united states essentially has become captive to a really rapacious right wing. for instance the israeli foreign minister who is openly called for the ethnic cleansing of israeli leaders the arabs and palestinians. this was unthinkable when i first got to jerusalem in 1988. ..

>> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> my name is jay, i have the pleasure of working for and representing koch communications. and on behalf of koch communications, we are actually thrilled to kick off c-span's 2012 cities tour. and what better way to do that than for c-span to make what we call -- [inaudible] >> it's wichita weekend on booktv. with the help of our koch cable communications partners, we'll take you around kansas to visit book collections and talk with authors. >> the carter administration in terms of deeds as well as words probably was the most supportive administration in terms of promoting african-american entrepreneurship. >> in a moment, business in

black and white: american presidents and black entrepreneurs in the 20th century. >> this is one of the earliest things we have in the store. it is a 1655 elssaier. >> then in about 30 minutes, a look at the rare book collection at watermark bookstore. >> yes. close christmas call -- ease close christmas call church time. >> walter and olive ann beech. >> walter, i think his great get was an ability -- his great gift was an ability to sense what the market might want before the market knew it wanted it. olive ann, in turn, her great ability was administration and making decisions. she actually was a better businessman than he was. >> all this and much more as booktv and cox communications

bring you to wichita, kansas. >> i started working on the project, the popular wisdom was that, you know, presidents and the u.s. government really didn't have an interest in black entrepreneurship until the '60s. part of that was motivated by the war on poverty and some saw business ownership as a means to help alleviate african-american poverty. another impulse, you know, the urban rebellions of the mid to late 1960s, and there was a belief that if you had more african-american-owned enterprises in black neighborhoods, that that would decrease, you know, the likelihood of people destroying property in those neighborhoods. now, all that being said and in doing some preliminary reading, i came across a fleeting reference in a 1949 book on black business to a division of

negro affairs in the commerce department. the vision, in fact, was in the coolidge administration, and this grew out of the commerce department when herbert hoover headed the commerce department. and it sort of grew out of a meeting between a prominent african-american entrepreneur by the name of clyde barnett who, you know, had a meeting with hoover contending that it would be in the commerce department's best interests to develop a special program, a special programming aimed at african-american entrepreneurship. and barnett's motivation for this was, essentially, during the 1-9d 20s we had -- 1920s we had and historians refer to it as a sort of golden age of african-american, you know, business activity in the united states. and barnett made the point that

the commerce department could help stimulate this by forming a special agency to, you know, deal with issues or, in fact, to promote african-american entrepreneurship. interestingly enough, when we talk about, you know, interests and support of the division of negro affairs, it was founded during a republican administration, coolidge, continued through hoover. when hoover lost in 1932, it was continued in the fdr administration and, in fact, continued during truman. so this division literally had bipartisan support. but, again, when eisenhower came in, the division was discontinued. and, in fact, it really wasn't, you know, you didn't have a clearly-defined governmental agency aimed at african-american entrepreneurship. until nixon established the office of minority business enterprise in 1969. though during the 1960s while

there was not a separate, specific government agency to assist african-american entrepreneurship. there were initiatives in the small business administration, there were other initiatives in the commerce department to promote african-american entrepreneurship. as i alluded to early, these are based upon the war on poverty impulse or based upon an attempt to help coil urban black -- quell urban black rebellions during the 1960s. there was a real push to increase the number of african-american banks, there was a push to increase the number of african-american franchise owners, there was of a push to increase the number of african-american auto dealerships. and especially when we look at african-american franchise ownership which today is a significant segment of african-american business

ownership, we can literally go back to the nixon administration and certain initiatives that were promoted that are directly tied to some of what we see today. and based upon my research if beside nixon who gets a lot of visibility and credit, i would say, the carter administration in terms of deeds as well as words probably was the most supportive administration in terms of promoting african-american entrepreneurship. one of the things that the carter administration did, there was a public works act that was passed in 1977, and there was a stipulation in that act that said that 10% of government projects, you know, government work-related projects, had to go to minority contractors. and this contributed to an explosion of, you know,

opportunity for minority contractors. another area that the carter administration helped to promote african-american entrepreneurship was in the realm of media and especially cable television during the late '70. there was little, if any, you know, african-american ownership in the cable realm, and literally through initiatives associated with the carter administration, that helped bob johnson to, in fact, be in a position to start black entertainment television. when we look at the reagan administration, we know in some areas the reagan administration, indeed, fought to cut back programs that had historically assisted african-americans and other poor segments of american society. but be interestingly enough -- but interestingly enough, you know, during the reagan

administration these programs to assist black business were maintained and, in fact, in some instances actually enhanced. the evidence suggested one of the motivations for that was the influence of elizabeth dole who was the head of the white house office of public a liaison during the period. and some of what i have seen suggested that dole, you know, approached president reagan saying that, you know, there's a sentiment out there that you're pretty much very anti-african-american and by continuing to support, you know, african-american entrepreneurship, that that might help dispel the notion that you're totally against, you know, the aspirations of the african-american community. and also, too, it appears that reagan on a personal level, you know, believed in the free enterprise system, so it wasn't a problem in terms of promoting programs to support african-american entrepreneurship. but when we look at the reagan

and the reagan presidency, he had more than elizabeth dole in his every, he had more conservative advisers as well. and this appeared to manifest itself in supreme court nominations that reagan made. and ultimately, while the reagan administration continued to support, you know, business support, support for african-american entrepreneurship, his supreme court nominees ended up, ultimately, helping to undermine these programs. and a landmark case in this regard was the case that involved an initiative in the city of richmond that allocated a certain proportion of public works projects to minority contractors. the supreme court, with these new reagan additions, in fact, declared that the city of richmond's policy was unconstitutional, and six years later with the addition of

clarence thomas to the court who was nominated during the first bush administration, the supreme court declared that a transportation department initiative that also sought to allocate work to minority contractors, that that was declared uncstitutional as well. so in the reagan administration, again, you had this interesting dichotomy whereas his administration actually promoted pre-existing government programs to assist african-american entrepreneurship, but his subsequent supreme court nominations ultimately helped to dismantle some of these programs. to bring it fairly close to the present, last summer there was an initiative co-sponsored by the obama white house, and the business school at rutgers, rutgers has a center for urban

development/black entrepreneurship, and they co-sponsored an urban entrepreneurial summit. and among other things, similar to what previous administrations and others have said is that by promoting more positive economic activity in urban black enclaves, that not only has a beneficial effect on those neighborhoods, but also on, you know, municipal, state and the national economy. so, again, there's this continuing thrust and movement and interest in promoting urban entrepreneurship which urban has become sort of a code word for blacks, but again, we know the bottom line is when we talk about business whether it's black, white or what have you, if you can expand it in certain areas, that's not just going to have a, you know, positive impact on specific communities, but on the broader economic

sector. over the past 30 years and, again, linked with a lot of the governmental programs that were put in place during the '60s, '70s and '80s, we've seen a significant diversification of african-american enterprises in a variety of sectors. you know, historically for a variety of reasons we saw african-american enterprise confined to, you know, personal care products, insurance companies that catered exclusively to african-americans. again, over the past 20, 30 years there has been significant diversification which, again, has generated some very positive developments. for instance, the leading african-american enterprise in america today, worldwide technologies based outside of st. louis, missouri, you know, had receipts of over $3 billion

in 2011. and they're in, you know, the i.t. area. and, but notwithstanding these success stories, there is a cause for concern in that while there's been a dramatic increase in the number of african-american enterprises over the past decade, the vast majority of these enterprises and the number's 94%, are single proprietorships. and the average, you know, income of these single proprietorships is about $21,000. and in today's world $21,000 is just barely above the poverty level. so while one level there's been a significant increase in the number of african-american enterprise, the vast majority of these still remain marginal single proprietorships. when we talk about single proprietorships, part of the,

you know, american dream is to, you know, own a business for yourself. and i think a lot of african-americans become single proprietors based upon the fact sort of ongoing, you know, discrimination limitations in the employment sector. and, again, with the employment situation being as it is today, you know, possibly going into business for yourself is an attractive alternative. but, again, when we look at the numbers and just the reality that upwards of, you know, 95% of small businesses regardless of their ethnic or gender makeup of their proprietors tend not to last five years is a whole other, you know, reality that, you know, we have to deal with, and i'm not really sure that there's a real solution to that because, unfortunately, most small businesses are destined to fail. but, again, in the short term,

you know, some african-americans have been able to expand upon single proprietorships to move into a larger enterprise that can actually employ individuals. and the numbers are very clear that the more african-americans or any entrepreneur can move into the realm of actually employing people and expanding your enterprise, the higher the likelihood of success. >> and now, more from wichita, kansas. booktv visited the city with the help of our cable partner, cox communications, to explore the history and literary culture of the area. >> my name is sara bagby, and we're at watermark books and café in wichita, kansas. the store was opened in 1977, founded by bush jacobs, and he opened the store because there was a lack of stores at that

time who, that you could go in after reading "the new york times" book review or something like that and have a conversation with someone who knew what you were talking about. there were a few chains. we have managed to stay in if business through three moves and the addition of a café and meeting space, and the store has really grown and evolved over the past however many years that is. >> what kind of books do people in wichita kind of block to? >> well, i'd say two kinds of books. one is local, they love -- you know, anything that's quality that that that has to do with ll history, local stories, human interest, their friends, that kind of thing, the more specific the better. but also we, you know, one of the reasons watermark books stays in business is because we can filter through and curate all the books that come through the major publishers in new

york, through university presses, small presses and make recommendations on things that we think will be relevant to their lives. so where something might not be as popular in new york or d.c., we can get heavily behind it and sell it to our customers. this community be does like to read a lot. at the height of the bricks and mortar bookstore foot print, there were four box stores and three independent stores and a university store. so for a city this size, that is quite a, you know, a large amount of square footage for books. and the weather's not so great, and you're not distracted by, you know, hiking or the ocean. so, you know, there's a lot of time to read. we are a part of indy commerce which is sponsored by the american booksellers association, and we were able to

sell e-books within the infrastructure of our web site beginning in 2010 right around christmas. and it was interesting because not only were we selling e-books, but people had another reason to come to our web site, and our physical book sales increased much more than we thought they would. we thought it would just be e-books, but it was interesting because we had more traffic to the web site, and the physical books grew by a much larger percent than the e-books. the reports in the news, while certainly the e-ink and e-devices is growing, the perception is that it, no physical book sales. i think that's kind of the perception that comes across. but in fact, the market is split up 20 to 80%, and 80% is physical books that are still being sold. so there's still a huge volume of physical books. it's just not growing as fast.

so i think physical books are going to be around for a little while. i know that one of my publishing representatives was in here recently, and, you know, they had had a sales meeting, and their company from the sales people said we are still a physical books company. only 20% of our book sales are in e-books. so i think, um, it is uncertain. i don't think the bookstore, this bookstore in five years will have maybe the same exact look, but i know that we will be exploring options on, through a myriad of ways to reach our customers and our readers out there. >> next, from wichita, kansas, gretchen eick talks to booktv about her book, "dissent in wichita: the civil rights movement in the midwest, 1954-72. >> it was one of the most

segregated cities in america. which may surprise you, or surprises a lot of people. and it had a large migration of people during world war ii here. earlier than that during world war i, lots of people migrated from the south to escape jim crow laws and the horrible things that were going on, and the, one of them founded a black newspaper here, and the black newspaper in the early naacp chapter from 1917 on became kind of centerpieces of civil rights activity. but in the '50s a young kansan from another nearby town, hutchinson, moved here who was a lawyer, a person who was, like, top in his class at ku law school, who had serve inside the military in oak okinawa at the d of world war ii, he moved here. and by the end of 1958, he was the president of the local naacp chapter. and some of the youth in that chapter had come to him and said

we need, we would like to do something. we think that neighbor, maybe there's something we could do. we've heard about sit-down strikes that unions have done, and corps had done some sit-ins in the '40s. we thought that maybe this would be a way to really cause local businesses to have a loss of revenue, and that will touch them whereas moral arguments may not touch them. and so these students of the local naacp youth group decided to organize a sit-in, and they picked as their target the centerpiece of the largest drugstore chain in kansas, the rexawl, i think it was the largest in the country. they haddockham drug stories. and they picked the downtown store because, on the one hand, it was probably the most discriminatory, but it was also

the flagship for dockums. he brought it to the board, and they supported it, but the national naacp said, no. they said our policy is to bring things through the courts, make court challenges. and to bring change through court decisions. the students decided to do it anyway. the students started sit-ins in the middle of july, 1958, at the downtown dockum drugstore. so it went on for three weeks, they increased the pressure. by the third week, they had had a mass meeting and had at that mass meeting talked about trying to increase the number of days that they were going to be there, so they were going to be there almost every day that dockums was opened. and the following monday when the students went in to start this increased presence, the store manager came out and said, serve them, i'm losing too much

money. lewis, being the great lawyer that he really -- he was an incredible lawyer, lewis got on the phone with the management and said i hear that you've told the students they're going to be served. what about, what about your other eight stores? well, i guess we're going to open them as well. he says, well, you're the largest drugstore charge in kansas. does this mean that all rexall drugstores in kansas will be desegregated? yeah, i guess so. [laughter] so it was really a pretty phenomenal victory done in the face of opposition of the naacp. and the national board didn't actually record that this sit-in had taken place because they were not happy that this had been done. the sit-ins were kind of one part of the civil rights movement in wichita, and they didn't end with the dockum sit-in. the victory at dockum was significant because it was the

first student-led -- successful student-led sit-in. but it didn't mean that all stores in wichita followed the policy that dockums was now going to follow. so they went through five years of sit-ins. and the adults in the naacp organized don't buy where you can't work campaigns, they would distribute fliers, i have fliers of the stores in town that would be open to hiring you or allowing you to try on clothes. some of the wives of some of the doctors in the community, i thought this was incredibly wonderful strategy, they realized that the doctors were only allowing black patients to have appointments on thursdays. so they would refuse the appointments on thursdays, and, i mean, they just -- okay, if you want our business, then you have to take us other times in the week. stores were, some of the stores, clothing stores, you know, up, fashionable clothing stores in town would not allow you to try

on clothes when you went in. and so a number of the doctors' wives organized and ran up big tabs and then said they weren't going to pay their tabs if this wasn't, if the policy wasn't changed. so there were many, many fronts on which civil rights activity was taking place in wichita. but the one that kind of set the precedent that really achieved a very substantial victory was the dockum drugstore sit-ins. >> how would you compare the civil rights movement in the midwest to that of the south? >> the major difference, i think, it was not as violent here. there were some threats of violence, but you didn't have people pouring hot coffee on your back or putting cigarettes out on your shoulder. you know, it was scary, it was a very scary thing to do. you didn't know what violence, there was an active klan in the

area, there was then, we still have hate groups around. but you didn't have the same level, you didn't have people being assassinated like you did in, you know, mississippi lost at least 30 people who were civil rights martyrs. one of the reasons that i wanted to do this work and that i think it's so important that the story get out is that the civil rights situation was a national -- civil rights problems were national. civil rights, i mean, denial of rights, lack of respectful treatment of everybody, you know, was a national phenomenon. and i was teaching students who would think that everything that they would read talked about the civil rights movements or the sit-ins or protests or so forth being a southern phenomenon. and i think we're going to find that the more research is done, this was one of the first community studies to really get into this for the midwest. but i think we're going to find that there's a rich history of

protests sitting in, you know, other forms of nonviolent protests all across the country that just nobody's really uncovered. >> booktv visited wichita to explore the city's history. situated at the confluence of the arkansas and little arkansas rivers, the wichita area has served as a training center and meeting place for mow maddic peoples for at least 11,000 years. >> my name's phillip, i'm the managing partner of watermark west rare books here in wichita, kansas. we've been in the rare books business since 1985. we originally started as a subcategory in the watermark new bookstore in 19, early 1990s we took over the entire building here, and we have not looked back since. we've been stuffing this building with books, ah, for the

last 27 years, and we thought you might like to see some of the more interesting ones we've got. this is one of the earliest things we have in the store. it is a 1655 elsavier published in amsterdam. it has an illuminated title page, it is a work by e rasmus on ecclesiastical church trade at the time. it is all in latin, so i am not each going to attempt to tell you -- even going to attempt to tell you what it's about beyond that. these little, little volumes bound in vellum which is what this white type of sheepskin is called, are always very evocative to my mind of the earliest sorts of printing in europe.

because while vellum is still done today, when you see one of these on a shelf, you make a beeline for it because this is the, well, this one is not the holy grail, but vellum is always a good thing to find. over here this is a two-volume set of the life and letters of the scientist galileo galilee. these or were done in 1793 -- these were done in 1793, it's a two-volume set. you can see the cover's off volume one, but what i think is really interesting about these is that they are in the original paper covers. they are what are called unsophisticated. they, the paper's certainly shabby, but in most cases these

would have been rebound almost immediately upon issue into a more presentable binding for a gentleman's library. be these have managed to survive as they were issued. these are, these are two of the pieces of ephemera-type material i was speaking about earlier. the one on the right is an invitation to a fundraiser for a baseball team here in kansas, and it was printed in 1874. near as i can tell, this is the earliest reference to baseball in the state of county, and what -- of kansas, and what you're looking at is the only surviving copy that i am aware of. it was, obviously, mounted in a scrapbook at some point, now it's not. it is, however, a charming little piece of baseball and

kansas history. over here we have a rather modest-looking paper-wrapped binding, but what it contains is an alphabetical list of the members of the senate and the house of representatives done in 1831. i believe this was issued only, as it says here, for the members' immediate use only. not that they had xerox machines, but they were not supposed to loan this out because, as you can see, it would tell you exactly where everybody lived. so you could go and buttonhole and punch them if you didn't like them. you'll see the very first name is john quincy adams. mr. adams is, at this point, a former president who after leaving the presidency chose to go back to congress and continue to serve there. the book also contains the names of james k. polk and john tyler

who were two future presidents. you can see that it shows where they are, what state they represented and where they were living. these were generally boarding houses, mrs. reid's boarding house, mrs. cummings' boarding house or brown's hotel for the gentleman from tennessee. apparently, he couldn't get boarding house. i don't know what happened to the gentleman from missouri, he's not living -- he's living under a bridge. this is exactly the sort of ephemeral material that i really like. it was designed to be used, to be thrown away at the time, nobody thought about saving it, and now it's here. in scenic wichita, kansas. [laughter] this is an album, a photograph album. in this case it is of cdvs, what are called cdvs. you're going to have to bear

with me, it stands for -- [speaking in native tongue] in this case they are all civil war-related. this album was assembled or presented to lieutenant frank wing of the fifth iowa cavalry. he was in command of company -- well, i don't remember what company offhand. but what's nice about it is that, yes, it has all the generals and officers which is, you always find in these things. but because this was down to a troop level, it also includes the troopers, the privates, the sergeants. always in uniform, you can see their sabers there. in many cases where the photographs were taken would have been printed, were printed on the back, and many of them are signed by the person depicted in the picture.

the binding on this is typically rather decrepit, but it's really the contents that are the key. this is a 1918 color lithograph which documents an event that happened in france during world war i. in it two black dough boys, privates henry johnson and needham roberts, are depicted in the event that won them kudos for their heroism. one night they were on duty as zen seven tries, guarding their outfit which was the 369th infantry known as the harlem hell fighters. that night about 20-30 germans shuck up and attacked the -- snuck up and attacked the two sentries, and the sentries managed to kill or wound 20 to 24 of the germans.

this was a huge event and made all the headlines in the papers back in the u.s., and the two black g.i.s were awarded the french cdv. and they became the only -- not the only, but the first americans to be awarded the cdv in france during the first world war. it's really a remarkable document of that, it's surprising that it survived. this is a 1830s scrapbook. it's a commercial scrapbook, done in full leather as it was bought probably in a stationary store. what's interesting about this one is that it was assembled and maintained by a young woman and really reflects the sensibilities of her time. it consists largely of items that she found interesting, images that she'd cut out of

papers or, sadly, books. but they were things that interested her for reasons we may never really understand. sometimes in these trying to find a common thread that ties these things together is a battle you cannot win. it also includes sentimentses, what are called sentiments. that is, her friends would transcribe, her friends would transcribe passages from the great works. in this case, this is done in 1829 by another young woman named elizabeth m. mott. by another young woman named elizabeth m. mott. i've not been able to find any information about ms. mott. and i suspect that with something like that the young

woman who put this together and is, i'm afraid, unidentified probably did the hand coloring on many of these things herself using water colors. they're still very bright and very nice. one of the most interesting things i've found in this was that behind this, this card she had slipped what is called miniature writing. believe it or not, that little disc contains in the dead center the entire lord's prayer in miniature writing. it was done by another young woman named martha ann honeywell of new hampshire. the amazing thing is she did the microwriting, she put it on this disc, and she also did all the cut paper border you see there, the feathery-edged paper, and

absolutely astonishing to me, it turns out that ms. honeywell was born with no hands and only one foot and only three toes on that one foot, and she did all that amazing, delicate work with just three toes and, basically, her mouth. don't understand how, but that's not my purview. she made, ms. honeywell, made a living doing exactly this. we get most of these books, most of our books these days from estates when i buy an entire estate or online. that's, those are pretty much where we are searching these days. our specialties are increasingly the history of the american west and, increasingly, we're interested in ephemeral matter, booklets, pamphlets, documents, photographs. one of the things that has happened in the business of late, in the last ten years and certainly in the last five, is

that books per se have become a glut on the market because of the internet, because of economic conditions, because of an aging collector base, so on and so forth. books are a tough thing to sell, and they're going to stay that way. ephemeral matters, as i say, pamphlets, things that were, are small and easy to carry, light are much more consistent with where we see the future in this business being. our business at this point is 99%er is net. 99% internet. and largely we're selling to institutions, that is university collections, state and local historical societies and some individual collectors. the sad fact is that the general collector who used to be our bread and butter, because of economics, the economic conditions, have quite sensibly decided they need to buy bread and butter rather than books.

so we've, we've sort of had to refocus who we target as our customer. i think the genie is out of the bottle as far as the internet is concerned, we're not going back. the economy is not going to pick up quickly, i'm afraid, so collectors are getting older, and i don't want see a new generation at least for books coming along. it's all very grim as far as books, but i see our future, as i say, in the sort of things that were printed to be thrown away 100 years ago. and fortunately, somebody chose not to throw it away, they probably stuffed it in a book, used it as a bookmark, and now be it turns out that bookmark is worth more than the week is. more than the book is. so i'm reasonably optimistic. every year i can find, i find things that nobody knows existed. and when you're in that situation, when you've got the only one, it's a seller's

market. >> more from wichita, next on booktv. robert owens, the author of "mr. jefferson's hammer," talks about the origins of american indian policy. >> a very interesting character in that he has all these really ambitious goals, but he also hates conflict x. be at the same time he likes technology, right? so when i was trying to come up with titles n many ways william henry harrison becomes sort of the perfect tool for jefferson to wield when it comes to indian policy out on the frontier because, basically, harrison's willing to do the dirty work that is going to get jefferson what he wants; lots of indian land purchased very quickly and cheaply. harrison, i think he's probably more interesting for the fact that he's so typical rather than urinal. unusual. he's the son of, you know, sort

of grand virginia family. his father had signed the declaration of independence, and so he has this sort of leadership sort of instilled in him, and yet at the same time like a lot of those big virginia planter family, they've sort of hit hard times after the american revolution. and so harrison, basically, you know, he has, you know, the characterization of being the sort of big plantation leader, but he doesn't have the money to back it up. and so like an entire generation, he's going to seek his fortune in the west. he initially starts out as a teenager, he goes to medical school and pretty quickly decides he doesn't care for that, and then he joins the army which he actually likes a lot. and he loves soldiering. but as he gets into his early 20s and he marries, marries a woman named anna simms whose father was a big land speculator and a judge, and he finds that particularly as his family grows, the army paycheck just isn't cutting it even as he gets

promoted to captain. and so basically, you know, it's sort of, for him, it seems the perfect solution to go into a political career. he gets status and power and influence and, also, hopefully a steady paycheck. >> what's the first major political office that he held? >> he's secretary of the northwest territory which -- and in many cases the actual governor at the time, a guy named arthur sinclair, was gone a lot, so harrison ends up doing, he's basically the de facto governor of a large territory north of ohio. and then where he really starts getting notice, he is elected -- territories at that time, they didn't get a voting member of congress, but they did get a representative, and harrison becomes the northwest territory's representative in congress. and this really allows him a year or two to hobnob and sort of lobby people and also make connections. and, you know, the fact he has a good family name, this is, again, a classic virginia family of leaders that really sort of helps sort of bring him into the

public eye, and particularly for people who have power and influence. and then towards the very end of john adams' presidency, they carve off part of the northwest territory into what's eventually going to become ohio, and they create a new territory, indiana. and john adams needs an experience bed hand, somebody he can trust, to administer that territory. and he picks william henry harrison. after john adams says he wants to appoint harrison, it's already become clear that jefferson's going to be the next president. and harrison's showing, you know, some good political sense, sends feelers out to jefferson saying, hey, are you going to kick me out of office immediately? and when he learns jefferson isn't going to do that, he then agrees to take the job as governor of indiana. so the first year, year and a half in indiana, this would be from, you know, probably up to about 1802 there's not that much going on, but in 1802 rumors

start swirling about that the french are going to retake the louisiana territory just west of the mississippi river, and this basically -- and, of course, this is napoleonic france whereas before it'd been held by the spanish who aren't particularly aggressive or even militarily competent by this point. and the idea that napoleon maybe taking over louisiana territory sends jefferson into a panic. and from late 1802 into 1803, he writes this secret, private letter to harrison basically telling him to do almost anything he can to buy up indian lands on the mississippi and the ohio river as quickly and cheaply as he can. jefferson's idea is, and this really becomes hardened by early 1803, jefferson's idea is we want to buy up that land and get as many white settlers on them as we can because they'll serve as a mill cha who are going to stop -- militia who is going to

stop napoleon. anyway, this is when he basically gives harrison the green light to sort of do, you know, any means necessary to negotiate these treaties quickly and cheaply. what's really fascinating is, you know, within a year the united states has actually purchased all the louisiana territory, and so in theory that desperate need for quick land acquisition is gone, and at the same time jefferson really likes buying up indian lands cheaply, and this sort of fits some of his broader goals. and harrison, it turns out, is really, really good at this. not necessarily at doing it in a way that's going to make indians happy, but he's very effective at buying up this land quickly and cheaply, and that's the name of the game. and he basically continues in that mode. the way i usually describe it in class is i'll pick three random students, and i'll get their names, and then i'll play, of course, the part of william henry harrison because i'm wearing a tie, and i will pick two of the students and say, oh, hey, would you mind coming to my indian council, and i would like

to buy that third student's desk. would you first two students be willing to sell me the third student's desk for $500 a year? and, of course, they say, yes, because it's not their desk, and they really don't care. then you invite student one and student three and ask them if you could buy student number two's desk. it seems like a silly, reductive exercise, but it's basically how these treaties worked. harrison was very good at figuring out which indian chiefs were willing to play ball with him, which ones were desperate enough for some annuities and other government perks that they would, basically, agree to sell their neighbor's land whether they had a decent claim to them or not. and as far as harrison was concerned, you know, as long as i get indians to seen on the dotted line, it's perfectly good. and jefferson was more than willing to accept, you know, indian treaties like that. the very early 19th century is this odd period between the treaty of greenville in 1795 which, basically, ended wide-scale warfare north of the

ohio river and, of course, william henry harrison was not only in the army that led up to that treaty, but also at the treaty negotiations. and i would argue he got sort of a firsthand lesson in how to conduct indian treaties at greenville. and then for the next decade or so you basically have the indian population north of the ohio river is in awful straits. the napoleonic wars have killed the for-trading -- the fur-trading economy. theythey are very much a disspiritted people. and prior to 1805 it's relatively easy for him to do this. it's after 1805 when we start seeing religious revivals among the indians north of the ohio, most famously that of a guy nicknamed the shawnee prophet. that's when harrison has to change tactics a bit because they, basically, hold to the idea that no indian should sell any land to the united states under any circumstances, and

that's sort of directly opposite him. so he's going to have to adopt a number of tactics. he tries to win the prophet over, and then he starts seeing, well, he's a tool of the british, and we have to watch out for him. but, basically, there instant any real -- there isn't any real, there are occasional shows of force, you don't actually have combat until late 1811. which, again, most historians will argue that the war of 1812 actually starts in late 1813. >> how long was he in this position, and when did his presidential aspirations come into effect? >> i would argue his early career is, you know, because he's in office for about a month. he doesn't actually do quite a lot except cough during his presidential days, i guess we would say. but his earlier career, i think, is much more fascinating, and he has a much greater impact on american society, in particular our western expansion and western policy.

i think what got me interested in william henry harrison was, actually, i started out being interested in tecumseh who eventually ends up leading this confederation of indians fighting against the united states in the war of 1812. and tecumseh's sort of one of these readily-made heroes, and he actually gets sort of oddly incorporateed in the pantheon of american heroes. to our way of thinking, so incredibly honorable. he sticks by his guns, he's very principled, he fights for what he believes in, he was actually one of the few native americans who strongly objected to the torture and killing of prisoners in time of war. so that was also seen as very honorable. but so, you know, i started out in high school and college reading about tecumseh, but when it came time to graduate school, you know, there'd already been some really fantastic works written on tecumseh. there wasn't a lot of meat left on the bone, if you will, whereas harrison hadn't received a a major biographical treatment since world war ii. he's in this sort of odd

netherworld where he was a president so you would natural assume that's the most interesting part of his life, and yet he's president for such a short time. for heavens sakes, people know more about millard fillmore's presidency than they do harrison's. so i think that's part of the rub. which is funny, and i'm not sure it necessarily had to end up that way because if you look at his campaigns for the presidency, there's certainly no shortage of campaign literature, and there are all these sort of not especially unbiased biographies written of him. so there's really no reason that he shouldn't have been sort of more famous. also, too, and people -- we're coming up on the bicentennial of the war of 1812, it's probably the least known of the major early american wars. you know, the revolution has a huge following, the mexican war and civil war have huge, you know, markets for their book, and the war of 1812 has been sort of slow to sort of pick up that market and that interest, i think. >> wichita, kansas, incorporated in 1870 was founded on the

success of business bemen who -- businessmen who came to hunt and trade with native populations. the city became a destination for cattle drives heading north to access railroads to eastern markets. booktv recently visited the area with the help of our cable partner, cox communications, to wring you a look at witch -- bring you a look at wichita's rich history and literary culture. >> i'm dr. lori madway, the curator of special collections and the university archivist at wichita state university library. we're here in the reading room, and we're going to look at the federal writers' project, records for kansas. the federal writers' project was part of the wpa, and it started in 1935. franklin delano roosevelt signed the papers in the summer of 1935. the idea was that they would document the past and present history of every state and many

cities within each state not only because there was an awareness that modern cultural was changing the cultural and social map forever of the country, but also because the editors and organizers of the project wanted to inspire people that a sense of what we would reclaim our greatness and our vision. and it was really a repression of american national identity, and that was done on a local level. both of these essays, and there were at least 800 of these essays written, written by robert foster who was's essayist and an area supervisor for several of the counties. and while wichita was one of the main offices, you could see that there were several other regional offices, among them harper and several others like el dorado.

and hutchinson. and so this particular piece, he was a newspaper reporter, but like a lot of people who had to go on leaf, he did whatever work he could do in the few years before -- after the depression hit and before he was able to get a job writing for the project. and he included a story of his own family. so you could see not only when they came out here, but how they had to adapt to very hard times. they were farmers, but it wasn't easy to hold on to a farm or to make a living from it. people commonly say the wheat crop is ruined and that hard times are bound to follow. the loss of our big export crop. and so we're aware of the difficulties too. um, weather is always factor, but particularly in the depression and the dust bowls that occurred in the 19, mid 1930s, particularly in 1935. as i said, the project wanted to capture a whole range of people,

so he -- [inaudible] we recall a homeless person be. they used the words like tramp and hobo. and he starts speaking to him, and the man is very forthcoming, and lester adams is describing the saga that he led him, ultimately, to become homeless. his family lost their farm, and different jobs dried up as the economy got worse, and he would have to hop on trains -- which is what people did -- and finally he finds his way, and he'll work temporarily for different farmers either to get food and a place to live, sometimes he'd get wages. and what i thought was really significant was when in the collections he says he's talking about, um, politics, and he then says, um, at the end: some of

these men are communists, of course, i've heard them talk, and they are really similar to a labor union. but in the last election they failed to cast many votes. they are neither for, nor against religion as it does not concern communism. i am a republican myself. this is very kansas. there was, actually, a very active two-party contest. there was, kansas had quite a few democrats then, too, that we had -- in 1936 we supported fdr and rejected our own native son and beloved governor, alfred landon. so there were democratic senators and democratic governors as well as very well-represented republican party as well. but this is significant because you really get a sense of the

equanimity of the project, that they are capturing people, and the people that they're talking to have, are willing themselves to hope. they have not only been inspired by president, by roosevelt who was doing this, but it was clear in going through these collections that there is a real sense of resilience among people in kansas, that they had come -- many of their grandparents or parent bees or the older pioneers, they themselves had come out. they saw themselves taming this land, bringing civilization as they knew it. they were fiercely devoted to their communities, their families. they didn't want to leave. the dust storms were not as bad here. they were certainly bad enough, but not as bad as in oklahoma. and while the state did lose population during the 1930s, most people stayed. they did their best to stay. their neighbors helped each other, and so the fact that

they're finding a tramp, they're also finding people who are willing to reach out and give him some food, give him meals so that he can be self-reliant and at least take care of himself. and you still see a sense in this collection that he is his own man. he is his own person. he can talk about his past, about his present. he still has a sense of who he is, and these hard times have not worn away the basic core of who lester adams is. so i thought that was very significant as well. another collection that we have in special collections is the robert t. acheson book collection. he was the illustrator and manager of the mccormack armstrong publishing company. he collects about 500 rare books, many of them are dealing with images. and they're dealing with different parts of printing and

calligraphy that are important to him. also artifacts. i'm going to show you the oldest material from the acheson collection. as i mentioned before, he collected artifacts as well. we have some older artifacts, too, we have examples of egyptian pyre ri that we've eye quired since -- acquired since. this is significant, this buddhist prayer scroll, because paper was actually invented in the far east, in the china, and this scroll dates from 1770 either ce, common era, or a.d. as it's often known, but c.e. is the more inclusive term, and the, you're going to see a series of charms that were written on a scroll, and this is when they are flattened out, this is what they actually look like, written in japanese. ..

this is archival quality cotton to make sure it is as pure as possible. and we left off the cotton. and we are going to remove the squirrel itself which is also very intricate. this is the live.

this will be for a part of the scrolls. and we unwind the various layers. when one of our visiting lecturers from japan heard that we had this prayer scrolls he had to make special visits to special collections because he was amazed and enthralled not only that we have it here in wichita but we knew what it was and it was part of a collection that had been year for many

decades and was an intricate part of our collection documenting the history of calligraphy. if you show the camera on top of the scroll is wound and has many different charms displaying -- giving advice about what people need to do and these different scrolls of charms and different temples throughout japan and a particular ruler and for some time made sure this kind of material was circulated. it shows in this part of the world the high level of culture and advancement. remember this is the eighth century. there are many parts of europe where people are illiterate. we have the islamic and jewish cultures where there is a high

rate of literacy and paper is devised and circulated before -- there is a manuscript circulated in europe but the fact that this paper is supplied in the eighth century is evidence of this high level of cultural development and an interval part of how they knew how significant it was to acquire something like this. this is nothing short of amazing. books and papers and manuscripts are some of the most powerful sources of information there are because not only do we get a window into worlds that are no longer with us but we can chart how we are like them, how we are different, how the jury socially and politically and economically brought us from those points but

the points for viewers of how we are the same and how we are different really makes this journey and -- endlessly fascinating and always worth taking and there's always something new to learn. >> on booktv's recent visit to wichita, kansas with cox communications, we spoke with dennis barnstormer and the lady: aviation legends walter and olive ann beech, the founders of beechcraft". aircraft corporations like stearin, cessna and beech graf were founded in wichita in the 1920s. sir >> literally flying county

fair's aviation-he was wichita's most eligible bachelor. maybe will not agree with this but i think she was basically a -- there was a real element of shyness there but she compensated for it superbly well with a sort of backbone of steel. walter was the kind of guy who fooled him into the swimming pool when they were having their engagement dinner celebrating their engagement. she could have stood up to walter. the next day she went out and bought good clothing and jewelry to replace that had been been ruined and sent him the bill. that sum them up in a way. this was 1932 that he founded beach aircraft and it was in the

teeth of the great depression. i would have thought being a more cautious person than walter i would have thought if you are going to start a business building airplanes in the teeth of the depression you build a cheater plain. that people could afford. he really went the opposite direction and built the rolls-royce of airplanes, the model 17. and it worked. he didn't have to sell a huge amount of these. they sold anywhere $17,000 in 1932, he could sell enough to oilmen, oil magnets to movie stars and so on that enabled the company -- >> my favorite memory is going to the plant with my father.

so that was when i was younger than 10 but it was very special to walk through and see all the different kinds of production happening and we got to sit undersecretary's lap. those are fun childhood memories. >> walter's great gift was an ability almost intuitively to sense what the market might want before the market knew it wanted it. and making decisions -- she was a better businessman than he was. when he died in 1950 she took over and at first she was one of the very first -- maybe the very first woman running a big company and the men tried to

stage a coup, a dozen of them while she was in the hospital giving birth. she had taken the precaution of having a direct line established next to her hospital bed and she crushed the coo like the kremlin might have crushed the coup in the old soviet union. she turned out to be an excellent business woman with excellent instincts and a kind of sense of integrity that she would not cut corners, she would stand behind the buyers, something broke she would have fixed that the company's own expense. the only thing she lacked perhaps was his instinct about what the market might want next although that is overstating it because for decades beach

continued to go from success to greater success under her but most of the models tended to be to some extent derivative of the previous models and beach never did make the jump into jet airplanes and this perhaps was one of the few failings or one of the few questionable things that happened under her administration. >> is also important to say she was greatly involved with the company when my father died. she was secretary treasurer and they started the company together. wasn't like she just stepped in without any previous involvement. >> one of the stories i like is when walter was in the process

of forming the company, olive said i want to be paid and have a salary and i am not just going to donate my life to something without a salary. she was very conscious of her worth and prerogatives. always, i think in private, personal relationships with her friends and in relationships at work she never lost consciousness of who she was and she occupied a pretty unique place. one of the stories i like about her is it bothered her that people out of the plant floor were tracking in steel shadings

onto her expensive rugs because her office was finished out and finished in the french provincial style and so she posted a sign outside saying please remove your shoes before coming in. then one day a group of wichita matron's came to visit her. these were friends of hers. they took their shoes off too. that was kind of emblematic of the way the world responded to her. basically it did what she wanted, went for another 30 years under her leadership and only in 1980 was merged with raytheon. as big as it was under walter it became much bigger under her. she continued to attract an ever

larger group of customers. >> how is that in which a top? looked pretty big back then. >> it was a very mixed bag. still our largest employer. and still immensely important to wichita but there have been a lot of changes and there will be more. hopefully we will always remain the air capital of the world. >> for more information on booktv's recent visit to wichita and the other cities visited by local content vehicles go to c-span.org/local content. >> hi, everybody. glad you are here. i may not look like what you would expect when you think of a welfare mother but i was on

welfare. these days i am a successful engineer but when i was 24 i was a very scared young woman. i had been abandoned by my husband and disowned by my parents. i had a baby and i was pregnant. i had no money and i had no job so i had a lot of serious decisions to make. i found a temporary place working as a live in housekeeper for a family. they were very nice to me but when they found out i was pregnant they asked me to leave. i will ask the -- i will read from the book from that point. it was october by then by the time i realize i had to leave and darkness close in early. the house was empty, silent. the family having gone out for the evening. there were no curtains on the window of the sitting room on the third floor. i stood close to the window and looked at the small bright stars

in the black sky so far away with jeremy, that was my baby and absorbed in stacking, i sat at the table to count of my assets. i was 24 years old. i had an english degree, no money, 15-month-old son and another child on the way. there were three piles of paper next to my journal on the table. one consisted of the help wanted ads for out of the paper and lists of other possible jobs. i would check the mouth but i had nothing to offer in the way of skills or experience and even though factories didn't want to hire someone visibly pregnant. a second pilot contained brochures from the day care centers. child care for children under 3 in that town was almost nonexistent and very expensive. the third file, the most disorderly slipping this way and that revealed envelops and

napkins from other straight pieces of paper on which i had been buzzing for weeks. jeremy came over and crawled onto my lap. i held with my left-hand and with my right moved budget papers away from his hand and spread about. i kept trying to make the numbers work but looking at now it seems clear the salary i would have to make simply to pay for room and board and child care was well out of my reach. with no alimony or child support i would have to work two or three jobs just to survive but then who would raise my children? i wanted to raise them myself legal not dump them in a group home for 16 hours a day even assuming i could find such a place. as i looked at the time of the race and written budgets i realized no job, no money, no child support, no health insurance and limit medical bills for my pregnancy and my

baby, i had no choice but to go on welfare. a choiceless choice as my friend jill called it. i had thought about going on welfare for so long, trying to find some other situation, a communal situation or stay at home job. the idea of taking handouts, asking for charity made me cringe but i didn't see any other way to provide for my children in the coming month. welfare seemed to be the only door left open to me. getting welfare, i reasoned, was like getting unemployment. i had paid taxes for years already and i would again some day soon. it would be as it was meant to be. a temporary safety net during a difficult time. indy, i felt like the victim of a hurricane. my life had been picked up and shake and around and dumped to the ground leaving me without resources of my own to care for

my children. welfare was not an attractive option even than in 1974, even in massachusetts where the allotment is one of the best in the country. i had seen what it was like for my friend jill. in return for food stamps and barely enough cash to pay rent on the cheapest apartments with the most minimal utilities she was subject to surprise inspections from social workers who were entitled to criticize every aspect of her life. when she handed over food stamps the other shoppers inspected the contents of her cart ready to condemn anything frivolous. she also had to fight to keep her meager allotment from being cut at some administrator's whim. attendants on an office where social workers were told to act as if the money were coming out of their own pockets. as jill's sometimes cry in frustration, how bad your choices have to be before welfare seems like your best

choice? i felt so old as if i had lived 100 years already. i only had one bit of philosophy left. one oh to hold my life together. the kids come first. the kids come first. every decision had to be based on what was right for my children, jeremy and this new baby. i was all they had. i raised my head. darkness fill the orders of the room. beyond the circle of light from the table, i shared and held jeremy close serve putting my arms over his tummy and pushing him back against me. he craned his head to look at me with wide, surprise eyes. it is all right, i said. everything is going to be okay. ok, jeremy repeated as he stroked my cheek. we were like the babes in the

woods but i couldn't allow us to lie down and die. i had to be an adult even though i barely knew how having relied on my husband's knowledge of the world sins leaving school. the lives of two children depending on my making the right choices. the october wind rattled the window of threatening our precarious refuge. the press in around us and deciding to go on welfare i had the sense that a door had slammed shut behind me and i was stepping out into the cold setting off on a journey with no mask a, without even knowing what my destination would look like. all i knew for sure was that i would never give up my babies. i grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in the two parent family. i went to college so going on welfare was a shock, shall we say.

this new book is really a coming of age story about learning to be an adult leaders and learning to be a parent and also learning how to deal with this crazy system. for example in order to -- i had to have my own apartment. i could not share with somebody else. that meant here i was with no money i had to somehow scrape together rent and a security deposit and get an apartment and once i had an apartment i had nothing to put in it. i have a crib and changing table and the kitchen table someone had thrown out. that was it. no refrigerator, and my friend jill came to the rescue and told me about emergency assistance. furniture and appliances, would they give me the money to go to good will or yard sale and get something second-hand?

we are given vouchers and have to buy new things. with furniture and appliances i got through emergency assistance one about dry hadn't used yet was for a crib. second crib for this new baby. the voucher was made out to the discounts for on main street where they supposedly have a crib. the welfare office policy was to find the lowest price in town and issue a voucher for that store for that exact amount. and there was a caveat on it that the recipient could not add more money for more expensive item. that was to protect as from bait and switch tactics of unscrupulous merchants. running out of time to get the crib at this point i was nine months pregnant. i awkwardly held the glass door

open to push jeremy's stroller through and walked past the table where old ladies in housecoats figured messy stacks of nylon panties and presented the voucher to salesman. was middle-age, balding with thin cheeks and a tie holding the unbuttoned shoulder of his short leave see -- short sleeved dress shirt together. he said we don't have a crib for that price. but you have to, i said. we don't. he started to walk away. hey, i said. he turned back. the welfare office has you down as having a crib for this price. he looked down at me with fluorescent lights gleaming on his forehead. one side of his upper lip curled in. we don't. we used to but it cost more now. he turned away. i stood there gripping the metal handle of jeremy's stroller not sure what to do. the social worker had been very

clear. was not allowed to change the voucher no matter what the circumstances, not even if the store raised their prices. it was this voucher or nothing. i couldn't make up the difference in price for the caveat on the voucher. of our childhood training came back to me. all those good little girls don't make a fuss, admonition told me to back down and leave without an argument. i looked around embarrassed. i was embarrassed and hoping none of the other women had heard. i fought briefly the baby could sleep in a cardboard box or maybe at bureau before. maybe we could get by until jeremy didn't need a crib any logger. and i thought of my friends. i thought of jill. i set up a little straighter. jeremy twisted around to see what i was doing and then the child who had always hidden in the shadows slipping into

neighbors' yards i raised my voice. will ladies off with a rich doing and looked. so you won't sell me a curve that the price you promised. the old ladies started to murmur. so i said be delays in might voice of little more and laying hand on my 9-month-old stomach. you want my baby to sleep in a cardboard box. imagine that the ladies muttered dropping what they had been looking through and moving closer. jeremy looked up at the man with a scowl. you are a bad man, he said. the man stepped back. he looked to his right, he looked to his left. the store was silent as everybody listened to what he had to say. no, he stumbled. of course not. you can have the curve. of course we will honor the voucher. i kept my hard look on him as the ladies went back to their

shopping. thank you, i said. please show me which one is. i didn't when that question very well. that wasn't about having to speak up to get what you needed. when i did rejoin the work force which of course i did after a few years as we all did because the average time to be on welfare has always been less than two years so after a few years when i was working again i didn't tell anyone i had been on welfare. i felt a stigma too strong early so i listened to my co-workers as they complained about greedy welfare moms ripping off the system and i didn't say as i could have that wall street worked for me and the people i knew the way it was supposed to. it kept us and the children alive during this little bit of time we could not work. and a few years ago i met writer and teacher marina gold when. she teaches at american university and as a wonderful

writer. she encouraged me to tell my story and to write this memoir. to write a true story. so this book isn't just a coming of age story about learning how to survive, learning to get along with thought biker gang in the neighborhood and deal with landlords who burn down their buildings for the insurance money. a story about real people. i didn't drive a gold cadillac or have ten children or more kids to get a bigger check than some people mention to me. i didn't do drugs or try to rip off the system. of all the people i knew and i knew a lot of people on the system, no one, not a single one fit any of those stereotypes. we were just parents, just parents trying like any other parent to do the very best we could for our children to provide for our children. thank you.

we have a couple of minutes if anybody has questions. yes? [inaudible] >> the question was have things changed since i was on welfare. >> a change for the worse. the welfare reform act reduced the amount of time you could lobby on welfare and most people were off anywhere. and a few years to be on welfare. and the comprehensive education and training act that helped me train for a job and get the experience i needed for a job. there are some other job acts.

i am not up-to-date on all of them but the polls support network has really been reduced and as barbara aaron wrote in her most recent edition of nickel and dime which is a great story about blue-collar workers people who are poor are increasingly being criminalize and i felt like a criminal. that is why i called the book "innocent". not only was i very naive. i was very young but i was made to feel like a criminal. thank you for that question. do my parents talked to me now? yes. not now because they have passed away, luckily. luckily they don't talk to me now. not likely that they passed away but even by the end of the book and that was part of my growing process was to learn how to get along with my parents again but -- to get along with me. we have reconciled by the end