I have to admit, it was my idea. Where I plucked that idea from, I can`t exactly say, but I`ve always been fascinated with Washington and his teeth....

Well, I asked him, you know, can you give me the straight dope about Washington and his teeth. Surely this must come up in dental schools. And he said,...

OK. Dental student A says to dental student B, why does George look so pained on the dollar bill? Dental student B says it`s because of his wooden false...

Well, why do we need to know anything about history? I mean, it`s a cosmic question. And my general answer is not to draw morals from the past, but...

How much of your life have you lived in the 18th century?

At one point in one of these articles in there, you slip in the fact that you are an atheist. Why did you tell your audience that?

But he stopped me in the middle of the tour and he said to me, "Monsieur, vous-etes Protestant?" "Are you a Protestant?" And at that point, I didn`t...

Well, you know, I never ask people, are you an atheist or not. I felt the need to come clean at that point. I mean, otherwise I wouldn`t have mentioned...

Well, there is a big debate about it, and the way you phrased the question is exactly the way the question was phrased by Emmanuel Kant, (SPEAKING GERMAN)....

What years?

The king dies in 1715. A regent takes over. He`s famous as a rake, the Duke d`Orleans. He liked to talk about his rouet (ph), that is men worthy of...

Out of this comes his first important book, not play, but ordinary non-fiction book, "The Lettres Philosophiques." It was published in 1734, and that`s...

No. There were so-called republics. For example, there was a Republic of Geneva and of Genoa. But what does it mean to be called a republic? The word...

Well, France, there`s a big debate now among demographers as to the size of the population, but I think most people would agree that by 1789, the population...

Well, I mean, it varies from country to country. The population was densest in the Netherlands, what we call today the Netherlands, that is the northern...

Well, I had French in junior high school, middle school as you call it now. I had a wonderful teacher of French, who was tough. Really, he was the first...

In Westport, Connecticut, where we were raised mostly. And then I had good French teachers throughout secondary school, arrived in college, where unfortunately,...

At Harvard. And then I went on to Oxford, and I mean, I -- I didn`t know exactly -- I knew I was going to be a newspaper reporter. I mean, that`s what...

Well, it`s difficult to assign ends, final points to movements, just as it is to identify their beginnings. You know, some people would say the Enlightenment...

Oh, yes.

Absolutely not. Excuse me. I should have made that clearer. I see when I describe it as a movement, with a body of intellectuals committed to spreading...

Well, we really, it seems to me, American political culture comes out of the Enlightenment. I know that there are other schools of interpretation and...

This book, "George Washington`s False Teeth," is what number for you?

Twenty?

And you have been based where most of your professional life?

Doing what?

When were the president of the American Historical Association?

And what is it?

It`s an attempt to first of all defend interests of people doing history. And that`s -- it`s not lobbying in some crude sense of the word, but suppose...

You know, I forget the exact number now.

Oh, many thousands, yes. I should have the exact number in mind, but since I ceased being president, I have lost track of the day-to- day membership....

Well, I could say three months, which would be the short answer to what you said. That is I joined the staff permanently as a reporter in the city room...

Oh, he must have been there -- the exact number of years, I don`t know, but he joined "The Times" about 1967, `66.

Yes.

Well, from a journalistic family. My father was a reporter for "The New York Times," and he was killed in the war. My mother then took over and joined...

Eleanor Darnton. She became women`s editor for "The Times," and then left and created a news service for women, actually, which went bust. And so we...

Yes.

I think the interest in books and journalism and the way information penetrates into society is for me central. A lot of this book is actually about...

There is something called La Prefecture de la Police, so that`s a section where there are some archives. But the great archives are those in the Bastille....

A good question. He doesn`t say. I mean, I found his files and I`m going to publish them all, because it`s like a who`s who of French literature around...

A file.

Yes.

Well, I`m glad you asked, because a lot of historical research, people don`t understand the physicality of it, what`s involved. So if you like, I could...

Well, I have been in many different archives.

Sure.

With …..

Yes.

Forget it.

No. I mean, language is a tool for historians.

No, no, no, no, no.

You have to really know the language and you have to know the 18th century version of French. Now, it so happens that 18th century French is very pure,...

OK. Well...

Well, let`s say -- the most common collection, the greatest collection is in the National Archives. And so, I get in the subway and I get out and I...

Sometimes you can. Sometimes people leave -- they forget and they leave little chunks of index cards or whatever.

Oh, yeah, normally that`s the case.

Yes. And it`s a thrilling sensation. I mean, I cannot describe to you how interesting it is. Because you don`t know what`s in those letters. You have...

Well, it depends on the archives, but usually they open at 9:00, they close at 5:00 or 6:00, and then, well, what could you do but have a nice meal...

How much education do you have to have? In other words, here, I said -- I don`t speak French and I found myself running into French all the time in...

You have eight chapters, and each chapter is from a different time, an article or whatever. I want to go through them just very quickly, because we...

That`s a long, that`s your longest chapter, 50 pages, but where did you do this? Where was your original presentation?

But you say, originally given as an annual presidential address.

Third chapter. The unity of Europe, culture and politeness. Where did you give this, originally?

Did you have to write it in German?

I get a sense you speak German.

You say Europe is a state of mind. You told the Europeans it was a state of mind?

Is America a state of mind?

What`s cosmopolitanism?

A cosmopolitan in the 18th century is someone who certainly does not take the nation as the main unit with which he identifies himself or herself, but...

Yes.

Yes. Well, I`m not arguing that he was possibly a socialist, but that if you look at the concept of happiness, the pursuit of happiness as opposed to...

Well, I think that George Mason was a very intelligent person, who was central in the independence movement in Virginia even before the colonies got...

I don`t think I did. I don`t know the answer to that question, but they have -- I think several of them do.

That`s right. In other words...

No. And he says in a letter, I think to Madison, this is the common sense that I`m delivering. He`s representing -- the American mind is another phrase...

Well, I was invited to talk about happiness by the Institute for Advanced Study that had just been created in Tokyo. And they decided they would have...

Yes, they did. It was simultaneous interpretation. But it was one of the least successful lectures that I think I have ever given, because it was a...

All Japanese. And I thought, you know, I tried to lighten things up with a few jokes. So, I told a joke. Everybody was like stone. I thought, I`m in...

I don`t know. I don`t know.

Yes.

Sounds great to me. It`s Vincennes (ph).

Well, Vincennes (ph) is now actually part of Paris, and it has a famous medieval dungeon, where Diderot, who for many people is the most sympathetic...

I have got to read this line to you. "It may seem strange that we mix flag waving and football, or that President Reagan should have synchronized his...

Is it different at the European football, soccer?

They do not have this nationalism?

Where did ours come from, then?

The chapter six is the craze for America. Conderse (ph), and correct me if I`m mispronouncing this, and Brisot (ph)?

And on almost -- in almost every issue you find an ad for a play about Americans, a new print about George Washington, letters about Lafayette, discussions...

Yes.

Right.

So the Bourse is the stock exchange in Paris. And there was a tremendous war between bulls and bears on the stock exchange in the 1780s. Now, you might...

You know, I don`t think I ever discussed that with my own teachers. I mean, I`m not a militant atheist, like my daughters, for example, are good churchgoers,...

No. Partly, but I -- I just never could get over the problem of evil.

Because they are independent spirits who think for themselves, and fortunately, don`t take any gaff from their father. So, I respect their opinions....