and also of course the triangle shirtwaist fire of 1911. why don t i back up a little bit and come up to it though, just to sort of set the stage a little bit. you know, my book and labor organizing in industrial america of both begin with a large group of women back in massachusetts about the 1830 s and 1840 s. that is where you had the introduction, first introduction of large textile mills and, you know, the founders of america, jefferson, hamilton were very tentative about introducing industry into america. they weren t sure it would be a good fit. basically an agricultural country, and the a symbol of industry and europe and england hadn t been a very pleasant one. people live in slums, working and living under miserable conditions. so a lot of leaders in america were unsure whether they would encourage it and when they did they set up what they thought was kind of a model example of how it could be done. they called it the lowel miracle and was basically to have a kind
as poking fun at the publishing business. for example, i said last year that publishing was a sinking ship. and i meant that in a positive way. [laughter] i did not say that publishing was a sunken ship. i said, and i believe, that publishing is still very much in the process of sinking. you know, publishing is a carnival cruise ship. it s on fire, the toilets don t work, but we are surviving day to day on pop tarts and spam. [laughter] and i think we can all agree that is a pretty darn positive assessment of where publishing is right now. [applause] i m glad there is some agreement. but just to be clear, if in the course of this evening i do poke fun of publishing, it s not out of disrespect. it s because i m an ice hole. there s also agreement on that. that s what i m paid to do or what it would be paid to do if i were being paid tonight. [laughter] tonight i am a pro bono asshole. and i relish that task, i really do. if you want to switch things up a little bit to do somet
i wasn t doing it for theatrics but i have a brand new fit. [applause] i loved it. but the rest of the body has caught up. we go slow. nobody is moderating us. we are just talking. we are talking about frederick douglass, libraries, literacy and liberation. absolutely. let me start with literacy. because a want other people to know about it what we did. i am interested obviously in literacy. i am impressed with what recently discovered which was that this country is unique in the world in terms of the distribution of libraries throughout the country. you cannot go in rural areas in europe or in africa or in asia. rural areas the way you can hear which, a little town. not to speak of the huge university library that jumps out of nowhere in indiana or someplace. in pennsylvania you go 100 miles and there is this enormous university was more books than cambridge. it is an extraordinary thing. the other thing is about literacy, which i am interested in, is on the one hand
chernow. his latest book is about george washington. following that in about one hour and 45 minutes or so we will be joined by war correspondent david axe, his book war is boring, chronicals his wars in somalia and other countries. david axe works in iraq and afghanistan. we then return for a talk by simon winchester who published a book about the thraptic ocean atlantic ocean. he was on our program in 2004 and in 1998 to discuss the professor and the madman about the oxford english dictionary. after that, we ll interview authors about the book sea gull one, an organization founded and efforts to save people fleeing cuba on rafts. after that meggan mccain will speak about her book, dirty, sexy politics, and after that nonfiction for children entitled heros for my son. then bill press, doug shaun all taking part in that discussion and appeared on booktv in the past. after that is eliza here to take your calls on christianity and islam. after that, another opportunit
book about the founding of facebook, called the the accidental billionaires, and then an haven t with ron ron chernow. his latest book is about george washington. following that in about one hour and 45 minutes or so we will be joined by war correspondent david axe, his book war is boring, chronicals his wars in somalia and other countries. david axe works in iraq and afghanistan. we then return for a talk by simon winchester who published a book about the thraptic ocean atlantic ocean. he was on our program in 2004 and in 1998 to discuss the professor and the madman about the oxford english dictionary. after that, we ll interview authors about the book sea gull one, an organization founded and efforts to save people fleeing cuba on rafts. after that meggan mccain will speak about her book, dirty, sexy politics, and after that nonfiction for children entitled heros for my son. then bill press, doug shaun all taking part in that discussion and appeared on booktv in