Print things and publish things. It is not a freedom for what we now refer to institutionally as the press. Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan3. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lecture s in history is always available as podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. This week on q a, president ial historian Richard Norton smith discusses his book, an uncommon man, the triumph of Herbert Hoover. Richard smith, why kdid you call your book you wrote 35 years ago, uncommon man . Its taken from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. You remember Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, maybe 43, about the common man. And wallace, from the left of center, perspective, was projecting in effect the goals and am birgss of the generation that was fighting world war ii. It wasnt enough to simply beat the nadzis, but to create at home, a true democracy. A place where the common m
Captioning performed by vitac its a spy story, its a humanitarian story, its a political and diplomatic story. Hoover was not very diplomatic by nature. The interesting thing is lou said later on that he was never the same after belgium. What he saw particularly the children. Remember, he was an orphan. All his life, there was something about hoover, he was not naturally gifted in social interaction. But with children, there was a different person. And belgium stamped him, for better or worse. The other remarkable thing again, building on what we said earlier, it was all voluntary. He appealed to the American People. He said, again, the American People, if you tell them what you need, they will give you their shirt off their backs. And there is a you go to west branch, the records are there. It is its a remarkable story there was one group, i think there was a kansas club of new york, who were going to build a clubhouse. And instead of building the clubhouse, they gave hoover the 500,0
Richard norton smith, why did you call your book that you wrote 35 years ago uncommon man . Well, its taken, actually, from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. Remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe43, about the century of the common man. And wallace, from a left of center perspective, was projecting, in effect, the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. And it wasnt enough simply to defeat the nazis, but to create at home a true democracy. A place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place on the political spectrum. He was, in effect, making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. But something to say, that i shouldnt paraphrase it, but, you know, when you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommonly able general. Yo
I stand before you without a single pledge or promise or understanding of any kind except for the advancement of your costs and that your cause and that of democracy. [applause] i expect the republicans, in we want wilkie, and as we watch on images of him on the campaign trail, we are joined here, in russia indiana, with wilkie. I want to introduce her audience, to some of these iconic images, of the campaign, they really surrounded the ground or thought. He ran for president , and try to defeat roosevelt, who is seeking a third term. The end of the hovered ministration, going for eight years in the result administration, roosevelt was president roosevelt right at the height of his power, and that opened up a time for a dark horse candidate to come outside of the political spectrum. Keep in mind the state of the Republican Party, this was a party that had been defeated by roosevelt in 1932. Off landed in 1836, so, what were the republicans looking for, and why was your grandfather the
Washington post lives onestop shop for news and analysis from last nights president ial debate and what a debate it was. This morning to kick things off, im joined by veteran political report reporter dan bulls. Im going to read the opening paragraph in todays paper where you no one alive has seen a president ial debate like tuesdays night shout fest between President Trump and former Vice President biden. 90 minutes of interruptions and insults. It was an insult to the public as well and a sad example of the state of american democracy five weeks before the election. Go on. Well, i think we know what happened last night. The president of the United States decided to come here and try to destroy the format of the debate that he agreed to the terms of and he set the tone for this debate. It was not that surprising other than the fact it was farther over the top than one might have expected. Vice President Biden came to expect a traditional debate. I think he knew he was in for a night i