"after words," our weekly author interview program. washington times national security columnist bill gertz provided his thoughts on how the united states can outpace global competitors in the information age. former chief of the new york police department's internal affairs bureau charles campizi. and sheldon whitehouse offered his thoughts on how legislative decisions are influenced by private businesses and special interest groups. in the coming weeks on "after words," john kasich will reflect on his 2016 presidential campaign, new york times correspondent helene cooper will explore the life of ellen johnson-sirleaf, leader of the liberian women's move movement and the first democratically-elected female president in african history. msnbc host chris hayes will look at racial inequality in the

united states, and this weekend colorado representative ken buck talks about corruption in washington and his plans for reform. >> i don't think it's wrong to expect members of the house to raise money for the party to try to win the majority. the same thing with the democrats. i think that is just part of the reality of politics. it's not my favorite part of politics, but it is part of politics. what i find offensive is the linkage between raising money and assignment to committee, raising money and a chairmanship, raising money and being in leadership. i think there has to be a merit-based system in place to decide who gets on what committee. if you've been a doctor for 30 years and you show up to congress, you have an expertise, and that expertise needed on the energy and commerce committee or on another committee. it is not whether you can pay more money than the doctor. that shouldn't be the determining factor on whether you make this committee or not. >> "after words" airs on

booktv every saturday at 10 p.m. and sunday at 9 p.m. eastern. you can watch all previous "after words" programs on our web site, booktv.org. >> by only 1776, america was fighting britain in a war for unagainst, but without a navy, around -- independence but without a navy, artillery or gun powder. only france and spain, who were the historical enemies of britain, had both the motive and the naval and military trent to defeat the dish strength to defeat the british. we needed their alliance. but they would only do so if america was seen not as fighting a civil war, but rather, as fighting a war as an independent nation. as john adams pointed out, foreign powers could not be expected to acknowledge us until we had acknowledged ourselveses as an independent nation. and thomas jefferson said a

declaration of independence alone would allow european powers to treat with us. so the declaration of independence was, in fact, an engraved invitation asking france and spain to fight alongside us. that's why i say it was not just the declaration of independence, it was also the declaration that we depend on france and spain too. now, the americans knew that france and spain wanted a rematch with great britain. they had come out very badly in the seven years' war which had ended in 1763 with britain ascendant and france losing canada and spain losing florida. now, france and spain were already closely aligned by both family and military ties. it was called the bourbon family compact. and both nations wanted revenge

against britain. but they had different goals. france wanted to regain its position at the center of the balance of power in europe. spain wanted to regain gibraltar and drive the british from the gulf of mexico. and both nations had predicted that the american revolution would happen long before the americans themselves knew that it would. in 767 -- 1767, the french foreign minister said only the future american revolution will consign england to a state of weakness. and so they knew that this revolt of the american colonies that was certain to happen in the future would weaken britain. and is so they would send spies and observers like the barren dekalb -- baron dekalb to see that happen.

>> you can watch this and other programs on line at booktv.org. >> you're watching booktv on c-span2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. booktv, television for serious readers. ♪ ♪ >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. ♪ ♪ >> "the communicators" attended the recent state of the net conference in washington d.c. we talked with people when help shape how the internet is governed. they also talk about some issues of internet use today. >> host: george, what's your background? >> guest: well, i started as a.