s up until about ten years ago the initiative was used a lot. from the sense it was considered progressive reform, change the way government works, it was a populist reform. the notion was we will make sure it's not an elite rule but that the public, the people have a way to the loss on the bow and vote on them directly. so that's one of the reforms. the direct primary election, of

course many states introduced direct primary elections but oregon was one of the earliest. oregon likes to talk about that it was the first state that tried to make sure that your senators who were selected not just by the state legislature but reflected about, reflected the preferences of the public. rapid initiative was enacted, we had an initiative to introduce a rural -- and rule requiring to let certain point someone today you started to receive the popular vote of the people in the state. so those are some important ones. oregon's had a lot of very colorful politicians, least they did from about, oregon had about a very important and colorful politicians from the 1940s up until about the 1980s. some that were different from the rest of the state, different any from the rest of the nation. they were mavericks and the

state was perceived as having maverick politicians. these include wayne morris was called the tiger of the u.s. senate. he started out as republican, he came in independent and became a democrat in the 1950s. he was one of the two people in the senate who opposed the vietnam war. we talk about mark hatfield, part of the hatfield school government. hatfield was governor and he was a u.s. senator, and he was a republican but very liberal. bob packwood was a liberal republican, u.s. senator. the most important politician in the state, the one that i' evere talks about in the newspaper, the newspapers and other say why i politics not like these be back in the 70s was tom mccall. , call was governor of the state in the 1970s, and i'll be recall the golden era of portland, oregon, politics. it's when some of the most

important progress reforms were taking place and he was at the forefront of that reform effort. and so routinely when people talk about oregon, and oregonians talk about our political history, they talk about tom mccall. one of the interesting things about tom mccall is up while he was governor he was a republican, very moderate republican. the treasurer was a fellow of the name of bob who was democrat. he was the leading democrat in the state for many years. he ran for governor four times and was elected once. when he was treasurer, he would often make a suggestion or something estate ought to do, and then mccall would say that's a good idea, we ought to do that. if you can imagine the world today which i democrat say what we do that and republican turned dresses that's a good idea, let's do that, it's unimaginable

today. but that's what it was like in the 1970s and '80s. the most important conservative populist in the state during the 1990s, he was the one who use the initiative process better, more effectively than anyone else. throughout the 1990s, the legislature and the state continuously have to respond to what bill sizemore was proposing. sizemore became very effective because he turn the initiative process around so that way he in essence could make money while putting initiatives on the ballot. so when you get to the 1990s and the first part of this millennium, then you see one initiative after the other on the ballot. that was bill sizemore able to get on the ballot. so he was the most important sort of player and initiative politics and i was his most important conservative populist

or even though he was elected governor, even though he didn't serve in the legislature, the fact is able to put initiative on the ballot met that his opinions on his ideas have to be listened to. sometimes we, actually when we wrote this book, at one point we discussed having instead of the theme being the progressives versus populace can we thought that they might be the initiative process. because 15-2 15-20 years it wash a big deal, such a big part of the state politically what was going on that it affects every single chapter that we talked about. when we talked about the governor, we had sizemore ran for governor one year, and he was defeated, and the newly elected governor had all these things on his agenda that is going to do, but sizemore said you need to think about these things or else i'm going to write an initiative in the next campaign if you don't.

so even though we had a brand-new governor was elected aall these things he wanted to do, all of a sudden the whole discussion turned around and focus on what he'll sizemore said, within the legislature. so is a very effective resource for shaping the direction of the state politics. i think one of the most interesting things right now in oregon politics is the position of women within the state of oregon. we have a woman, governor gave brown, we have a woman to a speaker of the house. we have a woman, majority leader and the senate, a woman who was majority leader in the house. in the house we have a democratic caucus which is a majority of women. one of the most interesting phenomenons right now going on in oregon is important role that women are playing and shaping the direction of the state. what i want people to recognize that there are still too oregon's. there's a very progressive side. in some cases it has been

portrayed almost as an id side in oregon to we do some things that we are known for, physician-assisted suicide, legalization of marijuana, a variety of, 15-dollar minimum wage, things like that come at that exist and have a very liberal portland which is also a break in service of the state, conservative parklike main part of the u.s. small towns where they believe in sort of traditional conservative values and oregon is not just progressive state in which you may see on television but it's two different states. ..

their earnings, spending, savings and borrowing habits for you one year. they are interviewed by johns hopkins university professor catherine eden, author of two dollars a day, living on almost nothing in america >> rachel, every book has an origin story and as a collaboration, you have an origin story too so i'm curious about how the two of you met. >> that's a good story. i often describe it, this is an arranged marriage. the defenders who are interested in this project, the city foundation and ford foundation wanted to replicate what jonathan and the team had done internationally. they had written a book called richer or poorer and that will work had really inspired many people but one of the questions it had sparked was why don't we have