to do and intone with the communities but i think in long term actually makes is less safe. >> host: security mom i this name of the book, juliet is the author. >> this is book tv on c-span 2. television for serious readers. here's our primetime lineup: >> john miller, what do you deer here? >> guest: i'm detector of the judgism program, including a

campus newspaper and aid row agreed station and corporations and i teach classes. >> host: what dow? the dow? >> guest: the dow of the dow great michigan business name from middle of michigan. >> host: they aren'ted to hillsdale? the program is named am her e herbert dow. >> host: what dot you do at national review. >> guest: other aim writer. i've been on the staff for 18 years. it was full-time job for a long time. lived in washington, dc and work out of the washington bureau, five years ago i got recruit come to hillsdale and remained on the staff of national review but it's a part-time thingy your from michigan originally. >> guest: i ham a detroiter. born and raised. in and around to the city. and went to university of michigan. and upon graduation, went out to washington and unexpectedly had

a chance to come back home five years ago. >> host: and what was that experience like? >> guest: that was great. i liked living in washington- -- welcome washington, d.c. i was not looking to leave. my wife thought we would retire to michigan. but then i was fortunate enough to get a phone call and get a job here, and we kept talking about we're moving home. >> host: are you glad you did snide oh, yeah itch don't miss washington. i liked living there, but i don't miss it. and i prefer it in michigan. it dot feel like moment and himself dale -- hit hills dale is a great nicely and work. it was neuer new for dr. new for me and money wife. but hillsdale college is a great place to work.

the students are excellent. they're smart and hard working, which is true of a lot of elective colleges but good people. enjoy being around them. they make me feel young. >> host: on miller, after four years of studying journalism what do you hope your students leave with? >> guest: i hope they leave with major in a different subject for one thing. journalism is a minor at hillsdale college. we don't think it should be major. we think students to major ma a traditional academic discipline. so the best training for being a journalist notice not major in journalism, it's to major in biology or economics or history. we have a great professor in those subjects fillure your head will real knowledge. they leave with that, with a traditional liberal arts occasion. it's mind you're -- a minor but

you learn journalism by doing journalism. so at the center of the program we have the campus newspaper, the campus radio station and students actually running these things and learning how to be a print journalism 0 broadcast journalist and when the four year is is over they're pretty good and can get jobs in he media you. >> host: you are writer and have just written an ebook who is james strang. >> guest: james j st. t -- st. strang. the storying of a remarkable man who in short trade to form a the agocracy on an island in lake

michigan called beaver eye helped in the 19th century, and -- well, things didn't go so well for him it but it's a fascinating story about a colorful man who tried to do this amazing thing. >> host: how did you discover this story? >> guest: well, growing up in michigan, i learn a about but michigan history. when i was a kid i was envious of other start states. thought everything else that was interesting happened. nothing happened in michigan, was something i was concerned about. no battles in michigan no forts to to speak of. ats'man i learn of this story people and not quite sure where, but if you make an effort to study michigan history, read up on it and the explorers who came here, the original people who lived here, the thing that did happen, you eventually stomach

stumble been this footnote in michigan. >> host: what was heelings rip show we tech brigham young. >> guest: he was a mormon, born in upstate new york, around the erie came time. agree up an athiest, he a thing change hi mind and started faking it but he moved out west with his life into wisconsin and they were motorhome non, -- mormon and he decided to book a mormon and traveled to now -- illinois. a town on the mississippi river who he met joseph something i, at the who wrote the book after of mormon, the author obook of mormon. the ol' create you record a major religion since muhammad in

islam, joseph something i. he became a mormon under joseph something i, when joe sift -- joseph something i died, strang said i'm the -- he took the atlantic. the claimed of a letter from josephing my. it's a forgery. he forged a letter claiming it was hit great rival was brighamam and brigham young young won out in the mace. and took the mormons to utah and the rest otherwise history these guy's lock in a power struggle. wick quickly became apparent that brigham young was the favorite about strang became a distenant -- dissident mormon

and he wound occupien beaver island. >> host: was he moon mon nothing mist. >> guest: inhe war originally ad the reason another love mormons were trached to him is because he rejected polygamy. brigham young good joseph smith practiced polygamy. more than a thousand people followed him to beaver island and as he became a king, he was a political lead lead are about he had 0 cornation ceremony and was the kinding of both island. as power pent to hid head he rethought to the whole polygamy thing. he had a wife but he decided to

take a send second wife and then a third and fourth and fifth ane was a practicing polygamist. >> host: how well was this known >> guest: the modern figure woe might compare him ises david could karesh and the branch diindividualans in texas. he wanted to be left alone and also having provocations and so forth he was a figure of interest, and became of increasing interest as he crashed liver clashed with local's beaver island because there are fishing colony there of people who did not belong to his sect and came to attention

of the federal government and there are way claim's theft and piracy and so-so on. a forgotten figure now but he was certainly a person of interest back in the 1850s. >> host: due do you write this book as an adventure tale or a lesson? >> guest: i think just a story. if a nit a genre i call it historical narrative nonfiction. gist try toll a great story people and always looking for great stories to tell, preferably stories that have not been told before, at least not in the waying that tout 0 be told. i knew the contures therefore of he case and always occurred to me there's a really great book to be done on this figure. the opportunity in ebooks opened up because the us thought this story is not worth a full book.

it's not worth of 0 -- 60,000 or 80,000 words. it's worth less than. that a page turn are that you can read in a sitting or two. the ebook is 17,000 words so it's like a really long magazine article. but it's longer than any magazine could hold, and the ebook open us ups up -- opens this space in our reading habits from the long magazine article to a short book. i thought this was a good story to tell. >> host: if people were interested in running this as an ebook? two bucks -- >> guest: it's available only -- 2.99. available only only kindle. you have to buy it from amazon, amazon my my pusher indogs to this -- they don't sell book their they're my publisher the adouble okay or harper collins

have publish other books of minimum. >> host: did you have editor? >> guest: i did. it's a branded product called a king kindle -- there's a group of these books and i had an editor and they made an attractive cover and i had an editor. >> host: did you get any fans. >> guest: i got a very -- one wasn't an advance. i gotter small amount of money but basically almost an interly royalties deal. >> host: how was this process different than writing a more traditional book? >> fasters and more

traditionally. when you dent have too print thousands of copies of a book, just need to upload it; can be almost instant... ...