. >> up next on the presidency, historians jon meacham, annette gordon reid and ron chernow talk about the process of writing a presidential biography. they've written about george washington, andrew jackson, ulysses s. grant, franklin roosevelt and george h.w. bush. this was part of a centennial symposium hosted by the george w. bush presidential center. it's just over an hour. >> thank you. okay, that's enough. laura and i want to welcome you, ken and his wife julie who's the new president of the boosh center and all of us who work here are thrilled you're here. i must confess i've got mixed emotions. one i'm thrilled to be a part of this, two i'm very disappointed that you're not here to give me the pulitzer for the book i wrote. [ laughter ] by the way, every good organization needs a pulitzer prize recipient on their staff. and here at the bush center we have one in bill mckenzie and we're fortunate that bill is a part of our team. [ applause ] thank you very much, kevin, for convincing us to join you in hosting this. it's very exciting for the bush center that you're here and all

ron chernow is one of the most distinguished commentators on history today. in 2009 his work with lin-manuel miranda on the pulitzer prize winning broadway musical hamilton was inspired by his biography of alexander hamilton. annette gordon-reed is the professor of legal history at harvard law school. she won the pulitzer prize in history in 2009 for the hemingses of monticello, an american family. her forthcoming book on thomas jefferson, we'll look forward to that. jon meacham is a presidential historian and executive vice president at random house. his book american lion, andrew jackson in the white house, won the prize in 2009. he just wrote a book on george herbert walker bush. our moderator is the director of the lbj presidential library in austin. he's an analyst for abc news on matters relating to politics in the presidency. thanks to each of you in attendance for making this a very special evening. please welcome our panelists. [applause] mark: it is a pleasure to moderate this panel. we will start with presidential icons like washington and jefferso

here is ron chernow. >> i know you are expecting me to stand appear and start snapping my fingers and breaking into ron. i am afraid i'm going to disappoint you. what you. what i have to say is one side of me is dying to do exactly that. i'm going to do it. [inaudible] know i'm not going there. [applause]. he grabbed to be a scholar, somebody save me. i've had this fantasy of going onto stage and i told him that i would like to go on and just to the opening number. they could then pull me off with a hook afterwards. for some mysterious reason they've decided not to draw on my unique theatrical talents. >> c-span: how hard was i to do? >> guest: i've never seen them laugh so hard. they were sitting in front of the podium. when he got up on the stage and receive the word he said i can't believe it they have ron churn out wrapping on c-span. but that has been a fantasy of mind to go on for the opening number. spee2's before it's a to our 55 minute show. the. the music you can buy all of the music, how much of this can you do by memory? >> guest: i can do most of it. i know lots of differ

. >> c-span: ron chernow, thank you very much. >> guest: always a pleasure brian, thank you. >> for freer comments about this program, visit us at q and a.org. q&a programs are also available at c-span podcast. >> here's a look at our primetime schedule. starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, the american enterprise institute holds a discussion on the 20th anniversary of the 1996 well for law. at 830 eastern on c-span two, it is book to be with a look at to be with a look at what members of congress are reading this summer. on c-span three at eight p.m., it's american history to be with programs and events on congressional history. tonight, more about the 1996 welfare law and a look back at the congressional debate that led to a republican congress passed in the bill and president clinton signing it into law. will hear from panelists who discuss how changing the welfare system impacted poor americans and how the law changed existing welfare programs by creative work requirements and allowing states to have more control over welfare dollars. all of this tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c

ron chernow is one of the most distinguished commentators of history, politics, business and finance in america today. his book "washington a life," wonle pulitzer prize in biography in 2011. in 2012 the musical "hamilton." annette gordon reed, professor of history at harvard law school and faculty of arts and sciences at harvard university. we won the pulitzer prize in history in 2009 for the hemmings of monticello. we all look forward to "the history of imagination." jon meacham is a presidential historian, contributing editor at "times" and executive vice president and executive editor at random house. his book "american lion, andrew jackson in the white house," won the pulitzer prize in biography in 2009. most significant to this audience may be his just-published book "destiny in power, the american odyssey of george herbert walker bush." our moderator is the director of the lbj presidential library in u continue and author of four books on the presidency. he is an analyst for abc news on matters relating to our politics and the presidency and he's written for countless publicat

and i've decided that ron chernow is a great author, and i'm going to look for his books to continue to read. in fact, i have several of them that i haven't read and now am interested in doing so. this caught my attention because of the musical. the musical, "hamilton," is based upon this book and happened to see it sitting in a bookstore and interested to see what caught, in a sense, kind of today's culture, today's audience with the musical based upon the life of alexander hamilton, our first treasury secretary. and so this is, this is probably the one i enjoyed the most. unfortunately, it was the longest, the thickest, and it often turns out to be that way. i'm always complaining that the thickest books seem to be the best. >> booktv wants to know what you're reading this summer. tweet us your answer, @booktv, or you can post it on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. >> here's a preview of some of the books being published this fall. coming up in september, fox news host bill o'reilly along with martin du guard are releasing another volume in their killing series, this time lo

take place here in a little bit, and as a history buff, i'm thrilled that annette gordon reid, ron chernownd ron meacham are here to be interviewed by mark upterboro. at any rate, in order to get my book reconsidered, i thought i would sharone an anecdote with you. so i was tasked to -- it didn't require much tasking, by the way, to talk to vladimir putin about the necessities to have a free press in order for the society to be a wholesome and vibrant society. he had just suspended the independent press and this was in slovakia. i couldn't identify it during the debates. anyway -- [ laughter ] so i said, vladimir, really important that if you want to join those of us who realize the benefits of a free society that you have a vibrant press. and he looked at me and said, you're a hypocrite, you fired the famous newsman. kind of took me aback. i said, what the hell are you talking about, man? he said, you know what i'm talking about. you fired the newsman. is he talking about dan rather? he said, yeah. i said, well, you don't understand, vladimir, is that in our society, the press is ind t in