for the people that night. also, the steal and the way the hull broke apart means the timeline is remarkably different. rather than a half hour, it's about five minutes so in one 5-minute period people went from listening to the band, having a drink at the warmth by the bar, and in five minutes, being in the cold north atlantic. >> watch this and other programs on line at booktv.org. ..

i'd be talking about my book, "crusade 2.0", which is about islamic phobia and its effects in the united states, studied by city life, great press. and instead of reading from the book, i thought it was just a presentation for you and for part. the four parts are going to be a visit, a palm, and e-mail and then finally a political ad. let's start with this. a couple weeks ago i went to new york city have visited park 51, an interesting islamic cultural center. and there he saw the different programs they have available. they teach error back, calligraphy.

they have a course on capillary, a brazilian martial art. it was a fascinating, it occurs to me, you might not know what i'm talking about because you might not recognize part 51, the action name part 51 because you might be more familiar with the name that was used in the media to describe park 51, which is of course the ground zero mosque. it was two years ago that this islamic cultural center, not a mosque in knoxville is located at ground zero, but several blocks away became the focus of the great controversy. i don't know if you remember that two years ago, but there were huge protests in new york city and counter protests and perhaps he remembers some of the signs that appeared on the streets of new york, protesters against the ground zero mosque,

some of the signs said stop islam. islam kills. to make shall inherit islam and islam is a lie. when i visited park 51, the official name of course there were no protests. there were no protesters outside, no ugly sign. it was just a place where different people from different faiths and traditions came together to study, to meet each other. so worried about the protests go? well, one of the reasons i think the process disappeared in front of part 51 with a photography exhibit that opened up park 51 finally answered timbre of last year. and what was that photography exhibit? was it something about blood thirsty islam?

arrested the terrible crimes that islam is perpetuated? or was it about islam taking over the world? photography exhibit that a not a park 51 with a photography exhibit by jewish photographer taking photographs of all the children of new york who come from different countries. i think protest disappeared in front of park 51 because protesters realize that their picture was the quote unquote ground zero mosque was so different from the reality. the reality of the organizers are talking about the time in the islamic cultural center would have photography exhibits by jewish photographers and children from all around the world. to protest disappeared in the front of park 51. the islam of folks have gone on to other targets and targeting

hawala meet, for example, this year. that message is in many ways remain the same. different target come the same messages. the message that islam is inherently violent, that islam and muslims are treacherous and that islam is trying to take over the world. these are the kind of three major stereotypes about islam and the message not only state the same of the last couple of years. i would say what i argue in my book, "crusade 2.0", is these messages actually remained pretty consistent for over a thousand years. and that brings us to part 2, which is a poem. of course it is famous for his poetry. lauren fernald scatty. i thought it was incorporate to incorporate the poem. the poem is an epic poem that

takes place in the mountains of spain over a thousand years ago and memorializes the great epic battle between the forces of christianity and the forces of islam. the battle to place in 1717 and above charlemagne and the forces of islam, the moorish army and charlemagne nephew, roland. the poem of course is the song of roland, the great medieval french palm, medieval poem, demoralize would have been to roland and the army of charlemagne. because on that fateful night, 20,000 frankish shirt, charlemagne stymie or coming back from spain after battling the forces of islam. as they were going to the mountain, they were attacked from behind by the moorish army

and they were slaughtered, all 23,000 of them, including roland, the great statue of charlemagne. and it is enacted that old and has inspired many people over the years. and it's a quarter tax on western civilization classes. it is wrong. because in fact, it wasn't the moorish army that attach charlemagne and roland from behind. it wasn't muslims at all. it was christian. from the city of pamplona, which we know today from the running of the bulls in the christian were furious at charlemagne's armies because they have promised that they would not lose the city of pamplona at the basques open a gate that invited them in anna franks came into the city of pamplona and the

looted it. the basques were angry. they came after charlemagne stymie in the mountains. the ttc has 20,000 francs. so what happened? i mean, what happened between 778, when the battle to place in the mid-11th century when the song of roland was committed to paper? were peculiar game of telephone to ways in which the people on one end said basque, basque, basque and somehow in the other end of the telephone it came out as moslem? why did this take place and how did this take place? well, there are three major

reasons. one is it was necessary to simplify the till because in the eighth century, the battle taking place between charlemagne, the holy roman empire and the moorish armies were extremely complicated at that charlemagne was aligned with several armies against other moorish army said at the tiny charlemagne had a pretty good relationship in baghdad, but that is a complex story and was necessary to send if i, kind of like tony toni tone of comment necessary to simplify a very complicated story into something that can be somewhat passion by the bar at the time. number two, it was important to make it into an apathetic. not an epic if it's bad against francs. christian non-christian violent.

not epic. epic is a world historical struggle between christianity and islam. and finally, there is an anxiety in the christian european world at the time. an anxiety that the very quality that we're being imputed to these muslims who attack charlemagne, who didn't attack charlemagne, but the moorish army, that they were violent and treacherous and always wanted to take over the world, this anxiety among christian europeans was in fact a feeling that maybe despite all the teachings of peace and love in the new testament and jesus and his message that may be in fact as christians at some level to

embody the streets that were projected upon the world of islam. remember, 1150 or so when roland is committed to paper after several centuries, it's the media before will become become the first crusade. 1095, the first speech calling upon christian men to rise up, take back jerusalem. 1098, first crusaders go. the holy land. 1099 the tape jerusalem. this was not a peaceful process. 1099, when the crusaders took jerusalem, color queries at the time type about 40,000, the blood rising high in this treat pictures on.

and it wasn't just christians being killed. i'm sorry, it wasn't just muslims who are being killed at the christian crusaders. this also substantial jewish population at the time. a jewish population in fact had aligned itself with the muslims who are in control of the city. a jewish population that was not happy about the approach of the crusaders. a jewish population that said if we gather in the synagogue, and the crusaders at least will not attack has what they will not attack a holy place. and yet, the crusader for the synagogue to the ground with all the jews inside. in fact, as the crusade made its way, the army made its way

through europe to the holy land, crusaders were going through germany in any of them asked themselves, why are we going so far away to fight people who know so little about when there is jews here in germany and we know that jews are the enemy of christian. so that was the first program that took place in europe and the media will. , crusaders going through germany and attacking jewish populations in taking money that then paid for the crusade. as of this violence, the violence that took place on the crusades i think promoted or produced a certain anxiety among christians at the time about their own conduct. i think there was a feeling also treacher. what charlemagne do for the

basques of pamplona? well, he did not honor his word that he would not sack the city. there were other examples during the crusades of treacher. the famous one of course, which was in the movie kingdom of heaven if you seen the movie kingdom of heaven who now wants, but twice attacked muslim pilgrims are not as another course this act of treachery produced yet another crusade. or even not just treachery toward akkad and the basque war, the fourth crusade, the crusaders attacked a catholic city in croatia. so i think there is an anxiety about how christian crusaders thoughts about their combat and

whether it was above reproach. and then finally, global conquest and that their stereotypes about islam, they are inherently violent, inherently treacherous and they are meant to take over the world. well, of course at the time, world, two and catholicism is interested in taking over the return of spreading christianity as widely as possible. in the first kind of missionary emerged during the crusade. in an effort to spread christianity as widely as possible. so it is often said that this epic battle that is memorialized in borland, this epic battle as they battle between barbarism and civilization and in some sense that is true, but it was europeans who are the barbarians

of islam with the world of civilization because that point in the eighth century and even later, in the 11th century, the world of islam was a virtually any standard, several centuries ahead of the world of christianity you look at literature, science, medicine, philosophy, mathematics. many crusaders discovered the senate to holy hand. they were banks, banking systems. a sewage system and monday actually settled in the holy land instead of settler state, some of the crusaders took on some of the civilizing aspects of the world of islam.

for an dance, they took a bath every so often. this is a great improvement from the world of christianity at the time. but this of course is not the story about europeans and americans tell ourselves about this great struggle of the middle ages. we don't tell ourselves we were the barbarians and we were fighting the civilized world. tell a very different story. a store in some sense that we are still telling today. and that brings me to part 3, the e-mail. so recently come a couple years ago i received an e-mail. it was one of those chain e-mails to get all the time. you don't know exactly where it comes from, but tells you to florida to as many people as possible and at the top it said these forward as wildly as

possible because he wanted to go to 400 million people. this is an ambitious e-mail. so i read further. the e-mail purported to be an article from a spanish newspaper by a spanish journalist. as i read on, i thought gosh, it's been a while since i've been to spain, but i can imagine the spanish newspaper printed his. this is quite a remarkable piece of journalism. you've read one section from the east mail. we killed 6 million jews and replace them with 27 muslims who brought his stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty due to an unwillingness to work and support their

families was crying. there is more, some of it even uglier than whatever it to you. i tracked down the original. it was published in the spanish newspaper at all. it was published in the spanish website by someone who might or might not have been a journalist, but i doubt it. and the original actually didn't look all that much like what was sent around. in fact, that little section i read to you, all the really top about was religious extremism. someone else had added everything else, kind of like the telephone that transformed the basques into our modern-day telephone. the bottom line, even in its original it was published on the

internet was that anti-semitism is wrong and finally european figured this out. islamic phobia is okay because muslims discern that. now there was of course no irony in this e-mail. any recognition that these very crazed muslims today, very close to the phrases used in the 1930s to describe jews in germany never the light of the sentiments in this e-mail, both the original published on the spanish internet in the much uglier version distributed quite wildly un-american website expresses sentiments that were

widespread in europe at the time and are widespread today. this i would say sentiments before 9/11 the large they express as racist, racism towards foreign workers and foreign as hua come from different parts of the world to your especially in the 60s and early 70s. racism which you've probably heard about because as the rise of japan and france, rice said neil not cease in britain, the republican party in germany. after 9/11, this racist sentiment largely changed into a kind of religious, anti-islamic. it was peaceful for the most part. algerians through north africa would come to germany, indonesians who would come to

the netherlands. but now it had a very religious task to it. secondly, it was no longer in the fringes. of course a certain percentage of that though. those at the neo-nazis in britain. but after 9/11, this does seem to be goes mainstream. the famous italian journalist took many courageous reporting around the world and in 2002 she publishes a book called the rage and pride. the rage in the pride has passages and it that are very similar to this e-mail, passages about muslims as launching a reverse crusade against europe. they come with troops and canyons on his children and those. the book is a bestseller in italy, france, throughout europe

in 2002, 2003. it doesn't go away. you might have heard of stylus verizon, german social democrat, publishes a book a couple years ago saying that germany is at risk as ian and i abated as the country because of my funds are now living living in the country. bestseller in germany. and it's not just these books. the sentiment starts to speak into the speeches of major party leaders. sarkozy in france, where call -- burkle. and it comes in some sense bipartisan if you look at what happens in france over the headscarf issue. we have members of both major parties who are supporting a ban when in fact there's so few people in france, so few women

are even wearing their headscarves that didn't be banned. and of course it's not just words. it's not just works. it's also action. we have the actions of norway who killed 77 people. and he doesn't go after muslims. so of course he is talking out the time about how muslims are taking over his country and how upset he is about that. he goes after the people he perceives as letting in the muslims into norway. he goes after the social democrats. he goes after the architects multiculturalist because it's multiculturalism he says. he is echoed by a number of other politicians throughout europe. it is multiculturalist who are actually a road in european

identity, christian identity and more specifically norwegian christian identity, which brings size to part 4, the political ad in the united states. so as i said at the beginning, 2010 was the summer of hate, two years ago. and you probably remember terry jones, burned a copy of the koran. you might remember the beginning of an anti-sharia move and that push is to pass legislation that a state level to be in sharia law, islamic law starts in oklahoma. there's this huge muslim population. there's not a huge muslim population oklahoma. it's ridiculous and the whole

movement is ridiculous. there have been no cases have sharia law actually been sighted. one exception in new jersey, which was overturned. and of course you remember that summer as well as two years before, all of the rumors that obama our president is muslim. one third of all believed this according to polling at the time. one quarter of the entire electorate believe this. and of course the ground zero mosque. the ground zero mosque becomes the political litmus test to determine how politicians stand on this key issue. mayor bloomberg, newt gingrich is against it. but even as a political litmus test out in iowa, and iowa. in 2010 and the race for a seat

in congress held by bruce braley, a democrat leading his opponents until this political ad. for centuries, muslims tell mosque were they when military the trees he now they want to build a mosque at ground zero were islamic terrorists killed 3000 americans. it's like the japanese building at pearl harbor. the muslim cleric govinda mosque to leave americans -- america was partly responsible for 9/11 and is raising millions overseas from secret donors. but incredibly, bruce braley supports building a mosque at ground zero. taub really what you think. when this political ad appeared, braley's margin nearly disappeared.

and when the election to place, he just barely one, just barely hung on. this ad is important for two reasons. one, it's contests. two, who designed that clicks first, the content. the content is important because in many ways it is the same message we have been hearing since the song of roland. muslims are inherently violent, treacherous and want to take over the world. luscious go back to the key assertions of this ad. muslims built mosques where they had military the series. while, in some cases that is true. in other cases, mosques were built where people wanted to have mosques built because they had a muslim community.

there's an implication that islam is inherently violent. other religion with this annual testaments. yahweh commands allow the amalekites included women and children when they say some of the livestock yahweh says i told you. all of the amalekites you disappoint me. this is just one example of the old testament. jews built synagogues in places

where they had bollettieri victory. do we say it's inherently military in nature. churches. our churches are results in places greater streams, great weather? churches are often built with its military victory. one could say as jon stewart said, every church in this country in the united states is built at a ground zero and that ground zero is of course a victory over native americans. number two, assertion. the equation of the day, muslims and islamic terrorists want to build a mosque where the terry s. killed 3000 americans. islam and the al qaeda terrorists at the same, which is

a strange assertion given the fact that virtually every muslim organization in this country condemn the attacks of 9/11, virtually every muslim country condemns the 9/11 attacks including iran third assertion, the organizer of the mosque believes america was partly responsible for 9/11. i think maybe they made a strange mistake here and they mistook her mom rolf for jerry falwell because if you remember what jerry falwell said immediately after 9/11, he blamed -- he says america is partly responsible for 9/11. of course he said more specifically pagan myths, abortionists, feminists are

responsible for 9/11 because god is not happy with america because of the social victories of these groups. and so, this is chickens coming home to roost. this is jerry falwell. actually, the mom rolf interestingly enough data conservative fellow. religiously, politically. if you reduce the company is also at the nice things to say about justice scalia, for instance, the bush administration. in fact, ralph is necessary for the bush administration, overseas in the muslim world and you can understand why because it's actually quite a conservative figure. and secret funding? one of the majors thunders of ralph i would be with a major stockholder in fox news. the interestingly enough it was

a rather conservative, politically conservative venture, the parc 51 per people just to come together, something supported by everybody in new york, by the mayor, even by conservatives on fox news turned around because of the effort of just a small number of people. pamela geller. as for the other secret funders, and they include such notorious anti-american organizations like the ford foundation and the rockefeller foundation. and finally, what did bruce braley say? did this iowa democrat, then say i support the building? of this mosque at ground zero? of course not.

what bruce braley actually said when he was ambushed by someone with a mic on capitol hill, he said i think new yorkers should make it remind themselves. was this a major vote of support quiets so again, as with brawling, we have this transformation of what one person said into something quite different. in the punchline of horrors is who designed this act? this is fine by the same person who did the willie horton ad, an attack ad that of course keepsakes the dukakis campaign, whose name, larry mccarthy and it just tired and should do is

ad campaign. placating a lifeline. mitt romney just hired andrew mccarthy, which brings us to our code. but maybe expect in in 2012? we have an election coming up. we saw an upsurge in islamic phobia in 2010 to the midterm elections when the ground your mosque so to speak became a political litmus test. are we going to see something similar this year? well, we have some statements that suggest perhaps. newt gingrich recently said barack obama is pro-islamic.

pro-islamic good rick santorum said the president believed in a phony theology. and mitt romney, among others names in line with other republican candidates said that obama is weak, weak on iran, basically appeasing the muslim world. in other words, in 2008, 2010, this court, especially on the internet was that obama is muslim and this time around, i think the republican party is doing is taking a conspiracy and turning it into a policy approach. another is, they're saying, we don't really know whether obama is muslim or not. if they say his creation, i guess i have to believe him, but

he asked muslim. another is coming is pro-islam. he is allowing iran to develop a nuclear weapon. he's allowing jihad forces to rise up in that area liberated during the arab spring. this may sound a little strange because of course anyone who knows the polling going on in the islamic world knows that actually ever since obama became president with one exception, u.s. favorability ratings have gone down in the islamic world. the one exception of course is that obama gave a speech in cairo and there was great expectation that there would be a change in u.s. policy towards the islamic world, the

disappointment settled in very quickly. and the reasons are clear. i mean, if you're a muslim in europe at the paper, what you see? i mean, you remember obama speech any coalescent chairs and people were enthusiastic and you heard people in the audience going yes, yes. but if you open up the newspaper, what do you see? you see we've expanded. read the united states have expanded our drought impacts. research in afghanistan. the casualty of predominately muslim. of course the most recent killing of civilians, mostly women and children in afghanistan, the burning of the carron by u.s. army, the of corpses of taliban fighters who

u.s. soldiers, the visuals of the abu ghraib teuscher is still very strong in peoples minds, but they they have fresh images accrued to them in some sense that the obama administration is no different than the bush illustration, both abroad and back home, where the administration of course provided funding for just one example company of police department in cooperation with the cia to do human mapping, and other worse to conduct surveillance and plant people in muslim communities and schools, to gather information. so i started by talking about

the song of roland and how assemblies the project did anxieties about our own feelings about her on behavior upon the muslim world. i would say that we are still in unsent anxious about that. i think we are anxious about the fact that even though we say we are for peace, that we keep going to war. i think we are anxious about the fact that we say today the muslims are treacherous. if we look at who he supported over the last few decades, we supported saddam hussein in the war against sudan. we supported jihad is mujahedin against the soviet union. going back even further we supported the muslim brotherhood again communist arab nationalists. in other words, i think there's a certain anxiety about her on loyalty over time.

do we want to take over the world? i think there's a certain anxiety about the fact that we have an empire of military bases. under the military bases it's not just military of course. there's a strong group within the u.s. military about how the very evangelical outlook from the christian op say fellowship. so i think it's the same anxiety. now, finally i was say in my book, crusade to point out, i give three very concrete recommendations about how we can end this second crusade that the over the last decade or so, a second crusade that is largely a function of perception, how we perceive the world of islam, how the world of islam precedes the

west. i will just give one of those in the interest of time. and that is if we can ultimately change their behavior, we'd be in the united states and our nato allies, we can change our behavior by ending the war that we can that in predominately muslim countries. i think i would go a long way to narrowing the gap between the language expressed by president obama in cairo about restarting different relationships with the islamic world and the actual conduct. i think it is important to bring those two closer together. i think of the three recommendations i make is the most way to hang crusade to point out and finally, to ensure that no crusade follow.

so, we have a look at a time i think for a couple of question and i will entertain any that she might have. [inaudible] >> i was wondering much you think -- [inaudible] >> well, you know, i think i put those studies -- several studies have come out over the last few years on the role of muslim communities in policing. but versions are clear that instead of looking at the muslim communities in the united states as a community that is somehow suspect, it is in fact a muslim

community has been the most supportive community in terms of identifying extremists in the united states. sometimes that puts folks in the muslim communities in a difficult bind because there is a form of self-censorship that takes place often in muslim communities, where you feel like you can't criticize u.s. foreign policy are asked to be identified somehow as an extremist. so i think that is number one. there's a tenant and fortunately still among law enforcement to see a group to be profiled instead as really the allies. abbott also say that -- that we've seen the kinds of training taken place by law enforcement

official at the state level, but also fbi's training that of these questionable materials, materials that are not all that different from some of rolling, but embody the same stereotypes. muslims are violent. they are treacherous and not to be trusted. i'm not talking talking here again about qaeda or the taliban. the assumption is that all must one's are inherently violent and inherently untrustworthy. now, it got so bad that finally, the justice department said okay, we have to review all of these materials because it's kind of an embarrassment. so i think that's slowly, as information comes out about these programs, the new list partner program, it's not the

only one, but also that law enforcement has this kind of worldview is more information comes out, gradually we are starting to see a reality principle applied to how law enforcement where. and something i didn't mention of course is there's a big difference between islamic phobia here in the united states and his in europe in part because the muslim communities have very different. and one very important distinction is muslim communities here in the united states about the wealthier communities in the united states with a standard of living are earning capacity roughly comparable to jewish americans. it's very difficult country different to your fortunately again because of basically the

colonial relationship between european countries in former colonies, muslims communities form in some sense lower, under classic tivo, a lot of the language used in your to describe muslim communities is very similar to the way americans describe african-americans in this country and continue to describe the tenets at least in the mainstream. so it's interesting for me that's still the case that law enforcement in some sense muslim communities here as an underclass. much of the language used to describe it. so is hopefully will change more dramatically. i think after this election we will see unfortunately an

improvement in islamic phobia. hopefully we'll see a transformation. >> i have a question. the >> please do. >> emad chin -- [inaudible] what you consider the main bone of contention is the issue of military occupation. and that, where ricci plays the issue because what i see war as a military occupation that seems to be a concern of most of the muslim world, were deeply specie

of the palestinians. >> actually i did include that under the issue of occupation. i say that it is incumbent upon not only the united states of course to reconsider its occupation policy, that israel to consider his occupation policy. >> i pulled that and in part because in many ways israel identifies itself as not a middle eastern power, but as a european power. and often folks in the region see israel not as a middle eastern power, but in some ways a similar settler state of what took in the crusades, in other words, an enclave controlled by a group of folks who came from another place. again, that his perception of

israel. but i think that the united states and astro can in fact transformed the relationship with the region. but in order to do that, they have to stop occupation. israel in particular has to reconsider his garrison mentality. there is i think a great deal of support inside israel for that. not unfortunately with the current israeli government as benjamin netanyahu, but in general i think you can find strong support for a two state solution, for much greater engagement with palestinian communities, both west bank and gaza and also support for a region wide solution is of course palestinians are not just in those two areas, but scattered throughout. signing, their strange ways. you know, if you look back at

the 12 century and the relationship between the settler state and the surrounding islamic world, there are some very interesting parallel to the current relationship between israel and surrounding states as well as arab citizens and palestinian in the occupied territory. >> well, i would like to thank you very much for coming. and again, "crusade 2.0" is available here at this wonderful bookstore, the regulator and turned as well as bookstores throughout the country and put out by city lights press, fabulous publisher. and i would welcome an opportunity to sign copies of your book, multiple copies if you're interested afterward done here. to thank you again for coming out tonight.

[applause] >> what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. >> i am wrapping up citizens of london which came out a couple years ago that has been marvelous. a history of london during the war in two very prominent people. edward martel was reporting back in the united states with rather strongly held views that we should get into the water. abel harriman was sent over there by president roosevelt gto would the middle east program, which is basically our foreign aid program for england and the ambassador, a fellow named lineman who had replaced joseph kennedy, president kennedy's father. joseph kennedy was partial to

the germans and i suspect that is the reason roosevelt bought a home. so it's a marvelous book about the three of them and their interaction with church of an advocacy, their impressive advocacy of the united states breaking out of the isolationist mode getting into the war on england's behalf. and also the author had previously written a wonderful book, which i highly recommend called troublesome young men. it's about the members of parliament to rally behind winston churchill who oppose do not cease throughout the 30s and orchestrated his rise to the prime minister's job when evelyn chamberlain fell. so these two books i'm particularly interested in reading them back to back her great look at the early stages of world war ii and i highly recommend them. >> for more information on this another summer reading but he must visit booktv.org.

>> here's a look at best lane on fiction list. this reflects sales as of may 24.

his >> what i found again and again

and again was researching this book is that not only with garfield slides and nomination and brief president of the fall incredible stories, but the people who surrounded him were also a livable. you just couldn't make him out. first of course his child. so garfield would be assassin. use it to click at dangerously delusional man, that he was very intelligent and highly articulate. if you read nearly any other account of garfield's assassination comment your toe is described as a disgruntled office speaker. but that doesn't cover the smallest part of it. he was a uniquely american care terror. it was a product of this country at that time, a time when there is a lot of play and no one to really understand what he was up

to and hold him to account for it. he was eighth of may man who was smart and savvy, a clever opportunist and he would probably have been very successful if he had been in pain. cute so i tried every thing and failed at everything. he tried, evangelism, even a free love commune in 1870 and failed even a actress of women in a commune nickname can charles get out. [laughter] but he survived on sheer rapacity here he traveled and never bought a ticket. he took great pride in this report in house to boardinghouse, slipping out when the rent is due and even when he occasionally worked as a bill or he would keep whatever he managed to collect. after the republican candidate chen he became obsessed with

garfield and after the election he began to stock the president. he went to the white house nearly every day. at one point he even walked into the president office while the president was in. he even attended a reception and introduced himself to garfield's wife. he shook her hand. he gave her his card and he slowly pronounced his name so she wouldn't forget him. it's like a hitchcock movie. it's incredibly creepy and absolutely terrifying. finally, he had what he believed was a divine inspiration. god wanted him to kill the president. there's nothing personal he would later say, simply god well. as strange and fascinating and nearly if injuries for senator roscoe conkling and that's

chester arthur. we skipped a picture. conkling was busy preening really powerful machine politician who appointed himself garfield's enemy. there is conkling. he wore canary yellow waistcoats. he used lavender tank. he had, as if the comment this spit curl in the middle of his forehead and he recoiled at the slightest touch. in fact, his vanity was so outsize it is famously ridiculed for it by another congressman on the floor of congress. the conkling was no joke. he was dangerously powerful. as a senior senator from new york, he controlled the new york customs house, which was the largest federal office in the united states and controlled 70% of the country's customs revenue. conkling tightly controlled patronage roots in the state