this event was taped in 2014 at a bookstore in asheville, north carolina. t s about an hour. denise: i am thrilled to be here with karen abbott. i love her book. love all her books. you show us this entire other view of chicago through the eyes of the two most famous american madams ever. in american rose, we learned about an american icon who hasn t been explored the way you explored her. now with liar, temptress, soldier, spy, you hit on several things i adore. unexplored american history, espionage, and women with real spines, adventurous incredible women. tell us about what this book is about. karen: i will tell you the origins. i was born and raised in philadelphia and moved to atlanta in 2001. i noticed immediately that the civil war seeps in the conversation in the south in a way it never does in the north. i saw the occasional confederate flag, heard the jokes of the war of northern aggression. the point was really driven [laughter] good point. and the point was
you re watching booktv on c-span2 with top non-fiction books and authors every weekend. booktv television for serious readers. from my father i inherited my confidence my resilience, my passion, and my audacity, looking back although it was never explained to me in this way, he taught me the spirit of which is greek idea of honor and doing the right thing, even when one s own interests or even one s own life is in peril. growing up while i never fought anything but australian there were two stories about the second world war and greece that i always kept close to my heart. the first was in 1940 when benito mussolini italy s prime minister asked the greek prime minister for free passage through greece and on the spot at 3:00 in the morning without hesitation, without consultation he said oy he said no. it was spirited defiance and quite incredible when considering just how vastly outnumbered the greeks were by the italians. it prompted sir winston churchhill, the greatest
published as the president but a lot of stuff i didn t publish. one thing corry told me was the diary and write down the stuff that is interesting to you. so i did and i thought it was so important. when young doctors and aspiring writers asked me how do you get started? i say you have to record your reflections. .. i had been in school for 19 years. 19 years after graduating from high school. i had that quantum dot detour. so i was just ready to be done, and reap some rewards for all that all those sleepless nights and what i found was that doctors were very unhappy, and when you re in training, the focus is on the physiology and learning about the heart. it s not really about the culture of practice. so i was largely blinded to that. and then i took on my first role and i m talking to doctors and i find they re very unhappy with medical practice today. and it wasn t just about the stresses we all know. it upabout the paperwork and the malpractice fears and so on. it was a d
proclaimed, i wish a thousand pins were stuck in his bed and he was strapped down on them. another woman and her friends were forced to host a group of occupying union soldiers in their homes, and speaking for that group wound woman quipped can just the meteor thought of being among the damn yankees are enough to make all prematurely old. of course there was another craftier side for these women. when they used their southern charges to bewitch the occupying soldiers and they called it, quote, buttering those yankees to serve our own ends. so i ll talk how i got into this book. i am from philadelphia. i was born and raised in philadelphia. so i moved to atlanta, georgia in 2001, and spent six years there are and it was quite a culture shock as you can imagine. i had to get used to seeing the occasionol con fred rat flags on the lawn, the jokes about the war of northern aggression, and just the idea that the civil war seeped into daily life and conversation down south in a way
soldier, spy: 4 women undercover in the civil war you had on things i adore. you have unexplored american history, espionage and women with some real sparks in a, really adventuress, incredible women. tell us a little bit about what this book is about. i tell you about this book. in eastern philadelphia i move to atlanta in 2001. and at the conversation in the south and a way it never does here in the north. the occasional considered confederate flag on the line. i heard about jokes about the northern war of aggression but the point was really driven the point and that was driven home especially that it wasn t a joke when i was stuck in traffic for hours baja and a pickup truck that had a bumper sticker that said don t blame me. i voted for jeff davis. so i thought that when looking at this bumper sticker for hours and started thinking of course about what were the women doing. my mind goes to what the women were doing and they didn t have easy access to political disc