Latest Nonfiction Books and authors. Cspan2 created by americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider. And cspan booktv is here with us tonight. With that in mind take a moment to silence your cell phones, feel free to use social media, and when we get to the q and a portion, one microphone set up over here if you will line up for your questions. Make sure your shores question is a short question and get that into the mic. We want to keep the dialogue running. If you have not yet bought one and decided you would like to we have copies of brad meltzers children books, fun and interesting books that make great gifts. You might pick up a couple of them as well. Listen to brad meltzer welcoming him back to the store for his nearest newest book the first conspiracy the secret plot to kill George Washington. Writing history with the same command and vivid action that made him one of americas finest thriller writers. He tells a startling and perhaps deliberately repressed story of a plot to assassinate George Washington looking back to 1776 brad meltzer shows the iconic year of American Freedom was fraught with uncertainty. The patriots bid for independence was anything but sure. Washington pictured elite soldiers who served as bodyguards only to become a target of a plot nonetheless. And american history. An awardwinning documentary television not documentary for pbs and discovery. Welcome to politics and prose. [applause] we want to welcome you here. This is my first hometown bookstore. I can tell you because it means a lot to me. To deal with my relatives. In the back and fantastic jokes i am making. They hosted me on the first book that is a big deal to me. I know ive done every book i brought to the store. [applause] i want to introduce josh john mensch who i will talk about a little bit more. And a secret plot to kill George Washington, is it true, internet made up stuff but it was true. There was a secret plot in 1776, to kill George Washington. When George Washington found out about it he gathered those responsible and angered him in front of 20,000 people, the largest in north american history. George washington brought the hammer down, i will be on the money one day. That is absolutely a direct quote which is amazing also, not a paraphrase. It is a far heavier crowd. I was fascinated with it and when i started it how do you figure this out. I went to, a Great Washington biographies. You know the story about the plot to kill washington. There is no modern book written on it. I want to tell you the story that involves washingtons spies and you can find how many slaves George Washington owned, you will never find all his spies. What you are looking for will forever be elusive. Youve got to try. At worst what happens . You have an adventure. I knew for five years i couldnt get out of my head. When an idea, that is time to take it on and josh and i to give you background, i called josh, i knew i had to call him because we met when working on lost history and lost history, the title of the show is brad meltzers lost history. Best title of all time, brad meltzers lost history. What are we having for brad meltzers dinner tonight . We have brad meltzers chicken and tonight i would like to have brad meltzers office and then sit on brad meltzers couch. We worked on lost history together and our goal was to find the 9 11 flag that was raised at ground 0 and we were able to find it after the episode aired outside dc. We got a phone call from a guy who identified himself as a former marine, the story they told, i want to return it. The reason it got returned is josh was our veteran producer who did incredible research, go and be in new york city, work with former head of the crime unit to authenticate it in the 9 11 museum still on display. One of the most amazing moment in my life. And and all these writers have they are missing the good part. You have to take out all of the good parts and it sounds silly but exactly right and he just knew those details. A scene in the first conspiracy, one of the first things he did when put in charge of the military started ordering books on how to be a better general, but he wanted to know what do i need to do and that is the kind of detail. I love those little details, show, dont tell. I love what came out of it. An amazing story, you will see details like George Washington had his own private bodyguards and all the regimens they had. And it is the best of the best. And the commanders guards but it stuck. There job is to guard George Washingtons life. In 1776 right here. It had nothing to do with the holding but guarding George Washingtons life and these were the men who become involved in the plot to kill George Washington. Dont care how great a general you are or how strong you are, when we write these books and people write about George Washington and we do with all our heroes we dip them in granite and build great statues and the heroes are dead. They are not people anymore but every person you look up to, whether it is doctor king or George Washington was scared and terrified and thought they couldnt go on. There were moments they thought they could never do it but decided to go forward and i love the fact what this book does is when he is not the best and isnt doing everything right, one of the first things he does when he finds out about the plot, they put together a secret committee to figure out what is going on. The committee on conspiracy, give it a good name. A conspiracy led by john day, the First Supreme Court justice and a narrow it down to three people in the city. Governor morris, that is who they trust in the inner circle and they do an interrogation, it is truly americas first Counterintelligence Agency being born right there and right now in langley, virginia there is a room dedicated to john j, the father of modern intelligence. The precursor to the cia, is really this, this moment where john ja y starts building, not with military or civilian seeking out information to find intelligence, using it, George Washington has this military but he knows the great defense to make sure they come for them. It is not just this plot against George Washington but the birth of counterintelligence for all of america developed piece by piece. One thing i love, josh was doing this research and i love to imagine like indiana jones, we crawl on our hands and knees and look for information, for me the idol and i will throw you the whip. That is how i picture us every day. Most of these things are online, so much at the National Archives, founders online. To read some of these things, so much to read and fool credit that josh found, a great expert for us finding things, are we going to find enough information and i remember josh turning up the transcripts of the secret tribunal when they tried the man who was hanging and here we go, they have the actual transfer of what people said and what happened. Everything else is mysterious. 20,000 people, barely mentions. If i killed someone in front of 20,000 people, had a bad day. Got to have something in the diary but hes not like jefferson or adams writing letters to his wife with all his feelings and beliefs. Washington isnt like that. George washington placed closer to the vest. You will see many books that say George Washington thought this or that and it is hard to tell what he thought because he barely said a word and it is part of his whole, we know him better than anyone. On the money we see every day. That is the most intriguing part of it to this day. We are trying to pull apart great secrets. What i love one of the things, we are a country especially now founded on that, the legends that we love most, our own legends and myths. We love that story, we are a ragtag group in the revolutionary war, dream about democracy, take on the greatest fighting force of the british of the time, and we are wonderful. Great story. Not a true story. The true story is more complicated. Think we are divided as a country today . In 1776 new york city, the first 6 battles taking place, many loyalists on the british side as there are on the patriot side and you hate your neighbor, you love your neighbor depending where they fall on the political spectrum just like today and even in our own military back then, not like we all sing together but we have different regiments, they didnt know each other or like each other. They were wearing the same uniform. The connecticut regiments were in Something Different than a massachusetts one in the virginians. I love in the first conspiracy the secret plot to kill George Washington where you see in harvard yard the connecticut regimen, the massachusetts regiment meets the virginia regimen and the virginia regimen is wearing something on her uniform that is freely. They are making fun of them, the fight breaks out, they are all fighting each other and George Washington comes in on his horse, grabs two of the big guys it is shaking them and is saying stop fighting with each other. We are on the same team. A metaphor for where we are today and that is it, that is where we are. We have leaders in politics who bathe themselves in the flag and tell you how american they are. There was no flag back then. Now United States back then. George washington had to help build it by willing it to happen. The men he was dealing with were a mess. 10,000 men came to new york city to fight. All the rich people are like i dont want to be here. I am leaving and they have 10,000 people descended on new york city. Guess what they want to do. They want to drink and gamble and go to the horror house. George washington, proper virginia gentleman horrified by this, general orders come out, stop gambling, dont go to the warehouse. Same things. Not even joking. You are watching the sheer will of this man, making the united part of the state happen. We lost in american today, the word united. We lost it. That is the saddest part of this and as you read the book what is important to us is finding something that is important today, you see why we need the story today. First and foremost among that you get to see the depth of George Washingtons character. One of my favorite things in the book, the battle of brooklyn, one of the first great battles in new york and we think we banded together, lets fight and win and got our rear ends kicked. George washington didnt have the experience british generals have, our own soldiers didnt have the experience or gunpowder but barely had shoes and we get totally we should be dead. It is over. George washington pinned on the east river, should be dead and it is over. A different kind of leader would say we go out in a blaze of glory and take out as many as we can and show them who is who and what a man he is. Show us what a man he is. George washington doesnt do that. He adapts. A daring escape in the middle of the night. All they can on the east river and starts putting his men on these boats and the key moment is George Washington wont get on any of the boat until his men are on first and George Washington is absolutely risking his life for theirs no matter how high or low their ranking is it was not a single moment that brought us together but those moments are the things that created the United States. That is where we come together. I hope in those moments you see the depth of George Washingtons character and humility and why he is someone we look up to and that is the best part of what the first conspiracy the secret plot to kill George Washington does. It is titillating to say we found a secret plot to kill George Washington the more interesting to see why we need leaders like that. That is why George Washington matters. I will turn it over to my friend josh and open up for questions and i will sit here and judge whatever josh says. Testing. Dont worry, cspan is watching live. Can everyone hear me . I just briefly want to say thank you to politics and prose, wonderful bookstore, for hosting this event and allowing us to be here and thank you to brad for inviting me on this journey with him on writing this book and i will say quickly brad alluded to this a little bit. At a time when by any measure theres a lot of political turbulence and disagreement and divisiveness and confusion and fear the ability to Research History and learn about history is so important and vital, to look at times in the countrys history when things were very uncertain and there was a lot of fear and no one knew what was going to happen. So illuminating and informative and helpful to study other periods in history. It is a privilege to learn history and those who read the book will hopefully go on that journey with us and find something to learn and hopefully you will find it entertaining too and that is all i have to say. The best part is you can ask about this book and anything else we do about brad meltzers lost history. Would like to ask the first question . I want to thank the audience, i love cspan, when you do an event at politics and prose everyone is watching around the country. This is one place there will always be some guy who tells you what is wrong with your book so please bring your question. A great topic, full disclosure, my name is Christian Mcburney and im cited in your footnotes as an author who thinks the plot was to kidnap washington as opposed to kill him, the year of marketing to kill washington and how you arrived at that conclusion. I love being right. There is Nothing Better than being right on national television. I should have paid you to ask that question, one that we struggle with. We debated this title a long time. The plot to kill George Washington, you will see this in the book, there are some people who say the plot to kill him, others say the plot was to kidnap him. When you look at what they did with anyone they kidnapped, at the lowerlevel, and capture our guy, when you have washingtons level at the general level they hung him. When they kidnap him and assassination attempt is clearly in danger and the actual original title of the book, the first conspiracy, the secret plot against George Washington and the birth of counterintelligence movement. And i love that you got to the footnotes because only a good or author immediately checks the footnotes for their own name, right in. [laughter] ive been there, trust me. Im no different. But is that why the open, the answer to your question is this is why we thought this, it could definitely be one or the other. We thought this for this reason. But we felt very, very strongly that we could not put that title without right up front answering for the redder and clarifying that reader. And theres no way to ever know. It was foiled, so we never actually know what happened. Why i personally, and josh and i have different views of this but sometimes. But my answer to that is eventually, and i dont want to ruin it, but the final scene in the book when you see mayor David Matthews and what he reveals when he wants his pension, thats what convinced me. That detail the one that got me. Well, i did take a quick look at the text, and i thought it was a very fair discussion and an excellent point. He and john adams were the top guys, and very sorry that i didnt think of that. So [laughter] and his question was why are you so awesome. No, seriously, thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. Youve got to find the footnote, by the way. [applause] i wont get into dell offing into the delving into the discussion, but i read your book and i appreciate it. We cited your book for a reason, and im glad you read it, and i would love to hear some of your thoughts. Wait, whats your name again . Seriously. Christian mcburney. And the title of the book . Abductions in the american revolution. We like it too. Thanks for doing that, sir e. Thank you for an amusing presentation. You mentioned David Matthews who was the torrey mayor of new york city. He was arrested, he was imprisonedded, and the mystery for me was why wasnt he tried, convicted and hung instead of this poor irishborn sergeant whos the low guy, a small cog in the whole plot . Yeah. Again, i love this. You will see in chapter 34 the answer to one of the things that happens is you have all these people involved in this plot to kill washington, and everything thats going on against him. You have all these people, you have the mayor, you have the governor, you have the lifeguards, all these people who play a small role, some big roles. Im trying to not actually ruin the book, but i want to answer your question. The person who gets hung, any one of you will see when you read the book, is not at all the person whos responsible. Its oddly, youre like why did they pick him when they got the big guy . Why didnt they go after the governor, the mayor . Those are the ones who are clearly behind it. I think the irish part of what you said, youll see in the book, one of the answers, thats a big part of it. And we saw that in the book, i to this day and we saw in the book, we dont know. It is crazy to me that they let them go, and it is and we, i think for me especially as a fiction writer, if i dont like the ending in something that happens in my thriller, i change the ending. I dont like that character, i kill them. [laughter] thats out, right . Because im a fiction writer, i knew we were going to be more scrutinized for this. I knew there were going to be people who come and say, did you just change history . Whatd you do, brad, with this. It was important to be actually more honest than most books are on this subject, because most books want to tell you flat out, you know, heres what happened. And we say very or honestly anyone who tells you is a liar. Theres no way to know because the plot, it got fouled before it happened. And that is one of the question marks. Theres a number of question marks. This woman that disappeared, we just say this is one of those holes that will never be answered. My hope is that and this always happens with lost history. Whenever we tell the story on television, every single item we look for on lost history, we had leads to find. Every single one. We found the 9 11 flag, we were able to track down the hitler diary, but there were leads on everything. Because when you tell the story publicly like this, theres someone out there who has a relative somewhere who knows something. And i said i think the thing im most excited about this book is whether its mary smith or whether its, you know, obviously the people youre talking about right now, someone, when we put this book out there, went we tell this on national television, i promise you this is going to happen, that were going to get a leapter from someone whos letter from one whos related to these people, heres my family history. Look for the name mary smith in history, good luck. Its like googling mary smith. That was a better joke than you guys give credit for, i just want you to know. [laughter] im hoping some of those answers and question marks come from relatives and people who know the truth out there. Okay, star wars with. Hey, brad. Nice to see you back at politics and prose. Always. I with us wondering if you could talk about that influence on your work and how you had chosen to write the piece. Yeah. So can everybody hear me in the back . Is that okay . Getting the nod, its okay. So the question is from i my friend who always wears a different superhero tv shirt. Hes asking about my love of stanley and Entertainment Weekly asked me to write his obituary which was obviously kind of this crazy honor and not one you want, but one i got to do. I truthly just what i wrote was what i wrote online and social media and adapted for them. And it was the one thing that i wrote that it poured out of me. I didnt think about it, it was my feelings that i heard when i heard or stan lee had died. And when i heard he died, everything came out of me. And what i mourned in that moment was, you know, we all know spiderman and we know his creations, and, you know, his cocreations because so many of them were cocreations. And whether its the fantastic four, xmen or black panther, all these amazing creations that he has, those are great and those are wonderful but to me the reason why theyre so important is because the lessons that they shared were so good. They are the foundation of who i am. That idea of being good for goods sake is vital. Thats something weve lost sight of, right . We now, you know, and no one says that anymore. No politician says that. No Corporation Says it. No advertisement says that. But i think those are vital lessons we want and we need, and i got them when i was a kid e from these comic bookings. And if you look at stan lees original writings, in the early 60s he would have these things called stans soap boxes, and he would write racism is a terrible thing. And if you are going out there and saying that someone is different from you because of their skin color or lesser than you because of their skin color or their religion or where theyre born or that theyre an immigrants that that means theres something wrong with them, that is wrong, and we must stand against that. Hes writing this in the back of spiderman comics. Telling this to all these people who are growing up in their most impressionable moments. And i love that. I love that stan lee had that soap box and decided to use it for good, for justice and for equality. Thats something we all love those words with, we all whatever your politics are, or or we say we stand for those words, but do you . Because if youre singling out people because of the color of their skin or where theyre born, because of where they started their lives as opposed to where they end it, if youre doing that, youre doing it wrong. Youre doing it wrong. And i wrote this whole thing came out of me, and i put it on facebook and my twitter page. And it was the only thing ive ever written that has ever gone viral. I was watching the news that night, and it was on cnn. And e i was like, wait, thats me, you know . To Entertainment Weekly saw it, and they asked me can you adapt this for the column . Wed like to make it into an obituary. And what can i possibly say . It was humbling. Stan lee, i knew him because i was researching the birth of superman for one of my books, and people i interviewed all the people at dc, and they said youve got to interview stan the, he was there. He was there at the start. He knew jerry and joe who created superman when they were 17yearold kids. Anytime i needed anything, he was the first to say how can i help. I owe him for his kindness but far more for those moral lessons when i was growing up. When i think of the great betrayal of the american revolution, i think of Benedict Arnold which was also a personal betrayal against George Washington. How does this story fit in chronologically to that, and did they have any influence on his reactions from one to the other . Yeah, lets very quickly, and you can talk about this too if you want. Ive done a different book on Benedict Arnold. In fact, one of my great thrills is i went down to the National Archives years ago, and they have these treasure vaults there. And in the treasure vaults its where they keep the best stuff. They open up the drawer, and they pull out this sheet of paper, this old sheet of paper. It looks like an index card. And it was the oath of allegiance in that kind of ye olde classic writing. And the oath of allegiance was one of those things back during the start of the revolution, George Washington wanted to make sure everyone would swear an oath that you were going to make sure not to betray us. And all the oaths are numbered in the corner. You can see a little 1 is, a little 2, a little 3 and a little 4, and the one they hand me the oath of allegiance number 5. We still can our military men and women to raise their right hand, and this being the right hand, and swear your allegiance and so help me god. But this oath of allegiance number 5 was signed by Benedict Arnold. And he was always one of those kind of silly names people call each other, right . He was never a person. But in this moment when i was downtown here in d. C. And im looking at this sheet of pawner, Benedict Arnold, you know, at some moment on this date swore this oath and used this pen to write his name. And he suddenly became a person. And its an amazing moment of history. I can tell you that when he escapes and runs, he immediately writes a letter to George Washington, and the letter actually hand delivered by Alexander Hamilton who delivers it not in song or rap [laughter] that joke does not work as well in ohio, i can tell you that. [laughter] no offense to it. D. C. And new york it crushes. And boca because, come on, boca knows. [laughter] he delivered this letter, and the letter says, one, dont kill my wife, she didnt know, and, two, dont kill my staff, they didnt know. And can you return my belongings. And amazingly, George Washington actually collects and is sends it back. And to this day, nobody knows whats in those belongings. Nobody has any idea whats in those belongings. I certainly wouldnt have been as nice. And that story became the basis for a book that i wrote, one of the thrillers that i wrote. And i love that we got to do that story. But, obviously, my obsession with George Washington and betrayal is huge. Im telling you all that to say, obviously, all of that happens far later than the plot to kill George Washington. That happens much later. This is all in we start in 1775, we write until 1776, and then we we get to the early battles of the war. To we dont do the Benedict Arnold side. I think our sequel will be the later betrayals. Only thing ill add what is so interesting is that George Washington, one thing he brought with him from virginia was, as brad said, he was a virginia gentleman, and he really did have a sense of honor and a code of honor that he believedded in very deeply. And there was a notion that what we would call institutional honor where he thought if you were part of an institution like the army that he had created, that your actions reflect on the entire institution. And he really believed this. And yet through the course of his leadership, he kept encountering these situations where people on his side on the team were betraying him or were betraying the army. And it was really hard for him to understand how anyone could do that, and yet it was happening again and again. Part of the interesting part of our story and of the Benedict Arnold story that happens later is how George Washington comes to terms with the fact that not everyone has the same notion of honor that he does. But he has to control all of his officers, all of his soldiers, and he has to try to up still this idea that instill this idea that does not come naturally to many people. And thats some of the tension in our book, is George Washington adjusting from the ideals he has in his head to the reality of all the people around him. So its a really fun, interesting part of the story. A couple more questions. Yes, sir. Yeah. A lot of this happened between George Washington and john f. Kennedy, are you now motivated to take on another one of the president s attempted assassination . Yeah, question is who you doing next. And i appreciate that question. I will say, and it gives me a moment to tell you what is coming next. Josh and i are working on our next historical deep dive. It is not jfk. I cant tell you who it is yet because they want to announce it, but we are working on it. We love doing it. We just had a great time doing it. We didnt know what to expect. I mean, i cant speak for josh in the process, but i just we loved doing this together. We have, like, this similar drive x. When were working on the tv show together, it was his voice that i felt like was the most like my us my voice. He sends stuff the, i send stuff bark i send stuff, he sends tough back. And its this merger thats the best part of the process. We are working on one. The next book that comes out by me, the next book in our im series. We do a a a kids book. And now were on 16 books. Weve done albert einstein, jackie robinson, rosa parks, we did lucille ball because i wanted my daughter to have a female entertainment hero. Its fantastic to be different, right in today we have so much problem with anyone whos different. Thats the best part of everyone in this room is were all different. And we did helen keller where she when she goes blind, the book goes black. We put real braille in the book. My names helen, whats your name. But this amazing thing happened as donald trump and hillary were fighting it out two years ago, something crazy happened with our book series, and that is two books started selling more than any others. And they were i am George Washington, and i am Martin Luther king jr. And some were two, three years old, but they took off in sales. It wasnt a democrat or republican thing which, you know, we all are tempted to divide everything by these days. But it was parents and grandparents were looking at the tv in that november and seeing every day politicians, and what they wanted to show their kids were leaders. We all know theres a huge difference. And i love that this were fighting back using our books. , and the salessings in the series have taken off from that moment because i think this is a moment in the culture where were starving for real heroes again. I dont care what side of the aisle youre on. We look around and, you know, Perfect Place to talk about it. Were in the middle of the shutdown of the government. The only good thing is theres no traffic on connecticut, right . You know, we got here. Usually we start late at politics prose, but no traffic. It was easy. Weve done gandhi and jim henson which is one of my favorites thank you, i appreciate marilyn in the house. When i was 5 years old, jim henson and mr. Rogers told me you could use your creativity for good in the world, and that is the only thing im doinged today. So the next book that comes out, we just did neil armstrong, Sonia Sotomayor came out last month, and in february next month we do i am billie jean king, our first gay and lesbian hero. And for my daughter, its all about women needing a voice, thats what my daughter will tell you. And after that come november, we are doing, we can now say officially, pbs is making a cartoon tv show out of our i am series. [applause] its called i appreciate it, thank you. [applause] its called xavier and their best friend brad who looks remarkably like me [laughter] go on adventures. They have problems, they go back in time and they come to the present, and in the moon time, im working on the escape artist, the sequel to escape artist which is coming out in paperback. You get the final question . [inaudible] we can do a few more. Are you going to make an i am stan lee . Thats a good question. Im going to sue Entertainment Weekly for my rights back. Yes. No, he is on the list, 100 . Most of the people you hear me speak about tonight whether its jerry and joe or stan lee, of course, i want to do an i am book on. Whos your favorite one . Jim hen soften. You like the jim henson. You have good parents. Not everyone here has good parents. But do you have all the books . Mom and dad, if you love me, you buy the full set. [laughter] now, if you start, you can use it for anything. If you love me. Fill it in with whatever you want. Thats my advice. Youre going to get a full set tonight. [laughter] but, yes, stan lee one day. Could you describe a little bit more the day of a hanging . It sounds more like a football than a hanging. Ing 20,000 peoples a lot of people. Sure. We found pretty much every bit of evidence there is the about this incredibly dramatic day, and its surprising not more people know about this event. But june 28, 1776, which is about a week before the signing of the declaration of independence, there is a public hanging with 20,000 people watching. Not just anyone hang, but a continental soldier hang with all the officers watching. And the entire army was there, and there were about 10,000 residents of new york city and nearby. And thats one of the things that made us really dig into the story is what was this event . How did it happen, why did it happen, why dont people talk about it more. And its hard to imagine a more kind of dramatic event. And it happened not only on the eve of the signing of the declaration of independence, but on the eve of the first really great battle of the revolutionary war, the battle that brad referred to when the americans got absolutely demoll you shoulded. Demolished. So to some extent, the event might have been obscured by history because its surrounded by these up credibly huge events, but we were totally fascinated by it and, hopefully, youll learn the book and read the book and learn a bit more about it. Everyone was totally obsessed with it, and there were rumors, and there were newspaper reporters writing about it, people writing letters about it. So it was really fun to kind of uncover as many details as we could about this long forgotten event. Ill also say to that the firsthand accounts of people that are watching the hanging and writing to their family members are amazing to read because youre seeing someone who doesnt have i mean, you think twitter messes it up today by how quickly misinformation gets out there. They dont know exactly what theyre seeing and why. They know what theyre seeing. They know a man just dies. But it quickly, you can see in all those letters different reactions and different theories for whats going on. It immediately becomes like twitter or any other game of telephone, all these different theories abound as to whats happened and why. And youll see in the chapter called sacroside that people are inventing new words because theyre so devastated by what theyre seeing. Its an amazing moment. When 20,000 people watch something, theres going to be evidence left behind. Theres one there. So theres a lot of belief that the official narratives of assassinations of key leaders jfk you mentioned, Martin Luther king, the official narratives not necessarily true. Why did it take this long for us to learn about George Washington . Yeah, a very and i think, josh, you kind of said it in your last answer. If you look at the date of when the hanging happened, because thats the question, right . We just sat here and said there was a plot against George Washington, theyre going after the first president , why dont i know that . And thats exactly what we asked. And you know, again, you can have all these theories that George Washington didnt want to put the word out there that his men had turned against him, thats not how you portray strength. Thats one theory. I think one of the key ones, to answer your question, that date that josh mentioned, june 28, 1776. Thats when it happened. Finish and the first draft of the declaration of independence was handed in around then, and the british are literally coming. And when thats happening and youre investigating, its sad to say, but even 20,000 people watching a man hang becomes a footnote compared to those headlines. Headlines like that just take over the world. And you can find this story about this plot. You know, most really good George Washington biographies, its in there. They usually have a sentence, a paragraph or the most we found was, like, a page and a half, a footnote. They should mention them, but its always just this tiny thing. And when this fellow said to me theres no modern book that we can finding you have to ask why. And thats when we said, you know, this is the story we need to tell. So thats why we sit here today. One last question and then well sign some books. Anyone got a last one . [inaudible] its a little bit of a fluffy question, but having done this now, and with the i am series, if you were to write a historical fiction book, where would when would you set it . Yeah. You know, for me, its funny, if we couldnt find what we wanted to find with this book, this would be it. Right in i would be like we cant find it, theres nothing there, theres no evidence, nothing from the hanging, no transcript of new trials, nothing. I might have just put this as part of one of the thrillers. I tend to not really want to go backwards. I like using the stuff today, but make no mistake, i was a history major at michigan, this was what i studied. This was always the time period i loved most, so theres a reason why the first ever Nonfiction Book that were doing is set right in my favorite part of history. This is always the best part. And i think its because the bess stories in best stories in life are not the ones that entertain you, but the ones that tell you something about yourself. Thats why the bible is the bible. The bible is not a list of rules to live by. I know it has the ten commandments, but its not a list of rules, its a book of stories. There is nothing in this whole world more powerful than an idea, and thats a all a story is, a collection of those ideas. And the reason those stories, the ones that persist, you know, we talked tonight about whether its jim henson and kermit the frog or stan lee and superman or George Washington, theyre all the same story. I understand that some of those people are imaginary and George Washington real, but to me, all those stories are about what we aspire to be as human beings, we aspire to be our best and what we wish we could be every day. I will say it time and time again, the most important part of the story is not superman, the most important part of the story is clark kent. Thats why he takes off, because he has that side of us in him. Show me who your hero is, and ill show you who you are. And for us right now i know its, again, its great to say, you know, the threat against George Washington to come and kill him, but what i love is that it really enlightens that moment in time to show us more about ourselves. We tell this story in history class right now where the declaration of independence is signed and George Washington is in charge, we win and hes president. Next section x. Maybe its because we just love to whitewash, because we do, right . Especially about ourselves and how great we are. And maybe its just because we got a lot of information to cover, we cant cover every detail. But im not inspired when its ease i city, you know . Everyone banded together and we beat the british. That doesnt impress me. What impresses me is when its hard. Thats when its always better to do something, when its hard. I love the fact that when you read this book, you see us almost lose. You cant help but read the book and go what happens if he dies, right . What happens . What do you think happens . Its what is begging to be asked when youre writing about Something Like this. And to me, when you see that hes not, you know, the leader who wins everything. You know, in the battle he doesnt win and win and win. He loses and retreats. He loses on long island and retreats and then goes to new jersey and connecticut. He keeps retreating, George Washington does. But the only thing he wont do, the only thing is give up. Hell never, ever give up. And thats why the british are like, man, its enough. [laughter] they just know. Like a jewish mother, right . Enough, enough already. And i love the fact that you get to see how hard it is. I think you find far more for yourself in your own life when you see what the person you look up to, how hard it was for him too. So with that said, thank you to politics and prose. Thank you so cspan for doing this. Thank you to all my friends especially who put up with this. Thanks so much. [applause] books are available behind the register. We also do have signed Copies Available back there. So the line will start in front of me, and theyll be up at this table happy to sign. And please fold up your chairs, put them up against the wall or a book shelf. It helps us setting up the tore. [inaudible conversations] weeknights this month we are featuring booktv programs and a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan2. We begin with university of californiaberkeley law professor and former Deputy Assistant attorney general in the george w. Bush Association John yoo who weighed in on president ial powers and the u. S. Tiewsmghts then Princeton University history professor Julian Salazar explores the ascendancy of Newt Gingrich and argued that his congressional leadership was the beginning of americas hyperpartisan divide. Lauter Newt Gingrich offered his thoughts on why President Trump should be reelected in 2020. Enjoy booktv on k span 2 cspan2. Next on booktvs after words, john yoo, university of californiaberkeley law professor and former Deputy Assistant attorney general in the george w. Bush administration, weighs in on president ial powers and the constitution. Hes interviewed by mark rozell, author and founding dean of George Mason Universitys school of policy and government. After words is a weekly Interview Program with relevant guest hosts interviewing top nonfiction authors about their latest work. All after words programs are also available as podcasts. Host john, thank you for taking this opportunity to discuss your new book. Im delighted by the opportunity to ask some questions about out. I just read it, it was out two days ago, so i had a little butt of time to prepare for this interview. I want to start because you wrote a piece in 2017 that unloaded pretty strong on President Trump for various overreaches in the exercise of executive powers, and now youre presenting him as a defender of the traditional Constitutional Order regarding president ial powers. I want to ask you what changed your view . Why how did you move from where you were before to what you have presented in your new book . Guest mac, ts