[inaudible] [inaudible conversation] >> their nonfiction author book he would like to see featured on book tv? send us an e-mail, book tv at c-span.org, tweet is a book tv, or post a, on our wall, facebook.com/book tv. >> i think we have a lot of misconceptions about the middle class, i'm not going to go through all of on but one of them is that we take the middle class based on income and that ain't true, one of the ways we know it isn't true is because since 2008 a lot of people who earned a lot of income found themselves in the dumps and that

took place 15 years before and during the depression so that a 1938 a writer named louis corey wrote a book called the crisis of the middle class, 1938, it became a bestseller for about three weeks, but it was on the list and the thing that is interesting about it is that corey had a definition which i think still works i'm going to say, the middle class are people either have an independent professional or property basis to the economy, that is one definition of middle-class, there's also a second definition which is less understood which is a cultural middle-class, we have a cultural middle-class in the united states and that cultural middle-class are people who actually go to the operating go to concerts, they are interested in literature,

interested in reviewing books and so on. they are not the same people always but generally speaking they coincide now the only group of salary people who are genuinely of the middle class are the managers. plumbers who may make more than managers and often do, they are working class. especially in construction, you can make a lot of money you're not make your not middle-class, what you find is your job is over in your over until you find another job. so we have to be very careful about it, the loss middle-class at this point is very well been rehearsed in the presidential campaign but i would argue that bernie sanders notwithstanding, none of them really have a clear idea of what the middle classes and what the middle class is.

most of us are working class. we have to really come to terms with that, if your contractor, a freelancer, you might be in the cultural middle-class but you're not in the economic middle-class. your contingent, precarious worker. more and more young people, especially millennial's like my daughter, they are in the working class but they have cultural, journalists and so on, they have cultural interests and cultural capital and that gives them the opportunity to make income. but they can be dumped anytime, anyplace, and she has been dumped four times in the last three years. it's true, she got her first permanent job in they dumped her recently. >> when i think about my definition of the middle class, i grew up in a college town town northern california and i would describe my family as being lower middle class. what middle-class met was upper-middle-class, met not only

did you have to not worry about shelter, food, and clothing per month to month, and that there was some sort of catastrophe, you might not be completely emptied of all of your money and pushed in the street. even though i would describe my bringing its upper-middle-class there's definitely an anxiety that one small thing could've ruined my family, i don't think my peers who were upper-middle-class share. that those from the 70s and 80s. i don't know that i would describe the middle class that way. i won't hear what your definition of the metaclasses and how it's changed. >> well i really like that tension, i like it for purposes of talking about it. between the economic and the cultural social, politicians are able to obsess, we have to protect the rights of the middle class because they know

middle-class, particularly qualify by lower, middle and upper is very much a state of mind, by that i mean the assumption, snobbery's, aspirations, anxieties, all sheltered by your income, your neighborhood et cetera. your geography, so, everybody they know they know everyone would rather think of themselves as middle-class in some way because some level of security and privilege are implied at least inside your head, even if you're scrimping by. >> you can watch this and other programs online apple tv.org. >> and now book tv we want to introduce you to connie long,

missed long, what is your career been. >> guest: it has been amazing, that's why detail did in my book, i'm book, i'm sr. whitehorse correspondent in 1968, it was an amazing year, i had one of the last interviews with bobby kennedy before he was shot. i got accolades from nelson and then della who said he used to listen to me in jail, he pick me up and swung me around and said you're not as big as i thought you were, i got beat up in chicago in 1968 during the democratic convention, went to czechoslovakia and spent six months there, made 18 trips to is the israel. still covering the presidents. >> host: for what station where can people find her work. >> guest: right now i do stuff on the weekends and contribute blocks to huffington post .com. i hope you read my book you wake me each morning. this a final addition because i have parkinson's disease. we are all terminal at some point in our life, i guess i'm more terminal than others. i'm under hospice care, the

hospice people are great and they come to my house, one of their mottos is hospice is for those when more yesterday's than tomorrow's. >> host: how long have you had parkinson's and what is it dump your work? >> guest: it's horrible, it's very painful i've had about five years. i've lost my voice. thank god i can still type on a computer, it takes me an hour to do one paragraph, i can't can't write, you lose your handwriting completely, it affects every part of the body, it's very cruel, as we are standing here now at the national press club, how do do you feel? >> very weak, very shaky but energize one thing i make in my book as i don't have as much me, lift through other people that's why ago to the white house as much as i can, i'm really interested in people, so i have

to be with my friends, you can see them trampling now as we talk. >> guest: where did the title come from. >> guest: the final addition, that was an investor from sam lewis from israel, i was at a press conference and we're supposed to identify ourselves and i said connie long and he said all you wake me morning, so that was nice. thousands of people have called me the same thing,. >> host: very quickly let's look at your career and give us a snapshot of presidents that were fun to cover and difficult to cover. >> guest: brock obama i like him as a president but he's difficult to cover. kind of boring, and the and all day was with the other presidents you would have maybe 20 reporters asking one question each, now you like if you have four reporters chosen by the president. once they get the floor they can go on and on, they're not

listening to what the president says. they're repeating the same question. i. i always tried as different question. there been some presidents, clinton was was the most exciting to cover, reagan was fascinating,. >> host: how did you get in the business. >> guest: i started out working on capitol hill, i was a political science major, capitol hill is deadly boring, i went up to regine mccarthy and then i thought reporters were having much more fun so i'm worked into a reporter, those were really hard days, we slept on church pews, i slept anyplace i could come in closets. that's what makes my book different. the fact i did all my self, never work for a big company. i work for a series of companies and that's a way to survive in this business now, i've had ten

or 14 different clients maybe they pay me at the most 10,000 a year, but, but you can make a living that way, i never had anybody pay me big bucks. i never had insurance i took it out myself, this is the age of the entrepreneur, everyone is a journalist now. i predicted that happened in 1960, i think it's wonderful. the name of the book, you wake me each morning, the final chapter the author, senior white house correspondent, thank you for the time. >> guest: thank you so much. >> next on book tv our coverage from the 50th annual vegas valley book festival features several author panels on topics including the american west, the 2016 election, free speech and more, first up a panel on race and ethnicity in the 21st century.