Humanity can overcome the most accurate of weather predictions. [laughter] thank you to our new sponsor wells fargo specifically sponsoring the new history and biography on pavilion was 1h annual National Book festival all of us at the library of Congress Hope you enjoy it as much as we have planning and bringing it to you with so many great sponsors and partners but its also an important because building a key reading is essential not just to enriching our own lives but extending horizons of society to sustain that democracy and we are grateful to those 115 riders bringing us the creative spirit and collective in a national way here at the mall. At the 11th National Book festival not only a success but the unprecedented number of people participating with the work of over 100 volunteers giving of their time with more than 1000 it is a record in that respect as well as people like you who have been here. Also special recognition to the wonderful librarian the executive director Jennifer Gavin project manager long time head of the fifties the senators and Office Coordinator director of development and the 1000 volunteers made up of Library Staff on their own time. And also members of the Junior League and those who love the book festival. Many of these volunteers return year after year because we cannot manage a book festival without them. And all of the logistics to get up the tents and the technology to make communication possible. Our security staff works hard to make sure this is a safe and happy experience for all booklovers joining us this weekend. We are spatially grateful for those who brought their children to celebrate the multi generational task of reading to each other and extending the conversations. So it where grateful to the many sponsors that contribute to the resources and those that made this event not only possible but sustaining and the cochairman of the new board for the festival David Rubenstein has been a great benefactor and cannot be here today but deserves a great things cochairman of the new board we have for the festival and its many members are here and we thank them. Finally thank you to the authors and their publishers for making the books and coming alive here at the book festival at the National Mall making in a landmark and continuing event here in washington. [applause] and Nobel Laureate we begin the festival this year the Nobel Laureate in literature yesterday and Nobel Laureate and neuroscience talking to the library of Congress Said i have reached the conclusion that the human brain is wired for narrative so we close the festival today with a man who has drawn more of us than you can imagine into a fresh and in new ways many parts of the unique narrative that is the history of the United States of america. Twice won the Pulitzer Prize for truman and then john adams. But pulled them out of the relative neglect they had received compared to the president s preceded and succeeded them. Adams was president between washington and jefferson truman between Franklin Roosevelt and eisenhower. These are all iconic figures but with new narratives to humanize history and more than that, also celebrating the human stories and great events like the building of the panama canal, Brooklyn Bridge and historic tragedies. David mccullough is our citizen chronicler his latest book is the greater journey. Nineteenth century story of americans journeying back across the atlantic to discover the learning of the old world even at a time when other americans word journey to the pacific to discover National Resources and Natural Beauty of the american frontier. America was opening a new world physically in the west while enriching itself culturally and intellectually in the great city of light in the journey east across the sea. Ladies and gentlemen since mccullough came into my office two days after the first National Book festival to say how important it was to continue to do this kind of event nationally, he offered to help in any way he could. One day after that unspeakable tragedy of 9 11, one of the dark days in the narrative of our national life, he came back the next year to give the final talk at the book festival one year later and he ended it in a way we will not forget. Some will argue he suggested you have to regulate what people think and write and even read but in the end it was just two words. We dont. [applause] [cheers and applause] we are glad to have him here, the medal of freedom winner to end the first two day National Book festival we ever had and start the second decade of this wonderful event that we are so privileged to share with you all. Ladies and gentlemen, david mccullough. [cheers and applause] [applause] thank you very much. What a thrill to be here among people who believe in ideas and the printed word and the useful language and the human spirit as expressed in books and writing. And what a tremendous pleasure and thrill and honor it is to be introduced by james billington. [applause] we have had a number of imminent distinguished librarians of congress, the famous for it poet, a famous scholar and historian and attorney, but we have never had an a more accomplished, productive, inspil or farseeing library of congressman james billington. [applause] i like to think of our library of congress as the Mother Church for the National Public library system, one of the greatest institutions in american life. Free to the people. [applause] just imagine, every single citizen everybody of every age in this country can essentially get a Free Education by going to the public library. [applause] and furthermore after one has finished once formal Education One can begin the greatest adventure of learning which is the rest of your life through the public library. [applause] and please lets not ever forget there is an just books in the library but manuscripts or the back issues of newspapers and maps that are of value that the people that work there, the librarians. [cheers and applause] it took me a while to catch on to this when i first started doing research for my work that if i went up to the librarian and told her or him what it was i was trying to do and what it was i was trying to achieve and how much i dont know they went right to work for me and solved all kinds of problems and still do and i am forever indebted to them. [applause] i would like to begin with a couple of lessons from history there are innumerable lessons of course, but just a few to set the scene. One of them is you can make a very good case and i try, nothing ever happened in the past nobody ever lived in the past. They live in the present it was they are present, not ours. Different. Washington, adams, jefferson did not walk around say is in this fascinating living in the past. [laughter] picturing us in our funny close. [laughter] nor did they have any idea how it would turn out any more than we do. A very important point. They could not foresee the future any more than we can theres no such thing as a foreseeable future just as no such thing as manmade woman or man. It doesnt happen. Life is a joint effort. Great accomplishment is a joint effort. Education is a joint effort. Progress is a joint effort, a nation is a joint effort and we have to see it that way and one of the key factors of all of our accomplishments all our life has been are teachers. We are more indebted to our teachers than anybody in societ society. [applause] and lets not do anything that makes their jobs harder. [cheers and applause] each and every one of us has had one or two or more teachers who has changed our lives to make a c in a way we never did to open the window and change our outlook and change my love of learning. It is about curiosity. Curiosity is one of the essential elements of being a human being. Curiosity is what separates us from the cabbages. [laughter] and it is accelerated by gravit gravity. The more we know the more we want to know. And those teachers who encourage their students to ask questions. Not just to know the answer answers, but to ask. To ask questions is how you find things out. And later in life especially i have never embarked on a project for one of my books i have never embarked on a book of a subject that i knew about i knew enough it was interesting to me to be compelled to write about it if i knew all about it i wouldnt want to take on the book to tell you how this president book of mine does start or at least a good nudge in the right direction it happens right here in washington driving down massachusetts avenue one morning during the rush hour and all of a sudden right by Sheridan Circle just passed embassy row there was a horrific traffic jam and everything stopped there was general sheridan up on his horse the requisite pigeon on his hat and i began to wonder how many people go around the circle every day or twice a day have any idea who he was . And as i was thinking that gershwins rhapsody in blue began playing on the radio and suddenly the power of that music not only lifted me out of the doldrums but sent me soaring so i thought is more alive today cracks sherman or gershwin . Is more important to American History . And of course they are both important. But we must not leave gershwin out of it. History is much more than politics and the military. Say it again history is much more important than politics and the military. There are as many of you that appreciate and know far more about it than i do where are we on all we know is are in architecture. Our interaction texture and poetry and music and dance in science and ideas, take them seriously as a subject for history. Its take away gershwin or mark twain or those of our time walt whitman it says if you took away the Mississippi River or the Rocky Mountains we would it feel the same way about who we are. And of course some of the greatest of all in their own way are masters of the literary form. And here we are in this magnificent capital , surrounded by science, art, science, art, music, history, al part of the story it could be a more appropriate place to give our respect that we have to then you have to teach the culture that we profess to cut back the book programs and theater. And we must concentrate with the children and grandchildren are reading. When i set out to try to understand somebody about my writing i try of course to read with a rope. Because of the wonderful libraries and library of Congress Come university libraries, letters and diaries to take us into the lives and to get to know people and real life and in some ways you get to know them better because in real life you dont get to read other peoples mail. [laughter] and its very revealing part of who they were and what their time was and we are what we read to a far greater extent than any idea. We walk around all of us quoting shakespeare alexander pope. And what we are reading to shape what we think. And then we have a student body whose for capillaries are declining and to have a very serious problem that has to be faced and then to make sure what they are reading and to encourage them to read the best work possible. And encourage those showing what you love with those who went to paris writing about a generation going into 1902 generations went to paris not because they were alienated not because they were angry with the overwhelming sense of self. Pity but quite the contrary. To better serve their country and say so again and again and to serve their country to perform the best of their ability, the desire to excel the ambition to excel not to be wealthier famous and powerful but to excel but painters or musicians or writers or sculptors anywhere in one case a politician name sumner who wanted to come back with a greater sense but the potential of civilization. There is a statute for trial sumner all it says is sumner theres no explanation of who he was or who the sculptor was. And to have no idea who he was probably. Charles sumner went to paris and then to become quite fluent to take notes on everything imaginable and one day his mind began to strain a little because the professor is moving longer than expected so looking around at the other students it is still there by the way. Close to 1000 students in the hall. If you notice the black students talk the same as everyone else and dress the same as everyone else with the same ambitions to write in the journal that night the way we treat black people at home has more to do with how we have been taught than the nature of things. And to transform him overnight is an abolitionist and elected to the senate 40 years old and right up there on the hill and in the Abolitionist Movement second only to how he felt as a force in the country and almost paid the price for it with his life almost beaten to death by a congressman from South Carolina who attacked him blindsided with a heavy Walking Stick and virtually killed him. Which is sumner never really recovered physically or psychologically. That remarkable man was change by his experience in paris that we were changed as a people as a consequence and if you think that is an exaggeration and then heard what had happened that is what caused them to attack and then known as the pottawatomie massacre. One of the lessons of history one leads to another just as it does in real life which is why among the many reasons to teach children and grandchildren history almost 21 years old not quite, who had no money, no friends in high places, new no one in paris, no contacts or were the french. So he went to paris to study art to study in a magnificent fashion. And those far off days and very few pictures on exhibit i knew no one in france i did not know what i should do once they are but i had a great stock of courage which is sometimes a great help and a strong desire to do my very best strong desire to do my very best that young man became the most accomplished on those on the both sides of the atlantic painting virtually anybody on both sides. Right now there are seven paintings in the white house 17 portraits by george healy and the National Portrait gallery and all of this and then Abraham Lincoln and illinois springfield just after lincoln and found out he was president and then painting and that he would allow the letter from the young woman telling him that he would be much handsome or if he grew a beard. And said would you like to pay me with the beard . Healy and commendable honesty said no sir i would not. [laughter] and another he the portrait hangs over the mantelpiece here is a young man who has no advantages never been to college or school to take it upon himself to do this. But Oliver Wendell holmes senior is a poet and essayist writing a famous popular poem called old ironside which kept the uss constitution the famous ship in boston from going to the scrapheap. And to get the finest medical education and possible he has to go to paris not because the medical training was far advanced in our terms but from the 19th century and in particular way ahead american medicine over half of the doctors in the United States have never been to medical school and trade with other doctors who had never been to medical school. And when we got to paris in medical school was several thousand students being taught by the greatest physicians in france were the greatest in the world and if they could go there in two years they could learn as much or more than general practice here in ten years. There were two very Important Reasons for this. And the Cultural Capital of the world both of these had to do with our culture and society and moral rules and regulations most american women at that time truly would have preferred to have died then have a man examine their bodies since all doctors were men, thousands of women died unnecessarily because of that. There was no such stigma about women being examined by a male physician. And equally important and as they make the rounds with a trained physician in the hospital to watch the physician attending those examinations and the second very important roadblock for us is the use of cadavers and in many states more than half of the states are illegal and what that meant was there was a black market for human bodies and because of that the bodies were very expensive and because of that students not to thought to dissect the body were in paris again or france there was no stigma so dissecting every day years at a time was enormous part of their training. With Oliver Wendell holmes senior. And then to teach anatomy at harvard more than 35 years devoting his entire professional life to science. And then to teach in art schools and medical schools and law schools and they came home to teach english and writing and universities and the educational system to a much greater degree and they have any idea. One of my favorite characters of all was Elizabeth Blackwell the First American female doctor in our country another was the wonderful creator in troy new york the first woman to champion Higher Education instead of her full life and education. So with that and need ability to pay the greatest pictures ever by an american still in his twenties in paris working primarily under a french painter who was his master sent him down to spain because he said everything you need to know was in alaska goes on and on so again to avoid growing up in the streets of the city put to work all of 13 years old very little education a great deal of talent but also this desire