I think that they raise issues that we have today. In the tension between idealism and pragmatism. The important thing is that traditionally weak cover these guys independently. We assume that because the it or was republican and franklin was a democrat that you can segment them and they contribute to different silos of American History when in fact they intertwined and integrated families, with the last name roosevelt is of much more interest. Exponentially more interesting when you see how related they arent that there is no franklin or eleanor without theodore. That there is no new deal, without the not only theatre roosevelts nearly two terms as president but his attempt to run as president as an independent progressive third party. So you have a great deal of americans 20 century commanded by one or more piece of roosevelt and interconnected command it is. And then you have got the rest of the 20th century and the 21st century that is still in the wake of their accomplishments. Host working on your first project with mr. Burns but also your first project on the roosevelts and fdr. What drew you to roosevelt . Guest in particular john to him because fdr is such a fascinating and opaque person but you really cant have eleanor if you dont have theodore and thats a link that we wanted to show both in the show and in the book. They are to me in exhaustively interesting people and it was a great privilege and joy to do that but. Host we can show you the roosevelts an intimate history a companion piece with a 14 hour documentary airing this week on pbs. Mr. Burns i pretty describe this as an insideout history. Can you explain that . Guest we talk about this and geoffrey and i have talked about this in the 32 years we have collaborated on at least that many shows that American History is usually top down. Thats the story of president s and wars in general and that has a kind of lennearness and a convert and familiarity that is what passes for most people for American History. We have also understood that there have been trends and an interest in the bottomup history talking about socalled ordinary people about labor, women and minorities a way to make a much more inclusive history and they fully joined and participated in that many things but in this case we discussed it in an intimate history. We are seeing we want to know a little bit about these three extraordinary leaders but we want to understand the language character forms leadership and more importantly the way adversity and all three of them have it in in their lives, the way adversity helps to shape that character. So its insideout and that is not a psychological psychobabble going on here but we want to know who these people are, all of them as jeff says deeply wounded people. We want to understand how they negotiated and escape the specific gravity of these wins to become the kind of people that they are the way things are interesting to every american because they decided having people that could have easily frittered their life away in idleness, they gave away what they understood about that. Thats part of our democratic compact that they integrate reintegrated in a way that i cant think of any two leaders and you add eleanor and she is there, have ever done. So this just livens up page after page of history. You can imagine and the book that jeff and i i have been particularly chuffed we wanted it to be a standalone. We wanted them to the companion books as if it somehow attached to the film. We always make a book and this is our proudest example that if the series didnt exist it would be a good book. Guest thats the idea. Host we want to bring interferes to the segment as we are talking to ken burns and Geoffrey Ward about the roosevelts. If on line democrats 202 5853880 and republicans 202 5853881 and a pitts 202 5853882 and outside the u. S. 202 5853883. They will be here for the next 45 minutes as we discuss the 14 hour documentary and the book here as well the roosevelts an intimate history. Mr. Ward i want you to pick up on that theme of overcoming adversity and why were they able to do it on so many them including members of their own family were not able to overcome adversity in their lives . Guest each of them these extraordinary things to battle with. Theodore roosevelt was terribly asthmatic as a child and was her doctors tell his parents that he wouldnt live and he dealt with the awful death of his wife and his mother on the same day, and somehow pulled himself up and decided he was going to look what he called the strenuous life ended and became unbelievably strenuous and taught the country to do that. Eleanor roosevelt, his niece, was the daughter of his younger brother who was an alcoholic and delusional and was orphaned as a child and was betrayed by her husband. Somehow overcame all of that and Franklin Roosevelt suffered from polio which the story of his battle against that is i think for me the proudest part of the film and the book too. I had polio as a kid and i think thats one of the reasons i was so interested in him all of my life. Host mr. Burns did it take about these men and one of the things i was surprised about was how young they were when they died. Heres a picture of Franklin Roosevelt just before he died and that was at age 63. Guest i just dont think we can appreciate that these two men essentially gave their lives and their sacred hunter to this country. They sacrificed everything and if you look at the pictures of roosevelt he looks about 85. He died at age 60 and when you look at Franklin Roosevelt says like a cadaver and it looks like he is 95 or 100. He died at age 63 and thats an incredible thing. They did everything they could to the service of this republic. Host we will get to her questions from twitter and your questions on the phone. Our phone lines are open but a question from twitter. Mr. Burns and mr. Ward how did you start working together . Guest well i had an association with American Heritage magazine and geoff have been the editor at American Heritage. I was working on my second film on the history of the shakers and i felt that i had learned to roadblock in how we were structuring a pretty friend of mine, a mutual friend of geoff as well, geoff came up to her little New Hampshire editing room and check it out. He ratified what we were doing but i was in the beginning moments of doing a film on the demagogue huey long. I signed geoff up to write the huey long script and the rest is literally American History. Host how many films for both of you as well . Guest ive never counted them that we had done one on and just did one on the congress and of course he wrote the civil war and baseball, and they did biographies on Thomas Jefferson and cady stanton and susan b. Anthony, marc twain, the history of jazz, a biography of Geoff Johnson the first heavyweight champion the history of world war ii called the war biography, history on prohibition and the roosevelts. Im probably missing two or three. Host they were talking about the roosevelts in the history appearing on pbs all this week. Well get to your calls. Paul is our first caller from North Carolina on our line for democrats. Paula, good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to ask them both. [inaudible] can you tell us how she was related and one more quick question mr. Burns. I love your shows. I watch them all especially the one on lewis and clark. Guest thank you so much. We love that one too. Its a really good story and every time it plays, pbs place is pretty frequently. I check local listings is the best thing to do. This is a very complicated family drama. Those eleanor and theodore r. Cousins of franklin. Im a seventh cousin of theodore and eleanor so you can say his cousin is really far away. But eleanor is the niece of theodore. That means that theodores brother elliott is eleanors father and theodore is of course the great president and his brother elliott died of alcoholism and of Mental Illness and orphaned eleanor by the time she was age 10. That is how they are related in theodore always felt a special kinship with eleanor. She was his favorite niece and thats the relationship there. Host franklin New Hampshire line for independents. You are on with mr. Burns and mr. Ward. Caller good morning gentlemen. First off putting a face to the team and seeing mr. Burns all the time. You gentlemen have done fantastic work over the years. Im not a big reader but i sit around the boob tube all day long. You have given me more information and stuff over the years than i can count. Please continue to do so and no matter what your format is i will continue to watch you in any way i can. Thank you. Guest thank you very much. Host mr. Ward he talked about putting a face to the work. How many of the films guest ive been on the screen a couple of times. Guest can i address that collects this is the first time that we this is the first time that we sort of moved geoff around. He has been my principle collaborator for the last 32 years that as he mentioned geoff had polio, contracted polio as a boy. Of course he is written to extraordinary books about Franklin Roosevelts early life and we felt that we were going to give to something that jumped over and people acknowledged he had polio and they moved all the president s ability to ignore what was going on the secret service. We wanted people to have a visceral firsthand experience of what it was like to have polio. He is struggling in constant pain and trying to overcome a thing that he cannot overcome and geoff understands that struggle. It seemed important or put jump in front of the camera. Guest my generation was brave are raised not to talk about it. Fdr used to call it sob stuff. Im older now and i was absolutely prepared to do this without a moments emotion. A master interviewer got me on the second question. Host what was the question . Guest i had avoided asking him about it. I think he was pentup not to respond and not to have an emotional reaction. We dont have to point neon signs and the way in which the story of the roosevelts resonate with the questions of the day and we dont have to put signs up today that Geoffrey Ward polio victim and in fact thats the wrong word. What we wanted to do was clearly communicate that he was someone who knew what was going on that had a firsthand understanding and could help us understand just in the wail of the roosevelts took what they learned about life in the diversities they had overcome and helped everyone else overcome. I think geoff becomes a kind of guide to what it must have been like for Franklin Roosevelt. Guest i hope we have done that. I think we have so that once you understand that the last three shows when you watch him, you realize as you havent before what hes going through just to make a public appearance, to make a speech. I think it adds a lot to this story. Host Geoffrey Ward and ken burns are here with us for the next halfhour as we talk about the documentary and the book. Barbara is up next from playroom nebraska on our line for independents. Good morning. Caller good good morning. I just wanted to say we mark their calendar to watch this and i just think its brilliant. We will purchase this and im so excited. My husband just finished reading the trilogy about Teddy Roosevelt. I cant recall the author. Guest edmund morris. Wonderful books. Caller i kept asking him as we were watching it he said oh yes. I remember reading sections out of the book and we thought he had adhd. If you were alive today he would be on medicine. Guest one of our historians patricia in the First Episode as you know blair is really just a table setting. Its a 19th century where we are introducing it to all three characters eleanor and franklin in a minor way but this is mainly the trajectory from Theodore Roosevelts birth to his election as president of the United States. Nagl episode to which is tonight everything gets started. You know rebutting that happening in all but the nymex and its an ever tightening dramatic stuff each night. Its really important to understand hes an add kind of unstable and at one point he will see and you must remember that the president is six years old. He has wonderful energy but he also has a cause for that as well. Thank you blair so much. Host diane in arkansas on our line for republicans. Diane, good morning. Caller good morning everybody. For you to know where im coming from, i will be 80 years old next month so i can remember the Roosevelt Administration and of course my folks talk about it. I am concerned about the tone, the narrations and all on the whole program. You have an adoring tone to you. It seems to me that you could have been a little less biased in this comes out strong. Another thing, when i was watching it, it seems that Teddy Roosevelt was in montana was it, for two or three years and come to find out he wasnt there that long. He came back and he married his old girlfriend. Its just all thrown over like its okay come its okay but its almost scandalous. Plus the and you can say all you want to but its the roosevelt family. Guest these are all really important things and i think you bring up some really good points. First of all this is not hero worship. We are very critical of all free people and in fact we have done more to think that anybody else to expose the flaws of each one of these characters to knowledge their greatness and also the wounds. A fifth cousin is pretty far away. The law permits you not to marry your first cousin in most states but it doesnt say anything about fifth cousins and basically im a fourth cousin of abraham lincoln. Thats about as remote as you could possibly be. I think what we do say is we are very clear that he spent a specific amount of time and a number of months that he did often nonand it is quite scandalous when he does go back and mary within a couple of years after the death of his wife his old sweetheart. There is of course the New York Times notice which his sister she asked them to print a retraction even though the engagement was true. The tone is very critical at times and also very celebratory at times when it deserves that. I think its an evenhanded peace. Host mr. Ward did you want to dress the caller . Guest he gave the perfect answer. Host demetrius is with us on the republican line. Thanks for being with us on washington journal. Caller it looks to me like Theodore Roosevelt was hyperactive. Was this due to possibly oxygen shortage due to his asthma . Is there any sign of meningitis and pneumonia . Guest i dont think so. I think it had to do with, he was many things in one of them was a depressive. In order to keep from the darkness from ascending on him he was almost excessively acti active. Part of the reason he got so much done was he couldnt bear not to do things. Demetrius you watched last night and you know there was this amazing phrase and he said black care which is a way of saying you can outrun your demons and because the family is so susceptible to things like alcoholism and mental him is that he was a depressive. He had these physical limitations and he had the expectations of his father to get going. I think this set them in motion but remember that when patricia was saying and all the photographs his fists were clenched and thats the kind of way he went through life. I think its important to understand how much we are beneficiaries and how much we are, have to be very careful and see them clear eyes with the deficits are of that kind of behavior in human beings. Host in fact chapter 1 of the book titled get action about Teddy Roosevelt from 1858 to 1901. The finger is pointing forward. Guest think about his life. If you hear is a child that you are not expected to live out a childhood and the story is called get action you can realize the kind attention that his life is under and i think thats what he burned out so quickly. Host what age was he when he died . Guest 60 and he looks at 85. Its really stunning. By the time he was 50 years old he was an old man trade after his adventure in the amazon or the Vice President of the United States it is suffering from malaria and aggravating an old leg length. He suffered a lethal dose of morphine that he always carried with him on such trips so he could kill himself as to not be a burden to the expedition. The president of the United States out of office not barely four years and hes about to take a lethal dose. He says wait a second if i die my son will have to carry my body out so maybe i will live and maybe be president again. Hes absolutely certain that all would be forgiven and this is the eternal child an optimist. Host garden city michigan on our lines for republicans. You were on with ken burns and Geoffrey Ward. Caller i was just wondering if there are any future plans for henry ford in the automotive business. Guest thank you well am. Im a michigan boy and i grew up in ann arbor and its great to hear her calling from michigan. The leader not we are so we know what we are doing between now and the rest of the decade. We have the biography of Jackie Robertson and geoff and i are working on an 18. 5 hour history of the vietnam war and the history of Country Music and a biography of hemingway. For punishment weighed are planning talking about American Innovation and technology and of course you would have to include the 19th century. We are thinking about it. If we had 1000 years to live we wouldnt run out of topics in American History but thats a very good one. Host can you take a moment to talk about the voices that bring these characters to life in a documentary . Guest i have felt since the beginning of my professional life at that third person narrative is all alone and kind of someone thats telling you