now author and historian craig shirley. he was a guest on washington in an hour, you can watch extended portions of the 1976 republican convention. washington journal continues. >> would want to welcome our viewers on c-span3's american history tv. coming up in the next hour, a look back of the coverage of the day that unfolded to president ford's nomination. here is a portion. >> the republican party is here to nominate a presidential candidate for 1976. an incumbent president for the first time since 1912. faces a serious challenge from within his own party. it comes tomorrow night .ccording to the schedule matter to be settled out here at the floor of the convention. there will be a vote tonight that both sides knowledgeable test their strength which could make or break the candidates. theill be on the chain of party rule. 16 c is the number of the role. it would force president for to name his vice president running mate i tomorrow morning. 12 hours before the alateen is scheduled. balloting isal scheduled. >> ronald re

he's in conversation with author craig shirley discussing mr. williams' latest book, "we the people." [inaudible conversations] >> okay. good afternoon. i'm bradley graham, i'm the co-owner of politics & prose along with my wife, lissa muscatine, and on behalf of everybody here at the gaithersburg book festival, thank you, thank you so much for coming. this is, of course, the seventh annual festival here in 2008ers burg -- gaithersburg. this is the fifth consecutive year that politics & prose has been here as the official bookseller, and we really want to commend the gaithersburg staff and all the festival sponsors and volunteers for working so hard, especially hard this year given the weather, to make today possible. and thank you all, really, for coming out. you're all a very hearty, hearty bunch. a few quick administrative notes. now would be a good time to turn off your cell phones or anything else that might go beep. second, if you're tweeting today, please use hashtag gbf. and, third, we really want your feedback. so, please, at the end fi

so please join me in welcoming juan williams and craig shirley. [applause] >> juan, thank you for being here today. by the way, i think we are going to take questions from the audience at some point. i always like to start at the beginning. so just tell us about yourself, where you were born, where you went to college, high school, sports you played, things like that. [laughter] >> well, thanks, craig. and thank you all for coming out on a rainy day. it's a pleasure to be here. you know, one of the great pleasures, i think, about being an author is learning things. the writing process, getting involved with new information and then being able to share that information. but, of course, you need somebody -- whether it's craig or all of you -- to share with, to get into conversation with. and part of the joy of a book festival is learning what people think about what you've written and sort of taking you to a new height in terms of your own capacity to experience life and the written word. so thank you all for being here. so in answer to your questio

craig shirley, a conservative author, i have read some of this work. you can still learned and be informed from someone else's point of view even one that is pretty different of your own. >> host: are there books you go back to from time to time? >> guest: i am always reluctant to reread a book, although i do, because life is so short and there is so much to read. i don't want to go back over ground i already tread. >> host: with the reading you do congressman, do you ever find you can affect public policy through this knowledge or the reading itself? >> guest: i do. when i was in graduate school i took a course with a historian ernie may who wrote a book on the uses of history and the purpose of that course was to help illim not how policymakers misuse history largely through a analogies. in his mind, he was a plucky leader, fighting against all odds and enemies and hanging in there basking in accurate democratic ideals. that was the analogy for johnson. what could go wrong? we saw what went wrong. that was in his head and when he became president he

. >> craig shirley e-mailed me and said what does it say when barack obama quotes ronald reagan more been a reagan speech. trust me. it was about optimism, about believing america's greatest days truly lie aid head. there was a great line that reached out to a lot of republicans but it certainly got them thinking. it basically said that convention last week, what i heard out of that convention wasn't republican and it surely wasn't conservative. >> i agree with you guys. i was struck by the fact that he that you would republicans are such a mess, just that optimism. donald trump called our country a divided crime scene. he talked about engineers and all of the great things america does in the future. >> there seemed to be an appeal in a number of speeches. for people out there who don't feel like either party's platform is exactly who you are, look at the choice here and come this way for now, that choice i think republicans are making. i heard that a lot. >>> last mike wiki leaks posted 14 minutes of audio from top democratic officials. they haven't authenticated and isn't quoting f

craig shirley telling me yesterday morning we may be seeing a fundamental shift of the two parties, oneraising totalitarian view and leaders and another party embracing the very values that made ronald reagan's coalition last for 30 years. >> when you had the president of the united states two nights ago citing that. that's pretty remarkable when you look at the president speaking of president obama. you saw the flags waving, the chants of usa, that's the kind of thing in 2004, 2008, 2012 democrats might mock republicans for being too over the top with that show of patriotism. >> as a matter of fact, republicans were mocked. we were constantly made fun of. >> that's different. >> we were mocked for being jingle istic saying "usa, usa." they were not afraid to say we love god, we love country, we love police officers, we understand there are problems, there's a long way to go. we may not be a perfect union, but, again, quoting jfk, we never had to put up walls to keep people in. >> going second was a big advantage to the democrats. they got to look at everything the republicans did. they

he's in conversation with author craig shirley discussing mr. williams' latest book, "we the people." [inaudible conversations]

now author and historian craig shirley.was a guest on washington in an hour, you can watch extended portions of the 1976 republican convention. washington journal continues.

>> well, i don't know about you, craig shirley, but i do not design covers. [laughter] >> but -- >> but i love the idea, which the idea is they came to me after reading the book and the book taking so -- >> actually, i do. >> you design your covers? >> i have a big hand in them. >> not me. >> but in the book you mentioned eleanor roosevelt, daniel patrick moynihan, martin luther -- all the people you mentioned here are -- >> i think that's because the person who designed the cover read the book, thank goodness. [laughter] >> that'd be a first. >> okay, all right. well, i love the concept, that they read the book and they came up with this idea that there could be a new mount rushmore, right? and who would be the figures on the new mount rushmore. what they did, as craig as just told you, they put up eleanor roosevelt, thu good marshall, billy graham and ronald reagan. and i think their idea is you can see this is not about politics, this is about people who were so powerful in making a change in american life that they have, in fact, created the modern americ