Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20130922

Laughter irca thank you. Im delighted to be here, and particularly to year that flattering introduction, one of your own. I think i am safe here in chicago especially since ive got my position here of 16 years , my lawyer is. And one of my staff people is your. [laughter] clint young [inaudible] and i have other students here and at other friends and colleagues. I find it extremely gratifying to be with you and pretty you particularly flattering that you would come out this morning to talk with me, before im going to leave some time for discussion with questions you may want to raise. We referred to one book that was perhaps not my favorite by any means, but the best known. When people tell me i read your book i dont have to ask them because i know. And i tried to some would say ive read several of your books. Or i read some of your books or i read another book. But i want to talk about that book because it has a life of its own. Its become Senior Citizen in the best sense of the term in my late 20s and early 30s and it stood the test of time, at least thats what i hope it has done. It was in 1945 after i got a letter from one of the editors. He had received his own ph. D. From Princeton University and published book called the origins of struggle in louisiana and as he went as low war was winding down, it was he who concluded that as it came to an end there had been so much discussion already have the role of africanamericans in world war ii it would be so good if they had a history of africanamericans as the curiosity about this Book Increased as the years would go by. I didnt learn what im going to say now from the editor. I learned it from reading about the origins from slavery to freedom. It seems that he took this up with his chief, the founder of one of the great publishing houses of the country and he said to alfred that he would like students. Alfred wasnt very enthusiastic about that, but she had an eye for both quality and significance in terms of timeliness and he told roger if you want to go ahead with this, go on. See where you get with it. He then began to canvass the country and he read articles and books that he could and the people of the various universities would begin to recommend to somebody if the history of africanamericans. It seems that several of the professors at the various other institutions recommended me. So he came to me he wrote to me asking if i would write the history of africanamericans and i said no i wont because im busy. I was doing research that very summer on a book that cant be known sometimes later. I felt i was perhaps more important for the history of this country than the history of africanamericans. So i said no, thank you. Get someone else to do it. He had become persuaded that i was the person to do it and he wouldnt take no for an answer. He wrote to me again and i replied again thank you but no thank you. He came to durham North Carolina 19 was teaching at the college for negros as it was called then. They have now tidied the title. Its an institution open to all americans as well as africanamericans. He came down when i was teaching and said to me we believe you are the person to do this book and i said i dont think i am the person to do it, and we are due backandforth and then he decided it was the strategic moment to sweeten the cup a little bit and he said i will give you an advance. And i said to go on. [laughter] he said i will give you an advance of 500 i said that is ideal. That represented more than a fourth of what i was making for the entire year so i was very delighted not only to get the money but to be regarded so highly that there was an expression of trust and confidence me coming and i was flattered and pleased to accept the opportunity so i said that i would do it and i therefore dropped for the moment the word that i was doing and i proceeded to work on from slavery to freedom the book that was not yet to be named and unfortunately was not named by me at all. It was named by the publisher. And i began to work where do you start . I never had a course in africanamerican history. The people look read the book say thats pretty obvious. But i think i did a fairly good job of teaching myself under the circumstances. So i began to ask where to start and i began to read just going back to read titles to see what has been done, what has been written. And i was struck by someone that came to my own eyes as i was going down, it was the history of the negro race in america from 1619 to 1980 by George Washington williams and that almost threw me off my course. This was a work that looked very good and respectable in every way. I couldnt believe this. I pulled off the shelf. It had footnotes and bibliography and an appendix and all the things you could have in a book. I said who is he, where does he come from . And i read a lot about him through the office of the associated to believe that history shortly after that and i asked dr. Conyers what is with this man George Washington williams, who is he . He said i didnt know him personally but he rode a very wonderful book and he said why dont you write a paper on him and if you do we will help you read it and the association of october and that threw me off once more because i was anxious it almost took me off the track of writing about africanamericans in general because i became so curious about this man. I couldnt have written about him in one year or two years. It took me 40 years to do the research of the riding on this man but in 1985 by published a life of George Washington williams which if i may let you in on a secret is my favorite book. Of all of the books that is my favorite. But would take more than a morning to talk about him. It would take several mornings. But as i turn once more to the problem at hand meanly the riding of the history of africanamericans i begin to do a Systematic Research in the library is where i was looking at the time of the college for negros and of deutsch university and at chapel hill and the north Atlantic State University archives. I didnt have a theme or an underlying position of philosophy but i was really floundering and my wife said to me one day you are not making the progress that you want to make or then you should be making. And she began to tell me for various reasons one is that i didnt know yet enough about the subject to write about it. They said there isnt enough material here in North Carolina. More than that you dont have anywhere to work. I was teaching at a place that there was no office for any teacher at all and i was working in the classroom between the clauses. Maybe i would work during that period and in the little place we lived which was just one big room and a kitchen and a small living room i had no place to even set up a table. She said why dont you leave . [laughter] but my wife who had already been my girlfriend and now we had been married for some five years and they said why dont you leave . What should i do . Why dont you go to washington . I said you have this 500 but that wont matter in washington for very long and its a i would support you in washington and the library of law school left the college she was making a salary that made it possible to send an allowance once a week. So i stayed in washington for six months and thats where i rode the back of this book 15, 16, 17 hours a day all the time the library of congress was open i had a study room at the library and when it was closed i came home and i worked at home in the evening and in the morning before the library opened and of the weekend when the library wasnt fully open when i couldnt get to my study through my work in my room and in that way i was able to rate the back of the book. When i came back at the end of the six month having worked several months before i left now six months in washington and now several months there i completed the writing in 13 months. It takes us now to years to the revision and the writing as you may call it. In the spring in 1947 they told me if they havent been sitting down he would have fallen down and didnt expect me to deliver the book on time. It was due in april, 1947 and i took it up there in march of 1947. And i didnt know any better. I thought if you have a contract you were supposed to deliver. [laughter] i learned from that and in the runaway slave book that had been published, i had a contract from some eight or ten years before i delivered so you can see that one goes along so one of the great experiences of my life and perhaps the most important intellectual experiences i ever had and the history of the people from the middle ages down to the 20th century the ups and downs, the difficulties in the triumphs, the enormous power of the historical movements and the missed opportunities, the degradation and the lynching and the rioting and arriving in our own country. I saw it all. And when people now get upset about dragging in the man of texas or the assault of this or that group in new york city or in chicago or some other parts of the country and they get upset ive been there. Ive done that. And ive had it and i can therefore look at it with some people and some sense of hitting a cross that bridge and having been able to move on. They were not certain about the publication of this book. And he began to send it around is what i did not know. He began to send it around to various friends of his. Among those he sent it to was his authority on black america who had written this book called niger heaven and did a little slumming in harlem and other parts of black america. And i didnt know about it. I didnt know exactly what was going on but i got a long letter complimenting me on the look and telling me how wonderful he thought it was. I didnt know until many years later that he sent them the book and said what do you think it is . And he had told alfred he had written to me and talked to me and told me how pleased he was that i had done less. So it was that blessing so to speak ones a Great Authority on black america he gave the go ahead and the book was published. It received support and review and the review in the New York Times, if any of you want to know how badly i do, read the review of runaway slaves which has been in the back since august 13, 1994. Then you have some notions of the review and i have no understanding or somebody with the planner said. I was talking about the runaway slaves that had built so much inconvenience to the owners as they ran away with no consideration of the owners and then the rights and responsibilities, whenever. He gave a review and i would be happy here because he passed away not too long after that time. I think they shared that the book wasnt really very good and that he was disappointed in it, disappointed in some way but his disappointment came because he was writing a history of africanamericans himself and he havent quite finished his hand would come out later in the next year some of you that credit knew it was coming. But it enjoyed mixed reviews and some reviews were very good, very enthusiastic. He was extraordinarily high in his praise and some other generals. The generals, the reviews written by the scholars who were on hold on the favorable. It was much too focused on blacks and not much focus on the general history. But there is one thing that they could not say that it wouldnt have woken up the contributions and even in good conscience even if they wanted they couldnt say that because it isnt that kind of book. Its a book that undertakes to please in the context of the industry in the history of the United States and ive gotten a number of letters from black pride and know where did you say thats the first person in the 19th century i didnt say that and i apologize for not saying it, but that isnt what the book was about and know where did i say that the first person to stand on his head was of black men. Maybe it was. But i didnt say there were blacks that mocked at the door and begged for the admission to the army when it was forming in 75 and 76 and they were turned away. But i did say that when his back was to double in 1777 and needed help and finally said that we will take you and even give you your freedom if you help us meet these british. And the same thing about bill war in 1861 when they were sent home once more and the same thing about their involvement in 1864 and 65 win that they were a critical factor in the training of the tide and the winning of the war. And i did see the same thing about those that were worked in world war i and world war ii. Not one was given the medal of honor, not one in world war i, not one in world war ii. It was sent until the president s began to have a reexamination of the rule of African American civil war one and world war ii when they brought up some of them had to be excused to be given a medal of honor that they won in 1970 and 1980, 1941, 1945. They should understand, not only blacks should understand but whites should understand that the role they played was sent a role of clowns, not even of some special kind of contribution, but the rule of involvement, complete involvement with the ongoing history of the United States and in that way they could stand up and say we affirm our place in history. And i hope that in so doing, and i wrote this when i had a personal experience, i rode this was hopeful in so doing that no american recruiter of soldiers with told me or anyone what they told me 1942 in the United States army when they were begging and coming into the needy and i went down and volunteered and they said what can you do . I said well they want people to run the office. I said i have three gold medals. I can take shorthand. I run an office. I ran the office at the university in my undergraduate years. And i have a ph. D. From my history at harvard and with a straight face the man told me im sorry you have everything that color. And i said im sorry, too plight to get your time and i did you a good day. But that background i began to try to tell what americans did not in some special way but it was a part of that whole being and thus i was able to pleased to write and fight it and despite it disappointed some a bit it displeased some others, but i wrote that as fairly and as honestly as i could. And i am therefore pleased that the book came out when it did in the timber of 1947. It no author that i know of, no author that i know of is pleased with the publishers deutsch to promote their book. I had just written for the simple the office of University President s that said after we won the lincoln pride which we thought was really something in april 20,000 all the rest i thought he would put an ad in the New York Times congratulating us for this. I thought it always happens. If you read the pulitzer prize, the lincoln prize, the other prize you get an ad in the paper and say thats good. Im with a great authors. They didnt congratulate me. Give some congratulations. Its what they do and i wrote to my editor and i said there are no ads in the chicago tribune. They said the news about the book are getting around. One thing we take pride is in print but how much print jset hold your fire it will be all right. Finally they said we want you to the book is going into another printing. I told that to some of my creditors and i said how steady. Finally they said we want a new edition. They said we told you its coming along. We brought out a new edition, not another printing but an entirely new edition. And i worked my fingers to the bone. I worked hard to do this. I was living in washington, d. C. In terms of office space and the secretarial space and all the best. We had agreed there would be a paperback edition. All of these are hard cover and they are selling 4 to 5. 50 and so forth. Now we have a new edition in 56 and in the new course they said we would have a new edition of 1967. What about this tradition . I said isnt it time that you should bring it out in paperback . And de groot backend said we cannot bring it out in paperback deutsch to the fact that we think it is a corner on the market now. People looking to us for the history of africanamericans and therefore, you make more money all of a hardcover than you do the people back and we decided that we are not going to put it out in paperback. We would be happy to consider if you want to write one. And i told them i wasnt going to write another history of africanamericans. I wasnt even going to revise the one that they had on must be brought out in paperback. I said i will never realize it unless you bring it out in paperback. And so in a few weeks i have a letter from my editor saying on Second Thought and after eight due consideration, we have decided to bring it out in paperback. They didnt know that there was enormous pressure on the book about them to provide copies and they didnt know what was happening. The Civil Rights Movement was reaching its peak. And there was a part of the platform of the Civil Rights Movement was to get the course is into the colleges and universities and even in the communities with a history of africanamericans and where do they look . We look from slavery to freedom and they focused a training of the burr 5,000 copies and they disappeared. They didnt know what was going on. They said what in the world where is this going . There is such a thing in the Civil Rights Movement. And the movement the book has become a part of the movement and you need to understand that and publish more and more copies and that is when the book took off. This was 1967, 1989 and some dozen years after the book was first published. Then they began to say we need another edition. So they provided them with another addition, the full possession in 1975 and that sold very well. Then they kicked it in paperback. So you have people back of hard cover selling simultaneously. And people turning more and more to the softcover for use in the classroom and a turning to the hard cover in the libraries. Now another thing that moves in which it was involved besides the Civil Rights Movement was the informational movements that was the movement on the part of the african state to become free i went to nigeria for the business of the breach of 1960. The administration with David Eisenhower appointed and the designation of americans to go to the independent ceremonies of the largest black nation in the world and there wasnt one black delegation brought by the president as a member of that group. They asked me if i would go over the same time and look into how your education and nigeria. Some simultaneously. I am ashamed that i did go. You also have to guard against the blandishments and the fluttery that might be laid out for you. And you therefore become a dupe unwittingly. So even nigerians felt that i was a member of the delegation. And Nelson Rockefeller who i knew because at that time i had become the chairman of the department of history at Brooklyn College life as a member of the new york civil war centennial commission, he was the chairman of that delegation. And he was always chasing around looking for john hope, having a picture made with john hope people thought i was a part of the american delegation, and i wasnt. And that was unfortunate for the message conveyed by me to the nigerians that i was somebody at home, and i was nobody at home, as far as the american delegation was concerned. But by that time they had in their hands even copies and there is a marvelous picture which i cherished of a young woman in getting off the airplane clutching a book in her hand and you can see the newspaper shes going back to the mother country so to speak but she has her guide to the mother country the copy of statement and freedom which has a discussion of the african background. But by this time the europeans and the africans are becoming interested so they take a kind of information all flavor and the various countries begin to consider translating it into other languages and its really remarkable that the first two countries that translated it or the japanese and the germans, the losers in world war ii, the japanese and the germans. But first was the japanese at second was the germans. They came up with a slow and a late addition published not in paris but in the synagogue and then later the chinese. I got a package in the mail from someone in flagstaff arizona and they said you might like to know that there is a chinese edition from slavery to freedom and they are sending it to you. I knew the young womans father where i had been lecturing at the university and hen her to send to me so that i would know there was an english edition and i notified my publisher that there was a chinese language edition because they didnt know it either because there had been no business transaction. I dont know how many copies there are, but i know when a thing we dont get any of royalties to the and then when i was in brazil in 190087 for my second or third visit to brazil, they became interested in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the emancipation and brazil for the portuguese language edition and i doubt it may be the were able to do it for the following year but they did and they sent copies to me out of the english language edition that had come out by that time. So, by 190087 there had been the tradition of 1947, 1956, 1974, 75, 190084 and 87. The sixth edition was now held by that time. And it was flourishing in those five or six languages as well as in the sixth edition. By that time i had retired from my regular teaching responsibilities and wasnt keeping up as well as i might have and that was kind of flourishing and coming out an abundance. And i decided that it was time to send this book with a light of its own to be more robust than my own life that it needed its own assurance so i asked one of my own graduate students, now successor at the university of maryland he joined me as the co author. And so, alfred jr. Joined me in this expedition and had remained in the seventh and the eighth editions which just appeared in a few weeks ago and i see some of the people have the copies here. He brings to not only a different interest that i have, but new interest i hadnt developed as fully as he had. So the book goes on in its seventh and eighth editions with new perspectives and fresh approaches. People say what has he done and brought to it . Although he brings something new, i insist on doing something myself so it is a treatment of general morton it is mine, not his and there are other things that indicate i do appreciate some of the new developments in the cultural and the musical and educational life that are so characteristic of the history of africanamericans. It does therefore enjoy a light of its own that the 50th anniversary of its publication the festival was held in durham by Duke University where i was the professor more recently and the North Carolina college where i wrote the book in the first place and had the joint sessions and invited my students as well as other students around the country. The appraisals of it and they compared one addition with the others all the way through and in various ways, they indicated that and say that freedom was alive and well. They couldnt always say the same thing about the author, though i hope i will be around to see some other editions. Its very gratifying that a book not only is alive and well after more than 50 years of steady use but the prospect of the future is bright. Its bright not only because of its age, but because we seek to reexamine it page by page 190099 guinn weve wrote the new edition and in 2,000 plus when we write the next edition. That is the reason it has a life of its own because of the vitality and the enthusiasm which we bring to it and translate it and make it a useful work for 2001, to the sentiment 2003 as it was for 1989. I talked longer than i had intended and i hope that you will indulge me as i would now in college you if you have any questions to ask. Thank you very much. [applause] speenine thank you. [applause] is there any time left . [inaudible] i would like to thank you again for the invite [inaudible] i was turned down. I say that first to say that in june of 1943 had i perhaps pursued of being repulsed by the nation that you had a great love for, i did 33 years of military, active duty and retirement but it would have a skate me if i had the vision that you had to stand tall and not recognize this as a firstclass citizen. Thank you. [applause] that is a friend of mine of 30 odd years. Would you care to comment on the history of the urban renewal in the city of chicago the history of what . Urban renewal and in particular the role that Dearborn Park in this very neighborhood has played in that history. That is a bit specific for this discussion. I was here for some years as you know, 60 years i spent here in the city of chicago. And i watched with interest and sometimes english what was happening in the area of urban renewal. By the way its getting hot with the sun shining down on me here. Therefore i can attest to some disappointment in the urban renewal throughout the years. As a matter of fact i was invited to be part of i cant think of that term theres something about the urban renewal but i can decline because i saw the direction and was going and i wasnt taking part of that. Therefore i left the city at the time that urban renewal was coming i left the city of that kind of urban renewal was becoming a hot topic here. And i havent followed it as the kind of interest that would shed light. Of the do have some very interesting background as to the force of Dearborn Park. And i havent read the famous book. I look forward to reading it with great interest. I am just honored to have heard you say today so much about the freedom. I have one question to the to do you have any comment or have you taken any position from any insight into the current it is and current when youre dealing with the subornation because the reparation have you had any comment or feelings about the movement which is becoming a National Movement or interNational Movement would you like to comment on that . I think all of you heard the question. Im going to speak about that tomorrow when the commemoration of the race riot of which my father was a part. And i would say that as far as reparations are concerned, not only do my playmates get their fingers that the boy who comes going through their homes and what not but it would be over the years. I am really have to know that you are not plan to get reparations in the real sense. Affirmative action is the kind of preparation and you mentioned affirmative action and it goes up everywhere. They dont even want to be just and equal and fair and therefore im not going to dilute myself into thinking that the preparation of the reality can be a reality. But i would like to see affirmative action and those tokens to be made real and im not optimistic about that. I want to ask you if you could comment on your role as the head of the commission that president clinton appointed you to. I dont hear anything about it. Do you feel it was worthwhile . Do you think you spend your time well . How do you personally feel about it . Did you get my question . Yes i did. The question is how do i feel about the initiative on race, the Advisory Board to which i serve as the chairman. I feel good about it. Im very pleased with what we were able to do. What i regret is the newspapers and the radio stations and television stations have not had any interest in them whatsoever. And they have therefore turned their back on it. They were all there when i need money report to the president on the 18th of september, 98. And im sure that your papers were filled with them the next morning. They chose not to say anything about the efforts and what they chose to say they chose to say in silence or almost silence. More than that, the papers that were not there such as your local papers which will remain nameless and to write editorials about me and to condemn my activities as they dont even know what they were. They didnt seek may were not present the incident about which they wrote. And then they proceeded to say to me, to say about me if he just held his fire and joined the retirement from the university of chicago it would be all right but he had to get into something he didnt know anything about or that sort of thing or what i said even and wrote long editorials condemning me for my actions without checking to see whether the fact were cleared. I was closer to the news of the server and the editor shot down to say im about to write an editorial about you and i thought id better check with you. And he checked with me and when i got through with him, he made me the tar heel of the year. [laughter] i didnt have that enjoyment in chicago until yesterday when i was when it was Donald Franklin of chicago. But it didnt have anything to do with my role as the chairman of the president s Advisory Board on race. We did a number of things that i wish you knew about. We started dating of dialogue and a week of dialogue throughout the country and we saw the initiatives o occurred and we saw people reaching out to each other and carrying on any way that was notorious and praiseworthy and starting their own organizations and activities they can be seen at the luncheon that was held in one community in addition to playing a luncheon you couldnt get an you couldnt unless you were of a different race. One is that in the effort to extend the activities of the Board Advisory we made suggestions to the president of things he might do to try to carry on work and we made suggestions to invite to the white house. Whenever he has done that he has invited me to come back and to see what he is doing. I was there 546 weeks ago and he had at least 300 members in the community and in the east room of the white house. And if they had met during the day. They were in the National Council community they were christians, jews, muslims, you name that they were there. They had been meeting in the morning and they came to the conclusion of being publicized they felt the reason was a sin that must be out of this country. I sure that you have read all about that. And anyone that you could imagine is there. The same thing that happened a few months earlier. I was there and the attorneys general and a number of states were there as was the attorney general of the United States as was the president of the United States as well as the president of the American Bar Association and the national American Bar Association. Blacks didnt belong for many years and they organized their own, although now blacks have long last been members of the national bar association. But they were all there. And people were representing legal firms, individual law firms. And they concluded that it was a civil right to have representation on the part of individuals when they have litigation problems and the president asked them if they would do what they could to promote pro bono work in their affairs so that every person that was in a litigation problem, every person would have an opportunity to be given a legal representation. It might not be very attractive, but this was being made. I wish you knew about it. Thank you. [applause] we would like to hear from you. Tweet us your feedback. About the importance of confidence in being a United States senator, but being a woman and how important it is. Business owners. And i encourage men and women to be involved and step up front, frankly and to and i always say to graduating class is, you know, i could never imagine that i would have been running for the United States senate when i was in that position either. But we have open the possibility of doing that because it is critical to have those examples and governing institutions and all places in our society, theyre important to have womens voices and perspective. You know, women in our population. And the second part of it is that they bring a different experience, and that is also important to have that voice at the table. And so i encourage to think about it as a possibility in the future. You know, and those choices presented self. For me as much as i was talking about politics, the thought about running for public office, i was going to come to washington and work. You have to go against the grain. It is what it is. And that is what i always did. I went against the grain. I felt so strongly about the things i believe in. So that voice, it is important to fight for it and make changes in policy. There is a direct correlation. I love the fact that even today the Womens Health initiative, the n. I. H. Was excluding women in Clinical Study chemical study trials. To this day, still reviewing results, lifesaving discoveries for women. That is so important. And the fact that having women participate in the political process in what evolved from that. I think what title nine, for example. I mean, in fact, i was talking about it the other day. She was the beneficiary. I love the fact that you did young women who are there is no Second Thought. Active because the law in nature, treated equally. Fascinating how someone writes, the responsibilities came and protections came all during i mean, many of them during your decades of service. You were really there at that time, people may take for granted, but you were a witness to the changes. That is really worth women especially should read about the pipe fights you had to wage on behalf of women. I love also an act of about your much revered senator of maine who gave us a speech called the declaration of conscience about directed at mccarthyism, but not meaning senator joe mccarthy. In june of 1950. A finance year and political consultant named bernard barraults who said it is a man had made a declaration of conscience, he would have been the next president of the United States. And you mention in the book when you are talking about Hillary Rodham clinton who is an old friend, you said you have known her for years because your husband served as governors together. Did they sit next to each other . This states came into the union does have they said. Right. In the order. And that was so serendipitous. You are old friends and obviously colleagues. He said that the United States is ready for of women president. I have to ask you. She is obviously the great hope of the Democratic Party and many women. Whether or not you want her to run, whether or not you would support her, and the feelings that you have. Enduring respect for service as secretary of state. Barring whatever is wrapping her up in any current benghazi excitement on capitol hill, when you look at the future you think that this country is ready. Would you, as a republican, said it out . Well, that is too far down the road to speculate about. But i think that if hillary wanted to run she should. I mean she sets an extraordinary example of how a woman can run for public office. That is what is important. She, i think, broke down that barrier singlehandedly. Highly talented and capable and smart. So if she chooses to do that, i think that, you know, many women will embrace, you know, her candidacy. I think the country is prepared to have of female president. I think by virtue of the fact of what she has been able to accomplish at that point in time in her own candidacy i think it has dispelled any notion that a woman could not be prepared and less she did not win the primary. Different reasons, differences within the party in the primary, but by virtue of her candidacy and how she conducts herself, i think she is basically eradicating fears about how a woman would handle ourself. Well, many delightful anecdotes that i keep mentioning in the book. Little nuggets for people like myself to enjoy. One of my favorites is that you devils held frequently and regularly when senators get together they nurture each other. Mentor each other, which i thought was so impressive. You dined with female justices, something i had never known before, which i thought was really quite wonderful. What an honor. I thought that that was that is really another reason to delve in here, learn not only about the way things used to be, but how much women look out for each other in positions of power truly bipartisan. The way you talk of hillary clinton. Obviously your that formed years ago before she was in the senate is just a unique connection. Think it is very interesting. You have you know, you want to tell them that there is a way out. Even if it is not near term their is a path to unity and production, a productive future for the congress, diminished in the future if some steps are taken. And you list them in the book. You have recommendations for a 5day workweek, an annual budget im sorry, biennial budgeting. Restoring the process of getting to a budget, a Bipartisan Committee which is so interesting. That means they have to leave the congress and get out of their own partisan. No budget, no pay which means members if they are there are not going to collect their own paycheck. Filibuster reform. No more secret holds on legislation. In return, i think this is so critical. You cannot throw off an emergency Super Committee sequester bill that the last minute. Everything would have to go back and abolish pacs which make me chuckle. So i want to know. Im a big believer of that myself. And commissions instead of state legislatures decide deciding redistricting. It is important for americans to read your book, especially on the chapter on all of these political the fix is kind of man on the system. If they dont have that redistricting and know about how few districts actually swing every election cycle and has 79 percent of us shouldnt even get in the car to vote because it will be decided. This is really i think you have all of the right ideas. If you can share a little bit out line in your book. You have a great anecdotes, congressman rick. He needs to spend 30 hours a week and fundraising. Where do you get the establishment, the incumbents, the old system that might be new but is now so said and. Where do you get them to a throw away those packs. They if everyone had to stand down on both sides of the aisle, that is the key. Any changes on Campaign Finance reform, it has to be a level Playing Field on both sides. That is what we had to orchestrate with mccain fine gold. My provision was struck down on the Supreme Court. But the evenhandedness. So both sides. That is one less level of financing, raising money. Think about it. The house representatives. Overwhelming. Probably the majority at least half packs. It is another avenue to give money to candid its at a much higher level than you can as an individual. The point being, not only raising money for their own campaign, they also have to raise this money for their leaders because it is expected. You will raise some much money. The chair of the committee. If you want to be a power broker. You are expected. It takes so much time. It is another sheets distraction. Reminded me of the honorary issue years ago. There would be paid for speeches the whole schedule would revolve around the days when you go and give speeches on mondays and fridays. But ultimately came to the conclusion that we should ban these. And it had an impact because we had people back. Right. One last level of raising money. That is a huge time consuming effort. Not to mention a distraction. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. Since 1998 cspan book tv has shown over 40,000 hours of programming with top nonfiction authors including bob woodward. We were going to do the book after he died, but prick he preempted that. I was horrified quite honestly. Then i was delighted. I always felt that people are really more alike than they are different. So the artist in the rose to that occasion. If i can create something that is so moving and permits the kind of distance that use some kind pets need from what is painful people will understand, and understanding is basically what is fundamental. Put. One of the relevant factors considered, and this is regarded as one of the halfdozen. [applause] the use of military force was legitimate. The only National Television network devoted exclusively to nonfiction books every weekend. We are marking 15 years of book tv on cspan2. Next on book tv, Josh Blackmun takes a behindthescenes look at the legal challenge to obamacare that ended with the Supreme Court ruling it constitutional in june 2012. This is about an hourandahalf. Welcome to the Cato Institute , an unprecedented book form. My name is allium shapiro. The latest volume will be released this coming tuesday on our annual Constitution Day co