negro this so surprise me i close the book to put it down i studied this period i knew something about it i had never heard of many famous black person in russia at this time. in fact, to this day if you ask a reasonably educated russian person to name the most famous black person is almost certain they will say it was a brown hannibal who is famous because he is a great great grandfather of the russian writer but lived in the 18th century so there were no other famous black people whether from africa directly or the caribbean or the united states who lived in russia prior to 1917.

the famous trips of the representatives of the harlem renaissance of people like langston hughes that was in the soviet period. i was intrigued like to find dead curious new fact i began by a google. nothing came up so i used to russia and the search engine and what came up was the same sentence that started me off but i was intrigued so i spent several months digging through yale university's library in they came up with very little and what i did was contradictory but then i was hooked and had a wonderful gift which was a yearlong sabbatical i decided to try to figure out who this man was so i did research in various places in the united states

especially the national archive i went to russia and france and england and turkey and by proxy i had people begin to look in places as far from rotterdam if they had found any signs i would be on the first flight out and at the end of the year i had pulled together a surprising amount of information which allowed me to write the book that i to you about. this man in russia was in american named frederick bruce born in mississippi part of the delta 1872. the delta of his famous stentorious and called the most southern place on earth because it embodies the most trekking features of the old and post civil war it is

clear to me that my subject frederick got his lead in life they were slaves and tell emancipation then in 1869, four years after the civil war ended they did something remarkable for a black car -- family in that part of the south they managed to buy 200-acre plot of land for the price of $20 and had three years to pay off the many in installments that met six and two-thirds dollars and some changes all they had to spend. within one year of buying this piece of property, they were registered in the 1870's cents misheard as having property and crops worth $5,000 so they

multiplied the initial investment hundreds of times over. as a result they became members of a tiny black delete in that part of the south because of 250 farms that existed only six belong to black families and theirs was the second-biggest at 200 acres. over the next few years they increased their holdings to over 600 acres which made them into an even more elite landholding family. another triumph that i think had a strong influence on their son frederick later, was there was a great commitment shown to the local community. a one decade after they bought the land they found a

local methodist church very likely only the second black church in the county ever established from river town and the commitment it shows to the local black community is a telling trade that frederick tall -- thomas learn from his parents but traditionally black southern churches are not places of worship but the social and political gathering places and frequently the local schools for black children that is wray he got the rudiment of his education most likely from his stepmother who was also remarkable black woman because she was illiterate as well as showing remarkable character down the road. the net result was this

family was prominent and it was not a good thing to be after reconstruction ended in the south and the white power structure usurped its authority but in 1886, a local white planter with thousands of acres in his possession resented the fact the black family became successful and concocted a plan to steal their farm from them. the parents were trusting and acquiesce staffers but then they showed remarkable character because they realized he was trying to cheat them with an elaborate ruse and they took him to court. even more remarkable, they won the case. this was not simply because the wide judicial system was prepared to defend truce and

me automatically but because their lawyer had to be a political opponent of the white planter's lawyer and it was settled that way. [laughter] but the net result was a completely unexpected verdict was handed down so the white planter who tried to steal the land appealed to the mississippi state supreme court where the case drags on half a dozen years going to complications. by now it is 1890. mississippi has become the launching state in the south which means in the union. so the family decided to get out of harm's way even before the case was fully resolved. so they moved to memphis 70 miles away, far enough to be relatively safe and close enough to keep track of the

local process. that is where frederick thomas got some more formal education he went to a school for black youth founded by northerners and built on the rudiments he acquired. with that is where the second tragedy hit the family. and frederick's father louis was murdered in a very brutal fashion in a way i could describe in more detail but that would be a spoiler and i want you to read the book. then that marks the beginning of frederick's independent life which can be traced through four segments of his life later and each of those is marked by a completely original move on his part and he broke the mold for black

americans with every step that he took. 1890 he decided to go north to seek employment. this was the case before the great migration began which began only in earnest after the first world war when the first hundreds of thousands and millions of black americans saw an opportunity and greater freedom than the north. going first to chicago then brooklyn which was a separate city. although the north was free for the young black people, there are limits as to what they could do for a living and frederick chose the service industry and became a waiter and a valet. but not just anywhere but in what was at the time, in the early 1890's, the most

technologically sophisticated hotel built in the united states. it was the auditorium that stance on south michigan avenue now the home of roosevelt univ. but you can go into the building and it is preserved during the 8093 columbia an expedition world fair. because of how technologically advanced the hotel was it sets the tone for what frederick did later in life in the same way the first job they have been given profession prepares you for what follows with the same trajectory. he began at a very high level. when he moved to new york he began to work for a prominent i intrapreneur tried his hand and real estate development and ax bonneville.

it is interesting to think frederic would have gotten the first ideas being a businessman dealing with popular entertainment working for a man who was about to become the most famous in the new york area with five hill. this is also when frederick thomas decided to do something else that was completely extraordinary for a young black american at the time he had a passion which was singing and had a teacher of a german immigrant who encouraged him to go to europe to continue to do train because of the color line that existed in new york for people who want to study at the conservatory. in 1894, decades again before black americans began to expatriate themselves to

pari mostly after the first world war, frederick koch on the boat and bought a ticket and went to london where he hoped to enroll in the music school. he failed to enroll. when first discovered that i thought he had encountered an unforeseen color line as well but it turned saugh -- out that england was colorblind with regard to people of african in origin. they were racist but not to those whose roots were from africa and iran anti-semites and treating patients for lease of the only white people in england or france where he went next who had any kind of bad reaction to seeing black people in public were visiting

american interests. and i found the letters to the editor written by americans who were out fancy restaurants in london in 1895 complaining a mixed-race couple was having meals and nobody thought there is anything wrong with that. but it is clear why frederick would have stayed on in europe even though he was not able to continue with a musical career. he was a successful raider in the united states and could do the same in europe and was a successful ballet. they needed those in europe as well. he spent the next six years traveling as the waiter and valet zigzagging across the country and he also had a remarkable knack to acquire languages and i found a revealing them more by a

visiting american reporter who ran into frederick in monte carlo where he was working for what ws then and is now the fanciest hotel in town and was struck by how purer his french was and sounded completely parisian but when he switched to english it was a very distinctive southern black english. where was he in monte carlo? he wanted to see europe also on his way and was already in germany where he picked up quite a bit of that language. and mud to carlo where his russian future began to materialize before him and that a visiting russian noblemen hired him as a personal valet and monte carlo. what frederick said

depending on whom he was talking he refers to the fact and it was a grand duke and is a term that is used to designate the sun and a grandson of russian emperors' so look he could of been very highly placed and noble than. so he spends a relatively brief time working for this man then travels to russia. . .

characterized if you will. there is the life curve that he followed and then there is the curve of the life of the country where he was living. and his courage was a gradual and consistent us and things kept improving. he began as a waiter, then he became a head waiter in a fancy restaurant. then he became the assistant to the owner of one of the fanciest restaurants in the empire, a place that is legendary for people who care about these things. in a position he was in charge of other headwaiters and he made so much money from the

extraordinary tips that people in his position got and in particular before the revolution they were famous for nutter arias for throwing money around so visiting grandiloquent tips semidey with a gold cigarette case encrusted with diamonds and there would be best that of the bills on the table. the restaurant was the place to which the notorious russian religious charlatan used to come when he came to moscow. at any rate he made so much money that together with the partners they decided to pull within it earned in the open a place of their own so they took over who had been what was a failed entertainment garden and the city they were very popular part of the world in the beginning of the 20th century. disneyland is a latter-day version of it.

it's a place we can go to see others to be seen to take in a variety of different kinds of shows and performances and have a meal and have drinks and try our hand at raffles and so on. and they take the place over very quickly the theatrical press in moscow began to refer to these guys as thomas and company. so frederick emerged as the leading figure and within a year of taking it over, each one had cleared a million dollars each. following his parents pattern of trying to increase his holdings,

frederick opened another place on his own. a was an enormous success. when the first world war began announced the provision and that was as successful in russia as american prohibition would be a half-dozen years later the liquor under the table and the money poured into his pockets even more abundantly than before. he didn't neglect, he married a young german woman early around 1901. when she died he married another german woman simultaneously with that wife he began an affair with a view beautiful young singer and dancer who had performed in one of his laudable

stages. the woman subsequently became his wife and mother of two of his sons. the country that he had adopted and that had adopted him kept detailed reading. they were a terrorist act. there were strikes, there was the revolution of 1905 that resulted in artillery fire against workers in the center of moscow then of course the crunch came in 1917 with two revolutions. the first one was fairly liberal. frederick wrote it out. the second revolution was the one of the bolsheviks. the bolsheviks didn't care that he had been a black man in the united states. the only thing that mattered to him is that he was a member of the wrong class and there was nothing he could do to mitigate

the class. so his properties were seized and he himself was running a symbol type of luncheonette for the workers and when he found out in 1918 that the secret police had him on a arrest which meant he could be readily shot for being a member of the wrong class, he with great difficulty managed to escape from moscow to the south of russia which for various historical reasons was actually at that time in german hands so he was on russian soil but out of the bolshevik control. when the war ended in 1918, that territory in the south of russia taken over by the french, and russians like rhetoric and others, because he considered himself to be russian by that point were hoping this french

enclave would be the place a crusade could be against the bolsheviks and overthrow them so he and others could return to the north come to their cities like moscow and reclaim their property. it didn't happen. the french announced an evacuation and frederick had to flee for his life because if he stayed with his family when they took over the city, he was very likely to be executed and so he managed to get on a boat by using really quite incredible rooms that again i can tell you about because a will be a spoiler, but he managed to get himself and much of his family to constantinople which is where that singer, alexander, that i began with, performed for. now, he had lost millions in terms of real-estate holdings in russia. he arrived in something like $25

in cash, but he had something else. he tried to destroy him yet again and so he took out loans at rates of 100% for six months and he started up a small version of his aquarium garden in constantinople which is where he sang for him. his expenses orie enormous but he was talented at running these operations and he managed over the next couple of years to pay off his creditors and to make this place into a success. what helped him enormously as constantinople starting in november of 1918 when armistice was announced up through 1923 was occupied by the allies planning for the imperialists reasons to dismember the ottoman

empire and made constantinople into a city. what this meant practically is the city was filled with thousands of usually young men from italy, france, the united states and great britain. soldiers, sailors, diplomats, businessmen plaguing the grand dame of dismembering the ottoman empire and with the population wanted more than anything was basically wine, women and song and there was nobody in those days the was better at providing all of that than frederick thomas. i am not suggesting he was any kind of a pander or anything like a pen pity it was just the kind of entertainment he was good at putting on stage and attractive showgirls would do a song dances and numbers. any event, he managed to climb out of this whole that he was in to become very successful. but then historical forces began to shift under his feet. his adopted country, thrussian

empire disappeared. he wanted nothing to do he knew his life would be in danger if he returned. he applied for turkish citizenship. the regime that took over in 1923 was basically a xenophobic. they didn't like foreigners, so frederick was refused citizenship so he became a state person and approached the americans in constantinople to try to reclaim his american citizenship and day refused him for reasons the were fundamentally racist. there was a technicality that was invoked the diplomats for whom you filled out forms sent them to the state department in washington and the functionaries in washington said that we couldn't find any paper records indicating that this man, who

claims to be an american ever lived in the united states. that was either startling, astounding ineptitude or an outright lie because when i went to the state department archives, i found dozens of what documents dating back showing that frederick had applied for american passports repeatedly prior to his even going to russia. they resented the fact that he had a white life. they wouldn't believe the woman who came with him to constantinople the former singer and dancer that he married by this point was his wife, they resented the fact he came trailing stories of great fortune and success in russia and so when the turkish republic was proclaimed in 1923 when he was a state person. he managed to shield himself by having a surrogate turkish

parties who were the nominal heads of his operation. by this point, he had abandoned that garden and opened a nightclub that he named after his place in moscow. it was for a number of years the most famous nightclub in this part of the world in the eastern mediterranean. this is also the time when american tourists rediscover constantinople and they arrived in the high season and they all wanted to do the same thing pivoted they wanted to see soviet and they wanted to see the blue mosque and they wanted to have a good drink because prohibition was in force in the united states and that is where they all went. so they began to make a lot of money and became successful again but because of the influx of the tourists others began to capitalize on their presence.

there was one example, a plan by european businessmen to transform one you both know is a church that dates back in the first millennium into the biggest jazz hall in the world so there were companies that were offering to provide that large jazz band with the most powerful saxophones to be able to fill this space. others use imperial palaces that they had left behind when they could rival monte carlo. in fact frederic encountered serious competition from people with deep pockets. he was also flagrant with his money when he was flushed. he liked to show friends a good time. the result was a 1926 after several years of spectacular success he had no protection from any government agency. americans didn't want him and

the russians were too far away and indifferent. so he was left his own devices. his properties and a stumble were seized ways turkish creditors. he didn't give up. he tried to escape to the new capital. he tried again to stop a new operation but he was arrested for his debt and transferred to an old a ghastly presence in constantinople where he languished for about six months before he again contracted pneumonia by the summer of 1928. he became seriously ill with he was transferred into the care of catholic nuns and he died in their hospital on june 12th, 1928. he was buried the following day in the french catholic cemetery and a stumble. i found the records indicating his burial. but they don't indicate where he was buried in the cemetery

because there was no money to put up any kind of a permanent marker. so all one knows is that he is somewhere in this relatively small cemetery that still exists. so, his ending was really tragic. and i mean that in the older sense of the term just pathetic but tragic because this was a man that tried to buck the forces of history and succeeded in the united states peacekeeping racism in russia by finding a way out of the maelstrom of the russian revolution and he tried to do it in turkey as well but in the end the forces crushed him. he had five children, and maybe i can conclude by just telling you a little bit about one of them because i managed to meet one of his descendants. he now lives in paris. he is about my own age, and he is the son of frederick's oldest son who had been born in moscow in 1905, and whose name was

michael, so how i found the grandson is a story in itself. i will give you a little of a taste of it. i found the grandson whose ex-wife is a free met defeat could famous french designer. her name is [chanting] and if you bother to google hershey will pop up all over the place. she has a very distinctive style. she has a boutique on one of the finest shopping streets in paris sold in several dozen places around the world. so, through her i was able to communicate with her former husband. and when i went to paris to meet him five years ago or so, she was a very welcoming and a very pleasant man surprised somebody would surface in his life. but he very generously over the course of several hours told me the family oral history, which with his permission i record because i was new to all of this and i wanted to catch every word

and then i did my research on my own and i discovered that the vast majority of the grandson fault was a family history was invention. i will give you a couple of examples. i have incontrovertible evidence that the families origins were in slavery as i described according to the oral history the grandson learned from his father the man i refer to as frederic priss thomas was actually the favorite son of the chief of native americans in mexico. and other than working his way up from the restaurant floor to fame and fortune which i think is a remarkable trajectory, the grandson told the story how his grandfather shipped out of mexico and became a smuggler in the south china sea. i decided how he was taken to russia by the servant. according to the grand sum, frederick salote life of a rich russian in a bar in shanghai,

where else, then to reword this black merchant seamen took him to grant style. so there were things along the line that the grandson told me. i brought copies of documents and photographs of the grandson's father. they were found in an archive and he allowed me to reproduce in my book. he was in profile with of course the grandson was free press fallen when i told them what the truth is the designer of monterey and my current wife said i won the end of each woman by telling each one the story that you just under mind.

he was partially joking but it was a hard pillto swallow. he said he's going to have to wait until somebody translates it for him because he doesn't read english and so he can't actually read it until somebody does that for him. in any event this is a brief overview of the story of frederick thomas. i tried to tell you how much fun i had been doing this research, and i also find myself liking to repeat a russian saying on occasions like this, which is you don't have to feed me. just let me talk. [applause] >> after -- when rhetoric bought

the land for $24 you said not many people do that. why do you think they do not? >> first of all, what freed black people did after the civil war to make a living as mostly sharecropping, which meant they were working of the land for a share of the crops that they could grow on. they exist for the sharecroppers show that their wages with them. the records indicated they were frequently cheated so it would have been difficult to accumulate the kind of money necessary to be able to bid even say $20 on a point of land. it remains the dominant occupation of black people in the south for decades after the civil war ended and when the reconstruction ended, the power structure did everything it could to dissuade black people

from reaching the kind of independence that land ownership gave them and they succeeded. the ku klux klan is another manifestation to prevent black people, achieving economic and political independence. >> i am surprised the grandson and many of their descendants would be disappointed to find the truth is a far more fascinating story. he had memories of his father telling him, the grandson, and his sister this kind of story over the dining room table. but it's also a telling story because the idea that they hit origins in the native american tribe is something that comes up

in history fairly often. henry louis gates jr., the eminent scholar of harvard has been getting a lot of work on the genealogy recently as well as dna analysis, and he says the data show that maybe 2% of african-american heritage is actually needed american in fact whereas in terms of the family stories it is much more prevalent. the explanation that he offers makes a lot of sense that is less painful for them to believe his or her ancestors were freed of americans said there is a kind of revealing psychology to the family oral history that is perpetrated by this particular family. >> do they know more about his crossing i don't know if it is

any history from crossing the united states to england, and the second thing is curious to know but the heavyweight champion jack johnson and butter with their interaction was. >> i found in records and england the passenger lists on various ships that went from american ports to portsmouth and other places in england. i'm pretty sure i found the ship on which frederick bruce thomas crossed the atlantic. what surprised me is how many people very different social and economic backgrounds crossed the atlantic and how readily they did it, how simple it was. you didn't have a passport to do it. you bought a ticket and went. you didn't mean a passport in europe at the time. you could travel from england to france but if you had when it might make things easier when

you were trying to prove who did were. i found contemporary descriptions of what it was like and was a surprise for me which was humane practical reasons. the accommodations were not fancy, people were segregated by sex for example. men would be in a cabin with 12 to 15 and women would be in another one but the food was good, the treatment was to maine, there were doctors on board. a newspaper reporter decided to take it to see what it was like so that is a major source. i was surprised again to see how many people who buy profession were listed as laborers shuttled back and forth across the

atlantic seeking seasonal jobs in one country giving to the next pity it was very wide spread. as far as jack johnson was concerned, frederick had an influence on his life subject johnson is the first black heavyweight champion of the world. he defeated a series of racist boxers who refused to fight him for the racial reasons. but racism is very widespread in the north. he had a cafe in downtown chicago, and he also liked white girlfriends. the white authorities in chicago try to use the mann act against him, which is actually designed to prevent the movement of women across state lines and they try

to hook the have one of a series of girlfriends and i was able to deduce from the records that i found in various places and newspaper articles that when jack johnson was being hounded in chicago, the news of the fact spread through the united states into the european newspapers frederick thomas reached out to him in a day after that happened and offered him tickets to come and put on exhibition fights in moscow and an advance against very generous prize money that he expected he would actually win. and jack johnson did go to europe although he didn't go straight to moscow. he spent more than a year if i remember correctly following defeat could during various european sites. before he got to moscow in july

of 1914i found in theatrical journals publicity photographs of jack johnson and his fighters stance surrounded with writing announced this great american champion is going to be putting on exhibition bouts at the aquarium and there is one reproduced in my book. they are not completely reliable with some aspect sar and they described how he and frederick became friends during the brief period he was in moscow but putting on this exhibition is the beginning of the first world war. basically august 1st 1914 so jack johnson decided to get out of russia to western europe because they realize that the front it would run all the way from the baltic to the black sea

he basically left before he could put on, but it's interesting to speculate what would have happened there was no color line in moscow. jack johnson was a showman in addition to being a terrific boxer and if he had headed off with frederick and they would have made history because nobody would have objected to anything in jack johnson's lifestyle. fast cars and fast women would have appealed. >> [inaudible] >> well that's been encouraging to get some nice reviews i've been giving talks to you and people seem interested so that is all good pitch only been out

for a month. >> [inaudible] >> well, my job is simon professor of russian literature and my books were for academics and there are academic books. this is a different book for me. i wanted to write it for a general audience, for people who hoped would be caught up in the story and would be interested in the story of a unique individual but reinvents himself repeatedly in exotic settings so a general audience interested in the biography of the african-american studies and things of that sort. >> can you describe what is going on at the time? >> one has to because he wasn't living in a vacuum and what happened to him to a considerable extent a function of it was possible in that country at that time so why do try to set the setting, the stage for his life in moscow and

constantinople. the other thing i try to do is to give the reader a sense of what these places sounded and smelled like even because i was very interesting for me and i wanted to give a little bit of that flavor to make it come alive so it wasn't just abstract historical events but something more complete, and you can tell me if it worked or not. ..

>> this is a man who arrived in russia and not knowing the language. it was ever else in europe at that time. he learned russian. he spoke cliff with grammatical mistakes but enough to conduct affairs. he invented itself as a

russian high-stakes tycoon. had the war not resulted or happened he would have stayed and kept getting bigger and bigger with of the eve of the first revolution inducted into the association that had the routes from the middle ages. he brought his daughter in was grooming her to take over the family business. >> 56 in those days was considered old age. >> where would you look with regard to other african americans in history to made

incredible strides for murder of their contributions to the world. where would he rank? with this superstar success stories after the civil war? >> if you include people who are around today and consider not of the united states but the exotic country white america did not pay much attention to frederick thomas abroad except in a negative way when a tourist would make snide comments to see a black american in a nightclub he could have been as big as any of them. for example, of the first world war had not begun he would have grown his businesses in russia. he tried during the first

world war. there is the famous property in st. petersburg that exist today the famous venues for circuses and other performances and he actually went to an auction to get the right to rent the place in the imperial capital. and was one of the high stakes bidders until he pulled out then he realized it was raised and there was an inside deal but it he was interested in starting a company for investors so he understood how he would be about growing the business bigger than when a couple could run on their own. he understood what he would have to do to keep getting bigger and bigger but they

supported him. and as i said that it bears repeating given the history of the black people of the united states, there was no color line in russia. he could have gotten as big as his finances would have allowed him. >> if you define him from his personality, the totality to capture his essence, what would that be? >> there are various things i say about that in the book. he was no one's school. he was willing to begin instead of the gray area but go to the edge of legality to crossover into something moderately illegal. if he was naive enough to do

it whenever betty else was doing it. and the selling of liquor is one another that i give is how he ran circles around a lawyer hired by the french music copyright agency to pay royalties on french music. at the same time frederick was loyal to members of the inner circle that is why the example of his parents founding a church for the local black community had an influence. at 1.during the first world war decided to become a passive manager and gave over the active management to the senior employees including the guy who was the cook in the restaurant and this made waves of the russian theatrical press at

the time. one editorial said it is unprecedented also reminiscence about organizing benefits for his waitresses in constantinople. one of the appealing thing this is in clothiers which was an exciting city is russian in it emigre noble women became famous waitresses in restaurants and there was a racist attitude among americans there accusations made he had his way with these women so an american reporter looked into this and admiral bristol said that after interviewing the waitresses

the reporter concludes that frederick thomas is the widest employer in constantinople. in other words, he would circle wagons around. but russian emigres remember him fondly there rose 700,000 that pass through their 1923 because the only place you could get away from the south of russia was safe was constantinople. he was generous and employed as many as he could but if anybody showed up at the door asking for a handout they got a meal. i found reminiscences from people who did not know him except if you went to him it would be some extent. on the one hand he was loyal and a very polished man and

by the time he was running constantinople he was part of the show himself. reminiscences of him as the consummate a hose where you came to his nightclub he would greet you in turkish, russian, german, it alian, and maybe a smattering of others. a dazzling smile, a beautiful and turned out and very sophisticated and cosmopolitan. also a loyal parent and spouse. those of some of the facets. >> but he married the first wife in a normal fashion and had three life together she died of pneumonia but then he married daughter of convenience than manney because he needed the help and very soon after that marriage of convenience the began an affair with a

beautiful young singer and dancer. >> she was german? >> yes. she eventually became his third wife when he divorced the second and remained loyal until the forties when she died. >> you said you didn't find much information in the books on black history? >> no. but he is almost entirely forgotten. in that 80 years since he died there have been very few references published anywhere and all are very short and much of what is in those reminiscences is wrong for example, you mentioned jack johnson the memoir refers to him as georgetown which of course, was not his name. and he gets the other things wrong like the british

diplomat has a famous career in twentieth century history. robert locker and who has a revealing page about frederick in action but he did i realize he was an american. he is not remembered in the united states or in turkey and it was my luck that sentence that got me so intrigued to find information about them. you can find the interesting person but not find information i have spoken about the book in the south but it was a very welcoming interest in the story. so someone came this is

significant for people whose steady the period or the subject. >> with a fascinating aspect of the books because of the european or the russians when you address that to the united states there is an extraordinary story line about what you have described and i am curious about the history why russia could be up place where this could have been and why was it allowed to happen? and compare that to why it could not have been in the united states. >> that is an interesting question that intrigued me

as a hall. why would russia? because russia, unlike countries never enslaved people of african descent. pontians later on peasants there reserve to like slavery but the victim was the peasantry and unlike a lot of european countries countries, russia never engaged to colonize africa. it colonized her neighbors by expanding the country into asia and europe. that explains the demographic situation. it was a very heterogeneous

when i hit -- found english speaking tourist they speak of not just presidents wearing their garb, but also people from central asia for those who come for business so there were very few professionally slaves but not that all skin was right to their renner enough contacts between western european countries and black people from africa in the last years of the 19th but

r the different groups to -- to reduce not enough at the time of african descent. the brits were notorious racist with regards to south asia and anti-semites but had had enough contact with people of african descent to develop any type of a take could take the form of day negative the ottoman empire was multi ethnic stretch from africa to europe to asia. black people rose to high positions in the imperial ottoman court. it was done according to

skin color religious affiliation so for the muslims who saw frederick for the first time the fair question would be is the muslim or not? if not that married to it to it modifies. that explains the differences to how they were perceived or constructed in a different settings. why it developed in the united states is a question that is high above my pay scale with my ability to try to answer it to. but we know the solid history of that event. >> what is your next project >> flights lots of other people are intrigued of the civil war and by russian-american relations and there are a couple of people i am thinking about who are very interesting characters and one of them

was a union general whose real name was. [speaking russian] and colonel in the russian imperial army and went to a wall 1856, came to the united states working as a railway engineer when the civil war broke out and this man, who had a lot of military experience and was given a regiment to come out which he did successfully. and to be touched by abraham lincoln personally because this russian x pat hated serfdom and could not stand slavery entering the first period of the civil war there was a kid glove attitude to the south for

fugitive slaves were to be returned to their owners. but to make it easier to pronounce they did not like his name so they left or so his wife went to see abraham lincoln and told him what was going on and he intervened but demoting cuts colonel to brigadier general to put him at of reach of the other kernels that were judging. he is one character. the other is cassius clay in the 19th century politician and after doom the boxer was named a and an ardent which makes it interesting for me where he became the abolitionist. his connection is he was the player of lincoln's party

and abraham lincoln appointed to an to reach him as the ann was taking a break and he did whatever he could to keep russia on this side of the union. because it becomes a world war. britain and france sided with the south and they set up new trips to canada in case fighting broke out but the russians send a fleet to new york and another to san francisco. they did this because they oppose anything but cassius clay was a colorful figure and hooked up but they had

to defend themselves. and as i said it is safe as senior with those others that he spends time with at the imperial corporation. a couple more possibilities. >> i love fredericks period in chicago and what intrigued me was here we are in winnetka. >> but he strikes me as a person who would look around. my gut tells me he probably was in at some point* during

the chicago stadium interesting the very successful families from the chicago area many from winnetka and i wonder if there is any history about some of those families or people visiting moscow and basically connecting with the guard? i wonder if there is any record between the north shore in frederick's experience in russia. >> he did me in the aquarium garden in moscow. they were surprised to meet somebody like him who was from chicago for a while, or live there so i found a newspaper article published to the united states to describe the alley cat and rich black man so it is

close. i tried as hard as i could to find but somewhere the of flaws are very close to where the art institute to build them up. i know there is no waiter actually it is very much work, a visiting but the dining room we are in thicknesses the college and university library back pictures of that dining room show the.core of our bookshelves is the same. and their other pieces of the heather decorations throughout the building. i was not able to find anything about him but i was

very zealous in my search. it is not writing a one negative liner around. thank you. thank you for your questions [applause] >> think about how the typical american eats. 90 percent of the food is to buying processed foods come 84 percent of americans be but this bet and that the

with the battles in the brands as they shop for beverages of pepsi and cater array and tropicana sierra vista, lipton tea tea, repair, every of the energy, bottled water if health conscious contrast they made by naked croup to four serial but puffed wheat and four meals and snacks they may buy rice a runny or some chips -- sonship solar car jacks or ruffles. what the consumer probably doesn't but pepsi is the largest food company in the united states if you want to call these items food and the second largest in the

world but maybe the next lee product. i will not go through all the brands that they peddle about 6,000 brands and 94 billion in sales and 10.5 but it is the biggest food company in the rose. soul in every sense cent, we have a chess set of those brands, 14 control organic food. big food is controlling what people eat. then we have a grocery conglomerate.

wal-mart leads the pack along with kroger and costco and target. that wal-mart is by far the lad largest but than 40 percent of all americans. is there reason why? >> but do we use it as a political and economic power but they speak with one voice and they decide what the pesticide regulation in -- they eurasia and should the and a partner with a guy who's tim for the country and the steady that it is so powerful that you can buy a public policy that we did a report last year on the biotech industry and it

turns out there are 100 biotech companies lobbying full time and of those, they have hired 14 former members of congress and 300 former staffers of the white house and congress. the biotechnology industry has a lot of clout. and wal-mart and monsanto are partnering up in some ways. one of the ways recently with engineers with genetically engineered sweet corn i no food and water watching a lot of other consumer groups trying to get wal-mart because they want to be sustainable, to not by the sweet corn but they did and when wal-mart buys something it creates a market and monsanto plans to

have 40 percent of the market for sweet corn be the genetically engineered friday and it will not be labeled. so we've revolutionized the food this system and but to put pressure on the suppliers to cut costs and to go into great detail. we don't have enough time but what it has done effectively to reduce its to

process risk it is cheaper where they can have an easier time dictating policy so increasingly are food being produced in this country and if you talk about organic it is very difficult to even verify in the u.s. that organic products are meeting standards. we can imagine how this is happening in places like china. >> the intelligentsia is that the reason they're in different boxes and science and religion and the two are

at war with does someone who is religious is not rational i am religious or rational but there is too many people that are irrational. but this is the ultimate idea because but the reason it comes through the west is . . .