Thank you. Bruce. Hello my name is mark levine. Im an affiliated scholar. Program today is called jack london, apostle of the American West. And its being coupon sorried by Stanford University library ris. As bruce was describing, the center is dedicated to advancing scholarship and public presentation on the past, future of Western North america. This is very appropriate pan ford for them. And the University Library comprehensive range both digital formats in support of research and construction here at stanford. Today we ingnaw grate a new center. It is designed to place a spotlight on the humanities in the American West. Arts west offers the stanford community, innovative public programming on the writers artists and cultural leaders that make it further ground for artistic vision. It offers two distinctive series t great writers of the west focuses on western literary heritage and the great artist of the west elevates the western liberal arts. We begin today with jack london whose
Anymore this weekend on booktv on cspan2. For the full schedule of authors and books visit us at booktv. Org. Coming up from the half king youre going to look at a beautiful picture but it is something i know well and i reported from as well. I am going to tell you about the wrong enemy which is my book. The wrong enemy america in afghanistan, 20012014. It is the story of the war. I reported for over ten years on afghanistan. Also pakistan. And i wanted to write a book for two reasons. The title tells part of it. Richard holbrooke was the special envoy to afghanistan and pakistan before he died in the last two years. And he once said to the British Foreign secretary maybe we are fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong country and it was when they were grappling with the problem of the taliban in afghanistan. The Obama Administration was trying to work out what to do. The insurgency had gotten so difficult in afghanistan said they had to order a surge of troops so the foreign troops went
Relationships between the writers and offers a valuable look at postcivil war west coast and provides the kind of perfect medium for the development of bohemia. It is a rich feast of history that really unwinds many different threads. Both of the writers and the city that helped host their exploits. Ben is the author of another book, the counterfeiters paradise, which is published by penguin press, and his writing has also appeared in the San Francisco chronicle, and hes worked at lathams quarterly. It is a delight and a pleasure to have him with us. Welcome, ben tarnoff. [applause] thank you for that introduction. And thank you all for coming out tonight. I should tell you, i have a little bit of a flu, so if i get a little warm or if my voice gets a little froggy, youll have to forgive me. Mark twain, when he was here in the 1860s in San Francisco wrote a very funny sketch called how to cure a cold, and one of the cures was to rub mustard all over your chest. So if things get to that
So i wouldnt say it plays an enormous role in their work. Any other questions . Im sure the research into this was enormous and the many sources but if you could i mean is there the top three or four that come to mind as sources of research that you went to for this book . 70 roughly of the book and it was just invaluable. The twain stuff. There is such great scholarship around twain. You can go to marc twain projects. Org and see all those letters from i think until 1881 and they are wonderful additions of his correspondence so when it comes to researching twain its actually ready straightforward. I think these other characters i had to dig deeper into the archives because their work securely Charles Warren stoddard are not as widely known. That was a little bit more of the detective work which i really enjoyed but the bancrofts had most of it. I was in l. A. At the huntington. I was here the San Francisco Public Library and the oakland Public Library and a couple of collections on th
He helped me understand the tragedy that happened in the judicial process and theres no way anyone can give a through understanding of what has happened. But they were explaining thhey s with the stock market and i thought, what a story. So became a book in any magazine piece. But the real thing was this young man who is part of this entire Financial System. Host we have jim frystem. Host we have jim from dubuque, iowa. Caller thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. Theres an obvious manipulation of the gold and silver market where they are following this on behalf of possibly the government. This is certainly a local market system. Guest first responses i have no idea, but the second response is theres an observation, as one who has been watching the commodities market and the Foreign Exchange market over the last five or six years, and that is that it is amazing how much manipulative activity has been going on or accusations of it. And it raises the question. Has this a