The book read update there are two i want to start with. One is the monumental biography by david blight. Its fine probably the definitive biography on a special with what is going on in the United States in terms of fight for Racial Justice. Nobody was more consequential and has been more consequential on the question of race in america in terms of douglas. Way ahead of his time. He was not only an abolitionist, and a passionate abolitionist as a former slave , but he insisted from the earliest time in the 1840s, right through his death almost was the end of the 19th century that equality was the goal. And he would book no deviation from that. So many of his words ring true today. And i really recommend the biography for everybody. It is a long read but it is really powerful. Host one of the things i learned about Frederick Douglass this year was that he was also very active suffragist. Has a distinguished career. Was able to talk to a mixed race audience willing to take on the powerful effects on the idea of colonization. Will free slaves but move them to some other country. Because clearly integration in america will never work. And Frederick Douglass would have none of that. And took lincoln to task. You could arguably take some credit for changing lincolns idea about that. Douglas is up there with our founders in terms of where he belongs in the american history. In this biography long overdue and a fine peace of work. So another book i do not have with me because i lent it out, the biography by George Packer called our man. Unique, i have never ready book like it. It is not a traditional biography. It mixes opinion with facts and criminology. Its not your traditional biology but it is a powerful book. It is really a powerful book about a man in washington who sacrificed almost everything for a vision. To climb up that ladder. Talented, bright but destroyed personal relationships and friendships of long understanding. And just consumed by ambition. Now we also had some accomplishments. And when he died, was a special envoy for afghanistan. Did made Great Strides in trying to key up that issue and get america to look at its involvement. But at the end of the day, kind of a traffic vegan tragic figure in terms of what he was willing to do. Almost a morality story about power in washington. A cautionary tale. So really powerful biography about how he recommended it. Meant and rich agenda on several occasions are in the course of the career. I cant tell you if i was intimate or served with him or worked with him on any kind of project. He was clearly a towering figur figure. But also in some ways a tragic figure. Anything it is one of the best biographies i have ever read. Had a completely different style paired not your usual biography which made it so engrossing. Im so taken with it i have given it away multiple times for people to read. Because i think its got a lot of lessons for people in the place where i work. of the tumultuous between 1856 and 1860. So much gets sandwiched into that for your peer abperiod that makes the soloab these are for really important pivotal years that led to the civil war. Goes indepth to some of the main characters, stephen douglas, charles sumner, and others. Its just really a great piece of history. Lots of tidbits in there that one might not normally know. One of the characters who really comes out badly from a historical point of view as stephen douglas. A demagogue willing to sacrifice all kinds of principles to advance his career and of course he tragically fails in that endeavor. Meanwhile, huge damage to the country. Opening up territories to slavery where it had abhad been prohibited and ultimately abnot the south nor the north, really good piece of work. The story of the massacre in tulsa we learned of a really vibrant and successful africanamerican abthe mass that took place was awful. Its actually hard to believe this could happen in 20th Century America but it did. Hundreds of African Americans killed, militias running rampant. They ultimately burned to the ground 36 square blocks of this African American community, churches, businesses, homes. And, frankly, subjugated the African American population until the end of jim crow in the 1960s, 45 years later. It is a gripping story and given whats going on in america today, understanding the history of aband the insecurity of the white majority, at least at that time, and needing to really verse the economic and cultural political progress of a very vibrant African American community, in fact, it was called the wall street of black america. It was that successful. For a long time america forgot about this part of history, it really needs to be revisited because the horror of what happened at the hands of racism, led to unbelievable violence. I think its a real count of years into the current discussion of Racial Justice in america. abher book homecoming i dont often get the chance to read as much literature as i would like even though im a literature major. This book was a beautifully done, beautifully written novel. It juxtaposes the evolution of both slavery and race in america, with really the story of ghana abshes a very talented young novelist and i think really has a future and i know she just came out with a new book as well. Hey book that really got me, that is killers of the flower moon by david grant. This is a book, in oklahoma, where a white power elite murdered a number of native americans who had land titles and had loyalties National Resources on their land and were swindled and in order to have deeds transferred to amongst all these white power elite embezzlement, fraud, and murder, numerous poisonings. And some assassinations. This took place in the 1920s in america. This is not ancient history. Not the old indian wars of the mid19th century, this happened not that long ago and its an unbelievable story and deeply disturbing in terms of the power of racism and the power of greed. Its something really about our history that people really need to read. I just finished abenormous book called jerusalem. The history of the city of jerusalem. It takes you from the kennebec period, the babylonian captivity, the incursions of the egyptians from the nations and ultimately the romans and greeks through the crusaders and islamic period through of course modern history. In the sweep of history when you read this book all at once really strikes you. What also strikes you, sadly, is how jerusalem is defined by violence. The constant aband massacres all for territory in the name of the sacred. We realize that remains unresolved today in the middle east. Its really a sweeping history, that gives you a sense of perspective. I dont know if it gives you a lot of hope, frankly, about the future of the middle east but it really does put a lot of what we are dealing with now in a very important context in terms of this is not new. And so much evil in the name of the sacred occurs irrespective of the religion or the period of history. Copeland by christopher a great book about [indiscernable] how he built an empire from his perch in kansas and how he used it to influence politics in america in certainly a very effective, if not troubling way. He used his money to build think tanks to insinuate themselves into universities by creating schools. He used his influence to build a Grassroots Network and then applied all that to legislative initiatives that reflected his libertarian government stay out of our lives, philosophy. We went through a pandemic that we understand we actually need more abneed more government now, not less. That flies in the face of the cold, philosophy. Is a great book in terms of giving you a sense of who is he and where did he come from. And where is he going. Let me talk about aband between history and biography i like to read mysteries to sort of unwind and escape. Two i have discovered recently, one is in whats called the nordic nor school of writing. This is called the island. All his mysteries take place in iceland. You get this kind of bleak stark landscape background of murderous activity going on and sort of a loner inspector whose wife has not ablife has not worked out well, nonetheless intrepid and adopted and follows the mystery to where needs to go. Another one thats incredible, calling carol, ive written like four or five of his books now. He created this mystery detective who is 72yearold coroner for the new liberated communist abhes a medical doctor but he was not a coroner. Hes disillusioned with communism and where the country is going. But finds himself as coroner pursuing mysterious deaths and hes a good writer and takes you back in time to a revolutionary louse in the 1970s. And recreates that place and whats going on in a way that really is quite masterful. A little escapism. And, finally, i want to talk about midnight in chernobyl by a we talk about Nuclear Power sometimes as if its the unexamined alternative to fossil fuels. Thats true but when something goes wrong its catastrophic. This book and the words often of the victims of chernobyl really quite gripping. The heroism and the coverups by the soviet government really are told beautifully in this book. The theories that i think with hbo is on chernobyl i think in some ways might have benefited from this book and some of the accounts and it. Its a piece of history that ought not to be forgotten. Obviously had huge consequences politically and leading to the downfall of the soviet union because of its nonperformance, its bureaucracy, its lack of empathy and ability, frankly, to respond to the Worst Nuclear Disaster in modern american history. Those are just some of the things ive been reading. How are you getting your books these days . Is your local bookstore open . Your local library . Amazon . Sort of all of the above. I have a huge library. Including books i got for the holidays, even cspan provided me with some books. Friends know to send, thats the gift for birthdays or anniversaries or holidays. I have a lot of friends who share my love of reading and we have similar tastes and sharing books back and forth. abim a voracious reader, before i go to better wake up in the morning im a free moment i read. I think reading broadens your perspective challenges your preconceived notions about life and history and philosophy. I think its one of the most enriching activities a human being can engage in. There are several contemporaneous accounts of the trop administration coming up, bob woodward, Michael Schmidt etc. , do you read those when they come out . I wrote a couple of books on actually sort of psychological profile of donald trump. I dont generally like to read contemporaneous history or memoirs because i think they are too close to events that have a perspective. That would maybe be lasting. I do make exceptions, bob woodward is one of them, i have read every bob woodward book every written or printed. I intended to read this one as well because i think he really has a knack for being able to get inside and people to say extraordinary things. They probably otherwise wouldnt. They do give you insights to whats going on so that one i for sure will read. My friend Michael Antonio also has written several books and is coming out with a new one on impeachment of trump. I want to go back to Sidney Blumenthals book about the four years before the civil war, with the hindsight of 160 years, was there a point during that four years when he read that history that the civil war couldve been avoided . I dont think so unless the north was willing to live with slavery or the south was willing to say we are setting a timeline for its elimination. Echoes of the past resonate today. It was all fueled by fire breads. There were hotheads especially in the south who really wanted to fuel the politics of grievance, the north is out to get us we are going to lose power. The civil war in many ways was also about the fear of the transfer of power. The southerners had controlled Congress Almost from the beginning. They protected what they call the peculiar institution all that time. Including doing very antiamerican anticonstitutional things like blocking petitions in the congress about slavery, which was the cause of John Quincy Adams in the 17 years he was in the house and he was afor refusing to recognize a ban on the receipt of petition even though the constitution was split about the right people. That was all about slavery and power in the south. As the south saw a growing Abolitionist Movement and a north that was expanding, they decided their only future, not just the far branch was frankly too separate. Even without events that occurred in this fouryear period i think the table had been set in the separation. And a violent separation at that. It took a leader like Abraham Lincoln to understand that we cant accommodate secession. We are one country and he also evolved in this to preserve the union we actually had to end in slavery. That was not his view when he first took office. He said if i could preserve the union by preserving slavery i would do that. If i could preserve the union by eliminating slavery and some places but not others i would do that. If i could preserve the union only by ending slavery, that too i would do. When he began it was all about the union. But as the war went on he understood that actually it had to be more than that principle, that abstract. It also had to be about what kind of union we were going to have. That needed to be a union made up of three women entered a knowing what you do about the antebellum period, where would you put us today abi think we came very close in 1968s to this country just dissolving into something dissolving into something less than what we think of as the United States of america. There were so many forces hope pulling us apart and the divisions were so enormous about race, about the war and today we are also a divided nation but i think whats different is there is a clear emerging majority that wants to see a more progressive america that wants to address the fundamental issues of racism, Structural Racism in america. Starting with our law enforcement. To believe we have to empower people and expand liberties and deal with issues of inequity, economic inequity, health and equity, the pandemic has certainly exposed that. To his approach to issues and governance represents a clear challenge to the continuation of constitutional democracy in america. I say that as a member of Congress Living with it every day and that has to be addressed in the selection or we are going to go at a very different direction than that envisioned by our economist, Abraham Lincoln and by lots of us. He said you two talk about books quite often. Tom is a great guy, hes a very thoughtful member of congress. Hes not somebody who just has a kneejerk reaction ideologically or in a partisan way to every issue that comes this way. Once in a while we even share a cigar. Gerald connolly is congressman from virginia, thanks for joining us with an update on your book reading. Thank you peter. If youre interested in hearing more about the books members of congress are reading these days, visit booktv. Org and search what are you reading at the top of the page. You are watching booktv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Booktv, television for serious readers. On our Author Interview program afterwards, former Deputy Assistant attorney general in the George Bush Administration johnny you waited on the president ial powers in the. [singing] constitution. I started out wary of President Trump i wasnt a supporter of his in the 2016 election and the thing that really worried me was that he was a populist and the constitution seems designed to stop populist. s fairly antidemocratic nature in a lot of ways like the senate and judiciary review and Electoral College. The presence of the states is a part of the constitution. I was worried when he came in as a populist who wants to achieve and agenda that he feels he received a mandate for that he would strain against or even go beyond the constitutional restraints of his power and i was worried at the beginning that he was doing that and things like the travel ban, threats to build a border wall without congressional approval. I urged them to try to use his president ial powers for National Security and Foreign Affairs at their height and to understand Domestic Affairs that his role is really to enforce the law and then to work with congress to get legislation passed. What happened since 2017 to today is that i found his critics have become the ones who had gone too far in trying to stretch the constitution because i think trump so enrages them that they launched attack after attack out of his legitimacy. Its trumps critics who talked about getting rid of the Electoral College who talked about packing the Supreme Court at too members who want to return us to a world with permanent statutorily protected independent councils which i think criminalize our politics. Want to nationalize large parts of our economy for a very big deal. I think that has left trump undeniably using the constitution more as a shield using constitution to pursue his own self interest but that leads to him the field of relying on more traditional interpretations of the constitution so i argue that either unintentionally or intentionally, he has become more the defender of the traditional constitution that his critics. To watch the rest of this Program Visit our website booktv. Org, click the afterwards tab at the top of the page to find all previous episodes. Hello and welcome to the Atlanta History Center virtual author talk series. And virginia prescott, abi am talking with lisa napoli about her new book up all night ted turner, cnn, and the birth of 24 hour news. You can purchase the book directly from a cappella books, the link is in the chapter on the right of your screen and the link is also at the Atlanta History Center website. As lisa and i are talking, please submit questions you can use the q a feature at the bottom of your screen and i ll