Is their complexity. Im not trying to write books to build statues of people. Most of the time, theyre taking them down. Obviously im not very successful. Thats my goal. And, but i think that to me, the perennial human drama is the people i write about are flawed human beings who have soft power over the lives of others. To what extent what drove them to seek that power and how did they wield it into what effect. Let me follow up on that. Whoa. I got t i. An excellent question. The most difficult aspect of jumping around, its more difficult to jump around different periods than just different personalities. Im doing u. S. Grant and so ive had to master the u. S. War, civil war. The literature is so vast, i feel like im out on the north atlantic in a very tiny row boat. Thats the difficulty of creating knowledge from the ground up. Indescri unbr undescribe bli difficult. Youre senses come alive. In a way suddenly being in a new period with new characters that youre very, very responsive so i think that maybe if i spent my entire career not just with grant, but sherman, sheridan, andrew johnson, all of these different characters, i think my reactions would not be as strong as they are because not that i was unfamiliar with these people before, but im learning entirely different lifl writing a buying if i about grant. I sometimes feel people will say, how many years are you spending on the book. I often say that i find that a lot of my best i believe sights into the character coming first year or two of writing because thats when my senses are most alive and then theres a certain familiarity that comes in to into play. Theres a point of diminishing return. I never the longest ive spent i guess was washington six years because i feel that you do reach this point of diminishing returnireturn ing with the person. Because youre in an exploratory phase where youre open to new