so i am told this is the first stop on joseph ellis's book tour. that is delightful and terrifying for me. >> i won't have heard these before so i won't be ready for them. >> all about the gotcha questions. beginning is a good place to start. let's talk about the title of this book, how this dialogue is occurring, aside from you being the foremost expert. is it so fundamental we would turn to the truth, complexities and contradictions of the founding fathers? >> a large question, i will try to, you don't know how to talk to each other, we don't know how to argue. i've seen it in my own lifetime, the apps do that. you would think the internet would be a source of communication but it is a source of isolation. the more i look at it, the more the term better angels of our nature looks like a naÏve idea. so we live in a troubled time where we are divided, we watch fox or ms nbc and listen to the different acts. you have to be very mindful that you are talking to this audience rather than that audience and are kind of civic center this institution embod

ladies and gentlemen, joseph ellis and gordon wood. thank you. [ applause ] >> so we'll start with professor wood. there were two foundings, of course, the declaration declaring our independence and then the constitutional convention. so let's start with the first, with the declaration. what were some of the great challenges that led to the declaration and some of the great challenges during that summer in philadelphia? >> well, obviously, the declaration was an act ratifying the decision to break from great britain. john adams didn't think it was all that important. the important decision had been made on july 2nd. and that's the day he thought would be celebrated with bonfires and fireworks and so on. and he -- he was on the committee, five people, to draw up this declaration, which i think no one at the time fully realized the importance of it. and they gave it to this younger man, who had come late to the second continental congress, thomas jefferson. he had written a pamphlet. he, obviously, was a skilled stylist. and if adams had

prize-winningtzer author joseph ellis, and i said to him, do you know about the story of a secret plot to kill george washington? and he knew the story. every good biography has a sentence or two, maybe a page and a half, or a footnote, and one of the things he said to me is this is a story of george washington's size. can find the number of mount vernon, you can you can find right now, mt. vernon will take the exact number of slaves that george er washington owned but you will never find all the spice. he said to me that day by nature what you're searching for will forever be elusive. if it works you get an amazing book and if not you'll have an adventure. i knew, it will all depend on the research. first thing i did is we had a tv show and we went looking for a the 9/11 flag the firefighters raised at ground zero and many people didn't know the flag went missing on the tv show, and we offered a reward and put the word out and for days after the episode aired the man walked into the fire station in washington and said i saw the show lost history and i want to return the flag that the

now here is historian joseph ellis on the political thinking of four founding fathers. [applause]

. >>> up next on american history tv, pulitzer prize-winning historians joseph ellis and gordon wood discuss the legacies of the founding fathers. they also explore the relationships between several of these leaders and talk about some of the lesser-known founders. the society of the four arts in palm beach, florida hosted this 90-minute event. >> several thanks are due to folks involved in this program. our first, most important thanks are to ghane gaines who brought us the idea for this series and who helped us with recruiting most of the speakers.

prize-winningtzer author joseph ellis, and i said to him, do you know about the story of a secret ploto kill george washington? and he knew the story. every good biography has a sentence or two, maybe a page and a half, or a footnote, and one of the things he said to me is this is a story of george washington's size. can find the number of mount vernon, you can find the number of slaves that george washington owned, but you will never find his size. you have to give it a shot, and it will work, you will get an amazing book out of it. if it does not, you will have an amazing adventure. a tv show called "decoded," and we went looking for the 9/11 flag that many firefighters raised at ground zero. many people do not know that that flag went missing. on the tv show, we went looking for it, we put up the word, offered a reward, and for days after we put that out, a man walked into a fire station in washington state and said "i saw the show "lost history," and i wanted to return the fla. this is the flag that was raised at ground zero." we found the fly, brought it on theuthenticated it, 50t