people simulator slight echo and it's very sweet, but honestly this is the hill to die on. it's all very well. and i think actually you will start seeing this. it's interesting, i think you'll see the rich fling for bunkers around the planet, bermuda might be agreeable for a while, and new zealand might be okay. but in the end it's not going to be a pleasant place to be. it's america grows into the post posterity ruins. this really is the hill to die out and the hill to take a stand up and i get very worthy. a friend of mine told me after the collapse of lehman brothers in 2008, he goes have lunch with his broker. .. ..

we should have been thinking. charles -- decline is a choice and he is right. it is a psychological condition. it is not an option for the united states. for france after the second world war decline is a choice because it is cushioned by the united states. when the united states slide off a cliff most of the functioning have of the planet will fall off with them. this is no time to make like a

rack and get on the ship to new zealand. even if the ship appears to be sinking the rack should try to save it. >> host: don, you are on with mark steyn. >> caller: thank you and good afternoon. thanks to you and the staff for a quality program. thank you for your body of work. clearly you are a student and passionate about history. your book "lights out" talks about the impact of political islam. how relevant and instructive is the history of islamic imperialism in informing us about attacks today? if history can be a teacher and a predicted how do we go about changing the way islamic history is presented in the world history textbooks used throughout our country in the

seventh and eighth grade which are filled with inaccuracies, biases and misrepresentations of history? >> guest: we don't really have history in the american public system in a coherent sense anymore. is mostly subsumed within so-called social studies. history is not -- history merits respect sufficient that richard have its own place in the curriculum and be taught in a coherent way. with regard to islamic imperialism it is fascinating that everything that has happened there are times foretold by the early years of muslim extension. we accept -- the muslim world operates with an efficiency that brezhnev in the late period soviet union could only admire.

once they take the land they hold the land. when president obama went to, a row to give a speech to the muslim world was fascinating as much as anything else was he actually said--the new york times said president obama goes to give a speech to the muslim world. they would never speak of the christian world in that sense. no one uses the word christian them. the muslim world is asking how did it get to be the muslim world? we talk about mesopotamia as the cradle of civilization but this civilization it was the cradle of -- is now a muslim country. we talk in our own time about egypt. when the kingdom of egypt was founded in 1922, the second finance minister was a jew. it is inconceivable. all the jews have left egypt

now. it would be inconceivable for a jew to be finance minister in egypt. when you study the history of muslim expansionism in its first centuries from spain to india, in more recent times you understand that this is a religion but is also an imperialists project in a way that christianity was not. if you look at the differences between christ's final message to his disciples and mohammad, muhammed basically says go around the world and make them submit to islam by conquest. christ says taken around the world and preach to them and convert them which is what happened.

there's a fundamental difference, most universalist religions that islam takes an entirely different view in the temporal world and that is something we should study honestly and reach our own conclusions about. >> host: the washington post says mark steyn is the world's wittiest op-ed writer. this is mark steyn's passing parade, obituaries and appreciations and when strom thurmond died you wrote about closing counter with him and you say you were on the elevator with him and senator barbara boxer and you were shoved into the middle of the two of them. she gave an involuntary shudder. i was squashed between the two for five seconds when i was aware of a strange tickling sensation on my elbow. slanting down on was horrified to see an unusually large lizard slithering up and down my arm.

what happens? >> guest: strom thurmond -- for get hold the was when he died. 110 one everett was. he got confused and thought he was hitting on barbara boxer. he was actually fondling my hand. he married a succession -- several miss south carolinas. the last one was miss south carolina 1993 or whatever. i felt like one of those. i love writing. strom thurmond is a gift to an obituary. i love writing obituaries. you have to have an affection for the character. if i am honest i would say that

is the book of mine that i most enjoyed reading. is a miniature art, the obituary. i love to write about characters like strom thurmond. >> host: we have 50 minutes left with mark steyn on our live program and your calls continue in just a moment.

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>> here are the >> here are the best-selling nonfiction books as of jan. 29 to. topping the list is talk show host marc levin's new book me t meritopi meritopica. american military history. third on the list let walter isaacson's biography of steve jobs. bill o'reilly and martin dugard are fourth followed by nfl quarterback tim tebow's memoir, "through my eyes." number six is "unbroken" by laura hillen brand. then the influence of human thought processes in "thinking fast and slow." followed by jodi kantor's intimate look at the first family in "the obamas." sally smith is ninth with her in-depth look of the queen of

england in "elizabeth the queen." and then catherine the great: portrait of a woman, by robe >> for more on these bestsellers good to nytimes.com. each year booktv brings several events from across the country. here's a look at some of the upcoming fares and festivals we plan on covering this year. the first will be the fifth annual savannah book festival for president's day weekend. live coverage on saturday, february 18th will talk about several presentations including pulitzer prize finalist sec quinn. on march 10th and eleventh booktv will be live from the tucson festival of books on the campus of the university of arizona. festival coverage includes numerous author talks and poets ranging from the great depression to forensic science. in late march booktv visits charlottes ville, virginia for the virginia festival of the

book. for complete list of upcoming book fares and festivals is a booktv.org and click on the book fares apps at the top of the page. please let us know about book fairs and festivals in your area and we will lead them to our list. e-mail us at booktv@c-span.org. >> host: 45 minutes left on superbowl sunday with mark -- mark steyn. numbers are on the screen. you can dial in if you have a question and we will continue with our calls. scott in tucson, arizona. >> caller: great honor to speak to you. a two part question. some has been previously answered. the enormity of the u.s. military and especially its legacy weapons, nuclear defense,

how will that come into effect in the decline of america and the decline of the west? will that act as a backstop or break? secondly if america is to decline waterfall off a cliff and potentially breakup how do you see that we chris dewitt breakup regionally? i will take my answer on the tv. thank you. >> guest: this is a question about the nuclear arsenal that looks at the -- with the whole place goes belly up and nukes fall into the wrong hands which is fascinating. i think the problem with being a nuclear superpower is if you

look at laugh omar he had osama bin laden and the guys living in his country flaunting what if it had gone right, would have not just taken out not just the world trade center but if the plane had made its target taken now even the capital or the white house. that was where the plane that came down in pennsylvania was supposed to be heading to the white house or the capital. he was -- would have decapitated the united states of america. he had no fear whatsoever that the united states would respond by nuking his country. no fear whatsoever and nor do any of the people running around causing america such takes and bleeding america for ten years nor did they have any worries that america is going to nuke them. in a sense having all those nuclear weapons does not act as a deterrent. people assume you will always

fight with one hand tied behind your back. i don't think the united states would nuke nagasaki or he regime of these days. probably not going to play well. we will go through a filthy and conclusive land war for years on end well, for long it takes. that becomes a great problem when you are perceived as having a huge advantage in weaponry but lacking the will and strategic clarity. when scott makes his point about what things are like when the united states in post prosper united states, we talk about overlapping zip code, people retreating into the shadows of the personal away so-called undocumented americans do these days, i happen to be a legal if cumin slam documented -- i think i know the document and frankly enjoy living in the shadows as opposed to living in the glare

of the irs and all rest of it. i think we will see a great increase in that and you will start to see -- calling from phoenix or tucson -- if you go south of tucson is fascinating. there is a sign -- you see signs saying proceed farther at your own risk on united states interstates the risk the united states no longer runs. you will see that kind of sovereignty moving farther and farther up the country to the southwest. if the dystopian scenario came to pass you would start to see fiscally prudent states like wyoming -- why would they wish

to be bankrupt to bailout california or new york or new jersey. the question then becomes will they refuse certain federal fiats and what will the government of the united states do about it? i can't see these guys willing to be able -- willing to wage a war -- you will start to see in affect the kind of green zone scenarios that there would be a nominal sovereignty exercised over the 50 states but it would bleed away pretty quickly. i don't think -- i hope the after america scenario doesn't come to pass but i think the idea -- a large country can't -- iceland can collapse and rebuild itself and even grease can collapse and rebuild itself but a nation of three hundred million from maine to hawaii cannot collapse and reconstitute

itself in the same form. >> host: your statistics concerning fish islam in europe and the multiculturalism of america are very impressive yet your warnings are toothless without a call for the cessation of third-world immigration to western nations. why invade or drone strike afghanistan and pakistan while at the same time accepting the times square bomber as a new immigrant and u.s. citizen? >> guest: a would disagree with that. i am an immigrant and i tend to feel uncomfortable talking about immigration issues for that reason. i am not sure -- having been admitted to this country is not my business to tell you pull up the drawbridge and keep everybody else out but there's a difference between individual immigration and mass emigration

and i think mass emigration is a very difficult to justify in a rational sense. the way western nations have found to justify it is as a sign of moral virtue. we concoct -- we concoct various reasons no one is quite persuaded by. president bush's line we need immigrants to come here to do the jobs americans won't do. the question is why won't americans do those jobs? in part because it has become very difficult -- people stay in college longer and no one wants to do casual agricultural labor for a couple of summers or whenever but dependence on mass emigration is always a weakness. always a structural weakness and you should address it as a structural weakness rather than using it as an opportunity to

flaunt your multiculturalism. it is the tragedy of postwar europe that rather than address the structural weaknesses it chose to transform itself demographically and there will be consequences for that. until 19 -- until mid 1960s every midwestern european nation took an entirely normal that it had the right to determine who it gave access to its society to. the times square bomber is not an american and never pretended to be an american. >> the system has all manner of other people gain the system year in and year out in the united states and canada and britain and europe and australia. at some point western emigration authority's have to say what is the cost benefit analysis? 30% of french imams. the economic rationale makes no

sense. if you look at a suburb of stockholm, extraordinary proportion of middle-aged immigrant women are claiming welfare. this idea that somehow everyone outside the western world, hard working honest virtuous people who want to come and work from dawn filled till dusk in the way that decadent western nations no longer do, even if that were true they land at the airport and figure out in 6 weeks their living in very generous welfare state and figure out how to gain the system. there is no rational basis for mass emigration other than the fact that it enables guilt ridden white liberals to flaunt their multi-cultural society is and it is fascinating that japan is in a demographic crisis but in an odd way we bet on japan being of the first western

nation to figure out some way through it because it doesn't have the competing problems of mass immigration. jim >> host: in "mark steyn's american songbook" mr steyn writes an election is one tuesday every other november. the cultures every day every month every year. politicians are for the most part finger in the wind bunch. like milton friedman says, don't wait for the right people to get elected. to greet the conditions by which the wrong people are forced to do the right thing. this e-mail from tim long. enjoy reading -- this tweet -- enjoy reading mr. steyn's work but can't reconcile respect for his riding with him hosting for a demagogue like rush limbaugh.

>> guest: many people who criticize russia doesn't listen to him. he has great with. you can do that three of the day without being witty, without being able to see the comedy in your own side. to connect that to the passage you read, what people resent about him is he doesn't subscribe to the niceties of the broader culture. this is the difficulty for the right. i guest host for him and i love guest hosting for him and every time my guest host a couple people say would you like to do your own talk-radio show and i say the right doesn't need one. we have conquered that market. we have a handle on it. it would make more sense if some guy wants to host the three are talk radio show and decide you wants to write a sitcom or make a movie or buy newspaper or operate in any of those parts of

the cultures that the right has abandoned. that is what the 2008 election confirmed. barack obama is a cultural figure rather than a conventional political figure in the sense that joe biden -- he is the product of the broader cultural smog. right is largely bewildered as to how he managed to get elected. to go back to that point if you say -- if you concede sitcom's and you concede newspapers and the main line churches and the motion picture industry and university and high school and middle schools and kindergartens, why be surprised -- it becomes more and more

difficult to pull the lever for conservative candidates every other november? the whole social justice climate change -- too much of this is the air that we breeze. we have to get back in the game, on the front where we -- we have to get back in the game on television, pop music and other areas. >> host: in "america alone" even if you're a moderate muslim why should he be expected to take on the most powerful men in islam one west media and political class merely pander to them? what support does the culture give to those who speak out against the islamists? iranians declared a fat what on stalin rushdie and he had to go into hiding while the government continued funding on the regime that issued the death sentence. the dutch film makers and go

spoke out and was murdered. the centers of hollywood were too busy congratulating themselves on their courage and bravery in standing up to george bush to mention their dead colleague in the week the oscar montage of the year's deceased. to speak out against the islamists means to live in hiding and under armed security in the heart of the so-called free world. >> which i think it's disgraceful. go back to the business of van gogh who was murdered in the streets of the netherlands and a letter threatening similar death -- pin to the poor guy's chest, the oscar ceremony that year, i forget what they were congratulating themselves on. george clooney had made a film on mccarthy. the most significant event of the last five millennia and they will be making films about

mccarthy 1,000 years from now and congratulating themselves cells. this is a guy who was murdered because he made a film. why isn't he here in the oscar obituary montage? very bizarre. i was sent a copy of builder's forthcoming book. again, has a particular view on islam but ever since the murder of a van gogh he has lived under armed guard. hollywood said he has never seen since whenever van gogh was murdered in 2000 to, in the last decade has never seen a film, beginning or end of a film, occasionally -- he and his wife would like to go out and see a movie. they will be taken out and go and see harry potter or whatever but they miss the first ten manhattan they will miss the last week and minute because to get them into the theater with

bodyguards requires that kind of fence. it is despicable for hollywood not to show solidarity with these people. in my own profession, writers congratulate themselves on showing courage and the rest of that. the solidarity that was shown with stalin rushdie by his dinner party back in the 80s would not be shown now. as the south park incident illustrated. everyone goes quietly about it these days. had to cancel an appearance at a literary festival in india a couple days ago. he would be the first to say is that even the tepid support he received almost 25 years ago he would not get now.

>> guest: next call, 30 minutes left, comes from ohio. you are on booktv. >> caller: thank you for the work you have done and the risks you have taken on behalf of free speech. i would like to recommend to the viewers that if they want to see some really chilling examples of what could happen when political correctness is enacted into law they ought to nose around youtube and watch the encounters you had in canada. what i really want to ask you about is -- you list of the as one of your influences. i admire greatly and i wondered if you could comment a little

bit about her and if you met her and you might be able to tell stories about her. >> guest: i usually run into her at these conferences were we are speaking and for a long time -- she is a dutch some of the lady and she was a member of parliament in the netherlands. he wrote the film that got them go murdered and has had to live under armed guard. she would be flanked -- she is very tall. somali women are very tall. dutch men are also the tallest men in the developed world. so she used to come into the room, this beautiful, paul laxalt woman with these tall dutch bond very aryan white men flanking her. they look like that vegas act.

she looked like some kind of singer -- i found that oddly memorable when she did that. here is why i put her on that list. she had a choice. when her director was murdered she could have done the easy saying, hopped on a plane and gone to in new zealand of the personal change turn a man had a quiet life or attempted to have a quiet life faraway and retreated from the world and she didn't. she said i won't put up with this. she wanted -- she believed -- i don't agree with her on everything but i think she is absolutely clear slated on the importance of not surrendering and not handing people who try to shut you up a victory by

going away to the other side of the world and leading a quiet life. every time i get stupid death threats from islam and bar have had enough i would like to go away. i wish it was 20 years ago when you never had to hear about this stuff and i would like to go back to writing about well love songs and favorite singers. if she can put up with this stuff the least i can do is put up with it too. i congratulate her on her courage. diamond slightly in all of her courage. the least that those of us who operate in this sphere can do as well is say i am with ayaan ali you have to have a lot of the heading videos because you have to chop all up. that is why -- >> host: steven says you are

still in noncompliance with the new york state bureau of compliance. >> guest: i love this country but i have no idea what a bureaucratic held it is. i made a mistake of hiring somebody from new york state which i will never do again. no disrespect but i never had more paperwork to deal with. i would hire somebody, hire somebody from the solomon islands rather than new york state. after changing workmen's compensation and all the other things we have to do for the privilege of hiring somebody at paying the mobility tax and all this other stuff, i was in the office one morning and my assistant is looking around action faced at an official looking envelope and it is a letter from the new york state bureau of compliance in forming as we are in noncompliance with

the new york state bureau of compliance and the fine is $14,000 which sounds to me like a suspiciously round number. i would have found it more plausible if it was $40,073.83. i was shocked by this at first but i now put it on my business card. mark steyn, author and columnist and full non compliance with the new york state bureau of compliance. we should all be. i am interested as we became in to societal ruling and forming an alliance of noncompliance. it is what is needed in the face of this hyperbureaucratic state. >> host: did you pay them the money? >> guest: they have to plot that from my cold dead hand. i gave a speech in albany that i

said to the people if you do hear the doors being kicked down it is the bureau of compliance swat team after their 14 grand. they wasted all the money -- new york state commuter mobility tax. they don't need another 14 grand from me. >> host: genes as i'm starting at the best and the charter school from the hillsdale curriculum guide. i need to stock our library. do you have any books you would recommend for children but original kindergarten through eighth grade? >> guest: i am thinking of doing an anthology of children's literature. one of the things -- the host, stephen friar who plays believes in the pbs series g use and

worse her, the host -- he had that question that fell out of his -- he picked it up very coolly and set i will take questions from the floor. i am thinking of doing an anthology of children's literature because i am horrified at the sort of sold sapping quality of a lot of books grade schoolers read. one of these things i like about classic children's literature is they are not sparing about the realities of life. a bloging conrad of mine california blame sesame street for demonsterization the of childhood. original cookie monsters harmful teaching that monsters are just

cuddly friends. they haven't offered enough cookies yet. i prefer classic children's literature, a greater sense of the realities of life from the brothers grimm than from the cookie monster. i may yet do a children's anthology. >> host: i finished broadway babies and wonder if you could say some words about the state of broadway in the years since your book especially i am interested in what you think of a more irreverent shows like book of mormon and avenue q, and what it is like to be a conservative who enjoys broadway. >> guest: i am very grateful to my show-biz friends because there will be a point they are at a dinner party in new york or

beverly hills where the rest of the crowd will say you are a friend of mark steyn? i am grateful for their support. i love the heyday of the fear. when you see the book of mormon or the producers, mel brooks's highly skilled broadway version of his film, in a sense -- would you have gone there is in a sense a skilled mimicry of the form but it is not actually -- it is not as satisfying if you read the first night of showboat in 1927, december 26th and you are sitting in the front row and you are hearing old man river for the first time and hearing make-believe for the first time and you are hearing this amazing

music for the first time and i all the time i was a theater critic always wanted to feel the way you feel at rodgers and hart show in the 1930s leaders the hearing lady and the tramp for the first time or be which and bewildered for the first time. what must that feel like? you are hearing my funny valentine. to be on the ground floor of something that is going to be forever. going to the book of mormon or the drowsy chaperoned or avenue cue is not the same. not necessarily the fault of the creators of those shows but broadway's relationship to the sort of central cultural thruway of american life has changed. i'd don't know how you get back to that. i don't know how places of different responses. if you go to the west end in

london is full of lousy third rate -- there's a rod stewart musical. rod stewart -- i have nothing against -- actually i have. terrible album this, the great american songbook and everything. the delightful darling fellow but with the best will in the world the idea of taking all of his hits and putting them in a show and calling in a musical, is not a musical. these are responses to the fact that musical theater is no longer the central freeway of popular culture. rod stewart musical -- i would be in favor of a rod stewart musical in canada are --kandahar mullah belmar had band music in afghanistan. they have all these illegal cassettes of rod stewart's singing if you want my body and

you think i am sexy which was his favorite song the. and like to say that. i am hoping -- in whichever cave he is holed up in, we understand he is not quite on board with the strictures of music and when they catch up with him his rod stewart tapes will count against him. >> host: what are your broadway friends and what politics have you discussed with them? >> guest: when america alone came out i used to get a lot of e-mails at pretty a list celebrities in hollywood. they all ended with i love your book and it is terrific but please don't mention my name. the idea was above the title, not being able to say you like

"america alone" is bewildering to me. i have been around and i love that. to me personally, there is nothing like sitting at the back of a theatre which i do occasionally for friends or producers, a show that is trying out or just sitting at the back and looking at maybe this number in act ii if it was moved from here to hear and that is fascinating to me and i love doing that and i still get -- the sort of show bizy side -- tim bennett the other day--the tenth anniversary of 9/11 he did one of these who are the real terrorist things. you have to accept that some

guys are called sports, they are so unique and special they are in a world of their own and the idea, tony bennett's in the. why would you expect him to have a coherent view of geostrategic frets. >> host: you talked about a political conversation with elaine stretch. we are cable. we are warning you have time. >> guest: of brassy broad who sings i am still here and has a very funny 1-woman show, she is getting up there in years. she had a review in the 40s. the first song she sang was i don't want to leave the condo. i was on a show with her.

and she sank that and the host said who wrote that song and she said i am ashamed to say i have forgotten. can think of the name. i was sitting there and chipped in and said bob hillyard and connell sigmund and she went on to politics and she and i did not agree on anything in that sphere and she turned to me and those you may be full of shit but dino that you know who wrote bon bongo. >> host: we will let you quickly make a comment about mitt romney. >> caller: he said that count. [talking over each other] >> caller: i just want to ask you, i enjoy it when you

substitute for rush limbaugh. a bunch of us are fired up about mitt romney. what do you think about his being elected president? i hope you say he will be elected president. >> guest: he is on course to the nomination. that is the way is. he had a blowout in nevada. newt gingrich did himself huge damage by scheduling this press conference and complaining bitterly about the unfairness. it is unfair. that is what it is. i doubt whether you could construct an entirely rational system to devise a nominee for the presidency of the united states. it is what is. newt gingrich warning about the unfairness made him look pathetic. i thought regardless what one feels about mitt romney's performance in nevada and newt

gingrich's reaction to it told its own story. i think he is going to be the nominee. i hope he means what he said. if obamacare is not killed stone dead in the next year it will never be killed and government health care fundamentally transform the relationship between the citizen and the state. i don't want to see that. i hope mitt romney honors the three or four key pillars of his platform and we will be in better shape. to go back to that line i used -- china is on course to become the dominant economic power. that means this will be the first president since grover cleveland to find themselves in the number 2 role. mitt romney i hope understands how important it is if he finds himself in that position to be

committed to reversing it and rolling it back because we need serious course correction. >> host: in our time mark steyn rights being born a citizen in the united states is to be winning first prize in the lottery of life and too many americans assume it will always be so. do you think the laws of god will be suspended in favor of america because you were born in it? great convulsions lie ahead and at the end we may be in a post anglo sphere. >> guest: i was modifying cecil rhodes and george bernard shaw. that was a great line. to be born and englishmen is to win first prize in the lottery of life. today to be born and american is to win first prize. that is what the fellow that wall street don't get. the guy who gets up in bank of more, over chinese, goes to work and put in a full shift at the

factory to make the little toys the guys protesting at occupy wall street listen to their music on. there is no permanent law of the planet earth that says the guy who works harder than you to make your little toys should always be poorer than you in perpetuity and you shall always live better than him because you were born in berkeley. those are not permanent facts of life and the complacency, we were talking the 1950 american moment. what is pathetic about the occupy wall street guys is their assumptions of permanence about the 1950 american moment are as complacent as their grandparents in that sense.

eventually no economic reality -- he works harder, eventually he get the bigger bang for the buck and a guy lying around doing half a decade of complacency, that simply does not have economic value in the real world. the facts of life eventually reassert themselves. that is the point george bernard shaw was making. >> host: c.j. in montana. >> caller: i have two questions for you. one, you were talking a while ago about decreasing liberties in this country. >> guest: that is right. >> host: are you still with us? you got to hurry because we are almost out of time. degreasing liberties. please go ahead. i apologize.

for whatever reason the phone has gone out. john in louisville, kentucky. go ahead with your question for mark steyn. >> caller: i am with my son david. we are both huge fans. it is an honor to speak with you. if you ever need to get to the bible belt you can visit us in your conservative bubble. you would be very comfortable. >> guest: last, was in louisville landed there prior to visiting santa claus, indiana just across the border not too far away. >> caller: a quick question. i talked to some of my conservative friends and something that is a common feeling is when we act as christians and try to speak out as conservatives consistent with what we talk about we feel like

we are acting alone against a group, it felt like he was running a flat against an army and turned around and no one is running with him. for question would be short of our major cataclysms or some gross overreach that tend to unite conservatives together is that an issue that you see? we tend to ask -- act as individuals -- >> host: we will leave it there. >> guest: it is never a numbers game. the people who mean it tend to get it. to go back to what we were talking about.

when muslims complain about danish cartoons versus what happens when catholics complained about terence mcnally's flag. at a certain visceral level the authorities understand that the muslim complainant's mean it. it is never a numbers game. it is about credibility. it is about speaking up. it is about speaking up forcefully. the ideas that looking around and expecting their to be 20,000 people standing behind you, one day there will be. but if you wait for the crowd of 20,000 people to be there before you speak up it will be too late. i shouldn't tell this to americans. as canadians will point out of a majority of the population in new york state were not in favor of the american revolution. wasn't a numbers game back then. if you go to the empire loyalist

parts of ontario where people who fled new york state after the revolution, a lot of them wound up, is not a numbers game. it is about the power of ideas. don't schedule a meeting and expect there to be 20,000 people there. there will be 20 people if what you say is right. then the next meeting between 200 and then there will be 20,000. you can't wait for a majority. power of ideas is not driven in that. >> host: final question from jim heinz to send 1,000 tweets today. what is your favorite? are they just -- >> guest: eva -- tim rice is an old friend of mine and i would be remiss -- tim is a very

gifted lyrics and writer. he does not write the way loren's heart does. there is a voice and a distinctive use of language. i love language. tim -- without a christmas record for perry como and halfway through a bunch of kids start singing in german and i said to him, did you write the german leader? i just wrote the or english lyrics and halfway through a game came in and started waltzing away in germany. if only someone takes pleasure in language would use that phrase. >> host: we have been talking with author mark steyn. very quickly here are his books. "broadway babies say goodnight". "the face of the tiger". "from head to toe". "america alone".

"mark steyn's passing parade". "mark steyn's american songbook". "a song for the season". "lights out". the most recent "after america". steynonline is his website. we appreciate your time on booktv. thanks for being with us. >> visit booktv.org to ask any programs you see on line. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of a page and click search. you can share anything you see easily by clicking share on the upper left side of the cage and selecting the format. booktv streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with not know -- top nonfiction books. booktv.org. >> winston churchill graces the cover of world and the balance. the perilous month -- "world in the balance: the perilous months of june-october 1940". what was going on in great britain june through october of

1940? >> the nazis had overrun nearly all of europe. they controlled from the atlantic circle of northern norway through the southern part of europe and the lot of people want that collapse or cave in in a matter of weeks. france has been overrun, several weeks, many people thought that britain would follow. it didn't happen. this is the story about why that didn't happen. churchill's leadership was a big part of it. the british people rallied to winston churchill. the germans couldn't come across the channel on account of the royal navy but they did send

thousands of airplanes to bomb britain in hopes of invading britain eventually. they couldn't overcome the royal air force. eventually october came along. bad weather began. the germans couldn't invade britain and they had to put off any invasion plan until spring. this is the story about those months. they were critical months. >> after the bombing ended did the bombing end in october? >> it continued. in britain they had a battle of briton and then the bullets -- blitzkrieg. the germans continued to bomb mainly at night. the battle of britain was

basically in the daylight. and they couldn't overcome the fighter arm of the royal air force and couldn't invade. that is what the battle of britain was about. >> was there a time in between june and october of 1940 when it looks really bad for great britain? >> there were a number of times it looks really bad. in june was the end of the dunkirk battle and it looked pretty bad then. and again in september, very critical months. the royal air force was not really sure they could maintain air superiority over southern england. submarine warfare was very critical at this point. it was a very close call. it was a close thing. >> b