kathy currently is curator of manuscripts at the schlesinger library -- excuse me come at the schlesinger library at the history of women in america -- on the history of women. i better try that again. the schlesinger library on the history of women in america at harvard university. "king of the lobby," today's talk, this is the book. dream for which we will hear about today was most recently published two extant reviews by johns hopkins university press heard it as kathy's third and her third washington d.c. based centered book. her first and then the director of the center for the book, so i love to introduce through books. and this is a book off my own show that i've had for a number of years. her first book, b.: high society in washington d.c. after the civil war, was published in 1995 by the smithsonian institution press when she was assistant program director for the national historical publications and records commission. her second book, you ready for this, testament to union: civil war monuments in washington d.c., at. in 1998, published by johns hopkins university press when she

laura schlesinger. the internationally

laura schlesinger. the internationally syndicated radio host, best-selling author

in japan this since the paris schlesinger commission the japanese government has changed and come back to say please do take go way the sea launched cruise missile that the u.s. have been retaining even though the navy didn't want or we didn't feel we needed but we retained at the request of japan as a kind of reassurance and asked to have that removed. in support of a disarmament and other things and then the in nato as you know the foreign ministers of germany, the netherlands, norway, belgium and luxembourg as greg mention asked that nato now take on this issue of how to reconcile deterrence. not necessarily nuclear deterrence but deterrence with the agenda of seeking speak, so i think the environment is changing from the way it was in the cold war were in your everybody was worried about a mass soviets invasion through the coli gap or they wouldn't feel secure if we didn't have nuclear-weapons to deal with mass of some of the superiority to now the situation where it's reversed. the russians are going to be slowing the disarmament process because they are worried about nato superio

so when arthur schlesinger jr., i wrote all 42 test presidents i called arthur, i'd known him for years, arthur had written some ugly things about warren harding himself and i said i bet you don't know what to do with harding. he said john, i don't have a clue what to do with harding. i said i'm very interested. when i turned in the manuscript arthur called and said the academy in entirely different perspective on the warden harding. he said i didn't realize some of the information triet you are one of the few people know who actually looked at the papers that did survive the presidency. it is a mystique what we've done with harding. he asked me to cut -- i was little hard on some of his friends who were historians on some of the false material they put on harding. so i turned arthur 180 degrees but was a wonderful undertaking because he had fixed views of harding. the speech you're referring to was a brave act at the time harding did it. he went into the south. the audience was segregated. there was a lawyer fence between the whites and blacks and harding spent most of the speech looki

could you elaborate out that end of course that the schlesinger library are there other collections onomen's lobbyists? >> i wish there were. the question is about women lobbyists in this period. there is definitely women lobbying. they were known as lobby essays, which is a really hard word to get your mouse around. the lobbyists as were definitely on the scene. their mentioned courts of ink describing them. we know that there were real-life women who were lobbying for their own claims. these were known as many reporters as the poor things. these were the civil war widows, daughters, orphaned by the word, daughters were the only child left in the family whose time had been taken by the war or lifestyle. and they would come to washington themselves and they would sit outside members offices and try to get a moment of their time. they were rarely successful and they would often have a few resources they have left to do this. there were other women, sort of a middle tier of lobbyists is who would, as claimed pages. they would often be hired by neil lobbyists to present the case. mark twa

in japan, since the perry/schlesinger commission says do take away the sea launch cruise missile that the u.s. had been retaining even though the navy didn't want it or we didn't feel we needed it. but we retained it at the request of the japan as kind of a reassurance. the japanese government asked to have it removed in support of disarmament and other things. and then in nato as you know, the foreign ministers of germany, the netherlands, norway, belgium and luxembourg, as greg mentioned, asked that nato now take on this issue of how to reconcile deterrence not necessarily deterrence but with the agenda of seeking nonproliferation and disarmament. i think the environment is changing from the way it was in the cold war. wherein europe was everybody was worried about a massive soviet invasion where the allies wouldn't feel secure if we didn't have tactical nuclear weapons right there to deal with massive war subpact superiority to now the situation where it's reversed. the russians are going to be slowing the disarmament process 'cause they're worried about nato's superiority against

there's a book coming out right now by arthur schlesinger, jr.'s oral history of jackie kennedy which he did for the kennedy library but it's so long, voluminous and personal because she trusted him to talk, that it's becoming a book in its own right. i wrote a book called "the boys of pointe du hoc," where it was long interviews, almost biographies of all these guys because i was taking them. the point is they started forming books, these oral histories. >> i'm going to show you some videotape, something that you participated in in 2009. this is -- will be painful but it -- i want to do it for a couple reasons. i think you know what i'm talking about here. this is about a minute and 11 seconds. let's run it. >> stone, for the last couple of years worked for me at rice university in houston and he was my dartmouth and yale combined. he would -- got so engaged in history and current events that he was literally a -- kind of ablaze about life. he enjoyed books and learning. together we really discovered birds for the first time. we were doing resear

so when arthur schlesinger jr. started the series on which i wrote one of the series of 42 past presidents, i called arthur. known him for years. arthur had written some rather ugly things about harding himself, and i said, art, i bet you don't know what to do with harding. he said, john, i don't have a clue what to do with harding. and he said, are you interested? i said, i am very interested. when i turned in my manuscript, arthur called and said you have begin me an entirely different perspective on warren harding. he said, i didn't realize some of the information you had. you're one of the few people i know who ever actually looked at the papers that did survive his presidency. i think it's a mistake that we have done with harding, he asked me to cut just a very few -- i was a little hard on some of his friends who were historians, on some of the false material they'd put out on harding. so it was -- i turned arthur 180 degrees it was just a wonderful undertaking because he had had these fixed views of harding.

. >> actually, secretary schlesinger, the first secretary of d.o.e. had a wonderful insight in terms of the roadmap our government has set for us. >> that was way back in the 1970's. >> no -- but many years later he looked back and said our energy policy in this country swings between complacency and panic. it's never been consistent and we've never looked at energy and environmental policy as inextricably linked. we've actually in the house and in the senate, it's worked in different committees, it needs to come together and we need a comprehensive energy and environmental roadmap or rules or whoever -- or however you want to describe it because we're going to continue to do this when the price of oil is $140 we'll do one thing and when the price of oil is $40 we'll swing back to complacency. >> i'd like to add to what jim just said, this thought, an an economist i would be remiss when i said prices don't matter but they do. and we need a persistent signal and grow steadily over time and what we want the price to help provide the signal and motivate

there is a boat coming out by arthur schlesinger jr.'s book about kennedy. it is becoming a book in its own right. i wrote a book that was a long it your view about all of these guys. they started forming buds of oil heat -- oral history. >> this will be painful, but i want to do it for a couple of reasons. i think you know what i am talking about. this is about one in 11 seconds. >> for the last couple of years, he worked for me at rice university in houston. he was my dartmouth and yale combined. he got so engaged in history and current events that he was literally ablaze about life. he enjoyed books and learning and together, we discovered birds for the first time. we were doing research on the audubon society 100 years ago and that very minute mind that he had, we would walk from the university and look at the animals because we needed to understand it for the work that we were doing. we went to the presidential campaign together. i tried to be a historian and he would constantly where his obama t-shirt and a wrap me out to everybody. >> that was at the

when arthur schlesinger jr.tarted a series in which i wrote a book on all 42 past presidents i called arthur, had known him for years. he had written some ugly things about warren harding himself and i said i'd bet you don't know what to do with warren harding and don't have a clue what to do with him and he said are you interested? i said i am. when i returned in my manuscript arthur called and he said you have given me an entirely different perspective on warren harding. he said i didn't realize some of the information you had. you are one of the few people who look at the papers that survived his presidency. it is an mistake we have done with warren harding. he asked me -- i was a little hard on some of his friends who are historians on some of the false material they put out on warren harding. i turned arthur 180 degrees which was a wonderful undertaking because he had these fixed views of warren harding. the speech you are referring to was a really brave act. he went into the south. the audience was segrega

as secretary gates himself has said and as the perry/schlesinger commission recommended, we're goingo have to test our weapons unless we develop a new modernization program. and we are not talking about developing new weapons, bunker-busters or anything of that sort. but we are talking about making sure that these weapons that were never designed to last for 20 or 30 or 40 years can be extended. that their lifetime can be extended and that they will both be secure and safe and reliable in that... when we intend them to go off they'll, in fact, do that. >> lehrer: senator kyl pick up on the earlier statement that you think you were thrown a curve on missile defense. what do you mean? >> well, we were told repeatedly that the preamble would say there's a connection between missile defenses and strategic offensive weapons and that is true, and that that would be it in the treaty. but it turns out that there is another section that actually defines several terms relating to missile defense, including missile defense launchers and says specifically that we can not use any of the offensive

arthur schlesinger gave the keynote address. i was there at that occasion. and so i think nelson then became vice president of the united states. so he left new york. louis kahn died, as you pointed out. >> rose: in '74 in penn station. >> and the city of new york essentially went bankrupt. the lincoln memorial was dedicateed in 1922 and the jefferson memorial was only dedicateed in 1943. >> rose: so it takes a while. >> rose: take a look. this is our first rendering we will show you. this is a computer rendering of what it will look like. not what it looks like now. >> right. but the u.n. is right there which roosevelt was the founder of. looks out to the ocean. it will be to the east river what the statue of liberty is to the west harbor. >> next one is a close up aerial view of the park. wow. >> rose: 150 little leaf linden trees have formed the double lei coming together in that magnificent room. in july you'll see the granite arriving for the room. six foot by six foot by 12-foot blocks of granite. >> rose: coming from... >> north carolina. >> rose: all

she's the winner of the 2009 arthur schlesinger, jr., award for the historical distinguished writing. she's written many books. her new book "the relentless revolution: the history of capitalism." please welcome joyce appleby. [applause] >> my narrative in the rerentless revolution ends in 2009. a five century trajectory that has transformed our planet and now troubles the heavens. i explore the benchmarks of capitalism's descent looking how the system transformed the material world while churning up practices and beliefs and ideals that had long prevailed within the cocoon of custom. i define capitalism as a set of economic practices that generate wealth through competing individual initiatives using private resources to enhance productivity and earn profits through market exchanges. sounds pretty ordinary. but every element in that definition challenged the beliefs and institutional arrangements of traditional society. so in order for capitalism to go from a few capitalist practices to an ism involved the protracted struggle with the defenders of the status quo. capitalism's roots a

james schlesinger and dr. william perry, two of the veteran arms control experts who came to the foreign relations committee and say they support the strategic arms reduction treaty with russia. mr. president, i was in russia a couple of weeks ago and had an opportunity to tour a number of sites in russia that we are actually funding here from the united states on the global threat initiative, a reduction in the global threats, in a partnership we have with russia in a number of areas including the nunn-lugar law, the nunn-lugar program. and i have long supported the cooperative threat reduction called nunn-lugar named after two of my colleagues, senator sam nunn and senator richard lugar. in the early 1990's they wrote legislation to work with the russians and other former soviet states to deactivate nuclear weapons and destroy delivery systems. mr. president, i wanted to -- to show a couple of photographs and, if i might by consent, show something i had in my desk drawer for some long while in the senate. an

richard reid's week is superb, ted sorenson and arthur schlesinger, but there's some new material, and also i think my generation should come to terms with why he remains an icon and whether it's fair. does the kennedy presidency have lessons that are useful today? i hope to answer that question. >> host: and tim naftali mentioned richard reeves who will be participating in the first panel we cover today. his most recent book, "daring young men: the heroism and triumph of the berlin air lift." next caller, please go ahead with your question. >> caller: hello, america. i have a brief question regarding the mckinley administration and subsequent roosevelt administration. i have, you know, been a scholar of presidential history, but i do not -- by no means do i consider myself a presidential historian. as a recent government and international politics major, i have a great interest in the office of the presidency, and my question was relating to president mckinley's final inaugural address in which he seemed to have solved the manufacturing, labor and industrial issues that we were having

if you think of people in the past, arthur schlesinger, henry steele commager, you know, if you lookedmes" bestseller list 40 years ago you would have found distinguished academics who were interested in reaching what used to be called the general educated reader. i think we live in a niche society. certainly academics, i think, have become ever more specialized. and the interesting thing is who are we reading? we're reading david mccullough. you know, we read stephen ambrose, doris kearns goodwin, doug brinkley, and there are some academics out there who are writing for a general audience. people like h.w. brands and others. but clearly the trend has been toward specialization. and it's -- mr. lowell, the president of harvard early in the 20th century who was a humanist and a political scientist, back in the day when political scientists talked about politics, said, "the graduate student who came to harvard, the mythical graduate student who arrived to study the left hind leg of the paleozoic cockroach," so academic specialization was a problem a century ago. it's become, i think even