theexpoamerica.com. >> there has been a hostility to poverty sins thear on poverty. lyndon johnson was the best president to look at poverty issues. .. >> your questions, calls, e-mails and tweets for the thngor of surviving and li ea depth august on c-span2's booktv. >> author david maraniss has been researching and writing his

tenth book, "barack obama: the story." for this proje, thwashington post associate edito and li p wrav ss wa indonesia, kenya, hawaii, new york and chicago. david maraniss spoke with relatives of president obama in nya and discovered the esent's african cestral history. ba oa din ieseou and found the kansas family homes and sites where his mother's family began. and for the next few hours, david maraniss joins booktv to discuss hi latest bok, "barack obama: the story." ake your cas, ildee >> host: david maraniss, you write in "barack obama: the story," that no life could haved been more the product oftory randomness thathat of o barack obama. >> guest: well, it's the wholeof world coming together cialnol wain960

a father who happens to come there from kenya because he reads a story in the saturda evening post that describes theh university of hawaii a a great place because of its diversity and a mother who gets the uses afa w wero've satisfied wherever he is, and hi ends up in hawaii sellings furniture.ev and then they meet in a russian class, and here comes barack obama who emerges as a whole own til meest existence of his tnist. emuntil he becomes president of the united states. >> host: >> guest: in butler county is naen the rest of the grew up and store in topeka which is the state capital because he lived there for a short time. his father, the president's great grandfather was an auto

grgrot was married at age 15 and a very difficult marriage but in the book begins with suicide n topeka a then stanley, the president's co a htreds comes back to buler e adhe story begins but it wouldn't have happened without but suicide. >> host: we want to show a montage shot by your wife on your trip to kansas in april, n conversations

[inaudible conversations] >> and the traged of obama's story is where his great grandmher who omtted ind stanwyck dunham, obama's grandfather died and they moved to a little house theagadhe ran alocks and h

garage and auto shop on sixth avenue which is right are not of a corner. 'sndden niof ksng. >> [inaudible] >> we are now approaching the hoe. ho nmran 10 feet wide one house from the corner of ntd i se house 1926. this is where she died

nale conversations] >> that break is old. >>t: oas w edherself? >> guest: she was 26. >> host: why did she kill herself? >> guest: she killed hersel because of her, well,what we know is she left a suicide nte thatsai htew

ra oerba philandering so that was the immediate cause. >> host: and the was the president grandfather stanley dunham's grandmother. >> guest:he lived onlyo b 26 anbecause of h lenserth moved back to old eldorado and a character name christophcolumbu h w ihe grandparents meet? >> guest: they met in augusta which is about 12 or 15 miles away both in butler county sort of on the way o wichita and that is where she grew u std ha aadut of sl svr s d lis ni i i school. he was working in construction and renovation and that's where

he met her. >> host: what was that life like in kansas? >> guest: eilifeefor r afthreri sort of her parents didn really like him or the first thing that her ather had was dasi a lmtof mad him secretly before she ridgely the from high school she was a very smart young woman who had always been on the honor roll until she met stanley who arasnsorand of 'stshe wanted. she had grown and the sophistication of hollywood ad stan promised something ese he promed to take herb e

and then they are somhat unstable. not the marriage was necessarily on stable but the jobs were always unstable and they never knew where they were going next said it was a yra >> host: where did the obama clan began? >> guest: it began actually in sudan. smvl b lake victoria to the south and east of the major city in the province wch was a very poor partkn. 'sreteli e basically center the second referred largest tribe in africa and the about where the obama's

paale e dev grandparents? >> guest: he was born in the late 1800's and was in thefirst wave to bewsizte h out and he learned english and became sort of iculcated into the rtic soe edera and cut for many british military people and folks in nairobi and the mother came from another village in ae, and she did not --

he was a very diffult guy to live with. he had several why of this nd whsew up it was back to another home state of the clan around lake victoria. she had enough. she had a younger wife along wiimnd sshernwy etfanbr obama, the president's father was a very little boy. >> david araniss his hiestamarttsde n. ueno he never met after the 1980's after his grandfather had died. aside from the very early days

of his birt buhg ck kna l is grandparents were gone so there's a dramatic difference in that part of the story. >> for barack obama the story how many interviews d you do over the course of the last four years? >> gst: iw alot 0,d ad wonderful assistant who helped with some of the leader interviews in the story but i traveled all over the world and ory ud ierrt hif of president obama and his parents and grandparents. >> host: barack obama sr. was born in 1936. g: arllhis childhood l? hedai wr culture in the british.

he was a very smart kid. his father was difficult to get along with and was not often hegoin.ost in tenai ak in the sense that he was smart enugh to get into a very good school in that area fiede mrt student. they had that clash of old and new. for all ofhisth coy very poor part of the kenya, so he lived in the mud huts with cwes nd no

telesionndffk ht. a century behind in some ways and get kenya was starting to emerge. the rebellion was beginning, the push for iependence was beginning and the gnerza asar that. >> host: how long were you in kenya and what did you see? what was it like to be over there? >> guest: kenya was one of the evda wanotte.myl. were there for about two weeks, and it felt like a year. every daywas so ih wefl ro won ndoro nspa couple of days interviewing people there because barack obama sr. had spent much of his

career in nairobi and theafter several days we drove ome iri across the highway up west to one of the most unforgettable drives of my life and the experiences ere so different fromarobi. coan interview them. he's a great youngnh

ulndtitrew r >> host: book tv traveled with you to ken and conducted an interview over there as well. we want to show you that now. jryh,1we a ouw oth new book out of this world the making of barack obama. correct? has it been worth it? >>seys remnd do i do. from morning to night it energizes me even if i get tired

during the interviews but this knheu t really know.y i got to see the vibrant life and things i never could see in my lifetime any other way bu i stnkisyd these last two days we have travelled around this part of western kenya based on the kind it h ntte out herecountry, and is the tribe from which barack obama's family came. we came fro a it o we ner barack obama.

the sister of barack obama, senior. livi in asaleuse back in the back streets of this tiny village with only a couple couches andabout five pictures and a few calendars on thal mtftmaitot est thit t. hi that this woman -- you can't go anywhere from the western world to this small village in as mind-boggling revelatory, so that is how we stard today and from there we

ofa lnint area around lake victoria. they were stories you can never get fromanywhere else about obama's grandfather or younger hifr,brbse. we watched and saw the grav site of his great-grandfather, the person for whom the name derive osoundotl a. time talking about the kind of situations in kenya. what importance does that to your book? >> guest: it explains a lot about barack obama, sen. anthisokmotajs

the biography. it's about the places that created him come the people created him starting to thh o bmlfs back and oi his father in some ways represented the promise and the frustrations of africaand kenya and all the more ersonal ee e'brannt full and some of the tentative it tribalism. the second largest tried in kenya and the colonial period when the british oiat teisto tribalism on the different reserves in the different partof the country so when tey got independence and they got power, there was this unfortunate sort of conflict pwad

siyer since 1963 they've been dominated by the larger tribes, and barack obama, sr. was a nationalist. he wasn't a tribal list. when he came ck ey 65 sedhscareer, he suffered and i wanted to get the full context of that. another character in the stor thatfsii he intellectual leader. he was a major spokesman before the buets left. he was always thghtobea ss fresi kenya. in the cold war era he was

western. if they liked him and a halt in be got to the unitedthepton states the whole reason that barack obama our present exists he organized the left the prut ois to the united states. the presumption there was by people higher up in the leadership who are afrid that iteclyetbshersin t thna was tried and hanged as the assassin his last words why didn't you go after and thatassinnel ack ser's

frustration >> host: what are you talking to folks about barack obama, senior the term keeps coming up d this might be misleg thatyouuda politically connected and political intrigue. >> guest: he was trained as an onomist with athe er aaii and harvard before he got his phd.. but even a fairly brilliant macroenomi. hived ofh movements were in the government in nairobi in the ensing decades filled with political

frustrations. after just doing five days of inteie n ey, the n ira o heu my mind is spinning with all of the intrigue that i've heard. it's just one story after another of the manipulation and trism or some.ano he was caught up in that. >> host: is that a term that hacmeup? ob sr ery d drinking problem. many of the people i interviewed they wouldn't go thatfar they ulstsahe dnk l

t we o locations where many of the people i've interviewed said that he loved his double double, anheal idt his, a double scotch, life and they attributed to an bee hs family andneral thing but employment ups and downs it i k word womanizer actually is used in kenya and the same way that it is in the united states partly because

much of kya is apl lt. from where he came as part of the polygamist culture. his grandfather for what we've been told has as man s15 ba o islf had -- sr. had four wives. he was divorced from his po but he also -- with aerent minute, yeah, the word womanizer i didn't feel comfortable using it but he definitely had a lot of n inslf.

it hasn't come up except one guy we interviewed said there might be childrescatred l ov nybrm wife's he had eight children and that's really all i've been able to confirm at this point. anlkbone?f those eight are there katasa not yet, and it's silly 13nmna.tingwud lye

the actual half brothers an ereebe mow. >> host: you have been asked in many different ways for the remuneration. is that common in the states and how you handle hat? thatan'sni fascinating -- i don't know if it is a dilemma but i've had to think about different things including cultural values and expectatis,h te wh it means. at the "washington post," there is a -- traditionally hehad the strong guest ethics res that yocouleeiai or the

editor for a couple days went down and he didn't even vote. pure and pristine. all i, myself, have alays haa ryroponal tis, i'm operating in a different culture. i hado make a few interesting decisions. a few months ago, someone we wanted to interview before we thr. when you visit in elder you are expected to bring agift. hi t .'t ke payin to alto

m te difference. we've gotten a few photographs and because of -- to get the photographs it is totally in pounds was set up by publsher inwy't p o poor kenyan for some? so it's been that kind of situation. >> host: you've been to law texas, kansas for your reearch on ts annow yoarei when does the research part of it in the? >> guest: you just know when you get there. actually the research never ends. ere is a pointisy a dytr tard this book the essentially the day after obama

was elected president that's when i decided i'd got to do this book. i'd written a fewpieces fo thoadas fgton po"f seh icly his moth, and i think when i get home from this incredible journey i will have the kansas side of the stprettyuhmpd w or begins, it's a weaving these incredible worlds that helped create this person. >> host: who came up with the title? >> gue: i did i was just bouncing aroundo catseot ca come out of dalia, kansas, indonesia, chicago, out of this world. thowe recreate himself so

i'm not sure the proportions yet and will be important to get it right but perhaps even the firt half of k i arr t ote stage yet and the second act of the book is largely chicago with his education in california, new burhi aa ihro nse en ereese political been, so when you think about it we are all sort ofreated from a lot of different strengthbut i an' faat mix them obama. >> host: tell us about the team here. >> i can't tell you how happy i

am about the people in working with i don't now hchi emhng oist of kenya and most people speak english, they all don't and the drive on the other side of the ad and i would ha ben a te tmy ea no road signs. the places we've, i couldn't find in a million years and i'm pretty good at finding things, so i definitely needed a great heafd n re in got ne. politics. i eded somebody on the ground to help set up interviews and the national archives and idotn got ken who is

40-years-old, investigative journalist and kenya, very tough, straightforward, smart, whs ele immeasurablynstinctive and has done interpreting for me i have beatrice who is a grua studet e unsifiadls summer when i needed documents translated my wife and i live in madison in the summer. there was one speaker who came wod be here right now when we were going to come to kenya and her family is abut tmntes

ofe obama homes so she's been our interpreter today and toorrow. there's another member of my team, too which is my wife. >hostshben yt. >> guest: she's an environmentalist who were retired about seven years ago with and has gone on almost every major trip i've take e n nagou or anything but i seem like one compared to my wife is the best ambassador any person could have so she makes h: e g wherever we go. bere that. this is not a cheap trip.

you have three people on the staff for a number ofe e d s advanced cover all of this were just a portion? >> guest: i can't speak for every author but this is my anadvance to pay for all of this and and as an author i have corporation through me and lend us of that has fundshat i can e foallisu a d d -- why do it if you aren't going to do it thoroughly and i couldn't have done this trip withouthat kind of team put

an advance of what goes into making the book. >> guest: >> host: the obama family connectionstino uetcreen to be a challenge for me one is it is a very complicated family web and undaefi is theson which is leaders of the united states can sound different and to remember who is who etc so i have to be a lefo a wr a some news i've done in the

past and essentially what is important to me is tha the quoting somebody when you write in long narrative you aren't putting together string f ot,yu're building a narrative story so i will take elements from each of these people i've interviewed into the story by telling and some of the mold. some of the monk and they will trilco understandable that your right there are different - there's the whole obama clan in one section of the st ows better and that is where mama cir lives that is obama's step grandmother.

vit ts i where the obamas are from. there's a whole group of obamas i'm going to dea th any more substantive way than what the zero of where the sty co om rde atl oft a doing in the clinton book and it was in clinton's acceptance they had filmsstan th simplicity of local life and he's from hot springs, a completely different place when thamr is not the cro. and the story of his father

tas place somewhere else and that is where the section of the book will start. os oneial uio. ant inte viewers [inaudible] >> leo you cannot make up. he belongs in an awf ys- t h a ouitacso of club, she has a deep voice and laugh and he seems to know everybody in arica from the ar the psidentoa, the dictator of ugonda back in the 70's and 80's to everybody in kenya ad he traveleh . myrd nad

three or four hours of fascinating discussions and then he traveled with us today in the morning and he ws jury close to barack obama sr. and the patron th personal promise was barack obama senior. >> was he valuable and? did you have to listen carefully to what wasad? you can't go on a trip like this, so i spend months studying the kenyan politicsearning everything i could going to an archivd at theniversity of cu i knew a lot of the background if you had a

conversation with leo y wouldn't understa a wdh id ie hehe ind t niof oies and so yes i could piece it together yet it filled in 100 holes in the politics of h l question youonal i found and went to the house president obama stayed at a 1987. where wasit? yookxi going to show the video ueths of the moment i described in this interview we just think i am right here. this ian incredible place and thbuwhs ed the obama clant of

compound in a little tiny village or compoundinkd a and it's just some fun ather one of those. it had a cement floor but we were told iwasn't ereit was mud and he spent nights there when he was visiting the area in that part of the plan on itntino wh how i africa. feel about obama and i don't approach it that way any way. he's just the main character of my book. it has nothing to do with with

se t little place before anybody knew who the hell barack obama was. he was 26-years-old making the urney back to the land he had ver enbe wsoka hspn flwhe slept on the nights in 1987 and it just it didn't overwhelm me but it made me realize that to seeistor mpouln ut think about or read about it. i'm able to portray it brings my work alive. hoshatew s anngu d t change?

>> guest: i would like to change my look [laughter] a couple things that have changed since then is obviously the title of the book. we determined out of this world even though wa en a al character could imply something else so scrap that coming in my publisher actually came up with the world liia ti h ne with ier happy about. i ended the book at a place i didn't extract because i gotso much information abou a ten year piod from the time he ft holulto got e hnhiconi gangdo to harvard. he's become so important in terms of the evolution on his search for intityat it c

e fd te book and there will be another volume someday but this is the book, so the ark of the book is thseist same. >> the book ends instead of 2004 in 99 as he's going o to boston, correct, to harvard law scol? soark obm fnallon bmanpe a hayou e book. >> guest: it's not half way. it's 54 pages into the 584 page book. >> host: we get to hawaii. how did his pantmeet? >> guest: shrws -y-ohm t the university. >> host: take it one step back.

how did she get to hawaii? >> guest: because her father who'd been a furniture salesman inmerceslor etlshontis t to seale, he got a job selling furniture in honolulu and he was always looking for the next thing to be moved from kansas to california several imes wn slewiaise came and was only 17 when she graduated from high school, excellent public school in seattle. but she was the only child. her name was stanleyiin call test y se tmeut in the case, she's there as a freshman. barack obama had been there since 1959 also an undergraduate of whom he was much older andeyn

after sputnik and schools all over were starting to teach russians. was the most important things the public's could do to prepare for the cold war so they bth hond ko ssians other before they got married? >> guest: the new each other for five months. gannet in september and got married in febru shgot egna ta, so everything about it was -- it wasn't a normal courtship, let me put it that way. >> quadcore madeleinead lereonocin hanarca b >> guest: madelin told another biographer -- she died before i

started this book. david who did the first book se tm very strange. and of course of reveals around him. beauvis were not hapy. veryifficulth wt ssybc f race is to read his personality of their daughter was only 17 when they met and she go inibintuna shewan ef o her life. they didn't know, but another element is that obama, senior -- and i noti of this why was luctant to e eod

mar,t head e was doing that in honolulu so she is by no meanshe only american woman he had been with. >> host: barack obama senior married firstfour es d ev evrd? >> guest: interesting. they got married in kenya and according to obama, senior you could just sayi'mivrng y fe ttws eight when stanley myriad barack obama senior she didn't know he was already mrried. she was under t mpression he wadivorced which e so ecehe ga hmried her. estimate the married in february and legay married through 1964 barack obama sr. was also

married to ruth baker we will talk about leadeand his inal rrie on n jael. how many children did barack obama senior have on how many have siblings does he have? dowat f no acul- that but i'm not sure the paternity. it could be as many as eight. >> back to hawaii, fruary 1961 wietie obamasno nd the president is for 1961 and by the end of the first month of his life, ann has taken him to seattle. >> there is a lot surrounding the period that has nothing iht idef en imbr other

place. the documents are completely fabricated. he was born in honolulu on august 4th. but ashe would tell the story later in his own memoir it wasn until hatle or artatheili u ev h reasons for that are not what he says in the book. but shortly after he was born on his mother wenback to seattle a enrolled part-time in extensiocours athe nere ie tet a when i interviewed all of the people that knew barack senior before he graduated and left only one person could even remember ann. e s yte s at even there. she was in settle. >> how was she in seattle? >> about a year and a half as a

single mother. she had babysitters and went to schoolptie,t heel ger the semester had been difficult because she got pregnant so she had to sort of reading herself academically and she did that. afr ckr.hdlfh b. >> 1962 to 1967 they were back in honolulu. who is her second husband? >> her second husband is another shemttteer al by fm indonesia. ii hfl east-west center which brought students from various countries and brought americans to honolulu to go to aiwe n w him. he was a tennis player and a

very gregarious at that time. >> at what point did hey move hvefrt both barack, sr. and lola watched by the - and different regulations on these us and so long so lola could only stand a t . epyingo en a r arh n e got certain jobs he said were related to the geography that he learned and typography in honolulu to keephim there but eventually it was cge fo tgck and 66. in 67 in october, obama and his mother moved back. >> so the president lived in

thh a frmtos >> just about, yes. >> while you were in jakarta you found the school where obama went toschool. >> [indible] >> is that in theact hi? this is mardy so he is our

witness. >> where did he sit? in the bak? >> in the corner in the back? >> in the middle in the back. dasshossa, conversatns] islamic actually the statue is out of the second school that he went to with shorts and a short sleeveshirt. e second school had more mone

an f. twd l aen th family moved, he got another job and if more money. >> was that put up after -- >> was a couple yers ago and was very controversial. there were people that didn't obi h ih aortueo go p president of indonesia would win in a landslide but nonetheless, there is everyone in the word has some controversy about any politician. there were so questions about insiisudbo i >>tw ie n jakarta? >> he was completely immersed. imagine being a 6-year-old kid thrown into aculture you don't know the language and his sort of middle lassectitw with narrow alleyways and the exotic sounds and smells of a

big city of jakarta with you mother going to work andather neorods that was his life and he had acted. he had to adapt to the his life is a series of adaptations. >> why did he leave jaarta i 71 by ah ahmh - international school his mother couldn't afford to send him there. for those three and a half years he was in the native languag shwas okg upt i e ongo teach him with english schoolbooks to supplement but it was very difficult, and the whole process toy eio theg eed

point she has to make a key decision. it turned out he could get into the best elite school in honolulu so he went back in fiftgradat >>eve with his grandparents in an apartment? >> by that time they moved into an apartment, five blocks from the chool and he liethere ye fif gaetoho is o ages 11 to 18 he lived with his grandparents in honolulu. >> i should correct that. there'a period where his mother did come back to study graduate school. aw nhe ondonesiaple of l again. the bulk of that period. so that was 7179.

pushback in honolulu. what was his life like? what dd dy n s hee >> when he got becky was .. he oktnaeo od onngdia to degette his life there, he was a fine student. he wasn't a seriousstudent by anymeans. mohatwtsgsrt nogh to even applying himself too hard. his real love was basketball, which is kind of an interesting twist.

i considered an importsc pas m oceitote wenkutasket ball. it was obama'great uncle on his mothers side is a a very good basketball player. but basketball is also wayy acatulen w riaman a way that was the cd team -- the city game besides being said they st fun to play.

i think that really ione of centlhemeof host: you write, david maraniss and "barack obama: the story," he could not doubt that have these being in his young sp taris father ad left in he prtatyd violence. just go to some sort of speculative, but when you sit at e hiory of barack obama senior, it's not. it's reality in a very difficult reality. and it grows outf wh pp r. te he had that very short time together at harvard, hemet another american woman, bruce baker. just like with dan, you sort of became entranced y e hta anic and she was back to kenya with him

coming to nairobi and married m. and i interviewed her. i was the first reporter to interview her. sally jacobsen has written a nextnek aai tht's t way these things go and more power to sally and biographers who come after. the store and assig and deepe bu aaituh erea solh story of how a piece of barack senior was, that he beat her, was an alcoholic, inedibly difficult to live with. th would've been thefaof daify'd eng oshin kenya, we talk to you about bruce baker. i went to show just a little piece of vieo >> where is he now?

ud] the interview is a little later. >> david, who was o? >> alice alisa alli nesbitt, an american who lives in the bus, o is also a writer.sa n instrumn helping me connect the root tunis on joe, was barack obama senior's third wife, second americanw >>s td hed quiet >> she has never talked to

anyone. this is one of the key interviews. >> is theoly itview tha ere. itthiner for? ye that is a tough question. 's hypothetical. >> host: thank you for giving me socratic. she helped pythagoras baker and that was very important. in that inviw,'ler rgit ie o e ertsthwn

vel hours and was pouring our hearts out. >> host: after she married barack obama she divorced him in state in kenya. just as she did. she married an african an tooatn barack senior and i matter they her second huand. she stayed the whole time. she's still very much part of rénnure for ni many years. posted may 1864 to 1963 they were married. how long had she known him before she essentially quit: 30 kenya? just as she finished school, but was teaching by th poi. shene e ofsey k things. what she did know is the reason he left cambridge was because he

was kicked out. the ins and harvard have enough ofte. inki andwmn. so you know, they've been following very closely. i want to go back to one little thing just because the whole purse or ideis troublesome to me and to myhistoria er ioenta show barack obama senior all this days before and after. there's no way he could've gone it inolu.else and had hat baby. e kiot rva before he got his phd arrest to go back to nairobi. so he was back. he caught himself dr. from then on, even though he never finishes dissertation. it was brlan eloinewnt ted ed a y go.

>> host: back to your boat, "barack obama: the story", you write what barack learned was devastating, disillusioning. carefullconstructed by his mother was hter poyeot the moral man, not the freedom fighter, not the polished professional. brilliant yes, the splintered by drinking them in despair, dissolution of disapintment. >> host: it is quite amazing a impediments to torah, obama said through in her dealings with her son, barack and why she told them the story sh did aurely lv baoaa senior because she didn't want to destroy this little boy who had enough other things to deal with in his life

as a half black, half white i in ooul iply rs w e teisho a him. and you know coming year by year, as he grew, he started to understand to some degree the reality had to be diffrent from what he hadbe ot snnte toka himself he understood. host: in your introduction, david, maraniss, he surely thought he tried to short out his identity. hiu an rga o edma tghia ncn tthe root causes of his feelings about a misunderstanding of its responses to it. >> guest: well, this is not in any way to diminish the role that race plays infortion. 'sea ths heinou irwiis his search for a

daddy and home is a lot to do with race, but also this involved wh the dean and dean laughed. ba ciofoh a ast his mother,even as much as as much as she loves him and inculcated her philosophy of life, she was gone for most of his formative adolescent years. seitren race.na the struggles that he had were not just about race. i mean,certainly is a key to it, bake yu can't look at his life and just vie it through e raals >>t:auus, we will begin taking your calls for david maraniss, and one june 19 will publish his 10th book, "back obama: the story." we are getting a preview of the book tonight on bootv.

we wll put up thepoe mb y din s kiuens o, seahan so. we will put the phone numbers. if you'd like to dial-in and start asking queions for other, please go ahead and do so. if you live in the eastern central time zone, 202-737-0002 for those n the mounta pacific time zone you can also or uestion via twitter. twitter.com/booktv. it will all begin 15 or 20 minutes when they begin taking your calls. jeff cox, classmate of the president puno higshool. thhe tbi toxlk project cool it seemed to me that almost a nonchalant was all part of the image thing, not just of him, but generally in isln tw where in y ir istesste rela oave end. exuded sophisticat detachment.

he has his act together in a way. he understood how things worked maybe a little better than the restf them 15 yl just cox decided about his classmate you can see the characteristics today presidency since he hasn't changed all that much. the broader reason for that was attachment has to do with asf ts t's ve ibawtr else is going to run you just keep cool, man. that is a sensibility that kerry and his buddies, you know, who have some of his buddies have dollskll mngll a game, hich is you know, just be cool and that is part of hawaii. it is part of their east formative years. and he's always had that. loary i aspect to it r

would say, to poitics, which is that in this country and all of its racial dynamics and explosiveness, a black person wants to rise in politics has to co rtel'st o e at t country. >> how much pot smoking did the president do? >> he doesn't read them particulars about that. you know, the whoe ntion of conin eeha. when jay leno asked him about it. without going overboard, may book documents it pretty thoroughly. that's what they did. he hasatigl to diu let ything in the car when you're smoking it. and so that was part of his existence during that period.

postcode david maraniss winded dairy become barack? >> guest: it was au ta wthll i s le he attended for his freshman and sophomore years and there are few people dare, an african student at one of the african-americans ndome heh tte cag ckn f oha s aan ike so many college students, they start to really go back and find their identity and college and that is what he was searching for i. butmano cdl evhe go york, columbia, there were people who called in dairy and some barack. >> host: why did he choose accidental artist who the am i transferred to columbia? >> gst: acheccta pe gre.ihohidhw o

the way he tells the story there were some girl from brooklyn who he met in honolulu before that in that area and said he got attracted to go fothatreason. ocidental aipui enx stop. it was comfortable, very beautiful, bucolic, small contained, you on aii sunshine was just like to put a hollow sunshine. so it was very comfortable. it was a very important to years. it really started to expand intellectual event. got is rsense o inrihowors mu like put a hollow. he wanted to experience the world. it takes hi from honolulu to

los angeles to new yor and eventually chicago. is important to geto ne rkfrt osrars lu. finiin new york city, where did he spend it? >> guest: he writes about this in his memoir. there's a bit dubious, but interview the people and it turns out to be true wo have been either.an t he couldn't get the keys have been a landmark. your subletting from a friend of a friend of his mother's. and so he is left outside with a ca e dickey said terry had called and finally came over there the next morning. >> host: geneviev makes the scene in new yorkcity. g: vicoan stanwo's mother --

mother's second marriage was a notable american does just that id thad americ ties to vievwit rvhi hon york state than software and then new york city ca rmt -- bob obama aerthey hed to they both had indignation connections. her father and mther had lived in indonesia. he was a diplomat, associate that there is of god in the le ouer because she, like many children of diplomats do, they don't feel connections to any place. her family would send me a

prayercracks,but she never coection as ousiders with indignation connections as well. the baby came lovers and his girlfriend for qui ai. >>t: dhegt h of her? were the first release to talk to her at length? >> guest: it took two years and it was just hard work. i'm a part of me and julek s bas whis a researcher and she was living in los aeles. the three events triangulate did everything and eventually found her. i can't te all othat y catprtct her not because of the book, but because

those she had an abusive ex-husband that we don't want to find her. buin any case, she thoands e wydonce we started with just the named genevieve, eventually i found -- we found a wedding announcement in "the new york times" to bring lot of bells because it had indignation antthwe ect n aadobama in his memoir rates about a new york girlfriend taking up to her family estates in the pond and the wild area astoundingly ect. anher her contractor down and made the call. we had a lot of conversations through time. >> host: you write i your

oknomuhmycn w n a minute, but can't be a university classmate of the president to be honest i've never had many black friends. i saw those which have been most markedly during the period i was very close to him. couc hwnnthe most lit and his achievements -- his achievement wa an achievement of identity in the modern world. first the shift from not international to american, then hmchows butb. p pakistani friends that barack had been started in occidental and going to new york. he made friends with several pakistanis who came to aneront ec,d a h anhis mother was buried and he was neither black nor white.

he was srching for himself and he was comfortable with these guys. so when he got to ew york,some ofis panieha vetea hen there. he was at columbia law school. and it's tru. i mean, obama moved to new york to be closer ohremn ha today. president obama but i interview to the oval office he made no lasting effort during his four years in new ork. buddy starting to make that transition in the ark of his anatngsrtto been an 3%to three saw that going on and took him to chicago. >> host: wedded to presidents' day inew york after graduating coluia

>>st wd et cnir asry tetjo surry could. he applied for a job in chicago got elected mayor there. he didn't get anything. so the best he could do was sta in new york. dnanogbk hen'ven e,so we stayed there and as he put it, he would try and make money for a year, so he got a job at sort of a magazine/consulting tfitcleug teiofooua and he really didn't like it there. it was sort of in the business world, which held no interest to him. that is. when when they talked a lot endocytic. when he metgnvie. h d mishi std this program was. no product to be more than the randomness that barack obama appeared chicago became random, the fact he got to chicago?

>> guest: i wouldn't quite call a friend because the elecon oharo wasngtoas hestan mrma of chicago is very attracted to him. chicago is a point to be at tha point. as i read in the book come within a six-month period, three people write in chica. oprah winfrey became one of the most people of the world. opis about to study showed that barack obam became anonymously, arguably today the most famous of those three. >> host: jerry kelman, chicago ob on ft oorganizer, you quotem. myepe eme wot uilling to take risk, but was just a strange combination of someone who would have to weigh everything to death and then take a dramatic risk at the end. >> ht:t sods aot pdea swatecr s

at can be booked through out his grace and career. as a currently organizer, the whole notion, the whole risky training method for communy ganing w tk tn. wed not -- it's a vacuum. you ve to seize it. the poor people on the southside of chicago. one of three or four other ntor bosessa s thing. the rock was sort of a different story. he was looking for ways to not confront, but achieve in other races that could be very frustrating at time, ut it al hd getheh nto >>t:le oiz, what was the president playfully? were to be with? were to be where? >> gst: he lived in hyde park near the university of chicago come a part of chicago

and the most integrated part of the city, a city thati rian pps egig city in the united states. that is what the commission called in 1959 and still was true to different degrees in the late 80s when obama got there. hyde park was the pocket of integration. he cotablr yoenery g e outhside, which was 99% african-american, a sprawling, oblique breech area coverage in terms of personalitywi hea fatmeor fitin life. he was embraced by a group of older black women who sort of took him under his wing and one can and jus created a sense for him that he ver lto t asrey frustrating.

community organizing that is 95% of the time and keep banging your head trying to get change done. so during that period, he became a commuty oanr largely ou hisothessny. kn shddnrgang dferent sort trying to help poor women, artisans survive in a male-dominated culture. you know, her beliefs were transferd toim. at'shy hdid. but his mother was naïve in terms of the power realities of the world. during those three years, on the southside he started to see what powermad, hwyou go ta atned t alosrv wed thito politics. so that is why my book ends there because he's learned everything. he found his home in chicago. the show is adamant that in some

sees s's amagn of t busu h enlyndtan michelle. and also figures himself out, his lf identity and what he wants out of life, which is political power and he needs to go to harvard ancomebk t real getnto atlf osin the interview conducted with the present of every 10, 2011, you put the president as saying there is no doubt that when i retained my politics is a sense that the only way i could have a sturdy sense o ey h a pe oggbeh surface differences of people. the only way my life makes sense is that regardless of culture, race religion try so commonality. these essential human truth compassion hoe sel ec a universal. just go and somebody is another

variation he said in the speech that made famous in the 2004 keynote address at the democratic national conveion in boston, where he said there's a red staes bluea t un es pntim ae onatn of that notion. his presidency has been a rude awakening in terms of how far you can take that. so he has been dealing with that thdeersn as i'm sure we'll both be experiencing the telephone calls, for the show. >> host: your book ends in 1989, "barack obama: the story." he said there's another volume coming? >> gue:addykc 0 s rbrcaro, so assertive cat that on the down low, but i had every intention and i've done a lot of reporting that the later years, which influences the booeven though they're not in it. and i don't want to do a

que. dontming out later and i want to be patient. >> host: to go against 1989, but at this point, barack obama so far 1961, born nhlu 6 2 h stl to 67 back to honolulu into jakarta. in tunisia. back to honolulu, 71 to 7. los anges, id ia to whe hettendot orneyork for columbia that their four years from 1981 to 1985. in chicago for t first time in 1885 to 1989. then off to harvard law school. two moreieces ofthe book i want to ask you a e e ieoge. we in 1989. where is his father?

>> guest: his father is dead. he died in 1882 in aar accident driving home drunk from sort of a makeshiftbr ra t hospital to his fourth wife's house. t we would never be we saw the streets in the areawith a tragic accident occurred. wh almost inevitable. 'd en iy ei accidents, drunk driving several times in his life and that one took life. >> host: his grandparents. are they still lead at this pot? and his mother? al gue: yes, all three are ta f andly 1990s. then his mother dies right before his book comes out, "dreams from my father". i'm the first itn ha bo n19.

of uterine cancer at age 52 i believesushi never got to see his political career at all. i'veeeta the anhen ways his strong figure he died three days before he was allowed to president. hosts are to lose tti bkhaw cwhre it 10th grade, the grandfather had retired after 20 years in the furniture business in another 20 selling insurance. the glib salesman had ended his life's work which he never liked them ever didwell. as a smart man whld not du the years.g look at them, the grandson alternated between taking pleasure in outsmarting the old

guyinto its accommodation of sadness and ger, witnein mrra, e ot publicly excessive about their grand mother who then and always to be a significant and underappreciated influence on barack, in particular, in terms of his personality and possilities ofis life. talk cld nttategp g sepr own troubles, her struggle with alcoholism private. >> guest: i should say and i don't mean to correct you, but it's pronounced shoot because it comeso w to. those are his grandparents. the grandmother -- i done a lot of reporting about the grandmother and what a rock she was in he a si o awld dgtetrview that she

too was an alcoholic. and both of them are fascinated carried yours. thgrather witht the icin a death of a salesman. he's got all the big coats, studying at the very moment that the to wednesday and told matalin that he had been to california company william syria anjohnteinck a woing be at hllseatng yet done the been matalin's brother went into the trunk and there is nothing in there. that is sort of the fantastic anmnol yukoady. e te ambitions. purple model with bette davis. she wanted to be sophisticated and the moment she married dan diamond she wa she would have

carry the load in this retionip she s inedib eenda and rose to the office of vice president of the bank in hawaii. president obama when i interviewed hi describe the characters that have not been t much i nein ai s dee t our show in its grandmother was like peggy, who rises from the secretary to one of the great at people in that show. so youo, tana easy for berry to live in that family, but he never felt unloved. and interestingly stand was more problematic nd really aored held ehug enon bl o w and matalin was always there for

him even though he wasn't an emotional person. she wasn't the type who would say i love you, barry or my aunt for any grandkids of that sort. > : refer the last hour and a half have been talking with david maraniss, author of "barack obama: the story." this is his 10th book in its your turn if you say and work e-mail or tweet. numbers are on thes tvpa her. correct twitter.com/booktv. david maraniss will begin taking this in just a minute. david raniss, in your book on the reference transfer fathr healle bit from president obama in 2004 for talking about his autobiography. >> you know, just had an aparance on charlie rose. he was asking me, how does the

book con witr oiic it's very clear to me there is a direct line between the subject matter ontained in "dreams from my father" and the types of politics i aspire to. because essentially what this story but is a boy born to a father from kenya and a mother from kansas in hawaii with an unusual na who traveled to indonesia, ame kfu el cgok om the lowest income neighborhoods in the country and then traveled back to africa and somehow was able to weave together a okamf s afican-american,

as an american and as somebody who's part of the broader human family. and that was not an easy ak wtat usdinave some enormous love for my family. i did. it wasn't because they didn't have people help would be every step of the way. i had that whole. mybr astride a nation in a world that is so often debated, divided along lines of race, divided along lines of class, divided along lines of ig e thormous tragic history that all of us confront whatever our backgrounds are come with a white, black, hispanic, asian, muslim, or christian. woof greatwriter we

happened to win a nobel prize, william aulknesaid the past is never dead an buried is ent. contcontu history and slavery in this country. we are confronting the history and problems that arose of colonialism are confronting those scars of il n pronndugin difficulty and hope not only on the larger canvas of history, but also within their own families. and form,iwasnt nel ouhow in fact i was going to be look to integrate and pull together all these different strands of my life.

it's a part of my challenge growing up was to figureu, idy tif ono but also has white bloo in the? have a fction ofom who is american and takes pridin understand the enormous mrcaial gne that i i life and work of agree jolings the woman who mapedthe ocan e continental drift theory.

exams the conflict between the united states and iran in the twilight wa the secret history of america's 30yearlict i be revolution. historian richard recounts the polilict that lead to the battle of antiedam. a child prisoner during the acn field act leath in one running for my life. in the new industrial revolution, consume, globalization and the end of hs uc erma ot "financial times" outline a plan for manufacturers to dammit to adapt to the

current. watcfor the authors in the neuto e oor. >> what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. >> i want to finish up the five political. go that going right no and i hansk t bed i want to get this -- i want to end in depression now. i receed as a gift i remember nothing. i plan to read that. i likehy ino wao sht. and robert cairo's new book on lbj. very excited about that. i've ead several of those and fascinatedded fascinatedded th pl is ttoexasriht noo

for more information on this and other summereading lists visit booktv.org. this weekend on booktv growing upn the shad dh d sre m ll bd tiok the effect on the environment and the people today at 7 p.m. eastern. and sunday on afterwords. >> act ou w, th domino start to fall, you know, during the time. and by 1979, she was in full fleblged opposition to carder and carterrism. and ptirlucins ec 6 ee fall of the shaw and the fall of others nicaragua a couple of experiences for peopllike her. the political woman beind

the gddori anthony on life since leaving the military. hotels, hospitals and jails all part of booktv this weekend on c-span2. ouhecnt png atupcoming bok jul 21st booktv will bring you live coverage of the harlem book fair in new york. author panels and discussions will cover topics such as education, the 2012 president issue ection and the 0t vey h. belfast book festival. three-day celebration of read, writing and publishing. at 31st-september 2.l ake e

and then the florida herita book festival will be in saint august seen, florida. please letus know about book fairs andfesvals il booktv at c-span.org. in a recent interview c-span asked romn about the bock he just finshed reading. >> i know you'rrdi or what about america's role in the year? >> i hope some of the things george predicted coming true. there are others that i don't think will. but i do believe that amica as lilreedom, economicnt freedom, that was born and nurtured chand the world from the very beginning of those inspired documents, the declation of independents and the constitution and i believe

adroothe world stage by virture of the commitment. >> for more information on this and other summer reading list. vit booktv.org. ininouwangton lobbiest. and neoconservative angel tim lton's efforts to gain approval for secret weap system. 's about 40minus. you probably had choes. dindnenesayeo rd founding editor of one of the great public indication over the

washington. i've had a gre fondens for this guy for many years. inrnk youronnge [applause] this is indee my fifteen reading at -- don't worry, i'm not going to read much. trtihesedftn inuc me as the eel wise of politics and prose because i grew up here. but my first reading was in 1972, but anyw, thank you or gneiroio the, you know, introducing -- both the introductions can be fuy. i after -- after a couple of books, igot -- i r

atean the back flap of the book. that's the paragraph that authors pretended they didn't write. [laughter] considerhe leading voice of this generation. . didn'twrite that, no st ad k em up and this was -- it was called, "little grown man" i wrote he has been an adviser to every american president since ter it. ckuouet have the vafng advantage. this is only about day five. hello, my freshman colege roommate is here. by aout , ' le pn adhnk going into there's a hierarchy of interviewers out there, and up

here and c-span, of cours and then down abute th ri tmal radio jocks and you're on you have anyonety seconds. what's your book about? and you hear them talks in the baground. i was ging ino doh win the studio and the host to use a somewhat elevated term, who was a hunched over the about the author of paragraph speed reading it. an e odp at me and said you, you were an adviserto taft. >> i was just punchy enough i brow -- we can talk about

that? i said yeah, yeah, we can talk about that. and we did. gh hayto invited back on the show. it was well worth it. here i stand before you -- and any of you have questis about what was like to wrk for him, i can help yit at any,sgrnd be back in washington i lived here for thirty years. i moved back to connecticut last year. i can no longer be accused of ing an inside eli. i'nani elitist. this was washington was and always will be a very special

eeorehhewas i came down to it vice president. i write sate. and here we are ground zero. it's itis sat tier resist playground in washington. we i exacters te to take after their author. they are surround rules. bb.stwwh ac ade a mow have a of it and i don't know if you've seen the movie, but i wantou to know, i -- if you look at credits, it atys has man on subway flat

there's a the names and the man on the subway platform. i urge you to -- [laughter] son the ofty ye ihel ay as an artist is the written word. i have gone from writing about about tbok lobbyist to defense lobbyist. it's called a lateral move. but i wanted to write ao abasuctdtot heart of charlie peterson. military industrial complex, i think some of you may be old enough to have remembered. president eisenower's farewell ouistgtmtaeea industrial complex. now we are 52 years later with a defense budget of $700 billion. which is more than t next 14

highesteues ne -- comined. i looked it up recently. england spends 2eu6d.7 million lld france spends . i k nt keep -- in case they have to invade each other again. we have the hundred years war and the thirty yearsarith nuclear weapo. 30co 'redo mahaer he is bird mcintire. he works for an aerospace, which seems to be a good name for an aerospace goint. threed si p, amiceeed likely.

in the book, the congress is concerned about spending. so right away you know it's fiction. [laughter] ande t meth a scary new weapons program aimed at china. their having a hard time getting it through te appropriation committee. t, there's andty in thenas book called the .s.-china codependent sei counsel. ybe washingt ishere isn't one? t yokne depend on china to pay our monthly mortgage. and we are in one sense borrowing money from china in order to build weapons to aur]ect us fromchna.

ho w that? it reminds me a little bit of the great -- moment smeone informedim that a jewishwn sssel mr. ic [laughter] so anyway, the task with fermmenting aninenim me teed back in red china. and so he -- but he -- so he goes off to do his research he can't quitefigure out how do this. so hegoe tuggos se m nm ankle. she is a tall, leg blond ph.d.

if she remindeoofa t right-wing you would probably not be far from the mark. she i are runs a think tank and doesn't everyone in washington. someday i would like to have my own think tk. wiis it it's called the substitute for continuing conflict. it is the center of the so-called movement hard on the outside soft on the inside. hug the outside being foreig n'patirl e utide b-t domestic policy as long america is involved in war. and preferly drones are okay but hand to hand combat better. as long as the oreo people u em ng rtog

ouit the innovation of iraq a ot of the neo cons stepping back saying don't blame us. the id was perfely sound. it was the execution. war isupposed to go rfy. gee senses he's in the right place. in the lobby of the icc institute for conflict, it is a quote by barry golde teis t defense of liberty is no vice. i've come to the right place. together they perfect this this ogramming, if you call. and theyplnt a os a rumor the chinese are trying to assassinate the dolly lam ma.

he's become convinced this the dally llama americansare about inhi and angel is skeptical. she says what are we offering by away of evidence for bird says who needs evidence when you have the internet she's stilla little skeptical. wpon ce a epoeathe eventing news. he shrugs, okay, one o two details to be worked out. but, you know, he -- i've done the research and he is the one thing having to do with china that arics acual e n s? terrible working conditions in inese factories? where is my ipad? global warming? edoo nhoaen't that a novel?

but the dally lo ma, americans love this go. the whole world loves him. what's not love. he's a 75-year-old sweety pie with glasses and sandals and the robe and t hugging and he e rmdh cgeh of him. and if the american public were told that the evil people in bay bay bijin wrpnion yoin w be a. they're ing to deny it. they get to put out statement after statement saying woe did not poison him. burdensaid, anl, it's a slam ping sh uddai pl ds that expression. they planet the rumor and things take off from there.

volving china. and i -- there was challenge involved, if you write novels, you have to make up the names for characters, and charles dickens was prettygoodat. i m aecex who here can receipt the -- receipt the full name of the blind activist who was refiewmg fuguing in china? uaen n h they shorten it to cgc which looks like kfc, it looks like they're pro0 moted fried chke i thght et p s hehteyo know, memorable to a western

here and so i had -- i named the president of china president faa and l evil head of the secret place io asddchac, occurred to me that all of the names were variations. at one point i had a character wa llenge. there are dash couple of rifts about sun zou coats in here. i cmeasacin in a book by henry kissinger. hisbook china choice a less interesting title.

indeed, there is a lot of shape in this book. she author is full of cit --hi i tyo about the

book but then what incentive would you have? we should mention the new study that just came out yesterday thatou haven't heard o a stha that people who pay full retail price for books derived 67% more enjoymt. iterieic coteth guild. for retail price, thank you for having me and i would be happy ghveake such questions as you pused ielven entertaining questions on the greatness of charlie peters. >> we have ti f questis.

get to the microphone. >>ou a melf. how have you been? oh hahappened? >> what happened -- [audible] >> charlie peters whatas haedib republicans? and why? is this a trick question? i was very sad and to see that

richard lugar was defeated the other day. richarlugar to me w m atht a weird. richard lugar was nixon's favorite mayor, mayor of indianapolis. heas defeated in a primary it seems as in france where the electorate last sunday either went to the ha right and the hard left we se to be as t the french by law their presidential elections can only last one month. it is not a perfect system. est.still end uph are

i wondered if we might take something from the french play book. it isin thns cr is an increasingly vacant space. there are many factors. the 24/7 news cycle has not helped. er debate in the 60s when they decided to extend the walter cronkite 15 minutes of evening news to half an hour and they said what we going to put on? erertf scpi t phole the moment anyone says something

original or perhaps slightly daring they a pncon haot the main problem. perhaps it will come back. i do think these campaigns have a certa abilityhadr ereoig otherwise -- it has become very easy to be cynical these days. that is indeed in the terminology theat e a ein on t b o politics. kind of aggression's wall. the bad and the good. sorry about the incoherent aners. s? ud]

>> the question is did i immersed myself in chinese lirate? dely ul tkea its a very sophisticated subject and i am not sure this audience would be able to keep up. weould talk about shit quon, i hope that answers your question. >>lo ur. peters's question i am curious sins you can't necessarily speafor him but sins your father was sort of

a father of mernsertism w hehifhahe me he must have seen in the closing days of his life. the crudity and wise we see now. maybe that is not aair estiutt s in mind. >> did you all hear the question? i thank you for your question. it is tricky to channel your father's ghost. how much trd it. didt end uo wl. my father died in 2008. i think -- he lived to -- it has been said if it h b t has been said that if it

hadn't been for bill buckley there would not be buried goldwater and ben wouldn' have beea i think he was -- he lived to see history, lessnerin wa hencbi- i don't mean flippantly but the direction of velocity of ideas and movement. he was askedome time before di wheug authat ha beer cate movement and answered it in a very william f. buckley way. he replied the movement was in need of repressed naon-rep

--repristinati --repristination. which probably sent people to the dictionary. i don't know if that answers your question. i miss him terribly and i often mentallyeachor t phone to h t soin in some ways i am glad he is not around to see it. >> i am here because o the book you wrote about your late parents andeled tit ouishe times when there could be an element of complexity among politic persona? i grew up with a father who was a registered republican. always voted republican. hewaa d oth eson. socially i didn't realize there were certain things that were

ises. i didn't realize being gay was tant.ue or -- we were taught to is i he t cld a immigrant. i think that depression informed his being a republican but at the same time, he could embrace c rpe -heas very dn't era voltaire in his views. i miss him desperately but i find that is missing. we have become a nation of a lot of fundamentaltsseto mendnkt j or my perception. >> it is a subject for a better mind than my own to address amurit eveopolitics is

it is much more on display becae every time you look up there is someone yammering on tv about it but if you look back at eai f ts were said about president lincoln, would anyone -- i put it to you, wellington was called of baboonn a newspapebon wsr editorial. with an editorialist dare to say that about our current president? i suppose. we do seem toe awfully angry. we seem frankly to me toe in a sfft is relatively unimportant stuff.

we are going broke. i do try to write funny books but ts iuthe fact that we are running unsupportable deficits. >> i rember the educational lms ey showed in gde opda t o tgo to me in grade school was china, the sleeping giant. i had images 8 years of age. d ngobndclim iour windows pano think you know -- i look forward to reading your book. anu. woone]

y ceesig be a movie? the expense of health care for the elderly and this dovetailed really well into it. can't wait to get into it. >> a mbon is called development hell. takevr clorko become a movie unless the autr is stephen king or a john grham. ernest hemingway, most of his bos we madintoovieand atvee of them though i've got a brief bird, gary cooper looked good but he despised -- he formulated

hemingway's rules when dealing with hollywo and igoes lik is youe e nuptf y your car and you drive up to the calirnia state line and you stopped beside califnia at state line, take your manuscript out of the front, make them w mcrs en y hl yo mipt at them and drive back east. it is probably a pretty good rule but four or five o them ree arsgo my ent cd mem - e sitting down? yes. he said i have the most amazing news. yes? shley'the road --charlize ther is attached to florence

of arabia. yes? she is attached to the project. i said what does that -- ds it uill have noticed her latest movie was not florence of arabia. the aner is i don't a s, asy n state department briefings, i have nothing for you on that at this time. >> second question is once you start on a project how do you discipline yourself and what is your writing they like? >> people say y write funny books. do you laugh as you right? itgsound you are you were t

likelier to hear is a soft uit.per or even pathetic saab. someone asked anthony burgess -- how it was that he managed to write two books a year. he was very prolific. he said i right 1,000 words in 100 days a besquork that way. people say how long did your last book take? the answer is 59 years which is actually true. how are di on time?

[inaudible] >> don't be bashful. >> you said you don't whack when you write e does laugh when one reads it. my wife was trying to read another book at the time and i kept interrupting her. >> shes reading robert caro's ll shut up? temptation was possibly there but no. it is not a questioneally. thwa a he leks -omeo me he read my book. she couldn't put it down. he read it in one night. it took me two years to write thbo.

d rbook. from your earlier books which i have read you continue to go over them and e things that remind you ofitnd received from florence of arabia and a mixed crowd. i don't think i should quote this particular scene. >> don't talk about that scene. >> not a question. just a sincere thank you very mu forheny th are delightful to read. >> thank you. i was afraid for a moment you were going to quote a great wine araiboook b ce pt wn can't pick it up. thanks very much.

[applause] h of programming focused on nonfiction authors and books. watch it here on c-span2. >> what are you reading this summer? booktv was ow. >>m viio summer for reading. the stuff i wrote you have to reach. i am really interested in reading barack obama's or pr gd in be getting into politics, really insight into his ancestors and the conditions that really led him to be who he ndpledy

religion and politics. this is probably an updated form. it was recmended toe soone yto dre th talk about the tee baggers and try to get some insight into the apprehension and concern people have. almost done with rachel matt ou d it takes something really fun and historical and enjoying that. i am three quarters of the way through that. i also plan toeathimrtal life. something to do.

basically the billionaire. >> for more information o th deav sreangts visit booktv.org. >> joining us on booktv is scott moyers who is the publisher of penguin press. we want to find out the new titles in the fall of 2012 from penguin press. i want to sta with the patriarch. >> ted kennedy reached out to the author of the biogrhy of drrnegiehian usacs he family papers, joseph kennedy was never shared with any biographers and there were no strings attached. no fily review and davidpe ch b pth mhs

and started from scratch. one of the things these papers allowed him to do to get closer to the emotional core of josep kennedy because joseph kennedy's veed calorsnd fitiavaseo follow the money. the kennedy family fortune was always a black box and he was able to put together exactly h kennedy did . hollood is a big part of the story in a way that has notee untoodef we kwutlt. wenoomofhe myths. some are more true than we might have fought. others less so. in the end, we can't askuthy edneicdansa he sought in carnegie the pattern of his fher's life. he started small and figured out how to do things witht.

tostehe nedse e d m h son president and that piece of the story how joseph kennedy wasnvolved in his sun's ascent i fascinating. >> kofi annan has a book coming up. >> yes autobiography, statecraft and for a man with a terrific retions diplat d her matters.atovra no secret he had issues with the state of israel over lebanon's novation. in a sense what is poignant about this book is there was a lot in at about whate trd anilond litations -- but what was

quite moving too and not expected is this is a reminder of how much the un does improve the lives of billions of people nd t wy at ff tadsc his account of what this organization does and its role in the world today is an argument f it in a sense and a lament for what it can't do. eatatesmiteathe day it is a on w s a dramatic issues of the time telling stories about peop, telling stories about events, telling you true unvarnished fox of great characters he had to work with forood il >> nw's book and kofi annan's book in the fall. >> kofi annan's book before the election around the you an annual meeting in new york city.

>> nri wne >> his long awaited memoir of the african civil war which for his country asunder in the 60s is this car that runs through his life. is a coming of age for himself and his country and great movement because it shows the promises for this young country tfr c war tore the country apart and sent it on a pretty maligned course. a beautiful book that is in part about the role of the writer in conscience. >> what thertt' atitondp d sort of speak for those who won't

speak for those who can't speak sins the first novel fell apart. in high schoolsveth un ei blion copies since its publication in 1959. this memoir is a magnificent capstone to his great career. >> how is his health? >> he ismid an h in a wheelchair. his brain is as strong as ever. we are going to be careful with his time. people would like to do things with him around publication of this book. mibuatill ie carul nd hoel bri down the thunder and this great book. >> host: finally a former washington post writer, tom rack who is familiaro a t of riders on c-span has another miliry but coming t.

lmion of 25 years covering the military. it is called the generals from military command from world war iio the president's. what is it to be a general and what differentiates great generals fm noo gels on thi that provoked this book, in 2005 tom was in sicily going of the world war ii battleground with officers from general staff college and they were telling tomhe story o the batte and to wk fahaheeneral who led the invasion was nonetheless fired two weeks later by omar bradley. this ory, litally a r eayn my colonel rocketed around the military which said today in 2005 a private suffers more

grief for losing a rifle that general suckers for sing a war. it is really true, john ry ho at bng aer expected that many people fail at it. the command is famously hard and theilitary had a tradition of firing generals and no shame in it and the military has le ltio only fired for political reasons right now. he follows these genals from world war ii to korea and vietnam and iraq and afghanisn. the genealogy, looking hat its t a ger a can't read the whole blurb for you but he basically said this is exactly the book we need. we need the institution to ask ourselves these questions about our leadershipnde