Transcripts For CSPAN2 BOOK TV 20240622

[applause] interested in American History . Watch American History television on cspan3 at the weekend. 40 hours of people and events that helped document the american story. Visit cspan. Org history for more information. Booktv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they are reading this summer. Im going to try to get through a few. One is the future of the brain. Doing a lot of work in neuroscience space in congress. We have a map of the brain. A group of essays that if they all point to the direction of the future. As a euro sign tracers. Im also interested in both steve and peters book and then im going to think just for fun read a curious mind. Its a group of interviews collective group of what i would call impact players. Wewere going to have a little chance to lay back and take in some information and have some fun. Booktv wants to know what you are reading this summer. Tweet us your answer booktv or post it on your Facebook Page facebook. Com booktv. Welcome to augusta on booktv located 150 miles east of atlanta along the georgiaSouth Carolina border and was established in 1739 by James Oglethorpe who also founded savannah. During the civil war displayed the city was spared during shermans march to the sea due to its military arsenal and confederate out of work. Its the boyhood home of president Woodrow Wilson and the godfather of soul singer james brown band of papas got a brandnew bag today it has the oldest continually running canal in the euros and is known around the world for the masters golf tournament. With help of our Comcast Cable partners for the next one that we will learn about the history of the city from local authors. We begin our special look with historic of the only american to receive both the Carnegie Medal and the medal of honor. We are sitting in the Augustine Museum of history, and about 10 years ago a decision was made to do a military display, a Permanent Military display to honor jimmie dyess. When i did my research on the book i went through over 9000 Carnegie Medal recipients the last 100 years, and the 3500 or so medal of honor recipients since the civil war and it turns out hes the only person ever to earn both awards. Because it was such a unique story and because this man is my wifes aunt, i decided to write a book about him. Jimmie dyess was born in augusta, georgia, in 1909 lived most of his youth in North Augusta which is across the river from augusta, went to richmond academy, the Oldest School in the south and when he graduated he went to clemson university. He played football at clemson and was also an allamerican riflemen at clemson. While he was there between his first and second you can reach when his freshman and sophomore years, he was at Sullivans Island off the coast of South Carolina and it was a woman who is in the process of drowning and another woman who went in to try to save her and she was not being successful so they were both in very serious trouble. He was wandering down the beach, already the problem was developing. There were a lot of people on the beach, concerned about this woman and this other woman but no one would go in. He saw it and he immediately thought they could do it. So it was a pretty snap decision. He went swimming end of the long swim out. It wasnt a real rough situation. They were not huge waves but it was a long distance. They were out of sight for a little while beyond the ways so it was quite they thought they were not going to make a. People on the beach but they would all be gone. Finally, he appears swimming them both back but its pretty much a snap decision to he wasnt there when the initial problem began to develop but as he came down the beach he realized what was going on. And he by himself without any risk he did, he did have a boat he didnt have a life raft or anything like that, he just went in by himself. He was been awarded a year later a Carnegie Medal which is the highest award in america for peacetime heroism. That was presented to them at the university. There was a parade the hereafter, 1929. So that was his first act of heroism to it and came back to augustine and started a business. It didnt work to, because it was during the depression. Went into the army reserve and then later the Marine Corps Reserves. He went into the marine corps for two reasons. They paid a little more money, not much but a little bit more 5 a month more and the marines were very much known for their rivalry, for the marksmanship and he wanted to be on the Marine Corps Reserve rifle team. Thing to keep in an allamerican riflemen at clemson and he made the team. He actually coached the team and they won all kinds of awards when he went up to camp perry for a couple of years in 1936 1937. When he became a lieutenant or a he was trained at camp pendleton. They have not been in combat at this time to get was informed and sent to combat in january january 1944, for the very first time to the nation in the Marshall Islands in 1944 was to drive deep into the Central Pacific and grab an important island that the japanese controlled because the celebrant operating out of there and airplanes operate out of there. They wanted to get there and get the island so they could leapfrog farther into the pacific. So it was a straight shot from san diego write directly to the Marshall Islands. The army took the southern part of the Marshall Islands and the marine corps went into the northern part of the marshals and they would have to an island a twin island. The purpose was to capture the island, if the japanese out of there so we could use the island and the japanese could not use the island they have had been using it against us, against wake island and so forth. It was a big strategic move on the part of the command and the pacific not to go intimately but make a big leap into the middle. It was very successful but its not well known because it was so successful. Very few people were killed and one of them was jimmie dyess. It was the end of the first day of the battle and jimmie dyess battalion came onto the island as the kind of second wave. They didnt arrive on the island until about one to two in the afternoon. In the meantime to other battalions had have gone forward and one of the battalions had some marines who had made some progress but didnt realize that the japanese were in these spiderspider holes and had it got past this part of a la senate the japanese and out with their machine guns, wounded these marines and were going to kill them right before dark. Jimmie dyess you was in a separate unit heard all this fire over there knew there was a problem so he got some of his marines together and said theres got to be a problem. Kind of the same we did in the carnegie situation in somebodys got to do something, maybe i can do something. So he went in there, got them, saved the lives that i talked to one of the men whose lives he saved, and he managed to pull them back and say that a it was another unit that was pretty much not planned. They had to move quickly because of darkness was coming and he saved all the marines that were behind enemy lines. And the next day he organized his 800 grains to take the last japanese positions on this either a pretty small island, and as approach the position he got up to direct fire and his fellow marines said colonel, get down, get down from what he wanted to make sure that they found the right positions and shot at the ripe japanese positions. So he was observing and thats when he got shot in head and was killed. He was killed instantly. The battle was over within a couple of hours after that. There were 83,000 people that served in a division during the war, and during that period of time, there were only 12 to earn a medal of honor and the entire division he was awarded the medal about sex but after he was killed to i spend 10 years on the medal foundation. If an active group heroism takes place it requires a couple of witnesses and it requires somebody to write it up. What did he do, how do you see the slides whatever. Then it goes through a series of committees all the way up to the president and if approved by the second of the arm and the secretary of the navy or the section of the air force and been approved by the second of defense, then the president makes the presentation of the metal. Is very, very hard to earn the medal of order and all the wars we fought in the last 12 or 13 years that are only i think eight or nine living recipients and another six or eight who were posthumous recipients of medal of honor so its a very difficult one to what happens often time is to do is recognize but not at the highest level. It is downgraded to a distinguished Service Cross or to his silver star or to a bronze star. So very few people earn the middle. He was almost for sure say that he did not deserve it. He might point out to somebody else who was more heroic than he was picked he was very humble. He never talked about the Carnegie Medal. When interviewed people who knew him, when i did the book a long time ago people doing well. Tell me, what about the Carnegie Medal. He was 19. They did know anything about it. He earned his medal. He was very modest. He didnt think he deserved its we never talked about. He probably threw it things would bring the same way. Ive known a lot of medal of honor recipients from the foundation to most of them will tell you i didnt deserve this. It shouldve been given to somebody else. Its a piece of humility that we all can learn from and i think he would have been in that category. You are watching booktv on cspan2 and this weekend we are visiting a gust of georgia talking with local authors entering the cities and resides with help of our local cable partner comcast. Next, stan byrdy looks at the history of golf and a gust and origins of the annual Masters Tournament which is one of the professional golfers associations four major championships. The i guess the country club gets in as was the centerpiece of golf in golf history in a gust to. Golfer started in the area about 20 miles to the east of your in aiken, South Carolina, and then quickly in 1897 and one had its first golf course which was the voluntary golf course which sat golf course which sat in back of the Bonaire Hotel which is just across the street from us here at the Augusta Country Club. That course, a nine hole course, then transitioned into what was the lake course and then a hill course. The hill of course being the only surviving course and thats the course that we are on today to the Augusta Country Club. In 1888, augusta decides is going to host an industrial exposition called the Augusta National exposition of 1880, the first Augusta National. When folks can get down in the late fall of 1888 they fell in love with augusta. They decided this is where theyre going to spend their winter. In that timeframe 1880 florida is not develop. The west coast is not developed, and augusta is where all the rail lines are leading to come and folks from new york city and baltimore and boston and philadelphia can get to augusta on one days ride on the rails. So its convenient for the folks up in the northeast to get away from the winter weather. They would come to augusta, and by 1900 the augusta and they can bury have blossomed overnight into the largest and to resort in north america. This was their winter home for president , the powerful captains of industry, president taft junior as president elect and the winter of 1909 and he picked his entire cabinet while staying at the Bonaire Hotel just down the street. The rockefellers would stay here in augusta during the winter and winter until that april, may period. So seven months augusta tourism down. As golf came to the United States in the late 1800s, it came your to augusta in 1897 by William Henry harrison no relation to the president of the United States, and started the Bonaire Hotel and to put a golf course you. He introduced augusta to the game of golf. And at this time the augusta as the winter capital of north america had a lot of folks interested in in the game of golf. Came to augusta and they started playing golf. In 1900 three years after the first golf course will put you in augusta, the reigning british open champion paid a trip to augusta, played a round of golf the he was playing exhibitions up and down the east coast, and people were enthused about the game of golf. Well, if you look at those old pictures from 1900 you will see that it still two years before bobby jones was born and golf is being accepted or theres a big crowd in augusta to watch harry ago. And went over to nearby aiken South Carolina, and he played an exhibition there. That really seemed to like the fires in augusta for the game of golf. Soon as golf expanded here at the Augusta Country Club with the lake course and hill course, there was a course 20 miles east. There was a course starting in 1900 for just across the river at the mighty hampton hotel. We were a city of grand hotels in grand golf courses. That caught the eye of bobby jones. Keep in mind it was important to 1902, so all this time in the late 1890s and early 1900s that gain is blossoming here in augusta. And augusta happens to be close enough to atlanta that bobby jones sees this is an area that has the money then maybe could support a golf course later on down the line and he starts playing golf in augusta and it is 10 degrees warmer than in atlanta. Back in the day. As well as the golf course and 76 working days in September September 1932 bob jones paid its first round of golf and shop are on the golf course. David jones had a tough time selling the world on the dresser, georgia and the Augustine National golf club. It didnt have the money and the base for folks coming up it came down to the northeast. That started to dry up because after he put the course here in the depression ended, florida was developed. So people six airplanes and went to the west coast and the gas to semi fell out of favor and augustine struggled in the winning formula had become in the 1950s in the form of almost what you would call a trifecta. President eisenhower was a member of the Augustine National. He became president of the United States and the big spotlight shone on the city of aggressor. The president of the United States is playing golf at the Augustine National and television came of age and lo and behold this generation started the game of golf started watching the president play golf and augustine georgia and they could see him play golf on the news at night. Lo and behold this timing would have it Arnold Palmer came along, a working class hero with a selftaught golf swing and he would hitch up his pants and go win golf tournaments. He was a charismatic goodlooking guy between eisenhowers President Television and the gas to an Arnold Palmer the 1950s blossomed and since that point i guess it never looked back. Arnold palmer won the masters in 1958 in 1962 in 1964 syllables almost clock like the folks are watching on tv and then the error and Jack Nicholas and 65 and 66 with great players in there as well in the fan base nationwide and worldwide would grow with that situation. They came to a to at director wgbh tv here and spent my entire career here in during my stay here just fell in love with the history of the golf course. My first year was 1986 and Jack Nicholas one and the following year larry weizmann and i was smitten by nasa and golf history and the president s and i ended up in a guest and after i got out at the tv business just thought it would make a fascinating story of how augustine came to be because thats when they came here folks asked me first time on the course was how augustine in this town became the golf capital of the world and it raised a lot of questions of my own end over the years i befriended a lot of friends here at the Augustine National from Augustine Country Club in palmetto and make in and the private areas and they piece together a story that just have been the highlight of my career now. We continue our visit to augustine georgia with Lee Ann Caldwell who discusses the city and its role in the civil war. The book we are talking about today is transfixed. A book i will put the Augustine Museum of history. No better place to talk about the book and what we learned in here in this awardwinning local museum and we are in an exhibit entitled a gusto story so it tells us how augustine developed and how augustine then came to be the augustine it is now. In 1733 James Oglethorpe who was one of 21 trustees of basically a charitable trust, sort of a Nonprofit Organization today came to savanna with the shipload of people are going to start a new colony south of the Savanna River where an area of the museum now that talks about the early colonial era here in a guest we have a picture of princess augustine the life of frederick the prince of wales. He could think of them is the william and kate in your day. He will 1730 before it came back from england after that mariucci said he wanted export belt in the area where the indian trade was going on to protect a trade penetrators who is here. And princess augustine of the new princess of wales and another ford to missile fired name fredricka after Prince Frederick her new husband. The royal marriage was honored in doing that. Fortunately in the dust as in much of the backcountry of the south, the revolution was a civil war between people who live here, those loyal to the crown and those who are part of the revolutionary force in the neck i said that was true and so they have the sort of guerrilla warfare civil war nature about it. Behind me at the representation of a continental soldier in uniform who would come to the area towards the end of the war and then what we wouldve seen here and most of the war as militiamen. You basically have two different armies fighting for the patriot cause. People within states who are part of the state militia as well as people with joined up at the continental forces under the command ultimately of George Washington and washington would appoint general Nathaniel Greene is the commander of the Southern Forces after 1778. After the American Revolution the indian trade was over as farmers lived in and saw that the backcountry and increasing numbers of land sessions from both the creeks and cherokee but pushed the indians saw the layout of georgia. The initial farmers that lived in this area were producing tobacco. Many of them had come from virginia and the carolinas where that wasnt ashcroft and ruined this area as well. Pacific teen 80s 90s we see augustine and people in the countryside producing tobacco that was put into what were called hogshead then moved into town and were basically big barrels turned on their side put through the center looks up to a team of horses have bolted town and that was how people made their money. The road became tobacco rose because they followed her just to keep tobacco from going through lowlying areas where they might get wet. Tobacco is the center of a lot of augustine for years. In the 1790s 1793 to be exact and inventor named eli whitney was working on the plantation attack free outside savanna and came up with a little invention called the cotton engine and that would make cotton the first time a short fiber and make it profitable to get it out from the fiber. Basically he switched from tobacco to cotton and from that. Don, the early 1800s, cotton whiskey in this area as one of the planters in South Carolina said. For the entire antebellum period command appeared before the civil war they produce cotton as cotton farmers brought a tear to market and while here they buy some good and luxury items and things they would like to have from the merchant of acosta. Augustine became an important part of the matter is we because during the civil war a gusto was chosen as the site after i said that the better powder works. The augustine arsenal was surrendered to the confederates in january 1861 and produced munitions throughout the war. So a gusto is very much part of the war there is no actual fighting here would would make the posts were. Faster and easier for augustines. In the reconstruction period augustine began to talk of the new south philosophy. But csr can now get lots of marching deep into it bill textile mills along it. Stop sending cotton to the north for processing to make the money that will come from that right here. After the war into the 20th century augustine was a textile center what we may not enso the modern era when textiles like other parts of the south here began to move out of the country to other places. Local history i think is the key to understanding history on a larger scale because the local community is a microcosm of what happened in the larger world. I believe we can understand where we are if we dont know where we said. We can understand why they are if we dont understand how they got to be the way they are. Local history provides the window for us into understanding our past and how it evolves over the years which helps us know who we are as a people and why we are what we are today. The we spoke with trent above and about his book twelve monkeys and a green jacket. From the turnofthecentury zoo, the book chronicles the rise and fall of what was once the citys largest tourist attraction Blake Olmstead in i decided to write the book so i could share discoveries i was taken after i moved into my house on the lake. I saw the old fireplaces. I saw the light fixtures up in the trees and i had the last remaining boathouse on the lake. The boat has his boat has a series of years ago. I got interested doing my research and looking through newspaper archives and pull enough old pictures to learn more about the lake after i started learning about it in the something i just had to share that was too awesome for people not to know what a gusto was like. They put in the Augustine Canal in the 1840s because they wanted to extract textile mills and give them the fall line. It just made a lot of sense. They built the canal and needed to expand the canal 30 years later so when they expanded the canal in the 1870s, they plug what used to be an aqueduct because they can now win over the creek. When they get back Straus Olmstead was the chief engineer of the project. The lake was created somewhere around 1872 1873. The boathouse was developed first and a man named colonel dyer came to town and he actually did a lot in forming what was known as lake park. He came in and put in a Bowling Alley theater. He had a merry go round all kinds of amusements for the family. When he did that, the late began blossoming. Augustine is the place to be. Grand hotels, so many things to offer. They had facilities. They had the hunting facilities all around us they had the horses for the hans. Ggolf of course is pretty vague, took off at the hotel. The city took over and started a little bit of a climb in the Great Depression. Before that augustine Real Estate Market with the Great Depression and the city behind the property it really started to deteriorate a little bit. Right after the Great Depression the city did make some effort and put in beach sand and created a high beach. In 1949 i believe that was her name was prohibited and they would never be allowed again because of the back area count. Evidently there was sewage and a lot of runoff so they had to close a spending. When they did that, the lake started to train pretty dramatically. In 1950s they were looking at ideas on how they could make it safer. One of the ideas was to put pipes underneath the lake and they sent it back for two years before they decided that would be cost prohibitive. It is pretty ironic today when we look at the environment and the chlorine wouldve killed everything in the lake. Number two operative then a disaster. I think a lot of the issues with trying to make Blake Olmstead better comes down to political issues. A lot of fighting and Blake Olmstead is kind of caught in the battle unfortunately. The thought at one point was the park wouldve included park lake olmstead. Hopefully with the canal continuing to develop under the National Heritage status would see the lake addressed as well. It is under a different ownership. One of the reasons i wrote this book was to take everybody through time on the little bit of the journey said they could appreciate the Rich Heritage and rich history that the lake has so we could build some support for making it better and making it a place where you want to take your family. I think it would just add to the attraction of augustine. While in augusta georgia we, georgia agree talk to turner simkins, his folks have to provide his son fight against a rare form of leukemia and a successful quadruple bone Marrow Transplant which resulted in full transmission of the disease. My wife called me on the cell phone and you could hear all the oxygen and monitors. They were getting ready to tell them goodbye. I just told my kids goodbye on the cell phone. We had them in the mountains the weekend before. We live in Central Georgia we dont get a whole lot of snow. We decided to take the boys out to play in the snow. He hadnt been feeling great and was complaining of leg pain but that week and he didnt want to get out of bed to make a snowman. We knew something was up. We have fences and before but that was a heavy feeling that descended upon us after we got back my wife taken to the pediatrician. I was in my office here in town and waiting all day and we had a feeling when the call didnt come until the end of the work our enemies that we need to get them to the Childrens Medical Center here. On the fifth floor the first thing i saw was a young boy with an iv bags of blood and that was when the developing way to uphold. Your life is going to change it that on the period and put them in a pretty bad basket of apples. Fortunately had there in the sand enough that we didnt realize how bad it was at that time. So we just hung down to do this. We told him and his brothers that he wasnt necessarily sick that they had problem and work through it. Theres a huge change for the family. The protocols require three months of chemotherapy in patients versus go into the clinic in getting the chemo and going home because most leukemia treatment eliminate the immune system as closely as possible in order to attack all of the leukemia cells in the bloodstream. So therefore he needed to be in a protected environment. He would come up for a week. He losses for the first time. He indicated there were other kids on the floor. Its refreshing and beautiful attitude about it was what allowed us to feel that we could do this. The last leg of the protocol is a bone Marrow Transplant which was done at the Childrens Health care of a fan of. His older brother was a Perfect Match. Its a 10 chance you may not make it through the transplanted cells that we were curious as to why we would have that type of risk when he was already in remission anyways after the chemo cycles. We were told if an insurance policy. I asked what would happen if he had relapsed and he said we dont want to go there. That was our doctors response. He sailed through the transplant. Being a Perfect Match the logic was it is less risky on the patient and we were going to replace his immune system with his brothers. A parent may the match was a little too perfect. He never even became ill during the process. He lost his hair again, didnt even as a whole lot of weight. He just sailed through transplant. We wanted to see some friction in the immune system with the rash or fevers coming in and taking control. Around 120 days later he had relapsed. We drove to atlanta to determine what next steps with the end we were told by the head of the transplant that there really were no next steps we could take. They offer treatments that could possibly buy us time but we were effectively told is there anywhere that would offer something and it is just the standard of care did not provide for a second bone Marrow Transplant within a year, but it was too risky and nobody would be willing to do that. They werent able to offer that. So we basically drove home. I cant describe how that feels. I was coming back from atlanta to address and i got lost on the interstate. My brain was so overwhelmed that we all of a sudden got ourselves some time and my wife and i were so disoriented. We had a really close friend whose son patrick was about to relapse at the time and we called that when there is another parent in the trenches. They were a philadelphia woman called and told them what would happen. His answer was screwed now. Thats exactly what we needed to hear. If theres a final word will turn it over every rock until we know that. We are going to fight. We were on the phone with the people in seattle, cincinnati minneapolis, texas, you name it. We had an army of people trying to find a place. When we got to saint jude there were two things that drove us there. One was very much a family oriented environment. People move their entire families there. This boy is so close to his two brothers that we just knew the family needed to be together, best case or worst case. The second thing was they made us feel like they have more than one trick up their sleeve. That was the second time i thought we were done. I remember driving to the Grocery Store during college vote all bowl season. I got a call from the doctor that said they could get in remission and i sat and talked and was happy about football season and i couldnt hear anything. We got a call that night the transplant doctor had already created protocol. Figures and unrelated donor even though he was 55 to 65 of kidney cells in his bloodstream. They were willing to try it. We had an unrelated donor was patient enough to deal with the delays and waited a second transplant right around the time of his birthday and i was in the winter of 2010. There was a little friction that time. We saw rashes in not maybe its working. He got sick, but he survived the transplant got in remission again. At that time every time you achieve Something Like this to pop the champagne and high five. Its amazing how exhausted you are. By this time a lot of people were really following the story. I had a blog. To me it was a coping mechanism to think what happened today and to allow me to really get everything out. Apparently it had become somewhat viral because by this time we went to the second transplant we have people all over the world we were keeping with and they were organized prayer vigils at certain times. It was so deep on every possible level is just hard to explain. Maybe thats one of the reasons i felt like i needed to do the boat. But by that time we had been out of work for a year. We werent working much. We have to move the family to memphis and weve literally peeled off about everything in life you can peel off other than the bare necessities. After the second transplant he got into remission again we came home. We were on our way to memphis for what was to have been a scheduled checkup right before school started. On the way there out of the blue he said do you think i am going to die . We were really in the car when it happened and we immediately responded absolutely not. The next day we found out that he was relaxing again. It was almost like there was some thing inside that he knew whether this physiological or a spiritual and he obviously siphon thing and that was the time the third chapter started. So this time we hadnt thought that far ahead. We thought we had won the lottery in the second transplant. I got a call from the physicians assistant that morning in the hotel room said they simkins we received brennans biopsy results. You need to come and speak with us to discuss options are to go into the conference room, the same kind they told us there was not in. He had actually already been on the transplant team at saint jude, knowing how aggressive the cancer was they were already thinking of plan a b. , c. D. And e. At that time. We werent aware that done now. They had created a protocol using me as a donor, a pair of. A parents immune system is half of a child his mother and me. So the theory was the portion of the immune system that could match would attack and kill it. The risk was they would continue in his kidney. So this was a new protocol a new drug that would immobilize the t cells out of the immune system that these hidden dormant cancer cells. And so that is what we decided to do. At that point in time, if you were to mention the half blood transplant a half transplant at most institutions at that time wouldve thought we were playing dr. Frankenstein acting. But at this point in time wed been living in the hospital for so long and we said brennan, the cancer is back. He said all right, lets do it. Remove the kids back to memphis. We did that theyre transplant and he became really, really ill. We took him to icu to give them some or oxygen. They said will have to put them in a ventilator. Theres no way hes going to survive without any help. We said listen, theres one thing we are to ask, to we have time to go to the story to his brother so he can tell them goodbye . They said that would be a good idea. Theres a place where you know youre effectively given it up to god. Thy will be done. At that point in time you just know theres nothing you can do. They put them on the ventilator and after long story short a week later he started coming off of the thing. And, but the problem was that lost the transplant, it failed. He had developed during the period of time the transplant was teetering. He developed another blood disorder. Was having to platelet transfusions day after day. That never stopped and filed after christmas of that year they said we can try a fourth transplant with his mom as a donor. Obviously, mine, didnt want to try my a game at that point in time, but the team was split. By that time they said maybe comfort care is what you got to consider. They were not pushing us in one direction or the other but they let us know clearly we have done far more than most anybody had ever, within that period that the they said you can take it home, let them have some quality of life. Even his own room with his friends and family but the quality of life at the point in time was to fight. Just the way he is, took taken him home to die would have happened a lot quicker i think, there would not have been in equality. His mom had she just took it upon herself to ask questions and explain that that was his choice. He said ill go for it. He was so frail. He had not had solid food in monster he was being fed intravenously to keep us to manage to get up and play, but and you legos or read knock, knock joke or whatever. Just begin you have to chalk it up a lot to him. Certainly we had a team to i was going to quit as long as he was going to quit. I can tell you how much time i spent on my knees. Faith is a huge part of this whole thing. Sort of reacquainting oneself with it and kind of really learning to pray. Its like how can use it to ask for god to help you with your kid winner of the kids dying . You almost feel like why would we deserve to be any different than them . Its like living on top of Mount Everest with the air so thin. Its beautiful in a certain way because you really are all the vanities are gone. All the little quirky, not geeky things, those all go away. But we knew we had to be there for him. We have to be strong for them if were going to do this again. The fourth transplant this was almost like a repeat of the third. Total organ shutdown. He was taken icu ventilator. At that point in time that doctors said they were truly down in their bag of tricks. At that point even they were giving up. We got back to memphis and we found it turned the corner again. But that time all of the immune system, all of those effects, all the symptoms of the kidneys china and the liver shutting down for all of us want to this new immune system coming into taking charge. Thats what the doctor came in and he said weve got at this time. I mean, he could tell from his experience that is such an aggressive, quick that he felt like finally had enough friction and the fact that he had survived that. That was the last transplant and that was almost exactly four years ago. Now, he was in the hospital for about a year after that. He developed a severe case of symptoms of grabbers host disease being the graph the host leaving the persons body. Thats the number two of transplant patients, adults or kids. So we have to monitor that quickly. And aggressively. That was basically handled in memphis. We even came home and the symptoms became so dire that we had to airlift him back to memphis about a year later eventually he started eating again and gaining weight. The reentry part was really hard at that point in time. Your back people say you made, high five and this. I cant tell you how hard it is you start life over again after that. I mean nothing the things that used to inspire me my guitar, my work or whatever. It was just, i mean i still have a hard time with it. Im just that getting to the point where i can get some the things that used to put a smile on my face. Thats part of the reason i want to communicate. Its not like you just all of a sudden a, you know hes in remission again, game over, hifi, move about your lives. Because things are different. Physically he was different. I mean, he was subject to so much toxic treatment that hes a small. He does have some cognitive side effects. Theres some scar tissue. Theres a lot of collateral stuff to deal with. He had been taking chemotherapy orally every day just until this week, ever since he got out of his immune suppressant and they just took him off of the. Hes back in school. If you were to walk in this room right now you wouldnt think it was anything different about them. He was a kid who truly was manifesting itself someone that we should all be like. Everything that he was doing was living in the moment. He wasnt regretting the fact that he was a victim or why am i here and all my friends are back home or in school or he never complained about that. Whether it was focusing on his legos or is a joke book and finding true, you know honest gratitude in something that he was given in this awful place that he was. Is that not the lesson that we can all learn . In a way all the people asked me about the book and how i would describe it. Isa is a combination of war diary, search for meaning. Here we are being taught about finding meaning in awful circumstances by a little boy. You know i struggle to think if that had happened to a sibling of mind or a pair or something what is in a different . I really think that was the most valuable lesson that is thereve been taught to me. For more information go to cspan. Org localcontent. Heres a look at some books that are being published this week. Booktv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they are reading this summer. First, dead wake, eric laursen. Ive read all of his works. This is a great book sort of almost a minute by minute description of what happened to the lusitania. Its very dramatic and he goes back and forth between whats happening in europe and whats happened in washington with president wilson and whats happening to the passengers on the she. Their stories. Its really a great read, well well written and i think really brings that piece of history in 1915 fact of life. Really makes it very human. Its not cold issue. These are real human beings we can relate to who often lost their lives stand on the lusitania. Great story. The illustrious dead by Stephan Talty is all about how tight this typhus actually read was responsible for destroying napoleons army in the nation of russia. The real killer was typhus. The sanitary conditions of the day did nothing to protect themselves against this bacterium and it was devastating. Really devastating. Napoleon lost more than 90 of his army in the invasion of russia. And a lesson by the way that obviously a century later, a century and a half later adolf hitler did not learn from his regret. A friend of mine Elizabeth Bear barrett actually grew up across the street from me. Shes a historian now and she wrote a great book on appomattox and it sort of a revisionist history and i may get a correct one about what really the outcome of the matter, how robert e. Lee and the south used and misused the agreement at appomattox to foster sort of resegregation, we suppression of black americans after the union one of the civil war and slavery was supposed to be over. They essentially invoked free spirit of appomattox has mean that none of them should be prosecuted for war crimes. Robert e. Lee had been indicted actually after the war and he invoked appomattox and assisted that u. S. Grant, you know invoke the agreement they had to protect robert e. Lee. Robert e. Lee to elizabeth remained actually very reprobate on the issue of race. So he has saintly view in some person of history but this is a pretty, you know, penetrating and telling we assessment of how appomattox and what the meaning of appomattox was interpreted by the south and by the north really did damage for the next 90 years in terms of race in america. This book by tracy borman is a reappraisal of every kind of historic figure during the reign of henry viii. Those were fans of st. Thomas moore, under henry viii and was ultimately beheaded because he would not agree to the remarriage of henry viii to anne bolin also lost rent. The instrument of both secured the divorce and arguing for the separation of church in england from the church in rome and ultimately for Thomas Moores demise as well. Ultimately ironically, thomas, lost his head as well. But it may be more sympathetic portrayal of a very skilled statesman, a very skilled manager to manage the king of england for henry viii but who also is responsible for the destruction of the monasteries the breakup of Church Holdings and property and ultimately the seventh of the relationship between england and the church of rome. Great read and coincidentally comes out as people are watching wolf hall on public radio also about thomas cromwell. This is the single best biography ive ever read of napoleon. Its called napoleon by Andrew Roberts and in one volume is a stupendous read and very accessible read about who napoleon was and his triumphs and his failures. He won almost all of his battles but in fortune the ones who lost her pretty dispositive. He was a brilliant statesman, a brilliant manager, a brilliant general but the kind of toward the end i think maybe because of hubris kind of lost sight of his own techniques, his own Lessons Learned and ultimately they were turned against them. But this is a great read and a reappraisal, reassessment of the importance of the point even down to modern history. Great read a street. A. Scott berg wrote this wonderful out of it Woodrow Wilson, also a bit of a reappraisal. Wilson had this mix of incredible progressive record in the white house, especially in his first term. Statesmen during world war i but also certainly a retrograde attitude towards Race Relations in america. But its a great balance to read and ultimately one that appreciates sort of that progressive moment that Woodrow Wilson most certainly to good vantage of to the benefit of america mib. Great single biography of Woodrow Wilson. Is book 13 days in september by lawrence wright, i love this book because it humanizes diplomacy. It talks about the camp david accords into 13 days anwar sadat and president beijing and president Menachem Begin and jimmy carter spent at camp david and other process worked out. Personalities, history, theories, anxiety, stress is mistrust the role of interlocutor by the president jimmy carter. Jimmy carter put a lot on the Table Including his own reputation. And it worked. And the camp david accord to this day remains the only lasting peace accord in the middle east. Jimmy carter deserves a lot of credit, as to the attitude participants. If you want to see at human levels applause actually works great, great book. Ought to be read by every, you know, graduate school who studies international studies. Another biography, Walter Isaacson on Benjamin Franklin, an american life. A wonderful biography. I mean, Benjamin Franklin comes to these pages as a very contemporary mentored we would relate to and easily based on the portrayal in this book. And unbalanced this is a great man, great vision lived a long life, had many episodes to that life as a political figure in pennsylvania, as a political figure on behalf of of the colonies in europe, as a political figure back with a declaration of independence, back to europe are representing now that insiders say of america during the revolutionary war. Then comes back and actually serves as a key figure in the Constitutional Convention helping to save the day really for the Constitutional Convention, and arguing for it in the was a very close thing in the approval of the Constitutional Convention in the 13 state. Benjamin frankel, bigger than life quintessential american homespun shrewd, smart onto prendeville, represents so much of the american character. This is a wonderful biography. And, finally dying every day. I have a love of ancient roman history. This book by james romm is all about roman poet seneca it was sort of the artistinresidence in the court of narrow. Sort of the odd juxtaposition between this thoughtful man senator and his tyrant nero, and how he tried to survive in the time period while being on the other hand, a very Senior Advisor to nero. And it was a very tricky business. So its a great piece of roman history about a very controversial and not easy relationship and a very easy and great read if you like ancient roman history as i do. So thats my Summer Reading for now, and hope to be back next with an equal number of recommendations. And booktv wants to know what you reading this summer. Tweet us your answer booktv or post it on our Facebook Page facebook. Com booktv. President ial candidates often these books to introduce themselves to voters and to promote their views on issues. Heres a look at some books written by declared candidates for president. After the cuban missile crisis, the lines between the two cold war camps were relatively clear and mutually understood. Exception of places like west berlin. People do when the lines were. It was pretty clear what an act of grace with the across one of those lines like these are the superpowers. Thats just not to today. Thats very challenging. If we look at the political psychology work of a stanford professor and Nobel Laureate colleague of mine at princeton, they show that humans are much more willing to take risks and do they cause to defend what they believe is rightfully theirs and our to get new things. Most people. The are exceptions to history. Hitler. Thank god hes an exception but most humans in most places are willing to pay higher costs and take bigger risks to defend what they believe is rightfully theirs and to gain new things. We have clear lines between to potential adversaries its a very useful thing because tossing that line is relatively easy to deter pick a it is pretty only needed but would be an aggressive and would not be. In east asia thats not the case to give several times in the South China Sea including china. You have climates in the islands, in east china sea. And its my strong impression of talking to people in the various capitals in those disputes have it altered the believe that their claims are legitimate. From an economist point of view this is the worst possible outcome. They all believe theyre defending something that is rightfully theirs and if they give it up they will do something bad that they might lose more things in the future. That makes them more likely to stand firm in any conflict or crises that arise over the complex. Theres a lot of posts along of nationalism, including places like malaysia, including in the philippines and vietnam, for example. That feeds that problem. So how do you deter or dissuade him from using force to settle its many disputes . If not always easy and it develops its new capability of china can bring new leverage to bear. The areas an escalation risk for the United States that needs to be recognized. That is at the United States is militarily stronger than china in almost all measure of military power. There are certain systems china has chosen to develop and the United States hasnt but other than those of the United States is superior militarily. But a lot of the ways the United States is superior is that the United States can reduce the capabilities of adversaries relatively early in the conflict. So if we think about the conventional systems china has built is force until everything was so the Nuclear Systems this poses a challenge. Some of the most postconvention systems china has brought has created to raise potential cost of adversaries are conventionally Ballistic Missiles on mobile systems and submarines. Well, chinas modernized Nuclear Force is made up of what . Nuclear tipped solid fuel mobile missiles and submarines. Submarine launched Ballistic Missiles. The problem is in a crisis in order to protect u. S. Forward deployed forces it might be tempting for american commanders and american commanderinchief to try to strike those conventional capabilities to protect american for deployed forces from those higher costs of operating in the region. That makes sense. The problem is the kinds of attacks to do attacks on the chinese mainland either against submarine force or commitment submarine force or commandment of us does oregons mobile missile sites that control those missiles, weve never launched such a thing against a Nuclear Power before and in the case of china theres a dangerous overlap in the types of systems that china uses for Nuclear Deterrence and what it uses are conventional coercion. If commandandcontrol systems and mobile missile sites were struck for connecticut process of our sufferings were struck and submarines were struck and submarine force were struck a chinese leader might think the United States which ideas conventional means to take out the new nuclear deterrent, this potential escalatory application or thats a dangerous situation we didnt face during the cold war. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. Is a look at some of the best selling nonfiction books according to the San Francisco chronicle. I this is