water and turn up the heat little by little it will almost allow itself to be boiled to death. please don't think when you read about crazy jim jones that he was exactly that way. it was incremental. it happened over a number of years. again, the difference between him and other demagogues and followers, oligarchs gained their following by creating enemies out there. if out of the only one, they all say, who can fix the problems today, these people, let's take this side of the room. no offense. these are the people who already have everything. they want what you have got. if you don't follow me, they are going to get everything you own. they are going to take it away.

they create that tension. the members of people simple did not join because they thought they were going to get something. they gave up everything they owned joyfully. the idea being they were going to set an example in a group where everybody is the same. everyone is treated alike. that example will be so wonderful that the rest of the world will see it and adopt it. we have a world where race doesn't matter, where money doesn't matter. they were getting into this because they thought ultimately for all the crap jim jones is doing on the side, he is the one who will lead us to this great moment. they did it out of generosity and not selfishness. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> here is a look at the best-selling nonfiction books according to politics and prose bookstore. topping the list, the report the

local, state and federal legislation is responsible for america's segregated cities.

some of these authors have or will be appearing on booktv. you can watch them on our website, booktv.org. >> how, you might wonder, did i end up in gainesville when there are all these other communities we are losing work to? i didn't know this community, didn't have family here, didn't have any friends here but i heard about gainesville which i never heard about before. in 2009 when i was looking for a setting for a story about the washington post, there was a community in wisconsin, a big

general motors plant. i didn't come here at the time because it just happened. a lot of people were still getting sub pay. the economic pain for some people hadn't begun to see been. i didn't come. as i was getting close to getting started after i did this scary thing of taking time off from my job i kept thinking about various places i could go. something inside me kept telling me gainesville might be the place. why was that? one reason was i needed to find a place that lost a lot of jobs and you definitely qualify. i don't have to tell you thousands of jobs lost around here. there are different figures you can see but looking at the bureau of labor statistics figures and 2008-2009, 9000 jobs left this county. a lot of jobs.

if you look what happened to the unemployment rate at that time, in june of 2008 when the announcement was made that general motors was going to shut down production unemployment rate was 5.4%. a few months after the last of these jobs disappeared unemployment shot up to 13%. on the job loss front you were a winner, or a loser. beyond that i had the sense that i wanted to tell the story about what this session had done so it was important to find a place -- i didn't want to write about an accumulation of economic decay. i wanted to show was one that economic time did. so flint, michigan was one story. economic trouble was new and obviously the assembly plant had been shrinking a little bit and

a little bit more over a couple of decades, it always got a new product. so disclosing was really a very different things that nobody had experienced. that was very appealing to me as a place to potentially do this writing, what was happening in their community and i had the sense that no place is like every place but as much as possible i thought it would be interesting to find a community to write about where the pattern of job losses matched pretty well the national pattern of jobs that went away in this great recession. if you think of what happened nationally, the largest job the dispute was the manufacturing sector. a lot of jobs that were lost paid pretty well but had not required a lot of higher

education. more men than women lost jobs in this recession so i thought this was a community that had a number of the qualities in the lost jobs other people around the country could identify with. i also had the sense that jamesville might fit nicely into the sweep of history. i remember the first time i found the youtube video for speech that then senator barack obama gave at the assembly plant in february 2008. i don't know if you remember him coming. i remember first time i listened to the video saying the promise of jamesville is the promise of america and that line gave me goosebumps because i heard that youtube video after the a simile plant closed. so there was an iron he to what is presidential candidate became president was saying.

jamesville was part of the sitdown strike in the 1930s, and the domestic war effort in world war ii, they stopped making vehicles and started turning out artillery shells. a big moment in the 20th century, i just like that history. before i knew anything about this community or met anybody here i had the sense i might find some interesting politics. i just thought there might be something interesting about a youth and represented by paul ryan. >> the gaithersburg book festival live on booktv wrapping up with a discussion on the united states expansion into the

west. >> a couple routine announcements to begin here. we are being broadcast live on c-span. if you have a problem with that, let me know. i have a couple minutes, right? okay. welcome to gaithersburg book festival. if you're not sure where you are you are in gaithersburg. i am a member of gaithersburg city council and someone who loves reading good books especially about history so gaithersburg is a city that supports the arts and humanities, pleased to bring this fabulous event free, thanks to the generous support of sponsors and volunteers. if you see someone wearing a blue shirt or might be a sponsor say thank you. if you have one of these please silence it. put it in vibration mode and if you are on social media and we hope you