it's a great book i highly recommend. i've been told it's going to be made into a movie and i can't wait to see that. >> "vanity fair" special correspondent ryan burrough appeared at the "chicago tribune" printers row that fast to this past history of america's radical underground. it begins now on booktv. ..

step up to the microphone appear so that the audience can here the question. keep the spirit going all year long with a subscription to the tribune's premium book section. also, feel free to download the trip books out for more information as well as access to our digital bookstore. finally the lit fest love social media. feel free to take pictures, post messages and upload them to twitter histogram or facebook using the hashtag puerto rico lf 15. please silence your phones caught in the flashes off your cameras. i will introduce our moderator.

[applause] >> i like a short but sweet introduction. i will give a short one for brian. for the indefatigable research a joke that we should call him brian burrows. thank you. i am here all week. i asked him how he wanted to be introduced. he said he writes for vanity fair and write books. the book for which it is best known as barbarians at the gate which came out in 1990. the merger of rjr reynolds and the biscoe, food services. but his latest book i think is a profound the of

research, storytelling moral inquiry. in the subject is something that i think we thought we do something about because of the events of the last 14 years or so. that's domestic terrorism. he shows us how to see the subject in a very new line particular story back to 1969 or so. all the way up through the middle of the 1980s. and one of the striking facts of the book and the most fatal endangers your the trade center bombing. maybe it's good to havefund it makes you scratch your head and think maybe you should read this book. which you should.

the 1st thingthe 1st thing i would like brian to talk about is the sheer scale of political violence in the united states. my favorite example to get that across was a story you told about the evacuation of a movie theater. maybe you can address that. >> just a small little item in the new york times. i picked up may 1970. the small puerto rican independence group set off a bomb in a theater in the bronx-"+s and bombs were so prevalent by the time that the seven hr declared the theater after the kind of the bomb no what1 would leave there was no sense of)& continuing danger-a

it was like, we are new yorkers. it's a bomb already. in the box in the san francisco chronicle. san francisco had so many bombs that the chronicle ran an intermittent box score of how many they're were and who was in the lead. but the scope of domestic violence, what we would call domestic terrorism today. i don't, terrorism because these bombs were not intended to kill indiscriminately. most work what i call protest bombs. set off an empty buildings. >> exploding press releases by and large complex of those who did were intended to draw the media and police focus to communicate tapes

to the bottom of a pay phone or send to a radio station this type of thing. the thething. the sheer scale of it was what stunned me. the senate inquiry in the early 70s counted 2,500 bombings to 18 months. which is just amazing. i remember trying to explain the 1st bombing in berkeley why was so little noticed. just by going to the major newspapers a@34 other significant bombings most of which injured far more people than a half-dozen policeman. i think the amazing thing is not how widespread it was but have completely forgotten it is. there is so little cultural or institutional memory. i lived through the 70s.

i remember patty hearst. so much of it was centered in the bay area and thirdly in chicago, media capitals. if you grew up like i did in a small town in texas arkansas this was easy to miss. >> you no one day in new york in 1975 following puerto rican independence bombing were so many bomb threats from them than 100,000 office workers that they were evacuated going around the streets of manhattan. >> the 1st time they evacuated the world trade center. >> and one of the things that i think speaks more highly of american metal in those days was talk about new yorkers saying this is new york. you don't talk about this particular event in the

book. i researched this and came across a lot of strange stories. in 1975 and then climbed over the white house fence with a lead pipe. the secretthe secret service doing what they do with his physical threat to the grounds of the shutting the death. there was like a three paragraph story in the new york times. and that. and there was one sentence wikipedia entry. i compare that to what happened with his poor mentally ill a few years ago read her car -- no one knows why because she was turned into swiss cheese -- into the capitol grounds and had her infant in the car. not only was it national news with a week about 100 military and police personnel descended on her home with hazardous material

suits to make sure that she wasn't part of some terror cell. >> this type of violence was so deeply woven into the 70s no one expresses any outrage. it was so much a part of life it was just kind of no big deal. that people will talk to after a bombing that killed someone. her quote was another bomb. coming after the 60s watergate with the multitude of things going on radical violence would not have been

the top ten things that would anyone were worried about. >> do you think it has anything. >> we are now is what we collectively forgot to reintroduced to violence and different way. suddenly out of nowhere to thatcher that did not remember the stuff had 93 and september 11. suddenly now when i say bombing the shutter. >> interesting. >> it totally for me to write this book had to give my head back before september 11. the puerto rican detonated a bomb in a wall street restaurant that killed. several of these groups: a half-dozen a dozen.

>> and there was truly awful ask. their cause was independence for puerto rico. >> liberating puerto rico. but the bombing that they undertook this kind of the very much for your tourist attraction that were george washington said farewell to his troops. they did it with a lot. >> propane tanks. >> and killed six people. >> for. >> happy are chicago. seventy-four to 81. the story which i'm fairly sure it is the 1st time i read it in this detail they came out of a high school in chicago. most of them were counselors and teachers. the community activist who

got -- the interesting thing about that means also in concert distinction to violent political terrorists today. these folks within the mainstream the left or even the liberal mainstream supporters apologist. the most striking thing in the book and why the story is important is because they had the sort of 80s and betters. what was striking was the response of the episcopalian church. the fbi. >> operating. >> they had a puerto rican mainstream social services group that was a front for a terrorist group. they proved that the

committee was written on a typewriter been atthat the woman who was his group had bought the plane tickets. >> the episcopal guys he's split into two halves of those regarding concerned than progressives. >> the quote about going after politically active hispanics. >> but it was difficult for anyone to imagine that a revolutionary terrorist bombing was using the national headquarters of the episcopal church. just stories like this a bit forgotten.

there are so many great ' and footnote stories. >> let's talk about what these folks believed themselves to be accomplishing in such a discussion maybe service in 1968 or 69. >> the half-dozen most prominent underground groups of the 70s. the one thing that all of these groups have in common was they were born of the 60s. the60s. the underground in the 70s is a forgotten last chapter. obviously what happened is i

say that most of these people were unable to shape the dream of 1868. the dream of 1868 was that a worldwide revolution sweeping the globe. it was a. the government would fall and literally a new world was upon us. itit did not happen. nixon came in and started cracking heads. but wait 69 the hardest hardest core of the militants, including the leadership of fds the dominant protest the year began to talk seriously about going underground taking it to the next level which was literally watching a kind of war. >> undeclared war. >> undeclared war. as crazy as that sounds they had a long track record the event that they could.to to show that it was not that

crazy. thirty-five people on the outside. >> governmental. you've all seen the godfather part two. >> ho chi minh start of the ten guys. fidel and chased out of the ten guys. they all ended up taking control of the country. the 1st of the group at theand the most imitated the largest, most influential of the groups have sought to make that happen. there is a great untold story about how they utterly failed to do so. >> right. and to connect that to chicago one of the guys who was the leader of this whose name surfaced during the 2008 campaign goes around giving speeches at high schools and stuff talking about this great antiwar movement. i.out that he was not in and were activist. he was a war activist.

he declared war the united states. i toldi told the story of my review of the great socialist friend of mine who was a publisher of america's 1st socialist newspaper in decades in these times. now a great left-wing magazine. his cousin was in the weatherman. i said, what would you do if your cousin's name is jj it was a vociferous advocate of murderous revolutionary violence will help youyou do if he knocked on your door today? i would turn them into the fbi because he destroyed the left. >> they did not developed any favors. >> right. so one of the interventions that you make to the story is that you demonstrate

that, yes,that yes after the terrible accident that happened in a townhouse in lower manhattan in march of 1970 several members of the weather underground themselves up accidentally. you.out that that moved the whether underground to a policy of only undertaking bombings that would only damage property and that people. prior to that they had a very different idea in mind. >> that has been the central message, they never intended to hurt us all these after the townhouse that is the path they embarked upon. they did fairly conventional protest bombings, issuing -- >> and bathrooms. >> why in bathrooms? >> the fbi began to take them was seriously and told the terrible toilet bombers.

in a public building they were the one place where you are given privacy close the close the door and do the wiring and things that you need to do. the important thing is that what is forgotten by apologists like bill ayres that many whether alumni for what they want to cover is the fact that there were two phases. the longest one was protest bombings. they actively tried to detonate bombs to kill policeman and military officers. they did so in there 1st action in berkeley seriously injuring one officer and lightly injuring a bunch of others. was an action in detroit in which bill ayres group attempted to that led to bombs in the police functional. the 3rd was the one of the townhouse where the new york collective was building a

series of very large bombs that they intended to that date that officers dance at fort dix, new jersey. and however you want to look at this as luck would have it then a lot about politics and poetry but not enough about building bombs. it went off in his hands. it killed him and to others and brought the entire townhouse down upon and convince the rest of the leadership that they had to disavow murderous violence. other groups later went on and did it. from they're on out bernadine dorn and jeff jones along with bill ayres charted what they called one letter writer to about the paper called it responsible terrorism. thatthat was what i call protest bombings.

the bombs not intended to kill. >> they never tried to kill any cops. how do you get the story and how confident are you? >> my source is the end men who built the bomb in place to another zoo were they're that night. there is everythey're is every reason in the world it is what the world and of this. presenting a variety of fame they're is a large segment of the radical left to whom he is not popular. a lot of them came forward because they frankly felt likewise see the only underground figure that most of america has ever heard of? the young man who built 98 percent of the whether underground bombs blog with a woman who went on to long career teaching a public schools in new york and comes out for the 1st time in our book and is identified and tells a story i feel certain that part of it is ron realizing he had a

part in this history. and many of them feel like bill is just not telling the true story. the true story is uglier than what people to remember >> how did they getdo they get away with it? what about the fbi? >> i love the fbi today. i love the loyalty and professionalism. i have come to no a lot of people who work there. the 1970s was not there finest hour. they had very little history in infiltrating -- i should sayi should say successfully infiltrating radical is groups. there are hilarious memos you can get about how these people live like reprobates. no wonder we can't recruit informants. no one would talk to the fbi very quickly even though hoover and something many people just don't want to believe or, hoover eliminated blackberry jobs,

illegal burglaries. by and large that was moved away from. the whether squad, especially squad 47 in new york brought back blackberry jobs and illegal mail opening in every conceivable thing that you can do in spades to going after weather. long story short one of the great ironies of the area is in the end exactly one weatherman of the primary group one of the two young women who called out of the rubble of the townhouse that morning was ever convicted of anything. the top three officials of the fbi were convicted and indicted for these break-ins. one had charges dropped. two others were convicted and ronald reagan pardoned the. the fascinating thing about

the fbi is our did they cheat but they lost. >> not only that one of the most frustrating things about this was i thought i would go in this can be able to tell us with documentary evidence, fbi files. it turns out on whether at least what you get is just junk. i talked to a half dozen fbi agents that said after the investigations and scandal started they were taking all the new york files home and bring them in the fireplace. there is just nothing there. as a result i have to take off my historian at and put on my old malaise newspaper reporter at. you know, i. you don't no me. i don't happen to be radical public anyway. tell me about the building you bargain legend 72. >> so when i reviewed the

book i said, it's a cinematic. that stuff was ripped from the headlines. wewe are talking about a member of a black revolutionary cell goes into an after-hours joint or bad things that are bad for the people are going on but can make everyone strip down naked, steel all the money. the cops come. what are all these people doing naked. some guys like -- some direct assault but they are gone now. no, it's right over they're. a lot of the stories call one of the things i learned if your going to be a member of a violent revolutionary army and you get pulled over by the cops the 1st thing you want to do is rather the windows. >> that's what the black liberation the members. >> when a cop came some of

the hotheads would just a shooting at the cops. and the glass would be fine and you don't want anyone to get hurt. >> these guys all have medium to large afro's. one story about a particularly murderous sky. our women were picking glass i was they're all night. >> how many rounds of ammunition were involved in that final showdown? >> i don't know but he was cut to pieces the unofficial end of the black liberation army which was not prone to peaceful protest bombings. they assassinated police. they were a spinoff of the black panthers exactly as weatherman was a spinoff of stf. >> at least nominally run from the black panthers algerian headquarters their world emissary who believed

himself to be running sort of the government in exile the black american from a room and algeria where he had a doctor evil a map with lights having all the revolutionary cells, including the one based in china as chairman was a guy named mouth. >> you can't make this up. >> i no. >> and he thought were going to be a guerrilla army. they believed that people going to rise up. typically black oppressed we will rise up. always so stunned when it does not happen. >> it's funny when the head of the liberation army on the fbi may be onto us. let's find another by person knocked on there door. >> for the fbi was closing and they decided that they needed to move to a knew

place. they did not no any place. they started going door-to-door saying i. i'm commander sink a of the liberation army. can we move in. amazingly no one said yes but no one turned the men. no one went to the men. >> it was a strange time. and the man was cutting down black leaders in cold blood. you no it made sense. >> a time when government because of the 60s and the corruption of the administration and the war and watergate the reputation of the fbi at an all-time low. i don't know how was lower. >> if you are in the south bronx and basically the heroin trade is run by the police joining a group like

the black liberation army seems like a better strategy for change that voting for hubert humphrey. >> and the bla was the purest outlet for black rage >> black rage. >> which have been rising from the 50s to welcome through stokely, through a trap brown. finally after five intense years of blacks calling for black power and black revolutionary and black revolution of the big someone tried to do it. by allies the effort to pieces. they assassinated and attacked a number of places will. >> the delicious moment where one of the bla soldiers says don't you understand where the war. >> anyway, let me ask you one more question.

getting the story. the reason i said this is so cinematic if i were writing the screenplay it will be about some guy who lives in taxes in new jersey giving the story. you know, tracking down. but i get a sense that it was not. it was pretty difficult and you are almost at the end of your book. >> a couple times. this is the most difficult thing ever done command am not sure i would do it again almost six years. for most of those getting a lot of door slammed in my face metaphorically. it was only when i realized and found the bar doesn't matter. a started making the argument have a track record

telling us accurately. look behind me. there are half dozen reporters lining up outside the store. >> that moment in which you realize that you might have a book that was on your own terms successful. >> the 1st time i started hearing some of the stories call with these to tell us and general school. the 1st time a bla guy told me about murdering a cop the 1st time mark monthly rental me about building the women involved, the 1st time say to again if told me about breaking chessboard out of prison in 1979 and smuggling her to cuba. once i get a couple of those i realized my great

frustration was i thought the book was uneven. ii knew i had amazing stuff, but it is not amazing everywhere. therethey're were a couple of groups come i never talk to any of there people. ii had to tell a story through the eyes of the fbi agents pursuit. once i get a couple of those early stories unrealized this is amazing stuff and then i kind of had the bug. >> john just mark, the joan of arc trying to shoot a cop at point-blank range. >> she tried to do it many times. on the turnpike at night. now newly relevant because the most prominent fugitive still living in cuba. >> what would you tell the kids, the black student union at berkeley who want to name the building after? >> i did my best to play this right down the middle

to not make judgments especially political judgments. i had people on the right sam glamorizing these people a lot of people say you're not explaining enough. it's difficult to stay down the middle when you get students today heyou what to name university buildings which is not the 1st time it happened. it happened in the bronx whether what to name buildings after the fl a.m. bomb maker. you know, i understand these people are potent symbols, but they tried to kill people and tried to kill police officers and families i just have -- if you want to name your community center with private funds after anyone you want to, fine. it sticks in my craw with people do that with public funds. >> willing morale is because thatwas because the guy has the most strong we will of any human being. he blows up his fingers.

>> blew off nine of his fingers and half of his face >> escapes the cops escapes. he has one finger and what you do? >> pipe bomb goes off in his hand. july 1978. close off nine of his fingers half of his face. and somehow he manages with the storms of his hands to flush most of the documents from his apartment down the toilet. we no that because the door closed behind them. by the time the cops came he was passed out. somehow he survived. they took him to bellevue for he was put in the hospitalward and after several trips from a helpful defense attorney it suddenly -- recently came into possession of some wire clippings -- wire clippers and somehow with no hands

one remaining finger his attorneys sued the city of new york asking for possession of the fingers back. your getting to it. we just are not quite gotten they're. somehow willing morale is managed to tie a rope ladder outside his window get out the window but down the rope ladder. he was on the 3rd floor. he got about 10 feet and felt because there's a massive dent on an air conditioner that it on the 1st floor. down they're were an estimated five to 20 members of the fla and edit african-american group called the family who whisked him away to east orange, new jersey and the milwaukee and ultimately mexico and cuba. >> when you kind of perseverance in our college kids today.

>> is still in cuba. >> every now and then he will give an interview, some obscure internet. >> he is kind of been in the news the question of what we will happen to fugitives. well we don't want to much better. i bet you guys have interesting questions. sir. >> when you were finally able to pry loose some of the stories of the bombings and took place 30 and 40 years ago, how are you able to get confirmation on the stories? how difficult was that? >> by and large one of the biggest problems with the fallibility of memory. people would tell me these things and get there -- they would tell them incorrectly. let's say they miss bombing the 1st significant whether bombing was inside nypd headquarters. and you no the guy who built the bomb and the couple

other people would been they're the facts did not match because every newspaper at all the time to do everything. you do what writers have done for decades. look he thought it was a five.a five. the paper said it was at 630. it probably was. what you end up doing in most accounts is the kind of dates and times and facts you tend to go with what was generally accepted by the press. the quotes, memories emotions and specific memories of that as well become more comfortable bringing in the human remembered accounts. humans just don't remember the basic facts 40 years later. i just don't. >> you don't have a lot of footnotes. >> i should have done more.

>> the website. >> i know. ii know. i know. your so good at it and i'm not. look, what i do is footnote things without taking the specific fact and always a quotation from another source. a lot of my stuff comes from personal interviews. and i don't footnote. this is from an interview done in february 18. i no that i should. i just basically said talk to the guy and he told me this. >> do you have any instances where any of the bombers actually showed remorse or apology or did they take there original stance? justified back in the 2nd question do you have -- do you discuss in your book instances around the university campus as well? like wisconsin. >> first question 1st i

am always surprised when i get good questions. but often what i have question is the right they are so stunned when people broadly speaking the people do not express remorse. they expressed sadness that they lost sadness that people don't understand the necessity in there minor the severity of the circumstances that require them to do this. about a 3rd of the people i would say, especially those who are going to white-collar jobs, many of the weathermen have gone on to be doctors lawyers university professors. >> speaking beautifully about the moral consequences >> one of the early leaders

later marginalized. he is very good. probably a 3rd to 40 percent expressed some type remorse. i don't because the main narrative of a book starts and. i'm primarily concerned with people who took explosives: the sewing innocence the bombing in the domestic terrorism of the 1970s had its roots in campus violence especially in the late 60s but almost all of us was molotov cocktails thrown against buildings at night with the notable exception of the one off attack in medicine. >> a bomb, it was august 1970 that was larger

than any other bomb set off. the significance of that bomb was not on the size but that it went off it was not -- just a group of students who. at one time at one time only in the disappeared. >> a masterful book about that event. >> the significance of that is the whether was at a turning. they been underground eight months trying to get onto there feet. madison bombing overnight change the national conversation from what was wrong in vietnam to what was wrong with these crazy kids on campus in the 1st was widely disavowed in the days and weeks that followed. i don't read a lot about campus violence, that we will be the most significant >> thank you so much. it's an excellent read.

mymy question is he made it clear how difficult this book was to gather information on. what would you say was the impetus for the reason for your decision to tackle it in the 1st place. what motivated you on the subject? thank you. >> thank you. i am -- i hop around. i knew a knew -- i do a knew book and subject every five years. i no how this must sound but issues and events are not the primary drivers in determining what gets me to tackle about. i'm looking for a good story three books ago i wrote a book called public enemies the story of the birth of the modern fbi chasing around six disparate criminal groups during the 1930s. i wanted to go back and do something that had that field of multiple groups

cops and robbers but it had to be a situation where i thought i could break new ground. i reached out to lunch of people. finally a guy at the fbi came back and suggested the f al in. i looked at it and thought, no one is written about them they are probably never going to talk to me. and then while candidly commercial considerations rarely factor into my decisions, it was screamingly apparent that if i wrote a book about some forgotten puerto rican terrorist group i was going to get about 70 meters. >> but they would be outstanding readers. >> i started looking at the other groups whether, fla and none rose to the significance, importance that i wanted in the book.

that is what hit me, you're missing it. as all of them, and era and underground era. maybe these people were only numbered in the hundreds but the scale and the breadth of the violence that they perpetuated i don't know how you call this not historically significant. >> the accounts are flat contradiction to what has been said. having spoken publicly to you or to people like howard martin about these differences? >> they are. but what they say is accurate.

it's just not accurate but the 1st 90 days. i tried to talk with him repeatedly for six years. i went back and forth through e-mail many times and look, this guy is a talented writer. a career communicating in his own voice. i don't think candidly the kindest way for me to look at it, he did not see the value and allowing someone else to tell aa story that he felt more than qualified to tell himself. >> and you referred to him as a phd candidate. had hehad he been admitted to candidacy? >> good question. i don't remember. he was working in the phd program at the time. >> a graduate student. i doubt that he was formally admitted to candidacy. >> he is retired. >> from what? >> he went on to a long career of doing social work

and teaching. >> thank you. >> some of the footnotes are funny. this gentleman who i can't name has gone on to a distinguished career as an accountant butcher bigger, candlestick maker. it's pretty remarkable. human drama. >> there were a number of the weathermen. one of them went on to be a tenured professor at duke. his specialty was narcotic addiction. no one outsideno one outside his family knew he had been in whether until his eulogy. one of my other sources most prominent sources in the book that is not named i gave him a pseudonym one of bernadine dorn's right-hand man. he turned himself in. he went to an ivy league law school and went on the 25 years and white new york law

firm. and no one outside his family and peers no what he did. >> well. >> my question with the increasing animosity we see do you think that we may be in the next five ten 20 years seeing another? >> maybe i can speak to that we havewe have an enormous problem of right-wing terrorists in america. it just doesn't get spoken of as terrorism. the 1st few years of the obama administration they're are plenty of people going after cops and clinic bombings and all the rest. it is part of our political culture. >> i just saw this peace the guy that used to be at the times. greg. i forget his last name.

he has a knew book out trying to argue that income equality and divided government has reached such a.that we're seeing the seeds way for what may be revolutionary movements left, right, or otherwise in the near future. i would've thought your answer would not be about right-wing violence but the progression african-american and activist rhetoric. the issues were exactly the issues that spawned and furthered the panthers and spawned the bla. that word until baltimore the activists were uniformly that only nonviolent but preached nonviolence, and it was not until baltimore we started to see our beds and interviews with young

activists say i'm tired of being in these protest marches. you start to here a little bit less doctor king and a little bit more malcolm. i don't no if this goes anywhere, but i looked at that initially when i saw the quotes from the activists. these peaceful marches are getting anywhere. take things to the next level. i did not want my eyes but i was like read your history. >> now compared to 1968 one cbs compared to 3 miles of madison street. the scale is just not the same. >> baltimore with such violence. how can you say we don't have violence like that. unlike weight. baltimore was a good night. baltimore was a good night in newark detroit. there is no comparison.

the amplification artificial amplification of social media cable lead you to believe this was more significant. >> and it did lead things like hiring by cops and not just cops like they had in harlem in chicago where they would compete to see who could be the black suspects to that they were down with the rest of the thin blue line. the whole ecology is very very different. the fact that there was know african-american professional class to speak of with what we have now the los angeles times basically had to send out practically genders because they just didn't have black reporters. so things are serious now. i would not want to downplay the anger.

>> it's also true american police departments have gotten much better at seeing all the right things that are necessary to attempt to have feelings. even if often there officers are not doing all the right things. by and large don't get hard-faced police chiefs of the talking about these crazy kids in the streets. >> you have professional administrators that grew up on rodney king. they no how to say the right thing which is led to some of us. >> compared to los angeles. he would recruit as. and after the riots it's like a zoo. what marketers a rock and they all do. >> moment for question. >> i.

>> the committee. take some notes. move your member that are not. singh k was named after seeing take. sink you call themselves think you. >> go street here in chicago. >> that's right. anyway it's an honor to be directed. >> both of you a marvel. >> the last word.

>> i marvel that you do such a great job of accounting. i don't find so much of the flavor. i want to stick up for fred hampton it announced. friends of mine. but denounced them as being closer. >> you got it. >> i wouldi would love to get together over a beverage and remember. anyhow it sounds like these were all part of some vast radical left-wing conspiracy but there are a lot. the bla was a french french group. the weather underground was something of a french of a french. a sense of what drives

people right or left, but what drives them to that extreme they believe jfk quoted those who make peaceful change impossible and violent change inevitable. that was what put people over the edge. most of the members and go that far. as you allude to most backed off. >> most? almost all. we'll take your answer off the air. with the cut off. >> over her favorite beverage. >> ladies and gentlemen, brian burrow. [applause] >> once again thank you for attending. they will be signing books and lobby.

>> your watching book tv television for serious readers. book tv. >> more visible evidence were some that i decided the massacre. people just been gunned down the street just without much apology or explanation. other very visible moments the nationalists have -- which is one of the major events spread it in the governor's mansion the fact that the way the united states reacted immediately deployed 5,000 national guardsmen arrested 3,000 puerto ricans and bond to

towns bombed to towns in broad daylight. as the only times in american history that the united states intentionally willingly knowingly bombards its own citizens. those are the high points that people are aware of. it can get to that. if you escalated the united states response we will be immediate, effective and coordinated. and the puerto ricans were separated from the mainland by a couple thousand miles of ocean from new york and washington's puerto rico 400 years of history and technology. the technology was important there was no internet,

television. some radio ofthe only thing that got off the island was controlled by half a dozen wire service reporters ap and upi reporters that were basically american reporters reporting. it would feed their stories to the major mainstream newspapers at the "wall street journal" and they would regurgitate a prepackaged story. an example of the massacre the puerto ricans five. they would say there was a gunfight. the word gunfight is definitional. they're can be a gunfight if you don't have any guns. unarmed puerto ricans. it was the knowledge that

the violence could be sudden swift and severe and that no matter what you did it would be misreported and you were living in a complete vacuum down they're. >> you can watch this and other programs online. >> book tv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they are reading this summer. >> first of all, i am an avid reader. my mom really instilled a love of reading it is important to share my summer reading list. i have the privilege of representing new york's 21st district steeped in history. so three of the books that are on my list the summer by champagne stream. i live on lake champlain and it talks about samuel d champlain's exploration of new york and some of the

canadian provinces. talks about where representing congress. this is a great read, highly recommended by david hackett fischer. the 2nd book is benedict arnold's navy which of course, is a famous person from the revolutionary war and specifically talks about the untold story of some of the naval battles that happened on lake champlain to the us having a victory at the battle of saratoga. for those interested in the founding of our country i am privileged to represent this district. the 3rd book is actually an older book for ticonderoga key to a continent written by a director of fort ticonderoga in the 1960s. going back in the past but

it is the preeminent book that provides the history of fort ticonderoga. my last book on related to my district, but i try to and i'm interested in books a powerful women in the united states history recently walk into a bookstore and saw the autobiography of helen keller the story of my life but was quite a long time ago. i remember reading the miracle worker in language class. looking forward to reading her story of her life. >> book tv wants to no what your reading. tweet us your answer or post it on our facebook page >> next entry amaze recounts early 20th century industrialist henry folgers pursuit. ..