everybody. i have come to leave that this prescription that says we have to get everybody together before is it disaster. we have got to organize the black churches and get the agencies on the same page and get all the social service agencies working together. you won't do it. it won't happen. ..

>> when you build it into agency systems, you build it into come stat in the boston police department which they have done, it's common sense management stuff, and it's not that hard to envision. and when people are willing, it's not that hard to do. the will is the issue. and we will really wrap up here. thank you very much. [applause] >> we'd like to hear from you. tweet us your feedback, twitter.com/booktv. [cheers and applause] >> this weekend booktv travels to beaumont, texas, where oil first poured out of the spindle top gusher in january 1903, ushering in the petroleum age in texas and changing the story of

this city and our country. located about 90 miles east of houston and 30 miles inland from the gulf of mexico, beaumont is home to a diverse population of almost 120,000 people as well as lamar university. and it still has the remnants of the oil industry in operation here today. >> we at time-warner cable are very pleased to have a partner like -- >> coming up, in conjunction with our time-warner cable partners, we'll explore this area's literary culture as we visit the book bazaar to talk with the owner about the state of the industry and where independent sewners fit in, to a former brothel where the authors of betting, booze and brothels help us understand how beaumont rid itself of vice and corruption. to the lamar university library where we'll see a special world war ii photo collection taken by dorothy becker, a nurse during

the conflict. >> i think it's important because dorothy becker was dealing with people that were badly injured. >> and then travel further back in time to teddy roosevelt's trip to africa and europe as local author j. lee thompson talks about the impact of the post-presidential trip on his decision to enter the 1912 presidential race as depicted in his book, theodore roosevelt abroad: nature, empire and the journey of an american president. these stories and many more as booktv now takes you to beaumont, texas. >> we're in beaumont, texas, and we're at my bookstore, the book bazaar. it opened september 18, 2010. it's been really good. i've been very pleased. you know, there aren't many places like the in beaumont, and people love coming to this building. it's an iconic place.

there's a big poetry scene here. a lot of poets, a lot of song writers, and a lot of their influence comes from, you know, the classic books and the classic poets and things along those lines. >> are there any particular kinds of books that people of beaumont flock to? >> local history, things on the sounding area -- surrounding area, a lot of louisiana heritage. there's a big cajun population here, so i have like a cajun book, a dictionary that explains the cajun language. and people tend to like those kind of things. and then the older books. people especially my age, my age group, you know, 20s to 30s, they're really starting to appreciate the older, vintage things that, you know, they remember when they would go to their grandparents. and they kind of want that piece back in them. i decided to open a bookstore because i've always been interested in books and the information that's in 'em, and

particularly with the e-readers coming out, people are tending to get rid of their books. and it's basically making books more rare. i get a lot of my inventory from estate sales, and i have a lot of people come in that bring their books, um, sometimes i purchase private collections, um, you know, i go to garage sales. a lot of people just, they don't know what they have, or they're not interested in it. you know, they might inherit a library full of books, and it just might not be their thing, so that's where i come in. i thought it was important to preserve the knowledge and actually keep books important. in my experiences technology is always advancing, and when the e-readers advance, those books are going to be stuck on their

old one, and they might not transfer to another one, and that's going to turn a lot of book people off because they're used to going to the book shelf and pulling a book whenever they can, you know? and things break on accident and things like that. so i think it's a fad. the bigger chains are going under, i think, because they are trying to spread themselves too thin. as an independent bookstore, i like to keep things small and grow slowly. and i think that's very important. um, and, you know, the book businesses that have been in business for 30, 40 years, that's a good amount of time. that's -- i would feel very successful if, and i'm hoping that this business will do the same. >> you're watching beaumont weekend on booktv. up next, a visit with local author j. lee thompson on his book "theodore roosevelt abroad"

about roosevelt's 15-month postpresidential expedition to africa and europe. >> when did teddy roosevelt first decide he wanted to go to africa? >> well, he'd been a sort of fan of africa for many years. and 1907, 1908 he was coming to the end of his presidency, he wanted to take a extended vacation away from it all. he thought about going to alaska; but in 1908 he made a decision to go to africa instead. he was a longtime hunter and conservationist in the big game there, lions particularly. the lion was sort of his totem animal. in fact, his sons called him the old lion. >> how long after his presidency did he leave? >> about three weeks, very short. he handed over the reins to his friend taft, william taft, who he basically made president. taft was supposed to carry out his policies while he went

abroad. so he was gone the third week in march, 1909. the expedition was organized by the smithsonian. it was a cutting-edge scientific expedition at the time. and he went to africa for about a year, then he went to europe three months, for three months after that. he was gone about 15 months. his son, kermit, was his photographer, and he called him my side partner in the operation in the dedication of his book. kermit was 19 or 20 years old, a little bit adventuresome, maybe too much for his father. he went off by himself at times and sort of scared his father to death. [laughter] but they had a great time. and photography was also very important. in fact, roosevelt said about the expedition that maybe the most important thing would be the photographs that they took. because they made a record of how the animals actually lived on the ground.

at the same time, they were taking big game -- the smithsonian expedition brought back 11,000 specimens from elephants down to, you know, invertebrates. for a long time the natural history museum in washington had a huge hall of exhibits which they now have taken down. there's only one thing left significant there on display, and that's a white rhino. it has a tiny little tag on it that says shot by theodore roosevelt. they shot family groups. that was what you did in those days. you went out, and you took family groups of animals, and then you stuffed them and put them in dioramas in museums. you can still see this in museums today. and, in fact, that ended up being a very good thing. the people of the smithsonian told me by taking family groups rather than trying to get the biggest trophies, this is very useful today. they can still do dna testing on the remains that they have as

benchmarks for what's going on today. so, i mean, he was looking at birds, he was looking at everything. i mean, the man was interested in everything. people try to portray this as a game butchering expedition, that's what they call it. he wanted to make sure that wasn't what got out, and he made his own press by sending back these articles. but there were other articles which said he was slaughtering all these animals. and they did take quite a few trophies. we don't do that today, and we haven't done that for decades. but as i said, at the same time they were taking thousands of photographs, kermit took several thousand photographs for the expedition. even while he was in darkest africa, he was getting letters from political friends complaining about taft and asking her fizz advice, talking about things going on at home. he was also an imperialist, and he went to the british empire. he spent 12, 12 months basically in the british empire. so there he met the people on the ground, and he talked to

them about what his views were and what britain should be doing. he took the bully pulpit with him. the man could not stop giving his opinions, and so the book, the book has a subtitle, "nature, empire and the journey of an american president," so there was lots of things going on. he was never able to do one thing. he was a human dynamo. he was the sort of inventer of multitasking which we talk about today. [laughter] he read a book every day, he took with him a volume of 50 books he had specially made so he could always be writing, plus he was writing -- he wrote a book while he was out there called "african game trails," was done as a series of articles for scriveners, plus a serious scientific. as i said, it was a cutting-edge scientific safari. he brought with them naturalists, and the two of them collaborated, and two years

after he got back they published a very serious two-volume book about african game. he met his wife, his wife was edith, and his daughter, earth them, they met them at khartoum in a very picturesque place down the nile. they traveled up to cairo where he made another speech about the british empire which irked a lot of egyptian nationalists actually. and then he went to europe. he had promised edith that he would give her a sort of second honeymoon if she'd let him go on the safari. they made a deal. so they went to italy and tried to recreate their honeymoon of 1885, but the crowds wouldn't let them. i mean, they were basically mobbed. because he was a star. i mean, he was a media star, you know, around the world. and even though he wasn't president anymore, they treated him like he was president. and he didn't want to have to meet with kings and queens and royals but, of course, he did everywhere he went and every country they fell over themselves to try to get him to

come to the palace and tell them stories, and he regaled them with tales of the spanish-american war and tales of being president and also his western days, you know? he was this cowboy, he had this cowboy strain in him from his days as a rancher. >> did he like that kind of attention? >> oh, certainly. i mean, he was a political animal, and he loved being in the spotlight. there's the old story that t.r. wanted to be the groom at every wedding and the corporation at every funeral. in europe he was treated as if he were still president. especially anticipated he was going to be president again. and he met with leaders of the time. in fact, this is sort of an introduction. i'm doing a book right now about roose svelte and the great war. and in there he met, for example, kaiser wilhelm of germany. leader like himself, they were actually very similar. he got to be the first, the only

civilian to have the german army parade in front of him. he sat on a horse back with wilhelm for several hours, and they had a meeting at one of the palaces. and then he went to england, and he was actually working for -- one of the things he did in europe was he was working for andrew carnegie, the world's wealthiest man. carnegie had this dream of world peace. and so while he was in europe roosevelt gave his belated nobel prize speech. he won the nobel prize for 1906. the tradition was with presidents didn't leave the country, now they leave the country all the time. but at this time, if you were president you were supposed to be there being president. so he didn't go and give his speech, so he gave it belatedly in 1910. and in it he laid out the idea of an international league of peace, something his rival, woodrow wilson, is going to lay

out a few years later. you know, roosevelt is seen as this sort of bellicose war year type -- warrior type, but in fact, he had this slogan, speak softly and carry a big stick. he can't the big stick, like the united states navy, behind him and managed to keep the country out of war. while he was president, there weren't any wars. a few little minor incidents, but no big wars. so he's going to england, and he gets to be the emissary at the funeral. so he gets to dress up in his tuxedo. he looks like a penguin among these royals, there's some great pictures at these events. the royals all have these plumed hats, and he's just there sort of in his tuxedo, standing out

as usual by being plain. he wanted to rare his roughriders' uniform, but his wife said, no, you're not going to do that, theodore. she was one of the few people in the world that could tell him what to do, and he would actually do it. he ends up in england, he had promised the people on the ground in africa that he would support them. they felt like the british government wasn't supporting their imperial efforts, so he made a speech at the guild hall, very famous old building in london in which he basically told the british to buck up, you know, they weren't being strong enough in egypt and elsewhere. >> what convinced him to come back to the u.s. and get involved in politics again? >> he was always going to come back, he never meant to move away. he also wanted to let his friend, will taft, the president, run his own show. if he stayed at home, everyone would say you're t.r.'s puppet. but that ended up being bad because taft fell under the

orbit of conservative people in the republican party and did a lot of things which roosevelt and his friends who, of course, wrote him letters and told him about what was going on particularly having to do with conservation. he was going to come back anyway, so he comes back and, i believe and i say in the book, i think he decided to run again while he was on

. >> progressive stuff at home, trying to put in place reforms for the people, trying to work out for working people and, you know, it's a message which comes down to us today. he just had charisma, he had personal magnetism. he was, you know, not the best speaker in the world. in fact, if you hear the recordings, he sounds sort of like a reedy version of fdr. you know, we've heard fdr's speeches but only a few of

roosevelt's survived. he wasn't a, you know, didn't sound very good, but he sold what he was doing. he was a very, you know, not a great orator, but he knew how to, he knew how to sort of paint pictures with speeches. and also he wrote all the time. but as far as him being, you know, he was just a charismatic personality. one of his friends famously said about him if you wanted to stay mad at roosevelt, you had to stay away from him. because if you got around him, he would charm you into forgetting whatever it was that had made you mad in the first place. so he certainly charmed me. i've always found him an interesting figure, and at this university we all teach american history. so i taught about him in my classes and always really enjoyed the roosevelt bit, you know, when we were talking about progressivism. in fact, it lasts probably

longer than it should just because -- [laughter] he's such an interesting character. >> hi, i'm sarah, director of the stark museum of art in orange, texas, and we're here to view our special exhibition, medieval manuscripts from the stark collections. this is an exhibition of objects beauty from our permanent collection. we have four medieval manuscripts, each is a book of ours from the middle ages, and we show these an -- annually each year open to a different page to highlight elimination and a different theme in the exhibition. the first one is, um, by a flemish artist of the early 15th century, and we have it open to a miniature as the main scene is called with one of the scenes of the life of mary. the books of ours generally have

prayers to the virgin mary, and each prayer begins with a standard illustration going through the birth cycle of jesus with mary's story overladen. and here we have the visitation where mary greets her cousin, elizabeth. and then this is set on the page with a beautiful, elaborate decoration in the border and a highly-illuminated initial piece, all characteristics of the type of illustrations that were done with these beautiful books of hours. this book of hours is by a french artist, and it's also open to an illustration of the birth cycle, in this case the adoration of the magi, the wise men who have come to worship the child. this illustration is a little bit later, early 16th century, and it shows the classical influence as well as the medieval interest in the use of gold and bold colors, and then

the renaissance use of perspective and neoclassical columns vetting off the beauty of the scene. this is an especially lovely illustration of the border decoration on the following, subsequent page. in the books of hours in addition to the story of the birth cycle, there will be other standard illustrations. usually there are representations of the four evangelists leading into sections to have gospels. and this book, an early french book, is open to an illustration of st. mark. and mark who would have been an early christian saint is shown more as a medieval scribe. so it gives us a little bit of an idea of how, um, the artist of this type of book would have looked, working at a tilted stand. he's writing his manuscript, in this case, on a scroll rather

than on the pages. and st. mark is accompanied by his attribute, a lion. and just in the teeth of the lion he's hold what we believe is a penner which is a place where the medieval scribe would have kept his quill pen and other supplies. so the artist of this illustration gives us a little indication of how the illustrations were made. then the final book of hours in our exhibition is one by a dutch artist. and it is open to illustrations of two of the saints to whom prayers would have been offered, in this case st. catherine of alexandria on the left and st. barbara on the right. and the unknown artist of this book of hours is referred to as one to have masters of the dark -- one of the masters of the dark eyes because of the stylistic tendency to show the

faces with eyes heavily lined in dark colors to emphasize the eyes. and this is a style listic -- stylistic characteristic and shown in the way that the portraits of the individual saints are done, each with her own attributes showing her martyrdom. we think this is a great way to learn about the middle middle ages and about the cultural life of the history in the middle ages. religion was a very important part of daily life. the books of hours were prayer books that lay people -- not the clergy, but the average person -- would have and would use to guide their devotional life. so in looking of the books of hours, you can get some of the sense of how medieval people approached their daily life through their prayers and a sense of what they found beautiful in the use of rich materials, the gold applied to

the illustrations and, um, a general enjoyment of, um, all that nature has to offer. >> beaumont, texas, is about 80 miles east of houston and has a population of about 120,000. booktv visited the city to take a look at its lively literary culture and history. next, a conversation with beaumont area authors laura o'toole and wanda landry. their book, betting, booze and brothels, takes a look at the boom town era that followed the 1901 discovery of oil in the state. >> well, there were brothels, there were quite a few brothels, and there were gambling halls. and, you know, it was a real lively place. most of 'em came after the second world war. they had an early district

further down on market street, and they referred to that as a reservation. [laughter] but after the war that's when so many of these others, you know, rita's place was -- she bought the dixie in 1946, and it was quite luxurious. she hired an interior decorator to decorate it. it had plush carpets, gone with the wind murals in the hallway, and it was known throughout texas as one of the best brothels in texas. it's not that beaumont was so different from other cities in texas. i mean, there were red light districts, you know, in dallas, in amarillo, in the, you know, some of the larger towns. >> there was a lot of industry

in beaumont ever since spindle top. you know, there were oil field worker, and this was a very industrial city, and there was a lot of people in and out of beaumont. >> uh-huh. >> and, you know, the environment for the brothels was fostered by the fact that the local law enforcement were part of, were, basically, on the take. and they were enabling that environment to exist. around 1960 is when robert kennedy was sort of stirring things up, wanting to -- he kind of got on a crusade against organized crime, and at the same time there was a legislator named tom james in texas, and he spearheaded a commission called -- which came to be called the james commission. it was a general legislative commission, and his commission was to come down and investigate the brothels and investigate the local law enforcement. and to find out if they were, in fact, on take and why these brothels were able to continue to operate. and not only the brothels, but

the gambling. i mean, i think they were much more interested in the gambling operations and the illegal liquor operations than they were at the brothels. because they, you know, in addition to the brothels, you'd have these big gambling operations where you'd have ticker tape machines from western union, card games going on, dice games, it was a big deal. and gamble is, obviously, illegal in texas. and the brothels came sort of the -- became sort of the scandalous part, you know, that brought down a lot of the local, of locals. but in 1960 they sent down a group of investigators headed by tom james. in december of 1960. and they went undercover into all the roth els and -- brothels and witnessed all of the gambling and everything else that was going on in the gambling establishments, the illegal liquor steals and -- sales and gathered enough evidence to conclude the only

way these operations could be conducted was if they got support to have local law enforcement. so they conducted raids, they got all the information back and decided they were going to conduct in january, january 4th of 1961 publicly-televised hearings. and they were just going to march everybody involved in front of the public on tv. and nothing like that had ever b been done. it was kind of like iran contra. [laughter] >> yeah. >> but it is local beaumont. wanda remembers it. of course, i wasn't around, but she remembers watching it. i think they closed schools down, they let the schools watch, didn't they? >> yes, uh-huh. at south park high school, the students were able to go into the auditorium and watch the public hearings. >> and david witts was the general counsel for the legislature at the time, and he was a lawyer from dallas. and he conducted -- i mean, it was not, it didn't have the legal standing of, like, an actual trial. it was basically an informative session.

so the lawyers did not have the ability to, you know, no one was -- to arrest and all that stuff. it was more like an informative hearing. but they marched the sheriff and all the madams and gambling people in front of the hearing commission, and they questioned them. and most people took the fifth amendment, you know? they took the fifth and didn't answer. so from that they conducted, you know, they had indictments and trials, but no one was ever convicted because in beaumont -- >> uh-huh. >> -- the, the level of involvement and the system that protected the brothels and the gambling establishment went all the way to the grand juries. and there's a lot in the book about -- >> there were two grand juries, in fact, for a while. >> right. two grand juries, and the grand juries were pretty much influenced by the da who was on the take and the sheriff who was charlie meyers. and all these people were beloved in beaumont. >> uh-huh. >> they were pillars of society. and wanda, i think, can expand

on when the public, once the public found out about the level of involvement, you know, it was kind of a pretty. there were people that knew about it, knew they were on the take and supported it, and then there were people, there was another faction led by members of churches that just wanted to clean it up. >> uh-huh. >> and there was a split, i think, in beaumont between the people that wanted things to stay the same and the people that wanted things to be cleaned up. and eventually the people that wanted things to be cleaned up won out. >> right. >> but it took a long time. it was a long, drawn-out -- all the way up to the texas supreme court. >> uh-huh. >> i think that what alarmed the people more than the fact there's prostitution and gambling and it was organized was the fact that the public officials were actually getting paid -- >> yeah. >> by, they were, they were getting a slice of the action. >> that's what really alarmed -- >> and interestingly enough, that's what was most upsetting to them.

and not that i it existed because everybody knew what was going on. you would come down here, and you could see what was going on. but the fact that the public officials were profiting from illegal activities, no one could really stomach it. and that's, ultimately, what brought 'em down. well, in 2006 is when they built this correct street entertainment -- crockett street entertainment district. >> uh-huh. and it was real lively at first, it's not quite as lively as it was. but, you know, you can tell that it's a lot quieter here now. >> the economic town turn hit it hard, but these are all, you know, these are restaurants and bars, and i think beaumont -- it started right around the time our book came out, really wanted to create this entertainment district. and probably had we not had such an economic downturn it might

get its swagger back one of these days. >> i'm penny clark, i'm lamar university around conservativist and here we are in the mary and john gray library, and we're in special collections. we are really blessed, we have some really amazing collections. of course, we're responsible, first of all, for university archives, so that includes things like the president's papers, the board of regents' minutes, the college yearbooks. so that's our first priority, is to the take care of the university records. another focus that i'm really especially intrigued by is world war ii. so we have a few pictures here that i think you'd really enjoy taking a look at. this shows, and people would come to work -- i'm going to touch this with my hand because you can see it has a plastic sleeve, so i don't have to worry about leaving fingerprints. um, anyway, you can see here's

the pontoon bridge. we believe this was probably changing a shift. and so there were 10,000 people that worked here. people would come on buses from as far as nag doe shus which is probably two, to two and a half hours away. they would work all day, very, very hard, physically demanding work, 10-hour shift, then take a bus, go home, get up the next morning, maybe milk cows and start another 10-hour shift at the shipyard. so people, everyone was so committed to winning the war. they realized how important it was to defeat nazi germany. and here you can see mrs. mcmaster. her husband was a high official of the shipyard, and you can see she's breaking that bottle of champagne to celebrate the construction of the ship. and people had worked so hard. so many people had to work

together to construct a ship. so when they got one done and they were releasing it into the water, it was a huge event. and people came, celebrities like jack dempsey was here at one of the ship launchings. it was a huge event, huge celebration. in fact, i'll give you a little interesting tidbit. in beaumont for a while they used bananas to grease the way so that the ship could get into the water. and eventually -- even though it was very ecologically sound. it was a very good thing to do because it was during the days of rationing. a lot of people hadn't had a banana in years. and they were outraged that the bananas that they couldn't get were used in what they believed to be a cavalier fashion to red.c. a ship. so they quit doing that. but that was a unique and really interesting thing to do.

um, something else that's really interesting is a woman named dorothy becker. and she taught nursing here at lamar for, i believe, nine years. she was originally from the east. she had grown up in pennsylvania. and she had been educated at columbia university. and during world war ii she met her husband, and she worked t as an army nurse. and this scrapbook is just a phenomenal scrapbook. we are planning to digitize it. you can sees the a little bit fragile, and i am going to wear gloves if i can just speak in and get it -- sneak in and get it. now, different archivists have different views on gloves, and i believe that in most cases they are, you need clean hands to start with, but they're more dangerous than with bare hands. if i have something where i'm going to deal with, touch photos, i always wear gloves.

and so let's take a look,s, and this is a temporary measure. this is not acid-free paper, but this is one of the touching images that she documents. you can see the poor french people, how they've got this tiny little wagon that looks so frail. you can see the baby buggy underneath, behind there, and they're taking a few of their possessions, and they are just leaving because the bombs were so dangerous. it was really a dangerous place to live. and dorothy becker came to work, um, in a couple days after d day. so this is right when things are still, you can see the mud. i think this is just kind of a funny picture because you can see the soldier trying to get through there on the mud. it's a wonderfully rich

scrapbook. there you can see some german casualties. and here you can see -- this is where the nurses are living. you can see their little tents there. she had started, had joined very early and had served for a while, and then she had -- her unit was transferred to -- you can see there's the french flag on the back. you can see the cattle. there's just, to me, there's something really, really touching about these poor people evacuating, afraid for their very lives and rightfully so. and these are just, it's such a wonderful scrapbook. we are planning to digitize it. there you can see the orphan children in luxembourg. and here you can see why the people were evacuating.

look at the damage. that had taken place. this is marvelous. you can see the american army jeep. this is a monastery later used as a prison, just an amazing place to visit. my sister and i went here this summer, and we finally got to the top. i wasn't sure we would, but we finally scaled to the summit. and it was an amazing experience. these are very graphic, so i do caution the people viewing this. but i think it's important because dorothy becker was dealing with people that were badly injured. i think it's so, they're so intense images that you can look at the terrible damage, the terrible casualtieses of war. casualties of war. and it's interesting that she wanted to document this. and here, this is a fascinating picture.

here's -- i think this is mrs. becker. i'm not absolutely certain, but look at this woman. she's got, here she is dealing with such horrible, you know, a young man that a few hours before was a gorgeous young man. now look at the terrible wound he's suffered. but also look and see that she's wearing nail polish. so this is just an amazing scrapbook. you can see here that becker was honored by the french government for her service in the war. >> he had later on after the war, she did teach nursing. at lamar. and so we are honored to have this as part of our collection. >> i'm amelia wiggins, educator of public programs at the stark museum of art, and i'll take you through the making of medieval manuscripts in conjunction with our exhibition, medieval

manuscripts, here at the museum. so in the middle ages books of hours were made from different art supplies than would be made from today. instead of paper, medieval bookmakers used parchment or animal skin like the calfskin on view in the case. in particular it's called vellum, but parchment or animal skin was also made from sheep or goats. the skin would have been pulled from the animal, soaked in water and lime to dehair it and to take out some of the fat or grease, stretched on a frame and then scraped until it was thin, um, similar in thickness to our paper today. once the parchment was prepared, it would be cut into rectangles to be used as pages, and those would go to the scribe whose job it was to write the text of the book by hand. and instead of using a pen like we have today, he would use a

quill made from a feather from a goose or a swan. the feather would be heated in hot sand and cut into a nib that could hold ink. describes also -- scribes also had to make their own ink by hand. they would use the growth on an oak tree to make a dark, tannic ink that was very permanent. and then the scribe would write each letter of each word by hand. he wasn't the author, though. a scribe would usually be writing from a previous text, copying the letters x. in the early middle ages scribes were mostly monks work anything a monastery, but in the late middle ages, um, when books like the ones on view here were written those scribes were usually secular professionals work anything a group of craft -- working in a group of craft people to produce the books. a scribe might carry his pens in a tool called a penner, that's that leather case here in this display, and the penner is what

we saw st. mark's lion holding in one of the illuminations in the books here on view. once the scribe had written all of the text of his page and ruled the page, it would next go to the illuminator whose job was to light up the pages of the books with illustrations. and the illuminator also had to make his own paints actually from organic materials such as minerals, plants and from insects occasionally. he would grind up the mineral or other material and then mix it with glare or egg whites until it was in a liquid form. the most precious paint was la pus hasly which was a semiprecious stone from afghanistan used to make a brilliant blue, and that blue often was used on the garb of the virgin mary to symbolize her importance. once the, um, paint was hixed

the illuminator would first start by adding all of the gold leaf used on the most special parts of the ill humannation. and gold was created from hammered gold coins beaten until they were thin to form leaf and then glued to the page. and only after the gold was down would the illuminator start to paint all of the details of his colors. once the pages had been written and illuminated, they would be folded and nestled into gatherings of four pages like the one on view here. and then those gatherings would go to the bookmaker whose job it was to sew up the book block, and he would use a sewing frame to keep the pages aligned. and then once the book was sewn, he would add covers of wooden boards covered in leather, and then the front of the book would often be deck decorated with

metals and semiprecious stones and leather toolings to make them into the objects of art that we appreciate today. >> do you know how long it would take someone from beginning to end, this whole process, to put a book together? >> it could take over -- it could take years. um, like i said, often times especially in the late middle ages there were crafts people working together in a workshop setting. so sometimes there'd be more than one illuminator working on the book. an apprentice could do the lesser illuminations, and the master would do the most important miniature. depending on the size of the book, over 100 animal skins could be used for the pages alone. so the process was very spencive and could take -- intensive and could take quite a long time. >> next, from beaumont, texas, jeff foray examines the relationship between southern poor whites whites and slaves ie 800s. 1800s. >> a lot of people tend to think

that the segregated south is a timeless phenomenon rather than the result of particular historical circumstances. and like with my book, that -- i look before that period of time, before the jim crow segregated south was institutionalized. to take a look at relationships between blacks and whites of a particular economic category, slaves and poor whites. um, and if you look at that period of time before the civil war of blacks and whites were not segregated. it could not have been otherwise slaves were a captive work force, and you had to have racial interaction between black and white. so that's one of larger misconceptions about race relations in the south is that

there's always been segregation when, in fact, there is not. a lot of your earlier scholarship on slaves and poor whites maintained that their relationships were most notable for their racial hostility, the animosity between the two distinct groups. and while that is true, it's also only, you know, part of the story. that if you take a look at court records and slave narratives, you can find another whole range of relationships as wellment -- as well, that slaves and poor whites inhabited a shared subculture of drinking and gambling and underground trade, illicit sex. that's another part of the story that people are less acquainted with. poor whites most commonly traded

for food that slaves could either grow and sell to them or steal from their master and sell to them. slaves most frequently traded for alcohol which, of course, they could not legal hi purchase. legally purchase. but any number of articles might be traded between slaves and poor whites. clothing, for instance, but pretty much anything. there's a small suggestion that slaves and poor whites could sympathize with one another. there are poor whites, for instance, who do help slaves run away and escape from bondage. but at the same time, a lot of say, for instance, the trade that takes place between them is motivated by the mutual benefits that a i crew to even -- accrue to each group. they did not have to, um, sympathize with one another to

engage in a business relationship. they did not have to feel sympathy toward one another to engage in a sexual relationshipment that might be the case for a small handful, but not necessarily. >> did this relationship change after the slaves were freed? >> certainly, yes. things very definitely do change because now, you know, slaves have been liberated. and that in and of itself is a challenge to the way things had always been. and they become much more threatening. this is why suddenly sexual relationships between freed men and poor white women suddenly become problematic in the post-civil war south. prior to the civil war, those relationships did happen, and

often times communities would tolerate them. not always, and there were, of course, you know, poor white women who would levy rape charges against slaves. but there was no predetermined outcome when those cases went to trial. and in one particular case one of the favorite ones that i uncovered, there was a woman by the name of rachel hullman who lived in anderson district in south carolina. this was in the 1850s. she was walking through the woods, she was carrying a basket of tomatoes with her. when she was accosted by, um, a slave man by the name of louis. and louis attempted to rape her. rachel hullman did everything right. she reported the rape, um, immediately. you could tell that she was

disheveled, her dress was stained by the tomatoes. and and it seemed like, well, gee, maybe louis will wind up being executed for this crime. but at the actual trial, the trial was really all about rachel and whether or not she as a poor white woman merited that kind of justice. the trial became a big investigation of her character as a white woman. does her character, um, suggest that she could have been raped? and through the calling of all of these witnesses at the trial, rachel hullman does not come across very well. it turns out we learn her entire sexual history. we learn that she's slept with four or five different white men, we learn that she had been

seen holding hands with a black boy, and she's maybe 20 years old at this time. that her work routines, the labor that she did, she was so poor she hired out to work for a free black man to pick his cotton. this is a very unusual kind of thing, it's not the kind of thing we don't normally think of. but then that night she stayed at his house. her mother kept a disorderly house, as they called it, where they entertained travelers, um, rachel took in laundry, and there would be, you know, black men coming to pick up their socks in the middle of the night. all of this suggested to them that rachel was, essentially, a prostitute. whether or not she actually sold sexual favors for money, we don't know. but the public opinion was that, indeed, she was.

so louis was found not guilty of this attempted rape. my research focused primarily on north carolina, south carolina and virginia. and what i'm finding there is, you know, pretty consistent. to the extent that there are differences in the degree of contact, a lot of it simply has to do with the demographics of a particular region. if you're looking at, say, the low country of south carolina that's a majority black population, fewer poor whites. so, naturally, there'd be somewhat less contact there. of at the opposite end of the spectrum, if you're looking at the mountainous regions of western north carolina or eastern tennessee, relatively few slaves in those regions. plenty of poor whites. so really i'm finding the best

evidence of these kinds of relationships in that meeting point between. in the piedmont region of north carolina, in the middle and up country of south carolina, this is where i found the best evidence of these kinds of interactions. i look primarily at court records. unfortunately, when you're dealing with poor whites, um, that's about the best record, set of records you can come up with. because the vast majority of them are illiterate, they're not leaving diaries, they're not leaving journals, they're not leaving farm account books because they don't own their farms. they farm somebody else's land, or they work as a hired lay worer. so they -- laborer. so they oftentimes only show up in court records. so that becomes my primary source. along with petitions to governors, slave narratives. ironically, it's actually easier to learn about slaves than it is to learn about poor whites

because you do have the wpa slave narrative project from the 1930s where, you know, government workers went out very specifically to recover the stories of former slaves. and you have the abolitionist movement publishing the autobiographies of slaves that successfully made their escapes. so slaves we know more about, actually, than poor whites. i went through every single sol yule of the wpa slave narratives. it was about three shelf fulls at the library. and looked for every single mention of anyone that the slaves would have referred to as po, white. they recorded those narratives in the dialect. or po white trash. and i just looked to read whatever they had recalled about

the poor whites themselves. and that really gave me a pretty good blueprint for the chapters that i eventually wrote. >> what were they saying about them? >> um, again, it's this complicated mix that there was a mean poor white overseer on the one hand, but then there are also those slaves who respond that there was a really sad poor white family that lived down the road from them. and there was seemingly some recognition of sympathy there. um, what i think most comes out in the slave narratives, though, is how the slaves were placing themselves in a broader scheme of humanity. slaves were very shrewd observers of their world, and they were very much aware that

all white people were not created equal. that, yes, there are very wealthy masters out there, um, but there were also white people who didn't measure up. and they could spot who these people were. and, and you do find especially when you get into slave folk songs and folk tales, you can recognize their understanding that they thought themselves at least as good if not better than this poor white category. in southern society. i thought about this topic for the first time in 1997. i was working on my master's thesis, and i ran across one very interesting slave runaway ad. um, it was in ec lin berg

county, north carolina, which at the time was a very early attempt to mine gold. there was gold discoveries in north carolina. and in this one particular slave runaway ad that i found in one of the local charlotte-area newspaper, they were looking for a slave that they had, that the master suspected had runaway away with a low white man by the name of john understood wood. and -- underwood. and the master who placed this ad believed that john underwood and his runaway slave were working the gold mines of member lin berg county together in secret at night. and the ad says, we find out that john underwood or the shoe maker which would not have been

a very prestigious occupation, we also find out that he was -- and this is the words of the ad itself -- that john underwood was fond of lying and negro -- kitchens. and as a young grad student at the time, i was very much taken by the content of this ad. and i realized that there wasn't really anything out there that addressed this kind of cooperation between a runaway slave and a poor white man. and that was what i decided to do for this book. >> why don't you think people talk about that kind of relationship so much? >> the textbook industry is a tricky one because there's so much to cover that you really have to kind of go with where the major flow, where the major narrative runs.

the kinds of cases that we're finding here, they're not entirely exceptional, but they're also complicated. and textbooks oftentimes head toward the lowest common denominator. and that's really how we wind up losing a lot of our history. ..

he also writes the happy warrior column for the national review and the frequent guest host on rush limbaugh's radio show. live sunday on in-depth your chance to call, e-mail and week with your questions live at noon eastern on booktv on c-span2. >> you read the book about the obamas. like most people live find it very admiring book. the administration as disagreed. they have come out with some comments about you. what is it like to be in a political firefight? what the make of what is happening? >> it is a little strange because i have been covering the obamas for five years for the new york times and it started with a series called long run.

it is about trying to capture the lives of the candidates especially because candidates are so restricted now. is hard to get access to them. one way we learn about them is through their biographys. we delve deeply into their pasts and characters and a couple person. this book is an outgrowth of those stories. would goal of this book was to really write about what i call the big change. one estimate covering barack and michele obama they were barack and michele and the extraordinary thing that i was watching happen was watching these two regular people become president and first lady of the united states and what i was seeing it wasn't a process that happened on inauguration day. it is a huge learning curve made more dramatic in the obama story

because of their freshness to national political life and also because of the fact that with the first african-american president and first lady. we see a couple things happening. two people learning to take their partnership which used to be this private thing and turn it into a white house partnership. we see michel obama have a tough landing in the white house and turn it around. the third thing is the most fascinating thing that i find about barack obama which is his struggle with politics. they still can't get over the fact that it is a complicated relationship. i worked on this book for two years and published it. white house cooperated. i have been working with these folks for years. lots of people in the obama inner circle gave me interviews. they knew what they were getting

into. never misrepresents what i was doing and fact check the book before publication. we published an excerpt on saturday and then two interesting things happened. the first is that people were discussing the book without having read the book. that ever happened to me before because as a newspaper reporter everybody reads your work in the newspaper and the other saying is the white house did start pushing back in some interesting ways but they haven't really challenge the reporting in the book. i haven't gotten a call from david axelrod saying you have got all wrong. something that really surprised me happen to yesterday was michele obama went on tv and she said i am really tired of depictions of myself as an angry black woman.

she also protested portrayals of her fighting director with rahm emanuel. that was fascinating to me because the book definitely does not portray her in any stereotypical way and i'm very clear about the clashes between her and rahm emanuel were philosophical in nature and may be a shouldn't undercuts my own reporting and talk about the differences in approach to political life but that is what they were. he did acknowledge she didn't read the book so i have to imagine she is responding maybe to the coverage of the book instead of the book itself. part of the reason i'm excited to be here tonight is to talk about the actual thing with you and with all of you. >> let's go to the political thing because that is one of the themes running through the book. windier roosevelt went into politics everyone around him said you don't want to do politics. that is beneath people like us.

wear the calls about politics the obamas have? >> part of the reason their qualms are important and not to be dismissed is there similar to the calm lot of us have about politics. we all see what is wrong with the political system. with the glee about it. whether it can really address social needs and what not. this is one of the many things about obama that was such a big asset in the campaign that end of being an editing in the presidency time and again in my reporting. sometimes a simple and complicated way i found he had trouble acting like a politician. a small story is about the first super bowl party in the white house and he is kind to everybody but doesn't want -- to

s this principled objection. in the doesn't want to spend the superbowl -- he has this idea that he wants to hang on to a normal life in the presidency and in my reporting i just watched that idea get tested again and again and again. >> there's another story in the book where he insists on having dinner every night at 6:30 which means he can't be with the other applicant -- powerbrokers. is that a constant theme bigger still wanting to preserve domestic life? >> yes. certainly wanting to preserve domestic life. part of the drama of the situation is barack obama gets to washington. not only does he have not so much managerial or executive or national security or economic experience but he is also never lived in the same house as his family. the first -- the white house is

not in any way, shape or form like a normal life. the 6:30 rule -- he is willing to miss dinner with his family. i find in my reporting the obamas are constantly seeking ways to limit and protect themselves from political life. >> why do you think he ran if he is ambivalent about politics? >> i think it was a rush decision and a hard decision. his aides say that this summer of 2006 -- it was only -- began to sort of test the waters than but the decisionmaking process only went from the summer of 2006 through the fall and what people kept telling him was your time is now. if you miss this window of opportunity may never get it

again. part of the drama of the situation is he is very opposed because of family issues and in part because she learned about a tax and thinks a couple years may benefit him. what the chief of staff said to me is the decision just really weighed on her and in her situation at the time, so dramatic because the way people describe it is the felt her husband would be an exceptional president and yet she really wasn't sure if it was the best thing to her family. how do you choose between what might be good for the country and what might be good for you? >> mitch daniels didn't run for president. his wife had veto power. did they have a discussion back-and-forth? >> yes. the president and first lady have talked about it.

the physical white house is almost a character in this book. i spent a lot of time describing what is actually like to live there and and the restrictions of that life. that is fun to report on and read and there's a little bit of exploratory pleasure in getting inside the house but there are two very substantive things about it and that is the argument of the book. the isolation of the presidency has two import defect on the system. it limits the number of people willing to run for office along with all the other factors but the number of people who are willing to go through a presidential campaign and live this incredibly restrictive life is pretty small. the other thing is we consistently see these presidents get cut off in the

white house and they say it is not going to happen to them and it happens to all of them. >> michele obama is one of the first -- the youngest person to have served as first lady since the sexual revolution. did she because of the generation she is from have a more difficult time than other first ladies being second fiddle? >> it is funny because she is such a pupil of hillary clinton. in my reporting i found again and again she had everybody else had one on the hillary clinton situation and the attacks she went through in the 2008 campaign were really pretty painful farquhar -- for her and everybody around her to be that new to public life and watch herself caricatured that way was really, really hard.

the twist is what her aides talked about was the traditional nature of first lady which was so confining at first and protecting her a little bit. political life is so scattered and so difficult it is another way of limiting. another way of saying i don't do policy. i don't have to be part of this discussion, won't get engaged in these kinds of debates. said there's something predictive about that role. now, of course a much more prominent role in the presidential message which she wanted in the first place. >> other moments of toughness that she displays are almost real vulnerability. there's one episode you describe where she is wearing normal schwartz to go to the grand canyon and robin givens said

they were not normal shorts and she was wondering if she was letting the team down. how do you weigh the balance of fulmer ability and fierceness that alternates in the book? >> that is part of what i think is so fascinating. part of the reason -- let's banish the phrase a green black woman from the culture. not only for the stuff but part of the reason that caricature of her is so wrong is it mixes vulnerability and the anxiety. that is the word there are 8 views. they don't call her angry. they call her anxious. the point in my reporting that i found her fuming was after the scott brown victory. scott brown wins.

this has devastating consequences for the president's legislative agenda. is in jeopardy now. she is two issues with her husband's team. she doesn't understand how they could have let this happen, how they could have dropped the ball in the race. the other issue which is more to the heart of the presidency is she always had this idea that her husband is going to be a transformative president. she never liked politics. if you are going to go into politics you have this lofty vision of who you are going to be. the administration like the nebraska one that were very unpopular and didn't look that great and barack obama was looking like a more ordinary politician and that is what she was reacting to. that is why the partnership is so interesting.

not that we are delving into the secrets of their marriage but looking at her vision of the presidency and the standards she has and whether she can meet them. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. c-span covered the books covered on "booknotes" to george mason university outside washington d.c.. the university is currently cataloging the collection at the fan with a library. "booknotes" which was hosted by brian lamb aired from 1989 to 2004. john zenelis, university librarian, shows us the collection entitled "beyond the book". >> the mind of brian lamb, this book is the genesis.

all the "booknotes" programs on c-span -- by reading this book he decided he wanted to interview the author and that gave him the idea that -- of "booknotes". it would be worthwhile for him to read a lot of books and talk to the authors. >> host: 801 total episodes of "booknotes". this was the first official "booknotes". >> guest: exactly. dr. bzrzinsky was the chair of the institute of the council of the carter administration. >> host: john zenelis, when you pick the books to go in these, who carries this? >> several of my colleagues in the special collections and archives area. they made the collection of the

works to be highlighted and the annotations accompanying each of the items and they chose a question on the "booknotes" televised program and produced the answer, the response to that question. >> host: you can see a lot of the notes taken while reading the book. when you put these books in the cases did you look for varying points of view like c-span does in general? >> exactly. as i mentioned, one of the criteria was reflect the broad perspective involved in "booknotes" and to that is exactly the point. areas subjects covered in the

800 one books and certainly many points of view from a political perspective and social perspective. bill all kinds of perspectives. >> host: is this archive available for scholars or the public to see as well? >> beginning to become available. library staff are in the process of cataloguing the collection. we are 40% through it at this point. 40 titles have been catalogued. they are available to any student faculty membership at the university and of course because this information is accessible through the world wide web elsewhere. >> in the united states and abroad so you will put on the george mason website. >> guest: most definitely. >> host: john zenelis, we have seen some of the books on

display but you also have posters throughout the library and i want to start with this one from my l linn's "booknotes" interview. what we looking at here? >> pieces of paper. one is a page from the riding had that has brian lamb's notes about the book and then we have an envelope from a bill, like verizon, there has not been additional notes including some personal information. in naples, florida. i understand it was first person that employed brian lamb in a professional capacity. chose brian lamb to maintain

relationships throughout his life with elderly man tours. >> host: let's continue by looking get the full collection if we could. >> the focus of the posters is to connect this part of the exhibit to the other part of the exhibit which is the third building of this building. >> can the public come through here and see these books? >> guest: most definitely. we are in the other part of the exhibit which is outside the special collections and archives area. we have a three display cases containing materials from the book's collection. in this particular case it is not just the books but we also

have what we consider archive part of the collection which is relating to the book of cornell west and it is john cold frame --coltrane part of the music. >> to all the books have notes like this one? >> it varies. i understand from brian that originally he was not making annotations with in the books themselves. he was making notes separately. he >> reporter: some of those notes but not all of them. later on as the program progressed he had been making

notes in the books themselves. >> in the long term will that be opened as it is now? to the air and the light? >> guest: all physical materials deteriorated but in special collections in archives bleak as the we have a special environmental condition to preserve paper and anything that is written on paper. under proper care, this writing should last for centuries. this particular books can only be used on site. special collections and archives to which we will be going later. however, we have other copies available in the general collection of all the libraries

available. >> host: for more notes from one of the books, why did this one get blown up? what was special about this one? >> we a understand paul farrow is one of the favorite authors of brian. as you can see from this, be blown up notes, he became interested in this particular book and that is why we chose it. all of the significance far as to the arthur. >> host: you have a letter to brian from betty. >> guest: representing -- this book reconsidered for "booknotes". i should point out the late prof.... --lipson was a

professor at this university with another book by a mason prof. which is say cheese, which by the way is the only fiction book to be highlighted in the "booknotes" program. >> the rest of the 801 books. >> guest: these books are shelved in the order that they were in brian lamb's office at c-span and in the order of the televised program. >> host: beginning here except for the ones that are taken out -- [talking over each other] >> guest: were exhibited volumes belong. >> host: the books in order. did you watch -- did you watch

"booknotes"? >> i was a regular "booknotes" viewer. when brian lamb announced the program was coming to an end i made a mental note that the next day i needed to look into the matter of whether we could obtain the collection in the associated archive from the organization. we made contact with mr. brian lamb and visited him and presented three separate proposals from 2005 from 2010. convinced brian that george

mason university would be a good home for the collection. more importantly, he was impressed with what we are planning to do with this collection. this collection is innovated with teaching and learning activities for the university. we will be working with several academic departments to make sure this is integrated into appropriate portions at the undergraduate and graduate levels so that our students will have access to primary research materials as they explore the various subject areas that they are engaged with. >> for more information on the "booknotes" collection visit the george mason university website at library.gmu.edu.

here is a look at some of the books being released this week. james simon details the struggle to bring the country out of the great depression in fdr and chief justice use:the president, supreme court and the epic battle over the new deal. in killing the messenger, a story of racism and backlash and assassination of a journalist, award winning investigative reporter thomas appealed tells the story of a murdered journalists chauncey bailey in oakland, california in 2007. prize-winning journalist and first-time author katherine boo examines families in the struggling city in behind the beautiful forever, life, death and hope in a move are under city. in latin lessons, help america stop listening to the united states and start prospering, financial times midwest bureau chief examine the diminished role the united states is

playing in south american trade and argues the relationship needs to be reestablished. natalie dykstra looks at why the wife of henry adams decided to take her own life in clover adams:a gilded and heartbreaking life. most of these titles in bookstores this week and watch for the authors in the near future on booktv. >> to get right into what i want to set the stage a little bit about the 1930s and to explain part of what led to world war ii being such an upheaval for the united states were the policies of franklin roosevelt during the 1930s. to give you some statistics i will be brief on those. for instance factory output, the output of american industry increased every decade beginning in 1899 for the following ten

years, factory output up 4.7% from 1909 to 1919 was up 3.4% every year. 1919 to 1929, the roaring '20ss factory production was up 5.1% each year but 1929 to 1939 it decreased slightly every year during the 1930s. so our industrial complex by 1939 has aged. it is called of touch with cutting edge innovations going on in europe and elsewhere, and suddenly we're faced with this problem of a military complex in europe and we don't have anything to compete with them. i mentioned in the book that army chief of staff douglas macarthur at one point