sort of thing. later in the war, particularly in east tennessee, she was doing that sort of thing, and the union doctor was very understaffed and needed help, and he said, oh, heck, just come on in and be a doctor, and he got her an appointment for a brief period of time. i it was the preference of the union army -- the periphery of the union army. a woman in south carolina went as part of the settlement where the union had control of the sea islands of south carolina, and her husband went off with the army to go to florida to fight and that left her in charge of the hospital that was there and she was a nurse but was in charge of the hospital, and she had a medical degree. and practiced as a doctor more or less until he came back.

so the -- you have some instances like that. one woman in the confederacy who practiced charlottesville, but moe people who could claim to be doctors, acted as nurses, even though they may have been doing doctoring kinds of behaviors. >> host: do you know what the picture-on-the fronts of the book? >> guest: it is a hospital in washington, dc. i believe it's herwood hospital. and what you see there is one long ward, as so often the wards were. they were long, narrow rooms, stove in the middle. mosquito netting hanging up there. in washington, dc, they called that one part of time foggy bottom for good reason. it was very boggy, mosquitoey, and the men got relief with the mosquito netting, and you can see -- this is a series of

pictures shot at christmastime. you don't see it in this picture. and there are women visiting and it was sort of a festive day. there's also -- although it doesn't -- you can barely see it in the front, that thing there, my editor thought it might be a water bowl for an animal or maybe -- i forget. i said, it's a spitoon. and every bed hat one. emphasizing that cigarettes and cigars -- most men used chewing tobacco. so it's a hospital far from the war and women -- men are recovering. >> dr. humphries, professor of history and professor over medicine and an md. written two other books, intensely human and malaria.

you're watching booktv from can do university -- duke university.

booktv asked what are you reading this summer? >> i think i'm doing a catchup summer. reading a lot of things that are not particularly new but i have meant to read and not gotten done. so i ticked off also list of them, and they start with two sort of real life rescue stories from world war ii. one i'm reading now, the book, "frozen in time" about some american aviators who crashed in greenland in the second world war. then the rescue mission that went after them and also went down, and another one that disappear, and they finally did rescue these guys, who lived for months in the tail of an airplane. a gripping story. then the second part is about an expedition to go back and find the people who were lost trying to rescue the original crew, and they located aircraft and all kinds of things.

so it's a great story. in reading that, of yours you read the book jacket and he has another one, "lost in shangly law" about a mission that went wrong. was supposed to be a joy flight over new guinea in 1945 and the plane went down and the rescue was harrowing. so surviving in desperate situations is good reading for congress in an election year. i had the opportunity to meet recently -- i may mispronounce his name because it was just a -- david von dreel, lincoln rise to greatness, and our deputy whip put together a group of 15 of to us have dinner with him one night a couple weeks ago, and they gave us all the books, so i got the book for free, autographed it and i was

-- i love the way this political skills had so much to do with holding the country together, and holding the party together. just -- i think probably a lot of lessons. this was a republican majority in the 1860s that had never been the majority before. we had a new president and a new majority in the house and never functioned that way. not a single person had been part of a republican majority. so how do you act? how do you relate? what are the appropriate balance between presidential power, legislative oversight, and critical situations, and then this lincoln, sheer political skill, and coming and manipulating the various factions. ...

koulas one that i promised myself i would read and this is something dirt senator roy blunt from missouri who is a great reader and a very good friend brought to my attention and that's gene smith biography of eisenhower.

a wonder for biofor that wrote back in the 80s a dual biography of lee and grant that's very famous so again roy had been telling me what a great book this was on eisenhower and i happened to catch a lecture on c-span history on the weekend. smith has died and i think he died in 2012 if they were replaying this selection on generalship. i was intrigued with that and i thought my buddy roy blunt has been bugging me to read this book. i just listened to this great lecture and the one other experience i had reading this guys work was 20 years ago and it was great stuff so i thought i'm going to read this eisenhower book. when you're my age you remember eisenhower so it's not the historical figure or a lincoln or grant would be and it's a real live person so i find reading about presidents i feel like just because my life

experience has some connection with either having lived through the presidency or on occasion met them it's just a fascinating thing. >> our viewers would be interested to know that -- he. [inaudible] speeds sometimes it's the recommended reading list. i think we are going to do lincoln this month and we are going to have three or four looks that i think are particularly good on lincoln. i wish i could take credit for that idea. i have a communications director he came up with this nice that nobody's going to be interested in what i'm reading. surprisingly it's become a question i get in my district quite a bit. and they like it. interestingly i think they kind of like to know what you are thinking about and i hope it's not politics directly all the time. it's kind of refreshing or somebody will say hey i read that book too or a god that is an idea off of your book list so

it brings a little connection between some of your constituents at least those engaged in up to go to your web site. >> representative kohl thank you so much. >> it's fine.

up next on booktv "after words" with guest host suzanne goldberg. colombia law school director for the gender and sexuality law. as we told her prize-winning investigative jo becker enter books sub pour inside the fight for marriage equality in at "the new york times" veteran takes readers to the latter stages of as what some call the new civil rights movement culminating in the supreme court's decision to strike down the defense of marriage