there is a great scene of herman melville coming to the white house to convince clinton to appoint him in you don't get the sense it is to hone his diplomatic skills but a vacation one group tries to get the candidate appointed on modern day hawaiian they make their case but then they say our guy is really sick and the climate of the islands would be really good for him then lincoln has a great ride and says unfortunately i have eight other applicants and they are all sector is in your mail. [laughter] the irony is his friends tried for him in 1841 he was going through a bout of depression and his friends wrote at the time and said you should send lincoln to colombia he is very depressed not doing well this would be good for him and did you webster turned him down not surprisingly but by the time we get to the civil war serrated secretary of state he could be a nonvolatile but for the people he thought might recognize him but he was worldly and competent. francis adams is also a skilled diplomat but he had to overcome his share of turkeys. his minister in paris ended up dying in a hote

hawthorne, melville come in andersen and whitman. white male, eastern writers are treated in complexity, ambiguity in the metaphysical. implicit matheson's privileging of the writers signaled of course in his title was such heard the status of american cultural history. the heritage you up to that of britain, but one which he laid claim to an autonomous nationalism, shakespeare and the merrimack, notes in and then take it. as you know, matheson's renaissance was inflict it by his status as a fellow traveler in the leftist politics of the 1930s. a devout christian at pains to reconcile his faith to socialist principles. a formalist critic writing cultural hits three. a wonder that his account of american writing between 1850 and 1855 seeks reconciliation at every turn. the american past and the american president find common ground. textural dissonances hours else. universal themes emerge from brilliantly termed. matheson's front is peace of the first edition is remarkable to donald mckay, builder of the flying cloud another american

there is a great scene of herman melville coming to the white house to convince clinton to appoint him in you don't get the sense it is to hone his diplomatic skills but a vacation one group tries to get the candidate appointed on modern day hawaiian they make their case but then they say our guy is really sick and the climate of the isla house and trying to and how lincoln says gentlemen, unfortunately i have eight other applicants for this job and a are all sicker than your man. the irony is lincoln's friends tried this in the 1841. you was going through depression and his friends rode to daniel webster, secretary of state at the time and said you should send a lincoln to columbia. he is depressed and not doing well. this will be really good for him and daniel webster not entirely surprisingly -- by the time we get to the civil war lincoln put competent diplomat in place, steward, his secretary of state could be a vain and volatile person. he would sometimes tipped his hat to people he thought might recognize him. says something about steward. he was also competent and worldly. linco

i say you know what melville said about life? the trillion part does not set.he trillion part has not been said. i mean, there is so much out there. brenda and i were talking about this with this online archive. there are thousands and thousands of newspapers and books online that can really, really help you reconstruct a culture. there's so much more work to be done. maybe brenda you can comment on this. >> , not directly. but as david was speaking, i began to think of the question of context that really speaks to what david is talking about and the energies of context and how context just appeared. even our attempt to my two examples that may not be many name to anybody who's under 30 here, but for those of you who aren't like myself, the two contacts are from teaching experiences that i had. once when i was teaching elizabeth bishop. i love elizabeth bishop. i love her poetry. the name of the palm was at the filling station. i'm sorry? latter. the name of the palm is at the filling station. one intrepid student raised his or her hand and said to me, what is

henry melville, the last chapter about the hunt. i read about the kennedy book. i love to do that and get that rate. so your rep to. and then i write about being with the toughest job ever in my life, which is working with tip o'neill. i lucked into the biggest job in politics for me. the topic i fighting reagan come a great communicator. the great irony is that grew up liking reagan. without likes him. he of course is the gipper. speaking of catholic school, one thing they did in catholic school in third grade they prevent a movie projector to show you the all-american said they can begin the indoctrination. this is your orientation as a catholic. you got to know the importance of notre dame. it's all about the team. they're never changing the name, by the way. it's always going to be the fighting irish. some people say it makes us look bad. well, we do fight. i was going to call this book donnybrook. i thought two irish guys fighting wasn't very newsy. two guys want to fight? that's interesting. no it's not. they always fight. but they did fight a lot. i though