but is that fdr -- when fdr died, flags in moscow were hung at half staff. it was a world-shaking event. people just couldn't believe it. and of course, you know, it was tragic, too. i mean, obviously death is always tragic. but he was only 63 years old. but he was carrying the burdens of the world. he was obviously strict within polio. that had to affect him healthwise including his circulation. he was a good eater, but he didn't eat healthy foods. he, you know, ate a lot of butter and bread and fatty foods and things like that. he had his fives -- what eleanor called his five cs. every afternoon at 5:00 he would make himself an old-fashioned or a manhattan, those were his two favorite drinks. he was not drinking heavily, but enough to cause damage. then he smoked two to three packs a day of filterless luckies. i know, filterless luckies are death on wheels. all the burden of running the united states government, and running the war, and he's got four sons in the military, all in combat, all in danger zones and. he's got a wife who is not hen pecking him, b

he said that meeting fdr was like opening a bottle of champagne. he said that fdr was great britain's best friend. they were they were very very good. they got along he came to visit dr. several times during the war in the white house. they got along very well stalin was an outlier because of politics and because of his personal behavior, you know the way he behaved yalta and at potsdam was it was obviously off putting to both fdr and truman but fdr did allow stalin to gobble up parts of eastern europe and the warsaw pact countries at yalta yalta was interesting. i always wondered why they went along y'all too was a was a falling down vacation home for the russian sars. and when the communists came to power they let it fall under ruin, but they chose it as the side of this important meeting which you decide what to do with the world after world war two. how do we divide the world? how do we handle the world? how do we manage the world? you know, they had this arrogant they could really run, you know, country that country or whatever, but you also h

host: fdr comes back to the u.s. and reports to the american republic on the results of the yalta conference. this is from a war department film after the yalta conference and fdr's message to america after the conference. >> the president arrived in washington. 37 days which will leave their imprint on history, history which frank lynn roosevelt lived and made -- franklin roosevelt lived and made. >> i come from the crimea conference with a firm belief we have made a good start on the road to a world of peace. never before have the major allies been more closely united not only in their war aims but also in their piece aims and layer continued to determined -- and they are content -- and they are determined to continue to be aligned with all peace loving nations and the ideal of lasting peace will become a reality. peace can indoor only so long as humanity insists on it and is willing to work for it and sacrifice for it. american fighting men fought and suffered. we failed them. we filled them then. we cannot fill t

yeah fdr, of course fdr's physical disability made it impossible her to ride a horse or to walk or to march or to even to stand for long periods while troops passed and reviews. so the typical way he would look at the troops is what we see here. he'd be in this case in a jeep sometimes in a in a staff car with a driver in the front. maybe the chief of staff admiral leah. he's sitting next to him and then in the back roosevelt who would give speeches from the backseat of the car in this case from the front seat of the jeep to the troops without getting out of the car. so maintaining what herald referred to as a splendid deception. someone had a book i think with that title, but the number of people who had no idea that franklin roosevelt was physically handicapped that he couldn't walk without assistance or that he had braces on his legs. that was just a big surprise. so this he staged managed this quite carefully. he couldn't do it as often as he would have liked. he did it at casablanca. he did it in hawaii. he did it in various camps around the continental united states, but he like

and here is fdr and eleanor, i think, in high park. roosevelt you can see the outline of the braces on his withered legs here. very complicated relationship, right? both women aspired to deep influence in their husband's administrations, arguably, mary had less than she would have liked and eleanor had quite a bit of influence. >> i think when we first started talk begun their preparation for the office and i mentioned franklin roosevelt was a little bit the feckless young man, he was handsome, rich, everything came his way, two things happened to him that turned him the way to become president, one is polio, gave him empathy for those who struggled in life because he struggled and i think that had a profound effect on his attitude about the new deal and taking care of people who couldn't take care of themselves but the other is clearly eleanor, i think he recognized in that 19-year-old woman she met, pictures of her at 19 she's actually quite a beautiful young woman i think he fell in young with her and in many ways, remained in love

i'd look at lincoln and fdr. i can look at washington who was never thought of as a political figure and that's part of his genius, i would argue. iq and, obviously, i don't know more than anyone else does is by and large, it seems to me not a reliable measure. >> do you know your own iq? >> i knew what it was in the ninth grade. the woman who made high school bearable for me was the librarian, her name was lauren connelly and she provided protection and encouragement. the day general de gaulle died we had morning in the library and we had rallies against herald carswell. who was a nominee for the supreme court in 1970 by president nixon. she -- it's not so much that she actively encouraged my interests in an environment that was brass hostile to them. she provided a refuge and, anyway, she -- the lengths to which she would go. we were given iq tests in the ninth grade. god knows why because they kept the results. they didn't share the results. so, she broke into the room where they were kept and rifled the files

or fdr, both. >> arnold sleshen gr jr. >> shaped the criteria. i mean all you need to know is that in the first survey after he left the white house, and the most recent c-span survey eisenhower ranked fifth. now, i'm not not to say one is right and one is wrong, but there's a discernible trend there. and, you know, and why, why is eisenhower ranked as high as he is? well that then leads to the fact that there are alternatives to the adam schlesinger model. one is activist and president centric. and washington centric. and the other, for lack of a better word, might be thought to be more jeffersonian, more limited in his approach to government and more decentralized. in other words, the new deal and the centralization of authority in washington and particularly the executive is reversible. and talk show host jack parr. put these in perspective from your the way you loo

fdr and thomas dewey both hailed from dutchess county new york. fdr from high park and dewey from a town called palling about two miles from the connecticut border, still a beautiful spot, and lowell thomas's development, a forgotten name today but the cronkite of his day and he brought -- he created the myth of lawrence of arabia, for example, and i think he did for 40 years he did a nightly news broadcast which in the last umpteen years he broadcast from his studio next to his home in palling, new york. >> radio, not television. >> radio, exactly. but he was a familiar face. had dozens of books ghost-written for him one of the most famous men alive in his time today, utterly forgotten. >> back to your books. name them all, i mean so that we can get that on the record. >> well as we say the two local books, dewey in '82, hoover in '84, harvard century in '86, if you notice, every two years, the same time i'm doing -- then i do the doles asked me to work on a joint biography published in '88, early in '88, so actually less than two years. and then

but anyway, then i fdr was a fdr in his wheelchair. was a towering figure anyway but one that do we had a little mustache which reminded some people of charlie chaplin and others of hitler. and today of course. you know the hand was would make sure there was long gone. he had a gap. right on presidential gap between his two front teeth. and nina say that's the first thing that would have been fixed. now. they both he kept them mustache and the gap because his wife francis liked them. so at least he was authentic. i mean that tells you, you know something but anyway the little man in the wedding cake, i i contacted. i wrote to mrs. longworth. who then must have been in her eighties? legendary figure in this town and she wrote back and said i'd be glad to talk to you he gave her phone number. and tell me when to call. and i called her and she was wonderful. she total wacker pretense. first of all, i think my god, i'm talking to alex throws them along with you know, which is god if you ask the best things about being a biographer, that's

host: fdr comes back to the u.s. and reports to the american republic on the results of the yalta conference. this is from a war department film after the yalta conference and fdr's message to america after the conference. >> the president arrived in washington. 37 days which will leave their imprint on history, history which frank lynn roosevelt lived and made -- franklin roosevelt lived and made. >> i come from the crimea conference with a firm belief we have made a good start on the road to a world of peace. never before have the major allies been more closely united not only in their war aims but also in their piece aims and layer continued to determined -- and they are content -- and they are determined to continue to be aligned with all peace loving nations and the ideal of lasting peace will become a reality. peace can indoor only so long as humanity insists on it and is willing to work for it and sacrifice for it. american fighting men fought and suffered. we failed them. we filled them then. we cannot fill t

how do you rate the impact of the west coast as fdr's own, almost neo-racism? >> that's interesting because so much of what fdr did was advocating responsibility. he said okay i'll let these military commanders think that this is necessary which could have allowed for incarceration of germann or italian americans. everyone knew it would never be used for that and i thinkth that there was angst on the west coast. as we saw and i didn't mention this and i probably should have only japanese-americans in washington oregon california and arizona had to go to the camps. if you lived across the state line in nevada you were fine and if you are japanese-american who livedt in chicago or denver for salt lake city or wyoming, yes exactly. there's a part of the book where the young man who is a japanese-american who is on a football team out of wyoming comes into camp and gets to go home to his family that night while the japanese-american players had to go back with their families and live behind barbedor wire. japanese-americans for the most part were sent to camps. tha

fdr was very much aware of the atrocities going on. we know the vatican was aware of what was going on but countries didn't act quickly enough to help. right now we know the country is in a state of turmoil and we know it is money that drives terrorism. i want to talk to all of this bitcoin that has become popular. at this point, it is untraceable currency. host: christine, you have brought in some very important issues but very quickly, tie them together. caller: is the oc going to do some kind of investigation on bitcoin, the currency? host: ok, we are going to stick with bitcoin. this morning there was an article in the paper about the potential regulation of some of these cyber terms -- cyber currency. guest: i will put aside christina's theories about the holocaust and fdr for a moment and focus on cyber currency and bitcoin. there is a real debate going on in congress and the industry about who should regulate cyber currency. is it security or a commodity. should the department of agriculture be considered a of polity? smart peop

fdr is pushed in by arthur his valet. and churchill and roosevelt sees the entire elite naked winston churchill there. and he says oh, i am sorry winston i will come back or churchill said oh no mr. president, as you can see i have nothing to hide from you. [laughter] so bush and blair may not have been as charming but it's a good story. >> the privilege of being a moderator give my favorite churchill story which is churchill is in the house of commons pretty goes to the men's room. as he is standing in front of the urinal the opposition leading party of the socialist party comes and stands next to themur. winston churchill zips up and walks away. and says what are you afraid of standing next to the leader of the opposition party? it's it's it's not that anytime you see something big you want to nationalize that. [laughter] okay. this little toxic masculinity as a theme here. your book on the spanish flu wasn't really a spanish flu why do they call the spanish flu? >> because the rest of the europe was at war. there was a

thatwas out fdr said it . which is again, another black mark on roosevelt's tenure in the white house especially towards the end. [applause] thank you all so much, iappreciate it . >> american history tv, saturday's on c-span2. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. on the presidency part seven of our eight part series ladies in their own words. will look at the role of the first lady, their time in the white house and the issues important to them. this week will feature michelle obama. >> with every action we take, every word we utter we think about that millions of children who are watching us. to hang on to our every word, looking to us to show them who they can and should be. and that's why every day, we tried to be the kind of people, the kind of leaders that your children deserve. whether you agree with our politics or not. >> and at 2:40 5 pm eastern white house historical association hosted a conference on the american presidency focusing on history and civic engagement, first la

he's marching around in all his glory and there's a knock on the door and it's fdr and fdr's pushed in by arthur prettyman his ballet. and churchill of roosevelt sees the entirely naked winston churchill there and he says, oh, i'm sorry winston. i'll come back in churchill said, oh no mr. president as you can see, i have nothing to hide from you. so thatcher and reagan or bush and blair might not have been as charming but it's a good story. oh, can i give you mike the privilege of being moderate? i'd give you my favorite churchill story, which is churchill is in the house of commons and he goes to the men's room and as he's standing in front of the urinal the opposition leading party of the socialist party clement atley comes and stands next door. and so very quickly winston churchill walks away zips up and walks away and clement at least says, what's the matter? are you afraid of standing next to the leader of the opposition party? he said that's not that it's just that anytime you see something big you want to nationalize it? that's right, right. okay, so there's a little toxic mascu

how do you rate the impact of the west coast with fdr's own neo- racism in his own way? >> it's interesting because soll much of what fdr ended up doing here was basically just abdicating responsibility. he said okay these people on the west coast, these military commanders think that this is necessary. they wrote an executive order that was justt a very vague whih technically could have allowed for the incarceration of german or italian americans even though nobody writing it new or everybody writing it knew that would never be used for that and i think that like you said that sort of angst on the west coast filtered its way up but as we saw and i did mention this in the talk only japanese americans in washington, oregon, california and a very small sliver of arizona had to go to the camps so if you were in the state line in nevada you are fine, if you read japanese-american in chicago, denver, salt lake city or wyoming, and there's a small part in the book the young man who's on a football team in wyoming comes into the camp and gets to go home to his family at night w

gets up out of the top and he is still going is marching around in all of his glory is not, nor is fdr and is questioned by arthur - and his allies and churchill roosevelt sees the entirely naked winston churchill there and he said i'm sorry come back and churchill said, no mr. president, as you can see i have nothing to hide from you. [laughter] t and so bush and blair reagan might not have been charming but is a great story. >> and the privilege of being moderate to be my favorite churchill story, which on the house of commons and he is in the men's room and is a standing in front of the urinal, the often opposition leading party the socialist party comes and stands next to him and quickly he walks away and he said with the matter, are you afraid sitting next to the opposition party and he said is nothing, just that hmc something big, you want to nationalize it. [laughter] [laughter] >> that's right. >> okay, so there's t a little thing of masculinity here is the theme here. >> your book on the so-called spanish flu, wasn't really the spanish flu, one of the code the spanish flu. >>

banks, you know and provide opportunity for entrepreneurs and others who may not know somebody and fdr to build like a social infrastructure to provide an opportunity for those who who work for it. so that's the kind of of economics i think in capitalism that that this generation would want to see practice and i think by the way, i think by the way, we're seeing some of that frankly in the current administration around the social infrastructure that conversation is very much part of of the new neopolitics. and i know that gen z was a big part of pushing that agenda on to biden's plate in the 2020 election and you wrote in the book about the ways he brought generations the activists and their economic interests into his campaign. i've got another question about a myth or fact about generation gen z that you you didn't cover in the book but in the new york times a couple weeks ago there was an editorial about the the idea of cancel culture and we've seen similar takes on this, you know over the past few years this idea that young people are not tolerant as previous generations were of op

lbj and his big majorities fdr. i don't know if fdr had to overcome any filibusters. i don't know if the filibuster was used all that often in the 1930s, but when you look at the senate majorities during the new deal years and you wondering how did fdr get this program through 65 70 sometimes 75 democratic senators now some of those new deal programs had to be amended unfortunately to to get them past black people were excluded from some of them not specifically but yeah, it's right it was but it was a domestic workers. yes. i'm culture workers. that's right who are most of the both from the wagner act the national labor relations act, which held the government helped recognize unions when workers wanted it and the social security too everybody except those people. yeah. that's right. would you say the new deal is really the the greatest moment in the democratic party probably because it's the moment when democratic party is more powerful is really the majority party and nobody really doubts it and also is able to get in the major bills to create kind of limited but r

he voted for fdr, supported truman. but, he said his party had left him. he was not narrowcasting. he was not speaking to people who were already conservatives. he was broadcasting. he was trying to appeal to democrats and independents to widen the coalition. all of these things made him a very unique political figure. of course, he was the leader who brought conservatism into power for the first time since the 1920's. susan: going back to your closing paragraph, is this what you are crediting ronald reagan with? matthew: i believe reagan was very much responsible for the collapse of the soviet union. obviously, there were other factors. the soviet economy was in a state of decay. daniel patrick monahan said there is no way the soviet union will survive. people looked at him and said what are you talking about? obviously, the soviet economy was a mess. but, i believe it was reagan's policies of pressure, not just defense buildup, not just the freedom fighters, the reagan doctrine, not just the strategic defense initiative, proposing this idea of space-based miscible phones. but, hi

. >> lbj and his majorities, fdr, i don't know if he had to overcome any filibusters. i don't know if it was used that often in the 1930s. you look at the senate majorities during the new deal years and you wonder how did fdr get this program through, 65, 70. to get them passed black people were excluded. >> not specifically but it was domestic and agriculture workers both from the labor relations act, how the government helped recognize unions when workers wanted it and the social security act, too. everybody except those people. >> would you say the new deal is really the greatest moment in the democratic party's history? >> probably because it's the moment the democratic party is more powerful, is really the majority party and no one really doubts it. and also was able to get in the major bills to create limited but real welfare state we still have. >> moral capitalism, the word you used. >> yes, in that sense. some people said, well, roosevelt saved capitalism because, you know, after all, fascism was gaining in europe. italy, spain, germany, and, of course, the so

even in fdr's day, these decidedly centrist programs. i mean the social security act is a central program. >> progressive. >> text progressive. but he faced allegations of socialism, communism, you know, it'll destroy our capitalism. so, the new deal, the ideas of the left, they eventually do run out of steam. which happens with movements, right? it's hard to maintain, as an expert on political movements, i don't need to convince you on that one. vietnam, watergate, the dollars of the late 1970s. it appeared that what we might call the left, or the new left, was out of ideas, it was exhausted and that gives way to the reagan revolution, which i guess, couldn't overturn the new deal by, then why but was not going to allow any more liberal reform of liberal [inaudible] that was it. to draw a line. and we're kind of still living in that i. >> think that's two. and partly because we haven't had a majority party in this country, really, since the early 1970s, 50 years. one party wins for a while, takes the congress for, all the takes the sena

and i had not been to hyde park until 2010, and i went through the main house where fdr was born, and i didn't realize i had a personal relationship with him as i did with president kennedy because of my mother taking me to see him, and yet i had all the stories i collected from my aunts and uncles and parents about coming along in the depression and what fdr and eleanor roosevelt meant to them. the ranger was taking us through the mansion, and we turned a corner and he said, this is the room where fdr was born, and i burst into tears. and that was embarrassing. and then we went to see another and i saw this picture of president kennedy then candidate kennedy coming out of the living room and eleanor leading the way with these brilliant bright smiles, and i knew they had a problematic relationship politically, so i wanted to study that, and that will be my next book. certainly you would have to put her at or near the top in terms of influential, not only during her first ladyship, but all the work she did in so many different fields, and we did mention her in relation to civil rights.

sometimes it's lyndon johnson over here with fdr. i have run this by bush, clinton, and president obama. they all agree president obama agrees with the concept that was the dialectic in which he governed. it was not a dialectices that hs delivered the results i think many people want which is one of the reasons it fell apart in 2016. right? so i don't see that as a shift. what i do see is four years ago but trump is the fullest manifestation they forces ebbed and flowed suggested to me something more permanent about this. i think it can be okay i didn't foresee that. one of the things eddie and i yk agreed with marital therapy thing, as i dislike it. i disagree i should say when people say about something terrible that happened when they say this is not who we are. this is where we are aware of you been? do you not know anything? did you literally no no american history? i said this a while ago, there is not a once upon a time in american history. this audit heavily after. this is a enterprise whether people like eddie matters so muc

biden's new deal and all this, it's not understanding what that era was like in the '20s and '30s, fdr is trying to electrify rural america, it's a new deal, but carter lived through that from gas lamp to mars now where we have, you know, helicopter on mars, his life span is extraordinary story. >> other presidents, how much time have you spent around george w bush? >> less than others. very -- i don't consider myself to know him intimately well. i know carl rove super well, he lives in austin near me and i see him a lot, george p. bush, land missioner of texas on my street, son of jeb bush and george w. bush i would like to write about, i believe he has two stories that could be told that haven't been properly, if he's interested in making his legacy look better. and that is the bullhorn moment the story of how he was in florida, told about 9/11 and the air force one had to fly to different military bases and came to washington and we were under siege and how he pulled the country together and then stood on the rubble of the trade center with that bullhorn moment and then through a st

you have mary mcleod bethune vice president of the naacp on fdr's black cabinet. she likely would have been there this 1953 constitutional convention is first to welcome women, right? it was unlikely that women would have been invited to 1903. so in 1953, they get invited to and they come well represented in my story some of the arguments that they would have you you can imagine i have this interesting story about thurgood marshall being frustrated with the equal protection clause not being because of course, this is the the convention would have met before he argues for the second time, right? remember 1952 and then he argus brown versus board of education and then the supreme court asks them to re-argue in 1953, but not till december. the 1953 constitutional convention starts in may. i have him frustrated that the equal protection clause is not holding its weight. what are we going to do about that? one of the art one of the interesting debates would have been term limits for presidents and president in 1953. imagine. yes, it becomes an amendment to our 1787 con

there's a lyndon johnson over here with fdr. i've run this by bush clinton and president obama. they all agree president obama agrees with the concept that that was the dialectic. in which he governed? it was not a dialectic that has delivered. the results i think many people want which is one of the reasons it fell apart in 2016, right? the shift so i don't see that as a shift what i do see is four years ago exactly when i was closing the soul of america book. i believed that trump was the fullest manifestation of our darkest impulses. but that like joe mccarthy. it would burn out not that it would go away. but that these forces ebbed and float. and what january 6th did and it took me a long time to get there. is it suggested to me that there was something more permanent about this? i still think it can be. okay. but i didn't foresee that and one of the things that eddie and i agree with just lest you think this is a marital therapy thing. is i dislike it? i disagree i should say. when people say about something terrible that happened charlottesville, so when they say this isn'

died and fdr is trying to electrify rural america. it was it's just a whole different deal, but carter's lived through all that from you know, gas lamp to you know to mars right now where we have you know, helicopter on mars. i mean, he's his lifespan is extraordinary story. other presidents how much time have you been around george w bush less than others a very i don't consider myself to know him intimately. well, i am i know carl rove super well he lives in austin near me and i i see him a lot george p bush the land commissioner of texas is a neighbor on my street on the son of jeb bush and george w bush. i would like to write about the if i were george w. i think he is. stories that need to be told that haven't been properly if he's interested in making his legacy look better. and that is the bullhorn moment the weak one week after 9/11 the story of how he was in florida and was told about 9/11 in the air force one, you know, i had to fly to different military bases and then how he came to washington and we were under siege where

bush with ronald reagan on the 20 and sometimes lyndon johnson over here with fdr. i've run this by bush, clinton and president obama. they all agree. president obama agrees with the concept that that was the dialectic in which he governed. it was not dialectic that delivered the results i think many people wants, which is one of the reasons why it fell apart in 2016. right. the shift-- so i don't see that as a shift. what i do see is four years ago, exactly, when i was closing the soul of america book, he believed that trump was the fullest manifestation of our darkest impulses, but that like joe mccarthy, it would burn out, not that it would go away, but that these forces ebbed and flowed. and what january 6th did, and it took me a long time to get there, it's suggested to me there was something more permanent about this. i still think it can be okay, but i didn't forsee that and one of the things that eddie and i agree with, lest you think this is a marital therapy thing, is i dislike it. i disagree, i should say when people about something terrible that happened