everything. you deserve a break girl, you've worked so hard. we're still going to miss you and cnn. no we will see all over the place. and read your books and every thing's a thank you, thank you, thank you friend. have been phenomenal best of luck. keep us posted have lucio next your time at your next book. >> perfect it's a date thank you so much holly, thank you, thank you, thank you. ♪ ♪

he passed away he flew hot-air balloons and a lot of things before contracting alzheimer's. another book on reagan, "reagan rising: the decisive years" about the period 1976-1980, an important time for the conservative movement, the panama can now, raising is an issue, tax cuts raging as an

issue, and conservatives have jimmy carter, a view of government, pushing back and advocating a different view. it is a very interesting time for the american conservative movement led by reagan, and propel to the 1980 nomination, two more books on reagan including, true ideology, undervalued in that regard, the screen actors guild with tip

o'neill, gorbachev underappreciated in many regards as a negotiator. it is a front ride, among the ranks. >> host: what do you mean when you talk about his new ideology? >> a good question. reagan was never as conservatives as conservatives wanted him to be. he was more pragmatic, more temperate in his outlook on the world than a lot of conservatives wanted him to be. he was the great cold warrior, gorbachev including the reduction, elimination of thousands of nuclear warheads in western europe, when he ran

on the missile gap, the campaign platform, to a negotiating table to do that, he was proven right, only took eight years before you saw the winning of the cold war. >> host: you talk about the emerging legacy. the emerging legacy. >> guest: that is interesting. in webster's dictionary there is not obamaism or bushism but there is reaganism.

he would contend and i contend it is a separate distinct ideology, more than conservatism or other elements, and not all of it to be sure. politicians at the time, there is nobody who's chattel is cast more over the republican party than ronald reagan. he is the uber leader, eclipsed in my opinion abraham lincoln

as the icon of the republican party. >> somewhat argue that ronald reagan, newt gingrich who you have also written about, and donald trump are the outsize figures of the modern republican party. would you agree with that? >> absolutely agree with that. gingrich, the revolution of 1984, trump and his populist revolution of four years ago, and actually the phrase big tech, big 10 ideologies going back to abraham lincoln. down through the ages. >> when did you first meet ronald reagan? >> i first met him in 1978.

considered by everybody a long shot. 6000 boats, reagan came up to campaign in new hampshire so it is an important primary and reagan didn't need to win new hampshire and he campaigned for gordon humphrey and neil thompson, he came into new hampshire to film commercials for gordon humphrey. he was accompanied, governor reagan and i sat in the lobby incomplete are of this man, he

was completely friendly, we talked about high school and college sports, we both agreed we didn't like it. he was utterly charming and kind. talking to the national leader of american conservatism for the republican nomination and nothing but kindness, to carry with me the rest of my life. >> host: you sat in a hotel lobby and chatted with him. you recount in "last act: the final years and emerging legacy of ronald reagan," the phones were hooked up correctly. >> guest: president reagan's

chief of staff's post presidency, and office for former president reagan in century city and showing a terrorist disaster, the secret service was none too impressed the officer was chosen to happen. but it will tie in this building, the office was being assembled and reagan was not supposed to be in office for several weeks. he was fired from the presidency and lots of interviews and as you can

imagine, here i am, what am i supposed to do. ran around in cardboard boxes and set him up in an office, with a pad of paper and they thought he would be okay, the phones were routed incorrectly, at a particular office and answer every one, taken with the president, came out and handed it to fred ryan and said these people want to meet me so everybody was called back and got his picture taken with ronald reagan except for this

one fellow, he talked to fred brian, one of his neighbors, fred says no, that is enough. the second time. >> host: craig shirley, what are some of the top line things in your view that ronald reagan accomplished as governor of california for years and as president? >> good question. he went to sacramento a neophyte and thought he would get more action for several years and started to address the affairs of government more diligently and enacted a huge tax rebate at the time in 1970, $500 million, incredible amount of money at the time.

he had a deal with campus unrest in the 1960s with many antiwar protests going on and other campuses were playing so one story perhaps is apocryphal but reagan was at a college campus, the sign said make love, not war. he turned and said i don't think he would be here. he had that to deal with. he could reform welfare. he was a very successful governor. at the time california, the sixth largest in the world.

just one state alone, the sixth largest economy, reformed welfare. police protection to a greater degree, dealt with campus unrest. and their complaints, and it meant a lot, he would talk to young people, student ask governor reagan in his weekly television show, it is unheard of at the time and he loved them, what they were able to handle, straightforward.

the la times when reagan left the presidency, the la times, very rough on reagan but acknowledged reagan saved the state from bankruptcy because it was running when he became governor, running $1 million a day deficit increasing by $1 million a day, with surplus upsets. and what he said he was going to do when he ran in 1980, and interest rates, was going to turn around the economy, restore american morale and he did those things. he defeated soviet communism and won the cold war. inflation in 1980, interest

rates, 18%. inflation was almost high. the value of the dollar wasn't worth what it was yesterday. it was devastating to people savings, especially senior citizens. he turned around the economy, 18 million jobs, when he left office, inflation was 54.7%. when he left in january. and restored american morale. his disapproval rating on all-americans was something like 73%. when he left office in january -- 79%. it was higher even than fdr's when fdr passed away in april of 1945, when dwight eisenhower

left office, the highest in a long time. and one of those -- washington, lincoln and franklin roosevelt. >> host: one of the critiques of the reagan presidency as he spent a lot of time talking deficits but they grew under his stewardship. >> he later wrote there were two things to be regarded that he was disappointed in, one was the deficit and the other, couldn't do more about it. it was explainable is what we know as the peace dividend. it was necessary to build up america's defenses, to cut for years as richard nixon's time in the presidency, gerald ford,

jimmy carter and richard nixon all did that so you had soldiers in 1980 on food stamps, applying airplanes that were 50 years old and meanwhile the soviets are perfecting their newest technology including a bomber that is actually supersonic and quite deadly. reagan, that was his commitment, everything else is academic. this is the deficit that was created, the buildup. but if freeing millions of people imprisoned behind the iron curtain in poland and

other third world countries, it was a price worth paying to free the millions of people behind the iron curtain. dirksen senate office building -- >> host: you talk about is ideology, it is going to hurt his legacy among conservatives? >> his legacy is well cemented among conservatives. his library in seamy valley is the most visited presidential library, people go to the reagan library which is out of the way. it is not like los angeles. the senior valley is off the beaten path yet more people go

there than the candidate library or the clinton library or the bush library or anything approaching it. he still remains to this day are a popular and successful president. >> you wrote in newsmax, reagan was a populist and had the articulation and intellect of a statesman. reagan, like trump, ran at a time when many americans had grievances against the establishment. unlike trump, every talking point optimistic and every speech uplifting, something trump could never do if his life depended on it. >> that is the essential difference between trump and reagan, second of all, he had higher approval ratings than

donald trump and third, most of his philosophy is derived ronald reagan, whether it is conservative judges or tax cuts, not just to stimulate the economy but expand personal freedom, increasing the power of the individual, that is what it was. and he was sworn in and a group of conservatives and told him tax cuts are about the economy and creating jobs and extending personal freedom. he knew the power is finite, and with the government or citizenry, he wanted to go back to the time of the founders and framers, give them more power

and one way to do that was to give them more of their money. was a real motivating force, expanding the power of the individual, look at his speeches and how many times he uses the words individual or individuality or something other, and respectful government, and leave people alone, that was his philosophy and it has become his philosophy starting in the 1940s that evolved over the 40s and 50s, 1980 the advent, to

his coalition, to conservatism. >> you wrote in 1976 "reagan rising: the decisive years," 1976-1980. i want to play some video from 1976 in kansas city. >> i had an assignment today, someone asked me to write a letter in a time capsule that is -- the try centennial. sound like an easy assignment. and i set out to do so riding down the coast in an automobile, on one side and i couldn't help wonder if it would be that beautiful 100 years from now. and as i tried to write, let your own mind turned to that task.

you will write for people 100 years from now will they look back for appreciation and say thank god, most people in 1976 headed off that loss of freedom who kept us 100 years later free who kept our world from nuclear destruction. and if we fail they probably won't get to read the letter at all because it spoke of individual freedom and they won't be allowed to talk of federal read of it. this is our challenge and this is why here in this hall tonight, better than we have ever done before, we've got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to the world we may be fewer in number than we have ever been but we carry the message they are waiting for. we must go forth from here united, determined, and what a great general set a few years ago is true, there is no

substitute for victory. mister president. [cheers and applause] >> host: what did you hear? >> guest: it is interesting, so so important, reagan's political future, i wasn't there in 1976, has now gone and destroyed in a tornado some years ago. i was working my way through college, on cape cod but she was working for the campaign and told me repeatedly many times, she said was the most thrilling experience of her

life to hear reagan give this speech but i wrote the book "reagan's revolution: the untold story of the campaign that started it all," i talked to a board supporter from florida and after reagan came this speech, she muttered oh my god, we've nominated the wrong man, the convention was razor thin, needed 1030 for the nomination, only by 50, 68 delegates and regularly lost it by 80 some so it was very slim, very narrow and accusations over the years, some hanky-panky, it was pretty

lean, accusations myself, the decision called in and, one police officer said at the time the tests came back positive or negative, the first time i heard of a politician telling the truth. the speech itself was so important because reagan was not going to run again. there were newspaper articles and things like that, there was an article writing about reagan's political career, had been around the track twice in 1968 and 1976 and both times, most people assumed, he gave a

speech and was interesting, that fall he was out campaigning across the nation doing press conferences and endorsements and fundraisers and things like that and everywhere he went the police officers, flight attendants, a citizen on the street, everybody came to him and said you got to do it one more time, run one more time and that convinced him to try one more time in 1980. he wasn't going to try, that was it for him and that was on an airplane, so he could create people and this woman came on and should do it one more time

and sitting next to him before he passed away i interviewed him, he told me a story, and urged him to run again and he said i guess i'd better do it one more time and it was the outpouring of that speech which is interesting because usually, this nominee who is the last speaker but this night in kansas city it was ronald reagan who was the last speaker and a last-minute idea, reagan was not supposed to speak to his audience but ford knew he was the head of a badly fractured party and at the last

minute urged reagan to come down and reagan did this in kansas city, one interview with tom brokaw in skybox, and says -- all of a sudden 17,000 people urged him to come to the stage, we went reagan, we want reagan, we want ron, we want ron and he reluctantly leaves his skybox, there's all extemporaneous. manage live on 3 networks giving a speech before 17,000 people and that type of talk,

did a great review of reagan's hard when he talks about soviet missiles wiping out america -- it was on reagan's mind. mike told me he made his way to the podium, and what you think i should say? you will think of something. >> host: there were landslide elections, 1014 electoral votes to 62 total for jimmy carter and walter mondale in those two elections. good afternoon, this is our monthly "in depth" program with

one offer and we look at his or her entire body of work. craig shirley is our guest, he's written 7 books and talked about some of the reagan books including reagan's revolution, rendezvous with destiny, came out in 2009, and december 1931, that changed america in 2011, we were talking about that as well. "last act: the final years and emerging legacy of ronald reagan," take came out in 2015. "reagan rising: the decisive years" came out in 2017. "citizen newt: the making of a reagan conservative" also came out in 2017. his most recent book is on mary ball washington. "mary ball washington: the untold story of george washington's mother". that came out in 2019 and we will be discussing that as well. this is an interactive program and we want to hear your

voices. here's how you can participate in this program with author craig shirley. you can call in 202-748-8200 if you live in the east and central time zone. for those in the mountain and pacific time zones 202-748-8201 and if you can't get through on the phone lines and want to participate you can do a variety of ways via text and this number is only for text messages. please include your first name and your city if you would, 202-748-8903 was also looking at comments on our facebook page, twitter page, instagram page, just remember@booktv is our handle and finally you can email booktv@c-span.org. we will be scrolling through all those numbers and ways of contacting us in just a minute

so you can participate and we will be taking your calls in just a minute as well. in the midst of writing biographies on ronald reagan you switched to december of 1941. what inspired that? >> guest: that is good question. as a child i was born in the 50s so i didn't remember world war ii. every sunday afternoon after church there was a dinner at one of my grandparents houses and lace tablecloths, white linen napkins, big turkey or ham on the table. and the conversation turned to

the war as in my grandfather would say i bought that before the war but sold after and they would talk about various exploits and experiences because in world war ii was a national experience, everybody sacrificed for the war effort. everybody had victory gardens, all vegetables grown in world war ii, my father was a boy scout, the government used the boy scouts to handle promotional posters, and other locations and people should gather, loose lips sink ships and by war bounce and other promotional posters, my brother

had victory pardon and my grandfather tried to list three times, and the border on your soul, blind as a bat, you have dependents, not that desperate. after failing several times, both my grandfathers were rosie the riveters. one tested machine guns and the other was a bomb inspector, can't imagine what a bomb inspector would do at the time, she inspected machine guns in new york, there was another one and there were badges and

things like that, everybody in my family including my uncle who paid the ultimate sacrifice, my father was too young for world war ii and so was his brother but they were almost, abbott and shirley, was a radio operator, was killed in action, remaking a bombing run. in 1945, barney became a cherished memory for all of us, they used to talk about gas rationing or meat rationing to make audio for your bread, always had this and many folks

in pearl harbor, came out 130 years ago, a terrific book, december 7th, 1941, but there was never a book done on the effect december 7th had on the civilian and how america changed literally overnight and how the war impacted the national mood, three weeks after pearl harbor, and fisher auto body parts and goodyear rubber stopped making cars and they issued proclamations, what

you would use, they are making forward motor, start making cars, and making be 24 b 25 bombers out of fabricated auto parts, they did that in three weeks, you couldn't use -- the government sent a memo to radio operators to radio station, radio owners and operators for promotional purposes, warners brought you by campbell's soup and couldn't broadcast troop movements or ship movements or -- they took loose lip-synching ships literally and gave instructions to these radio stations for what they could say or couldn't say and followed the orders of the government that they believed the nation was at risk or

threatened, and do these things so it is fascinating how homogenous our nation was in 1941 versus today. obviously september 11th, the planes ran into the world trade center and the pentagon and our national unity only lasted a couple weeks or months and they soon show the bickering among themselves over union issues whereas we stayed pretty unified as a nation starting december 7th and stayed that way until 1945 when the japanese finally surrendered to douglas macarthur in world war ii.

>> the book is divided by day december 1st through 30 first. how prepared was the united states on december 1st for a major war and how much of a surprise to the american government was december 7th? >> we were not prepared at all. we had come within one vote a month earlier of dissolving our standing army. i believe it was october of 1940, one vote of dissolving a standing army which meant hundreds of thousands home at the time, not battle tested but undergoing training. we are not prepared for war at

all. our government was, interestingly enough, something we discovered at the fdr library, my son andrew was my head researcher on this book, he went to the fdr library in upstate new york and came across a memo from the office of naval intelligence, a 17 page memo stamped top-secret, only declassified in the 70s, gathering dust into andrew found it.

tensions were high, the office of naval intelligence, where japanese might attack. in the philippines, indonesia and the hawaiian islands and this memo was prepared two days before the attack, no action was taken other than a warning out to the field commanders on december 6th, 1941. to minimize the attack and everything, should have been notified but they weren't. the memo interestingly enough

was unnoticed until andrew found it at the fdr library in new york. >> host: how was the economy, 8 years of fdr at that point, the economic situation. >> guest: it was a nuanced -- the new deal, as an economic strategy. unemployment in 1933 is almost the same as it was in 1941, the new deal raised peoples ground. there was no future. it didn't improve. probably was a mistake.

one raised tariffs on imports coming into the united states, fdr didn't cut taxes. much money in circulation. the other thing too, failure of the new deal in my opinion, focused production ahead of consumption and to achieve a growing economy you need consumption. you need to sell it and use it. gm or whatever. people don't have the money to buy them and that is beside the point. the problem of the economy through those many years aside

from advent of the us economy, to perk up, leaning them in world war ii, in the pacific, they were consuming american products under one piece, that were donating under programs for britain for great britain and so the american economy began to perk up and because we were producing things that were being consumed by rich people and they took off after pearl harbor, mass production of ships and planes and guns and

uniforms and all that, that was part of by the american people. >> host: it should be noted that you are not a full-time author. >> no. i also -- i wear many hats. i was a lacrosse coach coaching use and high school across and finishing up my life as a college coach and also own a small public relations firm in virginia, we have many conservative foundations and think tanks and things like that.

my partner kevin, for 35 years never missed a payroll i made it. i'm also a farmer. >> host: let's hear from our callers, we discussed a little bit of american political history and world war ii history was michael is in deerfield beach, florida. hi, michael. >> you guys are so amazing. reagan was so amazing because of his popularity, i think it was his positive conservatism which in my opinion is the same as trump, but trump is different and reagan was a camera, needs a more precise metaphor which would be a

slushy. needs a precise temperature control or it is solid. it is ice or it is liquid. reagan, what i mean is a balance between positiveism, group interest, mindset of scarcity and self-interest. right now in our current contest with trumpism, one versus the other, what is important is it needs government in temperature control, steam engines use to blow up and created this thing that was the governor. the governor is our social concept. neurobiology. >> host: before we get too deep, very quickly you are a fan of ronald reagan at not donald trump, is that correct?

it >> caller: correct. >> host: let's hear from craig shirley. >> guest: thank you, i am in the same camp myself, as a fan of reagan and works for reagan and admire reagan. donald trump, he had good policies and a good story to tell, in the middle east or how, the channeling of covid and vaccination, and it is so personal behavior of what he said, the comments he made that in my opinion were very presidential and that was effectiveness to his legacy, that is still to be determined,

before we rationally address it but his presidency is a detour in time or was it something more important? i tend to lean that it was something more important, but important in the short context and nuanced context because i do think there is evolution in the united states, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right and right now we are merging to the left ever since george w. bush back in 1988, his son and clinton, barack obama and others moving to the left, we are moving to the right before them. many times, there is a rhythm in the american presidency, and

less active. reagan's legacy is important and needs to be studied and writing two more books on reagan, 1945, that is the companion book to my book december 1941. the reason, so much happens, and roosevelt passing away. his boyhood home, you buy the mob, the buddy campaign in okinawa. by japan, auschwitz was

discovered -- most soviets and americans were closing, so many things -- which is why it was time in this next book >> >> host: you are on with other craig shirley. >> caller: >> caller: thank you for this wonderful program. it is so interesting to look back and feel a lot of things we weren't aware of, thanks to craig shirley for bringing more things out in a positive way. i have a poem in the ronald reagan library titled caring and sharing, you can see the proclamation he made of 539, proclaimed december 19th, 1983, national care and share day

asking companies and nonprofits to do as much as they can to help the less fortunate's, there's a positive message that needs to come out even more in these times. i wanted to see if he could comment on two people. i received a letter from a friend of president reagan, charles wick, who headed the us information agency, information i sent to him concerning the company of the future in the early 80s and one other quick thing, roy:had a relationship, introduced to president reagan but:also was donald trump's maine mentor. i wanted to see if he knew much about those two gentlemen. >> charlie wick was an old and dear friend of the reagans and back in the hollywood days came

up many years and later in a political framework, reagan appointed him not for radio free europe but other broadcasting for the government but they were very very close and they use to spend christmas together every year, he was a fan of charlie which and his wife, the godfather to one of the reagan's children. they were close politically and geographically, as far as roy cohen, when you are president of the united states a lot of people come away thinking the president will pick their fights and listen to them and

roy cohen was important to joe mccarthy and the senate subcommittee investigating sabotaging the united states government during the time of the red scare in the early 50s in late 40s and early 50s but roy cohen, he was a self promoter and he promoted, made himself more important to reagan than he was. he already had his framework for how he was going to run the country and govern the country and his worldview was already set so there was very little you could point to that he had any influence, he simply met him once or twice, that deal

was about it. there were several letters, a memo in the reagan white house, generating concerns, and agent to nancy reagan when they were in new york but the political analysis was stay away from him as much as possible. his influences, pretty outsized considering who reagan was and whose advice he took. >> blow is in sylvester, georgia. you are on booktv. >> a wonderful program. two things, the first i live down the street from a pearl harbor survivor the command of the us is ward, the major japanese submarines that morning. the other thing i want to ask,

one of the books you wrote about reagan, between 76, and 80. i remember reagan debating bill buckley about the panama city now, elevating reagan to national status in his own party. >> sorry, go ahead. >> he is done? >> the panama canal treaties in this country, everybody was talking about it, in the isthmus of panama dugout under teddy roosevelt's administration, over the 70s we always had control and jurisdiction over the panama

city now but there was this anti-imperialism belief or theme that we should return the rights and sovereignty to the panamanian people but at the time it was being run by a dictator who regularly -- a dictator. there was a great debate in the republican party over the panama canal treaty, reagan was supposed to relinquishing the treaties to the panamanians in 1978 and bill buckley was in favor. others like john wayne, reagan was leading a national campaign

against the treaties and participated, the panama canal squad, held airport press conferences, there was much debate in the senate on national television and newspapers and it gripped the nation for a long time so they were finally voted on and the only passed the senate for through a few treaties and only passed that by one vote. the jurisdiction returned to the panamanian people. reagan used it to maximum advantage to keep himself in the public eye and focused on a public issue acquiring the

imaginations of millions of americans, really helped him and helped the republican party. i interviewed former president carter, he pointed out every democrat and republican who voted for the panama canal treaties, and he felt his result of voting for those treaties. and this became an issue of national pride, the panama canal was so hot about it at the time. she grew up in an era where the panama canal was taught to her as a child, one of the 5

wonders of the world. it was important psychologically to the american people, albert schweitzer, we built this, tried and failed to build the panama canal in we were successful. it was important for the american people psychologically and it just became an issue of something patriotic, not a complex issue. wasn't about american imperialism but property and rights, itching to have a can now for pleas in the pacific ocean. it was a hot issue of the time and i salute your neighbor and

thank your neighbor who was a panama can now survivor, the thing he did was a great sacrifice so thank you to him. >> host: a pearl harbor survivor, one hour left in our conversation with other craig shirley. here's how you can participate, 202-748-8200. for those in the east and central time zones if you're out west you can dial in at 202-748-8201. if you can't get through on the phone lines or would prefer to send a text or written message, text number, include your first name and city 202-748-8903. when it comes to social media, if you would like to make a comment@booktv is what you need to remember and finally email,

booktv@c-span.org. we referenced william f buckley but want to ask about him and milton friedman and their effect on ronald reagan's thinking. >> it cannot -- reagan was a personal friend of bill buckley's and they exchanged many many letters and bill buckley, also a friend of nancy reagan, socially and things to gather like that, the "national review" is a magazine that cannot be underestimated in this role for the conservative movement beginning in 1950s, refining conservatism, the john burke society and things like

that as part of the american conservative movement. they were extremely close friends and avid readers. and milton friedman who won the nobel prize for economics what he is teaching at the university of chicago. it was a national celebrity. in the 70s when pbs was running a series, contained a lot of interviews, his thinking inspired a lot of reagan's policies including tax cuts and budget policies that restart the economy, adding dollars to the workplace. >> host: the reverend robert

hyde, what was nancy reagan's role in his success in the new biography of her. >> guest: i've not read the book yet. the washington post, i have known her for years and what was the first part of your question? >> host: what nancy reagan's role was? >> guest: nancy reagan was invaluable. if reagan had won the best shoe salesman in the world she would have made sure. it just so happens, she was not a little cookie baker but she was a traditionalist, she was

elegant, she was beautiful, she had a very good mind on her shoulders and also a lot more, a lot better antenna for detecting people who were using reagan to their benefit, she was good it -- people who were not going to help her husband. famously was involved in personnel in sacramento more so when he was president of the united states, they were a true true partnership, one of the great romances of white house history going back to george and martha washington. some presidential couples are more estranged than others but they were normally a loving

couple, things like that, but a political team although her influence was much more subtle than eleanor roosevelt's was, she was equally effective, not as effective as eleanor roosevelt but not very effective. it was wonderful over the years, i remember when i was starting on my first book, the 76 campaign, i was having trouble at the reagan library and she caught wind of it through a mutual friend of mine who has since passed away, one of the president's speech writers whose a friend of mine and no book had been written on the campaign, throwing

campaigns overhead, 76 was the most meaningful and exciting, she directed them, what was catalogued was a priority like the presidential files, told them to open up the exclusive use, you are will be forever indebted to mrs. reagan and honor her memory. >> booktv has covered karen to multi-on her new biography of nancy reagan. we covered her at an event at the ronald reagan library. sandy in montgomery, alabama. >> i'm celebrating my sixteenth birthday today, i remember my

dad saying in regard to fdr the day of infamy, he had 2 other brothers and four sisters and i remember him saying he and one of his siblings, were driving on their way to see my grandparents and the bulletin came over the car radio, the japanese bombed pearl harbor and my dad and my aunt looked at each other, they were thinking the same thing, stationed on pearl, a lot of things going through your mind, grandparents did not have a radio, my dad and my aunt decided not to say anything,

luckily my uncle called, an inordinate amount of time, you can imagine what they went through, as time went on, my grandparents got word the japanese bombed pearl harbor. was in sick bay that day recovering from an appendectomy. >> host: can you bring this to a wrap? >> caller: basically nationalism was running very good. my other outs were making military, my other two uncles, my dad served in the marines, my uncle in the navy and my other uncle in the army. a time of being proud to be an american and i want to say

thank you for writing about world war ii. it was the greatest generation. >> host: anything you want to add? >> guest: thank you and your family for your service. i'm sure you have a lot and you are right, it was a time of great patriotism and sacrifice. every family sacrificed in world war ii, every family large or small, off to war, plans to work there or victory gardens, sacrifice grocery store or bonds, everybody, everybody made a sacrifice in world war ii. it was a remarkable time which we will probably never see

again, not that level of focus. >> host: an email from mark. do you think carter would have been reelected over reagan if the iran hostage rescue had succeeded in 1979? >> good question. it is hypothetical obviously and i dealt a lot in this in my books and other writings and i talked to president carter about that. it is possible he might have won, the wave of euphoria for the release of the hostages, might well have been -- might have won reelection. on the other hand eagle claw happened months before the election. people start to focus on the

real issues at hand with high interest rates and unemployment, other things that were blamed on the carter administration. made the election closer, the electoral and popular vote in 1980. >> host: ellen in florida, good afternoon. >> caller: i want to tell you something and ask a question and that is when i was 6 weeks old i'm told my father took me out of the bassinet to hear roosevelt declare war and my father's three brothers subsequent be served, one getting at least 14 metals but my question is about breckenridge, in 1945 in april,

in auschwitz, my understanding is the state department knew about it all the time to the 1930s and breckenridge from the state department almost single-handedly kept the information from going to any newspapers. are you familiar with that story? >> guest: i salute your family from commitment to the war and one thing you mentioned was roosevelt. the new deal, economic failure, still a social success and fdr's greatest success, the defeat of the empire of japan

in nazi germany and winston churchill, literally saved the world and literally save europe and america from the axis powers so no amount of praise can be heaped on franklin roosevelt for what he did in world war ii. the new deal, there is no debate about world war ii. he is the reason we won world war ii. i have heard that story. there is no evidence to prove it. in 1933 or something like that,

the us government, properly know about these things, there's no paper trail and nobody talked to about this. i had to rely, the truman administration, documents of newspapers and things like that and that is when auschwitz and other camps were discovered was in early 1945 so that is what i went with. it would be a very good book or good article or speech, the united states actually knew about auschwitz and why they didn't move earlier. a very worthy topic of discussion.

>> host: your book "citizen newt: the making of a reagan conservative" came out, is newt gingrich a friend of yours? >> guest: i consider him a friend, i don't know if he considers me a friend. and authorized biography, took 3 or 4 years about his time, established himself, one of the leading political figures in america today, you have to think long and hard to come up with a political figure who has as much influence over the national political debate as newt gingrich. he still has regular commentaries, social media comments, fox news and his columns and things like that. he emails me and i email back

and he was wonderfully cooperative in this book i got unlimited access to him and his papers and to talk to him about his campaigns and the house minority leader and the contracts with america, talking about everything. we talked about reagan and gorbachev and what he thought when we talk about al gore. you have to go back to probably henry clay, who was speaker of the house in 1820s were 30s to find a national political leader, not be president of the united states as these two gentlemen henry clay and newt gingrich, his place in history

in the republican party and the conservative movement and national political debate, his place in history is assured. >> host: do you think nancy pelosi have the same status today? >> guest: as a woman yes. she's not idea factory the way gingrich is or was but probably understands power better than she does, never been ousted as speaker or run out as speaker or challenged as speaker. her authority is supreme and certainly from a political standpoint, an admirable woman and has done much with her two tenures as speaker of the house but she didn't do the revolutionary things that gingrich did. gingrich reform the house post

office and the house bank and went after corruption left and right in his own party much more so than anybody else did. they are similar and they are different. she understands power better than he does. he understands ideology and movements better than she does. >> host: in 2018 in the atlantic, about newt gingrich, few figures in modern history have done more than gingrich to lay the groundwork for trump's rise, it is two decades in congress he pioneered a silent partisan combat replete with name-calling, conspiracy theories and strategic obstructionism the poisoned america's political culture and plunged washington into permanent dysfunction. >> guest: i reject that.

you can have animosity between the two parties for eons, going back to the civil war, when they literally went to war with each, the democrats for the proslavery, the republicans were the party of anti-slavery, and people died as a result, the fight between two political parties. it hasn't come to that and newt gingrich is not to blame for that. he is a tough fighter but a better fighter. he went after corruption and defendant people who needed defending. his motives were mostly if not all pure and i have talked to many many people who work for newt gingrich and i talked to him at nauseum and came to the conclusion this is a good man

because -- it invites criticism. dick hopkins is a liberal and envious adverse opposed to newt gingrich's ideas and strategies and philosophies. >> host: pat, please go ahead with your question or comment. for craig shirley. >> it is customer a performer presidents to give speeches, what do you look at now, 30 years after the fact, ronald reagan, one or $2 million for a couple speeches in japan, was that an presidential? >> host: do you think it was? >> guest: >> caller: if i looked the

sconce that it i don't know what to think about it seeing how other former presidents like clinton have cashed in on the presidency. this is the first one i remembered in my lifetime. >> guest: i thought about it a lot. i advise him to do differently or make a lesser amount, he needed the money at the time and the japanese were willing to pay it. for a momentary point in history it illuminates the luster but not completely. only in a transitory sense, regarded as one of our greatest presidents and usually it is

iran contra when people raise the question of the reagan presidency, or his hard-line soviet union, those are the points about reagan as opposed to his post presidency. you i don't have an answer quite frankly. if i had been in a position to advise him i might have advised him to do something different. >> what is your take on iran contra? >> it is unusual, arms for hostages. the activity, the logan act and an individual engaged in foreign policy.

it was oliver north, he was operating in the basement of the white house and the chief of staff, and the role model, the white house chief of staff to don reagan who was supremely incompetent, and fired by reagan. his own personal staff equipped to serve the president of the united states much less his chief of staff. reagan took responsibility, the argument whether reagan knew

about it, wrote in his diaries, matt oliver north for claiming he went to camp david to give a briefing on this deal and it did not show all of her north going there to brief ronald reagan. the proof is on reagan's side. a black eye on his administration, and hostages almost targeted his heartstrings. no one profited or made money but it was wrong, as i said before, reagan took his loss

and something that needs to be considered, and in a matter of days. the controversy over iran contra, certainly lost a lot of staff, justifiably or not. a month long debate in washington in the united states before the matter was cleared up. >> host: before we running out of time, we have half an hour left, i want to get to your most recent book "mary ball washington: the untold story of george washington's mother". you write mary washington was a woman who used a façade of motherly virtue to cover her desire to control her son.

in the same way he let a country to break away from its overbearing imperial matron, george had to struggle to find independence in his own life to step away from the power of his demanding mother. how were you able to discover that? >> guest: through letters, other books contemporaneous accounts and the obvious truth like for instance when washington was 14 years old the american colonies were under british rule, he wanted to enlist in the british navy, his academy so mary wrote a letter, relative in london, came back, set under no circumstances what -- let george become a cabin

boy and it will be treated like a todd and treated terribly. there was a cast system in british society, the british carried over into the british navy, royalty was first and there were other lesser people, at the bottom of the list would have been american capitalists. .. boys. the british admiralty capped -- including one third of british cabin boys died at sea. they were washed overboard or killed in battle. there were many there are many ways that i have seen. of course they were serving sailors who were in bunkers all

by these things, rich armies in london and he trained them so he would have been with a really rough crowd, dangerous crowd so told him become a bridge boy. she changed course and history with that decision. times, to theernd people were like changed the course of history. >> what got you started? >> two of my favorite presidents are george washington because i

think they are fascinating. look at many different interests pursued many different careers in military politics and things like that. after i discovered others and books written about washington, there seem to be all out but it was to do a book about his mother because nobody had done a book about mary washington before. i lived in virginia and the family, her descendents are down there and there's a lot of paperwork in history, a lot of history there including mary herself died in her 80s of breast cancer and just a couple

of years ago a descendent who owned an antique store down there, she to died of breast cancerce and there was a trail unfortunately she had an enormous influence on her son her entire life and i wanted to record, how he was influenced by her. she was a single mother raising six children and wasn't very hospitable to women. what we don't know, women in that era could not even own property unless they are holding onto the property simply for the

deceasedr husband which she was doing, holding it for george washington. she was a strong woman because she had to be strong. especially for your so again, she is somebody who is fascinating. and you can't find everything about her, i had to limit what i could discover but for what iis could discover his where she's buried, nobody knows where the mother of george washington is buried. there's a lot of rocks which used to go, she used to go there

with her bible and think and meditate. she may have been buried by her cottage, nobody knows. i was limited in how much i could write about her because not everything is known about her. we know everything about michael roosevelt wife or other presidents wife's, but mary paul washington we don't. >> stephen, on the phone, please go ahead with your question. >> hi, i appreciate youou beingn today and your insight. i'd like to ask on the more personal level for president reagan. it's my understanding he

appreciated his staff and when a staffer would have a significant event in their life such as a marriage or maybe for the child, he would personalize something to the staff. i'd appreciate you answering that. >> reagan had a mix of -- how do i say? debatable relationship with his staff. some u.s. and others who is more personally involved. on the issue of marriage is andm births of babies and things like that, he was deeply involved. he would write them a letter and bring them into the oval office for a photograph. there was a zone of privacy around him, people couldn't venture. on the other h hand, a man would

write tender letters to people after giving donations, there is one name is story when he was governor, who used to got news clips and get a bunch of letters every morning, he got hundreds of letters, hate letters, love letters and people in need letters. i read one from a woman in need tin indiana and she was raising her two children by herself and getting into difficult times, he wrote a letter back and sent her a check for $100 she couldn't believe it. the president of the united states would actually answer her letter and give her a check so

the bank on that yes, this is the president, his signature and reagan later the next month was bouncing his checkbook at his desk and no space woman who wrote the check to have not deposited the check so he got on the phone and their families for i met this girl in fifth grade, she had brown hair they were on minutes later. he was famous for tracking downk people but he tracked her down and asked her why and she said pi'm sorry, i wanted to keep it as a souvenir. reagan said book, i'm going to send you another check, don't c cash most of them. he was very generous, he would

donate schools so many times he showed warmth and kindness to many people. the white house staff is big on things like that. one he loved the most was speechwriting. w he probably had the best set of betrayers and the history of america with the exception of ted sorensen but he had a marvelous set of speech writers and it wasn't just -- this was a big think tank inside the white house and came for the speech

writers and sometimes reagan would accept them and sometimess he wasn't that he was involved with every one of them. you'd edit and add and rewrite himself and things like that so he was very involved with them they are to really appreciate and love ronald reagan. >> here's an e-mail from margaret, a place you've probably been, dixon, illinois. thank you for yourr inexpensive information on ronald reagan, i live in dixon illinois. the church he and tenant isen still going," he attended is now a museum. public library has a large section on reagan. i will check in there to find your book. i once lived in reagan's home before it became a historic site. >> how about that? is not a wonderful story? i've been to the town many

times. i've attended his church several times. there are two statures of him, one of him on horseback and one down the river where he was a lifeguard, he saved 77 wives as a high school lifeguard and other statues there, a little house at during dixon so it's important to remember he moved around many times as a child. his father was a salesman, well known as an alcoholic and book many jobs in many locations including chicago and other places in and around western illinois so this is important

there were a number of homes. he had a church there as well. he once joked he would serve food in women's sorority and itr was the best job ever had. >> george text in, can you comment on the importance of the radio show president reagan did between 1976 -- he goes on to say i heard him speak in 1975,el it changed me and felt like he spoke only to me with this commentt. >> what a wonderful comment there were so important. this is before cable television,

you are limited with television. and you had local radio and newspapers but magazines and then there were personal doubles but it was more limited and not era andra is radio announcements very important. he did over 1000 radio commentaries inn his lifetime. they were five minutes each, five days a week so it had to keep wits about yourself to make sure your commentary wasas topil and in west los angeles, literally at the corner of hollywood and vine, he wrote many of them.

some were written by people peter hannaford but he wrote the majority of them in several were commentary and they were on hundreds of radio stations around the country putting a radio station in sierra pace, they are in my parents home in syracuse in the 1970s and millions of people had great effect on his ability to mobilize and seek presidency one more time. there were lots of people who .listened to reagan who later became reaganites. >> market in st. paul, minnesota. hi, mike.

>> it is addressed to the congress, president biden indicated that trickle-down economic would never work, i'm curious to what your take would be on that comment and the economic legacy of president reagan in general. >> thank you for the question, i'm glad you brought that up. i heard that the other night, to and of course it's nonsense. simply giving people back their own money. it was an unfortunate comment, phrase that was created by reagan's director who later resigned and remains with a stain on his record today so it's a false charge and it would be a waste of time to try to engage but you can't argue with

the results. in eight years, reagan created 19 million new jobs. he turned b around a nation. the proof is in the pudding as they say in the proof is reagan worked as an economic cultural and social political force in 1981 to 1989. >> you wrote recently, we've had great presidents and we've had bad presidents at the moment we are stuck with one, joe biden who will, at most just be mediocre. my hopes are not that high tocre honest. >> my office would be a little rougher. biden's problem today is he has two fundamental beliefs to solve

people's problems. reagan when he accepted the nomination for president, assembled delegates to the national audience watch and he said don't trust me, trust yourself. the essential difference between the two parties. one is the party or should be the party of the individual and the partyty of themselves the other people are inherently solving their own problems in the government is necessary as the means to solve their problems and that is the summation really, historically in the context of what reagan did.

>> barbara in virginia, please go ahead with your question or comment. >> i have ahe comment and the comment is, i can't believe you sat there said no one made money off the iran affair, there is no way for you to make that statement, you have no knowledge of that. you have the cia, everybody they knew, all of the politicians they were getting paid to look the other way and the military-industrial complex, which is the corporation that runs the world which is why it was done then you say reagan paid the price political, big deal. he should have gone to prison. >> that's barbara and virginia,. >> i think we should put barbara

down as underside. >> good afternoon. over the years i have heard rumors and suspicions that when president reagan was running for office again, jimmy carter, represented in iran, talking to the iranian leaders as to not release the hostages because it was when election time came around, i always wondered if that was true, maybe if you could shed some light on the. >> thank you, good question. there is no evidence, there was a book written several years ago, whose last name, he started the george bush representatives,

keep him in iran during the 1980 campaign to enable, nothing could be further from the truth. george bush bush didn't fly there, is in the united states the whole time. the reagan campaign or anybody on the military or cia and the delegates, these are conspiraciesha, just made up and entirely untrue. i will tell you, i interviewed bruce, the sgt. of the american embassy the 1980 campaign and he said the reason we were released on the eve of the inauguration

of ronald reagan was iranians were terrified of reagan and they felt they could push in turnaround, they didn't feel they could push reagan around and they were terrified reagan would take decisive military action if they stayed and that's why the iranians released the hostages on the eve of his inauguration, the simple fact. >> for all our in-depth authors, we like to ask what they are reading currently and some of their favorite books. here are responses from craig shirley, mark twain's the adventures of tom sawyer, april 1865, kathryn brinker, miracle at philadelphia, tom will, the bonfire of the vanities in

ferry, lonesome dove. currently, mr. shirley is reading james swanson's end of days, napoleon hill's thinking, franklin winston and michael dobbs one minute to midnight, a lot of history titles there. one stood outis to me, napoleon hill's, think and grow rich, what is that about? >> that's been around for 100 years. my grandfather turned me onto it when i was a young boy and i've read it many times. it is kind of similar to other motivational books but it's different, too. the power of positive thinking, similar to his and it's inspiration, how you achieve success in different means,

spiritual means, economic means, social means, cultural means, it's a book i turned to a lot just for pleasure and re-energize my thinking of a couple of years and i have for many years now. as a matter of fact, for many years whenever i hired a new person in my firm, i gave them a copy because it's been so useful information. >> another book you are reading reading, cs lewis the screwtape letterss. >> i love cs lewis, he proved you can be spiritual and libertarian. as christian and libertarian. it teaches about the devil and what he's teaching is ward how lives andople's

things to avoid and things to know about like like a house burning down, you hand somebody a box of matches or if somebody is drowning, and them a firehose, is about what's going on in society, cultural and what to embrace. it's a good spiritual and practical book. >> will are in new york, please go ahead. >> good afternoon. >> i would like to ask you, what are your thoughts on the documentary a few months ago -- did you think it was fairly accurate? >> what were your thoughts, wilma.

>> i've found it to be an interesting documentary, i watched past documentary like the american experience but this was more in depth.n i just wanted to know because, was it accurate -- >> it was not accurate. it was a mess, made by a man who used to work for a caucus when he was president. one person i was not approached, i think he knew he could operate in that way, one person who did cooperate later told me, he said he was duped, but it was selectively edited, another liberal attempt, unfortunately to samantha reagan legacy.

another treatment of reagan's life, there is an epic movie coming out in the next several months, for next year or so and i happen to know the producer and he is a straight up guy and he's using several reagan bookss is not a documentary, it's a theatrical movie. dennis kuwait is playing reagan and well-known actors are in it as well so i think this will be a much more accurate portrayal of reagan's life and career than that documentary. >> so when you say the producers are straight up guy, is not a way of saying he's coming at it from a conservative you? >> actually, i don't know is politics.

but i have known him over many years and he's been working on this many years, raising the funds and i have always judged him, i have been on several political accounts with them, i've always known him to have no agenda. the documentaries have been anti- reagan, there are few that are probe dragon so i'm looking forward to this one. i'm not sure, but i believe it's going to be an actual account of his life and career. >> we have often heard about the media donald trump, did run a reagan faced a hostile media? >> you but, downright hostile. the washington post was

especially despicable. of course they endorsed jimmy carter, i believe every democrat running this 1952, newspaper covers, new york times, the networks were very rough on reagan. that's why they use the phrase talking over the media, to tax cuts, things like that because the white house staff knew he couldn't get a fair shake from the media so very hostile media and i was probably not as hostile as trumps because it's a

professional governance that tempered the media back then but prevalent today. so individual shows and things like that were much more respectful of both sides of the aisle than they are today. now they are just downright hostile.on which is why the media is growing around the three networks. fox, newsmax and one america news and washington examiner and c-span and other broadcast outlets where people on the right feel they get a chance to tell you about being filtered. >> the author of four

biographies on ronald ragan, a couple more in the works. he's written about world war ii, another one in the works and newt gingrichth and mary ball washington, the mother of george washington. he's been our guest on in-depth the past two hours. thank you. >> thank you very much. ♪♪ >> book tv on c-span2. every weekend, latest nonfiction books and authors. funding comes from these television companies and more including comcast. >> you think it's just a community? no, it's way more. >> partnering with 1000 community centers to create wi-fi so students can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> comcast and television companies to support book tv on c-span2 as a public service