joanne freeman a question. clark welsh what really distinguishes the american experiment from every form of government came before? well, actually, part of the answer is in the question, and that is when the nation was launched it was defined as an experiment. that word was used and it was understood that it would not necessarily work. it was understood and actually it's i would have written a lot about the 1790 as part of what fascinates me about the 1790s is the sense that everyone had that one stupid decision on a national level and the whole experiment would tank. so i think the fact that it was understood that unlike at that time at the rest of the world, it was a world of monarchies that the united states was launching experiment that may or may not. and i think that idea and it gets back to some of we've been saying in a variety of different up here that contingency is built in to the process. we don't think it and this relates in a sense to some of what you were just saying, doug i think people forget t

and thank you, doug brinkley, bill brand's joanne freeman and the mentor. our topic today is not a small one. it's the founders and democracy. and, you know, i was thinking about it for days, but then i was thinking about it even more closely as i was looking at listening to the previous conversation with brian lamb and the other historians. and i was taken back to my graduate student days, which now is almost 15 years ago. and i remember one of the things that we always did in grad school was something called define your terms. you'll probably remember that. and we have two very big terms. the founders and democracy and our first panel was talking a lot about democracy. and one of the themes that often came up is what does democracy mean? and i thought that might be a good way to actually start this conversation is with the idea of democracy and to ask what democracy actually means. what is it that we're talking about when we evoke it so frequently as we did in the last panel, as we do in our everyday lives, and worry about this idea of democracy. but what

brands, douglas brinkley, joanne freeman and edna greene medford in conversation and moderated by brian lamb. you please come to the stage stage. thankou

joanne freeman is one of the world's top experts on this subject. she's a professor of american history at yale, and she joins me now. welcome. so people often say america has this unique history of political violence how true do you think that is? why does it seem to burst forward at some period of periods or tim neftali were same period of great social change or what i've described it as revolutionary moments tell us what your sense of the history is. >> well, we do have a long history of political violence in all kinds of ways. obviously assassination is one way. the goals, all the way back. you know, it's one of the glories of democracy is the our freedom as a people to express our thoughts, to have free thoughts, to have free protest and with that kind of freedom and that kind of, with those kinds of rights, they're also vulnerabilities and there also dangerous. and that's particularly true at moments when people feel that the political infrastructure is shaky or national institutions maybe don't feel so there are up to the job and there are mo

and and the previous panel joanne freeman spoke about hamilton and and i kind of think of the hamilton effect that the effect that that musical had on this current generation of young people and even older people, that i think there are ways it shows that there are ways to open people's eyes to the founding generation, to their genius, to their flaws. and we can we can do it all. lindsey mentioned abigail adams when george washington died. i mean, one of the smartest things she said and she said a lot of smart things is that simple. should be his his eulogy. and part of that simple truth that he had flaws. he made mistakes. but he also left this incredible legacy and so so, you know, a note of optimism. i'm encouraged by what we saw in the poll. i think just i want to add one amendment or additions not amendment additions, which right which that actually celebrating flawed people is so much more useful and and allows us to actually appreciate their contributions more because if their heroic person than doing heroic things is to be expected if they are flawed humans and they do extraord