knowledgeable guy. but, you know, you asked me a question that i hadn't really thought of before. but i'm inclined to go with scowcroft because he was practical and wasn't driven by ideology. that's the best answer i can give you right now. of next time we get together, i'll think of another one. [laughter] >> i think we have come to the end, so i want to express my gratitude to mike bohn for this really wonderful presentation. buy the book. i read it really worth it. and thank you for coming, and a round of applause for our speaker. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. >> okay. thank you, everybody. see you next time. [inaudible conversations]

>> booktv of is on twitter and facebook, and we want to hear from you. tweet us, twitter.com/booktv or post a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. >> here's a look at some books that are being published this week:

>> watch for the authors in the near future on booktv. >> booktv is live today from the campus of the university of southern california, home of the los angeles times festival of books. we'll be covering author events from newman hall, and you'll have the chance to talk to several best selling authors during our call-in programs.

schedule updates will be on the bottom of your tv screen throughout the day, and you can find our full schedule online at booktv.org. >> deputy publisher of the l.a. times, mr. mele, when and how and why did the l.a. times start sponsoring this book fair? >> guest: the los angeles times started this book fair about 20 years ago. it's the 20th anniversary of the festival of books, and it was just an important way that the newspaper could engage with the community, could provide a space for all kinds of people from publishers authors thinkers but also chefs and artists and actors and actresses to come together to celebrate los angeles as one of the creative capitals of the world. >> host: and what can we expect in los angeles? >> guest: we're going to have over 500 authors celebrities,

musicians, artists, etc., as well as hundreds of booksellers publishers and cultural organizations across nine stages. there's something for everyone. bring your kids, bring your grandparents. there's a huge amount of stuff going on. some of the notable names, we have candice before begin, brian grazer, your favorite, bullly idol joyce carol oates patton oswald, john scolazzi, the science fiction writer, tavis smiley, it is something for everyone families, foodies, hipsters students spanish-language programming more than a hundred conversations on everything from california, digital privacy rights to the future of the american identity. >> host: what kind of reaction do you get from the community to a book fest? >> guest: you know, it's been an immediate success. it's one of the -- when it was

started 20 years ago it right away became a cornerstone event in los angeles culture. people mark it out all year long. it's been a signature event. it's been kind of a way the los angeles times inviolates all kinds of -- invites all kinds of folks around the community come celebrate this great city. it's grown to one of the largest festivals of its kind. there's really nothing like it anywhere in the united states, you know? it started very simply as the goal of bringing together people who create books and people who love to read them, but it's grown into this much broader celebration, you know? among other things, we have a big book award we give out every year, and this year we're adding something new. we're having something called an ideas exchange where malcolm gladwell is going to be in conversation with the los angeles times film critic, kenneth toran, you know? if you listen to npr, you're probably familiar with kenneth's voice as npr's film critic.

>> host: well, as regular viewers know, booktv will also be there. the c-span bus will be there, and we have partnered with the the l.a. times festival of books to create a book bag. and we will be handing those out from the c-span bus and if you're familiar with the area just off of -- on the usc campus, we're just about half a block from tommy trojan. and is there a cost to attending the festival mr. mele? >> guest: the bulk of the events are free. there are some of them that are ticketed due to limited space. but this is really a chance to invite the country in, to invite los angeles in and in partnership with usc to look at california. california as, you know the gateway to both latin america and to the pacific rim, to look at some of the future, some of the challenges the country faces in its future that are quite acute in los angeles from drought and climate change to immigration and the multicultural diversity of this nation.

across the board all kinds of exciting opportunities. >> host: you can go to the los angeles times, latimes.com and you can also follow the book test to the lafob, los angeles festival of books. mr. mele, thank you for being on booktv. >> booktv live this weekend with author events and call-ins from the 20th annual los angeles times festival of books. >> here's a look at some of the current best selling nonfiction books according to the los angeles times:

>> our look continues with former massachusetts congressman barney frank's account of his 40 years in politics in "frank." also on the list bill o'reilly and martin dugard recount the life and death of general george patton in "killing patton." and in ghettocide, a racially-charged murder. wrapping up this week's best sellers, a religious reformation is needed to end terrorism in the muslim world in "heretic." and that's a look at some of the current nonfiction bestsellers according to the los angeles times. >> a decision by irs bureaucrats, politically-appointed bureaucrats, to go after the growing tea party movement and deny them 501c4 status legal status so they couldn't get a bank account and legally raise

money and have one or two staffers and rental office and grow into state institutions, tea party started in 2009. just a couple of months into the obama administration. and i would have told you at the time that it couldn't happen. that i've been working on the taxpayer movement for a long time, and i knew from experience the american people will rise up against a tax increase. proposition 13 against property taxes in california. camp roth, the increases in income taxes nationally. proposition two and a half, massachusetts. proposition 13 property tax revolt. they didn't revolt during the previous 10-15 years when spending got out of hand and then taxes went rose to meet it. they waited until taxes increased. so i thought we were going to have to wait until obama would spend a lot of money and i would go hey, look at that and everyone would go, oh, that's not a problem, and then as soon as taxes were raised they'd go,

hey, now it's a problem. the american people sensed that all that spending was going to lead to massive tax increases and didn't wait for the tax hikes. the tax hikes followed but the tea party came first. it was the first anti-spending movement in american history. there are lots of tax revolts. first anti-spending movement that a i can find. and -- that i can find. and when they did that, they had maybe 600-1,000 rallies that we could document around the country. there's a wonderful study that aei put out with some harvard and university of sweden stockholm -- >> i obviously think it's wonderful. yeah. [laughter] >> and this was very powerful because there was a study that said look, here's where you had a tea party rally, and here's where you're going to have a tea party rally, but it got rained out. what was the difference in voter turnout and money raised for political campaigns and future attendance at demonstrations. and they were stilting between -- estimating between three and six million additional

votes came out for republicans in 2010 beyond what you otherwise would have expected because of the rallies themselves. and if you think about it, the left's always doing rallies. when i was younger i thought, that's because they don't have jobs. that's what it is. [laughter] well you meet people at rallies, you get a sense of belonging, you realize i'm not alone. i'm part of a movement, this is bigger than me. you have friends and your local friends -- >> it does i mean, i think one remarkable finding is, indeed, how local these effects are, right? part of the narrative the left had about the tea party movement was, you know, it was astroturf sort of organized from d.c. by evil billionaires. and i think that the massive sort of local variation driven by rally turnout, driven by, you know, local weather on a day scheduled, really i think shows you how organic a lot of it was. >> and at first the obama administration pooh-poohed it,

remember, the president said he didn't watch any of the rallies, doesn't know anything about it. i got calls from the grown-ups in the media saying so you and exxon are doing this right? [laughter] they thought i had organized it with some fortune 500 companies before the kochs -- >> yeah, yeah. [laughter] >> exxonmobil. and you'd say, actually, no. [laughter] we're trying to find all these guys, because we'd love to work with them but we've never seen many of them before. and i went to some of the early rallies, and people would say how many have ever been to a political rally before? 10-15% of the people would raise their hands. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> here are a few of the book festivals we'll be covering this spring on c-span2's booktv:

>> that's this spring on c-span2's booktv. >> next on booktv, johann hari talks about the history of the 100-year war on drugs around the world. he spent three years and traveled 30,0