Was published in 2019. And now im book tv for highlighting programs from our archives with Pulitzer Prizewinning historian David Mccullough. Over the past 20 years he has appeared on book tv more than 50 times. All of the programs are about to see can be viewed in their entirety by visiting our website booktv. Org. You can use the search function at the top of the page. First , 92 on cspan book notes program, David Mccullough discussed his biography of president harry truman. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography and was instrumental in changing attitudes about the truman presidency. Heres a portion of that interview. Attempted assassination number of president s have already been assassinated. Why would the government at that time have protection for them . It wasnt done. Why would the government have a pension . Their pensions for Army Officers and pensions for everybody else but no pension for president. In fact to very little money. Had to borrow some money quite secretly which dean atchison cosine, to pay for the move back home. This is not wellknown. It does not mean he did not have any money printed have money but he needed some cash to cover all the expenses of moving out of the white house. And when he got home, in order to provide himself some income he undertook the writing of his auto biography, his memoirs. No other president had ever done except for herbert herber prabhu Assignment Office was much briefer than trumans and trumans presidency covered for more tumultuous history. To undertake the twovolume memoir was a very major, ambitious task. And then he built his library. Now, third minute previous president ial library, Franklin Roosevelt library that hyde park it was established after he died in office pretreatment was the first president to actually officiate over the establishment of his president ial library. And there again, he was beginning something new. I think one of the things i have tried to imply or emphasize in the book, is that truman was part of a very creative public figure. He was a creative president. His was a creative presidency. He had been a builder all of his life prebuilt roads, white house is coming out to washington and became president he built the famous truman balcony on the back of the white house which cause a great flurry of criticism. He entirely rebuilt the instructor the white house. Though i guess we have today is the house that harry built. Except for the outer shell which was maintained, the original outer shell for the entire interior is a reconstruction of the original house. He took part of every detail of that reconstruction, he loved it, he left the building, he loved creating things. And of course in a larger way, his presidency is marked by such creative and innovative acts as the Marshall Plan and truman doctrine, nato, and so forth. So to again be a builder in this last chapter of his life, appealed to him tremendously. And building the library, having its office at the library, welcoming guests there, taking people around the lab he became his life except for his troubles when he went to europe. Did you ever meet him . No, i saw him once. When i was just a youngster was my first job in new york. I was a great story it had gotten a job at a new magazine called sports illustrated. And i was coming home from work one night right we lived over in brooklyn. I came of the subway stop at the old st. George hotel. A big car pulled up theres a small crowd awaiting. I stood with the crowd a big car pulled up government stepped out. Id never seen a governor before. Is quite excited about that then out stepped president truman former president truman. I was just astonished. And i remember thinking my god, he is in color. Because we only had black and white television, blackandwhite newspapers. And i think the fact he had very high color he radiated good health. It made him seem very vital, but a person. He certainly did not seemed like a little man to me. To me at that moment he was 6foot eight. But i never spoke to him. I never met him. I have often thought, wouldnt it be interesting if you could go back in time and i would be able to reach out and touch him on the shoulder 1956 . That fall night in saint mr. President , going to write your biography someday. Knowing what you know about him, what you think you think about this . Guest im sure theyre some of it he would not like. This is after all an honest attempt to see the complete man with his flaws and faults two. But i would hope in some he would think i understood him better than other people have. He was a much, much more complicated, complex, keenly intelligent and thoughtful considerate man the stereotype harry truman portrait implies. He isnt James Whitmore playing give them hell harry. He is just a salty downhome missouri will rogers. And all of the people ive interviewed who knew him, worked with him, and were in the white house with him, all say please understand that this man was much more than met the eye. How many interviews did you do . About 126. That ranged across a broad spectrum. Some people who hardly knew have met all but saw him come and go as neighbors or people and independence. And also some of whom were so important i interviewed them many times over during the ten years it took me too write the book. Did you spend the most time with . I would guess in total perhaps either margaret truman, his daughter, or george elsie who was on the white house staff and clark clifford. In some of the secret Service People who were invaluable because they were with him all of the time. Many of whom had never been interviewed before about him. Are secret Service Allowed to talk after the fact . Apparently so. No restrictions they were concerned . No. And they are wonderful. Because they saw him offstage. They saw him under all conditions. And often under enormous pressure, tension. You mention the attempted assassination. Two of the secret service men who are still here in washington, walked me through the whole event. Both inside and outside blair housework took place. I spent the better part of one saturday doing that. I am sure that has never been done before. So my account of that is based on material that can only be had by reaching that time to living people. And their devotion to harry truman is a very compelling thing to listen too. And it is true of all of the people that worked for him at all levels. I did not find a Single Person who knew him well, worked with him, who wanted to tell me what his terrible backstage temper was, or what an ungrateful or difficult boss he was to work with. And the closer people were to him, wasnt they just liked him, they were devoted to him. I kept hoping i would find some people who really didnt like him and had some skeletons to pull out of the closet. But that never happened. What did you start all this . Ten years ago , 82. It was the reason . Well, i was looking for a subject i started working on a book about picasso. I had to go around the barn with picasso to end up with harry truman. I quit that book, i stopped after a few months because i found i dislike him so. To me he was a repellent human being. And he did not really have a story of a kind that interested me. He was instantly successful part he never really went very far or had any adventures so to speak. He was an immensely important painter, but i found the treatment of his family, his attitude toward women, he was not somebody i wanted to spend five years with as a roommate so to speak. And my editor at Simon Schuster suggested i think about doing Franklin Roosevelt at that time there is not a good one volume biography of Franklin Roosevelt. Im just on impulse, and that visceral way i said no 520 the century president it would be roosevelt it would be harry truman. He said why not harry truman . So i looked into it. I found there is not a good biography of harry truman. There is not a complete life and times. This last chapter that you are talking about, that part of his life is never been written about before. It comprised 25 years of his life a very important part of his life. And beyond that, there is an immense collection of letters and diaries which he poured himself out on paper, all of his life. He left a written personal very revealing record unlike that of any president that i know of. And im sure we are good never going to have another president that leaves anything like that but we do not write letters much anymore. And we do not keep diaries much anymore. And he did both his whole life. Long before he ever realize he was going to be a figure in history, and one month to give an example at one month in 1947 when he was president and his wife, bess was back in independence looking after her mother, harry truman, the president of the United States wrote to her 37 times. And these were not just simple how are you and the weathers to turning cool or whatever these were real letters. A jibber find out how he wrote them with a longhand question. Oh yes the actual letters he had wonderful, clear straightforward strong handwriting. Just like he was. Fortunately, very legible. Theres never a problem reading his handwriting, there is very seldom ever a problem understanding what he talked about the. At the last chapter you pointed out some time in his wife, called their daughter margaret every night in new york . Yes. They were very, very close. The same people were with him as secret Service Agents or is white house staff, domestic staff in the manchin, have said they are by far the closest family they have ever known in the white house. Though they do not want to be quoted by person, they all say truman was her favorite president was a first president ever to walk out to the kitchen, the first present in their memory to walk out to the kitchen to thank the chef or the cook for the dinner that night. They remember it calvin coming out once or twice. They thought that was perhaps to see if anybody was tilting food. Truman knew everybody by name on the staff. He knew all about their families. This was not a politicians device. Its just the way he was. The whole give them hell harry, harry truman on the job at the office in the white house with his people the lowest level or the highest level never gave anyone help. He never raised his voice. Anything he is remembered for how considerate he was. And for small favors and courtesies he would do. A David Mccullough has appeared on cspan more than 75 times including 50 appearances on book tv. Up next, he discusses his biography and john adams for the 2001 book was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. Now, john adams was born and 1735. He lived until 1826 to the age of nearly 91. He lived longer than any president in our history. He has been commonly thought of as a rich austin bluebird. He was none of those who is not that she was not bostonian and he was not a blue blood. He was a farmers son who because of a scholarship to harvard discovered books and as he said, read forever. John adams it was the most deeply and broadly read american of his bookish time. Lets please today remember it was john adams the second president of the United States who signed legislation to create the library of congress. So, to be here to talk about john adams, to remember john adams is altogether particularly appropriate at this occasion. He was a man of genuine brilliance. He was also a man of great heart, great humor, devoted to his country. Truthful, devoted to his wife, to his family, hardworking, godfearing, and altogether one of the bravest patriots in our history. He was abrasive, sometimes temperamental, sometimes tactless. Sometimes overly concerned with his own position or place in the estimate of his friends or posterity. He was also a man to his credit but also to his disadvantage to as he said, never considered popularity his mistress. He never courted popularity. He was a man of principle. His courage was the courage of his conviction sprayed where the most vivid and important examples of his principal behavior and conduct in life is that he is the only founding father who never owned a slave as a matter of principle. Now, we know it is important to judge those who did not own slaves in the context of their time. That is correct and fair and historically the sensible sound thing to do. Lets not forget john and ava gelt evidence were of their time and they oppose slavery. Abigail perhaps even more ardently than her husband. At one point she says i wonder if all of the travails and suffering were going through gods punishment for the sin of slavery . This San Andreas Fault of slavery that runs through our countrys story, begins well before the revolution. Just as the revolution, is to me people seem to not understand began well before the declaration of independence for the declaration of independence is John Dickinson who oppose the signing of the declaration of independence was in many ways, as dickinson said, watching into a storm in a skiff made of paper. What made it more than just a piece of paper was the fact that we succeeded in the revolution, and the war, we fought for, fought for and succeeded in gaining our independence. John himes would not have said free and independent he wouldve said independent and free. You have to have independence and then comes freedom. Of course new englanders by nature, by cultural tradition if you will, were fiercely independent people. Independence was a way of life. So was religion. I think this of the utmost importance in understanding that time, that age, that moment in history in those protagonists. We believe in strongly the separation of church and state. Into a large degree they all did too. But the separation of church and state in their time, in their minds and eyes and spirits did not mean the separation of church and statesman. And if we really want to understand that time and those people we have to understand the part religion played in their life in their whole outlook on what might happen next. They also had very Long Distance communication that took a lot of time and a lot of travail and almost beyond our recognition to get a letter back and forth between philadelphia and boston where the adams lived took at least two weeks. Communication across the ocean with abigail and john were separated for a cumulatively ten years. And that separation was created by the Atlantic Ocean comic to communicate across the Atlantic Ocean took upwards to three six months. And what did that mean . Is not to say is just inconvenient. Meant both in personal life, and an diplomatic or official life, one had to be more responsible than we understand today for ones own decisions. Abigail adams at home running the family, running the farm trying to balance accounts, trying to keep good people working with her to make the farm work because that was their only means of subsistence. Trying to educate the children, making decisions about whether to get smallpox shots for example, had to make those decisions herself but she could not pick up the phone and asked her husband what should i do . And that was a part of life. The assumption of responsibility to oneself. When adams was serving in france in the netherlands, and in england as a diplomat, again and again he had to make momentous decisions on his own predecisions that would affect the course of events at the time in the fortunes perhaps of the United States and his country but also of course his own career. But he made them because that was necessary. Nothing could be communicated any faster than something could be transported we think of communication and transportation is two different things. That time it was the same thing. No faster than a sailboat or somebody on a horse. That is the difference. They werent like we are because they lived in a different time. A very different time. In a very, very interesting time. I tried to read not only in writing the book i tried not only to read about what they wrote, it oh my did they write. Neither john nor Abigail Adams was capable of writing a double sentence or a short letter. [laughter] and they wrote, just between the two of them they brought over 1000 letters to each other. They could have written more than only 1000 survive. All in the Massachusetts Society on rag paper on the consequence of those letters as good as the day there written. You can hold them in your own hand in your holding that letter about the same distance from your eyes as they did with two hands as they did. And believe me, something tactile, something very, very important, this role happens when youre working with the real thing. It is not the same as seeing it on microfilm or reproduced in the book. The humanity, the mortality, the vulnerability of those people comes through. Add the bravery. Think of that woman, alone in her kitchen at 11 00 p. M. At night having been up since 5 00 a. M. Doing all she did great sitting down and writing those letters. Nearly always inserted into her letters some wonderful quote from one of her favorite poets or from shakespeare. I nearly always getting it a little bit wrong. [laughter] which shows she didnt look it up. She was not taking a book down off the shelf copping saying this will make me look good. [laughter] she knew it, it was part of her. But there is equally important and equally rewarding experience and reading not just what they wrote but what they read. And i did a small piece in the Washington Post this summer about that. Going back and reading all of this writers some many of us were required to read in english courses in high school or college, samuel johnson, pope, swift, defoe, samuel richardson, the novels of samuel richardson. And to be reminded about how terrific they were. What wonderful writers. We talk about progress and have a nosebleed live with the benefits of progress all the time, certainly when we go to the dentist. [laughter] and i think of poor john adams the end of his life not a tooth in his head, every one of them had to have been pulp. Long before novocain. But we have a certain vanity in a certain arrogance about progress. But when you read what they wrote in the 18th century, i dont think anybody does any better today or even as well. And i will