America, our secret history. You will tell us the secrets. Her distinguished bibliography includes the 2015 biography of economies a life which was chosen by the economists as one of the best books of that year. It is now considered the definitive biography of that kind of elastic poet. Other biographical works include american looms berry, the leading figures of the transcendental list movements and my name is bill wilson. His life and the creation of alcoholics anonymous. Home before dark, the groundbreaking biography of her father, writer John Cheever Cheever and treetops the memo. She is also the writer of novels and publications. This cheever is influential and shaping and sustaining our literary culture as a member of corporation and of the Authors Guild council. She is a faculty member at the Bennington College am fa program and school and you new york city. In her fascinating and compelling new book, this cheever traces the pervasive influence of alcohol at key moments over centuries of american political and cultural history. From the beer shortage induced illegal landing of the pilgrims at cape cod, to the assassination of president kennedy, and president nixons last stays in the white house. It explores its impact on many historical figures in between and sense all toward asking the central question, what forms a National Character . Ladies and gentlemen, susan cheever. applause . You and high. Thanks for coming. The pilgrims. It is a great honor to be here. This is the center of the literary universe in the country, if not the world. Im just going to talk about this book a little bit and read three short sections from it and hope that it is somehow informing you and intriguing you at the same time. One of the great privileges of being a writer is that we get to make history come alive, which is really fun. We get to take the pictures off the wall and make them dance and make them eat and make them drink. We can make them fall in and out of love of it with each other. We can notice that elicits grant was a short man who adored his wife or that Alexander Hamilton hated drinking because his father was a drunk who took off and left him with his mother, or that henry thorough was was we can include not just the momentous events that happened, which is why we put these people in history books, but also the texture of their everyday lives. Did their shoes hurt . How are they feeling about themselves that they . Were they thinking about what they would have for dinner . That kind of stuff. It really takes us there into history. The food, the sex, the close, and of course the drinking. In this book, by looking at drinking in america and showing its influence on events, i have tried to bring our heroes and our villains to life on the page. I hope that if you read this book you will come to think of John Quincy Adams as a sad friend who lost two brothers and two sons to alcoholism. And sympathize with Henry Kissinger who had the unenviable job of babysitting a drunk. This book has i spent for centuries in this book. It starts with the pilgrims. We will get to that. It goes through the american revolution, the civil war, senator mccarthy, the jfk sassy nation. I just took a bunch of events in which alcohol seemed to have or did have a huge effect on what happened and went through them starting in 16 20. It really all begins with the pilgrims, and i am going to start with them as rhonda did. Im hoping i can find a way to read and have you hear me at the same time. I will probably go for about, i think it is about 18 minutes, sarah . My daughter is in the back. She timed me earlier. I hope you will ask me questions because i love to answer questions. As im sure you all know, when henry david thorough moved to walden pond in 1845, the last thing he had in mind was writing a book about it, he really did not have anywhere else to live. He moved in with the emersons to do the favor to the emersons, the household needed ahead. Emerson came back from europe to find that the row had done its job all too well. Emerson said to the robe you cannot live here anymore. The rose said what am i going to do . Move back in with my mother . Im 35. Emerson said i have why dont you go build yourself something at the pond. So he did but he did not think he was going to write about it. He thought it was going to write a book about a river trip he took with his brother. That hot thrown asked him to come and give a little top. So he came and gave the top about the river trip and in the queue when a all people want to know is what it was like to live in a shack at walden pond. I believe q a is our magic. I know that this will not disappoint us. All right. Here we go. The pilgrims landed the mayflower at cape cod massachusetts on a cold november day and 16 20, because they were running out of beer. Their legal charter from king james was for a grant of land in northern virginia. Instead, they anchored illegally and carved their First Community from the sand, laying the foundation of the american character. Since the beginning, drinking and taverns have been of much a part of American Life as church and preachers. Or elections and politics. The interesting truth is that a glass of beer, a bottle of rum, a kick of heart cider, a flask of whiskey or even a dry martini was often the silent powerful thirdparty to many decisions that shape the american story from the 17th century to the president. One of the things that is unusual about american dribbling drinking is ambivalence. There are countries where people drink more, and there are people where countries during less. There is no other country where we were the trunk is country in the world in 1830 and 1930, by 1950 we were back to being up there and now we are on our way back in the other direction. We get a medal for ambivalence when it comes to drinking. Every century, a drinking pendulum swings wildly. That is not so true in other countries. That is something where we are a country of extremes. We either love it or hate it. Now im going to read the longest of the three sections, which it has been said by actually, a washington native, that in his wonderful book the great experiment, im always selling other peoples books, that we began to win the civil war when lincoln fired his sober general George Mcclelland and hired his drunk in general. That is when the tides seemed to turn and it seemed to turn because of grants can do attitude. Because of grants refusal to admit defeat. Because of grants Forward Motion that nobody could seem to stop. As lincoln said, grant is a man who gifts g. O. A. T. He was also a man who drank. Here goes grant. Of all the drunken generals who fought during the civil war and there were many, the one who most famously battled the bottle was ulysses as grant. When the sun of the Leather Goods producer in ohio, grant was sent to west point where he graduated in the bottom half of his class. In west point he fell in love with his roommates sister julia. He proposed, she demurred. He proposed, she asked for more time. His father disapproved of julia. His father disapproved of julia. Her parents disapproved of him. He finally won her over and they were married in 1848. The couple adored each other, and war and peace, sobriety and drunkenness. They had four children. Almost 40 years later he was to finish his great autobiography, personal memoirs of ulysses as grant so they could be supported after he died. A soldiers life is not his own. Grant was posted from camp to camp. Finally ending up at fort humble in california. Here with his beloved wife and family, his drinking began to catch up with him. There was plenty of tolerance for drinking in the military but less tolerance for a drunk. Grant was a small man, five to, who became famous for being unable to hold his liquor. He would sometimes get drunk on what appeared to be one glass and other times drank a great deal. Grants commander at fort humble took offense. He gave grant the chance of resigning his post and military career or having charges pressed against him. Grant resigned. Suddenly at the age of 32 and with a family to support, granted no profession. His father who still disapproved of julia and even his own grandchildren offered him a job in a leather business if his wife and children would leave and go back to their own family. They refused, the couple refused, instead grant tried up farming which did not work out. Finally his father came around and offered him a job with no conditions. So grant moved his family back to illinois and joined his fathers store. But one of the alcoholism and binge drinking that had guarded him got him booted out of the army . Under julius influence, grant was able to moderate his drinking. He was apparently able to drink less when he was at home then he almost inevitably drink as a soldier. Like many alcoholics he struggled to control is drinking. A struggle that was something sometimes more successful than others. When the war began in april 1861 grant acted decisively. He was soon the head of an illinois a group of illinois volunteers who launched an attack from cairo illinois on a group of confederate soldiers. At this point grant did not drink and did not tolerate drinking among his men. Grants forces one and this early victory for the union after the demoralizing defeat of bull run made him famous. Grants next engagement was more complicated and perilous but equally victorious. Now a major general, grant led his forces south on the Tennessee River where the Confederate Army was mast. By this time of course he had started drinking again. On the morning of april 6th 1862, a Confederate Army launched a surprise attack with the objective of wiping of the union army once and for all. All of these battles have two names as you know. The confederate named the battles after the places where they were fought. The union named them after a landmark. I call it pittsburgh landing but its really shiloh. I will call it shiloh. The first battle of charlotte was disastrous for the union. They held on fighting desperately in the mud. Although grant himself was not around, it was said that he was visiting troops across the river. Night fell without a retreat from the Union Although many of the men were closer to the river. The troops were exhausted. Many people thought the union was beaten including the Union General and grants friend sherman. Sherman had been in the thick of the battle all day slowly losing ground. Grant had been absent during the first day and his men thought he had been drinking. Sherman who had his own struggles with reputation having been treated for nervous conditions early in the war. He was ready to quit. Then during the night, grant reappeared. It was raining hard and grant set camp under a tree ignited ignoring the pain from an ankle injury which happened when he fell off his horse. General sherman informed grant under this oak tree just before dawn while he was smoking a large cigar. Thunder and lightning had begun to flash through the trees. Sherman was coming to talk about the details of what seemed inevitable. A union retreat. The trees were dripping water, the battlefields were a cease of mud but grant was placidly puffing away as if in a Gentlemans Club with a sifter of brandy. As the storm passed away towards the south, both men looked quietly on the Rolling Hills of the battlefield in the darkness. Standing there, sherman found he could not bear to talk about retreat although he thought it was necessary. Well grant we have had the devils own day have we not grant . Yes grant replied, but we will like them tomorrow. Grant was right. Instead of being finished off the next day, the union launched a furious counterattack and drove the Confederate Army back to its original position. Later in the war sherman summed up his friendship with grant for a reporter. General grant is a great general he said, i know him well. He stood behind me when i was crazy and i stood behind him when he was drunk. Now sir we stand by each other always. That is grant and sherman. Now im going to go to the conclusion which is the more i think about this book, the more i become interested in the different ways we write history. I do think there is no anew kind of writing history that is growing up in this country that is exciting. I do think that more historians are including peoples intimate lives rather than just the monumental parts and the big inventions. There are many historians who are doing this. Who are actually taking you to the place and let you be in the scene with the people they are writing about. I hope to be one of those historians. I hope in this book i take you to that place and let you feel what it was like to be grant on that night. Or that you feel what it was like to be even allen. Also somewhat drunk. Okay, so this is my conclusion. We are coming back to the mayflower for the my final words for the nature of history. In the second week of december 16 20, almost a month after the mayflower landing on cape cod, almost after braving almost unimaginable hardships. A winter storm that almost wrecked their ship, a dozen man including bradford, when slow landed and what would be named plymouth harbour. They landed right around Province Towns harbor but knew they could not settled there. So they spent a month looking for a place to settle. Im not saying this looked this happened because the russian was a gallon of beer a day. But they were between two of the greatest harbors in the world, new york and boston. What did they do . They got in their boat and made little circles until they found a place to settle. Plymouth. Not that there is anything wrong with plymouth. They had to drink beer because they could not drink the water. The way you drink water they drink beer. So if there is any possible thing that they might have needed to do with a clear head, it was very difficult for them. Anyway that is not the point of this paragraph, sorry. laughs for bradford, the pilgrim story was parallel to the biblical story of exodus. With gods help they finally found their cane in. Bradfords view of history like many his companions was entirely shaped by his analogy of the King James BibleOld Testament which had been completed just a few years earlier. Every seat was the red sea, every voyage was the voyage of the israelites, every hardship was biblical. Bradfords worldview made him an effective leader and resilient soul. Whatever happened to the pilgrims happened in a larger spiritual and Historical Context overseen by an erratic but ultimately loving god. This was the over arching idea that bradford saw everything. He took his history personally. Modern history, unlike bradfords history, claims to be objective. Our historians right as if they are reporting events with an unbiased i. This happened and then that happened. This is our modern equivalent of gods will. And observant neutrality occasionally punctuated by wise commentary. There are many advantages to this kind of history. The historian ostensibly has no ax to grind, no idea to sell, no political point to make. But there are also disadvantages. One is that in taking a broad dispassionate view, historians miss a lot. Their emphasis is on the sweep of time, not on the moments that make up our lives. They are never personal. Their opinions and the assumptions on which they base their lives are hidden. Their history is this far away from more as it can get. In these books, we see the panoply of history through the narrow keyhole of our own date and time. Our own beliefs and knowledge. We are stuck in the First Quarter of the 21st century. Looking back on the past 400 years is like trying to make out the details of the ship on a far horizon. Her historians make many decisions on how to deal with this. Should we bring modern knowledge to bear on the characters were right about . What kind of language should be used . How will we acknowledge the differences in language between then and now . How will we factor in our own tolerance for saint womens rights or racial integration into times when those things were unheard of . Those are the questions. And now im going to go the National Character. What creates a National Character . America is another name for opportunity wrote ralph while the emerson. It is an opportunity that starts with the pilgrims taking the opportunity and landing in the wrong place. The american attitude toward the law, toward hardship, the american insistence on doing things to benefit the individual all come from that cold afternoon in Province Towns harbor. Character is a combination of environment and experience. The american character was being formed in those minutes when the pilgrims finally reached the beach exhausted. To survive they will need to develop a fierce individualism and a craving for freedom that will spread down from the bent arm of the cape to what will become the Louisiana Purchase and westward where theyre feisty spirit will settle huge expanses of land. The american character has been formed by hundred forces. Defining it is like trying to nail jelly to a wall. Still, to try it, it began with new england with the pilgrims landing that afternoon in what is now Province Town harbor. Driven by many forces both natural and man made. One of those forces, a force of both pleasure and pain, a force of both brilliance and incompetence, was there passionate connection to drinking. Okay thanks. applause so questions . This exciting new is treat you speak about writing about. Is that what you try to a met with this secret history . Blurring the lines of cycle analysis of history and History Today . Not at all. I do not think it is about getting into peoples psyches. We cannot do that. This young man is very intelligently asking, i will try to rephrase the question fairly, if this new kind of history that i am talking about is more like cycle analysis than history . Or is more like cycle analysis than the old history . Is anything like cycle analysis . My answer is no. In other words i do not think this new history that i am talking about or writing is g