of the leading lights of what we now call the religious lifers becoming active in national politics in that election, people like billy graham, the national association of evangelicals and a host of smaller conservative protestant players really broke in their sneakers in that election and they discover they have political power and the politicians care about their opinions and the trajectory then take softsoap by now certainly the religious right are very powerful force in american presidential politics. 1960's is where they began for playing at a large and high political level. so, the oh good reasons i think for thinking about this election because those themes reverberate down to this date. what did i learn in the process of writing this book? two major lessons, but you have to read some 200 odd pages to

get the details. first ava kennedy had a very sophisticated approach to his catholocism. heat all of his polling told him that this would be the major problem in the american electorate whether not they would vote for john kennedy or not. 50 years later that strikes us as a little odd in a sense that we don't tend to think i'm going to vote for that person or vote against the person based on his religious affiliation but in the mid 20 a century anti-catholicism was alive and well across a broad spectrum of society. conservative folks, moderate folk, even liberals had a very dim view of the roman catholic church in this country so ted sorensen said religion was the toughest issue they faced in sorensen was kind of the brain trust and cited the kennedy campaign and they knew all things being equal they would win that election but there was a key leesville if you had grown

up in massachusetts being a catholic in the '50s and '60s was no disadvantage to being elected to statewide office. so to some sense the kennedy operation had never experienced the kind of anti-catholicism that was quite common in this part of the world in further south so they had a very steep learning curve to match, and one of the things they did is they employed a number of folks who they thought were the smartest people they find on that issue so they hired advisors who counsel them on how you attach n.t. kabul-- bidded treen kennedy himself turned to a number of catholic leaders and had a private sort of conversation going on about how to deal with this issue. the irony was one of the criticisms of kennedy was he would be beholden to these catholic leaders that he became president and have those folks learned hit kennedy was talking to because he was talking to

catholic leaders and they were telling him what to do. in many cases he ticket and in some cases he did not take it but his primary political mentor within the catholic church was bishop john wright then the pitch burt dies seas. he was a priest in the boston diocese and got to know john kennedy after world war ii. wright's career takes off within the church as kennedy's takes off within politics and eventually wright came the highest ranking member in the vatican but they maintain their relationship or offering id pison how to run as a catholic for the presidency and in the book i discovered archival material no one else has found that goes into great detail about the relationship ended fis kennedy had, so kennedy applied what i called a technical rationality to this problem. he did not fully understand why his catholocism was a problem in

places like texas, alabama or mississippi but employed the resources to understand it and try to address the issues as he talked to advisers ouc a dexterity of policy in action in kennedy's mind when he found the problem. he said were the best people we can bring to help us with the problem and then he took their advice and in the end it was that a device that allowed him to win the election to triumph over these more conservative protestant forces. the second thing i learned was this this prize, richard nixon had an anti-caplet strategy. in retrospect-- as you look at some of the standard accounts of the 1960 race nixon always said i'm not going to raise the religion of my opponent in this election. there was a certain nixonian fallin stew that. even this sunday night before the general election nixon half-hour prime-time television

and he reminded his audience i not going to raise the religion of my opponents said me reminding you that if you had a problem, please be reminded when you go to the polls in two days. but, beyond this public denial, and it is true nixon did not publicly exploit the issue of it then is of throwaway lines in his speeches. he had been on the ground strategy of organizing conservative men sometimes from the southern baptist church, the national association of evangelicals and other groups such that millions of pieces of literature were circulated on behalf of the nixon campaign during the course of that campaign because nixon had won operative in the field below the radar screen going around organizing national meetings one in washington and others in different places where they try to organize leaders in the state communities to turn out the vote

against kennedy because he was the catholic. so by the end of the election almost every leading religious public figure of the day cuts across the story somewhere. billy graham is deeply involved, and norman vincent peale is deeply involved and association of evangelicals aren't folk. an organization called protestants and other americans united for separation of church and state was deeply involved. the sigir lies their religious part of their message but early on they were one of the strongest anti-catholic voices in america and they went all in in in the end they worked with the nixon campaign against him so i will cover the two basic things i learned as we go through that campaign. i'm going to read a couple of passages some point you to three scenes and we will see how far we get that one has to do with billy graham's work on behalf of

nixon and kennedy. the second one is a vignette from kennedy's used in speech where there was this crisis in the campaign greifeld lucky heads is the confronted a group of protestant ministers and went to houston and the last one is set in nashville, tennessee where one of the most prominent clergymen, baxter was an icon in the church of christ preached an anti-catholic sermon and hattie congressman rebutter this armand immediately after was delivered which you can imagine both had front-page stories on monday, just the average is violation of all kinds of southern taboos and rebutting an iconic on his own pulpit was quite extraordinarily so i will probably do that one. let me take a moment and read this episode with billy graham. in the summer of 1960 billy graham had been in your conducting a series of crusades

on august 17th he convened a group of 25 american clergy to discuss the presidential race and plan a response. the gathering included norman vincent peale daniel polling, clyde taylor of the national association of evangelicals and judiah wright of the national association of evangelicals. dr. nelson bell. afterwards beales senton account of the meeting describing the discussion that took place among the group of distinguished religious leaders. according to peel the group was unanimously behind nixon npo was part of a select committee chosen to meet with the vice president to convey that groups thoughts. appeal suggested september 8 as a possible meeting date in concluded by telling nixon he had been touched by the spirit of concern expressed by those in attendance. he noted billy graham was one of nixon's big supporters. pew hull something constructive and wise to come out of the

meeting and claimed he had nothing to do with the organization that sponsored a washington meeting but since the meeting was planned that could hardly be true. graham wrote a letter to nixon after the meeting wanting an installment in the correspondence between the two over the course of this summer and fall. early in the summer graham reported to nixon both johnson and sam raeburn told graham at kennedy were the nominee of the religion issue would be the paramount issue and at that point graham believe that kennedy would garner 100% of the catholic vote. at all cost nixon had to refrain from nominating a catholic as his vice president and instead named peale protestants that the protestants could rally behind. earlier grams then-- telling the story of how graham led the southern resolution that the international dimension that was the the fact the repudiation of kennedy as a candidate and endorsement of nixon. in another long letter addressed

to him graham outlined observations emerged from the meeting. graham have been following the developments with keen interest. he believed god was giving nixon super natural wisdom to handle difficult situations. according to graham a highly finance organized of this is being opened in washington to supply information to religious leaders throughout the nation. this refers to the national association of evangelicals then often as citizens for religious freedom which would have been headed by a washington staffer for the na eat. lexi waylayed the result of their recent poll that estimated 76% were supporting nixon. graham felt this percentage will increase as a breathe result of the massive efforts. graham concluded well there would be a large catholic vote for kennedy it was not as large as some had originally thought and he thought by election day kennedy share of the vote might be under 70%.

those gathered in mantra believe the catholic vote for kennedy hip torres the protestants vote for nics and wyngate momentum. graham and other clergymen thought nixon should emphasize the south and border states. the more conservative platform combined with the religion issue could put some of the states in nixon's column. they did nothing johnson's presence on the democratic ticket with trump-- grams political advice then became more pointed. he and peale gurge nixon to put more religion in his speeches. there were questions in the protestants world listen nixon's religious convictions. graham told the gathering of nixon's reticence to use his religion for political gain but the attendees did not think the protestants would interpret nixon's actions that way. they would insist the people of the right to know the candidates religious beliefs particularly at this uncertain hour of history. graham urged nixon once again to

lead this into his addresses and perhaps most important graham wrote, i had to spread in a letter to my mailing list of 2 million american families urging them to organize this sunday school, the sunday school class is an churches to get out the vote. contrary to most people's thinking, pennsylvania and new york state. i think in these areas plus the south we can be of the greatest help that we have supporters on a list from every single post office in the united states. we are getting other religious groups to do the same the as many millions will be personally circulated. it is felt the majority of these lists are democratic or independent voters and it is felt this would bring about a favorable slang among these voters to you. graham concluded his epistle by announcing that peale was planning to endorse nixon in a sermon. he also extended an invitation for nixon to visit the homan north carolina which is now

become a regular requirements of most presidential nominees the my tip north carolina and nixon with high and light the issue without any overt mention of the topic. the next day grant sent a shorter letter with to urgent matters emitted from the first letter. in rio de janeiro at the baptist world alliance meeting shortly after king and kennedy met for three hours at kennedy's home. according to graham king was impressed and just about sold. graham fully realized what was at stake with king's blessing. i think at least neutralize him and if you could invite him for a brief conference that mike's sway him. he might be a powerful influence. that gives you a flavor of how deeply involved billy graham was with these other people in enlisting the aid of millions of people within his circle and he is writing richard nixon and telling him that so that gives you a glimpse of one major

player in evangelical world and nixon knew this because these come from letters that graham wrote nixon himself. let me skip over kennedy in houston. i call that a lion in a den of daniel pearl, because he was surrounded by all of these protestant ministers and universally seen as the turning point of his campaign where he answered all the questions from the clergy people and received a standing ovation from the ministers gathered in houston. it was nationally broadcast and be broadcast around the country by the kennedy campaign and correctly that is seen as the turning point in the election in early september in 1960. i want to turn our attention now to an episode more localized here in nashville, so i will read a passage about what happened in this episode. ..

millions of the tracks were mailed around the country, black, and sold in it was a very powerful political organizing tool. all of the major periodicals in the church of christ wrote against the candidacy with a major set of arguments. lee howard, one of his inquisitors of the houston

speech printed a 32 page track called the white house. american orwell man. at one point, howard claimed that 400,000 copies of the track were searching in the country and he was aiming for a million. the enterprise reporter david broder who is now a columnist for the "washington post," but then a young reporter for the washington dark as howard how much they cost to print and he was paying for the printing. well, howard refused to answer. but he offered them to list him on his brady arrived cassini also sold in the bowl. his largest single order he told broder had had for 10,000 copies, but he refused to divulge the source of that order. on october 9, the minister at the hillsboro church of christ in nashville, tennessee, gave a sermon called dangerous and doctrine. baxter was a widely revered

minister. this sermon was emblematic of the kind of anti-catholic rhetoric that permeated and tracks in this area. baxter began by asserting that in addition to the communist rat, america faced in the form of the roman catholic church. the catholic church and those are the two great press for america's freedom. catholic sources without mentioning kennedy's name, baxter concluded it would seem wise and even necessary that all non-catholic would pose for further growth and spread of roman catholicism. until such time as the roman catholic church changes its doctrine of intolerance towards other religions. do note the irony here in the major religious freedom of this group which is undermining my religious freedom. no sense of irony that shed be a violation of anyone's freedom.

all of this is remarkable in terms of your arguments. the iconic baxter was one of the leading ministers in the church of the christ at that time and hillsboro or synapse presages congregation. chad hotly of nbc news sent a crew to film baxter preachiness. nbc also filmed ramzi pollard who is president of the southern baptist convention in his church over memphis. but after the sermon, congressman joe evidence from the fourth congressional district of eastern tennessee who was in attendance at sunday apparently heading to stop at the sermon had been come in one announced baxter if he might say a few words to the congregation. now if you ever been a church of christ service the notion of anybody getting up and speaking to a rebut or response is just unthinkable and it violates a thousand different taboos. but evans entered and briefly

criticized what he labeled as a partisan sermon and called for religious coloration. if you could imagine a firestorm erupted. evidence and a kennedy supporter was roundly criticized in church circles in the local and national media wrote about the event, but the tendency had front-page stories about this episode. he alters is that congregation decided to a baxter sermon printed as a chart. this is an intellectual shelf life of three weeks. i welcome member of the congregation paid for 60,000 copies to be printed and distributed. the contributor had been a financial supporter to baxter's national television show which had been mounted by james walter nicholls who had been contacted by nixon's outreach man orland k. armstrong when armstrong began to organize on behalf of

the nixon campaign. evans received a great deal of mail from members of the church for this impromptu rebuttal of the iconic baxter. in another sign of how closely and seriously the kennedy campaign monitored anti-catholicism in two states, robert kennedy wrote to joe evidence. actually jack and joe evidence entered the house of representatives together in the late 40's so they had known each other since the beginning. bobby wrote, i read about your recent action in speaking up so forthrightly on a religious question. i would like you to know that i am very much appreciating what you did and i am sure that senator kennedy does, too. so here, it's an amazing scene, one of the strongest most prominent religious leaders in this town preaches the sermon, he's rebutted by a member of his own tradition of congressmen from another part of the state and the firestorm erupts and the

kennedys are paying attention. that's the level of fear they had and they still entertained which of course they did not and loosed in tendency. that's the level robert kennedy were giving to the daily story in terms of how religion was going to play out or not play out. actually, i do think we have a little time. let me go back to this houston and when he threw that in them will open up for question and answer and take our time there. in early september, normandin sent convened a meeting of 150 protestant clergy in washington d.c. at the mayflower hotel and reporter stuck in and wrote the story about what they're plotting to do in the name of religion to to be kennedy and that created a firestorm. john kennedy was engaged in making his really first on camping trip down the west coast of california and the trip was

going to visibly poor. his speeches were bad to praise response was not very strong, was a very in there is just this dark cloud came over the kennedy campaign and they're literally on the train when they get the news that norman vincent peel and billy graham and the national association of evangelical and americans are working against them. kennedy actually had informant inside the nixon campaign who dictated all these details. so they are in the midst of their first one regional campaign trip, it's going poorly, and then the bombshell drops with millions of evangelicals were being by the icons in the panic. they think the wheels are coming off. they see us do this invitation and asked her to go to houston and to speak to this protestant clergy. so in many ways he was given out of fear. they fell like all the cash is on the table. they had to play the hand they've been dealt.

so houston is a great speech of triumph, but people forget it was a speech given out of abject fear because they were afraid if they didn't stop this hemorrhage in the campaign would be over and the two more months of actually getting hammered by nixon and these preachers. what's fascinating is people remember the speech, but after it's kennedy had a question-and-answer session in the transcript of the question-and-answer system was three times as long as the speech. they read the speech but not the transcript. and you learn a lot more about the belief in the question-and-answer section. so in this chapter talk about the speech, but then i spent a lot of time looking at the back and forth between these preachers. then another microphone for anyone to come up with her hand grenade at kennedy to see how well he could handle it. and it was there i think where kennedy did in fact do quite well. at the very end of the question-and-answer system untrimmed portion this is what

he said. i am delighted to come you're today. i do want anyone taking because they interrogate me on this very important question that i've regarded as unfair or unreasonable or that somebody is concerned about that matter is prejudice. i think religion is basic in the establishment of the american system in there for any candidate for office i think should submit himself the question of any reasonable man. my only limit to that would be of somebody said, regardless of the position, regardless of how much he has given eddie says what he needs i still won't vote for him because he was a member of that church. i would consider that unreasonable. what i consider to be reasonable as an exercise of free will and free choice to ask senator kennedy to investigate his record to see whether he states what he believes that makes rational judgment as to whether he could be entrusted with this highly important position. i want you to know that i'm grateful to you for inviting me tonight. i am sure that i need no

congress with my church, but i hope that at least in my view which is the view of my fellow catholics, i hope that it may be of some value in the least assist you to make a careful judgment. with that, the meeting ended with applause, bringing to close perhaps the single most dramatic public moment in the entire campaign. in the immediate aftermath, they held the speech is a triumph. kennedy westley, the reaction of protestant elites too liberal and conservatives would become clear in short order. the general election campaign only just started another kennedy campaign is that the religion issue would not only be fully resolved until election day. there were still two months of campaigning ahead of them and anything could happen. on the nixon center in the shadow strategy organizing protestants below the radar had done more harm than good. because part of it had become known in the so-called mayflower median washington d.c. frustration was built within the campaign of the failure and the

success of the houston speech. he gave perhaps the best contemporary summary of the period between this national convention and the democratic national convention. he noted that about one of the general elections have begun for kennedy would be a victory in los angeles, but it was almost despair over the kiel meeting. it rose to a point of cautious hope in houston, texas. and here's what white wrote in the summary. when he had finished he had not only close round one of the election campaign. he had for the first time more fully and explicitly than any other thinker of his faith and time the personal doctrine of a modern catholic in a democratic society. how much effort -- how much effect yet evening no one could tell. yet addressed a sullen almost hostile audience when he began in houston. he had won the applause of many and perhaps sympathies of more. at the meeting had closed and

the respect and friendship. but how for the victory in the fall would expand its glow, no one could measure. the national tv networks were to broadcast his performance in the next day and fragments around the nation. nevertheless, the candidates always happiest as a man when confronting a crowd with action felt better. as a variety of slate is cracking voice began to clear. in a few weeks you could depend entirely on the continent tenants on the voice coach went hitherto accompanied him. the next day he barnstormed to crowds under lyndon b. johnson and sam rayburn texas. the following day the crowds were not to new jersey and new york an even greater in the industrial northeast where he met to win. so kennedy had survived a near-death experience. he had turned adversity into triumph with the houston speech. the west coast trip was not forgotten any into the general election campaign with renewed momentum. he had directly confronted the issue of his faith and in so doing sound is pride.

he indicated it was tight. the remainder of the campaign would prove to be. i'm going to stop there. we have a few minutes for question-and-answer spirit and i'm happy to take any questions you might have too tossed my way. [inaudible] >> was there any actual outcome of anyone coming back and calculating how many catholics voted for kennedy, nixon, who many protestants, latter day saints, you name it. >> yes, i devote some time to that in the book. at the end and forgive me if i misquote myself. i will look it up in the book, but essentially i believe kennedy won something like 87% of the catholic vote. he won about 34% of the protestant vote. now what's interesting about

that is that's exactly the same percentage that if i recall stevenson in one of the protestant vote in 1976. so kennedy ended up about where i lie dead but were provided his margin of victory was overwhelming support among the catholic foe. so we had a very tough -- he had the whole southern democrats who were all for the most part protestant. yet the whole vote. at the same time yet to win the catholic vote. he had a very odd sort of strategy video to placate these two groups which were aliens from one another. so in some ways it's a preprint to moderate constituency policy to be there nominated local party you have to feel some very strange different constituencies with your own party. so in the end, he carried the day certainly among his catholic friends. but he stopped the bleeding among protestants. and in that sense, i think his

religious effort paid off handsomely for an e-rate and the one this teeny tiny victory. that has been studied by political scientist. i talk a little bit about that at the end. >> in houston, speaking to the ministers, what point did kennedy make it seem to be so persuasive? >> that's a very good question. there were luckily for kennedy some very specific policy questions, that they were afraid. one would be important in the master to the vatican and he said no i will not. now this had flared up earlier in about 1948 when harry truman wanted to appoint an ambassador to the vatican. people don't remember this story. he was going to appoint mark clark and i just made sense to trim and a catholic general here i will make him. well, the protestant world went nuts.

conservatives, liberals, and monitored all rose up. how can we have a southern baptist president appointing an ambassador. and they intimidated truman so he backed down. kennedy said, i'm not going to go there. and so he said no, i will not appoint an ambassador. the second big question was federal aid. you know, this year was to get a catholic. before you know what we're going to be writing checks to families also, if your tax money and might and kennedy said absolutely not, i will not do that. nixon made a horrible at stake on this one from a machiavellian political angle. nixon refused to answer that question. and it was like wait a minute you're running against a catholic. he said you're not going to answer that question? late in the day, and they tell the story at the very end of the book. an editor of the baptist standard which is the record among baptists had over 300,000. think about that of paper by one

denomination in one state than 100,000 readers. the. we're still waiting for an answer to her question. are you going to allow federal money? and nixon in a strategic blunder his epic proportions right back and says we know i'm a state right kind of guy. so if i send federal money to the state of tennessee and the state legislature decides that their infinite wisdom they want to put some of that money in the conference of catholic churches, god love them. let them do it. well you can imagine -- the baptist editor said you've got to be kidding me. the protestant guy is giving a catholic answer to the question in the catholic ice cube in the protestant answer to the question. and so kennedy was adamant i'm not going to put money in the parochial school. the last public policy issue had to do with birth control. the question was if a country from the developing world comes to the united states government and says can you give us eight, development aid, to provide

birth control to our citizens, would you find that? because the catholic church was against birth control. kennedy oscillated a little bit that you said no, i won't. i'm going to make that decision based on the policy at hand. so kennedy was able to go into houston and say these are the tangible issues that my faith might present a political policy issue and here are my answers. and he gave what he thought was a catholic answer that said catholics believe in separation of church and state, too. not certainly true you go back to the 19th century and in the middle ages there was a lot of stuff coming out of european catholicism that would give a contemporary american community democracy cause where the monarchy reform government, democracy was a bad form of government. there is that literature to give them pause.

the catholic church is changed in that was not my views. i'm going to make my views independent of what anybody and romance to tell me. and so is very clear i believe in separation of church and state. and then the kicker for them once he said if there's ever a conflict between my faith in my politics, in terms of my option, i will resign the presidency. they use that line to show how serious he was about his faith and how serious he was about avoiding some kind of conflict. he's pitched all of that together in a speech in the question-and-answer system the ministers had very specific follow-up questions for him and he flawlessly. but that's a great question and i go into pretty fine detail on that speech. i wrote a whole chapter to it because it was such a pivotal, pivotal moment. they gave him several points along the way and he really did. thank you. that was a great question.

others? >> would you talk about the discovery he said he made that other people hadn't used before the resources? >> yes, two things. bishop john rai did a 55 singlespaced page oral history in the kennedy library about his relationship with john kennedy. i was the first scholar to be backed and it went to in amazing detail about their relationship and really opened up a window on the sort of wide political counsel he got from this church. and that itself was really quite interesting. the other piece was a memo from an informant inside the nixon campaign. and again the memo just says memo from informants are, and it's about a nine page memo that

lays out for the kennedys all of the contours of the nixon strategy. now, is one of the things i actually began my research, i found an oral history from one of the religions guys and he said with incontrovertible proof that nixon was doing this stuff. so in archives you think zero my goodness the holy grail is this huge archive somewhere. it took me about three years to find it. but when i did, it was like eureka. and i think i know who the informant was. i identify my guess in the book, but because i found the person who was involved and i can show he was unhappy and wyckoff begins with r. and make an educated guess about two this informant is. it was his who confirmed their worst fears. in the back of their mind, they said maybe we are overly paranoid here but it looks like at nixon is organizing across the country. they finally proved late in the

game and not sweat force them to say yes to the houston. so those are two of the pieces i found in no one else has found the archival work. and if you do archival research, you spent thousands of hours sitting in libraries reading pages and you have one or two you've read which makes it all worthwhile. and it was really a lot of fun to have that experience this time around. thank you. >> to what extent do they study the history of the 1928 campaign of governor smith of new york? >> it was the standard political wisdom in the 1960's that can't win because of what happened. like today, we hear america will never elect a woman, an african-american, you fill in the blank. just as we have a standard political wisdom. in 1960's that 1928 tells us to

be nominated catholic, you just are really stupid with a political party. so in 1966 and 1960 most of it went into proof and disproving that the says. kennedy tried to become the vice presidential nominee and he wrote a memorandum and linked it to the press showing how it would help the democratic ticket if they had a catholic. because eisenhower and 62 and 66 began to siphon off more catholics from the democratic arty. so they spent a lot of time. don't you remember the lesson of 1928? and so they knew they had to have some kind of formal answer to that question. a study that election very, very carefully and they crafted as to the public arguments and the conditions are different now it would actually be a help to have a catholic. so they devoted a lot of energy to that. probably time for one

more. yes, sir. >> were there any protestant ministers, names that came out in favor of kennedy saying this whole catholicism thing is stupid. and if they did, was there any retaliation? >> the answer is yes. in the leadership on that site really came out of new york city. john bennett who also taught. they vote for a magazine called christianity in crisis. they spent a lot of time saying the catholic church has changed and john kennedy would make a better president than richard nixon would. and they caught a lot of heat in a lot of flack for that. and i spent sometime early in the book tracing the argument back and forth that neither of them before that kennedy is okay, you can vote for him. and certainly they were the two probably most public voices on that side. there were a lot of protestant

leaders working behind the scenes supporting kennedy, but not taking by the public view. one of the more interesting characters and all that was the methodist bishop, who was a classic social liberal. if you know anything about the message of tradition they are aggressive politically shows the justice issues. but oxfam was very anti-catholic. and kennedy reached out -- he did a listening to her of leading protestant in the country and that was a one-on-one. and he met with oxman on a couple of times in washington d.c. he became a supporter. so they did reach out to some of the liberal leaders. you think you'd be democrat, but turned out not to be because they were still wary about the catholic church. so the answer is yes, there were some very prominent folks. they worked in their circle and i were trying to persuade people to join them.

but people like the christian century which is one of the leading liberal christian magazines to the date was anti-kennedy and there were a lot of liberal protestants who are deeply troubled by kennedy. some of those people moved to kennedy by the end of the election. they try to persuade them to stay in the democratic party. so i could go into detail on that. very interesting. well, thank you very much. i appreciate your questions, time, and attention. [applause] did you know you can view booktv programs online? go to booktv.org.

type the name of the author, book him our subject into the search area in the upper left-hand corner of the page. select the watch link now you can view the entire program. you might also explore the recently on booktv or the featured programs box to find and view recent and future programs. >> thank you very much. i am thrilled to be here.

and i hope at 7:00 i'm still as thrilled. as i am right now. i think i have two strikes against me. one is i'm an academic, so i'm totally unused to having anybody really care enough about what i do to show up to a top. so i'm feeling pretty edified right now. and the second strike out against me that i'm irish. [laughter] that might be a bigger strike, actually. indian irish of course you're brought up to absorb the sword of slings and arrows, the break backs of criticism and so on. so when olive the attention this book has gotten there is a lot of attention that's really surprising because two starter

conversation about this issue, not because we discovered it because we didn't. and not because we have all the answers, we don't. but we felt strongly enough about it to try and start our conversation. coming back to my irishness, my mother of course would be proud of me because she said when you grow up don't be getting too big for your boots. the one quote that keeps flashing on and off in my head and i can hear it as it is in "the wall street journal." the one phrase it howlingly inaccurate and one thing is i wake up in the morning howlingly inaccurate, wall street journal. but more seriously, we're totally unaccustomed to having people care about our work. so let me, as we start, sherry couple of