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tv   BOOK TV  CSPAN  October 17, 2015 7:00pm-7:16pm EDT

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pieces of buffalo architecture. people are amazed by the architecture. sadly one of the things that would be most celebrated was torn down in the 1950s. tiny little stories that you have to be from buffalo or parkside to appreciate. a great moment in american history that is lost in the history books and not even written much about in buffalo. ho-hum when harry truman came here for a big democratic dinner one day in 1945 and went to church and parkside. he took the church bulletin up to the best from it and said, you asked me for my autograph yesterday. i want to ask you for yours today so i can prove my wife that i went to church. ..
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at that time the martin house was owned by the university of buffalo and it was the president's home, so the president of ud lived across the street. one of the press festers at ud and it created a lot of tension. there's one great story of when the president was in have a note party and across the street there were women in furs, lincoln's were pulling up, i'm sir there was caviar and champagne. what you would imagine from a 1960s elegant event. meanwhile across the across the street, there were naked people jumping out of houses and windows into
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swimming pools. there are kegs of beer everywhere. there was smell of marijuana in the air, their peace likes in front of the house. a really neat position of what university life was like in the 1960s. accidentally, it was a beautiful house by the way, it was festooned with culture of the 60s. a couple accidentally went to the wrong house. they saw a party going on and they pulled into the big fancy linking into the wrong house. they they were hit by the smell of marijuana and saw people swinging from chandeliers, probably not literally but figuratively for sure. they went running out of the house and said i'm in the wrong place. those folks were followed by the fbi. they knew the fbi was following him and staking out his house. there is always a dark-colored sedan with dark-colored windows and sort of razzed him a little bit. the kids would go out bring him coffee during cold winter days,
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they never acknowledge they were fbi officials but years later his kids went and found the file and was a pretty decent size fbi file on their dad. there wasn't much in it. he went to work, he did this, there wasn't much to watch. it was definitely something j edgar hoover was worried about. this one counterculture guy in buffalo, enough to keep watch on him for long time. i don't know that there's necessarily a spot for parkside in history, it seems like it is one of those places where to me at some like for scum. if if you watch the movie force company see this guy show up randomly in these historic places, he is with jfk, he is with lbj, he is is here and there and in the vietnam war. it's amazing to me that all of these stories are just about parkside. whether harry truman showing up here or shooting great parts of
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the movie natural here, and all-time american film, whether it's this beautiful park one of homesteads the greatest accomplishments building this park in the city of buffalo. the house that frank lloyd wright thought his was his best, it's right here in the neighborhood. everything seems to have happen in or about parkside. there's nothing spectacular about for scum and there's nothing particularly spectacular about parkside but the people here are amazing people it's an amazing neighborhood, a lot of really meet stuff. i would've never thought i could written up 174 pages on the history of parkside. the stories just kept coming, and they kept coming the next five or six year so there will probably be another hundred 74 pages soon.
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>> during book tvs recent visit to buffalo, new york we toured the rare book room and special collection at the harry county public library. >> so we're here at the buffalo county library rare book display room, we pulled some items for the rare book collection for people to see, some of them include items from the milestone science collection which will be exhibited beginning in october of this year and continuing for two years. we are going to look at a few examples from the milestones of science collection. the collection is 196 titles. 96 titles. the first one i want to talk about was the first book that was acquired towards the compilation of this collection, and that is copernicus' day revolution. this book was acquired at the urging of a young bookseller who wanted to make rare books
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dealing his profession. he approached hamlin and said he could get a copy of of copernicus it all important text at a relatively good price. this is a revolutionary image right here, it change the way we think of our world in so many ways. the person behind it, nicholas copernicus was the kind of at the end of his life. the year year the book was published was the year he died which is interesting when we look at contrast for the next book. he was 70 years old when this book was published. he had been working on the idea and considering publication for many years. i'm sure the idea that this would be a threat to the church was reason for him not to come right out and publish it right away. he didn't really, as i said suffer from publishing this, it did make the band book list for the church.
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the model is essentially the sun on the diagram is at the center of the universe and the bodies rotate around that. when previously the gpo center model was the idea that the earth was at the center of the universe and all of these celestial bodies rotated around that. so this proposal that takes the earth, or our world around the center of things was considered a crazy, radical idea that was not acceptable for those who believed that the earth was the center of the universe. copernicus magnum opus is published the year he dies, at the end of his life. that is an interesting contrast when we moved to the book in the
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milestones of science and this is the great work of anatomy by andrea's. this is a collection of seven books that document the human anatomy and race that had not been done up until this point. it is a phenomenal work and the title page tells 1000 stories. the title page include some references to the science that led up to this text were gallon of-- who died in 1898 with the with the standard of the study of anatomy. so in this title page and its illustration you will see a dog
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with a human foot, it is an allusion to the idea that he studied animals to understand human anatomy because it was not allowed that you would work with a human cadaver. you are subject to roman laws, able to to use other animals, but not humans. the next book we are going to look at is a little later in history, it involves this man right here, edward jenner. edward jenner was observing that milk maids in england seem to have a natural immunity to smallpox. so why was that? there are other people that were reaching the same conclusion, jenner get the credit because he was the one who documented it in case studies. this book unfolds case-by-case which is kind of early for that
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type of documentation. that is the way we understand medical science today but this is 1798, thomas jefferson is of this time. so he felt compelled to write to jenner and thank him for this gift to humanity. so we have here a letter by thomas jefferson, it is dated monticello, virginia may 14, 1806. it reads, i have received a copy of the evidence that large respecting the discovery of a vaccine inoculation which you have been pleased to send me and for which i return you my thanks. unfortunately, he he sent it to the wrong jenner. the two -- were pretty sure it did get to the proper jenner, he sent it to jc jenner and edward
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jenner is responsible for the vaccination. it it is a beautiful letter. the last item we have is a very important little book called the federalist papers. the federalist papers, as you may know were essays that were written to new york newspapers at the time when people were trying to pass constitution. these letters were in support of passing the constitution. they were written by a pen name, probably us. we learned later after the fact that he represented the three authors of the essays. they are 84 essays in total, total, about 51 were written by alexander hamilton. a few by james madison, and even a few by john j. the significant about this
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particular book is this was one of thomas jefferson's three copies that were sent to him while he was in paris. so it has a unique inscription, the first one reads for the hon. mr. jefferson from his obedient servant john j. the next, dougal stewart the president for mr. stewart, so thomas jefferson gave his copy to dougal's door and mr. stewart writes, i was told by mr. jefferson that the greater part of the papers in this collection were written by mr. madison. i think people are fascinated by this book because of the ownership, because of the prominence, the fact that it was john jay's copy than it was passed to this goddess philosopher while jefferson is abroad in paris. the interesting thing that
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dougal stewart wrote this piece about mr. madison be in the majority author of the paper when we know it isn't true. we often speculated may be jefferson said that but he didn't want it to be written down. then i think it is extremely significant that jefferson actually wrote, annotated in response to something that hamilton is trying to push forward that he disagrees with. the federalist papers are an example of the text that we go back to time and again to really understand the meaning within our constitution, i i think it is insightful to see the inscriptions for an understanding of the different perspectives. so, i know scholars are interested in our copy for that reason pete untran. we want
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people who come to see the exhibit to walk away with a sense of appreciation that this collection exists in a public library in buffalo. for the residents of buffalo we hope it will rekindle a sense of pride because it is because of the citizens of buffalo that this collection exists at all. >> for more information on book tv's recent visit to buffalo and the other destination go to cease band.org/city to her. >> here's a look at some books being published this week. louisiana governor in 2016 presidential candidate bobby jindal talks about lessons he has learned from american history and his plan for the country's future, and american will. >> and lafayette in the united states sarah looks at the american revolution through the eyes of a french born marquee day lafayette. >> recalls the formation of the
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federal reserve. in killing a king former jerusalem newsweek dan efrain reports on the assassination of israeli prime minister in 1995. john sedgwick, examines the rivalry between alexander hamilton and vice president ehrenberg and the duel which ended hamilton's life life in war of two. historian david pictures so chronicle the benson -- that pave the way to world war ii. also be published this week, stephen hild argues that companies such as a uber and air air b&b hurt american workers in raw deal. and a new york times best-selling author dan joan looks at the significance of the 800-year-old document, the magna carta. look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for the authors in the near future on book tv. >> in march of

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