ms. mirrer: good evening and welcome to the new york historical society. i'm louise mirrer, president and ceo, and i am thrilled to see you in our beautiful auditorium this evening. tonight's program, women in the white house, is part of our bernard and irene schwartz distinguished speaker series. i would like to thank mr. schwartz for his support that has allowed us to bring many fine historians and writers to this stage. [applause] ms. mirrer: i would also like to thank and recognize members of the chairman's council in the audience and thank them for their generosity and all they do on our institution's behalf, and of course, my great and talented colleague, vice president for public programs, dale gregory. [applause] ms. mirrer: tonight's program is presented in collaboration with our brand-new center for women's history, and we are grateful to our partners at hogan lovells, who are the corporate sponsor for our women's history programming at new york historical. tonight's program last about an hour, and it will include a question and answer session. y

ms. mirrer: good evening and welcome to the new york historical society.'m louise mirrer, president and ceo, and i am thrilled to see you in our beautiful auditorium this evening. tonight's program, women in the white house, is part of our bernard and irene schwartz distinguished speaker series. i would like to thank mr. schwartz for his support that has allowed us to bring many fine historians and writers to this stage.

ms. mirrer: tonight's program is presented in collaboration with our brand-new center for women's history, and we are grateful to ,ur partners at token levels who are the corporate sponsor for our women's history programming at new york historical. tonight's program last about an hour, and it will include a question and answer session. you should have received a no card when you entered the auditorium this evening -- received a note card when you entered, but colleagues are still going up and down the aisles if you have not received one. you will have an opportunity to write a question on the note card. they will be collected later on and used for the q&a session. following the program, there will be a formal book signing, and copies of our speakers' books are available in our ny history store. we are pleased indeed to welcome back to the new york historical society carol berkin. she is presidential professor of history america at the baruch college and the graduate center of the city university of new york. she has appeared in numerous television documentaries, including the pbs special