they had been a herbert hoover memorial highway. that was quickly renamed. there had been a memorial hospital's named after americans. those were renamed. many other people in russia who had worked for the americans were arrested as spies. in fact, some were still being arrested after world war ii for having worked for the americans. the whole operation, when it was discussed, was discussed as it was a plot by hoover to overthrow the soviet government, but the vigilance of the cheka had saved the soviet government from the nefarious deeds of herbert hoover. and then it was basically forgotten. i was in moscow in september, along, and iking remembered that the ara's main offices were on that street. i knew what the building looked like. sure enough, there was the building. i had this idea of getting a poster made that said, in russian, you know who lived and worked here? my russian friend said that probably was not a great idea. i am hoping the book will come out in russia. all of my books have come out there. i am talking with my publisher. i have yet to hea

herbert hoover is going to be nominated for the nobel peace prize a number of times, and the initial nomination had to do with this. can you talk about that process and perhaps why he didn't win? dr. proctor: actually, several of the people involved in the food aid are nominated. to my knowledge, the only one who wins is morris pate, who was a young princeton graduate who work in belgian relief and he worked in poland in the ara. he is the first head of unicef after world war ii. here's an example of a lot of the personnel, and i have a chart in my book, which is kind of interesting. you look at the men involved from 1914 to 1924, what they end up doing later, he wins the nobel peace prize and he dies a couple months before that is awarded. i think it's partly just the politics of the prize. hoover was a prickly fellow. [laughter] he wasn't all that diplomatic, let's put it that way. >> first of all, thank you. secondly, how is this effort affected by, and how did it affect the great influenza pandemic that was contemporaneous? dr. proctor: that's a great question. he asked about the

the next one is about herbert hoover. it shows herbert at the rabid on camp. mr. bloch has depicted hoover leading a couple of capitalists to his camp. and they are fishing. instead of getting economic benefits in the form of cash incentives they get fresh fish to sell. it's on a very smooth board. this is typical of what would have been produced in the midwest at this point in time. the second cartoon is about fdr. mr. bloch has not yet come to a point where he is embracing the democratic party yet. what you are seeing is a cartoon that makes fun of those for being unable to add additional supreme court justices to implement his plans to improve the economy. we know that ultimately roosevelt prevailed. bloch is making fun of him for wasting time when he could have been passing legislation by trying to implement the court plan to add six more justices to the court. here we have both candidates for president in 1948. gesturing to a man who looks like a typical character to show a respectable southern gentleman as he also represents congress. bloch is upset about the

the first car toorn we have is about herbert hoover which was the first president that mr. block covered. and it shows hoover at the rapi dan camp before camp david excepted. hoover favored a camp further down in the shanann doa mountains in rapidan, virginia. and so mr. block is depicted hoover leading a couple of capitalists to his camp. and they're fishing. and then instead of getting economic benefits in the perhaps in the form of cash incentives, the capitalists get fresh fish to sell. and it's a pen-and-ink style. it's on a very smooth board. and this is very typical of what would have been produced in the midwest at this point in time. the second cartoon i've brought out today is about fdr, franklin della no roosevelt. and mr. block has not yet come to a point where he's embracing the democratic party yet. so what you're seeing is a cartoon that makes fun of roosevelt for being unable to add additional supreme court justices to therefore force congress to implement his plans to improve the economy. of course, we know that ultimately roosevelt prevailed, and the new de

it is funny as an american to go there, because when you think about herbert hoover, how people in the u.s. see him and think about his presidency, you go there and the first thing you see is a huge bust of herbert square to the library is named after him. it is just a very different an what of the u.s. th you might see here in our public buildings. >> our next question from dr. john q. >> i don't know the answer to this, this is a legit question. is going to be nominated for the nobel peace prize a number of times, and the initial nomination was to do with this.can you talk about that process and perhaps why he didn't win? dr. proctor: actually, several of the people involved in the food aid are nominated. to my knowledge, the only one who wins youngris pate, who was a princeton graduate who work in belgian relief and he worked in poland and the ara. he is the first head of unicef .fter world war ii here's an example of a lot of the personnel. i have a chart in my book, which is interesting. you look at the men involved from 1914 to 1924, what they end wins thelater, he nobel peace pr

i think the american media would love herbertic hoover he's brilliant and very careful with whathe said very presidential he was an engineer or two sons were scientists he was compassionate to europe after world war i when they were starving he led us to the great depression hoover ville sprang up near the major cities of america on the garbage dumps people who could not keep their housing so they went to the garbage dumps looking for scraps to build their own huts and where they look for food for thee children no sewage or running water there were thousands of these hoover fills all across the country that's how people suffer when the economy goes bad i guess it's fun if you're famous and rich and a comedian to say we need a recession because you want your team to win but actually prosperity is a wonderful thing 6 million people have gone off food stamps that's a good thing not a bad thing. >> did you have to sign a nondisclosure agreement. >> no. i didn't that's why they d debated it for years. so people were opposed to the idea but they said come on and you can have whatever.

and she wrote one of herbert hoover. she was actually the first person to write a biography of hoover before he became president. >> and that was for adults? >> yes. >> it wasn't for kids? >> yes. but it was actually fictionalized. >> right. >> anyway, after her death, her papers ended up at the hoover presidential library as well as some of her mother's. >> isn't that interesting. so what were some of the revelations that you found? i mean, obviously this book has won the pulitzer prize. people must have thought it was somewhat groundbreaking the way you pulled it together, all this information and how it related to history, i assume is why it won. >> i think it was a combination of establishing the importance of wilder and her work to both our literary history, but also our self image, the way that we see ourselves as the descendents of people who crossed the great plains and were involved in the settlement of the country. i think people are interested in the kind of fantasies that we've created about our own past and

>> it's one of my favorites herbert hoover pre- presidency and john quincy adams post- presidency they had lackluster terms in office but extraordinary lives on either side so i love that. >> thinking of charles kuralt i thought that would be a great opportunity for you to go cross country and interview people is that something you would consider doing like his grandmother's ravioli? >> i would love to do that. >> i think it's a great idea and i would drive. [laughter] >> that was the missing link. >> and the impulse to perform. >> i call it performance others call it corruption - - disruption i am fortunate my parents encourage me to perform with the bethesda academy of performing arts with a large amount of energy that i had and chiseled it in a productive way. i performed at the post office pavilion. >> and a perform there with the sequence. >> once a teacher always a teacher but as a retired teacher my hat off to you. [applause] >> i'm interested in your sourcing of material. in terms of the research process the journalism side of you but i think the actor side has you get lost in

and youal found this division between doj and herbert hoover -- j. edgar hoover sometimes. the interesting thing for me about durham is now we're going to switch all thes eggs as we' been using this basket and eggs, i'm going to continue. to theto durham basket. i wonder if durham has called rod rosenstein and asked him how it worked out when he was co-opted by barr. rod rosenstein came to the job and i was there when he took the job. and there was a lot of discussion and conversations he had with members of congress about how he was gonna call it like he saw it. he had his reputation to defend. he was not gonna allow the president to bully him. well, once barr came on the scene, he totally got co-opted byco barr. and now, you're seeing the same thing with durham. there is no way. these guys are so low key. you guys are clearly fbi guys because fbi guys don't talk unless they have to. ever. and when it's the right time to talk, they let the evidence do the talking. this is so out of character for the fbi and for doj. >> you mean the durham statement? to say -- and to be spe

we get use to peace and prosperity but when you don't have peace and prosperity, herbert hoover the current media would love him he was brilliant and courtly and very careful what he said very presidential his kids were scientist engineers he was compassionate but he led us through the great depression and just to give you a picture off the garbage dumps these were people who could not keep their houses so they went to the garbage dumps where they looked for scraps to build their own huts and will look for food for their children. there was no sewage or running water and thousands of these hoover fills all across the country that's how people suffer when the economy goes bad. i guess if it's fun if you're famous and rich to say we need a recession because you want your team to win and you want to win the white house but actually that's a wonderful thing 6 million people are off of food stamps that is a good thing it's not bad. >> did you have to sign a nondisclosure agreement? >> know. [laughter] i did not and that's amazing that's why they debated it for a year and people were loath to the

setting aside political differences, vladimir lenin's new soviet government asked herbert hoover's american relief administration for help. next on american history tv, historian douglas smith gives an illustrator talk about the story based on his book, "the russian job: the forgotten story of how america saved the soviet union from ruin." estate museum and gardens hosted this event. good evening and welcome to hillwood estate museum and gardens. already,ny of you know but in case we have not met, my name is kate mark kirk --

economic times they didn't care so much the president was warren harding, calvin coolidge or herbert hooveruntil the economy completely crumbles. to the extent you had a vice president continue business as usual calvin coolidge is the closest example. >> i was curious based on your research which vice president exercised undue influence on policy such that the president might have been absent or nonexistent in your opinion. >> teddy roosevelt was the most annoying of all the vice presidents. no one could control him, nobody could control him as vice president. there was a great story about him as assistant secretary, a great story, assistant secretary of the navy where secretary of the navy long gets the equivalent of spa treatment and is so worried what teddy roosevelt might do as acting secretary of the navy and six hours that he instruct him not to take the country to war. teddy roosevelt mobilized the country for war in 6 hours. what is interesting is teddy roosevelt, every one of the accidental presidents get elected, none of the ones who came before him. you have way more reelections

whittier college in california, and at the same time he was the trustee, little henry hoover, herbert hoover'sife was also a trustee. i am wondering if any of you know if the two first ladies ever met. >> i do not, but i would like to find that out. >> we will have to do research on that. you are talking to the right people. >> we have time for two more questions. way in the back, with the lights it is tough for me to see, but there is a hand there. >> you are speaking about mrs. nixon jealously guarding her privacy. i am surprised you have not brought up how she had to give that up for one of the biggest events of their family life, tricia's wedding at the white house, how did she handle all of those preparations and opening that event to the world? >> good question. it was tricia's desire to have it in the garden, and she went with it. and, i can only say that i am certain that she handled it very graciously, and certainly with all of the photos that i saw subsequent to that, she looked radiant, and she made it look easy. what can i say? >> white house weddings are big events, and i remember

when they were down, they didn't benefit jimmy carter, they didn't benefit herbert hoover. when they were up certainly benefited hillary clinton through impeachment and ronald reagan. i wonder if the fixation on the markets that he knows about history? it's a nice wind to have your back? >> one thing all presidents recognize, presidents running for president in recessions tend not to get reelected. the last one that got reelected was william mckinley in 1900. when jimmy carter, gerald ford, george bush ran through a recession, they didn't get elected. when you know enough about history that you don't get elected, you want to avoid a recession. neil: does he overdo it? >> the president is obsessed with the economy staying strong. he doesn't want a recession in the year he is running for re-election. all presidents want that. some are not being able to prevent that. i worked for jimmy carter. we didn't want a recession. but we had one. george herbert walker bush, was per seized to have recession but it wasn't a recession. neil: it turned around. too late to get benefit of it.

taft, hoover,ford, carter and george herbert walker bush. so it's tough to beat an incumbent.ieve in that same poll, there are a lot of good points. one, democrats are still doing very well with women. they are doing well with people under 35. there are still holes in the coalition that democrats must pull together in order to win next year. >> martha: so, you know, you look at those polls, he beats michael bloomberg by 9 and i should point out these are national polls which are never good as state-to-state polls. joe biden by three points. do you think overall that when you look back at this that the impeachment is going to have been a negative or a positive in terms of the way people view these democrats, presidential candidates? >> well, i may not be like most democrats or even most americans. i think this is a solemn duty that the house must undertake in order to protect our country and to protect the constitution. and so, whether they win or lose next year, what should remain is the rule of law. and i think that's important. so i understand the political calculus that goe