it's about libya, it's about saudi arabia, it's about israel, it's about jordan, egypt, it kind of -- it's really tried to take in the totality of the regional experience of the so-called war on terror. it's not necessarily focused on combat zones exclusively. it's also about sort of the war for ideas, the war for democracy versus islamism. so there are a lot of themes that are kind of woven into it. >> you're still with the los angeles times as a reporter, daily reporter and now in beijing. did you fly to new york for this ceremony? is. >> i did. although i was coming for thanksgiving anyway, so i came a bit early. >> megan stack, los angeles times reporter, beijing bureau. "every man in this village is a liar: an education in be war," is her nominated book. ..

>> and for hosting it. this just happens to be my favorite bookstore. i have bought many a book year. i love coming here, and, of course, it turns out that beverly has a connection to this industry because in chicago, who doesn't? she said my uncle grew up with others, and i went to breakfast with a board of trade who said he used to work for beverly's

father. and i thought of course, because again in chicago, everybody has connections. so i just thought i would say a few things about writing this book, and then i'm going to interview a traitor because that seems much more fun than listening to me talk. first of all, why i wrote this book, i moved to chicago in 2004 for forbes, and it just seemed that i seem to need a lot of traders everywhere i went. we rented an apartment in lincoln park, and took up tennis which we played very badly, and ray, a big trader play tennis on the next court regularly. another time went to the lakefront, and i was reading a book about the dummies guide to futures and options because it just seemed that it was a big

local business and i should learn more. some guy came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder, it's going to get easier. and i said that's good, because i was reading about some, i think was a butterfly trade and options and it just seems like craziness. meeting all these traders seemed interesting, and i just got carried. of course, the chicago trade building is gorgeous. i was curious what went on inside. this seems to be a lot of news going on in the industry which do anybody any industry of course might find kind of obvious, but in 2004 through is a lot going on. so i started covering the industry. then i wrote a couple of stories that i wrote a story about the merger as the two exchanges that i got a call from a book publisher who said do you think that there's more to say about these traders? and i thought, well of course,

because the traders are such interesting people there must be something. this was 2008 when the financial crisis was happening, when oil prices were going crazy, when food prices were going crazy. i wasn't sure what was going to write but i thought sounds like fun. write a book. in retrospect that was the most naïve thing i could have possibly, you know, done. because the more that i learned about the industry and learned about traders and learned about the history of this place, the more i felt like i was taking on just a very big project, and also a very kind of personal project for people in the industry. there are people here whose families have been here for generations, and i suddenly thought who am i to be, you

know, coming in sweeping in and writing the story. but i'm glad i did because it's really, the futures industry is all about risk and i guess in my case it was just one of those naïve risks, which i hope paid off because i've really enjoyed it and i have really enjoyed meeting the people who i have met. so, -- >> i just want to say i had the good fortune to meet up with emily, it turned out one day i was out having lunch with a good friend of mine, i guy who's been at exchange on longer than i have, he -- and i was telling maury, you know, i'm third generation trader myself. you know, the older guys are fast disappearing and i really

wish that somebody out there was really collecting stories to rewrite the history of history exciting industry. something that such an important component of the chicago economic history. and maury said to me, what are you talking about? there's this gal, she's doing it right now. so the first thing i did was get emily's phone number and color. i think an hour later, introduce myself because i really wanted to do what i could to help her to make this a very successful book that she is writing. >> which i appreciate. and which also i should add that to me, first of all, it's more than chicago economic history. it is chicago economic history but futures, you know, transform the financial system in ways that i think people don't fully maybe appreciate and don't realize. that goes for traders as well as

for people who are wrestling with these big concepts like derivatives, and understand what they came from and understand what happened is i think a store that really hasn't been told very much. and i'm not so silly as to think that it's completely told in this book either. i'm hoping that this is, i scratched the surface of what i think is really interesting history, and it deserves a lot more attention than -- i know i have more stores in my notes but didn't make it in, so i hope i can add to this record after this at another time because they're just really is so much here. so, yeah, so i asked bill to talk because i was hoping that he might be able to explain to people who are not any industry who are here what i'm even talking about at all, because his family very much mirrors the

story of the futures industry here in chicago. so there are -- maybe you could just start if you don't mind, by what is a futures contract? >> i know you know a lot of people think this is very mysterious arcane type of business. the futures contracts are essentially insurance products. that was the reason that the industry first developed. futures contracts are a way to offset risk on the part of both people who need to use commodities and people who produce commodities. very simply, a futures contract is a contract between a buyer and a seller for a specific commodity, specific price for specific future delivery date. and i guess the easiest way to explain it in terms of how it's used by people to offset risk, i think one of the simplest examples is you take an airline

company. someone who needs to use a lot of fuel on a regular basis. and, of course, if fuel prices go up they can have a severe adverse effect on the profitability. an airline company realizing that crude oil is $80 a barrel, their concerns may go to $100 a pill. they have the ability to purchase all they need at a given price of $80, knowing that that will be their final cost for the product. >> they use futures because they have too much risk, they want to shove it off some other people? >> right spirit what makes this such a fun business is chicago is all these people who are going to take that risk. >> that's the other side. the real economic reason for having futures contracts is for those who want to avoid risk. but it's certainly all provide a great opportunity for those who want to assume risk, in search of profits.

that's the speculator. >> perspective. there's the hedge and the speculator. for people who are traders, there is boring stuff because no buffer people are not in the business it might be really interesting. there are two exchanges. they're very different places. your family was at one of them. the chicago merc. who came first? >> the board of trade came first. >> let me re- ask that. who in your family came first? >> my grandfather. he was the first member of the henner family to trade. he went to the merc i believe in the early fourth turkey started trading there. back when they were still trading onions. i think he primarily traded in the egg market. >> what was it like then? >> much, much smaller building. i went to work for the first

time at the old merc in 1969 when i was 16 years old and a summer job working there. and at that time i think to a total of 500 members, most of them were not even there on any given day. so it was probably three, maybe four -- 300 or so actual live traders on the floor. it was much smaller. i remember, there were only really three products that were triggered your hogs, cattle and there was the real most important contract which was frozen pork bellies. >> tell me about the pork bellies. how did people traded? your auto was in the pork bill if it. your article as far as i know was that means person to ever walk through -- >> he had a reputation -- i don't know if he deserved it, but certainly, you know, his

game face, his it personal. is what the old school guys who felt that you had to really put on a tough front. he was afraid to use intimidation to further his business interests. it was very funny because my uncle, after getting that reputation, it was very common among the order tasks on the floor, whenever there was a new clerk, just starting off at the exchange, the kind of rite of passage was to give this poor kid a bad order and send him to my uncle, bill henner. essentially they would give him a live cattle order and send it to my uncle in the pork billy pit. then they would watch the ensuing fireworks that would go off with my uncle, he would browbeat this poor kid in time he's a complete moron and didn't deserve to be at this place, and so on. but, of course, the order does have a great bit of amusement around that.

>> and these are the kinds of stories that it took me a while to understand what that meant. because they were different pits were different things were traded. so if you had an order for live cattle it had to go to the live cattle pit. if someone took in order to the live cattle pit, to the wrong pit, then they were -- >> generally speaking they would say no, no. this is live cattle you need to take it over there, young man. but i overreacted a little bit more interestingly than that. in his defense when he was not trading he was a very generous man. he helped lots of people, you know come in the industry. you had four wonderful children who are all very good people as well. >> and i spoke to a woman who was a clerk for your uncle, who said she loved being a clerk for your uncle because everyone had to pay her respects because they didn't want to have her go get

bill, you know? >> right. >> so you were there also when futures kind of let the world of agriculture and moved into the world of finance. this is a big, this is a big step to leave what was essentially the world of commodities and get in the world of money. >> it was always assumed a futures market had to be about agriculture products. in fact, it was a very novel idea to introduce the idea of having financial futures. and interesting enough, that happened during the time when i was not involved. i worked there in 1969. i went away to college the year after that, and actually didn't return to chicago to get back into the business into 1978. the merc had changed

dramatically in that 10 year period. actually nine year period. it moved from a very small facility at 110 north franklin, too much, much larger building on 444 west jackson. when i came back, not only would agriculture markets that there was a gold futures contract that was doing enormous volume. there were i think five currency contracts that were each doing very well. and within the first year that i came back, they'd introduce a treasury bill contract which is kind of precursor for the euro dollar contract that came along in that you need to. >> who were some of the big, big traders and big personalities on the floor when you came back? >> when i came back, i think there was some certainly big traders. i think the cattle market was certainly being dominated by

rezko, tom detmer. i remember rumors would go across for assigned calcomp people would run to the cattle pit to try to coattail him. i remember in the hogs and bellies, joel greenberg was a real big player. and i remember joel greenberg actually moved into the treasury bill. and became a very, very large traded their for a while as well. >> so what did you trade? >> i started, i came back to chicago. i worked as a clerk for a a few months and in least to see. and i started trading gold futures. at the time other than live cattle, gold futures were the second largest volume product at the mercantile exchange. part of it was due to the fact in those days people were utilizing what they called gold spread, buying one contract,

selling another is a vehicle to actually do for taxes. >> and i do for you mean not they? >> yes. they were able to use gold contracts and essentially take a tax liability from one year and moved into the next year. some people did that year after year after year. the problem was eventually the government changed the regulations and people could no longer rule the taxes. so all of a sudden some people wanted multimillion dollar tax bills that were immediately do. and quite honestly i think that was the end of the ability to roll taxes, sort of the beginning of the end of the gold contract. the business wound up moving to new york. >> so now keep going forward in time. the '80s, the '80s were the heyday of trading in chicago,

right? so what was that like? then want to ask you -- >> you know, the two most important new developments at the merc in the '80s with the introduction of the euro dollars future contract and to the introduction of the s&p 500. >> can you describe what the euro dollar pit look like in its heyday? >> it was incredibly packed with people. i mean, it was a place where there was absolutely no extra real estate available. in fact, at 1.1 of the big brokers there decided he was going to leave the business and is able to sell his spot in the pit, just enough room for one person to stand for $1 million. >> sorry to interrupt you. what may that spot so fantastic? >> the fact that they were doing so much volume in the euro dollars contract that he could broker in the euro dollars was

making more in a month that it could broker in the cattle would make it here. it was so busy that clerks who were there to just process order flow, to get the orders from the desks and tell the broker what he needed to do with being paid six figures at one time. >> and you told me once about a lunch you went to. i think how much you spent on -- >> you know, back in the days when we're doing quite well, we used to take turns buying lunch for the other two people in the group. the running joke was to see how high they could run the bill. expensive champagne, old whiskey, things like that with a fancy meal. >> how large did you make a? >> sometimes in excess of a thousand dollars for a lunch. times were good back then. [laughter] >> you know, being on the

trading floor was just an incredible advantage. if you're willing to be disciplined, be careful, you could make a lot of money without taking very much risk. some people manage to do without taking any risk. >> so now things have changed. the floor is not what it was. certainly the markets are a lot more electronic of the board of trade which we haven't talked about, maybe we can at least in questions, in the market are one big company now. is a very different situation. the henner family, you've been there for three generations step it is they're going to be a force in trading? >> i think it's unlikely, honestly. you never know. i don't have any children there that are particularly interested in trading. but, you know, i think definitely electronics is completely change the industry. it's changing the way that has a

louder volume to go to numbers that we could not have imagined 20 years ago. and ultimately it has provided a much fairer even playing field for most of the participants. you know, the professionals in the game no longer have the ability to react faster to get better prices, and to have any real advantage over the normal retail trader. >> so what did the merc people think of the board of trade? and perhaps we have someone on the board of trade contingent here address that. >> i'm not sure why there was essentially such an ongoing culture clash. but the board and the merc never seem to really get together. i mean, there was talk of merging the two exchanges back when i started in the business. and for one reason or another they could never get together.

i don't know if it was the egos of the people running the exchanges. it was always kind of an interesting thing that the board of trade people i think always had an attitude that they were first and their exchange was the more legitimate entity than the merc. i think it was always that attitude that the merc was sort of the second great exchange down the street. >> we're just talking to somebody before this who said that the merc was the juvenile exchange. that was the nickname for the merc. did you have a nickname for the board of? >> not that i recall. i was fortunate that, and actually my father had memberships in both exchanges and hit his office in the board of trade building. even though he predominantly traded on the mercantile exchange products, he i think always liked the board of trade better. in fact, he had originally

encouraged me to go to work at the board instead of the merc. he said it was a more civilized place. >> why did you end up at the merc? >> i think part of it was rebellion. and that's also why i think -- when i started in the business i did want to trade agricultural products. i was really excited about the new financial futures markets. and i felt that ultimately they would be where the big volume was going to occur. and that's what i start off in gold and vince moved into foreign currencies because i realized that the foreign currency market was potentially the biggest trade of all. >> and do you think -- what do you think people -- do you think that people today understand what features are? >> outside the industry? i think they're still that same confusion in the minds of most people. you know, that's why we even had

so much fun with it in various movies. futures industry has often kind of his arcane subset of the financial industry, and very few people understand or even though it is really not that difficult of a concept once you sit down and take a look at it. >> thank you. does anyone have any questions? if not, i may target people. spent i wanted to say one more thing, and that is when i was working as a runner before the advent of financial futures, the biggest trade of the mercantile exchange was pork bellies. it did actually i think 90% of the volume in the '60s. the pork belly contract actually this year, 2011, is the 50th anniversary of the introduction of that contract. and just last month there was an article in "the wall street journal" talking about pork bellies, how pork bellies work.

actually the mercantile exchange is often referred to as the house that the bellies built. and as of last november, six contracts traded pork bellies at the chicago mercantile exchange. so, you know, it's one of those things that, it appears to be on its way out. and i noticed that come and i also realized that last year was i think the first year in 70 years there was a summit with a lasting henner trading at the chicago mercantile exchange. it's kind of sad to see things change, but certainly the exchange itself, the volume is healthier than it has ever been. >> is a start of market evolution, right? your family was there during an amazing time, innovation. and now it's almost a new era of innovation. >> yes. >> questions?

>> any questions? >> yes. >> emily, you mentioned you're not from around here, and as someone from a trading family, broke her family, i want to ask you, you do a good job in the book talking about how the exchanges are sort of plan is. there's family secrets and stories and things, but not always want that they want the general public to do. how did you get people to talk to you? how do you get -- how did you get people to open up and maybe you will tell us later? >> over drinks. [inaudible] >> no, i did not. first of all i care what the industry a couple of years before i wrote the book. i think that was really helpful because then people knew who i was and then were able to vouch

for me. because you're right, this industry is incredibly clannish. after the people, essentially making introduction to other people. it was, for example, everybody know someone but it really is all about introductions. the way i found bill was through the schneiders. the way i found a schneiders was by calling people at in your mercantile exchange. it really is -- is a game of telephone were everybody know someone. and then i think this was just a unique time where -- because things are going electronic, because the clubs are no longer actual clubs and they are publicly traded companies, because a period of transition people are able, they are at a point where them more willing to talk than they were before. i think that helped.

>> i also think to emily's credit she has to write -- [inaudible] a lot of times people come in and the one, they want the dirt on somebody. she asked a very well organized questions we didn't mind giving her the answer. it took me a while before i told her the truth. a lot of people try to come in our business, write a book and it's all negative. the same with "the wall street journal" reported he wants to make it because it will be on the front page. so to her credit i think she did a research and her homework. >> and i do want to say that it's easy to find the negatives in this business. and i'm not trying to hide them either. and i think it's part of the history of the place. but i feel like a lot of people focused a lot on the negatives.

and we missed what works about the industry. especially now when we look at what's happened with the derivatives business and things. i think it's important to go back and learn from history also about what works in history. larry schneider, can i ask you a question lacks which is, you started -- when you started it was also in the '60s? >> i started working as a runner in 1967. >> and how little did people know about the industry at that time? >> nobody did anything about the industry, nobody knew anything about the mercantile exchange. as bill said is only 500 members and many of those work new yorkers. the board of trade had maybe 1300 members. and do it on the a handful. it was as large as it is today. so the story that you were leading up to come its 1968 and

then in the elevator at 110 north franklin, and to women coming. one says to the other, isn't there some kind of stock exchange in this building? and the other says yes, but it's a small one. and i want to stop the other as excuse me, ladies, is a futures exchange. it's the world's second largest. but nobody knew this. go up a couple of years, and i'm a senior in college and people do what we do when you get out of school, larry? i say i'm going to be working at the mercantile exchange. they say that's great, can you give me in? i have to buy -- by a sofa. i have to say no, it's not the merchandise mart. they say what's the difference? and imagine trying to explain to your future father-in-law what you're going to do for living and you support his daughter your but fortunately, in 1972 there was some activity in

cattle, and it was a lot of protest, i forgot, that was the your prices were too high or too low, but suddenly all the channels in chicago, the news teams had stock footage of the trading floor at any people would say are you one of those people who just goes down and shouts and we should hand? and you would say yes, and they would walk away. they get a sense of what you do. so i think that plus the currency trading we help change things that i think if you call that channel nine to have a massive collection of stock footage of the trading floors. that really started to change things. but up until the '70s the only schools that taught anything about futures trading with a land grant colleges, university of illinois, iowa. they'll be in agricultural economics department. there was one book on the futures business. if you walk into any bookstore up until really the early

1970s, maybe even the mid '70s there was nothing at all on futures trading, that you have to look very, very hard. so that became part of my mission was to help educate and become a cheerleader or the industry. >> and in the '80s utah classes, write? and when there was a much bigger interests in futures when people thought they could come to chicago and make -- >> definitely. i was on the education committee for the chicago mercantile exchange in the mid '70s. and we notice that it was a huge number of summer employees coming in. and granted, many of them were children and nieces and nephews of members, but people want to know what they were doing and they just did want to go down there, okay, run disorder, and into this phone. so i was part of the committee that created a one class and introduction to features.

it was so well received at the exchange, maybe we should be doing this on a regular basis, and they eventually build a catalog of about two dozen classes that were offered on a quarterly basis, and i kind of took over introduction to futures and a few other courses, options for beginners. we would have so may people taking this course in the summer that we would have to rent out the little auditorium at the opera house. and people were moving to chicago to learn about this business, there was no electronic trading. if you wanted to remain a futures you had to be on the floor. that was due to caching there was no two ways about it. we are now moving into the early 1980s, mid 1980s. i was running the retail futures department for dean witter reynolds but i would have him be a graduates come to me saying i will move to chicago. i will work for minimum wage 30 hours a week as a runner just to

learn the business. their intention was to leave after a few months, and that was fine by me. but they need to get down, they need to make the connections, meet people, understand how it works. and he wound up with suddenly a situation where you are no longer there because you were somebody's son or daughter or niece or nephew. but because you had an advanced degree and you saw the potential for all of us. >> thank you. at the risk of being tumor can become i want to target one other person, nancy. you audibly i know there's some debate, the first woman to walk on the floor of the exchange, writes because i was the first woman who was allowed on the floor of the mercantile exchange. that was in 1962. in fact, the chicago mercantile was the first exchange in the country to allow women members.

and my husband wanted to open his own business, and so he chose me as his partner and bought a membership for me. and, of course, at that time they were really anxious to sell memberships to whoever came along. so they were willing to sell one to a woman. and the first aid -- after i went before the board, and it was approved, my husband said to me, well, now you have to go out on the floor. at that time they didn't even allow women employees. so we took the elevator and they went down. i kept saying to him, women are not allowed. women are not allowed. and when we got to the gate, the guard who used to be there said no, no. nancy can go out on the floor. and he ran for the president, and he said oh, yes, nancy -- of

course, in the meantime budgets let me on the floor. so i was the first woman to go out on the exchange floor during trading hours. and there were some long faces looking at me, all the bugs friends congratulated me. that was the end of that. then i think it was probably a few months, -- and i did go down and answer the phone for a while for him and work at the desk, but i had for very young children at home. and it didn't work out. i think in a few more months maybe, six months after that, they did allow -- someone did start working -- a woman did start working down on the floor. and from that point on it was history. >> and then actually bills cousin was a woman in the pit and perhaps the most successful

female trader spot arguably the most successful woman floor trader in history i would say. she did very, very well. we had a great mind for mathematics, and she could do numbers so well. she traded the spread in the euro dollars contract. which is one of the things when i started this book, people said things like back month spreads i just -- >> right. essentially the eurodollars futures contract are basically you are trading the very short-term interest rates spent i'm going to stop either because people who understand you, understand you began people who don't understand you are not going to get it. so any other questions? if not, i hope you get a chance to mingle and talk to people because there's some really fascinating people here. charlie andrews is the oldest are of the book, the whole end of the book is about charlie.

he came in from kansas which i so appreciate. he's a really interesting guy. board of trade people who may have gotten the shaft in the conversation, i'm sure have interesting things. i really appreciate your coming. it's really sweet. and, charlie. >> hi, guys. great stories. i want to add one about his uncle. when the cattle market really started to boom, all the cowboys want to come to town to see what was going on. there was a fellow by the name of frank booth who ran the biggest truck line, cow, bull hauler in the estate. frank had this much hyped on the and 100 pounds. and he came to buy seeds, but they told him why don't we get you a yellow jacket and let you get the feel of his the for you buy seeds?

and so, here was this giant old man among all these young runners. running around the floor and everybody is whispering, who is the? who is a? who is a? his uncle bill called him over to the pit and he said, sunny, i see you are a little older and a little bigger than most of these writers, so to get you on the same plane i'm just going to buy you a boy scout knife. is dead at the greatest sixth sense of the marketing budget, and he will back me up. they were out on a new yacht in the yacht sank, and they were on his life raft. and on the second day, his dad, david, disclosed to his wife the worst part of this is i'm sure the soybeans are down today.

[laughter] >> great, great humor that happened among all the things. but what we built is a gigantic market of the world. and it's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. and i'm really pushing family to come out with the next book. because whack job counterparty risk. -- because we have to have counterparty risk. they cannot go off to thin air. and we must have the contracts designed or redesigned to fit the marketplace today. but this place will grow like nobody can ever imagine. today, they traded almost 100,000 cattle. big day we ever had was 35. they will take 400 to 500,000 contracts a day.

we couldn't get over 50,000 in the pit, because physically we couldn't handle it. electronics are putting us into the future. but the big thing to remember, there's 408 million people in north america, and maybe maximum 200 million people in south america. outside of our boundaries, there's 6 billion people. you've got two sides of the hemisphere. we are the food producers of the world, and they are the producers of the initial products, and we develop a swap market which is what i learned how to do swaps which is the most viable thing i could've ever learned in my life. and we will propel, we will build jobs around the food industry just like china with their 17 vital trace elements

will build steel and all of these things. but it's got to be a world of swaps, or it's world war iii and we nuked each other out. spoke and i have to say when i started writing this, i would have no idea what you just said. [laughter] >> so hopefully, if you read the book, you go back and say now i know what charlie is talking about. they started very simple markets. they grew into something that sounds much more complex and sounds scary, but charlie knows all this because he knew this when they traded cattle so there really is a progression for what he said starts to make sense. okay, thanks again everyone for coming. we are open for several more hours i hope you'll stay and have some wine and food. emily is graciously agreed to sign some books so we will start that right now. thank you both. that was really fascinating. >> thank you.

[applause] >> for more information and to read your blog, visit her website. >> we are here at the national press club talking with kristie miller about her new book "ellen and edith." can you tell me what inspired you to write about president wilson's wives? >> i've been writing about women in politics for the last 25 years, and these two women were very instrumental in the success of the wilson administration, each in different ways. alan wilson whose childhood sweetheart, kind of got into the white house. she died in office. after his stroke, edith wilson helped him stay in the white house. said they were very powerful women in their own day.

>> tell me what did the two women have most in common person of the wives? >> they had very little in common except their both completely devoted to woodrow wilson and what he needed and wanted. >> was there anything surprising that you found in your research while riding? >> well, he had a girlfriend, too. and theodore roosevelt said who would have thought the man was a wrong the. >> did he have a girlfriend with each wife watches during one? >> just during one. the first one really believed that it could harm him politically. so she acted as though the girlfriend were a family friend. and basically co-opted or. but the second wife didn't have any intention of sharing him with anybody. the relationship really had come to an end before she came on the scene. >> how did either or both influence his politics and his

policies? >> i wouldn't say either of them influence his policies. he was a very deep thinker. he was not only professor at princeton but the princeton -- to present at princeton. he was a very intellectual president. but his first wife really helped him write his speeches. she knew a great deal of poker. she critiqued his speech at the she told him when she thought he wasn't being clear enough. and contribute a great deal to his thinking over all. the second wife would have not had that kind of education, but she worked very, very closely with him all during his presidency. when he suffered a massive stroke 18 months before the end, she knew his mind so well that usually able to carry on even though he was ill. >> thank you very much for your time. >> thank you very much. >> up next michael korda recounts the life of lawrence of arabia, an archaeologist and oxford scholar, t.e. lawrence

departed for cairo as a british intelligence officer in 1916 and a year later service as a key figure in the arab revolt against the ottoman turks. mr. korda discusses his book at the carnegie council of ethics in international affairs in new york city. >> lawrence of arabia has been a fascination for me ever since i was a child. the path to writing about him became for me not a challenge, but an enormous pleasure.

if only he had died in battle. i have lost my son. i encountered brave, the bravest of my tribe. my heart desired that his was too. a man whose hand was never closed but was always open. tell them, tell them in england what i say, of manhood, the man. in freedom, the free. a mind without equal i can see no flaw in him. these are the words of his friend of learning of lawrence's death of a motorcycle accident in 1935. another friend, author of the novel and another 39 steps,

wrote i do not pretend to have understood tv lawrence. there is no brushfire enough to capture his mind. now aerial viewpoint high enough to bring in into one future. i am not much of a hero worshiper, but i could've followed lawrence over the edge of the world. if genius be a stellar and undiminished bold something whose origin creates in his essence cannot be defined, he was the only man of genius i have ever known. these are i'm dashing unusual tributes. for lawrence he was a provoking figure not only in legend but, in fact. born the illegitimate son of a wealthy english aristocrat who abandoned the family, name,

title, land and fortune to run away, lawrence was and remains still one of the most controversial figures in british history. though his father and mother never married, she refused to give her husband a divorce. t.e. lawrence was the second. a brilliant scholar, his first at oxford is so remarkable, they were given a black tie dinner to celebrate his achievement he was a gifted young archaeologist whose four years in city help uncover the lost city, and upon his adventures the character of indiana jones was partly based. he was a daring young explorer who search in 19 by which moses led his people across egypt for mapping the area across which

the turks -- he was a gifted intelligent man who's report even when he was barely a temporary in cairo in 1915 and 1916 were eagerly read at the very highest political military levels in london. lawrence went on to become, at the age of 28, a military genius, inventor of a new form of guerrilla warfare who would influence mao zedong, ho chi minh, castro and the modern islamic insurgents, a legendary warrior and hero and has grown into diplomat and statesman, a creator of nations, two of which still survive as was the author for the most tamest books ever written about war in the english language, seven pillars of wisdom. and, of course, the world's first and most long lived media

celebrity, born called a natural gift would you be the envy of any movie star for lawrence's name is still as same as today as it was 75 years ago. the very last of those supporting it are dead now. the wounds of that great comfort has not so much thin-heeled ascot over by other and more recent catastrophes. out of the many millions who fought in that war, how many of the countless heroes are still recognizable by name to the average person? indeed, to anybody. in the english-speaking world only one. for even those who know nothing at all about what was called until 1939 the great war, are still likely to recognize the

name of at least one of its heroes, lawrence of arabia. of course to many people, lawrence of arabia is peter o'toole. [laughter] it is surely no accident that lawrence is to hear of one of the most successful films ever made. david lee's 1962 masterpiece which was now made for no less than 10 academy awards and won seven including best picture and best director. but we must bear in mind that it is a drama, not a docudrama. even the most successful film does not complain the most complexity of the real person. it is not just. >> a man of extraordinary talent, even genius with a gift for friendship far beyond the

ordinary. and far from stumbling accidentally into the greatest pictures that turned them into lawrence of arabia he said that even as a schoolboy with the ambition of becoming a general and being knighted before he was 30. ambitions that were well within his grasp by th the age of 30 tt he still wanted to. it would not have surprised me at the library congress lists over 100 books on the subject of t.e. lawrence. no less than 56 of them biographies. there are also four children's books about him, to place, -- to place. not one but two films at a scholarly journal and he humored the website. for a man who died at the age of 46 and his military achievements however extraordinary would squeeze into two years, that's a lot of words. lowered his fame exceeded that of any other mortal during his lifetime, in part because of the

1921 film with lawrence of arabia which was seen by many millions of people in the united states, the united kingdom and the british commonwealth. it was the world's first full-length documentary film. the first film to the action, the first film ever to film madison square garden in new york city night after night, and the first film ever played of the world opera house at a personal request of king george v. it was at the dawn of the ages cinema the first multimedia international showcase of sensation in which music film and still photographs were woven together with a master hand around a single wheel heroic figure, or as thomas called lords, the uncrowned king of arabia, the prince of mecca, and of the united states, the george washington of arabia.

the man who led the arab tribes to victory in the desert, and the revolt against the turks and brought them out of the desert to capture damascus and shatter the ottoman empire. lowered his face was as famous and is recognizable as princess diana's was in hers. and a liker, he struggled on the one hand to escape from the same, i'm on the other hand, quoted it. like her, he lived in the limelight. like her his every move was news. like her he was surrounded by photographers, to the equivalent of what are called apparati. like her he sat from a photographs, painters, sculptors and anyone else in his generation. like her he met a tragic early death in a road accident, and

like her front-page news all over the world with the doctors trying desperately to get into the mortuary to take a picture of his corpse. and like her, he was born million. but who was lawrence and what exactly did he do? we live in an age where the word hero has become overused. we have become used to think of heroism as something that simply happens to people. indeed, the word has been cheapened by calling ever exposed to any type of danger whether voluntarily or not a hero. soldiers, indeed anyone in uniform, are now commonly referred to as our heroes because if it was a universal quality shared by everyone. lawrence, however, was a hero in a much older classical use of the word. it was surely no accident that his last report, and like the

heroes of old be trained for the role. without the war he might never have accomplished that ambition but once working he was prepared for it both morally and physically. he schooled himself to enormous human capacity to endure pain and to do without food and water. he walked barefoot in the desert. he carefully honed his courage and studied the art of war, like the young napoleon bonaparte. he seized it easily with both hands in 1917, and like ajax, arcalis and ulysses he could never let go of it. for no matter how hard lawrence tried to escape from his own fame, they stuck to him. to the very end and beyond. he remains as famous today as ever.

his name will live in history. king george v wrote on lawrence's death in 1935. and so it has. i have chosen to begin my biography of lawrence with the acts that made him famous overnight, but taking of active on. by 1916, the first world war had become a deadly trap for all the nations involved. on the western front the war had long since ground down to a bloody scale in the trenches taking life by the millions with no gain a grand attempt to break through were constant catastrophe. the british attack at the first battle, they can't relieve the pressure on the french army would cost them nearly 600,000 casualties, 60,000 on the first day. the bloody state in the history

of the british army. -- the bloodiest day in history of the british army. there were those who believe that must be a better day of winning the war. perhaps attacking germany's weakest allies, turkey, might a better dividends. and lawrence was one of them. however, i british attack on the ottoman empire intended to open a year-round water supply, in the streets ended in a disaster which cost the british, the australians and the australians and new zealanders over 49,000 dead, nearly 200,000 were sickened, including the poet, robert brooks. by another british army advanced to take baghdad was surrounded entities halfway there by the