he spirit of the greek idea of honor and doing the right thing even when one's own interest or one's own life is imperil. growing up while i never felt anything but australian there were two stories about the second world war and greece i kept close to my heart. the first was in 1940 when italy's prime minister asked the greek prime minister for free passage through greece. and on the spot at 3 o'clock in the morning, without hesitation he said no. it was a spirited defiance and quite incredible when considering how vastly outnumbered the greeks were by the italians.

so winston churchhill the greatest figure of the 20th century in my mind said it wasn't greeks that fight like heroes but heroes fight like greeks. and in 1943 again the german military commander ordered the bishop and the mayor to prepare him a list of the jewish community on the island. his plan was to deport the entire jewish community to concentration camps in poland. the word went out any greek caught hiding a jew could be executed on the spot. instead of preparing the list, the bishop and the mayor went to the jewish community on the island and sent them into hiding into the mountains or with

christian friend in the country side. they returned to the military commander and presented him with a sheet of paper. the list that the german military commander was after. there were two games on the paper. the bishop and the mayor. they told the commander that it was the entire jewish community of the island. it was the spirit of this that was behind both of those acts. it is that precise spirit that has encouraged me to answer what i consider to be the greatest moral calling of your time. the defense of the united states of america. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. the c-span city tour takes booktv and american history tv on the road travelling to u.s.

cities to learn about their history and literary life. we partnered with time warner cable for a visit to greensboro north carolina. >> most of the seats were empty except for college students. most everybody else was like i am not going down there because anything might happen. so there are these empty seats. and it is quite. we go and sit down. and wait. you know we wait to see what is going to happen. a waitress came by with a tray of knives and she was so nervous they were rattling and i was nervous because i didn't know what she was doing with the knives. she was as scared as i was. we sat down with textbooks and started studying.

and i remember her saying we don't serve colored people. i will have to ask you to leave. so we had this instruction that you know just don't say anything. just keep sitting. don't say anything. and if they ask you what you would like and you answer a cup of coffee but they never asked us what we wanted because they were not going to serve us. >> watch all of our events throughout the day and sunday afternoon at 2 on american history tv on c-span3. >> but you can see in the representation of wonder women is the same movement. she is always trying to escape from bonds of chains and she is

an allegory for the emancipated women so has to emancipate herself in every story so we have to tie her up to do this. >> and this is another reason. having to do with the boots. but here on the right is another drawing by peter which makes that algory clear. this is for an article for american scholar, it said she was a work of scholarship and you can see peter doing the same work but making it visible. and in the center is a totally typical suffrage cartoon from the 19-teens. you can see suffrage drawers are drawing women chained up.

and until women gained the right to vote they were the slaves of men and we needed to represent in this fashion in order to alert the condition of being a franchised woman was a condition of slavery. this was done by a female car cartoonist and she was a staff write for judge. and the reason i point that out is peter was a staff writer for judge in the 19 teens as well. and they contributed to the writing called the modern women that was in every issue. so peter was a former suffrage cartoonist. so the biographical story shows

us help us to see how much wonder women i would argue is the missing link of feminism in the 20th century. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> this is television for serious readers. here is our lineup. tonight at 7 p.m. eastern, phyllis lee levin looks at john quincy adams early years. and from last weekend's savannah book festival we recount the disappearance of former rockafeller's son. and we look at the founding father's fear of government corruption and why it is being

realized today. and then wes moore discusses his life from a combat veteran to a whitehouse worker to a social tripoli. and we wrap up with harvard profester who looks at the impact the global cotton trade had on the international economy. that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> joe cline is a former chancellor of the new york city public school system. he talks about what the system did to improve the education system and suggests other ways for cities to do the same. >> good afternoon. thank you for coming out this afternoon.