>> you've written about president mckinley and you have written out about the president taft and mrs. taft. and just a new book that is coming out that is not i get from oxford, theodore roosevelt. what is it about this era that attracts you? >> well, people use a lot of type and which i must say for handwriting property is very nice. i started studying at yale with a distinction story who just died last week, one of the great historians of the 20th century. they awakened in me, and i just find it the emergence of the modern united states, a party system, the issues they face that are so relevant today. it's a wonderful period with wonderful, funny stories, larger-than-life characters. so i dived in and have never

come out and don't intend to come out. >> professor gould, are you a follower -- a fan of tr's? >> very much so. i think with a certain loving perspective i would like to have, i think sometimes people go overboard with different aspects of his life. so i tried in this little book, it's very short, a hundred passionate under 100 pages. the point is to give you the gist of the president in an action rather than have to spend the entire summer at the beach reading a story, three volumes or 800 pages or something like that. >> in your theodore roosevelt book, he seems to enjoy and promote publicity about himself. >> one of the things about roosevelt, if anybody had charisma, roosevelt had. route also said rosa was only evident that when he walked into the room, he came the center of attention no matter who else was

there. that quality, that star quality that brazil had impressed me from the beginning. and i begin to see him as the first presidential celebrity and the first post presidential celebrity. and i tried to interpret his whole life around that theme in this book. if that something is ordinary been brought out about him in the writing said and done about him. >> we've been talking with you t. professor emeritus of history, lewis gould, about two of his most recent books. this when he edited, my dearest nellie -- "my dearest nellie: the letters of william howard taft to helen herron taft, 1909-1912" while he was in the presidency, and this just coming out from oxford university press, theodore roosevelt. professor gould, thank you for being a booktv. >> thank you for having me. >> is there a nonfiction author a book you would like to see featured a booktv? send us an e-mail at

booktv@c-span.org. or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> and now robert auerbach talk to booktv about his book, "deception and abuse at the fed." this interview, part of booktv's college series was recorded at the university of texas at austin. >> welcome on your screen out is professor of robert auerbach. is a professor of public affairs at the university of texas lbj school. professor gould is also the author of this book, deception and abuse at the fed, henry b. gonzalez battles alan greenspan's bank. first of all, or faster auerbach, who was henry gonzalez, for those who may not don't? >> he was the first mexican-american to be elected from texas to the u.s. congress. he was also in the senate here,

and he is from san antonio. spin and he was chairman of the house banking to me for a long time, greg? >> chairman of house banking committee, that's correct. >> what was his relationship with the various fed chairs? >> he was cordial, but he kept them at arms length, because he believed that the banking committee has a duty to oversee the federal reserve. so he would not go to lunch with them or dinner, but he would investigate them to make sure that they were doing what they were supposed to do. >> and what is the premise of your book, the section and abuse at the fed, particularly when it comes to alan greenspan's? >> right. let me just mention that i've worked at the federal reserve for two years. i know some the things i say are critical, they are very good people at the federal reserve. i worked at the kansas city federal reserve with donald kohn

who became chairman, vice chairman of the fed. very good public official. and i was at the congress for 11 years working with democrats, and i worked originally under henry of milwaukee but during the '90s i worked with henry b. gonzalez from san antonio. i knew him very well in the '70s and he asked me to come back and help him after he was elected chair. and i worked in the reagan administration. and it had interesting because i received my ph.d from milton friedman, and worked for the democrats that and i might add that both sides of the aisle, they're interested in my book at just earlier this month, in october, ron paul, congressman ron paul has subcommittee now of the -- he asked me to come and testify. he loves my book. >> but getting back, what was henry b. gonzalez, what was his

beef with alan greenspan's? >> when making their, we just decided, he had no beef with them. although he just had investigated other things like the keating five. when i got there and returned to the congress in 92, he said look, i don't care if there are democrats, republicans but if they're doing something wrong, let me know. he had just done the keating five for which he received the kennedy award. i went with him to the kennedy library and he received it. and he said all of want to do is have full investigations of the fed. so the book is primarily on the investigations to which i have assisted. i was with henry the last day he was in his office before he left, and he actually wrote a letter here that they should hire me, along with milton friedman. spent if you could walk us through one of those investigations.

>> i would like to mention a few people would be interested in. first of all when you see federal reserve people jan. but the federal reserve is the most powerful peacetime bureaucracy in the united states. it controlled the money supply. it regulates all the major banks, and it appropriates money for foreign governments without permission of the congress, since 1962. and so i would just like to mention some of the things people can read about in the book and you may be interested in them. first is the chapter called the 17 year life. 1976, arthur burns decided that because of loss that within being passed, and because the suits against the fed, he would tell the world that they would no longer have transcripts of the policymaking committee. it's called the federal open market committee. no transcript, no journalists

can file a foia request. they don't exist. 1982 when i came back, chairman gonzalez, like to be called henry b. as he's called in san antonio. henry p. said, i said to them, this is a major central bank in the world and they don't have records? how is that possible? so on october 19, 1993, we called alan greenspan, the seven members of the board of governors and the presidents of the 12 federal reserve banks. they all sat in a long row in front of henry, henry b. and we tried to find out if they have records of that meeting. they misled us. but finally the cleveland fed broke after henry told me to put a lot of pressure on them and tell them they were federal witnesses and they shouldn't mislead us. and told us they had meeting five days before, which is now

up on the internet for people to read, and they come at that meeting they decided how to mislead us so we wouldn't discover the transcripts. so then we, henry b. get extending upset about that. and alan greenspan knew it. he sent a messenger over, and i rushed the letter up to henry b. and henry said, bob, go over there and look at those transcripts that they had been hiding for 17 years. lying about. so i did take a group of republican and democratic staffers over to the office. they were some big arguments over there, but we demanded to see the transcripts are we to go get a subpoena. and they were right around the corner from alan greenspan's office, 17 years of federal reserve transcript neatly typed that they had lied about for 17 years. but then after i came down here, i came to texas in 1998, and

also right after our hearing, the fed decided we will start publishing the transcript, with a five year like. i got them down here in 91, and i discovered in 1995 the fed decided to start destroying, shredding their source transcripts, which had been sent to the national archives after 30 years. they started shredding them. so i wrote to alan greenspan, why are you doing this? and he had his assistant, my friend, donald kohn sent me a letter, which i put up on "huffington post" if anybody wants to read it. and he said yes, we decided to destroy the records but we think it is legal. i believe that's going on right now. and i think that's a very bad situation. then one interesting thing that we did, the congress got word that the first bush

administration had sent saddam hussein $515 billion in agricultural loan. -- $5.5 billion. it was issued to a tiny italian bank in atlanta, georgia, and the only one that really was arrested for it was a poor manager of the bank, christopher drew. and i had him brought to my office, he came in change from the prison, put him in a suit and he appeared before henry b. and henry said, why was the fed? they investigate all foreign banks operating in the united states. he said, well, the examiner came in, look at some of the georgia records and then we had a cup of espresso. there's more to that story, but i quoted in my book. then during the 1990s we saw something that is part of the problem with having now, the

major banks in new york. the congress got information that the officers of the new federal reserve bank examine some of the biggest banks in the country for taking gifts. henry said it after them right away, and we started an investigation. and you can read about it in the book. finally, the president, gerald, of the new federal reserve bank, wrote in a letter and said look, sometimes they take a few meals, and a literal handful, that's a direct quote from his letter, well, henry hit the ceiling. because they're supposed to be investigating. the information we got, it is kind of a joke. and that's probably why banks like citibank had 50 billion off their main record. where would the examiners? with a dining out with the

people they are investigating. then we got information that the los angeles branch of the san francisco federal reserve bank, which has much of the currency that comes into the fed, they store all the new currency from the bureau of engraving and printing as well as all the money that the banks don't want to hold on the premises. they all ship it to the federal reserve banks. and a public number that he put out on a press release, i can use it, is that they had 80 billion in cash. we got information that the accounting records there were corrupt. so we sent in a gao team, and they published a report, which i put in my book, it was just a terrible report about people going in to all the records and changing them. they were all messed up, and

also on some reports forcing a balance so that the books looked balanced. after we did that, alan greenspan sent in a huge group from the board of governors, and they spent a weekend counting the money in the fall. i don't know how they could count all the into we can. he said there wasn't a dollar missing. but the problem is, the bookkeeper in those faults, the other banks do that. that is that a national security problem, as i told chairman ron paul, and should be audited. then let me talk a little bit about one chapter people would be interested in, it's called when 500 economists are not enough. that's how many work at the federal reserve. more than 500. i worked there. many of them are excellent, but the federal reserve also sends to e-commerce and academia money. during the investigation i did for henry, the fed was forced to

turn over all the contracts. some economists had contractors with as many as five different federal reserve banks. and they were sending lots of money out and to anyone in the country was interested in money and banking. those are future witnesses for the congress. milton friedman gave an interview to reuters after he heard from me. and said this is very detrimental to having good analysis what the fed is doing, having them all on the payroll. and then people would be interested in the myth of political virginity. that's one of the chapters in my book. the fed always says we are independent from politics. well, they are not. i always have the lobbyists and going around the congress. in 1976 when henry royce try to get an auto bill, they cut all the bankers they regulate, told them to go to washington, and they were very effective and to

block the bill for two years. now the auditors are limited. they can't audit the parts of the fed that have to do with monetary policy or international relations, where we found a lot of problems spent and we're going to have to leave it there, professor auerbach, i'm afraid. you been listening to robert auerbach talk about his book, "deception and abuse at the fed." he gave us a taste of what is in the book. and two, professor. >> thank you very much. >> you're watching 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on c-span2's booktv. >> here's a book with an unusual title, but it's also part of a series, obama on the couch has been written by justin frank, m.d., who also wrote bush on the couch. dr. frank, first of all, what kind of doctor are you?

>> i'm a psychoanalyst and a psychiatrist, professor of psychiatry at gw medical school. >> how to get inside the mind of the president? >> well, a technique called applied psychoanalysis would take psychoanalytic rentals, and i'm trade as a psychoanalyst, and apply them to people you can never get into a consulting group so for instance, roy did that. is the first one to do that with people like leonardo da vinci and even moses. and fdr hired somebody to do that with hitler during world war ii. it's a very well-established technique of studying famous people by using analytical principles. obama row two autobiographies, so that made it very interesting to see what he put in, what he left out, and how it relates to his behavior as president. >> what's one thing we're going to learn about president obama in your book? >> he is deeply obsessed with uniting the country, because he came from a broken home. he is half black and half white

and he wants to heal his inside. that's why he became a community organizer after harvard law school we could have written his own ticket in a high-powered law firm. but he we please in a people together. that's the biggest will he has because the irony is we are more divided than ever in a lot of ways in this country. when he gave a speech in 2004 about red states and blue states and the united states, he ready believes that. so, eventually he started negotiating with himself to the point were i called him be a commentator in chief, and that's what the book is about, about what he does that, what is it about and how does an incredible difference between him as president and he best candidate. >> your first book, bush on the couch. what's one thing we learned about president george w. bush? >> we learned about bush, a couple things was that he really was very much a person had once been an alcoholic who is what's

called a dry drunk, and those our people are impulsive and suddenly given to blaming other people. and one of the things about him that was so powerful is that when he made up his mind, he never changed it. he is what was called an either or president. you are either with us or against a picky live in a very different world where he said i don't do nuance. i don't deal with it. and obama almost always does new want to win the opposite of a president, the two presidents back to back. >> when you write these books do you hear from people and? >> the first interview i gave with "huffington post," that day the director of communications for the white house called up the interviewer and ask them about it. so i did hear directly, but they did. i ended up giving them a buck because they wanted to see. with the bush people i didn't hear directly except i met a few people who knew him, and met karl rove and different people but they w't