Return to the reich, a biography of freddy meyern whose life tels incredible story of world war ii heroism area based on research and interviews with meyer himself whom the author was able to meet only once before his death at the age of 94, returned to the right is an eyeopening unforgettable narrative of world war ii heroism and this is one credit will story that i am very excited to hear more about. Eric lichtblau a twotime Pulitzer Prize winning journalist is the best starring author of the nazis next door and first law, the remaking of american justice. He was a washington reporter for the New York Times for 15 years while also writing for the Los Angeles Times the new york yorker, time and other publications. He has been a frequent guest on npr, msnbc, cspan who we have here tonight and other networks as well as the speaker at many universities and institutions. He lives outside washington dc. So, without further ado lets give it up for eric. Thank you so much. [applause] thank y
1915 film of the same name. Isnt that a great start . Why the birth of a nation and what is it . Is considered the first blockbuster film. The story i want to tell is not only the making and release of the film in 1915 but the controversy that it provoked. It is mainly a story about a civil rights leader from a boston by the name of William Monroe trotter, a radical newspaper editor as well who was at the forefront of extensive protest action against this bill about civil war and reconstruction which is entirely races in his per trail of black america. If it were to come out today what would happen . I hope it would not get censored but i hope there will be lots of protest drawing attention to the racism at the heart of the story and in griffiths hands. We are going to do a minute am a want to show the opening of this if people have not seen it in what it looks like. It is three hours. Lets watch. [video clip] the first minute, what did we just the . We showed griffith, the first thing