review the search results and click on the program you would like to watch. if you are looking for current programs and you don't want to search, our home page has those ready for viewing. c-span.org is a service of your cable provider. check it out at c-span.org. up next on american history tv we hear from the director emeritus of the smithsonian national museum of american his terror, brent glass. he talks about his latest book, essential historic sites across the u.s. and explains the thinking behind his selection process. the journey through hallowed ground partnership hosted this event. it is about an hour. first and foremost i would like to thank the virginia center for the book, our local cohost, and we appreciate their

support and sponsorship of this program as well. of course, the library system, and we really appreciate the everson madison region ally braer. we are, of course, in sh charlottesville, which is the southern terminus of our national scenic byway as well as national heritage area. we are pleased that the book tonight focuses on both our northern terminus as well as our southern terminus. you will hear a little bit about gettysburg, which is our northern terminus, our most northern part of our national heritage area, and of course you will hear a little bit about charlottesville as well. the way we often talk is if you head out monticell's, jefferson's highway and turn left you are heading on the national scenic byway and you drive 180 miles north to gettysburg which is the other end of our national heritage area. within that 180-mile swath of

land we have nine presidential sites including james monroe's highland, which sarah is here as our guest as well. of course, monticello, madison's home. i know brent will talk about some of these places, and of course eisenhower's home up in gettysburg. we want to thank the charlottesville -- and kirk is here, the executive director. i want to introduce our guest, brent glass, who is director emeritus of the smith sonan's national museum of american history, the world's largest museum devoted to telling the story of america, a national leader in preservation and interpretation of history, he is a public historian who provides management and consulting service to me you museums and cultural places around the world. since 2012 brent has served as a

management consultant to more than 50 cultural and educational institutions, ranging from places like san francisco as well as abraham lincoln's presidential library foundation in illinois. he's currently working with several museums under development and was a member of the flight 93 memorial advisory commission. without further ado, let's welcome dr. brent glass. [applause]. >> thank you, sean. good evening, everyone. it is a pleasure to be here in charlottesville. i spent a really interesting day revisiting monticello, and particularly enjoyed some of the new opportunities, the new experiences, and it reinforces my belief that there's always something new under the sun. i think we're learning more about history all the time through scholarship, through

archeology, through a number of new approaches to understanding history, and it is so great to visit monticello and see how that research is being made accessible to the public. so i enjoyed that very, very much. i want to recognize and thank the virginia center for the book. one of my earliest career experiences was directing the north carolina humanities council, and we always held the virginia humanities council up as our model. the virginia humanities foundation i guess is the official name. we always held that program rob vaughn leads as one of the best if not the best in the country, and so it is an honor to be sponsored by the center for the book and the foundation. i also want to thank the library for hosting this event tonight,

and also to thank the journey through hallowed ground for inviting me. they were very kind to invite me when the book first was published. in march, we had a few a few weeks after the publication at getti get getti gettys burg. i hope that you will join in after my presentation and perhaps question my selections, maybe have some ideas of your own. i do want to recognize, i met a new friend tonight, sarah von harper from the highland, i guess is the official name, and very interesting research going on there, carving out -- i think it is wrong to say plowing new ground because we want to be careful when we disturb the a

archeological evidence that is now changing some of our understanding of james monroe and his contribution. so, sarah, it is very good to meet you and to meet your children here. i think that's so great that they're joining you this evening. i do want to make sure, i don't want to leave out my good friend dan jordan who is here, director, president emeritus of the jefferson -- the memorial foundation, and dan and i have been friend for many years. we are even closer friends now because we work together on a number of projects. but just being at monticello today, dan, reminded me how your emphasis on scholarship and preservation together has enriched not only the visitors' experience but american history and how we understand american history. at dinner tonight leslie bowman, your successor, was at dinner and we were both singing your

praises. it is very great for you to be here tonight, and it is always an honor to see you. in absentia i want to recognize david mccullough who encouraged me to write this book and who wrote the foreword to the book. if are you interested in 50 great places in addition to that, you get david mccullough's wonderful foreword. he and i will be appearing together in boston later this week at the old south meeting house where we will be talking about history and the response of preserving history and about 50 great american places. so i wrote this book, and david mccullough encouraged me to write the book that i would want to read. and the book that i wanted to read -- there were three reasons for writing the book. first was to encourage historical literacy. what do i mean by that? i don't mean the memorization of dates and facts, the order in which the presidents were

elected or when was the war of 1812. [laughter]. >> that's a trick question. i'm not talking about memorizing those kind of facts. i am talking about historical context, how places and events and people relate to their own -- to each other in their own times and how they can be resources for us today. what is the connection between some of these historical places and these individuals that we read about and our own times? how do they help us understand who we are as americans and even give us meaning in our own lives. so historical literacy to me is connected to citizenship. it is impossible to be a citizen in a democracy without knowing something about our history, and it is impossible to have a democracy without having people who understand our history, and especially in the year in which we will elect a new president.

every headline that we read has some connection to history. every headline that we read about the election, about the issues that are being discussed, even about the personalities, and certainly being at monticello and reading anything about jefferson, you know that there were some heated personality conflicts back in his time. so we don't have to think about our own times as the only times in which these larger-than-life personalities entered into our political consciousness. i think it is particularly interesting, not only in the presidential election year but in a year in which -- i think i was told by leslie bowman it is okay to mention alexander hamilton in charlottesville. in a year in which one of the founders of our country has entered into the popular consciousness and the popular conversation, i think it is fantastic that so many young people, people from across the

country, from around the world are interested in the first secretary of the treasury. i was talking to a group of young college students, women from other countries who were living in new york for a year, and they said, we want to go to a broadway show and what should we see? i said, maybe you would want to see the show hamilton. what is it about? i said, the first treasurer of the united states. they looked at me and thought, why would we want to see a show about a bureaucrat. no, it is a great show, has hip hop, lyrics. whether they went or not i don't know. i was motivated when i was working as director of the national museum of american history, i met so many people from around the world who came to discover american history at the smithsonian. after we reopened the museum

after a two-year renovation, we dedicated a public space right outside the star spangled gallery for nationalization ceremonies in which we swore in new citizens to the united states. i had the opportunity to meet so many of these people who were so dedicated to becoming citizens, and they were hungry for more information about american history. so when david mccullough said write the book that i would want to read, i wrote the book i thought they would want to read as well. so that was one of my motivations, was historical literacy. the second motivation was to promote heritage tourism, tone courage americans to go out and experience firsthand these amazing historic sights that we have in our country. there's something about the power of place that inspires us but also stirs our imaginations.

it is interesting that when you go to a place like monticello or gettysburg or any of the other places i write about in "50 great american places," our imaginations are what i think is most interesting to realize that we use our imaginations to fill in the gaps. we're -- there's constantly new information, but there's much information that we may never know about the people who occupy these places. and so visiting these places firsthand is very powerful, and it is hard, i think, to even understand much about american history without getting out and actually visiting these historic sites. the third reason, and i should back up and say what's amazing to me is how many of the well-established sites are adding information all the time. if you go to mount vernon, there's a new education center.

if you go to monticello, mount pellier, gettysburg, all of these places, if you haven't visited in the last ten years you are missing so much scholarship, so much new educational material. that's another reason to visit these historic sites around the country. the third reason was to recognize and honor the visionaries and the contemporary people who are preserving historic places. historic preservation is vital to understand, to helping us understand these great american places. this is the centennial year of the national park service, and about half of the sites i write about in the book are national park sites or national park historic memorials. so i think at these places, at monticello, which isn't a national park but which has been preserved over the years, these

are vital places that are -- that have been preserved. in each one of the essays i have a few sentences about the individuals, some of the heroes and men and women who are not as well-known in history but who played a large role in preserving our history at these great, historic sites. in the essay on grand central terminal, i quote someone who is well-known, and that's jacqueline kennedy onassis, who led the fight in the 1970s to preserve grand central terminal. she wrote, as she was fighting for the preservation of grand central terminal, she wrote something i think is universal as far as historic preservation is concerned. she wrote, quote, is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all her history and beauty, to inspire

our children? if our children are not inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the strength to fight for our future? if our children are not inspired by the past, where will they have the strength to fight for the future? i think that really captures the spirit of historic preservation, and that was another reason that i wrote "50 great american places." it is important to realize that historic preservation is not inevitable. history is not inevitable. it depends on people making choices and making decisions. so those are some of the motivations for writing the book. now, how did i select the sites in the book? i had four criteria in selecting these sites. first of all, i wanted to have sites that represented all of the regions of the country. not every state, but all of the regions of the country. second, i wanted to have sites that represented all of the different time periods from the

precolonial period to the present day. the book is arranged roughly in chronological order, although i start with the national mall in washington. after the national mall, i list the -- my essays cover the sites in roughly chronological order, and that's important because some of the sites i wrote about thought if they were listed early in the book that meant they were more important than the sites i wrote about later in the book. i had someone call me and say, well, i'm happy my site is more important than gettysburg because i'm number eight and gettysburg is number 15 or something like that. i said no, no, no, this is roughly in chronological order. the third criteria was these were sites that are publicly accessible, that are open to the public, that you can get to fairly easily and many are free. that was important to me. the fourth criteria was i selected sites that represented

major themes in american history. i chose five themes in american history that i think represent and define american identity. those themes are freedom war innovation diversity and landscape. freedom, war, innovation, diversity and landscape, fwidl if you are trying to memorize that. we can argue about that. maybe there's some themes that don't -- that aren't uniquely american or that i should add or subtract, but those were the themes that guided me in selecting these sites. so i'm going to show you a few images from the book, not all 50, but about 20 images that -- and 20 sites that represent important themes and represent

the text of 50 great american places. so under freedom, i have to start with monticello. as i said earlier, i think we're learning so much about thomas jefferson and about his contributions to american history, and it is thanks to monticello that we know so much about his times. today i was fascinated with the walk through the building of monticello, the putting up and pulling down, i think, was the name of the exhibit and how often he built and rebuilt and changed the appearance of monticello. but also to think about jefferson's contributions to the story of freedom, to the fact that now monticello was talking about the history of slavery at monticello, and so that freedom

story is being told here. it is a very rich site for all of those reasons. at the smithsonian we had possession of jefferson's bible. do any of you know about jefferson's bible? i know dan knows about it. a great story of just how original a mind jefferson had and how he didn't accept anything, he had to challenge everything. and so monticello tops my list in terms -- it could be in many different categories, but in the freedom story it belongs there. the freedom trail in boston is another important site that i believe in the next few years you're going to read more and more about boston as we get closer to the 250-anniversary of the american revolution. the tamp act, for example, the 250th anniversary was last year. along the freedom trail, where i will be on wednesday with david mccullough, there are 16 sites

that help us understand the events that led up to the american revolution. this is faniel hall where many of the important meetings took place leading up to the american revolution. there we go. seneca falls was mentioned last week when hillary clinton accepted -- or didn't accept but was giving a victory speech, and seneca falls appeared in the video shown prior to her victory speech. i will speaking at seneca falls in july at the annual anniversary of the women's rights convention, which was held in july of 1848. what always amazes me about this story is that elizabeth katy

stanton and lucretia mott and their colleagues in early july came together for tea and decided finally enough was enough, they were staunch abolitionists, speak were progressive reformers, but they decides, we're going to have a convention about women's rights and we're going to hold it in three weeks. we're going to draft a declaration of sentiments, and one of the key will be that women have the right to vote. if we were planning a convention, we would start a year or two ahead of time. they had 300 people show up at this convention, before fax machines, before the telephone, before airmail or the internet. they sent out the word and people came, and 150 people, men and women, signed the declaration of sentiment, and

that document became the -- really launched the women's suffrage movement and the women's rights movement in this country and around the world. it is a very important site. not far from seneca falls is the town of auburn, new york. there are two important people who lived in auburn, new york. one of them i'll tell you was william seward, abraham lincoln's secretary of state, and his home is preserved, beautifully preserved and is well worth a visit. not far from seward's home, and this is a connection to alexander hamilton here, so if you will follow my logic, who lived in auburn? harriet tubman. for the last 50 years of her life harriet tubman lived in auburn, new york, and her home is open to the public. the connection to alexander

hamilton is she will be replacing not alexander hamilton but andrew jackson on the $20 bill. i thought it was a worth while story, to bring us back to seneca falls but an important site. the national park service does a wonderful job interpreting the women's rights convention, and the building on your left is the wesleyan chapel which was restored several years ago, and after it ceased operation as a chapel, it was used for almost every use you could imagine. a laundry mat, a roller skating rink, an office building, used car dealership. everything was in that building, but somehow the bones of the building survived and the park service restored the building several years ago, and it is well worth a visit. the building on the right is elizabeth katey stanton's home just outside of seneca falls.

in atlanta, georgia, the ebenezer baptist church, another important landmark in the story of freedom and the martin luther king birth home which is down the street in an area of atlanta called sweet auburn. what i always found interesting is when you go to the ebenezer baptist church, first of all, the park service has restored the church and has a recording of martin luther king delivering sermons in that church, and it is quite powerful to hear him speak and know that he is speaking in that building. when you go to his home, you go into the room where he was born, and many people don't realize this, but when martin luther king was born his name was michael king. it wasn't martin luther king. his father, who was a baptist minister, took a trip to germany in the early 1930s, just after

martin luther king -- after michael king was born, and he became so interested in the story of martin luther and the protestant refuse protestant reformation that he came back to atlanta and changed his name to martin luther king, and his son's name to market -- martin luther king jr., and he was about five years old. it tells you about the family and how powerful that story was to martin luther king's father. this is an important site in the story of freedom. in the story of war, moving to the other side of virginia, at yorktown, the virginia peninsula, the culmination of the american revolution, and in addition to visiting yorktown and understanding the importance

not only of the victory over great britain in october 1781 but the alliance with france that made it possible. many americans forget totally about the fact that without the french help -- i see dan nodding in approval in the back there. without the french assistance we would not have won our revolution. so it is an important fact, and the french remind us about that frequently. of course, we've helped them as well over the years. but in addition, i talk in the essay about jamestown, about colonial williamsburg, about fort monroe and the amazing array of historic resources in the virginia peninsula. gettysburg, i have visited gettysburg many, many times. every time i go there, this is at the northern end of the journey through hallowed ground, but every time i visit gettysburg it is a new experience for me.

i am particularly interested in the memorial landscape of gettysburg. there are more than 1300 monuments and memorials that were placed by -- mostly by the veterans. what i'm showing you here is the peace memorial dedicate bid franklin roosevelt on the 75th anniversary of the battle of t gettysburg in 1938. what is particularly poignant for me is at this ceremony in 1938 the world was about to enter another major war. so the dedication of the peace memorial to me has a particular meaning when i visit gettysburg, as i have many times. there are several new museums in gettysburg. the seminary ridge museum, which opened a few years ago in the lutheran theological seminary, the building that was there on the first day of the battle and played a pivotal role for the north and the south.

there's the shriver house museum, which tells you something about the home, the effect of the battle of gettysburg on people living in this house. there's always something new, always something new to see at gettysburg. one of the essays in "50 great american places" covers the indian wars or addresses the indian wars. on your left is little big horn memorial in montana and on your right is the wounded knee massacre memorial in south dakota. the indian wars and the whole story of our -- of the federal government's treatment and conflicts with the indians is not a happy chapter in american history, but i felt it is important to include several sites that are essential. i call these sites essential for understanding who we are as americans and how we have overcome a number of barriers in our history.

so the indian wars is an important part of that story. finally, i will show you one other site in the theme of war and that's the uss arizona memorial at pearl harbor in honolulu. this memorial was dedicated in 1961 and was made possible by a fundraising benefit concert by elvis presley. he was making his films, his series of films on hawaii, and he found out that they were running short of money for this memorial. he was a very patriotic person, he had just served in the army, and he did a benefit concert and raised enough money to help finish the fundraising to build this very memorable and important memorial at pearl harbor. there will be the 75th

anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor will be this december. when i was growing up, pearl harbor day was a day that everybody remembered. i don't know whether the young people in the audience know anything about pearl harbor, and i'm not pointing fingers. it is how easily we -- how these places slip from public memory unless we find a way to introduce them and reintroduce them and not take for granted that anybody knows why pearl harbor is important, why world war ii happened after world war i, for example, and that these events shape who we are as americans today. now, under innovation, slater mill in patucket, rhode island, the first textile mill in this country. samuel slater, trained in some

of the textile mills in england, and then came here with that knowledge and created a textile complex in patucket just south of providence. the museum there is a wonderful example of power technology, textile manufacturing, and it is part of the blackstone river heritage area. the first heritage area in this country, i believe, was the blackstone river heritage area. so i recommend slater mill as a way to begin to understand the importance of innovation and technology in american history. in baltimore, mt. clare shops, the baltimore railroad started in 1828. here is a fact for you. on july 4th, 1828 john quincy adams, president of the united states, was breaking ground for the chesapeake and ohio canal,

and on the same day the corner stones for baltimore and ohio railroad were being laid. they didn't know where the canal or railroad would be shaping technology of the country, but they both started on the same day trying to get to the ohio valley, and the railroad won, as we know, and the railroad became the shaping technology of the 19th century. i write in my essay about the importance of the baltimore and ohio railroad but also the impact of railroads in general on american history. in west orange, new jersey, the laboratory of thomas edison is preserved by the national park service, and they do a wonderful job of recreating a number of the important elements of what probably was the first research

and development laboratory in the world. edison was probably more fascinated with research than he was in actually commercializing, although he did try to commercialize a lot of his inventions, but he still is the record-holder for patents. i think he has more than 1,000 patents in his name. one of the sites at edison's laboratory i think is interesting is the reconstruction of his movie studio, which he called black mariah, a black building on a turntable with a retractable roof so it could capture the different lighting that he needed for his movies. he was one of the first to develop motion pictures. and then the last example under innovation is the -- is silicon valley. now, you can drive around silicon valley and see the different little garages where

hu hewlett and packard started and steve jobs and steve wozniak started apple. you can go to the google garage where google first started. at this building in mountain view, california, which is the computer history museum, you can get a great overview of the importance of the electronics revolution that took place mostly after world war ii, and this building itself is an artifact because it was the home of a tech company, a silicon graphics that failed. it is a good reminder that many of those technology startups do not succeed or they're purchased by someone else, and so i recommend a visit if you are out in the bay area, go down to palo alto and to san jose and learn about the beginnings of the computer revolution, the digital revolution that is now the shaping technology of the 21st

century. now, in diversity i chose a few sites that i think represent the diversity of american history. mesa verde in colorado, home of the ancestral -- the ancestral pueblan culture, preserved by the national park service. this is cliff palace, one of the cliff dwellings, largest of the cliff dwellings, which were developed at the very end of the occupation of mesa verde. this dates from probably around the 13th century, 12th to 13th century. but it was only occupied for a few decades, and miysteriously they disappeared from the culture and they resettled we believe in arizona and new mexico, and some of the other

tribes, the hope, and other trieps are direct descendants from some of the tribes that occupied mesa verde. it is well worth visiting and remembering that the mesa indians that while we think of them as nomadic tribes actually had permanent settlements that spanned several hundred years, and they were highly sophisticated without advanced technology and able to develop a remarkable civilization. just south of sue son is mission san xavier. i don't know, kirk, if you visited mission san xavier just south of tucson, one of the last of the spanish missions built in the 1790s. i stopped saying completed because as you can see they didn't complete the bell tower on the right, but the interior

of this mission is extraordinary. hand carved statues of the virgin mary, of st. francis, many other saints, anonymous statues of ordinary indians and spanish residents of that time, and preserved now by the diocese there, the catholic diocese that still has an active parish on the reservation there in arizona, and a very important site, that it helps us understand that american history started in several different places. it didn't always start in virginia or in massachusetts. it started in the southwest, it started in the mississippi valley. if you think about 1607 when jamestown was founded, in 1608 was when quebec was founded, and

1609 is when santa fe was founded. so these colonial empires all had their beginnings around the same time, and this in the southwest, that story is told. i think if the mission san xavier is a great place to understand that. in new harmony, indiana there is the home of two utopian societies. the harmonist society which was a german secretary that came to pennsylvania in early 19th century, then after ten years moved to the wabash river, not far from evansville, indiana today. they were phenomenally successful. they had textile mills, they had graineries, very they were productive. after about ten years they sold their utopian village. this was a community where everything was owned by the

community. there was no individual property ownership, it was a pure communal society. the only thing they didn't figure out was how to continue the society because they were a celibate organization, so they did not have a succession plan. they sold their property along the wabash to another utopian society, to roberto went, w owes a successful scottish industrialist. he was a socialist, not a religious community, and, unfortunately, his experiment failed after three years. the harmonists, on the other hand, moved back to pennsylvania just outside of pittsburgh, and their site, which is now called old economy village outside of pittsburgh in the town of ambridge, is open to the public and you can see the evidence of this remarkable and very

successful communal society now outside of pittsburgh. but in new harmony they have preserved the buildings of the harmonist society and the owen society, the owenites, and it is well worth a visit. what i'm showing you here is the labyrinth you which was reconstruct ned the '30s. at the center was a got orotto, rough on the outside and smooth on the inside, and that reflected their philosophy about human nature and about who we are as human beings. then the last example on diversity is ryman auditorium in nashville. it is a good example, i think, of a building that started out being something different than what we know it today. the ryman auditorium is called

the mother church of country music, and in fact it was built as a church in the 1890s and later became a music hall. there is a woman entrepreneur, laura nuff, who was responsible largely for reviving the ryman auditorium as an entertainment venue. in the 1940s she had the idea of leasing the building to produce the radio show called "the grand old opry." and "the grand old opry" became a phenomenal success in the south and later throughout the country. the ryman auditorium is center of that music revolution. today nashville calls itself music city. it wasn't always that way, but over time nashville began to realize that the music associated with the city, not only country music but many other genres of music, was vital

to their identity. now, i'll close with a few images about the theme of landscape. the only national park that i include in my book "50 great american places" is yellowstone national park because it is the first national park. the story of our national parks is one of the great contributions of america to world history, the idea that the government would set aside land that could not be developed, that was going to be protected. yellowstone was the first example of that in 1872. there are many historic structures associated with those early days at yellowstone. in addition to the amazing natural features and natural wonders that you see there. in san francisco, the san francisco bay and the

presidio -- he said, i'm naming this site crysopoli which in greek means golden gate, because he said this site will be to north american, san francisco bay will be to north american what the golden horn is to constatinople. the presidio was an army base from 1840s to 1990s, and then the national park service and golden gate national recreational area took ownership and responsibility for the presidio, and today in the foreground you see chrissy field, which was the birth place of west coast aviation. that's been transformed to a

public park. ft.points which is located just under the golden gate bridge, is a civil war area port open to the public. then the entire base of the army, all of the buildings, many examples of military architecture, military engineering can be seen there. what i love the most about this slide is that you're looking at the south end of the golden gate bridge. there's an arch at this end of the bridge. there is no arch on the north end. the reason is that in the 1930s when they were designing the bridge, they decided they had to preserve ft. point. they designed the bridge over the fort, and a good example of historic preservation on the west coast. willa cather's home in nebraska, david mcalla write bisexual this in the foreword to the book. willa cather captured the beauty

and tragedy and triumph of the homesteaders who lived on the great prairie in nebraska and other neighboring states. what is remarkable about red cloud is right now they have -- the willa cather foundation has preserved her home and a number of the buildings that she writes about in her novels. they've also purchased, on your left you'll see the memorial prairie. they purchased 600 acres of never-been-plowed prairie, which they have preserved and have a few trails that you can walk through and see the landscape that affected and influenced willa cather, one of the great writers in american history. i will close with an image of a manmade landscape, and that's the national mall in washington. this is the place where memory

and identity and commemoration and celebration take place. it is a living landscape. i have the good fortunate to work for nearly ten years in this setting at the kmigt sownan, and i can tell you that people from all over the country and all over the world come here for a connection to the american story and to understand who we are as americans. and so i close with actually the national mall, it is the first essay in the book but it is the last image i'll show you here today. i welcome your questions. we will have a microphone, i think, that will go around if you have a question or comment, but you've been a good audience and i thank you very much for your attention. thank you. [ applause ] >> what was number 51?

>> well, you know, that's a great question. you're not the first to have asked me that. it was hard because there were some states that i didn't include in the book, and i haven't really thought about any one place in particular that was left out, and you haven't seen all of the sites so it is hard to describe what is or isn't in the book. what i think i tried to do was pay attention to, as i said, to the themes and to make sure that every region of the country was included. so i don't know if i was doing a volume two what i would choose. i have to say, and it is not only because of the recent news with the death of muhammad ali, but i think louisville is an

important city for many reasons, many related to sports history between churchhill downs and louisville slugger and muhammad ali you have some of the iconic stories of american history which i didn't include in the book, but i think that would be one that i think is important. >> did you get any letters from sites that were not included? >> i didn't get any letters yet, but i did get -- when i -- the first talk i gave was in hudson, ohio, which is a beautiful little new england style town just outside of cleveland, also the town where john brown grew up, the abolitionist. when i was in hudson, of course, everyone said how could you leave out, and they named a couple of places in ohio that were not included. the wright brothers' shop and

home in dayton is not in the book but kitty hawk is in the book. i don't think david mccullough would have written the foreword if i left out the wright brothers. i am sure there are some places. in pennsylvania where i worked for many years, i included three sites, and i think that was a little provincial on my part, but the liberty bell, gettysburg and where the french and indian war was such an important factor in the french and indian war, i think are pretty important. i didn't get letters yet, dan, and i'm hoping you won't write one either. >> should you entertain not volume two but another great 50 places, i would like for you to consider guam and the northern merion islands, having been a

resident of the islands. on december 8, 1941 the japanese went to hong kong, singapore, guam and the philippines, and it was the only territory ever los territory ever lost to a foreign power in war. and an tinian, which is roughly 100 miles to the north, is where the atomic bombs were both loaded on to the superforces. so if you would entertain suggestions for another great, i have that and many others i'd like to share with you. [ laughter ] >> well, thank you and i -- one of the criteria that i also fail to mention is i have to have visited all these sites so now you've given me a good reason to go there. i did include in the book, there's one essay called "the manhattan project" and hanford washington, which was the third of the major laboratories where the atomic -- where the materials of the atomic bomb

were assembled, we're familiar with los alamos, we're familiar with oak ridge, tennessee, but hanford, washington is where the plutonium was produced and the b reactor at hanford is now open to the public and you can visit and it's a fascinating story of just creating this town not in a total wilderness, there were native americans living in that area and some other settlements but the federal government came in and created this factory to produce 14 pounds of plutonium, that was it. something that would sit on this desk and i think they spent $350 million at that time to do this. so the story of the atomic bomb is told in the book and also at hanford, washington. within of the great outcomes

of visiting meaningful places like this is the transformation that occurs within us when we discover and when we learn. is there any moment of discovery or transformation that you experienced that you'd like to share with us, whether it's about a place that you hadn't been but someone said you must go or that changed you in an unexpected way? well, the question about whether i was changed by visiting a site in a way that i hadn't anticipated, it's a really good question. i'm trying to think. probably the kohokia mounds in illinois was a surprise to me. i'd always read about it. there's a book called "wilderness at dawn" that i think is wonderful and i'd red about cohokia and when i visited

i wasn't expecting to see how developed that civilization was. back in the 11th and 12th centuries. much like mesa verde, the mound builders had no technology, they built these extraordinary structures and grand plaza and it was a place where sporting events took place. but you can climb up to the tallest mound and see the gateway arch. and the essay i write is called "the mound and the arch" where i combine these two in one essay because to me they were symbols of two different civilizations and i think that was an unexpect

ed insight or perspective that actually being in that place if i hadn't visited that place, which is a world heritage site and which isn't as well known as mesa verde or some of our other pre-colonial sites, i'd have to putt cahokia up there in response to that question. >> do we have any other questions? we'll take one more question. here you go. >> when you were researching and going to these places, cahokia is one place -- i grew up near cahokia and civilization has encroached, it's right at the borders and i'm sure a lot of these other places have walmart next door. how did you feel about that and what can we do about it? >> well, the question about how the we protect these historic sites is a very important

question and i think to the fact that here in virginia not too many years ago there was a proposal to put a disneyland or a disney theme park on or near manassas battlefield and it was through the efforts of david mccullough and dick mow and other preservationists who alerted the country to the fact that this was inappropriate, this was sacred ground, this was hallowed ground and so i think unfortunately historic preservationists have to win all the time because if you lose one battle it's gone. i think of the grand central terminal as another great example where today it's impossible to think when you walk through that magnificent building at that at one point there was a poe posal to build a skyscraper on top of the terminal that would have compromised its integrity and probably led to the demolition of much of the building.

so i think we need to be organiz organized. we need to -- at one point i served as state historic preservation officer for pennsylvania before i came to the smithsonian and people were always saying to me "you have to save this, you have to save that." i would have liked one time for a legislator to call me and say "you're not doing enough to preserve pennsylvania history." most of the calls i received from legislators was how come you're standing in the way of progress? so i think we need to elect people and we need to communicate with elected officials to make them know that preservation is a good thing for our country and in fact i think that research will show that property values increase in areas where there's been an organized preservation effort so over time i think we can document and we are in the year,

by the way, of the 50th anniversary of the national historic preservation act. this is a good time to raise that awareness. >> i think we're out of time so let's give brent glass a round of applause. [ applause ] >> thank you very murch. >> thank you very much for coming and if you have any additional questions, we'll set brent up in the back and you can have your book signed and talked to him there. thank you very much. american history tv airs on c-span 3 every weekend, telling the american story through events, interviews, and visiting historic locations. our features include lectures in history, visits to college classrooms across the country. to hear lectures by top history professor, american artifacts takes a look at the treasures at

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search tools. if you're looking for our most current programs and you don't want to search the video library, our home page has many current programs ready for your immediate viewing such as today's washington journal or the events we covered today. cspan.org is a public service of your cable or satellite provider so if you're a c-span watcher, check it out at cspan.org. on lectures in history, suny at buffalo teaches a class about andersonville, the confederate civil war military prison where 13,000 civil war prisoners died and the trial of its commander henry wirz. she also discusses the halt of the trial and how it was used for war crimes proceedings. her class is an hour. welcome, ever,