the the lusitania has been at sea for six days. >> the lusitania set out on may may 1. the torpedoing occurred on may 7. and the submarine set out on april 30. >> so what is happened on the voyage of the lusitania leading up to that? >> a lot of flirting, a lot of shuffleboard, they actually did play shuffleboard. the voyage, until thursday may 6 was uneventful. was probably getting fairly tedious. i don't how many people have been on transatlantic voyages, before the research my wife and i did a voyage on the queen mary two. the maiden ship. we set out in november, after thanksgiving. it thanksgiving. it was midway through the research. we did the crossing and no soon sooner did we leave new york harbor -- but it spoke to me in my scandinavian heart. and actually affect the queen mary two is a very stable ship. even in bad weather. one of the things that came home to me on this voyages after you leave the harbor it gets boring really fast. what it comes down to is you sort of live for meal to meal. same thing was was happening on the ship. meals were everything. is it

the the lusitania has been at sea for six days. >> the lusitania set out on may may 1. the torpedoing occurred on may 7. and the submarine set out on april 30. >> so what is happened on the voyage of the lusitania leading up to that? >> a lot of flirting, a lot of shuffleboard, they actually did play shuffleboard. the voyage, until thursday may 6 was uneventful. was probably getting fairly tedious. i don't how many people have been on transatlantic voyages, before the research my wife and i did a voyage on the queen mary two. the maiden ship. we set out in november, after thanksgiving. it thanksgiving. it was midway through the research. we did the crossing and no soon sooner did we leave new york harbor -- but it spoke to me in my scandinavian heart. and actually affect the queen mary two is a very stable ship. even in bad weather. one of the things that came home to me on this voyages after you leave the harbor it gets boring really fast. what it comes down to is you sort of live for meal to meal. same thing was was happening on the ship. meals were everything. is it

interestingly was a survivor of the lusitania, she using the uncle's house, which is i den tlity cal, as a model for the museum in terms of architectural details that really bring the house to live. then they tear down uncle robert's as well as the two-story building and combine both from the ground floor. so we opened up as a public building on what would have been officially on what would have been theodore roosevelt 65th birthday. the house was administered by the women until 1962 when it was dedicated the same day as the home in sagamore hill as part of the national park service. we're going to walk through five historic period rooms that reflect what life was like for theodore roosevelt when he lived here. 60% of the furnishings, artifacts are only to the family. we walk unimpeded, so just be mindful, no touching, no sitting, and we're going to stay in one room at a time. the first room we're entering is known as the roosevelt library. roosevelt and his autobiography refers to the library as a room of gloomy respectability. death lighting. cold burning fireplace. horsehair furnit

>> i am reading three books right now as then eclectic reader i am reading deadweight about the lusitania i just finished three felonies a day that is the book how policy makers can create a legal problems for some decisions that were unintended evade fabulous book like a policy maker like me to read and i am reading a book called the fine and. and those prisoners of war and what the experience was like at vietnam's. >> i just read all different things. also the authors are but with three felonies a dabble libertarian streak in getting some historical perspective bookstore in huntington new york spee5 here ready to yesterday did. thanks for coming yen yoururea patience if you've not purchased a copy there are some at the front counter. there is a camera crew to macy may be on camera wait until some begin should microphone then we will get you a microphone if you raise your hand at the

after the lusitania had been torpedoed by a german u-boat. the u.s. did not get into the war at that time, but he resigned as secretary of state because he was so opposed to world war i. he that it was an insane war the united states shouldn't be part of it. >> what was his relationship like with woodrow wilson both during the campaign in 1912 and his tenure as secretary of state? >> 1912 he does come around to supporting wilson in the convention in baltimore in 1912. in fact, he supports wilson in that convention, and it helps to put wilson over the top where he needed two thirds of delegate votes to win. it was an old-style convention, 46 ballots. but he and wilson never were close. wilson had not supported bryan in 1896. wilson was a more conservative democrat up until 1908-1909, and so the two didn't really trust each other. wilson came to this house at one point, came to fairview and was not impressed by it. he was an intellectual and bryan was an non-intellectual. he was disparaging of bryan's intelligence and interest in the world. the two were

the troubles which had occurred after the sinking the lusitania are the german government comes to its senses momentarily and ends its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. it's not until after the election that it resumes that. there is tremendous sabotage going on in the country. they're funding of pro-german groups. lusitania one of the problems wilson has during the war, during the election, is they bring up a meeting they had with four pro-german people. one of whom was a fellow named jeremiah o'leary, an irish nationalist. that is big issue, too, regarding the 1916 campaign which is why there would be anti-english sentiment would be among the irish population, and the irish, it wasn't just 400 years of ill feelings. it was that they were still under the british flag at that part. they wanted their independence. hughes is facing all of these problems, and the question is, what's he going to do about them? the troubles arise after that election, particularly in regard to the zimmerman though, which is unveiled where germany is plotting or trying to entice mexico in to attacking

reading "dead weight" about the sinking of the lusitania. just finished "three felonies" a day how policymakers can create legal problems for citizens that were unintended. and a book called "defiant." about the 11 recal transplant u.s. prisoners of world in vietnam, including colonel sample johnson about their experience in vietnam. >> what drew you to those three books? ijust read all kinds of different things. i am a bit of a hoyt buff so defiant and dead weight are normal. also, the authors of the books have a tendency to draw me in, and eric lar sewn wrote in "guard o. beasts" and i think -- so he has been good. and then the one of three offends a day. a little bit of allyber tarean streak so i want to make sure when it comes to ridge justice reform we do those things right and get something historical be was doubtful. ... >> good evening, everybody. good evening on this beautiful evening. i'm richard fontaine, the president for the center of new american security, and thank you all for joining us this evening. we're very excited to hos

after the lusitania had been torpedoed by a german u boat. he resigned because he was so opposed to the war. he thought world war i was an insane war that the united states should not be a part of. >> what was his campaign like with woodrow wilson in 1912 and in his tenure as secretary of state? >> he supports william -- supports wilson and helped put him over the top. it was a very old stock convention, 46 ballots. ian wilson never were close. wilson -- he and wilson were never close. wilson had not supported him in earlier elections. the two did not really trust each other. wilson was an intellectual, and william jennings bryan was not. the two were not close. william jennings bryan became secretary of state in large part because a political opponent at that time was not at all unusual when the leading figure in the party was not the nominee. in many ways, he expected to be secretary of state. one of the reasons he was unhappy as secretary of state is because he did not get the kind of responsibility would have wanted. but one thing he did

reading "dead weight" about the sinking of the lusitania. just finished "three felonies" a day how policymakers can create legal problems for citizens that were unintended. and a book called "defiant." about the 11 recal transplant u.s. prisoners of world in vietnam, including colonel sample johnson about their experience in vietnam. >> what drew you to those e

the trouble that had occurred after the sinking of the lusitania, the german government comes to its senses momentarily and ends its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. is not until after the election that it presumes that. there is tremendous sabotage going on. there is funding of german group's. one of the problems wilson has is they bring up a meeting he had with four pro-german people. one of them was named jeremiah o'leary, an irish nationalist. this is one of the issues of the 1916 campaign. why would there be sentiment along the irish population. they were still under the british flag. they wanted independence. he was basing all of these problems. the question is, what is he going to do about it? the trouble arises after that election, particularly in regard to zimmerman though, where germany was plotting to get mexico to attack us and get their lost provinces back. >> can you tell us a little bit more about -- do you know the story? >> i do not. >> was the daughter of a senior partner -- >> yes. >> another thing we want to highlight was the importance of wasis used impo

in april, 1916, wilson defended neutral rights as he had after the sinking of the "lusitania" in 1915 and threatened to sever diplomatic ties with germany following the sinking of the ferry "sussex" by a u-boat in the english channel. it marked the ending of a new u-boat campaign that had been planned. the bluster by the wilson administration led to the germans backing down this u-boat campaign. there was a divide in the election traficant. critics perceived it as what today we might term leading from behind or diplomacy from behind. the war in terms of the war in 1916, there were a number of major events. we don't have enough time to go through them all. there was a major battle, series of battles, jutland, that wound up in a truce being the british blockade not itting. there were months' long battles which resulted in more than a million total casualties. 1916 can be seen as at least a watershed in terms of the fighting of the war itself. politically in 1916, wilson had the advantage of incumbent ben see but rightly feared -- feared the republican party. much had happened since the

york world with these notices appear for the lusitania lusitania. so it was that list. and there are a many people after the ship was late a few hours old which is a wonderful time to find out that captain turner, we knew that he knew about the warning. but i don't think that captain turner was at all fazed by it. he was a sailor of the old school and came up to the great sailing ships. he was the kind of guy when you get on an airplane or i hate to fly panicky so i look for the cues of what is going to happen. the. >> what would you do about it? [laughter] >> so, here's the kind of guy if you can picture him he would say yes this is the kind of guy i want. he wasn't fazed by the potential of the submarine attack. i think that he firmly believed his ship was faster and bigger than anything that any submarine could ever tackle. >> that's something that's interesting. you describe how few people really understood how dangerous the german submarine was at that point. you note that the author of sherlock holmes actually got it. >> this is one of the fas

warlord detailing everything so i knew all of that and it made an obvious narrative thing to have the lusitania converging. i came across all this interesting information. i wanted him to be a classic villain. i would love a monocle. [laughter] like a scar. i got this guy become a, charis, loved by his crew come and one of his friend friends from a few commanders to defend he couldn't hurt a fly. this was after the war. so, just -- >> i opened the book to this room for the cadence. is this the positioning, this is the report on the

same thing with lusitania comedy of a submarine and that's what it is. the idea process for me is a horrible phase. it really is. it's it's very difficult, i feel very unproductive. a friend of mine has said it's when i'm in the dark country of no idea. and it's so true. the thing is, to write the kind of history that i like to write which people have label nonfiction which is a good enough of a label as anything. it has to have certain qualities or you just cannot do it. you can't fake it, you can't whatever. the idea has to be interesting to me. it has have a very rich archival base so that i can find all of the bits and pieces that will like the readers imagination. it has to have a built-in organic arch that something powers it along. so lusitania begins may 1 under threat and then the climaxes snatched may seventh. so you can retell the story is a nonfiction work but tell it at the beginning, middle and end. and end. i also look for an idea ideally, not in this case but typically i look for barriers to entry which comes to the dual narrative thing.