people to come here and walk through the streets and i remember dreaming of being here standing up and talking about a book in front of this. the incredible audiences at this event. and so it s a great thrill to be here. we re talking about new york. i think it was built in. fact and fiction, but you all you ve got is the fact people now. so we ll talk about new york history for a little while, and i want to tell you first the story about the making of the new york that we know today. this is at the end of the 19th century in the early 20th century. the period that i describe in my book is the period when skyscrapers first began rising over the floor and five story tenement. buildings of new york city the time when the population of new york triples from one and a half million to four and a half or five million people in the span of a single generation. it s the time when an airplane first buzzes over. the new york harbor with wilbur wright at the controls. the time of the fi
we pride ourselves here at the library among other things on the timeliness and the relevance of our signature programming. whether we re holding forums on local issues or addressing emerging or hot button national topics. he didn t intend on the particular timeliness of tonight s presentation. christopher leonard was a busy man at the end of last week. taking reporter s calls and wrote a coup of op-ed articles after the death of david koch. chris spent eight near in the the kochland, the place and the title of his book, pulling back the curtain on the extraordinary business empire and the potent political network that was put toth by the david koch and his older brother, charles, from their base three hours down the road in wichita. anybody here had a chance to read the book yet? so, you won t understand but you ll knee immediately when you get into it, as you get into it, what i m talking about. it s daunting when you pick it up. it s 574 pages and that s before you get to
on television and online, c-span is your unfiltered view of the government so you can make up your own mind. host: tim wu, what is the name of your newest book come from, the curse of bigness ? guest: thanks for asking. it s a phrase used by louis brandeis, famous supreme court justice and jurist. he used it to refer to a company or frankly an institution that a just grown too big, that it started to take on its own sort of purposes and become divorced from whatever it was created to do. he make it mainly that business but also for him it could apply to almost anything. host: did he use it in a court case, and was that? guest: what they did is he used it for come in congressional testimony, and other testimony of our legislators picky was trying to stop a big railroad merger, and he started having this idea that the benefits of mergers, two giant compass come together, were not everything everyone said they were. the hartford railroad had combined and become this hug
ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. c-span s newest book, the presidents, noted historians rank america s best and worst chief executives and provides insight into the life of the 44 american presidents. true stories gathered by interviews with noted residential historians to explore the life events that shape our leaders, challenges they faced, and the legacies that have left behind. published by public affairs, c-span s the president s will be on shelves april 23 but you can preorder your copy as a hardcover or e-book today at c-span.org/thepresidents, or wherever books are sold. host: tim wu, where did the name of your newest book come from, the curse of bigness ? guest: thanks for asking. it s a phrase used by louis brandeis, famous supreme court justice and jurist. he used it to refer to a company or frankly an institution that a just grown too
of government so you can make up your own mind. tim wu, where does the name of your newest book come from, the curse of bigness ? for asking. it s a phrase used by lewis bran diet, the famous supreme and jurist.e he used it to refer to an institution that had just grown that had started to take on its own sort of purposes and become divorced from created to do. so he meant it mainly about business but also for him, it to almost anything. did he use it in a court case, and when was that? you know, what he did, he used it for in congressional testimony. and other testimony in front of legislatures. trying to stop a big railroad merger. ideae started having this that the benefits of mergers, companiestwo giant coming together, were not everything everyone said they were. hartford railroad had combined, become this huge sufferut it started to from are accidents, delays. cost cutting, all kind of problems. see this sometimes with airline mergers, that things don t go ex