i said to my publisher, well, i am afraid you won't sell very well in america. i have huge american leadership. so that was another important consideration. but i was quite wrong. is so tremendously well in the united states. it sold nearly 200,000 in the united states. i think there has developed -- i don't think he was there 20 years ago, 30 years ago, but there has developed and extort a chance in the first world war, in the united states. >> and now, jesse walker talks

about his new book, "the united states of paranoia" in which he discusses popularity of conspiracy theories in aeronautical and back to the founding of the country. this is about 45 minutes. >> politics & prose action, our author events are timeless. while today we present a book dealing with in american history of conspiracies, just three days ago the cia admitted that such a place known as area 51 does actually is. even though they disembowel all knowledge of any alien, so-called conspiracy theorists rejoice. [laughter] now, the best way to some of mr. walker's book is from page eight camorra he says diamonds tend to write of political paranoia as a feature of the

french. they are brown. the fear of conspiracy to any potent force across the political spectrum from the colonial era to the present, and the establishment as well as at the extremes. so while 338 of jesse's readable pages lays out in clear, often funny and is often the pricing details how that is still the case. now one present day, but now won't conspiracy that i will talk with mr. walker about while i was waiting that i remembered made it runs everywhere was a folded $20 bill trick right after 9/11. anyone familiar with? a few folks. jesse lays it out in page 302. the $20 straight. if you fold -- for folks who don't know, if you folded $20 bill at just the right way it

alleges to show that the world trade towers are up a place it right, it supposedly has been on there. allegedly foreshadow a 9/11 attacks. for me, items like that can easily be dispelled as quackery. but some other examples, so-called conspiracies might think about it years before the real information to come out and the truth be exposed. speaking of truth being exposed, they are coming for me right now. jesse walker is the senior book editor at reason magazine coming university of michigan of mom who's also written revels in the air -- rebels on the air, an alternative history of radio in america back in 2001. you can follow him on twitter on his blog page. see, they're coming for me, so they got me flustered.

jesse walker.locks buy.com. he recites the way of baltimore with his wife and two batters. i now present you, jesse walker and a second look, "the united states of paranoia: a conspiracy theory." [applause] >> k. so i'm going to do is read a bit from the boat and then i will talk about the book and then there would be a shooting. and then i'm going to read more from the book and then we'll take your questions. as with the police. on january 30th -- can everyone hear me in the back? at january 30th, 1835, andrew jackson exited the congressman's funeral. an assassin drew up in point is that the president. the gunman pulled a second

weapon, or what to to fire. the cane wielding jackson several bystanders to the would-be killer, inadequate housekeeping and richard lawrence. lawrence thayer informed irrigators he was king richard the third, the jackson killed his father in the jackson dead, many people are plenty. he was just insane and commit to an asylum where he died three decades later. lawrence was a loud or at least that was the official story. it was sometime before two witnesses filed claiming to have seen lawrence at the home of the mississippi senator, george poindexter before the attack. poindexter was a nicely appointed at the jackson in the station and projects in newspapers accuse the senator plotting the president's murder. so to jackson's allies in congress to put reconvened an investigation. jackson himself told bystanders after the assault that the shooter had been hired by the rascal poindexter to assassinate

me. some of jackson's said they had staged the assault to stage public support in this explain why both weapons failed. many jacksonians pointed their finger at john calhoun, south carolina senator former vice president, arguing if he had not been directly involved in the assassination attempt, yet at the very least incentive at the speech denouncing jackson is an american caesar, what they did before they can. to help the right thing. some of the republican writer john smith describes the current 29 years later come he saw an even more devilish plot over. calhoun may not have been direct involved in the assault, whether this man was induced to attend -- and is to attempt to murder the president by listening to his speeches in the senate on whether he was secretly hired to assassinate him, god alone can determine. i believe calhoun had been part

of a larger force them to save power that would've benefited if jackson had been put in the ground and the slave power was more than going to kill lenticular powerful man to get its way. in 1841, for example, present liam henry harrison told calhoun he wasn't sure he was ready to annex texas was southerners wanted to add to the union as a slave state. harrison probably die. officially the cause of death was ammonia. nine years later, president jack retailer oppose the slave power agenda in cuba in the southwest and so he was killed by the same poison. when president-elect james buchanan prepared to make some appointments of which the sake of christ is true, he narrowly survived one of the most elaborate assassination plot ever conceived. on february 23rd of 1857, they poisoned all the bowls containing lump sugar at the national hotel in washington d.c. southerners explain trade

coffee. coffee drinkers eat sugar for the southern diners to be spared in the teacher could northern diners would be wiped out. the future president barely survived the elements that followed. intimidated by the attempted assassination, buchanan became more than ever that two of the slave power. there is little evidence for explosive charges. he could make a case that harrison doctors didn't help the ailing president but nomar can conjecture support the idea anyone deliberately killed them. corners debunk the belief that he'd been poisoned in his body was exhumed in 1991 and buchanan was not even present in washington on february 23rd 1857 dysentery did break out when he came. not earlier and again when he returned for his inauguration. today outbreaks are attributed to a sewage backup that contaminated the food and water, but at the time several stories circulated claiming poisoners with the suspects ranging from

attorneys for bob to at the end of homicidal abolitionists. conveniently for chien toffee theseus, the dead included a southern congressmen of mississippi. the country was at war with the south and when a new addition. two years later enter the title, history of the plot and crimes of the greek beers seek to overthrow liberty in america, the nation is still reeling from the assassination of abraham and can. in that atmosphere coming but that the second 1970s conspiracy movies than in the antebellum area and trade era was excerpted in the "chicago tribune", republican papers praised in philadelphia, harrisburg, trent to new york city and pennsylvania even the democratic express proclaimed it the most powerful bulk of the century. narrated by inventive theories

to nothing. he chew on rumors floating through week in republican circles for years. after lincoln was the lack did, several supporters of the incoming president underscored in him to watch out for plotters who would kill two predecessors. john o'hare submit a short time after he was installed in office but good citizen pointed out in general to lift but a short time after he took his seat. uconn was there be careful at the king's table would eat and drink you take. another important link and i'd often heard it stated by physicians who is an undoubted fact that her last two week president, general's harrison and taylor came to their sudden lamentable and by subtle poisons administered in their food at the white house. after lincoln died, at least two prominent ministers on church steps out of detroit and william cochran of connecticut to suppose that members of harrison and tailored to their sermons. reverend teacher not only about their alleged assassination in an article for the new look

roger kalitta at the anti-secession democrat, writing he had been killed because of the position of the party made him one of the most efficient champions because the rebellions. during the effort to impede the southern successor, president andrew johnson, represented james mitchell ashley of ohio practicing law accusation, declaring harrison, taylor and buchanan have been posing for the express purpose of putting the vice president and the presidential office. in may 1868, an extraordinary article in the new york tribune managed to out die die including engineering the city's malaria out rate. after commenting zachary taylor fell under the miller as speakers of washington and died because he was prone to acting honestly and straightforward, they're tribune writers claimed that washington in subsequent years was free of malaria, that

is for democrats. within the republican party party began to gain strength and its possible they might become the ruling power in congress, the water flushing 10 suddenly was dangerous. the hotel, particularly the national and dozens of heretics in the democratic faith grew sick almost into debt. the contagions continued until they can put the loss in spring for the capital under the care of soldiers. after lincoln was supposed, the pattern returned to impeach johnson, we had a return of that bathwater in two or three senators, republicans mind you are frustrated with southern elements. fighters that have been that whenever the current master daemon of slavery and never it any other time we find the air and the water in the whiskey of washington full text we sin. that would be a great name for a bar, by the way. the assassination theorists

might only americans worried about conspiracies of slaveholders. the term is common currency in the north where it is used to describe the political influence of the planter elite. this is not in itself a conspiracy theory, but often a color in the words of historian russell bean i come the slave power had an alleged agenda to extend slavery to the territories and free state possibly to destroy civil liberties control policies of the federal government can complete the formation of a nationwide aristocracy based on a slave economy. think of himself believed he could clearly see a powerful plot to make slavery universe on perpetual and in this famous house divided speech engage freely in speculation. senator henry wilson later to serve as ulysses s. grant vice president put the idea probably. slavery organized conspiracy of the cabinet, can be received in

congress, conspiracies and the state, conspiracies and in the army and the navy, conspiracies everywhere for the overthrow of the government and the disruption of the president. southerners had there is apparently as flavorful as can a imagined avra valley and stoking abolitionists, treacherous plan iran's and other outside agitators. it was a paranoid time in america is always a paranoid time. so that is how the book began. i will tell you a bit about what houses and it and then i don't go too long and reach a little bit more. basically, this is a history of political paranoia and america appeared when i say paranoia i use that colloquially, not clinically. i think virtually everyone is capable of being a conspiracy theories as political paranoia. i say everyone i include you, me

and the founding fathers. the first half of the book said of fiber curry -- i should not also the two assumptions people made when they hear about this either as an attack on conspiracy theories for espousing all my favorite piercy theories. neither is true. i am frank about it if it ain't conspiracy theories not things. i also discuss some conspiracy theories that generally did happen. at the chapter in the 1970s investigations of the church committee and so on after watergate exposed various awful deeds of the cia and fbi and the one. what i'm really interested in is the story. the stories that keep getting told again and again. sometimes they sound familiar from different names. but those stories say because even when a conspiracy theory says absolutely nothing true about the objects of the theory, says the team but the experiences of people who

believe it. a form of folklore and it's worth paying attention to. the first half of the book lays out five prima archetypal conspiracy theories that are told over and over. you can acquire more in the question-and-answer if you like. the enemy outside canada enemy within, below and above and the public seriously because some times conspiracies are supposed to be good guys. the second half looks at the last half-century of american history through the lens with the toolkit that i set out in the first half of the book from watergate to a coach of the war on terror. i look along the ways that sort of the rise of a sort of self-conscious conspiracy set culture. also the ironic style is conspiracy theorizing, people

who aren't so much interested in debunking, maybe building one of their own, they be looking at other people and what sort of lots of metaphors they can find there. i also make sure to look at piercy theories that the establishment, which are also conspiracy theories, often a moral panic a foot, all sorts of conspiratorial notions are taken serious in government in the mass media in the most extreme recent example would be satanic ritual of the 1980s and 90s. but there are others as well and often tends to did that sound like and is a fringe theory and one decade can suddenly have the verge for the american institutions. so, i mentioned the ironic

style. at the end of the chapter, i talk about a couple of writers who created such vivid spirit sees for five but they wound up going down a rabbit hole and believing that themselves. one of them came back and edited the rio writer worth reading who never came back from around the douglas kerry foreign money, cofounder of sort of a mock religion called to escort units to that is supposed to worship the greek goddess of chaos, was a big influence of the woman not his by robert shea and wilson, which is a classic novel of a parotid treatment of conspiracy theories. and who also has the distinction of serving in the marines to flee harvey oswald.

oswald defected to the soviet union that this is interesting and decided to write a novel. didn't get published until many decades later, but probably the only book with about oswald before the kennedy assassination. so jumping into the other section i'm going to read. he managed to get john to the jfk assassination. jim garrison, the better known as kevin costner these days, the new orleans da who is investigating the kennedy assassination in the six ease. jim garrison tried to get involved in this investigation and after we busted, garrison started discussing out and suggesting he had been part of in a press release claiming that the scorpion had close he associated with lee oswald. not just in the marines, but a number of locations in new orleans in september, 1963. he gave a deposition before new orleans grand jury at the

beginning 1968 and experience convinced garrison's team wasn't interested in justice. among other things, team members are pigeonholing him as a conservative. i explained several times than i am neither a traditionalist diuresis, but i oppose the john birch society bypasses today's political can to reduce them he wrote shortly afterwards. when i just am a right-winger so far as individualism that by rightists and is more anarchistic than authoritarian. they spread through the underground press. certainly put out his side of the story in every venue available. the subscribers to ocean landing, low circulation that helps add or surely surprise them until they were used to, the typical writer informed plankton could be gathered and used as a nourishing foodstuff is now mixed with statements by assassination or is criticizing garrison for his pursuit

embassies in spreading the story of the physical resemblance to his marine friend has served as a double for the accused assassin, posing so as to create a false trail of all small effectivity. as he fended us care attack, he reconsidered his assumption oswald acted alone in dallas. in 1973 red is feature untrue feature that would later be expanded into a coup d'état in america appeared to them it wasn't just convinced. he began to suspect an involved in the assassination without his knowledge. the hypnotized zombie held in reserve in case some good went wrong with the oswald plan started typing up a speculation boosted by new memories of things that he believed happened and circulated manuscripts among his contracts. after that he perceived various event is the secret government reaction to this memorandum.

some of the incidents would scare anyone. i want point schema have raided a party he was attending, feeling identification with everyone else's money. he was also capable of accusing escrow for networking for the conspiracy. he wrote to greg hill, the other founder, i am literally surrounded by the intelligence community. i am literally surrounded any intelligent community. after the first three times to murder me, seeing seemed to cool down and now appear on my site. one point he became convinced a coworker at the sunshine floral come to me with robert anton wilson could've been incognito with timothy leary and atlanta for reasons i obviously could not fathom. he wondered whether the collapse was caused by foreign intelligence agencies dosing organizers with a substance causing heart disease thereafter maintaining control by means of

a micro device capable of instantly halting a peacemaker. by the 1990s he believed he was the product of a virgo society reasoning environmental manipulation experiment. in the midst of this to the real wilson cut of correspondence with horribly. it was hard to communicate with somebody when he thinks you're a diabolical mind control agent and you're convinced he's paranoid. then they continue to write, sometimes with wit and self-awareness, sometimes not. he spent the last two years of his life working menial jobs and atlanta and selling trinkets on the street. it was a chaotic conclusion to a chaotic life of a darkly poetic state for a man who worshiped. you know, i'm one of his more lucid moments as they release all of this is going to come true i would have chosen. almost 7:30. should we have questions now? questions, accusations.

[applause] >> could you tell us what motivated you to write on this topic? >> it was a payoff. you know, i started reading through conspiracy theories in my teens, started reading exposés at the cia, fbi go on they came out following the church committee report and so on and often they run the same shelves i found books not quite as reliable, but often fun to read. around the same time also, i discover things like the illuminati's trilogy, the whole ironic style of this whole subculture of people who appreciate conspiracy theories without necessarily believing all of them are going all the way constantly into the freak out that someone believes something that isn't true.

so that was the origins of the interest. this book -- a record in the last two years, but i draw in interviews as a journalist in the middle of the 90s covering stuff about the militia movement and their unexpected intersection of black nationalists and so on often around conspiracy theories. so i got a long time of writing about this to build on. >> if i reach her mind correctly, you see the impression that all of the american public is subject to a degree of paranoia and can be unconsciously developing conspiracy theories. this is partially what you're saying? >> yeah. i try not to use words like all. there's always someone who could stand up or bmi, or some thing and therefore not be having a conspiracy theory.

but there's three things that kind of go into. i hate it because they were to his explanation of where conspiracy theories come from because they come from all kinds of places. there's not a type of person who is susceptible or another. but there's three things that are sort of thought going on. one is we naturally seek patterns. we naturally create there is, tell stories. we organize things. number two, we constantly have things to be afraid of and gaps in our knowledge. they are then creating stories to explain the world. that makes you prone to conspiracy theories when he drawn the fact sometimes people really to conspire. it's not like being afraid of werewolves or sea monsters that you can actually point to and say that what happened. i mean, the chapter about the

1970s investigation parties going on about what actually happened. i mean, the actual bona fide conspiratorial behavior, but also how that's over the bar for what people were willing to believe. i mean, once you have heard that the cia did this come you start to imagine maybe the cia did that. and when it starts going into pop culture and make it all those great movies that came out around that time, that in turn also influences the way people form their narratives. i hope that answered the question. >> -- of course has to be picked up and down. i'm wondering what your thoughts on the internet. it also could be correct date. as the internet -- do you see the internet having an act now and in the future also? >> not so much on the quantity as the velocity at which they

spread and also the ways they mix. really in the 1990s, this had been noting before the 90s, but in the 90s is the sort of code page of the militia men in the hippies and the black nationalists, all greeted each other stuff. you can have odd combinations emerge. that is only intensified in. >> what is the difference between -- are what makes the difference between just misinformation and a conspiracy theory? >> well, two things. >> they don't all become grown-up thinking about it -- panels with obamacare.

>> yeah, i struggled with whether or not i would rate to describe death penalty is a conspiracy theory. i think i did because they do have the conspiratorial image of people there and condemning people to death. so your question is where do you draw the line between? i guess you draw the line at the point where someone in the oaks a conspiracy. there's two things that bother me about the way the phrase conspiracy theory to the around. one ssa said that if there are embraced a major social institutions are a lot of people, they are not tittered conspiracy theories, or at least not until retrospect usually. the other is anything that challenges the dominant social institution for conventionalism gets called a conspiracy theory, even if there is no conspiracy theory about.

i think is mother jones recently had a top nine conspiracy theory about obamacare and i think maybe two of them involve conspiracies. they were wanting to mock these ideas by calling an conspiracy theories, but most of them weren't. if that sort of answering your question? >> i can agree with you that it seems like american or especially subject to conspiracy. i concede that it's easy to imagine american are especially susceptible to conspiracy theories. but is there any hard evidence that is true in comparison to other countries? any quantitative information? >> i don't claim that it's true. ..

the nest this does, the cia conspiracy behind it. but to me, i was attending a

meeting at the johnson library and ran into -- who was it? it was the secretary of the cabinet for johnson. anyway. he said, you don't realize that castro was getting ready to kill kennedy. as a matter of fact, i had interviewed castro many times. if there was anything he had been looking forward to kennedy coming into the administration. as a matter of generational understanding, he said that it was impossible for eisenhower to understand where he came from because he belongs to another

generation, but kennedy who was coming at that time, already been elected. i'm very hopeful. this is an official in its review. and he said, i'm looking forward to improved relations. and i was leaving. he called me back. [speaking in native tongue] but they were not written. they, of course, is what eisenhower called the military something establishment at the time. [laughter] thank you. >> do you talk anything about, like, economic conspiracies and, you know, people ascribing they

used to forces beyond their control surely there must be a conspiracy. sure. >> obviously. the chapter on the enemy above, part of what i trace and there is, this is not the gnomes of zurich, but the evolution of always seeing the enemy above is in a secret society and expanding to include corporations, first things like the second bank of the united states, which is a creature of the state railroads college are subsidized by the state. so, mean, there are all sorts of economic related conspiracy thinking in year. >> thank you. this is a fascinating topic. but overall -- and i want to stay with you on this higher plane.

what do you do about conspiracy theories that so devise our country when we have no institution with the credibility to address and resolve these competing views of reality. i will just take september september 11th. there is the government case, and then there is the architects and engineers case which says that the government's case is not possible under the laws of physics. so that is pretty compelling. what do we do when faced with conspiracy theories that are incredibly divisive. >> there are few things in their son back. i mean, i don't think -- i mean, conspiracy theories can be divisive, but they're also a product of divisions.

social divisions are kind of inevitable, although sometimes you can have more than others. that is part of what produces conspiracy theories or conspiracies suspicion is wondering what is going on in the other faction. so, of course, they turn around and reinforce it, but i don't think there is some magic bullet that can end social divisiveness and that think that there is always going to be debates over the proper direction for the country. i would not want to eliminate all of it. in need to have some. anyone else to back. >> would you give me an example. >> oh, yes. the enemy inside. it's kinda selfish let's recall that the indian side is --

that's the classic model, the fear of native americans, the native american conspiracies, and the fear of the roman catholic church. and while the indians are sort of seen as is kind of unruly, anarchistic or sort of threat. the church was seen as the aristocratic oil trying to reimpose its cherokee. there were, of course all sorts of imagine is ententes between the catholics and indians. the enemy within -- i will come back sell one. the enemy of love is his peers at the top of the social hierarchy. dna below is a fear people of the bottom of the social hierarchy. people in power have conspiracy theories. i get into a discussion. in particular i talked a lot of fears of slave revolts.

historians often have a hard time looking back in telling which slave revolt actually happened and which were just levellers freaking out because they saw people talking and then brutally cracking them. the enemy within is someone who is not easily identified the way there from other social status or their ethnic or racial background as a possible agent of a conspiracy. the enemy within is a neighbor, a co-worker, even someone in your family. and in the benevolent conspiracy is sort of working behind the scenes to make life better. it would include people who have these great visions of the founding of america in secret and trying to create a higher destiny, the benevolent extraterrestrials, the angels that of the 1990's.

and in a lot of voice ufo people sort of the secularize old ideas about higher powers. the angels reached actualize it put through on that body of storytelling. >> i wonder if you could take a few minutes and walk us through the kennedy assassination, the war, the conspiracy theories that were prevalent then and may be the conspiracy theories that are prevalent now. >> a few minutes, you say? [laughter] the kennedy assassination is one of the things. i mean, you heard that it keeps popping up. i don't have a chapter devoted to it anything like that, but what i will say about it is that -- and setting aside questions. obviously one thing that drives it is people saying there are anomalies. i want to investigate.

at all by what the warren commission says. question is based on their reading of the evidence. but nonetheless, i notice that the conspiracy theories or even this other forms of paranoia that are not a conspiracy that do not involve conspiracy it catch on at different times in reaction to different kennedy assassination parallels other fears going on in society at that time. so in 1963 on the one hand the president is shot in dallas. there is a big fear of the radical right at this time. lots of people worried about the minutemen, the john birch society. an agent of the radical right or a member of it. and then it comes out that he defected to the soviet union.

so the fed and sec cold war fears. the new left. there is the government was in on it. in the 70's with the post watergate investigation, that breaks through. even as first -- as late as the first budget message again he was in this day before we knew he was in the ca. he continued in the realist to publish conspiracy investigations, not labeling which were which. and he ran a piece by selling who actually fabricated some stuff by trying to implicate bush, bush sr. in the kennedy assassination.

and then ran a notice saying that this guy lied to me, claimed it was not there. is in, well, says you're a famous for having a magazine that does not -- that journalism and that. move this from one category to the other. cannot cover anything. that's what way of looking in the kennedy assassination. >> one question about maybe the intersection of conspiracy theories and investigative journalism. we hear so much more with them the last ten years about the freedom of the formation act. a much greater awareness of the idea that after a certain amount of time such and such documents

will be released. some form or another. some pretty serious information did come to pass. any trends that are emerging. within that certain community. >> investigative journalists are exposing legitimate conspiracies that exist. if someone is denigrating and investigative journalists were there was a conspiracy theory. they can still try to dignify with they're doing with the phrase investigative journalism. could end bad investigative

journalism. you mentioned freedom of affirmation, i actually had one i put in come through as i was taking the proof. it has become not in that case, but more difficult in the last decade. if anything i think the movement -- although the flip side is it is easier to find stuff online. you can always mention the internet. so great for my purposes to be able to go to the fbi website and get all these documents that they made available. you mentioned archive. by the way, it is so much easier to write a book when there is archive web sites with all wonderful old books about the purity is that were published hundreds of years ago. now everyone. so -- and i'm sorry.

i gave a commercial and forgot if i answered your question. hopefully add -- >> you mentioned at the beginning of the talk, america has always been a conspiratorial nation, paranoid people. i was sort of put in mind of the great recent tv video, 2010 talking about vitriol and politics. our we criticizing each other too harshly? is it just as shoving match? and the video pointed out that back in $1,800 ever, it was even more and people were calling each other even more names. um wondering if the conspiracy theories use up toward the beginning of american history or more outrageous or less credible or anything like that? >> i won't try to quantify it. if you want task. the jeffersonian and the federalists had such complicated conspiracy theories about @booktv vitriolic ones about

each other -- and there is one which did john adams administration. he tried to unite his family with the royal house of great britain, the bridegroom to be king of america. it is -- there certainly was no shortage of that sort of vitriolic fear. >> and what i would like to think about the rise of education, it would have dampened that a little bit. >> well, i don't know. it's not like people were writing pamphlets and really educated. very well-educated people. >> recently there has been the release of government archives that substantiate conspiracy theories. the people basically due to be true about the cia also say area

51 does exist. not that i am trying to start a new conspiracy theory, but do you see any reason why these things are happening? is there an attempt to get away from prison? >> i don't know why this case does is moments rivulet. they may well have said. i just read the headline. that did not read the story. i will say that the british government at regular intervals releases all documents. there is one in there, a ufo

cover-up that was not that they were covering up the existence but there were covering up their fill your -- i don't know. i should not be saying this extemporaneously, but it was this great moment of bureaucratic covering that the spiral into all sorts of suspicions later. anyone? so the last sentence has s and it apparently. c-span. i should have insisted you call me the hon. speaker while i was here. i guess that's it. thank you. [applause] >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs you see here on line.

said the offer but thailand surged broadly a plus side of the page and click search. you can also share a thing you see the easily by clicking share and selecting the format. book tv stands live on line for 48 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> the new york times book review is getting a redesign, and it is debuting this weekend. ms. paul, what are some of the redesigns? >> well, we really gave the whole issue a new look. there goal was said maintain what we fundamentally are which was a book review. to keep the number of book reviews in there, the length of the book reviews. while i think the design looks more open and a bit more accessible, they are not shorter it is section for reading. there arenew features

which i think will make the issue of overall more accessible , little bit more relevant, and hopefully unpredictable and exciting. >> one of those new features? >> so, there are two major new features launching in this issue. one is called the short list. these are brief reviews with the new york times book review has always run, but the change here is that they are grouped according to a genre, subject, seemed so that it kind of takes a short review from something that feels like a bit of a second thought to something that says, if you're interested in your report in science fiction or anthology, these are the books of interest, and it enables us to find a reviewer has the experience, expertise, and interest in that area and can really give those books a strong and coherent review. that is one feature. the other major new thing we're launching this week is on the

back stage. we have traditionally had nsa there for a long time from outside contributors. the new feature is called book ends, and we have ten regular columnists who are going to rotate and match up in different pairs. they're going to take on a question that is out there in the literary world for the first issue the question is are novelists to weary of criticizing other novelists director is a lot of debate about whether twitter has made riders to nuys and fearful of offending and whether the book world is so small and in such desperate need of sustenance that it is not right to criticize or to take another of this book down. that is the question they're taking on this week. each week you will be in the topic whether it's related to nonfiction affection or the way we read, poetry, translation, pop culture. these writers will always be paired up a gain in different combinations working on the

issue and trying to address it. what is not is it is not that he says she said. it's not a thumbs-up or thumbs down. sometimes the riders might agree on a particular answer, but because these are very strong writers with very different backgrounds and approaches the look at it and read about it in sets stiffer ways that we think it will make a nice companion. the idea again is that it really promotes a conversation and to not only respond to the issues that they're out there, but just generate discussion because so much of reading is about recommendations, conversation, debate, opinion. >> ms. paul, who are some of the regular column is going to be? >> we have ten. they come from really all around the world. both fiction and nonfiction and also criticism. in the first issue.

she is paired with adam kershaw. billy heller is a novelist. best known by her recent novels, the believers, notes from a scandal which was turned into a film. adam cursed is a columnist for an online publication and a senior editor at the new republic as well as a published poet. we also have in coming weeks a film critic from slate, the founding editor of jezebel, a very popular website, part of the media group. jennifer is another columnist. francine has written more than 20. >> that is an nice selection. one of the things that you mentioned is that the book world this war may be small. is the book world small and

insular? >> i think it can feel that way, especially if you are it from the outside. it might seem like it is a huge, and penetrable force. what i want to do is open that up. continue reading the same number as they always did i think people create stories, and it does not matter where they read on the phone or take the book got from the library. this is a conversation where people still want to have it and no what they can read, what they should be reading, what is good and what is worth their time. ♪ nonfiction books. >> it is hugely important. in our first issue we have some new nonfiction. we have refused buy books like kenneth, his new book

unthinkable. five days a memorial. i think, you know, our readers look at nonfiction as much as they do fiction personally. i do more nonfiction and fiction you know, i think that we are trying to devote as much space to both. again, given the limited number of reviews that we can write, we can include. the new york times additionally has only reviewed about 1% of the number of books coming out in a given year. earlier of finding the best from all summer. author as well as other. damaging airlines to relationships, what does a new york times book review mean? >> is used.

for better or worse. it has become more important because we are the last freestanding newspaper or book review out there. so i think it is different from the daily review in the times where we have established critics. it is a place where some times reviewers will take a step back and look at context, look at -- especially with nonfiction, the area that the author is writing about. it is a hugely important. the joy of setting up positive reviews and getting a very negative review. i take it very seriously and know what it is like for the other and. >> does it affect book sales? >> no. i think that people ever knew what really affected book sales there would be -- i don't know, everyone would be a best-selling author. it's hard to know what exactly

is that makes them look jump off the shelves. think that a very strong reviews from the times is certainly health and can often make a buck. >> a marketing tool that a lot of books use, either on their cover or marketing materials is a new york times best-seller splash right across the front. how are your best seller lists for me? >> that is a highly secret -- best at the coca-cola recipe. that is actually done by the news in surveys group at the new york times. we don't have direct involvement with gathering and information. will we do read the book reviews is really presented. we have columnists, a bookseller , best seller calmness to come of looks at the list in a broad cultural perspective way . we don't actually tie it that way. >> why is it such a secret?

>> you know, i think that what is selling and not selling has become a lot more transparent in recent years. you can obviously look at someone's amazon ranking. fifteen years ago you could not. maybe a little bit longer your now. and you can -- there are -- there is nielsen books kenwood supposedly catches about 85 percent of the market. people who pay for that service can have access to those numbers. but still one of those areas where it's difficult to figure out. but sales as well as bookstores and places like costco. >> book tv is celebrating its 15th year this fall.

how has the literary publishing world changed in the last 15 years. >> it has been completely transformed. i mean, the last 15 years, it's like ancient history. i mean, everything is changed from a number of publishing houses. it was the big six and is just now become the big five. the launch look -- obviously anti-freeze the metabolism of kind of the internet as totally transformed not only where people are buying books but how they're reading them. the coverage obviously in the media, the print media has grown dramatically. the same time we have seen the rise of, i think, a really vibrant and exciting on-line community of readers whether on sites like good read your book blog or any of those on-line magazines that regularly are reviewed or the on line extension of magazines that have traditionally cover the literary

world. that has all basically changed. the only thing that is not changed his readers fundamental interest in a good story or finding an information from a great non-fiction book and be moved and being transported by literature. >> what is available on-line at the new york times and the book review section? >> everything is on line. and increasingly there is more content online than is in the print edition. i personally am a huge print reader and love to see it in that format. but we offer an additional content online. hour by the book interview, for example, runs in an edited version in print and then on line runs and fall. this is a question and answer with an author or artist public figure of some kind of