. >>> up next, historians richard norton smith, douglas brinkley and edna greene medford discuss "theank former presidents from best to worst. this forum was held at george washington's mount vernon.

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and it's also good to see you, as well, of course, douglas brinkley. but we'll glad that richard is on the mend. so, richard, the unemployment rate is up to 14.7%. but that doesn't even account for the workers who taken a pay cut or lost hours, right? >> that's exactly the point. the headline number of 14.7, really, is probably considerably higher because of the underemployed, those people who are still in job jeopardy. that's the way i prefer to think of it. those people, for example, on a ppp scheme, who work for a small business where the money might run out. those people, whose companies still haven't made up their mind what they're going to do longer term. so a rough rule of thumb, you are talking about one in five jobs probably has either gone or is in jeopardy at the moment. and that number, probably, is now almost reached its peak because, also, don, what we saw in this number. and i think this is, perhaps, one of the only encouraging signs about it. is that a good 17 and a half million of the 20 million who lost their jobs last month, they say

douglas brinkley, the president was there and he watched this launch. he went there on wednesday twice to go see this launch. obviously it was very important to him. there was a feeling on wednesday that this was something important to him not just for what it means to the u.s. space. that was wednesday. you add to that the racial pain and anger and frustration we're seeing around the country following the death of george floyd while he was in police custody. just reflect on that juxtaposition. >> well, look, jim bridenstein, the nasa administrator, has done an amazing job of being bipartisan. he hooked up to the idea that we will bring women to the moon soon. he got somebody like nancy pelosi on board and this is, today, i think a triumph of the california people, elon musk and spacex, jet propulsion laboratory, i meanhave believed in musk. of course, jeff bezos is an enemy of donald trump, who has blue origin, who wants to put a moon craft up, so musk and trump have had a kind of on and off relationship, but to me, this, for donald trump, shows that a

tonight, richard norton smith, douglas brinkley and edna met ford talk about the book at a quorum last spring from washington's mt. vernon now available on paperback and ebook. watch american history now and over the weekend on c-span3. >>> watch c-span's daily unfiltered coverage of the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic with briefings from the white house, congress and governors across the country. plus, join in on the conversation on our live call-in program, ""washington journal."" watch any time on demand at c-span.org/coronavirus. >>> up next on "history bookshelf, randall ballmer's book "redeemer," and talks about the role religion played over president ford in the 1976 election and defeat in 1980 by ronald reagan. in atlanta, back in 2014. >> welcome. it's a pleasure for me tonight to introduce randall ballmer, professor at dartmouth college. i followed his career a long time. his undergraduate work done at a school my father was a dean and my brother, joe, attended the school at the same time. randy has turned into o

dougla douglas brinkley, you might see him often all television. richard norton smith, he has started five presidential libraries over the course of his career and currently living in grand rapids, michigan, working on the definitive biography of gerald r. ford. and edna greene medford here in washington, d.c. at howard university. she's currently the dean of the humanities department and a specialist in the reconstructionist era of american history. we went to them at the end of your year-long project and said we spent this time amassing anecdotal stories about the president. it would be nice to put a capper on this with something a little more scientific. we devised the idea of doing a survey of presidential historians. then the question was, well, how would we measure them? lots of really interesting intellectual debate ensued and we decide on ten qualities of presidential leadership that would be the metrics for the presidents. and here they are. first is public persuasion. the next one, crisis leadership. third, economic management. the fourth

we worked with three well-known historians, edna medford, douglas brinkley, and richard norton smith as long-ago as 20 years ago to put together a survey with 10 leadership qualities. we sent it out to 100 historians and we worked very hard for geographic and ideological diversity and gender diversity over the years so we can represent different points of view as they are judging them. here are the qualities the presidents are judged on. so you might think about them as this conversation is going to unfold. public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with congress, vision and setting an agenda -- for some reason i always think of george h w bush when vision comes up. and pursued equal justice for all. the final one they wanted to add because the office of the presidency has changed so much over the course of our history. performance within the context of the times in which they served. why do we do these surveys? i will tell you a little story. i was standing at the register where the books are

douglas brinkley. and ron caro, and others who are very well-known contemporary presidential historians. our three panelists, the idea for this was to bring together three of the president biographers who are featured in the book to talk about something other than the pantheon of presidents who are on mount rushmore. jeffrey rosen wrote a biograph on william howard taft. he was interviewed by brian. as you know, in addition to his work here, he's a professor at gw law school, which made him particularly interested in the work of taft who went on to become the chief justice of the supreme court. and we've known him as a journalist, which he is in his heart and soul since his early days in washington, author of six books. michael gerhardt wrote a book called "the forgotten presidents." brian will be talking to him about a number of them. in our book he's the chapter on jimmy carter. robert strauss is a philadelphia area journalist. he worked at the "daily news" and kyw, for you fill dell feeians. and his

douglas brinkley says "war and peace is a masterful reevaluation.and pulitzer prize-winning co-author calls it a stunning achievement. hamilton commands his talent and meticulous historian and biographer as an intimate portrait of america's most consequential president. the most award-winning of jfk, jfk, and montgomery and president clinton among other subjects his most recent book the mantle of command was long listed for the national book award a senior fellow at the mccormick graduate school and splits his time between boston massachusetts and new orleans. thank you for joining us. please welcome nigel hamilton. [applause] >> actually i saw my time sometimes between new orleans. [laughter] and the mantle of command was actually the first the second was called commander in chief and this one going from a very distinguished writer many years ago called war and peace. welcome this evening. i am delighted to be giving a talk in a bookstore because as i said before i started my literary career as a bookseller. i had a little bookshop in london in gre

. >> it's amazing looking back at the book that douglas brinkley wrote.s if his personal campaign, and they were thinking about leading the russians to the moon because of the soviets to the moon. and the innovation behind it and how when they did something we had to do something, and pressure on people like john glenn and armstrong and others, and buzz aldrin, literally were no man has gone before and a rocket test that would get in the moon. the president is 73 years old, and the more you think about it, they are aiming at our enemies to bring us to our knees. then they say the 73-year-old president has a vision of the 43-year-old kennedy on the need to get the space and get back to the moon and beyond. you see at least for the moment those two are together. >> dana: at one of the things this could portend for the future, private citizens could actually envision themselves saving up their money and their pennies, and i wonder about the private sector being able to do that. >> the rabbit crafts of the world that have been ambition, to be able to go. that

i want to bring in cnn presidential historian douglas brinkley.d to talking to you because you have so much insight into the history of the military and dealing with disease. we know that the military reports another 5,900 cases among its ranks, but it's not the first time disease that is plagued the military in u.s. history, right? >> hardly. my heart goes out to anyone suffering from covid-19 in the armed forces. they're doing heroic work around the globe right now. but american history, the american revolution, george washington was so worried about yellow fever that the one thing that saved us, we wouldn't be a country today if washington didn't decide to inoculate troops for smallpox. it was seen as a radical procedure, it had been perfected in great britain and washington went with it and it saved thousands of lives. nevertheless, we have to keep in mind in the first 145 years of american history, in any battle, we talk about revolutionary war, war of 1812, mexican-american war, up to world war i, we had many more deaths in the military from

douglas brinkley, who has worked on a number of presidential biographies. and edna greene medford of howard university in washington, d.c. she is just stepping down as the dean of a liberal arts program there. she is a specialist on the civil war and reconstruction era. they helped us devise the 10 qualities of presidential leadership that the historians have ranked presidents on. they include public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with congress, vision and setting an agenda, pursued equal justice for all, and the tenant is a bit of a catchall category, which is performance within the context of their times. the historians wanted to do this because the office of the presidency has changed so much. to add some context of the times in which they serve and for our changing society. it gives people a chance to even out some of the others. what we did with the book was take rankings from 2017, and the chapters are organized in the book by how the presidents fared in th

we need help from historians like douglas brinkley who told me america has not seen riots like this sincenation of martin luther king jr. in 1968. more recently, ferguson and baltimore are seared in our memories but these disturbances are happening in a far greater number of areas, relatively small cities, ft. wayne, indiana, matson, wisconsin, wilmington, delaware. we've got to face how this spread and we have to put it in perspective, to zoom out whenever we can and show you that in many cases the rioting has been confined to just a couple of blocks in most of these cities. it is still heinous and it's going to be very expensive to clean up but in most of these areas it's been in a relative confined area. unfortunately, in other cities the vandalism has been more extensive. i'm thinking about philly, grand rapids, l.a., et cetera, et cetera. we also need to show you that the rescuers outnumber the rioters. the helpers outweigh the hurt. there are protestors trying to stop the mobs. there are police officers trying to de-escalate when their colleagues are far too aggressive. most of all,

tonight on american history tv, beginning at eight eastern, richard norton smith, douglas brinkley and bedford, contributed to the book talk about the president's historical rankings at a form recorded last spring at george washington's mountain burden. the book is now available in paperback in the book. watch american history tv now and over the weekend on c-span 3. up next on lectures in history, university of nevada las vegas professor michael green talks about abraham l

edna medford, ron chernow, richard norton smith, douglas brinkley, robert caro and others who are well-known contemporary presidential historians. our idea was to bring together presidential biographers featured in the book to talk about something other than the pantheon of presidents who are on mount rushmore. jeffrey rosen has written a biography on william howard taft and was interviewed by brian. as you know, in addition to his work here, he is a professor at gw law school, which made him particularly interested in the work of taft, who went on to become the chief justice of the supreme court. we had as a journalist, which he soul, andheart and author of six books. michael gerhardt wrote a book called "the forgotten presidents" and brian will talk to him about a number of them. in our book, he has a chapter on jimmy carter. robert strauss is an area journalist. his presidential biography is my favorite title of all the biographies. "worst.president.ever." i'm sorry, but it is your only president, james buchanan. he is from the southern tier, not philadelphia, but he is our state's claim

tonight on american history tv, beginning at eight eastern, richard norton smith, douglas brinkley and bedford, contributed to the book talk about the president's historical rankings at a form recorded last spring at george washington's mountain burden. the book is now available in paperback in the book. watch american history tv now and over the weekend on c-span 3. up next on lectures in history, university of nevada las vegas professor michael green talks about abraham lincoln in the 1860 presidential election. he describes the political climate of the priests of a war era. the background on the other candidates and the deliberations of the party conventions. mr. lincoln won the presidencye over three other candidates with just under 40% of theth popular vote. >> all right, so we got lincoln's ancestors over here, we got them born, we got the moved around, we got himthem elected to the office, we got ma him married. it's rrtime to elect himme to president. so today we are going to look at the election of 1860 andof 1 using the term everybody's second choice at the national conventio

i spoke with douglas brinkley, cnn's presidential historian. he told me we have not seen a spasm of riots like this since the assassination of mlk in 1968. and all of that, don, i think just reiterates the point you were making about the absence of leadersh leadership. where are the leaders in the republican party and the democratic party, in hollywood and on wall street, in local communities? because this is a national problem. it's a widespread national crisis happening in dozens of cities right now. >> and for the most part, brian, silence. i appreciate that. brian, thank you so much. and thank you for bringing the information. and if we need you we'll get back to brian stelter, our chief media correspondent. i have a programming note for you. so a black man dies at the hands of police. why does this keep happening? when will this end? make sure you join me for an important conversation. "i can't breathe: black men living and dying in america." tomorrow night, 8:00 eastern. we're back in a moment. when you think of a bank, you think of peopl

you will see some familiar names, ron chair now, douglas brinkley, robert castro and others. presidential historians. with a three panelists today, the idea was to bring together three presidential biographies who are featured biographer's who are featured in the book, jeffrey rosen has written a biography on taft. he was interviewed by brian. as you know in addition to his work here he is a professor at g w. law school. it made him interested in the work of taft. he became the chief justice of the supreme court, we've known him as a journalist, which he is in his heart and soul, offer author of six books. we also have the forgotten presidents, in our book he is does a chapter on jimmy carter. and robert strauss, is a journalist he works at the daily news at kyw. his presidential biography is my favorite, worst period president period ever period. that's the name of the book is my favorite. it's james buchanan, he is from the southern tier of the state. but he is our states claim to frame. we are going to learn from robert strauss as to why james you cannon was the first wors

tonight on american history tv beginning at 8:00 eastern, richard norton smith, douglas brinkley contributorsto the book, talk about the president's historical rankings at a forum recorded last spring at george washington's mount vernon. the book is available on paperbook and e-book. watch over the weekend on cspan 3. >> this memorial day weekend on american history tv on c-span3, saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern on real america, the 1967 film "discover america" promoting tourism and domestic travel in the u.s. >> saint augustine in florida, stands the oldest house in the oldest town. here we find the ancient stones of the spanish fortress from a vanished time. nearby the spot was centuries past, once ponce de leon sought the fountain of magic youth. >> and we'll fit a national landmark in mobile, alabama. >> they said listen, we want to get back home. we need you to go and yoesnegot with timothy mayer whatever it makes to get us out of here. they went to work for him. every friday when it came time to get paid, their money went for food, clothing and shelter. they came to the resolve that they

tonight on american history tv, beginning at 8:00 eastern, richard norton smith, douglas brinkley, contributors to the book, talk about the presidents' historical rankings. the book is now available in paperback and e-book. watch american history tv now and over the weekend on c-span3. ♪ >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events. from the presidential primaries, through the impeachment process, and now the federal response to the coronavirus. you can watch all of c-span's public affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app. be part of the national conversation through c-span's daily "washington journal" program or through our social media feeds. c-span, created by america's cable television companies as a public service and brought to you today by your television provider. >> next on lectures in history, university of chicago professor jane dailey talks about the 1968 presidential election and president nixon's first term. she outlines the lead-up to the watergate break-in. >> today we're going to star

chernow,ord, ron douglas brinkley, robert caro and others who are well-known contemporary presidential historians. the three panels today, the idea was to bring together three of the presidential biographers featured in the book to talk about something other than the pantheon of presidents that are on mount rushmore. jeffrey rosen has written a bow graffiti on william howard taft and was interviewed by brian. as you know, in addition to his work here, he is a professor at gw law school, which made him particularly interested in the work of taft, who went on to become the chief justice of the supreme court. we know him as a journalist in his heart and soul, and author of six books. michael gerhardt wrote a book called "the forgotten presidents and brian will talk to him about a number of them. in our book, he has a chapter on jimmy carter. an area journalist in kentucky, and authored a presidential biography titled .worst.president.ever." more from robert strauss about why he is the worst president ever. the organizing principle for the book was the second resource i mentioned, a survey

douglas brinkley you might see him often on television. richard norton smith, often on c-span. he has started five presidential libraries. he is currently working on the biography of gerald are flowed. gerald ford. and edna green met furred. . new it would be nice to put a cap around all this was something scientific and we devised the idea of doing the survey of presidential historians but then the question was how would we measure them. lots of interesting intellectual debate pursued, and then we decided on ten qualities of presidential leadership. that would be the metrics for the president's. okay here they are. >> public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management management, moral authority international relations, administrative skills. which would include the running of the departments your cabinet etc. the next is relations with congress, vision setting an agenda, pursued equal justice for all. the final performance within the context of their times. the idea is that it is very difficult for us to take our 24 century eyes and judged back but we are asking the hi

i'm sure we will learn more about douglas brinkley about why he chose t.r.'s agenda. his lowest score was equal justice, pursuing equal justice for all. in third place, franklin delano roosevelt. we chose goodwins really terrific biography on the white house years when they had all those interesting people including winston churchill living on the second floor of the white house to help them get through the war years. his lowest score was economic management. and pursuing equal justice for all. in second place was george washington, scoring 1's and 2's. his single lowest score, and the folks in mount vernon have been working hard to help us understand is equal justice for all. and the top winner in our survey and every survey ever done is abraham lincoln. the top score was 1000 and abraham lincoln got a score of 907. he had a terrific rating on every single one except for relations with congress where he scored a 9. who are the bottom five? who is on the other end of the spectrum? john tyler is number 39. our biographer does argue that he has redeeming qualities. i in

these three historians who have become dear friends of our network over the years douglas , brinkley, richard norton on pbsho has often been and frequently on c-span, he has started five presidential libraries over the course of his career and is currently currently living in grand rapids, michigan working on the definitive viagra fee of gerald r. ford. and edna green medford, who is here in washington d.c., howard pat howard university. she is currently the dean of the humanities department, and she is a specialist in the reconstruction era of american history. we went to them at the end of our year-long project and we said, we spent all this time amassing all of these really kind of anecdotal stories about the presidents. so it would be nice to put a capper on all of this with something a little more scientific. we devised the idea of doing a survey of presidential historians. then the question was, how would we measure them? lots of really interesting and intellectual debate ensued and we decided on 10 qualities of presidential leadership that would be the metrics for the the presi

. >>> up next, historians richard norton smith, douglas brinkley and edna greene medford discuss "the presidents" which rank former presidents from best to worst. this forum was held at george washington's mount vernon. >> good evening. welcome to mt. vernon. my name is kevin butterfield. and it is my pleasure to welcome you here tonight on behalf of the mount vernon's lady associations and ford motor company which sponsors a free monthly book talk to learn from the greatest historians. thank you for being here tonight. we're thrilled to have you. to begin the program shortly we'll hear a brief presentation from susan swain, copresident and executive officer of c-span and co-authors of "the presidents." she'll be joined by brian lamb, the founder and executive chairman of c-span and moderating and esteemed group of historians in discussing the american presidency. the american presidency is as you know a fascinating subject of inquiry in every possible way. in the constitution, there's not as much said about it as you might imagine. article i is quite long, ii much shorter and the key