. >> we've got joining us michael beschloss, the great american historian. i remember the first picture like this is when sam rayburn passed together and they all got together. this one will be in color. >> that's exactly right. places like roosevelt's funeral in 1962, and if you were a martian who knew nothing about america and you saw this scene, you'd realize that this is really the country that the founders wanted, where you had people duke it out all day over policies as many of these people on the stage do and did, but at the end of the day they all come together. >> i think it's also a testament to our healthier life expectancies these days. how often, mikeal, and you probably know this by heart, how often have we had five? is that common or not? >> that is very rare and a creation of recent times. although one of the longest lived presidents oddly enough was john adams. >> here's the dedication. >> let us pray. we have gathered here today, oh, god, to offer thanks to the life and legacy of president and mrs. george w. bush. we thank you for their dis

brands from the university of texas at austin and "newshour" regular michael beschloss. michael, let me start with you and with a general question. what's the purpose of these libraries? how much do they help shape people's views of former presidents? >> well, the muss seem part of the library is basically, and this is true of most of these libraries, an effort to give you the president's point of view on his own presidency, and that of his partisans. so people come to see those museum, it's stimulating. they learn a lot about the presidency. but i think they all accept it is like walking into the president's own memoir. the part exciting to us historians is the archives, letters, documents, national security stuff is opened as time goes on, that's what really moves us to reconsider a president. >> brown: ellen fitzpatrick in the specific case of george w. bush, how fixed do you think is his legacy and what, what will people be looking at in terms of him when they look at this library? >> i think that his legacy is actually very fluid. and it's poignant that this dedicat

let me go to michael beschloss, that is a charming scene. clinton. what did you make of that, michael? >> president obama talking to barbara bush? >> yeah. were you watching that? >> i sure was. and i agree with you totally, you know, these moments are the ones that these ceremonies are usually remembered for. not for the speeches. and you know, you were talking about the impact that these presidential libraries have on history. you're absolutely right. george bush says it's going to take 50 years, which i think is probably right, before historians begin to agree on him. and the library begins to start that process. because the president moves from politics into history. but it's not the ceremony, it's not the exhibits, but documents and sources begin to open so that people can see a president in a different way. and if i might say, if there's one thing i think the bush people are probably hoping for, from scholars, maybe a half century from now, it would probably be that when they see that kind of stuff that george w. bush was seeing behind

. >> nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss joins me and joined by wayne slater senior political "the dallas morning news" and author of "bush's brain." michael, let me start with you. we saw what some of the inside of that museum looks for, the bullhorn and iconic image after 9/11. >> right. how much of this library and any library is about history, and how much is about bunnishing an image in. >> it's usually the two side by side, and people who were in the presidential library business basically say that for about the first 30 or 40 years after the library opens, it's the period during which the family and the entourage are very much involved so they tend to want to see things that are favorable to the president, but when they are less involved or when they pass, that's when a loibry gets to be a lot more two-sided. for instance, the truman library, they refer to themselves as one of the early post-presidential family libraries. >> and it was interesting when i saw in your column that in the library there's a statue of the president's dog barney and miss beazley but limited re

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