Want to thank the commentators and everyone for assembling this deeply honor especially to be giving the William Roger lewis in the flesh. We were on the state Department Committee suffering through a lot of bows and arrows back in the decade prior, and i got to know him well and i feel really honored to give a lecture that is in his name. This book came about and so many of you, my friends, have heard this origin story. This came about because lewis liked the review i had done and mentioned the series that helen was doing that would use my biography to teach history that would pick biographical topics or would use a representative biography to get a broader subject of history. They had just published their first volume. It was on pocahontas. And issues regarding native American History, they were looking for somebody to do something on foreign relations, he offered me the opportunity to put together the perspectives. These were supposed to be short and concise books, that was the idea
Text and donate, here is the number 415 3294231. And you can text the word donate to that number. Would also like to thank the osha foundation for supporting todays good lid event. I like the name of that. It is my pleasure right now, my just overwhelming deep, deeply i cannot even tell you how much i love this woman. It is my pleasure to my very dear friend sunny hostin in the Award Winning journalist and cohost of the view. I have worked with sonny for many years. We he talked about sisters and brothers, we fightut it is all love. Her new book i called, here it is, i am the truth. It is a memoir of identity justice and living between worlds. It is a revealing look at her really incredible sto. Sunny grew up in the south bronx. And through hardork, through determination come for the suort of her parents and family she obtained a l degr. She went on to become a federal prosecutor massoud recognize for stellar work prosecuting crimes against women and children. She is a fighter she is i
Interviewing top nonfiction authors about their latest work. All after words programs are also available as podcasts. It is so good to talk to you. Another book journalist. How do you primarily think of yourself these days . Guest i still very much see myself as a book critic. This book is just sort of an extension of that work. These days i feel like i am a political journalist and just using books as a means to that kind of work. Is that something that you steered clear of . I didnt have a sense that i wanted to necessarily be an author or write a book. Reading other peoples books was plenty and i learned a little bit if i went through the process of writing a book it would be sympathetic to the authors and ruin me for my day job but i think that its been useful to see that side of the process and all the work that goes into creating that product i usually get at the tail end. Do you think its going to change . I think it almost has to. I want to see i suspected it had to in some way
I focus mainly on the prism. You call this a book also about the intellectual history of the trump era, a title some might consider to be a timely oxymoron but what do you mean by an intellectual history . Theres a lot of ways to imagine. Theres been a common exercise during the trump years of trying to find that one book from 1973 that anticipated everything or this one essay that saw it coming and ive done that myself but that isnt the kind of book i wanted to write. I wanted to grapple with the insiders and academics and journalists and how they were thinking about this moment in real time so maybe a better way to explain it is to think of it as a snapshot of an intellectual moment future historians can look at to get the sense of how we thought about trump in a moment. Its interesting you talk about books that oversimplify things, this is how we got here, this is how its happened. There was an increased interest in sales and in particular, novels with brave new world and postapocal
Like im a political journalist use the book says a means to that kind of work. Obviously this is your first book did you know you always wanted to write a book as a critical or is that something you steer clear of . I do not have a sense i wanted to necessarily be an author or write a book reading other peoples books plenty in the process of writing a book to be far too much sympathetic warning me for my day job that has been useful to see with that side of the process is like and all the work going to finish that finished product i get at the tail end. With that change your approach is a book critic . I think it has to i know how it will. I want to see when im back into the swing of reviewing books but in some ways just beyond sympathy for authors i hope you will give me a better sense of the decisionmaking of where the book covers or how many chapters. I hope will make me better at my main job. Now you know the answers but before you get too far away he ran on read 150 books. What do