With. The sculpture and the spirit of the trade to in driving up woodward avenue. It seemed imminent in the car. I love the music playing in the background. To get out at the fox theater the story is told from downtown detroit there is of black gospel choir and he says this is the motor city in this is what we do. It really got to be in some way my wife says a buyer you falling for this . Detroit is a mass. That got beat the king about what they did to be. I lived there the first six and a half years of my life. And what set me on the path how can i honor this city thats been so much . And then over the course of several months to write the book. Wide you focused on 1963 . One of the ways that i operate and i drill as deeply as psyche and. By in the first place and i want to honor the city what they gave america. Enormous amount. In the Labor Movement and the United Auto Workers connected impart in they created a new town. End of course, the automobile industry. And that their strong guest n to exist the 1859 through 70. Vote counted me through the 60s. I saw that as a good place to start. On the Detroit Auto Show open to that same week. I touched one step with the civil rights. And with his i had a dream speech. It also with the united autoworkers. So that is a lot in the specific period. Host tell us about this video. The president of the uaw in its heyday the 40s through the 70s when he died in a plane crash. He brought them into the middleclass and was a leader to get it rested on the quality city was strong for civil rights equality. So to be very important and under recognized group. What was that video . My publisher to promote the book. It is one of the most under recognized figures. And to come from west rigid map. End with the very difficult situation protection from the Auto Industry is in the leftwing of that aspect of it. In most with president john kennedy. And then the united autoworkers role. You have been writing books over 20 years the way to promote that is it new to put out a video trailer . [laughter] yes it is. The industry is like the newspaper business but then use the new social media. To promote the books it is part of the game. Rating that they would march into sunlight. Accidents in incident and intentions that representative people apart. And those that pretended to be certain of the meaning. I have been very honest to have very Strong Political beliefs. But i interested in they are the way they are. And every human being so i never trying to preach to acquire. So it is the more provocative that you are. With that complexity of truth. But it is what i am looking for. Host and twotiered from serious work. There is much about politics that is trouville and boring to be. But the possibilities of a particular story. And much of that in the late 70s. As the first profiler and biographer. In clinton begin and bob dole and al gore. Could those stories that our ridiculous i have tried to build something substantive a insubstantial. That is the way i have always approached that. One of my mentors was David Halberstam who once used to talk about that. I liked his books but they were more illuminating than others. Along with the java. But sports is one of the key ways to read about the sociological issues. I have always been interested in race. And then moving to p. R. Why is it important . It is by a bursting yourself into the geography of a place. But that is really where he was shaped. He went to Florida University across the river to new jersey and the assistant coach at west point said for the the york giants. He was 45 years old before he got to green bay. But then those magical believe years. In with those two bishops that football aspect that mythologies of competition. But that simple aspect of the book new years eve, 1967 and. With the packers against the cowboys. I had to into our tueber initiative and what that meant by helps me to a dish to the entire culture. When i moved to green bay about one weeks later in the middle of the night where we reliving into this city into a hospital. But every doctor had led jersey either number four or 92. But then to say i feel out of uniform. So these the exact data. Then the local paper ran a story. To publish my telephone number. And then when you have the regular phone in the interim regime to push the button to play back. But then to have the messages on the machine. I hear you are writing a book about dying lombardi . And then to take the irons out of the river. And then insisting to have that for them. And then one who played to the piano. The men would go down with their cronies. And then to play of the elite of my fair lady. And then just describe the generous tipper he was. The major dbs server. As a somebody came back. That is true of everyone. Host where did you come up with the title . I stole it. Of course, i credited the person a ticket from and got his blessing. Richard, the novelist, with the exports writer is a new jersey. Into drive up that turnpike as i have done many times. Did he say yes. That it enescos course he invokes a great pride. But then everybody looks at that path. He believed in fair play but not in the concept to equate lost i dont want any good losers a duty that is good they give the other guy the opportunity. It is a way to live with the defeat. But i should point out that is attributed on the subject. He did not coin that and did not really believe that. Into the john wayne movie. And that social worker that complains how john wayne those set a getting players from canada. And then says this is not right. And i traced that from another coach but obviously to be much tougher on the team in one that played poorly. But as a professional coach that is true of the players also. But with professional sports. Was Vince Lombardi political . End with the Irish Catholic and identified with kennedy and then in their early sixties. [laughter] and his wife was a conservative republican. End nixon loved lombardi. Did then mitchell said lombardi is great but he is a democrat. Host october 67. What was going on and . The middle of the vietnam war. Very dynamic that is about a protest against Dow Chemical Company that turned into a police riot in what was going on and then save 24 hour period to go off on a search and destroy mission. Everything is up in the air. With that calenture culture to be strong a few months before the tet offensive a period when Lyndon Johnson as president and commander general of vietnams is pushing for more troops through attrition so that have bid that the combustible moment. And that is where i tried to draw the story. I was a freshman. I spent much of maya childhood in medicine and i went to school there. I witnessed but did not participate but it was an act of civil disobedience marching into the building. And then they sat down and did you feel like you are evasive read and on the edge of the crowd watching and then across the street and then would march into the building shortly afterwards a busy with bloodied heads. But the 23 most amazing people i have met in my life. With the Delta Company to come up through the ranks and also of to be wellregarded. And he tried very hard of marching out. And with that pressure could be down from washington. And upon that Battalion Commander to find them and kill them. There is so much pressure we fought the battle heroically. He was haunted by that. And would i found him over the many biddy soldiers. And was hiding in the hills. Also looking at the death of my son. Even though he fought heroically. But that was the crucial figure in the book and then to go back to vietnam. Host we traveled with you to vietnam as well 2002. We want to introduce our viewers. My wife supported it. It was not surprising at all. It was as if were prayers were answered. And then the model as i industry and it and i fell for that. Said edward kane for the president of united states. And then we saw people in vietnam. But then i fell for that and i believed it to. We did what we were supposed to do. As they came down the trail they ambushed them. There was six of them. Said they did not shoot back. When i came down upon the road to see if we could take a prisoner with the bicycle in front. So we went to see if they were still alive. And that was a little girl. A little girl like that. Jesus christ. I did not the guy would do that. He has a huge chart. But that was the complexity of his feelings and then to be betrayed by his government with that incredible sensibility i havent met anybody who is the affected deeply. We probably disagree and everything politically. But that is what bonded as. So he is the gary cooper character. As we see his reaction. Where did this title come from . , but as i was starting research but to be a nonfiction writer. And then to look for the sensibilities. And poetry is one of the ways that goes through that. Waiting outside, fingers gripping the chainlink fence with appliances, cardboard boxes full of other materials. Then into the sunlight and the surprising jolt of exhilaration and steamy saigon. I did not fight in vietnam. I didnt cover the war. I got there very late but my senses were alive. I would say that those two weeks the vietnam as some later trips for other books in exotic places i just felt every sense more of life than i have in my whole life. I was aware of everything. Sometimes you go through weeks and months of your life and its a blur and then there are moments where everything is in technicolor and has a deeper meaning to it. Host you had another life at the post. How did you get connected out the post . Guest i moved to Madison Wisconsin and my father was an editor of the Capital Times in madison. I met my wife there. We had our two children and i realized that if i didnt believe i would be trapped there my whole life, and a good sense but nonetheless. So in 1974, i set off to the east coast to apply for a newspaper job. Host after graduating the university i didnt graduate at that point. But i was a journalist in wisconsin working for the radio writing my own newscast i remember in 1972 and was literally take my fathers newspaper and they would run on the news page and flipped across the top and i had have my own 15 minutes newscast and i would take that story from the day and get a soundbite and rewrite so i always joked that ive been rewriting it long before i even knew him. But anyway, thats what i was doing at that point i wanted to be a newspaper guy. Apply for jobs advanced on the east coast from providence and boston and hartford and then went down to coney island to the famous hot dog hotdog stand and left my clips there. I had done some for the sports in manhattan. Got down to Trenton New Jersey and it had just been published and i walked in and i was at a run and i said to him i have left my clips at the famous stand about a few high here me i will be the best reporter. Then i went back to madison and on Christmas Eve at ten or 11 00 the phone rings. I cant pay your way out but i will give you a shot for six months and if you are no good, youre gone so i packed up and we drove a little blue car off to new jersey and thats where it all started after richard period of time i decided it was the best reporter and when he went back he took me with him. Host that was 1977 . You are often described as the pivot surprise wedding David Maraniss. What did you win the pulitzer for . Guest makeup ridge in 1992 for the Washington Post. I was than the pure chief for the paper and we were living in austin texas. Arkansas was part of my territory but by that point i was basically covering the National Politics and sociology and other things. And before, in 1991 i wrote a memo to my editors bob kaiser in particular was the managing editor and i said i think bill clinton is going to be the next president and i want to spend an entire year just looking into various aspects of his life and the force so that people have a deeper understanding of this person. And they let me do it. There were a few points where ross perot was making a lot of points into some people wanted me to take them off the stories that it was everything ranging from the industry to the economics involved these different aspects and those are the stories that won the prize. The day after, i woke up in what i would describe as a hellhole motel room outside of little rock. I was 43yearsold and polka bands that i think i know clinton better than everyone else that i will regret it. Its a story that means something to me both because of the drama of his life and the fact that he was the first members member of my generation to become president , so thats my first book. Host in the first of its class. To quote from that book the notion that bill clinton began the career as a radical and moved rightward over the decade is misleading. He was a cautious defender of the establishment during the politics of georgetown and the oxford and jail years he was an Antiwar Movement from the beginning of his ascent in arkansas, he would attack organized labor and the corporate interest. It seems kind of preposterous now that is the but that is the modern american politics that when he was running the right wing was trying to portray him as a radical. Bill clinton was never a radical. He did oppose the war but it is a misperception. Theres a million ways to criticize president clinton and others but youve got to get it right and theres always the attempt to demonize somebody. Its not as addictive in the sense that i could see in his life this repetitive cycle of life and recovery. Host when it came out i think thats appropriate to talk about today. We viewed the College Years to try out different personalities and lifestyles and explained in a letter to don jones that youth pastor but its an important aspect of the personality that even then there was a selfaware aspect to the experimentation in another letter she talks about intentionally playing different roles and different times and now the social activist sticking to the books and occasionally adopting a kind of party mode. She claimed she even got outrageous at times but immediately modified via assessment. In her search for identity she thought of herself now as as a progressive come a christian and political activist for those that are currently watching and judging her behavior later in life when she seems to play contrasting roles. They are emphasizing substance over style and searching for the meaning of life they are playing the commodities markets to make a quick buck. She was selfconsciously. Guest i wrote that in 1985 and i think its no holds up probably with one thing to add to that which is my enlarger take on Hillary Clinton is that she has been affected more by her husbands behavior and ups and downs than anyone else in the world so over the course of their presidency, which many of the major troubles took place after the book was written i think you can still see that that it wasnt there at the beginning. He was trying to be in modest ways and then sure of himself in the same way that clinton was often and i dont want people to take this the wrong way but ive often said that bill clinton is an authentic sony in that whatever hes doing at the time he can make you be leaving and hillary to her credit is not as good as it so when i trying to write about these different parts shes not quite comfortable with any of them in the same way that her husband can appear to be comfortable with whatever hes doing and i think that is not served her well even though i find her to be an incredibly competent person. Host good afternoon welcome to book tv on cspan2 this is our Monthly Program where we invite one offered to talk about his or her body of work and this month is Washington Post associate editor and author David Maraniss. Mr. Maraniss has been writing books since 1995. Heres a quick list of them a biography of clinton was the first one and then the next year tell Newt Gingrich to shut up came out. The clinton enigma came out in 1988 when pride still mattered 1999 the prince of tennessee, al gore meets his fate came out in 2000 and they marched into sunlight war and peace, october 1967 that came out in july, 2003. The last hero of 2006. Once in a great city this is an Interactive Program and we spent 45 minutes or so talking. If you would like to talk with David Maraniss as you can see theres lots of topics that can be talked about