when sara roosevelt built a townhouse for franklin and eleanor roosevelt as a christmas gift, she had it built until 1906 in new york city, that place had connecting doors from one apartment to the next because sara roosevelt built that building as a duplex. she would live in half of it and franklin and eleanor roosevelt lived in the other half. and there was connecting doors on various levels so that sara could pop into their section whenever she wanted to unannounced, which made eleanor roosevelt not happy. she wrote about this townhouse and you could kind of read between the lines where she just mentioned that, you know, it wasn't a great thing where sara was living right next to them and she decorated their part of the townhouse and so forth. and i would imagine that she was not happy to be in a wing of this house where sara could also open the doorway from her bedroom into eleanor roosevelt's bedroom or early on franklin and eleanor roosevelt's shared bedroom whenever she wanted to. when she moved into this section of the house, she moved all the furniture out of the room where f

and james and sarah only had the one child, franklin roosevelt. when mr. james roosevelt, his father bought this father in 1867, it was a 17 room farm house, about 110 acres of land, several out buildings which he paid the sum of $40,000 which today is price of expensive car but back in those days a nice amount of money. the house was endarged by fdr in 1915, because by then he had a growing family. and he had decided as early as 1907, 25 years before he achieved it, that he was going to become president of the united states one day. and so he wanted a grander home for a future president. well once fdr became active in politics, quite often events would be held here, like when he announced his intention to run for vice president of the united states. it was that big announcement was held right here. quite often, he would bring, once he was president, visiting foreign dignitaries to his house, especially during the war years, he felt it was a place where they could get away from the pressures of wartime in europe, so he loved doing that. he was very proud of

. >> franklin roosevelt was born and buried here on the estate. >> he originally had a different estate down the road from this property and the house burned to the ground in 1865 and fdrs father james roosevelt purchased the property to be their new home in the hudson valley. fdrs parents were jams and sarah and mr. james roosevelt had a wife before sarah. her name was rebecca and she passed, away in 1876 and four years later in 1880 he married sarah. when he married sarah was 52 years old and she was 26. she was half his age. james and sarah had the one child, franklin. >> when mr. james roosevelt fdrs father bought this property in 1867. it was a 17 room farmhouse. 110 acres of land. several out buildings. paid 40 thou dollars, today the price of an expensive car but back in those days it was a lot of money. 1915, by then he had a growing family and he had decided as early as 1907, 25 years before he achieved it that he was going to become president of the united states so he wanted a grander home for a future president. once fdr became active in politics. quite often events would be

and next, a vehicle that belonged to another roosevelt, his cousin, franklin roosevelt, who would be presidents a few decades laeter. he preferred a horse drawn vehicle. it was left to a successor to motorize the white house fleet. he played no favorite. hed a electric, gas and steam powered car. from that time on, presidential transportation evolved quickly. the car behind us is the 1939 lincoln model k. one of the most significant presidential vehicles. s the first car modified for presidential use. i don't mean armor, it was not armors at all when it was delivered to the white house or modified to be more luxurious or showy. it was modified for practical purposes, the up ols industry -- putting in a lot of ware on that seat. this vehicle is associated with franklin roosevelt and it has a nickname, sunshine special which comes partly from roosevelt's preference to ride with the top down whenever the weather permitted and into world war ii he maintained an optimistic persona throughout his public appearances. this car was modified more after pearl harbor was attacked in 1941. went b

franklin d roosevelt was born and raised in thisse

top ten, lincoln, washington, franklin roosevelt -- as i just mentioned -- theodore roosevelt.obviously, greatness ran in the roosevelt family. dwight eisenhower, harry truman, thomas jefferson, john f. kennedy, ronald reagan, and rounding out the top ten greatest presidents, lyndon johnson. of course, there's the bottom of the scale too. unfortunately, who were the ten worst presidents? again, this is according to c-span's rankings. martin van buren, chester arthur, herbert hoover, fillmore, william henry harrison. you know, harrison was only president for about a month, so i'm not quite sure how bad he could have been, he wasn't there long enough to do anything. john tyler who, of course, succeeded harrison, warren harding, franklin pearce. other johnson and james buchanan, certainly i do think deserves to be at the bottom. i'm going to come back to that in just a second. so i think we can all pretty much agree that these ten folks belong where they are. i'm also asked an awful lot what is the best preparation for being president? well, there's really no one thing that qualif

him to, as he put it, recharge my batteries. >>> we continue our look at the presidency of franklin roosevelt. up next, a tour of eleanor roosevelt's val-kill cottage in hyde park, new york. >> certainly this became the very first national historic site to be dedicated to a first lady.

and i think franklin roosevelt was a master at this. he was spend aing a lot of time with stalin and churchill and he has multiple people working for him who are not working with each other who are bringing in information and he's using that information as he's planning moment to moment. the problem with roosevelt's process is that it takes an enormous amount of energy by him, by he, the president, and that's one of the reasons he dies so much younger than churchill and stalin. frank didn't say this but one of the most important insights in any paper for this conference was frank's insight that if franklin roosevelt lived as long as george, franklin roosevelt would have been alive during ahbel archer in '83. that's hard to imagine, isn't it? that's hard to imagine because of the way he managed his leadershi leadership. >> i think this is the limit -- there's a limit for how much we can understand about our interlocutor and what kicks in is perceptions of him or her. is he a partner? do i need him for my policy in a certain policy framew

richard nixon is acutely aware of the fact that the last person to manage it was franklin roosevelt and that he did it in a very personalistic way. many things he has written about nixon recognized himself. if eisenhower was his first model for thinking about diplomacy, roosevelt was his model and from the beginning he placed his emphasis on doing what presidents in the cold war had not done before. seeking to meet with the soviets even when there's not an agreed agenda. the only presidential trip that i know of where there isn't an agenda when you get on the ground when the president arrives. he doesn't know when he's going to meet or what's going to happen. no one would staff the president that way today. he doesn't go quite to that extent with the soviets. but there's a similar desire to sit down and talk things through man-to-man and that phrase turns up time and again the elites are going to sit down and figure things out. nixon meets with his soviet counter part more times in his relatively short presidency than throughout the entire decade before. so they each have one meeting wi

franklin roosevelt died in april of 1945 and she died in september of '41. so she was really around for most of his life. it was a terrific loss when she passed away. fdr loved this home from the time he was born here until the time he died. he loved it so much that he wanted the american people and people throughout the world to come here and understand what it meant for him to be born and raised here and what influenced him when he was growing up and perha perhaps how it translated into some of the things he did as president of the united states. he made arrangements while he was president to have this given to the national park service eventually. it was his hope and dream that people would come here and learn about him as a person and as president of the united states. >>> next a visit to franklin roosevelt's top cottage designed by the 32nd president and located about 3 miles from the family's springwood estate in hyde park. during his presidency, fdr received a number of guests at top cottage, including britain's king george the vi and queen elizabeth.

another vehicle that belonged to franklin roosevelt, who was president a few decades later. teddy roosevelt preferred he played no favorites. he had an electric car, a gasoline powered car and a steam powered car. from that time on presidential transportation evolved rather quickly. the car behind us is a 1939 lincoln model k, which is perhaps one of the most significant presidential vehicles in that it is the first car specifically modified for presidential use. and when i say that, i don't mean armor, necessarily. in fact, this car was not armored at all when it was first delivered to the white house, nor was it modified to be more luxurious or more flashy or showy. it was modified for practical purposes, the seat material is thicker. it has a popular nickname, sunshine special which comes partly from roosevelt's preference to ride with the top down. it is a convertible whenever the weather permitted. but also because roosevelt's famously sunny optimism even throughout the dark days of the depression, he kept an optimistic persona through his public appearance. this car was

i think that franklin roosevelt certainly enjoyed talking about how much he enjoyed being president. roosevelt i think at one point i told a friend wouldn't you be president if you could. he once said wouldn't anybody? indeed. so i think he -- really enjoyed it. through history -- i think it is so fascinating just as a way of telling stories and one thing that i do on twitter each day and now it's a book. there he is again is to talk about what happened on this particular day in history. well, on february the 17th, in fact, thomas jefferson was declared the winner of the 1800 election we were just talking about if you think by the way, that we live in these nasty hyper partisan times now well you should go back to read about how bad things were in 1800s, the jefferson adams, election was about as nasty as it gets about as hyperpartisan as it gets about about as twied as it gets. we don't necessarily live in unusual times today. people think we do but there's been times in american history where we've been i think more divided than we are now. civil war certainly is a good example of t

john's, but the tradition began here, and it began with franklin roosevelt. that's one more example of the association of st. john's with presidents and part of the heritage of this building. it's always been available as a place, and an intimate place, for services that people might wish to have. for example, when president kennedy was assassinated on november 22, 1963, reverend john harper, the rector of st. john's at the time, was contacted by president lyndon johnson and asked if the following day, the saturday, on november 23rd around noon, if st. john's would have a brief memorial service on behalf of president kennedy. of course, the church was quite happy to comply. on that day, president johnson, his wife ladybird, and some of the staff came over, they had a private memorial service here, and there is an iconic picture of president johnson coming out of the church with his wife and the rector of st. john's and the look on johnson's face says it all. if ever was a pained expression that captured the mood of the moment, that was the picture that did it

and that franklin roosevelt did it in a personalistic way and i think many things written about nixon recognized himself. roosevelt was his model. from the beginning nixon places emphasis upon doing what presidents in the cold war had not done before. seeking to meet with the soviets even when there is not an agreed to agenda. only presidential trip of an agenda getting on the ground when the president arrives. he doesn't know when he meets or if he meets with mao. no one would staff the president that way today. he doesn't go to that extent with the societies but there's a similar desire in what he thinks a rooseveltian terms to meet with the other side, to sit down and talk things through man to man and that phrase turns up time and again. the perception that the elites are the feet individuals and these are the men to sit down and figure things out. nixon meets, of course, with the soviet counterpart more times in his relatively short presidency than throughout the entire decade before. right? kennedy and johnson each have one meeting with the soviet counterpart. nixon has three. t

and that franklin roosevelt did it in a personalistic way. i think many things that are written out nixon recognized himself. if eisenhower was to some extent his first model for tlomcy roosevelt was his model. and from the beginning nixon places emphasis on doing what presidents in the cold war hadn't done before. seeking to meet with the soviets even when there isn't agreed agenda. the most extreme example is the nixon president to china pptd. the only presidential interest trip i know of where there isn't an agenda. he doesn't when or if he is going to meet with mao or what's going to happen. no one would staff the president that way today. he doesn't go quite that extent with soviets. but there is a similar desire in what he thinks are roosevelt yan terms to meet with the other side. so sit down as he said and talk things through man to man, and that phrase turns up time and again. the perception that the elites are the efeet femennized and the men will figure it out. nixon meets with the soviet counterpart more times in his relatively sh

last president to manage stable relations with the soviet union was frank when roosevelt, and franklin roosevelt did in a very personal estate way. recognized himself, if eisenhower was to some extent his first model for thinking of diplomacy, roosevelt was his model. from the beginning, nixon places emphasis on what residents in the cold war had done before, speaking with the soviets when there was not an agreed agenda. the only presidential trip i know of where there isn't an agenda when you get on the ground when the president thrives west of china. no one would staff the president that way today. he doesn't go to quite that extent with the soviets. but there is a similar desire in rooseveltians and terms, to sit with the other side and speak man-to-man. and that phrase turns up a lot. the elites are the demonized individuals and these are the men that will figure things out. nixon meets with his soviet counterpart more times in his relatively short presidency than throughout the entire decade before. so kennedy and johnson each have one meeting with a soviet counterpart. nixon has three. his

you can see the cornerstone with franklin roosevelt's name on it in 1940, and then the war something became different. in 1947 is when the department of state moved into that building and george c marshall was the first secretary of state. you can see the historic lobby where we have a very interesting mural that very much shows the war department, in a way, the legacy. let's talk a little bit about the further expansion. >> right. they were therefore 10 years? then they decided they needed a lot more space. plans were made to significantly expand the building to let we know today, which borders 21st street and 23rd street, as well as c street and d street. a cornerstone laying ceremony in 1857. >> presided over by none other than president eisenhower. one of the interesting things we uncovered, when eisenhower laid the cornerstone of the building, he used a trowel that had been used by george washington to lay the cornerstone of the u.s. capitol. they also put in historical documents in the cornerstone at the time. then during the kennedy administration, right before kennedy was ina

when i was invited to give a talk on franklin roosevelt and james f. byrnes last february i was tempted to say no because i did not know much about byrnes. not much had been written about relationship between roosevelt and byrnes. but i cannot pass up this opportunity to speak in this chamber and to be introduced by justice breyer. i have to confess i have had regrets. sometimes panic about accepting this honor. i drove my wife crazy. she was afraid to come tonight. when i left the house she said break a leg and i do not think she met that metaphorically. [laughter] i hope that my talk shows that the lack of attention to the fdr-byrnes pairing was a serious oversight. i'm really grateful to the supreme court historical society for giving me this opportunity to learn more about the byrnes-roosevelt relationship in the effort to shed light on this critical pairing that was essential for the development of the new deal political order. byrnes and fdr were an odd couple. roosevelt, the new york patrician who relished the exercise of power, and byrnes, the s

part of the internet which is a necessity these days just as electricity was in the 30s in franklin roosevelt. the private sector, the private sector now cannot pick and choose it will leave large parts of america out. that is why the trump infrastructure plan falls short. for almost all of our entire history consensus in congress and the white house was that the government should be the way on infrastructure. as i mentioned republicans, henryg, clay, a way, that was te predecessor party but henry clay dwight eisenhower, ronald reagan believed that we need investment in infrastructure. democrats still believe it. i hope that our mutual desire to fix the nation's pummeling structure without shifting the burden on the taxpayers and local governments motivates us to put the president's proposal to the side as we did with budget and come up with one ourselves. yesterday onge the budget the trump administration delivered a budget to congress that wouldra drastically/funding for education, environmental protection, transportation, medicare, medicaid and yes, folks, despite the president's promise t

and in the age of franklin roosevelt and the 1932 election. and i will get to why in one second but if you follow me, not only did fdr win in 32, 36, 40, 44, a constitutional amendment, after his death to stop this. roosevelt convinced the american people that the federal government is your friend, uncle sam is your friend and did it through programs, all the new deal, social security, if you are a farmer, soil conservation, and the whole apparatus ended with the manhattan project, government project, atomic bombs, how is fdr -- the new deal becomes the fair deal, truman -- in a very slightly different way than that, the joint chiefs of staff, department of air force, national security council, eisenhower, we talked yesterday, interstate highway, government intervention in little rock, kennedy going in space, lyndon johnson, the federal government, urban poor, schools, the whole medicaid medicare, richard nixon, affirmative action, creates the epa, government, jimmy carter creates fema, the payment of energy, department of education, reagan an

now we're with franklin delano roosevelt, the 32nd president. roosevelt said i owe my life to stamp collecting. and what we have here on loan from the franklin roosevelt presidential library museum is some of his stamps. and one of this magnifying glasses that he used to explore stamps. as a child, he would collect stamps and taught them about geography and about the world. as an adult when he had polio, it was a way that he could take his mind away from that and that allowed him to recover quicker. as an adult, as president, his son has commented how he had never had seen him more relaxed when he had an hour or half hour of time when he could look at his stamps. that is what he loved to do. here we are with harry everything is true man. harry truman would spend some of his winters in key west florida at what was called the little white house. while at the little white house, he started wearing these button up shirts like we think of a hawaiian shirt. they became very fashionable very quickly. he found them to be more comfortable in the heat. an

. >>> we will continue our look at the presidency of franklin roosevelt. up next, a tour of val kill cottage in new york. >>>

just as franklin roosevelt said, that every rural home should have electricity in the 1930s, democrats believe every rural home should have high access -- have access to high-speed internet in the 201st century. roosevelt called for the rea in the 30s and on enough it took awhile, every rural home had electricity. we democrats are calling for the 21st century version of roosevelt's vision. every rural home should have access to high-speed internet. and that ought to be one of our goals in the 21st century. very little to revitalize rural america than they plan which we got a state any budget bus we insisted on a certain amount of money being allocated for that. not enough to get the job done beau start. now the administration's infrastructure would also result in tolls, trump tolls, across america. wealthy investors, large banks, will only invest in projects that generate a profit. how do they get the profit? they charge middle class americans hundreds of dollars a year in tolls. in fact, it's written into page 20 in the plan. page 20 of the trump infrastructure proposal has section en

. >> next a visit to franklin roosevelt top cottage designed by the 32nd president and located about three miles from the family's home in hyde park. he had numerous visitors including queen elizabeth. >> well, i think fdr used this place as a place to bring these world leaders up, but to have them let their guards down and have them focus on some of the major pitch use that they are here to talk about. spring wood is really the same way. when you walked into these buildings you didn't come in as king or queen, prime minister, first lady, president, whatever your title was, you came in as a friend. and coming into somebody's home as a friend is much different than walking into their place of business as a colleague. so going into the white house with fdr and talking about major world events would be much different than coming up to this very secluded porch where there were no bank of photographers waiting to take a picture of the handshake. it was a place he could be open with his guests. and showing him sitting in his wheelchair laid it all out there. he's there showing off the fact

when i was invited to give a talk on franklin roosevelt last february, i was tempted to say no because i did not know much. aboutch had been written relationships between roosevelt and burn. this could not pass up extraordinary opportunity to speak in this chamber and be introduced by justice breyer but i have to confess i have had some regrets. sometimes panic about accepting this honor. i don't my wife crazy, as was afraid to come tonight. leg i last the how she said and i don't think she meant it metaphorically. i hope in a modest way my talk shows the lack of attention to the fdr-byrnes pairing was a serious oversight. i'm really grateful to the supreme court historical society for giving me this opportunity to learn more about the birds-roosevelt relationship -- innes-roosevelt relationship the effort to shed light on this critical pairing that was essential for the development of the new deal political order. learn sand fdr were an odd couple. roosevelt, the new york the idea who relished of power in byrnes, the south carolinians sign of a widowed dress maker. of a widowed dressm

the first lady made the stone cottage a permanent home after her husband, president franklin roosevelt died in 1945. this is about 20 minutes. certainly, this became the very first national historic site to be dedicated to a first lady. the only historic site dedicated to one first lady. val-kill encompasses two major buildings. the first cottage was built in 1925 to serve as a retreat for eleanor roosevelt and her two political mentors. easternmost on the end of the roosevelt property at the time. it was planned that fdr purchased to do experiments on. he offered to build his wife a little cottage here because, by the early 1920's, she was getting very active in political life. she really needed her own space to bring friends and associates. and a place where she could talk politics. and plan political strategy. fdr realizes the big house really did not serve eleanor roosevelt's purpose well because that was her mother-in-law's house and she used to say that, for 40 years, she was just a visitor there. it was important for her to have her own space where she could really do things tha

. >>> we will continue our look at the presidency of franklin roosevelt. up next, a tour of val kill cottage in new york. >>> certainly, this became the first national historic site to be dedicated to a first lady, and the only historic site dedicated to one first lady. val kill encompasses two major buildings. the stone cottage was built in 1925 to initially serve as a retreat for eleanor roosevelt and her two political mentors nancy cook and mary dickerman. it was land that fdr had purchased in 1911 to do forest ri experiment forestry on, but by the time 1940 came along, she was getting active in her own political life and she needed a place to have friends and associates and talk politics and plan political strategy. fdr said that the big house did not serve eleanor roosevelt's purposes at all, and she used to say that for 40 years, she was a prisoner there, and so it is important for her to have her own space to really do things that she was interested in and not have to worry about whether or not her mother-in-law had to give her permission to do this

he built on franklin roosevelt's idea of positive rights. up till roosevelt's time, liberals focused on limited government and negative rights, the right to free speech, the right to assembly, the right to worship what you wanted, whatever god you wanted. roosevelt talked about positive rights, the rights of every american to good job, the right of every american to a decent education, the right of every american to have the children experience decent health care. and that was really what drove the great society. johnson and his colleagues and supporters wanted to expand what the definition of american citizenship meant him a to include these positive rights. but also, he worked to extend it for citizenship to people who had not yet experienced it, which included hispanics, african-americans, poor people peoplelachia, the south, who were, for example, excluded from social security because had priort employment, those kinds of things. johnson, had prior employment, those kinds of overwhelmed. goldwater in the election in had a conversation wit

what ronald reagan believed, what franklin roosevelt believed. that has not been a democratic or republican principle but an american one. we can learn from our mistakes in the middle east. ,he most fundamental of which was fighting that war in iraq, which we should not have done. we are still dealing with the aftermath of that today. i think prudent, sensible policymaking should involve the united states not putting as much of its own money and personnel and material into the region, but rather trying to drive diplomatic solutions to the problems in the region. host: providence, rhode island, jack is a democrat. caller: i'm a conservative democrat. leftist elitist like this sullivan. host: let's not call names. what is your question? caller: all right. here it comes to my wife is chinese and i will talk about the korean peninsula here. you know the obama and clinton administrations were perfect when they doubt with north korea. nowave got a problem right thanks to bill clinton giving them billions of dollars. the north korean government, conned

. >>> we continue our look at the presidency of franklin roosevelt. up next, a tour of eleanor roosevelt's val-kill cottage in hyde park, new york. >> certainly this became the very first national historic site to be dedicated to a first lady. and the only historic site dedicated to one first lady. well, val-kill encompasses two major buildings. the first building, the stone cottage, was built in 1925 to initially serve as a retreat for eleanor roosevelt and her two political mentors, nancy cook and marianne dickerman. it was build on the eastern most part of the roosevelt property at the time. it was land fdr purchased in 1911 to do forestry experiments on. he offered to build eleanor a little cottage here because by the early 1920s she was getting very active in political life and really needed her own space to bring friends and associates and kind of have a place where she could talk politics and plan political strategy. fdr realized that the big house really didn't serve eleanor roosevelt's purposes well because that was her mother-in-law's house

what he wanted -- he built on franklin roosevelt's idea of positive rights. p to that time, up to roosevelt's time liberals had focused on limited government and negative rights; the right to free speech, the right to assembly, the right to worship what you wanted, whatever god you wanted. roosevelt talked about positive rights; the right of every american to a good job, the right of every american to a decent education, the right of every american to have his children experience decent health care. and that was really what drove the great society. johnson and his colleagues, cohorts, supporters wanted to expand what the definition of american citizenship meant to include these positive rights, but also he worked to extend pull citizenship to people -- full citizenship to people who had not yet experienced it which included hispanics, african-americans, poor people in appalachia in the south, poor people who were, for example, excluded from social security because they hadn't had prior employment, those kinds of things. johnson, after he overwhelmed barry gold

when franklin roosevelt became president, he ran on gun safety, getting rid of violent sports. >> to take away from the modern -- the take away from the modern democratic party is to keep listening -- gov. hickenlooper: keep listening and allow public sentiment. i think this might well be a tipping point. it's been incremental, and now people are going to start with, let's raise the age. maybe assault weapons should belong in a shooting range and don't need to be, should be used for this. host: for people tweeting along, it's a good tweet. tell us about this tipping point. what is it you believe is the tipping point? gov. hickenlooper: i have people in my office in the last few days that are so fed up. a couple of republicans, conservative people are saying " enough is enough. i'm going to put my dollars against my party, towards electing people that will enact reasonable, thoughtful gun safety measures. that process of having, it stopped being so partisan. ourselves to be terrorized. if you look at someone in a basement in leningrad, were wanting to hurt america. what better way tha