like him. >> host: "house of debt" is the name of the book. princeton professor of economic and public affairs atif mian is the co-author. you are watching booktv on c-span2. >> in 2003 judith miller wrote several stories on invasion of iraq and weapons of mass destruction in an effort to reveal scooter libby. she was found in contempt of court imprisoned in a federal jail for 85 days. tonight she talks about her time in jail and the story, a reporter sure nate. >> guest: >> i was in jail because i refuse to reveal the identity who did not want as identity revealed. protect sources is the independent journalism. i really thought unless the people that i routinely spoke to let access my sources would dry up and eventually this is a question of principle that i didn't have much choice. >> host: now on booktv we want to introduce to do history professor transfixed. he teaches at princeton where both tv and established a new book "one nation under god" it is called. have we always been a nation under god? >> guest: that's a great question. it depends on who you ask. a lot of people believe we been a nation under god. recent polls show 55% of americans have believed that from the get-go. for the way to think about whether we're a christian nation, the center point to come in the ceremonies we invoke a recent inventions. not from the founding fathers, but her own grandfathers in the lake were really invented in the revolutionary era, but the era of the cold war. all the things we take for granted now. national day of prayer, national prayer breakfast pledge of allegiance, in god we trust, all of those are inventions of the 19th east. why? >> as we were fighting the godless communists in the soviet union and america got religion. so just invented all of these new phrases and mottos and slogans that distinguished it as an atheist of the soviet union. there is a factor but it's a minor one. the new story takes place in the foreign policy but domestic policy of the 1930s. it comes from not foreign-policy issues, but domestic politics for a revolt against the new deal. corporate leaders and clergymen advanced to an ideology they call freedom under god. from private correspondence it is quite clear the state power they fear the most is not the soviet regime in moscow but the new deal administration in washington. >> host: freedom under god. who started this? s. copastor of an elite congregation. with ample backing from corporate leaders, he promotes this idea do with christianity and capitalism he takes a loose approach to the bible and says famously reading the bible should be like eating fish. we take out the bugs to injury to me. all parts are not of equal value. he ignores all the teaching and instead makes christianity and capitalism go hand-in-hand in the lines and against the creeping socialism of the new deal. >> host: who are some of the corporate folks that are involved? >> guest: his big backer is howard pew but the leaders of general motors, u.s. steel chamber of commerce, association of manufacturers, all these big names come in effective way to push back against the new deal. they tried to do it on their own. they start offending massive campaigns of public relation propaganda of their opponents called them to push back against the regulatory state of the new deal. the problem is it is looking up for itself. the chairman of the democratic party because it is a dupont product and you can see right through it. they need a better pr campaign and the ministers of the most effective people are the most trusted. they make the case on their behalf. >> host: what were some of the successes and some of the failures in the 30s and word is? >> guest: the new deal was still pretty popular, by the early 50s they are starting to gain a national audience. they do this through -- they're fun incentive amount they magazine. the biggest success early on his national radio program in 1951 on the fourth of july. it is a hugely produced event. jimmy stewart is the masters of ceremony and all-star cast of hollywood stars. the sponsorship program by herbert hoover douglas macarthur and a massive corporate funder. >> host: january 1952 dwight eisenhower's inaugural. what did that have to do with this group? >> guest: eisenhower is a strong supporter of this group. and he had been aligned with the christian libertarians for quite some time. abraham dared a and what we don't think of in this group billy graham. graham is a staunch supporter of the christian libertarians, not because so much so the london newspaper called them that he business famously in the 1950s to address at the garden of eden will be a place with no union leaders no union dues, no snakes in the disease. that's his idea of paradigm. eisenhower believes he is the lack or to leave country in a spiritual revival so when it comes into office in a manifest from the very start. he holds a massive prayer service that morning. previous president. largely in private. a hundred more outside. he leads the country and a prayer he wrote himself that morning. a first for inauguration. the very first is called god's float. freedom under god and in god we trust pearsall on it went. the theme from the very start of religion and politics is an important one. >> host: was dwight eisenhower religious man? if you believe this? >> guest: yes and sincerely religious. he calls himself the most deeply religious man i know. his family had not a good record of attending church, but he thought himself as a fundamentalist. to quote bible verses by the art according to french in the army. when it comes into office he firmly believes but also sees the political. the political and wound up being different from people line within the previous years. that i was public religion as a means to enact and a way to roll back the new deal state. with this election they're fun at the moment but they will look back at eisenhower believed it was fair to say. if any party tries to push back and undo social security and foreign labor legislation to never hear of them again. so he makes peace. rather he takes the public religion that's always been a means to an end to mix of the man himself. he embraces public religion to unite america. he makes that bigger than it's ever been before. the movement have been one of protestant and now conservative as well as liberal. democrats and republicans alike. contemporary americans who think once at the time we all agreed we were in this nation are great. the founders of time that they were right about. it's eisenhower. >> host: from your book "one nation under god" you write once in office ronald reagan helped defend the factorization of the state. what does that mean? just got that means eisenhower added for the nation but also certain politicians. reagan had been a lifelong democrat and he comes to follow eisenhower is the first republican to vote for and uses the example is president. as eisenhower put traditions in the place, reagan greets one of his own. we take it granted now with god bless america. that's largely an event should indebted in the presidencies. reagan makes it a standard practice without the signoff. he books a silent prayer and acceptance speech. it constantly invokes one nation under god, in god we trust and wraps his politics and piety in future. >> host: how has this been an effective political tool for republican and how has it hurt the democrats? >> guest: originally, one that both sides embrace. democrats are responsible for putting a lot of it in place. it becomes polarized during the nixon years. nixon tries to replicate what he did under eisenhower and the light of events had a front row seat. when he is president, he's a little more ham-handed than eisenhower then. he uses it more as a part of the club. he has massive public rallies after the invasion of cambodia to try and calm down public unrest. the university of tennessee that is honoring mary today which is by all sides and as a affair. church services in the east room which according to insiders at the white house are all completely political event. an effort to lobby congressmen and measures they walk past the congress. but mixing it takes a turn and becomes piety and patriotism embraced by both parties liberals as well as conservatives and becomes seen as a tool of the partisan right. from then on it becomes the mainstay of republican power. they mentioned with reagan had done, george h.w. bush. george w. bush does some of the same. democrats have tried to embrace this, but they've always been faced with the problem. one, they see this as politics of the right and their voters are called into question. it is seen as self-serving. barack obama has spoken famously in 2008 about democrats believing in an awesome god and things like that. always dismissed as insincere. it seems in some ways the press was the province of the right alone. >> host: kevin kruse is professor of history at princeton. his book is "one nation under god" mse concludes in the book, history reminds us what a public religion is in large measure an invention of the modern era. this is book tv on c-span2. >> host: and now joining us on booktv, tracy k. smith, pulitzer prize winner and has written a memoir called tran 11. professor smith, who is kathy? >> guest: kathy is my mother. in the course of thinking about this book, i realized that person i grew up knowing with such an obvious statement. one of my main wishes and wanting to write about