Story and how to tell the story of the country in a way that neither sells a short the National Greatness or whitewashes our National Sins in our politics and what may be an unusual way and this book is clearly intended to speak the gist of the moment to hear about how to approach the questions. Wilfred mcclay is a national treasure. Hes first and foremost the chair of the university of oklahoma he is admired and loved by scores of students past and present and one of the great writers of American History. His book the self and society of modern america was just the best book in American Intellectual history. Its a students guide to u. S. History and why place matters, geography, identity and civic life in modern america acted in the service of the country he served for 11 years on the National Council of humanity is which is the Advisory Board of the National Endowment for the humanities. Hes a member of the u. S. Commission which i told you in order to challenge myself to pronounce that word, the Commission Planning the official public commemoration of the 250th anniversary in 2026 graduate of st. Johns college in annapolis he received his phd from Johns Hopkins and with the latest book h hes made an extraordinary contribution to the capacity to understand ourselves. Land of hope describes itself as an invitation to the Great American story and it exists to fill a kind of gap. We will invite all of you into that conversation for questions and answers so with that, lets welcome wilfred mcclay. [applause] my first visit to the new and improved aei. Im finding my way around. Its wonderful to be here. This is an institution that i hold very dear and have for many years and i think the fact that they have appointed yuval levin to this important post is a very good sign about the future. For someone in the academy to write a book like this is a pretty insane proposition. Are we okay . It seems to me we have a problem in the profession that i am a part and made many advances. The experiences of the inarticulate of the marshall and those that have been neglected by historical studies in the past the intended result of the result has been a fragmented fractured incoherent this continuous understanding of the past and when it is conveyed to young people the larger arc of the history that you yuval levin put it or it reflects the outlook of those like elliott howard. The gist of this is that we are losing a general grasp. Now it is a broader shared it as a coherent entity to think of ourselves as citizens to prepare people for citizenship. And the rights and responsibilities but in the sense of membership of being members of the society and part of the story which america is constituted with these consequences, a great nation needs and deserves a great narrative to sustain itself and the challenges that are inevitably it goes without saying it cannot be a fairytale. Its going to be truthful to be convincing. But there is no necessary connection between a truthful account, excuse me, theres no necessary contradiction between the truthful account and aspiring one especially when the subject is American History. And we have ceased to provide that. Either one, either truthful or convincing or inspiring in our schools today. The title land of hope itself begins to convey. Im going to unpack that a little more and i hope that you will forgive me. I want to read some passages to give you a sense of the feel of it, the tone of it because that is one of the hardest things was to find the right pitch that would be accessible to High School Students because after all, they are ultimately it is the high school textbook. Im happy, delighted, amazed at the reception that its often with general readers, the adult reading public for lack of a better term. Its really meant for young people, it is meant to compete with the large and hyper expensive textbooks that are offered. So the aims of the book are clear in th the the alp the outn epigraph that ive borrowed from an essay who as you know is a great author for young people and they recommend it. He was a great radical in the 1920s. There is a vivid appreciation in this country and a profound sense of connection. By the way, this passage the title of the book is the first thing i wrote. Ive never done that before but i sort of brought this title to if you buy iit bias but i wantee and how that theyre in front of me and then the other thing i added is this, and this one is on the side propped up by a piece of cardboard bit longer. Every generation rewrites the past and it is an ornamental arc that in times of danger we are driven to the records by pressing the answers to the riddles of today. We need to know what kind of firm ground of their men belonging to the generations before us have found to stand on. Despite the changing conditions of life, they were not very different from ourselves. Their thoughts were the grandfathers of our thoughts. They managed to meet situations as difficult as those we have to face, to meet and sometimes in some measure to make their hopes prevail. We need to know how they did it. And this is continuing with those and this is the part that im especially interested in. It can stretch like a lifeline across the present and get us past the delusion of the exceptional now, n. Dot blocks the good thinking. That is like the institutions are caving and being replaced by new institutions, not necessarily in accordance with the preconceived hopes and the political thought i focus to lok backwards as well as forwards. Quite appropriate, isnt it . Note the passage that i kind of market. In connection to the living past it can be steady and reassuring in the great upheaval and in that sense the connection can free us from the aleutian. It is another times to be completely without precedent from the aleutian of the past had nothing whatsoever to teach us. We are trying to think of this way and ou in our present timese steady flow of dramatic and unsettling events and Technological Innovations rendered the past irrelevant. Young people i think are especially tempted to think this way because frankly they have less experience and that means that they have nothing but the present as a comparison. But us past this prodigious are viewed as an idiot delusion. We would say idiotic but he calls it an idiot delusion and recommends that its something necessary and not merely desirable. It should add the way these observations to tell you of the year in which he wrote these words come in 1941. This was a truly frightening moment in the history of the world, the western world particularly. Hitler and control of the european continent, the fate of the civilization seemed to hang by a thread. He could have been forgiven by thinking and this time the past in the midst of the precedent or that the past had nothing to teach such a moment tha but that isnt what he said and part of the point of looking backwards as he counsels us to do. We learned to free ourselves from the mental imprisonment in the present. In this conviction that they have that what we are seeing and experiencinexperiencing and deby represents the pinnacle of Human Knowledge and possibility for the inevitable state of human beings. We enrich our imaginations even as we become far less susceptible to the idiot delusions. Instead it reaches back to it and seeks to recover the roots of the great story and presents the story in the fullness not in its coarse brutality and failure although not neglecting those things either, then its triumphs and grander and world historical importance. In the achievement of the common goal and the common good it needs to teach us how to balance criticism with appreciation. Taking into account the challenges of statesmanship as well as the conditioning role of circumstances and the context and the making of the law and politics. Above all it needs to understand historical knowledge is an element in the life of the citizens. A knowledge not only of the institutions and the rights, but a sense of membership of those belonging and obligation. In addition, the book is unusual in the extent for the meaning of the past it tries t pastor triem how to think historically how to understand its not just in inner account of indisputable and the selfexplanatory details. Instead it is a reflective task for the depths of the humanity. It doesnt tell us what to think about the past and almost never presents us with a simple morality play. It means learning to appreciate complexity, nuance and context. The circumstances within which historical actors are constrained. It means asking questions and asking them again and again. It causes stres fresh questionso arise in our minds. And let me talk now about some of the books more specific distinctive. It is a tangible physical object rather than a collection of pixels. It is a handsome book and one that i hope people continue to have in their personal libraries of the future for the family collections. By taking a stand with the permanence of the print is a growing tendency of the School Systems to rely on digital materials for money at to find d the reading to be ever more omnipresent screens. As you will see this as a matter of no small social significance. Digital text can be altered in the blink of an eye. The permanence of a printed book and the ability of the subject that it addresses. Also land of hope wasnt written by a committee although you are looking at the committee. Thence to please different constituencies and groups a at a stakeholders and Political Action committees and all of the other local interested parties. Typing up the way in my attic without the graduate Student Research assistants that has been simplified and i take pain to make it as approachable as possible and i will let you be the judge whe then i read some passages. Many of the distinctive star in the title. First there is the another word land. America is the land. Its not only an idea. True it is in some respects the expression of an idea or ideas about liberty, equality, selfrule and other such things and it initiated the liberty in the nations of the world. Its the worldwide influence of the declaration even unto todays protest in hong kong. The history means its particular triumphs and sufferings sacrifices come in our memories of these things are important factors that draw and hold us together precisely they are the sacrifices and sufferings and victories bought of all humanity that of ourselves. It is commanding the devotion not only because the american idea but because of the brave countrymen some of whom are our fathers and brothers and relatives. Second there is the third word in the title, hope the concept of hope and this is a part of the argument from the outset. Most willingly one great exception to the Common People who came in bondage but most willingly restless exploratory unwilling to settle for the conditions of which they were born drawn by the prospect of the new beginning. The space to pursue their ambitions in ways the respective world did not permit. Hope is a powerful world in america. It has material meanings as well as spiritual ones. It has existed in abundance in america and in fact nothing about america better defines the character and the ubiquity of hope. The sense that as they were initially given to us it cannot be the final word about them and we can never settle for that. Few qualitie qualities are moren thaamericanfan base and it is al quality above all else. An aspirational policy that cannot possibly be adequately accounted for and merely in material terms. Of course hope and opportunity are not synonymous with success. In the land of hope it sometimes means the land of disappointme disappointment. Its unavoidable in the nation that professes such high ideals makes itself vulnerable to the criticism when it falls short of them. Sometimes very far as we have done but we shouldnt be surprised by this. Many heroes turn out to be deeply flawed human beings. All human beings are flawed as are all human enterprises. Enterprises. To believe otherwise is to be naive and much of what passes for cynicism in our time is more naivete and deep disguise. America, hope is to persistent and compelling of the force to be defeated for long by such passing sentiment. And then finally theres also the title of story. America has a story and it is important that our young people be acquainted with that story. Its how we organize the world. We organize them around stories that are constituents of our social existence. We are at our core remembering a story making creatures into that in chief ways we find meaning in the flow of events that we call history of literature into a basic human need and then pulls. Now it is especially important and yet problematic in our view of the american past. Perhaps the single most sensitive subject in the present day history is the place of slavery in the nations past. The challenge in the subject is one of balance. Without enduring its significance there is a tendency among the young to imagine that slavery was a uniquely American Institution but this of course is a profound misconception. The United States didnt create slavery, didnt create racism or resold prejudice. Iits as old as history and the default position of human nature absent some strong moral force that the United States while having a history that is touched by these evils and having participated in them is also a country that has a larger history of which can be proud of seeking to overcome such things. To deal with the problem decisively at the time of the countrys beginnings. It has become deeply enmeshed in the economy despite all the ways its existence and stood in the glaring contradiction in the nations commitment to equality and selfrule as expressed in the declaration of independence. Hence in the famous how is it that we hear the loudest yelp for liberty among the drivers of negroes. How we wonder today could such otherwise enlightened men as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves a practice so contradictory to what they stood for and as i write in the book there is no easy answer to such questions but shortly part of the answer is each of us is born into a world we did not make an ended h the greatest effort that offered a great cost. The sensibilities are not static. They develop over time and develop a moral progress that is very slow. Part of the history involves the training of the imagination learning to see and act in their own time and learning to see even our heroes with the added noble qualities. People like us who may become strained by circumstances beyond their control. Continuing here the ambivalence regarding slavery built into the structure of the constitution we are almost certainly unavoidable in the short term in order to achieve an effective Political Union of the nation. What we need to understand is how the original compromise no longer became acceptable to increasing the numbers of american debate of america especially in one part of the union and why the ubiquitous institution in Human History came to be seen not merely as an unfortunate evil but a simple impediment to the Human Progress sustained upon the whole nation. We live today on the other side of the great transformation and moral sensibility. The transformation taking place. It would be profoundly wrong as some new the United States was founded on slavery, no it was founded on other principles entirely on the liberty and selfrule that have been discovered and defined and enshrined through the tempering efforts through the centuries of european and british and American History. These foundational principles would win out in the end not without much a struggle that is driving with the bloodshed and the United States enjoyed the miraculous birth that wasnt the product of the deception and delivery. And the publication of the New York Times 1619 project which i suspect you are all somewhat familiar with which does in fact exist. Its to promote the idea absent countervailing argument there is now a genuine danger that its part of the makeup and the dna and the metaphor. Its a blessing that woul lessot only be false but pernicious. A related lesson of history is thus dates they often may be less than obvious to contemporary observers precisely because only the leader is in the position to understand all of the essential forces that are at play. Being a great leader requires courage and imagination especially when the outcome seems doubtful and the public is leaning in a different direction or is simply afraid. The displeasure of the multitudes accepting unpopularity as a result. The book contains many examples of this lets take the case of lincoln. We are so accustomed to thinking of lincoln and heroic terms that we forget the depth and breadth of his unpopularity during virtually his entire time in office. Few great leaders have been more comprehensively disdained, load and underestimated. Of course it is to be expected and it was shared in the north, to. As it was put, his associates often a simple susan, a baboon, and aimless joker abolitionist Wendell Phillips called him a huckster of politics. George mcclellan, his opponent in the 1864 election openly disdained him into such wellmeaning baboon. I rather hold a candle to that but he was convinced it was good reason that he was doomed to lose with incalculable consequences for the future of the nation and all that he had done and all that he had sacrificed to that end. We need to remember that this is how history happened. Its very much directed towards young people but i think all of us can benefit. We need to remember this is generally how history has been. It isnt like a hollywood movie in which the background music swells and the crowd in the room applauds an athletes to their ft as they dispense the words and the camera pans the room full of smiling faces. In the real history background music doesnt smile. The trumpets do not sound into the critics often seem louder than the applause. They have to wonder is he acting in vain, or the criticisms of othe