catch up on work or sleep. i read when i'm by myself and before i goat to better sometimes early in the morning. in the summer i go fishing for a few weeks and i will take some books to read. spee1 mrs. alexander is also a readers. >> guest: yes, she loves to read. we went to a discussion recently that and pageant to loosen nashville was holding. she was talking about the best, her list of the best books which she had done for parade magazine. she went through them i found my wife knew almost everyone of them. i. i knew very few of them. >> host: senator lamar alexander, former governor governor and university president. we appreciate your time a book tv. >> guest: thank you.

>> you're watching the tv on c-span2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. book tv, television for serious readers. >> there's a look at upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country. saturday august 20 second, book tv is live at the second annual mississippi festival held at the state capital in jackson. featuring former trent lott and john meacham. coming up on september eighteenth, as the brooklyn book festival held in downtown brooklyn new york. later in the month the annual baltimore book festival will take place at the city's inner harbor. on saturday september 20. saturday september 24, for the 16th year in a row, book tv will be live with other talks and call-in segments from the national book festival hosted by the library of congress at the washington convention center. for more information on fairs and festivals and to watch previous festival coverage click

the book for your staff our website, booktv.org. >> book tv recently visited capitol hill test members of congress with their reading the summer. >> first of all thank you to c-span for all you do on this front. it's very important service to give to the country. mike kids will get a kick out of the side facing the pitcher behind me. i haven't stance of reading list coming up battling for the summer but for the next year. i thought year. i thought i would start off with recommendation from folks through prayer for people under pressure by jonathan aitken ribeye former member of the english parliament. i think think he knows little bit more about pressure. i thought i could learn something from him. the second new one, troublesome young men by lynn olson has to do with the rise of a small band of conservatives in the parliament during the churchill.

and motivated by i'm a member of the house freedom caucus and we have 40 or 50 great folks were trying to get their country back on track. just represent the people more closely. so i think this book will give me motivation there. the title may not give it away but it's called on civilization by gregory copley. he raked me up for policy one day and did an amazing mind on foreign policy. i learned so much from him but i wanted to read some of his books. his subtitle is urban geopolitics in a time of chaos. maybe it is an unlikely source of grounding for international policy, but his thesis is that some of the uncertainty and instability and chaos that were seen around the globe which were clearly seen is driven by the

urban, rural split in our country. and with the growth of the urban cities, little bit more detachment from the jeffersonian yeoman farmer and love of country patriotism, nationalism in the positive sense and that maybe we need a little bigger dose of history and some of those things. i've not finish the book, i've started reading about it and a little of it. next is the desire of nations by oliver -- is on political theology. that is probably the issue of our day now with isis and the debate over constitution, the role of the judeo-christian, how does islam fit into this conversation. and so the desire of nations strikes through the nation of thought. i think in the jewish we used to

have a nice conversation about aristotle. the conversation is possible but it requires some unity of thought. so aristotle is one nice place to be, there's plenty of others and i'll probably mention of you come in a. i think we need to urge some of our brothers and sisters in the hospital at that reformation may not be a bad idea. in light mitt mitt was really be a good idea. so those are some of the things i'll be reading about that book. the next more contemporary extortion by peter schweitzer's been around a while. i read it a few years ago but will give it another look. why the politics broken. everyone back home seems to think there's a left-wing right-wing were going on. between the parties and the factions and the right-wingers and left-wingers, talk to bernie sanders at a white a white house christmas party and he share my view that is not the case. that most of the case has to do with may be in the middle and dolan out $4 trillion to the

insiders and cronies appear in dc. that i think it's a little stronger explanation of why the politics is broken. so sweitzer pursues that pretty well. money correlated with elections, with committee assignments with everything appear, voting records everything. he. he traces them all out with footnotes and evidence. the next one is a shameless plug. it's called american underdog by congressman of david bratt. it's available june 20. a plug in my own stuff. it is wide-ranging. i had had a friend tell me put together but i sent him previous books i've put together, lecture notes over 20 years when i talk economics. basic thesis i run under the republican theme. but since then i have gone a 30,000 foot up in the air and

condensed it to three, the the three pillars that have made our civilization the greatest i think the greatest country on earth. the three pillars that hold up the foundation and they include the judeo-christian tradition, i went to princeton seminary before i did economics and medicine. i went to college of new jersey in roughly the princeton seminary. i studied hebrew hebrew for kicks and it was done. the judeo-christian leads into the second pillar of the rule of law and then we get in 1776 also the divine intervention are not you can make up your own mind, adam adam smith, the founder of free-market economics across the pond in england, scotland doing economics and ethics as well. he was the chair on moral philosophy. so a lot of great thinkers weaving together. political philosophy, in the past not so

many doing it today. so that is why these books and for my reading list. next one was given to me by four-star general appear a few weeks ago, combat ready by thomas hansen. by all accounts are military army, navy, air force, the weakest level since post-world war ii in terms of troop, ships, planes et cetera. so it's an analysis of combat readiness and i recommend that one highlight based on what i've heard about it. the next one, how god became king and new testament scholar of notes, again, again, political theology, political philosophy. how god became king not necessarily what you might think of first blush. maybe a david and goliath, malcolm gladwell explanation that the king in this case is a humble king. next one by by sociologist, the triumph of

christianity. again, not a boastful triumph but a tryout if you look at the countries who have strong civil liberties, strong civil rights, political, political rights, women in the workforce, protections, all sorts of christianity, reformation, reformation, basic things that i want to explore deeply. and then a whopper of a three-inch biography, george washington, going to try to make my way through sacred fire by jerry new, and peter will back. it was given to me as a gift about a year ago after i entered office and i'm going to do my best on that one. in washington is just one of those amazing figures when you read about him and what others say about him. all men men and women loved him and respected him. there is something to this guy that is extra significant and the more i read about him more i see that. but i can never get enough of

seared what resonates with such an important founder and some argue the founder, the indispensable man, the one to whom all the others looked up loved and respected. so it's good good to take notes on people like that. that is a hefty reading list and again, i think c-span the letter may have the opportunity to share a few books that i will take a peek at my constituents know i go around and talk about the stuff stuff at our meetings around the ten counties. most people get stimulated by this kind of intellectual exchange. i sure do. thank you c-span for all you do. happy reading. thank you. >> be on tramp tv wants to know what you're reading this summer. tweet us your answer apple tv or post on our facebook page. >> c-span, created by america's cable television company about you