andrew johnson to other people. so that poses a problem for a biographer right there. we don't have his inner voice. and with jefferson you have 18,000 letters that he wrote over the period of his life and, you know, other kinds of documents and other things and even though he remains an enigma to other people there's enough there to craft some sense of what he's thinking, what he's feeling and who he was. johnson, you're at a disadvantage because we don't really of that to the same extent. and the letters we have that show when he's a young man show lots of misspellings, lot of phonetic spellings of things and it's difficult to wrap your mind -- i mean, it was for me. difficult to wrap my mind around who he really was because we just don't have the kind of record that you would typically have. not leaving aside somebody like jefferson but other people who are president is just not there. so that's a big problem. and because we don't have lots of his letters and there's not, you know, a huge repository of them of hi

if you look at the papers of andrew johnson, many, many more letters to andrew johnson and andrew johnson to other people. that poses a problem for a biographer right there. even though he remains an enigma to a lot of people there is still enough there to craft some sense of what he is thinking, feeling, and to the wise. johnson, you are at a disadvantage because we don't really have that to the same extent. the letters that we have that show when he was a young man, lots of misspelling, lots of fanatic spellings. it's difficult to wrap your mind -- i mean, it was for me, difficult to wrap my mind around to he really was because you just don't have the kind of record that you would typically have, not somebody like jefferson, but of the president's is just not there. that is a big problem. and because we don't have a lot of his letters and there is not a huge repository of him explaining what he is doing, we don't have lots of stories about him. there is an autobiography. the principal biographer of andrew johnson is a man named hans who unfortunately died last year. i was hoping to be a

king does not call this -- call andrew johnson by name. he was talking about that bad check, the check mark to insufficient funds. king is building up to something in the speech, but he is going all the way back to this era. >> he is going back to jefferson and the declaration. reconstruction, the civil war at the time, as lincoln said, is a sort of rebirth. king clearly thought that there were these opportunities that were missed. that is why we were where we were when he said those words. tavis: you said this put this up -- said something else a call my attention. in respect to historians, if they are dealing with the facts, and the facts are the facts, then how, over time, the historians have a different read on johnson? how at one time is he a great president, and a century later, he is a horrible president, how this in -- had a historians do that? >> it is an art and science. different sensibilities. people have different views about things. there was a time when blacks were not thought of as human beings. you can read it in the way h

historian, "i would ask him, 'what would you have done about reconstruction different from what andrew johnson did?'" but i know instead i would say, "come back with me to the circuit, stand up in that tavern, and just tell me stories, mr. lincoln," because then i would see him come to life. i'd see his vitality. i'd see his face break into a smile, slapping on his knee, laughing louder than everybody, and then he would come alive. >> announcer: to learn more about this program or lincoln's life as a traveling lawyer, visit: to purchase a dvd of lincoln: prelude to the presidency or a cd of selected music from the program, visit will online or call: captioning by captionmax www.captionmax.com lincoln: prelude to the presidency is made possible by a major grant from the illinois abraham lincoln bicentennial commission. additional funding provided by country financial: for more than 80 years, striving to help people achieve financial security. the university of illinois college of law, offering students from 42 states and 14 countries more than 12 joint degree programs. monticello, illinois, cha

host: what was andrew johnson do it on this day -- going on this date? guest: what we happen to know about andrew johnson is that he is the only standing center that stays in washington. around this time, he is making speeches about how you will never abandon his loyalty to the union as long as he does not embrace so-called negro equality." he will prove that -- th "negro equality." caller: his 2011 now similar to the 1816 decade? guest: it is 150 years. host: steve, you mean politically and do a compare and contrast? caller: political, and also the economics. guest: as you enter the 1860's, one of the things that almost guarantees the inevitability of a human triumph is the fact that its infrastructure is so much more advanced through technological lead vances them the south. an example is the inaugural journey that commences tomorrow , february 11, which lincoln called his meandering journey because he decided to stop at a lot of state capitals. he goes to minneapolis, cleveland, off to buffalo. jefferson davis has to do a reverse the because there wer

even then if one goes back to say the seminal war, the first sem natural war which was fought by andrew johnson he became president one finds jackson and his friends asserting indians and escaped slaves located in florida were attacking american settlements across the florida-alabama border and, therefore, we needed to retaliate in order to defend america. looking more closely into that which i do in the book, one finds something very interesting. first of all, those attacks by the indians were not initial attacks. they were retaliatory attacks. they were retaliatory attacks because the indians were welcoming escaped slaves from the south. and making them seminoles and treating them with dignity. and because of that, white southerners were attacking across the border to reclaim their property and because of those attacks there were a few reprisal attacks, not very many by the indians. the moral of this is, when jackson marched into florida and seized the territory which became florida he was not doing it in defense of american lives endangered. he was doing it in defense of the southern slave s

on the writing of the constitution in the summer of 1787 and one on the impeachment trial of andrew johnsonand i have a new one coming out this fall on aaron burr's western conspiracy called american emperor. emperor. the other folks involved comp from journalism. there are book writers as well. we have been so lucky and recruiting reviewers. we have got a book on the eichmann trials in israel. we were able to get judge patricia wald's who was on the war crimes tribunal for yugoslavia. we have been able to get a leading constitutional scholar, irwin chemerinsky to look at a first amendment book for us. we have just had a terrific response from people. just as an example pauline maier at m.i.t. who has a wonderful book out about the ratification of the constitution is going to review a new book on the revolution by gordon wood, so we have really been able to get top-notch reviewers and it is an exciting thing. you know everybody in this operation works for the same amount of money. nobody is paid and that includes a review or so it is wonderful to see people willing to pitch in to create thi

prize-winning author annette gordon-reed presents a biography of the 17th president of the united states, andrew johnson. ..

one on the impeachment trial of andrew johnson, "impeached," and i have a new one coming out this fall on aaron burr, it's called "the american emperor." the other folks involved come from journalism, there are book writers as well. we've been so lucky in recruiting reviewers. we've got for a book on the eichmann trial in israel we were able to get judge patricia walt who was on the war crimes tribunal for yugoslavia. we've been able to get leading constitutional scholars to look at a first amendment book for us. it's, we've just had a terrific response from people. just as an example, pauline my year at mit who's got a wonderful book out about the ratification of the constitution is going to review a new book on the revolution by gordon wood. so we've really been able to get topnotch reviewers, and it's an exciting thing. and, you know, everybody in this operation works for the same amount of money, nobody's paid -- that includes our reviewers -- so it's just wonderful to see people willing to pitch many to create this conversation about the world of books which is really what we are

one on the writing the constitution, the summer of 1787, one the impeachment trail of andrew johnson, and one on aaron burrs western conspiracy, american emperor. the other books comes from american journalist and book writers as well. we have been lucky in recruiting reviewers, and the back on the ikeman trial in israel, we were able to get patricia walls, look at the book, -- it's -- we've just had a terrific response from people. just as example, pauline meyer is going to review a new book on the revolution by gordon wood. we've been able to get topnotch reviewers. it's an exciting thing. you know, everybody in the operation works for the same amount of money. nobody is paid. that includes our reviewers. it's wonderful to see people willing to pitch in to create this conversation about the world of books which is really what we are all about. >> and there has been a decline in traditional media review of books. but online, there's quite an active marketplace of reviewers. what do you bring to the table that's different? >> i think the depth in the quality of our reviewers. we are d

his book -- her book on andrew johnson is part of the american president series. .. >> after his fall during the height of his power and his presidency. so that interested me. because i think that these final journeys of lincoln and davis are as important as other great american journeys like lewis and clark or even the journey to the moon because it created so many myths about what america is and what our history is. i don't think the civil war's over. we still discuss the issues that lincoln and davis argued about, and i thought about doing one book about each of these stories, one about the lincoln funeral train and the package gent and another about the -- pageant and another about the davis escape. lincoln would often visit georgetown alone, and as i walked that path that abraham lincoln walked, i realized as i looked to my left one of the sons of jefferson davis was buried there, and i realized that abraham lincoln had to walk past the grave of the son of jeff -- jefferson davis to walk to the tomb of his own son. as i started to research it, i found out that lincoln and davis h

with andrew johnson.untry where he opened his tailor shop. thomas jefferson might be one of my favorite of all of our founding fathers. he invented all the following except what? the coat hanger, a dumb waiter -- >> what's a dumb waiter. >> back then it was on pulleys and you brought it up from a secret compartment in the floor. >> brought what up? >> anything. i'm going with the martini. >> roll tup. >> the martini! he was credited with inventing the coat hanger, the hideaway bed and the dumb waiter. >> how did he lose it in the fire? >> i'm going with a tantrum. >> i'm going with a fire. >> poker. >> what did i say? tantrum. well, he had the tantrum after losing at poker. >> and he set the house on fire because he was upset. there we have it. >> happy presidents' day for all that trivia. >> how many states have you visited? i can think of a couple i've never been toch. i've never been to alaska, i've never been to north dakota, i've never been to arkansas. >> they say the avrnl person in the united stat