isis today. the same ideology from the same individuals, abdul, the french terrorist, he cut his teeth in that early stage of the iraq insurgency so this is all very relevant to the situation we have in isis today. >> host: randy in louisiana, we have couple minutes left with joby warrick. >> caller: yes. i can remember the whole instance of the ship cole. could you touch upon that? >> guest: what you see there, that was an al qaeda attack, and it was -- i think it reflected the difference between al qaeda and the isis folks we're seeing today. al qaeda picked a strategic target and a highly symbolic one, a u.s. aircraft carrier or u.s. navy ship, rather, and putting a big hole in and it creating images on television that made al qaeda look very powerful and it took us quite a long time to deal with that.

isis is noted? tough targets. norred? going after civilianings, soft targets. that's like what you saw in paris last week, concert arenas and restaurants, just going over innocent people going out and doing their daily business but it's not the first time they've done that they did it for years in iraq, killing people in mosques and bazaars and schools, showing no mercy, even muslim children being legitimate targets for. the. that's why they're different from al qaeda. >> host: latifee, staten eye lent, you're the last word, go ahead. >> caller: yes, sir. my question, sir-is -- my question is that from the beginning of civil war in syria, the syrian soldiers of syrian regime are fighting these people

and develop the others terrorist. recently of course the peshmerga are fighting also, why is -- want to terminate these terrorists, and the western and united states are not helping the fact their soldiers on the ground to defeat terrorism. >> guest: just to understand the question, why aren't we helping a -- >> host: is gone so you can take that question or comment. >> guest: this -- the syrian civil war and knowing how to deal with it, that has been the challenge and people and historians will fine fault with the obama administration and its inability to perceive events and that's difficult but in this case everybody assumed assad would be gone quickly, but mubarak was much more powerful, more powerful apparatus around him, dishappened in a matter of days and everyone assumed that

say sad would goo goh the same way and didn't anticipate that it would become a stale nate which very powerful opposing armies were developed and which side we go on, how much leverage for one side versus the other, whether assad would have -- we ha bev been better off with assad in power. all good things gut no question that we failed to anticipate what a horrific challenge that would be, and it is really helped get news the situation we are in right now. >> host: the book, black flag, the rise of si is, joby warrick is the author. >> thank you. >> there were witch hunts at many universities, including the university where i was first a freshman and then returned to do my work for my ph.d. when i started ucla in 1958, all

of us freshmen had to take a battery of psychological tests, all manner of questions on those tests, but one kind of question just kept cropping up over and over again, and it said -- something like, have you ever kissed someone of the same sex or do you have fantasies about people of the same sex, sexual fantasies and just all sorts or questions trying to find out if the freshman was a homosexual. all of white house were knew to answer, no, to every one of those questions. but i found out when i was doing research for another book "odd girls" what that was about. what it was about is the dean of students at ucla, lank with the associate dean of students, had written an article published in a magazine called school and society, in 1954, and what he

said was that -- what they said was it was the job of deans of students to ferret out the homosexuals in the student body and either make them go to a psychiatrist to change, or if they refused to do that to expel them from colleges and universities. the worst place to be an academic in the 1950s and '60s was florida because the florida legislature had actually funded an investigative committee that ended up doing nothing but that, ferreting out the homosexuals among the faculty and the student body, and this went on for something like eight years, in the late '50s and through the '60s. so, it was very dangerous to be gay or lesbian in the mid-toe 20th century if you were a student or professor. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.

you're watching booktv. [applause] >> good evening, everybody. thank you all so much for coming out and braving the rainy evening here. i'm one of the co-owner oses've -- owners of politics

and prose book store. we have a very treasured in our view and long wonderful partnership with our friends here at sixth and i. we host some of our favorite author events in this beautiful, beautiful space, and so i just want to thank esther and yackie and all of the -- jackie and all of the people here so please give them a hand. they're doing an incredible job with this wonderful space, and we share with them a real mission to strengthen and build our community here in d.c. it is such pleasure to host gloria steinem this evening. she has a new book "my life on the road out." we were can'ting up her previous books. the think this her seventh. she is very prolific, obviously. and once you read this i'm shover sure you'll find it as compelling compelling and engaging as he

writing is. to do a proper introduction of gloria steinem would take an hour which i dope think you want me to do that's because of the number of causes she championed, the advocacy groups she has conceived and nurtured. articles and essays and books she has written, speeches she has given, campaigns she has organized, magazines she has launched and the awards she has won so i'm just going to mention a few of the top highlights. i think everybody in the room knowed she was the cofounder of ms. magazine in 1972 and its editor for many years. founded the national women's political caucus so if you old enough you'll knee that was one the first politically centered advocacy groups for women in 2013 -- this is amazing -- and totally deserved -- she received the nation residents highest civilian honor. the presidential medal of freedom, awarded by president obama. [applause]

>> perhaps less quantifiable but no less important is the sheer impact of her words and ideas on the political and social discourse of our country over more than five decade. in her new book "my life on the road. >> one story about her life journey. the road she traveled, the people she has met, the books she has read. the ideas she has considered. from an itinerant childhood to her eventual dover of what a real home means and that was fairly late in life. she is a wonderful writer, a superb story teller and a woman whose willingness to speak truth power has given backbone over half a century to the fight for the rights of women, people of color, the poor, children, and pretty much everyone on society's margins. like many of you in the audience tonight, i suspect, i grew up on ms. magazine, and thanks to

floarea steinem i have proudly labeled myself a feminist ever since. and i know that i'm not alone, gloria, in very deeply appreciating you have literally spent your entire life giving voice to aspirations and vision of hundreds of millions of million worldwide and by extension their families, their communities, their countries, and really all of us so thank you so much for being such an inspiration. tonight, gloria will be in conversation with another of our nation's most influential advocates and activist, mast maxine waters. now in her 13th term in the u.s. house of representatives, and representing a diverse and fascinating district in south central los angeles, congressman waters has earned a rep pure addition for being fearless, outspoken, relentless, and above all, effective. she was an unstoppable agent of

change, and i grew up in california during more than a decade in the california state assembly where she fought authorize the divestment of state pension funds from south africa and worked to protect affirmative action. in the same determined leader in congress and the national democratic party, a true champion of equality and social justice. and if you have had a chance already to read the book, you'll learn that maxine waters and gloria steinem actually first crossed paths at an event in 1977, the national women's conference in houston. let just say the world has never been the same since, and for the better. so, please join me in welcoming gloria steinem and congresswoman maxine waters. [applause]

>> well, this is the beginning of another book, is all i can say. you have to promise me -- do you all know each other in this room? there's so many people i know and maxine knows and -- we have to organize tonight. all right? [cheering] >> so, we're going to talk for a bit, but half the time belongs to you. so this is -- trouble is going to result from this if we work together tonight. this is a conversation.

so, maxine. >> well, gloria and i have a lot to talk about but we can't tact about it in front of all of you. gloria steinem changed my life. i met her in 1977, as you said, at that wonderful conference that we mad in houston. i'd never -- bella abzug is one of gloria's dearest friends in life. and bella shouted at her all the time, and i finally said to gloria, why do you let her talk 0 0 to young lie that? gloria said this is the way we talk to each other in new york. >> i remember that sew clearly because maxine -- we did not know each other, and bella was shouting at me, as -- if you know bella, you knew she just shouted at you about how

terrible something was and you waited until she finished and then you explained why you did it, and she said, well, maybe you're right, and went on. and i could see maxine looking appalled at this, and i did say, this gist the way we talk in new york, and isn't actually true it i was trying to comfort her. >> and so, at the conference, many of us were there, not knowing what we were supposed to do and how we were supposed to do it, and so as days went by we started to try to organize and i got involved in organizing the minority caucus, and we said we had a lot to say but we didn't really know how to write it. so, gloria was drafted to write everything for everybody, and we dictated to her much of what we wanted to say, and notnl