Washington post columnist, thriller writer who writes about the cia and such. This month, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Colson Whitehead as our guest. His most recent book is the under ground railroad. Mr. Whitehead, whats the appropriate response new book is appraised by oprah, president obama, you won the National Book award, what is the appropriate response . If only it took the pain aw away. [laughter] has taken off in a way thats unexpected and startling and wonderful. Just try to enjoy it despite my best efforts. Why does it put you in a better mood . Ive been writing for 20 something years doing fiction 20 some years, sometimes we write a book and people dig it and understand it sometimes write a book and no one cares and its sort of disappears so i have the pride the job i did with the book. Either you dig the groups of two prospectors or you dont and so you are either along for the ride description or not. Definitely when i was writing was my second attempt at a novel. My fir
Lets pick up where we left off on wednesday. The main argument i was trying to make then focused on James Madisons role as the agenda maker for the philadelphia convention, and the particular argument i wanted to make is as madison prepares himself, i think the key item he worked on in his agenda is the idea that a system of federalism based upon the voluntary compliance of the states with the recommendations, the resolutions, the requisitions that came from the Continental Congress, was never going to work. When he reasons about this, he does so in a very interesting way. He combines a set of empirical observations about what took had taken place back in the 70s and lessons americans like him had learned since 1776. How washington functions. He takes a step back, and then what he does is to think abstractly, and what we can see a, at least implicitly, theoretic framework where he comes up with the idea that because states have different interests and different interests within each st
Foreign policy analyst and author brandon weikert talks about his latest book on the importance of american dominance in space. Zer,n historian harold hol we were talking that this was book number 54 few, president s versus the press. Explore thented to relationship between chief executives and the journalists who have covered them, praise them, cap their secrets, and generally antagonized them. I wanted to trace the origins of on ourationships we see Television Screens almost every day. It as aso wanted to do followup to a book i put out five years ago about lincoln and the press, and see how it all fit in as a possible continuum of difficult relations, strained relations between the president and the press from the beginning. Susan how did you select which president s were included . Harold i dreamed of doing everybody but i realized it was impractical and might be tedious. Dying to know about james polk and the press or benjamin harrison, but i decided to cover the founding era, wit
Welcome to book tv in depth this is especially or fiction on indepth and last month was David Ignatius who writes about the cia. This month we have Colson Whitehead is our guest his most recent book is the underground railroad. What is the appropriate response mr. Whitehead when your books are praised by the president obama and ohio oprah and the National Book award . It takes the pain away. [laughter] this book has taken off in a way that is unexpected and wonderfu wonderful. So i think my lucky stars i sleep a little better, a better mood generally, and try to enjoy it despite my best efforts. Why does it put you in a better mood . I have been writing 20 something years doing fiction 20 years. And no one particularly cares. So i have the pride of thinking i did a good job with the book and the bonus of other people to see that as well. Host your first book was about elevator repair people. How do you sell a book like that quick. Exactly. So when i send it to my agent with the concept
8000. Republicans come your opinions will come in on 202748 8001. Independents, your line will be 202748 8002. You can always text us your always ond we are social media at twitter and on cspan. K. Com tensions have been ratcheting up the last few days, with both countries forcing the other to close a key embassy in that other country. Ae wall street journal has story about that this morning that we will bring to you so i want to bring that story to you. The u. S. And china moved rapidly friday to shut down consulates and evict diplomats, unprecedented steps followed by calls on both sides to ease tension. Flareups between the worlds two biggest economies, even amid the move to avoid further acts of immediate excavation escalation. Aging ordered the shutdown of , describingsulate it as a necessary response after washington ordered china to consulate in houston. U. S. Defended the closure, citing unacceptable espionage and intellectual property theft linked to the outpost. As evidenced