country. we all drew from it in some way. it was an extraordinary event. far beyond i believe as he says in his book, reclaiming history, far beyond what happened with the september 11 attacks. tragically, more than 2000 people died that day, but very few people knew who they were. as scott mentioned, kennedy's assassination was a death in the family. it was that moving. it was that tragic. it was that extraordinary, and it affected everyone. and for me at age seven, it was the catalyst for my career in journalism and in communications. >> i wasn't sure i was going to pull this out. i was six years old. i was in first grade, and has been mentioned, we got sent home. i was in wyoming i remember the

principle on the speaker and said we will send you home, the president has been shot. we will let you know when school resumes to i would him and i realized it was a big deal saturday morning because there were no cartoons. but our neighbor being fascinated. this i is a number of drugs my dear beloved mother state over the years of a six-year-old you of a funeral procession. you can see the case on -- the case on -- i was passing by the riderless horse that had the boots backwards. that's really something. i think it'd. one of the things that makes it such a tragedy, i'll mention the children. so caroline was roughly our age. john lewis and but if you're a kid you could identify with it because the kids were on tv with the mother. i think it really did have a strong impact on children of a certain age, if they can remember. i don't know that it put me -- what profession us going to be in but i remember it being a big deal and i have extremely vivid

memories. it was unique. >> thank you. that are 37 images in my book, five of which john kennedy i've -- have never seen before publicly. but my favorite image is not a photograph. it's a drawing. it's a drawing that was given to the son of robert mcnamara, who was a playmate and of john junior and caroline. and one month after his father was assassinated, john junior do pictures for his friend, young mr. mcnamara, and dictated a letter to him that his mother wrote. and the picture is particu wrote. and the picture is particularly pointed, the illustration, because john junior drew his favorite thing, airplanes. of course, years later he died in an airplane crash. that was very moving to me.

>> so with all of your interviews you have done and the research, oath of you, kind of her to scott what was the most shocking or surprising with reagan's intelligence, but could both the you may be share something that you both were shocked or surprised learning? >> i think the one thing that surprised me the most that i had not heard about much, although scott with his extraordinary research probably knew about this, one of the very interesting people i interviewed was a close friend of john kennedy. who introduced him to jacqueline bouvier, and they were very close friends all through his life. the gentleman was a reporter for a newspaper in tennessee with the d.c. bureau.

and the night before the kennedys left for texas, he just had a funny feeling about it and called his friend jack, the president, and jack had no qualms about going to does. lec said he didn't. but he was very angry still and have been for the previous five or six weeks at israel. israel had acquired the knowledge to create an atomic bomb, or nuclear bomb, one of the two. and was very angry that he had had to find out about this from the cia. and was determined not to let israel actually create a bomb and then detonate it. that was one thing i did not know about john kennedy's presidency previously. >> i think the most surprising thing was the premise of the book, which is how much similar so many ways reagan and john kennedy were, both in how they were raised, the families they came from, big brothers who beat them up all the time, this nomadic childhood. and then in the policies.

certainly the republicans have one to use jack kennedy -- jack kennedy cut income tax rates long before ronald reagan did. so there's that. specifically john kennedy what was said to me was how the strings in attending marriage but as i grew up looking at, anytime you go to the supermarket, all these jackie, jackie, the great love affair and find out they had a strained relationship was said to me. i didn't realize how strange it was. that was probably the most surprising thing after all you thought your own life, and you find out he proposed to her by telegram and the only time, the only liberty ever wrote her was a postcard that said we should you were here. a postcard that said we should you were here. that's literally the length of the correspondence. i've been intrigued by the woman jack kennedy -- i'm doing some research, might be the subject of my next book. she is one of his lovers when he was still in the navy. she was made at the time.

he a daughter but, of course, because of her marital circumstances it couldn't be. that was the soulmate he was looking for. i think it had been more open to jackie in my defense that kind of relationship. >> one more? need the microphone. >> i believe you mentioned they never really met each other. reagan and kennedy. >> that is true. that's very odd that they would not have meant. reagan was born in 1911, entity in 1917. they both were very close in age to they both were much of hollywood. joe kennedy senior was a heavy investor in hollywood. people think he made his money as a bootleg. that's not too. he bought and sold the studio to be graded a system. and so you would think again

with a raging -- you would think with reagan being enacted, jack kennedy what went on would afterward too, spent a month try to forget what it was a gate movie stars charisma. so he mimicked. he went to dinner with gary cooper in said this cut is the most job dropping only boring him being a permit. we go outside the restaurant and his mouth. how do you get a? can i don't? so we did. they also are the two most popular public speakers in america in the 1950s. kennedy made a big splash that is going to run for president. he got hundreds of speaking engagement of the week but reagan probably make more speeches. he was the spokesperson for general electric and his job was to tour the country giving speeches on the virtues of free enterprise and electric appliances. he did that to thousands of time. ps the he gave the speech,

250,000 means he gave the speech eight or 9000 times. they never met but it's a very strange situation but no, they never met. >> well, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> would you like to sign some books of? >> we would love to. >> if you like a book signed, come on up. let's do it role by row. the books are right there. spent and by signing them, you have to buy them. they won't take them back. [laughter] >> booktv is on facebook. like us to interact with booktv guests and viewers. watch vegas and get up-to-date information on events. facebook.com/booktv. >> with the help of our comcast cable partners, for the next hour we will explore the history and literary same of the

tennessee city about 165,000 coming up we'll learn more about how -- >> this list is a strategy for following some of our well-known southern talent. >> we'll take a look at some the legends of this area. we begin our special with an exploration of the writings of civil war general and chattanooga entrepreneur john t. wilder. >> collection at university of tennessee at chattanooga, the second floor of the library. all the papers we have here at the university, a collection that we acquired around 1960 am one of general wilder's daughters were still alive at the time. she donated his collection of military documents and letters that her father wrote to their mother in indiana during the war. wilder after the war, did what a lot of union officers did. include indiana from the midwest

and the game a prominent businessman in town, and industrialists throughout the south. he opened a series of mines throughout tennessee into north carolina, and he was an entrepreneur. he opened up several hotels to he was always working new ventures and moneymaking opportunities, and would get them rolling and stay with them for two or three years and then he would sell. start something else. he was also the mayor of chattanooga in 1870, and the postmaster of the city as well. he was sort of a prominent citizen of the late 1800s for chattanooga. i think it's appropriate that we get this collection of letters that he had during the war, that he wrote to his wife. one thing i find very interesting is a lot of validity start off like letters that we used to write, started off by asking the person, why haven't you written more? start off, letters to his wife, i haven't received a letter from you, sort of complaining about

that. but i think back during the civil war, they weren't as particular about people writing truth movement details in the letters. i know doing what to especially, soldier's letters had to be censored by their superiors. these give a lot of information about what they're doing and what they're planning to do. a lot of information about the forging missions that his troops went on, the skirmishes, battles. i find one very interesting that he wrote. his division missed out on the battle of shiloh by a day. they got there a day late but he writes him on april 16, 1862, from the battlefield, and he's writing to his wife what he sees as he rides onto the battlefield of shiloh, just the day after the battle when he says i will not attempt to tell you of the awful destruction on the battleground, which covered a space of about 25 square miles. baghdad late on every acre of it. when we came here, there was

just about to rebels for each one of ours, probably about 3000 in all, dead. hundreds of trees slivered with splitters, gun carriages, torn to bits, dead horses, heads, arms, legs and mangled bodies around. all combined to make up a picture of poor that it would be well for our political leaders to look on, and if they did not, then learn to mind on business to be made a part of it. he was one of the first officers on either side of the war to equip his soldiers with the spencer repeating rifle, and that gave his troops a real big advantage over a single shot rifles that most of the soldiers use. the spencer good fired seven shots without reloading. versus the shoot and reload, shoot and reload. so we really gain an upper hand on the confederate troops during the war. because of them getting the spencer repeating rifles, they were just a legal division to

encounter, and it was because of that they became known as a white man brigade. -- lightning brigade. i did that they were not as the hatchet brigade because all his men carried hachette, not for warfare but because can't necessities. he also was very instrumental in the battle of chickamauga which was across the border in georgia. one of the last troops, union troops to leave the battlefield, and he helped protect general george thomas was later became known as the rock of chickamauga. ..

at one point the had to carry him by ambulance. it is obvious from some of these that when he was in the middle of some of the hardest fighting he was sick, and he was able to still lead is men. and as soon as that battle was over apparently you would collapse and that would taken to hospital where he would recover or go home to recover. wanting that i think was your significant if his career these in 1862 he was sense when he was of an indian gathering his crew he was taking them back to the battlefield and was diverted to

a little town in western kentucky because the confederate general who is heading north. he was to go there and wait for the full union group to beat him with up there with just a couple hundred troops and beckham police surrounded by the confederate army. he held them off for several days here waiting for the union army it never came individual initiative surrender. he went end under a flag of truce to the confederate camp and suck up a confederate officer who he understood was a gentleman and s for his a nice. am sure he plans to bring to the effect it and not militarily trained. what should of of surged to the situation were told not to

surrender but you say you have surrounded with 50 dozen men. can i see proved? sir, this is of the wars are fought. later in his memoirs he wrote, her i took a liking to this man. they give him a tour of the confederate army and solace he was outnumbered. at that point he then negotiated surrender. and sure initiated worries prompt fed member not in prison but said home. let's consider earlier, he was paroled, 70. what two or three months later the union army work done an exchange where he could come back again.

that was a very unique approach to a desperate situation when he was left hanging up to dry. he was able to "-- told of an army that are a number of his pro we 100 to one if none of thousand to one for several days >> next, learn about sensationalism murder, mayhem, mudslinging, scandal, and disaster in 19 center reporting with author david saxon. >> what is sensationalism? to actually, i added it together with david bureau of valid university in abu dhabi. it is an interesting thing because exists to sell newspapers.

it goes on lead to a certain limit. it is as much entertainment as it is shock. the interesting part is in starts with a chapter by joe campbell, very, very good historian and has written about the journalism of the late 19th century committee 1890's in new york. he finds a lot positive about it. he wants to take another look at yellow journalism as a positive thing in the muckraking s bakes' to magellan the triple was going a long time. and it we have to remember that the other thing, came to america and 1830's on a mission from the

french government ended the pride and democracy in america. a very good look at america at that time, what he said was the scandal man bringing of the press is essential to american democracy. he said, it is a very good thing also. very interesting thing. i mean pfft, the book does not make a negative judgment about sensationalism. it's fundamental, with every story the most famous story was skipping centuries to 1927 which was the picture of somebody in the and the elected chamber that second appeared of the front page of the daily news so this

is killing of a long time. it is essential, especially in political terms talk democracy. >> if you feel that it has changed? >> it changes throughout the 19 century. it has been around for a long time. the beginnings of sensationalism in the american press had to do with politics. the mudslinging and scandal mongering of the late 1700's and the early 1800's led jefferson and being accused correctly of cb with the slaves, the press went after them horribly. that is the same at this moment

for example, when i first got into this business back in the 60's and 70's that have a professor at stanford used to

dispute the proviso which was a suggestion by an order curve congress in 1947 that the properties or the territories acquired as a result of the mexican war should be organized as free states as opposed to slave states were divided along the missouri compromise line.

and so that created a lot of excitement in the south, and he spoke out quite clearly on that that time. he later became a congressman from his district in west tennessee and then later became the governor of tennessee, elected in 1957. ironically succeeding andrew johnson. governor harris became tennessee's most prominent secessionist. governor harris invoked a power tennessee never seceded come as a matter of fact, the declaration of independence as it were that to the see enacted said we are not expressing opinion of the abstract doctrine of secession, we are invoking are more ancient right of revolution they invoke that right of the behalf of the state

of tennessee because the tennessee constitution and several references to its relation to the united states. and governor harris basically amended the constitution in a way that violated the amendment provisions. ironically he was vindicating the rights of the united states constitution, but by doing so he trampled on the tennessee constitution. in a positive sense tennessee was bound up in a terrible controversy in the late 1870's. the state ran up millions and millions of dollars of debt to build the railroads. they're worries him administration immediately after the civil war, and it was a political controversy of our

extraordinary better nature. tennessean said they don't have any nature to have any eddy that that went on and frankly so. he brokered the compromise, so this be calmative take tennessee and out of that controversy over debt. it lingered on for a little while. that really was a service to the state. and a positive sense as opposed to the negative sense. he also, i think, ably represented the state pretty well in the senate as far as patronage and things of that nature which is with senators did and senators i guess no due to. he never let -- lost an election , although of a couple of occasions he bowed out before me have the opportunity to lose an election after being a state

senator he was again the congressman. he was elected governor. he forwent a run at governor in the 1850's because andrew johnson was stronger politically that he was. after the civil war he had a price of his head because he was a confederate government. he went to mexico and lingered in mexico a couple of years and came back and played low. the conservative element in tennessee regained its ascendancy in he had connections and influence and prestige as having been the ultimate conservative governments. in those days the united states senators were elected by the legislature, not directly

elected, as they are today. so he had is politics in order. the thing that he is most known for is very famous response the she'd to a call for federal troops after four sumter. the federal government : tennessee for two regiments of volunteers to suppress the rebellion in the self. governor harris replied, tennessee will lend a troops for the purposes of coercion but 50,000 if necessary to vindicate her rights in her southern brethren. he saw the constitution is certainly. he was willing to put his life on the line to vindicate that.

in retrospect he was wrong, but he was -- to follow but the thought was the right thing even though in retrospect it turned up to be not so right. >> an introduction to a southern culture. >> partly as a history of my own journey coming here to the south, but also for others who are making that same journey. internationals are transplants from elsewhere. the south has a very particular culture is that always easy to navigate why take this journey to my talk about why i made the journey. i felt that it would be very comfortable for me to come to

the south after having lived in bermuda which is a combination of british colonial island and also i felt that the south was coming into its own. lots of international companies, lots of opportunities, vendors, new businesses started in the self at a rapid pace. and they wanted to be part of that. so i tell people that this is a good reason for them also to come to the south him and experience to me rather unique piece of american culture in the making. one of the things that we see some times and the international supermen who are used who to traveling these two different cultures, they will say, could you please also trendy americans coming into south? at think they have expectations

of what they're going to see and experience than a unrealistic. some of them are based on the fact that everyone is friendly and will smile and greet you and be very happy to see you then will say to you, oh, let's could together. you must come over to the house someday. people don't understand that part of the etiquette to a part of saying hello, that doesn't mean that there actually want you to come to the house or that there actually extending the invitation. it is confusing for people who first arrived. when last this question and give presentations, how many generations to you have to be here to be considered a real southern air, a true center to make a minimum of three. it's more likely for. occasionally five, and they have had a few people claim that it is to be ten.

you can see that in the south we have had a situation where our your generations have not chosen to move away, have stayed and have been part of a culture for very long time. and that means that there is a sense of real southerners. it's unlike anything i've seen in the rest of the country. this is a strategy for following some of our well-known southern towns, and the purpose of the book because in many ways these people, particularly musicians, are some of the best, well-known southerners worldwide. for a sample, i ask people to pick a seven musicians are to follow. personalities are key conversation pieces in the south and a good tool for making friends.

so if you find that you read the, really loved the music or lead scattered, listen to it, go for it. you will find company in that fan base, for sure. serve them there becomes a seven music genre to follow and get familiar with the musicians. there are so many, gospel, rhythm-and-blues, country, something for everybody. and there is plenty of performance and festival. attend the festival where this genre is featured. they can be found in most locations in the south. every day of the week. talk among the swan.

if you say you will play an instrument, learn some southern songs. the experience will give you a feel for southern culture and something to share with others. so, can i tell you a story about this? a few weeks ago i was in of stowe, alabama at the university there. i was asked to do all workshop for group of fulbright scholars. because i have such an investment in the parts as a way to get these cultures, brought along some video show. a share the video of leaded scared performing sweet home alabama. in the room there were flores dollars and professors and local leaders working with them. and you could tell who was filmed.

this killers thought, well, that's interesting. hello chris with his listening, sing-along. then to show the full set of data showed a video of sweet home elbow being sung by a leningrad careless. ♪ ♪ >> that was like standing to everybody in the room that sweet home alabama will be sung in

leningrad to russian audience with the russian version of polk rockers to mike and melinda drove them is that, to understand the power of southern music as an export. and it was also a teaching moment. you could see what is happening to southern culture. in the south words have a life of their own. their colorful. there are abundant. they can be as durations and metaphors abound. it is a wonderful experience. awesome is it there are a lot of southernisms that never particular to the south and may not translate well if you're not from around here. down the road apiece.

>> of far is piece? >> nobody's in no. he really wants as the question to make deals of the response to a younger. [laughter] or they can give you directions. some people say the new directions is drove a bus let's ask because you will get a real southerner, something like the message you and many small towns commencing sit more colorful me go down three blocks past that light and then you going to turn were that old houses with the shutter is used to be, and then you go past the wriggled building, you know where that is truly notable for a print them. then you're going to go a couple of miles. you see it on the right hand side. the phrase they always like you can't miss it.

there are two kinds of big picture people to read what interestingly enough are really southerners to have left, whether for worker for study and have returned to their hometowns and frivolous all it to find is considerably different and they can lead to coal have changed. they bring something very special, in perspective on both sides. they are great bridges between the old and the new. the newer additions will including myself, we have come from elsewhere in the states and many from overseas. usually fur our jobs and have a

different set of skills. as people look at the south -- again, i urge that, a starkly, after the sort there was a lack of investment in the south as more of a removal of ts -- resources, timber, or core mining, as opposed to investment . he did not have major corporations creating managerial class is here, and that is changing, and that is with the new people bringing to mend there during an amazing job, but it is like taking an isolated culture, a cultural anthropologist, in introducing it to a vast changes virtually overnight five. it is a bit messy, very creative

and innovative, and it is an experience i wouldn't miss for the world. >> one of the great things about chattanooga is we make the moon pie. we have been here since 1917, and there are about to hit our hundred year anniversary. economically we employ 150 people. so much of our packaging and raw materials as bought here locally we love chattanooga, great place to live. her staying here forever. make about a million a day. we have a lot of moon pies being made. it actually came of a conversation this with a coal miner and a bakery salesman in kentucky, looking for something new and cool to make. they said make it big, chocolate, marshmallows

. >> i'm john wheeler. i used tear have a pen name. frankly, it is my story. i am happy to take responsibility for it. i put that subtitle,

and that is when i started smoking pot. i was and what the little anti-war happy folk singer grew. it was kind of cool. who would go to the coffee

houses and set out in the parking lot of smoke could joint and maybe it was the greatest thing in the world. that is sell it all started. somebody said the key to success is to sell what you love to do. so in the beginning that was marijuana. and that was kind of -- i mean, it was kind of in my mind at least ten in the people around me this was like a righteous adventure. nobody had this stuff. everybody wanted it. it was the fuel of the counterculture. and when i discovered how i could go and get it and bring it back, you know, i was like the hero. and so i always resented that stereotype of the drug dealer over in the shadows snicking little things to kids coming end of school. it was not like that at all. it is people my age or older than me who wanted marijuana,

and it was being suppressed and nobody could get it, and i brought it. later wrong after i discovered cocaine and really loved cocaine in get into that. i was actually sentenced to a term three times. the first time was related to drugs. had to do with burglary warrant was running with these older guys and we were breaking in places. they're saying, you get more nervous and jesse james. you go in here. no be the limit death caught. anyway, that was in the workhouse. quesnay was 19. the next time it was drugs or had them soles of marijuana to the first undercover agent in chattanooga. it was a pure stickup entrapment kendo deal, but they got me. i was out there.

and had been there of three months. i had a trustee job. it was not a daring jailbreak. ahead of trustee's job. i found out that there were some things happening that were pretty upsetting. my partner and storm on monday. my old lady was running off with somebody. i just got mad and won their left. i was escaped for three years, and that is when a lot of these adventures happened while i was an escaped fugitive flying and of the radar. i went straight to to some more i started buying and taking it back to the lead to and then found some connections down in mexico and started smuggling. it was very different back then. i mean, mexico is the same in some ways, but it is much more violence and murder smell.

back then i would walk across the bridge carrying ever its cracker box full of money. just a hippie going across the bridge. that would go down the alley. there's carloses place. he had his wife and little kids. you know, it was just a destitute type place. i really felt great. you could see how much good it was doing them to be able to sell this marijuana to me. and back, everybody loved. so that is so was. personally in terms of smuggling a was probably only about a thousand pounds. it was really unhappy amateur hour thing. you have an old beat-up pickup truck and a bunch of mexican teenagers with dufflebag. every dufflebag had 6080 pounds upon and it.

of the mexican side it would go through and pay off all the farmers to open the fences of let them through to the border and then they would all jumped out and carry the bags through the desert across the dry river bed over to the arizona side. when it was dawn was moved out of the truck and take it all out there behind the market right on the main patagonia highway outside of the gaullist. we had little radio shack walkie talkies that we were communicating with. this was our smuggling deal. so, you know, 500, six under, 1,000 pounds. was arrested at the executive park hotel on january 301st of 75. it was almost three years to the day from the time my escape from silver dale. and there were promising me 30

years. the d.a. people came in, the u.s. marshals cavemen, took all my jewelry. you won't be needing this. but i had some good lawyers. as it turned out three just a variety of brilliant legal maneuvers which will call detailed in the book read did go to serve the prison in south georgia, but only for brief time. it was about 22 and a half months later that i was out again. that was the last time that i was in prison. i cannot detail everything that happened during those years, but suffice it to say there was a lot of occultism. there was a voodoo connection to cocaine smuggling that i never know about that i described in the book.

you know, the plane could not cover of the chicken lady did not give declarant's. you have to be kidding me. added now believe any of that stuff, but it was going on all around me. eventually it had an effect. i had some pretty surrealistic experiences which are really cannot detail for your camera. it was hard enough to write it in the book. i ended up in a mental hospital for about six weeks, and they wanted me to stay longer. then all that led to a process of searching. what happens? and what led me to begin to search for god. that led to a dramatic conversion experience. that's totally transformed my life. and from that point on there was

no more drugs, no more anything. to me everything about the drug dealing, the smuggling, the party is in atlanta, the rock band's, of that, that is interesting. and that's fine, but it is really the back story. it is or brought this particular individual to this point in time where i had this satanic, supranatural encounter that almost destroyed me and forced me to call on god which i had rejected until that point in time. how my life changed after that. >> next from book tv recent trip to tennessee, bill hall talks about a few of the famous people from chattanooga.

>> a lot of new blood coming into town. a lot of folks would gated interesting history by reading about the people, connecting the names to their story into they were rather than -- it was just a different approach to give me a chance to tell a little bit about the story of who they work it's a great story, a very interesting story. in 1898 he enlisted and went to cuba, the spanish-american war. while he was there he encountered bottle. think of them of it was being if rio. a pineapple drink. cold pineapple. he was impressed with that when he came back he talks to friends about this. at this time, colo was kind of on its ascendancy in atlanta.

by john pemberton who was a doctor. he patented it and then it was bought from him and started to grow year by year. from drinks because that was a popular place for a lot of people, especially young folks. thomas and a friend of his started thinking that they might care to a letter to see that they could meet mr. handler. it took the train. according to some of the things i have read it seems like it when a couple of times. their idea to have was who would like to buy your drink and get it sold around the country. he was a tough nut to crack. he was skeptical about the possibility of this becoming a reality for two reasons.

he was worried about the quality of the product. bottling was still too far there were still problems with bobbling in keeping things fresh of course this was a carbonated drink. he was also worried about these two men. i believe he was in his 30's. he was not totally convinced they had the ability to pull it off and did not one of failure. at any rate committee relented and gave white had exclusive rights to bottle and sell coca-cola in the u.s. actually, there were couple of states that basically they get the entire rita is his to do it through. they signed the contract allegedly for dollar. there were so broke they had to

wire home for money just to get the train back. so when they came back to chattanooga they had to enlist someone to give more money so that they could buy the equipment and year. in three months this set up a facility. bottling it in distributing it. within one year there were just cooking. it deterred between themselves that what they do is they would become apparent bottlers and divide the united states up to territories. he would sell a franchise to somebody, dayton, ohio, wherever. people were just knocking at his door to get there. and then force you get some profit from the operation, but the killer was he and the other

two had exclusive rights to get the serbs from what led to. so they get the syrup and then they sold it to the bottlers. so that was pretty much his story. it is covered you know, a golden story of american entrepreneurship. the son of jewish immigrants. he went to work at 11 for a newspaper. he continued often non working as lawyers to restore it to school. he was a printer's devil. fit but one person described him as a human interrogation port. he asked questions all the time. he left to learn had to do things.

there was a chance to buy the chattanooga times. that was also a struggling newspaper with all kinds of debt in 1878 he bought that paper. i believe it cost $800. $1,500 in debt. i think he had two or 3 percent capital. he had just a little bit of money. the story goes, according to his granddaughter, you went to the bank test for a loan for $300 to secure his interest in the paper and the baker said, who have you got to cosign for it. you are a minor. he looked at the baker and said you. and that baker evidently went along with an inside it. and actually come his dad had to come down from rocks will to help him sign the final papers.

so in 1878 he took it over. he was very social. love people. very energetic. obviously believe focused. he took the paper over some and within two years he had gotten a subscription of, debt was down, it will to pay and off by the 80's and on it. i mean, he already had most of the interest, but he made a huge success out of it. in the late 90's he get word from a friend who said the new york times was a newspaper that was having major financial difficulty. this might be an opportunity for him to jump in to new york and to help control interest in a major daily. he went to new york and met with

a group of people that were trying to buy the newspaper to say that. printing 19, 20,000 the day and now selling 89. they were running against a lot of yellow journalism, newspapers and would sell for a penny or to where they had to sell theirs for three. from what i have read really wanted to do is the was uncertain whether he was the man. they keep felt like he was a small-town sellout. going against my going into the big-time in bed with some of the principles. there were interested in him. but he had very little money to put up from. in essentially he, his contacts including president "-- grover

cleveland to sign letters of recommendation or backing to see if he could borrow enough money to purchase an interest in the paper, a controlling interest which is what he wanted. he wanted ownership and control. he did it. it was just in a few years he began to bring down the debt and showed his organizational superiority. it was obviously something he was gifted with. it made it a very respected this paper and a very profitable one. he did things, on his 60th birthday started a pension fund for as employees. very geared toward his employees doing well in the paper doing well. the paper trying to do good. you know, he evidently elevated

a quality of the writing and what was being presented to the public. he had a public vision. ♪ ♪ >> her older brother had joined a minstrel show. he took her with him. she volunteered, was an accepted as a dancer and began traveling with the show. a blues singer who kind of procedure as a female singer of the blues was on the show.

she gradually became really well known. betsy kind of was schooled by her. betsy eventually superseded here in terms of popularity. but she traveled with the show, did a lot of shows of letup -- shows in atlanta. it was an early version of the circuit where she played a lot of colored houses, will for the era of the race records. and just garnered a great following. she had a big voice. she has that bigger kind of huskies style of singing as is typical of the teens and twenties. she never cut a record until she was 30 years old. in a way her yang, while to michael the voice was never captured on record. nevertheless, as soon as she released her first record, i mean, there were wildly popular

selling in the tens of thousands, some over 100,000. she became very well pleased, and by this time she moved from a limit of philadelphia. she died of a road trip to -- which she was in mississippi. janis joplin was the person who made her story famous. her funeral was held in philadelphia and attended by ten to 20,000 people. ammine, that is out, you know, wildly popular and how she connected with people. that indicates her great popularity. one thing that interests me, everyone knows that they've -- everyone knows the name betsy smith. for 90 percent of the people probably could not name one of her songs. i don't think many people have probably never heard it.

maybe that's word comes from. ♪ ♪ >> look at the book and find it interesting cover a new story and inspiration of the people who live here. work hard, do well, and get back to folks. i think it has enriched the community. >> for more permission of book tv recent visit to gender, tennessee, and the many other cities visited by our local content videos go to c-span.org / local content.

you're watching book tv and c-span2. here's our primetime live for tonight. >> the purpose of the book is to not only talk about how to revive the constitutional republic, but to inform people on what the republicans oppose look like, how the constitution

is supposed to function and to move some of the decision making away from the centralized government back to the state legislature is acting collectively as the framers intended. >> you write about the 17th amendment. the 17th amendment's there's not the public interest, but the interest of the governing masterminds in their disciples. it's early proponents of advance. it is because they champion democracy but because they knew it would be one of several important mechanisms for of powering a pro-government and unraveling the constitutional republic. >> the framers did not create richard democracy. that would be absolute nonsense and crazy. in fact, if you look at the constitution it is complex, what they created here. the central government was limited. three branches, each of which is

supposed to be working with each other. sometimes checking each other. of course cover you have the states were all of the plenary power is supposed to exist and the individual were of the individual sovereignty of the sleazes. so this idea that the recollections is what the framers intended is not correct. the intended for the house of representatives. end of they debated this at length. they went back and forth, but when it came to the senate madison and the others made quite clear that you could not have the direct election of senators without creating this all-powerful centralized national government. they wanted a republic. and even made this case to the states when it went to the states for the ratification of the constitution. they said, look, the senate is made up of individuals chosen by the state legislature. you're going to have a role in

the federal lawmaking process. so the federalists used the senate, among other things in the nature of the senate to persuade the anti federalists to support the constitution. if we had direct election of senators there would not be an original constitution. the states would not have ratified it. furthermore, who exactly did the senators represent? the most bizarre body that man has ever created. there are two for every state. but the direct election of senators, you have situations where senators voted for obamacare in states where the governor and attorney general fought obamacare in court and the state legislatures are trying to protect their citizens from obamacare when the senators voted for it. it is bizarre. the senate today really is and ought construct. so the purpose of the senate was

to empower the state legislatures and the federal lawmaking process cannot to just have another ability to vote. >> for this month's book tv book club joined other readers. restoring the american republic. simply a to booktv.org and click on book club to enter the chat room. once there you can log in as a guest to post your thoughts. >> up next on book tv, after words with guest host stacey, and to make the director of the american society for muslim at advancements. her latest book in it, the co-author of the face club discusses her attempts to assimilate into u.s. culture will confronting americans to fear her family because of their faith and