It is about 90 minutes. Tonight as i said we are partnering with the Hauenstein Center. If you have not heard bill brands speak before, you will be delighted, and if you have been here in the past, youre in for another treat. Please join me in welcoming my colleague, gleaves whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center to introduce our speaker. [applause] thank you very much, elaine, for that warm introduction. We really appreciate our partnership with the ford. It is always a treat. We will continue to bring you excellent programs. That stimulate the mind and heart for public service. Happy washingtons birthday to our cspan audience and our audience here at the ford. Its really neat to be here recognizing washingtons birthday. Its always a pleasure to host bill brands. We have had him back to west michigan so many times i have lost count. He should be awarded a lifetime tenure award. I have probably personally introduced bill more than a dozen times. Each time i go back and check his biography, i learn something new. I want to share those with you. You have probably heard me say that his formal name is h. W. Brands. Did you know that stands for history whiz kid . You probably have heard me say that he earned his phd masters in history, but did you know he also had a phd in mathematics . He knows something that no historians know, and that is if you multiply two negative numbers, like minus three and minus four, you end up with a positive. He understands things like that. You have heard me say that bill is the author of more than two dozen books, but do you know they have been translated to french, german, russian, japanese, korean, and haiku . Maybe he will explain. You have heard me say a third of bills books are devoted to the president s jackson, wilson, fdr, ike, and reagan. But did you know he has also dined with the president s in the white house . You have heard me say that bill met longlived ralph hallenstein for the first time at one of our events back in 2004 and they got along famously, swimmingly. But did you know that ralph urged bill to revise his studies of ben franklin and Andrew Jackson since ralph knew both of them when he was a child . And speaking of childhood, you have heard me say that bill has three children, but did you know that one of them is a historian in his own right that teaches at Johns Hopkins . Finally, you have heard me say that bill has an enthusiastic fan base around the United States indeed, i would say around the world. No surprise, because many of his books end up being a Pulitzer Prize finalist. But did you know his most diehard fans are right here in west michigan . Ladies and gentlemen, bill brands. [applause] s thank you youve taught me some stuff that i dont even know about myself. Thank you for the introduction. So you mentioned my son who is a historian. Some of you in the audience appreciate there is nothing more gratifying for a parent who goes into a field. Initially, he got a boost from being confused with me because he was going into this field. Now i get a boost from being confused by him. So you know sometimes i say will go refer to my son hes the expert on the subject. So its a delight to be back. And i see my friends from previous years, and im thrilled that you liked it enough last time, that you came back. And i specially like the fact, that this is an audience where i can try out, and i can tell you about new stuff. So to some extent you know you owe this to my house, because he doesnt just wait to the book came out. And ive already been giving this talk for a while. So he asked me to talk about the book before its finished. And i wish actually that you had asked me to give this particular top a few months ago. Because i just finished Proof Reading the galleys of the book. And its reached the point where, i really cant make any changes. So one of the reasons, that i like to teach history. Because i teach history to 500 freshman every semester. And it requires, me and encourage me and allows me to think in terms of three questions of American History. And often i find my teaching, its a real boost to my writing. Because when you try to explain something, to someone who doesnt really know anything about it, and a lot of my students and i certainly dont mean to disrespect my students, they come from in a high school, im not saying they dont know any American History. But they dont know enough but they know some. But i have a lot of international students. And they know nothing about American History at all. So i have to explain the civil war in 40 minutes. And you really have to zero in, on what the Big Questions are. So, i like the chance to work through these projects in explaining them to people, who are not specialists on the subject. Thats one of the reasons i insist on teaching introductory students. And i like speaking to groups like this. Because most of you are not professional historians. So i can make something understandable to you, maybe i can make it understandable to my reader. But, i have reached the stage, in this particular book because i say its in i cant make any changes is locked in, so if all speaking to you tonight i come up with a brilliant insight and i couldve used in the book, and you will see the grimace pass across my face, because its like darn i couldve used that. So i will try not to be insightful tonight. And its entirely out of my own self preservation. But i will tell you about this project im working on. And as was pointed out its ironic that here i am on the birthday of the first president , speaking for one of the first times on the subject other than a president. And its going to be published in november, and it makes a wonderful holiday gift, for all your friends who are interested in history, even ones who dont know it yet and im just kidding sorry. Its a book about three members of congress. And these are three senators who are the rock stars of their era. Now i could ask this question to you this doesnt count because its specialist in president s but why is it, of all the presence of the 19th century. Nearly all of them are quite forgettable. Okay some people will remember, jefferson, but jefferson is really remembered not so much for his presidency, because he wrote the declaration of independence. Then you go to Andrew Jackson. Ok hes a controversial figure. But we will remember him and of course lincoln. Then who else in the 19th century. And the answer is im specialist in this, and i have to think carefully about this. One and who is president ok there was phil more, and zachary taylor. Or was it Winfield Scott . Theres a reason for this, and the american constitution was not written with the presidency at the center of american politics. If you pull out your pocket constitution, i soon youll have them you will be reminded that the presidency is described only when you get to article two in the constitution. Article one, the largest article the longest article, is about congress. And the framers of the constitution, assumed and intended, american politics, the american republic, and american democracy, was going to be represented by the house of representatives, and the president was a chief executive. His job was to execute the will of members of congress. President s were not expected to take the initiative. They were not expected to drive policy, they were not expected to be the centerpiece of american politics. That is what was fully expected, that what was intended. So the fact that, it is hard to remember president s from the 19th century, is exactly what James Madison, and alexander hamilton, and George Washington wouldve said thats what we are aiming for. We want these people to be an memorable. The stars of the show, are the members of congress. So i decided to look in on, the three most noted, members of congress. During the first half of the 19th century. This was part of, my continuing recovery from writing biographies. Some of you, who have been here more than once. But for a while, i had this long term project, writing history of the United States through biography. And i eventually, route six volumes in this collection. And the six volumes, began with benjamin franklin, then went to Andrew Jackson, ulysses grant, franklin roosevelt, and ronald reagan. If you read those biographies, they link together to form a history of the United States, from the 18th century to the 21st century. And i started off i thought this is good idea. And i still think it was pretty good idea, and i recommend it to all of you. Every house should have a set. But, one of the things that i concluded, by the time i got to the end of this was, there are certain things that are hard to tell. There are certain stories that are important if, you can can find yourself to just barked the. And if youre writing about president s, and i didnt intend to write primarily about president s, but i did because if you tried to tell the story of United States, a president is a convenient character. But theres a lot going on, if the president is your focus, you cant really get that. And a lot of it has to do with, the give and take of what goes on at the other end of pennsylvania avenue. But when you write about a president , when you write a biography of any kind, you cannot help but give the impression, that the world, revolves around one person. And the world does not evolve around any one person. So i thought lets broaden things out right now, and i was here last year and some of you are here, heard me speak about my first foray into this direction. Instead of running but one person wrote about two people. It was the general versus the president. So this time, i decided to expand it even more. Because one of the nice things, about writing but two people is, you can give two sides of the argument. And you dont have to focus on one side and then just bring the other one in the other direction. So i could focus on mcarthur and truman. And they had this titanic battle. And by allowing myself both characters and bringing both characters up so this time two is better than one three is can even better than to. But there is another walk reason for this. And that is that these three men during their lifetime were often called the great triumphant of american politics. And the term is not always attended to be complimentary. Remember the various were trying to subvert the republic. In fact, this was the intention of some of the people involved of the great triumphants. But also because if you remember your days from high school, you might remember that the relationship between two people, whether its friends or romantic relationship, but theres two people involved and thats a certain type of relationship it gets interesting when you add a third. Theres all sorts of complications that ensue. Thats exactly what i was looking for, and thats exactly how it turned out in these guys les. So from the standpoint, they were very thoughtful in the timing of their lives. So ill tell you a little bit about them because i realized that my three characters although household names during their lifetimes, more over famous than most of the not president s of their lifetimes. Theyre not exactly the sort of exactly household characters these. This three men are three john henry clay, and Daniel Webster and henry someone else. Henry clay accomplished never accomplished a feat never got accomplish before and never repeated. He became speaker of the house, the me how most powerful person in the house of representatives in his very very first day. He was that impressive. He essentially created the role of speaker of the we essentially house, a role that is very important to this day. Henry clay henry clay was from kentucky, he was born in was from that as a young virginia but as fire after a young aspiring lawyer, after getting his training in getting decided virginia, he decided that he would have better prospects as as a lawyer by moving to kentucky which had originally had been the western a which province of virginia. He set up shop are shot in lexington and he went into politics politics young at a very young age. This was also what young ambitious young mandate. Traction like there was an attraction of doing this in kentucky because kentucky was in the state, i was writing a new constitution, it was electing members of the riding constitution and senators. One of the reasons the people went west was the professions they were interested in were crowded in east. And would be professions hard to our breaking the politics in boston or new york. Easters you go to kentucky, everyone else is news so goal you can get a start as well. This everybody is henry clay. So this is john kowloon was from South Carolina john south john john cattle whom like clay was a lawyer kelly. He was born in South Carolina he was educated at yale he a and you went to john calhoun South Carolina and did that those the days. Bill return 79 is in the late and the early 1800s, it wasnt out of the question for a southerner to go north for education but they rarely stayed. Usually they came back home. South carolina eons very proud of their South Carolina routes and john calhoun was like that. Like clay he became a lawyer, but being a lawyer involves people in matters of public concern. The concern between law and politics was well established in those days. And john calhoun decided to go into politics he married well that usually means city married somebody with some money so he didnt need to make much of an income. He could indulge his political interests. And he like henry clay was elected to the house of representatives. This is were pretty much everyone got started. He was distinguished from early on by his very incisive mind, his ability to make forceful arguments. He was a strong partisan. He was a member of Thomas Jeffersons part of the republicans, these days are often called a dramatic democratic republicans, but in those days they simply call themselves republicans. So henry clay was a republican, john calhoun was a republican. The third trio was Daniel Webster. Danny webster was born in New Hampshire, he became a lawyer and he was probably the most gifted of the three. Daniel webster is probably the greatest orator in american political history. One of the things the drew me to these three guys were very powerful speakers, very persuasive speakers. And one of the things it truman right about them was that im kind of a sucker for people who know how to use the language. Im a writer so that makes me interested in that stuff but also one of the things i constantly tell my writing students is that there are styles of language, there are ways of writing. When i chose to write i knew i was going to be transported back to a time when political rhetoric was really important. Now this because, to put it very bluntly there was not a lot else going on. So when Daniel Webster was going to get a speech, this was high entertainment. This is why for example some of you will know of the Lincoln Douglas debates of 1858. This was the big deal and american political life summer of 19 1858. Now how many of you have read any of the linkage douglas debates . Okay, a few. And those of you have read will know that because they would get up and speak if douglas one up first he would speak for an hour. Then doug lincoln will respond for now and a half. And douglas would get 30 minutes to finish up. So it would take all afternoon. So it was going like going to a double feature of the movies. Well back in the thirties, when people went to double features might as well spend year all afternoon because is nothing else to do. Same thing in the 18 fifties. Although the the debates get kind of tedious you know why they get tedious . Because they repeated themselves, from one debate to the next. Why did they repeat themselves . Because they werent recorded, the audience had her before so it was new which meant by the time you got to the seventh debate, you can really have this thing down. This is one of the reasons i was so intrigued by my three characters. This was a time when political speech mattered. I dont know if any of you will ron cspan, so were all fans of cspan. So im sure you glued to cspan when cspan is covering congress. And i know you can turn on cspan most of the time during the week and you can see people getting speeches in congress. Now probably not giving away any state secrets when i tell you that if they pan the camera that theres no one in their. Theres no one listening there speaking simply to the camera because we live in a time and political american institutions have sufficiently matured, one can say theyve grown so rigid, they have evolved in a way so the political decisions are not made on the basis of speeches given in the senate or the house of representatives. Political decisions are made for other reasons, Political Party considerations, lobbyists. But the decisions are not made there in the house and in the senate on the basis of who said what. We live in a very mature, maybe ossoff id system. But in the days of henry clay and john cowan and Daniel Webster this was not so. We had very immature institutions and when institutions are immature, and the rule for individuals is much greater. When henry clay gave a speech, he really did change minds. When henry clay would debate john kyle whom john calhoun and when daniel rubs who would rebut the both of them, people would listen, and they would listen carefully. As a sideline, the speakers would write out their remarks after they giving them and put them into print and sell them as pamphlets and they had a side income in doing this. So this was a time when if you listened to henry clay talk about the need for protective tariffs, he was protests are off. He thought american industry had to be protected from foreign manufacturers. And then you listen to Daniel Webster oppose this. One of the striking things that to me is how sophisticated these arguments were. In, fact i probably give more time to the speeches these arguments than maybe i should have simply because i was very im