Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20171022

Some of these authors have a will be appearing on booktv. You can watch them on our website, booktv. Org. Often i think of the beautiful town that is seated by the sea and often in fossil upanddown the pleasant streets of that town and my youth comes back to me. Welcome to portland, maine, on booktv. Located on a peninsula, it was the original capital of maine and started as a fishing and trading village. Today its the largest city in the state with a population of about 66,000. It still has strong ties to its maritime history with lobstering and tourism in its largest economic drivers. With help of our spectrum Cable Partners for the next 90 minutes will feature the areas history and literary community. Whitney kent are special feature on portland with a history of lobstering industry. We begin our special feature. Over here is my gps and radar. So and thought it helps us figure out where we are. I dont mark my traps with the gps. I i kind of do it by feel. Look at that bad boy. Its a male. That right there is about 75, 80 bucks. Maine has been tied up with the sea for a very long time. Coastal maine was a place where many people form and it was difficult to form because of the ledges and this one wasnt easy, and a lot of people especially in certain parts of the state had to turn to the sea to survive. The lobster became, over time, evolved from being a nuisance species the user fertilize and could sell anywhere to the sort of endall beall support that is keeping many of the working waterfronts and working people and ages old fishing communities and culture alive here lobsters were incredibly common. You could go out and get five and six pounds by waiting out in the bay and spitting them and bring them home. As many as you wanted. In storms they would form when roads, and like seaweed and people collecting to fertilize the gardens. They were staggeringly common and, of course, you could eat them and they became one of the foods of last resort if you were running low on things. You would pick clamps on the shore, going get lobster because they were always there and easy to get. But the problem with them commercially if youre going to try to live on learning, not just substance, is for still your local community can anyone else could go get the lobsters or syndicated to get a wheelbarrow full easy enough. You couldnt sell them to your friends. Lobsters when did i start putrefy almost immediately. You have to sell them live. In the past there was no way to keep them like to get into market. Because of that lobsters were seen as sort of a nuisance subsistence food but not anything you could make money off. At the time when you can actually start making money to make a living fishing lobster came in the 19th century. Starting in 1800, 1810, people, october know people some of the major cities, in new york in particular started selling lobsters locally. They would send kids out and in those days you can trap a lobster on the bottom, they took bear loops and they put netting over it and it would create a couple of sticks over where you could hang some kind of, drop them in Shallow Water and have rope attached to it and basically they would wait, watching the water until lobster walked onto the net to get the bait and it would pull it up. You could pull up lots and lots of lobsters in this fashion, there were so many of them, three pounds and four pounds. The entrepreneurial people would create boiling houses and send kids out or got themselves and trap these lobsters in food traps and start something around the city from, boiled and so their rent and sell it as an inexpensive source of food in the urbanized neighborhoods where people didnt have access and couldnt get to the lobsters. The problem that came up quickly though is near boston and new york its essentially sandy bottom. Its not very good lobster habitat. The resource was quickly overexploited. There are not that many lobsters down there and the demand kept growing and growing and more people were not with her food traps and had to go into deeper and deeper water. Pretty soon theyre getting to the point where the couldnt get lobsters before they started putrefying. They were so far out trying to catch them. The innovation that transformed the lobster industry particularly in maine and kept fueling the expansion of the lot to Consumer Market upanddown east coast was some ambitious yankees with Yankee Ingenuity came up with a solution around the problem and it was this. They took one of their sailing vessels, when a small sloops and they built a sort of wooden tank and then they flooded the tanks. Like a a sieve and water would flow in and get the flight tank which they would put a lobsters they purchased or caught into this giant tank and giant pool of cold and constantly recirculated see what i think its their life for several days, a week or two. That meant these vessels, they could travel much longer distances and they started sailing first to provincetown in massachusetts but also Sandy Bottoms and the start over exploding filtered by the 1830s they started showing up in maine right near portland. It turned out one of the only places in all of maine where people were catching lobsters as a commercial proposition was a peninsula about ten miles from where were standing in portland. The reason for that is its one of the first sections of rocky coast where theres lots of lobster, and he was right adjacent here to portland which had that growing market, especially workingclass people without a lot of sources of inexpensive protein who created a massmarket to sell lobsters. Theyre close enough with ticket sales down here each day and delivered to catch. The first phase were really exploded is as people were realizing automobile people, that there was a demand and a case for lobster and a started moving to restaurants and other places where people started to eat them by choice, they were becoming maybe not a delicacy but not just a cheap form of protein. As it happened and judd the beginning and have met of the civil war of the summer tourism and summer cottage trade. Before that that that being that by jeff people maine to get away from the heat in the big cities, to have the kids learn to sail. They built the day grappling cottages with the crescent and mr. Wanting to eat some of the local food and laughter became more popular and people started realizing there was an extensive market. Some of these entrepreneurs started thinking about, well, wait you could preserve it and send it longer distances to the midwest, across the continent on the railways . What if you could can the lobster meat . There were canneries toucan sam and blueberries and corn and other products but the seasons for these things. There was a missing gap for the canneries in the late 19th century that happened to fit the time when the big lobster catches and landings laughing at the time. They started fitting it in on a provisional basis and it worked really well and they started sending thousands and tens of thousands of cans of lobster meat all over the country. They started creating an enormous demand. Ended up being 100, 150 canneries up and down the coast. Some of them had their own smacks going at. Do the 1890s the demand for lobster of almost any size became so enormous that it started overwhelming and destroying the lobster population itself. The fishery today is an example heralded in fishery circles around the world really of a sustainable fishery. But this came out of a terrible tragedy. This was a hard learned experience because none of those conservation measures were in place at the end of the 19th century when there was this cannery boom, a demand for lobster of any size. It would take 45 little snapper lobsters to get enough meat to fill the pan towards the end. Because of this you could land in the lobster. There was almost an insatiable demand. Based on a wiping out the lobster and pretty soon it ended up being a crash in the population. As the crash happened the value of the lobster as happens in many fisheries kept going up. It was an incentive to hunt down and fish the very last animal because of perunit price as it became more rare. Weve seen that in wildlife exploitation and fisheries and its one of those tragedies. Thats happen in the lobster fishery. The lobster landings were terrible all the way up until 1929 when the stock market crashed. That crash was so terrible that it finally eliminated most of the demand for lobster to the point where it was a with going out and catch them anymore. Then you had the Great Depression which kept fishermen from point out and aggressively pursuing lobster. After the Great Depression of the Second World War when many fishermen were serving in the navy or drafted into service to fight the two front war and it wasnt safe often to go out into many of fisheries grounds because of the belief of uboats and other threats. There was the time of decades where humans laidoff maines lobster fishery and was able to rebuild. After world war ii when things got back to normal and the supply chain for lobster group and lobster and start going out again the resource has been a Pretty Healthy shape. The lesson still of having destroyed the resource has been learned and internalized. There was not only support for brace conservation laws that have been on the books made in the 19th century but not observe like not catching lobsters that a big event 35 because as of the successful breeders. The number of eggs a female lobster produces grows geometrically with its size. If you catch all the big ones you are doing much greater damage to the lobster population than you think, it also not catching the small ones that have not had chance to reproduce once. Just doing that start helping but then the interdicting and cascading series of additional improvements. Lobsters only caught with traps. The traps have special vince intend to let lots of the undersized escapes of you get trapped into. Lobstermen throw away and returned to the water females bearing eggs. They notch the tales of the females so that the number lobstermen catches fema later after the eggs are con they will see it was a successful breeder and return it again but not before first renotching the lobster. A lobstermen we continue to put the notch backing. Various other measures that ensured the existence of a breeding stock and not catching ones that are too big and too small and using in the form of trap a technology that didnt destroy and disrupt the bottom habitat, that didnt accidentally catch the young are other species and ended up being rather benign. So the result is, think about this, we are in the 21st century in a globalized and a short air with High Technology and consolidation of virtually everything and yet this industry which is growing that because of this back story, it still prosecuted by sole proprietors, by somebody who usually owns their boat with maybe one or two assistants or employees on the vessel going out from own port for the day and returning that day at the scale that is a household sort of individual owner scale, thats how the entire lobster fishery which is now providing lobster to aircraft our flight to china right now and to japan loaded with lobster, supplying a Global Supply chain but at that level and at a level and discovered happens to work in tandem with the resource. So its that social and cultural benefit for the communities because its locally owned and operated or else, but also it had enormous benefit in the long term. Its defended and protected the resource. Lobster fishing is almost the only fish and left because the traditional fisheries have more or less been effectively destroyed. Theres very found fishing boats left in maine. Portman is the last day where there are many. It means the lobster fisherman are carrying the entire cultural legacy of working fischman. When youre out on a boat to earn your living you have to be so selfreliant and know what youre doing and go out and tackle the elements and survive. That something, whether they were farmers are fischman lumberjacks whatever they were had to do for a very, very long time because of our sort of tragic socioeconomic history. While in portland we took a driving tour of the city. Thank you so much for going to shows run portland, maine, today. Its a beautiful city. When people hear the name portland, berlin maine may not be the first place that comes to mind. Tell me all the about this city. Portland, maine, to start on your initial point is the First Portland in the United States. What people dont realize is portman oregon is a one that stole our name. He wasnt stolen as much as it was given to her. The two people found at the city decided the name of the city. They tossed a coin and the guy from portland, maine, one. This city is a part of massachusetts when it started. First Parish Church is ahead of us, one of the oldest churches in the city continuously. The original building has the original steeple on top. This is the church where theres great literary history. Exactly. Theres a revolutionary war cannon ball in the chandelier that the found when they tore down the wooden structure when the city was attacked by the british. Give me a sense of the city. What for what is portland bastogne . Lobsters and white houses. Theres so much more rich deep history to this history a lot of people dont know. The old port section is one of the key seaports back in the day and still remains a working waterfront that is influential in terms of the world trade today. So much of what is going on in the history of the United States have lots of focal points here in Portland Meadows in the background people dont appreciate how much of a motivator it really was. In the declaration of independence they referenced the british burning our city and it were specifically talking about when portland was burned by the british in 1775. Where are we heading out . You will go straight. Where in the heart of the old port. This is the original at the center of the city. It was all would back in the revolutionary days. After the civil war there was a fire, some basically fourth of July Celebration fireworks got out of control and the wood chips created an entire fire that burned down three force of the city. All of the brick and castiron buildings were rebuilt within one or two years of that. It was the worst urban fire into chicago a few years back. A lot of these old cobblestone streets, a lot of these buildings look prehistoric. What are they today . A lot of them are restaurants, cafes, shops. The church in front of us is still in working church. The bottom floors were always set up for retail entertainment. This area of the old port is commercial. This is amazing because we are effectively driving on the harbor. Issues to all the water back when the city was founded, and they wound up getting a commission to be the winter port montreal and quebec. When that happened they needed railroads but there were no wide enough streets important for the railways, so they wound up creating this street out of landfill. The Center Divide your seeing was the old railroad tracks. Everything you see to our right on commercial street still functioning as a dock for seafood. Correct. A lot of different worse have fisheries. Theres a fish exchange, the portman fish exchange, sort of like the Stock Exchange but for seafood. Thats a lot quieter than the Stock Exchange but its where restaurants around the world will come in and buy food as it comes off the boat and large lots. Were heading up into the east in which is also known as the hill. This is the eastern side. Use of a lot of ship captain mansions. They had terrific views of harbor. This out here obviously isnt casco bay. Along the islands are city limits. We have the fairies they go back and forth for the commuters. We have a huge surge in population during the summertime so its pretty crowded out there. And we have a tremendous amount of islands here is about 220 that when he first export this area they will be some islands after that they match the days of the year. What do people do. Do people live out on the islands . Is a just recreation . Is a for the summertime only . There are larger islands for the most part, a lot of summer cottages and so forth as well. The small islands are more for recreation. Theres a lot of fortifications of the because this was head of north american operations during world war ii and also the nearest seaport to both europe and africa. Tell me about the neighborhood. This is one of the more rare buildings that survived the fire its not a lighthouse although it looks like one. It was built in older people when ships are coming in. The owner had the workers on top to water down the site so it didnt burn. This entry was very much after the fire everyone moved to the west and because of the fire had not caught these and thats when the west end of the city develop. This, however, sort of became an area for seaport workers, soldiers during the wars. Where driving around the downtown area now and we see the Farmers Market going on. The Farmers Market is one of the oldest in the country in the very original spot it started. If every saturday. Which is passing Henry Wadsworth longfellow childhood home and were going to congress he which is a main thoroughfare of the city. The Farmers Market is really terrific and its a huge push in the movement. That something we do to talk letter one of my favorite of portman is food. Why didnt there is such a popular place to open a restaurant . Theres a deep appreciation for food. Theres a lot of produce that comes out of this state. It is largely a rural state but it has been recognized by a lot of people. Where are we going . We are heading out of the city and going across the casco bay bridge into south portland. South portland, this causes over the river white work opens up to the portland harbor. This was a fort anderson the city park. Would you say this is maybe the most iconic structure in the portlanders . I would say its the most iconic structure in new england. Theres a lot of really great lighthouses in the world. This is probably the quintessential lighthouse. The most photographed in the country, right . I would say the most photographed in the world. There are older lighthouses in the country treated by the british but is this is the first commissioned by George Washington when he was president. If you go up to the left along the ridge theres cliff walk. Beyond the fact of this wonderful cliff walk that is along the cliffs looking out on the ocean of the crashing waves you can find some areas we can cadet on the rocks. The views of this lighthouse from various points are terrific. If you go the other way theres more of a bluff and nice Little Grassy area to sit on and look out. There theres no bad view of ths white lighthouse. Its just as beautiful. Its so tremendous. In fact, Henry Wadsworth longfellow who lived in town was very friendly with the family that was a lighthouse keepers, travel to the lungs of a lighthouse keepers. Were here for decades and he used to come down and spend the night and hang out with them. Theres a section talking but influencing his work. Theres a stanza from one of his poems about coming out and sitting by the white house and washing the ocean. We talk a lot about portland and you and i even offcamera have talked about was shared love of the city. Whats next . Wont what you like to see for s place . We want it to grow. We wanted to be what it is becoming with more people moving in and discovering how beautiful it is. We dont want to lose this. We dont want to lose the working waterfront if we dont want to lose this picturesque thing. If you go sit on the rocks and i have 20 people around you. Thats a nice thing. Its so well protected in terms of shoreland and conservation in food sustainability, and its just terrific. Thank you so much for sharing your city with us. Cspan is in portland, maine, to learn more about its history. We visit the childhood home of poet Henry Wadsworth longfellow. Often i think of the beautiful town that is seated by the seat and often in thought go up and down the pleasant street of that dear old town and my youth comes back to me. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an american poet in the 19th century. He was when he was alive and writing probably the most famous english language writer in the world, if not the most famous person in the world. And today he is probably best remembered for poems like all repairs ride, evangeline, the childrens hour. He started what part of your everyday lexicon and our american memory. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in portland, maine, february 27, 1800 and picky to appear and is where he started writing and even after he as an adult left portland and left main hes ducking back all the time turkey found inspiration in the city come in his childhood home. It was still very much a special place to him and a real source of his poetry. The Henry Wadsworth longfellow houses always owned by the wadsworth and the longfellow. His grandparents built the house and 7086 and his own parents lived here from 1807 through the death. The last person to look at the house was his sister. She died here in 1901, and upon her death she left the house and everything in it to Maine Historical society. As far as how much of what you see in the house is original to the house into the family. The figure ive been quoted is 94 . So in other words, almost all of it. There are a few places in the house where we had to fill in some gaps convince them even lost over the years. Which is everything you look at has a personal connection to the house and to the people who live here. The front halls of the Wadsworth Longfellow house with the families guest would of come in as guests they wouldve probably been taken writing to the parlor. This was the most formal room of the house. It was with a cap the nicest things, their finest furniture. This more often than not was a room for special occasion. Sometimes somber occasions like funerals but also a lot of happy occasions like weddings. His parents were married in this room on january 1, 1804. Then later to later two of his sisters also celebrated their weddings in this partner. Looking down on all this important Family Activity from a place of honor in the room just over the fireplace is an engraving of George Washington that we were told has been in that spot since 1802. Washington was a very popular figure in early 19th century america. It would not have been a huge surprise to find his like this in any american some. But they were proud that they had a personal connection to the first president. Two henrys grandfather. He was a general during the american revolution. He actually knew George Washington. The moment that he is better number four during the war was his role in the penobscot expedition in 1779. The massachusetts militia was anxious to get the british out of man come out of what is today they sent a lot of Ground Forces and naval forces area and his grandfather was kind of second in command to the Ground Forces. And in charge of the artillery in the expedition was paul revere. The expedition ended in a horrible defeat for the americans. It was the worst naval defeat in americas history and tell pearl harbor. And paul revere was made something of a scapegoat for everything that went wrong. When it was all over, they said paul rueter had not obeyed in order he had given him. Paul revere was not remembered a lot of them in with them at the penobscot expedition very fondly, remembered a sort of arrogant and not easy to work with, and is brought up on charges after its all over and even for a while placed under house arrest. How paul revere rode through the massachusetts countryside to warn his fellow patriots that the british were marking from lexington and concord. The poem was probably henrys way of warning fellow new englanders, a civil war is coming and our grandparents were ready when the call came 80 years ago and we will have to be ready when it comes again. So why he chose paul revere out of the others is not known. We dont think that his grandfather ever talks to henry about paul revere and we dont know whether he talks to him about the war at all, but its interesting, i think, to note that what excuse me, wadsworth would have seen paul revere remembered in a very different way from the way his grandson would have him remembered. Henry started to show an interest in becoming a writer at a very young age from his childhood. His he published his first poem when he was 13 years old, the battles of the pond, when he graduated he would have been 18, 19 years old and he told his father thats what he wanted to do, he wanted to be a writer. So i think he always kind of knew that that was his dream. That was his passion. So, this was the familys dining room and sitting room, a place where when they werent Entertaining Company in the parlor, they might gather just to relax, and his father would practice law out of the house. He had a small waiting room added on to the house for his clients to use. So his clients could come in and out of this entrance and without interrupting the rest of the day of the family. We know when henry was young, he liked to sit back here and write. Maybe this is where he found some privacy away from the prying eyes of Seven Brothers and sisters, his parents, his aunt, but in any case, he liked to sneak back here for a little alone time to do some writing. When henry was about 19 years old, his father had moved the law office out of the house, and henrys mother decided to turn this space into a china closet which had him feeling a little put out. He would say in a letter to his sister elizabeth, basically, i havent been able to write a thing, not since the vandals crossed the rubicon into the sanctuary of the little room. And now, at 19, talking about his mother, i think we could assume the statement is a little tongue in cheek, but it shows how important this space really was to henry, even as he grew up. Henrys poetry, his first big commercial success is probably evangeline which he published in 1847. Evangeline the maritimes by the british in the 1700s and that was followed by other, other big hits, if you will, the courtship of miles standish. High with hiawatha, the tales o the wayside inn and one. Things they have in common is a very romantic style and epic story telling, if you will, and all the poems that i just mentioned were all inspired by actual historical events or actual historical figures. Henry, for his own purposes, might have changed or adapted a little bit, taken some real license with, to kind of suit his needs or suit the expectations of his audience, but those are the ones hes best known for still to this day and so, that that poetry had and continues to have a very real influence on how america imagines its origins as a nation. At the back of the hall and to the left was the familys summer dining room. This side of the house faces north, its a little cooler back here for eating in the summertime, and today, this room is often referred to as the rainy day room, because its believed that in this room and at that very desk, harry wrote his home the rainy day. The home is not one of henrys better remembered, and they quote it all the time not realizing theyre quoting his poem. The first stanza henry describes what he can see out of the window, that the day is very dark and dreary. Its raining, the wind is blowing. Every time the wind blows, the dead leaves are falling from the trees and in the second stanza, he says thats how he feels, his life is very dark and dreary and his the hopes of his youth, like those leaves falling off the trees are falling thick all around him. But in the last stanza, he strikes a slightly more hopeful tone and says, be still, sad heart and cease repining, behind the clouds is the sun still shining. Thy fate is like a little rain must fall. So that phrase, within every day a little rain must fall is in our lexicon. Henry wrote the poem on the heels of a lot of loss in his personal life. Within the span of about one year, his sister ellen died, she was just 16 years old. And then not long after her passing, his brotherinlaw, George Pierce died. He and george were classmates at Bowden College, very good friends. And henry, that same year lost his first wife, mary, while they were travelling abroad. So, i think when he sits down to write the rainy day, its probably his way of responding to that grief. We know that henry, whenever he was visiting his childhood home, he would often stay in this bedroom. In fact, after he married his second wife, francis appleton, we know that they came here for a visit and that they stayed in this very room and still sitting on the table in here is henrys travelling writing desk. So this piece, its like a precursor to the laptop. Its hinged in the middle, folds up into a nice little box so you can transport it very easily. We know that henry actually wrote part of his poem evangeline on this writing desk and so, its here in his childhood home is still a tangible reminder of the work that he did and how famous and welltraveled he was. His fame as a writer took him all over the world. And he found inspiration all over the world. So, it was important for him to have the tools that he needed so that he could always be writing and creating no matter where he was. Henry, after he left maine, would come back typically at least once a year to visit. He wouldnt really become wellknown as a writer until the 1840s, 1850s, after the civil war he certainly would have been more physically recognizable, with the advent of photography. We know at his home in cambridge, massachusetts, whenever he left the house photographers would kind of come out of their studios, can we take your picture, can we take your picture and he, by all accounts, a very nice man so he would oblige. So there are lots of photographs that still exist of henry longfellow. So, coming back to his hometown in his middle age and into his final years, he would have certainly been a very recognizable figure. Hen Henry Wadsworth longfellow died in 1892. His sister ann would live in this house another 15 years. I think that he probably imagined not too long after henrys death that this might be a place for the public to come and see and when she made the decision in the years before she died, she literally said, its the right thing to do. It would be right to leave it for the public to enjoy. With the help of our spectrum Cable Partners, cspan is in portland, maine featuring the literary community. Up next we speak with Elizabeth Dewolf on her book, shaking the faith. I learned about the shaker history pretty much when i first moved to maine. Maine is home to the last active Shaker Community in new gloucester, maine. When i was in graduate school i was searching for a topic and my husband absolutelily, a rare book dealer, suggested i look at the writings of mary dyer. At that time scholars pay much attention to dyer, thought she was a lunatic, a crockpot, who would talk about the shake are farm life and history. As i read her text, i realized this isnt a woman who is insane, this is a woman who is angry who was placed in an untenable position as a woman in American Society in the first decade of the 19th century. The more i read, the more i realized there was more to the story than an angry woman trying to retrieve her children. Mary and joseph dyer were New Hampshire farmers living in the earliest years of the 19th century. At that time, New Hampshire, especially in the far north, was still a frontier and they were seeking security in an uncertain world. And they found it in religion. They became early converts to the religious group known as the shakers. The shakers are an american communal sectarian group. They are protestant in their orientation. They live separate from the world and believe that they are recreating the life of christ on earth. Salvation is here and present to the shakers. They live communally, they live celibately. It was hard to make a living. Five children all young, not help for them. And mary had ambition when women didnt have ambition. She wanted to be a preacher and speak about religious ideas. There wasnt a lot of outlet for that except for the shakers. The shakers attracted joseph and mary for different reasons. Joseph looked forward to living with a community with fellow brothers, sharing the farming. And mary, saw an opportunity to preach because in Shaker Society, women, indeed, could become preachers. So both saw a Better Future with the shakers, unfortunately for mary and joseph, not a Better Future for each other. When mary joined the shakers she thought she would have an immediate beeline to the top and become a preacher. That ent with a the shaker way. You had to go through a series of lessons, about learning about the shaker life, of trying the shaker life and this frustrated mary who had ideas right then and there. As her husband joseph became more settled in shakerism, mary found herself drawn away. And biological families were away to be as a group. Mary was a mother was increasingly concerned about her children. That was the final straw, she couldnt have the leadership she dreamed of and couldnt have a role as a mother. And mary thought the other solution was to leave and take the children with her. Mary called a meeting with her husband joseph and with the leaders. She explained why she wanted to leave. The leadership wasnt that upset because mary was a what they called a bad fish caught in the net. And for joseph, his marriage with mary was long over, but when mary said she would take her children with her, thats when the problem began. By custom and by law, the children belonged to joseph. Further, mary and joseph signed a legal indenture giving the children effectively to the shakers, until the children reached the age of majority. Mary had no legal leg to stand on to remove her children from the shaker village. One winter day while all the shakers are in worship mary is alone in a shaker building, with an old man and the youngest of the children, too young to attend church services. Mary saw a passing sleigh approach the village and she distracted the old man, grabbed her youngest child and ran outside and begged the people in the sleigh to take her to New Hampshire. She effectively escaped the shaker village, but the leadership and her husband joseph were right behind her. She made it as far as hanover and meetly went to the home of a friend, but joseph had been alerted by the older shaker man who exposed marys deception. Joseph and several shaker leaders came to the house. By all accounts, there was a very vociforous fight with yelling and screaming and crying, joseph, according to mary, ripped the baby from her arms and went back to the shaker village. So mary dyer had left the shakers, but left her children behind. This began for mary for the next 50 years, an antii can shaker campaign. A campaign to prevent what happened to her from happening to other women, a campaign to make sure that children could not be taken from their mothers. A campaign to make sure that a mother without her children and a wife without her husband would have a legal identity. As mary dyer found out when she left the shakers and left her husband as a legal and social being, she ceased to exist. Mary dyer had to pull out the stops in order to raise the alarm about the shakers. She led a mob against the enfield, New Hampshire Shaker Community, a mob that lasted three nights and three days. She approached New Hampshire legislators and very cleverly petitioned for the right to divorce. There was no statute that would allow mary and joseph to divorce and until mary was effectively a single woman she was invisible. Her first petition failed to be passed. The legislature felt that it was unfair to pass a law to benefit just one woman, but said, if you can show that youre not the only woman in this position, well do something. Mary dyer then traveled from town to town in New Hampshire, in maine, in connecticut, in rhode island in massachusetts from former shaker to former shaker all who it stories to tell. These were people for whom the shaker experiment did not work out and they shared their bitter grapes with mary who cleverly turned these into first pamphlets and then books which then spread her caution faster than are the word of mouth. She was able to change the divorce law, use that to divorce joseph and she was free. Mary took her husband and the shakers by surprise. He was an opponent, she was ambitious and very, very smart. Joseph immediately published a pamphlet of his own, where he claimed he was a poor, poor suffering husband under his managing wife who had unnatural tendencies wanting to preach, and he said she was an uncaring mother, she took a horse and went to give a lecture and sermon. The shakers defended themselves in front of the courts and legislature. They invited important people to come to their villages, see their healthy residents, see their happy, welleducated children, pointing out that no one was held hostage, they could indeed leave. And the shakers success as farmers, as entrepreneurs, as educators, as Business People was wellregarded and by the 1830s and 1840s, mary dyers complaints and concerns about the shakers were no longer believed. She was seen as a bitter old woman and the shakers as model new england farmers. What people were really thinking about when they were thinking about the scandal between mary and joseph dyer, set in the context of a celibate Shaker Community is what should be a proper family . Can a communal group be a proper family . Can a single mother be a proper family . What were the obligations of husbands to wives, mothers, fathers, children . What about womens ambition . Was it proper for a woman to want to do something beyond motherhood . These were the issues that were at the heart of this debate among shakers. While the Shaker Society provided a convenient and poignant back drop for the dyers domestic embroils, what they were arguing about was at the heart of a very new United States. Im standing on the grounds of the Maine Historical society where up next we visit their library to feature their special collections. These are some of the items ive pulled out to show the breadth of our collection which document the explorations and the founding of maine from about the 16th century through the modern period. This particular piece is a book from 1665 and its reportedly one of the first uses of the term noram begga, its sort of an el dorado of the northeast. Often sought after after the true sense of exploration. This is volume three of the terezo volume loosely translated, a documentation of the exploration of the new world. This particular map here towards the end of the book includes the term of noram begga, or as it would appear in the next. Collectively it meant new england, but its specifically understood to be the penobscot region, bangor, maine. This Historical Society is the third oldest in the United States. Dedicated to the history of maine as well as new england and maritime canada. Weve been collecting since 1822, we were a the Bowden College for the first few decades of our existence. In the 1870s, we moved to portland. We moved around a bit, the Portland Public Library at city hall and when we acquired the Wadsworth Longfellow house weve created this library. Our collections, we say we have over 2 million pages of manuscripts, photographs, maps, early newspapers, pamphlets, glass plates and slides for maine itself. This particular item 1631, essentially a patent to provide land from fernando, considered to be the founder of modern maine, to robert trulany. Granting land in the black point region, scarboro up to cape elizabeth. We consider one of the treasures of Maine Historical society. Lots of language about what things cost and sort of the value, bits about tobacco and corn and traditional monetary units and british monetary units. This particular item is sort of quintessential to what we see as the heart of Maine History and that is land. Land is such an essential piece of what it means to be in maine, to be from maine, talking about land, contested lands, land ownership, the use of land, water rights, hunting rights, the ability to fish, hunt, farm, and thats really kind of at the center of Maine History. Contested land grants, deeds, relationships with the native peoples, and then, the differences between granting institutions in places like massachusetts and those who are actually living on the land itself. So, as we approach our bicentennial in 2020 weve been working on an initiative to digitize materials separating maine from massachusetts and one specific collection that for obvious reasons includes a lot of those materials are the papers of william king whos maine first governor. The materials that we have here document the exchanges in the u. S. Senate, some of the feelings of the individual citizens of what would become maine, how they feel about maines separation from massachusetts which was a contested topic. Throughout our history, post revolutionary war, maine tried on a number of occasions to rally support for separation. It wasnt until 1820 that it came to fruition. And that was for a number of reasons, the war of 1812. During the war of 1812, massachusetts did not successfully defend maine. Although it was an unpopular war in maine and massachusetts, it felt that massachusetts wasnt doing its Due Diligence to defend maine. I think thats a storyline that carried through since massachusetts acquired maine in the 1600s, but we came in the union as part of the missouri compromise and some individuals in maine felt that that compromise in coming into the union under those circumstances would take away from the significance of our statehood. So the missouri compromise in a nutshell essentially missouri could come into the union as a slave state and maine would come in as a free state and there are individuals who felt despite wanting statehood that it was best not to reinforce the idea of slavery with maine having a long abolitionist sentiment in its relationship with massachusetts. So some of these materials talk about that, the complexities of that. Others talk about the contested debate in the u. S. Senate over those issues and in other cases people simply arent interested in becoming a state or separating from massachusetts in a way that our relationship, untying the business ties with massachusetts, for example. So these materials we have here are written to william king and in this particular piece which resides in a different collection, but is also to governor king is a congratulato congratulatory message from Thomas Jefferson about maines statehood. We talk about sharing history with people from maine and with people throughout the United States and the world. Its important that the collections are used, what theyre here for and the Research Library give us that they are accessible. If people want to view the museum arts and objects. Were in the eastern prom nad of portland, maine. We speak with the author about his book, the american character. The struggle of the United States freedom being personal sovereignty, versus the common good goes back before the country was founded and the struggle between different colonial clusters in different region and their takes on that, profoundly speaks of the early republic and revolutionary era and goes back to the constitutional convention, to the debate and struggles that cal colonies when they were fighting Great Britain and they were flaring up. The idea that you would try to create a liberal democracy from scratch was a revolutionary idea at the time the country was founded. There had been theories what a liberal democracy would look like and a Constitutional Monarchy in Great Britain, but this was an experiment to try to create one for real, you know, from scratch. From a blank slate, as it were. And how would you do that . How would you ensure that theoretically all individuals could maximize their freedom and autonomy was a profound debate. People had very different ideas what that meant. First of all, the conversation was well, what does freedom mean, right . In some traditions and these are regionally based traditions as well, freedom was seeing individual liberty. In other words, the sovereignty and personal freedom of individuals being maximized. The freedoms not to be taken to path logical sense. The freedom to own slaves was championed in the south and hidewater and chesapeake and ownership should reign supreme. And exploit down to that absurd level, that was held by many of the leading figures in certain regions of the country for a long period of time. And there was a counterveiling ideas, in other regions of the country, in the puritan zone, you have the early puritans and ideas that humans were fundamentally flawed and that you had to keep an eye on them. That individuals were suspect, right . You had to watch over them. That they would mess things up for everybody. You would have individuals stand down if they were threatening the goals of the community, right . And the puritans thought they were creating a more godly, divinely inspired, a new zion, a shining city on the hill. And there are ideas about the balance between individual freedom and the good of the community were very, very different. In the aftermath of the revolution, you had those suddenly trying to negotiate and create a federation together. It was a very difficult task and remains one thats been difficult since because the t tendrils go in different directions. If you believe that individual freedom is utmost, thatted way to achieve it is to have less government, less taxes, means that individuals have to be freer . Thats probably true at some point in the spectrum and scale. If you go further, theres no effective government anymore, then the most powerful individuals and families will maximize their freedom and you end up in r tyranny, an oligarchy, no one to stop that intergenerationally, like late 20th century, guatemala or el salvador, where the families even everything, the companies, the military and the courts and anybody who stops them is eliminated. If you go down the common good path, its the good of the community has to prevail and that individual rights dont matter, you end up in perilous realms quickly as well. The more you hand over the common good to the stewartship of the supposedly benevolent fatherland or parties, which are run by people, you can find as you do that, the common good as expressed by whatever institution youve given over to starts seeing human ideosyncrasies and dissent as being had a threat to the common good and will crack down where at the extremes you get into crimes, and wrong thinking should be stopped and youve ended up in Stalins Soviet Union or hitlers germany and thats bad as well. So logically somewhere theres a balance point where the two forces are in equilibrium, a sweet spot that the book argues through its examination of history gives a spot that they have to find and tack and keep on in changing circumstances which is why democracy is so challenging. Balance is possible and other democracies achieved balance. Many in western europe and japan arent complicated societies that are federations in our case of 10, 11, regional cultures that date back centuries. In their case theres usually one dominant one or maybe two if youre in a place like belgium. Because of that, theres a majority dominant concensus where the 50 yard line lies. Or where the balance should be. Many fall in a more common good side than if you averaged out the american regions we would. Thats why most western european states have democracies and social democracies where you have a free vigorous market economy and you draw resources produced by it to finance the institutions public and civic and otherwise that in theory will provide a good and free society, right . But the market is, you know, Reigns Supreme court, thats socialism. In japan, the balance point between individual liberty or common good of the student. Their sweet spot, 50 yard line is more to the Community Good side of things than the individual side than most americans would be comfortable with. So, it can be done, can it be done here . We are out of balance currently, in the direction of individual liberty of the weve gone out of balance to the point where youre seeing the pathologies that start forming when a liberal democracy is under stress because of emphasis on individual freedom has led to concentrations of wealth and income inequality and a distrust of the Political Class sufficient to actually elect somebody with illliberal program to the highest office in the country and thats a sign that its under stress. Ideally if you have a liberal democracy and have universal or near universal individual freedoms, it has to be when somebody a born regardless of circumstanceses that they have some decent chance at the Playing Field thats the american dream. The american idea that were going to go out there, you know, and each person in their idea and protect or themselves are going to fight it out there in a dynamic way and may the best ideas win. Its about creating more dynamic and compelling awealthy and free society and it has. The trick is you have to be able to ensure that each generation, regardless of the circumstances of their great grandparents or parents, has that fair shot or youre going to start over time, over decades, youre going to start losing the promise of a liberal democracy and thats where were out of balance now and people are starting to feel theres no hope for their children or themselves and start withdrawing support from the liberal democratic idea and thats when you start entering dangerous realms. Book tv is in portland, maine to learn more about its literary history. The maine womens writers collection. Maine women writers collection is a special Library Collection of rare and unique material by and about women in maine. Its housed at the university of new england in portland and bitterford, maine. It was founded in 1969. We feel its important to document the everyday lives of women and their diaries are wonderful ways to do that, both in terms of what they contain and sometimes perhaps what they dont contain. So, the first example i want to share is a diary written by elinore hamlin from portland. This diary is from the 1940s. And its remarkable in its unremarkableness. This is an example of one of the passages in the diary. January 5th, 1945, cloudy and rainy downtown. Talked to j got jim, im assuming her son, to listen to president trumans address to congress. And rested in the afternoon and helen came in the afternoon and walter dropped in. Unremarkable and yet knowing how these people are clearing engaged with the world around them, living their everyday lives. So, Josephine Peery was the wife of admiral robert peery, who is one of the two claimants to having first reached the north pole. So in the late 19th century, she accompanied her husband on a couple of arctic expeditions and recorded that experience in a variety of ways. It was recorded in photographs, but she also kept a journal in which she documented various aspects of the experience. So, on her second journey to greenland, she was in fact eight months pregnant when they set off. So she gave birth to her daughter marie above the arctic circle. She documented that experience in her journal which again she later pasted into her scrapbook. And she wrote, on tuesday, september 12th, woke up at 5 a. M. Not feeling well. Comfortable most before noon. Little girl born 6 35, weight 8. 7 pounds, large head and a long child. Because they knew that shed be giving birth in the architect, they did have a doctor and she records an Interesting Exchange about that a few days later. She writes, doctor says i am to stay in bed at least two weeks. Dont think i will. So another unpublished genre of writing that illuminates womens lives beyond diaries are letters. Letters are a genre in and of themselves. They have conventions that their writers often follow. Theyre complex negotiations. And they are receiving increasing attention from followers now as a genre thats worthy of study. So were fortunate to have a lot of materials in that category here and one of my favorite examples are the letters that sara exchanges with a dear friend and cross marriage as its called. Two women of privilege, women who did know the have the economic necessity of marrying, were able to live together in a relationship of love and passion. They exchanged letters early on in that relationship that are quite fascinating in that regard. And in fact, the letters that the women writers collection has illuminate the early stages of that relationship. So annie fields was in deeply in love with her husband, and when he passed away, she was inconsolable. And they wrote letters at that time. One letter from jutte to anniefields in 1881 reads, dear love, ive just read your two letters and i long to hold you class and fast, to make you sure how dearly i love you, and to drive away something of your sad loneliness. You are tired, my darling, i keep telling you that over and over, i cant bear to have you say these things, or far worse feel them when you know how i love you and think of you and i am living for you so much of my time. So in the 19th century, it was not uncommon for women to form these Close Relationships with one another, many of which were surely what we today would call lesbian relationships. The convention was Cultural Convention was they would follow a certain path, a script in their life and ultimately they would marry, have a heterosexual marriage and produce children, new citizens for the next generation. So there were these expectations in place and many women did need to follow them because of cultural and economic pressures. And it wasnt out of place, it wasnt unusual for women to have these relationships together and then for one or both of them to go on and marry a man. It was not considered remarkable. It wasnt considered problematic or path logical. Its important to have a collection like this because it keeps these historical materials that were they left to molder in an attic would not make it into the future. And these materials are so important because they provide a much more inclusive and accurate picture of history, not simply by including womens lives in the mix, but really through that by giving us an idea of what everyones lives were like. Portlands a very important part of maines economy. Were actually, were a state that often struggles because weve lost a lot of our manufacturing businesses, like many of americas businesses in the past decades. We used to make shoes, and Wood Products and theres shrinking of those industries, but its starting to fill in with the resurgence of the rural economy, fishing, we have the largest lobster fishing state in the country and the center of lobster fishing in the world. Of course our lobsters taste better. And theres a change of level of sophistication in the farmer and consumer and raised the demand of organic food, 40, 50 billion dollar business in our country. What were doing today is filling a really important market that didnt used to exist and sitting on the policy side, i say, you in, weve got to do a lot more to make this possible for other farmers, particularly ones that want to transition into it over the country. Weve got to make it easier for them to get into the market. Youre paid better, dont have a handle toxic chemicals, its better for the environment, its a winwin on all levels. I live in a town of about 400 people and when my three kids were growing up, i decided i wanted to get involved in lie local politics just in the community. And someone suggested i should be running for the legislature. And i got used to a democratic process in the 90s and kind of on a wild idea i ran and in 1992, i won. I just loved eve every minute of it. I loved the back and forth and working on tough issues and a chance to work on things i care about and 25 years later, im still there. I guess i just learned if you have the great opportunities to work on a career in your life, like agriculture, and then also be on the policy making side, its truly the best of both worlds. Portlands a world city. I think that anytime that you have relatively affordable city that has sort of a great food chain, a lot of young people, and the history that we have, you found creative people saying, wait, thats where i want to live. Were a safe state, a friendly state, and were just have a real feel of a authenticitie authenticities, the views and historic. The cobblestone streets, old buildings. Brick buildings. It makes you feel like you were in new england in the 1700s. So youre up against history here and i think that really makes people feel like its an unusual place to live and not just come on vacation, but stay. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979 cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. And its brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Provider. Here is a look at some books being published this week. Former first daughters, Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush show growing up in the political spotlight. And a goldstar family caesar khan to the United States. And theres a history of the war of 1812s battle of new orleans. Comedian joy behar shares her thoughts about President Trump in the great gas bag, and former npr ceo ken stern reports on a year of travelling in conservative circles and how it affected his own political thinking. Also being published this week, author and journalist matt taibbi explores the death of eric garner in i cant breathe. And continuing a history of the jewish people, the accidental president looks at challenges president harry truman faced during his first four months in office by author and wall street journal contributor. And in blood brothers, exploring the relationship between lakota chief sitting bull and buffalo bill and Pulitzer Prize winning author recalls between Thomas Jefferson and john adams in friends divided. Look for these and more on book tv on cspan2. Go all the way in the back. Going from front to rear. Im linda, atlantic counsel. Thank you mentioning my work in your book. A copy of the book here. Its called does democracy matter, and i want to push back and the answer is. Absolutely. But were doing it all wrong. Im interested in the comment on too much concentration on ngos. And i think youre wrong and would like to pull back. And in uzbekistan, when weve worked with Political Parties its a waste of time. If the countries with no free politics, its pouring money down the drain and ukraine, a country i concentrate on, without any kind of electoral reform, the good guys, the three or four good Political Parties, the good liberals we support cant make progress. They call themselves trouble makers and cant move the legislative agenda forward. I would say that they have a point that ngos become too dependent on us, but where theres not space youre wasting your money. You need to look at them and the situations vary, theyre going to vary over time. What may be true in 2017 may not have been true five years ago or five years from now and we should be pushing in the case like ukraine to open the political space. When there is no alternative to working with Civil Society and ngos, which are great organizations, i would still choose among them the ones that look like theyre going to be able to move into politics. If and when some political space opens. But i would i want to make another point, and that is that, and its one of the points in the book, in most nondemocratic countries there are people who are actually struggling for human rights and for democracy and we dont, i think, do enough to support them as individuals. It is something that National Democratic institute, national democracy, freedom house, now in the last few years have begun to do, but i think its important, even in these situations, you have people putting their lives on the line, their freedom on the line, in and out of prison, people whose families need a break. Individuals who come out of prison and may need a semester in western europe or American College to think and to relax and to be able to live without a secret policeman at the door costs money, not, you know, vast amounts of money, but its critical to show direct support for individuals who are so deeply engaged in a fight. Theyre the kind of people who, if theres ever politics, theyre going to be the leaders. You do a lot of youth things in our programming, aid programming, and programming for potential Democratic Leaders of tomorrow. Theyre already engaged in the fight and taking risks for that fight for human rights and for democracy and they deserve our support. If i understand you correctly, you want to invest in people you think are going to succeed. Are going to be able to govern. How do you know who these people are . I remember talking in the reagan years with a latin american dissent leader, democrat, socialist, he had been in prison and i said how was the treatment and he said, you know, pretty good. I said really . He said i think ill be president some day and you know, how can we tell . Well, somebodys 18. What do you look for . Yeah, its first you look for commitment and courage because in these cases, thats unfortunately really necessary. You look for some degree of success in whatever the individual has been doing. Is this a man or a woman who you know, whats a leader . A leader is a person who has followers . Does this person have a network . Does he or she have followers . What is the kind of organization in which the person is involved . First of all, is it democratic in its internal workings . I think its a critical condition. You know, this is not an area where youre going to be looking for an introvert. Youre going to be looking for people who look like they could lead. Speak publicly, gather support. We will make plenty of mistakes. Sometimes we will be advised best by the u. S. Embassy. Sometimes by ngos in the country in question. Sometimes by individuals involved in the fight who will say, she is fantastic, make sure to get to know her. Its an art. Here is a look at some authors recently featured on book tvs after words, our weekly Author Interview program discussing newt gingrich. Former radio host sikes on america. And art levine on the Mental Health industry. In the coming weeks, after words, looking at the role of the media today. And a record setting year aboard the International Space station. Federal judge john newman reflects on his career first as a prosecutor and now as a federal appellate judge. This weekend on after words, former fox news anchor Gretchen Carlson talks about the challenges of women who have been sexually harassed in the work place. Over 90 of Sexual Harassment cases end up in settlement. What does that mean . That means the women pretty much never works in her chosen career ever again, she can never talk about it, shes gagged. And what do we do, we put in clauses in contracts, which makes it a secret meeting. You can never talk about it, nobody ever knows what happened to you, and in most cases youre terminated from the company and the predator in many cases is left to work in the same position in which he was harassing you. That is the way our society has decided to resolve Sexual Harassment cases through gagged women so that we can feel we can fool everyone that we have come so far. And the reason we think weve come so far were not hearing about the cases. The reason were not hearing about the cases is because the women are silenced either through settlement or forced arbitration. Rain is incredibly sophisticated time, timing device and ill give you two examples of that. So in language, for example, if i say two sentences like, they gave her cats food or they gave her cat food. So, theres two different meanings there and based on pause. Another example is in music. Music doesnt make sentence. Music to be enjoyable, its out there, achieved. I give an example and i think now would be a good time if we play the audio clip and this audio clip will be of a song and the challenge to you is to see if you can recognize the song. If it reminds you of anything else playing. And later ill give you guys a clue and whenever i give this to my undergraduates, they look at me with a blank face. The name of the group is the beatles. [laughter] and see if this song reminds you of anything. Can we play that, please. So, does that remind you guys of any one or two songs . Anything pop into your heads . Yellow submarine. Very good, anything else . My girl. Any other beatles songs . Somebody said yesterday, the people who sort of picked up on Yellow Submarine why paying attention to the notes. But the timing was totally of yesterday, so it was a hybrid song in which you crossed both of the songs on spacial and tempo and i think its a nice example, first of all, how important time is to everything we do and how and again this idea that time is really following, but so sophisticated the brain is to tell on the scale of hundreds of milliseconds to a few seconds and if you slow music down or speed music up too much or slow speech down or slow speech up, or speech up too much, it ceases to be speech or music, about you theres a very, very critical range or goldie locks zone of time. Book tv tapes hundreds of author programs throughout the country all year long. Here is a look at some events well be covering this week. Monday were at the historic synagogue in washington d. C. Where a Pulitzer Prize winner will cover the life of ulysses s grant. And the strand bookstore to hear a report on new technologies how to influence our world. News back in new york at barnes noble, and joy behars thoughts on President Trump and well cover a Book Release Party for ken walsh