george nash is a marvelous painstaking and brilliant historian. it so happens i have written some books and biographies and histories. so maybe i am coming up from fifth or sixth and making my way up i didn't start out to be a historian but i started to be a novelist and that didn't work out so well. [laughter] i wrote three very bad novels that never got published thankfully because it would be an embarrassment and then i got into political writing over 25 years then one day i said i'm burned out want to go to the academy and teach and write i went back to school to get a phd that's right have been the last 20 or 30 years i have also picked up some from churchill i love the one line that says what will history say about you mister churchill? he said i know because i will write it. i think what i'm trying to do in a small way with my work is to paint a picture of the conservative movement sometimes from the insider from the outside so people 50 years from now can return to my books and understand the conservative movement better and in more depth.

y" george nash recalls herbert hewers work in the aftermath of world war i and his humanitarian aid. opened a daylong conference of his humanitarian efforts. >> good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the herbert hoover presidential library museum. one of 14 operated by the national archives and it -- and records of attrition. i am tom schwartz, the director. we are about to hear a onmulating presentation herbert hoover's various humanitarian efforts. we are in the midst of centennial observances of his many food relief efforts beginning in 2014 with the commission for relief in belgium, 2019, with the american relief administration efforts, and 2021, with russian famine relief. ironically, hoover's humanitarian food relief efforts, which pre-and postdate his presidency, affected the lives of more people and his four years as president. perhaps no one in president -- in history provided food for 70 people in need than herbert hoover. effortsr humanitarian span a half-century, so this conference offers a foretaste of a much broader topic. forre particularly grateful c-span for

as george nash mentioned earlier. millions are threatened with starvation and disease. most of them, i will have a map up, situated in and beyond the volga river valley. the soviet government, led by vladimir lenin, is unable to cope with the disaster, so it is goced to allow an appeal to out for foreign assistance. and at that time, on that day, in the summer of 1921, there is only one man on the planet in a position to answer that call, and that of course is the man you see here. that is herbert hoover, as chairman of the american relief administration, the a.r.a. as george nash told us, since 1919 the a.r.a. is a private relief organization, relief agency. but i would say really, at least for this part of the hoover humanitarian story, we should say it is quasi-private. hoover is the secretary of commerce, and that will play a role in the story as it spins out in the next few minutes. in that summer of 1921, after some very delicate negotiations, in latvia, hoover's a.r.a. enters soviet russia to fight the great famine. in the end, millions would die in that famine.

george h. nash, will begin the conference, followed by mary elizabeth cox, will examine hunger in germany during world war i. especially among women and children. a 15 minute break will follow. when the conference resumes, we will discuss hoover's efforts in russia. followed by the emeritus professor the kansas city art university who will examine food art created for food efforts in poland and finland at the outset of world war ii. it concludes with all the speakers on stage to field questions. i hope you will complete a survey before you leave and tell us how we did. at this time, as a courtesy to the speakers and others in the audience, please sounds all electronic devices. thank you for coming and enjoy the conference. [applause] george: thank you for those gracious words of introduction. good afternoon, everyone. it is a pleasure to be here once again, where i've spent many years of my life doing research on mr. hoover. it's nice to be in the presence of friends old and new. hooverng members of

and george nash recalled -- recalls his world war i relief work which saved the lives of millions caught up in the war's aftermath. that is what is coming up here on american history tv. steve: it was a century ago from early july to early september of 1919 that a u.s. army convoy of about 80 vehicles made its way from washington, d.c. to san francisco. this picture depicting what happened. a transcontinental mission throught the country's roads and a map from washington, d.c. to san francisco. a journey documented in a 25-minute silent film when we'll -- which we'll be showing. but first, joining us is michael owen. the author of "after ike: on the trail of the century-old journey that changed america." how did it change america? >> along the route, thousands came out to cheer the convoy on, to look at the vehicles, talk to the men who remember in the convoy, and it spurred a lot of interest in travel by motorized vehicles. >> we're going to watch the film. did it get a lot of attention in the press? >> it did. they had a major sendoff at the white house. president wilson was in europe

and george nash recalled -- recalls his world war i relief work which saved the lives of millions caught up in the war's aftermath. that is what is coming up here on american history tv. steve: it was a century ago from early july to early september of 1919 that a u.s. army convoy of about 80 vehicles made its way from washington, d.c. to san francisco. this picture depicting what happened. a transcontinental mission throught the country's roads and a map from washington, d.c. to san francisco. a journey documented in a

i think the historian of the conservative movement is george nash. wrote a marvelous book many, several years ago now called an inte intellectual history of the conservative movement since 1945, and that's the bible. that's what we refer to when we want to though what happened '40, '50s, '60s, up into the '70s. george nash is a marvelous, careful, painstaking, brilliant historian, so i i count him as the historian of the conservative movement. it so happens that i've written some books and i've written some biographies and i've written some histories, so maybe i'm sort of coming up maybe from fifth or sixth, maybe i'm making my way up in this race. i didn't start out to be a historian. i really started out all those years ago, as i say in "just right," to be a novelist. that didn't work out so well -- [laughter] i wrote three very bad novels which neff got publish -- which never got published, thankfully, because they would have been an embarrassment. and then i got into political writing which is where i was for 20, 25 years. and then one day i said

i think the historian of the conservative movement is george nash. a marvelous book, called an intel leg to all history of the conservative -- intellectual history of the consecutive movement flint 1945 and that's the primer we refer to he want to no what happened. 40s, '50s, 'into the '70 asks, george mash is a marvelous, careful, painstaking, brilliant historian so i count him as the historian of the conservative movement. it so happens i have written some books and biographies and histories. so maybe i'm sort of coming up maybe from -- making my way up in this race. i didn't start out to be a historian. i really started out all those years ago as i say in just right to be a novelist. that didn't work out so well. i wrote three very bad novels, which never got pushed. thankfully -- published, thank my because it would have been an embarrassment and then got into political writing which is where i was for 25 years, and then one day i said i'm burned out. i've had it with worrying about campaigns, all of that. i want to go to the academy, i want to t