"We are a stronger country when more of us are better off than when fewer of us are," says author Jon Meacham, who is this year's Charleston Gazette-WVU Festival of Ideas speaker.

"Jefferson was quite effective at reaching on a human level to the other players in the system," says Jon Meacham.

"Churchill emerged, the more time I spent with him, as the warmer human being and in many ways a truly great man. Because he was able to withstand taking the easy step in an hour of maximum danger," says Jon Meacham.