genius. [laughter] but, you know, some of my colleagues at the university don't sort of concur in my assessment of your intellectual acumen sir. in fact, some of my colleagues at the university don't think you're very bright at all. but the one thing my colleagues and i do agree upon is your one unique characteristic is your uncanny ability to select your four predecessors. anyone following on heels of johnson, nixon ford and carter just can't look bad. [laughter] and in the same sense it's really true that if reagan had been elected in 1976 -- and i'm going to tell you, he would have been a very different president than one you know and love. he really would have been. in all honesty, it took jimmy carter to create ronald reagan. and that is the truth. and in the same breath that it took jimmy carter to create ronald reagan, you can't imagine

the great president who's going to follow barack obama. [applause] >> booktv is on facebook. like us to get publishing news scheduling updates, behind the scenes pictures and videos author information and to talk directly with authors during our live programs. facebook.com/booktv. >> april 4 '67, he is new york city speaking at the riverside church in manhattan giving a speech called "beyond vietnam." and in that speech king calls america the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. he'd been on record being opposed to the war, but this is the first time he's given now peter, a major address to the nation condemning the war. and he lays out in detail our

relationship with vietnam our history with vietnam lays it out. one of the rare times king actually reads the entire text because he was more of a, you know, he was an orator, obviously, extraordinaire. his "i have a dream" speech he went off the script and started freestyling. so he was good off script unlike some people who have to use a teleprompter for everything they say. but dr. king gave the speech beyond vietnam called america the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today and then talked about what he called the triple threat facing our dem can accuracy. that triple threat; racism poverty and militarism. ironically 50 years later, same triple threat as we sit here now, racism, poverty and militarism. king was right. but when he made that comment then and called america greatest purveyor of violence in the

world, peter, the next day everybody and everything turned on him. i don't mean fox news, they weren't around then, i'm talking about "the new york times" the washington post "time requests magazine. the media turned on him and then the white house. he and johnson had worked together to pass the voting rights act and the civil rights act, a lot of debate as we sit here now and how johnson's being portrayed in this movie, but they had passed those seminal pieces of legislation. but then the white house turns against him for being so aggressive against the president and this war in vietnam. and then the last poll taken in his life the harris poll, found that nearly three-quarters of the american people thought he was irrelevant. so white america turns on him and inside black america that number's almost 60% of black folk thought he was irrelevant. and i don't just mean black folk, i mean roy wilkens and the naacp, whitney young and the urban league come out against him, the leading black

journalists of his era, ralph bunch, another nobel laureate peace prize laureate comes out against him. i can't even quote on c-span right now what thurgood marshall, supreme court justice, said about dr. king what he felt about him during that era. so everybody turns on martin, the media, the white house, white folk, black folk, and that's the life he has to navigate for the last year of his life if he's talking about racism and poverty and militarism and nobody wants to hear that, they turn their back on him. he dies broke in the last year of his life he can't get a book deal, he can't get a paid speech he's disinvited to the white house, to black churches. this is the last mile of the way, so to speak, that king has to write all by himself. so when martin takes that bullet a year later -- same day, killed april 4, '68 -- when he's killed on that balcony, peter he believes and dies -- imagine this now martin dies believing everything and everybody has

turned on him, the cosmos has shifted against him. now, five decades later martin was right, and everybody else was wrong. but that's not the way that he got up out of here. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> this is booktv on c-span2. it's for serious readers -- television for serious readers. here's our prime time lineup. tonight at 7 p.m. eastern phyllis lee leaven looks at john quincy adams. at 7:30, from last weekend issa van 2345 that -- last week's savannah book festival followed at 8:30 p.m. by weekly standard's jay cost who looks at the founding fathers' fears of government corruption and why he think it's being realize today. then at 10 p.m. on "after words," wes moore discusses his career path from a combat

officer in afghanistan to a white house fellow and a social entrepreneur. and we wrap up our prime time lineup at 11 p.m. eastern with harvard university history professor beck earth who looks at the impact the global cotton trade had on the international economy. that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> you're watching booktv. next levi tillemann in conversation with daniel yergin looks at the $2 trillion global automotive industry and the competition between the u.s. japan and china to create the car of future. [inaudible conversations] >> before we start i just want to make some announcements. there are snacks outside if

anybody thinks they're going to get hungry in the next hour. i don't see a mad dash. so are you ready? [inaudible conversations] hi even. i'm dan yergin, i'm a director of new america and very pleased to welcome you to this discussion today on the electric car and also very happy to welcome the viewers on c-span to our discussion. .. over period of ten years trying to develop it.