>> well, there's a fellow who runs the british museum, ewen mcgregor, and he wrote a book that was successful, and he said, richard, do one on american history. well, i didn't have to think about it too long. my wife is a public schoolteacher in the dc area, and kids come from all over the world now. america is a much more diverse place, and we don't teach history that much. it's important in our sense of being american. i have to do it. well, i listened to my wife, and so i wrote the book. >> how did you choose 101? >> not easily. you know, at the smithsonian there's hundreds of curators and scientists who are passionate. we put out a call to various museums to suggest what should be in the book. as you could imagine, people at the national postal museum had a slew of spam. there was a portrait for everything. i took those suggestions, but i looked at what the american people gravitate to, like, peter, when you come to the museum, they come to see neil armstrong's face, the star spangled banner, george washington's uniform and sort. i listened to the visitors, and i picked things totally beh

>> well, there's a fellow who runs the british museum, ewen mcgregor, and he wrote a book that was successful, and he said, richard, do one on american history. well, i didn't have to think about it too long. my wife is a public schoolteacher in the dc area, and kids come from all over the world now. america is a much more diverse place, and we don't teach history that much. it's important in our sense of being american. i have to do it. well, i listened to my wife, and so i wrote the book. >> how did you choose 101? >> not easily. you know, at the smithsonian there's hundreds of curators and scientists who are passionate. we put out a call to various museums to suggest what should be in the book. as you could imagine, people at the national postal museum had a slew of spam. there was a portrait for everything. i took those suggestions, but i looked at what the american people gravitate to, like, peter, when you come to the museum, they come to see neil armstrong's face, the star spangled banner, george washington's uniform and sort. i listened to the visitors, and i picked things totally beh