a little tidbit compared to fdr, we compared my outpatient visits to warm springs when fdr was there but he was there two times when i went over for visits including, including the week that he died. he died. >> you have residual effects were polio? >> we do but have had a normal life. it affected my left quadriceps i've always had difficulty going downstairs but i was never particularly good at running. i've had a normal life. many polio patients died some ended up in iron lungs for interminable periods of time or had a lifetime disability is way more severe than mine. so i was fortunate. i had a mother who pursued her instructions relentlessly like a drill sergeant in the army. so i have been very lucky. and i was lucky to be near the warm springs for that was the one place in the country with the best techniques were to bring it back to normal. >> when you were reading where there aha moments coming to you as a policymaker here today? >> has reading the book? >> there is a fascinating public relations campaign led by the president of the united states of get entertainers and other

i've also been reading about lincoln and fdr. i feel grant was overlooked in history for his great accomplishments. especially the performance during the civil war is one if i could get some comments from you regarding his presidency and the fact he was hailed as a great man during his lifetime? >> thank you very much for taking my call. we went thanks for the call i would note grant up 13 places in this latest survey from the last we did in 2017. from 33 -- 20, amity shlaes on u.s. grant. >> there's a concern about civil rights in the culture now. that to me would be the biggest factor he was a strong general and he was because of civil rights after the civil war. that was the short answer. >> deb brinkley doing to expand on that? >> first off, grant the name is just golden. anyone and new york city knows about grant's tomb and his memoir. although it was in the civil war one of the great documents in history grant wrote brilliant battlefield reports. i grew up in ohio so i'm always proud to claim and grants coming from home sta

i've also been reading about lincoln and fdr. i feel grant was overlooked in history for his great accomplishments. especially the performance during the civil war is one if i could get some comments from you regarding his presidency and the fact he was hailed as a great man during his lifetime? >> thank you very much for taking my call. we went thanks for the call i would note grant up 13 places in this latest survey from the last we did in 2017. from 33 -- 20, amity shlaes on u.s. grant. >> there's a concern about civil rights in the culture now. that to me would be the biggest factor he was a strong general and he was because of civil rights after the civil war. that was the short answer. >> deb brinkley doing to expand on that? >> first off, grant the name is just golden. anyone and new york city knows about grant's tomb and his memoir. although it was in the civil war one of the great documents in history grant wrote brilliant battlefield reports. i grew up in ohio so i'm always proud to claim and grants coming from home sta

my head read on this book he went to the fdr library in upstate new york. he came across a memo from the office of naval intelligence december94 4, 1941 it was tamped top-secret. it beenn declassified in the 70s but later i'm gathering dust until andrew found it. i was just three days this memo the office ofof naval intelligence gave out in detail japanese it was between the emperor of japan and the united states at the time. the office of naval intelligence where the japanese might attack were to the panama canal, the wake island indonesia, and the hawaiian islands. this memo was prepared and given to the president three days before the attack. and no action was taken other than sending a world warning out to our field commanders. was not an alert to disperse your ships and planes to minimize the attack and all these other things i shared the memo interestingly enough was unnoticed until andrew found it in fdr's library in new york. >> host: how is the economy, eight years of fdr at that point? what was the economic situation? nuance answer the new deal is

was my head researcher on this book and he went to the fdr library in upstate new york at fdr so manycame across a memo from the officer of naval intelligence written on december 4, 1941 a 17 page memo stamped top secret and it was declassified in the 70s but it was sitting around gathering dust. enter found it and three days before the attack this memo from the office of the naval college v. gave out in detail -- so the office of naval intelligence did an assessment of where the japanese might attack including the panama canal wake island the philippines and indonesia and the hawaiian islands. this memo was given to the president three days before and no action was taken to send the world a warning out to our field commanders on december 6, 1941 that it was not a disclosure of your ships a and planes to minimize attack and all the things they should have notified of the they weren't. this memo interestingly enough wasin unnoticed until andrew fod it at fdr's library in new york. >> host: how was the economy? the eight years at the air at that point in what was the economic situation

was my head researcher on this book and he went to the fdr library in upstate new york at fdr so manycame across a memo from the officer of naval intelligence written on december 4, 1941 a 17 page memo stamped top secret and it was declassified in the 70s but it was sitting around gathering dust. enter found it and three days before the attack this memo from the office of the naval college v. gave out in detail -- so the office of naval intelligence did an assessment of where the japanese might attack including the panama canal wake island the philippines and indonesia and the hawaiian islands. this memo was given to the president three days before and no action was taken to send the world a warning out to our field commanders on december 6, 1941 that it was not a disclosure of your ships a and planes to minimize attack and all the things they should have notified of the they weren't. this memo interestingly enough wasin unnoticed until andrew fod it at fdr's library in new york. >> host: how was the economy? the eight years at the air at that point in what was the economic situation

one of the most interesting things about the polio period was fdr came down with polio at age39 . most people thought it was kind of a children's disease but it did affect adults from time totime . in his own struggle to come back and ultimately go all the way to the white house, he set up warm springs. the place he would go after he was afflicted because the springs werewarm. it was down in georgia and it made him feel better to get in the water . that led to the establishment of a foundation which led to something commonly referred to as the march of dimes. and ultimately after a long struggle and after roosevelt's death, they help finance the research done by sabin and salt and it's a fascinating story about taking a particular disease, turning it into a prominent sales campaign. they financed the march of dimes largely, listen to this by passing the hat in movie theaters. people would drop their dimes in and in another, they raise enough money to fund most of the research and also the facilities that developed at warm springs were the best physical therapists in the country at

she defended the constitutionality of fdr's new deal. she drafted rules for the nazi war crimes trials, and for more than three decades, she championed the fair labor standards act which ultimately included the equal pay act which led her to become a founder of [inaudible]. she presented 24 arguments at the supreme court, one of only three women to do so in the entire 20th century, and she prevailed in cases associated with 21 of those arguments. by my count, and i've spent sometime doing this, to this day, margolin remains one of only seven women to argue at the supreme court 24 or more times. she began her legal career in 199 -- in 1930, when only 2% of america's lawyers were women. she served in the federal government under six presidents, from fdr to nixon and nine labor secretaries, beginning with francis perkins. she received every award the labor department offered, and by 1963 was promoted to the department's top non-political legal position. she was a striking woman of cultivated southern charm who turned heads when she entered

even though fdr called roosevelt, called pearson a chronic liar, fdr himself leaked to pearson. a wonderful story about, one day roosevelt was mad about leaks coming out of his administration. he called the staff and he said no more leaks under any circumstances. and one of the staff said, well, you know, there is that story that you wanted to get out so we could test the congressional reaction to it. and fdr said, you're right, you're right. you can pleek story to pearson. and the staff member that, i already have. so that's the kind of sources. quite amazing sources. and of course, people knew that was a way to get out and not to have the story attributed to them. >> excellent. our next question is from pat, good to see you joining us today. was there a link between drew pearson and the earlier reports called the muck rakers? >> yes. in the book i talk about the muck rakers and what distinguished them. during the progressive era, for the most part, they were new york journalists who would rush into washington and write there exposes and go back to new york. the washington repo

why did fdr pick up seats in 1934 and why did george w.ush pick up seats in his first midterm in 2002? in both cases the country was emerging from existential crisis , the depression in the 1930's, 9/11 and 2002. the president was blazing a path of hope for the electorate. they did not want a check for his policies. the voters of 1934 did not want republicans checking fdr's policies because they thought those policies relating to a recovery. voters in 2002 did not want a democratic check on george bush's policies because they thought those policies were making them safe, that he was leading decisively after 9/11. i believe 2022 is more likely to be a 1934 environment than the typical environment. the country is being led out of crisis. we hope covid is significantly behind us. it may not be entirely behind us. the electorate do not want a republican congress blocking every policy by president biden to continue to lead us into security and public safety, stability. host: steve israel joining us in this 45 minutes of "washington journal." fe

it was higher than fdr's when fdr passed away in april of 1945. highest in a long, long time.ewarded today as one of the best presidents with lincoln and franklin roosevelt. >> one of the critiques to have reagan residency is he spent a lot of time of deficits but it grew under the stewardship? >> that's true, peter. he later wrote in memoirs. there were two things that he was disappointed in he couldn't do more. a one was the deficit and the other was abortion. he couldn't do more about it. on the other hand, the deficit is explainable as what we now know as the peace dividend. it was necessary to build up america's defense, had been cut for years since richard nixon time time. gerald ford, jimmy carter, so you had soldiers, gi's in 1980 who were actually on food stamps. we were flying airplanes that were 50 year's old. meanwhile soviets with new technology with bomber which was super sonic and deadly. reagan, that was his commitment because he knew if he can have a stronger defense, everything else is academic. so this was the deficit that was created but it was -- if freein

fdr expressed his appreciation for steinbeck's treatment of the migrant struggle in a radio address in january. eleanor roosevelt affirmed the novel's accuracy when she toured california in april. steinbeck received the pulitzer prize for the novel in may. and when he got for us dustbowl ballads albums in july had a seven minute two-part musical synopsis of the movie belted tom joad. these contributed to the growing consensus the southern plains migrant families needed and deserved sympathy and assistance. lang captured the sediment brilliantly and ironically to pen a photograph of a large billboard in the san joaquin valley for the movie playing in modesto with a billboard itself serving as a physical when rake for a camp located right behind it. but the grapes of wrath served successful congress in the early 40s failed to pass the committee's bill to counter oppressive labor practices. california group business crushed affiliated united cannery agricultural packing and allied workers of america which included many formally independent mexican and filipino unions. the large enterprise

so in september of 1940, fdr had already implemented the draft in which all men between the ages of 21 and 30, all able-bodied men, were required to register for the draft. and it would be in march of 1941 that the first major leaguer was called up into the service. a brighton boy, of all things, a graduate of brighton high school. a kid by the name of hugh mulchahey. a kid, a pitcher, who had a snarky nickname of losing pitcher. in the span of four seasons, he lost 76 games for the phillies, who were the doormats of the national league at the time. so he was the first to go in. i believe he was assigned to fort evans, which is about 35, 40 miles west of boston. but soon enough, much bigger names would be joining the coming conflict, including hank greenberg, who was called up in may. hank greenberg, the slugging first baseman for the detroit tigers, future hall of famer and defending american league most valuable player. he goes into the service, and then within a day or two of the bombing of pearl harbor on december 7th, a number of players immediately enlisted, most notably bob fell

the last thing you would take about fdr is a lonely man. i was really struck by that one friendship. fdr, despite fighting a world war and a depression, he is intensely lonely. i think all presidents to some extent feel that. i think it was particularly difficult because he had absolutely no home life. as kids, we were not that interested in providing -- he was not that interested in providing an emotional presence. i think you see that with all presidents. it is a really lonely job. that is why the first french of is so important. there are moments of great loneliness and moments of great joy. now imagine the most powerful person on the planet and how much more important he can be for good or for ill. that is why i thought it was over topic. that is why i wrote the story, to reflect on that. host: the book we have been talking about is "first friends." it is gary ginsberg's first book. mr. ginsberg: thank you for having me. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy

this model was given by churchill to fdr, and we are pleased to share it in our library. the film above is not only about the planning of the day and the invasion itself, but also sustaining the troops afterwards. a really important piece of this film is that some of our staff and our exhibit designers were able to use some previously undigitized film from the national archives in washington, d. c., and that film footage changed the whole feel of this film. now that film is digitized for users in washington. that was a big benefit for everyone. i'm really excited about that. as i mentioned, we used quotes from eisenhower and mamie, and we feel as though this quote, this is the last thing you see in his military career. "i hate war as only a soldier who lived it can." it really encapsulates his presidency and his administration. after his time in the military, he wanted peace for americans and the whole world. we felt like this was the most important thing that our guests needed to see before they left eisenhower's military career. beyond it you could see that the colors h

didn't fdr make the point to judge landis, hey, you know, for the purposes of morale, like you noted, wouldn't it be great if some of our factory workers could get off from work at 5:00 and go to a ball game? how much of a role did that play? >> not only night games, gordon, but they were also scheduling games at 11:00 in the morning. they were working around all of the shifts to make sure as many americans could participate in this sport, and that baseball would play a role in the war effort. >> did that leave the players in kind of a no man's land of whether they should play or -- because, you know, fdr said in essence, you're an essential service and you're performing an essential role, yet at the same time, if their brothers and neighbors and uncles are all going into the service, did that create some conflict for them? and i guess we can bring up ted williams in this context as well. >> it was a difficult decision for everyone. war was anticipated, but then it was suddenly thrust upon america with the bombing of pearl harbor. ted williams had applied for a deferment in the spring

is an item that is actually from the fdr library, is that correct? it's on loan from there -- >> no, it was transferred from the fdr presidential library to the eisenhower presidential library sometime in the past and i don't know why. but we're honored and honored to keep that. >> and are there any paintings either on view in the exhibit or in the holdings? >> paintings that eisenhower did? >> yes. >> yes. so we have -- we have 20, 30 paintings that eisenhower did himself. eisenhower was introduced to painting by churchill as a way to calm yourself and focus yourself. both of those gentlemen painted for recreation. i have a -- we have a churchill painting in our holdings as well. so we have a couple of eisenhower paintings in the exhibit. but once we reopen, we're actually looking forward to having an art show of eisenhower and churchill paintings and talking about them as world leaders and, you know, these artists as well. >> well, and george w. bush has made quite a second career as a painter and monetized that with a couple of books. so there cou

the last thing you would take -- think about fdr is a lonely man. son recognize that in his memoir. i was really struck by that one friendship. fdr, despite fighting a world war and a depression, he is intensely lonely. he said to his first friend, i am entirely alone. i think all presidents to some extent feel that. i think it was particularly difficult because he had absolutely no home life. elinor who is a great crusader for her causes, she was often away from the white house. his kids were either at war or not interested in providing their father with an emotional presence. you saw that with nixon and i think you see it to some extent with all presidents. it is a really lonely job. that is why the first french of -- the first friendship is so important. we experience that in our own lives. there are moments of great loneliness and moments of great joy. now imagine the most powerful person on the planet and how much more important he can be for good or for ill. that is why i thought it was a rich topic for a book and hopefully, i come up with sto

and obama to his benefit, no intellectual but nonetheless when fdr came towh office in 19, there were generations of ideas on the economy from populous progressive and the ideas already tried out at the state level so one thing about the new deal is it'st hard to characterize because of policies, it is so overwhelming it can be characterized as ideologically and the administration was not in that position, not even close. i think the biden administration regardless of biden himself as a politician where hebi would alin on this spectrum, the biden administration was very different. 2008 there's been a decade of history writing, economic history of capitalism, there's been lots of new debates and thought about public investment, public investment trust, regional trust, all kinds of different mechanisms publicly mobilizing assessment toward public goals in public and. of course have to wait the fine print on a lot of the legislation the biden administration is promising not to mention passing legislation and executing but since we've hit some more good pricing notes, i think there are re

who, unlike obama, to his benefit was no intellectual but nonetheless when fdr clamped to office in2, there are generations of ideas on the economy from progressives and a lot of the ideas are at the state level so one of the things in the story, is hard to characterize because of the politics, it's so overwhelming, it can be difficult to characterize it ideologically. the obama administration was not in the position, not even close. i think with biden, the biden administration regardless of biden himself as a politician where he would align on this spectrum, the biden administration very much, since 2008 there's been a decade of history, economic history, history of capitalism, lots of new debates and thoughts about public investment, public investment trust, regional trust, all kinds of different mechanisms for publicly mobilizing finance investment toward public goals and public and. you have to wait on a lot of the legislation the biden administration is planning, promising not to mention passing legislation, executing it but since we have hit some more depressing notes in our c

at the end of fdr's life at the mantle of one of a the fireplacs he says i pray having to bestow thegs upon this house and all who will hereafter inhabit it. that today is in the white house and part of the great vision of george washington and his extraordinary efforts and acumen and vision and creativity just getting this capital city founded andse built to ensure te survival. it is an honor to be on with dave and to be part of this wonderful book festival. thank you, everyone. i honestly don't remember how long we were in that situation between the time they barricaded the door and when we finally got out. somewhere like 20 minutes. it could have been two hours or five minutes. i have no sense of time whatsoever but i remember when i got off the phone with my kids i felt as though my heart was pounding out of my chest and i felt i was worried i was having a heart attack. i've never had a heart attack but my father has had heart attacks so i was worried about that i don't remember lying on my back but i do remember them taking my hand and telling me everything was going to be okay

i wouldn't put washington in a political chess master like lincoln or clearly wasn't the gift of fdr but washington had a set of political skills and i agree with david on reading people and he also had charisma andou was well aware of his charisma. he was the biggest guy in the world. he was physically a large man and an athlete a great horseman and he had a real presence and that charisma and he knew that. he also knew he was not that well-educated and not that articulate so he wills himself and plays the role of what he was given that he was a politician. there's a story i flush out in the book on a key issue and they were four votes shy in the senate. the senate was a lot smaller than today. this would be like 40 votes shy of the senate so four votes shy in washington and asked madison and others to call for a revote and people are scratching their head and we need time to work on this. they call for an immediate revote in an interim washington flipped all four senators. we don't have the details behind it but one can only imagine somebody sitting in their office and the door ope

fdr was in declining health. the public was not aware of it but democratic party insiders were well aware of it of fdr's declining health. they knew whoever became vice president very likely would become president and the united states. the incumbent vice president henry wallace, was not able to for various reasons. harry truman had positive traits, many. and has fewer negative ones than others. so he was with -- served 82 days as vice president until franklin roosevelt sudden death on april 12th, 1945. with that i think i will turn it over to my colleague, tim. >> thank you sam. here we have dwight d. eisenhower, 34th president of the united states. like harry truman, are very much a product of the american heartland. would you subscribe to a lot of the same values, that embodied the same virtues, the man who grew up within about 170, 180 miles of each other. had a lot of similar experiences. in fact there was even a bit of overlap when eisenhower's older brother arthur lived at the same boarding house as harry

"politico" calls them the unusual group trying to turn biden into fdr.of vice president henry wallace, scott wallace. thank you both very much. and michael beschloss, thank you as well. >> it was great having you guys here. thank you very much. we really do appreciate it. >>> and a new study finds that less than 1% of fully vaccinated people have experienced a breakthrough infection. we'll dig into that new data. >>> plus, for months there have been mixed messages about the vaccine for pregnant women. now a surge of pregnant patients with coronavirus is fueling calls for vaccinations. we're back in two minutes. minut. from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need make sure you ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vac

off and put fdr on it but she noted there is still this perceptionis among liberals and his opponentd that he was just an actor, he was reading lines that other people wrote for him she decides the truest record is to put up there thought and values, his beliefs and his own handwriting so you see her decide to publish his diaries, something very few presidents have ever done was keep real-time diaries so people can see in his own hand what he was thinking all these crucial junctures. she publishes his letters in a runtime all of the speeches he was writing as he was getting ready to run for president, you can see in ronald reagan's own hand but these were his thoughts and values and they were very true to him. again i think this library is not just, she didn't want it to be a monument just to the past, she wanted it to go to the future which is why you see it's become our site for so many important events where george w. bush comes to layout his vision of foreign policy, i can't even count how many republican presidential debates have been held at the library and the kinds of program