l-uppercase-letter to ask members of congress what they are reading the summer. in the middle of reading testimony by scott turow which is a suspense book that is too close to reality as it talks about the struggles of human rights violations. can't wait to your home to finish it. just one last question. thank you for your time. what does it take to get you interested in the book. how do you find time and what kind of books really captivate your attention. one would be about historic features. the other is a suspense fiction. it's an escape for me. i try to do as often as i can. book tv want to know what you are reading. send us your summer reading list yet twitter.

or posted to our facebook page book tv on c-span two. television for serious readers. actor and author of this book the grouchy historian. the old-time lefty. right wing hypocrites and net jobs. have you always been grouchy and heavy already -- always been a historian. i was playing that. and people always wonder that.

i cannot tell where my own individuality stops heavy always been interested in history. >> very much. it's the drama we have before we go into theater. >> heavy always been a lefty as you describe it in your subtitle? i question is why i am a lefty. i am a. and i automatically thought it automatically meant that. except that it was not a

lefty. i had two sisters who are social workers for uneducated. and they have a basic instinctive fairness you write in the first chapter of this book. i cannot take any credit away from him. you can call him the framework of the book. i don't know how house to tell you.

we work together and thrive together. he was a producer who came and was a writer on the johnny carson show and came to us on the mary tyler moore show about the second or third year i guess. and went on to do many other things i do a one-man show of his now. call a man in his prostate. in the last. we have done this book together. why in your view are right wing people net jobs. as you described them.

they go to new extremes it's like when you go to who was a supreme court judge that obama --dash garland and he saw the way that that majority congress said no way. almost without any conversation at all i now turn around and i find with neil portraits how did it happen. talk about stealing a march on one. the right wing certainly did a good job they knew they could

not win. this book came about because we have to scream out since the democrats are not doing a great job of it against the excesses the strictness, and the lack of soul that the republicans have created in terms of leadership. you had written in this book the grouchy historian comes out in october of this year you've written some amendments to the constitution. i forget what they were now. some head to do with gun-control how may times will we had mass murders in this country will we focus in

making a case now and keeping the legislator in washington into -- indebted to it. because they have lots of bucks. when does anything change in this country and that's what this book is for to call upon the people to do something i understand that i had been traveling but i understand it that we departed from the present -- paris court yesterday. but when will people wake up and say enough, the quality of

our lives that is progressing now. is being threatened and who is going to and this is just continuing. when did you get active in politics. i had been a progressive or liberal all my life. in history someone who calls themselves a democratic socialist ran for president

and garnered a lot of votes. a lot of people regretted that he didn't go all the way and perhaps outpaced hillary in the end. it was the main socialist attached to his party. and i'm speaking for them. you know who. that may be the grant were you on the bernie sanders supporter. i began -- i belong to the democratic socialist wing of the party. so i am delighted that one of your own got chosen does that ever hurt your career? >> heard it when i show them

that it was canceled because attacks were launched. and what they considered to be a communist supportive attitude on my part for those in el salvador for the rulers in nicaragua. i was on the board and spokesman for that for el salvador. and out of that the huge press conference that we have they

were scared from damnation. when the second question i was asked they say you were in favor of elections in nicaragua were el salvador. i think it is el salvador. those elections cannot be the communist government. as the first time in my life and my professional life that this lion was bearded in his own bed. and so carefully i avoided committing myself to anything as controversial as that before. now is a time.

the guilt that i still waffled on the second question. i have to find that question. i was not satisfied with my answer. i would say to you. that the government and the people of el salvador that shows to let them have it and then with that i would thought i was saying and eventually they proved to be that much. my career is still here. the grouchy historian defense our constitution. the publishers in october of this year. the emmy award