Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20140921

America, the taliban and the war throughout and i feared nigel hamilton, the mental of command. Fbi award in 1940 to 1942. Walter isakson, the innovators. How group of inventors, hackers and eakes created the digital revolution. I wanted to look at how we people invented the computer and the internet and how innovation really happened in the digital age. In was something that came out of steve jobs and before that lj to say who made that type of person, how did they have not been successful . The book is not about singular people, but about the team. About collaboration. One of the things i discovered in doing this book is real innovation comes from great teams, not just great leaders. In the 2014 long list for nonfiction also include john mark, tennessee williams, not pilgrimage of the flash, age of ambition, chasing fortune commensurate than faith in the new china and matthew stewart, nation scott, the radical origins of the american republic. By the lame card sat on the table here. I think americas founders have been kidnapped. Ill just tell you right now that in my view and i will justify this later the christian nation men is worse than a falsehood or misinterpretation. I see it as something above the trail of the American Revolution and it represents precisely the thing thomas jefferson, thomas paine and others were fighting against. The final two title selected to the National Book awards long list for nonfiction. The next, president obamas halfbrother talks about his relationship the president industries Barack Obamas take on their history it appears from transfer my father. This is a little over an hour. At evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to barnes and noble. Mark obama ndesandjo, our special guest this evening is the halfbrother of president barack obama. In his new book mark offers another terms of their father, once married to baracks mother denmarks jewishamerican mother, ruth. A kenyan born american pianist, writer of businessmen, mark uses talents to work with orphans and is donating a portion of the profits of this book to promote Art Education among needy children around the globe. Please join me in welcoming mark obama ndesandjo. [applause] hello, everyone. How are you doing today . I am so very honored to be here at barnes noble. This is the first time in the United States than i am overwhelmed by the interest as well as i guess ive got to stay here. Okay, its not okay . Okay, great. My book is an obamas journey by discovery through cross cultures. The reason i wrote this book was to tell my story without having other people teleport me. Its also about my family. Many United Nations of swords. But also a family that tries to make a difference in its own ways. My story actually begins about 50 years ago when my father, barack obama senior went two for why he cannot is where he met sally ann dunham, the president s mother and they sell them of and got married. Shortly after that iraq was conceived, my brother, barack. My big brother, barack. After that, they divorced as you know and barack obama senior went to harvard to pursue his doctorate in economics. At that time he met my mother in boston where she was teaching and she fell in love. Love is a powerful thing because in 1964 there were a lot of cross currents that were very, very difficult to maneuver and to deal with in terms of black and white really racial relations in the United States. My father went back to kania later that year and invited my mother to follow him, to get. , which she did. She tells me she remembers mark, when i decided to go to kenya, my grandma said you cant build there, receive. Theyre all black. [laughter] below is a powerful thing and they went in they were married in december of that year. She had never been on a plane before, but she was a dreamer. I think there are dreamers all over and they had a tremendous force empowered vitality. Shortly after that, i was born. I was born in 1965. So my book start with kenya. I call it my personal on this discovery across three cultures and those are for a person with the bumpy road, kenya, china and america. So i will start with a couple of readings and i welcome, welcome any comments or any questions that anybody has. Thank you. Is not working. Can i use this . Thank you. Kenya, where it all began. Africa is the place of sublime contrast. It is a view for for the first time of lions hunting and killing. To see a pic of the body of atomic suggested teeth in albany to great blue ball in the sky seems to stretch to infinity was a humbling experience. How do i convey what it means to commit the a beauty in harness. I share the vignettes and memories that pass in and out of my consciousness like sunlight through a time in office. It is an hour shift and blur like a barrage covering over a burning hot growth. Born in 1965, i lived in kenya until i was 18. The scene of events that marked me for life also furnished me with the bricks from which i later built my spiritual house. Growing up there was both wonderful and terrible because they came from a mixedrace family, africans denied me their brotherhood. To my face, children my own age called me up and said i hated. At one point id grown to believe the term of the purest abuse rather like son of a or a whole multiplied 1000 times. Some people use with a casual familiarity with one my favorite is her chair. But there is tentatively at the same effect as a white supremacist. A man would casually ask me. Leave that alone. I dont like him his schoolmates would often say. I was a white for a black missouri mo. Caucasian is regularly. I was black to all whites, yet whites while blacks, with no middle ground. Unable to bond with my Black Brothers they quickly adopted a culture of my white mother and her more polite caucasian brethren. Although there was a point and most would not want to befriend them, others allowed be to make social advances. For a long time that was enough. One stroke slightly i put the pedal to the metal and zoomed ahead alone and selfreliant. The next section, just to give some context, talks a little bit about kenya and we used to visit my fathers Homestead Air lake tomorrow. And it was a fascinating place. Let me show this year. Every now and again, and now who has been to kenya . Has anyone been to kenya . Yes, maybe some kenyan in the audience. Yes, sir. That means hello, how are you . Welcome. Kenya is an amazing place in africa is an amazing place. The sky which curbs about you is somewhat flaky cathedral. There is a sense there that you dont change africa. Africa changes you. Thats sad, when i was young, my mother, my father in the eye, a younger brother david would drive to a lego coviello which 400 miles to nairobi and was our traditional obama homestead. This section starts there. Every now and again with his and set up by car early in the morning and not straight a line drive arrived at her ancestral home. There was a time when the roads are too dangerous for many travels to use with a driver hugging every likelihood of smashing in three parts are broken down us for falling into a huge pothole or veering off in a surface track. Robbers wouldnt bother asking. These days the roads are considerably better and cut across the road and bypass or riccio and my crew. Our car with pass by the Great Rift Valley and mystic mount long enough. I remember spotting the side of the road all the thick bushes have remained to the old chapel built by the Second World War which is now a refurbished tourist attraction. The land return return fields of sugarcane wheat, sorghum, pay weaker mystic woo wiki or Collard Greens would appear ensuring ways of green and gold and with the tea pickers than their children in the fields where white colonial farmers want used circle land to develop an industry that produced that even the world. I was about five or six years old then. My brother david was just a baby and i do not think he came out on the long trip. Except for once when he got very with malaria. In general, someone would care for him back home and count the days until she could hold them in the arms again. I never understood why we have to leave our home in nairobi to travel to this force that where people spoke a language i couldnt understand. Not speaking below, i felt i was never accepted by the african children. My air for her was taken and that was sustainment on scene. Its all strange, all strange, difficult and intimidating. However, they were lighter, more surreal moments. Most nights ago to the local bar, a oneroom house with a single light bulb in rows of benches lined against the wall. Outside were flimsy chairs and tables, lots of year in huge vats of men talking and yelling. The air was thick with a voluptuous way they smell a fermented maize cargo and people thought to be heard over the sound of rock n roll played on the local radio station. My father would forget is that the drink with the villagers into the night. My mother and i would regularly take away to a small storage room where there was a tiny iron framed bed. We try to talk over until tired from the effort she would get up to leave me. Mom, lets go home i pleaded sometimes when i heard the shouts of men, clinking of bottles and the beat of music on the radio. Hush. You can see. That and when we leave i will wake you pitcher gently tuck me in. I did not want to go back to where were staying. I wanted to go back to nairobi which i knew it was used to. I would sleep with the noise the party was deafening. Unfazed by the harsh glare of the overhead light pole, the mosquitoes would take me when i dozed off. One night the clamor was so loud i had no choice but to come out of storage room into the bar. I sublimely makes my father and mother who sat happily cough and chattering. With tables filled with air bottles and glasses limned around me. The sound seemed to rise like a ghostly with an alien landscape surrounded it. I looked around and all the source of the sound, a strange musician, the bugler dressed in his mom went cloth, one bead necklaces and a traditional hot. He defended here potbelly and jolly face her terrifying sight. He was weaving between the revelers like a black santerre without india. I heard that sound again. When he at his wooden clarinet, his cheeks blew up. Dizzy gillespie fashion, to an incredible size. It was as though both sides of his face had been hijacked by shining Coffee Colored soccer. I looked in amazement at the two glistening words, afraid they would first. So tight with the bulging skin. Above those bulbous cheeks his bulbous cheeks whose small as riner to split that shone with the main vehicle intensity of the night found issued forth, highpitched ennobling is it to the very gates of heaven or how he was deep, 30, feminine and masculine off one of the float out to the gorgeous valleys thrusting through the streets like a driven panacea. Just as suddenly the sun would seize ensuring that to the jovial blubbery visage of the old bugler. Mom, what is wrong with that old mans face . I gasped in horror. Its nothing to get upset about. The muscles in his cheeks are worn out. It is normal for him she murmured smiling at me. I identified in some way i wanted to be as free as the sound he made, freely copy the come of mys mother to fly away from the computer and place. The next section talks a little bit about my first meeting with my brother for rock and that was in 1998. It is a very intense meeting. I just graduated from Brown University and the unmarried and urban combat for this summer to stay with my parents. Barack was on his way to harvard law and i remember i was actually a balmy summer i was in my room reading a book, the devil drives by far bodie, a great history of biography of richard workman, a great colonial adventure. Either the crunching sound outside and into a car had arrived. I heard sounds of voices in the door open. My mother was in the door. My mother is a big lady. Shes strong. Shes a mountain climber. Not literally. But she is a person is gone through many challenges in her life and survived. But she was trembling. It was like it was that the notion. What happened and she said to me, mark, your brother of america is here. I said what brother. There have been memories than rumors and stories sort of nebulous things that i talked about a brother i had in america, but i never met him. This is a totally unannounced visit. So it was a big surprise. Anyway, i said my brother from america, what do you mean . Your brother barack from america is here to see you. And i else a sudden, you know, after the divorce id shut out a lot about the obama name. I wanted nothing to do with it because of the Domestic Violence we suffered for about seven or eight years. I refuse to even take the name of, at that time because i remembered my mother and the pain of seeing her and being able to protect her. All of a sudden we hadnt been in contact with other members of the obama family. After his face was like 10, 15 years. All of a sudden all these memories and feelings just course through me. I was thinking of all the things that try forget for coming back. I instinctively said i dont want to meet him. She said he is your brother. He came all the way from the United States to see you. They can persuade you to do anything. They can persuade you to do anything. They eventually relented. I stood up and walked into the living room the living room then i saw this person who looked at that way like me with a huge, bigger afro than me. [laughter] biggame blue legs and he was sitting on a sea, simple polyester white sugar and cotton pant. And he had these big hands. You know, when he shakes your hand if the fingers reach to your elbow. And he was taller than me. He stood up and said hi, i am barack. I greeted him and that was my brother. You know, that first meeting was a little intense because we didnt say very much, but it was like all the skeletons in the closet were clinking in the back row. The elephant finally walks into the room and you have to confront so many names. Marriages can the relatives you know that well. Anyway, barack wanted to talk to me privately and with more solitude. So we set up a meeting for a few days later. This section talks little bit and is taken from not section. That is what happens when you write a 372 page book. Now that i think of it, i wonder why he was reading from the outside as though he wouldnt enter the house. All our other guests had come straight in, sometimes surprising. Did he refuse to enter . There is an invisible barrier between his part of the family and my own. They were the obama clan living across nairobi, centered around the old man of many family members later called barack obama senior. My mother and i had escaped the squabbling poverty bigamy and Domestic Violence that it tainted my early life. It was a sign of how secure i was, but i face the sack at me with trepidation. My mind wanted to shut out the past but it had grown into a menacing presence hidden in alice degrasse. Iraq stood in front of the car. I believe a volkswagen in the sunlight i could see them better than i have the last time. He was tolerant and are than me with a huge mass of unkempt hair from an angler face. His eyes piercing and direct, his clothes again were very plain, a simple shirt and pale blue trousers. Hello, mark, how are you . He spoke loud and clearly. He didnt smile. It was as though he was recently upset. I reached it by hand. Hello, how are you . Wisher camp awkwardly. At the time i sit barack as everyone called her father. Many years later i learned that my brother preferred a rock. He didnt correct me and i repeated this a number of times during our conversation. I looked more closely at this tall brown apparition that appeared in my life. Why so serious i thought . Had he been dispatched an unwelcome but necessary mission . This is the face of the person with secret plans and goals. It was discreet, earnest and very weary of me and my immediate family, particularly my mother. Perhaps an account of what others had told the period from the way he stood in the driveway that bright afternoon, rigid, head tilted to the side i saw a person who was searching for something. It was the look of someone who decided on the verdict is still struggling with uninformed question as we talk later and discuss a good deal, i sensed he was looking for some been in the coming something deep the simple likability among the noise. I wanted to meet you he said during that first meeting. Lets take a drive. It wants to talk you suggested. I still remember my brother baracks words to me. What do you think of our father . What do you remember about him . He peered at me earnestly. All the fears that gets memories yet somehow we remembered our sister sibling and the bitterness of the family breakup. I recalled the drunken rants of barack obama senior and whiskey bottles clanking of breaking on the floor. Some strangers watch by. I felt grateful for the interruption. The few seconds of silence my eyes wandered around the mostly empty room. The rightofway walls seemed to shout out a greasy plates still lay out some of the checkered plastic tablecloths. I remember that barack thought it ironic that he not have located it. The food arrived almost immediately, not hungry i nibbled on a fried doughnut. I remember how my younger brother who by the way passed away a few years before the 90s to make them together. We would drop into boiling oil. Our mouths with water as reluctant to do krispy donuts with their sweet smile. Is there reading my mind, baracks sake in turn is called brown eyes to me. Im sorry that david he said. I think he wouldve liked and i replied clyde to change the subject. Everyone i know speaks well of hambrick said. His brown eyes suddenly warm. The man sitting this offkilter image of myself now that was though jumping a little bit ahead, now was as though my father refused to let go that matter where i went there would always be some relative to appear uninvited in my life to bring me along the memories i tried so hard to a blurry. I was ashamed for my pettiness and pretty much letting history overcome what shouldve been a joy at the moment. Despite the toe i felt iraq was trying to be honest with themselves. Focusing on reaching a higher level of understanding and it is imperative to respond in kind into a tips of lake ice cold water. This offkilter water across from me was my brother, barack. I felt i could hide nothing from him, that there was nothing, but are you indifferent. Looks like me in so many ways. I shouldve been happy to see him but i was not. Like me use mixedrace and mustve been rejected as i have. Like many educated and ivy league university. Unlike me, he fully embraced his african side. Unlike me he was attempting reconciliation that something or somebody, even if not with me and my mother. Thoughts tumble through my mind as i looked at this half familiar face. If this big brother is going to harvard has excepted the obamas, then why cant i . He is harder than me and can discern lies from the truth including mine. I felt afraid and exposed, like it was something dirty about our kinship, that it was founded on a lie, that weve been dealt a grubby, fragile deck of cards on which to bracer brotherhood, but request we would embark upon required honest to ourselves or others close to us. So with all of this in the back of my mind, i lashed out at him. Why bring up all the garbage about my father. He was a drunk. He beat my mother. Life is hard enough without dwelling on all the problems of race and bad debts. Iraq seemed to flinch an almost Imperceptible Movement i saw his eyes turned hard as he stared at me. It was though he did not understand after a moment of silence he continued with his questions. Had he not heard my outburst . I was astonished. The parsing to shut off my words as though barack was pretending i had not set them. In this way we were both blind. At the time i could not see any my fathers virtues. Brock mightve formed high opinions of a father, even idealized in. Likely no one had told them the truth, the shameful details about the anger. It was as though he had been conditioned not to explore these patterns have already formed an opinion. Clinically and without passion. Jamin or was cold. I felt he was an arrogant who was too polite to say so to his face. I do not enjoy being treated into a research subject. I did not want to be pitied or guard by members of my own family. I needed to straighten out. That wouldve been okay, too and we could still a shared a at how i wouldve loved to have thrown his arms and said your big brother is here. I probably wouldve cast his arms aside, but i wouldve broke enough inside. Instead, barack said i see. I was succeeding academically, but ive already started sewing the seeds of my own failure. I wanted to hit the ball back at me like a tennis ball off to practice law. That wouldve woken me up. Barack was not made that way. He exhorts my answers and adjusted them like enemies in a vat of sugar. I talked about music and physics. He rolled his eyes. I see thats good. The tuc in a meeting and i . Physics is cool, but show, beethoven are my idols. Dont you want more he said . Nonplus i stared at him. What more is there . Thousands of years of western culture. Theres so much more to learn and will come back to kenya. Of course my family is here, but my homeless or my family is. If they lived in america, that would be my home. Its hard enough getting a Telephone Service here. Who knows. Barack into side. I try to change the topic again. How do i kenya so far . I like it. Im having a good time he said casually. His eyes on the placemat, his hands casually resting on the table like a poker players. The next section talks a little bit about the club and it takes place in china. Let me see if i can grab that. Whos been to china over here . Wow, a lot more people. The gentleman in the front, where did you go . Shenyang, okay. The u. S. And chinese . Great. Another international family. Thats great. You know, china is an amazing place. You know, that people are amazingly warm and welcoming. In many ways, sometimes you have to be away from the things youre close to. For me, you know, although i am american and i love america kenya, at the time of my life 12 years ago it was wonderful to go to china because everything was so strange and wonderful incurious. Let me see if i can find it here. Be right with you. Like i said, 372 k. Shares. 372 pages. Actually, i will call you why. While i am looking for it, maybe we could take some questions. And i would be curious to hear about your experiences, too. And also, we can just leave it open to the floor. [inaudible] have you ever visited the president at the white house . Yes, yes i have. Should first have. Should first time in which house i think the whole family was invited. Number was a wonderful feeling. Elicits tremendous sense of energy in the air. It was off to just take care of it was just such an uzi at them. I remember we went to the white houses numbers of our extended family and barack were fair. You know, it was new for him. This is right after he had been in august. Youve got a lot of your mind on my moment. So he gave us a tour of the white house about wordy, 40 minute. I remember we went to the room so we could know which rooms a word. I remember barack saying i think this is called the red room. Everything was red. Last nights and then i waited for more, but there was no more. And then i went to another brand that it was all green and i think barack said and this is a clean room. It was interesting because, you know, he really wanted us to be part of that special day. I remember even walking up the steps to the oval office. You know, as the outcome of fathers first wife, you know, have lived a little bit of a leg problem. Remember walking up steps. She was walking slowly and i remember barack turning and tried to help her steps. Just this humility that i thought was wonderful. At the end of the day, what happens is even in the presence of such an institution in the white house, there is nothing more powerful than family and all of its contradictions and all of its learnings and teachings. So that was an amazing experience. I remember very fondly. Hi, how are you . Thank you for coming today. I would like to ask you [inaudible] how do you Service Connection with the president . I have another question. When did you realize that your brother had become the most powerful men in america . There are two parts. The first one refers to the relationship. What happens is when you are president , things change. I dont know. I guess before barack was an underrated we have a wonderful meeting in austin. It was warm and very welcoming. I think at that time is a given something about calligraphy. They said yang at this layer that way because its horizontal or vertical. And i told him its the way you spell your name in chinese and he was okay. And i remember, you know, it was the first time we had met in 20 years. Which is a very powerful experience. But at that moment as i saw him walking towards me, it was like i was seeing two people. There is this confluence of tremendous energy, and at the same time, this is my brothers. You know, it is difficult because i see him as my brother and many others see him as the president. So when i write in my book, not close when he met us and i see the wrinkles in his face. He does look older. I remember some people thinking, how can you write about somebody like that . But that is what you see when your loved one comes in after a hard day of work because they are family and you see these details. Come to terms with the brother of the president is a little difficult. The second part of your question was . [inaudible] well, to mean, i knew way before many of my other friends in china and kenya near let. The way i do it and maybe others did too, who initiate less skeptical. You know, at the time of the debates and even before the nomination, there is the sense of motion, the sense of momentum. It was the sense of millions of people move in a direction towards change. It was about barack. It was all the people around him. You know, that was a moment when i actually decided i became how to speed on obama. That was the model when i beachy proud of being an obama because you see all these millions of people in d. C. This Movement Toward something at that time, which is tremendously inspiring. I said he made me proud of my family. At that time i had cheney spent saying he could never be elected. He is black. Not all chinese believe this, but this friend of mine who is a very good friend said that and i was so disappointed. To me it was so obvious, but much of the world is the most inconceivable thing. It was a game changer. I hope that answers your question. Hi, gentlemen in the back. Have you come to terms with quotes like her faster cornell west with Political Correctness he is going to stand in that spot in two weeks your brother a counterfeit or michael moore, how do you come to terms with those quotes . Sure, sure. Thanks for coming. Michael moore is saying besides the fact he was the first black elected president , barack obama will be remembered for nothing by history. Or is he an icon of Political Correctness saying recently that barack obama is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated upon the American People . Well, thank you for your question by the way. I dont get too much into politics because im a pianist, i am a writer, i am a musician and a calligrapher and i know there are people who know much more about politics in the details of politics than i do. That is why we have teams of people in government to do these things. But that said, i think to me it is tremendous that in america you can stand up and you can say these things. The fact that we can still do it and many other countries but cant do it is a wonderful thing. That said, you know, i think in many cases people expect, you know, one man to solve many problems than its difficult to do that. You know, the one day i think we can give my brother credit for, maybe you agree or maybe you doubt if hes able to inspire people and he has inspired people. A lot of people who are less fortunate than you and me to go to new schools and perhaps also to do things in a beautiful city like new york. But the thing is in many cases, you know, people like that need something. Ive gone around the world and ive seen many people very inspired by him. Of course there are problems than things in which he was not able to do in people with strong opinions. But ill tell you what, i believe he believes what hes doing and i think he is trying to do something with it. For me, i would say that, you know, we have lots of differences. My politics and my brothers politics not very similar, but also her grandmother. The thing is we still come together and i hope that maybe in the future theres two more years. Youll have an opportunity to make another choice. Clap mark hi, how are you. Fine, how are you. Which culture are you the most comfortable with . You know, that is one reason i wrote this book so i could answer a question like that. My book is about three cultures. Its called my personal odyssey of discovery. Much of us that increasing global world to work three cultures are kids, sisters, parents now are part of multiple cultures. It is so important that we understand. And i went through this in a very difficult way and barack went through this in a very difficult way. I was saying were mixedrace kids, they are often on the outside as well as the inside of matter where they are. But it is a unique theme. Getting back to your point, i thank the gentleman who shared with us some of his ideas and opinions is that one thing which i think tells us in dealing in understanding my brother if he has been able to be on the site outside. The question is how do you use that . For me, ive always felt bad to be an american is to be altered to different cultures and follow your own path. Its an over encompassing cause without being an american is being an individual. Theres a scene in china and all use it to express and talk about a contradiction called [speaking in native tongue] which means going your own path. Let others say what they might. Thanks for that question. Will you sign a i absolutely bill. But im still looking for this section. [laughter] it is something about my grandma. I dont know if you know, but my grandmother, ida baker, was an amazing person. She was the person who helped me understand myself and also introduced me to music. When i met my wife, i imagined what would happen if my grandma had met her. If you can just bear with me, i will find some way here. [inaudible] 318, is that it . This is a man who knows how to read. Lets give him a round of applause, please. Thank you. Did you say 318 . My book better than me. That is scary. Okay, lets see here. Its at the end of the chapter in its close. Let me see here. Lets take one minute. Okay. Theres a part about my meeting my wife and diaz of the chapter, here it is. I found it. Fantastic. Thank you, everyone for being so patient. This is in china. It is about my wife who has been the source of so much and giving me the courage in many ways to write even. I actually wouldnt have met a rock, you know during the inauguration, during the camp and if you had been for her. She said its your brother, go with dm. I took the money that i was saving for a piano. This is conviction is your partners power of persuasion. But i used that money to buy a ticket to go to austin next week after a particular event, which is mentioned in the book. She has been the one who gave me the courage to write because as all writers know, weightiness like pulling teeth. You have to go deep into yourself and you have to try and be as honest as you can. I play piano whether his fastball or her show by not caring, people in the ibm snow steal music. How do they know . Because it has to come from here. If its not, whether the nose are right, people will not connect with it in writing is like that. I wife helped me understand that. That aside, this is a little vignette from china shenzhen, hong kong a few years ago. At that moment i realized a was falling in love. I invited her to my apartment one day and gave her a special gift they had made for her. I took a bowl of water and handed her a red rose. Lighter you giving me this . Look closely. She looked more closely. I had written mark and xh on each petal. Pick them up and drop them in the water. We drop the pedals and saw the vote against each other in a glass bowl. I saw from rise that she was moved. It did not take much to make her happy. Soon we were dating and learned that she had recently come and had taken a job temporarily until she could get better work. The parents were farmers and she had been raised in poverty. Like many migrants she had a dream of living a better life and her mother and father. She wanted to do something. As i continued to live and work there i felt as though pursuing a corporate career was not practical. All my ideas of getting a high plane job had gone for naught. Couldve gone back to corporate life in america, but it would have been leaving the orphans and even at that early stage and she would not have been happy in america i recall the time when my grandmother visited and wanted to bring Something Back to america. And i can give her a good salary in the place to stay. Else you would need to do is help you around the house. How much or what someone to help me around the house. June 11th upon hearing this proposal, the part of our family. Ecstatic. It will be great to go to america, but my mother quickly toward, out of the idea. She will not be happy here. She will be away from our people you should consider these things. Maybe you are like roofie. I did not expect her family to welcome me with open arms what it was a shock to hear her mothers reaction to an first hearing. She was horrified to learn her daughter was dating a foreigner. He will leave me and go away with him, she cried. My grandchildren will not be in china to live with me. I lose my daughter. Distraught after that phone call and did not know what to say. I had enough trouble dealing with my own. We had each other that tons of men that the pictures of month month to encompass my time and cannot present month in china. Morley is shaped with no obligation to and even that law as part of an everpresent kindred spirit, my grandmother. I cannot imagine having a dialogue. I found this terrific girl, and i did it myself with no matchmaker. Dont tell me you fell in love with sons thought. Young girls these days let themselves be treated like torrance. How can you say that . And would not be my fault. Of course not. It is always the womans fault. Look at the consequences think it can have some leftover borscht. Once an . To brought me the other day, and he dont like that you can take it to the shop down the road and acorn before pastrami sandwich. Grandma, i think a line to bury his career of the in madrid she would come up to make or gently put aside and look at me so closely and smell the baby powder on her cheeks. Well, if you love her and if that is the important thing. She could should good food. The issue blonde . No. Her hair is black. She is chinese. It does not matter. All the world is, to the brown one day. Does love her baldy well. Here. Oh, i forgot, you dont like them either. And your kind and was peak face would fade back into the night in one of. [applause] every weekend and book tv brings you 48 hours a nonfiction authors and books on cspan2. Keep watching for more television for serious readers. Book tv covers hundreds of of the Program Throughout the country all year long. Heres a look at some events this week. Look for these programs to air in the near future on book tv on cspan2. Come on day at the Carter Center in atlanta for lawrence rights recount of the 1978 camp david accord. That same evening and to enter talks about the collection and use of personal data by private companies. The following night in las vegas former special agent with the United States air force office of special investigation to critical look at americas border security. On thursday at the university of california berkeley journalism tom scheerer reports on the use of psychedelic drugs from that of care. And on friday from the York University Panel Discussion on feminism and the United States from 1920 until today with the co authors of feminism and finished billion that is a look and some of the of the programs book tv will be covering this upcoming week. For more go to our website and visit upcoming programs. Next we hear from dave page, a local minnesota author who wrote the st. Paul stories of f. Scott fitzgerald. He explains the influence that st. Paul had on fitzgeralds work. American life. St. Paul had this huge impact on fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had an impact on st. Paul. St. Paul was the most important town of his legacy. He was all over the world. The vast majority of experiences that he used in his novels and his writing either directly came from st. Paul, written in st. Paul, written in st. Paul. So it have this huge impact on his life up until he was partly about 40 and the hollywood years. So if you read fitzgeralds stories there are awash in st. Paul imagery. He was born in this apartment september 241896. Was considered a luxury apartment back and the daughter of pf mcclellan, one of the richest man in st. Paul. Unfortunately he died young. The family was living off of the legacy money. But still, there were wellrespected around the town. Thats your took his first steps here. He said his first words here. There were two sisters that died right before he was born. He suggested that is why he became a writer. And then he had another sister was born in or out in the york. He said that he did not know anything else existed in the universe. He left about the time he was two years old because a smaller one to get a job in new york. They came back to st. Paul. We have standing in front of st. Paul academy. Of the former st. Paul academy. The school has moved now. Fitzgeralds parents fitzgerald after it a distant relative. Francis also was the middleman of Philip Francis mcclellan, his grandfather, who have all the money. When the family moved back his father could not even keep the family gathered because of finances, but they still wanted in this society. He send him to the most prestigious private school. He sent into dancing lessons a couple blocks away on grand avenue. And so fitzgerald was rubbing shoulders, of course, with the lead of summit avenue in and the his folks were not quite there. No, it is not that he was a poor boy. He was like a millionaire amongst billionaires. You dont feel sorry for the millionaire. Many of the stories were about the influence of money. I would not say the worship of money, but just the fact that it was such a big driver in the United States. He came back just on the cusp of being a teenager. He was very handsome, smart. He was a leader, a natural leader. But sometimes he was probably a little over aggressive. So in the st. Paul Academy School magazine one of his friends said, well, somebody praise him to shut him out. Apparently he talked a lot. He wanted to play sports, but he was not very big. He was a little bit taller than i am from away a lot less than i do. But he just was like on the third string baseball team. How many students were here . Probably not that many he realized he was not going to be the kind of hero athlete. And so he thought about other ways to kind of gain notoriety. He found it through writing the he was writing the texas stories he was writing westerns, writing mystery. So he was writing about the civil war because his father was alive during the civil war and lived in maryland. And his religion, you know, he hears stories. So he was doing a lot of different kind of shaun russ. He was writing plays. The plays were being performed around the town. He was trend of gaining notoriety. This groan of town homes is important. Lived in a couple of different ones believe it cannot. The move from block to block an naturally moved from town hall to town home. And they are associated with the two great loves of his life he met he was going to school. He fell in love with her. His parents were living in one of the town halls here where he kind of mob about because of tanagra. He eventually joined the army and went south and met selva. When she rejected him because he was not making enough money he came back to this town hall. This is where magics truck. Up in the third floor space up there he rewrote the book that he had written while in the army called a romantic egotist. Eventually it was public published by scriveners. Heal naturally thumbtack ten cards of chapters and worked really hard. Supposedly after he learned that the book was going to be published you ran out onto summit avenue and some of my book is going to be published. His parents were kind of giving him in last chance. You know, get your novel published or go out and get a job. On of his friends got him a job. He did not last very long. He is a manual labor. As world completely changed. He got the girl of his dreams. He became literally the 21st century self promoter. But his return to victorian age and the jazz age, he exemplified that kind of an exuberance and self promotion that uc continuing today. It would not have done the kind of things he did. Look down on a little bit. He got a lot of publicity during this time. He wrote a pretty famous letter about being halfback irish and then the half of his father from the old southern family. He said he would grovel in front of kitchenmaid sentence of the rich. So i suspect his whole life he had a little bit of an inferiority complex up, especially when he went out east to school. He saw some people who made vast amounts of money. That came out in tom buchanan in the great gatsby. He had an interesting relationship of people with money. There were his friends, and i dont think you worship of money. He was too frivolous with the. In order to be frivolous with it you had to have some. But he made a lot of money during his lifetime. He did make some of his books, of the motion pictures, or was in hollywood, apollo of money selling short stories. So he worked really hard and made a lot of money, but he did not worship it. I think he really felt of the biblical version of money as the root of all evil. When i have the opportunity to come to the ballroom. It is such a thorough. This provided inspiration for fitzgeralds and the kind of stories that he was interested in to make money. So the saturday evening story. This is the epitome of that huge volume of work that he produced that he felt a little bit ashamed of, but a wonderful story. And so on see this as a real positive police for his career. There was one particular party had this house that actually he did not attend. Apparently it was a costume ball in this room would have been filled with people and different kinds of boston. A young man apparently dressed up in a kimmels outfit and went to the wrong house. Who knows why. Anyway, the next day fitzgerald heard about the story insect find out more from russian. But then they sat down and wrote a short story broke the camels market. He did not particularly like the story. It won an award, has restored when an award. Subpoenas story about the cost of imported it takes place here. He said it in the toledo ohio, but anybody who knows knows that it was here at the louis l. House. A lot of people think he made his money off of writing. Actually, he was making a from movies. So it was the movie money that encouraged elsa to marry him. Camel staff became a movie called conductor 1492. It has varied little to do with the story, but theyre is a dense and camel and the movie. That is about it. So this is the theme. A. Fitzgerald of henry prizewinning story. At this point when hes turning these short stories he had already sold the site of paradise to scriveners but it took awhile for the boat to be published. In the meantime sure stories that he had already written, polishing and some enough to publications the other stories and selling them to the publications and also selling to the movies. At this party is in his 20s. On i was first doing research here people were still alive her new fitzgerald or were friends. We always kind of heard about this outsider insider. They all denied it. He was a great friend, not an outsider. He was part of our group since. Its kind of puzzled me where that idea came from. Then i started asking if their parents associated with his parents. No. So his mother and father, it kind of skipped a generation. His grandparents associated with the wealthy people on seventh avenue, and he did, but his parents did not. And so there were reasons for that. His mother had lost his job. He was unemployed. His mother was quirky. And so they did not run around a lot with the parents of the children. So i am sure he, the feeling of also being a little bit of an outsider so that he could step back and objectively right about that time without farming. He promptly sat at this power. He wrote almost everything down. He did not serve our was at the basement door. I sure he was. Service was a pretty special place for scholars. The places where he socialized and worked, that he was inspired by. This is one of the many places and st. Paul that provided inspiration. The university was the center or was one of the centers of socializing back then and still yesterday. And fitzgerald was probably never a member, but he had a lot of friends who would have been. He would have had access to these rooms. He met several people here including Donald Stewart to be convinced to become a writer and then went on to win an Academy Award for philadelphia story. And he had a party for zillow when theyre living in 66 could rich. Recall that the padlock ball because of was on friday the 13th. To assure you the extent that they would go to to entertain their guests, he literally had a newspaper printed out, a full broadsheet newspaper with stories about friends of his. You would not want to be with a drunken fitzgerald and the party i am guessing. The company obnoxious. Armas said he was part of the obnoxious drunks. You know, he might pick up some of the glasses and is run through the. Silva was kind of the same way. The two of them together, if they had been drinking heavily, it probably could have been pretty bad. Our vote had been preparing a Similar Service gerald. Probably one of the reasons he was never a Member Community had to be a university graduate, and he had dropped out of princeton. He said for medical reasons. His grades are not very good. And so he loved princeton. He was reading a princeton weekly when he passed away supposedly. He wrote the plays were the triangle money was a member. The group that toured the United States attorneys and performances. He actually came back to the twin cities to do a performance as a member. Princeton was assembled to have, and it was important to him that he went there. His whole life to spark the fact that he never graduated, princeton held a place in his heart. After they were married in new york city, neither parents can to the wedding. He did a European Tour just as his parents have done, and then she discovered she was pregnant, seven moved back to montgomery. It did not or cannot. So then moved back, to st. Paul. They lived in a house out in white pair awake. It was a summer resort. Of course there were going to have a family. One of their good friends, her grandparents lived in this house. She got it for them so that they could determine move in for the winter. It was a pretty brutal winter. Fitzgerald had an office downtown. He was working hard, he was writing the play the vegetable. And i think part of this was taken from the house. He tried to have parties. The university club. He did not have a lot of friends a lot of his friends wives did not like her, partly because she was a little bit of a flirtatious of them go and their husbands like to. But it just really was not going very well and simple. Then made it through the winter. They tried to go back to work better look again. It was pretty much decided by both of them that st. Paul was not going to be the place where there were going to make their home. It had a lot to do with the winters here. And so they moved back to new york and then, of course, as we know he lived in europe, in hollywood. But this was kind of the beginning of the end for him. Left st. Paul in 1922. Despite the fact that he said he was going to bring study back, the daughter who was born here, i never made it back. I think there were several influences the supplier on him. One was the catholicism that, of course, st. Paul was and still is a very kind of Roman Catholic town. His writing is filled with priests and good and bad and a lot of people have written about that influence of religion. He got that in st. Paul. I also think his writing about the wealthiest came from st. Paul. So st. Paul had this whole but have for most of his life. When he needed money he would write short stories about simple. And so throughout much of his life he was a midwest boy. The finish line with the end of the day americans become i guess this is a story about the midwest after all. This is the midwest that he was mentioning. For more information on book tv recent visit to st. Paul minnesota and the many other cities visited by local content vehicles appear to cspan. Org local content. Malcolm byrne takes an updated look at the irancontra scandal. He argues that the scandal was likely bigger than previously believed. This is about an hourandahalf. Good morning. Welcome to the brookings institution. This is an event sponsored by the brookings intelligence project. Our guest today is mr. Malcolm byrne paid extremely pleased to have him here today. Not only is he a great scholar put a great friend. His official title is Deputy Director of the National Security archive. Of course it is not that an asset as he works for the nsa york store is one of washingtons greatest gems. It is a place where classified America Needs this maker and is heavily tea classified. It seeks additional light on what goes on behind the scene inside of washington. He is the coauthor of the coming enemies. A book about diplomacy