stephen douglas is not equivalent to an abolitionist in the south. i am not saying he would've had an easy time mending fences in the south, but i would take issue with the idea that there is no real difference between abraham lincoln and stephen douglas in terms of what degree of threat they posed to the slaveholding south. joan: i totally agree with you. i do. back to reading back in history what you know already happened. that is so powerful. i want to go back and fix things. i want to say we needed someone besides james buchanan as president in 1856. we needed someone not to make the dred scott decision. all of these things happened. hard in some ways to see how it could have turned out any differently. bob sprague from paley, pennsylvania. question for both of you. technology helped or hindered your research and writing on the american civil war? i think it has added a lot to it. it has made it much easier to search documents. newspapers -- slogging through newspapers was awful. do with newspapers now, and the body of newspaper evidence we have

almost as many as stephen douglas. lincoln went to try to find a printer.his was not easy because lincoln was not someone who was prominent at the time. with the help of somehow -- ohio republicans they brought the , book out in 1860. it was an enormous bestseller. it sold 50,000 copies. if you adjusted by population, it is the equivalent of a bookselling .5 million copies today. this book came out in time for lincoln to be helped to become the nominee of president. voters would write lincoln letters about this. when they asked him what he thought about this issue, he said look at my book. this book was essential to circulating his ideas and legitimizing him as candidate. when the first reviews came out they would say here is the book , from stephen douglas and abram lincoln. they could not even get his name right. the book played a huge role in lifting him to the white house. that is what led him -- this man visited lincoln after the presidency. lincoln said it was good to see you. he said it should be, after all, i am the one that helped you become presid

almost as many as stephen douglas. lincoln went to try to find a printer.his was not easy because lincoln was not a prominent figure, he was just someone who lost the race for senate. with the help of ohio republicans, they brought the book out in 1860. it was an enormous bestseller. it sold 50,000 copies. it is a big number any time, especially in 1860, it is a huge number. if you adjusted by population, it is the equivalent of a bookselling .5 million copies today. this book came out in time for lincoln to be helped to become the nominee of president. voters would write lincoln letters about this. when people would ask lincoln, what do you think about this issue? he would say, just look at my book. this book was essential to circulating his ideas and legitimizing him as candidate. when the first reviews came out, they would say here is the book from stephen douglas and abram lincoln. they could not even get his name right. people started to learn his name correctly and his ideas and it played a huge, overlooked role in lifting him to the white house. that

. >> with stephen douglas. my whole life was a parking lot with a boulder dedicated by teddy roosevelt. long-time resident said we can do better. we turned that over to green space, life-sized statue of lincoln and douglas in debate. >> to set the stage for people, 1994, c-span went to all the towns in illinois and asked them if the towns put on the debates, we'll bring the cameras and televise the debates in its entirety. how many of those did you play lincoln? >> two of seven. number two and number three. >> what preparation did you need to do for a three-hour debate televised live? >> the essential question that gnawed and still gnaws, who were lincoln, who were douglas and why? why was that so pivotal? and you've got to get right with lincoln, according to senator paul simon, and i've done my very best. >> is portraying lincoln a full full-time job for you? >> is now. >> and was it for most of those years that you did it? >> if things could be scheduled, and that was all word of mouth. marketing and such. t

stephen douglas, who by scholarly conjecture dropped the second s in his name because he did not want it to be like frederick douglass. that's never been proven. but it's an interesting story. douglass -- edrick david: douglass would have loved to claim that. harold: douglass becomes a subject in these debates. why don't we just talk about that for a minute. edna: they are debating throughout seven cities where they had not done joint speeches efore. hey are trying to win over the crowd, so they are giving their perspective on slavery, it's onnection and development of the country, and where the country is going. douglas is someone who was if not pro--slavery, but very much pro-south. very much anti-black. he made a point, consistently to say things that would get his audience to come to his side-by-side negative things about black people. so to talk about douglass in relation to an alleged relationship with lincoln -- the two had not met at the time. ut to suggest that they were friends, he brought those things up to get the audience to see lincoln as someone who was pro-black. and w

they would say here is the book from stephen douglas and abram lincoln.hey could not even get his name right. there was a huge role in lifting him to the white house. that is what led him -- lincoln aftered the presidency. lincoln said it was good to see you. he said it should be, after all, i am the one that helped you president. all that lincoln could do was smile. one of my favorite lincoln after he heard that the book would be published. he said this was the greatest complement i ever received, that somebody wants to publish my book. >> tell me about the concept for the book. craig: is the untold story of presidents and their books. one thing that is really fun and surprising is that this is a history that as long as american history itself. i talk about two different types of books, campaign books like lincolns and they use a book to help them run. did i docy books, what in the white house, what did my enemies say and what do i say? thatirst campaign book, comes from thomas jefferson. the first legacy book comes from john adams. this is a really deep

no one was more aware of this then stephen douglas himself. he declared he didn't fear lincoln in debating matters of substance but said there is one thing however in which i stand constantly in dread. when lincoln begins to tell a story, i begin to get apprehensive. every one of his stories seems like a whack on my back. that is exactly the effect of the allegories and anecdotes of which he is a master has upon me. nothing else disturbs me, but when he begins to tell a story, i feel i am about to be overmatched. in his face-to-face engagement with the public, lincoln had stories and jokes that would remind his heroes of his lowly origins, the backwoods in the prairie. it encouraged people to see him as a natural man, lacking artifice, able to farmers and engage with laborists on equal terms. his lifelong identification with self-identification with plain folk was aligned to his habit of self-deprecating behavior. there is far more means of securing a laugh than his odd looks. it was also a means of enlisting the audience on the side of the un

and then in the lincoln-douglas debates, stephen douglas, the sitting democratic senator who is running for a third term and ill advised of the allowed lincoln to challenge him for debates gave lincoln a , reputation. national reputation. -- a national reputation. stephen douglas, who by scholarly conjecture dropped the second 's' in his name because he did not want it to be like frederick douglass's. it has never been proven but it is an interesting story. david: douglass would have loved to claim that. douglass?ich david: frederick. harold douglass becomes a : subject in these debates. let's talk about that. edna: they are debating throughout seven cities in illinois. cities where they had not done joint speeches before. they are trying to win over the crowd, so they are giving their perspective on slavery. it's connection and development of the country, and where the country is going. so -- stephen a., someone who was pro-south, if not proslavery. very much anti-black. whenever he was throughout illinois he made a point, consistently to say things that , would get his audience to com

hearing his debates in 1858 with stephen douglas, he grew stronger in spirit and body over the course of the campaign in contrast to his opponent. he didn't possess the active ease of movement but had a gift for squeezing the most humor out of his material and building to the climax of a story. particularly fond of james ,ackett's rendition of falstaff he advised on how to deliver a line so if he heard the laugh he knew lincoln was there. later in life, lincoln would repeat with appreciative glee the description of a type of southwestern orator who mounted the rostrum, threw back his head, shined his eyes, opened his mouth and left the consequences to god. >> [laughter] richard: in sharp contrast, there was little in lincoln's own speeches that was not land and well -- planned and well calculated. his private conversations were rarely lacking in broader intent but designed to cover up and to fort. thwart. his humor at times led in crushing his opponents. more commonly and kindly when used as a means of exercise his common touch and the self-deprecation, humor could be a weapon of subt

stephen: do yo have you had ? yeahyeah, i've had him on a few times. i like his douglas plan. >> stephen: what's that?e. i hate to say it but i like bloomberg, i like the green initiative. >> stephen: that's prizing to me because bloomberg has gotten a lot of crittism from african-american activists and leaders because he was defending stop and frisk like up till the minute that he announced. >> yeah. >> stephen: and then he apologized for it. >> the best apology to me is changed behavior but the best apology in that case is the black agenda. if you marginalized people, create an initiative to empower and lift up black people and that's what i think the green initiative is. ( applause ) >> stephen: forgive my ignorance, but what is contained been the break agenda. >> he says he wants to create 100,000 new black-owned businesses, he wants to create a million new black homeowners, and he wants to invest like $70 billion over the next ten years to the most poor and disenfranchised communities. i think he's probably b.s.ing us because everybody's selling those dreams but we're in a time we have to buy the

douglas is there for us. here at the berlin stadium, i'm joined by stephen.to the gold—medal race, they had to be canada. they were quick and the first half. they were actually quite well up. that put them on the back foot. that's got set up for quite an exciting title this evening. do you feel they've been backed up a little bit? i think there was a little bit of that in the third quarter, but in the fourth, laura was struggling in herfinal the fourth, laura was struggling in her final turn. the fourth, laura was struggling in herfinal turn. she made a huge hit in the first turn and the final turn began to pay the price for that. that dropped a little bit as well, so, they would've felt that was their best ride, but the key point was getting the job done and getting into the finals. the americans will be the team to beat. they have been setting the title all the way through. they've had an incredible team. their lead —— very similar in the first round. she must be getting a little bit tired. we have an opportunity to perhaps get one of oui’ opportunity to pe

his son, the actor michael douglas, described him as a movie legend and a great humanitarian. now on bbc news it's hardtalk with stephenackur. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. britain is formally out of the european union but for how much longer will it be a united kingdom? the scottish national party says brexit reinforces the need for scotla nd brexit reinforces the need for scotland to forge an independent future inside the eu. but in the face of implacable opposition from prime minister boris johnson, face of implacable opposition from prime minister borisjohnson, how do they get there? my guest is the smp leader in the uk parliament, ian blackford. but for all their passion are the smp lacking something? -- smp. —— smp. —— -- smp. -- snp. —— smp. —— snp. welcome to hardtalk. it isa —— smp. —— snp. welcome to hardtalk. it is a pleasure to be here. would it be fairto it is a pleasure to be here. would it be fair to say that you and the snp see brexit as the moment of maximum opportunity for the independence movement? we certainly think that scotland should be independent in any event but brexit crystallises

douglas. the star made close to 100 films during a career which spanned six decades. he was 103 years old. ♪ titime now f for a check on the latest business news stories. stephenre. let's start with the move by china toto cut u.s. import tariffs. reportrter: this comes after t e u.s. s signed a phase one trade deal. the chinese side was s not explplicitly incncded but they d commit to buying $200 billion worth of more american goods and servrvices over the next twtwo years. this move will help facilitate chinesese companies to do that. de-escalating the trade war china said it would have to tariffs on hundreds of goodss by february 14. 17 productsts.t hawas the existing tariffs lved. this comes after three weeks after they signed a phase one trade agreement and reflex beijing's commitment to boooostr purchases of goods and s servics by $20200 billion. to halfon has pledged its s own tariffs o on chinese s down to 7.5%. despite these cononcessions, , h sides s are maintainining tarifn the majority of their trade worth hundreds of billions of dollars.s. beijing's tariff reduction comes at a time when the chinese economy is struggling to cope with the impact of t

joined by stephen hadley, former national security usip's and chairman of board as well as michelle michee flournoy. we expected to have douglas lute was forced to cancel. before we invite our panel to is my pleasure to fee,duce ambassador molly december ambassador in longand has served in a and distinguished service career. she's just back from doha and us a few remarks to set the scene that follows. you. [applause] good afternoon, thanks very much. it's an honor to be here at usip. we're very grateful if for your and supportxpertise to our effort. you're a valuable partner and today.py to join you like a good deputy, probably many of you have never heard of me and that's fine but i'm part a great team that is proud to ambassador khalilzad and his effort to try to bring an pursuethis war and political settlement so we're proud to work with him and i thank you for the opportunity me update you here today on what we have been up to. was arranged, my understanding was it was discussion ofa the latest developments out of doha including the understanding we reached with the taliban on the reduction in violence and next steps in th

he will be joined by stephen hadley, former national security adviser and chairman of usip's board as well as michele flournoy. we expected to have douglas lute with us but he was forced to cancel. before we invite our panel to come up, it is my pleasure to introduce ambassador molly phee, appointed ambassador in september 2018 and has served in a long and distinguished service career. we are very fortunate she could join us. she's just back from doha and will give us a few remarks to set the scene that follows. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, thanks very much. it's an honor to be here at usip. we're very grateful for your leadership and expertise and support to our effort. you're a valuable partner and i'm happy to join you today. like a good deputy, probably many of you have never heard of me and that's fine but i'm part of a great team that is proud to support ambassador khalilzad and his effort to try to bring an end to this war and pursue political settlement so we're proud to work with him and i thank you for the opportunity for letting me update you here today on what we have been up to. when this event was arranged, my u