athletes on our team. these kids could be with any typically developing kid. for your store than this. call the play for my daughter.

a couple weeks later my son made a a winning shot in the game in front of a lot of people. it was really cool. in times of stress a drawback to that. >> thank you, coach. [applause] >> well, i well, i just think everyone here is so amazing. i care about you guys so much. and 2nd of all i just have lots of friends at school who care about me. they don't disrespect me push me away but i have gotten bullied a lot. it's hard, you no but it

stopped. i don't like being bullied just because i have a disability. no one should be bullied just because they have a disability. the matter how you belong. how you are. are. you guys are all that awesome. i love you. [applause] >> the only bad news is it took me six years and 300 pages to say what she didn't prepare a safe and 30 seconds. thank you you all for coming tonight. have a great weekend.

[applause] [inaudible conversations] >> is there a nonfiction author or book you would like to see featured? send us an e-mail. tweet us. post on our wall. >> this weekend book tv is in west virginia with the help of our local cable partner comcast. we continued our trip with author sean duffy's book traces the influx of immigrants in the city during its booming industrial time. >> the industry the results

in a massive population growth, economic success. it was boomtown. and of course it is not anymore. the steel industry is gone away. steel was in full production. turned it into a major city. because of its location on the ohio river and the national road came through wheeling as i mentioned before, it it was a transportation hub. there's a lot of resources manager iron melancholia it it was easy to transport goods like steel to market. some industry was naturally drawn here and industry requires labor and so on.

it was an industrial town with a lot of jobs. these people came from very poor regions of europe on middle east and needed work. so many times the patriarch, the man of the family would come to the united states many times the companies he would actually go to new york or one of the other entry ports of entry and recruit for the business. in terms of the italian community there was a a coal mine, a gentleman who came from the time it really. and eventually did well and brought the coal mine.

he essentially brought a large percentage of his neighbors to work in the mine. he provided their jobs. so essentially all of these italians are from that same town. i i just thought that was fascinating. he essentially drained a little small town. eventually incorporated into the city. they were they were grateful to him for providing work and opportunity. they came here by the drove. i spoke to a german's father worked in the coal mine. he had the opportunity to go back to italy and actually visit. had a photograph of his father leaving italy at the

train station taken to the shipyard. he was able to visit the very same spot where his father had boarded the train prior to their arrival he was a typical american town. when they came they gathered with their countrymen and neighborhoods. you might go to east wheeling which is known as little italy center had a lot of greek immigrants and lebanese immigrants. south wheeling was primarily polish. so these neighborhoods became distinctive and brought a lot of there culture and traditions with them and it influenced everything about cultural life from religion and the

churches to education and language and art, music so prior to the immigration time i'm talking about largely in german settlement after that it was quite diverse and each neighborhood had its own distinct flavor and character. like a lot of towns, suffered from the collapse of those extremes. mainly from foreign competition. mainly from foreign competition. they could make steel -- steel more cheaply. and and so they just could not compete. and eventually more and more plants shut down and jobs just went away. and if you are from immigrant stock and you have not learned any other skills low skilled labor you're kind of stuck.

fortunately for them many of the children of these immigrants of course there college education and have moved on. the population has diminished significantly since the start. trying trying to reinvent ourselves now, and that is the effort that is underway and at the same time preserving our past. i think that the immigrant history is overlooked because it lacks the sort of grammar of the revolutionary time, the founding time the civil war time. it is industrial history, gritty a lot of people loved it. so they don't necessarily celebrate. but when but when you talk about the neighborhoods of formed as a result, much more interested in talking about that. it was both a sad time in the vital time.

people have opportunity, but these jobs it was hard work, backbreaking work. these people essentially built this town. they were the ones who laid the bricks the once you make steel but the beer cigars. fueled the economy. provided labor from these factories. the stories are important. it's all part of american history. >> for more information on the recent visit and the many other sissy -- cities visited by our local content vehicles go to c-span.org/local content. >> next on book tv from the encouragement why prevents photos from his book abandon america.