william pitt, they don't have that kind of connection to the past. as history-minded as they might be, the brits don't have that kind of connection. so i have a lot of sympathy for the tea party people. i know they distort the past, but i understand the emotional need because i think it's there for everyone in some sense. because there's no other basis for our americanism. except these ideals that they created. >> and one of the points you make in your book is that this sense of our ideals was very early on accompanied by a sense that we were an example to the world because of those ideals. luis mentioned that the show here right now is on the american and the haitian and the french revolutions which happened in a contained time span. shall we talk about how we reacted to those revolutions? >> yeah. >> well, i think we started with the notion. this is the little colonial rebellion. this is forming in people. by 1790. what did it matter? and yet, they thought that this little colonial rebellion had world-shattering importance. that it was the most imp