posted this, stopped by the housing project launched by canine companions. thank you for the great work you are doing to serve veterans. kirsten gillibrand speaks at the 2020 candidate forum. coverage starts at 9:00 a.m. on c-span two and on tuesday vice president pence chairs a meeting of the national space council starting at 9:30 a.m., also on c-span2. >> campaign 2020. watch our coverage of the candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. unfiltered20, your view of politics. c-spanstore.org.

check out all of the c-span products. -- go to c-spanstore.org. check out all of the c-span products. host: we are back with peter canellos, editor-at-large with politico and we talk about his story, are americans falling out of love with their landmarks? good morning. guest: good morning. host: why did you decide to write this article? guest: i was shocked when i heard about the very persistent since the colonials got their first taste of history there. visitors ship is about half of what it was in the late 80's. you look at somebody -- someplace like gettysburg, an amazing sight, america's greatest clash, the high water

mark of the confederacy and turning born of the civil war -- point of the civil war. it is down about a quarter of what it was in the 1970's. these are surprising statistics. when a collie photographer bought it to our attention, we decided to do a photo essay and to also kind of meditate on what it is that has decreased our interest in these historic sites. with, from back talking to people and looking at some of the numbers, is that this sort of cold war era american story, the tale of great events and visiting the scenes where the homes and meeting places of great figures in american history, people have lost interest in it. ands no longer relevant credible to people in quite the same way. 1980's, 1970's, people's

all american freedoms as being under siege during the cold war. today, they see many of the threats to the united states freedoms being within. it is a different kind of story, so these sites have suffered a lot. host: as a kid who grew up in the 1980's, i remember my parents taking me to these places when we would travel outside of the south. why are these people not going to these places and what is the reason behind the drop? guest: i think the reason is that they don't relate to the events that went on there anymore. buts a sad development, also an understandable development when you consider some of the changes in society. some of the stories did not take full account of some of the less flattering aspects of american history. is ave a culture now that more diverse culture and we have a deeper understanding in the realm of history of some of these events. the story hasn't evolved or changed. people have kind of lost

interest. we fight these battles over statues of civil war generals and things like that, and it serves to discourage people from relating to the core story of the civil war and of america's fight for freedom. host: do you see part of the problem being a lot of the information we used to be able to get only from history books and from these national sites is now available on the internet? guest: maybe. i think during the cold war, when you and i were growing up, i think there was an emphasis on the heroic story of freedom. we were countering the soviet union. people felt that was an exit stencil threat to the united states -- existential threat to the united states. i think a lot of the train to make interesting -- trans american history occurred -- that was a triumphant story during that time.

now, it is a more cynical age, and i do think those who care about american history and american leaders need to think about ways to update that story and to make it relevant for younger people, because it is a crucial part of our unity as americans. host: i want to read from your article here. this was almost the key point for me. today, america finds itself in need of a national story that acknowledges the pain of the to overcome,uggle but also emphasizes the ways that all americans pursue a common path to righteousness. it should be a story that does not look away from suffering but doesn't demand victims and finger-pointing. what did you mean by that? guest: the narrative that drew a lot of people to gettysburg, colonial williamsburg, philadelphia's national historical park, those kinds of places, was a revolution era

story of americans fighting against here any and achieving freedom. today's understanding says we achieved freedom for some people but not for all people. women, 100 plus years, african-americans, 100 plus years, immigrants, native americans, oughts and people are left out of the story, and we need to take writer acknowledgment -- greater acknowledgment that. it is consistent with an evolving understanding of what american history is. the problem was that there was never a story -- it was never incorporated into a new national story. i think president obama came close to doing it right at the beginning of his presidency, on the night he won the presidency when he said that only in this country can this kind of breakthrough have occurred. and talked about the long fight to make it a more perfect union.

it was sort of a -- perfecting the union has been a consistent theme. some ofbama presidency, that full unity was lost. it wasn't all president obama's fault, it may have been his critics, maybe both, but it didn't take hold in the way it might have taken hold. now, we are in a much more divisive moment when we have the making america -- make america great again message which a lot of people tune out and see it as something that is part of a very needrvative fringe, and we a unifying story here in the united states. host: we want you to join this conversation. we will open up our regional lines again. that means if you live in the eastern or central time zone, call (202) 748-8000. if you live in the mountain or pacific time zones, your phone

line is (202) 748-8001. if you have visited a historic site in the last year, which we we have a have special line for you, and we want to hear about your experience there and how it could improve. your phone line is (202) 748-8002. keep in mind, we are always reading on social media, on andter @cspanwj facebook.com/cspan. you take on the maga narrative and i want to read a paragraph where you talk about this. older americans who grew up on the american story and felt its magnitude, now grieve of the lost sense of american exceptionalism. that yearning they dry them and like-minded people to trump posture lie fourth celebration at the lincoln memorial. aga narrative is the

romper placement for the much national story of the cold war years. it asserts the greatness of america, not as an inspirational actualut as a kind of claim about the -- the story regards all other countries as competitors to vanquish as if the proof of american success lies in the struggle of others. tell us about that paragraph. guest: [laughter] i think older americans who grew up as we did, during the cold war, and learned our history from the books we were taught in public schools, but also in visiting these sites and hearing this great story, they feel as though that story has been tarnished by critics, that people have come and eaten away at it, attacked it, tried to

undermine it, and those people are anti-american. in point of fact, dissent and revisionism have been a part of american history since the colonial days. that is annk effective critique, but i think president trump has tapped into .ome of that host: iris, which historical site have you visited in the last year? caller: there are too many to name. everything we could see. i really believe people are living such a, i don't know, perverted lives that we didn't know, as we growing up, and they

don't like the simplicity. it is too drab and too plain, they are too busy. they are always texting, you know? they are looking for new. fe used to go through li without finishing our homes. i never finished my living room, but we got along great and everything was cool. we took the kids and visited everything there was, and nobody wants to connect with their roots anymore. i don't know what they are in such a hurry to get to, but they don't want to see plain, drab, ordinary. it is just the way it is. think the caller is onto something. she is talking about the extent hashich social media supplanted a kind of public convening of civic interests, talk about the decline of civil life which is a

in referenceich is to people not visiting more historical sites. the internet has a vulcanizing effect to society. and you go online, you look for like-minded people and hear like-minded stories. you don't hear a national narrative. you hear the critiques of smaller groups. i think that discourages people from identifying with a strong national story. host: we see a couple of people on social media lines who seem to agree with you. one person tweets millennials don't care much about that history. here's another tweet that says intelligent people still flock to historical sites all over the world. lack of interest has much to do with our failed education system and the need for technological entertainment because so few are talked to think for themselves. should our historical sites start doing more, going to where the people are, fan demanding

the people coming to them? guest: i think they are trying to incorporate a more complicated narrative. they are trying to add more interactive elements. in the belief that children today are so accustomed to getting feedback online that they are going to want to have answers delivered to them quickly when they visit these sites, i think there is also something those commenters are on that contemplation, visiting of envisioning something yourself and experiencing it may have been something kids learned 40 years ago, and now, in a culture of more instant gratification, people are processing information in a very different way. host: do you think the reinterpretation -- we were talking about earlier, of american history, trying to make it more complex and making it more inclusive, is that turning off people from coming to these

sites? we were talking about the confederate statues where there are places they are being contextualized not being turned down. is that turning people away from these sites? guest: i think a little bit. the people who are the custodians of these sites, historians, and politicians need to take a count of the need for a sort of coherent national story beyond this, not something that is constantly picked at and changed all around. the battle over some of the monuments makes a lot of sense when it is like you are naming a highway for somebody. when it is a statue that commemorates a battle where somebody fought or perhaps died, it is a very different thing. you are learning history and experiencing history. the two messages have gotten confused a little bit in people's minds. you can go to gettysburg and be and by what happened there

by the courage of the confederates who ran up the hill and charged to run to their deaths. you can be inspired half mile away where lincoln delivered the gettysburg address. it's a little more complicated, kind of message. it does not require an allegiance to the confederacy or hatred to the confederacy and some constant shunning kind of way. it requires a kind of understanding of what came out of the civil war, the new birth of freedom that lincoln proclaimed. host: good morning. caller: yes, i agree that it is educational and we are not teaching the children at school our history, but the problem really is that it is a false

history. the narrative spun from the beginning is false. we that we are older now and see history is getting more inclusive, how can we not be pessimistic about the direction of this country? you know? it is not inclusive, and that is all i have to say. guest: i think that is true. i think people feel, in light of current understanding and a more inclusive society, that the message delivered in the cold war, that tale of heroism was too simple a stick. it wasn't fully true. what we need to do is find a version of it that looks at what we share in common and what has been successful, as much as what has not been successful. that honors the process of trying to perfect to that union and improve that story. that is what president obama was

onto at his time, and it never quite took hold. he never emphasized it quite people who see it as a simple tale of heroism should take note of all of the many, many injustices in american history. people who only see injustices have to look at the successes and ways in which the american experience have it that has improved for people. host: david is calling from new york city, new york. david, good morning. which historical site have you visited in the last year, david? caller: i visited the hamilton grange. i grew up with my bicycle club and we all bicycled up to the hamilton grange and other sites in the area. wenti was going to say, i to a lot of historical sites because i don't drive. the public transportation system is horrible in this country and they don't welcome cyclists.

if i were to take a train or bus, i wouldn't be allowed to have my bicycle taken to the historical site, let's say mount vernon, gettysburg, or medicines estate. i think that is a big issue -- madison's estate. i think that is a big issue. guest: i don't have any clear info in this, but a lot of these were introduced to -- introduce on school trips. maybe the reason to respond to a more complicated narrative has discouraged schools from going places, but that solves the transportation problem that the caller was referring to. host: we are still a very car based culture, and if you are not living near -- we are lucky we live here in washington, so we can get to arlington national cemetery, the capital, supreme court, but if you are not in a city or nearby, you have to take a car or bus to these places. guest: yeah. perhaps that is something that

the national park service can take into consideration more. money into new museums that have reinterpreted their core sites. the national parks have had a boom at the same time some of the historical sites have suffered a little bit. but, the question of access is a very important one. having some sort of reliable and inexpensive transportation would certainly help. host: let's talk to chris who lives in scottsdale, arizona. chris has also visited a historical site. where did you go? caller: i went -- i took my son to concho peak. i think it is a historical site. they had a civil war reenactment and it was beautiful, but i don't know, maybe it was accurate and maybe it wasn't, but it was sterilized in the sense, there was an african-american woman there, but there were no african-americans in this

reenactment. i don't know if that is accurate or not, but i think part of the problem is that a lot of it has been sterilized. [indiscernible] and honors that suffering, if we did that, that would pull more people in, because again, nowadays, people realize this , and there accurate was a lot of suffering of dozens in the african-american experience. guest: i think that's an excellent point. that also goes to the fact that a lot of historical sites are in private hands. we think in terms of the national park service sites, but even some of the most important and biggest ones are actually privately controlled. while the national park service is made an effort to have a much

more inclusive presentation, not every site has, and that may be discouraging people. in the case of civil war reenactors, these tend to be private groups that studied the battles and tried to reenact the battles, and that is an excellent point. there were many african-american soldiers in the civil war on the union side. if the battle was reenacted and there are not african-americans, it is not an accurate portrayal. host: let's talk to scott calling from connecticut. scott, did i pronounce that correctly? caller: yes you did. that was a sanction of the me higgins, so i am close to historical sites associated with the mohicans. thatw through our guest the 1960's in particular held up a mirror to the united states not only because of the cold war, but because of full can folk rock music. full and folk-- rock music.

civil rightse have movements, animal rights movements, you can go on and on. i think there is a disconnect from nature in general in this country that has gotten worse. i would say if you looked at the statistics of people visiting our national parks, i don't know if the attendance has gone up or down, but i would say most of the visitors are probably foreign visitors as opposed to u.s. citizens, at least from my experiences that seems to be. if you go to places like antietam, you go right to burnside bridge because you used to read about it with ruth histories or, war when i went to san antonio for the first time, even when my train came in in the middle of the night, i went right to the alamo and took a photograph of it with the full moon the background, because i idolized the park from davy crockett.

i think there is a disconnect in america now. guest: i hate to agree that some of the mystique is gone from those sites. people who grew up with davy is aett and the alamo, it powerful experience to see the alamo. if you don't have that story and you don't have an understanding of what happens, the alamo is this thing in the middle of san antonio, having been there. there is an interesting question about history and nature, and whether they are related at all. i think they are. your appreciation of the natural world is your appreciation of things that came before and are thata part of the culture may not be tangibly there. i think an appreciation of the io go hand in hand, and, as said, statistics show attendance at national parks is up, but it also is true that there is a tremendous increase in foreign

tourism, so maybe that accounts for more of it. host: i want to touch on something you just said, there are a lot of people who learn the story of the alamo from the tv show davy crockett. how much does entertainment have to do with our interpretation of what american history is? a lot of people learned about civil war from gone with the wind. that is when they discovered it. but, all of those are entertainment that doesn't exactly tell the historical story, but maybe they make people want to go back and learn the real stories? how much does entertainment have to do with our interpretation of history and desire to go see these historical site? guest: i think that is huge. there are few historical movies these days. lincoln was probably the last major hit of historical movies. we have seen marvel comics take on that role right now. i think if somebody read gone with the wind or saw gone with the wind early on, they would

have an attachment to the civil war. it is certainly a one-sided attachment to the civil war from gone with the wind, although there is much i admire in that novel. said, an you inducement to learn more. and, to understand the sort of dramatic reality of the past. what kids sometimes struggle with in learning history as it seems like a whole pile of facts, and an entertainment presentation makes it real. you see real people interacting. i tend to give the kids of my friends the book johnny tremaine , which i love. that is something that inspires people to become interested in the american revolution. it's not the whole story, but it is something that gets people in the time and thinking about it. host: let's talk to lynn from atlantic beach, florida. lynn has also visited a

historical site. where did you go? toler: i took a trip massachusetts for the first time with my 10-year-old grandson, an ultimate field trip. concord and talked about the beginning of the revolution, and then we talked about the literary life in the 1800s. we went to walden pond. one of the greatest visits is going to quincy and stand on the sidewalk and look through the neighborhood in which john adams ' birth place is situated, and imagining abigail stood there and looked out at the sea of boston while her huston was at congress, that is amazing. and, we went to plymouth stood there and thought about our ancestors who came over on the mayflower. my grandson is very steeped in american history.

monticelloop will be to study about sally hemmings, timer surface and -- thomas jefferson, and we will go down to the first permanent settlement in the continental united states and study that. this little family is learning history. guest: [laughter] that's a very inspiring story. i think it points up the role that grandparents could play in this. the nuclear family, getting in the station wagon and heading to the historical sites, which people did in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, if that is not as common right now, certainly grandparents who have grown up in the 60's and 70's, that is a great mission, take your kids to the places that inspired you and you are a child. there is more modern interpretation of them, and that is only good. that is more information, but you can share that kind of feeling that the caller ancient

when she envisioned -- mentioned when she envisioned abigail adams looking over boston, imagining the city has been sacked by the british and it trying to discern whether her husband will come back and what the future holds for that city and the nation. it is a very inspiring thing. i take my hat off to that woman who is teaching her grandson about it. host: let's talk to clyde calling from san antonio, texas. clyde, good morning. caller: good morning. i thank you from mississippi and so on my originally. i was born in new orleans. i was in the military, so i have had to visit -- i have had the chance to visit many historical sites, including the alamo, vicksburg battlefield, et cetera. -- i guess it was by this man, old americans grew up on american stories, and i called it a myth, especially

when you include this maga thing in their and a person who seemly -- there, and a person who seemingly coined his phrase and his negative attributes as he meanders through this thing called the accident or the presidency. to agree with or i have no empathy for people who want magic. the myth of america is just that, and i would encourage these older people and the younger people as well to crack a book and find out what america really is, what it has been since its inception, and what it is now. guest: there is a lot of wisdom in that interpretation. i think there is a tremendous danger if people see the american story and maga as one

in the same, or get turned off to the whole idea of a positive story about american history because it has been co-opted by one side of the political equation. that is a very damaging thing. at the same time, i don't doubt anything be called or said. certainly -- caller said. certainly, if people are inspired to read books, they will see a full story of american history, and perhaps, that will change their perceptions and they can visit these sites and get the full nuanced share. what i would say -- picture. what i would say is that there is not an inherent tension between a new instant interpretation of american history and appreciation of american history. they are and can be one in the same. politically, i realize one side is taking advantage of people's feeling discouraged about the

lack of american story, but that should not mean the other side shouldn't steak its own claim to it, and we all shouldn't -- and we shouldn't all work to a national narrative. host: ivo's been a fan of how the more information we have -- charles, good morning. caller: yes. i'm supposedly one of the people because[indiscernible] i've lived through a lot of the american history. what amazes me is the total ignorance of many of the critics and most of the young people now. they know nothing, have been taught to nothing. they have no appreciation of the complexities of life or history. it is all simplified. tragedy, to see this country full the part on the basis of racial identity and

radical views of what life is like, what it is. i don't know if any of these people that have lived in a third world country -- have lived in a third world country and have traveled the world have seen the difference, but the real problem is the ignore ends. if you read anything about the founding or about the history, these people were complex people. they weren't cardboard figures. humanlike every other being, had contradictions. but, that is not a bullet now. we have heard of the society, a lot of emphasis on stem and teaching science and math and upgrading our student's performance in those areas. that is an admirable mission. it is an open question whether the teaching of history and basic tax has suffered in that timeframe. system the educational

and leaders of countries or of states and local governments that help to set some of the priorities in our schools need to keep in mind that having a population with a common set of reference points, not necessarily equal interpretations and understandings, but reference points in american history, is a very important thing, and is that a rhodes, so too does that soic fiber -- that erodes, too does that civic fiber. host: what should the government or private groups do to reinvigorate the love of these historical sites? guest: we talked about a lot of things that people can do. the people who are in charge of these historic sites, whether they are national park service or private sites, need to think about new ways to engage young people, particularly, and how to

satisfy some of the changing ways in which young people process information and develop an interest in these kinds of sites and activities. that is one thing. at the national leadership level, -- it has often been commented that our politics is way too divided. that has deftly hurt our ability to tell a coherent national story. i also think spending more money on the teaching of history and bringing more intellectual energy to it, all good. can do.ething everybody like the woman w >> sunday morning on american

history tv at 10:00 eastern on oral histories, woodstock cocreator details how the festival came together. , if we took it outside , -- michael said there would be about 50,000. i said no, there would be about 300,000. just like that. i swear to god, i looked off that terrace and i solve that field. i was looking at a dream that came true. >> and at 6:00, on american artifacts, karen and chari on their exhibit on 400 years of african-american history. >> they were not content with their lot. they wanted to resist their enslavement and wanted to run away. they were not successful.

they were captured. as punishment, robert carter up permission from the court in 1708 to have their toes cut off. explore our nations passed on american history tv every weekend on c-span3. house did not release a weekly address. senator bob casey of pennsylvania gave the democratic address advocating for the senate to vote on a bipartisan gun background bill. the house passed the measure in february. >> hello, i am senator bob casey from pennsylvania. every day, 100 americans are killed with guns and hundreds more are shot and injured. almost three weeks ago, a lone shooter opened fire at the gilroy garlic festival in gilroy, california. three people were murdered and more than a dozen were injured. the youngest six m was just six years