Knighted i understand that ramification might not be a good thing. I also note that with things and the laws that we have in the book, even in a situation that is better, those types of things have to be able to do a better job on education. How many people in the juvenile Justice System right now are 18 . How many people in the adult Justice System graduated with honors customer when we are watching the growth of the juvenile Justice System, the adult prison system, they had some form of interaction with the juvenile system. They have now simply gotten older. They are committing more serious crimes and are now more heavily involved in what theyre doing. Thats the pipeline people are talking about. Being able to address the things that the core like education. Once a person gets involved, what is that education we can provide to give them better access and support Going Forward . The third thing and this is critically important, is this piece on economics. I remember when we were in afghanistan, someone told us something that one of my platoon sergeant said that i thought was so right. He said who is the most dangerous person we have out here . Of course the natural answer became caliban and al qaeda and taliban. His point was its the person who hasnt been working 24 months. Thats the most dangerous person we have out here. Heres why. When a person hasnt worked in 24 months, they have no problem when someone walks up and says go to the top of that rich and when you see an american combo a roll by, push send on this cell phone because that would at nate and ied. For every confirmed kill that you can show us that you have from your action, i will give you 75. That now has just become a stream of employment for this person. That person has now just become the most dangerous person we fight in afghanistan. We have to be able to think about how economics plays into this as well. Both economics, not just in terms that we need to do things in terms of hiring, but how do we create an entrepreneurial class and an entrepreneurial culture question and how do we support and grow new businesses . How do we prevent opportunities and provide opportunity for people who may have made mistakes . I think if we can do that there would be tremendous opportunities. I think baltimore could be a natural example. When you think about the foundations that we have here. Im talking about the societal foundation that we have here. Plus it means we are going to have to be elaborate and aggressive. If you look at cities who have grown over time and i think of the cities like boston and atlanta and denver, those were not by accident. It is because they were disciplined and they were focused on their growth. When you look at what a person, like one person i feature in the book is Michael Hancock and the work hes doing in denver. Denver is not growing by accident, its growing intentionally. When you look at the growth at a glance over the generations, that not an accident. That was because a group said no we are going to be deliberate about our level of growth. How do we not just come up with the cherry picking Growth Strategy but incorporate all members of our society, even those who may have made some mistakes. Those were coming home are part of the Growth Strategy as well. They have to be. What we are going to do at this time, well lets give him another warm round of applause. [applause]. Good work. You will have an opportunity at the close of this part of the presentation to purchase a copy of the book and he will take the time to find the book. Be sure to get a few copies for your family and friends as well. These are not just history but stories of many other people who are doing Amazing Things in their community to make sure that the work in the light stays lit for so many others. We will be doing that right around the corner here. Were right outside. You can get a copy of the work. Thank you, thank you you so much. You can ask questions and pass information to him. We are so happy that he put this book out. Its not just a story, its really like a how to guide. How to get into your work and find your passion to be successful and live a meaningful , well lived life. Lets give it up for him again. [applause]. [inaudible conversation] is there a Nonfiction Author or book you would like to see featured on book tv . Send us an email, book tv at cspan. Org. Or tweet us or post a comment on our wall facebook. Com book tv. All right will give the stragglers here a few seconds to grab their seat. Hello everyone. Before we get begin, all the usual housekeeping. Silence your cell phone and refrain from anyng photography both here and during the awesome book signing that will take place immediately after this event in the main library. Art welcome to the free library of philadelphia. My name is jason freeman. Oni a cool part of this job israh. Getting to introduce writers that you like and im excited to be here tonight to introduce sarah vowel. She is a clear eyed funny observer of our history. She is the author of partly cloudy patriot, take the cannoli, assassination vacation and unfamiliar dishes. Or she was an editor as well as tho original contributors toiety mcsweeney. She was published in a variety of periodicals. She has made numerous of. Appearances on the late show. Her new book offers a frank portrait of the french hero of the American Revolution and his insightful return to our young country. Interviewing her tonight is wesley stakes. Not only a frequent guestavor author, but one of our favorite interviewers of writers on this stage. He is the author of four novels, most recently, wonder kid. You may also know him by his music. He is also the founder of the cabinet of wonders radio variety show which is really a whos who or has featured a whos who of contemporary musicians and other performers. Ladies and gentlemen, before you join me, sarah has said she is going to read for a moment whicr is terrific for us. Now please join mees in welcomig sarah vowell and wesley stakes to the free library of philadelphia. [applause]. Hello philadelphia. Cspan is here taping so i wouldo also like to say hello to the five insomniacs watching this a5 5 00 a. M. On a sunday. I i just wanted to read a little bit first because you can see what happens when i can sit and think about what i want to say and how i want to say it. For i sit over there and just jibber jabber, willynilly. Ill just read one excerpt from the book. I think the onlys thing, and its toward the end, the only thing maybe you would want to know is about how marquis de fra lafayette, our beloved revolutionary war hero from in 1777 ascame over a 19yearold and was with Washingtons Army through yorktown in 1824, president monroe invited the elderly lafayette on the eve of the 50th anniversary of theati revolution to come back to america as the nations guest and it was quite a to do. Delp you remember what a big deal ite was in philadelphia. When he arrived in new york harbor, 80000 new yorkers were there to meet his ship and the population was 123,000 so he has bat on the pope. [laughter] most of the book is about his time in the war and a little bit about that return trip, but this is, i guess you could call it as tangent. Nowadays lafayette is a place, not a person. Lafayette is a boulevard in phoenix, a Pennsylvania College and a bridge across the mississippi in st. Paul. Its the alabama birth place of boxer joe lewis and three different towns in wisconsin. If so it is also Fayette County which the chicken ranch, better known as the best little for Houston Texas put on the map. It is without questionye lafayette, indiana where the founders of both cspan and guns and roses were born. When i bumped into an old vi neighbor who was visiting my hometown she asked me what i was working on and i said a book about lafayette. She inquired if i would be spending a lot of time in louisiana. I was confused wondering if she forgot that Thomas Jefferson decided against his initial impulse of appointing lafayette as the former french colonies governor after the Louisiana Purchase but then i realize shey must have lafayette as her goeto noun. Even though its a closer drive to utah, california and colorado. I clarified to her that i meantd the revolutionary war hero and therefore i was more likely to visit pennsylvania where he was shot. She nevertheless expressed her fondness for idaho. Mo this encounter aroused such indignation in my breath that i moralized upon the instability of human glory and the ewa not o to evanescence of many other scenes. No wait, thats what she did in 1870 when a random stranger in n cigar store had never heard of his revolutionary war hero grandfather. When i found out my old neighbor had never heard of my revolutionary war hero, i went and got a taco with my sister. Still it does seem eerie how one day in 1824, two thirds of the population of new york wases lining up to wave hello to lafayette and 19 decades go by and all that is left of his memory is a cajun college town. Thanks to the nationwide euphoria over the elderly lafayettes return to her of tht united statesle in 1824, countls americans streets, parts,nclu cities, counties, ships bear his name. Along with scientology founder and my arkansas born great uncle Lafayette Heinz who was named fate for short. The most meaningful is Lafayette Square across from the white house also known as lafayette park. This is the capital of protest. The place where we the people gather to yell at our president. Or as George Hw Bush once complained to parade magazine during the gulf war, he complained of the demonstrators who were beating those damn drums in front of the white house while i was trying to have dinner. Of all the rally citians sit ins, i think we can agree the one american should be most 1 proud of is the gathering of the clue clocks clan there in 1982. The three dozen or so, stay with me, the three dozen or so white supremacist who showed up to demonstrate were provided Police Protection against the hordes of agitated protesters pouring into the capital to demonstrate against their demonstrations. Freedom of expression clearly exists only in a societyt most repugnant nitwit is allowed totd spew. This hateful speech is literallt permitted. It goes on from there, there, but you know, you can read that later. Shall i come over . Oh, youre holding it like oprah. You can just have years. Thanks. Dont tell me what to do. No no no. When i think of that, lafayette, what you think of him now, despite all those things thatha are named after him,t the towns and the glory that comes with that kind of latterday same . Do you think of him now as anle obscure character and are you trying to let people know about him . Wes is british, i dont know if you can tell. [laughter] he hated british people. While i was going to say many historical figures f in america are obscure figures because the, dont remember anything. You know yes, he is obscure but, i mean, i guess, i guess, maybe you should check with your teenagers to see if they know who ben franklin is or be something. Is he an obscure figure . Key has become one. He used to be, maybe it was just the aftereffects from that tripa in 1824 but i dont know many of you have been to the monument in the Brandywine Valley that is a little streetlamp looking thing off the side of the road, but its like nowheres bill near westchester. That sounds like a town, right . Its like in a later use yard. I met her and she was really nice. When they built that monument in 1895 after he had been dead for 60 years, 5000 people showed up to celebrate this, not very impressive, no offense, monument being put up. So i think, maybe the culmination of the top at legeni comes in world war i when france was in a bit of a pickle and when the American AlliedExpeditionary Forces came to help out our old allies the french, against the germans, they marched into paris and they marched straight to the cemetery where lafayette is buried in one of the officers famously said lafayette, we are here. After that, that, people got busy. New heroes. Eah. Yes, there was hitler. Ce [laughter] he used to be a bigger deal. Im not one of those writers, ive certainly read these books where the writer is like my subject is so important. If he had never been born there would have been a zombie apocalypse. He was important and interesting i enough that i wasted three years on him but hes up there but in the revolutionary generation its kind of an embarrassment of riches. You have washington and jefferson and your hometown boy franklin, you know people were excited about Alexander Hamilton these days. I may be more partial to henrys knox, the chief l tillery officer. On what about john adams and jay madison. Theres a lot of talent there. Knox has to be the hipsters choice. He certainly the writers choice because henry knox, as you know was famously a bookseller. The owner of the london bookshop. He joined up with the militia in massachusetts and eventually, ha was the guy who, think about the guy you buy your books fromho while i tell you the story. Hopefully it still a a guy or a lady in a store. Yay. So the book guy are sent tobrit washington and theres a siegety in boston and the british control the little peninsula of boston itself but they are surrounded by all of these patriot militias who have marched into the Continental Army and they get word that ethan allen and benedict arnold, arnold, who we still like at this point have captured those and have all these weapons left over. In order to brea k b the stalemate, they need not just better weapons, they need some weapons and the thing about having artillery is that its heavy. Henry knox goes up to washington and he says my brother and iy will go get that stuff. And its 300 miles away across the berkshire mountains and its winter in washington is like, go ahead. Then, a few weeks later, the knox brothers show brother show up and they built these special sleds and they were how many w tons of heavy artillery were n hauled. They wake up the next morning and theyre impressed and they leave by ship to canada never to return. The moral of that story is never underestimate in independent[lau seller. [applause]. I know which side the bread is buttered on. Okay, we will get back to all this lafayette stuff. I have a couple of questions, one is, it juste struck me. And less your quaker which is possible in this town. Its probable. Im sorry if i was just glorifyingth violence. S mostly. That was a disclaimer. Lets come back to the quakers in a moment. Theres a lot about quakers. Canst we . We should have a quaker meeting. We should just do it now. That would be great on cspan. Just a whole room full of the people. Its justou the sound the visuals will just be people trying not to make eye contact. You must do a lot of research on your books. There must be big thick books on your subject that you have read, obviously. What youre doing is youre taking the fax in your taking the urge to educate and use people, because you are a comic writer also, and, and youre taking your love of the history in the first question i want to ask is an expression of you, but what order do those things topple out of you when you first thought of lafayette . Did you wait for a spark of an idea to come to you but then when it does, how do you keep those things in balance while youre doing it question because thats what we love about you. I use an egg timer. [laughter] dang time for a joke. No, i call them books republican dads get for christmas. There like single subject book about a person. Usually the title is a persons name and then when someone asks them what is the book about they will say a persons name. They wont havye this weird word in their title that all my goshk thats going to take 45 minutes to unravel. I always, in the beginning, i think about what im going to do that all right this straight story. With lafayette, i had a short piece for this return trip thate was very sentimental and all about, kind of a love story and the american peoples affection for lafayette. I thought i was going to write this nice book about this nice french boy. Then, i dont no, i never think things through enough. For one thing, there is a war that hes in so thats no fun. Then, i mean the reason i was drawn to him was, in 1824, the civil war is starting to bubble up. Basically, now that i think about it, the, the civil war is bubbling up across town in Independence Hall in 1774. Thats right at the beginning and the thing at Independence Hall, the first continental congress, the first thing that happens is a guy says we should start with a prayer. I second motion is to act his companion sang no way, im paraphrasing, we cant pray together, we have too many religions. Right there, was the official sounding. They were all like, we cant get along. Maybe the third thing that shouldve happened was let someone go home and save everyone the trouble. So anyway, i was drawn to him because he was french, lafayette, everyone loved everyone loved him north, south, left, right. Heus was just this other, other, like everybodys uncle from across the sea. I thought it would be nice to write a sweet, simple story about this person everyone loved. Then in order to tell that story, pretty much at every step in the research, he gets here,am hes here for maybe five months and he writes George Washington a letter from across the campus at valleypu for forge saying i l like america can defend itht herself. Like you can fight the ritesh if you would just stop fighting with each other because all they do is bicker. The congress cant get anything done and they disagree on everything. The congress and army are at odds. Theres a conspiracy within the congress and the army to oust George Washington so George Washington spends a few hours a day fighting the british and a few hours trying to keep his job from the people who are oy. Ermining him, his friends. Bo then writing about the trip ines 1824, the 1824 election was in full swing when he arrived. Its the most divisive election in American History. Theirs and her jackson and endsb up being decided by the house. Everythings a mass and then s when im researching, i just want to go to my little battlefield to see where my french boy got shot in a happen to be in the fall of 2013 whenls the government shutdown, so Independence Hall is closed, the battle field was closed and sovi all of this ended up flavoringce the story and the book kinda became two books, books, maybe three if you count the fact that i try to use lafayette as a person personification of the french in general. It sort of just expanded its waistline. This happened to them, thiss happened to him and then he the died. A lot of your writing is dependent then i met some quakers who distracted me. A lot of your writing is dependent on your personality. Its filtered through you and you like going tos places and telling us about the people you meet. Yes wes went with me to oneu of the places, valley forge. I did. Thats true. Well get to that and minute. I can tell tell you the insideie stories. Thats true. We had a great lunch. I recommend the cucumber. What i want to do, just going back a bit. See him doing it to you. You have these questions you want answered and i just keepnd interrupting you im just going on my tangents and distracting you. I want to imagine sarah vowell at school and her relationship to history. What happened that now this is what you right now . Something must have i have two images of me in American History class. One of them is me skipping it to go to the Public Library to read and the other one is sitting there with the boring teacher at the blackboard and one kid making a break for it andi jumping out the window and running away. Tion [laughter] i think my interest in history is by identification with it. It comes from my family background. Tell us more. Both of my parents have ancestors who were cherokee and were on the trails and the u. S. T government march them i come. 2 oklahoma. O at it was just a topic of conversation in the family and then also at the church capitaly in oklahoma. Every summer when i was a kid we would go there and watch. We had one of those amphitheater pageants. Every summer i watched, i mean and also, we lived at a very rural childhood and it was the only theater i i ever saw it until i was 14 or something. I literally watched history, s live every summer and this one story was so present in the family partly because my fatherf hope hated oklahoma and hated that he was born there and it was Andrew Jacksons fault that this historical tragedy made it. So he was born in this place t that he hated. He had a bit of a bone to pickhi with Andrew Jackson about that. T so this world historical event that had happened i mean it was in 1838. It happened to our not so distant ancestors. That always made history seem like something that happened to people like us. It wasnt just this distant thing. I dont think school really had much bearing on any of that. I think really because i was never one for textbooks. Right. I always wanted tooo read bok books. That is why i was skippingelin school all the time to go to the Public Library. Not to psychoanalyze, but this is such a clear line between you feeling that yourtin family was directly affected by history and the kind of history that you are writing for usvery nowadays which you are very i present in the writing of. Ea yes. H. T yes, i mean it wasnt just that, i think it was maybe the way my family was. It wasnt just that story. I mean the civil war, we had by great great grandfather fun that. Because the cherokees were the e slaves and im technically able to be a member that was justh like my grandfather knew that guy and my family is from oklahoma and you know he left 20 under the dinner plate wheno he came by amnesty to bakker. History just seems like one of i the things he talked about because it was one of the thingh that happen to actual people. So with the quakers that i met two, they were incredibly wellny informed about the revolutionary war. Not only, like most people i would talk to, had a vague notion of who lafayette was if they did at all. And the quakers knew exactly who he was and they had a problem with him. By extension then me. What they were talking about, one of the quakers said that sectarian groups tend to know their history. That actually kind of leapt out at me when i was reading the book. Haw the people who are the most educational for me when i was researching the book where the native hawaiian activists, the people who are still protesting the american annexation of hawaii in 1898 and i learned so much from them and one program i think on tv, is one of this sitcoms called black ash. Its about this middleclass black family and theres a whole episode about Martin Luther king day and how they go skiing on Martin Luther king day and how the different generations are relating to w these stories orty there was that whole episode about the nword. I o think history, or there was one episode recently about a to Family Member who was hesitant to visit a physician and there is a whole thing about the experiments on black people and it was basically like a a little documentary. I think people who descends from people who have been left out or wronged in some way tend to be very focused on history because they are still upset about it. You know and you should beic for good reason. So you are one of the few americans who feel like myi history and my country goes back so much further. I was thinking there was an American High School in paris and its basically like an thi International School and i remember this kid, i was telling him about what i do and that i write about American History. This one kid is like, i dont understand that. Theres only like 400 years of it. And im like well a lot happened, you know. But i think youre history is my history too. Oh yeah . [laughter] ive been spending a lot of time writing about how british americans are in is not t necessarily a complement. Star [laughter] just to let you know about my education, very convenient part place to start, when i went to k my first school that is where we started and i did about twor years of that. Then i was taken away for that i school for various reasons and started there again. Then when i went to the school again, all i know about is that because i did it three times in my education. She started becoming called boudicca. Lets talk about writing for a bit. I recently had the pleasure, i reviewed a a book, a bunch of i writing about Hank Williams. A fantastic piece that i quoted about that you wrote for someone in san francisco. I presume about Hank Williams i think i mention that. It was a wonderful piece of writing it i think we know this american life, but did you start off with music . Pretty much. I used to be way artsy or and i studied art history in school and then i started writing for my college newspaper. Thats how i started writing. Ta actually started writing about visual art because i felt likeer thesi art reviews in the Montana StateUniversity Newspaper could be better. I decided i should give it a whirl and then after school i wrote for some art magazines for little bit and did book reviews and then i moved into music partly because a music writer, he was the 1i interviewed for my College Paper and he kind of gor me my first job in journalism writing for art forum. Through him, i mean he was m lib the only writer i had ever met. I met, i had been a College Radio dj. So had served of a background in in music. I started writing record reviews for places like spin and weeklyb newspapers and stuff about music. Mostly the first ten years as a writer, i would just, i mean, ii would write anything. Adio it was like a a record review, book review, column andt gr interview, a documentary, i just it is much as i could. I think that was great looking back. It was great for the experience but also everything paid so poorly that i just had to do as much as i could and i always had so many different interests, buw writingas about music was, ii always loved music, but sometimes i i think i was right running out of adjectives. R also, i think i was becoming a nicer person which made it harder to be a critic like an honest critic i think. I can remember at one point towards the end i was reviewing a record for spin and it was terrible, but i felt so bad about saying that so i i just said the drums are miked reallyr well. t b ive only reviewed one novel and ill never do it again because i felt like it couldnt be honest about the book because i felt so bad about it. I dont feel as bad about nonfiction but the novelists i i feel very protected. Yes theres this little delicate flowers and then those nonfiction bullies, bullies, they deserve what they get. Exactly. En [laughter] so we know you from voiceovers in a string of books, what was the thing that took off for you . Lets put it that way. Oh, that first took off. E when did you start doing. It all seems like a progression at the time. This is making me sound like i have multiple personality disorder. Orki its always like one thing. In started working when i wasdia writing my first book which was a diary of listening to the radio for your witches not adoin task i recommend doing. I started writing that book because it was 1994 and remember the Congressional Election that year and those charmers took over the congress and theircaus calling themselves that because they were very proud two oh their allegiance to Rush Limbaugh and they felt like Rush Limbaugh and talk radio people like him had one them this revolutionary election and i had never listen to Rush Limbaugh. No one i knew listen to him and i just thought radio was having this huge effect on the country and no one was writing about it. There were no radio critics and. So i thought, i wanted to write about this so i i just turned on the radio and started listening. I heard some really dispiriting things. M but then because i wasov writino that book and i i had moved to chicago to go to school and i met eric glass and then i became friends with him and i i was writing for one of the local papers in chicago and i was having dinner with ira and i told him i had written a book review about a record guide, a book of music reference books, o and i had gotten a thank you letter from this random guy in chicago thinking me because i had mentioned a great old seattle punk band. This guy thanked me for mentioning them. Just a guy. He wasnt in thean band. Then he enclosed in his thank you letter this book he had made. This is sort of i guess al gore hadnt invented the internet by this point but normal people didnt have access to it. Now were used to all the many pe plundered corners of obsession in the world and its expression by random people in theirad basement but at the time, he haa sent this book that he had of written that was all about the fastback with these pie charts. And as you know they went through a lot of drummers. There were these charts about rusty played on 15 of the songs. And you know. Thats right he was the first drummer of the fastbacks. Uy we tell we bring up kurt block. Oh my gosh, gosh, that guy should run for president. Anyway i was just telling ira about this letter that i got and he was like oh this guy lives in chicago, ill give you a tape recorder. It wasnt even a would you like to work for my radio show. It was all give you o a tape recorded. That was the whole conversation. Of course youre going to go to this guys apartments and talk to him about his obsession. Thats dash was that your first piece . That was my first piece. Its probably on the internet now. Oh my gosh i would love to hear that. I guess you could say that came out of me working for that paper writing reviews. I started working on my the show in doing more stories. Then, i made a documentary on, and i keep bringing this up, up, the trail of tears, and that change my life because that was the first American History story i i had done and i loved it. I loved, i mean it was hard t because a lot of people die in the story. But its a personal connection. Yes it was a personal connection but its interestingi because that story, i was doing what i was doing for the rest of my life which was right away and it was a road trip. As a a documentary of driving that whole trail with my twin sister and so we went to places along the way and it was, it turned out, basically what ive always been writing about is america and american culture. Whether it was writing about wha Hank Williams or missionaries to new england. It seemed to me to be the perfect way to talk about not just American History but america itself because it was a road trip so weau would stop and we were crying every day because every time we would stop it would be like where more people were buried along the way. Like 4000 people died along that trip which was about a fourth od the tribe so every day we would drive and we would stop andad stand and sometimes there were literal graves and we would try and then because it was a road trip, we would go get barbecue or we would listen to chuckong berry or at one point going to chattanooga which was one of the starting points for the trail and we stayed at the chattanooga choochoo. It was really fun to say cry choochoo all day long. So we were having this where we. Would cry and then it would be a fun road trip. And later on, i remember reading what the novelist Steve Erickson wrote that the two great inventions of america are annihilation and fun and he was writing about the nuclear test in the nevada desert in vegasin and so on that trip, it would be like indian genocide, barbecue. Racism and watching the xfiles with my sister in a motel room. I the whole thing seems, because this country is both of those things, its annihilation and fun so i think its such an extreme place. You give a good example of that because a lot of the things youre doing are fun things to be doing. E what we were doing when we were on the valley forge trip because we were at a place where there had been incredible deprivationm and yet we were having quite an enjoyable time. Yes because. I didnt really know what i was looking out so you were able to explain it all yes, one b reason i invited wes is because hes british and i thought thisll be fun to be with thet british person and just rub it in all day. But as it turned out he knew nothing of the revolutionary war because they dont care about it. He was just like i think it was a colony that was lost. So he robbed me of what washat supposed to be my greatest fun of a day. Ay if you had only alerted me. U that i just remember there was l that big monument at valley forge with all the names of thee calvary. I was saying wes, those are people and he was saying you know that monument with all the brooklyn street signs on it. [laughter] i know what im talking about hes like we just focused on the wars we won. Well some with your help. Now someone set a very funny thing. Lafayette. Af how do you say it . Im thing saying lafayette and less something lafayette. Its kind of like that song and he says blase fair. If kind kind of like that i think. So he was french. People are sitting in theirns underwear saying i just wanted to watch cspan, like a real cspan. I think theyre getting their moneys worth. The cultural references from jonathan richman, but lafayette was a french man who came over to america to fight a war against the british. Writes. Someone says very cleverly in your book you are writing about a a frenchman who got muddled ue in a continent far away from a country he. Ou i love it when people quoteri themselves. I dont thick i said that. Yo i think you improved whatever i said. No you said that. Did i sayth that . T i said to my friend when you read this bit of the book i t think theres one part that doesnt sound like me. It sounds to good about me that. That piece about, i dont even know where those places are. Do you need to complement yon further . Laughmac. Its all about you. I could go on talking i to you r hours. But what we should do, because of the signaling that i see so frantically occurring is to taki some. Ng slick when hes playing the guitar jumping up and down. Yes, thats right. What we need you to do because if you would like to answer a question, please do so. If you would would like thate question to be heard on the podcast or on the television, then please wait until the microphone gets to you, you, even if you think you can shout out enough. Does anybody have a question for sarah . Theres one right there. The microphone is coming toward you now. I would like to thank wes and also say he really did prepare questions about the actual book and i kind of kept just derailing you. I just like to ask one big question at the beginning anding then have a chat. I think thats what the people on. I mean what areke they goingo do, fire us . Nothings worse than a question with an agenda and mycs only agenda is keeping you talking because its so entertaining. Have been thinking all dayio about what question in wanted e ask. Thats more than wes did. What did you come up with . So when you went on the traiu of tears, your grand tour,. Are you ever going to get over that . When you wrote about in your book, what i think of when i see a 20dollar bill. I know where youre going with the. People are talking about putting a woman on the 10 bill and leaving the 20 bill alone. Im thinking first, what did you think when you heard the news and who do you think should beta on either of those two bills . The 10dollar bill, as i recall, theyre not going to completely ditch hamilton. One of the proposals is there would be two or there would be two pictures on it or there will be two separate 10dollar bills, i dont know. Right wise attend . Why hamilton . Everybody loves a treasury secretary. [laughter] but like the injured enter jackson one, people are talking about it and i would love to get rid of film on the 20 becauseon its really distracting. You like say you have the afternoon off, and you and your sister are going to go see the new tom cruise movie, and youve gotof your popcorn and youre paying for and then you have to look at the face of the guys whose policy ruined your ancestors life. It puts a damper on things, wom right. If they want a womanwell, i meao everything about jackson. But im against nullification like everyone else here. But what was i going to say . You were going of to someone that you would look to have. I grew up in montana and our great hero is the first the first female congress person, and shes shes the only member of congress who voted against entry into world war i and world war ii. Everyone though i think most people in montana are onboard with world war ii everyone when i was growing up there everyone was always to proud that she voted her conscience, and then when i was a teenager in the 0u in the Antinuclear Movement she was luke our great hero because she had been like she had 3ust been a great peace activist her entire life in the vietnam war. There was a statue of her in my the vietnam war, is a statue of her. A great heroes of montana, and whether you agree with how she voted are not she held her ground and it was not a popular stance, especially with world war ii. She is, i think, person of character and quality. When ii was playing junior mints or something after seven. There was another question in the back. So i havent had a chance to read your book yet. Thats okay. It just came out yesterday. What were you doing last night . [laughter] so i was studying but i did buy it but not able to read it. So [laughter] i was wondering. Take the test yet . I did. An a. So it was worth it. So i study early American History from revolutionary war. I was wondering when you were reading as they were called the john morris Alexander Hamilton in lafayette i was wondering if there was any like a lot of personal stuff is kind of leftout a lot of history books look biographies. I know so focused on accomplishment and not who was making out. [laughter] yes. So wondering if there was anything. I remember we asked a ranger like theres that house that washington stayed in. And that also hamilton and lawrence were staying in and we asked him, and he didnt really want to talk about that. the disgusting physical evidence. So, i mean, i do spend a lot of time on stored in because he is so important to the actual story and the one that reshaped the Continental Army into a more or less effective fighting force the whole reason he came here was because he was out of a job and there were those gave me about them. Taken literally with the other boys and pressure. So he was out of a job in europe is a piece that longer. In this remind herself was hoping the rumored and follow him. And as far as i know there is no conclusive evidence one way or the other. A confirmed bachelor as possible, maybe he was even probably gay, but as possible when he arrived at valley forge that he witnessed the 1st soldier being dismissed from the American Military homosexuality, i got it was virtually dropped out of the camp with drums and stuff. I dont know about lawrence and hamilton. I read those letters, and they are very affectionate. There is no Work Together and very good friends. Who knows. But its very possible. Possible. That was basically the reason he came here. So certainly up through past the dont ask dont tell era his was an important story to gay and lesbian soldiers because so many of his drill manuals that he wrote or officially part of the u. S. Army until the war of 1812. Much of that carries over. His ideas about military order and discipline and training exercises have been part of the American Military tradition from the getgo. Gay and lesbian soldiers were being excluded. So i dont know. But its definitely possible and maybe probable. But the other guys, im not sure. Edits probable i dont know about the others. And he mentioned a monument somewhere and in your book i wonder if you took road trips as a kid so do you have a story what is the strangest Weather Research for your books or travels . I know strange but the most perplexing going to the mckinley memorial in canton ohio i do remember in the gift shop this of the year was a yoyo. [laughter] so that is to be assassinated president and that was the momento. [laughter] i thought that was all little disrespectful. [laughter] the most disturbing writing the book about assassinations with the memorial to John Wilkes Booth that was a highway median it is very spooky and preferential and a memorial to him. Its not official in looks fishy. [laughter] but it is there and i found that pretty creepy. But to be lighthearted. [laughter] one of the founders of the town who became the richest man and had a cattle drive. And i grow upon story st. And up and tell a few years ago he is shuffling around town. And Walking Around town in his plaid coat everybody and their dogs in to him and then he just lived well into his 90s the town put up a monument to him from the old story mansion from the middle school that i went to a a the highschool before that. Is so they put up the statue of malcolm in his coat. [laughter] and my sisters dog went bananas. [laughter] she remembered malcolm. Malcolm was always Walking Around town so was lucy the dogs was so weird he saw the statue. [laughter] i like that but the town put up of one unit to a guy everybody knew because he was older we all grow up to say why not go. [laughter] lenovo who put that up but it is still there. One more question. Is it true gents jefferson wasnt satisfied with the declaration of independence they wrote the french declaration of human rights. Dave wrote a draft of it and then it was edited. He has something to say about this. The declaration of the man that nefarious various people contributed to that. Local knowledge is so helpful to me. And,and, you know, which is a 19th century biblical and ii think i have maybe written him off for a bit. The community is where the term free love comes from. They were eccentricities of the living arrangement. And i think i have a lot of condescending feeling toward them that just seems bizarre , and i was not thinking about this people because i have lived among them for a while and wanted to see where they lived. It was one of those utopian communities. The 1st talk about them and said i spent so much time at the Mansion House where they all lived thinking about these people and why would come here, and one of the reasons they came because they had this idea that kind of made the perfect and they should move upstate. While they come here