hillary clinton, laura bush, michelle obama, and milani trump and watch first ladies, in their own words saturdays at 2:00 p.m. eastern, on american history tv, on "c-span2", or listen to the series is a podcast monday cspan now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcast. c-spanshop.org is the cspan's online store, to her latest collection of cspan products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories and there's something for every cspan fan, and every purchase help support our nonprofit operations, shop now or anytime at cspan shop .org. >> we have a very modest subject, america and we have

some people who know a lot about it did so when we just start ong my far right with the cochair when the cheer of the new orleans, cochair. >> always be a cochair. [laughter] >> so walter,av and your observation of all of the people you have written about, and on the other people that you read about over the years, who t woud you say is the greatest american you've ever known. >> look, besides david. [laughter] it changes depending on the moment of history but at this moment, benjaminon franklin is e person who knew most unified different viewpoints, who could see across different disciplines see the patterns who understood the basic underlying values that would've meant to be an american and you helped bring the colonies together but also understood how to do a realistic dbalance of power, and if we we doing badly i think with ukraine

situation we are trying or not trying to create a deal balance with china and others. >> okay, so you have written books on steve jobs is reported that you're working on one with elon musk and you know bill gates he wrote a book about albert einstein and which of those four are smarter. >> elbert einstein. [laughter] [laughter] >> okay no doubt about it okay. >> will you write about poor people in any point. >> which one has a small seagull. >> my favorite onn the ego was henry kissinger, because he did not have any humility but along that ben franklin use' which is if you truly meet humility you just need the pretense of humility and have to learn to fake kids and kissinger at one point was looking at an audience like this, and i said i have never seen such a distinguished sea of faces since i last - at the hall of mirrors alone.

[laughter] >> tell everyone about about what he said after your book came out, some years later. >> many thanks. >> the one that is repeatable. >> will one of them was committee asked him how he writes about getting said, like the title i write the title. [laughter] >> but about 30 years later, what happened was, he didn't speak to me for a couple of years after the book but then i was at time magazine and we decided do an anniversary party inviting everybody on the cover of time and so he was invited and i didn't know if he would come by the phone rings and my sister said, it is henry kissinger on the line for you to pick up the phone and he said walter and my first reaction is, this is either henry kissinger or's reagan carter and he said,

even in the 30 years war has to hit us some points. [laughter] i'll come to your party. >> but his wife did not agree with him. >> he said but you know, nancy, she's partial to the 100 year warming may have to work on her. >> so who would you say is the greatest american. >> o-interjection lord, the greatest american presentism most certainly lincoln go second of fdr, because both confrontedx attentional crises and preserved the possibilities of democracy that we now once again peril as wel speak, and you knw the greatest american i have known is john robert lewis in alabama, great-grandson of an hoenslaved man, sharecropper son and who folks like me we quote

theatre parker, 19th century abolitionist who said the arc od a moral universe is long to restore justice but it has not been toward justice that there are people who insist that its organs on the bridge on three to rise and so many different places, the prison, they called destination do, after the freedom rise pretty he insisted that what we said in the declaration how do you be made. >> so john, you've obviously printed an important book on jefferson and can respond to the people why it is that jefferson wrote a second sensibly said somed would say we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal when his slaves a man say all men are created equal when he had all of the slaves, hundreds of them in was he thinking i'm going to be really mean. >> he could write a because he was a man, he was a human being

and was infallible like all of us inde lincoln said the declaration it was intended to create a maximum of an event in a revolutionary document, standard to which we could aspire. jefferson was unable to make his intellectual convictions triumph over his personal convenience and i don't mean, having about laura something like that, but a mean his entire order, his first memory was of being put on a horse onlo a pillow by an enslad person, that is the first thing to be remembered and some of his entire universe was shaped by this and nobody was more eloquent about it andrs jeffersn spoken needlepoint pillow terms like he was just that way. [laughter]r] not since isaac walters like

this book festival. [laughter] but kathy just threw up. [laughter] but he understood the tragedy of history because he understood the tragedy of human beings. so there was this gap between actual the real and were still trying to be slain this. >> he had an affair with a slave, sally hemmings and what was the unique attraction of sally hemmings because of the familiar background and why did he fall in love with her in your view. >> one or two things if i can just pick one, i am not sure affair is the right word is nowhere in a way of knowing about 11 this coming iss the longest relationship that he had incl his life with a woman including his mother and wife and i think the key factor is that sally hemmings, was thomas

jefferson's wife half-sister and only in louisiana is a totally expres' couple. [laughter] and so we thank you all. [laughter] and this gives us something. we don't know if there was a physical resemblance but she was his wife's sister to be awkward was the age of consent in those days. >> twelve. >> twenty real quick because this is been b a theme and wrote hemmings - >> he was much better book than mine. >> it is very interesting how she said, wrestling with this question is wrestling with what america has to wrestle with now about what we have had multiple views and so all of them addressing the jefferson in american history.

>> one question about this route as you read a book about winston churchill and roosevelt there's an infinite number of humorous stories about winston churchill the relationship with r roosevet and later one of the two of your famouson favorite winston churchill stories that his relationship with roosevelt. momente there is the where he's att deeply drunk whih just means that he was awake. [laughter] there wasn't a moment in the day where he didn't have somey sort of alcohol and breakfast he had johnny walker red, week one and he kept going any drink all day he drink champagne and brandy after dinner and hee hated franklin roosevelt cocktails is amazing or not all speaking german because fdr would make w these horrible martinis which you thank you so redundant.

[laughter] three quarters removed and one quarter check so churchill for them out in the plant outside the study central room on the second for the white house and in the plant died. [laughter] the raceway of course is on today discover 26, 1941, joe was dictating a speech that day to the house of representatives he's going is would be a remarkable speech and he was in his bathtub and churchill wrote in talked and he dictated everything. sounds like him so he gets up out of the top and he is still going is marching around in all of his glory is not, nor is fdr and is questioned by arthur - and his allies and churchill roosevelt sees the entirely naked winston churchill there and he said i'm sorry come back and churchill said, no

mr. president, as you can see i have nothing to hide from you. [laughter] t and so bush and blair reagan might not have been charming but is a great story. >> and the privilege of being moderate to be my favorite churchill story, which on the house of commons and he is in the men's room and is a standing in front of the urinal, the often opposition leading party the socialist party comes and stands next to him and quickly he walks away and he said with the matter, are you afraid sitting next to the opposition party and he said is nothing, just that hmc something big, you want to nationalize it. [laughter] [laughter] >> that's right. >> okay, so there's t a little thing of masculinity here is the theme here. >> your book on the so-called spanish flu, wasn't really the

spanish flu, one of the code the spanish flu. >> because that's when the world was at war europe was at work, and they had press controls and they didn't want to say anything that was negative so they didn't write about the states for a lot of people got sick in the first wave which was not lethal but very a lot of more vivid morbidity and the press runabout it printed so they got the name spanish flu. >> so in this particular coronavirus episode, it had tragedy and we were told there were three things we should do for sure, when is wash her hands, one is wearing masking, and three, socially distance work this things different then what they were told 100 years ago our were those the same things. >> pretty much the same things out actually, think washing hands turns out not to be

particular - offer some diseases but for covid-19, not particularly, more important for influenza. >> in this particular coronavirus tragedy, we have had earlier told by our public officials all of the time that you do this do that, what was told it to the american public in a time of the virus. >> will again because we were at war initially, nothing. people were told that this is ordinary influenza by another name and that's coming from the national public health leaders is essentially zero national leadership in most localities, and they are code and remember that an army base outside little rock, where he quoted a physician know that we have thousands sick, there's nothing here but death and destruction in little rock, newspaper almost

on the same day as saying, the spanish flu is the same old fever and chills and try to be totally dismissive of it. some around me sortt of have to belief systems of there's the majority sold majority of the american people who believe in the public health advice. we've a distinction and significant minority believes something else and in 1918, there was just chaos is much more lethal disease, the most vulnerable population and was actually children under the age of ten, and then young adults pretty late in their 20s and 30s. tubing told this is ordinary are goingwhen people sometimes within 24 hours, that's just spread chaos and fear which is something that we have not really experienced this with the exception of that very

early days when there's quite a known that's what we were facing. >> so what year did your book about. >> 2004. >> so we came out in 2004, handsome that it didn't go to number one bestseller list. >> not number one but never seven. [laughter] >> nothing were keeping track. [laughter] >> you never look at the amazon line. >> somebody calling up every hour on the hour sing what you think and so when a coronavirus, tragedy, when all of a sudden to people think you were jesus for having written the smoking was your next book going to be on mac. >> will we are in louisiana many are probably familiar with another book called rising tide and. [applause] [applause] i was actually working on a book

on everything that has gone into taking louisiana coast the disaster by everything, i just finished a section about 120 pages, on the missouri river and hundred million tons of sediment but anyway come i put that aside to write a book on covid-19. i told my publisher that i was not going to raise with anybody to publish. a lot of books already else and frankly almost all of them are very good books and told my publisher they research systems assistance so i hope f mine will come out a few years so it was, newsweek running about compared to being ajo journalist because kyou can write it every day is that if you work on it for years you don't know if it would work

pretty. >> let me correct just to say that face write a lot and was mingling but i never worked for them but for me, and editors who are is in charge but when you write for a magazine or a newspaper, they are the boss like if you write a book, you are.e. >> is a lot like private equity. [laughter] >> you know back when i did my first book, he was with a close friend of john's, evan thomas, we were time magazine it was in the previous century, when the internet had not yet come about and so you mid-seventies, which only really work two days, thinking party in the compress everything that you did to one page so is it, let's write a

book and the ability to tell the narrative and until,. >> did you ever to complaints from people who thought they should get it didn't get it. >> there's a lot, well the problem with that as thoughn it was supposed to be the person who most influence in history therefore, ayatollah khomeini good when it had at a certain point it became so controversial that for example when 911 happened, so i think that it lost a great time as well, used to havebo these battles over how to do it. >> let's talk about creativity for mom and a major part in people's success of would says our creativity in our ability to revisit ourselves and it have incredible inventions and if you studied unit people

are you so interested in that area and was a key to being a very creative person. >> what youmul know, john and i thinknt particular come in a lot of smart people in lives and it occurred to us that smart people are driving dozen and really creative thinking out-of-the-box and so i like looking at what is it that makes about a creative, the basic ingredients, you just have to start with pure curiosity if you look at ben franklin, young right, he's lowering barrels to these just curious about the gulfstream read jennifer down my latest subject and she looks at why do bacteria have repeated sequences in their dna and ben franklin and and another one, two people history dementia, curious to try to know everything you could

possibly know about every subject that was knowable. >> is more fun or harder to write about smitty's dinner alive. >> good god come up visibly is been data special yes, after kissinger, i'm going to do so many who's been dead for 250 years of us what went franklin after doing steve jobs, and dealing with that, is like okay, 500 years and i went to leonardo. [laughter] >> john lewis, that was a glorious book but thatbe was without mass because you knew he was dying. >> so much easier john generalize. >> oh dead. [laughter] mainly because of barbara bush president bush was away sweep of barbara - i saw stars. >> the apple does not fall far from the tree.

[laughter] so i started to do the book about george walker bush, and 17 years and supposedly posthumous but he would not die image and because he not going to do it. [laughter] and the chiquita doing his voice is that mr. rogers trying to be john wayne. [laughter] and i'm trying to get this in the bloodstream horn one of the best tweets of all time was like the best restaurant in the i realized that. [laughter] somebody so he wrote that if mrd a one night stand, i would have resulted. [laughter] as it is a a good thing then dos is a little tricky smacking the interesting thing about dead or alive is that you know, david

was incredibly close to bush's but wishing it was not the most reflective guy verbally. but the plea but he had a hard time in english is not a strong suit hand and was headed late the 88 campaign, the undecided could go one way or another is what he said. [laughter] thank you mr. present for that. [laughter] but what he did do i think walter had this experience about donnelly write about deadly natural disasters so there's blood coming on the next thing to write about, the book of exodus, john barry, that is that g i was able my spinning time wh him, i was unable to imagine as we go back in, to the oval office into the various moments, and have a better sense of actually what was like in the room to understand what he

looked like. >> did you tell you in advance about the eulogy. >> i did not. >> after the book but before he died. >> walter, if you can interview nebraska question to the people knowli i leonardo bridgman franklin einstein, who would you most want to be with my question would you want to ask them. >> franklin is a you most want to hang around with want to show them off in the new devices will then farmers daughters and think we should do now but, to me leonardo great mystery just like mona lisa where there's no sharp linesth everything is lord with him, a it's always slightly bluy and i would look just like to go

down with him on and how he just loved every subjecten imaginable he thought of himself as an engineer and a scientist not as an artist, if you could interview raven dinner with anybody dinner like, who would you like to ask will join test them. >> bliss raises an interesting theological question about dead or alive but of all of the night, i would most want to go back to have access to all of the players, it would be passover in the common error in the last supper, the crucifixion and to what extent, did the people in real time and as part of the historical events, understand phone call, their largest significance or was it just a quick seder that went bad. so that iss the main thing. >> that would be an easy

interview. >> will i would have to printed had red lettersso but yeah. >> what is most important lesson you learn from covid-19. >> will the same one from 1918, which is to tell the truth. recent study of 177's country, ones that have been the best, the ones with them some trust both institutions between individuals and i think that trust in society ultimately is based on trust and when that begins to evaporate, society begins to pray. and somebody very sober serious scientist not given an overstatement, at the university of michigan medical school set at the peak of the pandemic,

that at this rate of acceleration come assimilation canr easily disappear from the face of the earth and is talking about the chaos that have developed because of the fear because people were being lied to and had no idea what the truth was they just knew that they were beingt lied to and kinda forced them and everybody to rely on his or her own families and so there was a beginning of a disintegration almost. >> since you wrote about the virus the first bars we had in writing a book about this one presumably this would've been - if you got it also would you make do tobe make sure that you never know the virus didre you take extra precautions you want to make sure the nobody theft that you want an expert. >> i don't think it anything that a lot of people in this audience didn't do, i actually continue to live my life.

i live in a car door which is closed down but i found a place where i could get coffee every morning my wife and i would walk there. we did not wear a mask when i was outside and never for massless outside right i still wear a mask if i am inside. and i look at the local conditions, case counts and hospitalizations and so forth. to determine whate and when if i plan to have dinner inside a restaurant tomorrow for the first time in a while i want to say something else about creativity. because i have thought about this a lot, creative people seem to have aside from number one incredible producing anything incredible persistence pretty they seem to have a vertical and horizontal vision to allow them to drive really deeply down into

the subject and horizontal vision of so they can see connections between things that are the people do not see. i think in james said that be one of those on whom nothing is lost. one of the keys to creativity and then tsti eliot talk about concentration without elimination. viewing the world that way i think those are important things. >> john you've written a lot about religion in united states what you think thel appeal of receded compared to what it was 100 years ago in the united states and if you think that it might is a less than in your report seems to be very much in recession. >> that is a great question on and i think that part of it is the religious institutions have proven to be frail and subject

to corruption and failure is a secular institution and i think that if you look at the demography, you're much more likely if you're under say 35, to bele what is called the risef the nuns pretty not the sound of music but in oh and is that you're not affiliated at all but an interesting spectrum have that which is snr, spiritual, not religious. and so my sense is that the fundamental humans and polls for meanings connections, both horizontally and vertical and horizontal connection tends to t lead to a vertical questioning. that is perennial, the religious faith has survived the church's

worst moments survived darwin and survived the scientific revolution and overused phrase, we are a kind of inflection points demographically there's only six of us left. [laughter] i'm an episcopalian, the probablyob all here and yes, soe have a quorum and we could vote on something. [laughter] belligerently, graphics for the episcopal church which is produce more american business than any other denomination for what it's worth. means that we might not exist as an operating enterprise in the next 50 years printed i was at dinner l last night with that ly deacon in the roman catholic church in columbus ohio who they have p a, 140 parishes in frankn county ohio, and 60 briefs huge

institutional pressures in my own view and one of the reasons that i wrote to john lewis book which you were very kind about, was that i do not think it is useful to try to push religion of the public square. i think that it needs be managed and marshall because it's an eight if i try to push economics outer geography or partisanship. >> american souls and what he think it is that people say and prepared to die for their country not prepared to die for the faith of the city for the school, what is it about a country that makes people want to die for it. >> well, ily think that usually caimportance part of story becae when thomas jefferson talked about my country, he meant virginia. so from dz united states the

shift is the united states and take those two letters off right and really the united states, was not really a feature are a common feature until after the civil war and i think that there is a for the difference between devotion to union and to ideals is very complicated. i'll just say the united states is always done best when we have focused on to go back to where we started, we focused on making it that the most important sentence ever rendered in english, and a little careful about that like the texas candidate who was speaking spanish to the public schools and soon simple dayor and if

english was good enough for the lord jesus christ, is good for us. [laughter] but. [laughter] when debbie was governor until the story hee said is pretty funny bleep anyway, beautiful friendship. [laughter] >> some of her, this is called the new orleans book festival, once you call it the new orleans magazine, newspaper, twitter festival than what is it about bookss the must you to have your name behind and why are you so interested in books. >> hello institutions, things that exist other than you going to university in new orleans, and a book is an embodiment if that it is something that you put down and not just an additive or we would say you only have to be correct for a

weekend so i think a book, it is interesting that everything is been decimated by the digital age except for books, they're still selling there is a need for some permanence as we hand the wisdom down at the university we gather the wisdom and created in the book you put the island - >> for the students, if you read a book and focuses your brain much more than reading a tweet and i think that if you're really going to develop your brain and ability to thinking, the most important thing is a student and as a person, i think the books help to focus the brain and make you go from the beginning to the end and actually get your thought process and you get much more out of a book and to be able to recently l. >> this an important point which really profound like a rabbit hyper link all over the book is a narrative and source at the beginning and it takes you by the hand to an argument or tail

the bible has the lead and invest lead it within the beginning, but it helps you shape ideas and that's why it is a special book. >> i don't know if we have time for questions and the audience okay, so we have people walking around with the microphones in this out before going to do an okay. >> there's a microphone there. >> who has a question, raise your hand, there is one here and there and just jump up to the microphone. >> there is a microphone coming to you. >> before she assess, created aspen ideas festival in the famous rip off of it. [laughter] thank you for coming. >> pulled her a few minutes ago i said that i still work for you. >> i heard that and we all work for walter. [laughter] >> super john, john john

meacham, you've written hundred written an amazing book given to people because for me, he eliminated hope that we have been through this before but today you alluded to when a pretty dark time i'm just curious that if you still think that we can make it half of the abyss that we seem to on,. >> yes, i do and that book grew out of walters i'm a moderate nancy gibbs called me on sunday and said one of walter successors and to write a piece about moments of extremism and domestic political violence and it ultimately became the book and so i'm always critical for that and so look at, is a terrible time but i have never

in five years or four years since i wrote it, i have never had a black person or a woman and someone is not quite of a boring southern episcopalian which is me, say this is the worst time ever because 50 years ago,ge george wallace 113.5 percent of the vote carried five states, there was 50 years and on one years ago more than half of the audience was enfranchised before the 19th amendment and so, in this notion that i sometimes think of this as bring me into the present of portland and of course our problems are consuming in my argument is that if wehi think historically, suny erkind of not

trying to offer you literary saucier but i do think that proportion creates more room for hope and so is not as though the was a once upon a time and suddenly the election happening in the world ended, during the 2016 election was representing of the interesting it victory of perennial and i would argue destructive but it surely perennial forces in american life.. and anybody who wants to say that this is not who we are, does not know anything because of course it is who we are and the point of the country is to try to not be that 51 percent of the time. i think we are doing that right now actually, 93 united states senators, and something like 65 federal judges, the supreme court of the united states, they

may have savedt the republicans, he and mike pence. but what if the supreme court had taken one of the voter fraud cases and just kicked it back and said were creating chaos that would flow through the inauguration date and who knows what would have happened but don't rule of law actually worked and it is directed and where to find out more and more about january 6 and we have never an american president and never really occurred to the predecessors to say will a loss and i'm just going to lie about it and that is different and that is new and we have to confront that. we live in a country where it's really only about 55 years old and i would argue is not 1619, that interesting thing about this, the america we live in right now, really only came into being in 1965.

first integrated electric was 1968, innovation nationally act of 1955, under the 1924 immigration laws which is what fdr and others used to justify ringing and more refugees from germany and 65 is the inflection point so we've only been doing this for 50 years. >> next right here. to say that the three of you have written books that i have enjoyed immensely and really made you think i think that's the idea no one thank you for that endbu of the candid representatives the book that i read most recently as mr. isaacson's, the code breaker that i just want tokn ask you nt know that you are an optimistic person and at the end of your bucket, the heroic scientist who was on the frontlines and also the cutting edge and you thought they would be recognizes heroes

that what we see instead is this demonizing scientism especially the people in the white coat telling us supposedly how to live our lives and are you surprised by that are maybe do soso either i take. >> i think there arest about 20 percent of the most this country who demonize the scientist and the rest of us, are totally amazed that they were able to take a molecule of rna and reprogram it and make a spike protein this simulate and now it means that we can be sitting in his room c without fearing covid-19. [applause] [applause] and i think that if you ask thomas jefferson and ben franklin, about people's skeptical signs that would've thought you were wealthy studied anatomy and they studied newton's laws the checks and f balances of newton's laws and finding their way into an enlightenment constitution and it's incumbent upon each one of us especially those of us who

are not scientist to appreciate the beauty of science when hate isis in the people in the audience, will they say that i don't understand science i don't like doing it this like single i don't understand music i don't understand - and science is not just all sorts of formulas and a dbow, it is a way of looking at the world in which you have come up with ideas and you test those ideas based on fact and then you revise your theories based on the evidence that you haven't that's what we have lost and a lot of america today is not just respecting people in white coats, by keeping an open mind and saying; the evidence before i come up with a new theory. >> go ahead and next. >> my question is mainly for jon meacham who ice to work for and i may have misunderstood the

theories and valued in america so i wanted to ask you both as former editors of major newsmagazines, what if anything, should be responsible mainstream media be doing to combat the coarsening or discourse in the country. >> in - thank you, we caught that his desk this week so he was the nerve center of the operation and the correspondence. i spent more time talking to dave and their spousesin which explains the divorce rate i think. [laughter] in the group. i think it is a stress test for anybody with platform and, you touch a nerve with a nerve with

me because, joe biden is my friend i help him when i can i'm not a democrat but i believe that his successes the countries success. .. has not been commensurate to the scale of the challenge facing the country. it's almost as it's almost as though a lot of folks who are our friends and colleagues want this to be 1987 and bob dole in george. mitchell are on capital gain. and it's not that. this is more serious. i don't really believe the polls that say 61% or whatever a republicans think the election was stolen. think they're probably just poking the pollster a bit, but let's say it's 40% of a great party that thinks that in that kind of climate i think that

reflective. objectivity is something that has to be seriously examined? okay, let me just for all of you before we get the next question for writers who are watching. what's the best way you can summarize on how to overcome writer's block? you ever have writer's block. how do you ever come in? actually, i use a chess clock. and i get us fixed or i did i don't do it anymore and it fixed amount of time that i have to sit at the desk. look at. typewriter computer and even if i'm not writing anything that the time is moving, but if i get up if i answer the phone i hit the plunger eventually out of boredom. if i'm sitting there and counting that time something is going to go down. and so that's your secret. okay, how do you overcome writers block? whatever happened anthony trollope that was trial of slice. he rode back and forth to his job on the railroad and he would

have to write 2,000 words a day. i used nicotine. which is children, don't don't listen to this close your ears, but i i said a certain number of words and then i can have a cigar and i can't have it until i write that number of work. okay, so it's the current stick approach or carrot and cigar approach? yes. yeah not to compare to leonardo. but an artist like leonardo when he got stumped would keep sketching it out keep refining it and so i have an outline of what i want to write and sometimes i'm really rolling well and type and well, but if not, i just keep refining the outline. yeah, so some great writers like >> hemingway or james joyce, they tidrive a lot of alcohol. tdoes writers drink alcohol your so-called make you a better writer ? >> only in new orleans. >> i think bob and tennessee

williams drank a little bit too much in drank a bit but after a whileit was a problem . >> go ahead, speak up. >> my next question is for john barry. you wrote the book on roger williams and the title also included a reference to the fellowship of america and i was wondering how the issues in that book would resonate today and with the discussions we're talking about? >> tank uses an. a friend of mine, wanted to get me into the conversation. that book actually began with a book on the homefront, world war i. and i had planned to, and

identified certain characters that were going to and culminated since 1919, a very difficult any young american history, one of the characters i was going to follow his billy sunday and just doing due diligence, on billy sunday i started going back to the beginning of the argument over church and state and the role of politics and so forth and so on. i discovered if you change the grammar of the argument between john winthrop and roger williams, winthrop is of course the guy that said sitting on a hill, that that was exactly the same argument that we are having today. so things don't change, people don't change. love you of whether we are a

christian nation are not that that has gone back to the very beginning of american history. >> two of you live in new orleans and one lives in tennessee so does living in the south help you be a better writer ? >> yes. >> all right. and walter, you live in the nation's capital. do you think the country would be better off if new orleans was the nation's capital ? >> no. >> we are out of our time so thank you very much. [applause] >> american history tv

saturdays on c-span2. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. 2 pm eastern on the presidency part seven of our eight part series firstladies in their own words . we will look at the role of the first lady, their time in the white house and the issues important to them. this week will feature michelle obama. >> with every action we take, every word we utter we think about the millions of children are watching us. who hang on to our every word . looking to us to show themwho they can and should be . and that's why every day, we try to be the kind of people, the kind of leaders test your children deserve, whether you agree with ourpolitics or not . >> 2:45 the white house historical association hosted a conference on the american presidency focusing on topics such as history and civic engagement, digital history, first ladies impact and

influence and interpreting slavery and race at historic sites. exploring the american story, watch american history tv on c-span2 and find a full schedule in your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington. keep up with today's biggest events with live streams of proceedings with hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, courts, campaigns and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal of life handling information for rtd networks and c-span radio plus a variety ofcompelling podcasts . we are available at the apple store, google play. download for free today . proceed to washington