about. it's wrong, called paying off. i took my advancement from this book of esther a first class scholarship at the united negro scholarship fund. it's not a lot of money but if f it helps some kid not to have to work and be able to study at school, it is also for anybody to contribute to. you can get through it -- to it through my website. am i going to sign some books now? >> so, for people who might have missemissed it, the express ande post did a write up of dunbar, and did an interview with ms. stewart on wednesday summit had to go to the archives to check it out. what i would like for us to do is to make sure we sell out of this book. they are available for everyone, but i couldn't let you get your question, please get the book and come and talk with ms. stewart. thank you so much, great. philadelphia chapter -- fold up your chair, pick up your trash.

[inaudible conversations] >> doesn't tell us what to do. it tells us what we think is going to happen and then went to make choices about that. one argument is the earth is always changing. societies can change and adapt in many ways. and, of course, we don't know if that is necessary the case with the climate problem. it may be something we can adapt to. but if you take that idea that societies can adapt, it leaves us with the question of, even if we can adapt is the second world we want to live in with his extreme heat, with the drought, the sea level rise. so many things that we care about are endangered by the change that happening and we do have a choice about them. >> can human ingenuity say the plan or his catastrophe all but certain?

paul sabin on "the bet" tonight at nine on "after words," part of booktv this weekend on c-span2 and booktv's book club is back this month with mark lubavitch, this town. read the book and see what other viewers are saying on our facebook page and on twitter. >> welcome to annapolis on booktv with help of our comcast cable partners for the next one hour weeks for the history and literary scene of maryland's capital city. coming up will learn about the day president reagan walked through the streets of the south spent the weekend in annapolis are passed to annapolis was because he was on his way to the peace conference at hampton roads spent meet others to help us understand the roots of the area. >> annapolis was told eclipsed by baltimore and was separate. they needed economic future and it didn't happen spent will begin as a sedan with rebecca morris wrote about the parole camps of annapolis. >> the largest one was

originally of the naval academy. annapolis is pretty much the county's claim to fame for the civil war that was a camp just for union prisoners of war who didn't release on parole by the confederate. in june 1862 they set up three parole camps. one was at jefferson barracks in missouri, one was at camp in and the largest one was originally here at the naval academy. men who were patrolled would be brought to the release point on the east coast. so all the paroled men would be brought there, loaded onto transports, sailed up the day and put ashore in annapolis. and if they were all in one place, all in one camp, it would be easy enough when they declared an exchange of a thousand prisoners, you could

find them and then send them back to the regiment. as they begin coming in to annapolis in the spring of 1862, there just wasn't any room to put them. every square inch of open space in annapolis is already occupied. so they moved the parole camps out about two miles southwest of annapolis near spock read. they thought this would be far enough from down to keep the men out of trouble, keep the men out of this solutions and downtown annapolis. it would give them a lot of room to expand. but as it turns out, two miles is not that far from and want to go back to annapolis to get into trouble. and they also pretty much ravaged the farms in the area, destroyed the crops, broke into farmhouses. the other problem that the camp ran into was that even though they were out in the country and supposedly it all this room to

grow, they were in the habit of throwing the trash of the camp right outside the fence. it was so much trash surrounding the camp was actually more practical to move the camp and to try to clean it up and expanded in august 1863, they can't move to its final location, which again was about two miles outside of annapolis, almost due west. that is where it is now. the camps varied in condition. according to the population of the number of men that were there, and that varied widely because after a large battle, you have an influx of maybe 10,000 paroled men. after massive exchange might have 1000 or 2000 there. so when they were very few people there, they had enough of everything. but there was usually not a lot of notice given to the camp when

these prisoners would be flooding and. in a lot of cases men were sleeping outdoors. they didn't have enough food. they didn't have enough supplies. so it was really feast or famine. the problems, because these were northern soldiers, they have access to the own representative, senators, and if the conditions were bad, they would write home and then the senators and representatives would get on the commissary general of prisoners, the complaints went full circle and came back to the poor command of the camp was really doing is best. it was difficult to manage a population that fluctuated that much. also, one of the main problems with the camp was that they were in never enough guards. the men found it easy to just go over the fence and leave whenever they want it. at one point a soldier wrote

there were 3000 men in camp only guarded by 90 men. the commissary general of prisons who oversaw all of these parole camps had no troops to pull on. he had to beg, borrow, and steal from another regiment. and the other regiments were not always able or willing to give men up. so throw out all three iterations of camp parole, very difficult to keep men under some kind of control out of the saloons it and, of course, annapolis as with a lot of farming towns, progressively got more than discipline as time went on. by 1864, it was, one soldier described as the worst example of an army town. before the war you realize annapolis was just a little

market town of a few thousand people. by 1864, there were grovels, saloons, gambling done. men were constantly getting into brawls, people were assaulted. murders were not uncommon. there were a lot of cases where civilians were found with their throats slashed and a close can't because the men in the parole camps were trying to get civilian clothes to desert. how long a man was at camp had nothing to do with how soon he was released. men were released by regiment in order to make it easier to get groups of men back to their own units. but sometimes those units could be hundreds of miles away. and as there were no guards to keep an eye on the camp's, there were very few cards to send these men, taking them back to the battle. so you might have one or two guards trying to escort one or

200 paroled prisoners who have not been exchange and they're being sent back to fight again. and it was very common by the end of the trip back, the guard would have a lot fewer than and he started out with. they would just sort of disappear along the way. they didn't want to go back and fight again. there was also a problem with trying to get men back to the white regiment. because a lot of men who couldn't read or write had no idea what regiment that belong to. so when they were brought in to the camp, all the information was taken from them, name and birthday, birthplace and what regiment were you in. they would just say i don't know. so it was a constant struggle to find out where these men belonged. some of them lied because maybe they had shown cowardice in the face of the enemy, allowed themselves to be captured so they didn't get shot. they didn't want to get sent back to the regiment where people knew what they have done.

so they lied about the regiment. so you see a lot of letters from irate regimental commanders as saying, you know, i get one had been yesterday, none of them are mine. why are you sending me these people? we surrendered in april 1865, and within a couple of months the parole camps here in annapolis was essentially gone. they have torn down the building, offered the wood for sale to locals merchants and builders. the naval academy moved back, the hospital was discontinued. by the end of 1865, there really wasn't a trace of the camp left. it's not just the big battles that are fighting in gettysburg and antietam. there's a civil war history literally right in our backyard. maybe the folks that live around the paroled community can go out

and dig around and see if they could find artifacts. he does up until recently, he for the shopping centers were built, people would find artifacts and relics of the camp everywhere. and i don't know whether to many of those are left yet but the history is there. i saw people to know about it. >> booktv's visit to annapolis, maryland, continues with the help of our local cable partner comcast. we take a look at the rich cultural and literary history of the area. tried to the civil war, maryland had more free african-american citizens in any other state. in annapolis, 400 the city's 4000 inhabitants were free african-americans. next we'll hear from rock toews, author of "lincoln in annapolis, february 1895". >> "lincoln in annapolis, february 1895" and i voted because while lincoln was in

annapolis, virtually nobody knew that, was aware that. i've always been interested in a sense has little boy and i've always had an interest in annapolis since i moved here 23 years ago. so my curiosity was was the time when clinton was in annapolis. i found out he had been by looking at the chronology of his life. the reason he was in annapolis or pass through annapolis because he was on his way to the peace conference at hampton roads. and no more route which would've been assailed down the potomac river by steamboat was not that failed because the potomac river was iced over. the chesapeake bay was still open so we took a train from washington to annapolis and got on the steamer, went down to the conference at fort monroe and returned the next day.

lincoln really had no intention of attempting or going to the peace conference at hampton roads. it was only after receiving a telegram from general grant who expressed regret that there was no american official to meet him, specifically he thought that it would be a nice gesture if lincoln was able to meet them. so lincoln gets that telegram at about 8:30 a.m. on the morning of february 2. no intention prior to that of being involved with the piece covers the it's the telegram from grant and decide at that moment ago. and by 11:00, is on a train to annapolis. his secretary, nobody knows this. there's a wonderful anecdote about john nicolai who was the

secretary, he's sitting in his office which i joined the lincoln's office, and one of his assistants comes in and says, where's the president gone? and nicolai says, what do you mean? the president is right on the other side of this door. and nicolai's assistance has no, he's not. i just saw them live why does. so nicolai stance, goes over, opened the door and was astounded to find lincoln guy. the interesting thing that happened what he was there, the maryland legislature was debating the 13th amendment, which was of course the amendment to abolish slavery. it had been brought to annapolis the previous day, one day earlier by lincoln's secretary of state, william seward, who had been passed in the congress, u.s. congress had passed it january 31. so on february 1, seward also en

route to the peace conference comes through annapolis for the same reason because he can't put down the potomac river either, and he brings with him a copy of the 13th amendment, and urges while he is here, urges governor bradford to convene legislature and have them ratified, which probably would've made maryland the first state to ratify it. the senate decided to discuss the ratification of the amendment, and so they were discussing it, the liberating over it the next day still when lincoln walked within sight of the statehouse with it under consideration but when lincoln came back a little after 7 a.m. on february 4 from the naval academy, at this time because now it's well-known that he is down there and he will be

returning, they were able to arrange to have a train actually meet them at the wharf. so united in a mile and half walk on the return trip. they just stepped off the ball, stepped on the train and were all back in washington. probably the most interesting thing about it is to have them walk by the state capital where that is in consideration, having passed the united states congress only two days earlier. i think that's just come to me that's just an amazing image, and he knew it, too. he knew it was up there any they were debating id didn't stop and you didn't when it's a, come on, you've got -- just let it be and walk by. >> now from annapolis, maryland, the site that had states naval academy, take a tour of the nimitz library with jennifer bryan, director of special collections and archives.

>> this is the special collections and archives department restraint front of the thomas o. paine collection. he collected these books that relate to submarine warfare over the course of many years and there are approximately 3500 volumes. dr. paine was the third administrator and under his watch, seven of the apollo missions were launched. in 1982 the collection was offered to the academy by dr. paine's would've. he died in may, and in the fall she offered this collection to the academy. and after making arrangements to take such a large collection, the gift was finalized in 1996. he served in world war ii on a submarine and was in seven crisis in the pacific during world war ii. and i presume that that's what's interesting submarines developed, although perhaps he was interested prior to that but soon i would imagine that was a

missing friend to start collecting books regarding submarines and simmering water. we have some books that go to late 1800s up to the time of dr. paine's death because he probably having served in submarine service in world war ii that that was an impetus for his collecting books. afterwards, he graduated from stanford, got a degree at stanford, doctorate at stanford, and then went on to work for general electric and then i believe it was in ct and he became 19 seek him that he became the assistant administrator for nasa and was administered in 1969. so served in that position until his death. one of my favorite books in the collection is called -- a french book published in the late 1800s which is a history of submarines. it's interesting because the understated cover and author illustration and it.

most of them are photographs but still i think it's kind of not necessarily a rare book but certainly an interesting book from time period. this book is about the submarine not lose which is the first submarine to go from the pacific to the atlantic underneath the north pole, the arctic ice pack. it's written by the commander of the submarine. this is a book that contains photographs of german u-boats from world war i. the enclosed photographs have a special historical interest. they illustrate the shameful campaign of the submarine war during which so many crimes are committed by the germans. and often sink without notice merchant vessels, allied and neuter, ma passenger boats and even hospital ships leaving their victims to perish under their eyes without even lifting a finger to help them. there is a book i think from around 1920 that is the history

of submarines. would also have some earlier books which, of course, very interesting to history summaries that are published in about 906 or 1907 went of course the submarine really hadn't come was just sort of taking off. it was still very experimental. simon lake was one of the inventors that work on submarines. we have some pictures in architecture at the academy, midshipmen getting into one of the submarines. so i would say that those -- we have an italian work on submarines from before world war ii. has an interesting cut away any of the interior of a submarine. so those are some of the books in the collection. also, we have works from a graduate of the academy who worked with salvage work, and he was cut by believe it was the as 24, the suddenly he worked on on salvaging. so a lot of very interesting works in the collection.

the collection also includes periodicals. there's a certain number of proceedings in the collection as well as individual magazines that would have been articles about submarines in them. there's a "life" magazine about the novelist going under the pole. a "fortune" magazine which is about the navy prior to world war ii. you have scientific american issues talking about the development of submarines. this is a fictional account of hunting the u-boat in world war i. is published in 1919 but included in the illustrations photographs of actual aircraft, antiaircraft guns and so forth. it makes it interesting since it combines illustrations like you see on the cover with photographs and illustrations of actual people and events. this is surface at the pole which is about the first -- the

author who was the commander of the submarine became superintendent of the naval academy, james calvert. this volume written by japanese navy intelligence officer comes the details plans that the japanese had to invade singapore and basically east asia. and so sort of lays out the whole war plan. it was apparently taken from two japanese officers without their knowledge from which is how it was published in the united states. dr. paine didn't collect the works in english. he collected again as this is, work in italian, russian, spanish, french, japanese. so it's just a really interesting collection. >> visit to annapolis and with the help of our cable partner,

comcast. >> anything about the date is its size, for example, it's 200 miles long. it's 40 miles wide at its widest point. mostly it's a shallow bay between 20 and 30 feet. overall, it has a tremendous number of creeks and streams that feed into it. affording all sorts of wonderful fishing venues, it also kayaking or canoeing. but we enjoyed about the day was it sees life, the fishing experience that you can have your. the seabirds which are everywhere and buried. at one point we saw dolphins in the west river which is just south of you. over the years as i witnessed

the incredible wild liveliness of this debate and the people who work on and play on it, i decided i ought to write something about it. but what to write? whited discovered as i did more research was that even though there are several, i would say many short studies of the. >> host: increased topics, i thought no one had really brought them together in one book. so basically my book is a synthesis of all the stories that people told about the bay and some of the in depth research is there. i've also done original research and the records of the maryland department of natural resources, especially in the fisheries area, to get an idea of the catch in various years and now the life of the sea creatures, that is, the crabs, the fisheries, how they have been doing over the years.

the conclusions are really kind of dismal because despite the fact you can go out there and catch fish today and you can buy crabs and oysters, over time, that catches have diminished. so you kind of wonder when we're going in terms of the cleanup of the bay which is a perpetual topic. it comes up every year in the local papers and studies that come out. the chesapeake bay foundation, university of maryland serves biological laboratory. everybody is working toward a better bay, but it just seems to take awful long time to get there. over time, and i think since the 1980s, new laws have been put into effect to inhibit development of short areas that is right near the bay and right near the creek. it's a setback which prevents people from building or real

close to the bay and also prevents them from taking down the shrubbery and the trees that are right to bordering on the water and even though it happens, we now have water keepers, river keepers here in effect paid to patrol the creeks and rivers and keep track of what might be illegal encroachment on the protective bay property. so that's what is happening now. the fishing industry is a part i think what draws people to maryland, as people come to the bay, the fish. they come to the bay to enjoy the seafood. they come and they find places on head boats they call them where you can go out and fish for a day and maybe you will strike it lucky and get lots of

fish. recreational boating is another, with powerboats, there's over 150,000 powerboats on the bay today. only about 10% of the entire boat population though its sailboat. i don't consider this book to be a complete story. there's plenty of room for further work, but it does give an image of the bay at a particular time. in all aspects, whether it's the fisheries, whether it's trade or the client of working sales. at one time most of the produce coming from the farms went to baltimore and other cities by sailboat, by skip jacks. all the types of craft that once hosted a. these went away in the early '20s century, replaced by the gasoline engine and ultimately the diesel engine. what men did with their hands

was replaced by machines. the industrial revolution went to see is what i like to see. the industrial revolution went to see. and it made the bay more productive a but at the same tie it began to diminish the resource. i would like people to come away with a new appreciation for the depth and beauty o of the chesapeake, its heritage, its traditions. and get a good taste of what it's like to live with chesapeake, conceal other people work and live and enjoy the place called chesapeake bay. >> annapolis i has the largest selection of 18th century architecture in the united states. its historic downtown area became the country's first national historic landmark district. booktv visited the zoo with help of our local cable partner, comcast. >> the name of my store is back creek books.

i so used and rare and out of print books. hopefully both with lasting interest in all fields. my decision to open the store was driven by the economics of selling books online has become such that it is very, very hard to sell a book online. we have a store like this, only your inventory is on display at its their. so it's just much more visible. all used bookstores are unique, unlike a new bookstore. the inventory is hand selected by somebody, the owner usually. so it reflects that individuals personalities, their interests to a large degree. one of my favorite books that i have here is an 1869 copy of the play that lincoln was watching when he was a fascinated. -- was assassinated. as most who are interested in history now, lincoln was shot in

1865. this play was printed in 1869 and that was the first time that it was printed. the way copy law worked back then, essentially if you performed a work before hundreds of people and then printed it, you are putting it into public domain. .. >> had sent people to performances of our american cousin teeter in new york --

theater in new york, and they transcribed the play, went to their own theater and were putting on the performances of the play there. so she sued john sleeper clark, and i believe she won the case. but that's an interesting connection to later when john wilkes booth was the person that shot lincoln at a performance of the same play. another interesting volume or set of books that i have here is the biography of washington by john marshall, and i'm just going to show you this is one of the five regular text volumes. this is still probably the best biography of washington x so you can see the title page there. the previous owner, the original owner has written his name at the top of each volume, and the atlas volume has a list of

subscribers, the people that would have put up the money to have the book published. but it has also these very nice maps of washington's campaigns. and the atlas volume is quite uncommon. another one that is interesting is edward pollard's observations in the north: eight months in prison and on parole. and this book was published in late march of 1865 in richmond and is apparently the last book published in the confederacy. and i just had this one restored a little bit by a binder that i use. one of the most unusual books that i have or i should say one of the oldest books that i have is aristotle's treatise on

politics, and it was published in venice in 1551. so it's got this lovely title page that's a wood cut, the whole page, and it is in latin. it's about 500 years old. what i hope people take away when they leave my store, an impression that this is kind of a place where knowledge is collected, where almost fig that you see on the shelf -- anything that you see on the shelf is interesting in some way and interesting for a long time. >> annapolis' st. john's college is thought to be the first in maryland that was racially integrated, and francis scott key, the there author of the star-spangled banner, was a student. booktv recently visited with the help of our partners,

comcast. >> in the william e. brock rare book room of the greenfield library, the rare book room contains about 2800 volumes. the room is named after one of the donors who helped us renovate this building. the greenfield library itself is a former hall of records building for the state of maryland. all of the books in this room were donated to the college. many of the early books in the first collection from reverend thomas beret were given because he himself wanted the college to be a resource for young people who were interested in the ministry. so this was a collection for pastors as well as for the general public. thomas bray was the bishop's commissary of maryland and brought to this country collections, largely collections for various parishes, library collections. but what we have here is the first collection that were given to a public library for the

purpose both of parish use and for the reading public. i think because he really wanted the public to become interested in and to study works that might lead to the ministry. this book here i'll take out and show you, it says -- [speaking spanish] on the cover. all of the bray books had this on it or another indescription that identified them as volumes that were in the library of annapolis. this was given to the city of annapolis in 1695, this collection. it then constituted about 1100 books. and here we have the second kind of inscription. this one is -- [speaking in native tongue] that is the second indication

that this is from the bray collection. what i love about these old books, of course, is what you see in the quality of the type face and color. next we turn to the collection of francis scott key. francis scott key, the author of the national anthem s a graduate from the college in 1796. in those days the college had a secondary school and went through college if you chose to do it, and he was at the school for ten years. took a long time to graduate in those days, but he did so long before he was 20 years old. and one of the pieces that he wrote that has had some influence at the college was a discourse on education. it was delivered at at that time st. anne's church after the commencement of of john's college. i thought maybe i would just read a paragraph or two from it. this is fun. he's talking about the importance of a liberal education for all. not just for the wealthy.

and he says: there are and ever will be the poor and the rich, the men of labor and the men of leisure, and the state which neglects either neglects a duty and neglects it at its peril. for whichever it neglects will be not only useless, mischievous. francis scott key was a big speaker, and this particular discourse goes on for a few hours. sometime shortly after my presidency, i received in the mail unbidden the will of francis scott key from one of the descendants. this has been carefully preserved, and you'll see very fine handwriting of francis scott key. it's a beautiful document and, of course, it's rare. 1837 is the date of the will. here is a book that has some importance to the college. this is a book by, given to the college as one of many by

alexander vladimir. he was the founder of the boston library and also the international book exchange. well, that took some imagination, and it's kind of exciting to have a collection of books donated to the college around 1850. again, all sacred texts, religious books by the pan who was the founder of -- by the man who was the founder of the international book exchange. and this is a book of sacred hymns published in paris. once again, so many of these early books are written and published in latin. so it would be hard to say that there's any one thing that one would want to focus on because there are early translations of some of these works that we have read at the college for a long, long time. >> next, jane wilson mcwilliams takes us through the history of annapolis and the united states naval academy. her book is "annapolis: a

history." you can watch it now here on booktv. >> early settlers on 300 and x number of years ago would have landed right here. and we are on a cove called acten cove. and it is, in fact, the very beginning of annapolis. the land fist settled in 1561, and then in the 1660s and '80s original 19 acres of what became annapolis was here. and boats would have come in, good-sized vessels would have come up spa creek which is deep, remarkably deep for its size -- it's not real wide, but it's deep -- and boats would come up, and they could unload supplies, people, whatever. so the early houses tended to be along the ridge that runs down

the middle of the peninsula. the name of the book is "annapolis, city on receive remember, a history." annapolis was just desperate. they needed economic security, and they didn't have it. the severn river is a nice liver liver -- river, but it doesn't reach back into the interior. it's pretty shallow, especially at the entrance. there are some points that really restrict boat travel, and they're constantly trying to get somebody to pay to have the channel made deeper, get big ships in. and, of course, it never happened. so they watched baltimore becoming a major seaport, taking the commerce which had in the 18th century been coming to annapolis. and they were upset about that. so what was fun for me was to see the kinds of things they tried. i mean, they begged the federal

government for anything navy. you know, couldn't we be a naval depot, an arsenal, anything? how about a canal? you know, canals are really big. they didn't, you know, you had the railroad and the canal going on at the same time. they are begun officially on the same day, and thety kind of allied itself -- the city kind of allied itself with the canal. they thought part of the c and o canal would come here to the severn, and it would be faster than boats going up the potomac to pick up the coal or whatever that was coming out of western maryland. well this is, you know, again, this isn't going to work. it was a great idea. what the city got was one small one-track railroad from the b and o from annapolis junction on the b and o, the the line that went from baltimore to washington. and in 1840 annapolis got a

train, one train, one track. and then in 1845 what they got was the united states naval school. which was absolutely the best thing they could have gotten. and truly just, it was wonderful. in the beginning it was small. it was a naval school, it later became known as the united states naval academy. but it brought to town people, midshipmen, professors, officers, and they have been coming ever since. so it's been an incredibly important part of the city's economy. be -- so i knew we had slavery, but i didn't want realize how bad -- i didn't realize how bad the jim crow movement had been after the war, and that i found a real shock. annapolis was one of the two cases decided by the supreme court of the united states for the grandfather clause. you couldn't vote in annapolis unless you had $500 worth of

assessed property in the city, unless you were naturalized or you were the son of a natural. of course, there were no women voting at all in 908, so it doesn't matter unless you're the son or descendant of a naturalized citizen or unless your grandfather could have voted in january 1, 1868. well, in 1868 voting in annapolis is tied to the 1867 constitution of maryland which allowed voting only to males, white males. if your grandfather wasn't a white male and couldn't vote, you couldn't vote. no matter the 15th amendment in 1870. in annapolis if you couldn't vote in 1868, you couldn't vote in 1908 which knocked out probably 700 out of 800 possible voters: there were definitely black businessmen in town with more than $500 worth of

property. there were annapolis businessmen with 14,000, 8,000, $9,000 worth of assessed property on the tax rolls. that's fine. but they can't get into office if they don't have a group of supporters. and so although there had been aldermen in the city of annapolis government, wail the first black -- actually, the first black alderman was elected in 873. three years after the 15th amendment he was the first man, first black man elected to office in maryland, butler. very stamm man with a substantial income and resources. and he was dead by 1908. but the alder han in 1908 was a man named jay albert with adams who was well over the required minimum. his supporters generally weren't, so he was knocked out of office in 1909. three men who tried to register to vote in the first election after the 908 law which was

the -- 1908 law, three men were denied. they took the case to court, to the u.s. circuit court of maryland, and from there it went to the supreme court. the case was heard in 1913 along with the oklahoma case, and they were both decided at the same time in the same decision. it came down in 1915 which, of course, you can't do this. things had been going fairly well. there had been a good bit of black prosperity in town. in the 1870s, '80s and '90s, they had done very well. this was a good thing and then bingo, 1908 they're definitely wiped out. and this was not the only law, because there were other jim crow laws that took effect about the same time. it was ugly. and i think people remember that today. and then after the second world war the population went way up. the city, however, was still searching for economic security. it's kind of been what they've done throughout. but you have a huge population, and a lot of them were young

families, post-war, young families with children. they wanted recreation, they wanted parks, they wanted services. and so with the annexed city, the city was bigger, and it began to look for a way to have the kind of economic stability that it needed in order to provide these things. and so annapolis had a waterfront that was pretty much what it had always had. it had some wonderful 18th century houses, buildings, it had a marvelous statehouse, it had all of the equipment for a historic renaissance. but it wasn't until the 1950s that historic annapolis inc., now just historic annapolis, was formed. and they were serious about it. and so the town turned itself to preservation, to history as a way of making money and realized that a lot of these places were threatened. the idea would be then to perhaps have a historic district

ordnance that would restrict development that was not appropriate. that would make the town keep its kind of charm. i'd like people to come away from this book with a sense that this is a living town. it's been here a long time. there are a lot of interesting things that have happened here. we were at one time actually the capital of the country. and so it's a city with a, on a human scale. not that it doesn't have problems, it certainly does. but it is a city with real possibilities for the future. and i'd like people to come away with an appreciation of that. >> for more information on this and other cities visited by c-span's local content vehicles, visit c-span.org/localcontent. >> well, "the new york times" book review is getting a redesign, and it is debuting this weekend. pamela paul is the editor of "the new york times" book review. ms. paul, what are some of the

redesigns? >> guest: well, we really gave the whole issue a new look. the goal was to maintain what we fundamentally are, which is a book review. so to keep the number of book reviews in there, the length of book reviews. this is a section for readers. so while i think the design looks more open and a bit more accessible, they aren't shorter. it is a section for reading. but there are some new features which i think will make the issue overall more accessible, a little bit more relevant and hopefully unpredictable and exciting. >> host: what are those new features? >> guest: so there are two major new features launching in this issue. one is called the short list, and these are brief reviews which "the new york times" book review has always run, but the change here is that they are grouped according to genre, to subject, to theme so that it kind of takes the short review from something that feels like a

bit of a is second thought the something that if you're interested in horror or science fiction or essay anthologies, these are the books of interest. and it really enables us to find a reviewer who has the experience, the expertise, the interest in that area and can really give those books a strong, coherent review. so that's one feature. the other major new thing we're launching this week is on the back page, and we have tradition aal hi had an essay -- traditionally had an essay there for a long time. the new feature is called bookends, and we have ten regular columnists who are going to rotate, matched up in different pairs. and they are going to take on a question that's out there in the literary world for the first issue the question is are novelists too wary of criticizing other novelists? there's a lot of debate about whether twitter has made writers too nice and too fearful of fending and -- of offending and

whether the book world so small and in such desperate need of sustenance that it's not right to criticize or to take another author's book down? so that's the question they're taking on this week. and each week it'll be a new topic whether it's related to nonfiction or fiction or the way we read poetry, translation or pop culture, and these ten writers will always be paired up again in different combinations looking in that issue and trying to address it. now, what it's not, it's not a he said/she said, it's not a thumbs up or thumbs down. sometimes the writers might agree on a particular answer, but because these are very strong writers with very different backgrounds and approaches, they'll look at it and write about it in such different ways that we think it'll make a nice sort of companion to each other. and the idea, again, is that to really promote conversation and to not only respond to the issues that are out there, but

to generate discussion because so much of reading is about recommendations, about conversation, about debate and opinion. >> host: ms. paul, who are some of the regular columnists going to be for bookends? >> guest: so we have ten columnists, and they come from really all around the world, both from fiction and nonfiction and also criticism. zoe heller is in the first issue, and she's paired with adam kirsch. zoe heller is, of course, a novelist perhaps best known by her recent novels, "the believers." adam kirsch is a columnist for tablet magazine, an online publication, and a senior editor at the new republic as well as a published poet. we also have in coming weeks dana stevens who's a film clinic from slate, ann a holmes, the founding editor of jezebel, part

of the gawker media group. let's see, jennifer sly is another columnist and francine prose who has written more than 20 books, fiction and nonfiction. >> host: that's a nice selection. we appreciate your naming some of those. pamela paul, one of the things you mentioned is that the book world is or may be small. is the book world small and insular? >> guest: well, you know, i think it can feel that way, especially be you're in it -- if you're in it. from the outside it might seem like it's this huge, inpenetrable force that doesn't let outsiders in, but what i really want to do is open that up. i think that people continue to read in the same numbers that they always did. that while the number of book reviews in newspapers in general has gone down, i think people crave stories, and it doesn't matter whether they're reading it on their phone or whether

they're taking a book out from the library. i think this is a conversation that people still want to have, and they still want to know what they should be with reading, what's good and what's worth their time. >> host: what about nonfiction books? how does "the new york times" book review treat nonfiction? >> guest: well, it's hugely important. i mean, in our first issue we have some new nonfiction, we have reviews by, of books by kenneth poll of course of his new book, "unsinkable." i think, you know, our readers look at nonfiction as much as they do fiction. personally, i read probably more non2006 than fiction -- nonfiction than fiction, so i, you know, i think that we are trying to devote as much space to both. again, given the limited number of reviews we can writing, we can include in "the new york times" book review traditionally has only reviewed about 1% of the number of books coming out in a given year. so it's really about finding the

best from all genres. >> host: and pamela paul is an author as well as the editor of the new york times review. she's written books, "the starter marriage," parenting inc.." pamela paul, what does the new york times book review mean to an author? >> guest: oh, it's huge. [laughter] and i think, you know, it's for better or for worse it's become more important because we are last freestanding newspaper/book review out there. so it's, i think, it's different from the daily review in the times where we have three established critics. book review is a place where sometimes reviewers will take a step back, look at context, look at especially with nonfiction the area that the author is writing about, and it's a hugely important review for authors.

i know both the joy of getting a positive review in the times and of getting a very negative review. so i take it really seriously. i know what it's like on the other end. >> host: and does it affect book sales? >> guest: you know, i think that if everyone -- if people out there knew what really affected book sales, there would be -- [laughter] i don't know, everyone would be a best selling author. it's hard to know what exactly it is that makes the book jump off the shelves, but i think that a very strong review from the times certainly helps and can often make a book. >> host: well, a marketing tool that a lot of books use either on their cover or in their marketing materials is a new york times bestseller splashed right across the front. how are your bestseller lists formulated? >> guest: ooh, that's a highly secret finish that's like the coca-cola recipe. [laughter] that's actually done by the news and surveys group at "the new

york times," so we don't have a direct involvement with gathering that information. what we do at the book review is really present it, and we have columnists, we have a bookseller, a bestseller columnist who kind of looks at the list in a broad sort of cultural perspective way. but we don't actually tally those lists. >> host: and why is it such a secret, do you know? >> guest: you know, i mean, i think that that what is selling and not selling has become a lot more transparent in recent years. you obviously can look at something's amazon ranking which, of course, 15 years ago you couldn't do or maybe a little bit longer than 15 years now. and you can, there are, there's nielsen book scan which supposedly captures about 85% of the market. so people who pay for that service can have access to those numbers.

but, you know, it's still one of those areas where it's difficult to figuring out exactly what's selling because books are sold in so many different ways not only online, but at conferences and in bulk sales as well as in bookstores and places like costco. >> host: booktv is celebrating its 15th year this fall. how has the literary publishing world changed in the last 15 years? >> guest: oh, it's been completely transformed. i mean, when i finish the last 15 years it's like ancient history. i mean, everything has changed from the number of publishing houses. it was the big six, it's just now become the big five. the launch, obviously, of e-readers, of tablets of all kinds, of internet has totally transformed not only where people are buying their books, but how they're reading them.

the coverage, obviously, in the media and print media has gone dramatically down. at the same time, we've seen the rides of, i think, a really vibrant and exciting online community of readers whether it's on sites like good reads or book blogs or any of those online magazines that regularly run reviews or the online extension of magazines that have traditionally covered the literary world. so that has always basically changed. i think, the only thing i think that hasn't changed is readers' fundamental interest in a good story or finding out information from a great nonfiction book and being moved and being transported by literature. >> host: and -- >> guest: that's the only thing that's remained the same. >> host: and, pamela paul, what is available online in the new york times from the book review sectionsome. >> guest: everything is online. and increasingly there's more content online than is in the

print edition. i personally am a huge print reader, and i love to see it in that format. but we offer additional content online, our buy the book interview, for example, runs in an edited version online -- in print and then online runs in full. this is a q&a with an author or artist or public figure of some kind about their life through reading. >> host: and pamela paul is the new editor of the new york times book review. it has been redesigned, and it is debuting september 8th. thank you for your time. >> guest: thanks so much. >> fifteen years ago booktv made its debut on c-span2. >> love, death and money. these are the three main human concerns. we're all keen students of love. we are fascinated by every aspect of the matter in theory and in practice. maybe not quite as much as ken starr is, but fascinated --

[laughter] >> and since then we've brought you the top nonfiction books and authors every weekend, more than 9,000 authors have appeared on booktv including presidents -- >> i wanted to give the reader a chance to understand the process by can which i made decisions -- by which i made decisions, the environment in which i made decisions, the people i listened to as i made decisions. and this is not an attempt to rewrite history, it's not an attempt to fashion a legacy. it is an attempt to be a part of historical narrative. >> also supreme court justices. >> every single justice on the court has a passion and a love for the constitution and our country that's equal to mine. then you know that if you accept that as an operating