david mccullough and gordon wood join a panel of five other historians and scholars at this event. it's a little over an hour. >>> you know, i think we should begin by thanking david boren for this extraordinary day. [ applause ] as i enter the stand, he picks up opponent to david mccullough. come out to the university of oklahoma. we need you to do this or any of these wonderful minds sitting here on this stage. as david has said our focus is teaching the u.s. constitutional history in the 21st century. i love akhil's story having his 6-year-old learn the names of the presidents. we had our son do exactly the same thing. it's a great way to start. i also loved his idea of having each one of us go to wikipedia to look through the names of each of our presidents to learn one fact about each of those. i find myself thinking we are faced with a group of constitutional scholars who adore what they do -- adore the constitution, all of its inclusions, everything that was left out for most of us, at least i speak for myself. growing up in high school if somebody mentioned learning about th

that's what david mccullough's magnificent book is all about. we're already at war. we don't have that kind of thing. in 1777-'78 we do. this is the year and it builds on some is dress rehearsal for so they seem in retrospect, early efforts to do this sort of thing at the state level, massachusetts actually adopts a constitution democratically in 1780 and david mccullough wants you to know john adams was the draftsperson there and new hampshire follows in 1784. but now on a continental scale and my claim is the world is never the same. it almost failed. the civil war, lincoln comes along and you heard about that. now, just so we're clear, hatch the world is democratic. very few democracies for the previous millennium in recorded history, we do this thing up and down the continent and we manage to actually survive an effort by one group to set aside by force of arms a proper election, the civil war. you can't have government by and for the people if the people lose a fair election fair and square, actually try to undo it by force of arms and try to shut down free spee

and i read storybooks, history books, books that david mccullough writes for an ordinary audience that's accessible to ordinary people. then i get to college, and i read gordon wood's work. and so here's now taking that -- out bie grauy autobu autobiogra- that's how i got into this. i do think the national constitution center is a great public space and i really got to know gordon when he was the founder really of the academic board. >> so you start very young, but let's say you didn't have such parents. let's say you get to college and you are required to take a course on the history of the constitution. i am required to take that course. how do you engage me immediately? >> i think it's actually a little late to start then, so i think politics is sport. i think it can be fun. >> i agree. >> if you can know all about the football team and your favorite baseball team, you can actually follow politics, which is very interesting, and know your presidents and every july 4th, i think we actually need materials, kid friendly, family friendly materials. a secular seder. we have to have occasio

. >> david mccullough. >> i feel strongly and i experimented with this myself as a guest professor in cornell one term. i strongly believe that we should bring what i would call the lab technique to the teaching of the humanities in the sense of getting students to go into the lab as it were and work out the answer or the solution or the understanding of a subject or a problem on their own. we're working with other students. if i were assigned to -- it would depend at what level i was teaching. if i was teaching at the college level, i think i would go about it this way. i would assign four students to work together and four other students to work together and four more, and each of them would be assigned to know about one single person who participa participated in the constitutional convention, and they would be required to either present a report or to get up and say my name is james madison. here's the life i had. here's what happened to me. and they would work at a table with four at a table, because that way you would get to know what the other three at your table also did or di

david fischer told you about some -- how fortunate. if you read mccullough 1776 you do see it seems the hand of providence even in the weather, you know, on all sorts of crucial days. we were lucky to win the last one. we might win the next one. here is the argument. my fellow americans, it's in federalist 2, it's continued in federalist 4 to 6, if you read federalist 9, if you read nothing else, if you read 8 and 9, look around the world today. who is free in all the world? apart from us americans. not the russians, not the chinese, not the indians, not the turks, not the poles. british and maybe the swiss and that's about it. the netherlands are in the process of losing this. now why? by the way, what do the swiss have in common? not language. four of them. not religion, they have two which is enough to kill each other. these places have defensible orders. it's pretty hard to charge up a hill. it's naturally defensible and before it was unified, gordon mentioned scotland, when you had the scots battling, there's no great wall of china. he's not a defensibl

he simply picks up the phone and says to david mccullough, come out to the university of oklahoma. we need you to do this for any of these wonderful minds sitting here on this stage. our focus is teach iing u.s. constitutional history in the 21st century. i love akeel's story. of having his 6-year-old learn the names of the presidents. we had our son do exactly the same thing. it's a great way to start. i always loved his idea of having each one of us go to wikipedia to look through the names of each of our presidents to learn one fact about each of those. i find myself thinking that we are faced with a group of constitutional scholars who adore what they do. adore the constitution. all of its inclusions, all of everything that was left out. for most of us, at least i speak for myself. growing up in high school, if somebody mentioned learning about the constitution, it was a big yawn. so, we are now here in the 21st century where there is a great deal of talk of exporting democracy. exporting the sense of freedom that this country has developed over these 225 years and yet, here we

this week our guest is author and historian david mccullough. host: david, you told an audience a couple days ago that everybody in america should know who henry knox is. why? guest: because he's such an exroo -- sproord person who not only lived up to the role that history had to play but went over the top, as it were. as an example of a man who came from very humble origins with very little advantage in the way of educations or connections, he rose to be one of the most important americans of his day, the man that george washington discovered and the man that george washington counted on through nearly 8 1/2 years of the revolutionary war and then counted on him as his secretary of war during the time that washington was president. he started out as a boston book seller. big, stout, gregarious, friendly, popular fellow who had about the equivalent of a fifth grade education. he loved books and never stopped reading and he became one of the best officers in the whole war. washington singled out two young men almost within a week or two weeks aft

. >> host: ever had discussion about the adams family with david mccullough? if >> i have run into david in the book history circuit. the one encounter we had in washington years ago like ten years ago and washington end and we, university of virginia having an alumni program in the summer so they invited david mccullough to open it up with a keynote presentation and there were going to be seminars for the alumni and i was to give the closing talk. i went to one of david at seminars and do was just great. the audience loved it. he is such a charming and informed guy but someone asked a very interesting question. who was the most dangerous man of the founding. he said alexander hamilton. and he gave what john adams would say about alexander hamilton who hated alexander hamilton. i had just finished my hamilton book. i was sitting in the back of the room. this was terrible. was like god is pronouncing against my guy. he finish the answer and i piped up and i said arnold, and he said yes? benedict arnold was worse than alexander hamilton. so i thought i got it on

say that we put people in the boots of those who went before us in order for them to know as david mccullough toll us years ago, those people who lived long ago didn't know they were living long ago. tony one-ups it. not only do our programs try to put students and visitors and teachers into the boots of those long ago, tony, as he writes here, wants to get not into their boots but into their minds. he's done that with every book he's written, and it transports us to times and places that really challenge us. so we're here today and we'll have a conversation, and then we're going to open the floor to your questions to this amazing man. because you're our friend we still get to say you're an amazing man. sometimes we don't get to say that. >> they say you can't go home, but i lived here for 13 years. it still feels like home. there are at least five people in the audience who i don't know. there you go. it's the old mob, so good to be back. >> thank you. here in waterford, we're not far from harper's ferry, the subject of john brown's raid. some of us are very curious on to understand how this

of course later on david mccullough is going to be part of these proceedings and the pre-eminent scholar john adams. i asked a question about adams' son, john quincy. we've heard about thomas jefferson. we've heard from the jefferson chair at the university of virginia which is jefferson's university in the person of peter onuf, the so-called father of the constitution, james madison, jefferson's good friend. we saw a picture of james monroe in that boat right there right beside george washington. again, john quincy adams was mentioned. that's the spine of american history. and i want to suggest, just because i wanted to -- my talk today is going to be about the constitution. that's what i do, that's where i live and move and have my being as intellectually as in the constitution, and i wanted to basically give you one kind of memorable way to to pull together the basic theme of my talk. i want to suggest that our constitution is in its basic structure far more jackson, andrew jackson-like, than we've been taught. i'll tell you at the end of today, three ways to sort of remember that it'

. >> david mccullough? >> i believe it all comes down to or up to leadership and leadership at all levels but particularly political leadership. here we are in one of the great universities of our country, a state university in which the president teaches a course on civics. [ applause ] imagine a president who's responsible for an enormous budget, for 44,000 people if you count the employees and the students. with all that he has to contend with, takes time out to teach that will course every year. i don't know of another president of a major university that teaches a course. maybe there are some. but the point is, we lead by example. and our politicians have to do the same thing. and so do the people in the media. we must not -- [ applause ] i think it's appalling that we have people on television regularly every day reporting the nation's events and the world's events who, one, can't really properly use the english language and who, two, don't seem to ever read books. [ applause ] it is not coincidental

america, the university of oklahoma hosted a symposium with david mccullough. >>> the national journal hosted a discussion recently on the federal budget and deficit reduction on the upcoming panel former senate staff director steve bell endorsing an approach that would provide immediate stimulus. this is about a half hour. >> next we have our discussion with our panel of experts. joining us this morning, we have steve bell, senior director of economic policy, policy center, laura peterson, senior policy analyst, taxpayera pollack, senior policy analyst, the economic policy institute. our moderator for this morning's panel is jim tankersley, the economics correspondent for national journal. jim joined us from the tribune washington bureau where he covered energy, the environment and politics for newspapers, including the "los angeles times" and the "chicago tribune." he previously worked at "the toledo blade" and "the rocky mountain news" and "the oregonian." mr. tankersley and a colleague at the blade won the 2007 livingston award for their business as usual series of stories revealin

. >> host: have you ever had a discussion about the adams family with david mccullough? >> guest: i've one into david on the book history circuit. the one encounter we had -- this is back in washington years ago, like maybe ten years ago, and washington and lee university in virginia -- they were having an alumni program in the summer so they invited david mccullough to open it up for the keynote presentation and then there were going to be seminars and whatnot for the alumni, and then i was to give the closing talk. so, i went to one of david's seminars, and it was just great. i mean, the audience loved it. he is such a congenial, charming, and informed guy. but someone asked him a question, very interesting question. they said, who is the most dangerous man of the founders? and he said, well, alexander hamilton, and then he fav sort of what john adams would say about alexander hamilton. hated alexander hamilton. and i just finished my hamilton book, so i'm sitting in the back of the room thinking, this is terrible. this is like god is pronouncing against my guy. so, i w

of course later on david mccullough is going to be part of these proceedings and the pre-eminent scholar john adams. i asked a question about adams' son, john quincy. we've heard about thomas jefferson. we've heard from the jefferson chair at the university of virginia which is jefferson's university in the person of peter onuf, the so-called father of the constitution, james madison, jefferson's good friend. we saw a picture of james monroe in that boat right there right beside george