>> so in light of that what -- what are we to make of truman's innermost attitudes? is there -- is there a conclusion that can be drawn? >> yeah, i think people have used those coats to say truman was an antisemite who really didn't care about the jews and came out with statements like that. he ran into an arc and the state department's resistance and there was pressure by the american public and especiall the oanized american jewish militants who did put tremendous pressure on him, and this is really how he reacted and his aids would even say that was

undue pressure he would explode and make statements like that but they didn't really believe that was what he was really feeling or thinking. and those statements kind of present him as a victim and i think that's how he saw himself. that he felt, ie tried to get the 100,000 in. i've called othe british. i've submitted a commission with them. i've done everything but everything i've done never works out. either the british reject it, the arabs reject it or the jews themselves don't like the plan. he felt like no matter what i do, and he was especially angry at the jews because they were the ones giving him so much political pressure at home. but i wouldn't -- i think just taking those statements and looking at them without looking at the whole context could give you a wrong impression, i believe, about how he really felt.

>> it reminds me somewhat of a famous editor i once knew who very pro-israel who once made the comment that his support for the ste of israel was an inverse proportion to the israeli consulate people who wanted arrange meetings with him. >> you also have to remember the jewish agency -- people said to them among themselves and an example are correspondents, they said point blank when they heard statements of the zionist commission and rabbi silver, these people in america are going to ruin everything for us and set us back. they felt they were making progss and they'd make militant demands. the moprozionist congressman in the united states was in brooklyn. fierce zionist congressman. as soon as truman back-stepped

for a moment or wouldn' take a position that the zionists were supporting, he would condemn truman as a traitor, as a sellout and a fraud and antisemite and castigate him and that would drive truman crazy and he constantly got that pressu from the organized zionist community and we make the analogy in the book which i think is a good one between lincoln and e abolitionists and they were not satisfied with lincoln for many years they considered lincoln an enemy. and lo and beho, including frederick douglass but years later frederick douglass said lincoln was a hero and a great emancipator. even though he didn't do everything we wanted, he was a great man who brought the nation forward. well, it's the same thing here. truman was not a zionist. and he reacted viscerally against any tough militant pressure because he s

pressured tremendously from the other side as well. and it was relentless day in and day out. i mean, the reason why jacobson was so important -- the only -- if you look at the difference at the way rabbi silver would talk to truman or address him and the way weitzman would address him in letters and in person, weitzman treated truman with respect and admiration as a fellow leader who wanted justice for the jewish people in the world. where silver would say, you're selling us t. you're a bastard. don't you know what's right? he would see weitzman -- he gave a direct order i will only talk to weitzman. do not let silver and the others in the white house. >> what else has changed? >> there was a famous incident where silver was in the office and apparently he shook his finger in truman's face and truman was extremely upset and told the person he saw right after that, i never want that

s.o. in my office again. and that's when he kind ofhut down and said i don't want to see any more extreme zionist leaders. which is a category he had developed. >> one thing neither of you touched on in your remarks and i wonder if you get into it in the book is the position of the defense department because my understanding was that it wasn't marshall among the cabinet secretaries who was opposed but james farstall who tk a position. when the book was ready, the ci -- the famous cia long memo just was declassified. it's in one of the intelligence magazines too late to include in the book. it wouldn't have matter if we put it in the book, it was almost verbatim the same arguments from the state department. they weren't saying anything different. they were using all of the same

arguments. he believed the bases were threatened. that we need an access to arab oil and arab oil was extremely important. he was a close associate of -- i can't think of his name, the head of armco and these are the people we have to stand with and that means essentially keeping open access to arab oil as the main thing in terms of american national security and that means opposing the interests of the arabs. the misinformation, strange footnote that we really don't develop enough in the book -- there was the argument they brought forward that if a jewish state was created, remember it was the beginning of the cold war, it would be a communist state and that at one point they spread disinformation that came

from the arab foreign office and the british. they sent a whole bunch of information that chips of jewish refugeesrying to get into palestipa palestine were all filled with kgb officers who were sent in pretending to be refugees and they would come in and get citizenship in the new jewish state and be the cadre that wod make it into a communist state. and actually there was a front page story to that eect in the "new york times." jewish d.p. ships are all soviet secret police. and the state department actually -- this was pure disinformation. it turned out to be absolutely untrue. >> disinformation coming from whom? >> from the arab higher -- the arab league and the arab propaganda apparatus and the british and it was completely false. it was proven to be false but they were spreading this and it wa presented by the state department to the white house as accurate, as another reason for

why we can't have a jewish state. >> it was kind of countered by weitzman who said well, it's just the opposite. the jews are fleeing the communists. >> weitzman said the jews who want to come in from the palestine, they are fleeing them. they hate them. >> when they recognized israel, what, minutes after the -- >> well, no, they played a bigger role than that. it was a big surprise that the u.n. that they supported partition because everybody assumed they were going to be against it. and the british were especially shockedecause they thought partition was going to die at the u.n. because the british -- the russians were never supported but they did. the russians were trying to uproot the british empire in the middle east and they saw this as a wedge issue between britain and the united stat that they could play on. >> one week before gramiko gave

his famous speech in the u.n., which actually if you read the text of the speech is a very noble, humane speech. we cannot fail the jewish people who have been oppressed and killed in the camps. we care for them. they must have their own state. it was a powerful, emotional almost zionist speech. and one week before dean rusk who was undersecretary of state prepared a position paper on the white house on the soviets and their position in the middle east. and he said the soviet union will support and is supporting the arab side. the soviet union will not support partition. it was one week before gramiko's speech and then, boom, gramiko gives his speech stunning everyone including the zionists. no one expected that. >> what was really funny at the u.n. when the state department was playing all these games at the u.n. and trying to undermine partition, the soviet union spokesman would get up and denounce the united states for trying to undermine the u.n. and

not sporting partition. it was it was kind of ironic -- >> was there people in the bowels of the state department bureaucracy who were -- who supported partition and supported truman's ultimate position? or was the department lockstep for it? >> not as far as reading through state department papers or even the foreign relation series. you don't find anyone in the state department actively -- especially in e near east desk. near east desk is the one assigned to make policy for that region and that was tot lock and step opposition to partition. >> and was that pure realpolitik e kind of diplomatic view or were there cultural factors that affected the state department factors ambassadors in arab countries and kind of arabist t. lawrence mentality >> well, lloyd henderson talked

about -- who was stationed in the soviet union after that and he was the head of the near eastern division -- he was stationed in iraq, and it was in iraq that he developed this very anti-zionist position. >> and what's the man who translated fdr's -- >> william eddy. >> who became the first ambaador to e saudis. he translated the text of fdr's conversations ande know what happened there. he was again -- believed in the arab mission. and saw the saudi position as the just one, the arab position as the just one and he considered his role as ambassador. and before that to explain to the united states the just cause of the saudis and the arabs. >> let them one more thing about that.

om what we could surmise the united states really didn't have that developed a position about the middle east. and they sort of followed the british and they saw the british as the ones who as having the mandate were really, you know, the ones that had the responsibility for palestine. in essence, they had a position to the british foreign office and that's why truman, when he came up with that striped points boys, the conspiracy in the depth, the striped pants boys referred to the british foreign office people. >> the only thing you have to realize about the british, last year the british foreign office released the incredible memos on the cold war by ernest bevin. you read these things -- you can find them website. he knew about the role of the communist trying to split the labor movement in britain and you read hess long analysis of

how the soviet union was a threat to democracy in western europe. absolutely brilliant. and he was trying to educate truman on the issues in what would become the cold war. it's fascinating becau at that time truman came into office, the same thing in his palestine policy, just wanting to do what fdr had pledged to do, to fulfill fdr's program. there's a great historian, wilson campbell who broke a book last year, truman and the cold war, and he points out that truman started out listening to all of fdr's old pro-soviet advisors until reality knocked him in the head. and then the u.s. is going to need the british as an alliance in the cold war and it' all going on contemporary with palestine. you can't strike out -- do something that will totally make bevin and the british your enemies when the british are

going to be a key ally that you need to stand up with the soviet union with. >> but it sounds to me dhat the issue was nualic for the cold war. and it seems to me anti-semitisim as an animating impulse. >> everyone said bevin was. >> i don't think that's true. >> some people say he was and some people say he wasn't. >> i don't know what my understanding was is that a lot of people thought he was friendly with the jews before all this of happened, in the earlier period and that he really did not understand the very strong feelings of the jews for wanting their own state. that he kind of miscalculated and thought the jews of palestine were likewise men. you know, that there was not that strong a feeling amongst

them to it. >> bevin came to the united states in the middle of the period and he insulted truman and bevin had made statements that new yorkers -- >> he said the -- no, what he said was, the americans want the jewso go to pestine because they don't want them in new york. [laughter] >> and so anyway bevin came to the u.s. and ihink he went to the yankee game, yankee stadium and the entire yankee stadium -- they announced ernest bevin, the entire yankee stadium booed him. >> good thing he wasn't at a dodgers game. [applause] >> one other figure i'd like you to touch upon a little bit more, at a little more length is clark clifford, because he seems to have played really an instrumental role. to what extent is this function of clifford's convictions. how is it that he came to be the counter-weight to george

marshall in the final arguments that were offered to truman. >> well, as i said in my paper, he was very influenced by rosaman and spent a lot of time with him and i don't think he had strong feelings about zionism before. but he became a zionist. he was extremely instrumental in what happened. and really laying out all the arrangements for truman that countered state department arrangements. and i think he genuinely believed in zionism. >> let them just ask one final question and then we'll turn it over to the audience and this brings us forward to the present with that remarkable statement that you read. you could argue that on many points his arrangements were wholly bourne out. the arab world didn't at least until 1973 stop t flow of oil, but moderate governments were

overthrown in iraq, in libya, in egypt, in syria and so then and replaced by extremist governments. the soviet union did gain a grip on many regimes in the region. jews are accused of this dual loyalty on account of the existence of israel. was he mostly right? >> no. i mean, in fact, one other thing we should say -- one of the other arguments, which was a very strong one at the time was that they all said war is going to break out between the new state and the arabs and the new jewish state could not and would not win. they were convinced of that. there was no way the jews would win and defeat any arab armies. it would be a bloodbath a the middle east would erupt in fire. that was also part of their argument. in fact, that was a main part of the argument. they were totally wrong in that.

they didn't think they could defend themselves and they didn't think they could win. you know, certainly, the point is -- >> in fairness to the people making it, it was an improbable victory. >> yeah. but to a lot of the jewish leaders i palestine, they felt the fact that they would be able to stand up against insurmountable odds and they knew they would be able to, and that aside from the trans-jordan army trained by the british, that the arab fighters would be relatively weak and without motivati and would collapse which is o of the jewish agency arguments. but in the long-range, from day one to the present, the arabs have held true to the argument and there was -- you used the term "palestine" that there were jews. there were no palestinians they were going to create an arab state and a jewish statend the arabs as well as the palestines now have never accepted partition.

that's why the arguments are so similar. i mean, they could have had peace and they would have had a much smaller israel granted at that time by the partition line drawn up and they wouldn't accept it and they didn't accept it. d that is the rub. on the other ha, the reason why we say it's not true eventually despite all the wars and the problems, egypt made peace. jordan made peace with israel. and today as we see some of the arab states that used to be anti-israel are trying to have a common interest with israel against what they all see is a similar threat of iran. their governments. so i would not say he was right. >> i guess i said that was the last question but one final one from me. [laughter] >> sorry. i assume my privileges.

what did you learn about ecutive american presidential decision-making? because this was really an extraordinary instance in which there was a virtual open bureaucratic revolt against the president of the united states. and he had -- this was a president who had not won a mandaten his own. he had a cabin filled with gigantic egos. what lessons do you draw aut effective presidential decision-making from this whole episode? >> well, truman was very aware of what was going on and in mind sight when he wrote his memoirs this was an endemic problem in the united states. and his position was the -- it was the president's prerogative to make foreign policy and all

presidents had to be aware that people in different bureaucracies were going to try to undmine that because they would be there long before the president left. and i think this is a continuing issue. >> the other problem is that truman, right from the beginning, said that he would deflect on other issues he really wasn't on top of the from the state departmenand the foreign policy and the one area i do know is palestine and that's something i want to be in charge of myself. and he made a distinct -- a conscious distinction that he wanted to micromanage palestine policy as was not the case with the other areas, the cold war, soviet union, you know, came to major decisions the truman doctrine, dropping the atomic bomb. he himself said the decision to drop the atomic bottom which many consider something he must have lost sleep overnd had been a major thing, he said it was nothing compared to dealing

with the palestine issue. [laughter] >> well, on that note -- [laughter] >> i wanted to remind the audiencehat mr. stephens didn't know he was going to be speaking here tonight. [applause] >> a special hand to mr. stephens. so we'll take as many questions as t speakers can handle and please, obviously, no major league political statements of the sort. >> i just wanted one point clarified. you said that after the churchill left being the prime minister of england, was it -- bevin was that the name -- >> no, it was opposite. adelaide was the minister --

>> atley was winston churchill's both his successor and predecessor because churchill came back again in the early '50s. >> uh-huh. >> i just wanted that one point -- >> uh-huh. >> over here? >> i've always been curious about george marshall. he threatened to resign and then he didn't resign. >> uh-huh. >> and he's such a large name in american history. do we know anything about his thinking? was he antisemite. why did he oppose so much. >> some people thought he didn't have any strong feelings about it before he became secretary of state but he was very influenced by the state department once he did become secretary of state and kind of adopted their attitude towards the middle east and a partition in israel. >> also, he had -- he had a long

talk right before the leaders of the jewish agency were going to vote in palestine about whether to proclaim a jewish state. he had a long talk, and he came to the office, and text is available. he gave him analogies between his experience trying to negotiate between the tionalists and communists in china and the chinese civil war. and the chinese armies and how everything he believed collapsed as reality hit him in the face in the strength of mao's army. and he tried to warn him and he gave him serious long arguments using that situation in china as an analogy as to why they would not be able to win and he tried to warn him.

i understand what you're saying. i understand your passion. but please go back there and tell them we can't proclaim a jewish state in may. vote against it because you're going to lose, and i found reality was not what i expected in china and you're going to find the same thing when your fight starts. he really believed that. he spoke to him as a military man giving him a military assessment. he said i can understand your passion. and he listened very seriously and reported back. he gave me very serious arguments where you really have to csider and think over. they were not ideological arguments. when he spoke to him it was all a military assessment and he believed that. >> the gentleman here. >> how significant was the participation of bernard bernstein in the events that you've described? >> bernard bernstein?

>> he was counsel to the -- at the united states to the -- the conference of jewish organizations. at the time of the partition. >> without any research there's probably very little. since his name appears very little that we can see. >> because of the arms embargo, israel was getting all its arms from the czechoslovakia. how come israel didn't become a member of the cmunist bloc? >> well, i think the labor zionist leadership was not particular procommunist. there were procommunist elements. but the mainstream labor zionism was dratic socialists and

not considered themselves friendly to communism. i'm sure they were glad they would take the support and the aid they could get it from. they were delighted the soviets changed their line for a while and they could get arms from czechoslovakia but they were not procommunist. >> those arms didn't come during that brief period between when they were in power. those arms came after the soviets came from czechoslovakia. i thought -- >> the soviets were already powerful. it was not yet a peoples democracy. >> nobody mentioned that as soon as truman had supported the establishment of israel he enforced the arm embargo and, therefore, israel was forced to get the arms from czechoslovakia. right. one of the things, you know

some people -- again, the difference between the zionists and truman that the zionists even had problems after they had recognition and those speaking years later in a speech at hebrew university about why he considered truman great. they said there were a lot of things truman did wrong afterwards. in the united states, the zionist movement -- the new nation of israel supporters constantly attacked truman to ft the embargo. and the left in the united states used the analogy with the spanish civil war. there was an embargo of arms. the republican spain during the franco years were doing the same mistake with the israel and they can't themselves because the abs are getting arms whenever they can. nobody is stopping them from getting arms. lift the embargo and truman wouldn't. on the other hand, truman was afraid that would bring the u.s. too closely on one side.

it was not until kennedy as warren bass points out in his book a few years ago, that militarily the relationship with israel began to change. and that israel would begin to get arms from the united states. but, you know, truman did not want to get involved militarily, and he thought that kind of thing would lead to u.s. military involvement he wanted to avoid. on the other hand, they gave israel and truman the first grt international economic loan they desperately needed in order to be able to settle jews in palestine and truman did put through that economic law. so, you know, again truman was not really a zionist. even afterwards. he didn't do everything israel supporters wanted. >> also, i think he was picking his battles with the state department and i got the feeling

that aft the recognition of israel he just wanted to back off for a while and he was well aware that israel was getting arms from czechoslovakia and that they were receiving a lot of money from american jews to buy arms and after that the french came in and sold israel arms. >> j. edgar hoover looked the other way when they broke up and raided -- there was a famous incident of marlon brando was working at the docks packing arms for israel and crates marked oranges and vegetables and fruits and stuff and they were putting arms in the crates and the fbi busted the whole and hoover said, let it go through and looked the other way. we're not going to stop th. we know it's illegal but let them go through. >> we'll have two more questions. >> thank you.

i believe eleanor roosevelt was very sympathetic to the jews and even tried to influence franklin roosevelt. did she have any role in this era with truman? >> well, she did. she was a u.n. delegate. and one or two or three u.n. delegates who was against what was going on in the u.n. so i would say that she did play a very important role and she was also close to truman. uman really did listen to her. and was influenced by her. and her position was, if you want the new u.n. to succd, how can you turn against partion when this what the world has voted for? so that was her position and she really did push this with truman. >> on the other hand, publicly, she was supposedly chairman of one -- during this period when epstein called the state department were engineering and in his words a big conspiracy to

destroy partition, and frieda put together a huge dinner rally with promint speakers who were going to come to protest the efforts of the state department to turn back partition. and eleanor roosevelt was supped to be chairman of the meeting. and the ads were put out, stopped the state department conspiracy against jewish palestine. and eleanor roosevelt said this is a grave embarrassment to me. i'm a delegate to the u.n. the president has appointed me i cannot be at this dinner. we are slandering this protest. private she was tough with truman and didn't want to go to this record and appr at this mass-pressure dinner. >> what you're saying reminds me of my mother many decades ago went to a meeting where an american communist spoke and said the state department will always remain the same. presidents come and go.

>> there you go. >> as i'm reading your book and as i'm watching also pbs behind closed doors, i'm impressed with roosevelt's thought that he could charm the intran -- people. your book is terrific. >> everybody can buy. we're going to sign copies. don't forget. [laughter] >> we watched last night's episode, too, and yes, the charming of fdr's -- he thought he could charm even stalin. he thought he would go there and, in fact, as we argue and actually michael orrin argues in his book, too, that even after he walked a over to truman. he totally capitulated and he

would come in and charm the pants off him. and, in fact, in fdr's case he was quite ill. he would pass away and have his stroke. one thoughthen he read the text of the transcript he said fdr is really sick. i don't think what he's just been saying. current analogy, he's yelling vigorous, healthy, he's nowhere in the state fdr was when he was trying to charm everyone in that period. >> but truman doesn't seem to be a charmer. he keeps calling people s.o.b.s. >> no, he's not a charmer. >> on the s.o.b. note and questions, just before i make a couple of commercial announcements. i just want -- the business about bevin saying that americans want the jews, you

know, to leave. i remember reading tre was an avid zionist because he couldn't wait for all the jews to leave britain, which is ironic. also the father brown stories. and also i wonder if truman was aware that by separating the jews, of course, it's a personal thing for me. getting camps for the jews made it possible for the movement to smuggle jews into palestine far easier. in other words, he helped create israel in a back hand, odd ball way to make it possible for the jews to organize in the b.p. camps. >> i don't think he was thinking about that. >> no, but i'd like to think that he was. now some commercial announcements. first of all, actually, i want the audience to thank our guests tonight, ron radosh and allis radosh and brett stephens with a woerful dialog and it was

very, very dramatic. it was so much like a perfect situation because you had the lectures and you had this beautiful interplay and the audience got involved as well. there will be a book-signing -- books are available at the safe haven is being sold in the bookshop and ron and allis will be signing copies for those w are interested and on a programming note, our next event will be with benjamin who's an expert and i think a man who has 17 ph.d.s at yale and jed pearl, the art critic and on june 11 jet we'll have a program on the jewish impact on the creation of the punk rock. [laughter] >> that's not a joke. featuring tommy ramone of the ramones, dick man -- manitobo.

it's not a typical yivo event. it's a story of children of brooklyn and queens who decide to go to manhattan. it's very much the story of my contemporary certainly they went downtown and they created punk rock. again, we thank you for coming to yivo and we look forward to seeing you at the lecture and certainly at the punk evening. thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversation] >> ronald radosh is the author of several books. he's an adjunct fellow at the institute. this event was hosted by the yivo institute in new york city. for more visit yivoinstitute.org.

>> good morning. i'm so happy to be here today. and i'm having a wonderful, wonderful time. i just want to tell you a little bit about what i've done with my career the last 30 years. in 1981, i was a small business person and i got mugged in new york city during one of the crime waves that we had back then.

i was attacked by somekids, 12, 13, 14-year-old children over a very small amount of money, like $5, $10. and it bothered me a lot and the question that haunted me was, why would somebody humiliate me over a small amount of money when -- had they asked me to invest money or tried to sell me something, i would be eager to invest with a business or to buy something. being a big fan of capitalism and of markets. so that began big time in my life and in 1981 i sold my business and i became a special ed. teacher in new york city. and i specialized in working with children that were dropping out of school. and i focused on -- primarily on the south bronx and reichers island which is the largest prison system in america. and they have three high schools

there for children that have been incarcerated primarily for drug offenses or for car theft. and i had a lot of problems my first year in 1981. i couldn't control the class. sunday night it was torture. i could barely stand going to work. and i finally -- my principal phil cox came down and he said, steve, you know, we got to do something. your class is out of control. you can hear it all over the building. it's disruptive and you have to do something. and i went back to class, not very proud of this, but i would wait for a child to do something wrong and then i would take the child down to phil cox's room and i'd say, we're in a school, a school that's about to be taken over and it' either me or the child has to be expelled and one by one i got the really troubled children out of my

classes. and at the end of the term, i had 16 children. i started with 85. and i was the antidropout coordinator for the school so something was kind of wrong there. and in february of '82, the kids, the 16 children that i got through theerm and i was actually very proud of that had a party for me in bedford, best teacher, home boy steve mariotti and you probably had this happening to me i'm getting an award and thinking, gee, do i deserve this. i lost 70 kids that i was supposed to keep in school. so i did something that i'm really proud of. and this was 27 years ago. it was like it happened yesterday. a total recall. i calledhe young people that i had these quarrels up and i brought them up and we had a party. and i said why did you humiliate me in class and why did you turn on the radio and punk me how the

when i was teaing math were you disruptive. and one of the children said, mr. mariotti, i know this is going to be hard to believe. you were so boring we could barely stand it. [laughter] >> thank you. another child said, mario rodriguez, he said, steve, you would teach us three times three, four times four. how do you spell cat and you'd embarrass me in front of my girlfriend. it was humiliating being in the class and i -- i've always felt terrible about that. and then i said was there ever a time when i taught you something that the words that a teacher is always afraid to ask and i asked it. was i ever a good teacher and this one wonderful, wonderful young person said, steve, it was the -- when you would tell us about your small business, how you'd bng in ladies shoes from india at $5 you'd add a dollar on for the insurance and freight and you'd sell them by the

container loads on duane street in new york city and your income statement would be $150,000 in revenue. your cost of goods sold would be 130, your gross profit would be 20 and your fixed profit would be 12 and you would make $8,000 before tax and that was my business model. and that comme by that child in 1982 has been what i've been thinking about almost nonstop for the last 27 years. how do you teach capitalism? how do you teach ownership? how do you teach people to control financial assets, their time and their thoughts. people who have been excluded from the system. people that have not been given a chance to participate in markets and in capitalism and instead many times have had markets used against them by accident. that's what i've been thinking about, for the '80s, for the

next 7 1/2 years i rotated around it. i went to very difficult schools. i worked on one thing over and over again to develop a course, to develop a teaching methodology and lesson plans to teach children in poverty and children that were having a lot of issues in school and didn't have very much money, many tim in foster care, many times incarcerated, teaching those children the basic principles of how to start a small business. 27 years goes by, 1987, i want to create an organization that can become a worldwide movement so that every child in this world born into poverty will learn the basic principles of capitalism and i suggest to you today that that is the biggest social issue of our time and our best chance to liberate the world from so much tyranny around the world and so much poverty. thank you. thank you. [applause]

>> i found it nifty in 1987 and it's grown and i just want to very quickly give you a sense of the growth 'cause we're very proud of it. our purpose is to teach children from low-incomed communities how to start small business. our vision every person will find a pathway to prosperity and we do that by teaching basic entrepreneurship. we work with about 50,000 children a year. we have 300,000 graduates. we are in 22 states. we have a budget here in america of about $17 million and overseas, look at this, we're now in 13 countries. from china to india to hebron. we're the official entrepreneurship ownership program i south africa. we're in new zealand, all through europe bringing the power of markets to low-incomed children. this is key. this is an incomed statement. all of you know it. that's why you're here. you're good at that.

you're fascinated about it. nafty is one of the few programs in the world is about teaching children about net profit so that they can become owners, benefit from multiple of earnings and benefit from the wonderful power from ownership. most educators around the world focus on the direct labor line and i urge you to begin to raise those issues with your schools and your communities because i think that's a mistake. i just want to tell you this past year was one of my highlights of my life. they picked business week picked the top 25 young entrepreneurs in america, the top 25 young entrepreneurs in america. number one god bless him was mark who deserved it of facebook. out of the 25, two were nifty graduates. we outperformed the whole ivy league. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. >> now, i want to quickly show

you a 2-minute trailer of a movie that was done about the field of youth entrepreneurship it will be coming out in october. i hope you go see it. it's not about nifty. it's just about the field of capitalism for low-incomed children. and it's two minutes. i want you to see the trailer and then i want to introduce you to the star of that movie who's here today and he'll speak for a couple minutes and then we'll be done. thank you. if you could roll the trailer, that'd be awesome. ♪ >> i went all throughout my life feeling i'd been cheated. >> lonnie can't afford to fail. >> if you lose something you always have to go and try again. >> money is the motivation. >> you have a life ahead of you and it's a waste of time to staying here and doing nothing with it. >> see, my brother he didn't make it out.

>> and i just went down the wrong path. >> one day you'll struggle to prepare you for greatness. >> i don't want to end up falling through the cracks. >> with the regret of not fulfilling a purpose. >> being a disappointment. >> i am working my tail off. >> you can nail it. >> nobody knows your business better than you do. >> i'm so nervous now but also exciting. >> i'll be crossing my fingers. >> competition was fierce. >> did you do any market research? >> how do you get paid? do you take a deposit? >> i'll be successful because i'm destined to believe. >>, i believe, i'll succeed do it. >> i can do it. >> iraqi do anything. -- i can do anything.

>> it appears not how saight the gig, how charged with punishmes of the school, i am the master of my fate. i am the captain of my soul. ♪ of [applause] >> that trailer is actually on youtube and when i watch it on youtube, i actually watched it for about 35 times. i could imagine that's the

reason why there's so many hits on it. but the movie was great. i went to aspen, colorado, last week to see the movie and it was one of the most wonderful experiences i ever did in my life. i'm not saying ittist because i'm in the movie but it's fantastic movie. me and six other entrepreneurs entered in the nfte competition. it's a very extravagant experiences we have overcome to this point and, you know, we never gave up in our lives and that's a critical point that nfte teaches of the students in the program. worth it's a magnificent experience and i encrage all of the young studes to see what kind of wonders it would do in their lives in the years ahead. i'm not saying i'm old. i'm only 19 but it's really good to pass on what nfte has taught

me throughout my life. and it's continuing on a consistent basis. the national competition that this -- that we were exposed to in this program is hosted every october and i actually came in second place in the national competition and so with that -- [applause] >> so with that experience came a lot. i met a lot of young entrepreneurs who was just as ambitious as i was. i also gained some initiative to go back in my community and tell people about this program and to influence them not to -- not to settle for anything that they don't want and nfte teaches you that throughout this program. now, the network for teacher entrepreneurship has been -- has a profound impact on me in many ways. educationally, it influenced me to come to school every day. it influenced me to get involved in a lot of the activities that otherwise would have meant

nothing to me through business plan competition. my business was video production business. and we create custom music to special events and occasions. and we also record video and make them into a movie so it's basically like shooting a video of a birthday party going back and customizing the making of the movie and it has become very successful up to this point and through my education they provided me with mentors who i've beenble to look up to and model my life after instead of what has been seen in my community. which has been a very -- a very drastic measure for me to overcome. so having mentors in school through nfte, trained by nfte has really gave me leverage throughout my life. it gave me opportunities and exposure. i didn't even know what entrepreneurship meant throughout my junior year of high school until i was exposed to nfte. how it can elaborate a person's

life until i'd really taken advantage of it and that in itself is what gave me the push to go ahead and create my own business and so to create wonders for my life. on a personal level, it also gave me a means of finding myself and creating a place for my life. i'm a student who has grown up with a lot of tough measures. ever since i was the age of 5 i was in fifteen foster homes. i'd been through eight different neighborhoods throughout the city of chicago. and through all of that, i have not had a consistent communication with my family. when i became 17 years old i was able to find my true family who they were and how they're doing and just to know they are still impoverished and that they are very -- they suffer fro drug infestation, gang affiliated and to see i'm living a completely different an opposite lifestyle

because choose to and nfte has again me leverage to move my life in that direction. but, you know, throughout my education i was always in special education. i failed fourth grade and, you know, i didn't really have a means of making a lot of life. not to say nfte was the only factor in that turn-around but it was definitely a crucial factor in making sure that i was able to make something of my life in the years ahead. and i have taken advantage of it and i believe if more students get the opportunity to experience nfte throughout this country, they would be able to take the opportunities and bring them to a whole other level throughout their lives and make the best of what they have. since i've joined nfte and have accelerated in their program, a lot of great opportunies have come to me. right now i'm a freshman at moore house college. and throughout my freshman years very good experience. i'm on the dean's list.

i was the president of my freshman class throughout my business. [applause] >> throughout my business forever life music production is now operated through my college as a media event and incorporated as a work study program for all of the students and so with that being said, the opportunities are litss for me now and i understand that through exposure and opportunities through nfte. and so if you invest a little bit in a child through nfte, you t a huge return on investment through this program. thank you. [applause] >> i'm very proud of you. thank you. we're at booth 508. anybody who will sponsor one of our children gets a bestselling book of all time on how to start a business. and so i hope you come and see us in room 508. thank you. we're real proud to be here.

>> steve is also the author of the young entrepreneurs guide of starting and running a siness. it was part of freedomfest, an annual libertarian conference in las vegas. to find out more, visit freedomfest.com. >> joan is editor-in-chief of the university of illinois press. what new books does the university have coming out this year? >> well, actually all of the posters on the tabletop display here -- these are all brand-new books. and as you can see we have a series of new books coming out on african-american history including this biography of sojourner truth. a biography of trm howard? >> who was trm howard? >> he was a conservative civil rights advocate that doesn't get the sort of attention and

respect he should, but was instrumental in moving forward a lot of sort of black agendas in the south. >> and why did you decide that sojourner truth needed another biography at this time? >> the author has a new and unusual angle. it's different from the ones who have been published recently and it's a substantial biography so she touches on much -- you know, new material that other people haven't trted in the past. >> and wt other books would you like to point out? >> well, let them see, this cafe society, which is a story of the josephsons and their sort of nightclub in new york city where there wasn't was mingling of the races back when that wasn't done much is a very readable kind of book that sort of gives you a picture of the time, the era and the peopleho sort of frequented places like that. >> what's the focus of the

university of press? >> we publish heavily in u.s. history with specializations in african-american history, labor history, women's history, ethnic history in general, particularly latino kind of history and american music. >>ow is the business model for a university press changed in the last couple of years? >> well, our print runs are much shorter and our prices are going up as a result. because the market is soft. we're selling fewer copies of books and it's difficult. >> she's editor and chief of the university of illinois press.

justin fox has written a story on wall street, looking at its origins, basic principles on the stock market and people who won and lost fortunes. the world institute is the host of this event. it's about an hour. >> i thought i'd start by asking and attempting to quickly answer a question which is, what just happened? what just happened over the past six, nine -- i guess it's nine months by now? and i've -- i was thinking about it for a while this afternoon and i came up with a two-sentence answer. first financial markets around the world stopped working last fall. and this had a bad effect. i'm not saying there were tons of other