c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. >> coming up next on american history tv, british house of lords member michael dobbs, creator of "house of cards," and author of four novels about winston churchill, gives the keynote address at the international churchill conference in new york city. this is about 40 minutes. >> i would like to ask that we have as a guest speaker tonight, and i would like to ask the very beautiful talented and brilliant lisa to come up tonight, if you would. lisa is a fantastic journalist. seven years of fox news, publisher's foreign desk, and she has the privilege of, no,

that is wrong. lord dobbs has the privilege of being introduced by lisa. [laughter] [applause] lisa: good evening. i just realized that i am going to be the only person on this stage tonight who doesn't have a british accent. [laughter] lisa: but i do have an accent, so you have to see if you can detect it at some point. [laughter] lisa: if you asked him, lord dobbs would tell you that he never had a proper job. yet, it was in his restless search, as he calls it, for this ideal job, that he just happened, happened to stumble upon some of the most wonderful and rewarding experiences that

anyone could ever hope to have in a lifetime. ones that honored his presence. ones that called upon him as a crafty in skilled storyteller. ones that demanded his inquisitive mind, and others that we boarded his wondrous creativity and innovation. it all began in a pub or i met a complete stranger, lord dobbs says about his journey. i happened to mention to him that i was looking for a job in current affairs. he bought me a drink and later, i found myself working for a rather exceptional lady called margaret thatcher. [laughter] lisa: a modest lord dobbs may call it luck, while the rest of us, particularly those of us working in the political and media world, painfully recognized this wonderful trait as perseverance.

a job with margaret thatcher and four years later, he would be the first person to tell her that she had become the prime minister. and the next day, he took her first step with her across 10 downing street. it was in this self-described state of joblessness that lord dobbs also served as did the chairman of saatchi & saatchi, worked as a well-regarded abc anchor, was hired as a newspaper, must working at the boston globe -- well regarded bbc anchor, and was hired as a newspaper anchor. if only unemployment could be so fruitful for everyone. [laughter] lisa: a prolific author with many acclaimed novels, and of course, like any lazy man's profile would include, doctorates from harvard and tufts. and of course, i saved the best

for last. what is lord dobbs known for? >> "house of cards?" lisa: no. sharing a girlfriend with bill clinton. [laughter] lisa: this is while they were both students at oxford. [laughter] lisa: lord dobbs was always confused as to why she never introduced the two of them. but then he admitted, it to me many years and an entire presidential scandal to discover why. [laughter] lisa: but you guys are right. 30 years ago, lord dobbs wrote "house of cards," a political thriller based on the life of a politician that was highly adapted as a tv series and took

by netflix, telling the story of congressman frank underwood, trying to get himself in a place of power in the political world, starring kevin spacey, as you all know. yes, amazing. [applause] lisa: to date, the series has earned 33 primetime emmy award nominations in the series underscored by premises of deceit, manipulation, darkness, power, you know, all of the ingredients of a successful politician, whether in washington or westminster. but all stemming from the genius of a man who is humble, talented, quickwitted, and just plain brilliant. with that, ladies and gentlemen, i am blessed with this amazing honor tonight of presenting to you lord michael dobbs. [applause]

lord dobbs: lisa, that was the most lovely introductions i ever had. thank you so much. [laughter] lord dobbs: what an occasion. i thought i was coming to a really serious, intellectual evening. now, i hear my girlfriend and bill clinton have been dragged in. [laughter] lord dobbs: but this is a serious evening. i cannot tell you how honored and privileged i feel to be here in the company of so many people, particularly, david petronius. petraues.

honored to be in the same room. [applause] lord dobbs: a great american. and i wanted to thank the churchill family, who do so much to keep winston's flame alive. celia, jenny, oh feel you, and randall -- jenny, ophelia, and -- edwina and randall. we thank you so much for the work that you do. and you make our joy of winston so much fun. and we heard so many thanks today from michael bishop and lawrence who thanks everybody, but one person they have not thanked are themselves. we owe them a huge great of -- debt of thanks. michael and lawrence. [applause] lord dobbs: for having made our society and our love of winston so much fun and incredibly successful.

i cannot tell you, you know, these things don't happen by accident. they happen through a great deal of work. and michael, lawrence, it has largely been your work. so thank you very much indeed for that. you were talking earlier about who is going to say no to a churchill? i was delighted to discover that you have never said no to a churchill. you and jenny are going to be a proper couple very soon, and i cannot tell you how delighted i am about that. [applause] lord dobbs: wow. you know, have you ever had the feeling that you arrived at the wrong party? i kind of feel like that. i write here, to be surrounded by some of the finest historians of our age, and the most

eminent churchillians on the planet. i simply write works of fiction. and of course, writing novels is not a proper job. it was for margaret thatcher, you may remember her. she was the woman -- he said, i i metent mitterand said, this woman and she has the lips of marilyn monroe, and the eyes of caligula. [laughter] lord dobbs: well, 30 years ago, i was her chief of staff for the conservative party. we had a tremendous falling out. it happens. there is nothing unique about falling out with margaret. she rather insisted on it. [laughter] lord dobbs: i remember a few weeks later after the election when i was sitting beside the swimming pool on holiday, thinking that perhaps i should

find myself a new job, that margaret would rather insisted, and i was sitting beside the swimming pool wanting to fill time. and i decided to write a book for no better reason that i have spare time. that book became "house of cards." john major was kind to say that it did to tv what dracula did to babysitting. and it spawned two great jobs. [applause] lord dobbs: well, it was a hell of a time with margaret. [applause] doesn't stop me believing she was the greatest peacetime

prime minister britain ever had. she bled, i bled -- so what. but the book that i wrote, it has gotten around a bit. about 18 months ago, i was privileged enough to have a meeting with president -- to china.nt xi of i marked the occasion by handing him a copy of the original hardback. he looked at what it was, and he frowned and said what? you have "house of cards" in this country, too? [laughter] lord dobbs: i have written 20 novels over the years. but the novels, honestly, the ones i have most enjoyed writing have been those four novels i

have written about winston churchill. my relationship with winston, and i regard it as a relationship, i regard him as a friend, as somebody who is very much a part of my life. it began as so many, with his funeral. i was sitting there watching it, those fuzzy black-and-white images that we had on television. i was sitting there watching it with my mother. and i remember those images. the gun carriage, the barge, the train, an extra ordinary moment we all remember when the cranes of london dock bowed their heads in respect. what extraordinary moment. and my mother was grieving , weeping silent tears. and i asked myself, why is my mother weeping so emotional about a man she had never met?

and her tears began a time of inquiry and questioning, which led me to a fascination about winston church. == churchill. not the politician, but the man, the flesh and blood man. eventually, i decided i wanted to write out about him. i had to say, how dare i, novelist, write about the greatest many which history when he has been retained out about -- when he has been written about by great historians over the years? winston, himself, provided me with the onslaught. -- with the answer. died,eville chamberlain winston made a wonderful and beautiful eulogy for his old rival in which he said, history

with its flickering lens, stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams of passions of former days. in other words, no matter how hard they tried, historians and history can never offer you the full picture. which made me think that perhaps, i as a novelist, starting from a fiery different perspective -- starting from a very different perspective, maybe a novelist can fill in some of the gaps and try to capture the flush and blood man, the triumphs, and yes, the fears, too. so, i started to think of winston as a real person, not just as a cardboard cutout, real person. winston is an old man.

i dived into a publication. i don't know if we still publish it. it was an extraordinary exposition of the hangups that winston had, even as an old man, about his father. i wanted to know about winston as the child, so i went to his first school, and discovered extraordinary and horror stories at his school with an appalling headmaster. a man who was intent on breaking winston. winston was abused in so many ways. he was abused intellectually, physically, emotionally, and quite probably, in other ways, too. winston, being a naughty boy,

and he wasn't not a boy, he was a pain as a kid, was discovered with a stolen packet of sugar from the pantry. for the crime, he was taken to the headmaster's study, where he was held, he was stripped naked, held, and thrashed. and he was thrashed and he was thrashed and he was thrashed and he was thrashed not until he was black and blue, but until there was blood on that poor boy's body. winston came close to being very broken at that school. he was remote by his nanny, misses -- he was removed like his nanny, mrs. everest. she discovered the terrible

wounds on his body insisted to his parents that he be removed from that school. he did suffer terribly from the headmaster, but remember that winston was not like most of the rest of us. if i had been treated like that, i would have held my hands up, and say, tell me what to do to stop this treatment. but that was not winston's idea. the next occasion that he had after that beating, when he was able to find the headmaster away from the school, he crept -- he broke into the headmaster's study, crept to the back of the door for the headmaster kept his prized hat that he wore on official occasions. and he took it down to the woods from the school, and he kicked the crap out of it.

not bad for an eight-year-old boy who had just been so cruelly abused. winston was an extraordinary individual, even as a young boy. but then, i wanted to know about winston, the father. now, imagine, imagine winston sitting at his dining table on the seventh of december, 1941, an awesome date. he was there with his daughter sarah -- his daughters sarah and mary and his daughter-in-law pamela. and anril harriman, understated hero who was the american ambassador sitting so wonderfully -- ambassador

filling the shoes of joe kennedy. around the table that evening were the american friends of britain's salvation. also the elements of extraordinary, personal pain. because, during the dinner, the intrepid valet, frank sawyers, came in to the room, and brought with him a portable radio, and said listen to the news. and that is when winston and the others first heard the news of pearl harbor. the japanese attack on america. now, for winston's a statesman, this was everything he had hoped for.

he was able to broaden out the war and get america involved. could you imagine the collusion of feelings that he must've had when he embraced his american friends? because they were great, great friends, and great allies. but the austere, and i think sometimes arrogant, was also the lover of pamela. and they, he was helping to tear her marriage to randall apart. and he was in love with sarah. and it was to be an unfulfilled love, which caused them both great misery, and i think, eventually contributed to wine -- to winant's suicide a few years later -- winan's suicide a few years later. as a father, he must have wept. his triumph was wrapped up in torment.

that was the flehsh and blood side of winston churchill. that is one reason i think he adopted a policy of "just get on with it." kbo. keep buggering on. as we heard from that wonderful film i will get on with a minute, has continuing elements. -- relevance. joe, you make this wonderful film, and it was a real privilege to be able to see an early sighting of it. look, to come and present that film in front of this audience, man, that took courage. [laughter] lord dobbs: but it also brought

up huge personal enjoyment because not only did i love the film as a work of art, it reminded me that you were a historical consultant who was my old professor 40 years ago. it reminded me of elizabeth leighton. i knew her. and what a wonderful, extort a woman she was. and it got me thinking about how very long it took to make one stop on the london underground in those days. [laughter] lord dobbs: but this is an era today of kbo. just like it was then. so, how did winston respond? we saw that in your thumb, joe. -- we saw that in your film, joe. we saw him make a great speech.

what he said, we shall go on to the end. not to victory, not to success. but go on to the end because he did not know what the outcome would be. chilling words in many respects. we shall fight whatever the cost may be. we shall never surrender. it is the ultimate expression, at that time, of kbo. it was not, and this is the point i want to make -- it was not simply an expression of blind stubbornness. it was an example of winston never losing sight of the longer term, even at a time when he was surrounded by chaos. never lost sight of that. i think people call it the

vision because he went on to say this, and we saw that last night, the closing words of that film. not so well known, but it is equally important. he went on to say that even if this island, or a large part of it, was subjugated and starting, then our empire, beyond the seas, was carried on the struggle until in god's good time, the new world, with all of its power and might, sets forth to the rescue, and the liberation of the old. he knew what it was about. he never lost sight of what he was fighting for. and what was he fighting for? he was fighting for the survival of our values, western values, values we shared at the time of the new world.

and, you know, even at the time going through all of those perils, winston won. today, we are back here in uncertainty and confusion. you know, politics. politics, they say it is the world's second-largest -- second oldest profession. that takes its rules from the first. [laughter] lord dobbs: it takes most of its rules from the first. i think winstoin would be distressed. at what politics has become at this moment. where it seems to be all about volume and then am, and how distressed he would be at the lack -- all about volume and

venom. we are like a man bent over, examining his shoelaces, because they happened to be untied. and to be accessed by the fact -- obsessed by the fact that your shoelaces are untied, and yes of course, we have problems, but while you are bending over, you expose your vulnerable parts to the rest of the world, and that is what we seem to be doing. kbo does not mean to keep bending over. [laughter] lord dobbs: now, winston probably couldn't have seen his shoelaces and he would never been down to tie them himself. he raised himself to his full 5'5" inches, and was still on -- would have stood on the corpses of his political adversaries, and would have looked ahead. he would have looked to the future as he always did, even during those dark days of 1941. and he would have seen, even today, a western world, which still, at its full height,

towers above the rest. and i don't mean to be unkind to any other culture or part of the world, but i think it is an objective fact that is still here in the west -- we are --let me put it this way. i'm a realist. i have four kids. but i'm an optimist because i have four kids. but i cannot think of any other part of the planet where i would have more wanted to have brought up my children, and watched them bring up their children than in this part of the world. [applause] lord dobbs: you know, for the last 300 years, this part of the world has been the western world, it has had the most

innovations. we have the most world-changing inventions. we have been so much of the inspiration and produced so much of the culture that is marked the progress of humanity. let's say 1000 years. why have we been so successful? not because we have the best politicians, no. but because we have the finest universities. we have the most vibrant culture. we have the rule of law. we have freedom of association, ideas, tolerance, even in this awkward age of social media, which allows us to move forward together. now, of course, we have in that time experienced some terrible setbacks. but the march of progress over all of those centuries has been

immeasurable, and we have to put -- has been inexorable and we have to put those setbacks in the context. we are right now any kbo, i moment, i think. the way ahead seems to be lost in the midst around us. in america, there is more political division that i think it has ever been in my lifetime. in germany, it is supposed to be the strongest part of europe. we have a chancellor who has been humbled recently, but now is much weaker and faces a very difficult time ahead. in britain, we have mrs. may, who may not. [laughter] lord dobbs: and that gives me no pleasure to say so. and so much of the rest of europe is in freefall.

spain this week, greece last year, greece this year, italy every other year -- it is a very difficult time. and brexit. look, everybody mentions brexit, so i will not miss my chance. i am going to impose upon your patience. winston said he only required three things of an audience, that they be well educated, well-intentioned, and well-oiled. i hope i'm onto a winner this evening, particularly with the well-oiled. it has been so often mentioned, i'm going to ask you to take a look beyond kbo in the short term. what side would winston have been on? every side claims winston. they grab a quote out of context to say winston would've thought this or thought that. winston had a political life of 65 years.

i think he probably said almost everything several times over and the idea we could be clear about what winston would have said or would have thought is nonsense. i do believe he saw europe in its broadest sense. he saw its history, he valued its cultures, its values, not just its institutions. institutions, they change, and they go. i think he would have enjoyed the diversity of europe. how can i put this to applied polite audience? let me tell you a story. imagine you are in a railway carriage and a young couple sits with you. as they are sitting there, they start making love.

as a frenchman, you would start applauding. [laughter] lord dobbs: as a german you would take detailed analysis. as an italian you would get up and join in. if you are an englishman, you would stare stoically out the window as if nothing was going on. [laughter] lord dobbs: if you came from brussels you would get out a big menu of rules and regulations to make sure they were doing it properly. that is another matter. [laughter] lord dobbs: the differences that we have in europe, the differences in cultures, have caused much tension and torment over the centuries. those differences have also been a source of an endless

outpouring of a wonderful culture, of music, of literature, of art, of drama, of medicine, of architecture, and political thinking. that was europe's great role until young america came along and showed us there were other ways to do things. i want to leave a thought in your minds over the future of europe. it may have you reaching for your glasses. i see my new colleague, we have different views on this matter, you will have to indulge me this evening. the differences in europe have caused tension and turmoil. the greatest turmoil and tragedy, i suggest, has been

caused not by competing nationalism in europe but by the attempt of one authority or ideology or a talk receipt or -- or autocracy or bureaucracy to bring about one system in europe. that has been true since the days of napoleon. they have all failed. the west has found such great strength in its diversity, not in its uniformity. what side of the brexit issue would winston have taken? i watched it very closely last night, i learned something. you talked about learning something from making the film, i learned something from watching your film. i think winston would have said, as he did in your film, do not trust establishments, do not trust elites, trust the people.

take a trip on the train, as he did. i do not expect you all to agree with that but i will ask you to think about it. we have so many reasons to be optimistic, if only we could raise our eyes from our shoelaces and remember how good we are. remember the berlin wall, how it was brought down. it was not destroyed by military might. it was pulled down by the bare hands of millions of ordinary men and women who wanted to be part of us, to share with us what we have. yes, economic advantages, but it was so much more than that. it was our freedoms, our values, our dreams. i started with winston's

beautiful eulogy to his predecessor, neville chamberlain, about history's flickering light. that is not all he said. he went on to say this, words as relevant today as they ever were. the only guide to a man is his conscience. the only shield his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. it is imprudent to walk through life without the shield because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations, but with the shield, we march always in the ranks of honor. winston was a man of honor, a man who never bothered to look at his shoelaces, he was a man of vision, he was a man of

dreams, dreams that inspired the world and went on to save it for us. thank you for listening this evening and may your dreams go with you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this weekend on the c-span networks, tonight at 9:15 p.m. on c-span, former presidential speechwriters for presidents nixon to obama. sunday at 6:30. how your zip code impact your health. tonighttv on c-span 2, at 9 p.m., daily column editor-in-chief christopher bedford on his book" the art of

donald, lessons from america's philosopher and chief." andunday, rebecca fraser her book "the mayflower, the families and the founding of america." on american history tv on c-span 3 tonight at 8:55 p.m. penn state university history professor on the u.s. r in architecture. . thedwight0 p.m d. eisenhower memorial on washington, d.c. this weekend on c-span networks. >> american history tv is on c-span 3 every weekend featuring museum tours, films and programs on the presidency. the civil war and more. here is a clip from a recent program. >> we have talked about the changing more. -- war.

i was a just understanding the war requires an understanding that it changed dramatically from the beginning in 1861 to the end. and there was change that affects military practice, you see it here with a massive earthworks here, but also military policy because the would becomings a told to implement policy at that affected the institution of slavery, and of course, southern civilians. those policies would become the major point of debate within the 1861-62r effort, from and into 1863. and within the armies themselves. and so because the army was such becausetant tool and

it's early commander was so avid in hisassistance -- assistance -- his insistence in participating with the debates. the army of the potomac became to matter a great deal. susan ferrechio you can want this -- >> you can watch this on our website where all are video is archived. that is c-span.org/history. >> each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places to learn about american history. next, we visit the henry ford in dearborn, michigan to see the , garage where ford built his first car, the quadricycle. the historic structures to reader jim johnson shows us his childhood home, where he was born in 1863. both buildings were relocated to greenfield village, the living history section of the h