>> coming up next on "american history tv," we'll hear from british house lords member michael dobbs, creator of "house of cards" and author of four novels about winston churchill. this conference in new york city is 40 minutes. >> i'd like to ask, we have as a guest speaker tonight and i'd 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. publishes foreign desk and she has the privilege of -- no, actually, that's wrong. lord dobbs has the privilege of being introduced by lisa.

>> good evening. i just realized i'm the only person on the stage tonight who doesn't have a british accent. i do have an accent. you'll have to see if can you detect it at some point. more pertinent to the city that we're in. if you'd ask 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. one that's honored his presence. ones that called upon him as a crafty and skilled storyteller.

ones that demanded his inquiztive mind and others that rewarded his innovation. it began in a pub where i met a complete stranger lord dobbs says about his journey. i happened to mention to him i was looking for a job in current affairs. he bought me a drink. i found myself working for an exceptional lady called margaret thatcher. a modest lord dobbs may call it luck bhwhile the rest of us particularly those working in the political and media world painfully recognize this wonderful trait as perseverance. a job with margaret thatcher. and four years later, he'd be the first person to tell her that she had become the prime minister. and the next day he took her first steps with her across ten downing street.

it was in this self described state of joblessness that lord dobbs also served as deputy chairman of sachy & sachy, worked as a well regarded bbc anchor, was hired as a newspaper columnist working at the "boston globe," and that is throughout the watergate scandal, and recognized as a widely acclaimed global speaker. if only unemployment could be so fruitful for everyone. 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've saved the best for last. what's lord dobbs known for? >> house of cards. >> nope. sharing a girlfriend with bill clinton.

this is while they were both students at oxford. lord dobbs was always confused as to why she never introduced the two of them. but then he admitted it took me many years and an entire presidential scandal to discover why. but you're right, 30 years ago he wroed "house of cards," a political thriller based on the life and vices of a politician later adomentpted into bbc's television series and recently taken on as netflix as a web based series telling the story of congressman frank underwood and house majority whip trying to get himself in the place of power in the political world. starring kevin spacey as you all

know. yes. that's amazing. to date the series earned 33 prime time emmy award nominations and the series obviously underscored by premises of deceit, manipulation, darkness, power. you know, all the ingredients of a successful politician whether in washington or westminster. but all stemming from the genius of a man who is humble, talented, quick witted, and just plain brilliant. with that, ladies and gentlemen, i am blessed with this amazing honor tonight of presenting to you lord michael dobbs.

lisa, that was the most extraordinary, lovely introductions i've ever had. thank you so much. wow. what an occasion. i thought ways coming here to a really serious intellectual evening and now i hear that my girlfriend and bill clinton have been dragged in. it is a very serious evening. i can't tell you how honored and privileged i feel to be here in the company of so many people. and particularly david petraeus. it's an honor to be in the same room. a great american. i also want to thank the churchill family who do so much to keep winston's flame alive.

celia and randal, yes. randal, of course. we owe you so much for all the work that you do and make a joy of winston so -- so much fun. and we heard so many votes of thanks to day from michael bishop and lawrence who thanks to everybody. but one thing they haven't thank thanked is themselves. we hoe them a huge debt of thanks. michael and lawrence. having played our society and our love of winston not only so much fun but also so incredibly successful. and i can nnot tell you how, yo know, these things don't happen through accident. they happen through a great deal of work. and michael, lawrence, it's largely been your work. so thank you very much indeed for that.

you were talking earlier about lawrence about who is going to say no to a churchill and delighted to discover you haven't said no to a churchill, you and jenny are going to be a proper couple very soon. i can't tell you how delighted i am about that. >> but do you have a favorite that you would write? i feel like. that i'm a writer of fiction. and i write here to be surround i by some of the finest historians of our age and the most eminent writers on the planet. and i simply write works of fiction. of course, writing novels is not a proper job. it was all the thought of margaret thatcher.

you may remember her. she was the woman who president of france whether he firn he fi said i met this woman. she has the lips of marilyn monroe and the eyes of coligula. 30 years ago i was her chief of staff. chief of staff conservative party and sad to say we had a tremendous falling out. it happens. there is nothing unique about falling out with margaret. she rather insisted on it. a few weeks later after the 1987 election whether sitting beside a swimming pool on holiday. thinking that perhaps i should find myself a new job. and margaret rather insisted.

i decided to write a book for no better reason than i had spare time. that book became "house of cards." john major was kind fluff to say it did for his job what dracula had done for babysitting. and it spawned two great careers. the careers of francis and frank underwood. fu-1 and fu-2 as i call them. it was a hell of a ride with margaret. doesn't stop me believing she was probably the greatest peacetime prime minister that britain ever had. look, she led -- she led, i bled, so what? house of cards, the book that i wrote, it seems to have got

around bate. about 18 months ago i was privileged enough to i have a meeting with president xi of china. i said how should i mark the occasion? i decided to mark it by signing him a signed copy of the original hard back. i handed it across to him, his face lit up and then he looked at what he was reading. you have houfs cards se of card country too? in all honesty, the four novel that's i have written are the four novels about winston that i enjoyed the most. my relationship with winston, i regard him as a friend, as a -- somebody who is very much a part of my life. it began as so many and we heard

about that this evening from lawrence with his funeral. i was sitting there watching it, those fuzzy black and white image that's we had on television. i was sitting there watching it with my mother. and i remember those images that the gun carriage, the barge, the train and that extraordinary moment that we all remember when the cranes of london dock bowed their heads in respect. extraordinary moment. my mother was weeping silent tears. i asked myself, why is my mother weeping so emotional about a man she never met? a time of inquiry and questioning in which led me to a fascination about winston churchill. not particularly the state's man, the politician, but the

man, the flesh and blood man. and eventually i decided i wanted to write about him. i had to ask myself, how dare i, a novelist, write about the greatest man in english history when he has been written about by so many eminent historians over all these years? and winston himself provided me with the answer. when chamberlain, his rival and predecessor, colleague died, winston made a wonderful, a beautiful eulogy for his old rival in which he said this -- history with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its means to revive its echos and kindle with pale gleams the

passions of former days. in other words, no matter how hard they try, historians and history can never offer you the full picture. which made me think that perhaps i as a novelist starting from a different perspective, starting from the inside out, if you like, maybe a novelist can fill in at least some of the gaps, try to capture the flesh and blood man, the torments, the triumphs, yes and the fears too. i started to think of winston as a real person, not just as a cardboard cutout but a real person. winston is an old man. and i dived into something called it was an international society publication. i don't know david whether we still publish it. it was an extraordinary

exposition of the hang-ups that winston had even as a old man about his father. i wanted to know about winston as the child. so i went to his first schools. and i discovered the extraordinary and actually horrid story of his days at st. george's with that appalling head master he had, the reverend herbert steed kinisly. a man intent on breaking winston. winston at st. george's was abused in so many ways. he was abused interlellectually emotionally and probably abused in other ways too. winston being a naughty boy, he was a naughty boy. he was pain as a kid, was discovered one i do to have stolen a pocket full of sugar from the school's pantry. and for that crime he was taken to the head master's study where

he was held. he was stripped naked. he was held across a beating block and he was 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 were welts and blood on that poor boy's body. now winston i think came very close to being broken at that school. in fact, he was removed from that school, thank goodness, by his nanny, mrs. everest when he came back from vacation on vacation on holiday from his school and she discovered all the terrible wounds on his body and insisted he be removed from that school. he did suffer terribly from that head master. when you remember winston is not like most of the rest of us, if

was treated like that, i would say tell me what to do in order to stop this treatment. that wasn't winston's idea. the next time, the next occasion that he had after that beating wheth wheth when he was able to find the head master away from the school, he crept in and broke into the head master's study, crept to the back of the door where he kept the straw hat that he wore for official occasions, his symbol of authority. and winston stole from the back of the door the head master's prized straw bota. and he took it down to the woods of the school and he kicked the crap out of it. not bad for an 8-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 at checkers on the seventh of december, 1941. an awesome date. he was there with his daughter sarah, mary and his daughter-in-law pamela. and he was also sitting around that dining table with averal hairyman, the extraordinarily powerful man and an american ambassador who is the american ambassador filling the shoes of the departed joe kennedy. now around that table that evening were the elements and the american friends. britain's salvation.

they're also the elements of extraordinary pain. because at that dinner, the intrep intrepid valet came into the room and brought with limb a portable radio and put it on the table and said listen to the news. that when winston and the others heard the news of pearl harbor, the japanese attack on america. now for winston as a statesman, this was everything he had been hoping for. at last he was able to broaden out the war and get america involved. could you imagine the collision of feelings that he must have had when he embraced his american friends hairyman and winant? because they were great, great friends and great allies.

but the arrogant harryman was also the lover of pamela. and they -- he was helping tear her marriage to randolph apart. and wynant 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 his suicide a few years later. why winston was rejoicing at the good fortune, and it was good fortune of the events of that day, he must also as a father have wept. it was triumph wrapped up in torment. that was the flesh and blood side of winston churchill, so much pain and that man experienced so much private pain throughout his life and that's one reason why i think he

adopted the policy of kbo. just get on with it. but wla want to ask you this evening is kbo, keep bargaining on as we heard from that wonderful film last night that i'll get on to in a minute. i mean, joe, you made this wonderful film. and it was a real privilege to be able to see an early sighting of it. to come and present the film in front of this audience, man that, took courage. it also brought huge personal enjoyment. not only i did love the film as a work of art, it reminded me historical consultant is john luckash, my professor almost 40 years ago. it reminded me of elizabeth

leighton, elizabeth knell as i knew her and what an extraordinary woman she was. she was very kind with the help she gave me. and it also got me thinking how long it took to make one trip in the london underground in those days. but this is an era today of kbo. just like it was then. so how did winston respond? we saw that in your film, joe. we saw him making what was perhaps one of the greatest speeches ever made in the english language. i'm not going to do it all. we saw that last night. but what he said. we shall go on to the end. not to victory. not to success, but go on to the end. he did not know what the outcome would be. chilling words in many respects.

we shall fight whatever the cost shall be. we shall never surrender. it's the ultimate expression at that time of kbo. total uncertainty in a time of greatest danger. it is not 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 the longer term or of the deeper gain. i think some people call it the vision thing. he went on to say. this we saw that last night too. the closing worlds of that film. they're not so well known. i think it's equally important as those early remarks. he went on to say that even if

this island or a large part of it were to starting, then our empire beyond the seas would carry on the struggle until in god's good time the new world wall its power and might steps forth to the rescue and deliberation liberation of the old. he knew what it was about. never lost sight of what he was fighting for. and what was he fighting for? he was fighting for the survival of our values, of western values, values which we shared at that time, we as britain shared at that time with the new world. and, you know, even at the time going through all those perils winston, of course, won. and today we're back in a world

of uncertainty and confusion. well, you know, politics. politics they say is the world's second oldest profession. that takes most of the rules from first. i really do think that winston would be really distressed at what politics has become right at this moment. it seems to be about volume and ven y venom and the lack of respect in modern politics. we're rather like, i think, right now we're rather like a man bent over, examining his shoelaces because they happen to be untide. and being obsessed by the fact that your shoelaces are unside and, yes, of course we have problems. but while you're bending over, you expose your vulnerable parts to the rest of the world. that is exactly what we seem vo

to have been doing. kbo does not mean keep bending over. now, winston, i suspect, couldn't have seen his shoelaces and he would certainly never bent down to tie them himself. what he would have done, what was -- he raised himself to the full 5'5" and he stood on the corpses of his political add ver sayer yanz looked around him. he would have looked ahead. he would have -- he would have looked to the future as he always did. even during those dark days of 1940 and 1941. he would have seen a western world which still at its full height whether it stands up tall towers above the rest. and i don't mean to be unkind to any other culture or part of the

world. i'm an optimist and i have to be. i have four kids. but i can not 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. for the last 300 years, the western world has had the most decisive innovations. we have the most world changing inventions. we have done so much of the inspiration and produced so much of the culture that has marked the progress of humanity. and let's not say 300 years.

let's say 1,000 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 freedom of association, we have freedom of ideas and torrents 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 those centuries has been -- and we have to put the setbacks into context. we are right now in a kbo moment i think.

the way ahead seems to be lost in the midst around us. in america, there is more political division than i think there has ever been in my lifetime. in germany, supposed to be the strongest part of europe. we have a chancellor who has been humbled recently and is much weaker and faces a very difficult time ahead. we have mrs. may. that gives me so pleasure to say so. and grease last year and this year. everybody is mentioning brexit. we need an audience.

that they be well educated and well oiled. i hope i'm on to wayner there evening. -- a win they are evening. particularly with the well oiled. so i'm going to -- i'm going to ask you to take a look beyond kbo and simply the short term and today's headlines. now what side would winston have been on? now every side in the debate always claims winston as -- they grab a quote probably out of context and say winston would have thought this and thought that. he had a political life of 65 years. 65 long years. i think he probably said almost everything probably several times over. and the whole idea that we can be clear about what winston would have said or would have thought is nonsense. but i do believe he saw eeeurop

the broadest sense. institutions come. they change. and they go. i think i would have enjoyed the diversity of europe. how i can put this to a nice polite audience? imagine that you are in a railway carriage and a young come sit opposite you. and as they're sitting there, they start -- they start making lover. as a frenchman, you start applauding. as a german, you would take detailed statistical analysis. as italian, you get up and join in. as a greek, you would sell

tickets and as an irishman, you would dance a jig. if you were an englishman, you would look as if nothing is going on. of course if you came from brussels, you get out a manu afl rules and regulations to make sure they're doing it properly. but that is another matter. the differences we have in europe have caused much tension and torment over the centuries. but those differences have also been the source of an endless outpouring of wonderful culture. of music, of literature, of art, of science, of drama. of architecture.

that is europe's great role until they came and showed us that there were other ways to do things too. now i want to leave a throughout in your mind over the future of europe. it may have you reaching for your glasses. i see allen, we have different views on this matter. he'll have to indulge me this evening. 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 bureaucracy to bring about one

system in europe. that is true since the days of napoleon. they have all failed. now the west has found such great strength in its diversity. i learned something about watching your film. and i think winston would have said, as did he in your film last night, do not trust establishments. trust the people. i don't you all to expect to agree with that. i ask you to think about it at least.

we have so many reasons to be optimistic if only we could raise our eyes from our shoelaces. remember just how good we are. remember the berlin wall how it was pulled down. it was pulled down by the bare hands of millions of ordinary men and women. i wanted to be part of us to share what we have. and, yes, economic advantages but so much more than that. it is freedoms, values and our dreams. i started with winston's beautiful eulogy to his predecessor about chamberlain's flickering lamp. he went on to say. this words that i think are 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 prudent to walk throughout life without the shield and we are so often marked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations. but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor. winston was a man of honor, a man who never bothered to look the ah at his shoelaces. he was a man of vision. he was a man of dreams. great dreams that inspired a world and went on to save it for us.

>> thank you for listening and may your dreams go with you. we want to tell you about wednesday night. there is more american history tv in prime time with the focus on the leg sieacy of john f. key at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up wednesday morning. we're getting your reaction to today's vote on the gop tax reform bill. join the conversation all morning with your phone calls, e-mails, facebook comments and tweets. be sure to watch c-span's washington journ l