books include gettysburg, fateful lightning and robert e lee: a life. our biography of the civil war general who commanded the army innorthern virginia . >> allen guelzo, let's begin our conversation with your latest book. robert e lee: a life. who was he before the civil war, what was hisreputation ? >> robert e lee was best known for some things. one n?was the fact that he was the son of a famous revolutionary war hero and that was the famed cavalry commander white horse harry lee. the one who served under washington and who coined fthat wonderful encomium of washington . first in war, first in peace. that was like horse harry. the other thing people would have known robert e lee four would have been his service in the mexican war and especially on the staff of winfield scott. scott's fabulous amphibious invasion, the beginning of veracruz and moving inland to mexico city. lee served in many respects as scott's eyes and ears, performing over and over again feet of reconnaissance for scott, so much so afterwards scott made the confession that for all th

e. lee. scott never forgot the service that robert e. lee had tended in theot german -- mexico worn in e years between that war and the civil war scott developed something of the following for robert lee. he assists in promoting members of the lee family and one of lee's son gets a commission of u.s. army largely because of winfield scott's rankings. so there's a very close relationship. nothing more cruelly than when we came to visit him in mid-april of 1861 to tell him that he was going to turn down the offer of command and that he would resign his commission in the united states army. it was said that winfield scott took to his sofa weeping saying i never want to hear their name of robert e. lee again. that is somewhat apocryphal but it does give you a sense first of all the relationship to china to and secondly the disappointment that scott experienced when we decided in fact not to take up the command that under the circumstances got me appointed to exercise himself. >> host: allen guelzo was robert e. lee well-known and the general

that was robert e lee. scott never forgot the service that robert e lee had got during mexican war and the years between that war and the civil war, scott develops something of a surrogate father figure to robert lee. he assists in promoting members of the lee family, one of lee's sons really gets a commission in the u.s. army largely because winfield scott arranges it. he had a close relationship this way but nothing, nothing more cruelly disappointed for scott than when lee came to visit him in april of 1861 to tell him that he was going to turn down the offer of command and that he would resign his commission in the united states army. it was said that winfield scott took to his sofa weeping saying, i never want to hear the name of robert e lee again, well, that probably is somewhat but does give you a sense first of all the relationship between the two but secondly the disappointment that scott experienced when lee decided in fact, not to take up the command but in other circumstances scott might have wa

absolute and utter doom and end of the army in northern virginia can be seen in the reaction of robert e. lee. if anybody knows that the army of virginia was in trouble, lee would be the man. and what lee does to act in utter disper ration as the only reenforcements he could find start coming, which happens to be the texas brigade. arrives. lee places himself in front of this brigade and starts to lead them in an infantry attack. lee is going to lead on horseback and infantry. haven't we seen a high-ranking confederate general do that before? yes, we have. and that was the end of albert sidney johnston. and now lee is going to do that and i think what that tells me is that lee recognized that this is it. this -- he's practically doomed at this point. and so this is an act of utter desperation. what happens is the texans, the soldiers of the texas brigade, force lee to turn back. they're shouting lee to the rear, lee to the rear. and it's a couple of lee to the rear incidents that occur during this campaign. they grab the reins of lee's horse turn traveler's head and make lee go to the rear. a

robert e. lee said, lee said we have got to stop grant before he gets to the james river. there's the james river. grant said if he gets to the james river it will be a siege and then only a matter of time. by the time grant got to the james river in june of 1864, it was a matter of time for the confederacy, although a lot more time than union voters would have wished. okay. we are out of time. thank you for your attention, and i will see you all on wednesday. >>> first ladies, in their own words. our eight-part series looking at the role of the first lady, their time in the white house, and the issues important to them. >> it was a great advantage to know what it was like to work in schools, because education is such an important issue. >> i'm very much the kind of person who believes you should say what you mean and mean what you say and take the consequences. >> and c-span's online video library will feature first ladies, nancy reagan, hillary clinton, laura bush, michelle obama and melania trump. watch "first ladies: in their own words" saturdays at 2:00 p.m. eastern o

and as robert e lee had said about actually when the armies were up here. lee said we've got to stop grant before he gets to the james river. there's the james river. grant said if he gets to the james river, it's going to be a siege and then it will only be a matter of time. and from the time grant got to the james river. in mid-june of 18 for it was a matter of time for the confederacy although a lot more time than union voters would have wished. okay, we are out of time. so thank you for your attention and i'll see y'all on wednesday. all right. so without further ado i will very happily introduce our author this evening beau. breslin is the joseph c. palom mountain junior chair in government and the former dean of the faculty vice president for academic affairs at skidmore college up in saratoga springs, new york. he holds a phd in constitutional thoughts from the university of pennsylvania. he is the author of the communitarian constitution. from words to worlds exploring constitutional functionality which was part of the john hopkins series in constitu

and as robert e lee had said about actually when the armies were up here. lee said we've got to stop grant before he gets to the james river. there's the james river. grant said if he gets to the james river, it's going to be a siege and then it will only be a matter of time. and from the time grant got to the james river. in mid-june of 18 for it was a matter of time for the confederacy although a lot more time than union voters would have wished. okay, we are out of time. so thank you for your attention and i'll see y'all on wednesday. we have already talked about big events in our survey of american history and obviously big events are very important. we have started on one and our last class period that we met. i think last friday we dealt

conditions of people's lives and that's not to say that taking down at 60 foot tall statue of robert e, lee or making juneteenth a federal holiday is going to suddenly erase the racial wealth gap, but it does they are things that help us understand the sort of ecosystem of ideas and stories and narratives that shape american history and help us more effectively understand the way that certain communities have been disproportionately harmed through their history. so i began in new orleans and i was thinking about my home town i thinking about having grew up growing up in a place. that was once the busiest slave market in the country and realizing that i didn't understand the history of this city in any way that was commensurate with the impact that it had on my city on my state or my country. and so i kind of began looking around and thinking about what my old professor walter johnson a historian at harvard said he said in his book so by soul about the history of the slave trade in new orleans, he's like the whole is memorial to slavery? it's in the roads and slave people paved. it's in the

confederate statues come down here in new orleans so statues of pgt beauregard jefferson davis robert e lee and i was watching these statues come down and i was thinking about what it meant that i grew up in a majority black city in which there were more homages to in flavors than they were to enslave people. what are the implications that what does it mean that to get to school? i had to go down robbery boulevard to get the grocery store. i had to go down jefferson davis parkway. my middle school was named after a leader of the confederacy that my parents still live on a street today named after someone who owned over 150 enslaved people because the thing is we know that symbols and names and iconography aren't just symbols. they're reflective of the stories that people tell and those stories shape the narratives that communities carry and those narrative shape public policy and public policy shapes. the material conditions of people's lives and that's not to say that taking down a 60 foot tall statue of robert e. lee is gonna suddenly erase the racial wealth gap, but it dells does help us

maybe i was wrong about free-trade maybe i was wrong about affirmative-action the robert e. leetatue. >> . >> and it stems from that which is every moment of his life like leonardo da vinci he would try and stop so i saw a wonderful rainstorm today and it helped him to figure out they move up the coast. that curiosity and then franklin's notebooks and albert einstein there is the same question which is why is the sky blue? but when we are children we may ask why? we lose that curiosity about the everyday wonders of nature and they never outgrow their wonder years. >> never cease to amaze me. thank you for inviting me to your beautiful city. [applause]

i was a senior then at robert e lee high school in midland, texas, and i was sitting in a classroom when we learned that the president had been killed. for the people of new york and to tell the press that we were postponing the senate education committee briefing. senator greg insisted that we were merely postponing it that we would reschedule because we wouldn't let the terrorist prevail. at that moment larry mcquillan from usa today. ask a question that was on the minds of many americans. he asked. what do you say to the childre'e said in nearly every interview and i'll say i'm sad and they'll nod their heads and say that they're sad, too. where a different country than we were on september 10th in ways that the terrorist could not have imagined or intended. we'll go back to our routines as we always do but we'll do so with a stronger sense of life and liberty. americans are willing to fight and die for our freedoms, but more importantly we're willing to live for them. we'll move on with our lives, but we won't forget the images and the events the photos and the front pages of the pas

wrong about free trade and consensus and so maybe i was wrong about affirmative action about the robert e. leeaturday maybe we have to say i got some of these things wrong. >> will franklin was curious. >> got stems from that which is every moment of his life, leonardo da vinci, he would see something and he was often try to find out more about it. >> he saw wonderful rice women he studied the windows when rainstorms it held in figure out the storms member of the coast in a certain way the curiosity about the simplest things, in been franklin notebooks and they are not hers notebooks and albert einstein is the same question he asked, which is why this is sky blue rated all of us he was going every day or two in city but when we are children we me as white as a blue and we lose that curiosity about the everyday wonders of nature this with truly creative people'ser family never outgrow their winter years. >> walter, you never cease to amaze me. >> had same to you back at you. >> will thank you for inviting me to your beautiful city. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. >> give it up for author is

say hey, maybe i was wrong about free trade and the davos concerts or affirmative action or the robert e lee otstatue and we have to say i got some things wrong. >> franklin was a deeply curious person. >> that stems from that which is every moment of his life like leonardo da vinci he would see something and stop and try to find out more about it. i saw a wonderful rainstorm today. he studied how the wind is going in rainstorms and it helped him figure out how the storms went to the coast a certain way. that curiosity about the symbol strengths. in ben franklin's notebooks leonardo's notebooks and albert einstein's notebooks it's the same question they ask witches why is the sky blue? all of us see a blue sky every day or two. but when where children we may ask why is it blue? we lose that curiosity about the every day wonders of nature and that's what the truly creative people is is they never outgrow their wonder years . >> walter isaacson, you never cease to amaze me. >> same back at you darren. >> thank you walter for inviting me. [applause] >> give it up for walter isaacson. >> thank y

so maybe i was wrong about affirmative action, or maybe i was wrong about the robert e lee statue and we have to sometimes say hey, i got some of these things wrong. well franklin was a deeply curious. person and that stems from that which is every moment of his life like leonardo da vinci would see something and stop and try to find out more about it. i saw the wonderful rainstorm today. he studied how the winds going rain storms and it helped them figure out that storms move up the coast and they certain way. that curiosity about the simplest things in ben franklin's notebooks in leonardo's notebooks in an albert einstein notebooks. there's the same question that they asked which is why is the sky blue? all of us see a blue sky every day or two here in the city. but when we're children, we may ask why is it blue? we lose that curiosity about the everyday wonders of nature and that's what the truly creative people is is they never outgrow their wonder years? well walter isaacson, you never cease to amaze and saying back at you darren. so thank you walter for inviting me to your beaut

i was a senior then at robert e. lee high school in texas, and i was sitting in a classroom when we learned the president had been killed. i remember it felt like a blanket had been thrown over our school. the horror was so sudden and so unimaginable. i went home for lunch that day and i remember my parents' sadness. like most american families, we spent the next few days watching television. i remember it as a terrible blow, almost too much to bear. a sudden reminder at a very young age at how fragile life truly is. now we've experienced another one of those days in our national life, a day so horrifying it will be permanently seared in the hearts and memories of those that witnessed us. i was on my way to meet with senator ted kennedy when a secret service agent told me a plane had just hit the world trade center. we thought it was an accident at first but as we approached capitol hill the secret service said another plane had hit the second tower. we knew then that it was terrorism. i remember thinking that nothing wo

books include gettysburg, fateful lightning and robert e lee: a life. our biography of the civil war general who commanded the army innorthern virginia . >> allen guelzo, let's begin our conversation with your latest book. robert e lee: a life. who was he before the civil war, what was hisreputation ? >> robt

monies should go up are sort of just replacing the person on the horse.fe all right, let's take robert e. lee the horse and put on somebody else that's a better model.l. but i think, as you put it, t' nobody is perfect. even if you found a perfect ea person, that person wouldn't en represent every single person who might look at them. so i think it's time to think h creatively about monuments, rather than struggling to keep toel models that haven't really worked for us. >> and i should ask our host here, how much more time do we have? i know that we're running up against the end here. can i ask one more question? let me see if there's anything else -- e. >> we have some time, so no rush.f >> so let me ask you at least one more question here. you don't gloss over complicated cases where you have statues of columbus where italian americant draw a lot of pride. native americans see him as a catalyst for genocide. y and you talk about the minneapolis columbus statues. how do you negotiate these discussions where different ps groups -- marginalized groups. we clearly don't want to honor racists.t

i was a senior then at robert e lee high school in midland, texas, and i was sitting in a classroom when we learned that the president had been killed. i remember feeling as if a blanket had been thrown over our school suffocating all the usual sounds of chair scrapings and classroom chatter. people cried the horror was so sudden and so unimaginable. i went home for lunch that day and i remember my parents sadness and like most american families. we spent the next few days watching television. i remember it as a terrible blow almost too much to bear. a sudden reminder at a very young age of how fragile life truly is. now we've experienced another one of those days in our national life a day. so horrifying that it'll be permanently seared in the hearts and memories of of all of us who witnessed it. i was on my way to meet with senator ted kennedy. when a secret service agent told me that a plane had just hit the world trade center. we thought it was an accident at first, but as we approached capital hill the secret service said that another plane had hit this hit the second tower. we knew

all right, let's take robert e. lee off the horse and put on somebody else that's a better model. i think as you put it, th nobody is perfect. even if you found a perfect ha person, that person wouldn't represent every single person who might look at them.or i i so i think it's time to think creatively about monuments, rather than struggling to keep i two models. that really hasn't worked.ny >> and i should ask our host here, how much more time do we t have? i know that we're running up against the end here. can i ask one more question? let me see if there's anything else -- >> we have some time, so no rush. >> so let me ask you at least y one more question here.li you don't gloss over complicated cases where you have statues of columbus where italian americans draw a lot of pride. native americans see him as a catalyst for genocide. and you talk about the mu minneapolis columbus statues.d how do you negotiate these s discussions where different groups -- marginalized groups. we clearly don't want to honor racists' given immigrant groups that may have been at one point at loggerhe

and the famous duel between ulysses s grant and robert e lee. the big showdown between in each case the best general that each side had i

moneys should go up are sort of just replacing the person on the horse like all right, let's take robert e lee off the horse and put on somebody else. that's a better model, but i think as you quoted that nobody's perfect. you can't any even if you found a perfect person that person wouldn't represent at every single person who might look at them. so i think it's time to think creatively about monuments rather than struggling to keep to a model that really hasn't worked for us and i should ask our host here. how much more time do we have? i know that they were running up against the the end here. can i ask one more question? let me see if there's anything else from we have some time so no, right. so let me ask you this one more question here. i mean you don't gloss over this sort of complicated cases where you have let's say statues of columbus in which italian americans draw a lot of pride, but native americans sort of see him as a catalyst for genocide and you talk about the minneapolis columbus statutes an example that how do you negotiate these discussions where we're different groups? i m

and the famous duel between ulysses s grant and robert e lee. the big showdown between in each case the best general that each side had i think this campaign has been more misunderstood and misinterpreted than maybe any other campaign in the civil war. i think the

and the famous duel between ulysses s grant and robert e lee. the big showdown between in each case the best general that each side had i think this campaign has been more misunderstood and misinterpreted than maybe any other campaign in the civil war. i think the reason reason is because of expectations.

he defended his former antagonist robert e. lee. when johnson asked grant, when can these men be tried? grant replied, never, not unless they break their parole. he went so far as to tell his staff that i will not stay in the army if they break the pledges that i made. to grant his word was more important than any office. thanks to his principled stand, johnson backed down and our nation avoided cycles of fruitless recrimination. at the same time grant also opposed johnson's attempts to weaken reconstruction and lee -- leave newly free slaves exposed to -- grant wanted neither excessive punishment or leanians. he wanted justice -- leanance. grant acquiesced to popular demand and ran for president in 1868 on the simple platform, let us have peace. although his administration was imperfect, he fought to make good on his promise. he continued his work to bring the south back into the union, restoring the rights of citizenship to 150,000 former rebels and bringing robert e. lee to the white house as a symbol of reconciliation. grant was

robert e. lee's army is not that far away from philly. so the question is do you hold the the constitutional convention in philadelphia? and what i did is super interesting. i reached out to a great civil war historian who's now a princeton a guy named alan wells though. everybody should read his book about gettysburg. he was a when i reached out to him. he was at the time at gettysburg college, but now he's at princeton and i said, you know alan where here's my scenario where might they have held the constitutional convention in 1863 assuming it went on and i said, would it be new york or boston or something like that? and he's he wrote me back and he said bow they probably would have considered the framers probably in the 1863 probably would have considered columbus, ohio and i said hold on this ohio really and he said yeah, don't forget couple things one is they want to give a nod to those western states west of the appalachian to ohio is the third largest state by population. they probably would have given some thought to to columbus,

. >> host: allen guelzo let's begin with your latest book, robert e lee a life, who was he before the civil war, what was his reputation? >> guest: he was best known for two things, son of a famous revolutionary war hero and that was the famed cavalry commander light horse harry lee, the one who served under washington and in fact,