Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[no dialogue]
>> male speaker: Well if we could get started,
apologies for the late start, this is the
8th Annual Barry D. Riccio lecture.
And very quickly before we get started with our speaker Bill
Brands, I wanted to ask Barry's wife Cathy Anthony to make a
couple of comments.
>> Cathy: Okay, well first of all I'd like
to thank you all so much for coming this evening and thanks
to our host especially Professor Aida Shelton and Edward
Lee, and Nancy Paige, and all of you from the history department
and the EIU Foundation who have been so involved in the
administration of this fund for so many years, and our special
speaker professor Brands, who we're really looking
forward to hearing tonight.
It's always a pleasure for me to meet so many long time
colleagues here at EIU, and friends, and former colleagues
of Barry's over the years, you bring back many
great memories for me.
Tonight I'm joined by a couple close friends that came down
with me from Urbana, professor Welcher Arnstein who's here from
the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and is a
very well known British historian.
And my friend Eva McKelly who's sitting right over here, Eva's
also visiting from Chicago and Champaign-Urbana.
And some of you may remember Barry's mother, Felicia Riccio
who used to come regularly here, she's still alive and well,
she's age 96 in Arizona, she was not able to come tonight, but
she said to say thank you very much for all of your doing,
on behalf of the fund.
Just another, a couple quick points about this event and what
it means to me, because it always means something very,
it's always one of the highlights of the year for me,
it's hard to believe it's already the 8th Annual talk that
we've had, and it's 11 years now since my late husband
has been gone.
I've enjoyed watching the lecture series evolve over the
last several years, especially here at beautiful Doudna Fine
Arts Center, its taken on I think a new life, I see here.
And my life, and the lives of everyone who I think have come
to this lecture series have been really enriched by each of the
eight speakers that you have brought to campus.
And why this lecture series and why this fund?
I have been eternally grateful for the support and friendship
that all of Barry's colleagues here at EIU provided to both of
us over a period of several years.
As some of you recall all too well, and there are people in
this room who knew Barry and knew very well,
Barry's many cancer surgeries, and chemotherapy treatments
did not always fall at the right time.
They often fell on the start of the semester, after the start of
the semester when classes were already in session, so your
history faculty here at EIU with their already heavy teaching
loads chipped right in and volunteered to teach Barry's
classes while he was recovering, sometimes for
several weeks at a time.
On countless occasions, many of you drove an hour each way to
visit him in the hospital or to stop by our house.
You kept in close touch with him during his years medical leave
both in California and in Illinois, and here you supported
him as a full time faculty member with tenure allowing him
to achieve his lifelong dream.
And it wasn't just the EIU faculty who shined in compassion
even one of Barry's former students drove well out of her
way to visit Barry in the hospital in Michigan bringing
along a tiny poinsettia plant that decorated his hospital room
and traveled out to California with us for Christmas where it
survived for about two years.
So faculty and students alike here at EIU valued him
as a colleague, as a teacher, and a friend.
You created a rare academic workplace that had both a head
and a heart, and I will never forget it.
So while establishing this memorial lecture fund, one of
our goals was to help the EIU Department of History bring to
campus the kind of person who Barry would have loved to meet.
Someone who's ideas about history could benefit a large
number of people in a short amount of time.
Someone who's special sparkle and intellectual electricity
speaks to a wide audience.
And as with all distinguished speakers in the past, at some
point in the evening, I always engaged in what Barry used to
call, "Iffy History," I don't know if he use that term or
not, but he used to use it term a lot.
Iffy history.
So a "what-if?"
So picture a happy healthy Barry, sitting here in this
lecture hall wondering, what would they be saying to each
other if they had a chance to meet?
What kind of questions would they be asking?
Would they become friends?
And I would say, from our dinner together, I think the answer to
all those things would definitely be yes.
And I'm almost sure it would have been a lively and
entertaining and provocative conversation.
So, I hope that you'll enjoy tonight's speaker just as much
as Barry would have and just as much as I'm sure I will tonight.
So thank you so very much.
[audience applause]
>> male speaker: Cathy, thank you very much
for all of your support, it's really terrific that we have
this series because it's always one of the
highlights of our year.
I also want to thank EIU President Bill Perry who's
absolutely essential to bringing, who knows Bill Brands
from way back in their days at Texas A & M together.
Also wanted to thank Dean Bonnie Erwin of the College of Arts
and Humanities for her support and our chair
Anita Shelton as well, so a number of people worked
together to make tonight possible.
We are indeed very honored to have joining us this evening
H.W. Brands, the centennial professor of American History
at the University of Texas at Austin, author of 25 books
including several best sellers, including as well two books
that were finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Without question Dr. Brands is one of the most prominent and
influential historians in the country, indeed in 2009, at the
invitation to President Barach Obama, Brand joined a small
group of notable historians for an intimate White House dinner
where they offered the president advice
from a historical perspective.
So from the White House, to Doudna, doesn't seem that far.
[audience laughing]
Tonight we look for, we'll ask Dr. Brand's help in
understanding the complexity surrounding our economic system
and the almighty but equally invalid dollar.
Professor Brand.
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Brand: Thank you Ed, thank you Cathy,
thank you Bill, I'm delighted to be at EIU.
Thank you to the Riccio family, I wish I could have met Barry.
He sounds like we would have had a lot in common and you are
going to hear some really iffy history tonight.
And the reason it's so iffy is that it's not even going to be
history, if you read the poster I have said that I'm going to
talk about the past, present, and future of the dollar.
We historians tread on very treacherous ground, when we get
off of the past and say in the future, but hey,
what the heck, why not?
First, I'd like to get to know my audience a little bit.
How many of you are undergraduates here at EIU or
for that matter graduate students?
Good.
Okay, now, how many of your teachers are here?
Okay.
Now, I will not have the indelicacy to ask what
incentives were offered to get the students to come?
I have been in the faculty's position in many
occasions in the past.
But, if, now, some of you have notebooks out.
I really, unless your teachers want you
to take notes, don't.
Just listen. I tell my students, I don't really
want them to take notes.
I would much rather them listen to me and think about what I'm
saying and engage in a conversation.
It's, I'm not going to say that much that's important, that is
really timeless and needs to be written down.
Occasionally I do tell my students, "Write this down!"
And I will tell you at least at one point in the talk tonight
to write something down, but for the rest just listen, think,
and we'll talk.
I'm going to talk for a while, and then we'll have a
conversation, I'll take questions and I hope to say
something in the more formal part, as you can see I can be
very formal, in my prepared part?
Yeah, will call it my prepared part.
That will provoke you, that will cause you to say,
"Wait, that doesn't sound right."
So, feel free to object, and in fact, feel free to interject
if you want to, even more fun when the dialogue gets going.
Okay, so I am going to talk about the past, and the present
of the dollar, and the future of the dollar.
And I'm going to do all that, I'm going to tell you, I'm
going to discuss 200 years of history of the dollar, and I'm
going to get it all done in I don't know, 35 to 40 minutes.
But, having promised that, I'm going to start with something
that doesn't sound like history, in fact,
I am going to perform, a magic trick.
[audience laughing]
And it's a magic trick that is based on a piece of paper that
I have here in my hand.
Those of you up close can see, can you see
who's picture's on it?
Andrew Jackson.
So that means it's a $20 bill.
I wrote a book about Andrew Jackson several years ago,
while I was working on it, there was
a proposal to take Andrew Jackson's picture off the $20
bill and to replace it with the picture of Ronald Reagan.
Now I thought, "Don't do this, not while I'm writing a book
about Andrew Jackson."
[audience laughing]
It was my great good fortune that the senate majority leader
at the time, was Bill Frist and do you know
what state Bill Frist is from?
And do you know what state Andrew Jackson is from?
Tennessee.
Bill Frist would not let Andrew Jackson be replaced
and there he is.
But, here's the magic trick.
This piece of paper, this is a fairly well worn $20 bill.
It's torn a little bit, but one of the remarkable things about
paper money is, that unlike notebook paper or newsprint,
if it starts, those things if they start to tear,
they're just kind of, they're gone.
This stuff, it's half torn, but the quality of the paper is
such that it resists being torn.
This probably has a good years life left in it.
I won't keep it for a year, it'll get handed off to
somebody else who will hand it off to somebody else,
who'll hand it off to somebody else.
This is top quality paper.
The artwork, the artwork is quite impressive.
In fact, if you can see, up close, if you can remember what
this picture of Andrew Jackson looks like, this is, I like
to think of as one of the great hair days in American history.
Andrew Jackson, actually, Andrew Jackson never looked this
good in real life, but one of the things that I objected to
about this picture, this is the best portrait of
Andrew Jackson, it's by a guy named Thomas Sully,
and this is the one that I wanted to use
on the cover of my book.
But, well he's here, and so the people who designed the dust
cover said, "No, we can't use the one off the $20 bill."
Anyway, the artwork, some of the finest artists engravers
are responsible for this.
The lettering, this is exquisite work.
But do you know how much this piece of paper is worth?
This piece of paper, again, top quality paper, it actually has
some particular, oh there are special kind of photo optical
features of this to prevent counterfeiting,
and the art and everything.
Do you know how much it costs the U.S. Treasury to
produce this piece of paper?
It's around between 3 cents, and a nickel.
So we'll just say 5 cents, we'll be generous.
Five cents.
This piece of paper is worth 5 cents.
But, if I take this to, I don't know, a pizza store, and I
decide that I'm hungry and I want the biggest, large, pizza,
with all of the toppings, can I get that for $20 here?
Okay.
Somebody will allow me to take this thing that is worth
5 cents and they'll give me something that's worth
$20 in exchange.
Now, if you ask me, that is magic.
Where else can you do such a thing?
Where else can you take something that is worth
intrinsically a very small amount and convert it into
something that's worth a lot more?
The trick actually would be better if I used one of these
that had Benjamin Franklin on the front.
You know how much Benjamins are worth?
A $100, they're even better.
In fact I'm going to say something
more about that later on.
But, I ask you, what is it that allows this particular magic
trick to be performed millions of times everyday in the
United States, and especially with those Benjamins,
millions of times outside the United States,
just a matter of trivia.
Hundred dollar bills circulate more widely outside the
United States, than inside the United States.
The reason we'll talk about later.
So there is real magic involved.
You can go see a magician, you can pay money to go see a
magician, and they do these fancy things, those are just
optical illusions, this is real magic, it really happens.
Okay, now do you know how it happens, do you know why
it happens?