>> "john f. kennedy: the new frontier president" is the name of the book. it's published by nova publishers, and professor david see, jafa history department at lynchburg university is the author. doctor steve, let's talk about the series of the books. >> this is a series that nova publishers started to about six years ago. i did contract before the. the idea was to get a series on the president's that the general reader, students at college or even advance high school students could turn to get basic information on the president of the united states. >> why are you writing about john kennedy? >> it started with my dissertation, which became a book. i focus on the eisenhower presidency, but crossed over to the kennedy years. so i got a taste of kennedy, the late 1990s, and so that's that might interest to find a little bit more about him. when this series came out and

they need office, and asked me if i wanted to do the kennedy book, and i said sure. i do know a lot about him at this stage other than what i've read, but it would be any challenge, a good follow-up to what i done on ice now. and put more challenge than i thought it would be, but i enjoyed it immensely. he's very different from eisenhower. eisenhower was much older, different generation. eisenhower had been, you know, a five general in world war ii, born in the 19th century. kennedy much younger, by about three decades. and a different perspective, different level of energy, different political views, and so that pose a challenge. kennedy was different from eisenhower in some of his actions. eisenhower was generally -- i knew that would be a challenge.

>> how do you address the? >> i want students and the general public to understand that he was slaughtered like anybody else. -- he was a lot like anybody else. unfortunately, did engage in the fairs throughout his presidency. and those did undermine some of his policies to a degree. but i don't want to give too much attention to it because that was his private life. but it's also something that shouldn't be ignored. but i did want to focus most of the book on what were his decisions and why did he make the decisions you make. >> what is one decision to talk about that you think was consequential to his presidency? >> well, one of the criticisms of him which led to a new policy, he spoke about civil rights in the 1960 campaign as if he would be the representative for black america. and he won overwhelming black

vote in that election. but he didn't do much when she was president. he really was a bystander. he made a commitment but then did not. that does change though in 1963, when he witnessed through newspapers and new television at the time the birmingham riots and protests and police chief connor, the dogs and fire hoses disrupting the protesters. he was really horrified by the. i really think that's when he truly understood or began to understand that civil rights is something we need to do, something about, and soon after that, in june 1963, he spoke out very eloquently against the segregation in the south and the need for additional civil rights

legislation. that ultimately to the civil rights act of 1954, and to a lesser extend the voting rights act of 65. >> his three years and the presidency, were they successful? >> i would say over all. he did not achieve everything he set out to do. i think at times he was more interested in getting reelected in 64 than he was in pushing for issues. i think he learned as a president, which i give him credit for their kids first year in office he really struggled with his foreign policy issues, in particular like with the berlin crisis that summer, his summit meeting with khrushchev in vienna that did not go well which he admitted to. but he grew. he learned. he learned to be more calculated, too, i would say, think more before he spoke. he had a tendency to use rhetoric that was almost inflammatory. to go back to early in his

campaign, his presidency in 1961 when the berlin crisis was going on he talked about the need to build fallout shelters. that caused a real stir, and not a panic in the country, but it raised the levels of fear both in the united states and the soviet union that maybe this particular war might occur. were as limited to the cuban missile crisis, he's much more trained in how he handled the crisis. obviously, a lot of it was done behind the scenes, but he tried to keep the rhetoric cooler and try to work through it with a diplomatic solution. >> professor snead, what's the new frontier part of this? >> the new frontier, he wanted to have a new frontier. that was his campaign promise. basically a new direction for the country. he believed the eisenhower administration and republican policies of the '50s had grown stale. and that the country wasn't doing enough to show -- you want

to see growth economically that the country and had no expense for a while. things have been pretty steady economic growth but not to the levels he thought were needed. he thought the u.s. should be doing more in science. i would probably say the new frontier gets connected to the most is the space program and the desire for the nazis to take the lead there. he had as his goal as stated up front, you want to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. and put a lot of resources into that. but it's basically being different and new and having hope for the future, and trying to challenge the country to have hope for the future and a better world. >> what do you teach your? >> i teach a variety of courses primarily u.s. military and diplomatic history, which my special fields, 20 century i'm early, i do a cold where of course? no, and i do a course on kennedy

which would expect the modern u.s. principles is my area of expertise. so those are courses that teach the ice also give you a survey which i enjoyed immensely, you get to really introduce history to students who have varying backgrounds in history. >> how long have you been at liberty? where else have you taught? >> this is my eighth year here, and before the i thought five at texas tech university in lubbo lubbock. and came here in part of concert the graduate program, and since then that's now started, and i'm chair of the department. >> we have been talking with david snead, chair of the history department at liberty university, the author of this book, "john f. kennedy: the new frontier president." novapublishers.com is the website in case you're interested. >> you are watching book tv on c-span2. 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend.

>> might expect with don't ask, don't tell is very interesting i tried with an air force academy in 2009 and shortly after went to my training, and was blacked out by my instructor there, changing my test scores, harassing the constantly and with help of service members network i turned in my instructor and that instructed turned around out of me but i was removed from a job, my ability to access computer i was working in the chaplain's office during this time, and secretary gates came out with his new policy, that third party outings were not allowed anymore, that can stop the process against me personally. what kind of during this process i get so frustrated with don't ask, don't tell that i decided to turn around and help create outserve, kind of building network where we could start to network together and act collectively voice our concerns to the military and to the public. and a lot of people that

contribute to the book are outserve members and what we did was just using hidden social media we started to connect day soldiers around the world into the state right now. with over 4700 members across the globe that are connected, that have the support that are no longer a loan better able to meet on the record basis, just have the support right now that you can post a don't ask, don't tell. the two big reasons i agreed to do this project was i think it's important to give the courage that there are gay people in military right now. i'm reading the book was at the air force academy, just getting encourage from that, so i hope putting up these stories other people pick it up and others are serving, realize there's so many of us out there, fabricate and it's okay. and second of all, to just change the minds. when i gave this book to someone at my base, he was a person