his latest book was a biography of eight new zealand physicist ernest rutherford. he describes as a labor of love designed to show his fellow engineering graduates he was not as dumb as they thought he was. [laughter] to begin, i invited each fan us to offer some opening thoughts we're here today stock of biography and history through the development of characters do you want to go first as the award winner? [laughter] >> i think the greatest challenge it took me a long time to write this book. for many reasons. the course lots of new research not only have a full-time job as long -- as well as rating but also had to learn about biographies specific way. i had written about history but not biography. so so many of the first drafts i got the narrative rather than the story so it to to -- took me if you know, very much about 87 such an exciting%. she refuses to leave a first-class ladies car in 1883. the at some of the house founder and embroiled in all kinds of controversy because she's a very transgress of woman coming up in a victorian period. was all of that come

his latest book, however, was a biography of new zealand physicist ernest rutherford in which he repeated the experiments that lead to the atom. he describes that as a labor of love designed to show his graduates that he was not as dumb as he thought he was. [laughter] >> so to begin, i wanted to invite each of our panelists to make some -- to offer some opening thoughts. and sort of thought we'd start with the question of, you know -- we're here today to talk about biography and history and i wonder if you would each talk about some of the challenges of telling history through the development of characters. paula, you're award winner. you want to go first? >> thanks a lot. [laughter] >> well, i think the greatest challenge -- it took me a long time to write this book. and for many reasons, of course, lots to do with research and the fact that you have to have a full-time job as well write. but also i had to learn about biography specifically. i'd written books about history before. but not a biography before. and so so many of my first drafts were really the history of ida wells' life ra

under ernest bevin, the labor party opposed any lifting of immigration and into palestine by the jews. they refused, one of the things the commission had recommended and truman was very firm about the 100,000 jews of the displaced persons camps come in the 100,000 common forget about the other issues but at least the 100,000 in the camps would be immediately allowed into palestine. the british made it clear they would not do this, it would be a small quota, a few thousand per year and not one more than that. third, the arabs. the arabs have one position, palestine should be an arab country that would be one state, palestine, as the arab country in which jews or some jews could live as a minority. no more jews from anywhere could be allowed into palestine nor could any way and we sold to them. there have this position constantly without change 1945 through 1948. in the anglo-american committee went to study the situation came to palestine to investigate, the arabs made a horrendous impression on them. as commissioner james mcdonald who would become the first ambassador to israel, he wr

ernest, we have a factual disagreement. i think the facts show that both the cases you raised are quite the opposite as you have betrayed them, with respect. health care in the va has constantly been cited as one of the most efficient, effective forms of health care provision in the nation, if not, the world. this is a model program. secondly, public health care -- if you are talking about medicare, if you compare overhead and you compare efficiency and compare how much of $1 of spending in that program goes to direct health care provision to patients verses the private sector, both of those programs come out way, way on top. it is one of the motivations for health care reform. i have to tell you, the reason why we are here talking about this -- there is a much waste and not saying just the private sector, public system have a great deal of waste, too, and we're squeezing out and that is how we get $300 billion of savings, perhaps $500 billion if you count the extra $200 billion the president cited in a letter last week. th

i think it's important that there is some ernest of sincerity because in the absence of that it would be extremely difficult to have a constructive dialog, you know, terrorism and dialog cannot go hand-in-hand. so we would like to see an ernest of sincerity from pakistan on this issue. >> i promised the ambassador that i would release her at 9 0 9:30. i hope this is the beginning of a conversation that we can continue in the months and years to come. and let me thank the audience and ask you to remain @ earlier today come bernie madoff was sentenced to the maximum 150 years in prison for his multibillion-dollar fraud scheme. the district judge handed down the sentence in new york this morning. defense attorneys sought 12 years, prosecutors one of the maximum. federal probation program had recommended 50 years. the judge called a fraud staggering and noted it spanned more than 20 years. he said the breach of trust was massive. bernard madoff is 71-years old. the former nasdaq chairman, and he felt -- and he pled guilty in march and has been jailed since. later, admiral timothy keating

i think it's important that there is some ernest of sincerity because in the absence of that it would be extremely difficult to have a constructive dialog, you know, terrorism and dialog cannot go hand-in-hand. so we would like to see an ernest of sincerity from pakistan on this issue. >> i promised the ambassador that i would release her at 9 0 9:30. i hope this is the beginning of a conversation that we can continue in the months and years to come. and let me thank the audience and ask you to remain >> thank you for coming to the american enterprise institute and welcome again to our program to the future of u.s.-indian relatio relations. my name is gary schmitt and i run aei's program on advanced strategic studies. i'll be moderating the second -- or the first panel today, which we'll be dealing with u.s.-indian security relations and as we move forward. with me is four distinguished panelists, susan maragy who is the vice president at lockheed martin, which her job includes management of international alliance partnerships and market development for international civil and homelan

think he went to the yankees game at yankee stadium and the entire yankee stadium they announced ernestevan here and the entire yankee stadium booed him. [laughter] >> good thing he wasn't at a dodgers game. [applause] >> one other figure i'd like to you touch upon a little bit more, a little more at length is clark clifford because he seems to have played really an instrumental role. and to what extent is this a function of clifford's convictions. how is it that he came to be the counter-weight to george marshall in the final arguments that were offered to truman. >> well, as i said in my paper, he was very influenced by rosaman and spent a lot of time with him and he didn't have strong feelings about zionism before him but he became a zionist -- he was extremely instrumental in what happened. and really laying out all the arguments for truman that countered state department arguments, and i think he genuinely believed in zionism. >> let me just ask one final question and then we'll turn it over to the audience and this brings us forward to the present with that remarkable statement th

and the sec and come with the perception is that the public cannot follow this with post mccann ago ernest rutherford was really the transition figure. but when we grew up all of us in this room if you owned the automobile you could open the hood and try to fix it. you worked on a typewriter could be broken fixed with a paper clip nazi open the hood and you have no idea god knows inside a computer. [laughter] so we have not developed the cadres of people who can write about the new science and most publishers figure unless it is abraham lincoln or the atomic bomb no one is interested. [laughter] >> good afternoon i almost feel as if i know you personally per or have been keeping up with you over the years i first saw umc on college student at the time. you are very welcome. [laughter] you did a great job on that by the way. also said documentary of debbie bd ball which is excellent. i want to ask you, had you feel about ida b. wells being the precursor of the generation of the 1960's that believed in bearing arms cracks there's a tendency to jump from slavery to the 60s and it skipped over

she was ernest, she had access. she made her move on behalf of women in an age when such a demand was no less radical than the state's rebellion against great britain, and as radical as her words were, as far out of context as they were from the mentality of most radicals who fought for american independence, they were still couched in an ethos that reflected her culture and her times. so that's my abigail section. a i would be happy to answer questions if you have questions. [applause] [inaudible] >> thank you for your talk. >> thank you. >> it's very, very good. i'm interested in all of the letters. it seems to me from what i know is that so much about the adams comes from the letters that have been written. how were they accumulated and saved for so long throughout history? >> excellent question. thank you very much. they were saved because the adams were a family who was aware that history was being made and that they were participating in history. john adams carried trunks of letters and papers around with him

ernest rutherford was a great, was really the transition figure of that but we grew up all of us in thism i think, where he could own an automobile and if it broke down you could open the hood and figure out what was wrong and try to fix it. you worked on a typewriter, which if it broke you could fix it with a paper clip. now you don't have the faiz then god knows what goes on inside a computer. so that we really have not developed the cadre of people who can write about this new science, and most publishers start with the prejudice that unless it is abraham lincoln and the atomic bomb, no one is interested. >> who is next? >> good afternoon. first of all want to say that i almost feel like i know you personally. i have been keeping up with a whole bunch of stuff over the years. i was a young college student at the time. >> thank you. >> you are very welcome. [laughter] you did a great job on that by the way and also in the documentary w.e.b. dubois, in my personal opinion is an excellent. i wanted to ask you how would you feel one of about ida b. wells and bishop henry, of being the pre

and that is something we took on in ernest and as we did in 1997, where human rights watch shared inhe peace prize for the land mine ban we got the same group of people together. we used the same basic legal language and began to work with many of our partners in the international community to shape not only the language of a treaty but also the destroy by nations to outlaw these bombs. and we did from a number of different meetings that began in oslo. it was hosted by the norwegians in 2006. we were able to get signature in december 3rd and 4th in december of 2008. and i'm very happy that we have 107 nations on board a global ban of cluster bombs and so i have to say personally that was a great success for me having stood in my first cluster bomb field in 2003 in iraq and seeing them used time and again in conflict. and so you being able to say, hopefully, that's not going to be a problem again for anyone in the future. there's a but. but who did not sign? who did not come on board? russia, china, india, brazil, israel, the united states of america. and so now we are engaged in a st

. >> ernest bevan. >> i thought -- >> he was prime minister -- >> no, ron, it's the opposite. adelaide was prime minister and bevan was -- >> atley was winston churchill's both his predecessor and he came after -- >> over here? >> i've always been curious about george marshall. he threatened to resign and then he didn't resign. >> uh-huh. >> and he's such a large name in american history. do we know anything about his thinking? was he antisemetic. what was his thoughts as to why he opposed so much? >> some people thought that he didn't have very strong feelings about it before he became secretary of state but he was very influenced by the state department once he did become secretary of state and kind of adopted their attitude toward the middle east and a partition and israel. >> also, he had -- he had a long it talk right before the leaders of the jewish agency were going to vote in palestine about whether to proclaim a jewish state. he had a long talk with mosha and he came to see him in his office and the text is available. and he gave him analogies between his experience t