david mccullough, i always mention as someone who gave me, imparted the best advice i've ever gotten for speechwriting. when he was asked about the variety of books he had written and there is no clear theme to the books, the question was how did he decide what his next book was going to be, he said i write the book i want to read. i remember that stuck in my mind. that is a good attitude for speechwriters. write the speech you wouldn't mind listening to. june: exactly. >> i can go on. the adams biography. june: he literally brought history to life like you were writing his horse with him. to this day one of my babe -- favorite is to kill a mockingbird. just the way it evoked a summer in the south. jumpa lahiri, because she really conveys what it is like to be a child of immigrants and a woman, along those lines, i don't how to say her name, the woman who wrote americanah. and lin-manuel miranda. super cool. love him. of -- mentioned in senses instances of conflict. when your genius was unappreciated. can you recall when you felt strongly that you had written something you thought wa

one is the american spirit by david mccullough. it's the compilation of speeches is given he's one of my favorite authors. he wrote a biography of john adams and written a number of biographies but also the book 1776 that i read a while back that, it's about that pivotal year and the founding of america but it's really about george washington who is my favorite president. another book, i come up from a think tank back on, that's what it for 25 it before i ran for congress. i'm kind of a nerd i guess, and i've been in meetings with scott with what his ideas of what we need to do to have a quality healthcare system, and to think i would add an affordable healthcare system. a couple of the books that i've read this summer, one back in the spring come was the little things by andy andrews. it's a really good little book. i've read i think practically everything and andy has written turkeys an excellent author. my wife is reading one of his

david mccullough told it so i could probably get away with it. my grandmother as i said, she went home a lot. she was being pulled in two directions my grandfather wanted her here and his mother- in-law my great-grandmother and i wanted her home to help with the house. she relied on my grandmother a great deal. grandpa, she was being pulled back and forth but she was away for a long time and when she got back to blair house, the enjoyment was infectious. they were so happy to see each other that the staff got caught up in it because everyone was in a good mood. my grandmother came down and took mister fields, the head butler aside, she said mister fields, we had a little upstairs, there is a, oh hell, one of the slats on the bed is broken. that's as close i want to know anything about that but anyway. it was a good story. but when it came to the restoration and as i mentioned earlier, abby wrote took hundreds of pictures of the original restoration he worked for the bureau of public roads and i've seen two things it was either polio or childhood

and it's a slightly risque story, but david mccullough told it so i can get away with it my grandmother went home a lot. she was being pulled in two directions, my grandfather wanted her here and my great grandmother wanted her home to help on the house she relied on my grandmother a great deal. she was away for a long time and when she got back to blair house, the the enjoyment was infectious, they were so happy to see each other that the staff got caught up in it. everybody was in a good mood. and my grandmother came down the next day and she took mr. fields, alonzo fields, the head butler aside and she said mr. fields, there's, we have a little -- up stairs there's a -- oh, hell, fields, one of the slats on the bed is broken. >> that's as close as i want to get to knowing anything about my anyway good story, david digging that un. when it came to the restoration. i mentioned them earlier. abbey rowe took hundreds of pictures of the eventual restoration of the white house. he worked for the burg of public roads -- bureau of public roads, it's either polio or a childhood accident. two

and the library of congress as the actual papers david mccullough did in his book on the wright brothers and it was really based on that and then the smithsonian asthe plane . >> the model, gap. >> we are working to see what are some of the things we have that each of us can bring together for a special exhibit to really put things, when one is having an exhibit on something, putsomething about it in our own institution . and the smithsonian, we were pleased. we had the first photo, known photo of harriet tallman and it's going to be exhibited in the new read digitized, we took care of it and it's going to be on exhibit at the new museum of african-american history. and you'll see more of it. so we all have this friendly rivalry. it's always fun and when tony comes to play and puts his things down there and all, but just getting this community of history and culture seems to be growing. and we worked together for that. >> so what has surprised you? >> at the library of congress ? >> about working in washington. >>. [laughter] tony is over here going -- i still live in baltimore. >> that

and these are the people david mccullough, isaacson -- >> john meacham. >> -- john meacham. in fact, i could name 20 people in my field, in early american history alone, who are doing this. sometimes they're former journalists. they have no ph.d. and they have no academic position. >> but that might be a big asset because they never learned how to right academia. >> no adverbs, no adjectives. >> i understand what the profession is doing, but in a sense it's cutting itself off from general public. now, scientists can do -- a physicist writes his or her papers, they don't expect layman to be able to read them. but history is different. it's got a public obligation. and it's sad to see the academics writing just for one another and ignoring this larger public which is hungry for knowing the story of the founding. and that gap or that hunger is being fed by these nonacademic historians. thank god. that they are doing this. joe and i are anomalies within the academic world because we had academic positions and are still doing -- writing this kind of history. >> but i think -- see