Cspan2s booktv. Welcome to anaheim on booktv. This Southern California city is situated 30 miles southeast of los angeles, with help from Time Warner Cable partners, in the next hour we travel the city and surrounding areas to talk with local law others as we explore the better life of the largest city. We start with the impact fee and roosevelts 1903 tour of western states had on the Conservation Movement as author chris epting talks about his book Teddy Roosevelt in california. Teddy roosevelt in 1903, fairly subdued, came through town called barstow, he enjoyed the welcome he got but not until he went to the codes he began to get amazed. First time he saw the Pacific Ocean he was in awe. Than when he arrives at its 70, that is when he real and understood what this undertaking is. He is totally dazzled, becomes poetic, writes letters to try to sum up his feelings. Seeing the Great Outdoors getting away from the city and the politics, a writing in nature, the cradle of nature, the beauty and majesty of california. The origins of but 4 are interesting, he spread since 1901 when mckinley is assassinated, elections in 1904. Roosevelt took it as an opportunity to come out and shore up, the agenda and all that. In march of that year, he writes a letter and makes a special request to go to yosemite with no politics, no nothing, just he and miller in the woods. I think roosevelt knew the trip would be special politically but also had an opportunity, forge a friendship with a man he was a fan of, in his early 60s, been around awhile and wellknown. Roosevelt used the trip as an excuse to hang out and bond on this remarkable camping trip. John muir was getting concerned, as much as he wrote about and worshiped yosemite and the this year larry areas he was seeing the commercialization of this concern, he was seeing a lot of logging taking place and all of a sudden there were these threats that he realized even when you had real federal protection it doesnt get you out of the woods but he knew it was a start. And changed his trip, he knew this opportunity to address these concerns, and commercial logging in the area. He sees the opportunity, change the trip, didnt go to europe and met with roosevelt. The camping trip was a select few, Teddy Roosevelt, and two guys coax named charlie and another man named archie leonard. The only as a result of that, they come from those two guys who hold dear, and it was red campaign. These men paid close attention, careful attention and able to observe the background, watching the famous silhouettes of iraq and fire. And get a sense of the powerful sense of Something Like that. The observations were valid because as they recounted later memoirs, as they sought the additional meeting, and accomplished men find Common Ground to begin with. Very interesting observation mccain at Glacier Point when one of the guys observed, getting in roosevelts face about trophy hunting. He admonish roosevelt, got to get over the little boy habits of killing things and what was fascinating is roosevelt accepted that criticism and acted on it as well. Interesting for a man of roosevelts ego. He had only known the guy 48 hours but you are telling him he has got to give up a real passion of his which is trophy hunting and he is open to the idea and what is critical about that is he illustrates the trust roosevelt was giving in a short span and that revelation stands out as something monumental because it altered roosevelts view of the natural world. He was not going to just hunt. Clearly he was giving me where the ability to affect his point of view. Roosevelt and newark, three different spots, the first night, a beautiful growth, a fairly simple camping experience, not that rogan or anything, they go up on horseback to Glacier Point over the valley. In five feet of snow. The president of the United States riding horseback with john you were all these miles up this trail completely avoiding the press or any guests that want a glimpse of them so night 2 is the big challenge getting into Glacier Point, it snows five six inches over night on top of what is already there. It is an interesting night, very rugged and pure and this was the nature of a bond especially over the fire because it pushed them clustered together. Night 3 they came into the valley and it was more like night 1, they camped in a place called bridal ville falls in the shadow, wonderful and that was a chance to talk about the night before and how great it had been but also future plans and what roosevelt might do to help, he is at the lobby, he is shrewd enough to know that he has the leader of the free world, takes good advantage of those opportunities, roosevelt had information about protecting and wyatt is not just enough to love nature but have the power to do so, it is important to preserve it as well. Conservation was something roosevelt fought of to a small degree but i think it required a catalyst like john you were to step in and really get him fired up and help him understand that there were risks, a lot of logging taking place, roosevelt had never been to california alone yosemite so he had no idea what was happening. In the abstract, he didnt have somebody to focus it down and really make a reading topic, to go back and became actionable, and this, and this and this, the action plan to make a difference. Interestingly when roosevelt goes to yosemite and they part ways the next speech roosevelt gives in sacramento is talking about yosemite so he is already within days of meeting, already an impassioned and he goes back and it is within a year or two we are seeing forests being considered National Landmarks and things like that, over the course of his presidency the process that goes on, roosevelt is very formidable and let it be known that he wants these things done so he has been called the father of conservation, a result of that trip when he comes back is within a couple years, hundreds of things being signed and with very the will push back. People understood that roosevelt was walking it like he talked. Was furious to him and with john you were in the background everybody in washington understood these were men that were serious, there was no getting in their way. John newark by all accounts was very pleased by what Theodore Roosevelt was doing. Best time when john the dam that was built, that is the one that they say broke his heart and roosevelt was not as efficient to do as much about it, politics jane spy 1914, right before mr. Mueller died but that was the one i think he wanted the most. It is an area beyond yosemite that newark loved and again, he was always very respectful and looks at roosevelt in admiration and was very proud of what his friend did in washington but he wanted more as well and tumor was a man who never wanted to stop, always felt this encroachment was going to happen and believed in his heart about the fight so no matter what he did there was always going to be more that he would have wanted but i think roosevelts legacy speaks for itself in terms of what he preserved, protected and a wonderful legacy and everybody should look at that, a great by product that came out of that camping trip. There is absolutely no way the president today could escape civilization away he did. You have to remember when it snowed at Glacier Point all the aids redound below, there was no radio contact, nothing, they had no clue where the president was, if he was okay, the press wasnt allowed up there. This was the last time it could have happened where president could literally disappear in that country, to do nothing more than become friendly with somebody and get inside someones head a and begin to understand and build awareness and appreciation of nature, one beautiful moment where there was no social media. None of these forces to documents and it is sort of poetic verrazzano official documentation save a few pictures and the painting of roosevelt in the valley, there were no scribes taking everything down. That might have been too much. That might have affected the meeting. With no interference, just to learn about each other over campfires. That is the magic of the meeting, that it wasnt that welldocumented. It was allowed to flourish and happen in a very natural pace. That is why it matters today and why it was a fun subject to write about for me. You are watching booktv on cspan2. This weekend we are visiting anaheim, calif. To talk with local law others and for the soviet literary sites with the help of our local cable partners, time warner. We next speak with Author Jennifer keene who talks about how veterans are treated. The First World War establishes how america went to war so all these components we assume our part of serving in the military, a masked military, melting pot experience, something that takes american soldiers overseas. All of those things start in the First World War, so what the United States army does well and does wrong carries those lessons forward. The nickname that was given to american soldiers in the First World War, we are really thinking about citizen soldiers, men who were conscripted to fight for the duration of the war and we are distinguishing them from regular army soldiers. In the First World War doughboys came from all parts of the United States because the First World War is the first time we conscripted the army from the beginning of a conflict so we always had drafts before in the past but they had come in the middle of a conflict, when voluntary enlistments had dropped off, First World War, we are going to do this from the beginning, there will be a short window of opportunity to volunteer, and what that means is 72 of the army will be conscripted and they spread the burden out equally in the United States, so the idea that this is an army that represents the american population. There were a few reasons america decided to raise the army differently in the First World War, the first reason was they expected large casualties. America enters the war in 1917, the war has been going on 21 2 years so they understand they are going to need millions of men and they are worried after the first enthusiasm, there will be a dropoff and will not be able to build the massive army they needed and the second thing america was worried about was raising its army efficiently because they also new in 1917 that this would be at political war and that meant you had to raise an army that had to mobilize your economy as well. They were worried about the flip side the too many people would volunteer and that would drain manpower from industry and you might have been in the army but no guns or tanks or anything to fight with. It was a way to ensure efficient steady growth of mass military capable of fighting on the western front and and also going to be armed and fed. Central things to fight well. The demographic of the men being chosen represented the way the Selective Service regulations were enacted. The first set of regulations only clue to between 21, and 30 registered and in 1918 they expand that out to 18 to 45 so most are in that spot of 21 to 30 years old. We have but richly diverse population, and africanamericans are oversrepresented in terms of proportion of the population, as are ethnic soldiers, foreign speaking soldiers for the most part and a little bit of a technicality year, technically were not supposed to be drafted unless you declare your intent to become an american citizen. A lot of children didnt understand that regulation and so we end up with one of five soldiers in the army being an immigrant. The training for american soldiers in the First World War was fairly rudimentary and in a sense, how welltrained you were was dependent on when you entered the military. There was stateside training but we were not prepared even though we declared this war, Training Camp had to be built, you had to get these guys house, closed, a lot of guys training with sticks because they dont have rifles and maybe they are on the rifle range and learning marksmanship but they are not learning highly technical aspects of fighting in trench warfare. The units that did the best organized early, do the rudimentary training in the United States, they get training in trenches and also get training in combined arms because in trench warfare it is not enough, have to coordinate between infantry, artillery, aerial support, all these things, that is a lot of Technical Communications guys know what they are doing, the units that form early in 1917 have time to go through that, the time america actually enters the battlefield on 1918, learning to fight this war but a lot of guys are dropping in 1918, they get basic training and shipped to france and it is a critical moment in fighting and played in. One of the criticisms of the experience of the United States in the First World War is how many poorly trained troops to get thrown into battles. It should not be a surprise a lot of those guys end up as casualties. This was interesting, because of the delay in terms of getting into the war and everybody, recognition that it could take almost a full year for the United States to raise and train the army, a difference on the battlefield. This led to a big disagreement between france and United States because france said we have the expertise, the officers, we just need men. Give them to us and them out and made into our armies, this is the way america contributes. This is never something i will agree to. And french command, so john j. Pershing, the commander says no. We are going to form an independent American Army. This means a lot of time, not to train combat soldiers and organizing logistics to apply these guys and as they begin to move forward, you can make sure they got what they need and keep it going. For france it is interesting because of course their status when the First American troops arrived, there is a lot of criticism about the way america is fighting, the way it is organizing, forming an independent army. However, this is where i think we have a particular the important distinction between america and the First World War, a lot of american soldiers train temporarily with a fringe but there are a four residents, africanamerican residents given to the french for the entire course of the civil war and they are amalgamated and they fight exceptionally well and one of those units is 359, harlem hell fighters, the most famous regiments of the entire war, they are highly decorated. And in contrast to africanamerican combat units in the American Army where they are poorly trained the mid they have any difficulty at all are pulled out of line and people looking for an excuse to get rid of black officers. Out of that experience, africanamericans, comes a clear contrast between france and the United States, france is willing to give them a chance, train them well and show what they can do. Let them show the french what they can do. America is exactly opposite. America has this huge effect in terms of what happens on the battlefield. Even though there was a debate, does america matter in terms of final victory. When you think about the training issues the American Army has, the first thing we should ask was how high was the cost for americans to have that effect and what is always interesting is in world war i you have the deadliest battle in American History, a 47 day battle at the end of the war. America is victorious but that is americas debt this battle, nobody knows that. What is doubly interesting is very few people raise the question about why it was so deadly after the war. In the french case, the british case, the generals criticized for the high death toll they allowed under their watch. Pershing walked away unscathed. No one said you did the wrong thing in terms of sacrificing the lives, these men didnt have to die. The question is not the issue is not lack of preparation americans and make a difference, just the difference they made cost probably really high to them on an individual level. America sought actively in the First World War for six months and there were 52,000 american deaths. A lot of people for the amount of time on the battlefield, but the 52,000 compared to hundreds of thousands of french and german and british seemed very small. American sacrifice didnt seem that crazy compared to what the other nations had lost. When american soldiers come home, they are expected to go back to their old wives and pretty much walkaway at and say thanks for the memories. There is almost no preparation for their return home. America has not been prepared, they did not expect to end in 1918. They hadnt really constructed a a Hospital System to care for these men so when the war ends unexpectedly soon, how do you mobilize these men and return them home in a way that is going to help them readjust either emotionally or medically or vocationally . The government is completely unprepared for that. There are a few halfhearted efforts, pretty much the whole thing falls apart. The recent this is important, and certain political movements. To address this black of appropriate planning for their homecoming. The first moment the veteran activist that we see comes in the early 1920s when veterans agitate for something called just compensation. What they argue it is they get dumped back in the American Economy immediately a postwar recession, they cant get jobs and the government should have seen this coming. Civilians who stayed home in record wages and soldiers who served in the army get paid a dollar a day. What they want is adjusted compensation. The army paid to be retroactively adjusted so they win this argument in 1924 and are given something called just compensation certificate or a bonus but they dont get the cash but they get the bonds and for a lot of guys who serve in the military the whole board you get a bond that is going to mature in 20 years, a lot of money. In 1944. In 1924 they take the bond, accept the consequences. Second, big moment of political activism in the early 1930s in the midst of the great depression, veterans down on your lot, you have a government iou in your drawer, you dont want to wait for 1944. I want my money now. This week is the bonus march in washington d. C. Upwards of 40,000 veterans coming into d. C. Demanding payment of their compensation, bonuses certificate. Long version short, they dont get it in 1932, get violently ejected, they finally get it in 1936 but where this leads to it really matters is in the midst of world war ii. In world war ii, world war i veterans say you cant do this a second time. When our sons come home from world war ii, a massive constricted are you need to do a better job bringing them home than you did for us so learn some lessons from our experience and the lesson they want the government to learn basically is that g i bill of rights. The gi bill of rights which is what world war ii veterans get when they come home is a piece of legislation written and lobbied for and pushed through by world war i veterans. In that sense, failed homecoming for the First World War makes a difference in American Society because the adoption of the gee ideal, the government after world war ii, a bonus march of 4 million veterans, what is going to happen when we have 12, 14 million, we could have a social revolution in america, they dont want that to happen. That is the ultimate legacy politically of veterans activism, the gi bill of rights, a transformer if piece of legislation for average people during that time frame. Military service is a politicizing experience for millions of a men in the twentyfirst century. We see veterans becoming a post Political Force in American Society in the 20th century. Not just the American Legion or groups advocating for Veterans Benefits but we see Civil Rights Movements coming out of these wars. They come home and energize the Civil Rights Movement in a new direction, provide new leadership and new ideas and that transforms the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. World war i does matter in American History, a pivotal conflict that deserves a lot more love than it can still get for most readers of American History. You are watching booktv on cspan2, this weekend we are in anaheim, calif. With the help of our local cable partner time warner. Next, gustavo areliano, author of ask a mexican, talks about the stereotypes he has witnessed as a latino american. The idea came from my editor, he would ask questions about mexicans, i was only latino and staff, the only latino of color so silly stuff like what does this word mean in spanish . Why did mexicans like bear readers and tacos so much. There are a lot of ignorant people who have questions, we should make fun of from so lets do a column called ask a mexican, an advice column where people ask about mexicans. I wasnt offended by the idea of ask a mexican but didnt want to do it because i didnt think anyone would care. In journalism you want to do something, stories that people will care about one way or another. The idea at, who is going to want to read an advice column about mexicans, it seems so silly but needed to fill in a space in the paper so i will go back and only one time, a satirical column, jokey, not true at all, what is the dumbest question someone could ask about mexicans . He asked me before. Supposed to be an advice column, so dear mexican, wide to mexicans call people bring those . A slightly harsher word for gringos. So high wrote it and filed it, could stand by this, i was wrong and people went absolutely nuts, people loved or hated it and people were carrying and crazier, at the bottom of the column, a joke column, ask me, i am a mexican. People started sending questions immediately. What part of illegal dont mexicans understand . Is it to george w. Father stole the head of pancho villa, where the history of tortillas, whatever you can imagine about mexicans, people asked him and continue to ask me questions. The funniest one was wyatt are mexicans always so happy . I could see them picking strawberries, packed into a truck, laughing, all of that, questions like that, how can you ever forget that . America even more than 150 years after we took over the american southwest from mexico we still insist with mexicans. Mexicans are a mystery to us. You and cry about it and say we are so misunderstood or you contrive to examine where that comes from and answers questions. They have been around one 50 years. Where do you want to start . All become gang members and a dropout to become pregnant, we dont care about education, they are all catholic, we all hate white people, and mexicans hate everyone except the people we ate the most are mexicans themselves. So many misconceptions this some of them are based on stereotypes. My job as a columnist is to do the research. People say mexicans love to drink and drive, lets look at the deal irate. And lets look at the bier of justice. Give this serious answer, and the mexican cuss words. This is not an academic column. I left academia. And the vulgar and humorous. And criticisms about mexicans come from everywhere. And criticisms from the left that this is an anti mexican column, defeating a very serious subject which is the treatment of mexicans right now. And it is not racist enough against mexicans and racist and against white people. But the question of race is something that is there. And american racial relationship, historically black and white and maybe asian and indian on reservations, who cares about them and you get mexicans and americans have never been able to figure out mexicans. We hate them more than blacks . How are they lower or higher than blacks . A lot has been written about, historian once into the Mexican American in chicago and said the ethnic whites of chicago and the africanamericans of chicago, take it relate to us mexicans because we were not as racist as the white folks. The white people could relate to us because we were not black, we were right in the middle. Is interesting now because what is happening especially mexicans moving into the south, republican politicians go to africanamericans and say we havent like you for 200 years that we have a new group, lets unite in hating these mexicans so those questions are the questions i take on and i say when it comes to racial issues in this country it has always been a game of maneuvering and using the newest people, using the newest people to demonize the people that follow. We will never be post Racial Society but we can say this is what we have to do. We have more similarities than differences. Lets unite against racists or discrimination. Q mary is an amazing tool to talk about serious issues, satire. I always love satire. Satire is a way to play the fool, to make very important points, a political issue mayor, and since 1776. People might dont like being lectured act or read academic tests, they want to get outraged. More importantly, easier kills to swallow when laughing and to say somebody going to yank yank yank. No one wants to the reprimanded. Even racist. People might say screw you, got to stab i got that before. I dont agree with your politics at all but you are really funny and i like reading it. For me it is all incremental victories. If you are at least reading what i have to say you are paying attention to what you have to say which is better than what the country is right now, listening to the point of view, demonize it as demonize it immediately saying coming from this person or this political point of view, is not even worth while to Pay Attention to it and that is just toxic to our country. There will always the opportunity to bring humor into the most racist or horrific questions. Y they mexican men liked to read so much which is absolutely nuts, think about it. I remember reading it. When you get those questions you know theyre trying to go view into yelling and yelling doesnt do anything. It does not do anything. I remember i got the question, you think you are really clever, lets play ball. I end ed up debunking that question. A real quick answer. In American History men of color have always been demonized for their hypersection quality and criminal sensuality but the stats dont merit such a stereotype. Stats prove white. Who are twice as likely to commit Sexual Assault than mexican food to end more likely to commit Sexual Assault on africanamerican men but you never hear that discussed in the media at especially with demagogues, demagogues dont like the truth, demagogues like stereotypes but that is what i do. I dont get flustered by that horrific question. I was able to answer and cut many spanish word so i went, i always get the last word. That is the key and i always get the last word. People want me to getting 3 or hyperventilate. I will never be like that. Could mexicans talking trash on africanamerican, i am not an apologist for anything but when it comes to mexicans i tackle hate no matter what is. When i get mexican homophobic mexicans, i handled it you get it, you are a racist but mexicans, we cant cry discrimination if we are doing the same thing other people are doing to us. What i learned from doing this is the American People, there is a lot of racism out there but not as much as you would think. Which gladness me. I get it. They are all scandinavian, and living on your street. A lot of questions, i devised in between innocently ignorant and willfully ignorant. The willfully ignorant are what part do Illegal Immigrants dont understand, why are mexican so drunk, that is based on someones bias that they should get over. And questions that are innocently ignorant. Why does so much mexican music have all that music and in. And they came from german and czech immigrants. And why call that racist . It is innocent and ignorant. At that point my job is to educate those folks and a lot of americans are like that. They are ignorant of a lot of things that have, a lot of questions they have but what i want people, when they read ask a mexican, mexicans are just like americans if not more so. If anything this idea, this stereotype about mexicans not being like previous generations of immigrants is overblown. We are different, mexico is right across the border from the United States but in this day and age we are in a globalized society. Even if you are from thailand and get a plane ride and a day later you are in thailand, on line you can keep up with your culture but mexicans will always have been assimilating into this country. Mexicans are american has not joes. Mexicans are assimilating into the United States, and want to acknowledge that assimilation. So learn. If you have a question about mexicans it is a great experience. I tell people it is a great book to take on road trips, great book to take on airplanes, dont care how you read it. Is not something you have to read from cover to cover, just pick up any time, read it, had a couple laughs. Is an evergreen book, a book that will always sell little by little because people will always have questions about mexicans and you get to learn and get entertained. Now on booktv a literary tour of anaheim, calif. With the help of our local cable partner, time warner. We start our trip by sitting in on a class at Chapman University where students the studying the writings of holocaust survivor elie wiesel. We are going to be reading memoirists, and the vienna paradox, part of doing that is to feel our way, talking about next tuesday evening but also because we have already begun me the article to realize the term holocaust survivor is the nuanced one. This class actually began when we learned elie wiesel would be coming to Chapman University for four years beginning in spring of 2011 and the president , chancellor of the university, asked if he would be interested in coming back as a president ial fellow for a week each spring. To my very great surprise and delight, agreed. My colleague in english, jan osborn and i, created a course to engage students in different disciplines in the university and coming to understand elie wiesel, not only as a holocaust survivor and witness, but as the author of some 60 different books which encompass many different genres. It began as a real kind of adventure for my colleagues and i. To sit in a seminar with students indeed works you havent had a chance to read before. Part of what makes the class like this a wonderful learning experience is bringing together students who are taking the course for general education or credit in different disciplines. There are students in the class taking it for religious study credit. Many of the themes we are going to be talking about in the course are religious themes and ethical fema is. Students taking the course for english credits and then we have a great there are students, business communication, business major, film majors. I think that is part of the luxury of being able to teach a seminar classes like this, limited to 20 students, to be able to have them really learning from one another. Sitting around a table, literally sitting around the table and having the chance to have those kinds of interdisciplinary conversations. The question of how to connect history to the writing, we begin come as one would expect, with night, not only a story of what happened to elie wiesel and his family in the ghetto and in auschwitz, but trying also to look at the world and the message that created that. And ultimately lead to auschwitz. We really have to look at the history, the power of propaganda and i think that leads us to think about questions of our own time, what messages we listen to, how deeply we probe that messages. I tell my students always, this is for our good, but what is the good . What is the good . For who . Sometimes we get tired of asking that question. But i think if we learned anything from elie wiesel and is writing, it is to keep asking the questions even if we cant find the answers, keep asking questions. For myself i have been doing this for quite a few years and i never teach the same course twice. I am always changing books, always trying, sometimes with some success, sometimes not, trying to bring books to get there, in conversation with each other and i think a very fine, short history book, it could be a scaffolding with in which we can place the memoir, reading other writers, and it helps us to frame the discussion where we go deeper. In some ways the history, very good history text can provide a canvas that allows you to developed the smaller areas, and choose the colors. It all fits together and another memoir, speaking in my class earlier today about a fascinating memoir by a great scholar of modern literature, a new book coming out in may, the age of irony, talking about her memoir, being a child in vienna, leaving her home with her parents in 1938, and how much her life was affected by nazism but in such bad different way than elie wiesel. I think history provides structure in which we can then go in depth into individual experience. One thing one doesnt want to do in teaching something as complex as the holocaust and similar topics where one talks about darfur or wherever, is to overwhelm with the magnitude of it. I think we look at a screen and we see bodies, the footage from other camps. Our First Response is to say that is horrible and theres nothing i can do about it. What we really want to do is teach in a way that connects individual experience and makes you feel by being a dedicated involve citizen of the world, you can make a difference in the world. I see my role as an educator to try to mentor students so they have had this experience when possible, connected with survivors like elie wiesel or my friends Natalie Weinstein gold and others. Jane austin only learn of the millions of stories that make up the holocaust, have any idea what it really was. It is all these different threats the pharma tapestry. It is important to be the witnesses to the future. And move that history forward to a time where people would not have the opportunity to experience it. This weekend we are in anaheim, calif. With the help of our local cable partner time warner. Next, lori cox han discusses the history of women in politics and the dairy is she sees facing women seeking higher offices. The history of women in politics does that farther than you realize. Victoria would halt in 1876 before women got the right to vote. In 1920. There is a long history if you look at different ways of the womens Rights Movement of women not only fighting for suffrage but political and legal equality. If you look at the different ways the womens Rights Movement and feminism, there is a time period when women are politically active in different ways. In a contemporary sense, one of the biggest defenses for women going into Political Office was in 1992, what we referred to as the year of the woman because so many women were running for office and got elected that year. That was a big significant increase in numbers at the state level. That marked a very important turning point. For two decades we have seen a lot of attention focused on women getting elected to higher positions so we are worried about 20 in terms of women serving congress. One area in terms of executive positions we have not seen as dramatically i women as governors. We have only had 35, 36 women serve as governors in the nations history so theres a disparity in terms of women getting into executive positions. When we talk about electing the first woman president or Vice President , that is a significant there is debate whether or not it is still called the Glass Ceiling lose some refer to it as a glass elevator. That seems to be the last hurdle, that women in politics need to which eve to be able to say there are no barriers and the political system for women. The interesting thing about the fact we have not seen more women governors is if you look at the largest states, california, new york, florida, illinois, pennsylvania, texas, texas is the only state that has every elected a woman governor but the most recent was in 1990 so even there we have seen a woman run for governor in texas recently. It is especially surprising given california, new york are blue states, more progressive. We have had women run in california. It is unique statebystate. And what is contributing to fewer women seeking these offices, and women in politics, a lot of research and Political Science that supports that, one of the biggest issues is fewer women are choosing to run for Public Office right now and younger women especially dont seem as enthused about getting involved in politics so that means you have fewer women in the political pipeline so when you look at what we would call the circle of potential president ial candidates every four years you tend to look at governors, particularly governors of the state, Leaders Within congress, current or former Vice President and there are not many women there. In congress the only women is nancy pelosi. It is now my privilege to present the gavel of the United States house of representatives to the first woman speaker in our history, the gentlelady from california, nancy pelosi. [cheers and applause] is still a minority leader. Who, not enough to consider running for president. We saw history being made with a woman running for president on the republican or the democratic side. It is a matter of getting women into the pipeline. And having them be seen as viable candidates. We are moving forward on that issue particularly from this years campaign. Once the legacy will come from the campaign in 2008 and 2016 is the fact it is not that surprising anymore to see a woman running for president. Carly fiorinas campaign as well, started to get used to seeing at least one woman on the debate stage during the primaries and i think that will be important moving forward to make sure that progress continues. More women not only on the democratic side the republicans side as well. Im not sure what is worse, democrats republicans. Democrats have not nominated woman is a running mate since 1984. Neither party has a good record where that is concerned because over that time period there have been so many women on both sides that would have been terrific running mates for any number of candidates so both parties need to do a better job. Both parties are concerned about getting the womens vote. The gender gap favors democrats but when you look closer at the numbers, 2012, mitt romney won among white women and married women and those have a higher turnout than women of color or women, single women or working moms, a single moms, not that the democrats have a lock on no womens vote. Having a woman as a running mate might be good out reach to women voters but again, the assumption that women would fall in line and vote for Hillary Clinton has not proven true because she has struggled to with not only polling but in the early states, having overwhelming number of women support her. Not only women supporting republican candidates which we forget sometimes that there are plenty of women and younger foot women voting bernie sanders. Is not automatic. Younger women particularly millennial women, as a view of feminism, womens rights differently than previous generations. They feel, and i hear this a lot from my students, they feel they can do anything they want. There are no barriers in the work force, they have access to any opportunity. Younger women are very interested in what happened in the previous generations among gloria steinem, they tend to have more diversified view of how they define feminism and womens rights. I know older women say to you take for granted you have all these things, but they have grown up in a different culture than women fighting for all these things in the 60s and 70s. The generational difference is the challenge to how the womens Rights Movement continues, and going discussion about what is feminism and how do we define it. The conventional wisdom of how we used to look at what it will take to elect a woman president or why dont we have more women in politicking, a lot of those are myths. There is no empirical evidence to support it. When you look at what challenges there are for a woman to get elected president you have to look at the entire context of its is just as challenging for a man to get elected president with the idea that it is so much harder for a woman, is really hard for anyone to get affected president. When you think about the long process of the campaign in the pre nomination, invisible primary, not so invisible anymore and throughout the nomination period and getting your partys nomination at the general election at various points, gender does matter. If you look at Hillary Clinton in 2008, and i heard people say she lost because she is a woman. Theres no evidence of that. Shes very good at fund raising, she has proven that throughout her career. There were problems in her 2008 campaign. Maybe it is not so much he lost but barack obama won the democratic nomination. At obama not been in the race she might have gotten the nomination, probably would have and this would be the last year of the Hillary Clinton presidency. The traditional argument why it is important for women to be elected in to hire Public Office is it is a very symbolic and very important way to show women do have equal standing, we are considered equal in the eyes of the law. Also politically as well. They kind of take a different interpretation from some of these things. A lot of my students will say, okay, yeah, we need to elect the first woman president , but when will we have the first latino president . Theyre interested in broader issues other than just that. So i think that that might help as we move forward to see more diversity in politics because were not locked into just one particular view of what the president or what a politician is supposed to look like. During booktvs recent visit to an human, california, we spoke with Robert Slayton about the life of longtime new york governor al smith and his impact on more than politics. On american politics. Of course, i am delighted but not surprised by the final repeal of the 18th amendment. I felt all along that when this matter was properly submitted to the rank and file be file of our people, they would readily see that it had no mace in our constitution no place in our constitution. Al smith was a pass breaker. Or, perhaps, he was better as a pathfinder. He really introduced important elements into our poll you cannings. Politics. He was one of the greatest governors of new york state. He created the modern State Government. In many ways he actually rationalized State Government at a time before it was somewhat fairly chaotic, particularly financially. He was a model reformer or because he was financially extremely sound, and yet on the other hand he was a builder and a great introducer of welfare legislation of various sorts. Al smith actually is a true ragstoriches story. He grew up on the east side of new york. His mother and father were of immigrant descent. He was fairly poor, but he it wa very happy family, very nice family. His father was the term is a teamster, its now like a cardage man. He would carry stuff around from the docks, usually trunks to hotels, whatever. His father died fairly young. He had to go to work very, very early. He dropped out of school. He does not have an eighth grady proposal ma. He does not. Diploma. He is totally selftaught. His most famous job was he worked in the fish market. Later on when he became a new york state representative, theres a famous story where hes debating, hes a democrat, and hes debating a republican who was definitely from the upper crust. And another representative comes in in the middle of the debate and interrupts, boys, boys, ive got big news, cornell just won the big boat race. Wow. Okay. So the other gentleman, the republican hes debating says, well, doesnt much mean much to me. Im a u of m man, university of michigan. And they say we hope youre not bothering you, al. He says, no, no problem, im an fsn man myself. Fsn . Were not what school is that . Fulton fish market, now can we get on with the discussion . So he starts out, he works for tammany hall. Hes actually a runner for tammany hall. He started out as a young man, theyd give you little assignments, oh, would you run this error . Its called taking a contract. And it was a solemn oath. You never broke your oath when you took a contract, or you never got one again. Hes a very verbose young man. Hes got good oratorical abilities, hes playing around with the theater, and he rises up, and they run him for state legislature. Now, something remarkable happens x its not entirely and its not entirely clear why. Im probably one toover the leading historians on him, and its not 100 clear. He gets up to albany to the state legislature, and he is, hes a hack. Hes supposed to be a hack. Hes supposed to take tammany hall orders. Its always what hes supposed to do. And he starts out that way, and it bothers him. Itit bothers him. He wants to be more. Why . I mean, its just remarkable. And he will stay he goes to the statement library, the legislature has a library Just Like Congress does, and he pulls lubbock. This guy has a seventh grade education, maybe even sixth. And he starts to realize x. If you know the law, its a very finagled system. Hell look up, you know, state statute 695. 43 which is an amendment to 431511. And hell look up 435111, and then he just, hell stay up until two or three in morning and then goes to work. He does that for months at a time until he becomes the master of state law. I believe its 1913, the triangle shirt waist fire. Thats one of the Great American tragedies. It was a sweatshop, just a sweatshop. It was on the ninth and tenth floor, eighth or ninth or telephoneth floor of a building tenth floor of a building. The buildings till around, its right near nyu. It was a sweatshop. You had a big room with tables. The tables were 75 feet long, and they were bolted to the wall on one side. So in order to move down if you were all the way on the end, you had to go 75 feet down. You had row after row of sewing machines and women sewing endlessly. Horrible work. Below the sewing machine was lint, tufts of lint to which oil dropped, a lubricating oil from the she sewing machine. Rows of these, hundreds of these. We never know what started the fire. We do not know what started the fire. They claim somebody was smocking, but cigarette smoking, but cigarette smoking was illegal there. All we know is it went, and it went up fast. First of all, to get out you had a 75foot span to run if you were all the way at the end. There were only a couple of exits. There was a second door, but it was chained shut because that was legal in order to make sure nobody stole any goods. So they chained it shut, the fire door. There was an elevator. Women fled the flames. And on the last elevator going down, you could hear thumps on the way down as bodies fell op top of on top of it. Women jumped out. You had a choice; either you burped to death or you burned to death, or you fall. The new York State Legislature appoints a commission to investigate. The chair of the commission is Robert Wagner who passes the wagner act, otherwise known as the Social Security act. We created Social Security. Smith is the vice chair. And they investigate. They really, really go around new york which is the drain industrial state, and they really investigate conditions. And they start to reform. The conditions they see are terrible. Investigators taken up into these places where theres almost no fire escape, where theres a little cubbyhole in order to get out. And he doesnt just look, he crawls through it. He sees what it is. He is moved by this, because he knows where hes coming from, who he is, and he knows this is his people. And they change america. You go to a Movie Theater, you go to any Movie Theater where darkness is at a premium, you have to have it dark in order to see the silver screen, have it light up for you. And that darkness is interrupted by a red sign saying fire exit. Fire exit. That is al smith. Al smith got that passed, that you have to have clearlymarked fire exits. In the days before electricity, it was just a bright red sign, but you have to have that. One of the things on all fire doors, and all americans know this unconsciously, theres a bar you push in order to get out, and the door swings open. Thats al smith. There was one time where it was a negotiating session, and i forget even what party. Industrialists werent willing to give a damn thing to working people, and he just wouldnt give in. And smith finally he was governor then. He finally looked at him, and he said, charlie, your brain should be melted down by a company for use in billiard balls. And they all laughed, and they started to negotiate. He totally reorganized the State Government. At one time state finances were absolutely chaotic. What would happen was there were hundreds of state departments. There were just hundreds and totally repetitive. They would all be submitting budge. Nobody would ever figure out who got whatover whatever. Actually, the only guy who really knew was the clerk who put together the budget and maybe, and thats doubtful, the speaker of the house. That was it. Smith codifies this into a system of executive departments each of which is in charge of different agencies in cutting out the repetition. It is, he is known more for social legislation, but he is the great administrative reformer in the history of new york state. In fact be, it was roosevelt who placed smiths name before the democratic president ial convention at houston, texas, in 1928. The demonstration of als own bailiwick, new york city at the time of his election, set a new record for ticker tape and tornup telephone books. His popularity is very strong in new york. Now, keep in mind in those days the term empire state was very real. It is the biggest state in the union by far in those days. It is inevitable just as today the governor of a large state would naturally be discussed as a potential president ial candidate. In 1924 you have the worst Political Convention in American History, and i am not kidding and making that up. Ill give you a statistic to prove my claim. 1924 the democrats meet in Madison Square garden, and they deadlock between the two grade factions, the rural democrats the party of William Jennings bryan and the urban democrats, the party of al smith. And they deadlock totally and hatefully. There is a resolution condemning the my god, the ku klux klan, and it fails it actually fails, they will not do it. On the other hand, tammany hall, tammany hall takes one of the giant, loudest sirens off a fire engine they can find, and whenever smiths name is mentioned, they start the siren going in order to drown out the crowd, and everybody hates it. I mean, its just a hateful, disastrous convention. It goes on. And it goes on. And it goes on. Were used to a Political Convention being on the first ballot. Now, in the days before primaries it would take three or four or five or even seven or eight. The 1924 Democratic Convention goes to 104 ballots. It is the longest in American History. Will rogers says the best line, he says, these people new york invited you here as quests, they didnt invite you here to live it was terrible. And thats really his introduction to the national stage. By 1928 the urban forces had gaped ascendancy, and he gets the nomination, and so on it goes. From the very, very first, there is an article on i forget the magazine, it was one of the leading intellectual magazines. This isnt a do you have my, you know, rightwing sheet. And they say can, an extremely article says no catholic can ever become president because he owes his allegiance to a foreign moderate who lives in rome. And its just, its very erudite, its by a lawyer. This isnt some hysterical piece, but it is in a Major National intellectual publication. And smith has to answer it. Its a very good answer. Its actually ghost written by one of his key advisers whos jewish which he thinks is quite amusing, the fact that a catholic is responding to a protestant with a piece written by a jew. So it was kind of interesting in that way. And it just builds. It is kind of like a snowball rolling down the hill to hell and gaining in thats a mixed metaphor, but okay. Rolling down a hill and just gaining, getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And by the way, he loses badly. The crushing blow to him personally, he actually loses even new york state. He loses his beloved new york state. In the 28 president ial election. I actually with tracked down what would he have known of america. I tracked down as much as possible. I tracked down what could have been his textbooks, and theyre all very nationalistic, america is great, Andrew Jackson and george washington. Its all great. He, as far as i could find out, there were two exposures to the rest of america. One, he went to wild bill codys wild west show. So thats america. A noble cowboy shooting indians, and the heroes of the plains, and he also read a book put out by the Police Gazette on the life and times of john l. Sullivan, the boxer, who was from boston. Which could have been the moon, as far as he was concerned. If you come up and youre strong and youre irish, america will love you. What a great country. What a wonderful, great cup. And then he ran great country. And then he ran into an ugly wall. He was very bitter, extremely bitter by it. It shattered his illusions about america. It wasnt just a loss, as hard as that was, and that was very hard. It shattered his illusions about what this country was. After 1928 one of his key backers now, al doesnt have a job. And hes not a rich guy. One of his key backers says, were going to take care of you. Were building the worlds tallest building, and youre going to be president with a very nice salary. So al smith becomes the first president of the empire state building. If you go to the empire state building, you walk in the lobby, and its magnificent. Its just an art deco masterpiece. And at the end of the lobby, theres this multicolored tile mural thats just beautiful. And youll see on it at the head of it it says alfred e. Smith, president. Franklin was an upandcoming politician, and he worked with him. I believe that he cared tremendously for franklin roosevelt, or but he looked at him as a boy. At one point when he was governor, franklin was head of a commission, and they have an argument because franklins objecting to being treated harshly by robert moses. And al sends him a letter reprimanding him, says you dont know what youre talking about. And when i read that, it reminded me of my father who loved me very dearly, and i loved him back, you know . But every once in a while you get when youre 12 years old too big for your britches. And he would say to me, you have still got milk on your chip. And it reminded me that was the tone of als letter to franklin. Youre a boy, and you dont know yet. When franklin becomes president , al becomeses very bitter and opposes him. And there are some ideological differences as well, which ill explain, but its also very personal. Because what al says is and franklin even in 32 wins in a smashing victory that the American People had repudiated him, the real thing in his view, and accepted this half a guy and given him accolades . Thats wrong. Thats wrong. There is a note to al, handwritten note, and it is on governor its a governors card stock, governors card, and its handwritten by the governor, and its 1930. Now, al left the governorship in 928 to run for president , i know who succeeded him. And im just starting ten years of research, and its a handwritten note. Oh, my god, i know who this is. And i kid you not, my breath is coming fast at this point. Im getting breathless. I open it up, and there it is signed, your pal, frank roosevelt. He really is an honorable man. He is one of the first people in new york not the first, but hes part of the early cadre to speak out against hitler. He says this is wrong, this is just wrong. He took me a while to figure, he loves animals. He really, really loves animals. And i figure, my god, youre growing up he was near the docks. When he was a kid, go back to being a kid near the docks, what was new now new yorks south stt sea seaport, and what would happen, a ship would come in. Long ocean voyages are really, really boring. I mean, really boring. Youre not talking about going from new york to london in four or five days like the titanic, youre talking about months at sea. So youd get a pet. Youd get a monkey, youd get a dog, you know . Really nice. Now, youre in a port for a month or two with, thats a pain in the as, s. Is so you give it to a local kid. He had a miniature zoo in the back of his house on the lower east side. He looed animals. His protege is robert moses, and he really got robert moses into new york state politics. Hes really the godfather of robert moses. Robert moses was a son of a bitch and didnt like anybody, and he loved al smith for the that. Robert moses never served under every governor from al smith to nelson rockefeller. He called every one of them by their fist first name. Theres only one man he addressed as governor, and that was al smith. So he did something beautiful for his friend. Al, by then, was living on fifth avenue. And robert moses made him the night custodian of the central park zoo with a key. And al would go over there later in his life, and he would just go and play with the animals all night. He would go in and he was marvelous with them. He was absolutely marvelous with them. The great story, he trained a tiger. Now, youve got to understand the tiger is the symbol of tammany hall. Tamnys great enemy who actually dismantled it is a very famous mayor of italianamerican descent. And he trained the tiger so that when visitors came by, hed look into the cage, and hed look at the tiger and go, laguardia and the tiger would go, roar and it was terrific theater. It was just wonderful theater. And that was his, how he ended his years. The majestic it was majestic, it was very lovely. It was the greatest gift possible. For more information on booktvs recent visit to anaheim and the many other destinations on our cities tour, go to cspan. Org citiestour. And run in running for the presidency, reagan had courted key religious right operatives by vowing to nominate only committed prolife jurists to the nations highest court. His winning of the national right to life committees endorsement, in fact, had been secured in two private meetings with the groups president where he had promised her just that. Oconnor, then, was a startling choice. Prolifers duck up oconnors voting records from her time as an arizona lawyer, and they find a worrisome choice. Reagans shocking intention in the words of a Council Fundraising letter to nominate oconnor seemed an especially insulting move to prolife advocates. At the white house, 50 leaders from various religious right organizations complained to Martin Blackwell of their growing sense that, given his actions, the president didnt, quote, think this coalition contributed significantly to his election. Internally, the religious right faced challenges of its own making. Importantly, for all the talk of an Ecumenical Movement on behalf of conservative social issues, the religious right operated largely along denominational lines in its dealings with the reagan white house. At the leadership ranks, religious right organizations sometimes coordinated with each other but more often worked alone or in partnership. Especially evangelical and fundamental bist groups with likeminded believers. This had been the case in the runup to the 1980 election but divided operations in a Campaign Season seemed the most long call way logical way to mobilize diverse constituencies. The the conviction among conservative catholics, the mormons and the evangelicals that Ronald Reagan was the man they needed in the white house to deliver on their goals had united their divided efforts. Once reagan assumed the presidency, these disparate strands of conservative christianity would come together as the bloc representing traditionalism and religious values. To make sure the president turned the nation back to god and delivered on their agenda. While there were moments of cooperation and common cause within the religious right during the reagan years, far more often the various components of the network worked in isolation, opening up divisions even within shared issues and working in direct opposition on other issues they had never really discussed. The religious right foundered at what could have been its best moment yielding political consequences and reflecting their unique theological quiks. Convictions. What emerged during the reagan years with was, at best, the loose coalition of conservative, frequently fraught with dissension and the possibility of dispersion. For a white house that hesitated over aligning itself too closely with what often appeared a radioactive religious right, the divisions within the network proved a use withful scapegoat. Rather than working too smooth ratherren than working to smooth over disagreements and broker compromises, reagan officials largely sat back and allowed the infighting and disunity to continue, then pointed to the chaos as a way to avoid the responsibility of leadership or to explain away disappointing legislative setbacks. On the religious rights two major objectives for the reagan Presidency School prayer and abortion the networks fractured nature helped doom policy objectives that had always been a formidable project. And on other issues of National Concern including welfare reform and the nuclear arms race, evangelicals, catholics and mormons took differing positions that common astronauted their political divergence and challenged the notion of conservative you can you minnism. I talk about how these moments or opportunities for political victories around these important cause, these causes that many keys thought reagan would be the great champion of, namely abortion and School Prayer but other issues that i explore in the chapter, they really fall apart x. One of the explanations that i give for that is that this movement is so kind of new in terms of its political organizing and its political advocacy. And so in the late 70s as theyre coming together as kind of a coherent political constituency to bring reagan into office, its quite easy for them to imagine getting stuff done on shared political issues, so abortion or School Prayer. But once reagan is in office and these things have to be tackled not just in terms of politics, but have to be tackled legislatively and through the political process, the Movement Really falls apart because you see these groups not really unifying, but, in fact, kind of scurrying to their own corners and pursuing their own political and their own legislative and legal strategies that are sometimes at odds with each other. And a lot of these have to do with different theological positions, say, on abortion that the Catholic Church is putting forward, putting forward a political strategy that will allow for no exceptions while as mormons and evangelicals, theyre more willing to work at kind of political compromises on questions like abortion. Or on School Prayer you have different activists realizing that this idea of a constitutional amendment to restore School Prayer is a nice idea, but how do you actually do that . How do you write a piece of legislation that appeases everyone and, in fact, doesnt kind of fend or put your own kind of religious values in jeopardy because what you dont want is, or you know, your evangelical child saying a prayer that might sound too catholic or too mormon. And so these issues kind of fall apart at the policy and the legislative era through the reagan administration. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. Youre watching booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Heres a look at whats on prime time tonight. We kick off the evening at 6 45 p. M. Eastern with. Eric son. Eric erickson. His book is you will be made to care the or war on faith, family and your freedom to believe. Then at 7 30 former u. N. Assistant secretary general Michael Doyle talks about interventionism. And at nine, science journalist sonya shaw reports on the spread of infectious disease. Thats followed by after words with Washington Post columnist e. J. Dionne talking to fox news Juan Williams about republican politics. And we finish up our prime time programming with an 11 p. M. E. T. Program. John steel gordon gives a history of the washington monument. That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. Host and now next on booktv, a discussion of the solicitor general and the United States supreme court. Theres the book cover. Coauthor is university of wisconsin professor ryan owens. Professor owens, what is a us have to have general . Solicitor general . Guest so the solicitor general is the attorney for the United States. He or she represents the United States interests in the supreme court, occasionally in the federal circuit courts of appeals, but is really the central figure in terms of litigating the u. S. position before supreme court. Host whether or not that person is an expert in the topic being discussed or not, its more of a Trial Attorney type thing . Guest well, so thats a good question. So the office of the solicitor general sort
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