Although that may be her dream. It is about achieving happiness and for most people of the American Dream and happiness is about simple things like owning a home in a safe and able neighborhood. Being able to raise their family in a safe and stable environment, have any job you find rewarding pays you enough to ensure things like saving for retirement and weeping your children better off than yourself. I spoken about the American Dream in many places. Theres fewer have to spend less time describing not than ours because in this audience and community theres hundreds of thousands, millions of people in south florida throughout the three counties whove lived the dream despite starting from very difficult backgrounds and circumstances. Away to imagine being born into a society where your future was determined by your parents. Imagine a society where you only got to do whatever it is your parents did before you. If your parents are rich. If your parents were connect it if they had influence you got to move ahead. But if you came from parents of a poor disconnected power to matter how hard you work or how much he tried her home at telling you have commute not be about to succeed. Imagine a place like that. [inaudible] thank you. Let me finish my description of the book. The book talks about that dream that millions of people in this country has. Im the only one that gets heckled by both sides of the immigration debate. Ready amazing. We will wait for them to finish and then well continue talking about the book. We will refer them to finish and then we will talk about the book. I apologize, folks. Theyll be gone and effective. I just hope they bought the book. [laughter] [applause] thank you. Thank you. [applause] lesser crime if what they wanted was a discount on the boat, we couldve worked it out. [laughter] the American Dream. Think about living in a country like that come at a place where no matter how hard you work or how much you try you cant get ahead. That is the rule, not the exception. Most people have grown up in societies like that. What makes us different if your people achieve anything if they work hard and play by the rules. Thats been the rule for 230 some years. Is this for the discount, to . [shouting]s brutal way to second to talk about the important issues in this the year today millions of people in america. I promise you we will get through this. Millions of people in america feel thats no longer possible for them. What is frustrating as they open the newspaper and watch on the news and say the economy is getting better. Wall street is having record years. Companies make record profits for the wealthiest americans are better off than theyve ever been. But they wonder when the prosperity will reach them. One of the cores of our book one of the main reasons that is happening is because the nature of our economy has rapidly transformed. The nature of our economy is rapidly transformed. 25 years ago they would always be a job available in america that allow you to achieve happiness. A job that allowed you to do the things he talked about. Buy a home raise a family, leave them better off. Today people find more than what they get paid doesnt keep up with the cost of living which continues to grow. The reason is not because of temporary cyclical downturn and its going to get better again. Our economy is undergoing deep rapid, permanent structural changes in the outline of the economy. Globalization is real. Globalization is changed our economy. We are now competing with more nations than ever before for jobs and innovation. That means we have to be globally competitive. But nature of work has changed as well. My parents come here in 2006 instead of 1956 wouldve been difficult to achieve working as a bartender and made because those jobs dont pay enough anymore compared in most places to what the cost of living has become. There are jobs in the 21st century that pay more but they require a higher level of skill than ever before. The problems we have are twofold. One our policies havent adjusted to the new century where increasingly led by people at every level of government they dont understand we live through the fastest most rapidly evolving Economic Times in all of Human History. Would basically have the equivalent of the Industrial Revolution every three to five years. So what are the answers . That is solely outlined above. We. We describe stories of real people of a single mom struggling to raise her two daughters will make a nine or 10 an hour. Not one but two public student graduated with degrees in now cant find jobs and mail a bunch of money and student loan. A Small Business in Central Florida run by a couple struggling to stay ahead and compete in an increasingly complicated environment or Big Companies who hire bunch of lawyers and comply with rules and regulations for Small Businesses like them struggle to do that. A young lady named india that we met for a Great Program will take stock children who overcame obstacles to achieve some truly extraordinary things. We talk about poverty, the factors to the millions of americans and wire programs that poverty dont work because the programs alleviate the pain of poverty that they do nothing to cure nothing to cure it in the ultimate cure for poverty, the real care is a good paying job and too many programs to address that. They simply alleviate the pain of poverty. But are the steps we need to take to address these things . We need to become overly competitive and understand the appeal economy in the world and there are dozens and dozens of countries competing against us for innovation and that is why we need things like a simpler tax code and do with our national debt, would take advantage in a reasonable way but in a responsible way of our Energy Resources and the second thing is given as to grow the economy and ive talked about this via the Republican Party simply stops and economic growth. Other was going to be better off than theoretically thats true. The 21st century has a second stab more import than ever. If you grow your economy and are prepared to create millions of better paying jobs, the better paying jobs today require more skill than is ever required. The problem is we still have a 20th century system and the only answer to that is a fouryear degree. Four year degree so i was the one of our choices. We need to have alternatives as well. For example the best paid jobs in the 21st century require more than a Traditional High School for less than four years of traditional college. Wolters and plumbers and electricians and and electricians and airplane mechanics and bmw technicians are also good paying jobs in demand in the 21st century and we need systems that allow people who acquire those skills. I believe america should be graduating more students ready to work right away in many professions which are good paying jobs critical of a 21st century success. The most challenging area is what do you do if youre 30 years old, you have to work fulltime to provide for yourself and your trying to raise her three children on your own. You make 9 an hour i say homemade or receptionists. The only way youre ever going to improve how much you make and ultimately your life is to acquire skills that allow you to become a paralegal or a dental hygienist. The problem is in order to achieve scales depending where you live that requires you to drop everything adverse people facing circumstances can do that. Will be made are innovative and creative programs that allow people to work fulltime and raise families to go back to school at their pace. At night on weekend. I will admit there are some forprofit programs that do a great job to try to address these needs but theyre also incredibly expensive and as a result weve seen people pursuing programs graduate in the tens of thousands of dollars in Student Loans. Has a good point to stop and congratulate Miami Dade County for the work it does. Miami dade Miami College for the work it is doing to fill the gap in our community. We need more and not. The truth is the only way that reception was making 9 an hour will ever make 50,000 a year as if he or she can become a paralegal or general hygienist or some other profession like it. We need to acquire education that allows access to that. As i said above monaco will be legitimately forward but we cannot afford to graduate people and one of the things they propose before anyone takes out a loan for a degree before anyone can take out alone for a degree, you should be told by that school this is how much you can expect to make when you crash away from the school with that degree. I myself graduated with 100,000 in Student Loans show is able to pay off after the publication of my first book which is now available in paperback in case youre interested. It is something i hold deeply personal and important. We cannot continue to graduate people with degrees that do not lead to jobs. Much of which may never be paid off and it isnt just bad for our country. Is bad for the people. Student loan debt stays forever. They can be discharged in bankruptcy. It . A lot of homeownership, entrepreneurship and ruins your credit. In that space i talk about creating alternative ways to credentialed people including the ability to package learning no matter where you acquire it from. Say here is who i am. It worked for 10 years in the dirt and these are the things ive done. Ive studied to report things online and i taken these courses in this college in these courses and not college i served in the military. Someone should package all that experience into the equivalent of the private sector recognizing. I also outlined a student loan that was especially beneficial to graduate students called the student Investment Plan which allows privatesector investors to pay your college in exchange for a percentage of your income over a period of time. Its not for everyone but its one more alternative to the traditional student loan. I would also be romance if i didnt point out one more aspect of our book and that is the impact of societal down. The break down of families and this has been documented on the left and right is one of the single largest contributors of poverty in america today. That doesnt mean i can pass a lot to make someone a better husband or wife heard if i could my wife would run for office. But it does mean we need to recognize tonys to recognize it in two ways. We need to recognize that elected officials whose policymakers as stable intact families are good for people and we need to recognize the children growing in disadvantaged backgrounds of broken families in dangerous neighborhoods in substandard housing with no access to a quality education, those children struggle to succeed statistically speaking unless we do something to intervene, must we do something to break the cycle, unless we do some things that allows them to overcome and in that realm theres a lot of government can do. Ultimately it is on us as people, members of the community, husbands, wives father mother numbers of Community Groups attack together the theme of the book that is quite optimistic because while we face real challenges i ask you what nation would you trade places with. What country would you rather be than us right now . Every nation on earth faces challenges. Every time we face challenges to. I believe we have it within us to confront challenges and i believe everything it takes to succeed are changes we are better at than Everything Else in the world. The 21st century will be about productivity in the American Workers and most productive on the planet. Twentyfirst century will be about innovation will slow the 21st century will be about Big Aspirations and big dreams. And the american people. I honestly believe if we confront the challenges and embrace the opportunity for this new era a 21st century will be saving not only the American Dream, but we will allow it to reach more people than its ever reached before and for me thats a deeply personal principle, one that i hold very dear to my heart. I tell people all the time what compelled me to Public Service is the reality america doesnt own me a single thing. I had to get to this country no matter how long they live or how hard they work on never be able to repay. Ive been able to achieve things in my life and live a life that would have been impossible had my parents not come here, this nation that existed, and what we know now is not just for that to continue to reach more more people than ever before. As i said at the outset every country in the world have successful people. There have been other countries that have large militaries in the geopolitical importance. Other nations with large economies and the companies. I truly believe what separates not just other nations on the earth but other nations in history is here we have been united by the police every human being deserves a chance to achieve their godgiven potential to go as far as their talents and work will take them and if we ever were to lose that we will lose what makes us different. Will still be important and will still matter in the global stage but we wont be special. I for one dont want to be part of the first generation of americans that leaves us worse off. I dont want to be part of the first generation of americans that have to turn to their children and explain why we got to grow up in the greatest country in Human History that they will not have the same chance. I know theres a lot of merit about there about the Republican Party and how divided we are between republicans and democrats and how divided we are among her political feelings and ideals and its true. Weve always been a pretty impatient people as evidenced here tonight. That is a benefit of our freedom. What unites us is even more important. I matter what your Voter Registration says early voted for the last election, there is a unifying principle in america and its the idea every single human being should matter that everyone deserves the right to achieve the dreams for themselves and their family and we will endeavor to be the country that provides that to people and if we achieve it not only will this be the greatest 21st century will also be an American Century and thats why took the time to write this book did i tell the story of real people in real challenges that describe whats gone wrong in their life and what we do now and what we can do better. Youll notice in the book many ideas that are bipartisan. They involve my collaboration with people of another party. Colleagues like cory but for new jersey fna policy proposals that are partisan at all. Particularly when it comes to Higher Education. Youll read how i work with mark warner to make Higher Education more affordable how i work with cory booker of new jersey to provide more access to wifi especially in this image neighborhoods. These are important initiatives as well. They arent easy to put on a bumper sticker. They dont win a lot of elections but theyre critical to the future of our country. We still have time and space and we should debate the issues we disagree on. I hope we can come together and cooperate on the essential issues of our time because what we have before us an extraordinary opportunity to usher in the most prosperous and that is saying a lot for this entry. I appreciate you being here tonight said to him that for this opportunity to address the book. Thank you. Hot mask [applause] the constitution is what finally worked out. Occupy a middle ground. After months of debate, delegates decided the government should have more power but less than what madison proposed and furthermore it would depend on local news and madison wanted the less so than what patterson and vision. This is not merely splitting differences either. The framers of the blip when the divergent views and you appreciate this if you read notes on the constitutional convention. You can see them taking care to make sure this compromise actually were basic together into a coherent whole and it was a remarkable compromise for america in 1787. This is deeply skeptical and fearful of creepy monarchists if they were in desperate need of a Central Authority that could deal with the urgent profits. The constitution gave them enough power to meet the existing crises but not so much as to overwhelm state and local authorities. It just in the government from popular sentiment but certainly not without cutting it off entirely. The American Population grew from 4 million to over 300 million in society changed straining the original compromise and gradually forcing an effective revision of the governing charter. New problems emerged in reputedly the public decided the power of the government had degraded deal with new threats and grow again. Today, washington d. C. Has jesus up a centralized power that was envisioned in the virginia plan. Our intense and purposes the federal government can legislate whenever he sees fit. Fraley does the Supreme Court remind washington if any constitution limit. Yet this is where we turn to the problem of corruption. The country never substantially revise the solutions for channel governments ever expanding powers. Weve tinkered the margins, tweet the Electoral College after the election of 1800, mandated the election of senators and expanded the franchise. Nevertheless the basic institutions remained largely as they were for the constitution went into effect in 1787. From the madisonian perspective if our institutions require a particular divine to break a controlled infection it is then imprudent to give greatly expanded powers to institutions originally intended to do much last but that is exactly what weve done. Any of you have done research, socially graduatelevel research know that its very slow and i found myself struggling with the equipment and broken vacuum pumps. So the progress was incremental at best. Around that time someone dear to me developed a severe case of lopez and effort to help her, i ended up going to support irv meeting and talking to doctors and is gradually got more interested in medicine as a way to help her but also how much was on charted in medicine. How little was known about for example lupus or chronic diseases in general. Being a physicist i had this idea that if i dug deeply enough i could for her. But it became very clear that matter said and credit roll uncertainty and it is largely a charity. That was appealing to the scientist in me but the biggest appeal was that i started to see madison as a way to help people. I know it sounds naive, but it was really why it the biggest motivating factor for me was. At the time when i was towards the end of graduate school i desperately wanted to get out of the ivory tower. I wanted to be with people. I wanted to interact with my fellow human being and i remember my brother who is without a cardiologist. He was in residency at the time and he visited me one thing you want to run the lab. I showed him the laser and all the cool stuff i was doing. He said this is such an ivory tower and i remember thinking it was the worst thing you could say to me at that moment because they just really stimulated me to make a big change. I ended up finishing my phd and i applies to medical school. Northwestern University Professor laura kipnis discusses man on the discusses man in the world they have in u. S. Society. This contains language that some may find offense is. Defensive. All right yall. [inaudible conversations] thanks, everyone. Im very excited to be introducing laura kipnis. But first i have a confession to make. I am a man. I dont usually call myself a man. I self identify as male but i dont call myself man. Boy seems more apt. Its also determined the trade. Dude much less threat and the irony or lack thereof. By all accounts i am a man. Ive needlessly explain things to women with expertise on the subject far exceeding my own on multiple occasions could have harbored discomfiting thoughts about overly emotional friends and lovers and at times ive been something of a fellow craddick d. The period so i must count myself as one of the tribe of men. Even if i feel different different if they send these men on the subway i just really small. The worst part about it is the man with the nerve to call himself a feminist, how do i do it and how do i sleep at night . All that french feminism i learned in college his internship or me now. We have two women here to help and all of you figure it out. So now im excited to welcome laura kipnis the yacht her of adventures in bad behavior, a council of and the female thing and vulnerability. Shes appeared in harvard, New York Times book review and others. She received fellowships from the guggenheim foundation, rockefeller and nea teaches filmmaking at northwestern and lives new york as well as chicago and shes going to read from her new book. [cheers and applause] thank you for that. Thank you for that introduction. I would like to say that some of my best friends are men to and in fact ive written about a lot of things. So im going to read from a couple of sections. First i should tell you this book title is fabs have been. Massara. Anything i do tonight will be in the sequel. Operators sex scenes and haters. Im going to read thank you for c. And not as funny. I will read from the process which is the title regarding man and then some of the chapters in the vaccines a section called cheaters. Here is how i started out. Regarding man. Men have fascinated me maybe too much. Theyve troubled me. They are large and take up a lot of space, space and the imagination i mean. They force you to think about them. A daddys girl who grew into a woman i wasnt a surprise to find when i started rummaging around the essays ive written over the last 15 years or so that it wasnt a random unsystematic tangle eye for called, instat a lot of it seem to cluster around the subject of men. What i meant to me quite sisyphean who had to be writing a Ticket Process and boyfriends and setting up housekeeping with a different one every three weeks, getting to say other things you wish youd had years ago, admit weve been wrong maybe be a bit or generous or in some cases less. They were pretty motley lot. Politicians pornographers, writers, jocks. Some were slobs, some lover boys, and a few were complete ships. With a different person id been with each event. The sun brings out your sunny side. This one you are so inhibited with. This one you could never stop judging and correct them. Writing about someone is an intimacy after all as in any relationship there is a lot of projection. Because of that family make other people up according to our necessities and imaginative horizons, nonfiction writers no less than novelists. What strikes me most about these essays is my covert enmity of men including the ones i would also like to thrash and dismember. Men have always rested more freedom from the world and i envied that even with its sick kind of freedom. Im not the only writer in the world preoccupied with men. Its been one of those big literary subjects most of the time for men themselves. Take martin amos is that the most persistent and in his work is masculinity and opens his own collective essays with dave morgan c. On the subject. Amos is attuned to the specimen he needs the new manned whose appearances from 1970 or so. He makes all kinds of fresh claims on everyones attention is a most. Bill granger, male whimpers of neglect. No doubt i like this formula because of a slam fascinations into the tenor. Ive been writing about bands as they force themselves on my attention. I was locking on the street minding my own business as they grabbed me from behind. It is irony about this masculine travails. The old emblems of management are not exact enthusiast on the subject of male wounds. In the lacking account and ive been rereading many baker comes hemingway comes first to mind a writer whos been scaffolded vitae to be a flat without it. If irony would be tantamount to taking out his own vertebrae. In this lineage the perennially battered mailer or another top verse. Was an ongoing threat of not just something invented by freud. Unlike hemingway he could be quite funny on such a basis perversely energized by the fact women would take his pen away in use by the rule as he was committed to it. The town hall debate about womens liberation in 1971 brought down the house by asking mailer from the audience. A good novelist can do the remnants of his fall. Ive been wondering do you tape your and ink what color ink is that . Graciously concedes adding that if he doesnt find an answer he will have to agree the color is yellow. A lot of women find these divas insufferable. They take the blustered a harder just think them buffoons. The short pugnacious men are easy to mock. Ive always felt more complicated about it. When he pauses and scatter loosely hilarious prisoners the remark of the feminist critic of the best women writers write like tough guy gets he meant it as a compliment. I know i should be stamping my foot along with other offended parties but a shriek with delight every time i read this sentence. This is such anxiety and bounty from the condition he achieves a certain sublimity. Of course they can escape no of attention many complaints from women about the new man as there were about his predecessors. See updated versions of male panic are no less urge some bad deal. Emotionally paralyzed, indecisive and sufficiently libidinal on and off the page. The lack of libido is particularly insulting. Male desire may have been scummy in the payday but on the way out that would not exactly be satisfactory either. Novelist Benjamin Kunkel of the younger rank of vice younger rank of vice is limited to one strike as a protest against male apathy would miss the redundant . I finished up the preface this way. Women take men too seriously and not seriously enough. A bipolar condition you will no doubt find in the chapters that follow. Another was please dont think im offering myself as a model progressive enlightened thinking on the malefemale relations. Its probably more like the reverse. Does a woman writer who subjects men want to park her buggy only on the enlightened side of the street, which would mean what i expending time protesting male novelists get more space than shiflett writers or that their characters say dubious things about women and their books dont get us ongoing complaints since no one. What a boring path to the promising of gender parity that would be. Personally i hate to think feminism means reforming anyones or weird retrograde identifications are purveyed limitations. I say far better to devour your opponents in a gluttonous frenzy and earnestness and rebuke issuing in the deadly security of what you heard enough. Eat them alive choose slowly savor those alarming new thought. Now i skipped ahead. [cheers and applause] thank you. I skipped ahead to the chapter called cheaters. If ive been having an on and off again affair with a married sports hero and discovered to my dismay and chagrined that a lot of other girls processional tediously having affairs with the same sports hero what i so justified in telling them where possible sallie mae tales of romantic injury to the media . This is a question i found this out basket when america was of a certain worldclass cost champion became a protected national preoccupation with embarrassing new revelations issuing daily from the media waiting for this ad hoc air and. I suspect the answer would be maybe so. Theres a footnote to that. The letters along with an assertive running commentary until halted by a cautious editor. I must acknowledge theres no high ground but rather a role famously booted Elizabeth Hardwick that were distinguished and so i shared myself. I suspected my case the answer would be maybe so. At least i can understand how getting clobbered with photos of 10 or 12 other mistresses and realizing you werent a special and chosen as the thought that you were actually one of the small crowd might demand some score settling. At least you want to straighten media out how youre different and the rest of them. Classier for instance. But here is another question that crossed my mind. Did the very sports hero in question has some kind of tension for and romantic partners who subsequently feel the need to share their experience with the media . Sorry, what the world. Is this now i type not blonde or brunette, but careless as the sport ssierra just a little willfully oblivious about certain facts of contemporary life namely the celebrity privilege nowadays. Maybe theres a test message to hear and yes this is largely male clubs, the fans and admirers most drawn to the same cohort most inclined to sell you out later. This cohort may well include if i were a tabloid with any scandal i would want to note the correlation. Serial philanderers in composters need to be better psychologists in the age of twitter as one suspect psychological savvy rather than good luck alone is a quality that separates those who enacted National Ignominy from those who dont. In the interest of promoting a more emotionally attuned celebrity factor would like to offer a few cautionary observations to out at risk of male celebs. At least those who havent yet been caught in compromising positions. To begin with, it is a tough world out there of my friends. Gone are the days when the days when monica wolinsky told only a dozen or so friends and relatives about her thing with the president. These days it doesnt confidence might be nailing a famous guy which is something worth thinking about if you happen to be a famous guy or hope to become one some day. Also, these days everything is personal but nothing is private. Chalk it up to the rest of narcissism in the digital revolution, the tabloid media explosion or all of the above. The upshot is how we perform our roles in public is radically altered in a relatively short period of time and one of the main symptoms is what used to be the publicprivate divide has become so poor access to be almost indecipherable. More than a dozen eventually came forward with grievances reminisces and copy of Text Messages that were available, what my weve missed about the women he was involved with . His wife would soon come forward with their own grievances reminisces and scrapbooks of painful marital memorabilia. We will return to her shortly. Lets put on our psychologist hat and ponder this question. What exactly is the allure of sex with celebrities . Especially married ones who prefer to keep your existence a secret . Maybe they will take should next time if they can get away. No doubt theres simple animal attraction to their charismatic. They have an aura. Sometimes it even quite good looking. About theres a feeling of the connection, a special spark other often evaporates by morning. The main benefit is anyone with experience of such a knows that it can first specialist on the left recipient of the attention. E. Or she could choose anyone and he chose me. I will jump ahead a little. The problem with the groovy dynamics, i talk about Keith Richards in his memoir. The problem with the Group Economic at least from the celebrity simply is someone who craves the proximity of celebrity limelight sorry. Someone who craves the proximity of celebrity limelight feels confirmed by hit or miss attention borrowed under lessons bestow it under less than a couch and circumstances is also likely to be somewhat afflicted by greater than usual quantities of security come insecurity. What about this i was anticipating reading it out loud. [laughter] greater than usual quantities of insecurity and selfdoubt yet helping a bit of a limelight will magically rub off improving life in some unspecified action. Fortunately it doesnt usually work that way. As a confirmation sector begins to realize the more now mr. Celeste attention celeb prepares to jump to the next city. To meet and greet the next admiring poured. Who wouldnt feel a teeny bit aggrieved and maybe even slightly they did when the requisite quotient of affirmation is withdrawn . In fact its probably those hoping to be lit up with come by contact with a limelight are most likely to feel aggrieved and possibly been taken in such circumstances. I hope youll take that to heart. [laughter] and i will stop there. Thank you. [applause] thank you everybody for coming out, and lets give one more round of applause for our readers. [applause] booktv is on twitter and facebook, and we want to hear from you. Tweet us twitter. Com booktv, or post a comment on our facebook page, facebook. Com booktv. There was an ecosystem of liberalism which doesnt exist today which was quite important to the story of building pressure on congress by 1964. And so theres a lot of examples in the story of how this works. March on selma is a very important example of this. Lyndon johnson unlike the depiction in the movie, and i can talk about this later, was fully in favor of voting rights. It ministrations working on a bill and negotiating with the senate but he wasnt prepared to send the bill to congress yet. He was scared in january of 65 that he didnt have all the power everyone said. If they did that to some that this bill would fall apart. Part of what the movement did in selma, part of a single legislative strategist does is to build that pressure through the protest to the images through the confrontation to create an atmosphere in congress where waiting was no longer permissible. To get across the fierce urgency of now. Liberals also did other organizational things. During the Civil Rights Act of 64, one of the big theories was the southerners with all the parliamentary tricks were going to kill the bill. So the senate filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and one other things so theres always did was they would have quorum calls to force all the senators to come back at all hours back to take the quorum call. So theres one story on april 13 1964, the filibuster has started and many of the senators are at the opening day games in washington, the opening day baseball game. Hubert humphrey was managing this overrides the forces in the senate, is under the assumption that theres been an agreement no quorum call drink again. And all the senators are sitting together with some members of the house like the speaker and johnson is there. He throws out the opening pitch and in between the third and fourth inning all of a sudden the loudspeaker comes on and says all senators must return right now for a quorum call. Hubert humphrey gets up anyways his arms and he is furious and all of the senators leave except for one, that was Richard Russell who is heading the civil rights filibuster sitting there quite content with what he had done. But when the senators leave the Leadership Conference of civil rights, which was an umbrella Civil Rights Organization had a role of limos ready for the senators and took them right back to the senate and got them back their for a vote, and humphrey entered triumphantly. So social movements from the grassroots to these kinds of tactical fights and organizational fights were incredibly important to creating the moment that allowed for the Great Society to take place. And on bill after bill these are the kinds of stories that i kept finding. You can watch this and other programs online at the booktv. Org. Heres a look at the current best selling nonfiction books according to National Public radio. You are watching booktv on cspan2. Heres our primetime lineup for tonight. That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. How did an army officer so associated to George Washingtons legacy go to war against what we today consider George Washingtons greatest legacy the union . It was this question that ultimately drew me to robert e. Lees story. Its a tragic tension and the knowledge, that history could have turned out so much differently. Because on the eve of the civil war, leaders on both sides of the potomac, in richmond and in washington sought lee services for high command to both the about his connection to George Washington. That was common knowledge. Both sought saw tremendous significance. They also knew Winfield Scott who at the time was the ranking general in the u. S. Army sought bodhran five was the very the soviet ever seen in the field. Robert e. Lee certainly looked like a fine soldier. He stood just under six feet tall, he had powerful, broad shoulders, a barrel chest. Be a perfect posture but everybody who saw him said some version of the same thing, that man looks every inch the soldier. And so in 1861, an emissary for Abraham Lincoln asked robert e. Lee to ride across arlington and come to the city of washington. That mss name was Francis Blair and he makes an extraordinary offer. He says, will you lead the main union army to crush secession . And as lee remembered the story, boller tried and everywhere to convince robert e. Lee to say yes. He said blair said to lee the country looks to you quote as a representative of the washington family to say the Union George Washington forged. And that was hard an exaggeration because after all he was the son of George Washingtons famous eulogists and the so of George Washingtons adopted child. And so now only one word separate robert e. Lee from the pinnacles and profession from command of what would be the largest American Army ever raised, from glory perhaps that no american since George Washington had known and what did robert e. Lee say . Well, he said he opposed secession, and he did opposed secession. He thought it was illegal. And equally significantly he thought George Washington wouldve opposed secession and that was no given at the time, because people both sides of the conflict claimed George Washington for the own. Secessionists said George Washington was a rebel rebel against a union with the british. On the other side unionists will say, George Washington in his farewell address said the pride the union about any exceptional allegiance. And actual robert e. Lees reading biography of George Washington in the months before the civil war, and he is hearing these and he concludes that he basically agrees with the unionist position he plays a George Washington would have opposed secession. So what else did lee say to Francis Blair . He said he would allow the wash his hands of slavery, he would gladly get rid of all of slavery if it could avoid war. But then he says, but how can i raise my sword against my native state . And here the blair family traditions as lee hesitated as if searching for an answer. But as lee told the store, he gave the answer once and at once, no. He turned and the command. The we did not get turned into his commission to the army he observed more than three decades. He would return to arlington house, soon learn learned that virginia in fact has voted to secede from the union. And there on april 20 he writes a letter resigning from the union army. And his wife would call that decision to resign the dearest struggle of his life. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. Each month representative tom cole of oklahoma releases a reading list on his website. Heres a look at the congressmans recommended books which focus on the life of dwight d. Eisenhower. To see what other books congressman cole has recommended, visit cole. House. Gov. Next on after words, wes moore, combat veteran of the war in afghanistan and author of the work talks with the search for a Meaningful Life and the people who have inspired him along the way. He is in conversation with Wendy Spencer, chief executive officer of the corporation for national and community service. Host im so thrilled to be here today. I am Wendy Spencer with corporation for national and community service, and wes moore im with today, im so glad to talk about your book the work my search for a life that matters, which i think everyone has that goal. My search for a life that matters, right . Thats what your book addresses. So thanks for being with me today when you talk about this great work of literature that yo
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