back even a portion of roosevelt conservation legacy, roosevelt was inflamed. the bull move party is created in large pot over roosevelt bobeing angry about taft not protecting conservation areas. >> there was a question about what he was going to do next in 1908? >> they do get together. he believed in taft a lot during his presidency. that is why he was feeling roosevelt could have won another term easily. he had other things to do, so he relinquished power. he left the presidency to explore and to collect. he was collecting for the american museum of natural history. he went to brazil to collect what is today rio roosevelt.

your listeners, i cannot express how much this vote was so he was. he did not have a conservation policy, he was the top naturalist. if one of the five top nnaturalists of his time. this was his chosen profession. he saw himself as the bridge between the laboratory scientist and the public imagination. he more to james damour cooper outdoors tales with a hard science of darwin. his role was to sell it to the american people. -- james fennel or coopimore ife today have a bird bath in their backyard, roosevelt was the rreason. he picked taft for this reason.

when taft breaks on conservation, taft was finished in the mind of roosevelt. >> when he was asked whether he wanted to be president or supreme court justice, which he preferred? >> he preferred to be a supreme court justice than president. taft. >> his wife nellie wanted them to be president. >> add to the taft inaugural in 1909. there was a blizzard. it was one of the worst storms for an inaugural. roosevelt, in typical fashion, says history will notice as the roosevelt blizzard. taft said, no, this is my blizzard. there was a clash already on egos. roosevelt was making myths all the time. roosevelt turns that blizzard into the media as the historic

roosevelt blizzard. on going out into the blizzard. he was buried -- it was very hard for tapped to succeed the popular president. roosevelt had the teddy bear phamisith. roosevelt was known as the bear hunters president. somebody got one and had a tie against a tree. roosevelt refused to kill it because it's unsportsmanlike. there was no fair chase. arco -- a cartoonist did a cartoon of roseville showing and not killing the bear. it became the teddy bear. i saw the letter of brooklyn toymaker, a mom-and-pop toy shop "dear mr. president, like to make a bare called the teddy bear. i will do it unless i have your approval." roosevelt rights back that i don't think there's much of the market for the toy, but you have my blessing to make it." if the teddy bear became the most popular toy in the world and still is.

taft thought he could tap into that and created a possum and had companies make a possum stuffed toy. the teddy bear stayed up and billick' and went nowhere. people that thought they could take the magic from roosevelt, there were no coattails. hso taft has become a very victimized person, ranked the lowest president. roosevelt did not help matters. even though he knew taft was a man of integrity. >> in 1909 taft becomes president. then the 1912 presidential race i have been to medora and saw the shirt with the bullet hole. that is an assassination attempt you don't hear much about. but roosevelt was running as a third-party candidate against wilson and taft. he went to give a speech in milwaukee. a crazed fan took the shot.

he had such bad eyesight, roosevelt, that he had always carried burglarizes in his pocket. he had a thick script of papers and there. he had a metal case so he could see a coloration details of birth. that is what the bullet hit. it wounded him terribly, but if it had not gone through that birdwatching glasses, he would have died. here is bleeding, shot and he said it will take more than that to tillable most -- to kill eight bull a bull moose is what he shouted. he could not be knocked down. that party eventually lost. it was the most successful

third-party run ever. but the folklore of roosevelt, which he was always very conscious of, just grew with that story. eventually went to a hospital and felt dizzy and got a bullet removed. >> it is safe to assume the most popular thing about this location is the eagle's nest. millions of people have been to see the baby eagle when there's one. there is one now. why are people so fascinated by eagles or an eagle's nest? >eagles.com on google. you can watch it live. >> in recent years i've heard people talk about nascar. there is a big burden community. bird watching is a big sport in the united states. people love it. if there is something beautiful about seeing an eagle, a magnificent bird of prey, raising its young. that is the sort of modern thing

roosevelt would have loved. as president he had a reverent from connecticut who was a photographer. roosevelt wrote an introduction to a book called "wildlings." if this man went and filmed birds up close in florida in the wild. he saved in key west and the tortugas. roosevelt would write an introduction to the man's book, believing there's nothing like imagery of birds and wildlife photography to make people feel the need to preserve nature. you cannot just talk about birds. but to see that on the new technology, internet. back then it was photography of wildlife 100 years ago was just beginning as an art form. roosevelt championed all of these photographers then. >> why should the american people want to pay this kind of

price nationwide setting aside, has been set aside? >> roosevelt put aside 200 -- to under 40 million reserves -- 240 million acres is what he put aside. they talked about erosion. threatened islands in louisiana. he took the barrier islands there saw them eroding. what he believed was that this is what made the united states unique spirit he spent a lot of time in europe. they had westminster aabbey and the louvre, but they don't have the tetons or the grand canyon or the giant redwood trees. he boasted in his americanism that our natural beauty here is what is so spectacular that we have to save it. it is language is always for generations unborn. and that the character, the american character was going to be formed by having these

intimate contact with the wild. for many different reasons or aesthetic reasons, utilitarian reasons, needing to use the land properly. even for character building. he thought that the best soldiers were people that knew how to live and survive in the woods for three days or more and understood how to read nature. in that way, the fact that he had been a triumphanalist, a good for the cavalry attitude. as president and in his writings he takes on a native american view of nature. as former president egos to live with the hopi indians and takes part in rattlesnake candling. he is surroundined in a hut with rattlesnakes while people are handling them.

he wrote an essay on it. he would ride on a horse with the comanche chief in oklahoma. near fort sill. it's gorgeous. it's called wichita mountains. here's wichita, a beautiful mountain. it is in the plains. the plains indians feel the 60 million buffalo disappeared and went down right there and left. roosevelt put buffalo in railcar back to oklahoma as a gift to the comanche to get the planes depopulated with buffalo. is romanticism is this, and it's something i want to make clear, he's a child of the post civil war era. he saw the north fight this out. 600,000 or more dead. he believed the north misted up, the american dream got messed up in the north because of hyper

industrialization. philadelphia had sewage dumped into rivers. it smelled. it was not guilty. the south was stigmatized due to slavery and racism. he thought the new america was going to be reborn west of the mississippi river. in order to develop than the south and the north, you had to have cities like a boulder or austen or portland or eugene that had greenbelts around them. that you don't want a metropolis. he went to los angeles and t said angeles andoo big. want -- he said to los angeles, angeles,nd saudid don't get too.

it was done with grandiosity parity said if you don't like a strong president, don't look at the roosevelt. "i so declare it a federal reservation. also declared a national monument." locals were how outraged wondering how he could just grab their land. he believed in the power of the federal government. if you want the federal government to protect the land for future generations. >> do you like that? >> i agree. he was right on. they're going to take the railroad wants to cut through the middle of yellowstone, building up as a commercial center and allow people to build, island sites in the middle of yellowstone. roosevelt with the boone and crockett club went to congress and fought to preserve the integrity of yellowstone.

90% of americans would say that's a good thing. >> do you like the idea that he would declare that is going to be a wilderness. >> i do. >> how would you like it someone did that at your home? >> that is what it was like back then. it was a moment to save our species and habitat. he had hiked to the top of the matterhorn and not see any wildlife. you go to our western mountains, you're going to see wildlife. it is special. if anybody who has ever interacted with wildlife and saw spotted owl at the laforce logo to yellowstone and see a black bear or herd of elk, it is all inspiring. parents want their kids to see it. roosevelt worked to save that. the left had trouble with roosevelt as a hunter. he was always under. they have trouble with him because he wanted to wipe out predators. he was the world's experts on cougars. he wrote many essays about them. he would collect cougars and

mountain lions and knew all about them. also, different types of condoleezza and gray wolves. they were predator-controlled. he thought of eradicating walls because he wanted to save the antelope and caribou, deer and elk. the first book published by president as president ever was theatre roosevelt called "to the deer family." she wrote about all the deer populations america using charts of where they live and how to get back. today we have so many deer in the country that it's not a problem. but 100 years ago they were dying out. we almost did not have any. the same as with the birds dying. we used to have the carolina parakeet. the about south carolina and georgia they're all over, these

beautiful parakeets. they are extinct. imagine the passenger pigeon. voting goes on. you have to go to the bahamas to see them. roosevelt wanted to save all these. he felt that added to the charm of american life. that in many ways he looked up with frederick jackson turner frontier ideas and believed what made the american what was was the wilderness areas. he felt we would lose our character if we lost it. when did you write the first chapter? >> i started writing my prologue four years ago on pelican island in florida and how we started saving wild florida. >> that would have been in 2005? >> even before that. even before i wrote about it i'd

been collecting this in my files and going to these places since the 1990's. >> you wrote the prologues there at pelican island? >> i did. i visited paul, works for fish and wildlife, who took me on the boats. one of the unique things with u.s. fish and wildlife is when i would visit places they were so excited i was interested in the history of that national wildlife refuge that they would take me to see things. people took me to watch sea turtles. i went at night with the great turtle experts to watch the turtles lay eggs on the beach. after they lay eggs then they moved into the ocean. it felt like the birth of mankind. it was like biblical to watch these turtles. when i would go there i was not just looking at documents. i was trying to experience some of the wildlife edrik directly or indirectly that roosevelt said. the manatee, he would not in

florida if roosevelt had not created as a refuge. but when did you do the gerald ford book? >> i did that for the arthur/centre jr sign me up for that series. that came out about that time. -- arthur schlesinger signed me up for that series. gerald ford is a small but. >> that theories, all of them were about 200 pages. >> yes. this book was for me, the book i would live and die by. i was putting everything i had from my childhood experience and national parks to my knowledge of their roosevelt. many women have written incredible books on him like dr. patricia o'toole and kathleen dalton. there's great literature out there. we have all got to know each other. i've been going to roosevelt conferences since the 1980's where i would speak with

scholars and collecting as. my hobby was less roosevelt than the sites he saved. >> the reagan diaries, when did you do that? >> that came out -- what happened with that is i was not expecting it. i had written one book about our u.s. army guys at d-day and reflected back to reagan's famous speeches that he gave. then i took an opportunity and offer to be the presidential historian to pete wilson i have to give credit to, the former governor of california. he came out and looked at the reagan dyer rate. so i agreed, i was happy to edit it. -- the reagan diaries.

my wife and i had endorsed katrina. so we ended up saying let's bring our kids and go out to the reagan library. nearby we went to thousand oaks, california. >> you were in new orleans. >> then became back to new orleans. i was a professor at tulane university. mike american studies center, the theater roosevelt center -- my american studies center. i was teaching a class on conservation. at rice university now i teach a class on theater roosevelt and conservation again. i've been informing myself on the research part of this story for a long time. it always was in my mind that the main thing i wanted to do ato write the history of theater roosevelt then fdr, carson, then u.s. fish and wildlife, stored

would all, ladybird johnson, up until the present time dealing with global warming and the modern green movement. i wanted to see all that through the eyes of the presidency. as a presidential historian. using people like teddy roosevelt and fdr and if truman and lyndon johnson and jimmy carter and clinton and people that have got involved with conservation, using them as a centerpiece if the talk about these characters around them. >> when did you do the reagan diaries? >> that came out three years ago. if we did it pretty quickly. it is ronald reagan's book, so i did not have to write it, on the edited it. if we are bringing out the complete diaries in a box set. i was working on this book for a long time. i started writing in earnest. i had a couple of chapters written when i started the reagan diaries. what it is when you go to these places, just pick one of your going to go to mesa verde, when

you go there, that's in southwest colorado in the four corners region. it is the ancient anasazi indians, the cliff dwellings that roosevelt approved as a national park. when i go to a place like that i knock on doors. i call in advance. i go to meet the superintendent. i say, look, you're the expert, what do you have in your files? help me. while i'm not writing the chapter, i note booking and collecting brochures and plantlets. all the national parks have a main office. in the office they have clippings. they say the clippings of any time there in the media. they have great clippings all of them, great clippings files. all sorts of things. i xerox them. i've been doing that since 1992 to get to this many places to inform the book.

then at the time i'm writing it, it becomes chronological. in 1908 i see from july 1 roosevelt created a group of national forests. i cannot write about 80 of them, so here are the three that i went to the focus on as examples of that 80. >> use in your wife ann and you moved to washhouston, texas. what are your kids names, the three of them? >> three kids. benton is the oldest daughter age 6. named after the famous painter thomas hart benton. i've modeled my career on him because he used to great murals of america and had all these characters that were in them. there could be the labor. i used to have prints of them in my bedroom that got me so excited. inamed by first daughter after

him. second is johny brinkley. i had an uncle named johnny which i never met. he was killed in the second world war in bomb. he was a marine. my mother -- he was kind of a hero in my life even though i never met him because he died. i was also of a big fan of johnny cash. i went with jonny. >> are you going to call an johny for the rest of his life? >> johny. he can make a decision when he gets older. >> these four? >> that's right. my youngest is two. that is cassidy is her name. it's from a character of jack kerouac. there's a grateful dead song as well called "qazi." it's an irish-- called "cassidy" and we got married anand had met

in new orleans. becoming a family man changed my life. all my kids want to do is go to the wild places to go see animals. we have a place in austin a park where i take them to nature study center. i'm teaching them the animals. if they see this in a tank they say that the purchase. i trained them to get them to start knowing all of them. they each have favorite animals that they have honed in on. my daughter benton loves ducks. she probably has 200 ducks, without exaggeration, a toy ducks. >> really? >> she has where she is surrounded by them if it is an obsession. the audubon society of america does a series of bird-stuffed toys which are fun because you

can get a great blue heron or a snowy egret or whatever. we have a lot of those as well. >> the writing of all this, you talked about pelican island. do you still write longhand? >> mixed these days. i used to it all the time. when i do my first draft, really my first drafts are writing at the site. it's like going to a civil war scholar. like james mcpherson or somebody going to a civil war battlefields and taking notes if. >> are you left-handed? >> i am. obama is left-handed and clinton was as well. bush 41 was as well. >> what does it mean? >> we are a tribe. >> last question, who named to the book "wilderness warrior/" >> i did. my wife, i bounced the ideas off

of. she may be the originator. i had a list of 10 of them. because roosevelt is seen as a warrior, a wonderful scholar named cooper, for roosevelt he liked to have fights about everything he believed in. he was very bullish. he was a warrior trying to save while america. so the title kind of came naturally. the subtitle has the word "crusade" in it because he was a crusader for this. to confront roosevelt on wanting to save the grand canyon or grandverdwind cave or mesa verdu better be strong, because he knocked everybody over. i don't know any president as bold as him. his eucharist factor was so

high, you cannot comprehend it in the modern political spectrum. if nothing infuriates me more when i read like when people say bill clinton is like theater roosevelt. fees nothing like him. there was a george w. bush is like roosevelt. they're nothing alike. roosevelt was a deep intellectual writer fouad such moral conviction. there roosevelt never lied. >> were out of time. we've not had time to about your bob dylan interview or your book on cronkite. will have to do it later. >> thank you. outback. -- i will be back. thank you, brian. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2008]

[birds chirping] [sound of a babbling brook] >> dhunna is next sunday to the second part of our conversation with historian douglas brinkley on his upcoming book "if the wilderness warrior" about your roosevelt. sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span. >> next, your calls and comments on "washington journal." also starting at 10:00, the former crown prince of iran discusses the situation in that country. at 2:00 this live coverage of

the senate republican conference meeting on energy, nuclear plants, and cab and trade. -- cap and trade. >> the sec should be a model for transparency, openness, and fairness. >> tonight a discussion on president obama's choice to lead the federal communications commission. .