different world but when 9/11 happened we were all mayor can coming together out of common concern and the sensibility of who we are. era of has that. it is not racial not even ethnic. but the sensibility coming fro that come from and have it is very real. and turkey for better or for worse is only on the periphery of that is iran. so turkey sends a signal now. for egypt to regain its role. >> i want to thank our panel for a fascinating hour. [applause] >> is there a nonfiction offer or book and you would like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org or two us at

twitter.com/booktv. this weekend booktv looks at the life and legacy of martin luther king jr.. today at 6:00 eastern with an encore books notes program. congressman and civil-rights activist john lewis on walking with the wind:a memoir of the movement and sunday afternoon at 3:00, growing up king. jonathan wright examines the speaking style of the rev. king and the international manhunt for james earl ray. this weekend on booktv in a new release new york times washington correspondent jody kantor looks at the first couple and their attempt to balance a busy personal life with the requirement of public life. tonight at 11:00. booktv on c-span2. winston groom recounts stephen watts kearney's to thousand american soldiers who marched from fort leavenworth to california in 1846. this is an hour and ten minutes.

>> i am extremely flattered on this stormy night. you are finite for a murder. i am glad to be here. "kearny's march". never could figure out how the man pronounced his name. various possibilities but i often wondered. it might be kearney. i would like to be able to report that i came to this subject in a very academic way that i have been pursuing this question of conquest of the american west, 25 years and exploded onto the scene but it is not so. the way i got into this book is

i was looking at general philip kearney or kearney or kearney, a civil war general for the union who was killed early on in the civil war. i stumbled across to the wrong kearney. it turned out that this kearney, stephen kearney was the uncle of philip kearney and i saw a little tagline in boldface that said "kearny's march". what a wonderful title for a book! it had a ring to it. as they say in college -- as i investigated this march, astounded me what had gone on in

1846, lana 1847 which was the conquest for the theft depending on your point of view of the american west. not too far on the western side of the mississippi river everyone felt there was a great desert and there was something in california that was so far way no one paid much attention to it. until president polk came into office, four objects he said he was going to do. he said i am going to settle this question in the northwest with the british. the british and the americans and something called the oregon territory. it encompassed more than oregon. washington and oregon and

montana. it was all part of the british columbia and a joint protectorship, the british were making as usual sort of bellicose gestures, americans wanted more. they wanted the 54-40 lat. it was close to alaska. people running around in the election of 1845. nobody paid much attention. he said he was going to settle that question. the second question is this tariff causing this grief in the south. on foreign goods. and threatened to secede and he was going to get rid of this national bank that andrew jackson didn't quite.

being from tennessee. jackson at that point was the sole predecessor and they didn't like it and fought it could be corrupted. the fourth thing i want to do is go to california. he looked at the map and didn't like what he saw. he saw america over here and a whole bunch of territory over there. he wanted a war. that was his style. he was ready to take it if he had to. he offered mexico a substantial sum of money in those days. they said no. we don't go blind territory and actually the regime at the time there was even discussing with him, overturned by armed revolts, addressing the question whether we do want to sell

california to the americans. at the same time, there was another deep question brewing in 1845-1846 over the republic of texas. about ten years earlier, and wish to join the union. and the mexicans said if the americans and congress accept texas as a state there will be war. and again, polk send an emissary to mexico city to smooth this thing over and see if they could avoid a war but that was unavoidable. in this sense, the mexican authority would not see the american emissary and they withdrew their ambassadors from

washington and they put an army on the border and so war appeared to be inevitable. polk would take it as it comes. he was an e aficionado of what was called manifest destiny, a term invented by a magazine journalist in the 1840s. basically described a doctor and that the united states of america was exceptional and it deserves to expand as far as it needed to expand. of course everybody had their eyes on the west because you couldn't go to the south or the north. it caught on -- polk didn't invent manifest destiny. some people suggested so but i

think eisenhower, the president's on wrote a wonderful book called so far from god in the war of mexico. he described it this way. he said polk didn't invent manifest destiny but he was its ideal agent. i believe that is quite so. that sets the stage for what general kearney did. "kearny's march". the two things i think are significant about his march. i will get to that in a moment. the first is when general stephen watts kearney marched out of fort leavenworth, kansas on that june day in 1846, wherever he went became the

united states of america. that is quite a mouthful. he went all the way to california. he went down the santa fe trail with a whole army of 2,000 mounted troops and took santa fe from the mexicans. this was after the mexican war had broken out. he then marched another thousand miles across completely uncharted territory -- the old maps you use to see of the oceans where they had big winds blowing, beyond here their allies dragons. they knew there were wild indians out there. most americans thought of the land beyond the states on the western side of the mississippi, they thought it was the great desert because there had been some exploration out there and all they found was desert. they didn't realize -- it was.

but the second thing to take away from "kearny's march" is there were unintended consequences. sinister unintended consequences. i tried to make this point that general kearney marched out of fort leavenworth, can this, with his army of the west. that was the beginning of the first days which is a political phrase of the civil war. in 1846. because when congress overwhelmingly voted declaration of war with mexico after the mexican army attacked our army down there, they begin to have

buyers remorse. the whig party mostly. if we took these territories away from mexico and there was a lot of territory, the santa fe territory, and mexico, talking about arizona, colorado, interior of the west and california territory consisting of nevada, you talk, it was big. wiser heads began to realize the south was going to want to insist these territories would never become a slave territories and later slave states because the south had a great many troops fighting in the mexican war. this was the last thing anybody wanted with a brain was expansion of slavery. they were trying to contain -- had been trying to contain it

since the 1820s missouri compromise. the political problems were so immense. it was as much a political problem as it was a question of slavery because all along -- in the house of representatives, a far more popular region, they could control for congress. in the senate there had been a general agreement that would ever say it would come and was a free state, a slave state and place for some. texas came in the personal slave state, a free state, maintained a 50/50 balance in the senate because they said we will secede if we don't get that. that set the stage for some

tricky politics in 1846 because president polk began to realize time was running out in the war because the americans, as the polk bill pointed out, don't do very well. democracy don't do very well in all wars. they had limited attention span. i don't normally read famous. i thought i might appreciate this and what other people wrote, better writers than me. i love the notion of general kearney marching out on a gorgeous june morning in 1846 into the who the hell knew where. more down the santa fe trail. which had been there but

marching and army down there was an enormous undertaking. there was a schoolteacher whose name was used. hugh hughes. he had a thousand -- less than a thousand regiment of regular army and they had a regiment of volunteers have of whom were mounted on missouri mules. the finest mule in the world. let's listen to -- let me get my place here. the march of the army of the west as it entered upon the great prairies' presented a scene of most intense and thrilling interest, wrote

private john w. hughes of the mall--missouri volunteers, school teacher. boundless plane flying in ridges waiting to be green not unlike the oceans seems to unite with the heavens in distant horizons. as far as vision could penetrate, long files of cavalry with they flutter of their banners and canvas covered wagons, the merchant train listened like banks of snow in the distance might be seen winding their torturous way through the undulating surface of prairies'. that is a mouthful there. but i think if you can picture this scene, nobody had ever done this before. these people were going into almost the uncharted unknown and they became the first explorers became great heroes. one of these characters is a

central figure in this book. john c. fremont, who was a bastard from virginia whose mother was seduced by french fencing instructor and dancing teacher in richmond and snatched away -- took her down to savannah or charleston where fremont was born. he was sort of half french because his father was french. he was a waste early dad who left his family in these circumstances but fremont grew up. he was brilliant. he went to the college of charleston. made wonderful grades except he was profligate and flunked out. he knew he would make good grades if he cared more. normally that would be the end of him but it wasn't because he fell in with one of the better

topographical engineers of the united states army and learned the trade of topical engineering which was different. i had a little fling with engineering in the army. ideal with engineers. they do things we can't normally do and use to do with slide rules. in any case of west had been explored by a number of people. the indians who lived there, the old trappers had been out there for years and this was coming to an end because somebody discovered there were just as good as beaver pelts. it was right about this time that vermont was given the chore of exporting west of the mississippi river. these trappers knew where they were but the -- they were the

only ones who knew where they were. fremont had astronomical instruments and ferias other tools to put this place on the map. exactly where he was. they knew the altitude of mountains because they go up the mountain and boil water and see what the temperature of the water was and they could tell how high they were but they eventually had more precise instruments and they were -- they were bought nests -- botanist's and any number of thing is. general scientists of all trades and most of them were very good writers. they were extremely observant. so fremont went out and came back, wrote a report, that made him the most famous man in

america. mainly because his wife had a wonderful flair for brien and she tweaked up this report for him. it didn't hurt that she was the daughter of the most powerful man in the united states senate, thomas hart benton from missouri. it didn't hurt that thomas hart benton of missouri didn't have this report of captain fremont published in the government printing office because that made it public information in all the newspapers all over the country, reprinted this and fremont became what we used to think -- like we used to treat astronauts. all about heroes and that is what fremont became. just as kearney was making his march and the war was started

and the west was farther up, fremont launched another exploration which he said he did on -- under secret orders from the president of the united states himself to take this band of trappers, 60 heavily-armed -- almost an army in those days and go to california and if possible capture it. the interesting part of that was a war hadn't started yet. people had gone into trouble by starting wars. especially young captain's but fremont insisted -- over and across the mountains he went. became mixed up with something called the bear flag revolt in california which was going on with the settlers that the mexican government -- california and new mexico were not states.

they were territories. the mexican war -- they ran out of money. in mexico at that point was -- i would describe it as a state of the eternal war. they had 36 governments in 20 something years and all of them or just about all of them resulted in armed revolt and they ran out of money. they had allowed the -- wild indians to deprivation on the branches and farmers and so on. the california people, calif.--california wanted to separate from mexico as well and become their own country. in the middle of all that, capt. fremont fomenting a rebellion. also about this time, really

people in motion in 1846 propelled them to go over the next hill. you had the mormon migration and the mormons had been chased all away from new york to missouri, the practice of polygamy repugnant to many of the baptists and so forth. their leader was actually murdered and brigham young, the most famous of the mormons took over at that point and said to his people we are going to move out of the united states, as far away as they possibly could. they went to you talk -- you talk --utah and founded salt lake. in the mexican war camelot and that became part of the united

states as well. so you had that migration and at the same time you had good people that became known as the donner party. anyone here heard of the donner party? for those of you not familiar with them, they became cannibals' eventually. off they were unusual as most of the people who went west war broke. nobody really knows what the donners themselves or the reads who were part of the donner party, why they would migrate. they got half way across the plains and almost across the

rockies. the writings of a man called hastings. i want to say leonard hastings but forgive me for for getting that name. he thought he was -- going to track these people out to california where he would be the king and the president or whatever. he wrote a pamphlet in book form explaining there was something called the hastings cut off before the great sierra mountains. they could save 500 miles in the wagon trains. what was not said was hastings had never taken this hastings cut off at that point. when people finally did they discovered you can do that if you are riding on a horse but you can't do it very well in these huge wagons. and the daughters against all good advice had 80 wagons,

decided they would try to cross through this hastings' cut off. oh my goodness, they got stranded in the desert and had to throw away fine grandmother's furniture and the indians began to pick off the cattle that they brought and they got mixed up in the what sex range --wassax range. they got wait and wait was something you did not do when you were trying to cross the sierra mountains because when it snows. the we got big mountains up here. these are three times the size of the appalachians. there is a pass at 7,000 feet which is as high as it gets, that was a pass and they had to get there before the end of november and they didn't make it. they got up there and -- only to discover the pass was completely blocked by ten feet of snow and they could get back down because

it kept on snowing. they did the wrong things. what they should have done was had a mountain man with them. he would not have let them go up there in the first place. at least when they got up there they knew pretty early on they going to have to stay. unless they somehow -- somebody to rescue them. when it began to snow they took shelter wherever they could find lean tos. told trapper's cabin. there were a number of people, 85 people but they turned their livestock loose. they lost most of the cattle they had, mules or wagons. when the snow stopped they came out. all the livestock had gone. it was under the snow. they should have killed them. that is what a mountain man would have done. you could have 10 or 15 feet of

snow in a couple days. they never did find any of that livestock. all of a sudden they began to realize starvation--something they were going to have to face. the ones that had money began to realize it was not worth very much. ones that had a horse or a mule -- a few of these things were saved or had some meat put away. that was the real currency. it began to become inflated and a daughters began to squabble among themselves. there were they leave party they knew across the mountain at ports under which was a big settlement down there. these people up there in the mountains. they said -- sent a relief party composed of two indians who

brought two -- four mules packed with food and they saw that would help. they the food and fade the mules and they ate the indians. the situation was desperate. they had various people try to get back down the mountains. they would go in groups and invariably they would be trapped by the snow and parish. as the situation grew worse on the mountain, you don't have any food, they did a normal thing. was repugnant to them but they began to eat the dead. some said they aid the living. i don't think that was ever proved. all the reading i have done on it. it was a scandalous and horrible sort of situation up there. the remainder of that, may be

half of the 80 something people were finally rescued and they were in very bad shape. but they were part of it. they were part -- they were instructed about what not to do. this is not how to cross the mountains. at that time of year. ..

you know, no mother. the sisters to no end. and the only place that was civilized in between fort leavenworth was a place called benson ford, a big fortress to defend against indian attacks. and this train stopped over there for weeks of the they could take baths. they had gambling. they may have had women. they could put their cattle in sight. excuse me. i just dropped my glasses.

abcaseven it does not look good. do you know what the oubliette is? an old french chain they had when they sit on the throne. the guy would come up. somebody wanted something. if he did not like what he wanted to pull the lever and a trap door. it is called an oubliette. anyway, may have to hear about kids carson. well, she is talking about being in this. she has become bill. she has been on the trailer for some months. she is having trouble with the pregnancy, but she is in the fourth. she says, have a dirt floor. i keep sprinkling constantly.

we have to windows looking out of the plane, our own furniture. it's like keeping house. and she goes on to write that thursday, july 30, well, this is my 19th birthday. i feel rather strange, not surprised that it is coming, nor to think that i knew growing rather older, but this is it. i am sick. she lay their day after day with strange sensations. unable to rise. she all the while took time to sit down in the diary the noises that she heard through a window, sheering of forces, neighing of meals, crying and children, fighting of men, servants gambling off of their close and sell some are next to nudity. the warrior band of arapaho

indians of a sudden. she dutifully recorded that on august the sixth 1846 the mysteries of a new world have been shown to me since last thursday. in a few short months i should have been a happy mother, but the ruling end of a mighty province has opposed. her baby had to be aborted, or she would have died as well. throughout the ordeal she clung to her faith. to come on to him when our burden is grievous and heavy to be born. it was a cool experience -- crew experience for growth just turned 19 on the trail. there really were out there, and she got through. got all the way down to mexico. a lot of the venture's.

agassi will have to read the book to find out how she roundup. but then there was an amazing cast of characters, mountain men who became famous and these novels. no more famous than kit carson. carson, his father was killed by a falling tree and killed. he was apprenticed off to a leather maker in missouri who did not like him. he ran away to join the mountain men. and let's see. carson soon became an old hand, which is to say he did not hesitate to kill beaver's kimmel's, grizzly bears, indians

to more fellow mountain men. one of these obnoxious loudmouth french canadians he shot in the duel because he was, well, obnoxious which was where the legend of carson formed. kearny after taking santa fe without a shot from a corrupt governor who was described by an englishman as they mention the fact and two had previously been a sheep thief. it kearny took santa fe, ran up the american flag and explained to everybody, you are now american citizens. you behave like american citizens and we will treat you well. if you don't, we will string you up. he was stern, but fair. they created a code of warriors.

it still stands in parts of new mexico and arizona called the kearny code, dislike the napoleonic code in places in louisiana. then he marched across this completely uncharted territory, got to california. the first he got into was an enormous fight with mexicans that almost wiped him out. almost two-thirds of his men were casualties. he was saved by the american battalion of there. really performed an amazing feat of getting these people across the territory. it did not know the rivers -- did not know what there were going to find out there. and in the end, the way i try to

sum it up was this, 1846 was a remarkable year in the united states history, a year when a great number of people set themselves in motion. americans suddenly became agitated enough to haul across in such numbers that it began to shift and shake the national equilibrium. with every step the proviso echoed like the playing of a long sword. and it was something that some people learn about in school and some don't, named after an obscure congressman from pennsylvania who attached a rider on to the mexican war funding bill that forbade any of the territories for major

ginning the notion of becoming a slave territories or slave states. this was really the first big stone that was cast against slavery in the congress. it was defeated ultimately, very nearly, but it became -- it got the topic. i think i say here. let me see. with every step they will mold proviso echo like the clang of the marx brothers. acts of congress were powerful. versions of the proviso regularly attended to any legislation in hopes of new territories in hopes that one would stick. compared to the biblical plague

of frogs. did not look upon the table because there were frocks. you could not sit down at the banquet because there are frogs. he could not go to the private accounts. so it was. and the southern slavers sat and thumbed their noses, but at least it got the question of slavery out of the drawing rooms and into the board room for good, and after that it was only a matter of time. toward the end of the mexican-american more -- or ralph waldo emerson says the united states will caulker mexico, but it will be as the man swallows arsenate whisperings and down in turn. emerson said very interesting, he said -- he was out alone in saying this. many wise men said the same thing.

and that is the abbreviated version. a lot of things going on. i was so interested. different in the way i approach history. i don't generally spend years and years looking at a topic. i go into it fresh. i think doing that i have a different kind of perspective on it. i'm interested in learning something. and benefits and give it interests me it will interest you. sometimes that works. it has been fun to write these books. as you know, rebook, forest gump, which allows me to read these kind of works. [laughter] i have all little niche.

at first everyone was horrified. that became one of the most hazy minute in washington to the publishing. what they want you to do is keep riding the same book over and over again. i did not want to do that. the editors started to hate me, publisher started to hate me. the critics began hitting me. my agent is to me. they wanted me to keep doing it. i did not want to do that. maybe i'm wrong and ibm right. thomas wolfe, they had a few good books. then you only have a few good books in you, i think. most people, the keyboard riding because they don't know what else to do. that did not want to do that. i started writing these. be damned if there were not a lot of fun to write.

they're really, really were. on that encouraging out what we take some questions? let me give you some rules. the men with the broom, we don't want him walking around hitting people and the head. we will start ticking questions here and move to the center and move over year. we have a question. yes, sir? >> well you were researching this book what character wars story surprised to the most iraq >> somebody repeat that question for me. come up here and tell me. >> what character or story -- oh, what characters interest me

in "kearney's march"? there are so many. fremont is a very powerful guy. among other things he got himself court-martials. almost ended up on the wrong end of the road because she defied general kearny. a very powerful guy. he is let the federal judge. kearny march to back all the way across the country almost and chase and court-martialed sen. it was the court-martial of the century, the trial of the century. it took headlines were battles in mexico were second place. he was a fascinating guy. there was another guy, the head of -- is a lawyer from missouri. he was a colonel in charge of the misery element. wind general kearny went west,

you went south with his regiment of 900 guys. he was supposed to meet another american general, but he did not appear. so there was a colonel with his missouri volunteers. they had an artillery elements that was run by one of the clark, lewis and clark fame. down they went and started beating them. it took cover the entire state. 900 guys. now, he is a fascinating guy. i don't know. there are a lot of them. susan melson, founder and charming, a charming lady. it was sad because when she got to santa fe the their relax a

little bit. there were there for couple of months before kearny took off. she get to me some of these young officers. the regular army officers. they do this she was married, but she was the only woman, american woman, and so they came calling of her. no one was out of line or anything, but she took a long time. she was later found out that most of these fellows were killed in the battle in california. and who else? fascinating in a grisly sort of way. i mean, it is almost unbelievable what they endured up there. so that -- a lot of people that i found very interesting in this story. yes, sir.

>> historians to have linked fremont with cannibalism. says your research also uncovered that linkage? >> i'm sorry, one more time. >> there are historians to have linked john c. fremont with human cannibalism. >> well, what happened : he had three expeditions under the aegis of the army corps this year's making maps. and they were extremely successful. there was a report published and people waited with bated breath to get to these papers to see what he found next. well, after his court martial, probably ought not to tell you this, but i will -- he was convicted. they did not give him a shooting or hanging, but he was dismissed from the service.

president polk said we cannot do this. this man is too famous. he essentially gives him a pardon. he says, your dismissal is reversed. take up your sword. fremont was too proud to, and he said no. throw me out. i'm out. he as to explore, but he can't do it with the army anymore. he got together with a bunch of railroad men who wanted to build the first transcontinental railroad, and they finance an exploration to find the best route for this road. unfortunately fremont did not take it carson this time, the only time he had not taken him. they get stuck up and some mountains in arizona and they

had to eat some of their own. that think they lost half a dozen or a dozen men. they jumped the wrong way. i lived in vail for year. it's cold up there. all right. let's have a center question. >> hello. how long did it take you to do the research? and after the research : did take you to read your book? what is your best advice for a writer's writer? >> it through to get the question? how long did it take me to research, write it and what is my advice to young people or whoever it is the wants to read a book. put as a chair and figures on keys. know what you're talking about. [laughter] the only way to do it that i know of.

but the research, i think their research took a couple of years. i can look on there and see what they say about me. you cannot get rid of it. there are some academic organizations, of course, global which are -- i don't know what the word is, photostat neck. all of these remarkable documents so that they produce facsimiles. i just finished a book on the battle of shiloh in the civil war. there were 160 regiment's fighting. a regimen is supposed to be 900 less. many of them had their

regimental history that goes to or 300 pages, and that is where your did your primary information. i could sit there in my desk punching buttons and get the regimental history of the 11th illinois volunteer infantry which is the real deal. i did everything. i punched another button, and that down loaded and punch another button. i printed, and it is sitting there. i can do that. ordinarily i would have to visit wherever they would keep those themes in indiana, presumably in the capital. time-consuming and expensive. i have to do that with every state that had soldiers fighting in shiloh. and so these are new tools that really are going to save your

younger historians a lot of trouble. you're getting the same material. you just don't have to work so hard for it. i don't know if that is good or bad, but it sounds good to me because there's so much you do have. i buy the books. you can get them. some of these things, $700 for a book. it might just give you a fake. the and needed it. an old book that came from south africa, and i ordered it. you can resell it. i keep libraries of these things because a part of research materials. it just, that is mine. the ready probably take a year, but there is a point in the -- between the research where you're doing both. but they're is a point, at least

for me when i say, okay, today of going to start writing this book because otherwise you can research it to death. you can spend ten years researching. you get sidetracked. i don't keep out lines. i have an outline in my head. i do a lot of what you are taught to do, but it works for me. i want to go there, there. the day-to-day stuff. i want to go from there. i want to get them this far down the trail and then see which go you know, events, incidents are most interesting. i try to get in there and look at it. going too far. cutting stuff out and playing with it. sooner or later you have a book before you know it.

yes. still in the middle here. to in the middle. >> when general kearny decides to make this expedition, did he consult the records of the lewis and clark expedition and did that influence them in how we organize his? >> it is a very good question. did it kearny consult the records of the lewis and clark expedition? m sure that he did. you know, he left very little personally in the way of information about himself, and he passed away after the california episode, the court martial. but pope made him the military commandant of mexico city. he picked up the wrong mosquito.

he came back to st. louis and died. in oakland you would love to have a diary or muammar. these guys, they basically left their report commended was short. they did not have a lot of people writing reports for a lot of things. he did that tell us a lot of these things, but he was well acquainted with meriwether clark -- i mean, meriwether lewis who was the sun of these guys. clark lived there. so he would have been familiar with all of them. he was actually before the court martial, a great friend with senator ben. said lewis was the kind of kicking off point for the west. the question over here. >> this is a hypothetical question. do you think if gold were

discovered but years earlier it would have been impossible to arrest california way for mexico? >> where was i? the same question. it's a good question. if they discovered gold five weeks earlier, the mexicans would have turned california lewis. layettes it to that is hypothetical. the americans were sitting in the middle of mexico city. they were finished. santa anna's army had just abandoned. the same is true with california . they had been subdued by the

u.s. navy and kearny and fremont and his california battalion, so they're really, i mean, they would have wanted to call for sure, but they didn't have much choice at that point. anybody else over here? yes, ma'am. >> your next-door neighbor is a good friend. when i visited her before we want to run your house you were never home : all i saw was a typewriter. i want to know how many books you have written on the typewriter and how many on the computer? >> let's see the first book ever of a computer was forced to help. it was weird. as a bid to years in new york to lead the head -- but other give it to me. he was a lawyer.

he gave me. years after close second book wrote. i get that electric because it was easy on your fingers. asserted coming down in the winters because it was called the new york. my father passed away. everyone was talking a lot these computers. a new a gun. i ordered the state. it came from 42nd street. king with a bunch of distractions. written by japanese. the english did not have anybody. there was trying to fool with it. i had done some computer work. i work for washington for two years in the big newspaper. this is different when you do

yourself. in the did not know what to do. so finally as said, are going to have to start from the beginning. this set to take a letter. i start taking a letter. you do that. you take another letter. i did that day in india until i was about to take it and throw it off the pier. i did not hit cosgrave. i headed for of three or four years. all of a sudden it had a bad habit of freezing up. that would sit there and all the sudden everything freezes of. if you do anything, if you try to get it off, the screen is gone forever. so legal pad.

she come in and copied it all down. i had to reported in the machine now, of course, there are fantastic. the kid even by the secretary that those of to put together they is kept. that is a lost art. i do it automatically. i never thought that i would, but it is so much easier. if i can produce the whole book, not the design of everything, but i can do things, the corrections are so much easier. before you would have to go and give it to the secretary. you make four corrections. back and forth. and these computers, all this has just made communication the story of my lifetime. when i grew up going to my grandmother's else in midtown mobile.

they had one telephone. one of those things that stood up like that. they had a nice table, beautiful rosewood table. five girls in the family and one boy. everyone would talk on one telephone. and remember when i was about ten until now we could all see where we were. communication was the age for their story of our times. yes, sir. we have to get somebody. and that. >> a wondering if your own personal military spirit, pursues so many topics.

>> i mean, you know, i was unfortunate. in war in vietnam, had done in to the rotc. of the might of it was a war. i spent my time with the fourth and the -- infantry division. a moment, love the pressure commotion, fear. you will never do it again, but by first level the root was about the war. and there was the theme. military histories.

and pretty good at it. and of the terms. of the lines. i do that. you know, uncomfortable with it. sure. with that family reasons of with, i think, concludes. [applause] >> you have been a great audience. they accuse so much. [applause] >> for more information visit the authors website. >> "uncompromised" is the name of the book. nada prouty is the author. the rise and fall. first of all, when then how did you serve and the cia?

>> will list the wording for the fbi as a special agents. i worked with them for a little less than but years in the transferred from the fbi and director of the ca. the u.s.s. cole bombing. the assassination. i was exposed to working with cia officers overseas. value of the cultural linguistic abilities. but transferred. i was involved. obviously it was a successful operation. >> hello were you with the cia? >> celeste the five years. >> the sum total of your new book is the rise, fall, and

redemption. >> sparrow couldn't. being assigned cases that seasoned agents. i was given a lot of missions that ended to a published that were extremely high alleges to the missions. i was accused kohl of falsely accused causes sickle of being a supporter of terrorism. eventually i was exonerated. and here today telling the story. >> phyllis very quickly about that accusation? >> well, the fbi thought he was passing intelligence. of use the that was not true. the evidence was little secret, and it was not sure of me.

the cia conducted an investigation commended of exaggerated me. >> were you arrested? >> no, i was not. i pled guilty to the charges because of was threatened. basically a death threat. the government said they were deported to lebanon. but let guilty to these of judges. >> do you do until that at all in "uncompromised"? >> that describe a number of the cases. the distress of the circumstances around the falls of accusations and finally the exoneration. >> s in american woman in the cia did you face to face situations that may be a white male would not? >> the calls from backgrounds.

i was given missions to get out of the green zone and collect intelligence. i was discussed. i was able to collect intelligence. again : i hope you get the chance to read it. >> did the cia have to that your book? >> they had to submit my manuscript, and they had to approve it. >> what did you leave this see a? >> it was part of the plea deal unfortunately. people ask me all the time, would you ever go back to government service. ito then doesn't think. i am living proof the justice system works. and happy to have served my country and there will again. this is not pessimistic. in any of the country and i've been accused of these horrendous

charges and would have been executed. only in america do you get the chance to tell your story and the that justice prevails and the truth always comes up. >> this is book tv on c-span2. we have been talking with nada prouty and author of this book, uncompromised. >> every weekend book tv offers 48 hours of programming focus on nonfiction authors and books. what is here on c-span2. >> the world is a big place. certainly the most powerful entities are these huge corporations like goldman. because it's been so much of let's let in the developing world in places like africa, latin america, and the middle

east, just to give you a small example. i saw what happened with commodity futures were bought up by corporations like gold and sex. we, for instance, increased by 100 percent. but the human consequences of that, he wins the were malnourished and in some cases died of starvation because they could not afford the to. you know, the words and have been little popular support, but for a handful of situations, they are immensely profitable, as warriors from certain tiny segment and always has been. so i think that we unfortunately have created power in the hands of a select group of

corporations that are more powerful than the limit. it is the than the american political system possible to vote against the interest. endless reports that power we a doomed because corporations, unfettered capitalism. karl rove a great book about this called a great transformation. turn everything. unfettered capitalism is a revolutionary force. that is why the environmental crisis is intimately intertwined with the economic crisis. if we don't find enough the way to break the power of those corporations they will trash, continue to stress the assistant to the point at which the life or huge segments of the human species will be unsustainable.

>> chris hedges. today's economic and political climate. >> well, when norm jobs he has made that comparison. i think in some ways, yes, it is difficult to make those historical analogies because one has to be very cognizant of the major differences, including the massive well corporation, the fact that germany had no real tradition of liberal democracy under its market. but that heat that there are so frightening similarities, the most important being hit the american working class. the disenfranchisement of working men and women, you know, used to be in this country going back to the 50's and 60's

that you could work in an auto plant or a steel mill had make a salary that would actually support a family and allow you to buy a small house and send your kids to college. you had medical benefits in the pension plan. the private sector economy. low-wage. households. but only the people tend to work more than one job, but almost everyone is working in order to keep afloat. that has been a devastating change. i think the rise of the christian right, as i argue, is directly linked to this press bear. because of these economic dislocations bringing with the destruction of communities and families, substance-abuse, domestic abuse, all the problems that come when communities breakdown.

people retreat from this reality based world which, frankly, almost destroys them into a non reality based belief system and totalitarian systems are not really based. a world of magic and it in god intervenes on your behalf. i think the only way to bring these people back into reality based world history and french as their within the economy. i think this is something we saw it was despair. all the great writers have used this bear as a starting point that drives people into these very frightening movements, and i think that this bear is very prevalent within american society and dangerous. >> in his 2005 book, mr. hedges rights, we watched passively as the wlt