>> historian harlow giles unger recounts the life of america's sixth president on quincy adams who died in 1848. quincy adams was some of the second president john adams had a long political career which included, aside from his presidency, ten years of secretary of state, senator, congressmen and miniature. this is a little under an hour. i will start with a very simple question. was there a moment you said to yourself i need to write a biography of john quincy adams? >> yes, indeed, there was. a couple years ago when i ran out of any ideas on the founding fathers. others had written on washington, jefferson, madison, and i'd written on patrick henry, james monroe, james hancock. so i pulled out john f. kennedy's cal woods prize-winning book profiles in courage and their in chapter 1 was john quincy adams. i thought his name begins with a xu chapter 1. that's not the reason he was in chapter 1. john kennedy himself a war hero had listed these characters in order of the degree of courage, and he placed john quincy adams first among the most courageous senators and congressmen in american history. he was not just the sixth president of the united states. he was a congressman as well for 16 years and a center for four years. most americans don't realize he was a congressman. many don't even know he was president. >> by your going to change that. >> yes. he was this enormously courageous congressman. the first congressman to stand up and call for emancipation before lincoln even knew how to spell the word. >> we will get back to emancipation and the abolition movement. someone said to me the other day i have read to biographies of john quincy adams. here's his question: what is new to be said? >> loads of things are new to be said. first of all, few people have read his -- his diary is one of the most marvelous documents of american history. it runs 14,000 pages. when he was 10-years-old, his father urged him to start chronicling events in his daily life, and he started and became an addict, and one of the most literate diarists in history. his diary covers the evin -- starting at ten it covered all of the formative years in american history. in his life he served under george washington, and alongside abraham lincoln in the house of representatives. so his life spanned from his public life started at the dawn of the american revolution and continued in the civil war. he knew all of the great characters aside from washington and lincoln he knew madison, monroe, he knew lamar alexander, frederick the great of prussia, charles dickens. he knew them all. he speaks of them, writes about them and tells of his life in this wonderful diary few people have read from beginning to end. 14,000 pages. >> your book notes that it's all online. -- it's much easier, john adams diaries with a full right up and you can see it every page. >> and it's handwritten. has anyone pointed out? >> i don't know. i don't think so. two volumes have been published in book form but that's all. >> but he is a show and tell of printing. good penmanship. >> he kept it up until about three weeks before his death. he died in the house of representatives at 80 years of age. >> to back up for people who are not history majors, set the political scene of the party, the federalists and the democrats/republicans and how we think of democrats and republicans but this is a different situation. >> we don't think of libertarians? >> some do. we will give them equal time. socialist workers come anybody here. >> i would hope so. >> explain the political situation john quincy adams went into as he was going into the white house. >> actually the beginning of the political situation began after the revolutionary war. anarchy set into this country and the congress had no power. continental congress had no power to tax, to reduce troops. it was simply a place -- a debating society for the leaders from the various states to argue different policies. they were at war with each other. they were independent, sovereign nations and the leaders from various states began to realize we need a stronger federal government so they wrote the constitution. many americans were opposed to the constitution and became antifederalists. so they were the federalists and antifederalists opposed to each other from the very beginning. from the signing of the constitution. the antifederalists gradually became known as republicans and then democrat republicans. so when john quincy adams was running for office, and you now have the republicans, democrats republicans running against the federalist and he was the last of the federalist. the federalists ran this country from the beginning. washington, adams and they were the people that ran the country in the elite, the constitutional and the states allow property owners to vote. gradually universal suffrage came, not involving women. don't get your hopes up too high. it was white male suffrage but you didn't have to be a property owner and that is what pushed of the elite out of power. adams says jefferson, monroe, all the plantation owners and elite leaders permitted the growth of jacksonian democracy. >> your book opens with a scene that is worthy of the movie 1777i believe, and john quincy adams is 10-years-old. he's on a boat going to england. can you describe that being chased by british -- >> john adams had been a member of the continental congress and was one of the co-authors and signers of the declaration of independence. we were running out of money. congress couldn't tax the american people but they could borrow money and asked -- it appointed john adams to go to france to borrow, to try to raise money in france from the french government to pay for the revolution. he decided to take his 10-year-old son john quincy adams with him, his oldest, his firstborn, the oldest of his three sons. john quincy adams buy then was a devoted patriot at 7-years-old when his father was in the continental congress. his mother abigail adams heard fire in the distance and she took her boy up to the top of the hill behind in quincy massachusetts so they could look across boston bay and they saw the battle of bunker hill. and she took her boy by the hand, came back down by the farm house and began melting down the family pewter to make muskets for the patriots and she told her son at the time you must rise to the head of your country, and if you don't succeed, it will be because of your own laziness and obstinacy. [laughter] you must make a revolution, resolution in favor of virtue, integrity and love of your country. and that's how john and abigail adams raised their way from the beginning, their oldest son come to be virtuous, honest and to love and serve his country. and so when john adams was sent to france, he decided to take his 10-year-old firstborn son with him to be with him, to be together, to grow closer because they been separated for several years. john adams had been in the continental congress and the boy was with abigail and quincy said he wanted to be with his son but he also wanted to expose him to a european education and to the world of international affairs, and they went to stay with benjamin franklin, and benjamin franklin's lavish château outside of paris at the time coming and john quincy, john quincy adams went to a french school with benjamin franklin's grandson. and within several months he was speaking french fluently. he was a gifted child. by the time he was 15, he could speak four languages fluently. he'd already studied classical, latin and greek, he could write latin and greek. he was gifted in foreign languages that when a family friend was appointed ambassador minister to russia come first minister to russia and he couldn't speak french at the time french was not only the language of international diplomacy, it was also the language spoken in the russian court, they spoke french to each other. john quincy could and he asked john adams can you take john quincy adams with you to st. petersburg as the secretary at 16 years of age, and john quincy adams goes up with francis to st. petersburg and spends the year up there. it was too cold to venture out. he had this insatiable appetite for running. he studied david hume, the six volumes of edward gibbons decline and fall of the roman empire. adam smith's two volume work on the wealth of nations, the great economic work. he kept studying latin and read cicero. he read english poets. he had this insatiable appetite for learning. a 69 was still studying on goal wrigley. i went to jail instead of harvard. of course a big difference. >> but i take it as a politician especially in our modern sense of the word he may have lacked a certain common touch. >> he had no common touch but very few of the leaders in the country did at that time. they were all university graduates except for george washington, and george washington educated himself. he read more than 6,000 books. this was an elite. the constitution didn't give liberty of the ordinary man. turned over but it gave congress the same life the parliament had and they could tax us without our permission. it gave the constitution did not provide liberty for the american people. if the government into the hands of the property elite, white male property elite in the country for the first years of the nation. >> i don't know how strong to put where slavery came from. >> he believed in justice, and he felt this was a great evil but most of the leaders did feel that. george washington early on said there is no man who were sincerely more than nine wants to see an end to slavery in this country. slavery wasn't something the founding fathers invented. slavery was invented by the english and spanish and french and early on in the 18th century long before the founding fathers were born when their fathers and grandfathers were alive there were 15 to 20,000 in this country and the people in virginia, the plantation owners petitioned to end slavery. they found slaves avertin. they couldn't read or write. they were not skilled coming into the tobacco farmers needed skilled hands and they knew that northern farms were more efficient with paying workers. but slavery was the basis of the english and the spanish and the french economy and he rejected the petition from the virginians as did king george. by the time the founding fathers came along now we have almost half a million slaves. what could you do with them? they were largely unskilled and there were no opportunities in the south. the word out of one plantation began to another plantation. there were villages and towns and cities in the north come in and in the north people could read the slaves. there were opportunities in manufacturing where they could learn skills and serve as apprentices and learn skills and trades. couldn't do that in the south. the only opportunity for work was field hands, and then when it caught him chain was invented -- cotton shane was invented, you now have a sort of patrician of plantation owners. middle and lower-income people buying property and planting cotton. prior to that, most of the poor whites in the south were against slavery because the slaves compete for jobs. >> unlike most politicians he put his political career on the line in favor of abolition. he was the first to stand up for emancipation and he led the fight throughout his congressional career which began after his presidency. he failed to be reelected and the presidency because he didn't have the common touch. he believed that there was beneath the dignity of a president shall candidate to go out in the countryside and make promises to people that he knew he couldn't keep. unfortunately today at the candidates don't do that. john quincy adams set an example for them. but his pledge was to do what was best for the country. the people did not re-elect him. he went into congress and started fighting for justice kuhl always voting -- never voting for either political party. he can and independent, rejected both parties and started voting for justice for the entire country. he was a gifted lawyer. one of the greatest in american history and pleading many precedents before the supreme court. including the one that freed the 36 captives come african captives on board the slave ship ms -- amistad for those of you that so the film. to make it important whole this case was come his argument put a whole new complexion on the legal complexion on the slave trade. it made it illegal because in his argument it was that these africans were free men who had been kidnapped and simply rose up in self-defense to kill their kidnappers. so now the slave trade was no longer a slave trade, it was a kidnapping ring and therefore illegal. it makes slavery illegal but it made the slave trade illegal and was the first step in the movement towards emancipation. people began rallying around him as the southerners and the house of representatives tried to shut him up as he pleaded for emancipation. that aroused northerners, quakers at first and then others that realized john quincy adams was a devout christian and said this goes against all of the fundamentals of christianity. patrick henry said the same thing. soon you have this evolution movement that began to grow and grow. they tried to silence john quincy adams the more he spoke out. they passed a gag rule making a against the rules of the house to use the word slavery. any time he tried to use it, the speaker of the house was from tennessee, future president polke said he's out of order and they would shell out order. so he started pulling out these petitions from constituents at first but then from all over the country because citizens under the constitution had the right to petition congress. so he would read a petition for the abolition of slavery. i'm simply reading it from the petitions. i believe you write that term gag rule came about because of adams and he had a friendship with jefferson was a slave owner. how did that work? >> it didn't work at all. it started when he was very young. jefferson had lost one of his daughters and his wife and when jefferson got to paris as a hour ambassador, he was forlorn and quite lonely and he started hanging out at john adams house, his apartment in franklin's house, and john quincy was a youngster and he started taking him to museums and concert and the dhaka and john adams leader wrote to jefferson, john adams and jefferson later in life had a wonderful correspondence between the two of them and the recalled their time in paris and john quincy had become more of a son to view them to me so that's how close he was to jefferson as a boy but then later on a christian person comes to power and begins usurping power and this went against the grain of john quincy adams. he was a strict constitutionalist. i believe in the letter jefferson intended to, but he was a hypocrite in so many ways. he signed the declaration of independence and since all men are created equal. he goes on to monticello and doesn't fire a shot in the war and goes home to watch the slaves from the plantation. >> so they fell out later on in their political lives later when both jefferson and john adams falters had retired the began corresponding with each other and formed a warm friendship. but john quincy adams never -- he voted for jefferson. he was first -- the only federalist to vote for jefferson 's louisiana purchase when he was the center, but then turned around and fought jefferson's attempt to impeach and remove samuel chase from the supreme court. samuel chase was a strong federalist, and jefferson was intent on getting control of the entire government. he was a republican. he now had a republican majority in the house of representatives come slight majority in the senate. he wanted to remove the federal list from the bench to get republicans on that and get control of the entire government and the republicans in the house impeached him. he went to trial, samuel chase went to trial in the senate coming and when the arguments were finished, the first one to vote was john quincy adams, and he pled not guilty and that set off the flight of not guilty as. even many of the republicans voted not guilty. so as a rejection of jefferson's attempt to redefine the political dissent as a high crime and misdemeanor. >> to go back to the campaigns of 1824 to 1828, if you didn't go around giving speeches, what did he do? >> he believed that the american people should have a good common sense to judge a man on the basis of his talent and his accomplishments, and he was wrong. the american people did not have a good sense, and he actually did not win the most votes andrew jackson won more popular votes than he did. but jackson didn't have a majority in the college. so, the presidential race was then thrown into the house of representatives, and john quincy adams despised jackson, terrified of the possibility of the tracks sunni and presidency. he said jackson was a barbarian that could hardly write his name so he got together with henry clay who had the third most votes in the presidential election and promised him to the secretary of state. the two of them pulled their votes together in the house of representatives and that's how quincy adams was elected to the presidency. in the next election by then, jackson had gone around the country, electioneering, voting at the popular majority. and getting law changed from state to state to state providing for universal white male suffrage, which took the vote out of the hands of the property owners and gave it to the barbarians as john quincy adams would say. >> john quincy adams deal with clay and 1824 -- was that ethical by the standards of those days and maybe even retrospectively by our standards? >> it certainly was ethical in those days. obviously he took a lot of flak for it, but the choice in his mind was to turn the country over to a barbarian who couldn't write his name who had violated the constitution during the war of 1812 and had gone into the massacre of the seminoles, doing whatever he felt like doing. he did not want to see this and president. >> at one point in the book you describe him as a bit of a grow. do you think you would like him as a person? >> yes. [laughter] >> if there's some time travel involved. >> all of us are grouchy at times. he didn't suffer fools, and so he would be grouchy. i was grouchy last night when romney said we have fewer ships today than we had in 1917. i was grouchy when obama said something just as stupid. john quincy adams was this fabulously learned man who had stayed with history. the reason for the monroe doctrine -- in south america the various countries were beginning to rebel against the spanish king, and the french king was a cousin of the spanish king and the french were going to send military aid to put out these barbarians of english and they send their military to keep the french from going into south america. and they invited the americans to join them in keeping the french out of south america because obviously south america was rich with gold and silver, and john quincy adams was the secretary of state and said absolutely not. we are not going to get involved in a foreign war. we are not going to let them come over here either. and that was the seed planted for the shooting of the monroe doctrine. monroe doctrine wasn't a separate doctrine. was a part of lonrho's message and he asked his cabinet for help in putting together some sort of statement making our international policy clear. and john quincy adams wrote the core provision of that. there were three long paragraphs that now are called the monroe doctrine, and in one of them he tells the europeans we do not want to get involved in the war. we don't want anything to do with you. you stay out of our affairs. any infringement, the colonial era has come to an end. we no longer consider the americas as fodder for your colonial aspirations. and any attempt to colonize will be considered a threat the united states. >> your book mentions it doesn't dwell on family travel, the kind of thing but the tabloids would seize upon. the addams family despite great accomplishment had some serious drinking problems. >> this was not a problem, it was a genetic trait. and in those days, very clear that alcoholism was genetic because didn't have any psychotherapy were any kind of treatment available. it was -- it was passed along through abigail's family. she was born abigail smith. her brother died -- >> beyond will william smith? do we know much about uncle william? >> he died of alcoholism in those days. there was no treatment. you died a very early. some accident because you were out of control or you died of sclerosis to the liver but you died of alcoholism coming and her brother died of alcoholism. two of her three sons, john quincy adams' brothers died of alcoholism and two of john quincy adams' died. firstborn, george adams died in his late 20s. the second born, the youngest, charles also died. one of the three songs survived, as did several of the grandson's but this was a genetic trait in the smith family. just as in the quincy family history of genius which went back to 1066 and the crossing -- the battle of hastings crossing the channel by way of the concord. a little village town in normandy which still exists and the english obviously corrupted. they were with william hastings a baron to quincy and was running in 2015. so this line of leadership and ingeniously and currency's as well as alcoholism in the smith family. >> i have a few more questions and then we will open up for the audience. again, this is a time travel question. if you could interview john quincy adams and you have time for one question, what might it be? >> why did you beat your wife? no. if i had one question to ask him, i think i would ask him -- are you talking about today's society or his? >> either way. you could go back or bring him here i guess. >> if we went back i would ask him why he didn't try harder to remain president of the united states and to get the congress under control. he was so brilliant as a congressman and senator and secretary of state. he was truly one of the geniuses in the american political society. and we could have used him and his leadership as a president. and i think we might well. he thought the civil war was inevitable but the was the experience in the house of representatives. i think that if he had been president, he might have been able to have averted the civil war and voted an end to slavery in another way. >> how would he have done that? >> he had the year of the moderate federalists. remember there were the rabbit federalist, as extreme, extremist in both political parties. they were extremists then. there were separatists among the federalists in new england and new york a wanted to secede from the union and let the south do whatever it wants to do. well, that would have been a de trail by the 500,000 slaves with no hope of freedom. i feel that he would calmed those extremists down but he had the ear of the moderate federalists like those on the supreme court especially john marshall who was opposing slavery and wanted to work to end slavery. monroe wanted to work to end slavery. patrick henry, who was an antifederalist republican to the left wanted to work and was working with quaker leaders to find a solution to this problem. so i think he could have united the people of goodwill to address this problem whereas that polarized the nation and was the beginning of polarization that would never end until the civil war. >> this is reversed time travel, if we could bring john quincy adams to our day, what do you think he would like and not like america in 2012? >> he would despise our involvement overseas to dictate to other societies the kind of societies they have to have. when he had the opportunity as the secretary of state to intervene because monroe would have done, to intervene in south america, pro-democracy movements so to speak, he pointed out that these people had no history of self-government. religiously or politically. they had never been exposed to self-government. their religion didn't tolerate coming and their political culture and family culture didn't tolerate this lost cause. so he wouldn't involve us in trying to change the culture of the people in the middle east. these are people with no history, no political history or religious history of self-government. they don't know what it means. >> and what would he like? >> i am not sure what he would like. >> he would be impressed by bookstores like this. >> but even a federalist would be appalled at the degree of the federal government intrusion in our lives today. the federal government is in every area of our lives. our bath rooms, bedrooms, living rooms, roads and highways and everywhere. the federal government is in our lives, and that would have appalled the most extreme federalist who founded this type of government. the first thing he would have done, patrick henry would have gone along with him they would have gone into your bedroom and torn off that had from the mattress. [laughter] >> we will entertain questions now from the audience, and i urge you an homage to brian lamb, the founder of c-span who may ask the best kind of questions which are simple and direct we can emulate him tonight that would be good. do we have questions? go ahead. >> the suggestion that abigail had for her children, which was a virtue and loyalty -- >> virtue, integrity and love of the country. >> [inaudible] was that the virtue in the spirit and sense of virtue or innocence of machiavelli? >> it was in the sense of service to your society. his parting words to his heirs, john quincy adams before he died, he knew that his one surviving son was already becoming accomplished. he would later become a candidate for vice president. he knew that his grandson, henry adams, was a brilliant writer who later became a distinguished historian. he said you must have one important purpose in life to use your talent and knowledge for the benefit of your country and for the use of mankind. and the adams' more than any other family had a founding father that continued to serve the country generation after generation. they've given terrorists, historians, scholars, all types, wonderful attorneys. i met two young men, probably not young anymore. this was ten or 15 years ago at my club one night. we got talking to each other. i didn't know who they were and they were both attorneys. one was named sam adams and the other was john adams and sam adams was a direct descendant. >> and was probably good for -- >> unlike some political families. >> is there a place people can go in quincy? >> there's a national park in quincy, the john adams national park which were the lifelong homes of two generations of adams' and i think the younger generation kept them up for a while, but they all drifted into the city's. but both the original home where john adams was born and then the second small home where john quincy adams was born are open to visitors and large home that he built for his retirement that was beautifully furnished. everybody talks about the founding fathers and forget to talk about founding mothers. martha washington was at valley forge with george and abigail adams come as i said to young john quincy up to the top of the hill to watch the battle of bunker hill and then worked hard to support, to try to help the patriot cause while her husband was in philadelphia. >> other question. go ahead. >> [inaudible] >> absolutely. of louisa adams was born lisa johnson. her father was the consul in london when the two of them met she was born in london but her parents were americans coming in the brilliantly educated, perfect wife for john quincy. she had an education at home, but she could read and latin and classical greek and was very well versed in history. so they fell in love and had a long marriage of 50 years, more than 50 years. they had their ups and downs, as most families do, and they had more than their share of tragedies. she was subject to many miscarriages, three or four miscarriages. they lost one little girl when she was just over-year-old she died of dysentery in st. petersburg russia, and two of the three boys died of the alcoholism, the only that survived, charles francis gave them some grand children so they don't over the grand children for quite awhile. but most of the time they were very, very happy and mentioned john quincy was a grouch, and occasionally he was. there was one -- i'd think i would ask him what happened, but in berlin louisa suffered a miscarriage and was quite pale and the empress of frederick's said to her try putting some rouge on. she came down with rouge and john quincy rubbed off. -- rubbied it off. when they separated, not a legal separation but john adams couldn't afford at one point when he was a senator to have the sar in quincy and the winter and philadelphia -- winter in washington and go back and forth. one of them had to stay put so she could be near her mother and her brothers and sisters and he went to quincy and was freezing cold one night and write her a letter saying i know i can live without you but on this call the feb night i would much prefer to live with you. [laughter] >> other questions? >> i wonder if you can talk about the relationship of quincy adams and his father based on particular focus with the relationship of the parties. after jefferson elected the federalists had faded out more and more and meanwhile [inaudible] he was basically a republican, right? how does that work out? his father wasn't getting along with the republicans that that stage. >> his father left office after one term. he had nothing more to do. hamilton had destroyed his political career with of the election of jefferson said that in did john adams, but john adams were very, very close, very warm relationship from early childhood when john quincy was only ten. but the road constantly. we are talking about father and son. they wrote constantly to each other. john adams was always there for his son and vice versa so it was a warm relationship between the two. john adams and louisa, john quincy's wife had a very warm relationship and they wrote to each other for years until john adams def in 1826. >> john quincy becoming the secretary of state? >> he had by then the world had changed and he was proud of his son. he was almost dying when his son was elected president. he was terribly proud of his son. by then remember in the jefferson era everything jefferson did, not everything but many of the things were proven wrong. he tried to keep us out of the french and english conflict and put an embargo on all of foreign trade so suddenly america was shut down. he had it in his head all americans were self-sufficient. we don't need to be involved in foreign trade but he put the coastal cities out of business. the merchant bankers of business and the shipbuilding industry out of business and merchant marine out of business. he couldn't trade. by ben jefferson was sharing his own course and john adams was out of it. >> his son was a senator and he voted for the embargo and did talk jefferson out of it with a new policy whereby we wouldn't trade with either france or britain until they stopped attacking our ships. but we would trade with the rest of the world and reopen the trade. >> it's interesting that back then the secretary of state was the stepping stone for the presidency. it hasn't happened in a long time. >> he had his responsibility. remember the indians were considered for an nation so that fell under. everything that we fall under the department of interior from the state department. the state department's role was broader than it is today and in the president's absence he ran the country when john quincy adams was running the country and madison was doing the same thing and monroe was doing the same thing. and it really was a stepping stone. he was the most visible powerful member of the cabinet. that's what caused a big tractor because hamilton challenged jefferson, secretary of treasury, and jefferson was slow at getting back to france so hamilton took over many for a few months until jefferson got here and he didn't want to relinquish. he liked power. >> other questions? >> how young were you when you recognized that you had an extraordinary aptitude too immersed yourself in the soul of your subjects and their societies? >> i think it was just this morning. i'm not sure how to answer your question. what i write today is nothing more than an extension of journalism. i let the characters speak for themselves and i feel as though i am interviewing. >> did you know that you could do that? >> no, i plead with my rubber duckie. >> can we ask what you are doing next? >> i'm doing this thing called john marshall. selvage the supreme court from jefferson. it's the story of what happened around the year 1800 which is a year of turmoil in this country george washington died and for the first time we are without a father of our country. all of these men that had been secondary characters were heroes in the revolutionary war met. alan berger, alexander hamilton, james monroe, they all fought and loved this country but they were all ambitious men and their ambitions can to the floor more than any other time and collided with each other. hamilton, herber, monroe, jefferson, all of them collided in the here 1800 john marshall also the hero of the revolutionary war is appointed chief justice of the court that had been emasculated and told them. >> do you get into naming the greatest generation which if you had to name one, what would it be? >> some people argue the founding fathers were in the generation despite [inaudible] >> i would think the greatest generation in terms of love of country -- boe one when you heard the generation of the founding fathers when you heard eisenhower speak for example, you knew he loved his country. john kennedy, you knew he loved his country. i didn't get that from these clowns the other night in the debate. i didn't hear either of them say they love their country. >> these are people come could easily have been hung. >> the head all committed treason. they were british subjects and they sought to overthrow the role of the british king, not at first. only weeks before they signed the declaration of independence they appealed to the king to give the parliament of their back and they said we want to remain british subjects and he smiled and rejected it. >> any other questions? >> on that note we will end and let him sign some books and mcnally jackson can sell some bucks. i writing this book and making it possible. [applause] >> for more information, visit the authors web site, harlowgilesunger.com. at the end of world war ii, he had 12 million men under arms. he had 2,000 flag officers. today we have a thousand flag officers and generals and 1.2 million under arms. the ratio is totally out of whack. we almost now have an admiral for every ship in the navy. it's not a captain, and admiral. so what we do is go through and look at areas where we could not necessarily save all of the money, but we could transfer responsibilities that are not truly the defense of the country out of the pentagon and consolidate programs and save a significant amount of money. tell us what you think about our programming this weekend. you can tweet at book tv about a month left in 2012 many publications are putting out their year-end list of notable books. book tv will feature several of these lists focusing on the non-fiction selections. these titles were included in the "washington post" best books of 2012. ..

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