This evening. I want to give a special thank you for our book friends for this beautiful spread of snacks and also really to take another opportunity to thank lemuria bookstore. We are grateful for them as always. [applause] really, former governor mississippi governor needs no introduction. You are familiar with many years of work in our nations capitol. I was talking years ago with richard ford, former mississippian and novelist and was describing and wandering around the campus and open it is door to a lecture hall and there is barber. So governor with many, many talents. But i will say what may have been the most significant chapter for mississippi was governor barber. Over the next year governor, First Responder and Public Officials all over mississippi and the gulf coast worked tirelessly in an chartered territory. They give a behindthescenes look and the important lessons he has taken away from that particular journey. I have been fortunate to experience firsthand the governments talents to making the impossible possible. Its about a 12. Month publication. And this came out in six. The many people who helped check facts, round up photos and do a lot of the work to make the book happened and also the press staff. That was very meaningful for us. Governor, were grateful for you telling the story. Once again, you bring out the best in those around you, so thank you and welcome and youre going to tell us a little bit more about your book. [applause] thank you very much. I shouldnt have done that. Thanks to everybody at the University Press for doing this. Its funny, when i thought about writing this book i have a casual friendship with john machum and random house. I saw him and i said, you know, if i write a book about ca trippa, do katrina, do you think yall would be interested in publishing. He said, sure i will. You ought to give Government Press and mississippi to do this. Theyll think that this is special because youve been governor and all that. Well, i tried them. Do you think you can get it done in six months . He was right. He gave me the right advice and i was fortunate to take it. When i was chairman of the Republican National committee i added to the book on Public Policy that was written by 13 committees that we had pointed on different subject matters, but as far as writing a book, this is my first time to do that. Likely my last time to do that. [applause] i cant tell you u i look at jamie back there and the two of them mostly wrote, typed what i wrote out in longhand, and hundreds of pages in longhand, and then we edited and jerry nash, it was great. I didnt know when you write a book, before it gets posted you read it about 15 times. I thought this was a great book. [applause] about the 12th i was like, does anybody want to read this. Its the book i had to write. Youre going to see this weekend why i felt like i had to write it, and that is because the news media pays very, very little attention to mississippi after the storm. I always say that the news media dont like to cover airplanes land safely. They dont consider that good news. Those things didnt happen in mississippi. Worst National Disaster in American History. It wasnt just a coastal, a third of the fatalities happened inland. Columbus were declared major disaster areas because of the amount of destruction in those counties, more than 200 miles inland. To see it and frankly, you had to see it in person to get it, to capture the scale of the destruction, the type of the destruction. You just couldnt get that off of a Television Camera or newspaper. You had to see it. As time went on, i thought about this storm and maybe the tenth anniversary would be the right time to try to write a book about the storm that told the story that not everybody got to see and have you ever virtually wasnt covered enough. People who had the misfortune, to whatever you want to call it, to bare of National Disaster of American History. Insurance laws. It was the third deadliest National Disaster in American History and it barreled right into us. All of those who grew up in the gulf south know that when a hurricane comes up north to south, the worst place to be is in the northeast quadrant, the upperright hand. Like a boxers right cross. Mississippi line which is the pearl river. Mississippi and louisiana make a 90degree angle. It pushed it all into that corner with 150160 mill after an f hour winds. We thought camile would be the bad as can be. We planned for katrina. The thing is the goal standard. It couldnt get worst in katrina. It couldnt get worst than camile. Well, katrina was much worst than camile like i said, the winds werent as high. That wasnt the problem. It was the storm surge, it was the great storm surge ever reported in the history of meterology. The storm surge was more than 30feet deep. 38feet deep when you count the waves on top. Everything was gone. The problem was it was also gigantic. The eye was 32 miles across. 70something miles away, the storm surge was still more than 20 feet deep, more than 20 feet above sea level. Nothing left but the foundation. In fact, most people dont remember downtown mobile flooded from the storm surge that was generated by a storm that came on shore at the peal river. So this storm wrecked havoc. And you had to see it. And ill never forget the first time i saw it. We couldnt get out on monday. The storm came in monday morning and the roads were totally covered in debris. This is the greatest amount of debris ever left in the wake of a hurricane. It was twice as much as hurricane andrew in florida in 1992. 42 million cubic yards of debris that were on the ground and got picked up by somebody the federal government paid. That doesnt include all the debris that was on the ground in private yards and inland counties, thats just what the federal government registered and had to pay for. 47 million cubic yards. 11 months. You cant Start Building until you get the debris cleaned up. So this storm was genuinely unique. It was incredibly awful, and i always tell people, katrina, one storm but two disasters. One disaster was what happened in mississippi, this hurricane, this storm surge with 150mile 150mileanhour winds. New orleans, if you saw a picture in time magazine, which i did, a couple of weeks after the storm, they had pictures of new orleans and water would be up to the tops of windows at homes. It was awful. Its a terrible, terrible disaster. The very different from ours, because you had looked, there wasnt one shingle off a roof in the pictures. It was all done by rising water flood that resulted from when the levies were topped and then when they gave way. So very different from what we went through and awful. When i saw it Tuesday Morning after the storm on monday from a helicopter, it looked as if a Nuclear Weapon had gone off sound off the coast, wiped away the coast. Some places for miles. So that means that if youre in bay st. Louis, the storm surge is tearing things apart on gulf side, but its also tearing things apart on the north side, on the inland side. Gene taylor, the congressman from bay st. Louis whose home was utterly obliterated, it was from storm surge that was coming out of the bay. He lived way in camille he wouldnt have, he wouldnt have had anything happen because he lived on the north side of bay st. Louis. But because the bays rose and did their destruction, and that was part of the shredding that you saw, the shredding of timber, of trees, of leaves, of all sorts of things. Because there was debris everywhere, as i say. Hadnt seen that having seen that and remembering it very vividly, i thought to myself in that helicopter how many more bodies are going to be buried down there. Under all that debris. And if youd have, if youd have told me 238, i would have said youre the most optimistic, pollyannaish person that ive ever, that ive ever been around. But thats what it was. And part of the reason was because of the incredibly good work by the First Responders who were down there. First responders who were from city governments and county governments, but also from the state government, the National Guard, the coast guard who were phenomenal. So in thinking about this and writing, deciding to write a book, one of the reasons i had to write this book was because i thought the story needed to be told about these First Responders. And the story needed to be told about these people in mississippi who just got knocked down flat. But they got right back up and hitched up their britches, went to work. They went to work helping themselves, but they also went to work helping their neighbors. And that was a constant theme in katrina, people helping other people. People who didnt have anything before the storm, lost what little they had, and they were worried about the little old lady across the road who was a shutin or the families that lived down the dirt road that nobody could get to. My mama raised my two older brothers and me. She used to say crisis and catastrophe brings out the most brings out the best in most people. And i saw that over and over and over again after katrina. The very best of people trying to do what they could do to help others. Another reason for writing the book is about the elected officials on the coast and really all over the state. One of the reasons louisiana had such a hard job is the mayor of new orleans fought the governor all the time, and they were pulling in opposite directions. Of course, im a republican. Half the elected officials in south mississippi on the coast were democrats. But they said from the the day before the storm, not even the first day, somebodys got to be in charge. If there is a megadisaster, if were getting the worst damage weve ever had, somebodys got to be in charge. And a logical person is you, governor. And so were going to be on your team as long as youre, we feel like youre making progress. You know, for an elected official to give up power is an unnatural act. [laughter] and yet uniformly they did. Its one of the reasons we never lost civil order on gulf coast. Its one of the reasons there was so little looting on the gulf coast. Its one of the reasons that we were able to put together a plan in a relatively short period of time to rebuild. So those people deserve credit. You dont read that anywhere. You didnt see that at the time. But i can tell you it made a gigantic difference. I guess nothing except for the strength and character of our people, nothing was more important for me to get written than about the volunteers who came to mississippi. It is altogether fitting and proper that the worst Natural Disaster in American History would elicit the greatest outpouring of volunteerism and philanthropy in American History, and thats a exactly what katrina did. 954,000 volunteers came to mississippi in the first five years. And thats not a number pulled out of the hat, because when they came, they would register with a church or a charity that helped direct them. 954,000. Perhaps as remarkable is that 400,000 of them came after the first year. We had about, not quite 600,000 come the first year, and we had another 400,000 come in the next four years. People kept coming. And they were so, so indispensable. But im going to tell you, for the first year virtually every volunteer out of those 600,000 didnt do anything but clean up. They did not have a great job when they came to mississippi. They were scraping muck, and they were trying to clean off mold, and they were ripping out sheetrock and tearing up floors and just doing the most menial, difficult things. But you know what . Their attitude was so great. The most common thing said to me by volunteers and i saw thousands of em over the years almost very verbatim is volunteer would come up, introduce themselves and say, you know, governor, your people are so great, and theyre so grateful. But i feel like ive gotten more out of this more myself than the good ive done for the people i came here to help. To me, that was such a powerful sentiment. It was rewarding to them. It was fulfilling to them. Mostly are mostly these were people from faithbased groups. They were church people. And this was their religious service, service to their god. And interestingly, they were all over the, all over the lot. I remember theres a company in Salt Lake City called the morrell corporation. Its a big construction company. And for the 2002 winter olympics, they built most of the temporary housing. Mormon company. And they called me after the storm and said, look, wed like to put our expertise to use and build yall some big temporary shelter for the people that are coming in there to work. So they, we got em a site at Buccaneer State Park in hancock county, and they built this tent big as a football field. Slept 700 people. And they had toilets and lavatories and showers and kitchens, the whole nine yards. It was just something. So they asked marsha and me to come down for the grand opening. And so we said, of course, and i remember we got out of the car and there was this gigantic tent. And on this end there was a area that didnt have walls, it only had a roof, and thats where the lunch was going to be. About 220, 250 people there. So as we walked toward there after seeing the people, i saw behind em there was a big motor home, the big rv. And on the side in letters about that tall they said adventists in action. Well, thats the way i was, doctor, i just kind of laughed. Heres this mormon deal where the morrells would not take any money. They didnt allow the state or anybody else to pay for anything. They and the lds church, the mormon church, paid for it all. But theres the seventh day adventists, theyre doing the cooking. Well, it kind of tickled me, so i got up when i spoke and said how many of yall are mormons . Maybe 20, less than 10 . How many of yall are seventh day adventists . About six. I said what are the rest of yall . And, of course, id have already known the answer. They were people of the same denominations that are prominent in mississippi, because they came down here from a church somewhere else and were being directed by a church in mississippi of their denomination. So there were all these baptists, all these methodists none of these people were from mississippi. And they were episcopalians and presbyterians and lutherans and catholics. Just the whole pent costals, the whole nine yards. I got a kick out of that. I just, you know, it stayed with me. These people are all here because of their religious convictions. And no heart the differences in their theology, their desire to serve their god as they knew their god overcame everything. And they worked together like, you know, cant imagine. Well, we go back and get in the car, this little old man comes up to me. Id say testifies 70s and small. Id say he was 70s and small. He said is, governor, my names harold, and im from new york. I said, yes, sir, thank you for being here. He said, last night i called my son, the rabbi, and i said, son, its about to be the High Holy Days which typically occur in the jewish religion, the most sacred of the jewish holy days, in october. And he said, should i come home to new york for the High Holy Days . And he said, my son told me, no, dad. You shouldnt come home. Youre probably closer to god where you are now. Than you would be if you came back here. Just took my breath away. Heres this jewish man. And, again, he was there for his religious service. And at times we had muslims and jews working together on playgrounds. And its one of the great things about america and one of the things thats not told enough about story. These people came to serve because of their religious views, and in our country you can do that. In our country you can get patted on the back for doing that even. And we need more people to know about these people that came because of their religious ideas. We had, we had people who werent with religious groups, people like americorps, these young kids just out of college that work for the government, and they would come stay for months. Usually the volunteers stayed for a week. They got trained for a day, worked for five days and went home. Most of training, we discovered after about a month, people who did all the training would be the americorps kids, because they were there for the long term. They stayed for months and months and months. They knew how to teach people what to do. So dont get me wrong, the red cross and habitat for humanity, a lot of these places were just fabulous. But the vast majority of these people came out of religious fervor. And i wanted that to be part of this story. I wanted it to be part of the story that 46 of our sister states sent resources to mississippi. 46. More than 25,000 employees of state and local governments in other states came to mississippi including more than 10,000 National Guard. Remember when katrina hit, our big National Guard unit was in iraq. We had 3,000 mississippi National Guard in iraq. So these were a godsend to us. So this is a book that is going to be mostly about things you havent read much about. Because like i say, those are not the stories that the news media thinks are news. But the other things are about how our legislature stood up and did a great job in the special session, did a great job by doing things that needed to be done including letting casinos come on shore. But they didnt do things that didnt need to be done. They didnt spend money that we didnt have. They were very, they were prudent in what they did. And in the book you will see i praise a billy mccoy, speaker of house. He and i fought like cats and dogs. Serena knows that and paul. I mean, we just over tort reform and budgets and everything. But when this came up, billy mccoy stepped up to the plate and was a real, real leader. Theres a chapter about congress, what we did with congress and how indices especially bl thad cochran was indispensable thad cochran was. What a blessing that he was chairmans of the Appropriations Committee in the senate at mississippis darkest hour of need in modern times, that he had the best position in the whole congress to help us, and he helped us. Interestingly, thad and the delegation were very much like the local officials. Thad told me on wednesday after the storm, on monday he said yall are going to be down here, youre going to be closer to it than we are. We are not going to try to develop a plan, were not going to tell yall what we think yall ought to do. You and the local people, yall develop the plan in mississippi. You bring it to me, and ill try to get it passed. You decide what we need to do, and ill try to get it done. Interestingly, the president bush the next week came to the next week the came to the first meeting about the back, dale commission, our commission about recovery and renewal, said almost exactly the same thing. He said want you and mississippi to decide how mississippis gulf can coast and South Pacific will be rebuilt. Were not going to decide in washington, but i will give you all the help that i can give you. The federal government took some really, really bad criticism, a lot of it very deserved. Their logistical system that they had imposed totally collapsed. Never worked. And we were within a day if not hours of catastrophic results because of it. But we worked around it. And i have to tell you, one of the ways we worked around fema, the federal governments failure, was the u. S. Military stepped in. They brought us 1. 7 million meals that they airlifted in, and it took the place of what fema was supposed to have done. And these werent Disaster Assistance meals, this was the pentagon taking meals that were supposed to be for soldiers and saying we can get em replaced before we run out. So a lot of times the federal government was typically a great partner. They did a whole lot more right than wrong. But they sure did some things wrong. And dont and im not saying that they didnt. I hope when you read this book, the book is half as good as the story. Because if ive done the story justice, this is going to be a great book. Because its a great story. I mentioned my mother talking about crisis bringing out the best in most people. She always had a followup to that quote. She would say but remember, crisis does not create character; crisis reveals character. The character was already there. The spirit and character of the people of mississippi was there, unrecognized. Perhaps most unrecognized by us, by ourselves. But after katrina, after the response of our people, i cant tell you how many times i would hear what i first heard at a Business Council meeting of organizations, ceos. I made a talk a month after the storm about how we were doing, and a man jumped up after i finished and he said, a ceo i dont even know who he is he said, governor, youve got to be proud of your people. Those are the kind of people wed like to have work for us. And i would suggest to to you that toyota, pat carr, ge aviation, those people never thought of coming to mississippi until katrina. Golly, you wouldnt wish it on your worst enemy, to go through what we had to go through. But having survived, having responded, having overcome the worst Natural Disaster in American History, the truth is our response to katrina did more for the image of mississippi than anything else thats happened in my lifetime. I believe that sincerely. Both in peoples image of us, but also of our selfimage. Because i do think we did not recognize the spirit and character of our people as much as we should have until this terrible storm made it be revealed to to everybody. I hope you like the book. Im, again, grateful to University Press. Im grateful to jenny and rebecca and stowe by and the people in washington. I am tremendously grateful to jerry nash. Jerry nash you may know, our politics arent exactly the same. [laughter] but he had written a couple books, and i asked andy taggert about him, and andy recommended him, and i talked to him, and we have had a great time doing this. Hes been a great partner. I promise you, we would not be here were it not for jerry nash. And ill always be grateful to him. I end the book with a chapter called ten lessons in leadership that im not going to go through em all right here, but i do believe that if youll look at em no matter what kind of leader you are, captain of the football team, president of the university, president of the united states, ceo of some company, that you will see that the lessons from the megadisaster, this megadisaster, those lessons are applicable to most crises, even business crises. And i hope you will learn one of em ive already talked about. Somebodys got to be in charge. The guy whos in charge has got to make decisions. We were in totally uncharted waters. Nobody had ever within through this before been through this before, thered never been a storm like this before in the united states, but we were making it up as we went along. Somebody had to be in charge, and that somebody had to make decisions, and one thing i learned you make enough decisions, youre going to make some bad decisions. But the other thing that is even more obvious in the megadisaster no decision is worse than a bad decision. If you let the natural, if you let the megadisaster take its natural course, that is the worst, that is the worst decision. So i made a bunch of bad decisions. But the lesson of leadership is when you recognize that youve made a bad decision, change it. Dont get pigheaded, dont act like it might hurt me politically or hurt my reputation. You make a bad decision, change it. Or adjust it. Have a staff that is Strong Enough and good enough that theyll tell ya, boss, this didnt work out like we thought it was going to. Maybe we need to look at something different. We did that time and time and time again. Tell the truth. Thats one of the great lessons of catastrophe. Your credibility is indispensable to your leadership. Your credibility is first tested with your own staff. If you lie, if you dont tell the truth, first people who are going to know are your staff who youre depending on, who you, hopefully, are empowering. You know, roberts been around politics all his life like i have, and, you know, politicians dont, they dont like delegating authority. They are perfectly willing to delegate responsibility, but theyre unwilling often to delegate the authority necessary to carry out the responsibility. Youve got to learn, delegate authority so people can get something done so they can help you. The last thing i will say is the last lesson in the book. It is really, really important to have a great partner. And i was blessed in katrina that marsha and i, wed been married 33 years then, 43 now. But she became the eyes and ears for not just me, but for our whole team. She was on the coast 70 of the first 90 days after the storm. She became the face that said somebody cares, that somebodys trying to help. I always say i dont believe she ever tried to help anybody who voted for me. [laughter] her she thought her job was to help the people who knew the least about how to get help, the people who had the least in resources, the people that needed help the worst. And she did, and im very proud of her. But importantly as the lesson of leadership, it is great to have a Strong Partner who understands what youre doing, why youre working 80hour weeks, why youre driving your staff in working 80hour weeks, why this is hard. And she, she got it, and she was there to keep me informed, she was there to kick me when my ego got out of, got a little out of line, she was there to cheer me up when i got down, and i will tell ya, there were a lot of days that it was pretty easy to be down when you had to look at what we were dealing with. I hope you like the book. I hope you will see that the book gets more coverage for what really happened in mississippi than weve had so far. If we do, that will achieve my main goal, and i hope you like it. Thank yall. [applause] somebody in the back, i cant see very well katrina wiping out the cell towers, can you speak about the frustration of not being able to communicate and what the state did after that . You know, adjutant general of the National Guard got down to the coast monday night with 800 National Guard, and he said for the first several days he might as well have been a civil war general because they had no ability to communicate. Hed have to send somebody. In fact, he talks in the book about filling out cards and giving a card to some enlisted man and sending him to pass ca gool la to try to find some officer who they couldnt communicate with. So its critical. And, of course, youve got to remember its not just the cell towers. When you lose electricity, you cant imagine what all you lose. It isnt just the lights go out and the airconditioning doesnt work, it means the food locker and the freezers and the coolers at your Grocery Store dont work, so all the food goes bad. It means the lift pumps at the gas station cant, you cant thousand gallons of gas down in the tank, you cant get it up. Even the lift pumps on the sewers in the areas where you have enough elevation change, sewers dont work. And so its not just the telephones and the televisions. One of the great days of the whole katrina episode after camille it took about eight weeks to get electricity restored to everybody. After katrina Mississippi Power restored, Mississippi Power had every customer had lost power. Every customer. They had lost a huge part of their generation and almost all their transmission. They got the electricity back on in 12 days to every customer who could take electricity. And, now, the truth is about a fourth or fifth of their customers couldnt take electricity because a lot of them didnt even have a house left. You know, we created a new verb during katrina. The verb is slabbed. Ive been slabbed, meaning my house is gone, theres nothing left but the slab. And there probably were 20 or 25,000 homes on the gulf coast that were reduced to nothing but the slab. I was going to finish on that point, but ill tell you this. Under the federal disaster law are, the existing law, states would get 7. 5 of the public assistance, the individual assistance, etc. , that the federal government gave the state to do this and that. We get another 7. 5 for whats called Hazard Mitigation. So under the Hazard Mitigation program, we wanted to take our money, and we had twice this much money coming, and build a survivable, interoperable, wireless Communication System. They would not let us use the money for that. They said that communications didnt fit into Hazard Mitigation. [laughter] i mean, its about the stupidest thing ive ever heard of in my life, because if you can tell people to get out of the way, youre going to save a lot of lives, and youre going to save a lot of property. At the end of the day, senator cochran made fema move 100 some million out of the Hazard Mitigation account and put it in a different account and then give it to us. [laughter] thats how pigheaded they were about stupid rule. Were still the only state in america that has a survivable, interoperable wireless Communication System statewide. Because its still the rule. [applause] anyways any, anybody yes, sir. Steve . I wondered if youd talk about leadership and composure. You were on television so often during the disaster, and you had to be dealing with information that was just astronomical in the level of destruction, the amount of money we were talking about, but you were always, you were always a composed, sensible voice. How in the world did you maintain that . Well, thank you for saying that. We had a press briefing at least every day. Some days we would have more than one for some particular reason or not. So i do believe one of the strong lessons to the leader in a catastrophe is be open, but let the public through the news media know whats going on. If its bad news, admit it. When i was political director of the white house, Henry Kissinger spoke to the senior staff one day, and he said in government and politics if theres bad news, get it out fast because unlike fine wine, bad news does not improve with age. [laughter] and so i followed that. We, we told the bad as well as the good. Now, i will say we emphasized the good. We tried to because we were trying to give people hope and confidence. Because the ultimate mission here was to get people to return to their communities and rebuild their communities. It took jobs, it took a place to live, it took place to send your kids to school. So housing was the Biggest Issue from the second week. You know, searching for survivors and for remains were the Biggest Issue the first week. So we, we tried to get the truth out. And as i mentioned earlier, youve just got to tell the truth. Nothing hurts you worse than for people the find out you were lying about something, and it destroys your credibility. Why i was composed, you know, i dont think of myself as having been especially composed. I remember doing an interview with cnn on wednesday morning or thursday morning after the storm, and miles obrien, a political reporter for cnn, was we did it by satellite. Im standing in front of the governors mansion, big satellite truck. And he asked me three times in a row why i was not being critical of the federal government, was i being politically loyal to president bush, and he kept asking the question, and i just kept ducking it, cuz i was taught praise in public, correct in private. And if youre going to try and be a good teammate, you told people privately heres the problem, you didnt go out and, you know, criticize finally miles asked me a fourth time. I said, look, miles, we have an interview or an argument, whichever one you want, im ready for either one. [laughter] and so i did occasionally lose my temper dealing with these guys. But youve got to give people good information which means youve got to make it understandable. Being truthful isnt enough if people dont understand it and dont understand the import of it. We tried to stay well briefed, and we tried to keep the public briefed. I dont know that theres any magic, but if you try to get it across, you will tend to not be as shrill or not be as over, you know, overpowering as that. But thank you for saying that. Theres, there are refreshments over there [laughter] and as we like to tell you, bars open. [applause] [inaudible conversations] every weekend booktv brings you 48 hours of Nonfiction Authors and books on cspan2. Keep watching for more television for serious readers. Host now joining us on booktv is george gibson. Mr. Gibson, who do you work for and what do you do . Guest im the publisher of bloomsbury usa. Host and what is bloomsbury . Guest bloomsbury is a sub subsidiary of Bloomsbury Publishing in london probably best known for publishing harry potter and originating all the harry potter books. But we started a u. S. Business in 1998, so were in our 17th year now. Host and what kind of books do you look for . Guest we publish mostly nonfiction in the states. We do publish some fiction, but mostly nonfiction. A lot of history, current events, popular science, a little bit of sports and some, and a good number of foodrelated books. Host all right. So what are some of the big books that you have coming out this fall or middle books or small books. Guest right, right. Well, right now were this week, actually, publishing a book by the eminent historian john furling called whirlwind, and its the first full scale onevolume history of the American Revolution in 34 years. Amazingly enough, there has not been one since 1982. And this is a full history of the American Revolution. Brilliant book by an eminent historian could whirl wind. And as i said, its being published this week. This fall were publishing a Remarkable Book called a guest at the shooters ban quest by rita gabis. Shes lithuanian descent. She is catholic, but the other side of her family is jewish is, and she grew up with a catholic grandfather who she had been told had fought against the nazis in world war ii, and she was shocked to find taut out that, in fact, he had collaborated with the nazis and was responsible for thousands of jews, including many of her own family members on the jewish side, and she was compelled to discover the truth, and a guest at the shooters ban quest is her story of going in quest of the truth behind her grandfathers life. Shes a poet and writes like a dream. Its an amazingly powerful story and a gripping one as well. And then in january were going to publish two books, one by a man named Wendell Potter who is, how should i best describe wendell . Hes a whistleblower or among many things. He wrote a book exposing the insurance industry, and the book in january is called nation on the take, and it is the story of the hugely corrosive effects of money in politics. And how, how it affects every american at the grass roots level. Its not grass roots level. Its not just the political system in washington, but it affects every american as they live daytoday. And he actually documents how the effect is happening. So hopefully its going to have some kind of an effect on the spending of money in politics. Its not going to help the president ial election next year, more records will be set on the amount of money spent, but i think it will make clear to the average american the price that theyre paying for the amount of money being spent in politics. Its affecting everybody. And then lastly, out of the blue about a month ago i got an email from tom daschle. Tom daschle doesnt know me at all, former senator tom daschle, south dakota, saying im writing a week with trent lot, his counterpart on the republican side, about bipartisanship in government and the lack of it today and the lack all about leadership and the need to restore leadership to government today. Would you be interested . And i, first, i thought this cant be tom daschle, you know . But it was. And i said, sure, of course im interested. And he said, well, we have a whole manuscript. And i said, please, send it. Within three days we bought it, and it doesnt have a full it doesnt have an actual title yet. The working title is in our hands, but the title will change, but the book will not. It will be out in january right at the start of the election season. And it is a brilliant work, actually. These two guys who are diametrically opposed politically and led their parties during the clinton years and respectively in the senate and then thereafter always found a way, even though they disagreed, to work across the aisle together and find a solution. That was their hallmark, their trademark. And they continue to do that. This is bipartisanship in government is their big theme, and they can talk about it all the time together. And it sort of surprises people that theyre such good friends, theyre very close friends. But this is the principle, the issue that really matters to them, and they want to restore the dignity to the senate. And its a really terrific manuscript. A lot of history, showing that, in fact, theres within a lot of theres been a lot of partisan conflict in the past, and weve worked through it in the past, so giving hope that, in fact, we might be able to get through it again. Mr. Gibson, why do you think he contacted you . Guest i have no idea, and i havent asked him yet. When i meet him for the first time, that will be the first question out of my mouth. Im fascinated that he did. I dont know. And i really, i cant think of a reason that he would. Im awfully glad he did because its a terrific book and one were going to be very excited to publish, but i dont know. Thats a really good question. Walker and company years ago published George Mcgoverns first book. I cant imagine that he would have traced me, you know, because of george mcgovern. But thats the only plausible explanation i could give you. Other than that, i dont know. Just one of those great serendipitous things that happen sometimes. Host quick look at bloomsburys upcoming books by george gibson, publisher. Is there a Nonfiction Author or book youd like to see featured on booktv . Send us an email to booktv crush span. Org, tweet us booktv or post on our wall, facebook. Com booktv. A look now at some of the books the university of california at berkeley has encouraged new students to read before the start of the school year. In the pulitzer prizewinning behind the beautiful forevers, Katherine Boo reports on life in a settlement in mumbai. Science and Technology Writer Steven Johnson recalls a cholera outbreak in london in 1854 in the book the ghost map. Also on the university of california at berkeleys reading list for incoming students, the new yorkers Elizabeth Kolbert reports on the relationship between humans and the precipitous loss of species in the sixth extinction, winner of this years prettier prize for general nonfiction. Annie leonard looks at how overconsumption affecting the environment and personal well being in the book the story of stuff. And pulitzer prizewinning reporter edward humes examines what happens to the tons of trash that the average american produces in a lifetime. And thats a look at some of the books on the university of california at berkeleys reading list for new students. Booktv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what theyre reading this summer. Im read aring several things reading several things right now. Im reading china shakes the world by james cringe. He was a Financial Times writer. Awardwinning books, very fascinating look. Hes a lucid writer dealing with what you would not think would be an interesting topic, but it is. Im also reading primo levys works compiled into a book and just an astounding account, his experience as an italian jew that survived auschwitz in one of the most important accounts of that to come out of the war. Just very sobering, makes you think about, you know, the rule of law and, you know, just because something is legal doesnt necessarily mean that its humane. You know . Some pretty weighty things to consider there. But its a reminder. Im reading through proverbs and corinthians right now, you know, just in my morning devotional reading. And then, you know, i always peruse different topics. Ive finished some very good books lately. I finished a. J. Lang earths book called the patriots, a fascinating look at our early framers and founders and how we not only came to have a nation, but the importance of samuel adams and the importance of all of these men and kind of the tale woven from a handful of them and what it cost them to give us our country. You know, so i really read all over the map. Im also perusing some german books that i bought on a recent trip to berlin that were first person accounts about berlin life from 193345. So theyre just interesting titles. Post on you are facebook page, facebook. Com booktv. Im thinking of the conversation that revolves around undocumented immigrants as being illegal, as being people who are beyond the pale of the law. And throughout the very core of my memoir is an attempt to engage in this conversation and show that the undocumented are contributing to communities in all walks of life and are really poised to make a significant be and farreaching, longerterm contribution to u. S. Society. But the key is if we allow them to secure legal status that will prevent them from living precarious and marginalized existences. After words airs sunday at 9 p. M. Eastern. You can watch all previous programs on our web site at booktv. Org. This weekend is the tenth anniversary of hurricane katrina, and now on booktv investigative journalist Ronnie Greene discusses a case of six unarmed citizens shot by new Orleans Police in the storms aftermath. Thank you all for coming. Its such a pleasure to have Ronnie Greene at politics prose tonight. He is currently an Investigative Reporter for the associated press. He spent many years at the miami herald before joining the center for Public Integrity a few years ago where he edited a pulitzer prizewinning report about the systematic denial of benefits to coal miners with black lung disease. That was the centers first pulitzer prize. We were just discussing how many nonprofits and foundations have gotten Pulitzer Prizes because, obviously, theyre not media organizations. So its really quite an extraordinary thing to see that happen, and it really speaks to the quality of both the reporting and editing and the importance of that story. This is not a surprise, however, for those of you who have followed ronnies career. For many years hes produced a range of other awardwinning stories from documenting horrific working conditions of farmhands in florida to deaths in Florida Group homes to the toofrequent crashes of cargo planes, and hes also written one previous book, night fire big oil, poison air and Margie Richards fight to save her town. Tonight hes talking about schatz on the Bridge Police violence and
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