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>> the new c-span.org website gives you access to an incredible library of political events with more added each day through the nonstop coverage of national politics, history, and nonfiction books. find the daily coverage of official washington or access more than 200,000 hours of our current c-span video. everything since 1987. our video is searchable and viewable on your desktop computer, tablet, smart phone. just look for the prominent church or at the top of each page. and the new c-span.org makes it easy to watch what is happening today in washington and find people and events from the past 25 years. the most comprehensive video library in politics. >> here's a look of some of the books being published this week.

>> we are not in a post feminist era. i am concerned about the war on women. we are rolling back access to reproductive rights. there is no end to the regrettable statistics on violence against women. we have not stopped shaming girls about their bodies. we have so much sexism in the media which implies you have to have a certain shape to be loved or popular. the problem in terms of defining feminism is committed is true that what unifies a lot of women globally is what is done to women. i don't want to identify feminism as about victimhood. you don't want victim feminism. and howard feminism's says that women should be equal in their rights and opportunities.

where we don't see that we want to push forward to make that possible. but now, there is so much work to do. globally the statistics are frightening in terms of women's lack of access to everything from education to health and information about their options. >> you can watch this and other programs online and booktv.org. >> women's history for beginners is the book tv book club selection for the month of february. you will see right up there at the top. a tab that says book club. you can participate in our discussion. you will be posting video and reviews and articles. some of the discussion will begin. we will be posting on a regular

basis. i hope you will be able to participate. of women's history for beginners is our february 2014 book club selection on the book tv. >> although histories of the vietnam era war might make only passing reference, it is not because they were not there in numbers. perhaps not as glamorous, their contribution to the war effort was irreplaceable. >> beautiful. absolutely beautiful. >> your going to have to come see it. >> this was the airplane that i flew in vietnam. the 226 combat missions, i flew

about 180 missions in this airplane. it is my titanium misters. it is what brought me home had times when it probably should not have. when i did things in order to survive. it is an airplane that i have such strong feelings for. there is no way could not bring it home. interesting story. i have a painting done by an aviation artist to paint my airplane. he asked me if i knew what happened to it. i said, no, i didn't. he knew some but it did. they tell me where it was commanded comfortable role in. if there is any way that we can bring an airplane in out of the cold and present it to our museum patrons in the combat form that it was, that would be my goal with life. that is what we're working toward.

>> this weekend a look behind the history of literary life of making georgia including a stop at the aviation museum throughout the weekend on c-span2 and today at 5:00 p.m. welcome to making. with the help of our communication partners. for the next hour we explore the history of literary theme of the history. it will learn more about civil rights activist and take a tour of, the street. >> this was the of the lord creek trading pass running along the fault line between the piedmont plateau in the coastal plain. >> we begin our special with the story of two fugitive slaves. ..

>> when the bill came due he couldn't pay it. so the slaves were sold by a bank, and the same owner that had bought allen bought with them. they ended up on the plantation together. they were married on the plantation, but they knew, and ellen said, she did not want to have children while she was a slave because she knew what would happen to those kids. she couldn't take it. so we get this really, this

portrait of ellen and also william who is very supportive of her as a couple who were in love. they wanted, they wanted our normal life. they wanted the same kind of life that you and i have, for example. but they would deny that because of the loss of slavery. that generated just an unquenchable thirst, to get out of the state of georgia and leave the south so they could have a life. in 1848, they decided they were going to lead. they planned the trip for four days, and they took off at night. they left and they went to savannah and from savannah they caught a ship, sailed to charleston, south carolina, and made some stops along the way, and then they finally ended up here in philadelphia. but then once in philadelphia, the abolitionists they are told them that they really wouldn't

be as safe in philadelphia as they would be in boston, massachusetts, because of the loss in philadelphia were different than they were in massachusetts. so they helped them get to boston where there was a free black society, about two or 300 free blacks that a been there for quite some time. they helped them get themselves together here can they help with health issues as well. ellen had gotten sick, and so they can to build them up and then they slipped them out of the country when they found out that their owners, after the passage of the fugitive slave act, had said this patrol out to try to return them to slavery. it's very interesting because the president of the united states, fillmore, was contacted and appealed, by their owners, previous owners, to bring him back and he in fact a great that they should return to georgia. and he in fact sent a military

patrol after them. so they knew they had to leave. so the society help them escape. they went to maine and they caught a ship and they went to england. ellen was extremely light skin. she could have passed for white. they used that as an advantage. and so ellen masqueraded as an indigent white man on a journey. she pretended she had rheumatism and something was wrong with her right arm. they made a sling for her right arm. she cut her hair. her husband come in fact cut her hair. he bought her a pair of green glasses, glasses that were shaded green. and then they took a big package, like a scarf and tied it from her chin to the top of her head and around that hit part of her face as he would not sure that she didn't have a beard or any kind of facial if

it should also to be deaf at times so that she wouldn't speak and give away the fact she was a woman and, in fact, not a man. this was also very important because they knew they were going to have to register at hotels and establishments along the way, because they were intending to leave georgia and get to philadelphia where the quakers had a movement and he knew they would be safer. but they knew along the way they would have to make certain stops. they would have to register, and she would be the one that would register because he was pretending to be her attendant, her servant, her slave. so by feigning this disguise, she appeared as an indigent white men and actually got away with it, and he actually got away with being called her slave. so that was very, very important, a time when they were in norfolk city near halifax

where they went to a hotel, and here is where northern anti-black sentiments ktm. because they would check into a hotel and if the proprietors said you can't check in here, he looked at william and said you can check in here, we don't allow black people in here, but she can. your master, you know, can. and so william didn't fight it. he said, okay, then she gets through and i'll go somewhere else. so she checked in. the room was upstairs. when she checked in, of course people who work there and all of that, and she ordered dinner, but she ordered dinner for two. instead of one. and the hotel staff, including the black people who worked in the hotel, had a conversation

wondering who is going to show up to have dinner with her, because it clearly could have been this black guy because this black guy was a slave. then they were even more amazed when dinnertime came and he walked up the stairs instead knocking on the door and allowing and asking, you know, for her to allow him to come in, he just opened the door and walking. and they were just dumbfounded as to what was going on because they were just convinced she was not only a white person, but she was an owner of this black guy. and by that time she had discarded her male clothing and she appeared as in fact a woman that she was. this is very interesting because in the south she could not have done that without raising a critical eye. because white women did not travel with blackmail serpents in the 1840s and 1850s. that is just almost unheard of.

-- she had to put on a good action might say. and inundated you get this real sense sometimes where -- both collaborated on the narrative but william haddad, voice. you really get the sense sometimes he is laughing at the slave system, and laughing at those they fooled. the impact was great. the single thought on the mind of slaves was to escape, and not just escape and go to south carolina or someplace but i mean escape boat out of the south and never to go back. most slaves escaped went to canada. because candida had never participated in the slave trade, but once across the border one was, in fact, the slave -- one was, in fact, the slave. -- safe. they did such so in a compelling

way that they fooled the slave institution, you know? and so it's not only that the escape but it also demonstrated their cunning, their intellect, their ingenuity and their mastery over the slave institution. so this story was just very extreme the compelling. then when he went to england, to london, and became celebrities literally, you know, in london, their story just spread like wildfire. so stories of escaped slaves were very, very important and encourage other sites first of all to know that there was so. you get this real sense of adventure, of intrigue, and cunning, you know, et cetera. so this is why this story was so compelling. >> and now a look at the life and political career of aaron burr with help of our local cable partner cox communicatio communications. >> was probably the greatest of

the notes alleged and spare doors, and it led to what i think it's in the running for the trial of the century, of the 19th century with a former vice president of the united states on trial for treason against the united states. >> who was aaron burr as a person? >> aaron burr has an interesting biography, his grandfather was jonathan edwards, the great leader of, the great awakening whose claim to fame was his bone chilling sermon centers in the hands of an angry god. he studied for the ministry for a while before decide it was not for them. he then studied law under his famous brother law agree the most famous law school in the united states at the time in litchfield connecticut. burr and stopped his study of law to serve in the continental army. he was involved in the initial invasion of québec which did not go well, but became a minor hero

for helping extricate troops from that. was a fairly famous officer in the army for the rest of the war, they begin to practice law in new york. along with his friend and competitor alexander hamilton. they often collaborate and sometimes they found themselves on different sides. burr was capable, intelligent, very quickly rose through the political ranks in new york, became the united states sender and from there it was a short step to becoming a vice presidential candidate in 1796, an actual vice president in 1801. >> why was aaron burr considered a dark and compelling figure? >> he's a master. he kept his views to himself. he was thought of being a great political intrigue or. he was not hotheaded. he was very calm, a bit aloof. had a great deal of personal magnetism. i know one or two people actually have considered the possibility that he is a

sociopath. he was very good at many putting people, and moving himself into positions of political power. right in the and he apparently alienated everyone. he alienated the federalist political party, the republican political party. he alienated most of the leading political factions in his state of new york. and andy and, guns down an erstwhile friend and professional rival of this, alexander hamilton, in a dual killing of he was the sitting vice president. and from there moved on to the adventures in the southwest and was accused of treason against his own country. >> why did he get into a duel with hamilton? >> got into a duel with hamilton in the summer of 1804 during his final year as vice president. i think the thing that insecure that was a failed to win election as governor of new york and the blade that hamilton had

intrigue against them to keep them out of power. he knew he was not going to be reelected vice president, and so he sees the pretense of hamilton having said something unpleasant about burr, something described as despicable. so he very delivered chose to challenge hamilton on that. hamilton refused to explain himself, and, therefore, burr challenged him to a duel, a bit of industry as to why burr did that. even more a ministry that he kills hamilton who he was referred to as my friend, hamilton, whom i shot. but there's a great deal about burr that really isn't explicable. many people have theories but there's not enough evidence to support most of them spent what was he like as a person? >> absolutely charming. and very, obviously very interested in what the person he's talking to had to say. burr was also very capable at

reading people, i think, a very capable of interacting with people. one thing that we always hear about, or often hear about from people who no burr are his eyes. they are dark, thick letter, they are incredibly intelligent eyes. and you see over and over again people making reference to how striking burr's gaze is. he has all the charm of a sociopath, not the -- i think is a sociopath but some people believe he was a very high functioning sociopath. >> can you give an example of? >> the fact he shot one of his best friends in a duel and then told a very large number of lies about what he was doing in the west in order to attempt to raise money for whatever he actually was doing in the west. was he planning to invade mexico? was he planning to sunder the western part of the union from the rest of the united states? was he planning to march on

washington and proclaim himself the new president? or was he planning simply to settle lands in louisiana? he told many different people variations on all of these stories. they couldn't all be true, and, obviously, those stories were designed to manipulate people. and a lot of them believe him. >> when he was charged with treason, what was a treasonous act he committed? >> he was charged with treason, not conspiracy to commit treason but in the end he was acquitted in the trial of the century. the problem is yet told so many stories and so many different groups on the frontier were involved in so many different things. it was very hard for president jefferson and his prosecutors actually define anything that burr had actually done. the act that the prosecutors finally settled on took place on an island which was on the ohio river in the current a state of west virginia it back then it would have been virginia.

a man and his wife were wealthy irish settlers who had fallen under burr's spell and burr used the island as an initial staging area. one night in december of 1806, the ohio militia rode out to the island because there were many men they're preparing to get in boats and go downstream, ostensibly as part of burr's expedition. the militia attempted to arrest some of the ringleaders of their, and the other settlers pulled guns on them. and that, claimed the prosecutors, was the overt act of treason that is required by the constitution. burr himself was not there and ultimately the prosecution could not prove that burr himself had procured the act, had instigated it. and based on the ruling of circuit judge john marshall was

chief justice of the supreme court, but also serving as trial judge at this time, based on marshall's definition of treason, the fact that burr was not there and did not -- was enough to block any possible conviction of burr. >> why was it important to you to write this book? >> it's important to know what goes on in this event, because it's such an important moment in american history. the fact that the government was willing to charge burr with treason. usually governments don't, or at least the united states government, but i think any government doesn't really turn to treason prosecution unless it somehow feels itself on an unstable government, or gravely threatened. the united states government was the idea of different political parties, was still a new one. the idea of getting your head around the fact that a political party could be a post to your

policies and not opposed to the government itself was still a new idea. thomas jefferson, the president, who blamed burr for trying to steal the presidency from him in the disputed election of 1800 had a great deal of animosity to burr. you actually pronounced burr guilty before the trial took place. so you see politics in all its messiness. you see grand legal battles. you see personal battles over political power. you see policy battles. you see a great deal of insecurity among the leaders, and the fact that they're willing to charge burr at all. is truly quite a slice of everything from law to the geostrategy to criminal procedure the partisan politics. it tells us a lot about the government from many different directions. >> next from booktv's trip to making, the history from pre-civil war reconstruction from conie mac darnell, author

of "walking on cotton." >> serves as a metaphor for macon's history. when macon was first laid out in 1823, they faded out and nice square blocks with alternating large, wide boulevards, wider than washington, d.c. boulevard. savannah has its square to macon has its linear parks. but anyway, as they were laying it out, a farmer with a load of cotton on his wagon headed towards the river to market it down stream road right through the stakes that the engineers had laid out. and the engineers simply wove the angled road into the layout of macon, georgia. and in a lot of ways, it serves as the metaphor, as i said. make and history cannot be told in these square blocks.

there's so many things that happened here. it's really relates to our past, our present and our future where this park is, that's the old cotton avenu avenue come the oly road workout was taken to the river. and this park is named after rosa parks. now i'd like to take you on a view of some important places in macon, history note. one is to the home of widow bond. up on top of cold in hell and you can see a panorama of macon. and also to rose hill cemetery, a beautiful cemetery where a lot of things and people come together. this is cotton avenue, the old federal road. it's an interesting history. this was a lower creek trading path, and running along the fault line between the piedmont plateau and the coastal plain. and in 1803, 1804 when louisiana

was purchased, president thomas jefferson asked benjamin hawkins, the indian agent, said we need a good road to go down to new orleans, the natchez trace to tennessee, to the mountains is kind of strange and difficult and robbers and all that sort of stuff, so hawkins said there's the lower creek trading path. so they built that old road, a six-foot wide road and one of the first federal project, as a matter fact they didn't have money, they couldn't, there was no law that said that the federal government could build roads, but they said we're going to put the post office on it. i mean, it was a postal road, use it proposal than. anyway, they built the road, and 20 years later with a series of treaties, macon was founded in 1823. one of the important churches here in macon is the

presbyterian church, and it was built in 1858. they had two previous churches, but that was built in 1858. sidney lanier who was a young confederate private in the war, he also talks about the war from a completely different perspective. sidney lanier was captured and put in a prison point look out come and actually contracted tuberculosis there. very, very difficult time. but he wrote some of the most beautiful poetry, the most inspiring poetry that was ever written. he's a real southern poet, literary giant. he died at 39 years old. ♪ a not ♪

>> we are headed up towards the coleman hill, the antebellum house over there on the right. we are at the bond house. it's an antebellum home that was built by a railroad magna cum laude of the first railroads built in georgia, or the first, was between macon and foresight. they would send cotton down, in the late 1830s, and he built this house, and later sold it to joseph bond, the largest slaveholder in georgia, owned thousands of acres and hundreds of slaves. wealth and cotton went hand in hand. about 20% of southerners had slaves, and it was a very efficient and a lot of wealth was involved in the raising of cotton. and as you can see, this kind of house was built.

most houses were not like this of course, but the ones that did make a lot of money, it was pretty significant. what's also interesting about this house, it says on the top of this hill and you can see the rest of all of macon. when macon was finally captured, are actually surrendered, the war was actually already over in 1865, april 1865, joseph bond was the owner of this house actually was killed before the war. one of his overseers had abused a slave and he was chastising the overseer, and the overseer pulled out a pistol and killed the fellow who owned this house, joseph bond. but after, as the war came to an end and federal occupation of macon, this house was requisitioned by the general. general james harrison wilson who was federal general that captured making them he chose

this house for his residents, and widow bond was forced to move out. so we are heading up towards college street, which college street goes down towards the river, and down at the river is world's hill cemetery which is where we are heading. building 1840 but it's actually named after the fellow that laid it out, his -- he was a newspaper editor here in macon, and it was modeled after cemeteries in the northeast where he had come from. one of the most beautiful spots in all of macon turned into a cemetery. in fact, back in those days, early part of the 19th century, cemeteries were parks but as a matter fact the allman brothers love to spend time in rose hill. some of their songs come from characters that they found here in rose hill, right around this corner writer is martha, little

martha, one of the songs are you can see it right there, you can see little martha on the top of the tombstone. that was one of the songs. and they talked, played songs a lot about the railroad and getting on the railroad and leaving and all that. well, the railroad runs right next to rose hill here. and, of course, when duane allman, berry oakley, members of the band unfortunate died in a motorcycle wrecks here in macon, they were also buried here. ♪ >> one of the interesting stories that has a current nature to it is the story of the tracy them here in macon, georgia. tracy junior talks about his life. he was killed at vicksburg. he was a brigadier general and

is buried here in rose hill. his father was the second mayor of macon in 1825, and actually hosted general lafayette when he came through macon at about the same time, 1825. but the tracy, was originally from new york, and edward tracy junior had a brother by the name of -- and he was a major in the army, confederate army and fighting with the generally up in virginia. at the battle of sharpsburg he was killed. even though the confederate army won the day, they had to retreat across the river and the union army had the field. well, the tracy family from batavia new york heard about the battle and heard about him being killed. so francis tracy, the cousin,

thing down, found the body, dressed him up like a -- as a federal officer and transported his body back to batavia, new york, and buried him very quietly because of course during the middle of this war there was a lot of hostility on both sides about the enemy. what's interesting, if they can get very nature of the story was there was a comment in the batavia newspaper recently that commented on there being a confederate officer there in the batavia cemetery, and somebody had a confederate, small confederate flag, and all of a sudden there was a brouhaha about a confederate officer being buried there, and -- in but a few -- some are saying he is the only confederate officer buried above the mason-dixon line. it's interesting all of the sudden this thing that happened

150 years ago would engender such discussion and debate and research. it was a fascinating time, a very difficult time. 620,000 men were killed in the most vicious, one of the worst battles that it ever happen in this country. you could almost add up all the other wars combined, and that killed more american than any other time. but it is a very important time of our history. we can learn a lot about it by studying it and we can learn a lot about ourselves. >> this weekend booktv is in macon, georgia, learn about civil rights activist, reverend fred shuttlesworth fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in birmingham, alabama.

[inaudible] >> i know in my church right now, i hear words of my associates. [inaudible] ..

which arguably are the watershed events of the civil rights movement, the first really big thick jury other than the montgomery boycott, despite weeks of demonstrations in 1963 were based on seven years of work done in birmingham battling segregation and of course the commissioner of public safety was an icon of southern resistance to integration, o'connor. so there was a great of drama between the two in his latter years of the fifth is the first couple years of the 60s and it was jones who are too invited in

fact insisted that kenya, to birmingham and it took a while for king to decide to do that. but he finally did in 63, coming to the same opinion about birmingham that shuttlesworth did that segregation went in birmingham, so it would go because birmingham was well known as the most segregated city in the south and the one most committed to maintaining segregation. >> you can never if you don't keep them separate. you've got to keep the wife of the black separate. >> in 1958, connor was doing a number of things. he was in charge of the police department and fire department and one of the things he was doing using the police

department to give tickets to people who park their cars at the mass meeting in addition to that he would send the fire department to interrupt the meeting on the pretense that they are being fire hazard. this happened several times during that year that shuttlesworth became impatient with this and after the fourth or fifth time this has happened, the fire chief cayman, dégas and to a verbal confrontation. shuttles were from the pulpit of the fire chief standing in the middle of the church, imploring him to order the crowd to vacate the building and either add the meeting i take it to another

venue. and shuttlesworth says this is all just trying to stampede the meeting. we are going to stay here forever. you will have to try this out. no, this is for real. this is a real fire hazard. so once again come he gave and gave the order for the people to vacate. but then he got him one last zinger to achieve coming that there ain't no fire in here. the kind of fire we have an account put out with hoses and taxes. when i read that story, i thought that the title. >> economics act 40 years old --

[inaudible] >> the montgomery boycott had just been a chemist and shuttlesworth decided that segregation was unconstitutional and montgomery county must he unconstitutional 100 miles north in birmingham. he went to the press and said now the decision is made in romanian or rather in montgomery. it is time to make these changes in birmingham. so we look at the transit company until the day after christmas to make the changes voluntarily. if that doesn't happen to, i and x number of my followers will board the buses and sit in the front on a first-come first serve basis beginning on the morning of december 26. christmas night as he lay in bed about 9:15 at night, a bomb had been placed essentially under the floor in the crawl space of

his home, immediately under, as it turned out, his big. there had word was essentially six to eight feet away from the bomb, which had six to eight or so states that dynamite. it would amount and out of the bed. i'm not sure somewhat shielded him and he emerged with the upon the head, but no major injuries. in this occasion found his pants, one now. there is some anger and some weapons being brandished.

he gave a short nonviolent speech, saying this is not the time or place for that. and the clan planted that on in the bomb had my name on it. and so he has saved me to lead the fight. so the next day in spite of the bombing, in spite of the destruction of the front side of his house analysis and damage to the church because they were immediately adjacent to each other. he led the first integrated effort to read the buses 22 people not including shuttlesworth and elsewhere arrested that day. he's been saved from that experience can then to

working-class followers of shuttlesworth, poor and working-class. not middle-class, black families. this is a poorer church. but not just the church. by then, he had founded an organization called the alabama christian movement for human rights, which was about six months old at the time of the bombing. i interviewed one of the women of the church. she was in her teens when the bombing took place and was gathered outside of the home. she told me if we had actually made her to observe jesus walking on water, we would have not been more reverent when it

came out of the house tonight. [inaudible] >> up next from book tvs trip to macon, georgia, narratives of southern white women during the civil war. >> when i was in graduate school, a couple of things. one of southern literature, southern has jury. i have a minor in women's studies come a certificate in women's studies. i was interested in the way noncombatant claimed authority to write about war, especially working with the feminist theory that was prevalent perhaps in the late 80s, early 1990s

about women as pacifists. it's really curious about southern women who supported a war effort and talk about war. it was a meeting at those three things. one of my authors, ellen pascal, who again is a very popular southern writer from virginia said that the south needs, what the southern literature needs is loaded to nourish, but also irony of critical distance to write about its most recent past. the one that participate in a shared effort to create a version of the confederate war experience, even in the postwar writings as we move into second and third generations right with support for the confederacy. most saw the war as just. there were a few women who told without claim is distinctly southern stories of the war who

are pacifists. late 1890 turn-of-the-century, ellen pascal wrote three books. she did them in reverse order. she wrote one on the populace movement of the 1890s first and then she did one on the reconstruction era staff and then she did one on the civil war. i look at all three of those novels. she figured fairly prominently in my book. but that was her first that what southern literature needs is blood in irony. that's where the phrase comes from. the most well-known of the authors who wrote during the civil war itself is a woman named podesta jean adkins who wrote a civil war novel that came out late in the war of 1864 and it looks that what is the proper role for a confederate

woman? how can women in the confederacy support the war effort and yet remain true to gender conventions? that it's a tough one to negotiate. what is the proper way to demonstrate female patriotism. women were not to go in public give speeches. they were not to act. they dropped a public performances, so what kind of rules cooperman play during the war and yet show their support for the war effort. that is one of those early writings. there are not very many novels that come out during the civil war era. there are a lot of diaries, journals that come out and does tend to be published later. mary chesnutt is the most famous pitch he got the wartime diary, revise it herself in the late

1880s with an eye towards publication. she passed away in it was not published in her lifetime, but her literary executor's product in addition in 1905. another addition came out in 1941 mnd edition that scholars are familiar with came out in early may 1880s. these women saw themselves as participating again in a shared effort to create a confederate narrative of the war. the imperatives might change a bit over time, but they all saw themselves engaged in that particular project. in the 1880s, a popular new york magazine on the century magazine ran a series, battles and leaders of the civil war. grant contributed to that eerie and a number of generals and soldiers contributed to that

theory. they solicited manuscripts from folks and women rodin to describe what it was like on the homefront. i went to the new york public library and looked in the archives of century magazine in these women would attach letters to their manuscripts and say i am offering this to contribute to the series. if you don't like that, please send it back because i think i can place it elsewhere. so they were very clear that these postwar writings, you know, were designed for publication and if a publishing firm turned them down they intended to extend it to another magazine. they felt very strongly they had something important to say they were going to make sure there was an outlet that would let them say it. margaret mitchell and mary johnson i think her books cannot

in 1911, 1912 has been remarkably unromantic, unsentimental account of the civil war. it is very different from margaret mitchell's memory for her narrative that the war. i would perhaps throw in iowa's call her the poor woman. she wasn't poor, but for an associate the misfortune of publishing the civil war novel shortly after margaret mitchell. robert mitchell's novel came out. she had again a different kind of idea about the war and she was angry. i mean, she wrote to a friend something to the effect of margaret mitchell, they took her 10 years to write that the pair if i could have taken her 12? her book comes out six months, eight months after margaret mitchell's books, but all the trade has been asked out. readers shuswap nine civil war

novels after gone with the wind. critics wondered whether women wrote those battle scenes. is that possible? some wrote to publishers. sometimes it was expressed for readers which i was surprised that a woman could write title this way. so not necessarily doubt that you actually wrote it, but surprised that you written it. margaret mitchell armed herself with a long list of books that she used her research writing on with the wind because i think she knew she might come under attack, even now battle is perhaps a 10th of that. there is little war, but she had a valid list of some of these diaries that i'm talking about.

other novels that i talk about in this book. history she read in preparation so she had a kind of authenticity to her book for the women who participated and make this work quite seriously. they claim the authority about the war. the second plane is just how expensive than accommodating the market was for these women. they found that i'm not saying every woman who has her wrote anything ever got published, but i think i was surprised to see how many novels got published at any given time by southern women or how many diaries or how many versions of the confederate girlhood can get published in any given year. apparently alive. they are important ta

they are important takeaways from this study that there was an eager audience that matt did desire to this work that these women -- >> while visiting macon, georgia with cox communications, booktv ekes with lauretta hannon about her memoir, "the cracker queen." >> cracker queen describes a person with a certain state of mind and quality spirit that says no matter what life throws at her or him, because they can be anybody, you are determined to move forward, to learn and to grow from all of the hardship and life. not only do you move forward, you maintain your wicked sense of humor and determination that you will be a warrior, not effect them. and you have a lot of fun, too. you are not perfect. this is what is different from a lot of other models for women or

men should be. because you are no angel, it can mean two things. both the life of the party and the reason the police have to be summoned. so it is sort of a unique take on how to really respond to the bad things that happen to you and why those things don't have the damage here. they don't have to make you go in a bad direction. they can be the very things that make you forward. if "the cracker queen" is about anything, it's about how you respond to what is happening to you. you are not the bad stuff. you're the person that has emerged in response to how you set your mind about growing from it. "the cracker queen" is the story of my life come the stories coming up literally on the wrong side of the tracks right down the road from where we separate

now, heroines, renegade and bad days, otherwise known as mama mills. so, history of a family that is disintegrating, falling apart, but really trying to keep with the goddess. i found the humor was the most supreme coping skill. we always try to find some date in the darkest hours. so that is why my book is sort of have a dual nature. i'm the one hand, it is greedy. it covers very difficult subject matters that time. you know, violent and shameful things and alcoholism in the black and all this kind of death. but i also love in it was humid because that is how we were dealing with at the time. and so, "the cracker queen" is a story also about the power of love and forgiveness and

gratitude and purpose and again, the whole idea of moving forward through your pain really honestly say you can come out of this stronger and better. you have an interesting dynamic in my parents. my father was 21 years older than my mother. he was in world war ii. he was in the first little handful of gis declined the gate and to liberate dachau. he was a jazz musician. he was bohemian. he was a spiritual speaker. he was really different. he was rumored to be the first white boy in pittsburgh where's the new. so you have that going on. do you have an artistic, intellectual father and my mother grew up in a tar paper shack without running water, without electricity in a family that was so broke down and pour en masse to the one i read

tobacco road, the famous novel, i thought these people were almost middle-class. so she was pregnant at 15. not with my father, but another man. she just had a really hard scrabble early life. when a mac to make sure you have two people so different, but with a lot of spiritual affinity and hurt they brought even that was deep, deep transcendent love here. it made for a strange family. >> a lot of the book takes place right here near macon and because i grew up here and then we go to london. because to have their parts of georgia, where to school at the university of georgia and asked insulins where our bohemian music scene there and i found a wonderful mecca for you know, my

uniqueness, whatever you call it. so it's a little bit all over the map, but most of it is here in middle georgia. i needed to tell the story of my childhood so the last part of the book would make sense, so the reader with no way i'm espousing these to live joyfully and how to do because you have to know the road i walked. and also, i hope the disney credibility. not a silver spoon saint be happy and i'm calling for for the chauffeur. you know how jeff foxworthy became famous for his you might be a red neck if jokes. here are some telltale signs that you are seeing a cracker queen out there. here are some good ones. you might be see a cracker queen if you see a woman at the waffle house changing a diaper on the counter. you might be a cracker queen yourself if you have ever worn a

tube top to a funeral like me crazy and kerry did. here is one for you. here's a world grandmother arkwright or another in your family. wrestling was real but the mailman came with state. so those are some examples. if you've ever given your last dollar to that good looking creature, but it's a for sure. the first thing is keeping your senses humor and having a playfulness about you. being able to look at the worst times of your life in looking for the things you can learn from. those are some thanks. in the cracker korean world cup where they cracker queen posse. a whole community developed around this wonderful folks. the cracker queen posse has a few and give you a couple.

we have a few tenets we live by. number one and the greatest command if we keep this data shall be god asked. so that is number one. really, this has to do with, again, not being a victim. taking ownership for whatever's going on in your life coming up they blaming other people, being transparent, candid and honest in choosing to be happy. and realizing an exit you need to a choice. the way i grew up in especially on another side of the family, i'd come from so many generations of extreme poverty, type things, every kind of shameful, awful, beat down kind of thing you can go through so that when you come along in a family like that, you don't realize you have many choices. you think the people who live on

the other side of the tracks, that is for them. i wasn't even open for people like us. we didn't even have a car. and so, it is almost like a form of mental oppression that you are born with and reinforced. you have to break out of that. so that is a big part of the cracker queen thing. my goodness, there is no shame in your game, girl, is there? of course there is because all the things happened as i was growing up, i was responsible for them. that's not my shame to carrier to hold onto. in the story mama and the chain game, as i said when i was at preschool, before he started school i had my days hanging out with my mom, we lived right around in the cadillac we had because my father won it in a poker game. he gave us respect ability, but he was won over a card game we

would on occasion ran into the men working on the chain gang, the convicts on the side of the road. and when that would happen, mom and i would always have a plan and a great adventure would ensue. there wasn't much to do in the early 1970s, but right around. so that is what mom and i did. during their preschool days, we told around in the utter colored cadillac, which was stocked with vodka and orange juice. i sat on the arm rest in the front seat, was airbrushing from events. this is he for child seats and air bags, but i have the ultimate protection of mama's arms of steel. her arm would nail me against c. our greatest adventures involve chain gangs, caruso convicts working by the road. we never set anyone a shank in a homemade cake are provided the getaway car, but what we did do

was just as thrilling. when they happen upon this cruise, we rushed to the nearest convenience store and curt cigarettes for them. we might have been broke, but humble with never cheap. she bought the best brand. marlboro, winston's. my job was to break up the curtains so we could hurl packs out the window. timing was crucial as the men had to up the cigarettes before the boss man and his shotgun could intervene. not once did we drive by without doing something. our mission was to import way to find. the excitement never faded. we didn't know when or where we came upon a chain game and i was always a surprise and call to action regardless of where we were going or what her plans made bad. mama went for a plushy wisher contact had been made. the paper with a front seat and press my face over the back

window. i loved watching the prisoners while in hoist the packs high above their heads as we fled in a car afraid guys. sometimes one of the main cried, but i knew he wasn't sad. as a 4-year-old, i saw the radical happiness i had caused for the first time i became aware of my own power and it felt good. i savored long into the distance. once they were out of sight, i stretch across the backseat and some men in stripes with their wide grins and salty tears. >> for more information on tvs recent visit to macon, georgia and cities he visited our local content vehicles, go to c-span.org/local content.

>> up next on booktv, "after words" with guest host dana priest, intelligence reporter for. john rizzo with