sort of secret understanding with france and the british had their own views for this. they regarded germany as a rival imperial power, didn't want them controlling the other side of the english channel but one reason the anti-war movement was stronger in britain than elsewhere was many people thought there was no reason for their country to be in the war. ferguson writes a counterfactual history what if britain stayed down? the germans probably would have succeeded in conquering france but they did that in 1940 under a much nastier regime and york survived. moreover he points out that one of the ames kaiser wilhelm had when he started the war was to establish a common european

customs union with germany because of its economic strength in effect dominated. isn't the of the european community's today? it is hard to imagine the counters of the factual history as disastrous as what did result. not just the twenty million dead from the first world war but a much greater number of deaths from the second world war. it is almost impossible to imagine the second moral war happening without the first. yes, sure. [inaudible] >> elaborate on the impact of the united states entry into the war. >> to elaborate on the impact of the united states entry to the

war. the united states was part of the war effort from the beginning because we were selling large amounts of armaments to britain and france, not to germany and much of those sales on credit. because they were on credit, one impact of the war was to make the united states enormously wealthy because everybody ended up owing us money at the end of the war. militarily the u.s. entered the war in april of 1917, about a year and six months before the end. there was an enormous psychological boost for the our eyes when they u.s. entered. there wasn't much direct military effect immediately except on the oceans because of the u.s. had a surprisingly small standing army at that time. we did have quite a large navy which joined the british in

hunting down german submarines. large numbers of american troops didn't begin arriving in france until may or june of 1918 and then they did have a considerable impact because the germans had launched a sort of desperate do or die offensive in march of 1918 which almost succeeded in getting all the way to paris and for a while looked as if it was going to assure the german victory on the western front but kaiser declared a national holiday. germans were very optimistic. starting a couple months after that offensive launched, many hundreds of thousands of american troops joined the british and french in resisting that advance. by the end there were 300,000 american troops are arriving in france every month and that proved a decisive margin of

victory. without the united states the allies would have won any way. in the long run. it might have taken another two years or so and unimaginable number of additional -- i think we have time for one more question and then we better stop. yes? >> aside from civilian deaths from the flu, do you feel that the flu affected the impact of any battles? >> the question was about the great influenza epidemic of 1818-19. how did it affect the war and did it affect any battles? i don't think you can say affected any battles because the terrible flu epidemic which all over the world killed even more people than this terrible war did, it hit both sides. there were deaths in the

hundreds of thousands in germany, britain and france and the united states. there is a way in which these worldwide death from the flu epidemic have to at least partly be made the responsibility of the political war itself because nothing makes epidemic's spread faster than people being packed in tight confinement whether it is an army barracks, prisons, ships, tightly packed heading for the front and living in trenches together. the first time the flu came to medical notice was that a u.s. army camp in kansas in 1918 and then it spread very rapidly from there as huge numbers of u.s. troops crossed to europe, went to france and spread to the french civilian population and spread rapidly throughout the

continent and throughout the world. it is hard to disentangle these two tragedies from each other. we are out of time and have to stop. thank you very much. [applause] >> this is the third annual gaithersburg book festival held on the gaithersburg's city hall grounds. next we hear from iraq war veteran and wounded warrior luis carlos montalvan. his book is "until tuesday". >> a drawing for a free nook. enjoy the rest of your day at the festival. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> here are the best-selling nonfiction book according to the new york times. this list reflects sales as of may 17th. topping the list is passage of power, the fourth volume of his series the years of lyndon johnson. he had several appearances on booktv and you can watch those programs online at booktv.org.

seconded gregg allman's memoir mycross to bear. he co-wrote with alan light. 30 is anna quinlan have lots of candles frontier cake. she will be booktv's best for in depth on june 3rd when she will take viewer phone calls, e-mails and tweets. send your questions to booktv@c-span.org. secretary of state madeleine albright has her memoir proud of winter. fifth is the power of havoc by charles do we. he cites scientific discoveries that lend explanations to forming and breaking good and bad habits. 6 is adrift by rachel mado. analyzes america's history of creating more and argues the executive branch of government is too powerful. then imagine:how creativity

works. they recently appeared on booktv to discuss their books and you can watch those programs online at booktv.org. in the president's club time magazine's michael duffy examine how presidents from hoover to obama worked with and against each other during their terms in the white house. ninth is killing lincoln by bill o'reilly and martin to guard the. peter bergen's manhunt recounts the ten year search for osama bin laden. you can find more on these bestsellers by going to new yorktimes.org and clicking on parts. >> hello, everybody. welcome to this third annual gaithersburg book festival. i am a member of the book festival committee.

gaithersburg is a vibrant diverse city that celebrates its cultural arts. we are pleased to bring you this event free of charge thanks to the generous support of our sponsors. a couple quick announcements for the consideration of everybody, please silence any devices that make any kind of noise. to keep improving this event we need your feedback. surveys are available here and at the information booths and online at our web site. your thoughts are important to us so take a couple minutes to fill out the survey and enter yourself in a drawing for a nook by doing that. the woman who was working on putting offers in hotel rooms and things like that and didn't have all the names of the books in front of her got an e-mail from a gentleman saying he needed housing for saturday and tuesday.

what does that mean? finally she figured it out. luis carlos montalvan will be signing books immediately after this presentation. copies of his books are on sale at the politics and prose book tent. when i read former captain montalvan's book it occurred to me the best way to make a reader understand the impact of a larger global event is to tell a small story about one person's experience. with you agree with these actions during the iraq war, this personal story of one man and his dog journey through physical wounds, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder will change your thinking, the role in iraq. and the men and women who fought

to. this book not only gave me an understanding of the psychological crisis by wounded warriors. the relationship forged with the service dog can bring someone back from the edge. is a difficult story, and made me smile. and the paperback edition of "until tuesday" was on the new york times best-seller list. and there is a movie and the works. and completed his master's degree from columbia university. and strategic communication. they continue to travel and speak as passionate advocates for service members and their families, veterans and people

with disabilities. former captain luis carlos montalvan and his service dog and a loyal friend, tuesday. >> thank you. thank you for that introduction. thank you for being here. i am going to raise my voice because today is armed forces day. [applause] we need to take pause for that especially on days as gorgeous as today. it is great to be back in

gaithersburg from montgomery county. went to winston churchill high school and went to the university of maryland for undergraduate work and wheat traveled all over the country. it is nostalgia and wonderful to be home. mostly because of the people. but also because of the environment. it is just wonderful to be here today. i would like to thank my parents and my beloved tuesday, my service dog and caretaker, my brother, in some ways my

prosthetic -- my kindred spirit who saved my life. that may be the subtitle of my book, "until tuesday: a wounded warrior and the golden retriever who saved him," some people think wonder if that is hyperbole. or they may ask what did tuesday do? did he sniffed out a bomb? did he pull you from a burning car or something of that sort, and i say no. he does much more than that. he saves my life every day. he helps me physically and psychologically with a number of the wounds of war and he helps me get up in the morning.

he will retrieve my shoes and things that i need so i don't have to bend over and aggravate my back because i have a spinal cord injury. he helps me balance when i walk. this handle you see here, i hold on to it when i the san stairs or declinations. before tuesday i had issues with vertigo that would come on the unexpectedly particularly traversing stairwells. i fell down a flight of subway stairs in new york city and broke my foot and knocked myself out. so physically he is an omnipresence, assistant,

psychologically he can do everything from wake me up from a nightmare for a flashback. he alerts me to the onset of pronounced migraines. it may sound kind of gross but before i even know if he will lick my eyelids and my forehead because he can sense that i am hawot, that my respiration-he c listen to my heart beat, palpitation. he smells perspiration and he is listening to my inflexion as he is right now.

he doesn't necessarily speak the same language that we do, but he speaks tuesday. he is looking over yonder. tuesday. people think -- people's tendencies are to think of canines as being less perceptive than they truly are. some of you know that there are dogs doing everything -- doing everything from warning and alerting people who have epileptic seizures to alerting them that their glycine it levels are low, insulin alert

dogs. they can even sniff cancer. it is only in recent years -- a silver lining to contemporary wars is pardon vote on, an explosion in assistance dogs helping mitigate people's disabilities of all sorts. invisible and visible. i think it is a tremendous, tremendous area because and be known to most people largest minority in the country is in fact people with disabilities. fifty-five million americans have disabilities, and that is growing because medical advancement is lengthening the time span of people's lives.

so with that comes the need for improving the quality of people's lives and mitigate those disabilities be they physical or psychological. .. >> are truly performing miracles for people, saving people's lives. um, you know, from -- and not just literally saving people's

lives, but i also mean saving the potential to pursue happiness, to fulfill one's hopes and dreams. that's life saving. and what a gift, what a gift to have a beloved spirit that can love you unconditionally and can physically and psychologically assist you in your day-to-day and with your, and with your hopes and dreams. um, i said it at the onset of the presentation, but i'll say it again, thank you to our veterans of whom there are 22 and a half million in this country and, of course, their family members, their legacy. most people i venture to say in

this -- here, today, throughout the fair have had a relative be they near or distant serve their nation. and preserve their, their, their legacy which is you. so, um, as we -- it's particularly special for tuesday and i to be here, um, today during armed forces day. yesterday we were at walter reed speaking and meeting a number of our beloved wounded warriors. and, um, today later we'll fly to california and spread some more love. because tuesday really is a big love. besides being a world class snuggler -- [laughter] he is a big love. and i wanted to share something that recently, and, you know,

we're -- it's amazing how we are these days with technology, this is a photograph -- oops. this is a -- tuesday, come here. he wants to say hi to everyone which is why he keeps -- come here, yes. keeps asking me to select a wi-fi network. this is a photograph that some of you may be able to see if it stops asking me for which wireless connection i want. i love to take photographs of tuesday all over the world, and this photograph was taken in the brooklyn, and it was taken next to a chalkboard sign, a very simple sign at a store front. but it was potentially, it was, rather, it was so serendipitous because what is on this picture, what is on the chalkboard is what somebody had the

thoughtfulness to do, and that is -- turn around, good boy. sit. yes. good boy. stay. they had the thoughtfulness to write down emanuel cants' rules for happiness. and i had never heard that philosophy or seen it on a chalkboard before. but as most of you know, emanuel cant, a great philosopher of the age of enlightenment, he contributed a lot toward life and the evolution of humanity. but beautifully, he wrote some rules of happiness. and this person had the, who wrote the chalkboard, who had the, again, the thoughtfulness to write them down in three

bullet-ized sentences. rules for happiness. first one, something to do. you have to have something to do. you have to have a purpose; to work, to be fulfilled in some way. the second being to have someone to love. someone to love. um, and isn't that true? love. and, third, you have to have something to hope for. you have to be hopeful. because life is hard. um, manager to do -- something to do in the darkness that would become many of the ailments, afflictions, symptoms that i felt after tours in iraq, i went

into the depths of alcoholism. and, i mean, a lot. and it was to, the really to deal with the symptoms of sleeplessness and social agoraphobia which is a word i'd never heard of. it's, basically, being reclusive, you know? staying, keeping at home away from people because of issues of trust. posttraumatic stress disorder really wreaked hah -- havoc on trust, and be it the trauma of a car accident, be it the trauma of a crime, be it the trauma of war, of divorce, of the passing of a loved one, trauma is something that effects us all. and that's actually one of the reasons why the book, thankfully be, has resonated with people

and touched people so. because all of us are affected by trauma. of course, we get numerous letters from service members, veterans and their families, but we get many more from those who are, who have experienced trauma in one form or another. and when you are in the throes of trauma, it's a dark place. it's a dark place. and, well, humanity, it's sort of remarkable how the elixir of human history has really been alcohol. way before prescription drugs came along 60 years ago, alcohol was and is the means to treating

symptoms of trauma. and i was consuming a liter or more a day of rum because i was physically and psychologically in pain. and i couldn't get the help i needed medically, um, and there was also a lot of difficulty as was the case with many people who experience trauma with family members maybe not understanding, um, friends becoming alienated or estranged. and, thus, the trauma, the darkness of the trauma is that much more difficult. and so fast forwarding, you know, through that period into the light because, thankfully,

there is light. and the light consumes the darkness as john wrote. the -- tuesday was a huge part of that light. and as i was mentioning earlier about trust being, wreaking havoc on a person's ability to live and to do anything really, trust being outside of one's home, to trust that memories aren't going to come, consuming you, afflicting you with panic attacks or, and other symptoms.

you, this bright light, um, in the form of an e-mail, believe it or not, was like man that from heaven --man that from heaven because in a small brooklyn apartment as i learned with the glass of rum on my desk that there were programs coming online to partner wounded warriors with highly-trained assistance dogs. and i knew nothing about, you know, i was an able-bodied warrior, you know? be i knew nothing about service dog, what a service dog was. but no sooner had i got that e-mail that i googled voraciously everything i could, and then applied vigorously to the program. because i knew having had a dog in potomac, you know, we had a wonderful giant. schnauzer, his name was max, and he was my best friend, and i knew that program was for me.

i mean, i knew it was for me. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> no, that's okay. that won't -- but thank you. good point. tuesday likes to, he likes to gnaw at shrubbery and flowers, you know, as he listens to me. because right now, actually, he's not whimpering right now which one might think, some of you might think it mean he's sad, but really it's just because he wants to go say hello to you. [laughter] he wants to snuggle with you which he does on command. but he's not whimpering because he knows that i'm okay. he's paying attention to me. so instead he's consuming himself with some nice-smelling what are those? do you know what those are? they kind of look like rhododendrons or point set yas, but not in bloom.

tuesday brings a smile to my face 100 times or more a day. i mean, he is so funny. mostly because he's disobedient. [laughter] and he does it by design. he does it because he knows that i, he knows what laughter is, he knows what that state is. and he wants me to be in that state and others to be in that state. he wants others to be happy. so he clowns around with me. sometimes it's not so funny initially, like, for example, this morning i asked him to get my shoes, and like i do most mornings, and he went as if he was going to get my shoes and, well, he brought back a flip-flop. [laughter] tuesday, we've got to get to the gaithersburg book festival. so he goes back, and he brings his brush. [laughter] and, i mean, this is a dog that

had two years of training prior to being partnered with me. i mean, this dog knows 140 commands. [laughter] he knows exactly what, you know, go get my shoes, tuesday, means. so i go get my shoes with my head in my palm -- [laughter] and he goes, and he gets his aptler bone. antler bone. his tail's wagging, and all i can do is laugh because he knows i'm a little bit tense because we have to be here on time. and after i start laughing, he goes and gets my shoes. of course, he didn't let go of my shoes right away. [laughter] but he's such a, he's such a happy spirit. everywhere we go people, people

say -- sometimes, you know, it fakes me out because a nice looking girl will say, hey, baby. and, you know, the guy in me will say, was she talking to me? be. [laughter] tuesday. [laughter] no, but it's okay because, of course, a reason why tuesday's face is on the book. [laughter] the old line, you know, he has the face for television, you know? i have the face for radio. [laughter] so people, you know, i know who's, i know who's -- it's perfectly okay to me when our neighbors in new york city, they all yell out, hi, tuesday! and it's okay that they don't know who, they don't know my name. [laughter] hi, tuesday.

it brings a smile to my face. when we go to starbucks or any independent coffeehouse as well, because they all sort of have the same scheme of getting your coffee now, right? barista, you know, counter, you know, the language of the coffee, mocha and nonfat, no whip. and they'll ask for the be name, of course, and i'll say tuesday. [laughter] they'll look at me quizzically. what kind of a person named their son tuesday? [laughter] you know? and they, and i think they, some of them look at me funny, and others smile, and they get it. but it's really great when the barista who serves the coffee, you know, once it's done, oh, are you nuzzling me? oh, thank you, tuesday. yes.

when the barista, you know, yells, you know, shouts aloud to 50 customers in the shop, tuesday! [laughter] and the whole place looks up and stares at me, you know? like i have horns growing out of my -- as if they don't stare anyway because they see tuesday, you know, sort of -- at first when you get partnered with an assistance dog, you know, you're in places with your dog that dogs don't normally go. so people look at you like you, sometimes they look at you like you're frankenstein. other times they look at you, you know, they're looking at me trying to see if i'm blind. [laughter] i've even had people on the new york subway grab me which is a little unnerving, you know, to say the least, you know? it's not as though i don't have a service, an assistance dog, so

even if i were blind, you know, i need a service human too? [laughter] my goodness. it's kind of people to be that way. until then they start shouting at you as well. not only grabbing you, but they think you're deaf too. hey! can i help you into the subway? be watch your step. thanks. [laughter] by the way, nice shirt. [laughter] but, you know, where'd you get that? did you get that at macy's? um, i would like to open it up to questions because i'm rambling now. but, please, any questions about the book or -- yes, ma'am. >> just out of curiosity, can he get on the airplane with you? >> the question is, can he get,

can tuesday get on the airplane with me? of course. in fact, we leave out of dulles today at 5:30 if anybody has a helicopter. he sits with me, this front of me. we generally sit at the bulkhead because there's more space there. a 220-pound, 6-2 guy and an 85-pound golden retriever, it's funny, i think. and tuesday is really, the passengers on -- i mean, the crew on the airplane, they always say, you know, he's just the best passenger ever. ever. you know? there are babies crying and, you know, boisterous, you know, humans and, you know, and one lady once said to us, a flight attendant, she said, you know, it's nice to have a quad --

qadri ped on our flight. tuesday said thanks. yes. [laughter] another question? sir. >> how did he get the name tuesday? is there a story behind the name? >> how did he get the name tuesday? that's a good question. it's a bit of a mystery, and in the book, and i don't mean to be, you know, that kind of author -- [laughter] it's in the book. but, actually, it's a mystery. a donor that was anonymous that paid for his training, because his training was quite costly, was able to name him and did so anonymously and chose the name tuesday. and so we don't know. so maybe one day we'll find out the answer to that. maybe in a book one day. but it's a great name. tuesday, it's uncommon. and it's also great from a practical perspective because as you