Latest Nonfiction Books and authors. Cspan2 created by americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider. And cspan booktv is here with us tonight. With that in mind take a moment to silence your cell phones, feel free to use social media, and when we get to the q and a portion, one microphone set up over here if you will line up for your questions. Make sure your shores question is a short question and get that into the mic. We want to keep the dialogue running. If you have not yet bought one and decided you would like to we have copies of brad meltzers children books, fun and interesting books that make great gifts. You might pick up a couple of them as well. Listen to brad meltzer welcoming him back to the store for his nearest newest book the first conspiracy the secret plot to kill George Washington. Writing history with the same command and vivid action that made him one of americas finest thriller writers. He tells a startling and perhaps deliberately repressed story of a plot to assassinate George Washington looking back to 1776 brad meltzer shows the iconic year of American Freedom was fraught with uncertainty. The patriots bid for independence was anything but sure. Washington pictured elite soldiers who served as bodyguards only to become a target of a plot nonetheless. And american history. An awardwinning documentary television not documentary for pbs and discovery. Welcome to politics and prose. [applause] we want to welcome you here. This is my first hometown bookstore. I can tell you because it means a lot to me. To deal with my relatives. In the back and fantastic jokes i am making. They hosted me on the first book that is a big deal to me. I know ive done every book i brought to the store. [applause] i want to introduce josh john mensch who i will talk about a little bit more. And a secret plot to kill George Washington, is it true, internet made up stuff but it was true. There was a secret plot in 1776, to kill George Washington. When George Washington found out about it he gathered those responsible and angered him in front of 20,000 people, the largest in north american history. George washington brought the hammer down, i will be on the money one day. That is absolutely a direct quote which is amazing also, not a paraphrase. It is a far heavier crowd. I was fascinated with it and when i started it how do you figure this out. I went to, a Great Washington biographies. You know the story about the plot to kill washington. There is no modern book written on it. I want to tell you the story that involves washingtons spies and you can find how many slaves George Washington owned, you will never find all his spies. What you are looking for will forever be elusive. Youve got to try. At worst what happens . You have an adventure. I knew for five years i couldnt get out of my head. When an idea, that is time to take it on and josh and i to give you background, i called josh, i knew i had to call him because we met when working on lost history and lost history, the title of the show is brad meltzers lost history. Best title of all time, brad meltzers lost history. What are we having for brad meltzers dinner tonight . We have brad meltzers chicken and tonight i would like to have brad meltzers office and then sit on brad meltzers couch. We worked on lost history together and our goal was to find the 9 11 flag that was raised at ground 0 and we were able to find it after the episode aired outside dc. We got a phone call from a guy who identified himself as a former marine, the story they told, i want to return it. The reason it got returned is josh was our veteran producer who did incredible research, go and be in new york city, work with former head of the crime unit to authenticate it in the 9 11 museum still on display. One of the most amazing moment in my life. And and all these writers have they are missing the good part. You have to take out all of the good parts and it sounds silly but exactly right and he just knew those details. A scene in the first conspiracy, one of the first things he did when put in charge of the military started ordering books on how to be a better general, but he wanted to know what do i need to do and that is the kind of detail. I love those little details, show, dont tell. I love what came out of it. An amazing story, you will see details like George Washington had his own private bodyguards and all the regimens they had. And it is the best of the best. And the commanders guards but it stuck. There job is to guard George Washingtons life. In 1776 right here. It had nothing to do with the holding but guarding George Washingtons life and these were the men who become involved in the plot to kill George Washington. Dont care how great a general you are or how strong you are, when we write these books and people write about George Washington and we do with all our heroes we dip them in granite and build great statues and the heroes are dead. They are not people anymore but every person you look up to, whether it is doctor king or George Washington was scared and terrified and thought they couldnt go on. There were moments they thought they could never do it but decided to go forward and i love the fact what this book does is when he is not the best and isnt doing everything right, one of the first things he does when he finds out about the plot, they put together a secret committee to figure out what is going on. The committee on conspiracy, give it a good name. A conspiracy led by john day, the First Supreme Court justice and a narrow it down to three people in the city. Governor morris, that is who they trust in the inner circle and they do an interrogation, it is truly americas first Counterintelligence Agency being born right there and right now in langley, virginia there is a room dedicated to john j, the father of modern intelligence. The precursor to the cia, is really this, this moment where john ja y starts building, not with military or civilian seeking out information to find intelligence, using it, George Washington has this military but he knows the great defense to make sure they come for them. It is not just this plot against George Washington but the birth of counterintelligence for all of america developed piece by piece. One thing i love, josh was doing this research and i love to imagine like indiana jones, we crawl on our hands and knees and look for information, for me the idol and i will throw you the whip. That is how i picture us every day. Most of these things are online, so much at the National Archives, founders online. To read some of these things, so much to read and fool credit that josh found, a great expert for us finding things, are we going to find enough information and i remember josh turning up the transcripts of the secret tribunal when they tried the man who was hanging and here we go, they have the actual transfer of what people said and what happened. Everything else is mysterious. 20,000 people, barely mentions. If i killed someone in front of 20,000 people, had a bad day. Got to have something in the diary but hes not like jefferson or adams writing letters to his wife with all his feelings and beliefs. Washington isnt like that. George washington placed closer to the vest. You will see many books that say George Washington thought this or that and it is hard to tell what he thought because he barely said a word and it is part of his whole, we know him better than anyone. On the money we see every day. That is the most intriguing part of it to this day. We are trying to pull apart great secrets. What i love one of the things, we are a country especially now founded on that, the legends that we love most, our own legends and myths. We love that story, we are a ragtag group in the revolutionary war, dream about democracy, take on the greatest fighting force of the british of the time, and we are wonderful. Great story. Not a true story. The true story is more complicated. Think we are divided as a country today . In 1776 new york city, the first 6 battles taking place, many loyalists on the british side as there are on the patriot side and you hate your neighbor, you love your neighbor depending where they fall on the political spectrum just like today and even in our own military back then, not like we all sing together but we have different regiments, they didnt know each other or like each other. They were wearing the same uniform. The connecticut regiments were in Something Different than a massachusetts one in the virginians. I love in the first conspiracy the secret plot to kill George Washington where you see in harvard yard the connecticut regimen, the massachusetts regiment meets the virginia regimen and the virginia regimen is wearing something on her uniform that is freely. They are making fun of them, the fight breaks out, they are all fighting each other and George Washington comes in on his horse, grabs two of the big guys it is shaking them and is saying stop fighting with each other. We are on the same team. A metaphor for where we are today and that is it, that is where we are. We have leaders in politics who bathe themselves in the flag and tell you how american they are. There was no flag back then. Now United States back then. George washington had to help build it by willing it to happen. The men he was dealing with were a mess. 10,000 men came to new york city to fight. All the rich people are like i dont want to be here. I am leaving and they have 10,000 people descended on new york city. Guess what they want to do. They want to drink and gamble and go to the horror house. George washington, proper virginia gentleman horrified by this, general orders come out, stop gambling, dont go to the warehouse. Same things. Not even joking. You are watching the sheer will of this man, making the united part of the state happen. We lost in american today, the word united. We lost it. That is the saddest part of this and as you read the book what is important to us is finding something that is important today, you see why we need the story today. First and foremost among that you get to see the depth of George Washingtons character. One of my favorite things in the book, the battle of brooklyn, one of the first great battles in new york and we think we banded together, lets fight and win and got our rear ends kicked. George washington didnt have the experience british generals have, our own soldiers didnt have the experience or gunpowder but barely had shoes and we get totally we should be dead. It is over. George washington pinned on the east river, should be dead and it is over. A different kind of leader would say we go out in a blaze of glory and take out as many as we can and show them who is who and what a man he is. Show us what a man he is. George washington doesnt do that. He adapts. A daring escape in the middle of the night. All they can on the east river and starts putting his men on these boats and the key moment is George Washington wont get on any of the boat until his men are on first and George Washington is absolutely risking his life for theirs no matter how high or low their ranking is it was not a single moment that brought us together but those moments are the things that created the United States. That is where we come together. I hope in those moments you see the depth of George Washingtons character and humility and why he is someone we look up to and that is the best part of what the first conspiracy the secret plot to kill George Washington does. It is titillating to say we found a secret plot to kill George Washington the more interesting to see why we need leaders like that. That is why George Washington matters. I will turn it over to my friend josh and open up for questions and i will sit here and judge whatever josh says. Testing. Dont worry, cspan is watching live. Can everyone hear me . I just briefly want to say thank you to politics and prose, wonderful bookstore, for hosting this event and allowing us to be here and thank you to brad for inviting me on this journey with him on writing this book and i will say quickly brad alluded to this a little bit. At a time when by any measure theres a lot of political turbulence and disagreement and divisiveness and confusion and fear the ability to Research History and learn about history is so important and vital, to look at times in the countrys history when things were very uncertain and there was a lot of fear and no one knew what was going to happen. So illuminating and informative and helpful to study other periods in history. It is a privilege to learn history and those who read the book will hopefully go on that journey with us and find something to learn and hopefully you will find it entertaining too and that is all i have to say. The best part is you can ask about this book and anything else we do about brad meltzers lost history. Would like to ask the first question . I want to thank the audience, i love cspan, when you do an event at politics and prose everyone is watching around the country. This is one place there will always be some guy who tells you what is wrong with your book so please bring your question. A great topic, full disclosure, my name is Christian Mcburney and im cited in your footnotes as an author who thinks the plot was to kidnap washington as opposed to kill him, the year of marketing to kill washington and how you arrived at that conclusion. I love being right. There is Nothing Better than being right on national television. I should have paid you to ask that question, one that we struggle with. We debated this title a long time. The plot to kill George Washington, you will see this in the book, there are some people who say the plot to kill him, others say the plot was to kidnap him. When you look at what they did with anyone they kidnapped, at the lowerlevel, and capture our guy, when you have washingtons level at the general level they hung him. When they kidnap him and assassination attempt is clearly in danger and the actual original title of the book, the first conspiracy, the secret plot against George Washington and the birth of counterintelligence movement. And i love that you got to the footnotes because only a good or author immediately checks the footnotes for their own name, right in. [laughter] ive been there, trust me. Im no different. But is that why the open, the answer to your question is this is why we thought this, it could definitely be one or the other. We thought this for this reason. But we felt very, very strongly that we could not put that title without right up front answering for the redder and clarifying that reader. And theres no way to ever know. It was foiled, so we never actually know what happened. Why i personally, and josh and i have different views of this but sometimes. But my answer to that is eventually, and i dont want to ruin it, but the final scene in the book when you see mayor David Matthews and what he reveals when he wants his pension, thats what convinced me. That detail the one that got me. Well, i did take a quick look at the text, and i thought it was a very fair discussion and an excellent point. He and john adams were the top guys, and very sorry that i didnt think of that. So [laughter] and his question was why are you so awesome. No, seriously, thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. Youve got to find the footnote, by the way. [applause] i wont get into dell offing into the delving into the discussion, but i read your book and i appreciate it. We cited your book for a reason, and im glad you read it, and i would love to hear some of your thoughts. Wait, whats your name again . Seriously. Christian mcburney. And the title of the book . Abductions in the american revolution. We like it too. Thanks for doing that, sir e. Thank you for an amusing presentation. You mentioned David Matthews who was the torrey mayor of new york city. He was arrested, he was imprisonedded, and the mystery for me was why wasnt he tried, convicted and hung instead of this poor irishborn sergeant whos the low guy, a small cog in the whole plot . Yeah. Again, i love this. You will see in chapter 34 the answer to one of the things that happens is you have all these people involved in this plot to kill washington, and everything thats going on against him. You have all these people, you have the mayor, you have the governor, you have the lifeguards, all these people who play a small role, some big roles. Im trying to not actually ruin the book, but i want to answer your question. The person who gets hung, any one of you will see when you read the book, is not at all the person whos responsible. Its oddly, youre like why did they pick him when they got the big guy . Why didnt they go after the governor, the mayor . Those are the ones who are clearly behind it. I think the irish part of what you said, youll see in the book, one of the answers, thats a big part of it. And we saw that in the book, i to this day and we saw in the book, we dont know. It is crazy to me that they let them go, and it is and we, i think for me especially as a fiction writer, if i dont like the ending in something that happens in my thriller, i change the ending. I dont like that character, i kill them. [laughter] thats out, right . Because im a fiction writer, i knew we were going to be more scrutinized for this. I knew there were going to be peo