letterpress offers joseph ellis and stacy schiff took a look at the political climate in america following the american revolution. they examine why america's newly independent states decided to accept the centralized government. >> we are so pleased to welcome joseph ellis acclaimed author and historian. he recently retired his position as the ford foundation professor of history where he taught courses in american history since 1972. joseph ellis has also published over ten books including his book on thomas jefferson which won the national book award as well as the book founding brothers which one a pulitzer prize. most recently, he wrote the second american revolution which you hear about tonight. our moderator for the evening is stacy schiff. in 2000, she received a pivot surprise for her book. she also won several literary awards including george washington book prize and the ambassador book award for the great improvisation and the birth of america. as well as the number one national bestseller. she's currently working on a new book re: 1692 salem and we are looking forward to havin

[applause] is letterpress offers joseph ellis and stacy schiff took a look at the political climate in america following the american revolution. they examine why america's newly independent states decided to accept the centralized government. >> we are so pleased to welcome joseph ellis acclaimed author and historian. he recently retired his position as the ford foundation professor of history where he taught courses in american history since 1972. joseph ellis has also published over ten books including his book on thomas jefferson which won the national book award as well as the book founding brothers which one a pulitzer prize. most recently, he wrote the second american revolution which you hear about tonight. our moderator for the evening is

caller two months ago, we read : joseph ellis' "first family" about john and abigail adams and so thatd added more to my knowledge of those two. and one another book that we read, which is fictionalized i will say that we've read "team of rivals," by the way another one that we read which is a fictionalized biography of mary, so i know how you might feel about that. but it did nothing and it was new to me or contradicted anything i've heard from other sources, historical sources, except that there was mention of what appeared to be an affair with some government employee. it's been several years, and i'm sorry that i don't remember the author. but i would be very skeptical about it, except for the fact that existing newspapers were quoted with dates and headlines, and i thought if this author has made this up, she has really been bold in doing so. it seems to me the employee was supposed to have been maybe somebody in charge of housing or government buildings in d.c. but i wondered if you have any comments on that or know anything about it. richard: only that one of the criticisms that

joseph ellis on the constitutional convention. an examination of the relationship between religion and democracy and a conversation with nigerian author. for a complete television schedule, visit booktv.org. book tv, television for serious readers. >> here's a look at books being publish evidence this week: