please join me in thanking professor joe ellis for his comments. [ applause ] >> thank you. well done. >> thanks for coming. >> thank you, everyone. >> there will be an opportunity to sign some books in the lobby. thank you, everyone. >>> american history tv in

joe ellis and i are rare birds. that is, we're academics who happened to write this quasi popular history that reaches out beyond the academy, but for the most part most historians are writing for each other. they're like physicists writing papers, and to try to read an article in william & mary quarterly or one of the historic journals requires knowledge of what previous historians have said because they're talking to each other. and that's understandable. they're trying to expand the discipline, and good things have come out of that, but it does mean that they neglect their responsibility to reach out to the public. physicists don't have to do that. they're proof of what they're doing comes in the -- in the invent of the nuclear weapon. but historians can't just talk to each other, they've got to reach out. it's the kind of discipline that needs to be spread to the general public, and i just wish more of them would attempt to do that. but that's not how you get ahead in the academic world. you write for your peers

professor joe ellis for his comments. [ applause ] >> thank you. well done. >> thanks for coming. >> thank you, everyone. >> there will be an opportunity to sign some books in the lobby. thank you, everyone. >>> american history tv continues in prime time all week. tuesday we'll take you inside the national museum of african-american history and culture for a look at the exhibits and artifacts. we'll also hear from staff curators and the author of a book on the creation of the museum. that all begins tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on c-span3. >>> the supreme court has a new justice after justice neil gorsuch was sworn in monday more than two months after being nominated by president trump. he replaces the late justice antonin scalia who died in february of last year. chief justice john roberts administered the constitutional oath of office in private monday morning before a public swearing-in at the white house which was administered by justice anthony kennedy. in a 2009 documentary, some of the current justices talked about their fi

. >> i would like to thank joe ellis for coming, and thank him for the remarks. [ applause ] we have about an hour, and we may go over [ laughter ] we will try to keep it tight to the hour. and i thought that we would cover a few topic, and one being professor el ellis' books, and the writing process, and i want him to take us behind the scenes in his research and the writing process. and get back to the founders and talk about the eternal and important legacy contributions up to today and the meaning today and the relevance today, and we want to touch on a few historical topics that he alluded to in the the remarks and get back to that and i would like to open up with knowing joe ellis the person. on that note, can you tell us what sparked your interest in history, and at what age did you realize that this was your calling? >> well, i don't have a canned answer to that, and usually, i have heard the questions and so i'm scripted to do this and -- i went to college at the college of william and mary. before that i went to a school in d.c. which was a jesuit school called gonzaga and

baylin was the great and rival of ed morgan who taught joe ellis. teachers matter. in 1969 wood joined the faculty of brown university where he is still professor emeritus. he told me nothing he had ever done achieved as much excitement on campus or the wide approval of his students as the few seconds of fame he had when matt damon and ben affleck mentioned his name in the 1997 movie "good will hunting." the campus went nuts. and he said when newt gingrich praised woods' 1992 prize-winning book "the radicalism of the american revolution, wood describes newt's praise on c-span saying, that was the kiss of death for me among academics. none of them are republicans and none of them are conservative. george mason law school sponsored american history seminars for united states federal judges for about five years. the two history professors chosen to lead the discussions among these elite were gordon wood and joel ellis. i have talked with federal judges doug ginsberg and ricecamp who is here today, among many others, and they said how much they benefited from these incr

david: brian, joe ellis is a friend of mine. i can't answer your question. he is a friend and i will not speak negatively about him. as much as i could say is positive about him as a historian and as a friend. the story broke and came as a shock to me. a serious shock but i called him right away and said i just want you to know i am your friend and i will stand by you and i have. it has happened to some other people, plagiarism charges and so forth. i guess the answer to that is historians are human. we all have our flaws and sometimes what we think will be kept private is not and i think that as a professional point of view, joe ellis, i've never sat in on one of his classes. i'm sure he is good as they get. brian: let me go beyond that, you write so much about character. what is character? david: it is having the courage of your convictions. you tell the truth. and, at the white house, and in the state dining room, there's a quotation from a letter john adams wrote to abigail. the first night he stayed at the white house. he was the first president to live

when joe ellis said to me it is clear that david fell for abigail, i said i think you fell for harry and john too. part of your writing is you bring up the individual. do you feel when you are writing you are trying to get to know these guys? you are sitting across the table with them? talk a little bit about that process. david: several things. i always have to go where events happened. and soak it up. live with it. i found it particularly with truman the things he said, the things or his mannerisms were not just his. that's the way they did it. robert: you walk around independence. where he walked david: you don't get too big for your britches. what they have on his desk? the buck stops here. absolutely. he would never forget a friend. the wonderful scene. a man who died in independence. the minister was there for the burial service, and the people from the funeral house. and nobody else. and all of a sudden this little coupe came driving up, stop and out got harry truman. he came over and stood by the service. minister,as over the a man i interviewed, asked him. mr. president, how

his reaction was positive, just as positive as joe ellis and newt gingrich. he said go for it. he given me lots of advice. .ut i had an idea i have the most amazing, positive support from chairman patrick henry, president david head of thend education -- i think her title is president of the education -- molly sherilyn. this really wouldn't have happened without them. it did, we are year, thank you all for coming. give david mcauliffe a warm palm beach welcome. thank you. [applause] david: thank you very much. good morning and thank you very .uch thank you, dear, for all of -- all that you said and all that you have done for your country. particularly in what you did for your country and the work he did year after year at mount vernon. there are very few sites in the departments much of what is important in our story is a people is mount vernon. i think that gay also is a perfect example of somebody who understands that the only way to get something of consequence accomplished is to work together. very little is ever accomplished alone, and boy can she bring us all together to

joe ellis points out that statement isn't exactly accurate. with the articles of confederation in place, the founders had achieved independence from england, but we could well have become a new europe, with 13 independent countries. the quartet, washington, madison, hamilton and j. were responsible for making the transition happen, from a confederation of states to a new nation. ellis clearly and eloquently explains how the united states constitution and the bill of rights came to be, and america was born. quote, it could be considered the most consequential act of political leadership in american history. ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm palm beach welcome to dr. joseph j. ellis. [ applause ] >> i'm not sure i'm going to be able to live up to that. no human being can, and that's going to be one of my themes that the founders were all human and we finally have a moment in our own history we can understand them as creatures like us, imperfect human beings, impressive nevertheless for reasons that i'll try to explain. i want to begin wit

another briton, joe fraser, was fifth. ellieund finals in around an hours time. heather watson will play the world number 5 simona halep tomorrow, in the opening match of great britain's fed cup world group play—off in romania. victory in the tie would lift britain into the world group for the first time since 1993. johanna konta will then face irina—camelia begu in the second singles. there'll be commentary of watson's match on radio 5 live sports extra and both games will be shown on the bbc sport website at 8am. and ronnie 0'sullivan's match with shaun murphy is about to resume at the world snooker championships. two former champions of course, 0'sullivans leads 6—2, you can watch the action over on bbc two. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. to give you some breaking news coming in on the reuters news agency, it is reported at least 17 schoolchildren have been killed in a car crash in south africa. this is in mpumalanga province. emergency services are at the scene. it is reported at least 17 scho

another briton, joe fraser, was fifth. ellie we'll have more in the next hour. let's return to the gun attack in paris last night. the policeman who was killed has been named as xavierjudge. french media are also naming the gunman as 39—year—old karim cheurfi. french security officials say he was known to him and had been known as a radical. a note praising islamic state was found near his body. 0ur security correspondent frank gardner is here. a lot of people might say, if he is known to authorities, why is he still out there? it is a very valid question. he is one of many. pretty much every terrorist attack that we see in europe these days, the assailant, the perpetrator, is nearly always on some kind of a watch list, or known to the authorities. it begs exactly your question, what is the point of that if they cannot be stopped? the reason is that it all comes down to quite a complex balance between resources and priorities. this particular guy was convicted in 2001 of attempting to kill a policeman. he clearly had a thing aga

another briton, joe fraser, was fifth. ellie is all the sport for now, more in the next hour. former rangers manager walter smith said he was never overly burdened by the finances of running the club. he was appearing as the first witness in the fraud trial of craig whyte, the former owner. he is accused of two charges relating to the purchase of a club in 2011. the 46—year—old denies all charges. laura gordon is at the high court. today was the first day of evidence. what did the court here? craig whyte arrived at court here? craig whyte arrived at court this morning for this first day of evidence in a trial relating to his purchase of rangers, back in 2001. the first witness on the first day of evidence was former manager walter smith. mr smith has managed the club on two separate occasions. in his second stint as manager, he led the club to eight domestic trophies. it reached a european final as well. he was also manager in the period running up to craig whyte's takeover of the club. and for a short period thereafter, about t