of the contradiction in american history right from the birth of our public. >> host: absolutely. the book is titled "gateway to freedom" the hidden history of the underground railroad. professor eric foner thank you for joining us today. >> guest: thank you so much for having me. >> that was "after words" booktv's signature program à la toppers of the latest nonfiction books are interviewed by journalists, public policymakers and others familiar with their material. "after words" airs every weekend on booktv at 10:00 p.m. on saturday, 12 and 9:00 p.m. on sunday 10:12 a.m. on monday and you can also watch "after words" on line. go to booktv.org and click on "after words" in the booktv series and topics list on the upper right side of the page. >> naaqs booktv present coverage of the national book critics circle awards. the presentation of a lifetime

achievement award to toni morrison and announcement of winners in several categories including general nonfiction awarded to david ryan davis author of the nonfiction book the problem of slavery in the age of emancipation. [applause] >> thanks louise and good evening to all of you. it's my pleasure to welcome you here tonight to the book critics award ceremony for the publishing year 2014. where i'd have you join us this evening is now the most outstanding work of the past year in six categories, fiction and nonfiction biography poetry autobiography and criticism. like i said in a gratitude to the others who've joined us here tonight as well as the editors editors publishers agents and publicists to help bring their work her attention to the national book critics circle

awards were founded in 1974 out of a conversation that took place at the out walk when hotel by grupo critters who want to establish a set of awards granted -- given by critics and sell them like other literary works are books that would be that would begin to become that would be answered with counter that the non-nation suffered by the critics are viewers of book review editors who make up the board. that nascent group of critics in a fantastic job honoring e.l. doctorow ragtime john ashbury self-portrait of a convex mirror. every eb lewis biography and the great war and modern memory. in the years since those first towards the nbcc has grown to include 700 member critics from across the country and a number of judging categories has jumped from four to six. it's also expanded to the include the nona balakian and the ivan sandrof lifetime achievement award given to individuals and institutions whose work is made a contribution to the world of letters. i'd like to to present date the leak in and citation to alexander schwartz and the sandra award to toni morrison.

we will be resenting our second average him in a price debut book in any genre to phil klay. a longtime critic and editor and lover of books and writers did this award is different from our other book prices which were chosen by the 24 member board. in honor of john's honor of john's democratics brca1 or his prices chosen by direct vote of the approximately 700 members. tonight's ceremony as the commish for 12 months of reading a massive number of books in each category discussions arguments counter arguments a great number of on line meetings in several intense face-to-face meetings. the beginning of each year to 24 member board divides itself among the awarding categories and in the months to follow reits as extensively as possible and for me to those categories but after the selection of our finalist in january all 24 board members read every one of the 30 titles to a two-month long marathon is testimony to the high level of commitment by

airport. today we met in a room on 13 straight and argued her way through each group of finalist for tonight we are proud to name the recipients of the nbcc awards that i could ask all the members of the board to stand at this point so we might recognize you for your efforts. [applause] [applause] nbcc board members are elected to three-year terms for several members at the end of their terms this year in cycling up the board and i would like to take a moment to recognize them for their work over the past three years. rio berto gonzalez aarp vice president for awards. [applause] he is probably outside so he probably isn't here, keeping us organize. stephen, a vice president for membership in a chair of the sandra award committee. [applause] and also alex abraham digit lisa

chapelle and andrew beck. thank you. [applause] the nbcc wouldn't exist without the support of the literary communities of only wouldn't put together public free of charge events without the generosity and support of so many people and institutions read like to thank in particular the new school university in specially louise hera via the director of the birding program and the associate director who eyes makes things run so smoothly that we think the new school for its hospitality making the facilities available to the nbcc board deliberations and ceremony. a special thank you to sarah russo are publicist who tirelessly donates her time to the nbcc just for the fun of it. [applause] a special thanks to david barno who helps us in so many ways through the year and he is up in the booth and rigoberto gonzalez

makes creating this event but easy which it is not really. [applause] i invite you to join us to testify testify in the center benefit reception following tonight's ceremony. a reception will be held at the lang center at 55 west 13th street on the second floor. tickets at the reception gave a purchase at the door. as i lecture my people the benefit reception is the only event the nbcc holds all year where we asked for a donation we greatly appreciate your support. congratulations to the finalists and thank you for being here and to start things off board member carolyn kellogg will present the john leonard price. thanks. [applause] >> as you have heard the john leonard prizes awarded through a vote of our 700 members.

it's for the best debut work of the year. i keep looking to see if we have a slide. do we have a slide? don't be surprised. it's redeployment by phil klay whose name is pronounced clay. this book has gotten deserve it attention and one of the great things about the leonard prizes that it was named for john leonard who was able to look beyond the buzz and find true genius. if you look back at the records of the national book critics circle one of these young writers who he heralded was toni morrison when nobody else was looking at her work and it is such an honor to find a debut novel of such depth and

sincerity, quality and talent as redeployment by a phil klay. and i hope he is here because i have a plaque. [applause] [applause] >> thank you so much. sorry about the confusing name. i wanted to read a quick paragraph from one of john leonard's reviews just one sentence but a long sentence. i have edited it slightly for length. this is from susan sontag's providing the pain of others. so there is suffering he writes

and there are cameras and it's possible to worry about the motives of the men and women behind the camera. it's possible to worry about whether looking at the pictures they bring back from the wounds boy or a stick or photographic or the more authentic amateurs were exposure to but then again maybe these worries are self-indulgent and beside the point. which should be to think their your way past what happened to why. when i started writing my book i knew many things about what happened stories from veterans plenty of statistics, history of operations conducted in iraq and of course that wasn't enough. i started writing and talking to friends both civilians and veterans trying to dig past what had happened toward something deeper. one of the great honors improve edges for me publishing this book is to see my stories responded to not only in terms

of whether they have artistic merit or not, not simply where they deliver laughter, tears or horror were satisfying epiphanies but also whether they are useful for understanding our present moment interpretation that even when not entirely approving of the choices i've made further clarified for me what i was trying to express and what directions we might travel his readers. it's a true honor to receive this award named after one of the great critics as reviews help us understand not only books but also ourselves and did so with such delight in mind what an love for the possibilities of literature. i would like to thank the members of the national book critics circle, i'd like to thank those who helped me along the way as i was writing about. readers and editors and teachers that but i would like to thank my wife jessica alvarez my parents, my family, the audience and abroad. i would like to bank's scott

moyers and everyone who picked up the book. thank you so much. [applause] >> good evening. my name is craig that he is and it's been my pleasure to serve as this year's bollyky and committee chair. the nbcc awards the nona balakian citation for reviewing each year to recognize outstanding work by a member of the nbcc. the citation is awarded an honor of gayl jones a founding member of the national book critics circle. for the third time in its 28 year history the bollyky and

citation carries with it a thousand dollars cash prize. generously endowed by nbcc member rick barrios. [applause] by coincidence, the number of entries for this award has increased over the past three years. and i am pleased to give a shout-out for this year's finalists. they are charles finch v. k. fischer, benjamin moser and lisa rospars. can we have a round of applause? [applause] thank you. this year's recipient was a

finalist last year and the nona balakian citation for excellence in reviewing is given to alexander schwartz. i might add ms. schwartz is an assistant editor at "the new yorker" and a regular contributor to the magazine's web site. her writing has appeared in the nation, "the new york times" and the new republic. she was previously a member of the editorial staff of the new york review of books and before that lived and worked in france. she grew up in new york city and lives in brooklyn. a shout-out for brooklyn. without further ado is my pleasure to welcome ms. schwartz. [applause]

>> thank you greg. i was so relieved when i found out a few days ago i was speaking early in the show so i could get my adrenaline spike over with right away and that i realized my relief redoubled because i'm in the unusual position of knowing in advance that i will be standing up here and that i realize the whole situation the review were holding forth while a group of writers sweated out in their seats mimics perversely when i'm up here for. [laughter] once again the critic gets to thank herself on sure ground while the writers squirm early she gets her pretentiousness that i want to thank the board of the national book critics circle and the members of the balakian to me to be honored by your peers who those peers as a judge for living is that

tonal -- total thrill. not so incidentally was also when i discovered the agony and ecstasy of writing about books that matter to me. being a critic is for me a way of learning and to do that you have to have the right teachers could on account i'm grateful to henry fender at "the new yorker" for giving me the kind of training you can't go to graduate school for and john pala tell at the nation who with extraordinary generosity got me started in all of this and has been sure to keep me on track ever since. a word about that start. when i was an intern at the nation after graduating from college, and i was interested in fiction. he began passing me galleys of novels and we would walk to union square park to have coffee and to discuss them. i thought you was doing this to get feedback about what the magazine should be reviewing because i never worked at a

magazine before and didn't stop to wonder why anyone would be asking me about that and then it turned out he was doing it to see what i should be reviewing. i was an expert in anything. certainly it was an expert in contemporary russian literature so when i got my first assignment to write about the translation of the russian writer the twisted short stories i immediately imagined a russian professor wearing a dark cape and drinking tea from a glass with a sugar cube stuck between his teeth sitting at his desk to write a letter to the magazine demanding the hack presented her credentials and defend herself. it was the question of whether this would happen as much as how many cape wearing professors there would be so i drew on a quality a resource and a tool that is dear to me and i venture to say very dear to many people who write reviews, arrogance. but i'm not talking about

bloated bidder eric is the kind of distance they going clouds judgment. there's a good arrogance too just like there's good cholesterol. arrogance that bolsters you that allows you to feel your judgment might be sound that might and this is where the reviewers mind starts humming be even better than sound. you start to see the book's true shape. you start to track the movement of the writer's mind. you start to feel you can glimpse the subtle intersection of the writers intention the books effect and that is why think so many of the metaphors i use for writing criticism involved motion wading deeper into body of water or walking forward on to a store testing the strength of its ports. where should you put pressure? what are the conceits and the ideas that can hold real weight? i like the floor mat affair especially because it gives some sense of the next thing that usually happens happens because when you convince yourself of your own profound rightness that you understand the book and its author better than the author

does herself all this useful arrogance this brash motivating confidence collapses revealing a turmoil of doubt. the thing you had in your grasp slips away and that is as it should be. the reviewer has a surfeit of arrogance she has nothing to learn. too much doubt and she has nothing to teach. it's the exchange between them the wrestling of knowing and not knowing that makes the whole enterprise of criticism worthwhile and necessary and fun. this is what the reviewers i love do for me. they offer a record of impressions and ideas strong enough to make a serious case, flexible enough to allow someone else to make another. a book should be reviewed by many critics and institutions that publish them increase and multiply a cassette book is a multiple thing as multiple as its number of readers. it's going to change shape from being read to and from being written about.

sometimes it is diminished. sometimes it is amplified that is always changed. i doubt that many authors like to think of themselves as feeling intimate with the people who review their work part is the true privilege of the critic who sometimes experience a profound intimacy with the author she is reviewing. how presumptuous and how precious trade the sense of closeness to to someone else's mind may be the crucial arrogance of reviewing and the whole aim of the sport. a huge thanks to the authors in this room for allowing us to cozy up to you like that. on the subject of intimacy and learning a final tip of the hat to my parents who always told me i was too critical. [laughter] i am very glad that they were right. [applause] >> my name is stephen kelman and

for the past few years it's been my privilege to serve as chair of the sandrof committee. the ivan sandrof award is named for a founding member of the nbcc and an honor significant sustained contributions to american literary culture. during the 33 years in which the award has been presented we have sometimes honored figures such as joyce carol oates, alfred question and leslie fidler whose achievements have been so obvious that their choice needed no explanation. in other years we have been pleased to call attention to recipients such as bill henderson gallippi archive press and orlando smith who had not yet received recognition they richly deserved. this year's recipient of the sandrof award is toni morrison. we honor her accomplishments not only as a novelist not only as an editor, not only as a

teacher, not only as an essayist and not only is the only living american recipient of the nobel prize in literature. for all of those toni morrison needs no introduction but she is going to get one anyway. but not from me. to introduce ms. morrison i will call on another literary eminence he needs no introduction. she was poet laureate of the united states from 1993 to 1995 and poet laureate of virginia from 2004 to 2006. she is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, a collection of short stories, a novel and a play. this introduce her to needs no introduction received the pulitzer prize for poetry, the national humanities medal in the national medal of arts as well as 25 honorary doctorates.

she is the commonwealth professor of english at the university of virginia. if i were introducing toni morrison's ideal introducer i would mention all of this and much much more. please welcome the gifted, gracious and generous reader does. [applause] [applause] >> good evening and thank you stephen and the board of the national book critics circle for inviting me to introduce toni morrison as recipient of this year's ivan sandrof lifetime achievement award. although toni morrison certainly doesn't need an introduction to to stephen has said and i can scarcely be too many i believe celebratory tributes to one of

the greatest novelists of our time and the only living nobel laureate in literature. i don't have have to rattle have to rattle off the toni morrison's many accomplishments and honors to you here tonight. his book critics and lovers of books you are by and large deeply familiar with her works and this organization was among the very first to publicly recognize the rising star when in 1977 she received the national book critics circle award for song of solomon. in our age of factual information, cascading from smartphones at the tap of a few buttons you don't need me to remind you of the many titles of our author our honoree the 11 are luminous and eliminating novels and her numerous other works, the plays and essays and children's books. i also assume you wouldn't want

me to whittle away minutes here at the podium with a recitation of previous awards although i admit it is tempting to admit a few such as 1988 pulitzer prize for below that they jefferson lecture, they national humanities battle in 2000 to honorary doctorate from oxford and many others and in 2012 the presidential medal of freedom. although my personal panoply of grades that literary kohala i call on for inspiration is heavily weighted in favor of the craft of poetry. toni morrison has always commanded a prime seat front and center for she is not only a prose virtuoso but also a master of poetic sensibilities and lyrical language. her influence on discourse idiom and the vernacular has transformed our perception of

the intricate paths to the interior consciousness. be at the thoughts of an illiterate slave for the harrowing logic fabricated by a father guilty of. of children whose souls have been damaged beyond the reach of pity and women ravaged by a longing so desperate that nothing short of annihilation will satisfy. of ghosts starved for love, a town band on its own brand of self-preservation. with an extraordinary poet's economy of idiom and her signature elliptical elegance toni morrison has probed the crannies and tunnels of mental illness and the torment of war veterans shattered by the myriad possibilities for sabotage in the world. she has re-created the improvisational call up for sponsored jazz the seesaw

proclivities of the process of attraction and violence rated with fear. well a host of characters that we as readers recognize this familiar and except in the way of family from their praiseworthy to the quirky to the closeted she has also subtly and candidly been at work fashioning a new graph of american history whose many intersecting trajectories take us from the anglo dutch slave trade through the antebellum insanities of southern racial terror from great migration in the 1920s in harlem to the labor pains of the automobile age whose factories disgorged a the glittering stream of chrome trimmed fantasies from what are now called the rust belt cities of the midwest. from the l.a. cosmetics industry to a trailer park outside of a

town called whiskey california. a few days after he received stephen kelman's call asking me if i would like to to pay amash to toni morrison tonight and undertaking so much tantamount to introducing the goddess athena while she looks on with her gray eyes my husband and i went to a dance at our local argentine dance club, tango club and an attempt to boost everybody's mood in the middle of a jury chilly winter and is a nod to the carnival season everyone is asked to come mass. when we arrived with their phoenician geisha wear and our harlequin confections we quickly discovered that mask got in the way of dancing. ribbons got tangled and gold braid snag on feathers and with obstructive peripheral vision balance was in. so we wobbled. after a quick confab with the young man who had asked me for the second set of tangos who was

a newcomer to our town we decided to ditch the masks and as singing about the kind of woman who can ignite an instant violent love my dance partner leaned down and remark out of the blue that some toni morrison love. i was struck speechless but by the next day my curiosity had overwhelmed my hesitancy so i asked thing is this young man via facebook facebook messaging when this first encounter with the books of toni morrison had been in his response was effusive and there's really no other way to describe it, it was grateful. he wrote, i think i was 22 or 23 after college but before grad school. i went into bookstore and had a sort of literary crisis. i fell so many of the authors on the shelves were creating entire world to an entire cast of

characters that merely served as backdrops for the breakdown of yet another eyes. like all these books could be retitled the day i was sad. [laughter] then i picked up and love that faith in literature restored. what a genius morse and his painting so many novelists are like peacocks with their language flourishing feathers and letting the reader know how smart and lyrical they are but i think morrison is able to do extreme lyric in the conversation of the same time that i wish i had found her work earlier. i want to know why she isn't required reading at all schools. morrison has wisdom and abundance along with miracle storytelling brilliance. i wonder how she does it. and then my tango dancing friend ended with a postscript prompted by his wife of just a few months

who insisted that he tell me this. now my wife wants to tell you about how she battled the dominican obsession with area and features as a teenager but then encountered the bluest ayaan high school. she said morrison gave voice to all of her dissent and made her comfortable with that. for decades earlier i had fought a similar battle with myself in this deranged environment i had chosen to immerse myself in when i attended the university of iowa's writers workshop as its only african-american graduate student. as a young poet still trying to locate myself in the thicket of literary traditions i often wondered the stacks willing myself into unknown territory. i have yet to find myself or at least an image i could identify with in the pages of european and american literature and most books concerned with black america took place by and large

either in the deep south or in urban ghettos. what about the experiences and dreams of a black robe growing up middle-class in middle america i wondered? was there no room, no mirror for me thanks and then one day deep in the of the library has stopped dead in my tracks. something it caught my eye. i wasn't sure what. they are right behind my left shoulder i couldn't shake the feeling that a book was looking for me. since it was spring when such things happened i didn't question the feeling. i simply turned around and there was at eye level bound in black women with peacock lettering, the bluest eye by toni morrison take a toni morrison to the library had removed all the book jacket so there was no biographical blurb to give me a hint of the contents. the title intrigued me. i didn't know the author but as soon as i opened the book and began to read i was convinced that toni morrison whoever she was new to me, my people and

where i came from, akron ohio one of the industrial towns sprinkled along the smudged. by the time i finished the opening section is three amazing paragraphs mimicking the airy deadpan of primary school primers variations on the american dream gone horribly wrong. i was certain that this writer had also experienced as i had the double consciousness of w.e.b. dubois' definition that this is a peculiar sensation of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of the world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. when i reached the sentence not even the gardens fronting the lake showed marigolds that year.

a wild hope began to stir that maybe, just maybe she was from the midwest. 15 pages later came the confirmation i craved. quote, there is an abandoned store and the southeast corner of broadway and 35th street in lorain ohio. i began to shiver. my gut response had been right toni morrison was a homegirl. no words can fully express what toni morrison has meant to me ever since as a writer a woman, a black woman and yes a fellow ohioan. she gave me a literary shelter and pointed me toward the poetry in my geographical space. she taught me to pay attention to everything without prejudice for beauty can be found in the ginger sugar snow rising from a polluted lake and they fate of an empire can rest on the curb of an eyebrow. her work has accompanied me

through my years of honing myself as a writer and a prominent and how desolate that journey would have been without milk man and first corinthians or florence or the intrepid senna without tony's humor and chastening gaze, her laughter that seems to come straight out from middle of the earth. over the years of toni morrison and i have met in a number of places and times, official events as well as more private gatherings and once by chance late one evening in a hotel lobby in cleveland where we convince the bartender to serve one more round of drinks before closing shop. two scenes with tony stand out a bit me. 1994 attributed her honor at the cathedral of saint john the divine and a gala at the new york public library in celebration of her 70th birthday. in both places tony was surrounded by orchids those

gorgeous engorged blooms.com and every color you can think of the petals band like human hands held to the light with a smell is intimate and ravishing as an indelicate thought crossing your mind in the middle of the 23rd psalm. as symbols of love and desire both the light in the dark sides can make young girls blush and coax a mona lisa smile from a grown woman. these curiously mammalian creatures that seem to live on nothing but missed an air can inspire in their breeders a devotion teetering on madness. orchids are the queen bees of the flower world and you had better not mess with them. and like the orchids surrounding surrounding -- toni morrison has always seen those rooted in the earth and poised for flight splendid and serene. most importantly she has woven tales that beguile even as they lead us deeper into the

carefully shielded psyches of homo sapiens deeper than we need to go. she has given us stories were survival may not mean victory and cruelty may reveal itself as the ultimate tenderness. stories where home is not a country especially when the country has never learned to be at home with his own past. and from the midst of those magnificent specimens of art toni morrison woman, mother editor writer critic, nobel laureate professor mentor, friend shines all the more fiercely. so i thank you toni for your life's worth -- worse -- life's worth and for your splendid example.

may you keep on shining. may present to you toni morrison. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause]

>> hello. is this on? yes. read at, that was beautiful. [applause] it was just beautiful. and true. [laughter] i was sitting there thinking, i don't think i can follow that. thank you. it's good to see you. well, here i am. the founding of the national book critics circle and the early 70s was a singular idea. the collective intelligence of john leonard ivan sandrof, nona balakian was not merely unique, it was welcome and it was needed

needed. it was a kind of wild faculty of sorts dedicated to books and their scrutiny, passionate people eager to laud and reward the best and then the years passed and this organization became more than unique. it became necessary. for writers everywhere. now finally it's more than unique and more than necessary. i think it's urgent. the publishing world is in flux, they sing new kinds of distribution.

bookstores are shuddering shutting or reassigning themselves. companies merge to avoid collapse. this is a situation which may change but what i know will always be available is the national book critics circle and i want you to know how delighted and honored i am to join that long and distinguished list of authors and accept this lifetime award. it really means a lot to me. you know when i published my first novel the bluest eye, the

reception was i'm going to say slight. [laughter] in different, even hostile. it's still very much a popularly banned book which i accept because i'm in such good company. [laughter] well, i do remember reading one critic in i guess it was "the new york times." maybe not i think so who said some things and then he said i think she writes just to avoid cliché. i thought well that -- isn't that a complement? [laughter]

apparently not. but whatever the point the novel was not taken seriously. actually not until john leonard read it and took it very seriously indeed and it wasn't about whether he liked it the bluest eye it was that he gave it his best judgment on its merit and i will always be grateful to him for that. now i'm not clear but the category was in 1972 when that book was published, whether the category was african-american

black afro-american but what i do remember that books written by black writers were given their own shelves in bookstores just like women's books or detective stories are what have you and it was unlikely for my book to be shelved alphabetically which i so much desired, which is not to say authors objected to that convenience were certainly that customers did not appreciate it. it is to say that the same separation existed in the criticism. those were the days when the book of poetry by a black writer

along with a novel by a black writer along with a collection of essays by another black writer were reviewed together in one article and the reviewer who was white, could and did decide which among those three separate genre was the best. and i recall during my days at random house actually choosing insisting that book by black writers appear in separate seasons in order to avoid that sad merging of text simply because of their race of the author. now all or almost all of that is

certainly changed now. angela davis' autobiography is no longer compared to gayl jones's model. the collection of short stories is not paired with huey newton's to die for the people. [laughter] and happily mohamed ali's autobiography, the greatest is not valued or measured against the solar dead brothers or george jackson's blood in my eye. ..

>> >> and all sorts of new

private presses in the general mood of the newspaper industry's for light entertainment and gossip. but so far they don't seem to have deterred the national book -- national book critics circle agenda but in the experience to networks even more to confront or to alter and expand the possibilities of publishing. the training of young writers and their encouragement to work with in the entire earth every community. a list of authors who have been afforded this lifetime award is judicious and

enviable i am delighted to be among them. thank you. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause]

>> you are so acute. behavior next to announce the next word to the final list. i am also the committee co-chair. [applause] more importantly the finalist. from coffee house press. penguin books.

claudia rankine from grey wolf press. time university press the. [applause] i will read the citation than the recipient will be invited up to the stage. the recipient of national book critics circle for poetry is claudia rankine. [cheers and applause]

>> we live in the presence in the legacy of a troubled history in a disturbing unfolding of the presence but how does this deal to our innersoles? with this impressive book that breaks it down to size as the micro s.a. in the spaces of today's most pressing conversations about race, gender race, gender, identity, clas s. if out lawrence critical in vigorously compassionate about anxieties and what makes them remarkably american. this book about black-and-white speaks of current defense with the cultural and political climate so we can finally have that dialogue this

keeping the community is in conflict. national book critics circle goes to citizen claudia rankine. [cheers and applause] >> i am so honored to be here was a daughter to be nominated a and i think the poetry committee and also the national book critics circle when working on this book had a song in my head this is not a story to pass along.

the to have tony morrison here today this seems like a gift that somebody else is in control of. to say there are all kinds of people and they will help you if you let them. and i would like to thank gray wolf press for being be owned their own kind of family. they helped me take the book through kilo, radiation chemotherapy, a difficult period in my life yet i knew with their help i could

bring into the world that things that i wanted so i cannot take them enough for their patients and guidance think he's so much. [applause] i also want to think to with my dear friends and i think all writers need readers that will argue with you about a. [laughter] and for me that this sarah and catherine. thank you.

>> also allison for organizing all my time to visit schools to take this discussion public figure. and leslie my husband and my daughter. he is the collaborator everybody needs and wants and i have him. [laughter] she is. she is. she is. thank you to both of you. and all the people who have

gotten to the library and would pass it on. thank you. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> good evening. i am sheriff the criticism committee and here is the finalist in that category.

this is the first time we have dominated daywork into two categories so a round of applause again for citizen. [applause] the recipient for criticism 2014 is the essential ellen willis. [applause]

this rounds out our understanding of a magnificent think and writer fisker includes essays about feminism and radicalism and child-rearing. and terrorism. they're beautifully recent and britain and right. for the full sweep of a life well spent and will argue. ellen willis come up to five -- [applause] congratulations. >> this is really cool. thank you so much.

especially since to be nominated in 2012 and i guess where i run to say is with the gratifying experience that the influence is growing since she died. i know the did the things that happens posthumously but it is amazing to see and was not expected. even yesterday that it does happen to be sitting at the reading and she turned to me after words to salvage imams students and i always have those moments where people said that she has influenced them and it is beautiful.

cannot the author but thank you to university of minnesota press says the great editor and meredith and to my dad and his family who has trusted me with all of her work over the decades. thank you. [applause] >> good evening sheriff the autobiography committee and i am thrilled to present in all standing list of finalists in the category of autobiography.

fin will win when when >> the national book critics circle is awarded a zero roz

chast. [applause] the nearly 2,000 roz chast began the extremely difficult process to care for elderly parents. vendor her revelatory in her graphic memoir can we talk. something more pleasant she captures the kaleidoscopic array of emotions and the trademark is on full display but it is more than just a collection of cartoons. but is no overt never overly sentimental understandably afraid to airdrome shortcomings. in the last few pages she showcases the pencil drawings of her dying mother of fitting closing frame to a story that all the universally relatable has rarely been as powerfully rendered.

thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much. i cannot tell you how completely surprised i am even though i did write this out. but i was so sure i would not be standing here that i actually said to re agent on the phone that the lives of my to pet parrots and i would not win the. [laughter] now i don't know what i will do. [laughter]

we just have to hope they don't understand english. [laughter] first of all so much one author of one said graphic novels are not traditional literature but that does not mean there is second rate. as a way to write to to have the talent to write and draw is a shame to choose one it is better to do both. faq to the national book critics circle for understanding the is sometimes preferable for some of us to use pictures as well as words to tell a story. i wrote this book not as the catharsis of was afraid if i didn't i would start to forget the stuff that happens also the memories how they sounded what they'll look like and how they stood what they ate or war.

sometimes they work best. specifically liking to thank my brilliant editor who was more helpful then she could never know. also the director of publicity keeps me on track and the publisher who has been a great friend and supporter and my agent for always being in my corner. also for publishing a 12 page excerpt which i guess it is infinite. they give to my husband bill and most of all my parents to this book is dedicated 84 been proud of me let me be

an artist and a writer i hope they are aware of their story has touched many people. thank you very much. [applause] >> hello. i am chair of the biography committee. we read to the big bucks. [laughter] the final lists -- are.

the recipient of national book critics circle is john lahr. now i will read the citation is.

[laughter] as a critic back into the biography of one of the great 20th century american deerhound tennessee williams. understanding to be in theatrical strokes he is not as scholar try by biography although a deeply the of letters in notebooks as well as energy used and collaborators. the subtitle the words are his own to suggest the quest for sexual knowledge with alcohol and drugs in the later years. is a psychological study how the playwright refashion the experiences into great dramatic works such as the

glass menagerie a streetcar named desire and cat on a hot tin roof. with an artistic bravery of a kind that seems rare in the commercial theater. until the last breath are it was the habits and into salvation. congratulations to john lahr [applause] >> he tends to want to get onto the stage early. and a long time to get off.

he said make voyages attempt them there is nothing else. he is right. it is a 10 year voyage and it has been enormously interesting and impossible to make without a lot of people coming along for the adventure if you are here tonight played gin to has been my friend and counselor 30 years. experts editor who has really piled the books and a publisher who is really given me a beautiful object

and i love what they have done with their care and concern a tip of the cap and finally because it was such a long journey. my editor at "the new yorker" to make sure you and sail off at the end of the earth and i think her as well. when you get to be my age age, 73 every time you write a book he think it is the last thing in your ad that. all you really want is a clean swaying -- swing and what it means to meet it feels like a hit.

thank you so much. [applause] >> good evening. it was my start pleasure to chair nonfiction this year.

and not in nine and and the the recipient of this year's national book critics circle with nonfiction is david brion davis. [applause] forceful elegant prose the

problem of slavery in the age of emancipation and undermines the white supremacy and passive black victim could. the culmination of 50 years of research and asking us to realize the admonition of slavery that we should never forget. this compels us to draw links to frederick douglass to the human-rights improvements burgeoning in america today. [applause]

>> day que so much. david brion davis is so ill but would give the is worse if he could be here. hearing the third volume of my children she has won national book critics circle greetings back to reinforce the excitement i felt 48 years ago when the first volume won the pulitzer prize for nonfiction. 48 years. i am deeply moved by the extraordinary prestige of this award been conscious of the competition of those for outstanding works of nonfiction since the other volume glenn the bancroft prize at the second volume in this rally and that the

third volume one national book critics circle. thank you. [applause] . . lily king, you for ya euphoria.

[applause] lee, river head. [applause] >> marilyn rob robinson, leila. and the recipient of this year's award in fiction from the nbcc is leila, by marilyn robinson. [applause] marlin robinson fills the third novel with glorious young shot through withlight -- with light ask grace. we're wild, more live in us than we can bear. with lila robinson offers us a momentous american portrait. no one writes so simply yet profoundly of our yearnings.

congratulations. [applause] >> i'm not marilyn robinson. i'm from fsg and i know marilyn will he utterly thrilled to receive this award, very grateful to you all, and very admiring of the other nominees. so, thank you all very, very much. [applause]

>> thank you all for joining us for this wonderful evening. we hope you'll join us on 13th 13th street for the reception as soon as we can get there. good night. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> booktv is on twitter, follow us to get publishing news scheduling updates, author information, and to talk directly with authors during our live programs. twitter.com/booktv. >> here's a look at some of the current best selling nonfiction books according to indy bound which represents sales in independent book stores throughout the country.

to start is being mortal, which examines end of life care. also on the list david axlerod, senior strategist for president barack obama's presidential campaign, in believer, and killing patton by bill pole reilly. remembering the life of george patton. then not that kind of dealer. a collection of essays followed by the explore asia of possible scientific answers to nonsense cal hypothetical questions in, what if and bill's recount of an american phoenixer who attempts to -- >> russ-s talks about adam smith's take on human nature and his writings on the pursuit of happiness. this is 50 minutes.

>> thank you. it's great to be back in st. louis and to see so many old friends. that porch story is a true story i fictionalize it a little bit in any book, the magic heart but i thought that a about example of permanent responsibility and danger. i'm going to talk at adam smith. adam something i is probably the second best thing to come out of scotland. the first isn't golf. but you may know about his famous book which is the wealth of nations. you may know that he was a free trader. and you may have heard of the invisible hand. what i want to talk about tonight is smith's other book called theaterry of moral sentiments. maybe the greatest self-help

book you have never read. what i try to do in my book, how adam displaying can change your life, is give you a window into smith's insight into psychology, philosophy economics, and apply them to modern life. and want to give you an idea what adam smith can teach us about ourselves and the world around us. i want to start with a story. i was in london last week i think last week, it's been this year for sure. and it was kind of a whirlwinds trip. never been in london before. and i gave a talk at a place called the royal society of arts. the royal society of artser is very old. used to be called something like the royal society for encouraging manufacturing the arts and commerce, and enough it's ucalled the royal society of arts and its goal is encourage creativity and ideas, wonderful place, and they have speakers, so i was giving a talk

there. before i gave my talk i'm in a room off to the side, and they put out things to drink and eat and it's a very nondescript room. a couch and a couple chairs, and some cookies and drinks and off in the corp iris an enormous green leather chair. it is this wide, got beautiful wooden arms this gorgeous carving around the top and says, the president's -- presidential chair. it says this chair was designedded by william chambers a famous architect. and he had designed this chair. and it says the president's chair, comma, 1759. and i got kind of excited for two reasons. one. 1759 was the first year that the theory of world sent. s was published. second, i'd been told before my

talk that adam smith had been a member of the royal society of arts. so it was possible that adam smith has sat in this very chair in 1759 when his book came out, the book that it was writing about. and i was so excited, wouldn't it by fun to sit in this chair the same chair my bottom could sit in the same place that adam smith's bottom has also been. but there was a sign that says, do not sit in the chair. but there was no one in the room. so what did i do? i want to suggest two things. first, that adam smith has a deep understanding of why i wanted to sit in the chair, which is a little peculiar. let's be honest. and secondly, whether i sat in

the chair or not -- i want you to think about whether you would have sat in the chair and -- i'm an economist, perhaps i sat in the chair or maybe i didn't. to understand i want to -- the psychology of this, i want to tell a story for my book that i used to help see smith's insights into celebrity. you think in 1759 cooperate aboutbe that in celebrity. no cable tv. no talk shows, no magazines. but smith was really aware of how compulsively and obsessively interested we are in famous people, and here's a story that from modern times that helps ' -- tet to smith's insight. ted willel williams, great baseball player, had very disstinktive car he had a cadillac coup deville, cream colored, and he had a body an

everyday guy who was his buddy and friend great for him to have somebody who wasn't always fawning on him and interested in him and just was his buddy. his name was jimmy carroll and jimmy carroll used to drive ted william around in the car and when ted was out of tom times jimmy would borrow the car. one night jimmy had a date and he asked ted williams, i've got a date, can i take your car? sure says ted. so he take this car picks up then date goes to the restaurant, pulls into the parking lot, and a police car pulls up behind him and says are you a baseball player? ask and she says, no, why? he spacious you're driving ted williams in car show. police knew his car. probably speeding all the time, probable my never got a ticket but his car was're well-known among the boston police. finally jimmy carroll convinces them he didn't steal the car it's okay. the cop says okay, no problem. then he says while you're in

the restaurant would it be okay if i sat in the car? jumpy carroll said that's no problem. so he goes into the restaurant and they come out an hour later and the cop is in the car with five of his friends. they're just sitting in the car. like me. wanted to sit in the same -- it doesn't really -- it's embarrassing. what is the thrill? what is the excitement of sitting in ted williams' car? if he had been in the car issue understand it. heels not in the car. adam smith was not in the chair. okay? so what is the appeal? what smith says that celebrity draws us -- we're so attracted to it, he says the man of rank and distinction is observed by all the world. everybody is eager to look at him. and conceive at least by simple

sympathy that joy whose circumstances inspire him, hi actions are the objects of the public care. so what smith says is we live vicariously through famous people. he says this helps us forward how sad we get when famous people die. and this is unbelievable. first he talks about the emotional investment we make in people -- remember, don't know us can't see us and yet we have this connection to them elm he calls them the great. by the great he means famous people. when we consider the condition of the great in those delosesive colors meaning delusion area in which the imagination is apt to paint it, it seems to be almost the abstract idea of a perfect and happy state. we have this imagining they have this perfect life. it's the very state which in all our waking dreams and idle

revelries we had sketched out to ourselves as the final possibility of all our desires, so we see this perfect life and that could have been me. that's what was hoping for. we feel, therefore, peculiar sympathy with the satisfaction of those who are in it. we favor all their inclinations and forward all their wishes, with pity, we think that anything some spoil and corrupt so agreeable a situation. and then, smith says, and that's why it's so hard for us to see them die. he says, we could even wish them immortal and it seems hard to us that death should at least put an end to such perfect enjoyment. it is cruel, we think in nature to compel them from their exalted stations to that humble but hospitable home which he has provided for all her children, meaning death. everything that hurts them -- it's as if the emotional connection we have to their

misfortunes, their tragedies their -- is ten times greater than we have for other people. so we have this ridiculous, irrational obsession with greatness. and we have it with people who are rich, people who are famous, people who are powerful. talks about how when kings die or kings or assassinated, and in our time, and and politicians are killed, we have an emotional reaction far out of line with what you would think would be relative to our -- people we know in our lives. so smith understood that back in 1759, people listened to famous people even if they didn't have much to say, even even now kim kardashian is breaking the enter northwest as i speak. so what i would teach adam smith, imagine when i'm giving this class or talk if angelina

jolie and brad pitt wandered into the back of the hall, off maybe to the side taking notes. how long before the lecture was totally disrupted? they would be much more interesting than anything i would have to say. i'd be more interested in them than anything i i'd have to say. we would be obsessed with wanting to say what way their doing, what they were wearing so of course i wanted to sit in the chair. now one might suggest based on the caricature people have about adam smith, he was about naked self-interest and he believed that degreed is good, and yet there's nothing about that in the wealth of nations and the opposite is true in the theory of moral sent sentiment. he counsels constantly against being overly attracted to the pursuit of money fame and power, and the evils and corruption of ambition. so many economyis would say sit

in the chair because the costs are zero because no one us going to see you and the benefits are the thrill you get from sitting in the chair. smith i don't think would have agreed. he did not see selfishness as a virtue heavily saw human beings as self-interested, yes, and the wealth of nations is about our interactions across space, dealing commercially with strangers. interested in how trade led to specialization, which in turn led to prosperity and allowed some nations to be wealthy and some nations not be. but in the theory of moral sentiments he is interested in our relations with our family friends and the people around us. smith's perspective is that -- this single sentence captures in many ways the essence of his ideas of what makes us tick. smith says: men naturally desires not only to be loved but to be lovely. man naturally desires not only

to be loved but to be lovely. meaning -- not the everyday day meaning of those words but in smith's time love meant honored respect, admired, worthy of attention. people would pay attention to you. lovely meaning worthy of being honored, respected and admired being praiseworthy. so he says deep down, what we really care about, what really creates true happiness, is that we are respected and honored by those around us and we earn that honor and respect truly and honestly. it's a very deep thought when you've apply it to yourself when you apply it to other people as well. you start to see how a lot of times the way we enter act with people are pushed and influenced by that very natural human desire to be honored, respected, loved, and praised. but we also want to be lovely. so did i sit in the chair? it's not lovely to sit in the

chair. it says don't sit in the chair. is sat that because if everybody who is ageless of the royal society of arts sat in the chair, after a while the chair want be there. so it's selfish and wrong to sit in the chair. no one is going to see me. i could probably get away with it. but it's the wrong thing to do and if i want to be lovely it's not just what other people see me do if i want to be loved i do care a lot about what other people think but i also want to be lovely. i want to away that love. i want to be truly a good person and so therefore i have a desire, even when no one is watching, i am watching and i will know whether i was honorable or not. and so i didn't sit in the chair. and if i did i wouldn't tell you because i want to be loved. right? i wish i had the videotape but i didn't sit in the chair. so what smith is saying about being loved and lovely he is

trying to give us the origins of our conscious, and he says something very radical for 1759. he is saying your conscience doesn't come from religion your conscience doesn't come from your parents, your upbringing. your conscience comes from the desire to be pleasing and honorable to the people around you, and you learn about what is honorable and good and decent by watching what other people do when other people do things good and bad, and when you see somebody do something got that gets honored and admired, you take a mental note. when you see something that people disapprove out you take a mental note -- not literally but in our world we do take note but in smith's world he is talking about the subtle signal wes send to each other through our myriad daily interactions. we learn about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. and then he says something very profound. he says, there are two ways to

be loved. we all have this inside us, he says, man naturally desires not only to be loved but to be lovely. we want deep down hard wired, people to approve of us, and there's two ways to get their approval. the first is to be rich, famous and powerful and we know that works. right? we know that kim kardashian is breaking the internet. she is powerful, guess, chev is rich, right? but politics wealthy people, actresses, actors athletes singers, we are drawn to them and they lead a very peculiar life. and smith talks about this a lot. i talk about it in my book. the adulation, the drug of adulation you become accustomed to when you're famous. i tell the story of when marilyn monroe came back from korea she

told her husband. >> diimagineow issue it was unbelievable. you couldn't -- you can't imagine the crowds' reaction. he says, yes i can. i can. you're joe dimaggio, you have that every day. then it goes away. you don't have it anymore, and what is that like? what is it like for the politician who is dumped or whose term ends? smith has extraordinary examples of a king who was captured by the romans, led through the streets and is miserable. he says why is he mitt rabil? he has been captured bay human main -- lieu main people. they're not going to be killed. she's not going to be shot. he'll be under house arrest. a good life kid grow up fine, has money, going eat will a nice roof of his head. what is he miserable for elm the answer is? because no one is going fawn over him anymore, no one will be sucking up to him and trying to

get faves holiday. , and so his life is awful. recently heard a story of a rabbi who was sent to the gulag during the world world war ii area. if you -- if you don't want to read that book read ann's book, the gulag, it's faction. this horrible, horrible thing where they take people make them work hard don't feed them much and don't have good clothes, it's awful, and a ten-year sentence was usually a death sentence. ten years of prison is awful, but often a ten-year sentence was a death tense, so his rabbi is in the gulag talking to this guy, and this guy says you're so happy. why are you happy here? this is awful. we have no food. we're dressed in rags and we work all day. he says, well before i was in

the gulag my job was to get people close to god. now that anytime the gulag, my job is to get people close to god. so i have same job i had before. he says you were a banker, you were important, you had money and now you're a prescriber and you -- a prisoner and you have nothing and you're miserable because you lost the thing that gave you identity and sense of pride which which is money people paying attention to him. his life is radically changed. so smith is saying, we want -- we're drawn to money a great thing, the world reside greatest economist, complaining about money. he says we're drawn to my we're drawn to fame and we are drawn to power, but ultimately it won't make us that much happier and the pursuit of it will devow it. the pour suit of its own sake is destruct tv. it's a better way to become loved, to be wise and virtuous and to be -- a better tie be

loved and to be lovely which means be being rise and virtues. and to be lovely smith says it's a two-stem process. the first step is to be proper act with propriety to do what people expect of you huge part of the theories is about propriety, something we don't talk about much. we kind of make fun of it. what he means isn't being stiff or uninteresting or conformist, he means conformist in the good sense of the word meaning conforming to what people expect so if you have a tragedy or a success, you know how to interact with people differently depending on how close they for you or not. smith says an amazing thing he says if you have a great success, you're better off probably keeping it mostly to yourself. he says the man who by some sudden revolution of fortune is lifted up at once into a condition of life greatly above what he had firmerly lived in may be assured that the congratulations of his best friends are not all of them

perfectly sincere. gore vidal sit it more blownly, every time i friend succeed is die a little. he says if you have a big success, and you share it with people they're going to pull back. you have a small success, he says joy is a very nice emotion so small success, people are happy for you and you can share it. they can empathize with you success, tragedy is the opposite. you lose a loved one a stranger can empathize with you. not as well as a person who is close to you. he says what the person who suffered the tragedy does is the, softens his emotions because he knows the stranger can't fully empathize. the strain injurying trying and getting closer and they get close but can't create a perfect

match. he talks about this as almost a dance or harmony, a musical, metaphor that we're constantly enter acting with the people around us trying to understand what they're going through and be know the people around us can't fully know what we're going through and how we match and do that is what smith is talking about with propriety and it's very beautiful. the real goal propirate is the minimum standard. the real goal is virtue, and smith hads the big virtues and none of them are growed. this virtues are prudence justice, and ben envelope lens prudence, take care of yourself your financial situation, don't be reckless. justice, don't hurt other people. don't steal. don't rob and ben fifth sent. help other people when you can. so that's smith's world view in a nutshell we want to be loved and lovely we have this fouling be loved through these unhealthy ways money, fame and power, we're better off is going

quieter path. we'll get less acclaim but better for us and it will be more honorable. to be lovely to be virtues -- virtuous to be proper. that dismiss' advice. but smith is not a fool. he understands we have a table time with self-deception so he knows that not only do we want to be lovely if we're not lovely at least we want to think we are, and that's a terrible problem. smith understands and writes about it very eloquently. so it's very easy for us to notice the faults in others not so easy to notice our own faults. smith says, amazing line, he is a bold surgeon, they say whose hand does not tremble when he performs an operation upon his own person. think about that. we can diagnose and operate on people around us, on ourselves, not so good. we're not so good at seeing ourselves as we truly are.

smith says we're very uneasy about lifting what he calls the mysterious veil of self-delusion. that we cover our acts with but it's self-delusion we cover our moral deformities from the people around us because we don't want to be seen at bad' people and we also cover them from ourselves, and smith says this deception, this self-desings of our own flaws, he says is responsible for half the disorders of daily life. and i suggest maybe that's an underestimate. and smith says if we could only see ourselves as others see us, we would have no choice but to reform our behavior and to be different people rather remarkable claim. smith gives us a way to see ourselves if we choose. he invocs what he calls the impartial spectator, person we imagine watching us who is impartial. doesn't have a stake in it,

isn't on our side. isn't against us. but is judging us, and when we're in the moment of a crucial moral decision or even just daily interaction where someone says can you do me a favor? he says we step out of ourselves and ask yourselves, what would an impartial spectator say when observing our choices? and that impartial spectator we populate, we give life to that idea by watching the actual spectators who judge us approve of our behavior or disapprove. so smith has this marvelous vision of this network of connections that we share with each other that we learn from that affects our behavior and we of course have a name for that it's called culture. our culture is where we get our judgments about what is right and what is proper and what is inappropriate and what is improper. now, smith says in the heat of the moment self-interest, which

is often in conflict with what is the right thing, often we'll be seduced by our own self-interest and do the wrong thing. but he says nature has a way of reminding us later you. can think back maybe i was little selfish when i skipped the funeral or didn't visit the friend in the hospital, when i worked on the project at work instead of going to help my kids with their homework. just want to close by reading what smith says about our self-interest. he says though it may be true that every individual in his own breath naturally performs himself to all mankind, -- true, right? we're the center of the universe, each of us. so each of us prefers ourselves to all mankind, yet he dares not look mankind in the face and avow he acts according to this

principle. he feels that in his preference they can no go along with him and how natural it may be to him, its must always appear excessive and extravagant to them. so we want to do what is best for ourselves, but we know that if we always act that way the world will not judge us kindly and of course, growing up, -- that's what growing up is about. maturing. when you're a child, it's mine, mine mine. it's me, me, me. when you're ans a less sent you're definitely the center of the universe and as you get outer, you start to realize there are other people out there who think they're the center of the universe and maybe interacting with them is a good idea and don't put yourself first all the time. so that's smith's vision of our psychology in a nutshell. that is his vision of what the good life is about. and how we behave in this great adventure we call life. but he also has a thereto say

about what creates a good society. a good place for people to pursue a good life. and i want to talk about two of those and then i'll open it up for questions. he argues that our desire to be approved and honored and praised and respected by those around us and our desire in turn to react to people around us, their actions, their behaviors that creates through no one's intention civilization. a really rather remarkable claim. he says the author of nature, which is god -- the awe their of nature has put inside us this judging and desire to be judged favorably. he says he has made us the judge of all mankind. so we judge each other he says we're essentially god's deputies to keep an eye on the people around us. that doesn't work so well. people do horrible things all the time.

what is remarkable is anything decent happens given how self-centered we are. to tell a story that happened to me rather remarkable. i had a chance to go to big sur in california to spend one day with my wife without our kids which happens once a year. so we're pretty excited to have a vacation day. the only problem is we can't find a place in big sur that is for one night. big sur is a strange place. there's -- you can stay for about $800 a night at some places but if you want to pay a little less which we did, it's hard to find -- there's no real hotels. so you have to find a cabin. all the cabins that were available had a two-night member. we were only coming for one night. finally said we'll pay for two nights. i call up this -- the owner of the cabin and say we would like

to come but we -- he said, two night minimum. say, know we'll pay for two, that's fine. happy to take two niles for the price of -- for one. he says they're a problem -- only a couple days before we get there -- you account get a check in time. she says i'll leave the place unlocked. we won't be there. 'll leave it unlocked you. come in. when you leave the next day, just leech cash on the -- just leave cash on the kitchen table and my cleaning lady will pick it up and give it to me, and as an economist, found this very alarming. my first thought was, what if -- wasn't my first thought. just thinking of different scenarios. one scenario would be, what if i went i got there had a really good time and either said, paying two nights for one night doesn't seem fair i'll just

leave one night's worth of cash. better yet i might say, let's leave zero and when the cloning lady done find and it tells the land lady i didn't pay issue'll just say the cleaning lady stole it. who will know. that is scenario number one. scenario number two. live the cash. the cleaning lady puts it in her pocket and says it wasn't there. the land lady calls me, says you didn't pay. i say, yes i did, cleaning lady said it wasn't there bad problem. third possibility, i pay the cleaning lady give athlete land lady and she calls and says i never got the money. the fourth possibility is i leave the money before the cleaning lady gets there the horse in the front yard comes in where the door is unlocked and eats the money or some stranger wanders off the street and takes the money because the door is unlocked. the morning we left, i fanned out dish still have it on my -- i have the photo -- i fanned out

way too many 20-dollar bills with the right number but it felt like a lot. i fans them out on the table, and then stupidly i took a photograph. so that in case she said i didn't get the money, could show her the picture, which of course is not very good because i could take the picture, put the money back in my pocket. but i took the picture, walked out the door drove down the hill, went up the coast, and everything went great. went perfect. cleaning lady took the money gave it to the land lady the land lady got it. no problem at all. that doesn't happen in every country in the world. doesn't happen in every culture in the world in many places opportunism is normal. chances to take advantage of somebody is a good thing and if you don't you're a sucker. but fortunately in a lot of parts of america, we are blessed

to be in a country where you can often trust people. another time anytime new york city. i'med a a camera store, selling back used equipment. the guy opens the box and looks at the camera closes the box puts everything away and is going cult me a check. i said aren't you going to open the other boxes? he said no; if the stuff wasn't in there you couldn't sleep at night. new york city. he was right. he didn't know i'd read adam smith, though. i would have slept very badly, very unlovely to have emptied boxes hoping he wouldn't open them and if he said, there's nothing here, i would say, i forgot and i'm so sorry um but that's with what happened and i worked out great. so when we can trust each other which we do constantly even in the world of incredible detailed contracts, there are still numerous things that are always left unspecified, and as a

result we trust. we have certain expectations and we usually meet them. about the condition of the equipment, the condition of the house we sell, and how we behave in those situations. that's a glorious thing. it lets us spend a nice time in big sur california and lets me change my camera equipment and it lets us interact with people commercially and socially in wonderful ways. where does that come from? what we have -- the answer is because we have gotten to a world where people honor honorable people and are disapproving of dishonorable people and that creates an expectation that most of us want to meet, and what smith says is that just as -- he doesn't say it this way but i say it this way -- just as each of us is irrelevant to the price of apples, we're irrelevant -- if if double my apple consumption the price of apples doesn't change. if i triple quadruple or tenfold increase my apple

consumption, there's in impact. i if every person in this room i gave a speech about the pops of apple, decided to start eating two or three apple as day there would be no impact on the price of apples. so each of us is irrelevant for the price of apples but if a ever person in the world doubles con slums would be more trees planned motion panels picked. the price would go up for a while and then come back down but all those things would be set in motion by our actions. so we, as a group, determine the apple market. no one decided individually. there's no apple czar. that's a market for apples and it's an extraordinary thing we don't appreciate, and smith implicitly is writing about that in the wealth of nations but the theory of moral sent. s he writes about the social things we produced together. so my good deed or my unfortunately sometimes not so good deed has no impact on the

culture. if i had taken those -- half those $20 bills back and stuffed them in my pocket, wrongly but self-righteously, that wasn't have destroyed culture in america. an angry landlord maybe would have blog about and it maybe taken me to court but the impact would be virtually zero. but if we all do that we live in a horrible society. so all of us together have a stake in the culture of trust and honor that we -- to the extent we live in such a culture, and we all sustain it every day when we do good things and when we honor people who do good things and we destroy it step-by-step when win do bad things and fail to disapprove of people who do bad things. and that is an incredible vision of the two pieces of our life, the commercial part and the cultural part that smith, i

think, understood as well as anybody. i want to close with smith's last insight into society. smith warns us of the hubris of kings and politicians. he calls such a person a person with hubris a person with a vision that he or she wants to impose on society he calls that person a man of system. he says -- talking about the man of system. he seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess board. he does not consider that the pieces upon the chessboard have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them but that in the great chessboard of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its

own, all together different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it. the grand level smith is warning us about dictators and also warning us about the unintended consequence of beside public policy and the challenges of national policy that enhances our lives or not. you can go further, as i tried to do in the book, and argue that politics is not where life happened. here's what i say. legislation and government affect our lives in all kinds of ways good, and bad but we have much to do outside that world. you want to make a the world a better someplace talk to your kid. go on a date with your spouse without checking your e-mail. read more adam smith and jaws austen and less the drudge report. smile at someone you don't know or even like. be nice to your parents bus you can never repay them. what they did for you. none of this necessarily shows up in gross domestic product. they don't help pay the bills.

they aren't or the torn do list so we don't get the satisfaction of checking them off but we can go by and nothing will happen if we don't do them, but i think they are the stuff of the good life. you might be tempted to say this has nothing to dive with economics busts i like to think that economics is how to get the most out of life. to get the most out of life you have to use your time wisely and economics is all about tradeoffs,.the fact that if we do one thing we can't do another. the other deep insights that we as a group do things sometimes without anyone's' intentions. the example i gave we determine how many amendments get produced. we determine whether we live in a culture of trust. economics is crucially about how we spend our time. the ultimate nonrenewable resource, we only have so much of it. we would be wise to spend that time wisely and some of that time i would suggest is best

spent with adam smith. thank you very much. [applause] ... >>