gaithersburg book festival in maryland. for a complete schedule from that festival, visit us online at booktv.org. and this weekend on "after words," former supreme court justice john paul stevens talks about his book, "six amendments," which details ways to amend the constitution. tonight senator elizabeth warren talks about her book, "a fighting chance." throughout the weekend booktv visits mobile, alabama, to talk with local authors. and tomorrow night steven pressman recounts a jewish-american couple who rescued 50 children from nazi-controlled vienna in the 1930s. you can visit us online for this weekend's schedule. >> c-span's newest book, "sundays at eight: a collection of interviews with the nation's best storytellers," including david mccullough. >> we're sitting here today in a city designed by frenchmen. the french engineer and

architect, the great symbolic work of sculpture, the gateway to the country in new york, statute of liberty, a gift from france by a french sculptor, bartoli. countless rivers and universities and colleges all over the country with french names. we don't pronounce them the way they do, but the influence of france on this country is far greater than most americans appreciate. >> read the interview with david mccullough along with other noted storytellers from 25 years of our book notes and "q&a" conversations in c-span's "sundays at eight." now available at your favorite bookseller. >> and i really just dug in deep, and i didn't know what i would find. this some cases i had to -- in some cases i had to submit foias, freedom of information acts, to unearth certain

documents for the more recent prime ministers that had not been unearthed yet. in some cases, for example, the reagan library in california, the archivist really kind of took my project to heart and spent some of her own time really trying to look for documents for me as i was sitting there going through the boxes that i had. when you do research, they bring out carts and poxes, and it's -- boxes, and it's almost like a race. you're going through the boxes, what can i find? and there could be anything in a box. with harry truman this there coe anything from letters about why did you drop the atomic bombs and letters from bankers saying thank you very much for your support and him writing back to them. so there's all sorts of things that you find, and you just get into that mode of being in that time, with that president with those people going through an immense amount of documents and sort of typing it up while you're there, editing throughout the process and sort of going on to the next location and the

next president. >> were there any libraries that were, that you deemed to be somewhat reluctant to share information? >> well, a lot of -- until reagan, actually, from fdr through the reagan library era there was, there was a certain code under which everything is classified, you know, for military information, for finance information, economics, personal relationships. and it's a very clear code with very clear identifications, and it's almost easy to identify. the carter library, i went there shortly after the film "argo" came out, and there had been, apparently, a whole team of researchers there before that movie looking up information about the iran hostage crisis and what happened. and they had this cool rack system where you could go in and actually look digitally at a lot of documents. not every library has that. but then when some of the most recent libraries, for example, the clinton library, there was

very little open, and plus now you have e-mail and everything needs to go through security clearances, and it's in a different code. after reagan came in, the codes changed. so it was a lot harder to find information. the reason i could find it in the reagan library was because the archivist had worked at one of the prior librarieses, so she kind of knew the difference between the new codes and the old codes. but i still have foias outstanding at the clinton library, at the george bush library in texas and, of course, the george w. bush library just opened, so i didn't have the opportunity to look at anything there, and obama's still in office. >> yep. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> for this month booktv book club join other readers to discuss "it calls you back: an odyssey through love, addiction, revolutions and healing" by former gang member turned candidate for governor of california, luis j. rodriguez.

simply go to booktv.org and click on book club to enter the chat room. once you're there you can log in as a guest or through your facebook or twitter account to post your thoughts on mr. rodriguez's book. >> here's a look at some upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country. this saturday booktv is live from the gaithersburg book festival in maryland. our coverage of the festival, now in its fifth year, includes talks by "the washington post"'s dan balz and mark leibovich, author of "this town," as well as a panel on the book industry. also this weekend is the south carolina book festival in columbia, south carolina. congressman james clyburn will be in attendance to discuss can his book, "blessed experiences." may 29th-31st, book tv will be talking to authors and publishing executives at the publishing industry's annual trade show, bookexpo america, in new york city