the gate keeping society's with the concept like how to read breakdown those walls with one of the biggest threats of all that is threading humankind as though whole how we use that trend to come together as one network to face that overall threat of climate change. >> there are three questions i started the book with it was all of this issue why are there problems that we can see but yet we can do nothing about them? we can measure climate change more effectively than ever in human history to remember watching the bp oil spill there is the television channel you to watch like pollution tv all day long there was they took

a high-speed drones and do concede that of a reactor meltdown we can see this income inequality climate change massive immigration it is more possible than ever we can do nothing about that i did of footnotes the more you see the system is failing the more you see those leaders failing to deal with them than you suspect there is something really wrong this is the accelerant for it to lack credibility but when you look at them as a positive sum game you understand everybody is better offset to get into that mindset there are these problems and tragedies that is what real leadership looks like so

used to be had by keep the country from overrunning another? now because we're all connected, how do you create incentives? that is the great foreign policy debate that we should be having because only when you come at it from the whole perspective it is the entire network is a threat to us the climate connections and economics and because it will be politically sustainable and that the variable you have no tools to deal with it. >> all other questions are actually answered in his book. [laughter] >> it is a pleasure i believe it is for sale outside the recommend to all

of you. [applause] >> congressmen would you put recommendations for books on your web site? >> i a have boys better part of academic books end i was a pretty smart communications director idea

you get the questions all the time what do you read? so i would make appoint at town hall meeting so we would turn into our regular feature of i am surprised much attention it gets. >> and the changes every month or so. >> we do. sometimes it is a series of books on the topic but usually the is easiest way is what i am reading now sometimes i will have tour three books i am reading expect you ever posed reviews? >> not too much of that i don't have that time. if i put the book up there it is a pretty good book. >> what about right now? >> i am taking a break is a classic case you see the

movies you want to read the book of the martian. and then i was intrigued by the new netflix movie that man in the high castle i used to read science fiction and i was a kid but for some reason i did not read that so i just finished a biography there was a wonderful one on washington that was fabulous. >> you read mostly nonfiction? >> heavy biography and history that is what i enjoy. and if i read fiction it is often not like this which i am going back to being 12 with science fiction but i read quite a bit of historic

fiction like a series of julius caesar and things like that but heavy history and have the biography. >> you mentioned the academic mission but you also have your ph.d.? >> i was in a graduate assistants and professor at university of oklahoma. oklahoma baptist university for one semester i taught in the london program i had fun with that and my undergraduate degree is from there and that i had an odd stint teaching a class with the top before from national parties and campaigns and the top one years ago. >> are there any historians when they come out with the

book where the entire series you have read? >> anything that stephen ambrose wrote he has a lot of range in his riding. obviously john mccullough is an excellent historian. but probably in an earlier period to be very heavily focused on british history these were not all histories but churchill was worth reading and we had a wonderful little book called great contemporaries back in the '20s that nixon was following up on. to be the most fascinating politician of my lifetime and i thought the things

that he wrote were quite good. >> does reading help you in your work as a congressman? >> it does history gives a lot of context and analogies and frankly a lot of understanding because most people when they get to congress they think history begins with them but if you are already stepping into the flow of an institution in if you read contemporary history there is a lot of background to what is going on there was a wonderful book written years ago called ambition of power and very is a substantive writer there is a great book on 1927 i think it was called a rising tide but he was

hooked up with speaker wright before he realized he was in his last year basically. and then it turned into the rise and fall of the speaker there is a lot of characters in there and actually there's people that i know like newt gingrich or more consequential figures that were close to him that you read about. those things i think are extraordinarily helpful and sometimes especially with more senior members by telling stories you know, something about the context that the story really comes out. >> says the chairman of appropriations has been here

since 1980 and when he starts telling stories about the guys when he got here he was since the '50s it is fabulous. >> besides his book are there others you would recommend about congress the read before you took your seat? >> one of the more interesting books not necessarily about congress but when cheney recent biography of madison is a great book because he shaped the system in many ways and then to serve in the body is first term so i do think he is worth reading about nixon is good ted johnson series those were spectacular because nobody knew this

institution the senate just of breaths of american politics i wouldn't mitt nixon is very different i met him on several occasions he really knew this but i would also say that a biography of gerald ford because he was a creature of the house as president. >> but i do think it was a great time it was so wonderful book but if you get lost in the politics of the era because he comes in the '40's as minority leader and that is a lot of history and years ago worked for a

guy that not enough people remember and they should who was the creator of the modern political campaign he arrived 1966 and lost the republican primary in '92 but talk about a guy who understood the institution and was a very consequential legislator deliver the nomination speech for reagan at the convention his ability to tell stories and his observations i used to call him moses because he would lead you to the promised land had he not lost the 92 primary he would have the opportunity to be here with the creation of a the modern republican majority and he brought that

on more than any single guy but he picked up listening to members. >> when you read the older biographies like lyndon johnson or gerald ford do you ever say the house doesn't work that way anymore? >> basically as the house changes with the times although there are a lot of relevance that are the same i like to think honestly the appropriations committee is an island that pretty much functions the way it is a poster that wasn't olestra's it went through a rough time but rogers very much is the institutionalized and a creature of the house has done a lot to restore that in the hopes that it can spread more broadly across congress but no question it is the ideological time and

with the ability of the consensus to make a deal but there isn't as many issues to work on together if you talk about predecessors. >> given in your oklahoma routes to read books on andrew jackson? >> migrate great-grandfather was forcibly removed from mississippi so we are the last to come out so we were raised i used to tell people what i was five years old and was unsure who interjects and was but i knew he was a very bad man who had done evil things so my grandfather would never carry a $20 bill i remember when rubber was the historian of the house who

had also written a book on congress but roy is a big reader you should talk to him. he invites me up as the chief whip to have lunch with him and he presents me with a copy of jackson's indian wars and presents rodney with a copy of the klay biography because they think it was his great great grandfather theodore actually ran on the ticket with henry clay and actually held the floor against indian removal for three days. so we were jackson enemies by dissent but it was a wonderful lunch hour remember him saying you

probably won't agree with my thesis in this book but think about it and the argument was basically not that he meant to but in some ways the removal of the tribes of the southeast saved them because a push them further out to keep them from being totally overrun and that is a unique explanation for violating treaty rights that was basically ethnic cleansing so i told him i don't agree in some way but i will say in the same time frame i read this and went to one of chickasaw festival that was on site of the old capital and the great-grandfather was the treasurer of the nation and there are thousands that come to this

and it is amazing that may not have been the case maybe they wouldn't survive the same way because we are large tribe of 60,000 you have anything here that size on the east coast of the areas where obviously european and american conflict. >> what about books on native american history? >> there is a lot of them. one book we should start it isn't so much native american but 1491 which is the status of the indigenous population in the north and south america and the eve of the european arrival and what had happened and how devastating that contact was as man makes the case the disease alone was much greater in terms of the

number of people in the indians' number or south america always had contact with the whites before they saw them because the disease traveled ahead and decimated a lot of the populations i love the empire of the summer moon the comanche nation is in my district with a great biography and that was a your award winner and one of the best biographies. there is so wonderful dated history there is a lot the biography of my great aunt one of the of folklore artist living to almost 100 the first entertainment at the roosevelt white house and the entertaining that keying of queen of england

in hyde park say have to get a plug for her but there are a lot of great books one of the great historians of native america a lot of people would be familiar of her biography of geronimo but in some ways the most consequential is how the waters flow and what happened to the five tribesman oklahoma was opened to the white settlement and the dawes commission and the process my family owns the last of our land but it was pretty devastating experience to a tribe that was already moved in technically had every treaty broken. and broken up into individual ownership that was taken from them and was a tragic tale it is not as

if every bad thing that happened 200 years ago this was early 20th century in oklahoma. still a difficult issue for americans i think sometimes to get their hands around it because honestly it doesn't reflect very well on the american government or frankly the trade of both the americans by the non native population so it is hard. >> to ever bring and authors to speak or do you recommend books? >> i recommend the books of the time every christmas i have a dinner for my classmates there always a diminishing group as a lost three of my good friends this year but i think the

most popular was probably unbroken and everybody loves that book. by hillenbrand the great author of sea biscuit a fabulous book one year i gave them bob woodward's book that is a great book and in particular i think that was 2012 that was during the budget crisis in the budget act of 2011 is it you need to read this because all the characters are still the same. >> was that book accurate? >> yes parts of editing were very active but he was kind enough to reassign those at

50 years 60 but he took him my copy to be signed as he was doing the others when i read my right so there is underlining so he says does that mean what i think it means? [laughter] she told this story it was close to an hour here and he read the comments. >> i cannot remember the story but i wrote the as maybe it was the character over the account but i don't want to be critical because i have a wonderful relationship with john boehner button-down i should sit up and down and up we're in a good place now but i have a decent relationship with the president on a personal basis i had an

opportunity to interact with him than from the tornadoes in 2013 there is a compassionate response so probably am the only republican and has five figures subroc obama in my office so most indian legislation tends to be bipartisan and we worked well with the white house and everything which is the largest class-action settlement for mismanagement of the indian trust land there is a very important tribal provision to expand sovereignty the law and order act that the indian reservations are under resources to and there is tricky jurisdictional

questions but having said that, i think some of the president's observations about john boehner was a misunderstanding of who he was and you can see in the book there is a part he says scientists stand he is a country club republican i will grant you he looks like that and he plays a lot of golf but he is anything but the country club republican he grew up in a family of 12 field one who got to college he took longer to get through college because he was running a business but he is a much different guy a and his story to rise to the speakership is every bit as remarkable given his circumstances where he started life as the president which is a great

american story. so i think sometimes it would help if it had been written before then maybe there be a somewhat different ending of the to maintain a reasonably good relationship but back to the main point obviously we get books every year to these and it is always interesting to see with your colleagues read i don't have a lot of time but empire of the summer moon they loved that there is another one i can't remember the author's name it was a fabulous book about two american pilots one refers to african-americans as a generator pilot and his wing mate who is annapolis i

really educated but a very affluent family in connecticut and still alive and then to be shot down in kerry with these joint missions but how close they were and all the pilots tried to cover this guy to crash land the plane but he cannot get out and he is trapped his name was jesse brown but the crash lands the plane to get his friend out. it is everything from the letter that he writes to his wife the night before he is killed and it is all reintroduced he had wonderfully clear penmanship it is priceless.

>> that was one of the best books and it says only great things about the country when we still have a jim-crow but yet to hear is to guys and a crew around them on an aircraft carrier they all became friends is a very moving and patriotic story i hope someday it is a movie. >> day read a book a week? >> obviously it depends how long the books are. [laughter] but yes on average something like that maybe two or three a month. >> on the airplane back-and-forth? >> absolutely i do two things on the airplane. i keep a journal so via several days behind that is

a good stretch of time to catch up but usually i am reading. >> is that a journal for future book? >> i don't know a good friend of mine who has since deceased was a wonderful historian people that listen to these wonderful lectures he has like five different series and a classical historian so there were greeks and romans by he gave a great lecture series and was a specialist who had that same thematic flair in the early 20th century but i would sit down with him to retreat times the year but not long after i got to

congress or maybe even before we went to have lunch i said what do think i should be doing? he said right. first of all, not many people do anymore. so it needs to be done and frankly do it in hand and not on the computer because the electronic technology to be corrupted you may not be very important in congress they will stay important when you are gone. [laughter] and historians will look at it. what i have voiced captured balls even send secretary of state is cool even to the oklahoma city bombing to have that to look at that day or the next day or what we would see around us so

have always dappled with it for certain periods of time but when i got here i have been pretty good. it is pretty continuous. >> is a disciplined? >> no. i do about three times a week but then i keep the schedules you can bring the memory back. i don't have a certain time but i am very systematic. >> hagel back and look occasionally one time data and i went through good period in the challenging period i had known him as a director of our campaign committee we actually came up with a poster it was so

cool and they were rebels back then all of the leadership hated them so i knew him very well and he was helpful in my campaign bus also very good friends with senator plan to was the chief whip and he was exceptionally good he did it nomy but battling contributed to my campaign but it was a very competitive race he said the busload of volunteers to my a district because we had big events going in both places i had to cover a big parade we were stretched the is and what kind of help i said i have heard about this program they hit 5,000 doors for me so we were there the first in my class to become

a deputy whip in my second term so we are pretty close but they ended up running against one another and i was on team blunt and that put me in the doghouse to read three years with speaker boehner but one night before the race had occurred sitting at the capitol hill club with friends of mine john klein and others they are gone now that they are alive but just not here. we were having a drink and john peter had a table where he with hangout we're all on this committee so he sits down and we your chatting away and in my journal i write john boehner river sitting in chatting i think

he will run for leadership began sunday unless he runs against roy boehner in which case i am screwed and that is exactly what happened and i had totally forgotten that day i reading this i am reading it to my friend john klein who is on either side who is always very close with speaker boehner like most things he has a wonderful phrase to the right things for the right reasons and the right thing well have been so of course, our relationship change pretty dramatically to the point i was always obeyed your defender or a close ally basidia ben around here very long but that happens then politics.

we were just on different sides of a lot of things it is not smart to be on the wrong side of the leader the of the speaker but issing we worked through our issues and worked very hard to find common ground so we do have a terrific relationship. >> had you get your books? to buy them? >> very seldom i go to the library and not to knock the library but i like to own my books i would not marco up a library book gives somebody loaned it to me so i do go to bookstores and brows like everybody else i read reviews if i see something or hear something there is no particular systematic way

if i want to read something fill in the blank then you go to the internet's full up something that is about this and there you go. if i have the opportunity to meet an author the other night at the library of congress there is a presidential series they are doing i did have a chance to meet them but thomas wrote of wonderful book, the battle of 1812 that offended got an autograph from him so wanted to make sure when i knew that was coming to see the most sympathetic portraits of knicks and i have ever read if you haven't read it you should get one of the nice things to do have those opportunities. >> on the night that evan

thomas was their how many members? >> quite a few and very bipartisan probably at least 50? of lot of couples but it got a big turnout and again it is a terrific book i was sitting next to ken the right thing was chairman of california youth tellingly about the congratulatory calls from nixon when he won his congressional seat in 1992 and said he was talking about a guy who was wonderful to was a senior republican political guy but the nixon speech writer and california he was written about extensively in the book but i don't think he

had read it yet he said you listen and make sure he is fair. [laughter] then he concluded he really was and then called back to let him know okay. he got a fair treatment. >> day read most presidents barry agrees? >> quite a few my taste is about the same may be not. nixon is the niche based and until recently you do get some wonderful privileges when you serve i have met on several occasions she was kind enough to invite me and my chief of staff to come out to gettysburg to get a personal tour of the

eisenhower post presidential homesteaded it was wonderful one memory after another because she went to high school and gettysburg it lived close so here is right that cruz chaff and i said actually i was close to his pain in -- played in 59 she said my dad was the master sergeant i will never forget going out there to look at the plane of nikita khrushchev the most senior master sergeant on the base so there was a viewing area that was pretty close so it was wonderful but what a treat and to sit there and listen to stories about grandfather and grandmother in a but they were like to see the things in the home to have a personal touch

this is where used to sit and it was fabulous. >> did you pick up the book about the trip? >> no. he was here two weeks i am old enough so i was like nine or 10 years old and i remember very well falling in on television. but she has one story on churchill or montgomery or that battlefield walking with her grandfather and i would run off with the secret service but again she is a wonderful person. >> the importance of volume

shakespeare is culture or politics? >> pretty profound next to the bible may be there is more influenced the way we think with the way we talk more than any other person with the history of our language. and it is wonderful and it is great history and it is a reminder that it really matters is a just demographic forces by individuals count and individuals matter. i have no shakespearean scholar but anybody hasn't been the most influential with the anglo-american

history and maybe around the world studying those languages you have to make it important. >> if, up one dash after congress if you decide to back to teaching and you have to give your students one book to read? garett that is not fair. >> it is obnoxious. if it would depend on what i was teaching. if i was just giving them a great book on american history, it is stephen ambrose book i'd think i read he said had three volume nixon or two volumes on eisenhower.