coolidge. the book is a collection of president coolidge speeches examples of his political thinking and photographs, editorial cartoons and the campaign, really get that stands his political career. the william k. samford library in new york post this hour-long talk. >> thank you. it's great to be back here at the library. i had a great time last year. i guess the basic question before us is why chronicle and commemorate the words of calvin coolidge, a politician and president renowned for doing nothing and for saying less. why, indeed. because the basic premise of the question is small. the modern world view of calvin coolidge as a failure, political cypher who met a man who not only accomplished nothing but who columnist and abundant walter wittman famously charged the variable genius for inactivity. it all depends of course how one defines inactivity, presumably mr. wittman him as eight unimaginable leader and that is certainly bad. but the inactivity is defined as a spirited principled oft

coolidge. regarding a man who chose his carefully it is easy to believe there were no mere words. the entire adult life was spent in public service, and bear, state representative, state senator, lieutenant governor, vice president, more offices than any other president ever held. but it was not easy for him to be a public man, to speak and to shake hands and do what ordinary politicians do as a matter of course. a horrible shyness possessed him from his earliest days and never let go. he never denied it. when i was a little fellow i was always panic if i heard strange voices in the house. felt i could not need to people. most visitors would sit with mother and father in the kitchen. it was the hardest thing in the world to have to go through the kitchen door and give them a greeting. i was almost 10 i was realized -- 10 i realized i could not go on that way and i managed to get through the door. i am all right. every time i read a stranger i have to go through the old kitchen door back home an

>> to write about, certainly about coolidge but also i am a big fan of ronald reagan and kind of grew up loving him from 1964 on and was there all the way in his inauguration, his funeral, when he launched his campaign at liberty island in new jersey and by god i love them and. >> is there a reagan book on the horizon? >> so many people with greater qualifications have done it. the field is pretty crowded, but i wouldn't mind doing it. i wouldn't mind it at all. it would be very enjoyable because along the way i've written about a lot of scoundrels and i would like to write about a man i admire a great deal of. >> what are you reading these days? >> actually what i tend to read or not books about history but books about the 1920s and 1930 30s show business and entertainment says after a while, a lot of the researching is you are reading parts of books, reading newspaper articles and reading might her film, so for fun you kind of turn it off and you go back and you are reading a biography of lost heart or d. w. griffith or the silent films, and i find that fascinating. i don't know if

people can get a full flavor of what the coolidge intellect and powers of persuasion will like. he rose all the way from aldermen to mayor to state senator to representative, a lieutenant governor, governor, vice president, president. he held more elected offices than anyone else in american history. he worked his way up the wrong. >> he seemed to have a lot of passion about the subject. is there another project on the horizon? >> i am working on a book about the 1948 presidential election. 1948 tillable. truman, wallace, and strom thurmond. most people will say that tremendously election. what i think is a duel, and long standing between henry wallace and the german of the democratic party and about america in the cold war, domestic communism, foreign policy abroad. it is also the year where this civil rights movement really gets a big boost. truman is fighting against wallace. he has got to get the blackfoot. the south is recoiling from that. there is an awful lot happening that year. >> is coolidge your favorite president or politician to write about? >> certainly. but also i

thank god, apparently through the coolidge family, it's been preserved. it's a wonderful way to step back in time and experience a very different america. you know, coolidge is a much more interesting character than he has often been portrayed and in fact one of the interesting things is i think post-reagan we're rediscovering the fact that there is an alternative to the new deal model of the presidency. >> you're a boston native, harvard graduate. >> nearby -- nearby boston. >> leominster? >> no, townsend, little town. >> oh, excuse me. >> four thousand people. >> harvard graduate, undergraduate degree, no doctorate degree. >> absolutely. >> and ph.d. from georgetown. >> yes. >> born in atlanta but grew up in ohio. >> grew up in rural ohio near or outside -- >> and your alaska book will publish what? >> harper collins is bringing out this december 6th which is the 50th anniversary of so- called anwr, the arctic reserve. >> and your book on nelson rockefeller? i've asked you that for years. >> yes, you have. i get emails from people, the annual -- the ann

calvin coolidge was going there. the whole village is a museum. it is a wonderful way to step back in time and experience a very different america. coolidge is a much more interesting character that he has often been portrayed. one of the most interesting things is that post rated, we are rediscovering the fact that there is an alternative to the new deal model president. >> you are a boston native. >> a little town of 4000 people. >> an undergraduate degree and ph.d. from georgetown? going in atlanta but grew up in ohio. -- a going in atlanta, but grew up in ohio. -- born in atlanta, but grew up in ohio. >> id e-mail from people

calvin coolidge called herbert hoover mr. wonderful and calvin coolidge was, my model president who believed according to amity shlaes, religion long ago determined the world would be better if they involve themselves less than that to me was what depression led to. hoover however was mr. active. police called him a wonder boy. he said he never stopped giving me advice and all of it was bad as the secretary of commerce. he was the first secretary of commerce, the first government official to insist the government had the responsibility to put people in homes and make programs to facilitate that. this all started under hoover. he was a total activist or go all the activity he did, starting with the depression, starting with the crash was wrong. it was a disaster smoot-hawley tariff. he would browbeat banks into keeping interest rates low. he would browbeat the employers into keeping people on the job. he tried to rally wall street and push it and all this was running contrary to what he should have led to his coolidge and hard

hoover, hoover -- >> you want to go back to coolidge?ys love coolidge. >> how about, how about -- thomas jefferson? how about a few people like that. believed in freedom and free market. >> let's look at the tea party movement that you in a way, you and barry goldwater going back, people believe there's too much government, i understand the impulse. some people in the tea party movement don't exactly go along with that. they're more for palin. they love, you know, outlaw abortion. a lot of other issues, they're very concerned with they don't like the same-sex. is the tea party movement too social and not economic enough for you? how would you describe what you see in that? >> i don't think anybody can describe it yet. they're claim there's a difference. but they all say that i am not as interested in the social issues. but you know, in many ways here i am a very conserve person. >> you're not running around touting the evils of same-sex marriage. i don't hear you talking about that. >> but to say i'm not interested in family values, i ha

when calvin coolidge was president, he made speeches roughly eight times a month. kennedy, in his thousand days it was 19 times a month. clinton in his first time was 28 times a month. and i haven't seen any numbers for clinton's second term, w. bush or obama. you have to believe that time keeps going up. >> linda, we've been talking about interesting, but off the news things in a way. what's going on internationally? we say the president's chances are looking up domestically, or in some sort of rise. international, doesn't look so pretty does it? >> i think depends really where you look. afghanistan is still so problematic. there are some signs that things are happening there that are very sures. the afghan parliament turns out to be one of the major challenges in challenging its president, president karzai. there's a life in the parliament that says we're sick of the corruption. we want a voice. we want the people to be heard. we don't want the president to have the kind of power he has without listening to us. there are about 30 members of the parliament who hav

tavis: i think it was calvin coolidge who said the business of america is business. if we believe that and behavior in that way, how do you flip that? >> i am all for business and economic activity. i do not want to go for living in burlap sacks of living in a cave, but i think the economy has to serve the greater goal, witches social equity and clean, healthy environment, thriving region which is social equity and a clean, healthy environment. as long as they are contributing to those goals, let's turn it up. tavis: how do you do that without being labeled anti- american, anti-capitalist? >> those labels baffle me. the anti-american one baffles me, because i consider it an incredible tribute to my country that i am saying, we are not doing as well as we should be. if i did not care, i would say, drown in your toxic chemicals. i am saying, we can do so much better. we do not need to kill ourselves or trash the plan. we have 5% of the population and use 30% of the resources. the america i know cares about furnace and health. --airness and health. tavis: what do you th

very many federal experiments until it was about god and the federal government under harding and coolidgever generally didn't tank that the federal government should be in the business of passing social or economic reform. so most of it was being done by the state. the court tended to take the decision. >> you're a little kind. the court was awful. it is sometimes described as the lochner error, after a case from 1905, where new york state passed a law that said there was a maximum number of hours bakers could work. and this is the court struck that down as a violation of the right to contract of these poor immigrant bakers. and you know, i mean, the court as an engine of uncontrolled capitalism. i mean, that certainly might -- >> no, you think him a whole that's absolutely right. and in 1918 you have the hammer decision which overturns a federal ban on child labor to such an extent that it seems that the only solution is to ban child labor by constitutional amendment, which is an effort that picks up steam assorted guys awake. they can pass the amendment again. >> former question from th

astronauts venture out to repair the shuttle's coolidge. they planned to do a battery work, but nasa scrapped that because of concerns they might be shocked. the crew will remain at the station until next friday, and may spend an extra day there because of the failure of the shuttle's main antenna. for more on the shuttle mission, log onto our website, wbaltv.com. a father accused of keeping his kids in a car for two days. follow the orioles after the home opener by clicking on sports. five celebrities you thought were dead but are not. click on entertainment. in annapolis, more debate over same-sex marriage. coming up, the intense argument that caused the house speaker to hand over his gavel. >> an outdoor adventure park is offering a great deal. in exchange for a few hours of environmental cleanup, you get cool activities for free. cool activities for free. >> go green and screen is the name of a promotion this weekend at an outdoor adventure park in savage. in exchange for picking up trash along savage part in the river, you can get an a

and we were -- we have been moving this direction, only ronald reagan, and i should say, coolidge, movedus back this direction. but, i don't think we have ever come close again to the avalanche way point and now we are arguing, people say this is nuts. this area here, this is all libertarian zone. and, everybody says, libertarianism, you can't do that, that is crazy. yes, you can. you just need to be responsible. and you need to know we can't shut down the military and everything. you can't do that. it has taken us 100 years to create a government that is just about here. you can't just in one day create a vacuum on the entire planet and say, oh, we're moving it here. you can't. it will collapse. back in just a second. [applause] >> how is it every night you don't get... with nancy pelosi. i think of 100 things to ask him a day and now there is a camera in front of me and an opportunity and it's all gone. can i just thank him for everything he's done. >> i love you, beck, i legislative you. i want to work for you. i want to work for you. give me a job! identity theft, one of the fastest

the wolf does not look anymore like your grandmother than the metro golden lion looks like calvin coolidgeutomatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead. moral? it is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be. "the little girl and the wolf," by james thurber. now to something a bit more political from the same book, "the birds and the foxes." once upon a time, there was a bird sanctuary in which hundreds of baltimore orioles lived together happily. the refuge consisted of a forest, entirely surrounded by a high-wire fence. it was put up, a pack of foxes who lived nearby protested that it was an arbitrary and unnatural boundary. however, they did nothing about it at the time, because they were interested in civilizing the geese and ducks on the neighboring farms. when all the geese and ducks had been civilized and there was nothing else left to eat, the foxes once more turned their attention to the bird sanctuary. their leader announced there had once been foxes in the sanction wary but that they had been driven out. he proclaimed that baltimore orioles belonged in balti

the first one to do that was harlan fisk nom named by calvin coolidge. it wasn't until the '80s in the advent of multi day hearings being televised things got rolling in terms of the political drama. july 1st, 1987, ronald reagan nominated a vacancy created on the supreme court. within 45 minutes of the bork nomination, 45 minutes, ted kennedy stormed on to the senate floor to declare jbork's nomination essentially dead on arrival. >> robert bork's america is a land in which women would be forced into backaly abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters and school children could not be taught about evolution. >> that's 45 minutes into the nomination process. how's that for opposition? mr. bork was in fact one of the most radical jurists ever proposed in modern times for any judgeship, let alone for the supreme court. the fight to keep him off the court set new standards for how these things are fought. people for the american way enlisted gregory peck, the hollywood legend in the fight against bork. >> there's a special feeling of awe people

calvin coolidge said they hired the money, didn't they?nd the sort of tragic consequences followed from that decision. initially, it tried to impose a debt of something like $30 billion on germany which had a gdp of $12 billion. >> host: which would be in the trillions today? >> guest: it would like the u.s. having a debt of $45 trillion, which would be crazy. they eventually negotiated that down to about -- to $12 billion. but even then the germans thought this was completely unfair so never wanted to pay. and europe -- britain and france never wanted to forgive it. forgive this debt because they felt obliged to pay a similar debt to the u.s. for their war debts. >> host: so that's the mess the central bankers that you write about really have dropped in their laps to some extent. >> guest: yeah, yeah. >> host: but then they have to handle it. how did they handle it? and what do you think were the principal mistakes they made having received this mess and to some extent being asked to deal with it and clean it up? >> guest: the first world

is there anything else to learn about fdr or calvin coolidge? >> oh my gosh. well, first of all, every generation reacquaints itself with the towering figures. we are living through an economic downturn. a lot of time -- we are watching the federal government participate and drive stimulus packages, take over banks briefly, take over gm briefly, and of course now we have a new metal -- we have health care reform. a lot of people are asking when did the welfare state start, has it been a success, did it end the first -- did it end the great depression as opposed to the great recession we are in today. there's also a political side to it. the debate again liberals and conservatives over the size of government. so people are going to have their cut on which way it should go. so go back to fdr or calvin coolidge. nobody talks about hoover anymore. if you want it to balance. who was right? dealing with the economy? so it's rather exciting to watch today's debates being played out in historical biographies. >> host: tim-and-a-half ---and-a-half -- tim-and-a-half tal

. >> the coolidge effect. that a male exposed to female will after a while tire of cop lating with that female, but the you show him another female, that same male who appears exhausted will all of sudden be capable of sexual activity. >> rose: why is that? what happens in the brain to make that true? >> there is some habituation going on. familiarity which is no longer forcing... it's very much like addiction. >> expected reward over time. >> but it made me also smile because it's the same thing with food. with food you can actually... they put you a piece of meat you can tire of it. then they bring dessert, even though you're full, you'll bring that dessert. anything that is novel will be salient and activate the dopamine system. >> rose: say that again. everything gets tired at some point and activates... >> becomes tolerant. so a stimulant that's pleasurable, a natural stimulant, will activate t dopamine cells. but as you become sated, as you repeat it... >> it becomes less effective. >> not with drugs, an

that in kansas and 1880s and the 1890's there were harvey houses in kansas city, augusta, chanute, coolidge, dodge city, and korea, florence, fort scott, kingsley, lincoln, lions, madison, manchester, mcpherson, newton, although, of pittsburgh, rush center, syracuse, topeka, wellington, which as all previous am i are there any parts of those left? >> sure. what is happening is very cold all of the country, not just kansas. the places where the santa fe depots were not knocked down negative people are replacing them and actually there is federal money to do that in dodge city the old harvey houses had dinner here the eight computer. a theater funded by the federal government for many millions of dollars because they saved the transition. so in fact there are buildings oliver kansas, there are some and missouri, there are buildings offer texas, california, arizona, new mexico that are being reclaimed by the communities. there are only three currently running at harvey restaurants and hotels you can go and have a summer experience to back then. laforme hotel in santa fe, la tasatto in winslow

i was telling that calvin coolidge was the president i never learned about in school.e kind of skipped over in and went straight to fdr's why naturally found it absolutely fascinating. i would recommend that to people. >> with the shades, too mother california. let's stop and chat we have a few more calls. eugene, oregon, you have been patient. what would you like to see on booktv? >> caller: i would like to see more on the topic of ballistics and cognitive science and behavioral evolutionary economics. the reason i'm calling is i would really like to see booktv in prime time during the week. it's a great alternative to other garbage tv. >> now have you seen what we have done prime time? >> caller: yes. yes -- yes i think you should do that all the time or writing to need another channel. i love what you provide. >> thanks a lot. thanks for watching. we sure appreciate it. then salem, pennsylvania. good afternoon to you. >> caller: i enjoy everything you do. hello? >> hi. >> caller: high. i really enjoy everything you do. i especially like the history panels i love the

it came after a period of republican presidents -- hardi harding, coolidge, hoover -- who sided with freewheeling companies over commonsense regulations. and we had no choice but to clean up the mess with a period of sustained, robust regulations implemented by another democratic administration at that time. and once again the time has come, after the economic damage has been done, to put in place a series of robust reforms and safeguards so it never happens again. and once again, just as they did after the great depression, our republican colleagues are saying "no," leave things as they are. no feed for wall street reforms. -- no need for wall street reforms. let the market take care of itself. they want to say "no" to the lessons of history. we need to say "yes" to commonsense reforms, "yes" to sensible oversight and regulations, "yes" to protecting the jobs, homes, and retirement savings of families who have been playing by the rules, "yes" to protecting them from more reckless financial gambling and creative derivative schemes, "yes" to guaranteeing taxpayers will never be on the