retir retired petraeus. highlighting artists, james brown, marvin gaye and george clinton. we are at the smithsonian, the american art museum with curating eleanor jones harvey, and learning about influence on sre generations of americans. showcasing the legacy of the nation's 43rd president. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span 3. american history tv continues now with a look at the life and career of james madison. lynne cheney is the author of

"james madison." this is 45 minutes. thank you. before we begin i just want to again acknowledge and thank the former vice president of the united states, dick cheney" for coming to the program today. let me acknowledge, gay, david, molly and marie, the entire team at the society for hosting this magnificent five-part series. thank you. most importantly, i would like to thank dr. cheney for coming here and sharing her views on president and mrs. madison, thank you. we will revisit a couple issues you discuss, but let's jump into your writing style. tell us a little bit about how you picked your topics and

researched the research process. >> well, during the writing of the book, i was intranced. the virginians were in charge for 32 years, and i was interested not only in how this came about, and that's a good story, but in the interactions between them, in the personal interactions. i won't give away too much, but there are surprises there. oh, and how i write. you know, i was a teacher of freshman english for quite a while, i was getting a phd, and i tortured the freshman, and i had them take note cards and the note cards had to have a separate id on it, and i separated the cards and then wrote, and don't do any of that, and i kind of start writing and

research while i write and it's not the most efficient process possible, but i don't know what i want to say until i write, and i go back and look at what i have written and it helps me know to know what i wanted to say then and what i want to say next. so it's not a very orderly process, and it doesn't make for an orderly process. there are papers everywhere. >> you should see my office. one of the things about james madison, as a young man he took copious notes during the constitution convention, and most historians we know about the constitution courtesy of madison. among all of the founders, he's one easy to study in terms that there's just a volume of information there. as you pored through these documents, as a young man with a

front row seat to history, do you feel like you got to know him better? as i read them, i felt like i was almost sitting there in philadelphia. >> well, it's surely compelling, and i was fascinated with his ailment and how it was regarded at the time and how he overcame it. it's hard not to be fascinated with dolly. think of it, madison was the most reserved of the founders and he married the most flamboyant woman. i think they truly enjoyed one another. there's one story that sticks in mind of dolly -- it's almost bizarre. dolly and james running across the piazza in front of mt. pillar, and then they would run the other way and then sometimes

dolly would carry him on her back. >> the great little madison, or sometimes she said, my darling little gemmy. some said they could defeat madison if it were not for dolly. >> senator mitchell in the lead up to the election of 1808 pointed out what a great advantage madison had over george clinton because dolly was entertaining everyone. >> sure. sure. was there anything about their marriage? it's truly the odd couple when you look at it in every single way, but i think they had a very strong and productive, as you eluded to, marriage. anything about the marriage you felt was particularly inspiring or interesting? >> well, the way it started, i mean, it was, i think, in the beginning a marriage of convenience on dolly's part. he fell head over hills, but i think she saw in him someone who

would be a good support for her son, and someone that would kind of provide that baseline level of sanity all of us want in life, and there's a fascinating letter she wrote to her sister on the day of her marriage, and she said something of the order of i was married today alas, alas. but she would not have written that five years later, three years later, because it did become a love story. >> sure. there was a strain in their relationship, and that was her son. payne turned out to be true to his name sake. >> payne todd, some say he was a serpent in the garden. he grew up as a completely irresponsible young man. madison was forever bailing him out of debt, indeed, bailing him

out of prison. they tried everything. they sent him to europe with a very ordinarily and disciplined man, i think, hoping that payne todd would learn better but he never, never became any better. and toward the end of madison's life and after he died, payne todd pilfered things from montpelier and sold them to support his various bad habits. it's reason why if someone tells you, i have a letter of james madison's, you should take them seriously. because the letters -- most of them have been gathered. but some of the letters are still out there. i have a friend on the eastern shore of maryland who said to me, i have two letters of james madison's and i looked and, by gosh, they're james madison's. so payne helped put them into debt. it's an interesting thing that

all of the virginia founders died either in poverty or just not very well off. but madison's debt was in large part because of payne todd. >> but madison tried to care for him and tried his best to be patient, provided finances for him because of his great love for dolly, but it wasn't meant to be. what surprised you most that -- about madison and dolly in your research? was it the number of ailments that madison had? when you spend five years digging through primary documents, we have a view of madison, but i think our view of him is very simplistic and monolithic. he was a more complicated person. what surprised you as you were going through the madison papers? >> his dedication, his hard work. i think, you know, we all know about the constitution in one way or another. but the fight for religious

freedom, do mom alone once said that he couldn't about for jefferson's adhesion to this cause, for his fidelity to this cause. but for madison, it's easy to trace, beginning with the prosecution of the baptists in virginia and as i say, madison was a really good politician. and he didn't hesitate to use the loyalty of the baptist in virginia when it came to be time for an election. monroe once ran against him. they said he was the old school, and madison started writing letters to the baptists, as they should have, they recognized he was the one who would be best for office. >> one of the most important relationships to the founding

was madison's relationship with jefferson. it was a friendship but it was a complex relationship. it was a political relationship. and piggybacking on your comment about madison's formidable political skills, when jefferson needed something done in congress, he went to madison. when jefferson was in europe, he wrote to madison asking him to do "a," "b," or "c." can you talk about their relationship? >> it is remarkable. i think it's one of the great stories of the history of the early republic of all of american history. they first met when madison went to work on the council of state of virginia. he was very young. maybe 22. and jefferson became governor. and from that time, this wonderful friendship developed. they also lived in the same boarding house as i mentioned in connection with kiddy. and you can just imagine their conversations in that boarding

house. i think each of them was probably the brightest person that the other had ever known or would ever know. and each of them loved books. and they bought books even when they couldn't afford them. but they just had this fascination with knowledge. it was enlightenment fascination with knowledge. think of it. not only are they really bright, but they're well schooled. and so they have this fund of knowledge on which they can build and converse. they were both reserved but very different otherwise. but jefferson had this soaring intellect. you can see his in this prose that just raises you up. madison was much more matter of fact and practical. they balanced each other. there's a historian named merrill peterson who said the account balanced. if you were to give credit for who most deserves the audience

or the appreciation, really, for this friendship, it would go to madison. jefferson was a difficult friend. he -- at one point, when merchandise is bumadison is busy at work getting the constitution ratified, jefferson who was disappointed -- really upset -- that there was no bill of rights on the constitution, started writing letters to people behind madison's back saying, here's what we should do. don't ratify the constitution. let four states with hold ratification until there's a bill of rights on it. this is a fine thing to say from paris, but madison is in the war, in the conflict to get the constitution ratified and there was no way to amend it until it had been ratified. it had been hard enough to get through the constitutional

convention where you had all of these people fighting over so many subjects. but if you started letting different states put different amendments on the constitution, you would just end up with a mess. everyone would have different suggestions for what it should be. jefferson didn't understand any of this. and he was writing letters into maryland and virginia opposing the ratification of the -- full ratification of the constitution. madison never said a word. but he did send jefferson a copy of the federalist. but, you know, it was madison's patience that let that happen. during the period of adams' presidency, during the time of the sedition act, this was an act that made it a crime to criticize the government. and during the time of the sedition act, madison and jefferson decided that the best way to combat this was to turn to the states. so they wrote something called the virginia and kentucky

resolutions. madison wrote virginia, jefferson wrote kentucky. jefferson was far more forward-leaning than madison was. jefferson said that a state had the right to nullify the federal law. you can all see this leading up to the civil war. >> right. >> but that was jefferson's idea and he even suggested the idea of secession. along the way, various people held jefferson back, including madison, from making such a bold and damaging statement. but jefferson just kept going. and when madison's more moderate, more thoughtful statement went forward to the virginia assembly, jefferson got ahold of it and changed it. and made it more amendable to his way of thinking. madison found out, he got it changed back.

and he did say a word, but not a grumpy one to jefferson. he just pointed out to him that these words like nullification and secession were not going to be very helpful if you wanted to get a whole bunch of states to come together and oppose the sedition act. so i think that madison's patience accounted for a great deal. >> i couldn't agree more. of the two, madison was clearly the better politician and i know there's a couple of uva grads here. so with all due respect -- >> well, madison is a virginian too. >> yes, yes. and i went to school in virginia as well. but madison was the far better politician. on the idea of the bill of rights, it was charles pinknie who said we should have such rights, liberties of the press. but we were not ready for it at the time. and jefferson almost unraveled

everything. madison comes to the rescue. interestingly, madison is initially opposed to coming up with a list of the bill of rights. he thought it would undermine it. but madison comes on board. we can call him perhaps the father of the bill of rights. can you talk a little bit about his leadership role in putting together what would be known as the bill of rights? >> well, he just knew the importance of talking to everyone and making his case convincingly. but as you point us, he was worried that if you listed a bill of rights, you had ten amendments, say, about the rights of people to do "x" and "y." you were implying that they didn't have rights to do anything else. you were pushing every other right aside. and so one bit of his genius is the way he phrased the bill of rights. he wrote -- well, you know the bill of rights. that the government shall not

abridge the right to free speech and to free allegiance to religion. that left the implication that there were a whole lot of other things that the government shouldn't do as well. he knew how to pick his words carefully. >> and you can see the political skill coming out in the fight that ensued that jefferson draws a firm line but madison is willing to work across the aisle. while jefferson and hamilton both seemed incapable of speaking to one another, it's madison who works with hamilton on the federalist papers. could you talk a little bit about his great contribution in terms of the federalist papers and helping to get this ratified? and i think earlier your point was well taken, how he literally travels to visit with congress, he travels and sits down with people. even though he's not -- doesn't have the charisma that a washington has, he knew the

value of that one on one, sitting behind doors and working to get to support. >> he and hamilton did cooperate on the federalist papers in an amazing way. writing at this breakneck speed that just seems impossible, i think to most people today. they made the case for the constitution and they made it for new yorkers. but madison understood the importance of what they had written and had copies sent to virginia before it was up to virginia to ratify the constitution. but after a while, i'm not sure that madison was any less partisan than jefferson. he and hamilton, jefferson and hamilton, became great foes and -- i'm sorry to tell you this, they even became great foes of washington's. washington sided with hamilton on almost everything. >> everything. >> and hamilton's idea was a

strong central government. people like madison and jefferson used to call him a monarchist, someone who wanted a kingly government that could tell people what to do and keep the whole thing knitted together. and so that was the fight. and jefferson and madison didn't want that. they wanted a more power to the states. so that was the fight. and in the course of that fight, the first political parties were created. but -- >> one of -- some of madison's high points and some of his low points all occurred at the same time and that was the war of 1812. i wonder if you could expand on that. madison was initially opposed to this and a couple of -- i guess, hawk who is came in on the 1810 election, the clays, the calhouns, kind of pushed him in that direction. his handling of it, as even

adams would admit, was incredible. could you talk about the war present madison? >> it's interesting. adams -- in the adams administration, there was this half war with france. and presidents in those days, whether they were military men or not, thought they should dress up and put on a sword and put on a hat with a ribbon that's made to look like a flower. and adams did that, madison did that. and i find that odd. there are many things when you look back that you find odd. his greatest contribution, i think, as a wartime president was not prosecuting people who wildly agreed with him and, like the new englanders, even threatened to secede. but his leadership, his calm, keep calm and carry on, he did

that when the land battles were going south. i think he was, though, elated, you know, at the naval battles, the great naval battles of the war of 1812. >> i'm glad you've mentioned that. i've used in my own work and writings, we properly and rightly give a lot of credit to lincoln for his mthat and not b more aggressive with the people who were opposing his command. but i put madison up there with him as well, in terms of new england was close to seceding. new england fishermen were outraged. and i think his handling of that helped this country come together. >> when i think about it, the freedom of religion issue which both madison and jefferson pushed mightily, think how different our society would be if they let it go the other way.

if we had let it go unchallenged that the government can't prevent people from speaking against the government. now, washington and people who supported him had this idea that the government was the government. and the government does no wrong. and if you criticize the government, you're trying to divide the people from the government. and, in fact, you're guilty of sedition. they put so many newspaper editors in jail. well, i don't know what -- a dozen. but it was a lot in those days. this was the adams administration. and washington supported the adams administration in doing this. this idea that it was okay to criticize the government was like a hinge between the ages. before that, not so much. after it, well you know what we

have today, it is okay. >> madison would be a wartime secretary of state and wartime president and that remains a contentious issue. he would be going to war again and overseeing this interesting affair. >> you know, madison was very confident in himself. i think jefferson described it best, he just had confidence. and he was not only willing to go to war, he encouraged the congress to declare war in 1812. madison also had this gift of leadership. he knew how to change his mind. and a friend of ours said to me once, you know, of course you don't keep a total consistency throughout your life. when the situation changes, you change. and i guess the most -- best example of that is madison and

the constitution. when he left the constitutional convention, he was very disappointed. he did not think they had done all that they should. but he sort of sat and thought about it and decided that nothing better could be created and then went to work on the ratification. he thought that when hamilton proposed a national bank that was the worst thing he ever heard of. but then he supported a national bank during his own administration. and some people -- i think gordon wood wrote in his book "revolutionary characters" one of the chapters is called, "is there a madison problem?" with this back and forth. and he would agree with me, no, you change your mind when the circumstances change. that's what madison did. >> i felt that one of madison's greatest contributions occurred when he was secretary of state and it's something that

jefferson gets all the credit for. madison was one of the negotiators and that's the louisiana purchase which everybody is familiar with, from the jeffersonian perspective. but it was madison who was secretary of state and played a role in this. could you talk a little bit about him as secretary of state and his negotiations with this remarkable event? >> it's a good example of madison, the father of the constitution changes his mind a little bit. when france made the offer to let us have this vast territory at a really good price, jefferson started worrying this was not constitutional. there was nothing in the constitution that said the government has the right to acquire territory, to buy land. and so madison, you know, just took him aside and said, it's okay. and if he hadn't been there to give jefferson that kind of confidence in the enterprise, i don't know if we would have purchased louisiana or not. >> while we're talking about all of these virginians, could you

tell us a little bit about your next book on the virginia dynasty, why you selected the topic. we don't want to steal the thunder, we'll buy it when it comes out, but a hint of your direction, your focus on this book. >> i am interested in the fact that these were not four men sitting around a table agreeing amicably on issues. they fought like cats and dogs. and the newspapers were part of the battle and you can find things in the newspapers of today -- i think they're as bad as what you find in our newspapers today and in the political rhetoric that we use today. it was such a remarkable time to think of how different it was, but in how many -- how many ways it's the same. and we do owe them a great deal. >> why this extraordinary collection of atlanta in that one place in virginia?

is that something that you'll be looking at? >> many great historians have done this and, you know, i follow in their footsteps gladly. i stand on the shoulder of giants. but it is interesting, all four of the virginia founders were born within a 60-mile radius. >> extraordinary. >> ferry farm, that's the center of the radius, so to speak. and education plays a part for some of them. more for madison and jefferson than for washington and monroe. so that's part of it. they also -- jefferson in particular -- nurtured upcoming talent. you know, they mentored and brought people along. jefferson brought monroe along. the fact that they were together so much, you know, i think that wisdom comes from the clash of ideas, maybe not even clashing, but these long discussions about

constitutions and laws. jefferson and madison were fascinating with explorers. they were fascinated by explorers. they were delighted to learn about the people who sailed around the world. that's a purely enlightenment thing. they had the vast knowledge that each of them had studied, they had this whole environment in which it was thought important to explore and to explore ideas as well as countries. there's one last thing, and i haven't quite got this together yet, but one of your lectures, was it gordon wood? talking about how modest a mansion in the united states was compare today the palace, for example. and no relationship -- the one is tiny and the other is huge.

they were on the periphery of civilization. they weren't at the center. they weren't at london. they were on the edges. and i think that made them more creative. you know, you don't have this vast layer of tradition over the top of you that you have to fight through. you have a new country, you can have new ideas, and you can bring them to the surface. i'm just playing with all of this. but that's the idea. >> can't wait to see it. another set of your books, it's very appropriate that you're here as a part of our series as was mentioned in the introduction. one of the initial conversations everyone had was that we all feel that maybe we're not going a good enough job as a nation teaching our children about history. i've been a historian for 27 years and although i'm always thrilled when i work the history day contest to see what kids are

doing, but your series of books on civic and the history of education books for kids, what inspired you to write that? what was that moment when you said, wow, our children -- was it being in the classroom? was it serving -- >> well, that. that's also very inspiring. when i was chairman of the national endowment for the humanities, we did survey after survey that showed how youngsters growing up didn't know anything about history. they -- it's interesting. they don't know about history but they do know about something very important that the older generation tends not to know about. something really important. they know about technology. how often have i heard people say, well, i'll get my granddaughter to fix this when your iphone goes down. they didn't know about history. so that was perhaps a primary purpose. but the second purpose was that dick was elected vice president

and i wanted to stay out of trouble. if you write a book that's deep history about adults, somebody is going to be mad. who can be mad about these books? they're wonderful. i love these books. tell us about america patriotic primer. i recommend these books for your grandchildren. tell us about america patriotic primer. >> well, i worked with a wonderful illustrator, her name is robin glazer. and she was a ballet dancer, but she became a book illustrator. and her drawings are funny, moving and they're so great. the idea was to go through the alphabet, "a" is for america, the land that we love. to go clear through the alphabet doing that. "x" was a little hard. but we got through.

and we were working on this right after 9/11 and robin drew this wonderful picture and we used a line from "america the beautiful." it was the cities shine undimmed by human tears. and robin drew this wonderful picture of the world trade center towers. it was a book that was inspired with a lot of emotion. >> good. one of the other books i strongly recommend is "a" is for abigail. as someone who is a fan of dolly madison, martha washington, and abigail adams, talk about -- i was pleased to hear you end your talk with some of the other women in madison's lives. tell us a little bit about "a" is for abigail and who were some of the other women you chose to put in that book and why. >> sojourner truth is in there.

we wanted to make the book inclusive. the sufficie the suffrage ets are in there. the women who have achieved in technology is in there. sally ride is in there. we tried to make the book be about a group of women that was as inclusive as possible because you want little girls and little boys to read this and understand that the girls growing up are full of potential just as the boys are. >> sure. one other one that you wrote is "our 50 states." on that note, do you have a favorite national park, other than wyoming -- >> you stole my line. >> vice president was looking at me as i started that question. do you have a favorite or favorites in the national parks

in the states to visit? how can i not say grantee ton and yellow stone national park. they've been such a part of our lives. but i have never been to glacier and dick tells me that's something i should do. when i see the advertisement for arizona on tv, i want to go to arches national park. there are many things left to do. >> what about a favorite historic site? that's also included. is there a battlefield, a home, an historic site? of course some of the folks from mount pillier are here which is a lovely site. you've obviously visited that and mt. vernon. >> this thing that's going on with monroe's home is interesting. if you go to montpelier and monticello, you think, wow, this is modest. and it seems -- i thought it was almost unbelievable how modest

it was. well, through archaeological digs, the theory now is that what we looked at and thought was monroe's house was a little guest house. and that he had something much bigger there that he and his wife and family lived in. and it burned. and the record of that is a little hazy. they have excavated a large part of the foundation for it. that tells you, the past is not totally understood. there's always more to learn. >> and each one of these homes, mou montpelier, monticello, they have many child-friendly programs. my kids have suffered through me dragging them to all of these places. when we were in the green room earlier, the vice president and i were talking and i always knew

he was a great military history buff and a civil war buff. do you share his enthusiasm for visiting the revolutionary and civil war and various battlefield sites in the country? is that something that's discussed in your book. >> no. [ laughter ] >> but dick has made the lives of our children richer. when we first moved to virginia they were little. and dick loved the idea of being in the middle of all of these battlefields. he would take them to a battlefield everybody saturday morning. and one day, they both revolted and said, "no more battlefields." to visit a battlefield and understand what happened, you really do need to know north from south. >> sure. [ laughter ] >> of all the books you've written and they were mentioned earlier and we talked about

several. was there one that was the most difficult, most challenging for you? >> sure. madison. nothing else took me five years. >> just because of the sheer scope of trying to capture a -- >> i like the donnie wahlberg example because it's hard to see these -- >> i'm going to say, i've never heard that analogy before. >> watch "blue bloods" and you'll see what i mean. he's about the size that hamilton and burr were. most difficult. that's the point. we don't have a whole series of photographs to look at. you've got gilbert stewart, and every president tried to get their portrait done because people didn't know what they looked like. these portraits would be made and copied and copied and copied so people would know. but i look at gilbert stewart's

thomas jefferson, i don't think it's right. i think it makes him -- he was a handsome man. but i think it makes his handsomer than he was. i like the portrait of james madison. and washington, what an example. do you want to look -- i was stunned the first time i went to mt. vernon and saw the young washington. we all know about the guy who has no teeth. and it's -- can you imagine, he had one tooth when he became president. one. and he lost that in his second term. i think it was john adams who left the white house with just one tooth. now, first of all, the trial that that was, but secondly, the paintings. you see washington, his mouth is sunken in and swollen. he complained that one of the portraits made him look swollen.

you know them -- we know washington too well as an old man. and the portraits don't often show him enough in his prime. >> sure. and he was oftentimes in pain because those dentures were so ill-fitting and he complained about these chronically. there's paintings of washington where he's bigger than horses and cannons and battlefields. washington was a big fellow. but if you were to extrapolate, he would be about 14 feet tall from some of the paintings. >> my favorite painting, i think he was joe ellis who was in your series said, it was important that we be worshipful of our great men in the early days of the republic. it helped knit us together. there's no better example of this than in washington. is this in the capitol? it shows washington being taken into heaven.

it's a religious kind of symbol. washington in roman toga. >> looking like a cesar with a toga. >> so the worshipful attitude of people in those early days was remarkable. but i think it's also important -- you really understand washington better. what happened was, he lost that tooth in his second term and he no longer had anything to tie his false teeth to. so they were very uncomfortable. made his face swollen. while it gives us the wrong image of him at his peak, it helps us to understand him as a human being. >> madison being the most challenging. was there one that you found to be particularly -- writing -- it's never easy to write a book. is there one that was the easiest of all the book that is you put together? >> probably my autobiographical

one, "blue skies no fences." it was a treat to write about growing up in wyoming and to get in touch with a friend i had from fifth grade. that was the most fun. >> what's the difficulty in writing about yourself? as someone who has lived in the public eye -- >> you have to figure out what you don't want to say. [ laughter ] we're almost out of time. we'll start to bring it to a close. as a teacher, scholar, political spouse, public figure, author, what have been some of the great awards of this public life, what have been some of the channelles of this public life. >> the challenge is you don't have any privacy and you don't have the ability to be spontaneous. if you want to go to the drugstore, you have to call the secret service agents. so that's a disadvantage.

on the other hand, we were always surrounded by people so nice. i can't say enough good things about the secret service. they -- not only did a great job, they were good people. so that's a kind of disadvantage. the advantage is, you know, you get to meet remarkable people. before he died we got to visit the pope john paul. and he was truly -- you just felt holiness. he was just amazing. the other person that i remembered being stunned by is the empress of japan. just this total zen and beauty and calm. but pope john paul was just the most amazing. >> who were your heroes growing up and today? any heroes? >> wonder woman.

>> understandably so. >> yes. >> and one last question. what do you point to, what really sparked in you this lifelong passion for history? what was it from your early life that helped forge that? >> i got my ph.d. in english literature which isn't history. but i kind of thought it was at first. and so i kept going with it and kept going with it until i finished my dissertation and then i realized it wasn't history. being able to delve into life stories and being able to delve into the history of this amazing country. how did we come to be, that's such a mystery in some ways, but such a tribute to the people who founded this country. >> absolutely. before we break. let me just remind everybody, next year we're all hard at work and putting together another

program. let me thank the society for hosting this wonderful five-part series and c-span for covering this. and not only airing it, but we put together curriculum to correspond to this and they're putting it out and making it available to schools through c-span's classroom so students can watch this and learn from it. i would like to thank the vice president and dr. chaney for coming here today. thank you. >> it's been a great pleasure for us. thank you thank you very much. there are signed copies of dr. chaney's books in the lobby. thank you, everyone. during the week on c-span3, we're featuring american history tv programs as a preview of what's available every weekend. the environmental protection agency launched 50 years ago this month during the richard nixon administration. tonight, to mark the anniversary, nixon foundation

president interviews former california governor arnold schwarzenegger. and then a panel on the achievements and legacy of the agency. watch tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span3 and enjoy american history tv this week and every weekend. american history tv on c-span3. exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. saturday at 6:00 p.m., the civil war on the relationship between union generals grant and sherman. with retired general david petraeus. and on lectures in history, professor michael butler on music in the post civil rights era highlighting artists james

brown and martin clinton. and we're at the smithsonian art museum learning about his influence on generations of americans. and at 8:00 p.m. on "the presidency," a virtual tour of the george w. bush presidential library in dallas showcasing the legacy of the nation's 43rd president. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3, go inside a different college classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights and u.s. presidents to 9/11. >> thanks for your patience and for logging into class.

>> with most college campuses closed due to the impact of the coronavirus, watch professors transition to a virtual setting. >> gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union but reagan met him halfway, reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. >> freedom of the press, which we'll get to later i should just mention, madison originally called it freedom of the use of the press and it is indeed freedom to print things and publish things. it's not a freedom for what we now refer to institutionally as the press. >> lectures in history on american history tv on c-span3. every saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. lectures in history is also available as a podcast. find it where you listen to podcasts. stay with c-span for our continuing coverage of the transition of power as president-elect joe biden moves closer to the presidency with the electoral college votes cast from states across the country, join us on january 6th, live at 1:00 p.m. eastern, for the joint session of congress to count the votes and declare the winner for

president and vice president. and finally, at noon on january 20th, the inauguration of the 46th president of the united states. our live coverage begins at 7:00 a.m. eastern from the statehouse to congress to the white house. watch it all live on c-span, on the go at c-span.org or listen using the free c-span radio app. saturday on the communicators, zoom's head of public policy on the video conferencing company's growth during the covid-19 pandemic. >> it's been a utterly transformational year for this company. we went from something on the order of 10 million daily meeting participants in december to something north of 300 million in april. and prior to the pandemic, we were focused almost entirely on business customers. of course, all of that changed.

and when the pandemic arrived, we understood that we had the opportunity to connect not just companies but people, families, faith institutions, schools, health care institutions and it's just -- it's been extraordinary. we worked to scale up incredibly quickly to avoid disruptions and to be there for people. >> zoom's josh kallmer saturday at 6:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. american history tv continues now with author lynn chaney on the life and career of james madison. we hear about his personality, health problems and political career, including his eight years as america's fourth president. she talks about the influential women in james madison life focusing on his wife dolly. this is 50 minutes.