guys and one of them has a gun. >> departs this online at booktv.org. interested in american history? watch american history television on c-span 3 every weekend. forty-eight hours of people and events that document people and events. visit c-span.org for more information. next, from book tv's recent visit to wichita, kansas, we hear from robert weems. his book, "business in black and white", takes a look at what initiatives were promoted by american presence to promote african-american business development.

>> part of that was motivated by the war on poverty. part of it was the means to help lemonade african-american poverty. another impulse was the urban rebellions of the mid- late 1960s. the likelihood of people destroying property in those neighborhoods would decrease. all that being said, in doing some preliminary reading, i came across a fleeting reference of a 1949 book on black business to a division of negro affairs. the vision, in fact, was in the coolidge administration. this grew out of the commerce department when uber -- herbert

hoover. there was a entrepreneur who had a meeting with huger. they had a meeting together. motivation was during the 1920s. we had a historian referred to it as a golden age of african-american business activity in the united states. barnett made the point that the congress could help stimulate this by performing a special agency to deal with issues, and promote african-american entrepreneurship. when we talk about interests and

support of negro affairs, it would continue through hoover. when hoover lost in 1932, it was continued in the fdr administration, and in fact, continued through truman. this division had bipartisan support. but again, when eisenhower came in, the division was discontinued. in fact, it really wasn't -- you know, you didn't have a clearly defined governmental agency aimed at african-american entrepreneurship. not until nixon established the minority business and a price of 1969. 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 and other initiatives in the

commerce department to promote african-american entrepreneurship. as i alluded to earlier, based upon the war on poverty, or based upon an attempt to help quell urban black or valiant. there was a real push to increase the number of banks that were african-american, franchise owners, a push an increase in numbers of african-american auto dealerships. especially when we look at african-american franchise ownerships, which, today is a mythical segment of african-american business ownership. we can literally go back nixon administration and certain initiatives that were promoted that were directly tied to what we see today.

based upon my research, besides nixon who gets a lot of visibility and credit, i would say that carter administration, in terms of deeds as well as words, was the most supportive administration in terms of supporting african-american entrepreneurship. one of the things that the carter administration did, there was a public pack that was passed in 1977. there was something in that act but said that 10% 10% of government projects had to go to minority contracts. this contributed to an explosion of opportunity for minority contractors. another thing that the carter administration helped to promote african-american entrepreneurship, was especially

media, cable television. there was little, if any, african-american ownership in the cable realm. literally, or initiatives associated with the carter administration, bob johnson, who did a position to start like entertainment television. we look at the reagan administration. we know in some areas the reagan administration indeed started to cut back programs that had historically assisted african-americans and other poorer segments of american society. programs to assist but business were maintained, and in fact, some instances, actually enhanced. the evidence suggested one of the motivations for that was the influence of elizabeth dole, who is the head of the white house up office of public liaison

during a period of time. it was suggested that dole approached president reagan and said there's a sentiment out there that you are very anti-african-american, and by continuing to support african-american entrepreneurship, that might help dispel the notion that you are totally against, you know, the aspirations of the african-american community. and also, it appears that reagan, on a personal level, he believed in the free enterprise system. it was a problem in terms of promoting programs to support african-american entrepreneurship. when we look at the reagan presidency, he had more than elizabeth dole. he had more conservative advisors as well. this appeared to manifest itself in supreme court nominations

that reagan made. ultimately, while the reagan administration continued to support, you know, business support for african-american entrepreneurship, his supreme court nominees ended up ultimately helping to undermine these programs. 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 editions, in fact, declared that the city of richmond's policy was unconstitutional. six years later, with the addition of grant's -- clarence thomas, the supreme court declared that the transportation department initiative that

allocated work to minority contractors, that that was declared unconstitutional as well. with the reagan administration, he had the interest in the economy, where is his administration actually promoted the existing government programs to assist african-american entrepreneurship. but the subsequent court nominations did not help that. there were initiatives sponsored by the obama white house, and the business school at rutgers, reuters has a center for urban development and black entrepreneurship. they cosponsored an urban entrepreneur summit. among other things, similar to what previous administrations and others had said, by promoting more positive economic

activity in urban black enclaves, that not only had a beneficial effect on neighborhoods, but also on municipal a mistake, and the national economy. again, there is this continuing thrust and movement and interest in promoting urban entrepreneurship, which urban has become a cold word for black. we talk about black, white, what have you. if you can expand in certain areas, that is not just going to have a positive impact on specific communities, but on the broader economic scale. >> 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 have seen a certain diversification of african-american enterprise and a variety of sectors. historically, we saw african-american enterprise can find to personal care products, insurance companies that catered exclusively to african-americans. again, over the past 20 or 30 years, they have been significant in diversification. which, again, has generated from positive developments. the leading african-american enterprise today, worldwide technology, based outside of st. louis missouri. they had received over $3 billion in 2011 they are in the i.t. area. notwithstanding the success stories, there is a call for concern as to why there has been

a dramatic increase in the number of african-american enterprises over the past decade. the vast majority of these enterprises and the number, which is 94%, of single proprietorships. the average income of these single proprietorships is about $21,000. in today's world, $21,000 is just barely above the poverty level. while one level it has benefited in the number of american enterprises, the vast majority still remain single proprietorships. only talk about single proprietorships, part of the american dream is to own a business for yourself. i think a lot of that, it is based upon the fact of ongoing discrimination were limitations

in the employment sector. again, with the employment situation being as it is today, you know, possibly going into business for yourself. it is an attractive alternative. but again, when we look at the numbers that 95% of small businesses, regardless of ethnicity or gender, it is a whole different reality that we have to deal with. i'm not really sure that there is a real solution to that. unfortunately, most small businesses are destined to fail. again, in the short term, some african-americans have been able to expand upon single proprietorships to move into a larger enterprise that can actually employed individuals. the numbers are very clear that

the more african-americans or any entrepreneur can move into the realm of actually employing people and expanding enterprise to higher the likelihood of success. >> next, from wichita, kansas, gretchen eick talks about her book, "dissent in wichita: the civil rights movement in the midwest, 1954-72". >> is one of the most segregated cities in america. it had a large migration of people during world war ii. earlier than that, there were lots of people who migrated from the south to escape jim crow laws and the horrible things that were going on. one of them founded a black newspaper here. the black newspaper became a

centerpiece of a civil-rights activity. in the 1950s, a young kansan, moved here who was a lawyer. he was a person who was going to law school and had served in the military in okinawa at the end of world war ii. he moved here. by 1958, he was the president of the local naacp chapter. some of the youth in that chapter had come to him and said, we would like to do something. maybe there is something we could do. the strikes that unions have done, the court had done some sentence in the 1940s. we thought that maybe this would be a way to cause local businesses to have a loss of revenue, and that will touch them, where is moral arguments may not touch them. these students they decided to

organize a sit in. they picked as their target, the centerpiece of the largest drugstore chain in kansas. the rexall drugstore chain. they had nine drugstores under a certain family. they picked the downtown store because it was probably the most discriminatory, and it was also the flagship. the students came and the board said they will support this 100%. the national naacp said no, our policy is to bring things to the court and make court challenges. and also to bring change to court decisions. the students decided to do it anyway. the students started the second a sit in in the middle of july 1958 at the downtown store.

it went on for three weeks. they increased the pressure of a third week. they had had a mass meeting and at that mass meeting talked about trying to increase the number of days that they were going to do this, so they would be there almost everyday. the following monday when the students went in to start this increased presence, the store manager came out and said i am losing too much money. lewis, being the great lawyer that he was, he was an incredible lawyer, he got on the phone and said i hear that you have told the students they are going to be served. what about your other eight stores? he said well, i guess we are going to open them as well. and he said well, you are the largest drugstore chain in kansas. does this mean that all rexall drugstores will be desegregated?

and he said yes, i guess just so. it was really a pretty phenomenal victory done in the face of the opposition of the national naacp. they were not happy that this had been planned. the citizens were part of one part of this citizens rights movement and it did not end with this one victory. it didn't mean that all stores in wichita follow the policies that they were going to follow. they went through five years of citizens. and the adults in the naacp organized don't buy where you can't work campaigns. they would distribute flyers, letters of the stores in town that would be opened to hire you or let you try and close.

some of the wives of the doctors in the community -- all of this was an incredible 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. they just made it so that if you want our business coming up to take us during other times during the week. a number of the doctors wives organize this, and they ran a big tabs and then said they were going to pay their tithes is the policy wasn't changed. there were many fronts on which civil-rights activity were taking place in wichita. but the one that set the precedent that really achieved a substantial victory was the

drugstore siddons. >> how would you compare the civil rights movement in the midwest of the civil rights movement in the south? >> the major difference, i think, it was not as violent here. there were some threats of violence, but you did not have people pouring hot coffee on your back or putting cigarettes out on your shoulder. it was scary, it was a very scary thing to do. you didn't know what he groups were around. there is still hate groups around. he didn't have the same level and you didn't have people being assassinated like you did in the south. like in mississippi, at least 30 people who were civil-rights mongers. i think it is so important that the story get out, the reason i wanted to do this work, is that the civil rights situation was

national. lack of respect for treatment of everybody. it was a national phenomenon. i was teaching students, who thought that everything that they would read, the talked about the civil rights movements or siddons and etc., i think we're going to find that the more research is done, this is one of the first community studies to really get into this , there is a bevy of other nonviolent forms of civil rights going on across the country. >> situated at the confluence of the arkansas and little arkansas rivers, the wichita area has served as a trading center and meeting place where nomadic peoples released 11,000 years.

>> i am the managing partner of watermark west rare books here in wichita, kansas. we have been in the rare books business since 1985. we originally started as a subcategory in the watermark new bookstore. we started in 1990s taking over the entire building here, and we have not looked back since. we have something that's building with books for the last 27 years. we thought you might like to see some of the more interesting ones that we have. this is a book with an illuminated title page. it is by an ecclesiastical

church fraud at the time. it is all in latin. i am not even going to attempt to tell you what it is about beyond that. these little volumes are bound in belmont, which is what this type of sheepskin is called. it is always very evocative of the early sorts of painting in europe. while vellum is still done today, you make a beeline for it when you see this on the shelf. this one is not the holy grail, but this 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 were done in 1793. it is a two volume set. the cover is off of the first volume. what's interesting about these is that they are in the original paper covers. they are what is called unsophisticated. in most cases, these would've been rebound, almost immediately upon issue into a more presentable binding for a gentleman's library. these have managed to survive as they were issued. these are two of the pieces of

ephemeral material. one is an invitation to a baseball team here in kansas, and it was printed in 1874. the other one, this is the earliest reference to baseball in the state of kansas. what are you looking at is the only surviving copy that i'm aware of. it was honestly mounted in a scrapbook at some point. now it is not. it is a charming piece of baseball and kansas history. over here, we have a modest looking paper wrapped binding. 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.

they were not supposed to loan us out, because as you can see, it will tell you exactly where everybody lives, so you could go and buttonholed him and punched him if he didn't like them. the very first name is john quincy adams. mr. adams at this point was a former president. he chose to go back to congress after the presidency. the book also contains the names of james polk and john tyler, who were to future presidents. you can see where they are, what state they represented, and general boarding houses. mrs. reid supporting house, brown's hotel, for the gentleman from tennessee. i don't know what happened to the gentleman from missouri, he

must be living under a bridge. this is exactly the sort of ephemeral material that i really like. it was designed to be used and thrown away at the time. nobody thought about saving it. now it is here. in scenic wichita, kansas. [laughter] this is an album. a photograph album. in this case, it is a latin term. in this case, it is civil war related. this was presented to frank wayne, who was a lieutenant of the fifth iowa calvary. he was in command of company, well, i don't remember what company offhand. what is nice about it is that yes, it has all the generals and

officers. you always find those in these things. this was down to a troop level, and it also includes the troopers and the private. the surgeons. always in uniform. you can see their sabers bare. in many cases, many photographs were printed on the back. many of them are signed by the person depicted in the picture. the binding on this is typically decrepit, but it is part of the key. this is a 1918 color lithograph, which documented events that happened in world war i in france. in it is privates henry johnson and needham roberts, they are depicted in the event and for

their heroism. one night, they were on duty as centuries, guarding their outfit, which was the 369th infantry, known as the harlem hell fighters. that night, about 20 to 30 germans snuck up and attacked them, and the century -- they managed to attack the germans. this made headlines. the two black gis were awarded a french medal of honor. they were the first americans to be awarded the quantity.

it is a remarkable document. it is surprising that it has survived. this is an 1830s scrapbook. it is a commercial scrapbook with full leather. it was probably bought the stationery store. what is interesting about this one, is it was assembled and maintained by a young woman and reflects a sensibility of her time. they were things that interested her for reasons we may never understand. ..

i suspect with something like that, be 1 who put this together and is, i am afraid, unidentified, probably did the hand, during of many of these things using watercolors. still very bright, very nice. one of the most interesting things i found in this, behind this card, she had slipped --

miniature writing. that little disk contains in the dead center the entire lord's for error in miniature writing. it was done by another young woman named martha honeywell of new hampshire. the amazing thing is she did the micro writing and put it on this disc and did the cut paperboard, fender edged paper, absolutely astonishing be. it turns out she 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 the just three toes and her mouth. don't understand how but that is not my purview. she made a living doing exactly this. we get most of these books these

days--when i buy an entire estate or on line. that is where we are searching these days. our specialties are increasingly the history of the american west and increasingly we are interested in ephemeral matter, booklets, pamphlets, photographs, one of the things that happened in the last ten years and certainly the last five is books paris they have become a glut on the market. because of economic conditions and an aging collector base, books are a tough thing to sell. ephemeral matters, pamphlets, things that are small and easy to carry, light, are more consistent with where we see the future of this business being. our business is 99% internet and

largely we are selling to institutions, university special collections, historical societies, some individual collectors. the sad fact is the general collector used to be our bread and butter because of economics, the economic conditions have sensibly decided they need to buy bread and butter rather than books. we in turn had to refocus who we target as our customer. the genie is out of the bottle as far as the internet is concerned. we are not going back. the economy is not going to pick up quickly, i am afraid. collectors are getting older. it is very grim as far as books. i see our future as things that

were printed to be thrown away 100 years ago. fortunately somebody chose not to throw it away. use it as a bookmark and it turns out that bookmark is more valuable than the book is. reasonably optimistic. every year i find things nobody knows existed. when we are in that situation you have the only one. it is a seller's market. >> more from wichita next on booktv. robert owens, author of "mr. jefferson's hammer: william henry harrison and the origins of american indian policy" talks about the origins of indian policy. >> a very interesting character, these ambitious goals but also hates conflict. at the same time he likes

technology. william henry harrison is the perfect tool for jefferson to wield when comes indian policy on the frontier because -- harrison doing the dirty work that gives jefferson what he wants. lot of indian land purchased quickly and cheaply. i think he is more interesting for the fact that he is so typical rather than unusual. he is the son of a grand virginia family. he has this sort of leadership in stilled in him. those big virginia planter families hit hard times after the american revolution so harrison has the characterization of being a big plantation leader but doesn't care of the money to back up.

an entire generation, in the west, he initially starts out as a teenager and goes to medical school and quickly decides he doesn't care for that. he joined the army, and loves sold during. and in his 20s, anna sins whose father was a big land speculator and a judge. and basically for him it seems a perfect solution to go into a political career. and powered influence, and a steady paycheck. >> what is the first major political office he held? >> the northwest territory, and the actual governor at the time named arthur sinclair was gone, so basically the governor of a

large territory north of the ohio. where he really starts getting notice he is elected. territories didn't get a voting member of congress but they got a representative and harrison becomes the northwest territories representative in congress and this allows the year to hobnob and lobby people and make connections, and this is a classic virginia of leaders. and people who have power influence. and towards the end of john adams's presidency, part of the northwest territory and what is the state of ohio and create indiana, and to administer that. and he picks william henry harrison. after john adams says he wants

to appoint william henry harrison, jefferson is going to be the next president and harrison is showing good political sense. sins feelers to jefferson's saying are you going to kick me out of office and when he learns jefferson in and going to do that he then agrees to take the job as governor of indiana. so the first year and a half would be up to 1802 there is not that much going on. but in a keynote to rumors start swirling about that the french are going to retake the louisiana territory west of the mississippi river and this is napoleonic france whereas before it was held by the spanish who are particularly aggressive war militarily competent by this point and the idea that napoleon might be taking over the louisiana territory sins jefferson into a panic and from lake 1802 into 1803 he writes a

secret private letter to harrison basically telling him to do almost anything he can to buy up indian land on the mississippi and ohio river as quickly and cheaply as he can. jefferson's idea, hardened by 1803 is we want to buy up that land and get as many white settlers as we can because they will serve as a motion to stop napoleon which is an optimistic goal but anyway this is when he basically gives harrison the green light to subdue any means necessary to negotiate treaties quickly and cheaply. what is fascinating is within a year we -- the united states purchased the louisiana territory so in theory the desperate need for quick land acquisition is gone but at the same time jefferson really like buying the indian lands cheaply and his broader goals and

harrison is really good at this. not necessarily at doing it in a way that will make indians happy but he is very effective at buying of this land quickly and cheaply and that is the name of the game as he continues in that mode. the way i describe it in class is i pick three random students and get their names and i will play the part of william henry harrison because i am wearing a tie and i will pick two of the students and say oh hey, would you mind coming to my indian kurland i would like the third student's desk. would you be willing to buy the third student's desk for $500 a year? it is not their desk and they don't care. then you invite student 1 and student 3 and ask them if you can buy student number 2's best? seemed like a silly exercise but it is how these treaties work. harrison was good at figuring out which indian chiefs were willing to play ball with him,

desperate enough for annuities and government perks that they agreed to sell their neighbors's land. as far as harrison was concerned as long as i get indians to sign on the dotted line it is perfectly good and jefferson was more than willing to accept indian treaties like that. the nineteenth history is a lot period between the treaty of greeneville which basically ended wide scale warfare north of the ohio river and william henry harrison was not only in the army that led up to that treaty but also as a treaty negotiation and other people would argue he got a firsthand lesson how to conduct indian treaty at greeneville and for the next decade you have the indian population north of the ohio river in awful streets. the napoleonic wars killed a fur trading economy. alcoholism is rampant. they are a dispirited defeated

people. prior to 1805 it is relatively easy for him to do this. after 1805 we start seeing religious revivals on the indians north of the ohio most famously a guy named the shawnee prophet, that is when harrison changed tactics a bit because they hold to the idea that no indian should sell any land to the united states under any circumstances and that is directly opposite him. he has to adopt a number of tactics to try to win the profit over and he is a tool of the british and we have to watch out for him but basically there isn't any real -- there are occasional flare ups and threats of force but you don't have actual combat until 1811 which most stories argue as far as the ohio valley goes the war of 1812 starts in 1811.

>> how long was he in this position and when did it presidential aspirations come into effect? >> one of the things i find interesting is his early career, he is in office for about a month. she did not do a lot during his presidential days but his earlier career is more fascinating and he has much greater impact on american society and westward expansion and westward policy. what got me interested in william henry harrison was i started being interested in the shawnee war chief this ended up leaving the confederation of indians fighting against united states and the war of 1812. he became one of these readily made heroes, oddly inc. in the pantheon of american heroes. the main way to think he is incredibly hon.. he sticks by his guns. he is very principled.

he fights for what he believes in. he was one of the few native americans who objected to the torture and killing of prisoners in a time of war. that was seen as very honorable. reading about tecumseh in graduate school there have already been fantastic work sir, there wasn't a lot left on the phone. harris and hadn't received a major biographical treatment sins world war ii. the odd netherworld, naturally assumed the most interesting part of his life. such a short time. people know about millard fillmore's presidency than they do harrison. that is the rub. not sure it had to end up that way. the campaign for the presidency,

campaign literature and unbiased biographies so there is no reason he shouldn't have been more famous. also too people coming up on the bicentennial of the war of 1812 it is probably the least known of the major early american wars. the revolution had a huge following and the mexican war and civil war have huge market for their books. the war of 1812 is low to pickup that market and that interest. >> wichita, kansas, was founded on the success of business men came to hunt and trade with native populations. the city found a lot of success by being a destination for cattle drives heading north to access railways to eastern markets. booktv visited the area with the help of our cable partner cox communications to bring you look at wichita's which history and literary culture. >> i am the curator of special

collections and university archivist at wichita state university library. we are going to look at federal writers' project, records for kansas but this was part of the wta and it started in 1935. franklin delano roosevelt signed papers in the summer of 1935 and the idea is to document past and present history of every state and many cities in each state not only because there was an awareness that it was changing the cultural and social map forever but because editors and organizers of the project wanted to inspire people with a sense to reclaim our greatness and our vision and it was the presentation of american national identity.

that was done on a low level. there were at least 800 of these essays written by arthur foster who was an essayist and supervisor for several of the county's. which atop was one of the main offices you could see but there were several other regional offices among them harper and several others like eldorado and hutcheson. this particular piece, he was a newspaper reporter but like a lot of people who had to go on relief he did whatever work he could do in a few years after the depression hit and after he was able to get a job waiting for the project. he included a story that you could see knowledge when they came out here but how they had

to adapt in hard times, they were farmers but wasn't easy to hold onto a farm and make a living from it. people commonly say the wheat crop is ruined and hard times are bound to follow the loss of big expert crops. we are aware of the difficulties too. the weather is always a factor but in the depression, in the 1930s and 1935. the project wanted to capture a whole range of people. we recall a homeless person, words like tramps and hobo. he starts speaking to them and very forthcoming. mr. adams is describing the saga that led him to become a homeless -- the family lost their farm. the economy got worse and he has

to hop on trains. this is what people did. finally he finds his way and he will work temporarily for farmers to get food and a place to live. what i thought was significant, he was talking about politics and he then says at the end some of these men are communists. i have heard them talk and they are similar to a labor union but in the last election they failed to cast many votes. either for or against religion as it does not concern communism. i am a republican myself.

there is actually an active two party context. and democrats in 1936, we purported fdr and rejected our brother alfred landon. democratic senators and democratic governors as well as well represented republican party as well. this is significant because you really get a sense of the equanimity of the project. they are capturing people and the people they are talking to are willing themselves to hope. they have not only been inspired by roosevelt but it was clear in going through these collections that there is a real sense of resilience among people in kansas that many of their

grandparents or grandparents or older pioneers say to themselves come out and allow themselves taming this land reading civilization and fiercely devoted to their communities and didn't want to leave. they were bad enough in oklahoma. the state did lose populations, they did their best to stay. neighbors helped each other. they're finding people willing to reach out and give food and meals at be self-reliant and take care, you see a sense in this collection. he is his own man and person and talk about his past and present and has a sense of who he is an these hard times and not worn away the basic core.

that was very significant as well. >> another collection in special collections -- the rare book collection. the manager of the mccormick armstrong publishing company, he collects about 500 rare books, many of them are dealing with images and different parts of printing and calligraphy that are important and artifacts. >> the oldest material from the collection, he collect artifacts as well. we have some older artifacts too. examples of egyptian -- we acquired -- this is significant, the prayer scrolls because paper

was invented in the far east, in china and this scroll dates from 1770, an era or a the as it is often known betsy e as a more inclusive term and you are going to see a series of charms written on a scroll and this is when they are flattened out what they actually look like when written in japanese which reads from right to left. this was made in a box so the box itself as i showed you earlier is an artifact and part of the extension of the object so if you looked at it you would not know from the beginning how to open it and that is the mystery, the treasure they want to convey.

it opens on the top and has to be carefully arranged. this is archival quality cotton and make sure it is as pure as possible. and we left off the cotton and we are going to remove the scroll itself which is also very intricate. this is the lid for part of the scrolls. and we unwind the various layers -- when one of our visiting

lecturers from japan heard that we had this first role, he had to make a special visit to special collections because he was amazed and enthralled not only that we had it here in which a top but that we knew what it was and it was part of a collection that had been here for many decades and it was an intricate part of a collection documenting the history of calligraphy and if you show the camera on top you see scroll is wound and has many different charms displaying -- giving advice about what people need to do. these different scrolls and charms were sent to different temples throughout japan and the

particular ruler at the time made sure this kind of material would be circulated. it shows in this part of the world the high level of culture and advancement. this is the eighth century. there are many parts of europe where people are illiterate. we have the islamic and jewish culture where there is a high rate of literacy and in the far east where paper is devised and circulated before there is a manuscript circulated in europe but the fact that this kind of paper in the eighth century is evidence of this high level of cultural development. it is an interval part of how significant it was to acquire something like this. this is nothing short of

amazing. and some of the most powerful source of information there are because not only do we get a window into world's that are no longer with us because they are different, and this brought us from those points but the point for viewers of how we are the same and how we are different make this journey endlessly fascinating, and and always something neutral. >> on booktv's recent visit and the many other cities visited by our local content vehicles go to c-span.org go to c-span.org/localcontent. >> what are you reading this summer?

booktv wants to know. >> where al qaeda and the taliban, steve is working on one and seth jones, working on the other one. working on a biography at this time, there are lots of great books by serious journalists/historians. walter isaacson's book on steve jobs is the perfect example. the best selling phenomenon and with -- of the things we learn from it. >> what are you currently reading? >> i read collectively. i read a wonderful book written by a british version, and about the 48 campaign which was really wild. harry truman and