One of the things you read and learn about other children of alcoholics in that family dynamic is a childlike bill clinton begins to feel like he has the responsibility of appealing to that family conary teaming, creating on her with various dishonor. He basically said that to be the person whos going to rescue the family. Hes an incredible student, front of his class. He becomes active in worst nation, a junior at american region, gets nominated to go to washington as a quote, unquote nation candidate for u. S. Senate. Goes to washington. Hes 36 feet tall. He strives to the front of the line when they go to the white house to see president Kennedy Kennedy finishes his speech, bill clinton looks voting gets his picture taken with alongside of john f. Kennedy. He so proud and he already is dedicated to the idea that he is going to be the person who will bring complete honor to the family. He already by the age of 17 is planning to be elected attorney general of arkansas, then governor of arkansas president of the United States. This is something which everyone who knows him knows about because he talks about it all the time. He does not go to the university of arkansas. He goes to georgetown. From georgetown to becomes the arkansas candidate and then goes to oxford. Hes an incredible success everywhere, but he cannot have a sustained ongoing relationship with a woman. Hes attracted to the kind of women as mother directs in two, the beauty queens, the ones who are flirtatious, who are attractive and thats really where his eyes at 10 until he comes back to be a law school. There he meets hillary rodham. Imacs, author and lecturer, Kenneth Davis, cleaned author of the dont know much about serious talks about history, geography and more. The selling off there has written 12 adult nonfiction books including the Hidden History, and nation rising and is 2012 release, dont know host author kennetn president s. Host author Kenneth Davis, where did they dont know much series of books come from . T th where did that idea come from . Guest the idea came fromtleg my own little brain, although it didnt start out as theh series. It started out with the idea that i loved American History, wanted to write about it. I wanted to write about in a way that shared my enthusiasm for a subject ive loved since i was a small child. The title came of course you and sam song, which i knew from childhood and so it got stuck in my head. And certainly the success of the book, which caught me by surprise more than anyone else perhaps led to the beginning of the series. She outgrew followed and on and on it went from there. So with no pretensions of writing a series of books, i didnt set out to write this book because simply a loved American History. I couldnt understand why we have these surveys that to 17yearolds dont know their American History and i wanted to write something i thought would address the problem. Host in 1991 he published her one, dont know much about the american president s in not book, you write, i like to consider a dont know much about luck the first word on the subject rather than the last. Guest thats very true. I see myself as somebody who brings together a pot of interesting information that exists out there. Its not that im a groundbreaking researcher who finds the cover story. I think most of these stories exist and unfortunately dont find their way into her textbooks, school books, certainly not of the mass media or hollywood, where most devoted a lot of impressions of history. So i wanted to be a person who asks and answers that dont know much about series in a questionandanswer format. And be able to say what does the declaration declare. But is the mayflower contract . Answer in a few short paragraphs or pages, but also where they can read more about this. So i see myself in a way as an educator. Many people say, did you explain to be a writer . The fact is no, i didnt. If i thought anything in high school and certainly college that i would be to share. So i see my role as just starting a bigger conversation about history and again, sharing mounted vcs and interest for history because it does have so much to do with who we are as a people today, certainly whats going on in the country right now and when you see history, not just as along with the dates of battles and speeches, which unfortunately is how way too many people do see it in this country becomes a lot more interesting and reconnect the history to the headlines come in the past the present and thats the real reason for understanding history in the first place. Host in an updated version of your dont know much about the american president s book on the right histories about the consequences of our actions large and small and that has never more apparent than in the aftermath of the terror attacks on september 11, 2001. If the terror attacks havent changed anything else, basically changed Many Americans appreciation of the past and what it has to do with the price and. What does that mean . Guest i like to think thats true and believe its true. So many people when they had the catastrophe wants to know was there anything else like this in our history and in fact there have been 9 11 moments throughout our history. I point to a few of them in my book. There was a moment in the 19th century called the massacre in the early 1830s. It is a complete obliteration of the small troop of men, Army Soldiers marching from one place to another in florida, which was really the first site of the men to most americans at that time. What that did was set in motion a moment that led to a war against the seminole indians, one of the overlooked moments in our past, which is something also try to do, tell the stories that the textbooks to leave out. Most americans have never heard of the longest most costly war in American History up until vietnam, which was the seminole war fought in florida. So that moment was as gripping and astonishing in a way to people about time as 9 11 was to bus. Pearl harbor certainly was again. To each generation has had one of these moment that we do forget that weve been through this before. Obviously, we are going through right now in a sense. Im a new yorker. I ensure new york and we are living through this extraordinary moment. I just want to say briefly thank you to the people who are expressing such concern and care for new york and this region. We have a long way to go and a lot to do. On my way into the studio this morning, i was remembered Thomas Jeffersons words when he was inaugurated. We are all federalists. Were all democrats and all republicans and he was speaking to this moment of the Research Division in the country and this is why history could be so instructive. He was speaking to the moment in 1801 when they just cant do it very, very neat and controversial election that was decided that the house of representatives. He wanted to speak to this idea that we were all americans again and certainly thats the way i wish we would feel after the storm and aftermath of that. So we can learn from these moments americans are very good at coming together. Doesnt feel that way right now in the midst of this election, but we also have this extraordinary moment, where we have a crisis and moment of division butting heads against each other. I am hopeful we can learn from our history and see that americans to respond to a crisis like this. Host as Kenneth Davis alluded to, the reason hes in new york and both tedious and washington is because of sandy. We had studio issuescome the sore little patch together for this in depth with Kenneth Davis. Your most recent dont know much about the american president s is about the american president and you talk about a couple elections. I went to took about 1800 the election of james k. Polk versus henry clay. You compare those talking about how vicious they were. Is todays election, the current fund we are red, vicious compared to the ones we just talked about . Guest no, its probably more general and person if you look at some of the things said. For instance, going back further to 1796, the first contested election when john adams in Thomas Jefferson, that the teacher is 20 years earlier, who had combined to really bring the declaration of independence into being were now fierce political rivals. They had maintained a friendship of sorts as jefferson served as Vice President , with the result affiliate president s and Vice President s elected back then, something that changed soon after. Jefferson and adams had begun to form what were the beginnings of the two Political Parties, out of the federalists along with Alexander Hamilton, who is no great friend or ally jihad atoms by the way and jefferson on the other side has been known as the democratic republican. Thats why alluded to the fact that jefferson and when he was inoculated said we are all democrats and republicans were trying to break the separation. That election had begun with complaints that adequacy monarchist. There were newspapers of the day. The most famous in philadelphia published by Benjamin Franklins grand son that called atoms and overweight, corrupt monarchies. He was accused of sending his Vice President ial candidate, Thomas Pickering out to procure young girls. Adams had the good humor to reply at least that he didnt know what happened to his two. Mustve kept all four for himself. Jefferson was described as an atheist, in those days the equivalent of palais rabbits left wing terrorists. Those who favor the french revolution and what was going on it they said that jefferson was selected, thered be be blood in the streets and would be taught in all the schools. This was the tenor of the times. Obviously, back then they did not have 24 7 news stations. They did not have twitter and facebook to feed this frenzy, but it was still the frenzy of the day. 1824, another tremendous example of a vicious, vicious election. John quincy adams versus Andrew Jackson. Andrew jackson was accused of being an adulterer and bigamist because of a cork in the Divorce Proceedings of his wife, rachel from her first marriage. This something that was circulated around the whole country called the handbill was a pamphlet that was posted throughout the country, showing the coffins. These are the man Andrew Jackson had supposedly killed, either as a general or ordering the execution. So being caught a bigamist, an adulterer and murderer and having them spread around the country widely wasnt that unusual. We like to think the good old days in powdered weeks. Politics have always been a nasty business and its always been a sharp knife business in the very beginning of president ial politics. Host is the power of the presidency changed over 44 different president . Guest well, i started out in dont know much about the american president s to look at the very, very basic question of why we have a president. 225 years ago we just celebrated the Constitution Day a few months ago, celebrating the adoption of the constitution as it was written in philadelphia before it was ratified. One of the things these men fight over over that long hot summer in philadelphia, blocked doors and close windows by the way. They did not want anyone knowing what theyre talking about. But the thing they thought about most was the power of the president he and the office of the president be. These are men who feared more than anything else, the acquisition of tremendous power by one man in charge of an army. They said for the first day, Benjamin Franklin said he know the first man will be a good one and everyone in the room knew who he was talking about. George washington was sitting right there. It was clear he would be the first president. After that, franklin said will be on the road to an elected monarchy. This is the thing they feared most. They were students of history. They did the history of most republics and had ended badly, often with it the tutor coming along. That was the thing they feared most. One man accruing such power. On the other hand, they knew they needed somebody who could act with what Alexander Hamilton wrote in one of the federalist papers, vigor. The document energy, dispatch, secrecy, someone who could respond to a crisis at the time when there is a crisis, the constitution the articles of the federation meant there was a lot of debate, but nobody really to take charge. So they knew they knew they needed both, but they were also very concerned that the separation of power. A think its fair to say that in the course of the 225 years since then, since that kind of invented or perhaps improvised the presidency is a better word, that there is the nature mentis change in the office. Obviously, every president from washington on has taken certain powers for himself. Sometimes congress has resisted. The pendulum has swung back and forth if we could go down the list. Executive order, signing statements, the war powers. All of these things were fought far beyond what most of the founders would have been vision. But that is the way that democracy and the republic had evolved over these 225 years. Host Kenneth Davis, in your career, have you ever been a teacher at all . Guest no, i havent. Somebody called the professor on tv recently and i was about to say well, im not a professor, i just play one on tv. But the fact is they feel that my book are an extended classroom and i feel very comfortable as a teacher and i suppose if i hadnt discovered that i like to write and make a living from it, which i discovered fairly late in life, but i probably wouldve ended up in front of a classroom. But that is where i see my role as. Im not here to necessarily tell everybody was right or who is right over situation is right, but really to serve as more of a stimulant to the conversation as we mentioned earlier. That is what i hope my books to him that his wife try to always write in a very accessible style. I know there are many wonderful academic writers out there. Some of them to read the textbooks used in schools. Unfortunately, they tend to write for each other rather than the rest of us, rather than certainly students in the classroom and thats what i see my role as a second exhibit is a teacher. Getting people to explore the questions they might have and may be afraid to ask, pointing them in every direction so that i i think are accurate and useful information and hoping they move on from there. All of my boat from dont know much about history to my new one, dont know much about the american president s contain less of mustread books, others they think are significant and long lists of books i used in terms of the reference and resource in research. Host you are watching and listening to booktv on cspan 2. This is our monthly in depth program. We invite one author to talk about his or her body of work and this month its Kenneth Davis, author and historian. Here is a list of mr. Davis books beginning in 1984 with the paper backing of america, they dont know much series started in 1991. About history was the first, dont know much about geography in 1992, dont know much about the civil war 1996. Dont know much about the bible in 1999, dont know much about the universe in 2001, mythology and 2005, dont know much about anything came out in 2007, dont know much about anything else came out in 2008. Americas Hidden History in 2009, a nation rising and 2010. And then mr. Davis returns with dont know much about the american president s, which is a brandnew book out this year. Now i want to go to your second dont know much, and that is geography. Mr. Davis, who discovered america . Guest well, peter i have to interrupt for just a moment because you last one off the list and its understandable. I did bring up with me. Would like to primary sources. But this is my project about president s, written when i was in third grade at the william h. Holmes school in mount vernon, new york. Of course name for washington famous plantation, but that had nothing to do with my interest in president s. This came out 49 years ago and its fascinating to me because i found this in my moms attic, cleaning up and i opened it up. You can see why i became a writer and not an artist and a look at the illustrations. Host if you could hold it up again . Guest absolutely, it would be my pleasure. One can see why i am a writer and not an illustrator. I opened it up in the very first page of the inside page says, did you know quite so here i was at nine years of age asking questions and answering them about president s. So obviously been interested in the stuff for a very, very long time. Just to briefly explain that, i think thats my fascination with history going back more than 50 years now really had to do with the fact, not that i was born in mount vernon, a place named for washington plantation, but the fact i was very fortunate. My parents thought a good idea for Summer Vacation was to throw us in a car with an old army surplus tent and sleeping back at what places like valley forge and gettysburg and fort conder wrote a in upstate new york. So i would have the sense that history happens in real places. It not just in the spirit not long lists of dates and battles and legislation and Court Decisions that we remember for the sats or the ap exam and forget a week later. That is the sense i always had about the subject. The other thing i keep on my desk is this. All just hold this up as well. This is a wooden toy gun that i got asked in a souvenir of that trip to gettysburg also in 1963 and it was of course the centennial of the battle that year. And i remember being in that field as a 9yearold and having the sense that something extraordinary had happened in this place, even though i didnt quite understand the issues and perhaps had a somewhat romantic notion of what war was all about back then. I knew that something happened and i was struck watching cspan recently by something a wonderful historian name