morgan was a friend of churchill's mother and is likely that winston on one of his many trip to its united states would have visited this library. we're joined today by alan packwood, he is the director of the churchill archive center in cambridge. and he's cure rating an exhi business here at the morgan called winston churchill, the power of words. >> what you're looking at here are two images taken by the famous photographer on the 30th of december 1941. winston churchill had just addressed the canadian parliament and he had made his way to the speakers chamber. he was looking for a drink, perhaps also for a cigar. and what he found instead was a photographer waiting for him. and more than that, because the photographer insisted on removing churchill's cigar. and then photographed the ensuing skoul. and it's clear that a few moments later the british prime minister lightened up and smiled for the camera. >> which do you think is truer to the real churchill? >> i think they captured two facets of winston churchill, and two facets that we emphasize within the exhi business here. you'

. >> winston spendser churchill, defender of the realm. 1940 to 1965. host: paul reid, co-author with william manchester of the last lion, the third of a trilogy, if you could have dinner with winston chump -- churchill and ask him a series of questions what would they be? >> he didn't like strangers and didn't like the press and didn't give anything away. i would ask him about his religious beliefs or lack thereof. i found that fascinating. he read plato and airs as to thele and cyst -- cicero but he made himself into a classical man. he lived a life in accordance with the precursor to the christian ethic we find in plato and greek gloves and humanist but godless ethic. th then, let's see. the second front. i would like him to have the final word because we americans have set him up for the decades as at one point almost cowardly in his aversion to the second front, none of which is tree. host: what does that mean, the second front? guest: the push from washington, d.c. by general marshall to go to norman did i -- norman did i. to open a second front. f

i would be quite daunted to sit down with winston churchill. folks as high as harry hopkins and general marshall and roosevelt were as well. winston one said at dinner -- " winston pitches and everyone else? ." >> if you were to ask him questions about his immediate family, what would they be? >> i would ask how he felts about -- how he felt about his son's descent into all lissome and his daughters to send -- descent into mental illness. it was a very sad family. his wife was in and out of hospitals for nervous breakdowns. churchill's one daughter road, mary, did not care about what was going on in people's heads, had no use for suffering, was not very sympathetic. >> mary stone is his daughter, who i understand is still alive. you interviewed her? >> i have spoken to her and #times. yes, indeed by telephone. wrote letters. she road very long letters. i call these feature story questions. what did you get your father for christmas? what did he get you? >> and she wrote you answers? >> yes. 7 pages. very nice. >> here is a clip of her from 1997

host: how much did winston churchill expect japan to get into the war? guest: one of the things, in doing this, i had to lock at what is he interested in? what is in his head. try to place churchill in his tim times. he was interested in norway, sumatra, not japan, not the pacific. his knowledge of the geography, the politics, the military situati situation, was not there. and he admits in his memoirs in order to imagine a picture of a theatre of war or what have you, you have to have some knowledge to let your imagination run three. and he didn't and he admitted that and he paid dearly for it. he thought the japanese were a meek race who couldn't see well, couldn't shoot straight in an airplane, were bad fighters, would never have the tim merchantity to attack the british empire. and he people that. they will not attack us. how could they possibly contemplate that. host: what was his reaction when the japanese bombed pearl harbor? guest: that he just won the war. host: that was december 7, 1941. here he is in front of the congress joint session on the da

winston churchill, a small talking man deployed to great britain during the second world war to talk at the british people. the little talking person was. i could put in front of microphones or in the middle of parliament after which you would be placed in storage until another dramatic event happened and he was needed for more talking. the successful deployment is now seen as having been crucial in great britain defeating nazi germany and its own little talking man. i'm also picking of the entry for kitchen. if another room contains more knives did his room kid how that happens >> george w. bush. >> he's in the buck. let me find that esteemed gentleman. is he? >> he is. >> there he is. forty-third president of the added states who received the presidency as a gift for his 504th birthday from his parents, george and barbara. >> and the state of florida. >> using his connection to the supreme court has fire was able to pull a few strings to give his son the extravagant presents witchy accepted despite his disappointment over not receiving a ford mustang that he had repeatedly requeste

you know, when winston churchill was writing his great biography of his ancestors someone asked him how -- he said i am working on the fifth of a projected four volumes. i am not comparing myself to winston churchill but regard to the lyndon johnson biography we are in the same boat. i have been writing about lyndon johnson so long that people ask me don't you get bored? the answer is the very opposite is true. the one reason i don't think of these books as being about lyndon johnson just as i didn't think of the power brokers being about robert moses, i never had the slightest interest in writing the book just to tell the wife of a famous man. from the moment i first thought of doing books i thought of biographies, i thought of biographies as a way of examining the great forces that shape the times that they live-and particularly political power. why is political power so important? we live in a democracy so ultimately we have the power and the votes we carry to the ballot boxes and the more that we know about how political power really works, not as it is taught in textbooks and colle

in the course of the 60 years she will get along with every -- her 12th prime ministers from winston churchill who was born in the 19th century and served in her great great-grandmother's army to david cameron who was born after her youngest child prince edward. she has opinions which she will express and private, but extremely careful to not make political statements in public. i was told about one that was amusing that robert title one of the american ambassador's during george of the bush came for the presentation of his credentials and then there was the congestion tax that was a political hot potato and being imposed to keep them from driving into london the american embassy maintained there were not liable to pay because they said it was a charge but they call it the tax. robert tuttle arrived for his credentials they went through the formalities then the informal discussion and she said, and stand you think the congestion charge is the tax? she said it is and she said of course, it is. the diplomatic corps turned white at the prospect but that is very unusual. with her relationship with

her first was winston churchill.id cameron brief term majesty on the historic facts and opinions seemed divided on who the last monarch was to attend the cabinet. >> during the war for independence. >> then it was down to business. among the things discussed, new changes to the royal exception rule, allowing the a girl to become head of state, even a sheet has a younger brother. as head of state, the queen must remain neutral in politics. her visit may have been shocked. they have seen politicians come and go for 60 years. >> for some towns in the u.k., christmas is turning into a season of taking rather than giving. several police forces are reporting a rise in shoplifting. they might have been the kinds of things that could be given as gifts, but now it is groceries. chris has been to the north of england, an area that was hit hard by the economic downturn. >> with christmas days away, the streets are filled with shoppers. watch closely, you will see this woman with a bike and a basket. he leaves without going into

if you do not believe that, imagine a world war ii with britain led by a 25-year-old winston churchill. right? you need wisdom. you need wisdom. society's need wisdom and knowledge. they value older people. but operationally, functionally, you know, we slow down. we're less precise. we remember less. we're less effective than we could or should be. we asked the question of how complicated with the training be, and what did these things are reimbursable -- reversible? i will tell you, everything is reversible. everything can be improved. every dimension of the physical, functional brain can be reversed in a positive direction. it is all reversible. we're constructed to be basically reversible. so, first of all, we look at the process of the brain as it relates to the alertness of the brain. look at recovery. we look at the process as it relates to the intentional control of the bravin. we look at the accuracy as to how the brain receives information. is schematically approved by training. we can speed up the brain almost always by two to three-fold in an old animal or human not so far a

i hope always think of winston churchill in what he said about democracy the worst possible system except for the alternatives so i think the same is true of money systems we have been moving away from them gradually we've been moving away from commodity money systems gradually over the course of centuries and. doman doing stirs notwithstanding the evidence that money is always and everywhere and you have inflation that what the. ted has been doing is going to. unleash the demons of hyper inflation the historical record simply it's not consistent with that view i think the fact that gold still plays a limited monetary role that central banks continue to hold some of it that people spent of china has been accumulating some more testifies powerfully to the long shadow of history that gold mattered one hundred years ago there is an infrastructure where the federal reserve bank of new york warehouses gold for foreign central banks and where the bank of england where house is called for foreign central banks so there are. some reasons grounded in history why it continues to play a monetary rol

90-minute q&a by paul reid, chosen to complete the final volume of manchester's biography of winston churchill, "the last lion," sunday night at 8 on c-span's "q&a." >> i don't want to spoil the book for you, so let me just say that the year began with the american republic in grave danger. the union armies were struggling to grow virtually overnight from a few thousand men scattered across the continue innocent to more than -- continent to more than half a million. the inexperienced officers thrust into command of these raw volunteers were stymied by the sheer size of the breakaway confederate states of america which covered a space larger than the entire european territory conquered by napoleon. lincoln's closest adviser was secretary of state william henry seward. seward said that even smart people failed to see the difficulty of the union's task. they didn't apprehend the vast extent of the rebellion, as he put it. military operations, to be successful, must be on a scale hitherto practically unknown in the art of war. >> the second year of the civil war, a strained federal government and

winston churchill made a surprise visit to washington, d.c. and the sea spirit of the holiday season amidst all of the chaos was not lost on him. >> we may cast aside for this night at least the dangers which beset us and make all of children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. >> sean: churchill would stay with president roosevelt for three weeks addressing a joint session of congress and going to church with the president. the remarkable period just a small part of a best sell ising book the last lion. it is the third volume of the churchill biography started by william manchester and completed by paul reid who joins me now. a remarkable man, churchill. one of the remarkable figures in history. before we get to this moment, how long was he an outcast and viewed as an extremist in great britain? >> pretty much h his whole political life. >> sean: before and after his time as prime minister? >> absolutely. early in the century he had switched from the conservative party to the liberal party and as he said later i ratted which is their

. >>> daily flash back was winston churchill. the first to address congress. less than three weeks after the pearl harbor attack. he was coordinating military strategy with president roosevelt to a packed senate chamber. he predictioned there were many disappointments and unpleasant surprises ahead and the allied forces would prevail. indeed he did. here's the irony by "the washington post." democrats are fighting to make permanent tax cuts that they once opposed nearly a decade ago. an msnbc contributor and top aide with the financial times. the "new york times" and thank you so much for joining us. happy holidays. thanks for being here the day after christmas. the art of the possible here doesn't seem to be a lot of urgency. the house is not even being called that. they are working on it tomorrow. what can you see done here in the next few days? >> if there is going to be anything achieved, we won't see any of it. it will be behind the scenes and phone calls and meetings we are only going to see something if there is a deal. it's a high hurdle. needs the coo

they meet and winston churchill said to joe kennedy i am desperately sorry your son was killed in theoe jr. was killed in a bomber and crashed. joe kennedy looks at him and said what was it all for? all we got now is the soviets dominating europe instead of the germans. we fought a war for this? >> did joe's outspokenness against world war ii make kennedy more of a hawk and jfk ending up being more of a hawk in response to his father? >> that's a great question. i don't know. i think part of what jfk does is follows his father. his father was an isolationist, but he was also in favor of huge military budgets to build up missile systems and every conceivable type of defense. first against the germans so they could never invade the united states and against the soviets. jack kennedy inherits this notion that we have to be strong and have a strong defense. >> interesting. >> yeah, absolutely. >> i could go on all day. this book looks like it's fascinating. joseph p kennedy, you talk about a rich tapestry of a biography that you got to dig into. i can't wait to dig into it. the book is ca

he is completing a three volume biography of winston churchill, "the last line." -- >> a focus t

. >> remember what winston churchill said.sem democracy is the worst idea. >> and that the americans will try everything else before they finally try and do the right thing. you may be getting older. i'm not. >> that's fine, that's fine. led zeppelin just feels -- that's supposed to be like dean martin -- >> justin bieber next year. >> not led zeppelin. anyway. all right. up next a jump off the fiscal cliff. the latest way -- the fastest way to a solution on the debt. >>> all the numbers indicate that going off the fiscal cliff would hurt the u.s. economy in the short term. but could it be the best thing in the long run? going off that fiscal cliff. to this point most of the conversation has been focused on what happens in january, and for good reason. there's no deal in congress. tax rates go up for a lot of folks, all americans. and a $1.2 trillion worth of defense and spending cuts will be automatically enacted. excuse me, that fiscal cough i told you about. the alternative minimum tax kicks in and put it all together and t

i believe what winston churchill said about america, you can always count to do what's right after we'veost every other option. republicans haven't held back. i know it's only 20 days away, but you know what we passed a bill last summer, that would solve this problem, freeze the rates, but make the cuts to put us back -- >> you can't get the senate, democratically led by senator reid, to move forward on anything you've passed. to me it's unfortunate that seems like a zero sum game, political game, in washington, and you guys are ready to deal. >> nothing ever happens in the senate. i feel we're negotiating with ourselves, and the president is going around campaigning. look, when we passed it in the summer, we thought the senate would do their job. maybe the president was campaigning during that time, we understood that, but in november the campaign's over, it's time to govern. the president needs to get engaged. he can't think this is going to happen on its own. every time we were able to do something big, it was the leadership of the presidency able to do it. >> i'm surprised they didn'

to the civil war, franklin roosevelt wanted him for the new deal and world war ii, he's like winston churchill in the bible he can be used in any way that you need partly because he was so articulate and so proliferate. 20,000 or more letters. brilliantly written, wonderfully eloquent. so what can we make of it? this is the man, the human being we have, and that's what i always want to get to answering president kennedy's question of what was he like, and in the service of trying to figure this out, i asked for and was granted permission to sleep in jefferson's bedroom one night on a pallet on the floor i hasten to add and i wanted to hear how the clock sounded. jefferson always said he woke when he could start to make out the hands of the clock and the sun hadn't caught me in bed in more than 40 years and i wanted to see if that is one of the things as dean acheson said no one comes out second best in their own memoir whether that was actually true, a brilliant point for secretary acheson by the way. as the sun rises over the southwestern mountains of virginia, the first place light hits is h

or whether we are as winston churchill once described it near the "beginning of the end." on the present course, i do believe, there will be a tipping point. a tipping point at which so many of the leaders and operatives of al qaeda and its affiliates have been killed or captured and the group is no longer able to attempt or launch a strategic attack against the united states. such that al qaeda, as we know it, the organization that our congress authorized the military to pursue in 2001, has been effectively destroyed. >> approaching a tipping point. i just want to jump in for a second to say this is the unprecedented part that we have been waiting pr. watch. >> at that point, we must be able to say to ourselves that our efforts should no longer be considered a "armed conflict against al qaeda and its associated forces." rather a counterterrorism effort against individuals who are the remnants of al qaeda or are part of groups unaffiliated with al qaeda for which the law enforcement and intelligent resources of our government are principally responsible. >> at some point,

you know, winston churchill used to say that we americans, you know, we try every other option before we finally do the right thing. after everything else is exhausted, we eventually do the right thing. and i think that that's true for congress as well. and i think it's also important for americans to remember that politics has always been messy. people have been asking me a lot about the film "lincoln." and, you know -- >> is this your lincoln moment? >> well, no. look, a, i never compare myself to lincoln. and, b, obviously the magnitude of the issues are quite different from the civil war and slavery. the point, though, is democracy has always been messy. we're a big, diverse country that is constantly sort of arguing about all kinds of stuff. but eventually, we do the right thing. and in this situation, i'm confident that one of two things are going to happen when it comes to the fiscal cliff. number one, we're going to see an agreement in the next 48 hours, in which case middle class taxes will not go up. if that doesn't happen, then democrats in the senate will put a bill on the

william manchester and paul reid present their portrait of winston churchill in "the last lion." this is seventh. neil young is eighth with his memoir, "waging heavy peace," followed by andrew solomon's book, "far from the tree," about parents with exceptional children. then at tenth, bill o'reilly and martin dugard again with "killing lincoln." you can find more on these bestsellers by going to indiebound.org and clicking on indie bestsellers. >> pulitzer prize-winning author william kennedy explores the political and cultural structure of albany in, o albany. booktv spoke with mr. kennedy during our recent visit to albany with the help of our partner, time warner cable. >> albany had a bad rap for a very long time because of the politics, for one thing, but also even way back, way back in the building of the capitol in the 1890s. stanford white, the great architect, was working on the capitol and h.h. richardson, a lot of other major architects. this would prove to be the most expensive building on the american continent, $25 million when it was declared finished in '97. by ted

winston churchill used to say that we americans, we try every other option before we finally dot right thing. after everything else is exhausted, we eventually do the right thing. and i think that that's true for congress as well. and i think it's also important for americans to remember that politic has always been messy. people have been asking me a lot about the film "lincoln" and you know -- >> is this your "lincoln" moment? >> well no, look. a, i never compared myself to lincoln and b, the obviously the magnitude of the issues are quite different from civil war and slavery. the point is that democracy has always been messy. we're a big, diverse country. that is constantly sort of arguing about all kinds of stuff. but eventually we do the right thing. and in this situation, i'm confident that one of two things are going to happen when it comes to the fiscal cliff. number one, we're going to see an agreement in the next 48 hours in which case, middle class taxes will not go up. if that doesn't happen, then democrats in the senate will put a bill on the floor of the senate, and repub

and winston churchill warned roosevelt and america that, basically, something had to be done to stop hitler's u-boats in the war before, as he said it, america -- the sea would become america's cage, cutting off all commerce between the united states, england and europe. and so the president ordered them built in 1940, but the navy, um, decided that that was probably not a good idea. so they convinced the president that the scarce resources that were available at that time would be better spent on destroyers. and i think that if you look at the historical record, you'll see that that probably was a mistake. the destroyer escort is sort of a novel type of vessel. it's smaller than a destroyer, um, around 300 feet. and it had a shorter turning radius so that it could, it could essentially turn on a dime compared to a destroyer. so what they did is they escorted the convoys across the atlantic, and the convoys consisted of troop ships and supply ships for the war effort. but if they, if they made contact with a u-boat, they could break off, and then they could pursue that u-boat. when y

winston churchill used to say that we americans, we try every other option before we finally do the right thing. after everything else is exhausted, we eventually do the right thing. and i think that that's true for congress as well. and i think it's also important for americans to remember that politic has always been messy. people have been asking me a lot about the film "lincoln" and you know -- >> is this your "lincoln" moment? >> well no, look. a, i never compared myself to lincoln and b, the obviously the magnitude of the issues are quite different from civil war and slavery. the point is that democracy has always been messy. we're a big, diverse country. that is constantly sort of arguing about all kinds of stuff. but eventually we do the right thing. and in this situation, i'm confident that one of two things are going to happen when it comes to the fiscal cliff. number one, we're going to see an agreement in the next 48 hours in which case, middle class taxes will not go up. if that doesn't happen, then democrats in the senate will put a bill on the floor of the senate, and repub

selected to write -- complete the biography of winston churchill. >> next, we will look at debate and negotiations surrounding the so-called fiscal cliff. first, the date from the house floor on the proposed plan be followed by a press release after his -- after his plan was pulled from the floor and then president obama's remarks on the ongoing negotiations. now, some house debate concerning the fiscal cliff and john boehner's alternative that would have raised taxes on annual incomes of more than $1 million. this is about one hour. >> i'm not doing a sesame street skit here. this is what we're talking about. i think about planning a which is what the majority in the house of representatives has been trying to implement. it is very simply a plan designed to put into place that democrats and republicans say they support. that is meaningful, strong, bold plans for a simple, fair tax code. the president supports tax reform and taking the top from 25% to 30%. majoritysay we in the have been trying to put into place a real, meaningful tax reform that can ensure people can reduce rates and

. >> who your heroes president reagan an winston churchill. >>, by the way,bear gold barry a gold water he's the man that inspired ronald reagan. it wouldn't have been a reagan without the gold water. reagan is the one i know. i named my third child after ronald reagan. and i'm fighting for smaller government. reagan's most famous saying the nine worse words in the english language i'm from the government and i'm here to help. i think i honor him every day by fighting for smaller government. that's my biggest philosophy. it isn't greedy for the american people to keep more of their own men. the definition of greed is ask government steal it from the guy working and give it to you for isn't working. that's greed. someone has to be willing to say. entrepreneurers work longer hours strong jobs like government employees. we don't get summers off. we don't get weekends off. we don't get nights off. i go home and answer e-mails. in the morning i answer e-mail. on my birth someday and holiday. i work eight hours a day instead of the usual 16. it i deserve my money. i worked for my money. i ear