the author of numerous books including the very best man, robert kennedy, sea of thunder, and john paul jones. now let's hear from nathaniel philbrick and evan thomas. thank you for joining us today. >> at national archives, we are delighted to be here, lots to talk about. we are veterans of the national archives and a lot of you are history buffs, so glad to have you. this is a departure for you. you've written all these books but haven't gotten your car with your wife. tell us about your thought processes, how you got into that, how you went down this road and the cherry it. >> that is where it began. so great to hang out with you for this hour, to see you in the midst of the aftermath of covid. it all began for me during a research trip for my last book about the american revolution, in the hurricane's i, about the year of yorktown. there was a research trip to providence, rhode island, and made my way to the john brown house. this isn't john brown the abolitionist. this is john brown the opposite, slave trade around cofounder of brown university. in the back of his magisterial home is a l

historian among his impressive books are, biographies of edward bennett williams, robert kennedy, john paul jones. dwight eisenhower. richard nixon and sandra day o'connor. and he's got a new book coming out just next week called road to surrender, which is a narrative about the last of world war two in japan. and i guess also because he likes to get out of washington now and then he's taught writing and journalism at harvard and princeton and on top of everything else. so please join me in welcoming lanny jones and evan thomas thomas. thank you, brad is now politics and prose the greatest bookstore of all. yes. so, lanny, tell us about your book. oh, i've well let's see here. before i do that, let me thank you for for a grander ground and give me some tough questions and thanks, brad, for for inviting and thank all of you here. now, the weather was so good. i can't wait. there's more of this outside somewhere. i have so many friends here and some and also some writers and editors. i wanted to say a few words to sort of stir the pot about the sort of basic themes in my book. and then we're going