Vol. XVII

In an exclusive interview, financier David Rubenstein discusses "patriotic philanthropy," his movement to preserve historic American objects and sites and to advance history education. Documents including the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, and the 14th Amendment.  Places like Jefferson's Monticello, Madison's Montpelier, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument.

"The beginning of philanthropic philanthropy happened by serendipity," explains Rubenstein.

"I came from modest circumstances.  I want to give back to my country," he reflects.

"The theory of representative democracy is that you have an informed citizenry who can make be informed decisions, and it ultimately leads to better government," says Rubenstein.  "If more people learn about the past, the fewer mistakes they are likely to make, and they will be better citizens for the future.”

XVI.  In the second of two episodes from the National Archives, "Patriotic Philanthropist" David Rubenstein interviews three master storytellers who are featured in his book “The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians.”  They are:

* Taylor Branch, creator of the trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., including “Parting the Waters,” winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

*  H.W. Brands, history professor at the University of Texas and author of biographies of Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan and, in 2019, of “Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West."

* Jay Winik, author of books including “April 1865: The Month That Saved America,” and “1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History.”

XV.  In late 2019, the National Archives hosted financier David Rubenstein for a wide-ranging conversation with a group of master historians featured in Rubenstein’s book of interviews entitled “The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians.”  We hear from:

* Taylor Branch, creator of three volumes that chronicle the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., including “Parting the Waters,” winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

* H.W. Brands, a history professor at the University of Texas and author of biographies of Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan and, in 2019, of “Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West.”

* Jay Winik, author of books including “April 1865: The Month That Saved America,” and “1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History.”

XIV.   In the second of two interviews, Gerry Warburg, professor at the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Political Leadership and Public Policy -- and a former U.S. Senate staff member and arms control negotiator -- describes the importance of history in public policy, the book Thinking in Time by Ernest May & Richard Neustadt, the role of nongovernmental organizations in policy, and his personal and family histories.

XIII.  Gerry Warburg, Professor at the Frank Batten School of Political Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, discusses his use in the university classroom of historical analogies and the “placement” of people of institutions in historical perspective. A memoirist, Warburg is also a former U.S. Senate staff member and arms control negotiator.

XII.  Why the Electoral College?  What's is its purpose?  Where did it come from?  What's its future? The US Constitution's provisions on slavery -- including the three-fifths clause, the continued slave trade for 20 years, and the Electoral College -- shaped the nation's history fundamentally through the Civil War and even until our own times. This episode of Historic Matters features a reading of four recent columns -- by Professors Sean Wilentz of Princeton, Akhil Reed Amar of Yale Law School, and Alan Singer of Hofstra, and by political analyst John Avlon -- that offer a very valuable primer the origins and purposes of the Electoral College and on a central theme of the American past.

XI.  Professor Blight, Yale University History Professor, won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History for Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (2018).  Beginning with a description of the disastrous 1865 meeting between President Andrew Johnson, Douglass and other American black leaders, Blight analyzes the life, autobiographies, vision, and pragmatism of Douglass.

X.  In the final of three parts, we hear the conclusion of Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Hackett Fischer's insightful exploration of the many twists and turns in the interpretation — the historiography -- of George Washington’s remarkable 1776 traversing of the Delaware River and the subsequent surprise attack on the British and Hessians at Trenton and Princeton.

IX.  In the second of three parts, we hear scholar David Hackett Fischer's exploration of the long twists and turns in the widely varying interpretations of Washington’s audacious Christmas 1776 attack on the British. Another ten versions of this major moment in the new nation's struggle for independence follow in Part 3.

VIII.  Just six months after the Declaration of Independence was signed by 13 disparate colonies, the nascent American Revolution seemed lost. The powerful British army had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of the opposing capital city of Philadelphia.

Yet, General George Washington and his beleaguered troops refused to let their revolt die.  Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Hackett Fischer describes the circumstances and the importance of Washington’s audacious crossing of the Delaware River and the stunning attack on the British that changed both the war and world history. Fischer sets the stage for the next two "Historic Matters" episodes that explore the many interpretations of these pivotal events.