charles taft the half-brother of resident william howard taft, had commissioned a lincoln statue, created by george grey bernard, which was on failed instance and that a, 1917. here it is, if you've you've seen this i would guess, this famous one in chicago. so this was put up in 1917. charles taft was pleased, so pleased that he wanted to have a second one made, and exact replica and send it over to london. he was going to pay for the whole thing. it seemed as though this would solve the problem that they've been having -- having a good their projects underway. -- made an offer, the heat sucked in, it seems like that would be the end of the story. but then firestorm in the media broke out. high levels of leadership on both sides of the atlantic,

the republican front-runner was a man named senator robert taft and taft was from an old republican family in ohio. his father had been president and he was known in party circles as mr. republican. isenhour came in and the taft people were immediately concerned about the emergence of a celebrity candidate. they called him a glamour candidate. it's hard for us to imagine isenhour being labeled as the glamour candidate but to the die-hard taft people that's exactly what he representative. isenhour came in and there was a big struggle between traditional republicans and many of these people were not internationalist people like him who were media savvy and very good on television and very good on the radio and also had a much more global vision for the united states. eisenhower was a hero to monumental proportions. he was the person who had led the allied forces to victory in world war ii so many republicans in hollywood and many democrats would previously supported roosevelt found themselves being attracted to eisenhower. there was something about the man that inspired a lot of confidence i

in the taft administration to leave and work for the newspaper.ost: what would they think about our election this year? guest: when he loses the republican party candidate, he runs as a third-party candidate. you have a socialist party candidate who we have not even talked about, eugene debs gets 900,000 votes in that election and then you have the former president of princeton, governor of new jersey woodrow wilson -- he becomes the first democrat in the white house says grover cleveland. -- since grover cleveland. that is a much more chaotic election. brian: who is responsible for naming the house of truth and was it serious? mr. snyder: it is a completely self mocking name for the house. the one who is attributed to the name of the house is holmes. he had a gift for language and could turn of phrase. the person who holmes thought name to the house of truth was a guy named denison. along with frankfurter and valentine, started the house. brian: how hard was this book to write? mr. snyder: it was hard to write because i felt like i was telling fo

taft really helped remake that court into a much more conservative court.when warren harding becomes president and a liberals like felix frankfurter are kind of in the wilderness, harding, and a short period of time -- he only spent three years in office -- a point four members to the court, including taft. after that, he helps harding select very conservative people to the court and tilted in a conservative direction. these three liberals in that photo are brandeis, the man in the upper right corner of the photo, and some people would say that holmes is a liberal, although he is difficult to categorize. not liberal by today's standards. brian: they are both from kentucky. tell us that relationship. mr. snyder: both of them nominees of woodrow wilson. mcreynolds was wilson's attorney general, who had a liberal reputation as a trust buster, both before he joined the wilson administration and while he was in the administration. he goes on to become one of the most conservative and supremely racist and anti-semitic supreme court justices in history. but just t

taft really help remake that court into a much more conservative court. warren harding becomes president and liberals are kind of in the wilderness. harding, just a very short period of time, only spends three years in office but he apoints four members of the court including taft and after taftis appointed, he helps select conservative people and con hat court in a severetive -- conseff fashion. and some people would say holmes was liberal but difficult to categorize. host: mcreynolds on the far left and brandeis from kentucky. tell us about that relationship. host guest: both of them are appointed by wilson. and had a liberal reputation as a truck buster before he joined the wilson the administration and while he was in the administration and he goes on to become one of the most conservative and racist and anti-semitic supreme court justices in history. but to tell you how diverse the people who were dining at the house of truth. robert valentine comes down from massachusetts and frankfurter arranges a dinner and they get into a debate about civil servi

i mentioned 1912 was the year taft called for the creation of the u.s. chamber of commerce which is only one year after the largest anti-trust lawsuit that broke up the standard oil company in 1911. it did other things as well like american tobacco around the corner. this is right in the middle of this trust-busting moment both in the roosevelt and taft administrations where there is a great deal of public energy and intellectual energy and activism to push back against the new large corporation that had only really kind of come into form in the last generation before that. so, yes, rhetorically taft was making the place the republican party and he as president were in favor of enterprise and a business. particularly saw these businesses as a growth of prosperity. one thing we can take away from this is the battles over business were primarily framed in terms of small business versus large businesses. they were not the way we might think of them today conceiving of an independent, non-business public interest in the same way. even the foundation of ameri

taft's opponent in 1972 is eisenhower, and eisenhower goes to see taft and says i will not run for president, will endorse you no problem with your domestic program but i did run nato if you endorse nato i will not run. and taft will not support nato, and buckley right is his editor mayoral saying maybe he'll change his mind. the best man in america to be president. then who else do you have? well, you have the southern segregationists. they call themselves conservatives because they didn't like federal intervention in the economy. they were very antilabor union, number one. and anti-that path to the new deal, right to work states, mos. of them southern or midwestern, and they were segregationist its. taft was not. so how do you get a coalition out of this group of anymore it's very difficult. and. >> host: it's important to remember that this is the time long before you have the porlarization of the political party. we now think of republicans and conservatives and democrats as progressives or the liberal us but in those days, as professor felzenberg noted. the democrats're humphrey of minn

taft relative to wilson stems to how they were frame and position in that race based largely on taft's record of government. finally, taft explicitly rejected of the theory of activists of presidential government of roosevelt of his biography -- has a different conception of what a president should do, he's much more modest and reluctant and endorsed in a full thrown theory of the presidency. i think that has sort of also shaped the way he's been under stood. and you know, his name i learned my favorite piece about his gurt is that his name is not anagram with a word with all, i am fat. the >> i am all in favor of bringing taft back. republicans arriving in the south and saying we can leave particular social issues to the local and i think that's a critical term for the republican party in terms of thinking about republican party investment social policies that will affect african-americans. taft will lead that and roosevelt will follow when he runs for later and so this is the moment in which we -- it is not in the 1960s, it will shift. there is the kind of retreat of social policy an

roosevelt decided he wanted too president and taft was getting the support from and he stomped out and that stopped the process. >> did it stop or did it come back? >> there was around 15 states that held primaries but they were not connected to the delegate selection and they were not important until after world war ii. >> when did the smoke filled bathrooms fade away? >> in the early 1900s in some ways, we started getting good public opinion program. they often follow the polls. the media provided more coverage are with radio and television programs. >> you said early victories helped later victories. what is the idea of that? >> momentum doesn't always last. some candidates win in iowa and never win in any place else. and sometimes this momentum can reverse. it was sort of a switch for love of the running. >> switching the candidates and having a grassley root democracy is now a little bit more the people come there with their preferences already pretty firm. it is a way to, you know, socialize with your neighbors and perhaps the delegates are selected at congressional district cauc

the republican president howard taft was getting the traditional support. >> did they stop that behavior? stha >> it put a halt on it and the presidential primaries were not as important. they were not always connected to the delegate selection. they got somewhat important. >> when did the smoke filled back rooms fade away? they faded away in the 1800s not so much because of presidential primaries but other out siside influences. you started getting polling in the 1930s and since the aim of the convention is to nominate a poplar presidential candidate. it might not have been a formal following of it but it seemed to have influence. there are more outside pressures from interest groups, media providing more coverage with radio and television so that sort of that thinking. winning in iowa or new hampshire gives the candidate a lot of media attention, more campaign con fwrugz -- contributions and this should help them win. momental doesn't always last. you might thing of that in the way of barack obama with the ability to overtake health care in 2008 as the hillary clinton was the frontrunn

[laughter] taft was the -- >> ah, to be young again. >> taft was the senator from 1939-1953. he was known as mr. conservative. and he said that if americans do not have health care because they cannot afford it, it ought to be given to them for free. >> so to go back to my be original question, i'm sorry, david, i won't take too long here, it sounds like it is hess the tactic or the approach house republicans have taken, and you think it's the actual bill that they've been trying to move that have stopped them from repealing obamacare. >> well, you know, when you go home and everybody's yelling at you on both sides, you know, that's one thing. politicians don't like anybody yelling at 'em, okay? and you don't like anybody yelling at you at politico. we yell at you from time to time. you deserve it though. [laughter] but, i end mean, i think it's what's in the bill. i don't understand the whole thing, but the senate is going to be a whole different thing. and i just am hoping that we can come up with something, and you want to know if you were to involve the democrats and say

taft will not go along on this. and here is the conservative republican william f buckley at odds with the first republican administration since franklin roosevelt came into office. >> is numberless, republicans we led five elections in a row from 1932 to 1948 -- 1942 to 1948. they were not supposed to lose like that. -- but in any event, they are really stuck now. and republicans like buckley those on the domestic side wanted to get back to what it was like before this. and they thought that he was the got to do that. now you can eisenhower.now, eisenhower is a lot shorter --'s router. [multiple speakers] in his public spirit and the rollback of this abroad. and buckley surmise, he wasn't sure about what he was going to do about him and he did believe the nato argument and the foreign policy but stevenson for the democratic candidate in 1952, the reluctant candidate, in 1921 and less subject we are not trying to remove stevenson's name from anything. last i checked everything is okay! but the thought that he can be

inviting them for dennis in the attorney for taft and felix frankfurter who had been worki working. >>> we are pleased to have with us corey fields on to the complex elephant in the room the unexpected politics of african-american republicans. professor are you a republican? >> know i ano i am not.iv from the outside perspective. >> i would classify asas independent left-leaning but in a lot of ways it existed with my own politics and didn't really rise up to the surface in terms of getting people to talk to me but in some ways it actually made people more willing to open up like there was less return. so everybody knows everybody else. they've also created somebeing opportunities to. the idea grew out of an interest you wouldn't expect people like them to do and pursuing that more abstract line of thought like what is the case of somebody doing something you wouldn't expect them to do. with that, the idea was born. again the project itself didn't necessarily grow out of my policy. came to it as a little bit of ac outsider. what does that mean for someone like you doing something you'

taft won't go along. and here is the conservative republican william f buckley at odds with the first republican administration since franklin roosevelt came into office. >> now remember this. republicans lost five elections in a row 1932 to 1948. they weren't supposed to lives in 1940 but dewey was given the same advice is hillary clinton. but he becomes, -- but in any event, they are really stuck now. and republicans like buckley and people that supported taft wanted to shrink the new deal. and they wanted to get back to what life was like before. and now they get eisenhower. eisenhower was a politician, everybody thought he was - but he was a lot shorter than his critics. and he let the party talked about rollback. rollback to the welfare stated home. which all republicans supported. in rollback of the encouragements abroad. to buckley's demise, wasn't sure about what he was going to do about stalin.he didn't believe in nato's argument. but stephenson, democratic candidate, the reductant candidate in 1

taft? >> president taft and mark twain died in 1910. >> 48 states. >>> red sox were raging in 1910. >> hang on to babe ruth. >> she's a denver bronco fan, i have to say that. >> how do i follow that up. wow. baseball's up top. and the giants and the reds, both clubs understandably sleepy eyed after a 17-inning number into this morning. at 1:00 this afternoon, it was go time again. check the time stamp this morning. then the walk off homer. 5 hours, 28 minutes, giants three and the reds 2. after 17 innings, posey earned the day off. mother's day's weekend in pink trim. brandon bell, right to the drink. 1-0 san francisco. next inning, justin to the deepest part of the ballpark. giants' 10th big league. giants' matt moore and hello come backer from joey vato in the 7th. cat-quick reflexes. he only allowed a run. back to back wins for the giants. >>> reds brian price couldn't have felt great about that, but at least the mill valley product is back in the bay area. 4th year skipper. graduated fr

thealice was banned from taft white house, among other white houses. lesley: we have some questions from the audience. first for you, annette. what is a sally hemmings ever freed from slavery? annette: she was informally freed. she moved into charlottesville after jefferson died. if he had freed her, couple of things -- she was over 45. at this point, she was actually 53 years old. and he enslaved person over 45, if you freed them, you had to petition the legislature to allow them to remain in the state and say how you're going to take care of them for the rest of their lives. you sort of imagine jefferson putting back in a document, asking the legislature to allow sally hemmings to stay in state and say, here is how i'm going to -- it would be an admission they have been living together, and he wasn't going to do that. she moves to charlottesville. she is listed on the senses in 1830 as a free white woman. in 1833, they do a special census to ask free blacks if they want to go back to africa. she says no. she is listed as a free negro woman at that po

taft represented the republican outsiders. then nixon and lodge, goldwater and rockefeller. >> right. >> and then, again, nixon and then rockefeller. but there's always a split inside the republican party between the conservative outsiders and the more moderate insiders, and this, of course,ar hasn't again in 1980 -- happens again in 1980. reagan represents the conservative outsiders, and bush represents the more moderate insiders, and this is the fight over, you know, the nomination. the future of the party boils down to these two individuals. >> well, tell us about it. >> well, it was a see i saw battle for -- seesaw battle for a while because reagan kind of coasts. reagan is at his worst when he's not challenged. reagan is at his best when somebody's challenging him. he was competitive.. mike dever once told me he was the most competitive s.o.b. he ever knew. he needs to be challenged, otherwise he doesn't rise to the occasion. so he doesn't take the george bush challenge seriously, and he ends up losing the iowa caucuses i

charles taft the half-brother of resident william howard taft, had commissioned a lincoln statue, createdgeorge grey bernard, which was on failed instance and that a, 1917. here it is, if you've you've seen this i would guess, this famous one in chicago. so this was put up in 1917. charles taft was pleased, so pleased that he wanted to have a second one made, and exact replica and send it over to london. he was going to pay for the whole thing. it seemed as though this would solve the problem that they've been having -- having a good their projects underway. -- made an offer, the heat sucked in, it seems like that would be the end of the story. but then firestorm in the media broke out. high levels of leadership on both sides of the atlantic, among people who really didn't like the lake and that was portrayed in this particular statue. as you can see from the quotation from his surviving son -- one of the biggest critics of this statue. he sees it as monstrous, grotesque, inflammatory. she doesn't like the fact that it was made -- doesn't want this to be the image of lincoln that is proje

so not to invite senator lodge and others -- jack: or president taft. monique: right, to come to her side to be in the piece negotiation, was in my view, a complete disaster. you cannot run the war if you don't have bipartisanship. in fact, you cannot not run a country without bipartisanship. rob: of course, we have learned that. [laughter] rob: panelists, thank you so much. [applause] announcer: interested in "american history tv?" visit our west by -- our website at c-span.org/history. you can view our schedule, preview upcoming programs, and watch lectures, archival films, and more. "american history tv" at c-span.org/history. >> next, a panel discussion on the legacies of world war i with the focus on middle east. along with newly created countries and borders, panelists look at the consequences of those changes and how those continue to impact the region to eventesent day parade took place at the world war i museum in kansas city missouri. >> i want to thank you all for the coffee break.

so not to invite senator lodge and others -- >> or president taft. >> right, to come to her side to be in the piece negotiation, was in my view a complete disaster. you cannot run the war if you don't have bipartisanship. in fact, you can't run a country without it. >> true. i agree with that. >> we've learned that, so of course we have no problem with it. >> panelists, thank you so much. i really appreciate it. >> thank you. [ applause ] >>> you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. >>> next on american history tv, steve young, a former add visvi talks about how the conflict in southeast asia evolved, and the role that president johnson played in the decision making process. he contrasts johnson's policies with that of his successor, richard nixon. >> good afternoon, everybody. welcome. i'm bob kuderle. this is a special session of our 20 years of seminars on global policy. the vietnam war was a cataclysmic series of

. >> the party is split and it has been split since the 50s. 52, eisenhower or robert taft.represented the conservative outsiders, nixon, goldwater and rockefeller, nixon, rockefeller but there is a split in the republican party between conservative outsiders and more moderate insiders. this happens in 1980 representing the conservative outsiders than bush representing the moderate insiders and this is the fight over the nomination boiling down to these individuals. >> tell us about it. >> it was a the saw battle because reagan is at his worst when he is not challenged. he was competitive. mike beaver told me his most competitive is so be here for new, reagan needs to be challenged, or he doesn't rise to the occasion. he doesn't take the george bush challenge seriously and he loses the iowa caucuses in january 1980 which was a stunning stunning upset to the political world. reagan was a radio broadcaster in nearby illinois, local hero in george bush is from texas, less ties to new england than he does to any prep school, ties to iowa more than any prep school then new englan

>> reporter: huckabee wouldn't specify what principles in the current bill the president is stead taft in having in the final draft. it shows yesterday's rose garden victory may be premature as it is a long rhoda head before any bill becomes law. janai norman, abc7 washington. >> president trump signed hiss first piece of legislation, the $1 trillion spending bill that will fund the government through september. the bill cleared both houses of congress this week and mr. trump signed it behind closed doors. well ahead of a midnight friday deadline. >> for the second time president trump's nominee for army secretary has withdrawn his name. tennessee senator mark green came under criticism for his remarks about lgbt americans and muslims. in a stam, green said false and misleading attacks made his nomination a distraction. several democrats had denounced green for declaring being transgender a disease. >> the pentagon is yet to release the name of an american service member who was killed in somalia, the first u.s. casualty there in almost 25 years. officials say a special operations memb

no one ever heard of him he was the one who started by inviting them for dennis in the attorney for taft felix frankfurter who had been worki working. >>> we are pleased to have with us corey fields on to the complex elephant in the room the unexpected politics of african-american republicans. professor are you a republican? >> know i ano i am not.iv from the outside perspective. >> i would classify asas independent left-leaning but in a lot of ways it existed with my own politics and didn't really rise up to tur

he wrote that speech, not taft. just to let you know. c-span now knows. everybody out there now knows that one of the most important speeches written i in the 20 century was written by norm podhoretz. [applause] >> not the whole speech. >> no, only the part that everybody remembers. finally i want to thank the rotary club and i think, you know, that stuff, you didn't write that part. >> moynihan was a very close friend of mine for a period of over ten years, and we became somewhat estranged in the later years. that's a long story. but pat moynihan was a highbrow intellectual from one of the very few, since i don't know, john adams, was able to make a career in american politics. he was absolutely unique in that point of view, and i myself regretted, came to regret that he had chosen a political career, which i had something to do with by the way, because it cut the edge off some of his salutary brilliance. he was brilliant and right rather than brilliant and wrong. he was a great friend. >> so when it comes to brilliant and right, "making it." thank you v

for the conservative they chose robert taft to have passed away, a stalwart republican senator from ohio. when it came to the progress of there were decisions. kennedy very much wanted to select george norris, a very kind of aggressive, popular senator from nebraska. but the current senator from nebraska had had some run-in's and said, you're not going to select him. in fact he wrote a letter was looks an awful lot like a threat of a filibuster if kennedy actually went forward and suggest to him. and also styles bridges was on the committee. so they ended up choosing robert from wisconsin. so this was a project that -- and it was interesting for me to just read the paper work, try to piece together the deliberations of the committee and just see the kind of inquisitive, thoughtful aspect of kennedy. he was writing letters, some of his friends who are historians trying to get there sense of things. it was something that he just really, really loved. i think his work on a solidified his reputation as kind of this sentence, you know, and house historian. i think it was also very politically

basically grew up visiting his dad every other weekend at taft federal correctional facility. >> reporteru know, he made the wrong choice. when you make the wrong choice you wi hllavcoe nsue >> okay, so put them together. what do you get? i come up with e.j. >> okay, dad. >> reporter: know back at home and working full-time, his father has a restored relationship with his family. >> i pray to god and say i don't thank you for placing my dad in jail but thank you for the life you've given me even if it's a part of it because it ignites that fire, you know? it pushes you to want to achieve more, to want to do more. >> reporter: e.j. has grown up in two very different worlds, compton and chadwick school, a private k through 12 campus he attends on scholarship. >> i think early on, it was particularly tough for me, not knowing how to really fit in. >> reporter: e.j. says his tough childhood pushed him to strive for greatness. today, he is one of the most active students on campus. ♪ 96,000 >> i'm in chorus, i do all the musicals and plays here. i'm actually doing dance this year. i play footb

president tafte and effort under the direction of former mayor giuliani with this.at has not led to a conclusion at this particular point in time . i don't have the details, but i would agree that this is a need tour policymakers address and i hope when we are will have aar, we solid response to your question, but at this particular point in time, given the proliferation of issues we are trying to deal with,time, given -- >> how do we find out who has the ball and is this something we need to be able to work through? your report was excellent, by the way. report,ction of the every part of it that there is a threat. you wrote that iran continues to be before most state sponsor of terrorism, whether it is cyber, whether it is active terrorism, it always seems to always circle back to it ran. areas wene of those have to be able to figure out what to do with it. question, anyone could answer this -- my concern is when we are dealing with syria, the focus seems to be on russia and syria and we are of what isk happening in yemen and other places. what is your perception o

in my case i reached out to the first lady, hope taft, of our state, also to a religious leader in our community, damin lynch, one of the most respected leaders, at that time head of the baptist ministers conference, john pepper. we brought in the business community as well. and we established this coalition not thinking that we were going to end up applying for federal grant money because there was no federal grant program then but that we should focus on how we could ensure we could actually make a difference. we set up a survey that went to two-thirds of the schools in our community that asked these questions about drug use so we would know our efforts were working or not working, as the case might be, and how to target our efforts towards parents and teachers. we spent a lost time in the faith community but also with coaches and athletic directors and this program is still going. it is called prevention first. i chaired it for nine years. i was on the board of the coalition, again, before i ran for the senate. and i know it works because i've seen it. we've gotten good results. the