on book tv known as the city at fort myers for its beaches and fishing and a popular tourist destination. >> of a river in itself first became a boundary back in the 1830s in that time, we had the second seminole war going on. he's becoming very concerned about the cost of the war so they sent to general alexander who was the commanding officer of the entire united states army

at that point down to florida with the orders to stop in the seminole war. >> robert kennedy spoke at the new england law institute about the impact into this is what he said. it is an obscure conflict had not sat down in jail with a pencil and paper to write to the supreme court and of the court t had taken the trouble to look for the merits in that petition among what it must receive every day, the machinery and the american law would have gone undisturbed.

first visited fort myers and purchased this property for his family's winter retreat until thomas is back in 1931. in 1947 she needed the property to the city of fort myers. >> it's an incredible book about fort myers and the legacy that is left. i didn't have time to do that, and i had some difficulties, have to work. while i was researching the book i had to go to new jersey and if they had some of their original artifacts and i was in this warehouse digging into a cardboard box full of original

documents and i pulled out a handful that fell on the ground. i reached over to pick it up and low and behold it was a 16 page handwritten account of the tripo the everglades of 1914. it started out being a very nice day. there were five cars and bottled teas and they had -- model t.'s. they also had henry ford and claire ford and other friends.

they then went over to a place called rock lake which was a very obscure place in the woods and they set up the pretense which they had ready for this trip. one was reserved and then they had a tent for the women and the men. they had a dinner that night for supper out in the woods and all of a sudden his plac wife said everybody just go to your tent now but before she could finish her statement it started raining like you have never seen before. the conversation went on and it was just incredible.

she recalled an unusual tropical storm that on rare occasions were miserable in this part of the country. the members of the exposition came one by one into the tent. but by the time they arrived the language contained they laid her founder wrapped in mosquito netting. he worked here every year. his last project started and the

reason for that was he had an experience during world war i for trying to getrying to get ce couldn't get because of world war i ended they were surrounded by german u-boat and he didn't want the shortage to occur again he needed a source for them and because you use a lot of rubber on the basic automobile and because of all that, they started to be research corporation to find a new source

of water from a vegetable that could be reprinted every year and if you had a cut off you would be in trouble and that is what he was working for he wasn't really working for a finer solution for rubber he was working for that emergency. thus worse we had four rubber back then boast were controlled by the japanese and there were tons of personal letters and she described what they were having for lunch and supper and she

wrote each one of her children, she wrote letters to her son charles saying i detest the people down here. sometime in the early 20s she had been at tiffany and became a part of the town. she was involved in the organization. >> it was fun to come here and eat and sit on the swings after dinner on the porch and to walk around we like to do that and she loved to ride around and see things. she was interested about

everything going on in the town and with different people. she was very curious about that and anything new that happened she wanted to know about it and be involved. she was very easy to know and to be with. and as ic i say she was curiousd wanted to know what was going on. and we even went to the bar on broadway one night because she thought i wonder what's going on. i was with them and she talked to dot owner. >> she came back in 1932 the year after her husband died. and when she was pulling out of the train, she wrote a letter

that was extra in the difficult. someone very dear to me from any other place. we are attached to those in fort myers in a different way from others. >> from the recent tri their reo fort myers florida learn about the supreme court case gideon versus right that paved the way for being available in all court cases. >> the attorney general robert kennedy spoke after the new england law institute about the impact of gideon and this is what he said. it's an obscure florida conflict named gideon hadn't sat down in jail with a pincer and people to write a letter to the supreme court and if the supreme court

had taken the trouble to look for the marriage and that one petition among all of the bundles of mail it must receive every day the vast machinery of the law would have gone on functioning undisturbed but gideon did write that letter and the course of the history it has been changed. because of taking up this pencil is why we have public defenders available. clarence gideon was an interesting man. he was a literate drifter definitely familiar with the law. he had caugh gotten in and out f trouble most of his life. his early history as he ran from home eighth grade is that he's educated to the eighth grade. he ended up spending three years oin the juvenile institution and

after that he was one of those guys who always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. it was june 31961, and the bay harbor pool hall had been broken into. gideon was supposedly there. eyewitnesses had seen him leave from the back alley. when the police investigated, they found that the window had been broken. someone had broken into the vending machine and have taken wine, cigarettes, some coke and approximately $65 in change. as they said that he was a shady character and by that time he was approximately 51-years-old and he pretty much lived by running car games so gambling. he was a gambler. they found him at a different

bar and he had about $25 but most of it was in claims and they just assumed during him and his past record they arrested him for larceny and breaking and entering. what's interesting and what struck me about the case is that it would have been a misdemeanor. but breaking in made it a felony. in early august is when his case was actually tried. and he asked the judge for a lawyer because he was a director, he had no money, couldn't afford an attorney and they denied it saying that in the state of florida they only provided legal counsel when it was a capital case meaning rape, murder, the defendant is convicted would go to prison for life or face a death sentence.

but it was that element of the breaking and that made it a felony. he wasn't given time to prepare and of course the eyewitness -- there were two eyewitnesses that showed him near the scene and so he was found guilty by the jury. the judge sentenced him to five years after reviewing his criminal history so he was adamant that the amendment guarantees us the right to counsel. the way that had been interpreted up until this time was you have the right to hire an attorney if you choose yes you can have an attorney if you hire one. at that time most of the states capital offense automatic if you couldn't afford an attorney or hire one yourself one would be

provided. so at this point, florida was among 13 states that interpreted the law the way they did saying it's only for a capital crime. but he felt at the 14th that thh amendment is the due process amendment. the right for due process and he was adamant his due process had been violated by the denial of an attorney when he requested one. so that is what he i he stuck o. that was in his head. he was a stubborn man but again, his perseverance is what led to these events that unfolded. so, when he was sent to prison he immediately found at the library at the jail and he started studying. according to anthony lewis who

wrote gideon's trumpet which became the hallmark movie in 1980, gideon admitted to not understanding a lot of what he read. one of the documents i use in the research was his actual the letter that he wrote to the supreme court asking for the case to be reviewed. you could tell that he was studying other court cases and trying to model them. he was actually submitted a rate thabut he felt that means the ct is going to review it. if they look at it they are going to say we are going to review this case. he didn't even understand that what he was asking. he was using this term but what

he thought is that they were going to say you get to be released from prison because he would unite your due process. so when that happened, when the court said we will review the case, he was upset because he assumed he was going to walk out of the jail. they argued before the florida supreme court in defense of gideon, and the questions that the court was asking were canned a lame and defend himself before oregon state trained lawyer and that was the difference is that really we can't. and so that is how the tables turned. what he worked for as the

attorneattorney general for floe was sent to washington, d.c. to argue for the state of florida. he has petitioned all the states to say if this takes place the state of florida had roughly 5,000 inmates that might be affected that essentially had to defend themselves. ..

>> he was upset. he thought, i don't want another child. he felt that it was being violated and he was being violated for the same crime. so it's a perfect example of the irony here. because they didn't truly understand the law. he had such intense believe on our constitution to protect its

citizens. and that is what i find so fascinating about this entire case and all of the steps that take place. so we have actually written to to lawyers and asked if they would defend gideon in a second trial and they agreed to they didn't really connect somehow. he was bitter and he really felt that he should not have a second child. so he ended up -- he actually told the lawyer or the judge that he wanted to not let that happen. so we ended up finding a lawyer

and he said you know, the due process may have been violated. case may have been thrown out. and of course tv is oversimplifying everything. and so aranda was basically part of the council when you request it and you expanded it. and that is the other thing that is important about this book and something that was reiterated for me. and so i tried to show when i talk about schools and the books or anything, understanding how our constitution is organic. and it is the job of the supreme court to constantly be reviewing and interpreting how it is

interpreted by the country and every state. again, that is something that gideon was not aware of. i think most people are not aware of that. so it's important to understand that that is why there are cases and little adjustments made in his understanding this and clarifying how it is interpreted. so then i think that we are not as likely to take things for granted and that is why it we have the right to not be tried for the same crime twice 30 really didn't understand those right, but it got the tears rolling to what we all benefit from today. >> next from booktv's trip to fort myers, florida, we visit to

location in the book called the living coast. >> the reason i wrote the book was in hopes that people by getting to know these animals would become loving to them. words that are commonly found, first, mammals and reptiles and amphibians as well, including the snakes and lizards as well and the turtles. and the whole back section is where you can go in southwest florida and where you can go to actually find them. so it's kind of like a cheat sheet to nature. so today we will see the refuge and some islands that we didn't visit. we are also going down to lovers kees state park. but it has some of the prettiest reaches an obviously has abundant wildlife has all kinds

of shorebirds and it's just a great place to visit when you're down here in fort myers. we are standing down here and they have identified 238 species of birds and another empty species of reptiles and amphibians. so in terms of this overtime they renamed it in his honor. he was a cartoonist from des moines, iowa. he won several pulitzer prizes and he was very into nature. and i think he was actually a follow through with teddy roosevelt when conservatives,

being conservative men for the compilation of nature. those two words were intertwined and so he was very much into preserving this for people to enjoy. 5200 acres and these tidal flats that are right behind me. you can see when the tide gets low all the birds come in here to feed because they can get to the crowd and all of the different things and if you come in here, ironically when the tide is high, there are no words to be seen. sometimes you can drive you not see the alert. so you always have to come in when the tide is low. so i think it's over 800,000 visitors a year and this is the second most visited wildlife preserve in the united states.

they spend the winters down here and the summers up in montana and northern minnesota and they are all moving ahead. they don't dive light brown pelicans but they've read with their beaks and what they're doing is pushing the minnows ahead of them in scooping them up and it's very rare to the them be. and so you can see they have their heads down and they are trying to eat little crustaceans down there. so we are standing at the manatee overlook at the state state park. in choosing all the places that we chose, sarah what i would do is contact the visitor's convenn bureau and then as kind of a alternative, i contacted all the autobahn organizations and asked them about it and the lists were

never the same. you have to hit the beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in all of southwest florida. no development, which makes it so wonderful. and so the beach and the bushes in the trees. so second only to the island for shelling and hopefully we will see some alligators with an alligator pond that we will visit as well. so we are on the blackwood's trail and we are at the alligator pond and behind me are seven alligators. one is rather large and six little babies ranging in size from about 2 feet to 3 feet and this is one of the only accessible freshwater ponds

here. and they were in danger years back. but no longer. they are doing a great recovery as we can see behind me. there is one important thing and don't feed them anything but crust of bread, nothing. because what happens is they way people with food and that is the cause of most of the alligator attacks. because people feed them. it is a beach is beautiful is one as you can get anywhere in the world. i'm standing here on the edge of the state park at the beach. about 1700-acre park. i think that beaches overall miles long and it's taken care of and managed by the state park system. not affiliated with any kind of national park or wildlife

refuge. the gulf of mexico is different from any other body of water. if you go off of montauk, it's deep almost instantly. here in the gulf of mexico to get to 100 feet of water come you have to go 40 miles. it is so shallow and in that shallow pan, that is where all the shelves collapse. and so when the storms turn out like they did this past weekend, the shelves break free and the animal inside guys and they wash up on the beaches here. and you can find two to 300 different varieties. the reason i included this in a nature guide to southwest florida is because it offers a multitude of recreational opportunities. you have the beach, which is a given and it is gorgeous. you also have all of these canoe trails and how bored trails.

and you have hiking trails as well. so whatever kind of nature appeals to you on a given day, you can find it here and hopefully the living gold coast will teach people about the youthful nature of southwest florida and indiana make in the end make them want to conserve it and appreciate it as well. >> coming up next, the book "peace river boundary." a story of war and peace in southwest florida. the author spoke with booktv during our recent visit to fort myers, florida, with the help of our partner, comcast. >> the book is actually called "peace river boundary" and it is these on the events that took place in this area from the late 1830s up until the late 1860s. the river itself first became a

boundary in the 1830s and at that time we had the second seminole war going on and it was a lot more starting in the early 1830s and into the 1840s. by the 1839 president martin van buren was becoming very concerned about the cost of the war and it was taking up 10 to 15% of the national budget. and he was very to learn about funding the national government at that time. so he sent general alexander was the commanding officer at that point down to florida with the orders to stop the second seminole war. general make him really didn't know exactly how to go about that. and suggested that the seminoles probably want something so give it to them.

so he comes down and he takes a number of weeks coming down through virginia, the carolinas, he finally get to the ferry landing, which is a race up there near jacksonville and he wants to find a seminal to cut a deal with. he doesn't find any seminoles there. the people say, well, you're probably going to have to go down to fort king and that is where ocala is now. so he goes all the way down the demarcation road and it was set up many years ago after the first award and in those days it went from around jacksonville through ocala down into tampa. at that point the seminole indians had been assured that if they go south of the road they could stay there indefinitely. they established farms and

plantations and all of this sort of thing and then as people were coming down from the north, they realized that there was a lot of good land south of that demarcation road. and so that they got involved battling over this territory. going all the way down the demarcation road to 14 which is sort of a ramshackle place and the people who were assigned their with the union army troops at that time, they were very happy to be there. because the story was at that time there were a lot of ways to die in florida and none of them were especially pleasant. and that could be anything from malaria to yellow fever and being bit by one of the various snakes and involved with the

indian confrontations. at any rate what happened is when the general got here they waited until the seminole indians came in to pick up supplies and at that point they found some indians and they wanted to know if they could negotiate with these indians and the indian agent baer said well, maybe one of them. so they decided to do is put up a big sort of meeting lodge out side of this area and the general went through the difficulty of bringing these very nice uniforms down with him and so he got all dressed up and the band played hail to the chief and he goes out into the tent area to actually meet with the seminole indians and he did not speak this, so he wanted

someone to do the translation and they said that they had a slave that they had recaptured and when you finish one of the indians there, they said you have a conversation that went on for a few days and he said we will leave you alone and you can go down if you go south. and they brought out a big chart that you go south and east of the pea creek area that comes into charlotte harbor.

they refer to this as the peace river and so that is what some people have said when the name has come from. so the idea being they could live here and be here for forever and always in the white people could come down and it gives tracts of land if people would come down and this took

place in about 1839. finally the war comes to an end. we had the peace river out here which is supposed to be the boundary for forever and always in that last for about 10 years. ten years before we have this third seminole war and the third one occurred because they found out that there is a lot of good land on the side of the river. so the third war is sort of a guerrilla activity and in the book i talk about the ending of the second seminole. the florida is initially a territory and it eventually becomes a state. this includes the decisions

being made elsewhere at that time. many of them were being made in washington. also in tallahassee. and the impact of these decisions is calling upon the people that live here and so that is what we are getting involved a in the book. to some degree and talking about what happens when very ordinary people get into positions of extraordinary power. and we take a look at some of the policies put through by the president and the members of the senate and what have you at that time. eventually we come to the window where the late 1850s, probably the most qualified man in the world to ever become president of the was james buchanan. and he came into office with the avowed purpose of seizing cuba and he was even involved when he was serving as an ambassador in

europe, which said that the united states is part of its manifest destiny and so if you want to go back to manifest destiny, that is an idea and a concept is sort of gets overlooked in the history books because she was very involved with the revolution in texas and she is working in havana. until all of this is going on. mr. buchanan was not successful in this role because at that point there was a new political party in the north, the republican party, which comes into power and it goes into control of the united states and i would say probably the united states house of representatives was about as effective at getting things done and that is

another whole issue. nevertheless all of this is going on in the 1850s and then lo and behold because of the republican party rising to power up north, they pick out a railroad attorney and they run him for president in 1860 and he doesn't show up on any of the ballots down here. no one had a chance to vote for him. but they voted for him up more than the democrats had some difficulties. they had a convention or and they had 56 votes to pick out a candidate to run for president and they couldn't do it. so after 56 votes they went home. so they pick mr. douglas from illinois. democrats get together and they

take mr. breckinridge to run for president and the people who didn't like douglas or breckinridge, they met and they picked mr. bell to run for president. so the democrats ran three candidates for president in 1860. some interesting situations and when that one candidate won the election, people in the south were shocked and horrified and dismayed and they started dropping out of the union. and so they had a big celebration of and tampa and they were happy to leave the union and become a separate independent state. so as i said there is a lot of report for the confederacy in north florida and down in south

florida we had a different situation so key west was largest city in the state at this time. it's the largest city in the state. key west was originally established by people coming out of connecticut and new york and new jersey. the people coming into this region people did not own many slings. so it was not an issue down here. the people down here are primarily independent and what have you and so when the confederacy needed manpower and

money to support the civil war they got involved with taxation and they sent the tax nerds down into this area in lieu of taxes and then they pass the conscription act saying that you could be called up to serve between 18 and 24 years old and the american forces. men did not want to do that. many of them off their land and they moved out to a separate island. so the union may be fed these people. that's a nice thing to do. as a result, they formed a union rangers organization and later on the second floor to calvary union at fort myers.

in the book i talk about how two of the characters up north at the time of the american civil war are around fort meade. and they found out initially he was a yankee. so they chased him out of town and he ends up up in fort meade and he runs into the fellow that he knew before, floyd, who was a black slave initially. so they have come down to peace river in a dugout canoe the swamps are farther up the river. they encounter this as they chase the blockade runner. they capture the blockade runner and after they do that they take

the two characters and because floyd happens to be black, they put him into the united states navy, which they were doing at that time and they take harry back to key west. so because harry had the experience of being involved in the second seminole war and what have you, terry given a commission in the pennsylvania regiment. in leon he is sent over to the island to organize the troops over there and they go back and take over. then they take the people up and they capture from fort myers. but all of these things we are talking about, things happen here in this area from about 1839 until about 1869. later on happen in american

history, a big impact upon what happened in the years following that time. so when you come to the state of florida, the farther south you go the more northern it becomes. a lot of that has to do with the influence of key west and what took place back here in the league 1800s and that is what the book is about and the story is about and this is of course charlotte harbor. you can't see it but up north you can see the peace river coming on through. >> next from booktv's recent trip to fort myers, florida, take a behind-the-scenes look at the southwest reading festival. >> now in its 15th year, an annual literary event sponsored

by fort myers library in fort myers, order. it includes read3 it includes readings and book signings. >> we recruit the best booksellers. we breach the level where we do entice and bring in the best elling authors. so we don't always get who we asked for. we get who is available. but it basically boils down to the calendar. we tried to treat our authors really well so they won't come back again and again. and so that helps us and the bottom line is that they are there to sell their books and so we try to facilitate that as best as we can. we started as a local and

regional author festival but we've grown and we know that those people are very important to us and that is where the marketplace comes in, which is full of love. this year we had an author that is very popular. it's been that way in the past as weopular. it's been that way in the past as well. and so it takes two hours and after the festival people think that we are done. we are grateful for everyone because we are trying to improve

and make it better. the end of may is when we go to book expo america and that makes the largest tradeshow in north america for our publishers and book and authors. their r&d planning who they are going to the in their day is every 10 or 15 minutes. they want to talk to every author and publisher. and so it just keeps on going. the reading festival is 100% founded by grants and donations and sponsorships. so it's totally self-supporting and it's my job to raise about $100,000 every year on average. we generate that $100,000 immediately right back in the

community. all of these authors, we have a record number of them. we have about 44 flights into and out of of fort myers. specifically just within those authors and then we do market also throughout the state. we've had people fly in because of the draw. so i can tell you how much generate, but there's a lot of tourism that is developed through the reading festival. some may wonder why the library does this. and truly bringing our services to the community is quark's. number one is to increase the awareness of the things that the library does. we draw people into what we call our library at the festival and explain to them of our rate services. and we explained to them about

and it's very important, they need to know when new services come onboard and we need to keep people aware of that. so that is number one. library services. number two is to increase literacy because studies have shown that those who embrace literacy have aim much more upward and mobile society and they know more about nutrition and fitness because they read and because they are concerned about children and there's less crime and the whole community benefits. we also like to bring that community together. >> of visiting fort myers, florida, with the help of comcast, here from the diary of samuel grossman. captured in 1864 and the federal

army. >> he goes into war. he enlisted in 1861 and by 1864 he was captured by the confederate. he served at the andersonville president which is the most horrific military prison to have existed and he survived all of the battles and diseases and sickness and being homesick to finally the war is over and it's 1865 and he's on a book coming home in the bow collides into another vote and he drowns. so he survives everything and he is actually almost home and it really is just that he's a young boy. he was 21 years old. one of 11 children and the

parents emigrated from england. they settled in new york. they had five children with them when they got to new york. then they had another three children and that was the whole family. they enlisted with the brother, joseph, who was just two years older than him. they enlisted together just a couple days apart and they served together in the name regimen and after the battle at sharpsburg, he was injured and he was in the hospital. his brother lost his life and got killed during the battle. so here you have samuel in the hospital recovering and having to write a letter to his parents and family saying that he had lost joseph. the older brother daniel served in new york and he only served six months and then he had health problems and they sent him home. so on april 20 is one the confederate soldiers get close enough and they get into a small

skirmish and as he says, the reds took a saw and took their whole company and they started traveling them down to georgia which was originally camp sumner what became known as the andersonville prison. so on the fourth of may when they finally arrived at andersonville, he writes rose this morning at sunrise and began to look around and found a pleasant looking place. i only got to look inside the stockade where i'm likely to stay quite a while where my blood cold in my veins and this was never told to me. and that is when he realized where he was in another description he says how was dark and black and it just had this stench to it and it just kind of sat over the whole prison at night. sometimes you could not even see the stars. at the height of it around june

or july there were about 45,000 men on just over 500 acres of land and of course there's no sanitation and there's hardly any food. there was a band of men that god dubbed the raiders because the minute that a new batch of prisoners came in, they would go up to them and take anything they had weather was a pocket knife or a shirt or boots. they would rob these prisoners and they brought them to trial and ended up hanging 16 of them. so the weather was clear and hot and greasy. they departed. many of our boys running down and i find that we will scarcely have a company left. the mortality throughout the camp is great.

and so weather, clarity without rain, another of our regiment has gone the way of all on earth. the rebels seem to be particularly wanted to kill the men at present. as many men have been shot by the garden today one man was killed just because his head when a few inches inside the line. and so when he says the line, he's referring to what they called the deadline and that was basically the boundaries along the 500 some acres where they were imprisoned and you are allowed to reach over to some of the creeks to get water. but if you cross that creek without line, they didn't fire a warning, they just shot you dead the minute you cross that line. and so he mentions it a few times. so another thing i can imagine him doing is from april to december while he was there, over 50 people were a part of

his country that he knew from neighboring towns where he grew up. i mean, 50 people died within nine months or so. and yet they are saying some words and things like that. but you can't imagine how many people you know and then 50 of them die. here he says he got up at 2:00 o'clock to watch for in the raiders. the stench was incredible and the smoke hung over us like a pall and then he just says that he watched a shirt in the morning and many rumors of exchange. and that was something -- or something where they are going to get exchanges, there's rumors going around that this is going to be the day that they get released or get exchange. it was from april until december before he finally did get released. some men came out.

there were skeletons when they got released. they all started to go home and report back to their regimen. and i just know from the diary that he went straight home and home at last the were overjoyed. i rose to eat either person i went to see daniel and his wife. found him and everyone seems glad to see me and ready to do me a favor. i'm so glad to find everybody doing while that i can scarcely believe that i am really home. and then 1865, president abraham lincoln calls for more volunteers to finish the war. so he dreamless and serves about four months in april and then he's on his way home when the accident happened. and originally i was researching my great-grandfather who served in the same regimen from

connecticut. and in my research i all of a sudden found a document from the historical society. so he was in the same regimen is my great-grandfather and i thought, okay, when we go to the library and they probably have the transcription of it, maybe they knew each other and i was surprised when i went there that they had nothing on that family and they had nothing about him being in the service and that got me to go up to hartford and after reading the diary a few times i decided to start transcribing it in the various ways that it can be shared. so is fortunate when i grew up

one town over from him. a very good friend of mine is the town historian and he knew the owners of the house where the family lived for about 60 years and he spent the last two years of his life before going into the war. he was able to introduce me to them and they welcomed me into the house and gave me a tour of the home. it was kind of strange to be in there knowing that he was standing right here. he was touching this fireplace and now i am in the south during that. and it was his name thing. i take a road trip up there to andersonville. even though that is a nice wyatt park that you can go to and have a picnic and walk around, it is just knowing so much about what it was some hundred plus years ago. so it's really -- it was very eerie walking around with everything that happen.

>> for more inforpen. >> for more information on booktv's recent visit to ft. myers, florida and the many other cities visited by her local content vehicles, go to c-span.org/local content. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2. here's our primetime lineup. at 7:00 p.m. eastern, mallory factor provides a history through the words of some of the people that shaped it. and at 7:45 p.m., young people today should be optimistic about gove today should be optimistic about government service and learn from those who work in congress what was more productive. at 845, since world war i u.s. foreign policy has been wavering, uncertain and plagued by internal conflict much like today. at 10:00 p.m., ezekiel emanuel is on "after words" or it he talks about his book reinventing american health care. and we conclude our primetime programming at 11:00 p.m.

eastern with jim demint. the former congressman discusses how we can fix our social and economic problems. that happens tonight on booktv. >> what you find on the larger corporate set yours are typically the things that would appeal to the broadest audience were those that are generally perceived as most profitable. and what i have discovered it's not the stuff that actually feeds us was going to uplift us. so if we are going to be able to share information about things that truly enrich us, all of your going to have to help do that. because the large corporations simply will not do it. it's not in their interest to do it and they haven't demonstrated a propensity to do it.

but one of the things that i feel is lacking is that lately, it's our willingness to promote this and we are losing and hemorrhaging the platforms. so there's a good side and a bad side to the story. i bought a list of the bookstores that have closed since i started keeping track of them. this is a list of bookstores that have closed. >> these are independent bookstores across the nation. >> what is the account? >> over 100. >> 300? >> this is how many in this is counting the university.

so we were to look at the number of independent bookstores in this country, it's less than 50. so when we talk about the number of bookstores for black person in this country, we are looking at numbers like 800,000 to one. states like alabama and the last one close i think last year. i mean, i'm getting upset just thinking about it and i don't feel that i have this anger anywhere. >> you can watch this and other programs at booktv.org. >> here's a look at events we will 10 this week. you can look for them to air on booktv on c-span2. on monday we are in cambridge,

massachusetts at the harvard bookstore where ian morris will argue that 15,000 years of war has advanced civilization. then we are on the west coast is this recently published book, living with a wild dog, is that book passage bookstore in california. also, we are in barnes and nobles and los angeles. he speaks with author anthony swofford. and then criminal justice professor george michael discusses the history and current impact of political situations in the united states. for more information go to our website. to be.org. visit upcoming programs. >> one of the real signatures is

how this works. some of it is good and some of it is bad. this is 10 years before the regulators guarded asking tough questions. to what's going on with the humility of impact and what about all this water and isn't some of this causing earthquakes these are really important question and i think one of the important things is we were so far into the, when you start looking at these there are answers out there. there are solutions and ways to do this better and write. >> the good news and bad of racking. one of the authors is the tv attends the san antonio book festival. an online at booktv.org. watch the two-time winner of the

pulitzer prize. alan taylor in his book on the civil war. and april's in-depth guest, bing west. join the conversation at booktv.org/bookclub. >> in ecclesiastes in the old testament, that there's nothing new under the on. everything that has been taught before has been taught before. and everything has been done before. some talk about looking to the past, updating it as necessary and moving forward. if you go to another country for the first time, you usually get a guidebook to find out where the best hotels are in restaurants and places to be avoided. these are people who have gone before us. and we have the founders of our country who understand this is

the least as well as the preachers of the day and they have created a constitution that establish boundaries for government that limit liberty for its citizens. i believe that is getting out of whack and we have exceeded that and that is why we have so many challenges that we have today. >> okay, so you weren't saying disengage from public life in a public square, but people would write they get that perception given the emphasis on simply focusing on the individual capacity and individual responsibility. looking away from government, don't look to government to meet your needs. look to the individual and look to god. >> yes, i think that's where it all begins. and the founders certainly saw some power delegated from the people to the government. not the government overpowering mass. that is why government is growing so big and dysfunctional. i don't think there's anyone in being the biggest liberal who

thinks everything is working well and we ought to just keep pouring more money in. the great writer and a friend of mine, tom, he says much of the social history of the western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what works with what sounded good. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> here's a look at books are being published this week. elizabeth warren recounts her professional life in a fighting chance. how and why we should change the constitution, john paul stevens reflects on his tenure of the high court in what he feels need to be drafted to preserve democracy. and jo becker, investigative reporter for "the new york times" provides political and legal discussions on forcing the

spring, it inside the fight for marriage equality. and in border security, why drugs are not making us any safer, the former air force officer and air force agent investigates the impact of drug smuggling across the u.s. border. and a columnist for the boston globe recounts the life of joseph smith, the founder of mormonism and his assassination in 1944 in american crucifixion, and the fate of the mormon church. what do these titles and bookstores this coming week and one for the authors in the near future on booktv and on booktv.org. >> we should have finished al qaeda in 2001. i think all of us think back that we were attacked on 9/11.

and we had al qaeda and osama bin laden trapped and we didn't finish them off and then we let them escape over the mountain because we said that was pakistani territory. can you imagine during world war ii when we had them changing the entire war against japan, yelling across the international date line in the pacific and attacked the japanese, destroy their fleet in 1942. went across the international date line. supposing he had turned back and read that as the international date line and they have said that if we don't process, we will take this part of the pacific and he will take back and we will live happily ever after. we get to the mountains in the middle of nowhere and we allow al qaeda to escape.

it makes no sense. our entire country had become more legalistic and we should have gone and finished it right then. >> this month, the wrong war. join in the discussion at booktv.org. white on sunday, look for our next in-depth guest. his work includes the award-winning always running in his 2011 release it calls you back. on booktv every weekend on c-span2. >> here's a quick peek at some upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country. the south carolina book festival takes place at the columbia metropolitan convention and under. james clyburn will be there to discuss his book blessed experiences. on may 17 it is the gaithersburg

book festival and you come up several events from the fest will live on booktv on spam too. on may 29 through the 31st, booktv will be talking about the publishing industry's annual trade show in new york city. and also live from the printers row lit festival, be sure to check back for more information regarding the booktv coverage. and let us know about book fairs and festivals in your areas and we will be happy to keep you updated. >> the roots into this is essentially a great and difficult contentious including lunatics and monsters and a commands reverence.

and this includes a properly heavy sense of sorrow. and they exercise it especially in europe with wild political passions. either way, i wanted not to avoid these issues and i say that i am a zionist and this is such a kind of shocking thing to day in britain. one of the commentaries on this was very well disposed towards himself. so not that he meant it was like this but he said it was sort of an extraordinary mission and my aim was to recover this.

anyone who knows what i feel, i'm not an uncritical individual. and so i don't always love and support everything that the government do. but most of my israeli friends feel the same way and that entitles you somewhat to a legitimate stance that criticizing this policy. so i wanted to say that the story is bigger than that. and above all jewish history is your history as well. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. booktv recently spoke with scholars at the american enterprise institute located here in washington dc to write out what they are reading. paul wolfowitz is currently

explaining that as we approach the 100th anniversary of world war i, this classic book is timely once again. and sally sentelle is reading a short story in order to see war through the eyes of the soldier. be sure to check our website for air dates and times in the coming weeks. and best-selling author charles murray is reading the sun also rises. that is a quick look at what some of the scholars the american enterprise institute are reading. >> booktv attended the san antonio book festival in texas. in partnership with booktv. booktv covered several events from the san antonio public library on the federal debt, cesar chavez, local san antonio

history, cracking, the nsa, a memoir from richard rodriguez and the poetry of kevin powers. we now pick up our coverage with bill wyatt on the history of federal debt limit. >> delights new book, america's fiscal constitution has just been published. a former three term mayor, he is chairman of the houston banking. ..