mention david mccullough's book "the american spirit." we're going to show you an author talk. he will be with us at the national book festival on september 2nd and taking your calls. here's date mccullough talking about the american spirit. [applause] [applause] >> could have gone on longer.

>> would you minds i went out and came in again. >> i would lake to say how special this night is but you beat me to it. i'm steve roth -- rothstein, and on behalf of all the colleagues, we're really thrilled you can be here. all of our forums are great but tonight is really a treat because of the speakers who is here and also the beginning of the john f. kennedy centennial weekend and we planned this months ago, and we really literally thought, who would be the best pair about speaker of and moderator we can get for this historic time and we're thrilled there here. [applause] >> before i introduce them, a few brief announcements. first i want to thank our underwriters and sponsors. the lead sponsor, bank of america, the lowell institute,

our media sponsors, the globe, xfinity, bur and the media sponsor for the centennial, wcbb tv. as i say, we're kick off the centennial and there are information when you leave or maybe on your chairs about what we are doing over the next few days but, there are opportunities from seeing a new exhibit, with 100 items, including 40 that a have never been seen by anyone publicly before, opening tomorrow. on saturday, in this room, we'll be doing a special peace corps day. on sunday we have an astronaut here as part of our tribute to nasa. and monday, we're having bands and music and the navy to honor president kennedy's service in the navy, and at 3:00 p.m., 100 years to the minute that president president kennedy was born we will have two f-18s flying over

head and then we'll be eating a cake. we need help. the cake that will serve a thousand people, designed bid the same company that did the cake for their engagement many years ago. so, i hope you'll join us for some of those activities. but tonight, tonight we have a literally standing room only in this auditorium. also have an overflow in our other auditorium. we're also thrilled that we're streaming this and there are watching parties in places, including the john f. kennedy museum in high an is in and others -- high an is in and others and c-span is here. so we appreciate those who are here and participating online will have many, many distinguished guests and i want to highlight a few. there are many members of our board here and appreciate their leadership throughout the year and what they do. and because it's our centennial

we invite our colleagues at presidential libraries around the country and have representatives from the presidential library or their accompanying foundation from the franklin roosevelt, harry truman, jimmy carter, george h.w. bush and bill clinton library, again, the library or the foundation. we also have former united states senator and his with, paul kirk here tonight, and former ambassadors allen solomon, nicholas burns sever maybes of the new england consul general corps. so join my in thanking them. so after the first hour of dialogue there will be a chance for questions and there are microphones on either aisle. if you don't want to get up or if you're in the other room, or

if you're streaming, you can also just tweet us,@jfklibrary. you can stay in your seat and somebody will read the question or stand in line. after the event, he has graciously agreed to sign books and i you have them, great. if not the book store has them. you're interesting in having a book signed, go out at the end. my left, your right, if you are -- or already that or not interested in waiting line, good out my right, your left, just to help the traffic flow to go smoothly for that. if you haven't read this yet, this is a treasure. this just -- the american spirit, who we are, what we stan for, so many speeches hereby. if it had an our i'd ask him questions for an hour but i won'tment i do want to introduce with get to mr. mccullough, charlie gibson. [applause]

>> based on the applause, think i speak for most people here who feel we know him even though we may have just met him and much of what know i learned from her listening to him on the news for 34 years, both anchoring abc world news and then co-hosting good morning america. he interview everybody including nine u.s. presidents. a remarkable history and we're honored he and his lovely wife are here tonight. and then david mccullough. what can you say? he hasn't been recognized much. everyone has two pulitzer prizes and two national book awards and the francis parkman prize twice, and the presidential medal of freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. everyone i know has been recognized by 54 honorary

degrees. join me in welcoming this amazing panel. thank you very much. [applause] >> we're going to do a -- just a colloquy for an hour and then as steven mentioned, you can come up and ask questions and if people are going to tweet questions from outside the room, those are going to be concise questions, i must say. the most famous tweeter in the world probably isn't watching so i don't think we'll -- [laughter] i doubt we'll get one of those and i shudder to think what it might be. but we do look forward to this, and it is a treat for me. as somebody who was a very

undistinguished history major in college, to have a chance to talk to david, who is something of a legend as steven mentioned. i'm so pleased there are representatives here from so many different presidential libraries. we do gather in the kennedy library, which leads me to wonder, how many books do you think there will be in the trump presidential library? [laughter] >> well, he, as you doubtless saw in a interview with the "washington post," said he'd never read a book bat president. either a buying aography or a book about the presidency. the might some day, he said. and he doesn't read books because his mind reaches beyond

that. and i began to think about the great presidents down the years who have been avid readers of history, many of them wrote history, including john kennedy, and even those who didn't have the benefit of a college education, like harry truman, read history all their lives, and realized that it's essential to the role of a leader, whether it's the presidency or lead leadership of any kind. about cause and effect. history matters. if i have one message that i would like to get across in my work, and in gatherings like this, is history matters. a lot. and -- [applause] -- and we're slipping in our

responsibility of teaching history to our children and grandchildren. it's been going on a good long time. the a number of us have in a sense become evangelical preachers of the importance of history. i lecture at colleges and universities a great deal, and i'm astonished at how much these wonderful young people don't know about our country and its story. i had one young lady come up to me after i gave a talk and n a college in the midwest and she said that she wanted to thank me for coming to the campus because until she heard my talk that day, she had no idea that all the original 13 colonies were on the east coast. >> there may mott -- >> another one asking, in the

question and answer period, which is maybe my favorite -- a university in california -- aside from harry truman and john adams how many other presidents have you interviewed? [laughter] >> host: there may not be many book in the trump presidential library but there will be one hell of an edifice, his name big letters. as an historian, what specific steps could andrew jackson have taken to prevent the civil war? [laughter] >> we could good all night at this rate. >> i don't have anymore. >> you could be interviewing

frederick douglass tonight. [laughter] >> oh, my. oh, my. can you believe it? really, it's -- well, i'm -- i want to restore our recognition of who we and are why we are the way we are, and what we stand for, and i think more and more that as important as grade school, high school, college, universities, advanced degrees, all of that is and essential, maybe as important as any of it is how we're brought up as -- at home. how we were raised to behave. telling the truth, for example. or treating people with kindness. tolerance.

empathy. and hard work. i grew up in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, where people not only worked hard but if you were a hard worker, that counted high in how you were appreciated by other people. i remember my father used to say, charlie, he drinks too much but he is a good worker. or, fred, he is a terrible exaggerator and tells stories that it don't quite believe but he is a good worker. if you were a good worker, that forgave all other failings and that's how we got where we are, by working very, very hard. was doing my wright brothers book, two young men who never had the chance to go to college, never finished high school but brought up to have purpose in life. they were brought up with values at home to learn to use the

english language, on your feet and on paper, so that you read their letters that have survived,, in the library of congress, and they're humbling in that the quality of their vocabulary, the capacity to express themselves, superbly. and never to boast about yourself. never to get too big for your britches. one of the thing that ceremony pressed me at the time and impresses me even more given the situation we're in now, is that john kennedy almost never talked about himself. imagine. >> as you say didn't use the first person singular. >> no. almost never used the first person singular. about anything. a man who could have gone on and on to say the least, with

justification, and pride of what he had accomplished. >> you mentioned that actually in the book. you say -- i'm searching now for those -- talk about jfk the first person singular never enter into anything he said in contrast to so many others since. want toes? >> oh, there's a good line of them. it's become sort of what you do in public life, is talk about how nifty you are, and in many cases that's justified, but -- >> let me turn to the book. you mention that for 50 years you have -- since the age of 50 you have been giving a lot of speeches, but you miss must have voluminous recovered speeches you have given that you have written down. you chose 15 for this. i'm curious why you wanted to do a back of speeches now, and why you chose these 15.

>> when writing my become about harry truman issue loved the idea he went out for a walk every morning, and so i thought maybe i should try that. as a way of sort of tuning up your head, not necessarily your body. and you start thinking in a way that you don't if you're not walking. and so last summer, when the comments being made by the republican candidate for the presidency were to me not only appalling but unimaginable out of place, i thought, what could i do to provide some counterpoint of view to this, and i started thinking about some of the speeches i gave at national occasions, such at the

200th anniversary of the congress -- the anniversary of the white house, kennedy's memorial service at dallas, which i was asked to be the speaker, and commencement speeches and speeches i have given at particular occasions of importance to the history of other organizations and/or universities. and found that there were a great many where i was voicing what really matters to me and why i think history is so infinitely fascinating and how essential i think it is as a means to enlarging the experience of being alive. why should we limit our lives just to this little bit of time that our biological clocks provide when he can have access to the whole realm of the human

story, going back hundreds of thousands of years. and so i set to work to take a look at which of these speeches might be appropriate, and had the help of my daughter, dorie lawson, who arranged all these talks i gave, and who kept the records of what i said. >> when i read the book the first time, when i finished and it put it down, i thought, o thr picking these speeches because they might be apropos to the current times. >> yes. >> while -- i've heard you say before, historians basically don't really have a role in talking about current politics but he is talking about current politics with these speeches. >> talking about it before current politics came on the scene. none of these speeches was written by. >> i went back and read them a second time, thinking, what is

the sentence? what is the paragraph? what this point he's trying to make here? that might be taken to heart by people who are in politics right now. so i went back and read it's second time. and each time i was looking in the speech, what's the one point he is trying to make here that might be taken to heart by somebody who i don't know issue might be elect president. who knows. so, let me pick out a few of them. >> wonderful. >> won't do each one but i think stonewalled st. out of 15 -- i think 12 out of found. speech from 1989, you quote margaret chase smith of maine, who had the guts to rebuke joe mccarthy. she said, don't want to see the republican party -- she was a republican -- ride the political victory on the four horse minnesota of -- fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear. >> smear. yeah. >> smear is the interesting word here. and why did you think perhaps that had applications to the

current time? charlie, you'd be perfect if you only had a sense of humor. [laughter] >> can you imagine somebody reading that in the current political climate and what they might think? >> wouldn't it be wonderful. and a republican to stand up as she did and she is a woman and she is one of the rare cases of women in the senate at that point in our history. and most people today hey know idea who margaret chase smith was up one of the bravest, mostard michelle most admirable platal figures. >> host: issue not if are standing up. >> not enough. >> quoting benjamin roush, run of the original signers of the declaration, speaking of good nature, that mattered most in human relations, he said, and

you quote, this is his quote, i include candor, gentleness and disposition to speak with civility and listen with attention everybody and then you added in 1992348 the speech, words to the wise then and perhaps in our own day, more than ever. >> indeed. ben gentleman -- benjamin rush its one of nave rid characters from the -- favorite characters for at the past. interesting in almost everything, and he was an accomplished physician, he was one of the first people to encourage the fair and humane treatment of people with mental illness, and not to just stuff them away in a cell as if they were animals. he was extremely courageous in his ability to go into places

where the plague -- it was rampant, particularly the yellow fever epidemic. he risked his life over and over and one of the signers of the declaration of independence, and when he sign the declaration of independence, he was all of 30 years old. we forget how young those people were. jefferson, when he wrote the declaration of independence was 33. imagine. washington when hi took command of the continental army was 44 years old. we see them later on with their white hair and their wigs and elderly statures and so forth, but they weren't that way then. they were very, very young. and i think that's the encouraging fact of that part of our story. i don't think we can ever know enough about the american

revolution, and by the way the new museum of the american revolution just opened in philadelphia, is a must. for all of us. it is marvelous. and particularly as a place to take your children, your grandchildren, to get them hooked on history. it's brilliantly organized, speck -- spectacular building by robert -- robert seniors, and right in the center of where all the historic neighborhood is. it's only a few steps down the street from independence hall. but we who lived in the boston area sort of take the reality of the miracle of the -- that era as part of our environment, part of our world, and that's good. that's great.

but i love kennedy's profiles in courage. i read that when i was still young and not really aware yet of what i wanted to do with my life. i love his regard for john quincy adams, for example. >> quotes him at the beginning. >> yeah. >> but what i like in that quotes and i'm not here to comment on anything but what i like so much in that quote is the word "civility" which alost art in the public discourse of america today. the sense of comity that existed among miami who share a common goal and know to there needs to be a common end. it's gone. it's gone, and you write that we -- has been ever thus, many instances had deep chasms of

division. the two sides see sound alterably opposed, when politics trumps policy. when the sense of a national goal is gone, and party goals matter more than national goals. what bridge us out of this? leadership. ...

>> there's a person there doing and saying the right thing and were going to get behind her or him and make sure that attitude becomes important and maybe even decisive. someone reads about margaret shea smith and says that's i'm going do. it will happen. it will happen out of the necessity to survive. we will expect that. >> david, i believe in you actually rate were his centrist nation. we're basically a country where 30 - 60% of the people are in the middle and want government

to get something done. >> absolutely. >> we doing it. >> well, that doesn't mean we won't. we've come through very hard times, very baffling times, very pessimistic times and inappropriate behavior at times other part of leadership, but we have come to the mall. very often when we do come through them, these difficult times, these start, clouded sky times, when we do come through we are better for having done it. people talk about well that was a simpler time back then, it wasn't, and never was a simpler time, or, things have never been so bad, so dark, yes i have. and if you don't understand that, you don't understand the reality of our story. like to point out that the

influenza epidemic, which my parents, and your parents probably went through in 1918 and 1919, 500,000 americans died. of that disease. a disease they didn't know where it came from, they didn't know it would ever go away at all, or how to cure. if that were to happen today, given the size of our population proportion it's our population, 1,500,000 people would die in less than one year. now, imagine if that run the nightly news every night and we would all be more terrified, who would be next in our family today, and just as the depression in the civil war, horrible, horrible times, but we came through them. because, among other things we had the faith that we would and

could, inc. as we understood that nothing of much consequences ever accomplished alone. it has to be a joint effort. that's what they have to come back to understand. >> in the introduction to this book you read the fundamental indecency, the goodhearted of the good of the market people are there still plainly. then you add in the 2004 speech they use or that 90% of americans share those values. how does that square with what we did in the election last november? >> well, this is not an answer, this is part of the answer, let us not forget the popular vote, hillary clinton won by almost 3 million votes. so, that is in and the was a landslide and donald trump really one by very narrow marg

margin, i think we have several major problems, one is a poisonous effective be in money and politics. the idea that members of congress are dialing for dollars everyday, half their time and the fact that were inclined to become or have become a nation of spectators, we sit around and watch things all of the time. watch television, watch athletic events, let someone else do the performing to amuse and entertain us. we are not doing thanks as much as we should. there were not making things on her own, were not getting out there and helping to solve these problems. that is not true of everybody of course. we are immensely generous, we

are immensely philanthropic. we care sincerely and with fervor about education still, and we should be infinitely proud of what we have achieved the last 200 years in the way of the greatest universities in the world, yes, they have problems and yes the cost is gotten out of hand, but there are no institutions of higher learning anywhere in earth comparable to our own. and never has been in all of history. as immensely admirable and important accomplishment, just as immensely important and admirable that we are making advances in medicine such as no one ever imagined. i think future historians when they're looking back will say, yes the politics in the military and the political upheavals all

over the world are important, but look what was happening in medicine, look what's happened just in our lifetime, you're just looking at the diseases that john kennedy and the new exhibit was about to open, the diseases that mrs. rose kennedy, john kennedy's mother put on a card that he had had as a child, my wife and i each had brothers who have had infantile paralysis. it doesn't even exist anymore. scarlet fever, all of that, not to mention the dna for the successful transplant of organs. we are spoiled.

we have been given so much that we take it for granted and we should be grateful and we should be make our teachers heroes. we should be -- [applause] we should have major awards, statues in our towns for the great teachers that have shaped the lives of so many people. i feel our teachers are doing the most important work of any of us and we all ought to get behind them to make sure they understand we are all for them. [applause] >> being married to an educator, i would second that an ad that they are to be paid more. >> absolute, no question. >> before we leave the subject of our current president, what he think john kennedy would think of trump's #. [laughter]

will you know, we all know, he would be embarrassed, he would be appalled, he wouldn't believe it. no, we've never had anything like this happen. in the country. never has anyone even remotely so inappropriate to the responsibilities of the presidency in the job, never in virtually every day he make sure that we know it's even we thought. >> it's as if we have put someone in the pilot seat who had never flown a plane. and who doesn't think it's important to know how to fly the plane. he's just a little surprised at how much more complicated biz. >> i love the fact that the

fellow who's gonna solve all our healthcare problems discovered that healthcare was complicated. i was a college history major, one of the things that always struck me were the differing prisms through which history is seen, social historians, economic historians, demographic historians, natural resource historians and on and on. but whatever prism you're looking for you can see history differently. in your mind, what kind of historian are you? >> i'm not a historian. i'm not. i have no advanced degrees in history, i've never studied history the way i would if i were an academic, i'm a writer. who took up writing about people come about real people and events that really happen. my job is to tell the accurately

as possible. with the basic conviction that history is human, it's about people, it's about the human potential and human limitations, it's about good people and bad people. it's about the whole mix, and it's about stories that release happen. barbara who made influence was a writer of history said the there is no trick to teaching history effectively or writing about history, tell stories. that's what i'm trying to do. i've also tried to bring to front and center stage people who have been in the background more than they deserve to have been, like john adams, like the

builders of the brooklyn bridge are people who have made the success of panama happen in women, abigail adams, emily broglie, wife of the brooklyn bridge and now catherine right, the history of the two right brothers without whom i don't think they would have succeeded, she's never gotten adequate credit for that and i hope my book does that. and brings her to the point where she is recognized is not only having been important, but interesting and admirable as a human being. >> i'm also struck but how history gets revised over the years. that there are people who are seen as heroes and perhaps they don't for as well as in the historians eyes and they make a comeback and there's a renaissance. how do you think john can

kennedy is bearing up? >> i think it's only at a point where we can really start to pass judgment. truman said you have to wait 50 years for the dust to settle, it's not been 50 years. it's not just to it before him, but who has followed him. and how does he compare and one of the consequences of decisions he made her didn't make. we need to look more the importance of decisions the presidents didn't make that were as important as decisions they did. the decision eisenhower made not to go to vietnam for example, the decision that john adams may not go to war with france which the country was dying to do which would've been catastrophic ever done so. the problem with kennedy is that is cut off too soon.

we rarely take a president seriously as the others who has only served one term. and here is a president who didn't serve one term. but look at the footprints and marquis left in a sense of who we are. >> one of the interesting parts to me is these are terrific books and tell great stories, but it is interesting that you really have to look at the kennedy presidency and the presidency that follows. johnson, who might not have been inclined to be so ideologically attuned to his predecessor really took his predecessors agenda to hard and it became his. >> is amazing how that in many

respects johnson may have been able to do things that kennedy could not have done. >> it would be hard to find two men different from the. >> when you said he interviewed 11 presidents. >> nine. to start with john quincy adams. >> i've interviewed i think seven or six, and i've gotten to know those through research that i've done in past days, what strikes me is how different they are, one from another. really different. jimmy carter compared to say george hw bush, or bill clinton. some of them in my view deserve more focus and attention, the

way that my instinct is is that gerald ford deserves more attention than he has received. he deserves a first-rate biography, because when you think of all that happened in that brief time his president, and we think of what he coped with, the guy tried to kill him twice, his wife suffering from alcoholism, and i was here on the profiles of the courage panel, the year that we gave gerald ford profiles of courage award because of his party next him. when he did that, he knew it would probably cost him reelection, almost certainly, but he did it anyway. he did the right thing for saved us all kinds of grief and

contentious behavior of people of all roles. but the big difference today is easter take a look at gerald ford, and i discovered this working on harry truman, the volume of material that you have to deal with as a researcher and biographer is overwhelming. otherwise, you're just skimming through this material. what is in this collection here could keep one doing research for a full lifetime and never get through all of it. not that that is not important, but, it is staggering mountain to try to climb.

every book of the kind that i write and others right, biography and history is a joint effort. it is group project because you have editors and copy editors they also have archivists and librarians, specialist events interview. when he see those acknowledgment at the back of a biography, those people aren't there just to tip your hat, they all contribute enormously to the result the book represents. to make it one more point, we have a problem were not teaching history as well as we should were not requiring history as a course that is required in

college and universities anymore. 80% of the colleges require no history to graduate, that's wrong. i believe in required courses trade for one thing i think it's important, america is at that stage in life tend to stand that in life somethings are required. surprise, surprise. [laughter] but, the satisfaction gratification that comes from working with good people such as that are in this library of having the help of not just what they know but their ideas, their suggestions and which path they should take to make new discoveries are invaluable

importance. they should never be underestimated. and, we have, right now some of the finest writers ever writing marvelous history and biography. they are reaching a very large audience. that is encouraging. people like robert carol and many others. we have superb documentary films been made and broadcast by pbs and others. all that is important. and in part because i think so many people today reach the age of 35, 45 or 50 and realize, i don't really know much of the history out to know, i'm going to read that book, going to watch that documentary tonight. >> talking about how he history

gets revised, there's interesting things going on today. your proud son of io, proud center princeton, you'll has taken the name of calhoun off one of its colleges because of his background and things he did in his life. princeton has gone through agonies trying to figure out how to depict woodrow wilson his name is so closely associated with the college. now their statues in the south built to civil war leaders that are coming down, cut to the consternation of many living in the cell. what you think of that revision of history? at those things proper in your mind? >> i think you start renaming everything because someone did something that is no longer acceptable as being virtuous, like owning slaves. there's no into how much you're going to have to rename including the capital of our country. it have to take down the washington monument so forth. i would much rather see us start

to raise statues, rename new buildings and monuments to those who didn't own slaves. and who did so contrary to the motive of the moment, most temporally, john adams. the only founding father president who never owned a slave. out of principle. the next president line who never owned a slave was his son, john quincy. there are no great buildings name for either of them, no great statue for either of them. i think this taking of the statues down in the south is the right thing to do. most all of the statues as you have read were put up during the jim crow era, they were not ten at the time of the civil war. they were done in the early part of the 20th century. they were really saying, we

believe in inequality of racial citizenship. or professing where we stand on this. i would not have rename calhoun college. and i certainly would not take woodrow wilson's name off of buildings at princeton if it were my decision. and i don't want us to start renaming our cities and towns in the rest. i'm more interested in giving more attention to people we have ignored then getting too worked up about too much attention to the wrong people. >> you talk to never times here about the importance of history, and yet, we are in a situation in this country with things are changing so fast, the

dislocation of the job market is incredible. those who say 20 years, half the jobs, maybe even more that people will occupy have not even been invented yet. i was on the board of my college for eight years, the graduating seniors would stand up and we the board would confer the degrees would be sitting up looking at them, and when i went on the board the first graduation i had was 2007, there were a handful of graduates in computer technology. when i left in 2015 the number was huge. the number of engineers that stand up is growing exponentially, bill gates other day said, if your student in college you should study one of three things, artificial intelligence, energy or the biosciences. he didn't talk about history or

the humanities for the social sciences. the pertinence of those things, are they given how fast things are changing to you the pertinence of those things stand up or should kids be more worried as they graduate about what is changing, how to change and how joint at, how to prepare themselves for a job market that is so uncertain. >> i may be stuck in my ways and i may be so out of rhythm with realities of modern, high-tech society and i confessed to, i don't use a computer, i don't know how to work the computer, i read on a manual typewriter. [applause] >> what kind of phone do you have? [laughter] do you talk into a popstar?

>> are you ready? >> wait a minute, where is it i'm way ahead of all of you. there it is,. [laughter] [applause] they tell me about all the things it can do, and that's wonderful. i only wanted as a telephone. they think the decline of the emphasis of humanities is a serious mistake, i do. because, the supposed to come out of a university and a degree in chemistry or high-tech communications, and that might get you a good job right away, and might lead you into a constructive career, but if you come out of college knowing how to use the english language,

you're going to be a rare bird of great value, truly almost half of law schools in our country's today now require their incoming freshman with college graduates to take a course in basic writing because they don't know how to write a presentable letter or report, or analysis. they don't how to express themselves in our language. this is not only handicap, it's a risky trend in any kind of reasonably civilized society and will be using the english language expressing yourself and was and also have no sense of the path of our country or nation, it is to be really held back, to have serious drawbacks

to your qualifications for leadership in all fields, it must be encouraged among our students and universities or colleges, a lot of us are working hard to bring back the humanities. and with good reason, think of the jobs that are open to people who can use the english language and know how to write. you know how to think in the english language. words are what we think with and if our vocabulary's declining, which they are, there's a very specific proof of all this, children today have lower vocabularies, less than what our generation has come words are what we think with, thinking by the way is important.

[laughter] one of my favorite of all discoveries in the diaries of john adams, by the way nobody would keep a diary anymore, it can be subpoenaed and used against you in court and entry for january 15 or whatever it said at home, thinking. can you imagine if somebody in washington today were to write that in his or her diary as on this record of what they did that day. >> i would add one addendum 20 said, and it is perhaps reflects profession from which i come, but, there's no question the ability to write is something of a lost art for students. . .

what i could have done if i had enabled.

but, it is important, both of those things. and i think what you're saying is so important because you don't know what you're going to be doing 20 years from now and so in the basic grounding in moral thought in the humanities and social sciences and history because in history because the critical thing is that you are adaptive, you can adapt your self to a changing environment in the workplace. >> i would like to read something if i may from one of john kennedy's speeches that i think could not be more valid or relevant to today's situation. it is named new to the proper objective of education and

learning and the civilized societies should be. i look forward to an america that we are toward achievement in arts and achievement in business or state ground. this country couldn't afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. it's the great humanizing experience far from being an interruption come introduction from it as a distraction and the like of a nation or.

for our contributions to the human spirit. i ask you to keep questions brief. don't make a speech. and while you're you are making your way to the microphone, two quick strings are. it is unknown except within the medical profession.

it was the first organ transplant success. he changed the whole realm. you've got to keep at it, you don't give up and if you get knocked down you don't get back up and again continue on a. that's something that we all need needed to be reminded of it or reminded of setting the story

of our own country. he was a preacher in massachusetts. he had a church and was also a doctor, lawyer and practiced all three of these professions having achieved degrees in all things. he was the man that convinced the continental congress in the summer of 1787 before we had the constitution to create what was known as the northwest ordinance, and that was the

territory with britain's peace treaty in the revolutionary war in the area the size of all of our 13 colonies. no roads, bridges, towns, nothing. he specified in the act passed by congress but there would be total religious freedom in this area which would be made in the states by the states. the states would be ohio, indiana, illinois, michigan and wisconsin in a freedom of religion there would be government support.

imagine before we have a constitution and a national government for president of the united states eliminating slavery from what was geographically half of the country. a phenomenal accomplishment in this one pulled it off and he was a classic like benjamin franklin. brilliant botanist and ostrom are. i noticed four out of five states the five states went for trump and hillary clinton. we are the largest country in massachusetts.

about four years from now the leader of the democratic party or. i want to know your feeling for the next leader of the democratic party. >> i could tell you who i would personally be four. absolutely, joe biden. [applause] joe biden is a man of character and experience, both personal and professional where he's been knocked down and got him back up in a way that is admirable in the extreme. but. somebody with strong character and admirable attitude to come forth in the republican party

and it doesn't last much longer. >> it's interesting and i'm so glad it was the first time i had the chance to be a white house reporter. the decency to do what he did, the first sentence when he went to the chamber of the house. it's amazing the genius how it extends to bring those people to the top. >> he was a grown up. [laughter] >> your book is based on

newspapers and documents letters and so forth. i think they will have a lot of trouble. they won't know what we are like. the computer might not last a candidate isn't a heartfelt personal expression. if any of you by chance are interested in immortality. [laughter] start keeping a diary and write about anything you want every day and keep on doing it until you reach the point you think

the curtain may be about to come down and then gave it to the massachusetts historical society and it will be quoted for ever the only diary in existence. [laughter] just as an aside you mentioned in the book somewhere that you're reading the diary of elizabeth baker, pennsylvania 18th century early 19th. >> your book is about speeches that you've given and i was wondering if you could comment upon the ability of president kennedy in his capacity as a person who gave speeches he had a very brief presidency and it seems he gave many memorable speeches i think more so

probably then any other politician who was around in the television age that we could actually see, hear and listen to the speeches. i wonder if you could comment on that. >> he would be someone someone of an immense value and importance in our history. he was extraordinary. and his speeches stand the test of time in a way that isn't the usual case. except for abraham lincoln and of course franklin roosevelt. no one has used words with such power and effectiveness and pertinence at the moment as kennedy did. then i gave the memorial address at the site in dallas where kennedy was killed, i denoted

most everything i said excerpts where kennedy's own words were and because it was not only then that you could sense the nature of this man and personality and talent as a leader, but the gift he had he was a master literary figure in a great reader and he understood the use of the language, the power of words. >> it is a pertinent question. it's not a lost art totally. i would make the case barack obama's speech at the convention and then i thought of kennedy's speech on religion that was so important in diffusing bad and obama's speech on race in philadelphia was one of the great speeches. barack obama is a very powerful

speaker and thinker of considerable importance and i think that he has been an inspiration to many young people the way a president ought to be. [applause] thank you very much it's a pleasure to meet both of you. first i want to say thank you for all the information on john and abigail. i was a park ranger for a summer at the athens historical site and everything you say is more about those people. also as the mother of an actor, but i wanted to specific comment on the belief that history should be required and ask a question because i'm a professor

of social studies methods and and a teacher in-service and future teachers and who are going to be on entry schoolteachers and you say that it's the families and the lack of learning about history and culture and learning to live with others and appreciate differences that are not going on in the house but what about in the elementary school? i go around to lots of elementary schools, hundreds coming and i'm told there is no time for social studies. we only have half an hour a week and we have to do math, science and reading. i brought this up at the national conference and couldn't get an answer. so i wonder what yours is. >> well, my very strong feeling is the way to get young people involved in history, the best time to get them is in grade school because they want to know about it. they want to know about

presidents and heroes of accomplishment and so forth and they love stories and there's wonderful books that can be used at the grade school level. in my own case i was swept away as a grade school students buy a book about a mouse that lived in ben franklin's hat. absolutely marvelous. [laughter] i can't go into that. he grew up in a very large family in the famous old church in philadelphia and i can never go into the church and wonder if they are still behind those walls. [laughter] one of our granddaughters wasn't

a class in grade school and the children were all told if you could pick a first lady or president you're going to be and we have put on a pageant or show for your mothers and fathers and you're going to introduce yourself as president so and so and talk about your self. my granddaughter, caroline was harry truman. [laughter] and the other group was franklin roosevelt well, the name of the gathering for the parents these little people came out there and gave a wonderful account of who they were and what they did and all of us were just amazed. and i know for certain not one

of those children will ever forget which president they were. it will be with them for the rest of their lives. and that's the kind of thing that can work wonders. i think we need to bring the lab tech -- lab techniques may have to dig in and get their hands dirty and do their research. they sent us follow this, it'll be on the test next month. no. get them hooked by getting them involved in the detective case aspect. >> you mentioned the importance of universities that we have as a great asset to the country and there are two elements of

universities today that i find very dismaying. one is the emphasis on political culture and even administrators seeming to fall into the trap of protecting their students from controversial opinions and i wonder if you can comment on that. the other situation i found it dismaying that the other day watching c-span which there were two african-american professors and also feminist professors both in well-known universities who were talking about the irrelevance of the constitution and women were not a part of the decision-making at the time. i was wondering if you could comment on that as well. >> very easy question, wouldn't you say? [laughter] >> it is very disturbing and unsettling. i personally maybe this is too

simplified a response and it may be that i really don't understand the actual workings of a modern-day president and the decisions that i think when that happens it is a lack of leadership on the part of whoever is running the university not just the president of the faculty so i think it is awful and unrealistic. it doesn't have to do with understanding reality. and we are not that kind of a country. we are still able to express our opinions without the fear of being attacked were degraded or

made to feel like a fool. >> when the speeches are canceled because of student uprisings at places like middle very or when 100 students walk out of a speech given by the vice president or speeches are canceled california berkeley because the students do not agree with for the opinions of those about to speak i would assume you would oppose that but so too with people that are -- anita >> if i were the president of a university or a member of the faculty where something like this happened, i would speak out strongly in favor of a different attitude and hope that the majority of the students and faculty and alumni would be persuaded and the stance that i was taking was the right one.

i'm surprised at how few university presidents take any position politically. i don't understand it is is it because they are afraid of the damaged their ability to raise money? i don't know. but the old days that isn't how it was. they spoke out and voiced their opinion. >> about the second part of the question involving the constitution and the fact that perhaps there are people in this country because it doesn't represent them or did not feel that they were fully represented in their earlier days but it's not important? >> vfat we've had i think 17 amendment in the constitution that have done a lot to straighten out and level the playing field. one of the things we need to do is teach the constitution. [applause]

>> i don't know how many of you have seen the past that incoming americans applying for citizenship after pass on the history of the country. i'd venture to say probably two thirds of the country couldn't pass the test but they have to pass it and they do. it's some of the most ardent readers and enthusiasts in american history that i've known over the years are immigrants who can't understand how few people among us know.

why should you preserve them? >> it is the importance that you have actually mentioned the book when you are doing that history you go in and you read what they've read and you go and look at their houses where they grew up and what their surroundings were. why is that important and how important should we consider that as people who might be interested in the historic picture? >> i think it is the sensual. let us remember those dark home and and in printed in the environment what kind of a horizon is out there. we grew up in some section or another and we don't realize how much would we think comes from

that environment so if you want to understand somebody you have to go to them and see how many others for example the common popular traits and characteristics of if you go out to independence missouri and spend some time out there you realize that is the way a lot of these people are and it's in the language they use and i stress very strongly not only did you have to read what they wrote but you have to read what they've read. what are the books and the guiding literary spirits of her childhood shaped them? i remember reading a wonderful line in one of john adams letters to abigail in which he

said we may not succeed in this struggle. we may not prove successful in this struggle but we do deserve it. and i read that and i thought nobody thinks like that anymore. because we don't deserve it. i i've spent some months later reading a letter george washington wrote and there was the same sentence the same observation. adams was a plagiarist and washington. but in the 18th century they didn't use questions or quotations. this was the line by joseph was one of the most popular literary

accomplishments of the century. and this happens again and again. they are shaped by what they read and what we read. it is a characteristic of the time in which they were living a i could feel and entered into the lives of these people who are just as real and alive as we are but they are no longer around. >> a long time ago general ford was my congressman, so it is nice to hear a kind words you have to say about him because lots of people really do not appreciate the kind of things he did for this country so thank

you for those comments and i will be looking forward to the book that is coming out. [laughter] is a wonderful story by richard norton smith who was president of the ford library. i don't think he's written a biography. >> this has been a profound evening for me hearing you talk. one of the issues that i've had for many years is that people, kids are not taught civics anymore. i took civics in eighth grade. i've been a political junkie all my life. but when i talk to things like the constitution and i studied for two semesters a history government major i am appalled at their total lack of knowledge and disinterest in the constitution. but if kids are not taught basic civics in grade school, the

chance that they are going to carry that interest and concern and responsibility as an adult is pretty slim so i would like to hear your thoughts and i would love to know what can we do to bring it back? >> make it required. [laughter] >> absolutely. the military academies all require that kind of close and in many ways their graduates are coming away with an advantage but the students at regular universities may not have. we had to take a science course and the word was out the easiest course was geology so i immediately signed up for

geology. [laughter] the professor was richard land and of course he was known as rocky flint and she was a very severe looking man and very impressive and i will never forget and those that went through the same course will never forget the first day he walked out on the stage and this is what he said imagine the empire state building now imagine a bible lying flat on top of the empire state building. now imagine a time lying flat. the empire state building represents the history of the earth. the bible represents the history of life on earth and the time represents the history of human

life on earth. talk about putting things in perspective. and i quickly found that i loved geology and signed up for another term. it wasn't required, but its history and its relevance to so much that we just don't even bother to try to understand. and i think that is what happens very often with young people that are assigned a course. i've always advised my students to take the teacher not the course. find out who are a great professors and lecturers, who are the inspiring professors. that will make the biggest impact. >> i would add one thing because it is an important question. i covered a lot of local government in my time when i was a beginning reporter and i covered city councils and school

boards and the interest in what school boards are doing is very, it varies a lot depending on how controversial it might be but school board members are very susceptible to lobbying by the public and if you go to your local school board people and say you want to require civics, civics will be required. [applause] >> this is a question on twitter. if someone like jfk or take office today how do they approach the foreign-policy challenges we face today? [applause] he was a natural born diplomat to say that he was smooth

talking or something but he understands that the diplomacy is essential in life as a relation between nations. i went back after i heard the inaugural speech delivered last november. i went back and read the inaugural and i won't cite the well-known quotes because they are very well known and heard. to those people in the villages struggling to break the bonds of mass misery we pledge our efforts to help them help themselves for whatever pure code is required not because we seek their votes but because it is right. contrast that to last november every decision on trade or taxes, immigration, foreign affairs will be made to benefit american workers and american families. it is a real contrast.

>> one of the youngsters in the crowd. [laughter] you have given me a lot of homework. [laughter] my question is i've learned the fact that you have 19 grandchildren. [applause] what is one message you constantly tell them as they grow up, what is that message such a well-known historian and writer what is the key that you think is so important nowadays and in the future? >> fortunately i have considerable irish blood in my background and i don't just give them one, i am incapable of just one but one of my favorite

quotes they all know if it's from jonathan swift said may you live all the days of your life, live every day, live all the days of your life. that's what matters, getting the most out of life while you are alive. that feeds on extending energy and roosevelt said it is really behind the writer whose pace is fast enough you don't sit around and feel sorry for yourself. it is an ugly human inclination. get up and do things. accomplish something. make the world a little better.

help other people who need help. be kind. have empathy. put yourself in the other person's place and try not ever to be boring. [laughter] it's not fair to be boring. it is unkind to your friends or family. [laughter] weevil go here to the final question. [laughter] >> good evening. i am a history teacher here in cambridge massachusetts and i have two questions for you. number one, what are you currently reading for enjoyment? >> when i am working on a book i don't read anything but all i need to read in order to be competent to write the book so right now i'm reading all about the northwest territory and

biographies and autobiographies on a whole cast of characters. i've always wanted to write a book about people never heard of i would love to have that capacity in the story itself to not rely on a story -- what is the word. celebrities to get you in. i was greatly influenced as a student in college by thornton wilder and his novels and play. particularly the play in our town. what if he could write a book about real people in a real town and have sufficient material to get inside of their lives

drawing on the letters and diaries and so forth i found that in a collection in marianna ohio which was the first settlement by people who all came out from here in massachusetts. and they were veterans of the revolutionary war who have been compensated for the script. so they were getting compensated for this terrible oversight and unfairness with land so most of these people were veterans of the revolution had been through eight years of torment, difficulty and then they go out

and start this whole new community. i'm able to get into their lives in a way that you couldn't do for a group of people today. every imaginable thing that could go wrong did go wrong but they wouldn't give up. and i think this is important we tend to often misjudge people because they are members of this group would prefer this religion or that religion. among those that we extended to misjudge there's this idea they all wore black and they were stuffy and boring. they were colorful clothing, they like to sing and dance and drink and they had many

admirable objectives in life and one of them is education. it was the essential. to see how they took that idea of education and freedom of religion out in the unoccupied wilderness and creativity's towns that was exactly what they had been trying to achieve is exciting and i wanted to know more about it. if i knew all about it i wouldn't want to write the book because that's the adventure, learning all about it and i'm learning what it was like to be a pioneer. >> i'm going to ask david to do one more thing. i appreciate you spending an

hour and a half and somebody that used to be two hours of live television every morning i can tell you that as an exercise in bladder control and so is being here in our and a half. [laughter] as i read the book i've wanted to find something that would be a coda for the evening and a way to wrap it up. i think all of us probably remember the period after 9/11 it was a special time in this country there was wonderful unity that i wish were still around in our society. david said this and it's just a

paragraph. >> it said everything has changed but everything has not. we are the strongest most productive, the most creative, most generous nation in the world the greatest freedom of any nation in the world and of all time. [applause]

moskowitz prize-winning historian david mcauliffe talking about his book the american spirit. saturday september 2, booktv the tv will be live for the national book festival in washington, d.c. and you'll have the chance to talk with him during the call-in program. another member of congress this is representative jim jordan of ohio. booktv visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they are reading this summer. >> my wife had this and i finished in an airport last weekend which is interesting. something i didn't know about the