good evening. tonight story is up lou henry hoover. 1929-1933 and what an interesting life she had. lifeto tell us about the she led before the white house is a net dunlap. .- annette dunlap she is working on a biography of lou henry hoover. what interested you in looking at this woman? annette: i got interested in her when talking with a friend of mine in canton, ohio. when i started looking at lou, i realized this woman story had not been fully told. there were so many layers of her. legacy for women in particular, even today, that i would like to see more people know about. susan: let's talk about her growing up years. she was born in whether luke, iowa. her father wanted a boy. "lou" whiche name

is not short for a female name. he raised her as a tomboy. one of her early pictures is with her father fishing at a stream. we have a picture of her carrying a rifle on top of it -- a burro. she had great joy in being outdoors. susan: how does that translate into her grown-up years? annette: she stayed fascinated with the outdoors her entire life. her decision to study geology at stanford university is an outgrowth of that. even as late as her night -- as her 60's, we have material of her going on a camping trip at the age of 63. she slept on the ground and rode into camp on horseback. her other camp mates slept in tents. susan: from a public policy

perspective, she also spent much of her years encouraging other young women to incorporate the outdoors and physical activity into their lives. , she wantedust her those benefits for other women. annette: there started to be some interest in women being more physically active. she took it to the next set. there were two areas where she got involved. with the girl scouts. an opportunity for her to promote a lot of outdoor activity. what we would call today camping, hiking, learning how to build a campfire and cook outdoors. enjoying the outdoors. the other party was involved in amateur the national athletics foundation, the women's division to make sure that physical activity for women was appropriate. not just something for men that women did. annette: we hope you have been

following -- susan: we hope you have been following along with us on this series. you can join the conversation. our phone numbers will be on the screen throughout the program. you can also tweet us and we will work as many tweets into the program as we camp. we also have a facebook conversation going on the c-span facebook page. you will see the henry huber hoover picturery and the conversation going on be -- beneath that. how did she get from iowa to california. annette: her father was in banking and he was a banker in waterloo. this is in the days before you the federal reserve or federal deposit insurance and so banks did not necessarily succeed. they went up and down with the economy and with the farm economy. her father charles was looking

for other opportunities and he was given the opportunity to, and start a bank in whittier, california. at the time that they moved, in 1887, they were building a brand-new community. it had been founded by the quakers. they said they were open to any fair-minded people of any religion. the connection among presidents. whittier, california, that quaker community being established. many years later, there would be a home for richard nixon there. he was also a quaker. there is a connection between these two first families. we have a video for you and we will be back to talk more about her life. [video clip] her father had always wanted a boy. she waswhy we think named lou. it is not short for anything. as a result of that, he takes becomes and she

.omboy of the era she learns how to shoot and fish and they go camping. she is learning about the outdoors and loving it. this is a 1914, 22 rifle that was owned i lou. what i love about that is that there is a photograph of her on top of this mule looking pretty rough and tough and then she has a gun right there. meis very annie oakley to which is that type of era and independent girl. one of lou's most famous essays was probably -- independent girl. it was written in january 1980. the last line of assessment -- -- the very last line of it is sooner or later he will meet a spirit equal to her own and there will either be a clash or

they will unite forces with combined strength to go forth and meet the world. i think she means that person with herbert hoover. this is her diary from 1891 to 1892. this is when she was at college talking about different classes she was taking. abouting she talks a lot his her bought me classes and going hiking. classes.r botany palmerers here -- miss and i were a good match for climbing. we beat the others all to pieces. we found a lot of flowers including prisoner -- primroses as well as lizards and frogs. as part of that class, there were also sketches of flowers. this is lose a sketchbook. lou'sare -- this is sketchbook with flowers and

butterflies. there is also the latin name. lou does not write about herself necessarily but she writes about her experiences in her life. she is a highly educated woman at this time. . -- at thiss time time period. parents were very open-minded. if she wanted to learn something they encouraged that. we were commenting as we were watching the photographs thatbout how full of life comes through in these photographs. everyone you look at she is smiling. her decision to study geology and to go to stanford, a cop -- a viewer on twitter writes s this

annette: it was very unusual. we are not sure if she was not the first person -- the first woman to get a geology degree in the country. students went out on a field trip and she was not allowed to go. because she was a woman. knowing how much he loved the outdoors and some of the field trip she had taken at normal school, which was the teacher training school she went to before she went to stanford, i can imagine how upset she was. susan: she graduated with a degree, and that is unheard of for women to have a degree. were there any jobs? annette: no. she sends a letter to her friend evelyn white about three weeks after she graduated from stanford and she said -- here i which is the latin

for bachelor of arts and she says she wishes it would stand for -- a boy. susan: how did her relationship with herbert hoover develop? annette: herbert was a senior at the time that lou started. lou was six months older. he was a lab assistant in the lab of dr. john boehner. he had delivered a lecture on geology which had inspired lou to apply to stanford and study there. he took an instant liking to her. he writes about her whimsical smile, her laughing blue eyes, and what an intelligent and delightful young woman that she was. the 4 -- the part that i find so humorous is that i believe she needed some assistance.

he was also an eye when and -- iowan and a quaker. there were connections. susan: what happened to their relationship after stamford? there were a lot of letters and a strong connection. his job took in two nevada and then to australia. he was working in australia and they were continuing to communicate. he was then offered a position in china. and at her a telegram telegram went through the post office and the post office's all the names lou and bert. it was not a formal proposal, it just said --heading to china, will you join me? postmaster posted it on the bulletin board for everyone to see. susan: that is like putting it on the internet today. annette: it was an invasion of privacy. susan: her nickname for him was

bert. robust website for this series and we hope you found it. it is that c-span.org/first ladies. if you go online to date you can see lou henry's ba degree from stanford university. it did not serve her well on the job market but did introduce her to a life-changing partner. she said yes to china. when did they go to china and what was it like? annette: they went to china the day after they got married. married february 10, 1899. they were heading off to china on a steamer the next day. they spent a few days in japan and then they were there when the boxer rebellion a occurred. didn: tiffany wrote -- their time in china influence their public policies for the white house? annette: i think their time in

travel weret their probably also influenced them. they saw what it was like to be in countries where freedom had been taken from people. susan: what influenced their joint philosophies? what about them in their development lead them to view the world in that way? i don't know if they had that view when they started because they were in china during the boxer rebellion, they were in europe during the outbreak of world war i. they had lived in countries where people's freedoms had been curtailed. -- andicans and being feeling strongly about individual freedoms and then visiting countries where people did not enjoy the same freedoms, they realized those freedoms

were important. they acquired quite a bit of wealth and were very successful in their chosen fields. they were multimillionaires by 1914. was a the boxer rebellion protest against foreign influence in china. was their life threatens while they were there? annette: yes. a were under siege. they had barricades. lou went out and manned the barricades. she was involved with the red to eight people. she was sitting in their house one day when a bullet came through the front door and she pulled out a deck of cards and started playing solitaire. susan: to calm herself down. but also, it did not faze her. she also wrote a letter to a friend and said that you have missed the was exciting summer, you should have been here. we have a graphic i want

to put on the screen because it shows the breadth of their travels. we mentioned stanford. and then china. and then he was posted in london which put them in the middle of the lead up to world war i. and then he took a job as part of the commission for the relief of belgium. later on, as head of the u.s. food administration which became reliefd of the administration after world war i. he then served as secretary of commerce under harding and coolidge. -- i have read that she was a globetrotter? what other parts of the world that they see? cambodia, a went back to australia together. they traveled in the countries of north africa. in the middle east. they were also in russia.

that was just the short list. time beforeg this the white house, they also published together. published a couple of pieces on geology on her own. one of them was a biography of john milton who created the seismograph to measure the severity of earthquakes. the work that they did together was the translation of a 16th century treatise on mining. it was written in latin. it had a lot of technical latin terms. lou had studied latin. they also used a professional translator. that book one and award. the first award given by the association for mining and metallurgy. herbert was a member of that association but lou was not. she is the one who gave the remarks and accepted the metal. a call from take

david and the we will look at a video of some the things that they collected during their world travel. david is from chicago. ask thei just wanted to panelist about lose relationship with the white house staff. i read lillian parks book. it did not portray mrs. hoover nice person. apparently, she and the president did not speak to any of the white house staff. -- like theyd them did not speak to the staff. other places that mrs. hoover would communicate using hand signals which drove the white house staff crazy because they did not understand what she was asking for. on the one hand, she was a compassionate woman. from whater hand, i've read, she was not very nice to the white house staff. susan: thank you. let's find out how they -- how

she approached the white house staff. goodte: that is a very question and there is a lot of material out there that supports what he raises. have thee things we look at as historians is when did that material come out. in readingchallenges anything about the hoovers, especially if it came out while the roosevelt were in office, there was such a norm is anti-hoover sentiment that people actually had onortunities to capitalize an anti-hoover message. some of the information is something we need to look at more carefully. what we do know is that the movers paid several white house staff members out of their own funds. they nature that all of their staff 83 meals a day and were able to keep their jobs. it is a mixed message about what was going on in the white house.

it needs to be looked at more carefully. susan: katherine on facebook asks -- what were her opinions about the women's suffrage movement? annette: we do not have any evidence of her being actively involved that she wrote an interesting thing when she was 15 years old in support of severed as a teenager talking about the fact that she did not think it was right that women should be classified in the same category as jailbirds and convict. in other words, being denied the right to vote. people who had been convicted could not vote. she was very much in favor of seeing women get the right to vote but she was not an active project. agette.r annette: she did believe in equality between men and women. some ofet's show you

the items they collected from their travels around the world. [video clip] one of the things that lou was chinese porcelains. the blue and white. they tended to focus on the ming . -- the ming period. they started collecting these porcelains when they were living in china. they developed the best collection in the united states of chinese porcelains. learned to speak chinese living in china, she researched each of the artists, and each of the pieces and places they were made. they were continuously trading these. they had as many as 400 at one time. they were trying to get sets. while in london, lou collected pewter.

here are some pieces of british would've been used for various teapots and things. the collecting of these does not seem to go beyond 1920. we have a large number of these. about 50 in our collection. one of the most unique things that she collected, throughout her travel, she wanted to collect something that was representative of the places they visited. she started collecting weapons. boomerangscouple of that they got in australia. we're pretty sure this is an indonesian piece. of -- iit had some sort think it was some sort of a weapon. i think it could do a lot of damage to someone. then, there are other

various pieces -- here is a day and that, a dagger with a -- bayonet and a dagger. while that video was going on, we brought another guest to our set. let me introduce you to emily china. syriana political horse -- political historian. he was the republicans choice for president in 1928. set the scene for us about what the country was like during that election. emily: the american economy had been growing in leaps and down through the 1920's. herbert hoover had been this incredibly prominent secretary of commerce. hadwords -- to hooverize

come into the language. there were a lot of expectations and there was hope that he was the great humanitarian. he was the great engineer. he is able to get the nomination in 1928. partly from the reputation that he had built up during his service in world war i at -- as well as secretary of commerce and the relief effort that he managed in 1927 with the great mississippi flood. periodthis is a time when the mass media is starting to come into play. how did that affect his popularity with the public? annette: he got a lot of coverage. there were newsreels when they got ready to begin to push for nomination.an he had a film made called -- master of emergencies to show how competent and capable he was. media was very important in getting his name, and his

picture and what he had accomplished in front of the public. susan: what was the election like? it was a landslide. he win 60% of the vote. which thelection in opposing side, the democrats had nominated al smith. the first catholic to be nominated as candidate for a national major party. herbert hoover in a way was the beneficiary of a divide that happened on the democratic side where all smith is essentially opposed from within because of his catholicism. hisly concerns about position on prohibition and the like. hoover escaped an internal battle and it shows at the polls. anan: he came in with overwhelmingly republican congress. both houses by a large majority.

how involved with lou henry hoover in the campaign? annette: she was extremely involved. she went with him on all of his appearances. she was very visible. part of the press that was out at the time in conjunction with housman being the democratic nominee was that his wife was from the lower east side of new york. there were comparisons of this woman who was not that knowledgeable or sophisticated which would have been katy smith, how smith wife versus lou henry hoover who was a graduate of stanford, had traveled the world, and was a sophisticated woman. she had already achieved national prominence on her own. susan: michael, you are on. caller: i just wanted to comment. mrs. hoover seemed very unorthodox for the late 1920's and early 1930's. she seemed way ahead of her time. i think she was eclipsed by

eleanor roosevelt and maybe later i the glamour of jackie kennedy. she has kind of been forgotten. i was curious if any of you all know how she was perceived at the time of her reign as first lady by the press and the public. also, the depression colored peoples view of her tenure. annette: when she came into office it was with the same expectations and enthusiasm that had greeted burts coming into office. there was a lot expected from this couple. lou had been involved nationally with the girl scouts. she had been involved with the national athletic amateur federation, the women's conference. was very well-known.

one of the things that she did she was unorthodox in other ways. -- she not have inherited grace coolidge's social secretary. she wanted lou to learn how to do things the washington society way. lou did not want to do things that way. those two parted company after one year and lou did not hire another social secretary. she did introduce a lot of changes. she was very unorthodox. susan: you know what they're an inauguration looked at like? did they have a ball? annette: it was pouring rain that day. they got soaked in the actual ceremony and in watching the parade. they did not attend the ball.

vice president curtis and his sister-in-law served as his hostess and they attended the ball that evening. it was considered a charity ball, not what we would think about today as an inaugural ball. i do not know what charity it was for. i will tweet that after i find out. jordan.ello of thisi am a big fan series and i know all about the presidents. herbert hoover. my question is about them -- what was her favorite activity she did in the white house? annette: i am not sure there was just one. i will have to pick two. as far as in the white house, one would be taking care of the gardens. part of loving the outdoors and the other was that she was very interested in chronicling the history of the furniture and the decoration of the white house. susan: how long were they in

white -- how long were they in the white house before the stock market crash? annetteemily: eight months. there were symbols. they were inaugurated in march at that time, not in january as today. there had been a little bit of financial volatility that had been sorted out by some major bankers in new york getting together and making sure that the stock market was back on track. economic depression in agriculture that had been going on since the end of world war i. there were some bad economic signals in the air. certainly, no one expected what happened on october 24. the stock market stumbled. it seemed to regroup a little

bit the next day. thatr makes a statement the basis of the american economy is sound. he is trying to install confidence. following tuesday, october 29, black tuesday, the stock market crashed. susan: before we get into the white house and the depression, we missed a story that i do not want to leave on the table and that is during her first months experienceshe had a with an african-american. annette: it was common for the first lady to have tea for the wives of the members of congress. in previous administrations, it was usually one t where all of the wives came for one event and it was over. in the same year that hoover was elected, 19 28, chicago elected

an african-american congressman by the name of oscar depriest. he was the first african-american to get elected to congress. the issue arose about what to do regarding inviting this is depriest to one of the tease. to instructed her secretary have a discussion with the political side and how can this be handled. one of the decisions that lou made early on was that instead of having one large t where all of the spouses came out one time, to break it into six teas where each group of congressional wives were selected. behind what was going on the scenes was that particular wives who they thought might not be offended at having att with an african-american woman. in the meantime, as they were preparing for it, herbert

invites the president of tuskegee institute to come and join him for a meeting at the white house. that raised no eyebrows are questions even though there had not been an african-american to meet with the president since booker t. washington had met with theater roosevelt. 6, which is the day lou sends afth t, private invitation to mrs. on june 12. a tea congressmannd the publicizes this and it gets a lot of attention. everything seems to be ok. and then, a week later, representative depriest hosts a a fundraiser for the naacp and all of a sudden, the southern delegations and the southern state legislatures

getting that this is out of hand. this is all because mrs. hoover has had an african-american to the white house. the entire summer, she had censure and threats. there was also a threat on the part of southern members of congress to censure mrs. hoover in the congress. it becomes quite a brouhaha throughout the summer. of thein the early parts 20th century, it is a precarious time for african-americans. how did this affect their fate and future over the next few years? emily: it was a difficult situation because traditionally the republican party is the party of abraham lincoln, civil rights, the party that african-americans vote for. herbert hoover in 1928 had actually broken into what until that point harding had made

slight inroads into it, but hoover 15 state in what had been inidly democratic state 1928. on the one hand, he was trying to balance expectations of -- we are the party of lincoln and we have a heritage of civil rights potentiallyg to see some inroads that we could be south which is solidly democratic territory. herbert and lou have to negotiate the aftereffects of because it has substantial political effects. havert is not necessarily a good presence in the congress. are republican organizations in the south that

are trying to become competitive -- they are not very happy about what has happened. it is ane hand, positive gesture that lou and herbert do and on the other hand, they do not necessarily maintain momentum beyond it. susan: since this caused fracture within congress, when he needed them after the depression hit, did it have political ramifications? of a largers part picture of difficulties that herbert hoover has with the --gress, with the republican in 1928, he had a unified congress but in 1930 that was different. the problem is that herbert hoover is not a politician. he has risen to the heights of secretary of commerce and then

as president without ever having held elected office. before, the only other presidents that have gone straight to the top had been generals. have adoes not background in dealmaking and dealing with politicians. quite superior towards politicians. he said to one senator that he is the only known person with a negative iq. hoover does not necessarily get along with politicians. susan: some past couples we have looked at in the white house, the wife was a better politician than the husband. is that the case? annette: no. they were basically two sides of the same coin in the same way that hoover was not a politician because he had been an effective administrator and leader, lou is the exact same way. almost always started an

organization or rose to the top of one so she was always in some type of leadership role. where negotiating was not necessarily a skill that she had to develop. ae was in some respects little bit better able to pour oil on troubled waters that were was and she did try in some ways to help her right inviting people for dinner where they could have an exchange of ideas and perhaps get him to talk about some of the issues that were going on. time, she washe probably doing a lot of the same types of things that he was. as we mentioned earlier, when she got rid of her social secretary, and was no longer really getting engaged in that social side of washington, that was an area that was shut down for good. duncan is watching us. hello. caller: i was curious about any experience that hoover may or may not have had with charles coughlin. susan: the radio broadcaster.

using the airways -- do you know father coughlin? he was biglieve during the start of radio. his sermons onto the air. he was successful. he had a strong political message also. message of sharing the wealth -- of regulating banks and businesses. considered to be both left-wing as well as an isolationist figure. in terms of the relationship with hoover, coughlin's political movement was something that builds up steam in the mid-1930's.

i don't think that he was necessarily a factor at the time of hoover's administration. susan: are there any parallels to today with the tea party movement and using the internet to advance their position? as coughlin did. emily: absolutely. this is a new era of radio. is showing it has wonderful potential as well as the potential to give a voice to people who become almost like demagogues. like huey long. these are movements that really 1930's afterthe franklin roosevelt selection. ideological backfill going on. whether he is completely behind

it or not, hoover gets to be on one side of it. roosevelt gets on the liberal side of it. some: let's show you statistics to give you a topline glimpse at how much the country changed during the years of the great depression. first, in terms of unemployment. with the booming economy in the 1920's, unemployment in 1929 was 3.2%. in 1933, 24.9%. the dow jones industrial average at the time in september of 1929 was topping at 381. by july of 1932, it had hit bottom and 41. how did the hoover's, particularly lou hoover use the white house once they realized the severity of the situation facing them. how do they address these problems? her cause was volunteer is in. she got people to pitch in and

help. used her youth organizations that she was involved in including the girl scouts and for each clubs. she encouraged girl scouts and the members of the four h in agricultural communities, where they were still having some success with the economy, and had not bottomed out, to get in there and share, to provide for their neighbors and see where there were needs and to get involved in that way. susan: we have a clip of lou hoover. [video clip] for this year, there are more people than usual in need. in need of your care. each of something for you to do in this emergency. as special achievement awaiting you. your 48 achievement projects,

you will decide on the problem you will attack. you will raise awareness. lay out a plan for your activity. then, go to work and carry out your plan diligently and enthusiastically. susan: how hard could volunteerism go to address these problems? annette: it is easy to ask that question now but we have to realize that no one ever expected the great depression to be as severe or as long-lasting as it was. the movers had seen volunteerism be successful in the short term when they were involved in the relief of belgium during world with, during hoover's time the u.s. food administration in asking people to have meatless fridays or meatless mondays so that they would conserve food. volunteerism has its limitations. they were dictated more by what was going on with the economy and the fact that this was a much more serious problem than

anyone could understand at the time. susan: blake is watching us in arkansas. hello. i really enjoyed the show but i have a question about what was the relationship between eleanor roosevelt and lou hoover and what did amelia ehrhardt have to do with the hoover's? you know if there was a connection between the two women? annette: there was no connection at this time. when the roosevelt came and office, it was obviously not very cordial or work. there was some discussion about not even having the traditional night before the inauguration dinner with the roosevelts because of the hostility that have been generated during the campaign. when mrs. roosevelt, a first lady is always the honorary president of the girl scouts. and she became the first lady, she became the honorary president, lou resumed the

administrative position of president of the girl scouts in the mid-1930's and met with mrs. roosevelt at that time. the meeting was described as being very cordial. withr as amelia ehrhardt the hoover's. the hoover's were very interested in flying. they had been friends with the lindbergh's. at an event where amelia ehrhardt was being honored. susan: i don't like to spend too much time on herbert hoover, but while lou was pushing volunteerism, herbert hoover try to put big issues in front of the congress including the hoover dam. an increase in personal income taxes and corporate taxes. they do not sound very republican like from this perspective. were they not effective in addressing what was happening in the economy? emily: there was an issue of scale. people did not grasp at the

long thishow huge and would last four. hoover does try to do several things. in aies to do it though complementary way to what lou is doing through volunteerism. he creates the president's emergency committee on employment where he is trying to agenciesher all of the of the states and local governments and the red cross and tried to coordinate finding places relief efforts. --is trying to use the way the weight of the federal government in a noncoercive way and to encourage voluntary organizations to get more involved. susan: sherry is watching us and

cisco, texas. caller: hello. this has been a great series. i visited the hoover museum and library and i was wondering what little over his fascination was with embroidered flower sex -- sacks. annette: those that you saw at the museum were embroidered at the women of belgium. they were sold as a way to help them raise money at the end of world war i so that it would be able to purchase food. susan: next is a call from john in laguna woods, california. thank you for taking the call and thank you for c-span. my mother's family is from creston, fort dodge and waterloo in iowa. my mom was nicknamed after lou. apparently, the family knew them in iowa and waterloo. my mother's family was involved

in the creation of the republican iowa party so they could vote for lincoln. anyway, i am bragging. susan: thank you very much. a lot of personal connections. also took a personal approach to some of the stories that would come across regarding them. how did they respond with the letters and pleas for help that they got. annette: it is important to recognize that first ladies were always getting letters of requests for help whether it was to ask a first lady lady to send money or have influenced in the appointment of a spouse or to put in a good word with the president. when lou started getting letters and asking for request for help, the first thing she had to do was to determine how many of them were traditional letters and how many might be legitimate. she had a network of women friends across the entire

country. if she got a letter that she thought might have some legitimacy to it, she would pass that letter off to a friend that might be in the area where the letter was written. she would ask that friend to check it out. to find out whether or not this is actually a legitimate need and who the person is and whether or not they would benefit from some assistance. if lou got the word back from her friends that yes, this is someone that could benefit from some assistance, lou would friend,sly, through the send money to help that person. whoever wasso ask being the transmitter of the funds to keep an eye out on the recipient and keep lou posted on what was going on. susan: at the depression deepened, we saw the creation of communities called hoover bell. 19,e was also the july

bonus marchers in washington. set that stage for us. how much a society was affected? how did these marches on washington affect the public's perception of the economy. emily: i-19 32 you have over 20% unemployment. by 1932, you have over 20% unemployment. there starts to be increasing protests. the bonus march being the most prominent. these were veterans from world war i who in 1924 had been as additionalus payment for their service in world war i that was going to mature in 1925.

it had passed over his veto. the bonus marchers were saying that we are suffering now. we cannot wait. what they wanted was a full payment of their bonus early. the congress had actually passed a certain amount -- that they could loan a certain amount. they had passed that over his feet so. vetoed the bonus marchers. trying to push congress to pass the bonus which the house does but the senate does not. there is a situation where we have 10,000 people or more in failed.on and they have move where he

and the army to help disperse the bonus marchers. this turns into an incredibly graphic and violent episode. general douglas macarthur received his orders and uses violent means to make them move on their way. you see it seems like this in the summer of 1932. susan: you can see how close this was to the capital. emily: this does not look good at all for hoover. this does not look like he is concerned for these forgotten men. susan: the stress on the hoover's had to of been a enormous. one thing they did was establish a retreat outside of washington in the shenandoah mountains. we will look at that and when we

come back we will talk a little bit about how they endured as people and as a couple during their depression. [video clip] >> the first time the hoover's came to rapidan camp was by horseback. there were no roads into the mountains. they came back on horseback. headwatersp to the of the rapid and river. it was sandwiched between two small streams. five dollars an acre. for less than $1000 they purchased 164 beautiful acres in the mountains. she was instrumental in the design of the camp. it shows her love of nature and her simplicity which she enjoyed about being outdoors. it is all wrapped up into buildings that were opposite of what they had in other aspects of their lives. they were trying to create a retreat where they could relax and get back to nature.

to be asd the house much outside as possible. she had a design for the windows would open, the panels would for down and the screens would let the air in. so that she could smell the outdoor smells coming right into her room. and she could be inside and get at the same time have the feeling of being outside. the sun porch was her office. it is a beautiful room with windows surrounding it. so that the light can be natural all day long. in fact, there are no lights in there at all. no electric lights hanging from the season -- from the ceiling. and chair ink there where she would spend hours writing letters. much of what we know about rapidan camp comes from what she wrote to friendly and france. -- friends and family. fireplace built.

a lot of the pictures that we have of them and their guests are of them sitting on this porch. loved to smell the smoke of a campfire. she wanted to have that smell in camp all day long. mrs. hoover wanted her gardens here in camp to be different than what she had at the white house. she wanted them to be very informal. in fact, she is quoted as saying she wanted them to be a little bit wild. wantng that she did not formal bets, she wanted everything out there randomly. she wanted her path to be lined with rocks so that you could find your way but nothing very outstanding. she wanted it to blend in. the rock structure behind me is a fountain. it is made out of rocks from the local area. this was a rock garden that she referred to as her robbery -- rockery.

she enjoyed emphasizing rocks because that was her love of geology. susan: did this help with the strains of the depression? annette: yes. as theression as well demand that were on them and the negativity that was surrounding them. and the difficulties that were was having and getting an agenda through congress. this was something that they looked for fairly early on realizing they needed to find a way to get out of washington on a regular basis or they located the property in the shenandoah mountains. seen, liu have just designed the house and laid it out. they went there is frequently as they could. went alone. they went fairly frequently with friends and sometimes with people from government. there was one report that when hundred thousand dollars was spent on laying phone lines which was a considerable sum of money. were they conscious of a

public perception of them going to a camp? annette: i don't think they were concerned about that. one of the things that came out of this that i think we will discuss is that as part of their spending time there, they discovered that the children who lived in the region had never been to school. you want me to go ahead and talk about that? about the's talk hoover school. [video clip] we are getting that ready. let me take a call at the we will have that available. let's talk to rene in houston, texas. caller: i love the show. i was wondering if hoover -- he heard thatat -- i hoover did not accept his salary. that each timeg they were the only president. hoover and kennedy.

did hoover donate some of the money to charity? i don't know about president kennedy but hoover did not accept a salary in any of his public service positions. free for the for committee for the relief of belgium and once he went into he would take the salary and put it into a separate account and distribute that to charity. susan: related question. on facebook. how did the hoover's pay for entertaining? annette: there was a budget that was set aside for them to do their official entertaining. they did do quite a bit of entertaining on their own. beertaining that would considered beyond the official entertaining and all of that would've come out of their own funds. that theyarlier sometimes paid for staff, lupe for her own secretaries. susan: was this known by the

public? annette: no. tr was not their strong suit. was not their strong suit. -- bert'setary secretary begged him to let the public know about his generosity. what made them so wonderful was also what set the stage for them to have so much difficulty and the perfect -- and the public perception of who they were. [video clip] >> tell me the names of some of these mountains. old rag. what is this one here?

and the one on that site? and where is my camp? over there. oh yes. susan: what is the story behind this? the hoover school was established by the hoover's after they had encountered some of the local families that lived in the area where they built the camp. they realized the children had never attended school and so they went about with their own funds building a school and then they worked with the state of .irginia to hire a teacher they interviewed the teacher. in thentacted a college appalachian portion of kentucky which does a good job of preparing people for working with communities such as this one. andhoover's funded it worked with the state of virginia to go ahead and make sure the teacher was

swain: presidential ponderings on twitter asked, what was the most challenging thing about the great depression for flotus lou hoover to deal with? dunlap: wow, that is a tough question. i would have to say that probably the most difficult thing is what she saw it do to bert. swain: and how was she with the media? you talked about not having a good sense of pr, but what was her approach? did she give formal interviews? did she ever have press conferences? dunlap: no, she did not. there's a very interesting piece written by the society writer for the new york times in the late 1930s that talks about the fact that mrs. hoover has not met with the reporters one time. the first time we really see any formal meeting with reporters was in july of 1932, so we're obviously in campaign season now, and she had a tea -- or, excuse me, a luncheon for women reporters, but i think it's important to note that women reporters at this time were not writing for the front page. they were writing for the society page, so this was still being treated as women's issues.

swain: but we were talking earlier about radio and how father coughlin used radio. lou hoover used the radio, as well, and did a series of addresses. we're going to listen to one of those right now and then talk a little bit about how radio helped the hoovers in their approach to the depression. (begin video clip) lou hoover: (inaudible) very glad (inaudible) this report (inaudible) great joy (inaudible) i give thee the messages of thanks from many and various persons and groups. and through you to all the girl scouts and through the girl scouts to all the organizations of women and girls who have been helping so valiantly during the

months and who are going to continue helping valiantly as long as the need lasts. ever faithful to what we trust is a constantly diminishing demand. swain: in some ways sort of presaging fdr's fireside chats, the addresses to the nation. charnock: absolutely. and she's the first first lady to make a public national radio address. and she's using it to try and push this volunteerist message, which is very much in keeping with what herbert hoover is doing at that time. and actually, it's interesting that she's doing these talks to the girl scouts movement, which she actually in 1932 comes up with a plan called the rapidan plan after the... swain: the camp. charnock: ... the camp where they formulated it. but it's basically this effort to try and muster the resources of the girl scouts into a more coordinated, organized effort to help coordinate with local and state relief agencies. and at the very same time, she actually has an

individual who helps her with that called lillian gilbreth, who at the same time is actually working with the president himself on his -- by that time his president's organization for unemployment relief. so on -- so lou's volunteerist work and that she's broadcasting to the nation to try and urge them to kind of work with others as the girl scouts are doing is actually coordinating at the same time with the kinds of things that herbert hoover is doing within the administration. and so she's complementing his policies. swain: on this question of how she dealt with the press, robin glass on facebook says, i read that lou hoover was press-averse. she kept some things so private that her papers were not opened until 40 years after her death, because doing so would violate the privacy of people she helped financially. you spend time with her papers.

is this a true story? dunlap: it is true, but actually it is more bert made the decision that her papers would not be opened until 40 years after she passed away, again, because of concerns about things that may have been written about people in her letters and in her correspondence. but, yes, she was very much press-averse, so it does make it very interesting, i think, that she really made a lot of use of the radio to try to promote her causes, which were youth and which were the girl scouts, but also to try to push the volunteerism. swain: denise in west covina, california? hi, good evening. thank you so much for taking my call and your outstanding program. there has not been any mention of whether or not they had children. did they have children? or did they die in infancy? or did they live to adulthood? and did they have successes? thank you very much. swain: thank you. dunlap: the hoovers had two boys, herbert, jr., who was born in 1903, allan, who was born in 1907. they happened to have both

been born in london, because this is where burt was working at the time, and the hoovers lived there. both of them were extremely successful. one of the interesting stories, talking about camp rapidan, is that their older son, herbert, jr., was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1930 when he went for his physical for his annual time to serve in the reserves. tuberculosis at that time was a very serious disease. it was not always curable. this was, of course, pre-antibiotics. and the hoovers actually had herbert, jr., living in camp rapidan for the beginning of his convalescence until the winter season started to set in, and then they located a sanitarium for him to continue his convalescence in ashville, north carolina. during the year that herbert, jr., was convalescing, lou invited her daughter-in-law and herbert's children to live in the white house, so there were

children running around the white house during that time. and, again, that wasn't necessarily successful in softening the image, because they didn't want the children photographed and they didn't want things written about them. swain: this was a period of time when the nation was transfixed by the lindbergh baby kidnapping. and i'm wondering whether or not that affected the sense of security for the first family in the white house and whether or not there was increased worry about threats to the children? charnock: i believe. and annette has talked about this before, that there was increased security after the lindbergh kidnapping in order to protect the white house and whatever children might be in there at the various times. but there's also an increased concern about assassination threats against herbert hoover himself, especially as this sort of protests about the scale of the

depression continue. so security is certainly a very important factor in the white house at this time. and the secret service is very much vigilant. swain: nancy mcfly asks on twitter, how was the marriage between the hoovers affected by the great depression? dunlap: well, they had always been very, very close partners, but they were not as close in their partnership during these four years in the white house. bert kind of pulled into himself a little bit, wasn't as communicative as he had been, and it took a toll. one of the hoover sons supposedly told one of his cousins many years later that he felt that his parents being in the white house for those four years was a mistake, because of the stress that it put on their relationship. swain: jennifer sherman tweets to us, i'm realizing that for the most part the role -- the real role of flotus, which stands for first lady of the united states, is essentially adviser-in-chief or gatekeeper.

next is steven, who is watching us in new york city. hi, steven, you're on. steven: oh, hi. i wanted to know, were the hoovers the wealthiest of all the first families, first couples? swain: they certainly were very wealthy. do you know if they were the wealthiest? dunlap: no, i don't. and, you know, the interesting thing on comparison of that was we would have to be able to compare in constant dollars, because what money would have been at that time would not be money, say, with a kennedy fortune or a bush fortune. swain: annette, there's a task for you for your research. dunlap: there you go. charnock: i think that the -- i believe that george washington was the wealthiest of all the presidents, if you can calculate everything. and obviously, his wealth was based for the most part in plantations and slavery. but herbert hoover, i think, had about $4 million that he'd made by 1914, which in today's dollars is anywhere from $75 million to $90 million. and they even think that he might have been wealthier than his successor, fdr, who had inherited his wealth. herbert hoover had made it from scratch, so he was one of the wealthiest presidents, though not the wealthiest.

swain: next caller is from your town, charlottesville, virginia. this is dan on the air. go ahead, please, dan. dan: thank you very much for taking my call. i've always wondered why the library was in... swain: dan, i am so sorry. i pushed the button at the wrong time. that's my fault. let's move on to charles and santa fe, new mexico. if you can get back in dan, we'll take your question. my apologies. charles, your question, from santa fe? dan: thank you so much for taking my call. i'm just really enjoying this series. i am a native of iowa, and my only real experience with the hoovers was a television series called "backstairs at the white house." and in that series, they did not really portray the hoovers very well in terms of how they treated the servants. swain: oh, charles... dan: for example... swain: charles, i'm going to stop, because we had that question early in the program with some examples, which i think you're going to give --

our caller at the very beginning had seen the same series as you. and you agreed, they were not always the best with the people who worked in the white house? dunlap: well, no, what i'm saying is i think we have to be careful about who were telling those stories, because there was money to be made after the hoovers left because of the negativity -- there was money to be made in telling bad stories about the hoovers, so we have to be really careful about how we interpret what we're hearing. swain: the accounts exist, but the veracity of them is something that historians have to debate. dunlap: i think it needs to be looked at, yes. swain: we often visit the smithsonian, which as you know has the great first ladies dress collection. and we're going to look at what they have with lou hoover next. lisa kathleen graddy, smithsonian national museum of american hi: lou hoover was a fascinating, determined, and fashionable first lady. we have two of her dresses on display now, one, the floral, a much more informal, lighter, possibly for something like a garden party. the other dress, the long dress, is a reception dress, and it was actually worn for a reception for the girl scouts of america, a cause very close to lou hoover's heart. she was not only the honorary president of the girl scouts, as first lady,

but an active president of the girl scouts before her time in office. we're going to take you up to our storage area now, and you'll see a few more pieces that belong to lou hoover. these black metallic shows also owned by mrs. hoover may have been worn with the evening dress on display downstairs. this eyeglass on a chain appears in a picture of her in that evening gown and also in her white house portrait. lou hoover was fascinating, outdoorsy, and elegant, able to buy fine clothes. she made best-dressed lists before she became first lady and was the first first lady to appear in vogue. this dress draped in him grecian folds was something in him she donated to the museum to be worn by her mannequin in the first ladies exhibit. it was worn with these shows and represented mrs. hoover in the exhibit until 1987. lou hoover's one of the only first ladies from whom we have daywear. this black-and-white silk dress in a clover pattern and is a wonderful addition to the collection. it allows us to show the more business-oriented side of lou hoover and of the first ladies.

swain: and that's a view of some of the first ladies' collection at the smithsonian. they've been so helpful to us throughout the series. we really do appreciate it. what did she do to change the white house during her tenure there? dunlap: well, one of the things that she did was in -- on the social side, which as we've already talked about, she changed how the teas were structured. swain: i'm thinking of the structure of the building itself. dunlap: oh, the actual building? sorry about that. okay. well, let's go to that. one of the things that she did was to do some refurbishing on the second floor. she got involved with the building of bookcases. just as we saw in one of the earlier clips where she had drawings of butterflies and flowers, she did drawings of what she wanted the bookcases to look like on the second floor. she also was involved with a redoing of some of the downstairs public rooms, not the green room, which was a project that had been started under grace coolidge and finished by a committee that had been appointed by congress, but she did some refurbishing in the red and the blue room, as well. swain: these were still years of

prohibition. what were the hoovers' attitudes towards prohibition? we heard of some presidents like the hardings would have parties with alcohol inside the white house. how did the hoovers approach this? charnock: well, i believe in terms of their white house functions, that they respected prohibition. hoover had campaigned in 1928 on a law enforcement plank. he was officially in favor of prohibition. lou, as we mentioned earlier, had chaired this committee in 1924 on law enforcement. but i have heard certain rumors that, on his way home from work when he was secretary of commerce, he sometimes liked to stop by the belgian embassy, which was obviously foreign territory, and maybe have a cocktail after the end of the day. so i think pleasantly they weren't teetotal. herbert hoover certainly had a quaker background, which in some ways would have lent itself to a more pro-temperance stance, but they occasionally indulged

themselves. swain: how popular was prohibition in the country at this point? charnock: in 1928, it's still unclear where sentiment is lying. this is a time before public opinion polling, so it's difficult for people to get a read on the nation. as i mentioned before, al smith's campaign is extremely divisive, in part because he is suggesting not a repeal of prohibition, but maybe a revision of prohibition, maybe get the states some chance to vote wet, as it was known in those times, if they wanted to. by 1932, prohibition has become incredibly unpopular, and in large part because of the kinds of negative impact that it had in terms of the rise of organized crime. so in 1932, hoover runs on a platform where he's sort of similar to al smith in '28, like maybe he's going to be okay with certain kinds of reform at the state level, but the democrats give a platform in 1932 that's committed to repealing prohibition, and that's what wins out.

swain: sue is watching us from colorado springs. hi, sue. sue: good evening. thank you so much for this program. it was mentioned earlier that the hoovers were multi-millionaires prior to the presidency. i wonder how they made their money. thank you so much. dunlap: herbert hoover was a mining engineer, and he traveled the globe doing consulting. he also invested in quite a number -- he was paid very well for that, but he also invested in mines that were mining materials that were in very, very high demand. swain: as the depression worsened and the criticism of the man in the white house continued to mount, here are some quotes from a lot of the

first couple, to give you some sense of what their personal reactions were. lou hoover said, "i was incensed at much reading about the president's having no thought for the little man, but bending all his energies towards saving the bloated plutocrat. the absolute injustice and downright lying of these statements infuriated me." and for his part, here's one from herbert hoover who said, "she was over-sensitive, and the stabs of political life, which no doubt were deserved by me, hurt her greatly." do you have any comments on either of those? dunlap: well, that first one, if i recall correctly, i believe was a letter she wrote to her children in 1932 trying to justify and kind of frame bert's legacy, talking about how he had always been concerned about the little man and how angry and upset she was about the way that he was being treated and the way he was being pretty well ripped apart in the press. and bert, i think, is just a husband who senses what is going on with his wife and had a response to it, but this is also in his memoirs, and it's -- sometimes in his memoirs, his

memory of things is a little bit different from what actually happened. swain: despite the criticism of his policies and the deepening depression, herbert hoover makes a decision to run for re-election. so would you briefly tell us about the 1932 election and the outcome? charnock: well, he -- at first, he's going to stand for re-election, but he's not necessarily committed to running for re-election in that time. the idea of an incumbent president actively seeking the re-election was considered maybe a little bit unseemly, and herbert hoover has immense respect for sort of the office that he holds. so he decides that he's going to make a couple of speeches, but he's going to be very dignified, very restrained, and then it becomes clear as the fall of 1932 progresses that he's in serious, serious trouble. and in -- i believe in september, maine, which was a traditionally republican territory, votes in statewide elections for a

democrat, so this -- again, in pre-opinion polling time, this is a pretty good indication that he's in trouble. so he then essentially embarks on what we would probably call a whistle-stop tour, crisscrossing the country, giving a number of addresses and radio addresses, and returns home to his home in palo alto to wait out the results. and it's a landslide against him, bigger than the one that brought him into office only four years earlier. so it's a very rapid turnaround for a man who had so many high hopes behind him when he went in. swain: how did lou hoover participate in that election? dunlap: just in the same way she had in '28. she was with him on all of this whistle-stop tour. i think that one of the reasons why she invited the women reporters in the summer was to

try to mend some of those fences that she hadn't really paid a lot of attention to in the previous three-and-a-half years. she is continuing to do her work with the girl scouts and with 4-h and to promote the volunteerism and just doing the best that she can to support him and to try to see that he gets re-elected. swain: and what was their reaction -- do we know their personal reaction to the outcome? dunlap: well, there's disappointment, but she basically says, well, we are still here and we are still moving on. so i think that there was hurt at the way that -- i think it's one of those kind of combinations of hurt at the way they've been treated when they've tried so hard and a bit of relief that the responsibility is not going to be theirs much longer. swain: the hoovers deepened their connection with palo alto, california. lou hoover designed a house there. we're going to learn about that next. nick siekierski, coordinator, hoover institution at stanford uni: we're at the lou henry hoover house here on the campus of stanford university. it's significant because this was the

primary residence of the hoovers. this was known as the family headquarters, and it's significant as relates to lou hoover, because she was the one who designed it. she worked with several architects to come up with the plans and they gave her advice, but she was the driving force behind the design of the house. and it was something that really impressed the architects who helped her with the formal blueprints and plans, is that she had such a strong grasp of design and how she wanted the house to look, even though that she was not an architect, that was not her professional training. she was a geologist, but she had a very good sense of space and design, how she wanted the house to look, so it was something that she was intimately involved in. we're lucky to have a lot of the original drawings and documents, correspondence relating to the design and construction of the lou henry hoover house back at the hoover institution archives and the stanford university archives. we're looking at the documentation related to the

building and design of the lou henry hoover house. it is especially important because it shows how involved lou hoover in designing the house. so here are some of the earliest drawings that we have from the design of the house. here we have some details about the cabinets that they were going to be installing, the little footstool here, and some design details that were likely sketched by lou henry herself. a lot of lou henry's influence surely came from her travels in the southwest of the united states, pueblo architecture, also from her travels in north africa, when she traveled with herbert hoover, so there was definitely an influence of native cultures, non-american cultures, but also native american cultures in influencing the architecture of the house. you can see here there was an initial design for arches above the doorway, and then that was changed. but there are definitely a lot of arches in the house, as well.

what we have here are some floor plans of the house. it showed details of the rooms, the living room there, the terrace, and you can see that the rooms are designed in a way where they easily exit out into the outside, the outdoors. it's a great legacy of lou henry's, because she designed the house, she created it, it was inspired by her ideas, and she had very close involvement in all aspects of the house's creation. swain: obviously, the hoovers' connection with the stanford university campus only deepened and broadened over the years. the hoover institution, a major part of the campus there. where did all the money for that come from? was it endowed by the hoovers? or did it build up with private contributions over time? dunlap: i'm not sure about the hoover institute. i do know that

when lou was still alive, after returning to palo alto after they left the white house, that she did use her personal funds to help build a cultural community, and particularly a musical community there, but i believe that the hoover institute came later, possibly after lou passed away, and was more involved with what herbert did. swain: and how about the west branch, iowa, and the preservation of his roots there? dunlap: yes, because west branch is where he was born, and lou actually attempted to purchase the land and the home that he was born in and the family who owned it at that time was not interested in selling. at some point, they were able to acquire that property, and it is now the hoover presidential library with a restoration of the buildings from bert's childhood. swain: it was dedicated in 1962. by that time, lou hoover had passed, but herbert hoover, who lived a very long life, was there for the dedication. we're going to show you a clip of that next. (begin video clip) herbert hoover: within this library are thrilling records of supreme action by the american

people, their devotion and sacrifice to their ideals. in these records there are, no doubt, many unfavorable remarks made by our political opponents, as well as the expression of appreciation and affection by our friends. we may hope that future students will rely upon our friends for consultation. (laughter, applause.) (end video clip) swain: herbert hoover lived until he was 90 years old, and you were just saying he set a record for... charnock: he was -- until last year, he was the longest-serving -- if one could say serving -- ex-president of all time. jimmy carter just took that position last year. swain: and two modern presidents lived longer than he, gerald ford and ronald reagan, who both lived into their early '90s,

surpassing herbert hoover's record until that time. so tell us about lou hoover's death. dunlap: well, lou hoover had continued to be very physically active, as we talked about earlier in the show. she was still riding a horse and camping and sleeping on the ground up until her late '60s. she had wanted to continue to live in palo alto, but herbert had found that he enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of new york city, so they sort of had this east coast-west coast kind of marriage until about 1940, when he convinced her to make her base with him there in new york city, and they lived in an apartment in the waldorf astoria. and she had gone out to dinner with a friend, january of 1944, and started to say, "let's walk back, it's such a lovely evening," and then changed her mind and said, "no, let's take a cab." she said goodbye to her friend, went upstairs to her apartment. bert was getting ready to go out to dinner with a friend of his, and he said, "well, let me just say goodbye

to lou," and when he went into her room, she was collapsed and already dead on the floor, and she died of a heart attack. swain: timothy in sun city, california, you're on. timothy large: yes, my name is timothy large. i'm the grandson of jean henry large, the sister of lou henry hoover, and i just wanted to express how great a lady she was and how much i appreciated her, as well as her husband. and i was born in palo alto, and i just wanted to express that they really did care for their kids, grandkids, and relatives. thank you. swain: thank you. well, we hope we've done a fair job tonight in telling the story of your relative. thank you for your call. well, that's a great -- well,

before we go onto her legacy, where is she buried? dunlap: she is originally buried in palo alto, and then they actually exhumed her body and she is next to bert at west branch. swain: and when the government opens again and all these institutions back, you can go to west branch and visit the herbert hoover presidential library there. so the question for both of you, since they were a couple who really approached public life together, what should their legacy be? charnock: well, i think it is -- as a first lady, her legacy is the way in which she tried to utilize her role as first lady to both make a call to action to the public for issues that she believed in, but also that really dovetailed with the kind of approach and philosophy of government that her husband had, so they have a legacy in terms of -- as presidential couples for how to -- the delicate balance between the sort of -- the political side of what first ladies are increasingly expected to do. and i think that lou hoover really starts along that path.

swain: and then i'm going to take a call from marlon in bismarck, north dakota, and then come back and hear your answer to that. hi, marlon. marlon: i was a 6-year-old boy during the campaign of hoover and al smith, and one of the biggest things was repealing the 18th amendment. and i grew up in a swedish community in nebraska, all of them conservative, very religious, so everybody voted for hoover. also, the market crash in '29, the banks busted at the same time, and i was 7 years old then, and i wanted to go down and collect the money when the banks broke. the hoover dam was named for him. during the hoover administration, the midwest drought started, where the dust storms started all the way from north dakota all the way through nebraska and down to oklahoma.

swain: hey, marlon, thank you. i'm going to jump in at that point, because you've given us a good opportunity to ask annette dunlap, what should her legacy be? and how should we view the hoover administration in hindsight? what's your thesis going to be as you're writing this biography? dunlap: my thesis is that if she had not been succeeded by a woman who served in the position for 13 years -- in other words, eleanor roosevelt -- i think we would remember a lot more of lou hoover now. but lou's activism and a lot of her non-political agenda in working with youth through the girl scouts and through 4-h set the stage for future first ladies to have causes and things that they supported that did not necessarily have to have political repercussions or political connections. as far as remembering them for the depression, i think that they were -- i don't think that anybody knew how to handle this

as we had had depressions before. we had managed to pull out of them within a couple of years. this was the first one, as we all know now, that lasted as long as it did. and, again, another thing to remember is we really did not pull out of that depression until we entered world war ii. and so even with all of the legislation that franklin roosevelt was able to get congress to pass, that in and of itself did not help improve the that did not help improve the economy until things changed. guests.hanks to our thanks to the historical association for their help throughout the series. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015]

>> american history television originalc-span's series, "first ladies." next week, we look at eleanor roosevelt. american history tv all weekend, every weekend. and mothers.wives

some had children and grandchildren who became president and politicians. they dealt with the joys and trials of motherhood, the joys and trials of raising children, and the tragedy of loss. first ladies looks at every american first lady in american history. it is lies a fascinating women of it is -- lives fascinating women and it is illuminating. it is available in hardcover or in e-book. >> all persons having business before the supreme court's of the united states, and give their attention. -- supreme court of the united

states, give their attention. >> marbury versus madison is the most famous case this court ever decided. as in slate existed enslaved people were on land that was not recognized. >> the federal marshals and the courage of children. >> we wanted to take cases that change the importance of the court in society and change society. >> they would have to have a they refusedt and

to do so. he grabbed it out of the hands the policefter, officer handcuffed her. >> i cannot think of a better way to bring the constitution to life than telling the stories behind the cases. the forced internment of japanese americans during world war ii. after being convicted for failing to report for relocation, he took his case to the supreme court. most famous decisions are the ones that were quite unpopular. >> if you had to pick one freedom that was the most essential to the functioning of the democracy, it is the freedom of speech. >> let's go to the cases that illustrate what it means to live

in a society of 310 million different people who stick together because they believed in a rule of law. cases, the exploration of the historic supreme court decisions and behind them. it debuts monday, october 5. american history television was at the society relationsan foreign annual meeting. this is about 20 minutes. is a historybrooks professor and is focusing