sometimes, i feel like it's as though i'm standing in a field of kind of knee-high dry grass, right? and i'm trying to -- i've got two flints in my hand, and i'm trying to make a fire in this field. i'm banging those flints together as hard as i can. the thing the two flints always represent, they're always an experience of mine, something that has really happened to me. so from those real experiences, i'm striking them together and trying to make these sparks. and when i get it right one of the sparks will fly and they will light that field on fire. so everything that gets on that is on fire, is imagination. but none of it can start without those two flints. so the flints aren't in the week, only the field -- in the book, only the field on fire is. but it took the flints to basically get that field going. does that make sense? >> i think we're going to wrap up now. for those of you -- thank you so

much elliot. [applause] elliot actually has a train to catch so i'm going to tell the whole story. but there is a -- we have about five or so minutes and he'll come to the front, and for those of you who didn't get your book signed we'll make time to do that. and have a great evening. thank you so much for coming. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> is there a nonfiction author or book you'd like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail to booktv@cspan.org tweet us @booktv or post on our wall facebook.com/booktv. >> the thing to notice about the progressive era is that there

was a lot of national discussion at that time about these challenges. that's what teddy roosevelt especially was doing but a lot of other people too at the national level. pardon me. but most of the actual policy innovations that came to fix that problem did not come from washington. that national conversation gave oxygen to local reformers in places all around america. and so the innovations in that time came from, you know, galveston and toledo and the wyoming territories. and the isle of kansas. the american high school, god did not invent american high schools. high schools were invented by small towns in iowa and kansas and the midwest in this period so that kids -- with the idea that these are all our kids, we're all going to be better off if we give them a free secondary

education, you know, free secondary education. that turned out -- and then the idea spread across america. that turned out to be the best public policy decision america has ever taken. because that massive investment in giving a free college education -- a high school education to everybody in america it raised the level of what economists call human capital in america and accounts for almost all of our growth in the 20th century. and at the same time it leveled the playing field because everybody got the -- it might have been a little bit of a hard sell to say to the rich farmer or banker or, you know, or lawyer in town the your kids are already off to chicago, but you should pay so these other poor kids in town get a free secondary education. but that's effectively what happened. and it happened i think, because -- it happened first in the places in which people did think of everybody's kid as they're all our kids. we're all going to be better off. and that's true today. this is not altruism. the whole country would be

better off economically, politically socially, morally if we could begin to invest more in these kids. >> let's start with economically. what would it do to our economy? >> well, you can face it positively or negatively. the best cost estimates are that it cuts -- not investing in poor kids costs us about 4% of gdp a year. a big chunk of that is, you might think a big chunk of that is the criminal justice system. if we don't invest in poor kids, that's going to raise the number of kids involved in the criminal justice system, we're going to have to pay for prisons and all that. actually that's not the biggest thing. welfare payments to these kids, that's not a major part of the costs. bigger are the health of these kids because they're much less healthy, and they're going to -- poor kids are now much more to obese than rich kids, and they're getting more to bees faster so they're going to get

more diabetes, and they're going to get sicker longer, and somebody's going to have to pay for that. and that turns out to cut a percent and a half out of our gdp this year, just the health of these poor kids. but the other really important part of it is the lost opportunity that the work force side of this. we're writing off 23 million potential workers every year. marcy sue is not -- mary sue is not in the position to be a productive worker, and that means they're not -- through no fault of her own -- she's not going to be contributing to the even if you have a very simple minded make or take view of the world, you say is well, she's going to be a taker. but mary sue's not responsible for that. maybe her parents viewed up -- screwed up, but mary sue didn't. this is the most important point i want to say: helping marry sue won't help myrrh yam, my granddaughter, it'll help my granddaughter. she'll be better off if we also invest in other people's kids. this is not a zero sum gain.

>> and you said 4%, but what's that $500 billion a year or something? >> yeah. over the life it's like -- over the lifetimes of these kids the best estimate is $5 trillion. so we're talking, you know, a trillion -- >> and you also gave a comparison -- yeah, it as up. [laughter] you also gave a comparison which i'd love you to try to spin out because i'm not sure i can remember it exactly, that if atlanta had the same sort of equality of opportunity that salt lake city had, the economy of atlanta would be what? >> 11% bigger. >> and that's just an economic fact, right? >> yeah. this comes from the federal reserve board in boston, the economists at the federal reserve board. they've calculated, you know, the growth rate of different parts of america, other things that affect the growth rate, of course of given metropolitan areas. but holding all those other

things constant, and then you get asked well, why is atlanta so low and salt lake city so high? that's another discussion but the fact of the matter is, that makes a big difference. everybody would be better off if they just paid a little more attention to the poor kids. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> here's a look at some recent books featured on booktv's "after words," our weekly interview program. one recent guest was april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio networks. she discussed her new book, "the presidency in black and white" and her 25-year career in journalism. we also spoke with presidential candidate mike huckabee about his book, "god, guns grits and gravy." the former governor talked about his views on politics and culture. wes moore was our guest for his book "the work." he shared with us his quest to find meaning and fulfillment in

his life. we also spoke with eric foner about his book, "gateway to freedom," which details the history of the underground railroad. also appearing on "after words" was cornel west. he talked about his latest book, "the radical king: a collection of speeches by martin luther king jr. " tax reform was the focus of our conversation with grover norquist. he outlines his ideas in "end the irs before it ends us." also appearing recently the author of "be safe love mom." she spoke about being a mother to four military officers serving in a war zone. and peter slevin appeared to discuss his biography of michelle obama. "after words" airs on booktv every saturday at 10 p.m. and sundays at 9 p.m. flp you can watch all previous "after words" on our web site booktv.org. ..

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