i have looked into this a good bit and he has caused some discomfort among the latter-day saints because they believe that a lot of people believe it will cause the whole faith to be viewed as a little bit sort of wacky and out there. some people even suggest to me that this is a problem for mitt romney, who is by all accounts a mainstream character, but they're going to say my goodness, does he believe these crazy things that one back is talking about each night? and of course mitt romney like everybody else is going to be under pressure to get the unofficial beck endorsement. so it didn't get as -- there's some discomfort in that, but also beck has appeared to be huge, i don't know if there reliables, but when he talks

about his recovery from alcoholism and his love of the mormon church. so there's two sides of that relationship as well. >> where the question right there. >> said to's rally seemed rather subdued to his television show. was that intentional? is he setting up something on the left insane i'm not that bad, but this rally. >> no, you're correct that it was very different from his message, but it was for very practical reasons and that was the event was being run by a nonprofit that takes care of the families of wounded or fallen troops. so if he had gone out there and giving his usual message, that charity would have it status in jeopardy. sobek is -- and i think i mean this in a good way is really an opportunist. so here are the constraints he

has. what could be due? and he turned it into this very powerful sort of religious moment where people were asking that question a few days after comment is glenn beck the new leader of the religious right? that's not going to happen because mormonism as we discussed, she was able to turn this limitation -- turning this event into that sort of successful public revival meeting i think shows great he is. >> how about the tea party? with convergence between glenn beck and the tea party? >> well, i think they're one and the same. i mean, he is the unofficial leader of the tea party and you could argue that sarah palin is as important to that movement, but she has more ties to the republican party. interestingly with beck, he's had the sort of movement things going before and in the past they didn't catch on because he

wasn't as big, but she'd have masochists with honoring the troops and not sort of things, so there was a minor at the complex. basically he took that model and pushed it ahead. so he very much was encouraging the original tax day protest in 2009 immediately went ahead ahead with his own nine, 12 movement which for my solace which it to the 828 movement and no doubt is coming in now, proceeding onto the next movement. so i think, you know, i was sort of snotty and the subtitle of this book. you know, i don't actually have a contempt for the tea party. and i don't use the term t. barriers. i'm saying the glenn beck is the

one doing the tea bagging of america. i think beck has in many ways been able to use what is a genuine populist revolts to his benefit. >> is there a way to quantify the glenn beck affect on the midterm elections? >> guest: not in any sort of an aggregate sense. think about this. glenn beck is intensively populist leader. it was a week or two before the election he saw the chamber of commerce was beating up on obama and obama was pushing back. he got nice radio show and said i'm writing a $10,000 check to the u.s. commerce. if you've got a dollar out there what you ought to send them in. and so glenn beck's radio listeners crash the servers at the u.s. chamber of commerce. while nothing says grass-roots populism like u.s. chamber of commerce. [laughter] and that's what they mean by how i think is in some ways misled the well-intentioned people who

are justifiably upset i was going on in the country and the economy and the government. and here he is telling people who may only have their last dollar left to send it to the chamber of commerce. it shows the way they react. you know, there've been studies uppity about the the tea party effect, you know, being very much responsible for the house victory and perhaps responsible for the failure of the republicans to take the senate. but we've seen it in individual ways since beck was very influential in getting senator bennett booted out in utah. the state of maine republican party has rewritten its platform to warn about the encroachment of one world government. this is maine. so, it very much is responding to that. >> host: >> we have time for one last question, sir. >> he talked about how some of

the next followers are so extreme and the response is, what you hear from these people? i'm assuming they're not real crazy about it. >> well, beck himself has done me the courtesy of ignoring the book, which i think it's probably smart on his behalf. so that has kept down the amount of animosity out there although i should say in the last 48 hours, the o'reilly has on their made jokes about my being he headed and suggested i might be turned into hummus. >> but no violent e-mails? >> so i assumed -- this was related to a column i'd written the paper, but i suspect he's doing some of beck's work for him. so yes, there's some anger on the right. but because beck himself has been quiet about it, it has muted anger on the right. the book was written hopefully

so that it wasn't so that left-wingers could pick it up and say ha ha, this is why i knew i hated glenn beck and this is why. it's so that the vast majority of americans, the sensible people in the middle would say i know there's this phenomenon of beck and i don't really know what it is. and i basically spent a lot of he writes the washington sketch column, he is the author of several books, including homo politicos. this strange and scary tribes that run our government. for more information visit danamilbank.com. >> you're watching the tv on c-span2. 48 hours of nonfiction books beginning every saturday at 8 a.m. here's our primetime lineup for

tonight.

>> next timothy manager presents a memoir of charles pelot summerall, chief of staff chief of staff of the u.s. army from 1926-1930, and president of the citadel for 20 years. timothy nenninger discusses his book at the annual association of the u.s. army meeting held at the washington convention center in washington, d.c.. the program is about 35 minutes. >> i'd like to speak a little bit about the genesis of the manuscript, and then give you a brief overview of general summerall's career, and why i think he is an important figure in history of the american army in the early 20th century, and i think his memoirs is worth reading. summerall wrote his memoir in 1950. he wasn't optogenetics you was approaching retirement within a

couple of years from the presidency of the citadel. he wrote it, had wrote it on legal sized paper. he had no, he had no intent to publish the manuscript. he did it as his grandson said, for diversion, and to enlighten his family about his career. and he died within three years of having completed the manuscript. at which point his son tied the handwritten manuscript, created 185 angle space, very dense pages. and for many years, this manuscript was in the possession of the archives of the citadel in charleston. in 1998, the generals grandson, charles p. summerall the third, still living in charleston, donated the rights to the

continue -- museum and we'd never know with intent that the manuscript would be published by the newseum. the director of the newseum in 1998, paul as his successor, supported summerall's grandsons idea to get this manuscript published. they shopped around looking for someone who could edit it, and they would see it through to publication. they saw the process to its completion. i was the editor, but make no mistake, this isn't my book. this is general summerall's book. it mostly reads like i suspect his voice would sound. i basically top he edited the manuscript but i reduced it by about 20%. there were a lot of family history in it. the a lot of comments, above scores to settle that general

summerall tried to use the memoir as a vehicle for that. i also tried to standardize of thing. did it bashing i did i also did a short biographical sketch of the general and a rather extensive timeline of his importantly, i think my constitution was to add identifications and annotations relating to people, places and things, and events that are mentioned in the text. the text flag, the regimental commander did that's and so, but he wouldn't identify who the regimental commander was. so my task was to use a variety of sources, figure out who he

was talking about and provide, i provided in a note basic that individual. the result was about 30 pages of over 500 different notes and who was charles p. summerall and what was his contribution to the army, and why is this memoir important? other reason than summerall change of command ceremonies our retirement ceremonies, but summerall field was named for the general, i believe, because charles p. summerall was chief 1946-30. but over the course of his career, which began at 1888 when he went to west point, to the time he retired from the army in

1930, the army had evolved considerably from a front to constabulary to a colonial force that pacified, protected and governed new the acquired insular possessions, too, during world war i, a fairly modern 20th century fighting force that was in a coalition war in europe. summerall, summerall's career, therefore, sort of parallels the evolution of the army in the late 19th and early 20th century he was a poor boy from the rural south born in 1867, went to west point, in 1888 as i mentioned, graduated in 1892. captain of the corps of cadets. he graduated 20 out of 64 in his class. so he made a mark on the army early on. initially, when into the

infantry, since hazard to the field artillery. he was a generals aid in mobilization can't in 1898 turn the spanish-american war. the next year, 1899, he went overseas to the philippines, where we were already engaged in fighting against filipino insurgents. he was under fire for the first time, and he was mentioned in orders, cited for his bravery in leading his section under fire, providing close support to infantry attacking insurrections. the next year, he was in china during the chinese relief expedition. and his section was very instrumental during the action relieving the siege of taking, where his gun section not down for successive gates to the

inner-city, the inner part of the imperial city, allowing allied forces to go in and overturn those who were sustaining the rebellion. after returning from china, he had a succession of truth and post commands in the pacific northwest, and then analyze. -- dan in alaska. during this period, as it were, married the boss' daughter. he met laura mordecai who was the chief of ordnance's daughter while visiting some friends out in the northwest, and he quoted ms. mordecai over a period of years and married her during this period. he then went on to become an

instructor and field artillery organization and tactics at the u.s. military academy, where he served from 1905-1911. in the early part of his career, he was very much known as an expert in the field artillery matters. following good at west point, he went to the war department where he served in the militia bureau as the assistant to the chief of the militia bureau, and he was responsible for national guard field artillery training. and one of the events, or one of the duties that he performed during this period was to go out and find large tracts of land that later became field

artillery practice ranges, including the one at tobyhanna, pennsylvania. i had a couple of photographs on tobyhanna, tobyhanna range. in july 1917, after the united states -- june 1970 and after the united states got into the war, summerall is to in the war department but he was sent overseas with the baker mission that was hit from the war department to consult with officers on pershing staff at ghq, and again, summerall was the field artillery expert on this mission which was supposed to discuss with the ghq staff organization, doctrine, and what technical means were necessary

to sustain the adf want to get overseas in great numbers, in june 1917. of course, they only forces that were there were a very small contingent from the first division, which was the initial division oversees. summerall went overseas later in 1917, first commended the 67th field artillery brigade which was part of the 42nd division, but in the center of that year, he assumed command of the first field artillery which is part of the first division, and it began an association of summerall with the first division that continued throughout his life, as i'll mention in a minute. brigade from december 1917 until july 1918.

was promoted to major general, but he still command the field artillery brigade. the first division. this probably was one of the high points of his professional life. command of the division, the division participated in the wausau offensive and it was the first time that american troops in great numbers, it was a core level attack, the first time that u.s. troops in great numbers participated offensively in the war on the western front. i think summerall was a unique commander in the adf and that he successfully commanded a brigade, a division, and ultimately a court which he took command of it in the middle of october 1918 during an offensive. is in command of the fifth army

corps. he had a, i think what you characterize, particularly here in this world war ii experience, that his style of command was very a aggressive leading from the front. he expected much of his subordinate commanders and was very difficult leader under whom to serve as a number of his troops would attest. he had successes both with the first division and fifth corps, as it commander, but he also had some black marks on his sled during the war, particularly in the fainting days of the war before the 11th of november armistice. there was some not very well drafted field orders that were issued that said that the commander-in-chief at a pershing

wanted the honor of capturing the french city to go to american troops. and the field orders issued were somewhat ambiguous, and there was some verbiage to the fact that boundaries will not be binding. and summerall sent the first division across the front of the corps that was on its left, much to the consternation of people corps that were on the left. and there was bad feeling that continued well into the postwar era as a result of this. following the armistice, pershing -- or summerall served any number of core level commands in europe as troops were being demobilize and being sent back to the united states. in july and august of 1919, he became a diplomatic caci. he had a position on the american commission to negotiate

peace treaty in paris with the other allies and the central powers, but most importantly he was the u.s. representative on the inner ally commission of inquiry, in the area of triassic come and this inner ally military commission was supposed to settle disputes along a number of warring countries down in the area as to who had the ultimate rice to occupy -- right to occupy the city. he returned to the united states with general pershing and pershing's party on the leviathan. in september 1919, at this time again was commanding the first division. and it's during this period, 1919-21 when he commanded the first division, that summerall

spearheaded the creation of the first division association, erecting the first division memorial which is behind the old executive office building on the events and just adjacent to the white house. he also supported the publication of the first division history during world war i, and also a set, a compilation of world war records of the first division. so this activity of summerall in the wake of the war is one of the reasons why the first division museum was interested in publishing his memoir. in 1921-1926 period, he was commanding the hawaiian department, in the eighth core area and then the second core area. these were all major administrative commands during the army, the post-world war i army of that era.

but the culmination of his in 1926 but the culmination of his career as an army officer came in-1926 on the army. his career as an army officer came in-1926 on the army. couple of general officers on duty who were senior, senior to him in rank, but probably none senior to him and experiences as a leader, particularly as a combat commander in the adf. so he became chief of staff of the army in late 1926, and served until late 1930. during his period, when you think about it, this was probably fairly, fairly dark days for the army in terms of understrength units, skeleton eyes of formations, to battalion regiments, two battalions, that sort of thing.

on top of that, at that point there was no obvious military threats from overseas to the united states, so it was a very difficult time to be a senior leader in a force under pressure from various sorts of angles. but he dealt with a couple of issues, and i think quite adeptly, that related to the emerging technology of the time. he was very instrumental in pushing military aviation, so long as it did not, at the expense of other combat arms, which it sometimes did. they would demobilize combat arms units to increase the size of the army air service at the time that any other issue that he dealt with very adeptly was mechanization. during his watch as chief of staff, the first first experimental mechanized force in the u.s. army was created and

tested equipment, doctrine, and organization at the time. summerall retired, stepped down as chief of staff in late 1930. he didn't retire until marc march 1931. he had a number of job offers. several politically oriented, which he declined to take part in. but he did accept a position as president of the citadel in 1930. or in 1931. and he remained at the citadel in till he retired there in 1953. there are a number of aspects about the memoir that i find interesting and revealing of the

men in his times. i mentioned that he was the president of this educational organization, the citadel, but one gets the impression, at least from the memoir, summerall learned -- seem to learn a lot from his relationships with people, much more than from relationships with books. and he seemed to be very adept at developing long-term friendships from brief encounters that there are so instances in the memoir where he would meet somebody on a train trip somewhere and they would become lifelong friends. and when he was at the citadel, he was very frequently would bring in outsiders, businessmen, other educators, to help him build up the quality of the education and the physical plant and the financial stability of that institution.

and i think when he was there, the citadel became, at least one of the three, principal nonfederal military universities in the united states. this being a u.s.a., nor which general sullivan is a graduate of norwich. developed with civilians, but i relationships that he had with fellow officers. j. reilly who was a battery commander for the fifth artillery when summerall was in the fifth artillery, and robert l. bullard who later became