so what happened? what changed? a lot changed. but before i even address that the book is interesting because you're right i did write a book about range, and the fundamental point that one person after another made in that book and conducted well over 100 introduce for the african-americans and the rentials play that went after when you summed it up, i don't care what credentials have, howw hard work or what networks, attracted into, it's just not e possible for me to get past the glass ceiling, not possible for me to get to the top jobs, not,n possible for me to be the ceo of corporations of the president of this country. so what has changed? [laughter] change. of things to not too long after rates came out with swiss 93, not too longe

after, we saw some changes in corporate america. we saw a small but interesting group of folks begin to rise. use our richard parsons becomere head of time warner. you saw american express.d you saw a change in this calculus. of course, with the recenth presidential election he sawida something many people of manyf colors of would just nevergh happened, at least not in ournou lifetimes, and that was the was election of a president who identifies as an african-american. the other thing that happened, and this is something that iiss found just very interesting is that in the years since that book is come out a new generation has come on the scene. and so a lot of the voices that are represented in rage arere

different than the voices that are represented in "the end ofoe anger."thodol let me just say a couple of words about that.t even though i did over a hundred interviews for rage, i did even1 more for this book.r in addition to interviews i conducted a couple of surveys.id and did a survey of the blacksre alumni of harvard business school. a fairly lengthy survey, 74q questions. also a survey of graduates for a pr program called a better chance, which is a program that sends people for the most part frompa poor and urban areas to some ofa sce best secondary schools and prep schools in the country. t we did too big surveys of these folks. what i found fascinating as if began to look through theegan results of the service, the t difference in how people were how pe responding to questions aboutop opportunity and access as anitya

function of age or asra generations. would go into this a little bit later, but a short story is s those people who were under 40 and you have a system that i have organized where i call these people generations, the people under 40 responded quitei differently to those who were over 40 in terms of how muchm discrimination date received in the workplace and how much ofp today's date of were available for them personally. just in terms of how difficult it was to make it in americanci, society. and so once i saw this interesting generational break out in the data we went back w ahead of a small group ofarchers researchers and conducted overdu 130 follow-up interviews just in the people in the survey in addition to over 100 interviewst conducted generally from the book.t so it was somewhat different

methodology. but change, the country changed in some ways.ry but also we look at different generations. >> part of it is generational, and part of it, you say, is thet obama election, kind of the he capstone to the corporate gainsh that were made. >> one of the things that i had as a backdrop as i began there search for this book or a series of studies by few charitable trusts, a gallup, the washington post, harris indicating that there was a measurable increase in terms of optimism onric-ame african-americans. the most recent large poll wastn done this year. that was a washingtongton post-harvard poland continues ts show that african-americans ares significantly more optimistic, n than there were ten years ago. but more optimistic than whites when it comes to looking at how

people see the economy, help people in gauge prospects for the future and certainly have at seat prospects for themselves. >> recently and national journal poll said that two-thirds ofpo inrican-americans in the u.s. said that barack obama's policies would significantly help their advancement, the member for whites was 21%. hispanics fell somewhere in thee middle, but there was quite a gap. >> and those numbers were knocked down in terms ofcaamer african-americans saying that obama's selection creates more forrtunities african-americans. it has gone down a bit. and certainly in my own surveysi it's not as high as 70%.as 7 it's closer to about 30%,un 40 percent you're saying that i is going to help them, but i also think that the obama election is not just of -- is not just one phenomenon that

accounts for all of this. i think that takes place against a backdrop of many things. it is certainly a huge event, and one that for at least many people of color and others as well, indicates that things may be powerful in this country that a lot of people thought were impossible even a few years ago. it is an event which -- i call it the final revelation, a series of things that happen which cause a lot of people to sit back and say, wait a minute. let me rethink some fundamental assumptions i have always made about where this country is and what is possible. >> so what if he loses in 2012? >> well, i think -- >> the gain you saw from his election in 2008, will there be a resumption of anger? >> well, first of all, i am very careful that there are still a lot of angry people out there.

that hasn't changed. there are a lot of angry people. actually, some of the most angry people are the tea party types and would not. it's not just black people who are angry. so anger is not going to go away. i also think that the fact that this presidency, even if he loses in 2012, won't go away. and their reassessment that has begun to take place, at least in some mines will stop weather not he wins. there will be a lot of disappointed people of all colors effuses. but i don't think it's going to change the fundamental way the people of beginning to look at what is possible in the political arena. >> is there a real divide ina african american thoughts,o intellectual media thought?? ask this based on what cornell e recently said, he ripped obama saying that obama is a black mascot of wall street oligarchsw

and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. now he has become head of the american killing machine and iso proud of it.li >> cornell is obviously rathers upset. >> cornell is obviously a little bit upset at any number ofleit things having to do with obama. i know cornell. i haven't spoken to him aboutne his particular comments in thiss case. he is consistently a critic of obama along certain lines. and also physiologically thegicy airing quite different places, cornell and bra,. >> is this more than attention grabbing? >> well, i think it has alwaysws been a mistake to assume thatt any group is a monolith. it is always a mistake that some people will think the same way.a we never have -- no other group

i am aware of ever has. there have been differences.ve n at think what has changed to some extent is the willingness to hear these differencesand publicly. and that think that clearly cornell made the decision thatit he was quite ready and quite eager to go public with anyn eae number ofr complaints aboutumbef barack obama, and i actually think -- i saw his complaintsomw having to do with thee inauguration tickets and things like that. like , but i think that is healthy that he feels free and other people are increasingly feeling free to criticize this president. e no president should be above criticism, even from my group that he happens to belong to. t. if you go back some time ago too a class thomas nominations,rence there was a consternation among much of the black at that pointa when he was nominated about

whether the criticizes care not all weather people ought to just a quiet.ay and the hopes that he would be w something that he had not demonstrated. pat and think that is healthy.rr whether i agree with all of the cornells criticism is beside thy point. nbe >> i talked the number of people in chicago from the right to complain and say that barack obama can go to egypt and give e speech or give a speech in theh u.s. on the middle east. i the world talks about the middlt east for the next week. why has a barack obama come to the west side of chicago or gons to detroit and talk about urbanb america?am has amassed an opperorunity, do you think, to put those issues,o which, i think it's fair to say,

george bush ignored, back on a r higher plane? >> barack has a set of issues that a white president doesn'tf have. i can't look into his mind.ook i don't know what he's going to do with his second term, if, in fact, he gets one. when barack tried to our make a point, which he obviously sought teachable moment after skipme gates get arrested in this house when he stepped outside, by the police in cambridge, i think he said, okay, this is clearly a case of a cop overreacting, doing something that he should not haveacng done, whenever the professor said to have. he was not creating a publica pl disturbance. he was not a danger to anybody. he certainly did not need to be in handcuffs. let me say, you know, that me a use this moment to make some statements about police behavior when it comes to africant

american communities and let me take this occasion to say that the police did something stupidi whether it was a fire storm of reaction, and it broke down very much along racial lines. he was -- the vast majoritya responded with dismay and anger and essentially said that they president should not be getting involved in this kind of stuff. one of the issues that this president has that clinton did not. have is the issue of beingi accused, showing favoritism to the racial minorities. he didn't have that issue.. if you look at the tea party there was a poll done about a year-and-a-half or so ago by the new york times breaking down the tea party response.e st the -- the vast majority of of people were also agreeing that obama had given way to myh attention to african americans.

so it would be politically naive not to think that he doesn'toth have this going on in his head. should he make some strong hmak statements and should he haves strong policies as regards tods the urban poverty? of course. e he does doesn't talk them up aso much.thr clearly, clearly that is a major issue. he ought to be dealing with itda as vigorously as he does anywi other issue. issue. >> you brought up the tea partyy would you say in the book aboutn the tea party in conservatism is going to cause some controversyr i want to read a couple ofovparp paragraphs. what it all adds up to is ann america that is psychologically and politically divided in the most bizarre way. one america is celebrating theeb rise of a black president anda c the beginning of the end of racism while the other drowns in paranoia and racial fears. in one america anger is mellowing, even as in the othern it explodes.t in one america the future seemsd brighter than ever, while in thn

other it is coping gloom. the biggest locust of angerof ag seems not to be in the nation's black and brown communities, bui inon the white heartland where numerous people are struggling e to make sense of what seems to be a world turned upside down, a world they see as increasingly alien, one from which their growing ever more estranged. >> yes. you know, there are lots of bases for those of some patients. one being the polls of the teape party themselves.thlves but i went out and spoke to an p number of key party people. an attempt to get at what is really bugging these guys. and i found many of them essentially incoherent. it was like, who do you want tou take have back from? the people in washington.

were you angry about? well, i had a store and people tooke into my store. no america is not good for thes common man. there was a lot of endurance. and part of what i draw from that is that these people have this outside anger at things a they are not -- either cannot ec voice or aren't comfortable voicing. we are looking at a country that demographically is changing.s we are looking at a countrya which you have obviously talking for a last 20 minutes for you have a person of color in thef c top job. o people, at least some people, most tea party people, it seemss again from the poll, question whether he was born in theas united states. why? well, i think they prefer to sef america represented by a

different kind of person thatdif they are more congenial with. they don't like this idea -- again, this is my take, but a'a tape that is informed by data.f they don't like this idea that these folks who don't represent america back in the 1950's, the5 way america looked back in the 1950's are taking over as they see it.kng and so i think it is an attribution -- one, a is anaggeo exaggeration of how much isbeta being taken over by home, but it is this anger at this other dynamic, which also happens to encompass, you know, people coming over from the southern border.is this america is not the america that i know and love which

apparently is the america of the 1950's. >> what is going to ease that ht anchor? if he brings it up and 2008 during the primaries and the talks about w the bitter people clinging to their guns andlind religion. enormous blow back. he may have lost taxes. >> i don't think the issue is religion here. in large measure i don't thinken the issue is guns. i think the issue is that there are just a hard core set of people who question everything about, you know, this presidencn in the direction of thise country. i'm not sure that is going to g away anytime soon. i guess the spin on that is thas these folks are stuck in thath old paradigm intend to be rather old. so at some point they're goings to give way to some other

people. >> talk about growing up on the west side. you write in the book about the impact that riding on the west o side when you were a youngwest i person had on you. >> staff. i mean, i am a chicagoan. happy to be back. i am a product of a particular part of chicago. the ho from the west side. and so, for me, a fundamental part of my childhood was growing up in a neighborhood that was literally set aflame, first in 1966 as a result of a d disturbance aggravated by the police and then in 1968 as a68 r result, of course, of the scinion -- assassination of dr. martin that the king. i remember quite clearly as ay young person walking alongy madison street, which was theg main commercial corridor in the

neighborhood at that timer anthe charlie after the riots and still being able to feel thetheh heat from the flames of the fires that had consumed severalt stores. there was one day during the 66 riots where we literally had tow hit the floor because bullets were flying. we were fearful that something would happen. so that not only shaped my view of what was happening in america at that time and, of course, as a preteen and teenager. it shapes your view of yourth community, but it also shapes your view of the press in some m ways. and it is hard to think back that far. each year it gets harder. i basically became a writer. h the short story, i remember

reading the newspapers at thepat time. i was a kid. did read the newspapers.reer rei at the timereadingng the newspapers of the time and thinking that the neighborhoodbs was being reported about in the newspaper was a neighborhood full of thugs and criminals and crazy people. it was not really the neighborhood that i knew. and thinking that there was -- i perceive in my ignorance and is arrogance, and need for another voice that could inform the discussion. and i went said -- went the high-school. at the time when i enrolled andt started high-school and until the time i graduated i thought s that i would go into some kindo of scientific field. i had originally thought -- my favorite subject was math. ms i thought it might be somethinge related to math committee of the sistere something. that, the thing that made me change

course was actually somethingoue that happened during my seniorrg year. my senior year in high school i had a teacher.ea i had always had these fights h with my english teachers because i thought english was boring. i felt a large part of it, atit least that was taught at theat c time was answering questions i a knew the answers to and i considered a waste my time. so i had this big battle aboutte what i was going to do.enish i remember saying to her in thed midst of this rather heatedmids discussion, i don't see any point in these assignments.ese i they are wasted my time. i don't see why out to do thisis stuff.she she said to me, well, okay. you are obviously a bright kid.h what you decide to do is fine.o what are we going to do? and i said, well, it seems to me

that the point of this class is to promote one, be able to make sure that i have an to understanding of the english language and that i have englis research skills and can make ahd coherent argument.so w why don't you kiss me on that. she says with the mean? and i said well, had me readsa n something. she said what you going to write? i said to lie history of riots in america. a if okay. and i went off. o several weeks later i came backm i don't remember exactly how log back -- how long it was. and it should take it home, comes back the next monday and says, okay. okay i give you an a for the course.e she says, but, i'm not really capable of evaluating this material. send this to a professional.r

i'm a kid from the projects. a professional what? who? tnc says, well, send it to quinlan brooks.of fo send it to her. she teaches at such and sucha college. i sent it to her. she said, look, young man, i don't know what you intend to d with your life, but you ought ti be a writer. that made something of an impression on me.essi on and so from their that ended upt totally redefining myself. i went on to become a columnistu for the chicago sun-times at the age of 19. my past was sort of said.e w >> we both know clarence very well. he tells a wonderful story aboue hiw he got hired on the chicago to be in. i 1969, the west side, gone up in

flames. looked around the newsroom toi find that to the consent to actually knew the co west side,w there was nobody. parents get hired. did you have a similar kind of experience in getting into theto business? >> not exactly. but i got in on some of that same energy. i mean the beginning, the 1965,i you are talking about a time when for reasons repro will need not go into, major metropolitan newspapers, hire anybody black. and so most of them didn't have anybody black on staff. and the l.a. times will notice this when watts exploded. they're looking around the newsroom. can we send someone out there who has some sense and will be in danger and the only person i could think to send out, okay, you're now a journalist.

and what he wrote waswo representative of what you would expect from somebody who had nob idea what journalism was.. and there were a lot of stories like that. the boston post and 68.woulve a one major newspaper. th a few of them had one or twoort people, but most of them had nobody. and so after that there was this sense, well, my god.wa this huge story in this huge community. our reporters, i understand is,r weren't comfortable.t there. we need to hire somebody.sm i was hired a little bitle bit differently. i was too young to go out and start covering that stuff as a full-fledged reporter. but what i did get hired as -- s as, first job when i was 18 with the chicago sun-times was as ae columnist for something called the point for schools. ir think on a similar reason thy

realized they didn't have voices that were covered.at all on and after doing that for however many months i got called into the editor's office, a guy named jim hoge.ffi jim said to me, alice, i have been reading your column. what do you think startinghools monday if i give you a columni and a real newspaper? i looked at him. again, fully confident 19 year-old. well, that's what i wanted to do all the time. sure.m and that's how it happened.pened i wasn't hired as a directas result,d birut certainly there , i think, an awareness at that time in that era that newspapers were at a disadvantage aboute having virtually no people of color on staff. >> we watch this business is shaken to the core. a the basic underpinnings of

journalism. now, if you were running in the coming of the west side of chicago now would you advise hiw to go into journalism? >> running into me coming out of the west side now i would firstt of all say they're rid of entry is different.ree first of all, i don't knowof a anybody who got hired quite the way i did anyway. that was kind of unusual. tribut a tribute to what i like to consider the manager who sawjim this young kid who was sort of eager and in some ways is ignorant. hey, we see something here.d let's do something with that. the field itself is contracting radically. the chicago and serbian had bigd andoffs. virtually everything that i know of has. the future is very uncertain.

so if i were revising -- and also the road to journalism is a little bit different. more and more it has become the path of entry, getting a graduate degree at northwesternr or going to columbia and getting a degree from there. so you find more and more people, at least as large larges institutions with those kinds of credentials. what i would say, it can be aol hell of a fields, but there is so much uncertainty that you have to be prepared to embracepd the uncertainty if you're going to embrace his career. >> if you have a question, byer the way, i invite you to come ue to the microphone. i would be glad to take your questions. let me askq you one other question. is been a struggle to diversifyo newsrooms. i think now we have seen as thi news firms have shrunk whetherns an jnalists an african-american

journalist seven going intoto alternative fields.at you better off these daysese d looking for a dot com job than a newspaper or newsweek? >> newspaper or newsweek. very different jobs. will we are seeing in journalisl is a contraction of mainstream journalism. we are seeing very differentnum tiers developing.dient years de there are a lot of dot com jobs out there.ce they tend to pay and have for a third of what the traditional jobs pay. so these are jobs that are goin to appeal to people who, for the most part, are quite young and you're willing to work for very little money in the hopes that they will leverage this into something better in the future.e i think it is a hard call for a lot of hearing people going into this field in particular right now because it is a field in such flux because journalism was never a profession that you went pr into to beof rich unless you hae

hopes of being a network anchor something.o but it was appealed that not too long ago, particularly with thec rarger publications, you couldge depend on a good career and the salary. that is no longer the case. so i think free and people looking at a profession they need to acknowledge this with, o open eyes and say, okay, despite that this is something that ispi still think is worth trying toio do. que >> questions? >> well, maybe we should set thanks for this. which the microphone stand. i did not prepare to come here to know what you're talkingt yo about. that did not read your books, and i assumed it was about the black experience.expece. i saw a psychiatrist some time ago in the 70's.d wil al never forgot what he said early on.e sa ear hely said, with regard to my my having a history of mentalems problems he said at least turnor

up black. compare that to barbara drolen.t she didn't tell me she was terminally ill. she died at the age of 37 andst 36. he is still living in this 90. i can recommend some books. i hope the words i used before e don't overrule my questioning. i recommend a book called sex, murder, and the meaning of life. >> i'm not sure this is a forumf for you to recommend books.-- you have a question?re >> well, -- >> if people want to hear your book recommendation the confined year after the session. >> the question i have is aboutq language. i use merriam-webster. if we don't use the samei meanings for the words we use we will be in trouble.e are go it's like speaking other languages. don't believe in using wordsuage that make us more distant thani we have to be. have think we should go back to negrg and caucasian.nean it wouldn't be bad -- >> sir, question. >> it wouldn't be bad for peoplr

to be more scientificallysce literate. black-and-white is like -- >> question. >> should we -- okay. do you think it would be better to talk about us in a way thatu makes us closer instead oftad selling black-and-white or for that matter the opposite sexes that makes us more differents than similar? sila >> sure. okay. fine. do i think it will be better for us to talk about ourselves inabr ways that make us cseloser? of course i do. now the question is what thatoti is, and i don't think it is ask simple as substituting negro foe black or caucasian for white. negro is obviously just ao is mispronunciation of negroessproi which is spanish for black. so i'm not at all sure that is the route to do that.is wa sure. in principle, absolutely.tely >> yes sir. [inaudible] >> obama is good for white people, especially zionists to put him in power for israel.n

the obama, and obama, white unemployment goes down while black unemployment goes up. illinois has been noted to have 400 some downtowns, towns in which obama cannot be a step ina jail -- >> again, sir, is there a question? >> considering how racism is embedded in the criminal justicl system, would you say blacks are diluted to say things are getting better when more thanheo half of the people in prisons are black? >> actually, i think that is ab. good question. actually, i think that is a good question. the bureau of labor statistics just last month released las

statistics which show that blach employment is hire, blackr, bck employment -- rather, is lower, then it has been since such statistics have been capped. we're seeing a situation where in the economic sense african americans have been particularly hard hit by this current his downturn in their session. we are also as the questionioneh indicates, over the last 3540 years, we are seeing a huge uptick in the number of african-americans who have been incarcerated and two are having to deal with the criminal-justice system setsjuse that if current trends continue roughly one-third of african-american males will end up incarcerated at some points. i agree, those are national tragedies. the studies that i cite to not

give any kind of objectivek assessment of whether things are getting better not. they're talking about people's attitudes and take on what the future, which by definition is unknown. to, what they perceive as theirt options which for many people in more broad. i think that we as a society evolves from longtime come live crickets somehow get a handle on the issue of racial inequalityli we will solve the issue of anoli equali and equality. i think ityn some respects, notn all, but in some respects we ar, beginning to get a handle one on that issue.e in refining is that the issue of inequality is much moree complicated than people thought it was.cm dealing with the decline ofcli virulent racism, which is immeasurably declining, it's nor

the same as creating an equal opportunity society. equal >> you suggest in the book -- the breakout generational change and suggest that african-americans are still morc likely to have been preyed on by shady lenders.nta the mortgage crisis.ris asking about that.ased and when you talk about the growing economic divide among african americans from the people who have succeeded a feeling much better aboutoucism racism. this year haven't succeeded economically feeling a lott? different. >> you're touching on something that i alluded to before. in answer to that direct s question, certainly those whoquc are doing economically betterre felt a lot better about their options in life as measured by my various surveys. but even people who are doing

not so well at all if you ask ah question, are african-americans better off now than there were 15 years ago, the vast majoritye of people say, you know, yes,can they are. say y so i think on one hand -- in the as the question, do you thinkdo your children will have a bette life than you do?do? you find poor people less likely as well as new people to say,aye yes, i think there will. so i think on one hand you dondu have a sense that the options and opportunities are not nearly as bleak clearly yet people who make the assessment based on where there were or are.roup people who recently out ofo

prison or have been diverted into programs to avoid going into prison.t their options in life, most of them the list to say are honest -- unemployed. acknoge they that knowledge a hard time because of the prison record policies that other face are not explicitly racist in any particular way can in thatc end disproportionately harm in particular communities. i think we have a textbooka example in the case of hownt various neighborhoods are targeted and of various groups to target.ed

>> of like testier but the education. , a co-founder of that charter school now work, many of them,ti including your sister-in-law had done very well. a very controversial issue still in the city.e it comes down to an economic divide. >> i don't think there's anyorti question. and i think there's any question that a charter school is well-designed.h

charter schools of orhha well-designed with and dedication can do wonders get them oriented toward college. at for sorting them to believe they can go to college.red get them prepared for a live that they otherwise wouldn'tey u have.his half the charter schools, it's always going to be those with the percentage. and so the issue i see is noth that one ought to get rid of these charter schools, but wea really need to wrestle with asws serious way of how we can makekc public schools better.

>> not to farley to get to what is going on in wisconsin. his sense of whether we have a u growing divide between the government class and the rest of america. >> sure we do. guarantying pensions and things like that, taxpayers have to pan for. says the last five, every census has found a greater divide this lane that top fifth quintile.lo we are clearly becoming abecog

society where those who have wealth eye during progressively better and those who haveprog blessed them immersed.ly there is something screwed up about that picture that goes beyond issues of race. we need to figure how to getiht that right. >> we're out of time. thank you very much. [applause] [applause] >> a former columnist and editor for newsweek magazine including killing affirmative-action, colorblind, and the rate of a privileged class will be our guest. visit his website.

>> the city concerning the performing arts center perry that tried to be a big supporter. i'd never met him. a guy named terry l. he of the oceans state theater at the time which was a low state. they said he wants to tear the place down. i said, terrible. he said the you know wind? no. well, could you call him and make an appointment and convince and not to tear it down? why you think i can. well, you're italian. no, that's real sensitive. i did call. made an appointment. his house up in lincoln. never forget that big car. when i got out, and german shepherds came plunging.

why don't you go ring the doorbell. so he finally came out. he put the dogs down. healing. i went in the house. he invited the dogs in the house. started talking. we went out to dinner. i gave him the list below equate. i tore that one down. well, you mean business. i convinced him to come to my office on monday. his lawyer has since passed away. i said, we can't put him in the same room with bill miller and all these people because they hated each other. so he said in, okay. he went over initiated the deal still, we didn't know we are

going to do much of that time. finally agreed. i was entertaining him. finally they all said yes. and then he said to me after we agreed on the price in the deal was going to be done, what about my other 40,000? broken english. i said what $40,000? teeseven, they promised me a thousand dollars a day to negotiate. it's been 40 days. epic of the phone. i never heard miller swear in my life. the deal is off. so i said, that is why i can't trust him. forget the deal. so what if i can give you something? how to give you $20,000. how can you do that? i make you this city consultants. i'm going to hire a racetrack owner to be a city consultant on the yachts. he says you can do that.

yes. make it 25. okay. twenty-five. that's one of the reasons we get the performing arts theater today. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> mr. gregory peerbolte, your book is entitled "randhurst." what inspired you to write this? >> well, when i began working it was probably one of the top picks that i got the most interesting and, the most questions about and even still today i can just kind of tell what it meant to people, how important it was to people. the timing of still worked out. it's pretty close to being done today. the interest was at a fever pitch. >> can you describe a shopping center as well as its importance to chicago and its suburbs

beginning in their early 1860's? >> steadily a big first. a lot of very unique features. is the detail and imposing architecture. really kind of a recognition of the fact that this area was a boom town, growing rapidly in one of the more important areas of chicago. the case to make in the book is that it represented a lot of firsts and what we know as malls today. meant to be the case study to talk about all of shopping centers and malls and how they developed. the best analogy i used is teeseven was the floodgate.

>> often referred to as the father of a shopping mall. what features or design elements are considered unique to "randhurst" at the time of its destruction? well, an amazing story. a wonderful biography about him were i obtained most of my affirmation called lawmaker. he was a refugee who came from vienna in 1939 to america. it was said that one of the things that influenced the most was central park and broadway. the juxtaposition about things that one was used by the public free of charge and broadway was used by the public definitely as kind of a capitalism and kind of mission if you will. he married these two elements in the shopping center design. broglie his greatest achievement, greatest realization. very unique feature of it was a strain the design. according to the company promotions it was supposed to

minimize the walking distance between the stores. it was the first time that there are more than two stores in the center. also, just the amount of sculpture, artwork, the aesthetic pieces. he literally invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the public art. it was definitely supposed to be a public space in addition to the buying and selling better be going on. >> what made .. a local destination and attraction in chicago during the 1960's and 70's? you mentioned public art, the size and scope. anything in particular the really drew visitors to? >> well, i would say building on those things, just the sheer size of it, that 200-ton don't, just the kind of things were now if you visited it would not appear to be a very impressive place, but in 1962 it was literally making headlines all over the

country. again, the public art was a big draw as well as the sheer size. >> the political imbalance in jakarta support or promote the development of this shopping mall? >> i didn't really find much about the political establishment in chicago. i would say that it happened. if it happened at all there would have had to someone to give it their blessing. i can tell you that the political establishment was very supportive of it. they still are. i mean, it is by far the biggest taxpayer. it really allowed mount prospect at the kent -- -- at the time to ride ahead of all of the other competing suburbs in this area to really provide a lot of services to people, to lower the property tax which was a big point for anyone looking to move to the suburbs. you had your choice in the suburbs.

mount prospect was able to stand out because of the planners. >> what impact if any did he would fill mall have on the randhurst shopping center as well as surrounding communities beginning in 1971 and for the remainder of the 1970's and into the 1980's as well? >> well, it serves as the foil or as far as the villain in the book. was built about 5 miles away from randhurst. springing up everywhere in the 70's and 80's. and this was the big tax bear other committees of this and were for lack of a better term very jealous huge, smaller strip

developments. essentially just a move to get the tax revenue and the citizens shopping in their own committees. >> increased competition in surrounding communities to reinvent itself. larger shopping centers are newer shopping centers in the chicago area. >> is started changing. retail has been and always will be a business that thrives on change. required for change to be successful. trying to keep itself fresh, keep itself relevant, attracting customers.

big redevelopments before the one going on today that first occurred around 77, 78 to commemorate the center's 15th anniversary in which he saw kind of an institutional remodeled, a lot of white tiles, white ceiling tiles, kind of what we would now consider of slander model. and then around 1984 when the profs corporation took over the center did some major changes. a lot of language in the book that, they talk about critiquing this original design and going on about how ugly and outdated and terrible this. so i think that represents just retail and the changes that need to be made and what is in fashion now will not be in fashion tomorrow, but may come in fact, be in fashion again tenor 20 years from now. >> thank you very much for your time. >> my pleasure.

>> "what are you reading this summer?" >> well, what i have read recently is a wonderful book that i wrote. it is called "the speech." i reread it. you know what, it is a good book and it deals with the filibustering days in december talking about the very, very bad agreement reached by the president and republicans on extending bush tax breaks for the very wealthy and also goes into some detail as to why the middle class in this country is collapsing and also talks about the growing inequality of america and what this means for the future of our country. so self advertising, but i did read it. it was a good book. another book that i have read recently which i like very much, that is called a third world america by ari and huffington. a very readable book. she is a good writer. she touches on, you know, the trends that we have seen for a number of years in terms of our

physical infrastructure in terms of education, in terms of health care. frankly, if we do not reverse, and this is a point, we're going to end up looking like a third world country. and what that is about is, a friend of mine came back last year from china. he was in an airport, flew into the united states. of he was waiting for a plane back to vermont he was sitting on the floor, crowded, the plane was delayed. he was wondering which was the third world country, the united states and china. so a lot of ominous trends in this country moving is in the wrong direction in terms of physical infrastructure. more and more people without health insurance, growing gap between the rich and everybody. big money interests in wall street. and i think the point is we have to get our act together and reverse those trends so that we become a great nation that we know that we can and should be.

another issue, another book that i am reading right now is a book about the life of somebody i have known for a number of years. a good friend, but i've known him for many years. that is willing nelson. the book is called willie nelson, an epic clash. that is by joe nick. it is not the most readable book in the world. i think what judge does is give us the name of everybody in the world who had anything to do with bill nelson, but given the fact that willie nelson is one of the more -- is clearly one of the great entertainers of our time and he is really an icon and a unique type of individual because of who he is and his entertainment qualities, in vermont where cinnamon number of times he brings a huge range of

people. most singers will appeal to this group of people or that group of people. willie brings them all together, and that has a lot to do with his personality, decency as a human being, his gentleness, a very gentle man, decency as just a very, very strong supporter of rural america and family farmers. so people learn about the life of a guy he was born in arkansas, his family migrated to texas. you know, he worked in the canfield's. he, you know, grew up very, very poor. he has a unique time, i think, to working americans today. so willie is, you know, i'm a big fan of his. this is a good book which talks about his life. last book which is, you know, pretty interesting actually. the topic might be considered to be boring.

a book called the financial crisis. that was put together by the commission, the congress established to look at the causes of the financial crisis, what went on in wall street and how they ended up bringing us to the place where we are right now which is the worst recession this country has experienced since the great depression. that is, it is tough reading because what you're seeing is, you know, the incredible recklessness from these people on wall street. you know, producing a worthless financial instruments and selling them and leaving a store where we are now talking about the power of wall street and their business models. so i think that if anyone must understand what is going on in america today he have to understand wall street, you have to understand the incredible power that they have

economically and politically. this book actually does a pretty good job. so that's some of what i have read and am reading. >> tell us what you are reading this summer. send us the tweet at book tv. >> and now on book tv, deborah baker talks about the life of margaret marcus, a secular jewish woman from new york who, in 1962, moved to pakistan and converted converted to islam. >> welcome to the 27 annual chicago tribune printer's row late fest, a special thank youal to our sponsors. row before we begin today's programr please turn off your cell phone and all other electric devices. and photographs are not permitted. today's program will be recorded for future broadcast and c-span. is book tv.m wile if there is time at the end for a q&a session with the author we