so again, the prosecution just -- i mean, a slam-dunk case with the typical hanging jury. it was the failure of imagination. he did not see that if you had a 2-time convicted like phelan sitting there being accused of his third felony, the jury is probably going to view him one way. if you have of light of standing member of the community sitting there, the jury is point to be inclined to view them very differently. and all this took place days after jonestown. the assassinations were ten days after jonestown, and it was the darkest, gloomiest time in the history of san francisco. i just can't imagine -- maybe the fire, of course. a bright light. , i mean, first johnstown. you know, most of the people died in jonestown as we all know, people around here. almost everybody knew somebody or knew somebody who knew somebody who had been lost in jonestown. ten days later this happened. it seemed impossible. i remember on the night of the assassinations after i filed my stories and was taking that j. church home from the building where time magazine was housed in the financial district out to know we valley, and it was silent in the city. the trolley rolled. a lot of people out, and no noise. people were beyond words. they could not speak. it was just too much, too awful. >> and jim jones was part of the coalition. >> well, yes. in fact, the reason that john jones fled is a couple of very good reporters were preparing an article in which they had gone to members of peoples temple and said, disaffected members who claimed that jones was beating them and stealing their money and sleeping with their wives. so they were preparing this article which was coined to blow the lid off of to jim jones really was. keep in mind that he was an ally of george moscone. he did get the people to the precincts. they had the discipline to group. jim jones was aware of this article was about to be published. somebody broke into the offices of new west magazine and rifled the files trying to destroy the article before it could be published. then when it was clear it was going to be published, that was when chin jones left. it was very much connected. and george moscone and willie brown defended jim jones until the day he died. history is tragedy, not melodrama. >> what about tommy norman and joe frazier is after the trial, was that the end of their careers? >> well, no political future at all. he was through. he left politics. tom norman went on prosecuting cases. doug schmitt and steve, who beat tommy, they liked him. i was not particularly friendly. i did not describe his style, but if you can imagine -- remember stanley tucci, sort of slithering through the double or pravda, that was kind of -- tommy never would say over. he was a very formal pretentious kind of guy with the widow's peak. he went on working. they felt so badly for him that they seriously discussed offering in a partnership in their firm. [laughter] they liked tommy norman and a lot of people around like him. they were sorry to see all that he had messed up big time. it wiped out all the accomplishments of the rest of his life, and he was no longer among us. the rest in peace. >> we would like to remind our listening audience that this is a program with the commonwealth club of california, listening to "double play." reporter and author mike weiss. unfortunately we have reached the point in our program whether is time for just one last question. i guess, how would the city be different today if it were not for these tragedies? >> i don't know that it would be. well, i mean, dianne feinstein probably would not be a u.s. senator, but i don't know if that has much effect on the life of the city. there would not be streets and buildings named after harvey and george, but other than that i don't think it really would be a different city. a lot of time has gone by. history flows forward and things go on. i don't see on a daily basis that it makes much difference. in fact, we have district elections again, right? i can never keep track. i don't live in the city anymore. a pity that i don't get to vote for the board of supervisors. i can never keep track of when they're in and when they're out because it seems to be a constant back-and-forth. i honestly would say that i don't know of any differences that would be felt in our lives today if this had not occurred, except those two names and so on. someone want to give a better answer? that was a pretty weak cancer. [laughter] >> our thanks to mike weiss, author of "double play." his participation in tonight's program. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. [applause] >> we also think our audience here as well as those listen to our recording. now this meeting of the commonwealth club of california celebrating more than a century of enlightened discussion is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] >> you're watching book tv on c-span2, 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend. >> you're watching book tv on c-span2, 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors every weekend on c-span2. well, fall is one of the biggest bookselling seasons and book release seasons of the mall. this is our 2011 fall book preview show. we are joined by two industry watchers and put followers. bob minzesheimer is with usa today, the book critic for that newspaper in new york city, and jason boog is with galley cap, which is a website that covers books and the publishing industry. gentlemen, thank you for being on book tv today, and i want to start by asking you, which booked you are most excited about or are looking forward to this fall. bob minzesheimer, we will start with you. >> peter, i am going to mention three books. i will try to do them briefly. one is already out. book critic that is a no-no. i should have read it already. it is called what it feels like to go to war. wrote a novel about vietnam last year. it was published. it took in 20 some years to get it published. he shifted to nonfiction to ride both for military and a civilian audience what combat is really like, which he thinks the military really does not prepare soldiers for. they prepare them for this technological and physical demand, but not the emotional and philosophical. he is very good at writing about other writers and novelists. that is one book. they're is a book coming from an opera called elizabeth and hazel two women of little rock. it is about to women who were 15 years old in 1957 who were captured in the famous photograph intering the little rock central high school. a white woman, white students yelling at her, and this is the story of their improbable and years later and how that fell apart. they made a movie of this. and finally, like a lot of people i am looking forward to seeing what jacqueline kennedy had to say to arthur schlesinger charlie after the assassination of president kennedy. >> the caroline kennedy book. >> well, she is the editor. >> conversations on life with john f. kennedy. is that the book? >> right. >> bob minzesheimer, why did the two women from little rock, why did their relationship fall apart? >> i have not gotten that far in the book yet. you will have to stay tuned. >> at 11, what are you looking forward to? >> i am looking forward to susan's new book coming out this fall about rain 1010, the famous dog that started in a number of movies. when i first heard about the book and had to confess i was a little skeptical. you would want to read what the dog on tv. i read the first excerpt in the new yorker, and it just blew me away. the excited to see this story crossing different world wars. a fantastic story. >> well, you both mentioned biographies, so let's look at other biographies. that includes christopher hichens, arguably essays by christopher hichens. jason boog, what can you tell us about this? >> he has not put together a collection of essays like this in a few years. i think 2004 was the last time. he will cover a lot of ground, everything from his controversial stands on the iraqi war to the al qaeda and more current events. he is, right now fairly ill with cancer. the book that is really going to put him out in the public. a very important book in his career. >> please. >> dipping in and out, and the great thing about him is whether you agree with him or not, whether he is writing about a topic in the news are not he is just a lot of fun to read. >> michael more has his biography coming out. here comes trouble. he will be our in-depth guest in october. >> excited about that book, actually. >> go ahead. >> he is a michigan boy. i grew up watching his work on flint. this actually shows his life before he was a filmmaker. i'm looking for a to seeing these stories from his life. >> we did a short interview with him in the paper today which would be by the time you see this last thursday and he describes it as not a memoir. it is sort of an anti mark, just some stories including i think he was 13 years of wandering around the capitol and got lost and ran into bobby kennedy. >> sentiment, a book by michael more. will that automatically be a large print run? >> i would say yes. >> i'm sorry. go ahead. >> he has such a big following online. go to his website and you can see all the people that are talking about this book. i think it will sell a lot of copies. >> well, two other well-known authors who might generate automatic large print runs, and economic books. sylvia nasser and michael lewis. grand pursued, the story of economic genius and boomerang, travels in the third world. what can you tell us about these two books, bob minzesheimer? >> well, probably best known for her last book which was a beautiful mind, which was sort of an oxymoron. a best seller about a mathematician who was helped by the fact that it became a movie with russell crowe. so she has a big following. i think what she is trying to do is take economics which has been called the dismal science and at some humanity and personality to it. i just began. and she comes across. to me it was a new idea that 150 years or so ago the idea at that most people were doomed to live lives filled with poverty and despair was an accepted given. she traces how that has changed over 200 years or 150 years. >> jason boog, what about michael lewis. >> looking for to this book. his last book, the big short, looked at the economic meltdown and other stock-market crash affected our lives in the united states. his next book will go around the world and look at the different ways it affected other countries from europe to the developing countries around us. it is an important thing to do, not forget that we are not the only ones suffering through economic crisis. there are a lot of countries struggling. looking at the way it affected the global commerce, an important thing to do. >> go ahead. >> his subtitle, he talks about the new peril world which is the idea that there is a strict division between the developed world and a developing country. i think he is trying to get beyond that and show what easy credit did tell a lot of economies, including our own. also the life of a writer. >> a third book coming out by nicholas what shock. what is this book about? >> yes. i am actually really -- this is something that interests me personally. i am working on a book of my own right now about the great depression and our riders in new york city survives that. this book would set a very critical moment when economists in the united states were trying to decide how we should respond to the great depression. the two different views that came out, one was we should spend a lot of money and put these programs to put the country back to work or we should be more cautious. we will see these new dynamics play out through 2012 during the election. i think it is a good time to read up on these issues. >> all right. and an austrian economist did not believe the government should intervene. recently on the best-seller list thanks to glenn back who is a big advocate. >> well, jason boog, a book that has done a lot of attention on the east coast and i want to get the west coast perspective. already out, dick cheney's buck. is that getting a lot of buzz or noise? >> believe it or not the last time i checked it is the number to book in the history section in the amazon and about the number ten but in overall. so i think that people all over the country are interested in reading this book. he served during a crucial moment for our country, and it does not look like he is apologizing. he has already caused all sorts of reactions from different officials that worked with him saying he took cheap shots, some people think. it caused a stir all around the country. seeing him on television helps. >> bob minzesheimer, go ahead. >> on usa today listed was number four. our list includes both paperback and hardcover. however, to put a little bit in perspective the novel that is now a movie house selling about four to one, but it will be next week, the week after next number one on the new york times nonfiction hardcover list. >> a book like this by a vice-president even though he was potentially controversial, does it have staying power? >> probably not. they talk about journalism being the first draft of history. this would probably be the second draft. phew will a lot of people be reading it in ten years? i doubt that. >> the second half is coming out, and this is about her years in the white house with the bush ministration. >> in fact, i was going to suggest that you should get ms. rice and mr. cheney to interview each other. >> i would watch that in the second. >> well, we have bob woodward interviewing dick cheney for hour after words program. we will have that for our archives. what about the book from condoleezza rice? have you heard anything about this, jason boog, out at stanford? >> yes. it is quite a heavy tone. 700 pages or more. she served in a very historic time, the first african-american woman to be the secretary to serve. and so i think it is going to be a very historic book. she has a lot of scores i think she wants to settle, 700 pages worth. i think a lot of people will look at that. >> will you read that book, or is that a book that one might do a washington read and go back to the index and look for names? >> in my job we tend to do the index read where i will look at the portions of her book that interest our audience the most. we have already done that with the book from dick cheney. an interesting way to look through it, but i'm interested to find out the books that interest her and what she thought the books that were being published during her time. the books she wants to answer. >> will you read the book from condoleezza rice? >> well i read it? no, i probably will not. i would be curious about it. it has been embargoed, which means there are no advanced copies of it. i did read most of her first book, her memoir about growing up in segregated alabama and thought that was rather interesting. with the publisher put out, that talked about it as a master class in diplomacy and heard humility and humanity, and i was wondering if that was some sort of a at the former vice president. humble is not an adjective often described with him. >> this second volume of the autobiography of condoleezza rice coming out november 1st. book tv interviewed her for the first half. you can watch that interview, if you're interested, at booktv.org. simply use the search function in the upper left-hand corner of our website home page. well, one former governor, one current governor currently have books out. we will begin with mitch daniels, keeping the republic, saving america by trusting americans. was this up three presidential run but? bob minzesheimer. >> probably. i don't know for sure. i'm sure that people at penguin publishing were disappointed that he did not decide to run. i'm not sure if a book by a presidential candidate, they very rarely become best sellers. people read these for a variety of reasons. some, just the idea of getting their idea out there. probably have not heard the last even though he is not running for president. >> former to term michigan governor has a book out, the fight for jobs in america's economic future being put out by public affairs in september. jason boog, former governor of michigan, you going to read it? >> i am. i am from michigan. she just took the state during the roughest time in that state's history. i was living in new york before this. i was not in michigan during her tenure, but talking to my family it was such a rough time. the really interesting time. her focus on jobs in trust me. i like that approach better than mitch daniels who has a a blurb from jeb bush calling in the anti obama. i don't like it when someone takes a bow and pauses it against someone. i like it when they focus on the job market in the struggle. i am looking forward to checking that out. >> bob minzesheimer, herman cain, republican candidate for president. he has his autobiography coming out. my journey to the white house. >> notice the! the latest incarnation of someone who has been very successful in business. his grandfather speeds up. now wants to take those lessons into politics. he calls himself abc, american, black, and conservative. i would not -- i think most people would not bet on his presidential campaigns. he has some interesting ideas. i'll leave it there. >> with a book like this to my candid it may not be that well-known, what kind of a print run the you have? >> one of the dirty secrets of publishing is publishers are always exaggerating. very hard to know exactly. they say they will print 20,000 it probably print 10,000. it is all relative. this is such -- books in our culture are such a sort of -- i mean, they are influential, but by numbers alone there are a drop in the bucket. a book can sell 25,000 copies in a weekend be a best seller, but in a country of 300 million people that is not a lot. i don't put a lot of stock in print runs. >> i do want to add one thing. herman cain is that sure bet for publishers. any time some of the comes in with a strong following on the radio, a built-in audience who are interested, publishes love that. they're making more bets on people like him that have a preformed platform. that is where publishing is putting money. >> being published by threshold. what is a threshold? >> threshold is, i believe, a more conservative and print. we are seeing more of these plan beck has his own imprint. it is a strong movement. more conservative focus. >> along with sentinel and gregory. bob minzesheimer, does a conservative book has a built-in audience? >> i think so. there is this odd thing and there is no way of proving this. the party out of power does better at bookstores. cranston's, during the bush administration, the second bush administration a lot of books critical of the president did well in bookstores. the same thing for bill clinton. a lot of you could take critical anti-clinton books during his administration. now we are seeing conservatives do well during the obama administration. again, numbers are different. again, of lot more people votes than buy books. one other thing about a book by herman cain, i'm sure he did not write that book to make much money. in fact, he may not be making any money at all. that is attraction to a publisher. they don't have to pay very much money. >> this is a book tv on c-span2, and this is our 2011 fall book preview show. bob minzesheimer and jason boog. gentlemen, one other political book that is coming out of politicians but. just recently announced. representative gabrielle giffords and her husband, mark kelly. >> yap. i put that up earlier this week. i was amazed by the response. people circulated it around the internet and are excited to see what happened in her life since that's tragic shooting. also her husband just took a trip to space. it is such a powerful combination. you would be hard pressed to find a more exciting memoir this season. >> coming out in november. bob minzesheimer, anita hill has a book coming out this fall. >> right. this is her second book. remember, for those of you without long memories, the witness against clarence thomas in his confirmation hearing in 91 or so. sometime. she wrote about that experience in her last month and that the she is trying to get beyond there he said she said story. it is a book that seems to be a blend of both her own life. she grew up poor in a huge family in rural oklahoma, and the stories of other women who rose above their circumstances. beyond that a little more sociological and philosophical, philosophical view of gender and racial discrimination. >> two books with titles that lend themselves to the same theme, but by a vastly different authors. tom friedman and michael mandelbaum have a book coming out, that used to be us, and pat buchanan's newest book, suicide of a superpower. what can you tell us about these two books conventional? >> pat buchanan is an apocalyptic book. i have not read it yet, but really taking the view that our country is in trouble, which we are. kind of saying he's going to be looking toward the tea party and the conservative movement as a way to get us out of this. i think it's going to be taking a lot of shots and tried to stoke the fires and pushed the division that we are seeing in our country and deepen the divide, which i really feel is not the appropriate way. i think we need books that can bring us together a little more right now, and his seems like it will be quite a polarizing town. >> you know, i would add, another title that might fit into that category by tom brokaw. i forget the title now. it addresses all three books from different perspectives that are addressing the sense that this country is a draft. we are not addressing fundamental problems in an era which is a little harder to define. world war to end the new who our enemies were. the cold war and the new who our enemies work. now in a global war against terrorism we are not so sure who our enemies are. and i think a lot of authors from different perspectives are addressing that. i think it gets to the point of, does the country fundamentally no what it is doing and where it is headed. >> the subtitle, how america fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back. bob minzesheimer, having tom freedman's name on a book, does that sell it automatically? >> indeed. yes. a columnist for the new york times and a proven track record of best-selling books on policy issues. he has a knack of writing about policy in ways that you don't need to be a policy want to appreciate and understand. conservatives would you him as a liberal, but i think he is fairly open-minded to other points of view. >> tom brokaw is booked. time of our lives, a conversation about america. did you want to add something? >> oh, yes. tom friedman speaks to set specific employment shall and powerful audiences. you will see his book being read in the first-class section of all your airplane rides. it is such a fascinating demographic. his book's release print. i love watching that happen. >> bob minzesheimer, a book on the list that caught our attention that we wanted to ask you about. harriet washington's upcoming book in october. "deadly monopolies." >> i have not read it. i have read about it. as much as i and a stand it is about the pharmacy industry patents on, for instance, tissues that are taken from patients in hospitals and then become the property of the hospital or the pharmacy company. in some ways it might be related to there was a popular book, -- >> yes. >> sort of a fascinating piece of history about samples taken from this one woman who was unaware of it. what happened in terms of cancer research. this is much more of a policy attack on the pharmacy industry and the medical care industry. >> and the subtitle of harriet washington "deadly monopolies," the shocking corporate takeover of life itself and the consequences for your health and our medical future. tenement, henry louis gates has a book coming out. world trade center. 1513-2008. publishing in november. that is a lot of years he is covering. >> i just got -- go ahead, jason. >> of, loaded with illustrations. historical stories. it will be an interesting book. show us things that we have not really learned in our history books. any time a book can show me something new, the corners of history about that, i get excited. >> and i just got my galley, the advanced copy. it looks almost like a substantial profit table book in that the design is to make it feel attractive. a scholar, so he is trying to popularize history. i don't think it is the work of academic scholarship as much as trying to popularize african american history. >> neil ferguson, another well-known nonfiction author. civilization, the west and the rest coming out in november. writing in a large topic there. >> do you want to take that? i am not up to november yet. >> actually a little bit more well known in the u.k. he takes a conservative view of history. it feels like he wants to show how important england and europe was for the development of the world and sometimes gets into controversial territory. this will be aimed more at 17 euros. he wants to fill a gap that he thinks he sees in the education system. >> well-known washingtonians and currently the head of the broadcasting board of governors, former head of the aspen institute, walter isaacson has another book coming out. it is on steve jobs. originally scheduled to be released next march. they moved it up to november. >> he is having quite out rush job. tremendous biographer. always does great work, everybody from benjamin franklin to einstein. this book will actually include the recent resignation of steve jobs, which is amazing, the turnaround that he must have had to do and the impact it will have on the company. it will be included. a lot of people really want to know why apple is so successful at that time our country is not. >> go ahead. >> it is being described as not an authorized book, but he cooperated and give a lot of interviews. he has not done very many. that adds to the importance of the book. >> i don't know if you have seen the cover or not, but it is one large picture of steve jobs. what do you think about that? >> i have not seen it, and i cannot see your camera. >> it is a great picture of him. i think it is a very happy, the way a lot of people want to remember him. it is a good way to remember him. >> three well-known media folks have new books, and they are also well-known authors. but books coming out. jim lynyrd, bill o'reilly, and chris matthews. tension city coming inside the presidential debate coming out in september. he was on our program. you can watch that online at booktv.org. now, bill o'reilly has a new book coming out called killing lincoln. henry holt is publishing this book. gentlemen, what it knew can we bring to the table regarding iran lincoln's assassination? >> i'm interviewing bill o'reilly next week, and that will be one of my questions. i will be reading that book this weekend. i believe -- i think this is a factor, may be a mess that more books have been written about abraham lincoln than any other historical figure of avenges christ. i think a lot of writers have proven that there is always something new to be said, some new insight and even if it is not a new facts. whether bill o'reilly has that, i'm not sure. >> jason boog, chris matthews, new book on jack kennedy. simon and schuster november release. >> i think it will be a cool book. he is taking stories. his journalism career, he has been able to speak with people that knew kennedy through all different parts of his life. actually piecing together stories that other people told him into a new narrative. i think there is a chance that this book that have new stuff we have not seen before. >> a bookstore in chicago that is devoted entirely to books on abraham lincoln, and i have always thought it could easily be another bookstore devoted just to books on kennedy. >> bob minzesheimer, how would you describe the state of the publishing industry? we have been hearing for years that it is in transformation and decline. >> well, it is in better shape than the newspaper industry. it is probably not as in good shape as it might have been in 1920. it is -- it seems -- i mean, i don't -- there seems to be no decline in the number of books being published. in fact, they continue to come out. for readers i think it is a good time. you know, a lot of people talk about the death of the music industry, and that is what publishes do not want the publishing industry to follow, but for people who like music this is a wonderful time. now, not if you are a stockholder or executive in sony or columbia music. i think publishing, i'm afraid to say turned the corner, probably feeling better than they did three or four years ago. e-boats is a great unknown. the growth. that offers opportunities and challenges. whether authors -- whether more authors begin to sell and paul was a lot of books, especially big names, that would change publishing. but for readers i think this is a good time. i don't worry about the industry as much as i worry about readers. >> i think it is an exciting time. i am not worried about readers at all. a few different studies that show once people have anti-reader they start reading more than they did before. quick, fast, and more expensive than buying hardcovers. i don't worry. i think the publishing industry will get smaller because digital books just of cost or earn the same amount of money that you would earn from hardcover. i think you will see less big book deals, little more conservative book deals, and also you will see a lot more riders like we were talking about, there would go in the route. a scattering of independent publishers blossom and around the country. it. >> go ahead. >> what happens to bookstores. those of us who grew up finding books in bookstores. can bookstores survive? independent bookstores as well as barnes and noble are trying. that is a big question. publishers say they need to show room where people discover books because there are some many being published. >> the loss of borders, we cannot underestimate how tremendous that will be. thousands and thousands of feet of shelf space that people used to have to showboats and it just evaporated. that will have a very profound influence on how books are sold. >> now that you have had a little time on the west coast after living in the publishing world nexus in new york, do you have a different perspective on books? seeing different trends? >> we have a very bad tendency in new york city to become snobbish and think that there are not writers anywhere except for brooklyn and new york city. out here it is completely the opposite. a very rich community. los angeles review of books, los angeles times, literary journals it is a real the flourishing community, and it does not get the attention kind i don't think many people in the united states realize how many writers are really out here. best of all, the climate is perfect for writer. you have this great weather constantly, so you can go outside and sit with your notebook and let your thoughts go. >> now when will we be seeing your book that you referred to earlier? >> that will be wrapping up in the early next year. it will be called will write for food, how new york city riders survive the great depression and the great recession. >> our new york literary people snobbish? >> seven not. you know, it is funny. the publishing industry, we tend to think of the publishing industry has only the big houses, the big five or six publishing giants who are based in new york and dominate the best-seller list. that really, they do not publish the vast majority of books. one of the fascinating facts i learned from a fellow at barnes and noble, the barnes and noble best seller list is 40 books, fiction, non-fiction, paperback, hardcover. forty books accounting for 4-6% of their overall sales which means that more than 90 percent of the people reading books are reading other books. a lot of which are being published by companies that i have never heard of. some are niche publishers, some are literary, some specialized. so it is so much bigger than any other mass medium. in fact, i often think books should not be thought of as a mass medium. except for a few best sellers most are being read by such a small number of people. books become a big industry. separately it is not like a big movie where, you know, third of the country may go. a big tv show in the old days. >> bob minzesheimer. appel 11. jason boog of course our website, c-span.org, you can watch in the number of our 9,000 plus programs we have covered in our years here at book tv. simply use the search function. gentlemen, thank you for this 2011 fall book preview. >> thank you. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> one of the publisher is exhibiting at book expo america, the publisher's annual convention held at the jacob k. javits in new york city. joining as now is pamela maccoll, director of publicity. let's talk about some of your upcoming titles. >> well, the first title is america's water crisis. she looks at the watercress is there many of the states in the united states. really calling for a new water ethic in america to think about the water crisis and uses the same way we think about recycling and the same way we think about putting out recycling bins with the trash. you want the issue to become that prevalent in american consciousness. >> and the hill. >> yes. upon the 20th anniversary of the publishing. there is a gender, race, and finding home. professor hill looks at the idea of home and democracy through a lens of gender and race in america going back to her ancestors, great-grandparents' as slaves and her leaving her very small town all the way through to the housing crisis in baltimore and other places. she traces the idea of home and the american dream in this country. >> when is that coming out? >> the october 4th. >> and are you publishing a big run? >> fairly big. also doing about a 10-15 city tour. we are expecting work to do a lot of events that could press coverage. >> pamela maccoll, want to ask about the book beacon, the out clauses. >> a constitutional law professor. this book he really delves into the lesser-known clauses in the constitution, more curious causes and provisions that a lot of even legal scholars don't necessarily know a lot about. >> okay. in my hand here, michael brodsky, a clear history of the united states. >> a professor at dartmouth and a longtime scholar. we have just come out with this book which is doing very well. i think a lot of media coverage. it looks at over 500 years of a history in the united states. argues that it is not separate from american history because there were involved in so many important events in american history. >> i also want to ask about j michaelson is book. i don't know if you can see it on the side wall. >> spring of 2012. he really looks at the way -- he pushes back against the notion, the conservative religious notion which rejects day's and homosexual rights. >> finally, in defense of women, memoirs of an unrepentant advocate. >> at judge in boston, a clinton appointee, and we just came out with this book in april. in it she does not talk about her life as a judge but her life has a lawyer and an advocate for women. many of the cases she took were defending women. the battle at harvard and a few other prominent cases that she work done as a lawyer and advocate for women. >> pamela maccoll, director of publicity for beacon press. this is book tv on c-span2. >> khalid sheikh mohammed is about four years old. his father dies, and as search for the death records. apparently he died in 1969. and they simply did not keep records of births, deaths, marriages. we have this account of his father's death, but it is very sparse. no official transcripts. his father dies, and there is no welfare state. there is no organized charity. so his mother takes a job of washing the bodies of the dead and preparing them for burial. a very low statice, low-income job, but it enables her to eke out a living. at the time she has nine children and khalid sheikh mohammed is the fourth male. years pass and khalid sheikh mohammed does well in school, a goods didn't. a somewhat bookish boy, and the family decides that they don't have money, but they need to a back one son to get an education, and that one son, typical in arab families in this time with support the rest of them, and that sun is khalid sheikh mohammed. they ultimately, he applies to a school in north carolina. historically baptist in murfreesboro, north carolina. either the family has saved money or more likely the muslim brotherhood of kuwait agreed to sponsor him. he joined the muslim brotherhood after two of his older brothers at age 16. so he arrives in america at roughly 18 years old, and he is unprepared for what he sees. the man who picked him up at the airport outside virginia beach and drove him to murfreesboro. what he remembers years later, what he remembers is at his well being surprised by what he saw. surprised by the geography, the intense greenery. when you see trees in kuwait, there usually behind walls privately-owned. here they were everywhere, but more surprising and strange and off-putting than the trees were the people and what they were doing. they were sitting in lawn chairs on their front lawn, visible from the road. grilling and playing with children. taking a hose to the bushes outside the front window. what surprised him was so much of american family life happening in public. this is not the kind of thing that would happen in the arab world. the more time he spent in north carolina and the more he was persuaded. americans were really backward. they did things that should be private and public. they trusted each other very quickly. they did not go out tonight. after dark is when most social occasions would happen. but in the united states and at the time, 1983-4, one pizza parlor, no bars. that pizza parlor closed at 9:00. the town was asleep. far from the night being alive and social and friendly, it was as silent as the tomb. it was the day when americans were busy. he became more and more alienated because it was not an arab country. these are very small observations. these things by themselves to not make him a terrorist. it does set him at odds with the country. there is nothing that made him part of the larger community. in fact, one of the things i learned, there is nothing our civilian colleges do to integrate foreign students, to explain this country to them. we take for granted that everyone knows these things. when the fbi searched the car of the 9/11 hijackers left behind they found a small spiral bound notebook, and been very careful arabic script there was a description explaining the differences between shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. we think we are easily understood, but from another culture, we are puzzling. maybe an explanation is in order for foreign students. so naturally i have -- to csn spent most of his time in college with not just other arab students with other kuwaiti arab students. he did not mix with non kuwaiti arabs. after the semester he transfers to north carolina a and c. here he studies engineering. his social network is very limited. all of the muslim. some transferred with him. he emerges as someone known on campus as a mullah, but what they mean is he as an enforcer. he makes sure that the other students in his group did not violate these very small, obscure tenants of islamic law, what they believe to be islamic law. for example, you know, because of your pants can never cover your ankle. it is forbidden to wear shorts because they expose the knee. so even when they would go to the gym and work out there would be fully covered. in forcing all of these differences kept them apart from the american college campus. i met a number of people, almost a dozen, who went to college with ksm who remember him. they must remember him fondly, a comedian, a member of an informal student troupe known as the friday tonight show where they put on plays and skits and did it very successful imitating arab leaders. his audience was the other 20 kuwaiti arab students. i could not find anyone who was not a kuwaiti arab, was in muslim handle him. his lab partner remembers him as a person who had broken english. his professors from him being good in math and science, but never had a single substantive conversation with him about anything that did not involve molecules and formulas. so he was in north carolina for almost four years, but he came into contact with americans on a glancing basis. it is as if you're changing planes in the city and walked to the airport. have you met the people? not really. that is what he did. he self isolated and policed the borders, perimeter. sometimes events intervened. one of the things i learned was that he had a criminal record in the united states. he likes to drive at high speed with an expired license. he would roar through the streets. at think he's up to much of the dukes of hazzard. i don't know. he would occasionally crashed. one day women are talking in a parked car. their car is smashed. injuries are so severe that they sue him. it found a copy of the lawsuit. their last name is christian. the lawsuit is christian the muhammed. they win the case. they are awarded more than $10,000 in 1985, which is a substantial sum of money. he never pays. he dodges the sheriff. he follows the law. i talked to the attorney, and he remembers .. bursting into his office with a translator and a small posse of other students to lecture him about the iran-iraq war and why america was wrong about israel which turns out to be a very important point in his radicalization, more so than i would have thought. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. up next, a program from our archives. ron chernow talks about his biography of the chief author of "the federalist" papers, "alexander hamilton." examining the life and career of the founding father. alexander hamilton was appointed the first u.s. treasury secretary on september 11th, 1789.