Booktv. Org. And no one book tv, were showing you some programs about u. S. President s. First this past february, lexus took talks about a biography of George Washington bridge offers her thoughts about why her book is different than other books on the same. She spoke with no times colonists in politics and prose bookstores in washington dc re read. I want to president ial history because the presidency and especially the one who it was it bill sora, who everyone pressured into it. Its really important that everyone understands him in the presidency. But i think the biographies are alienating those in the way that they their visual presentations, there title some of the way they are written. So i really wanted it the reader to be like that if they have never read a president ial biography, they had everything that they needed at the beginning of the book and then at the beginning of the section come to equip them to feel they are ready the experts. I really did think a lot about my reader then a part of it was a washington has been called in adams family theories editor. Edit the paper. They called him vanilla once to my face. And i think that is well for small items you cant compare from there too much fun. Thats why there letters survived in the new that predict. Alexis you can break him out of the small. He can be fun and interesting. You have to have fun with him as the whole different thing. I organized the material in my head is always trying to make sure that i got things across. Then decided to be vulnerable and charged with everyone. I do think there are certain things to help you understand. I can tell you in sentence, for example the beginning of the resolution. A less battles than he won. What are we talking about the battle season on the frontlines. His intense the most of the time but is not out there. Why are we wasting time about it. It is a supported to me that you understand something thats usually just a sentence but is lost in the paragraph. The mark went on for a long time. We had one general and the british had many generals. I really present you with a chart at the beginning of that check section and listen to George Washington and then all of these other guys pretty good at it and you take that knowledge with you. I just wanted you to have those. I dont want my reader to have the longest answer ever. I dont expect you to turn around and give a really long talk about this. I want to be really excited about it and turnaround and talk about it like at a cocktail party. I will say that it would like half the book on my train ride back home. And so my wife i was reading this book. And i said did you know that washington owned dogs. And she said i did not know that. And chiefly, i really wanted to talk to you about these facts about washington predict. Alexis is ported to know that he loved dogs. You have to know that it was silly enough to cause dogs and sweet. And you need that it makes him like you imagine him as ridiculous. We also need details for another things like you cant just know that how many people he owned. Anything to survive. You need to know that he assaulted his slaves. This was really me just give you every detail i can leave out of it. Because this book this much to did mystify him placed him in the context of his relationships. Because he is a model for the presidency, what kind of almost demystify it in the way in which the book unlike those more traditional biographies, feel like theyre more about roman empires. Jamelle and this is a book about a president. Its just a dude that we chose. Thank it is interesting. Youre always sure to emphasize to us, not just the people around him, that washington doesnt uncertain person pretty as someone that has goals and aims but also thing i had in my mind was danny glover and legal weapons. His tool for the ship. He just doesnt want to do anymore. Alexis we think of the founders as ill be in in agreement at the same time they were understanding what they are doing. They set out with all of the details worked out. Thats just not true. Washington was doing the best he could. Jamelle just getting into his head about how anderson himself doing the job. Alexis this humanizes him to give us comfort in that missing is in some ways. Jamelle he was a slave owner. Sort of one of the overriding identities of this entire life. Alexis means and it was his business. Jamelle he was poor and his entire life. Was concerned about what is going to how he is going to do in feed and house of the people he owned. In the what weather were going to do for him. I think at the end, washington sort of would also say that, yea im going to free my slaves at one point but he never really acted on it. I wonder if he could talk about or you can talk about his ambivalence there. It is unwillingness to take the extra stuff. Because you make note, that here in virginia, some others did take the extra step. Alexis i also that this was something that biographers pulling the silver on us. Thing is simple to them because it is hard to repair someone. Its hard to do that if you cant see him having this beautiful realization. Washington begins to have, not a change of heart but a change of priorities during the revolution. It means different people. The argument is sometimes enslaved and free black men fought. During the revolution. This would change his mind. No he did not want that. He is really reluctant about it. Can billy lee, his righthand man. Hes a rep. Of everyone rather than the exception. What i wanted to do have the present. His is present in his mind. Its important as anything else. What is he concerned about at mount vernon. His force labor force. To understand his anxieties and priorities, has to be there the whole time. The materials are. I wanted this motion bunch of micro histories and one biography. It is understanding why he ultimately did the thing that he did. He could have sold his land. We called him them planters. I think that is miss leading. Their plantation owners. And forced labor. And they were all cash for. But they had landed. No one had more land than George Washington pretty had gain a ton of really prochoice land during the french and indian war when he fought for the british. It wouldve happily continued to do. We might be bridges subjects, and they just given him the promotion of the wanted. [laughter]. He was at reluctant rebel. Not some idealist. So i think that is important to think about the things that he is saying not quite true. He thing i dont have the money, cant do this, you should or he could have if he really wanted to. He wanted to be the person that others thought he could have. And he had examples for there were people in virginia who did this and had likely under duress because of their slave masters were terrified of this. Lets talk about how to set up a move for martha. He left her pass the buck to her in the letter this incredibly vulnerable position. He just didnt want to see and be responsible for her which was the separation of families forever. Jamelle how many people were enslaved in mount vernon. Alexis it fluctuated. Martha had two children from her previous marriage. They had over hundred and 30 enslaved people. Washington inherited 11 and number as well because he purchased him and the other weird thing is it was a, enslaved man was told him. Like it was a like a fine him all taken. Like he went to regimented, he went with them with the explicit purpose and by people. The numbers while the hundred 14 by the time he got here. Jamelle the thing for me writing about washington is a slave owner, also most of the people he self most of his life work enslaved people. When i went up there and they talked about it in those terms there, most people jeffersons, most of the time the more people whom he enslaved. Never me radically changes the way i think about these men. And how they mustve thought about themselves. It wasnt a salon everyday. Would like all their buddies. Alexis ben franklin. Jamelle was set up to sundown most days, seeing the people you enslaved. Thinking about them when you had to discipline. Just an observation. Alexis i think theres something worthwhile about thinking about that in talking about it. People talk about how it was impressive of how he thought about all of these inventions. To maximize profits and labor, to make sure he was applying that. We do think of them is sort of like doing important work all the time. They were drama queens and messy and they were also scroll the themselves to be better. Washington would hang out with his wife and make is like people robust and race. Thats what he did on sunday. I also want to know that he went to church sometimes but i also know he did that. Over the past 20 years, over 300 books and watch them at any time, booktv. Org and searching George Washington. I books. Im nextdoor look at u. S. President s as historian nancy eisenberg, the coauthor of a new a biography of john and John Quincy Adams. His a portion of her talk from institutions Historical Society in may of 2019. John adams was a disciple of the light meant as much is jefferson. At the heart of this revolutionary movement was the impulse to unmask superstition like the divine right of kings. And independence of thought. John adams held that a desire for things to be found in every part. They needed an audience. The ruling you needed the masses to worship the riches and their money. This is why he identified the danger of the cult of personality. It is when the personality of the leader is equated with the nation. Nancy the worship title or places we the people, as the sole of the body of politics. Adams watch the cult up close and personal. First when he was in france. Franklin seduced the educated leads as americas first rock star. Adams understood the desire among human beings to be seen and loved. He zoomed in on the force of spectator ship. There was the opposite. The fear of obscurity, of insignificance. Long before every american wants 15 minutes of fame, adams was in place of danger of ventilation. At the center of his constitutional theory. What glittered in the eyes of men and women was often most super visual of dazzling distractions. Kate explained the first riches beauty. Its societies invariably divided people into classes. The Political Parties used the same method emarketing candidates. An attractive appearance in a prominent name in a glamorous reputation. That wasnt enough, flattering quackery were his delight, would keep supporters mesmerized. John times understood, the politics was a good con game as far back as 1790. His point was his impulses a marginal government. Republican democracies alike. Society rewards ambition cannot emerge or avert the mad scramble for public recognition. But he went further. Buddhist psychology was possible for the sham worship of the lesser few. Since the majority of people would never take to the stage, they lived vicariously through their idols. By curious was his word. What he was saying is that the people felt a special kind of something with a powerful rated wasnt a corrupt politician, roden to office on the slated reputation. It was the voters live for the show. We document these things for book. Not selectively braun suit simply resonate to the current political scene. A lot of people think i forget we started researching this book long before the current political scene. Americans tell themselves the value independent thinking and the alignment sense of that phrase. But in fact, citizens still swoon of the rich and famous. They join crowds cheering fans. Adams extrapolated from this to say the mob mentality is a dangerous sport contained within democracy. Incessanoften inflamed by the pn press pretty Party Organizers from Alexander Hamilton forwarded. I found a way to exploit imaginary bond between voters and their leaders. In the first president ial election, in 1788, and 89, Hamilton Beach work that southern electors withheld their votes for adam by writing rumor new englanders might steal the election from washington from hamiltons perspective, there could be only one king, one idolized star. Washingtons presidency borrows the trappings of loyalty. The chief executive in a grand mansion and he rode in a lab finished carried and held intimate receptions for the capital he leads. He made two grand national tours. The king of england, his birthday was a holiday, a national holiday. Washingtons image was known to all. Eight visiting dignitaries remarked that americans kept portraits of washington in their homes much like the russians worshiped icons of the saints. Now adams cleverly dissected the cult of washington. He used his skill to explain the worship of washington. The generals first and most important trait, was emphasized his handsome face. And next, is tall stature. He was 6foot three. Delete breeding. There was evidence hit his elegant form. His graceful movements and his large state. Washington was a man of few words. Adams joked that his fellow virginians adore him. Because among plantar elites, the geese are all swans. Image matters more than genius. Adam knew this. We know it to be as true as well. Voters take manufactured qualities and signs of innate character. Clouds of course, suffered comparison to washington. He acquired the nesting again of his tendency read label started while Vice President and is used in the election of 1800. Political gamesmanship became for six like for the time the second adams entered the president ial contest. In 1924, when then secretary of state, John Quincy Adams was seeking the presidency, a cartoon captured the first brace socalled. To this day, and term of president ial horserace. This is relevant because tonight, is the kentucky derby. In the cartoon, John Quincy Adams is head of the george and William Crawford and while Andrew Jackson, dressed in his military uniform, southern telling coming up fast. All john adams stands at the front of the crowd cheering on his own. While spectators place wagers on the outcomes. This is democracy at its worst. A spectacle. The Election Campaign is not about philosophies or policies by gamble. The excitement of the race is what matters most. In 1828, when the second president adams wants election to jackson, he found himself not only running against national hero, but it is far better organized protests and party machine. The new yorker, Martin Van Buren was jacksons lectionary guru pretty pulling on the earlier new yorker hamiltons playbook. Jacksons admirers tried to remove him into the air of the noble washington but the effort failed. Because jackson was known to be impulsive and blustering and a mini concert, autocratic. The general was promoted with the lavished campaign biography. The first of its kind. His rash arbitrary behavior was recast as a cardinal virtue. That is, he exhibited frontier baldness and manly bigger. And while the incumbent adams was overly cerebral. There was something even arthur at work here. John quincy adams concluded jacksons followers were really and this is in his words and very important. Champions of executive power. Jacksonian democracy was in fact a warrior conduct. Democracy was a smokescreen expansion drove politics pretty slaveholders wanted slavery to expand to the pacific. Behind screen the union of planet speculators and southern slaveholders. John quincy adams was elected to congress in 1830 after his one term presidency ended. It was an unusual move. Never to be repeated. He remained in the house until he died in his desk in 1948. Parties ruled. In the arts of party drilling, as he called it was because a monetary. Party members became riotous. The sanctimonious called to liberty, allowing southern democrats to purchase silvery support for slavery for free men of the north. What could be a greater irony. Jackson the head of the Democratic Party, jeffersons supposedly small government party. It was now party of executive power. Election. Frederick John Quincy Adams is a grisly error. Men possible with child ritual of the royal european courts we had so long served as a diplomat. Somehow like his father before him, he was a secret promoter of monarchy. The sad truth is this. The personality could hide all sins. Just the truth and voters often didnt care. For John Quincy Adams, what happened was slaveholding and taken out of the presidency. Along with the illusion what textbooks call jacksonian democracy. Weve opened up our archives look at other programs about u. S. President s. No former second Lady Lynn Cheney and his is the life of James Madison. She was joining conversation bike for Vice President , cheney at the nixon president ial library in 2014. He was the architect of the constitution. The architect of the bill of rights trading he was crucial to the establishment of the government under the constitution. He was president during the first award under the constitution. And he performed if not magnificently in all of those jobs, at least very well. As at the end of his presidency, john adams it was kind of us our figure. Not given to making compliments easily. If john that James Madison administration and covered itself and more glory than any of his predecessors. Theres a great complement because his predecessors are washington, jefferson and adams himself. I do think he is been underappreciated and it has been really so much fun. And oh five years of labor doesnt sound like so much fun but discovering things and being able to put into a form that help would reach a wide audience. And as the book is called, reconsidering James Madisons life. Which was the most important contribution. They were enormous obviously but if one, he just had to pick one, what would it be. It would have to be the constitution. I think he was a genius. And the reason is as he was the kind of genius he had is that he was able to break through conventional thinking. When everybody else was thinking one way, madison didnt necessarily accept it. He would think of other possibilities. And he did that in the case of the constitution and in the case of establishing a Great Republic which is what we are. The conventional wisdom was that you can have a Great Republic. Great republic where people voted for representatives for themselves. And rep. Government. That it would be to use over a long and vast