please thank rick brookhiser. [applause] >> over the past 20 years, but to be discovered thousands of author events and book festivals triggers a portion of a recent program. >> you know, this is where i also say a lot of people have become very dispirited. people talk about how they're feeling and i want to remind us that the beautiful design that was created many years ago that is our democracy anticipated these very moment. and we created checks and balances in our system and the design of our democracy is being tested right now. think about a tabletop. it stands on four legs. three independent coequal branches of government in a free and independent press. and what is happening -- [applause] and what is happening is kind of like a house coming in now, and a natural disaster have been in the shingles are falling off that the house is standing. think about it this way. when the executive branch's doing things like the muslim day and for trans-in the military for daca, of course they're saying you've gone too far

but something i'm completely confident in his every time we publish something by rick brookhiser we think you something will appear when it comes to -- who had a great revival of history writing and biography in this country and rick was the front runner with his wonderful book about george washington written about 20 years ago or so now. i thought we would dig in a little bit about marshall. then maybe talk a little bit about your craft and to questions which people will write on the note cards. can you tell us a little bit more about the sources of marshall's ambition for the court. was this a product of a long-term view of what goal we should have in the system or is it some of kind of a ambition dynamic where anyone is naturally going to want to increase the standing and power and prestige of their branch or department of government. >> will, certainly, there was that element and marshall comes the court after a decade of frenzy politics, 1790s was our first decade of partisan politics and because it was all brand-new it was really quite mad. we wring our hands over politics now but i