[silence bracket seven good morning. thanks for coming to the 29th southern festival of books it is my a pleasure to have the opportunity and in another i have admired his works now talking about his blue brooke "ali" this is only the third stops a this is great for us here in in national.. first the book festival is free but if you like to contribute to the cause and

to relieve you after his three marks to go over to the site intent -- citing ted to side over there. >> a fantastic other for the best selling books including those that i read on jackie robinson in a blue gary glading for the your career carabineer times, "esquire" and "washington post" in the biography of mohammad ali is of the most anticipated books of the fall. part -- probably the most highly rated. there is always a national connection. bennett his widow lonnie the

vendor built graduated you ever to read the legendary coach at vanderbilt used to tell the story in the 1960 olympics in the summer where cassius clay was with the wilma rudolph and afterwards he would come in his convertible cadillac so i don't know if you drove down from chicago though we are excited to have you here. thank you for coming. [applause] >>. >> mono mulally used to say thank you for that introduction or not is the measure will look. i would not do that. there is a lot of things that ali would get away with that i cannot. although we both have unbelievably fast jabs.

deal want to see it? do want to see it again? and the job of a biographer is to understand that subject. so that really means paying attention during 600 injured -- interviews with 200 individuals. i kept track of how many times he was punched and i work with the scientist i dug as deep into the life as i could because the biographer's job is to help you understand how bad shape does a country. one of the most interesting and important men of the 20th century was a huge

responsibility that his biography always has to keep in mind. but he tries to empathize. the java is not to glorify not necessarily to knock him down but believes have the ability for your subjects. so to talk about what i learned along the way and that challenge the of a great comedian and social activist said there is no point to be reading this book if you cannot explain to me your reasons have a black kid growingd up bid jim crow felt like he could be special what made him think he could be the greatest of alle times? that he was a

second-class citizen? so you will understand and help your readers understand what made the think they could be different that was the challenges i began the quest for a half years getting to know jonathan eig i began this when he was still alive because one of the first things i did and with that balance of reading period interviewing so i began with his second wife and she was known as:does she was 17 years old when they married. she came to lou chicago lot. she grew up in chicago but now lives in florida

ijsselmeer rating muhammad ali biography ever like to talk to you. she looked at me like who gave you permission? of course, the answer is nobody but would you talked to me anyway? sarah that since the responsibility and taking his life in my hands and he did not ask me to get i explained i really wanted to do this to give him the biography that he deserves. not another of the of the story st. but sherpas who he really was. for $10 wassn interesting years off his life to the vietnam protesting and a juror from sure fights tell me what it was like to be married to this man. she said how much were you paid me? i during that battle law.

and especially in the boxing world. i said just one question when i called his brother. i guess once in a watershed dog's name? he's the $1,000 i said that is where your dog's name? to read he said i will not touch your wish to give me a thousand dollars. i said i don't pay for interviews but i am very persistent. in boxing they say you fight above your weight so the fact she would even go out with me telling you how persistent and i am. so they would find out as i would go on this quest the home where ali grew up used to stand in a crack between the houses of the right. and then throw rocks at them. within 72 inches between the

roughhouses. he would stand in the crack in challenges brother to throw rocks. some people say that is why he became so? prayer also learned and he was dyslexic. id was never able to read well one of the reasons he became the class clown. as the abusivehi alcoholic and then coming from difficult circumstances for gore fairly middle-classst neighborhood. but nevertheless to see the opportunity and saw that biggest opportunity to find a way out when he was 12 years old have been no the

story?om with this happens to be a great legend and then this turns out to be true. and then he goes into the auditorium then he finds them in the basement of the jim and says the bikes are stolen. the police officers as you know, how to fight? he was cassius clay at the time and said i am tough. they said come learned to box. absolutely not just the heavy bags or the speed bags but something important but kids fighting in the ring

together. you did not do that in the '50s you could be arrested for far less than that. but then they begin to read you wire the brave. and he begins to take boxing very seriously who'd heard peas to raise the bus to school??. >>i you always ask what is a leg to be in the room with your subject? so i would ask the classmates' well as a like to be on the bus when he was racing? all over and over. as a thing that buggedeo me and it was a city best paying $0.10 to ride so i

said usage is a city bus? does that stop allied? like every block? he said yes. said he was raising the bus but it kept stopping?. >> he and we got off in transfers he would wait at the next bus. >> so was he really racing? theno trying to entertain as reminding us he was a boxer and wanted to be famous. this is a key moments when you think he wants to become great pirelli a blintz attention and now i'm starting to get to know ali number of the years her he trade fight being charted in the basement.

> and then also to find that black trainer and he is working so h hard he goes to new trade in the other jim by theto time he is only a senior he is the olympic lightweight champion. he comes back in is the toast of the town. failing almost every class. but they decide to pass a vincible said it had wanted the death principal. need just discovered the becomes mayor of the olympic village. to have such charm and charisma.

the to be unspoken or loudmouths then it is good for his career getting more attention. said to talk romney cadillacs you could own or the shape of the rainbow. this attitude suddenly gets his first shot anybody who would knock out his opponents in a matter of seconds id ali even perhaps more unpopular he was called the champion of the wanted. and then to brag about himself all the time. ivins is impulsive and aunt

people are rooting for sunny. that is new. there is no way he can beat but that what was given as a gift heavyweights are supposed to keep their hands up and hit a hard but he is so good he can move out of the way in the pledges miss them there so frustrated they can get near him and that is what happens. he is throwing those giant sponges and he is gone before it is halfway through. he is getting tired and mad been the more he misses when

he has no chance. he gives the fed to be a tip because negative as clear as to much. ali is now the tibia and the king of i told you i of the greatestst now i am a member of the nation of islam volume at a christian. that was forced upon the head by people. cassius clay is a branch -- a slave named. >> cell i don't have to do what you tell me to do or

say. and in 1964 and he was unpopular before the end he is is way more and he's changing his name and was given to him by the founder of islam. but he is alwayswh hanging around his big brother and that is eli in the middle. set of black people in america will never be treatede equally. seven o to forge their own way out to build their own businesses and then america

and is forced but ali grew up period somethingac similar also thinking that they would never be treated equally or be rich because the color of your skin. but alii believed his mother but was not prepared to get used to it. but america had h to listen to what he said. joining the nation of islam gave him a platform. so with other black leaders spoke sir "new york times" decided which grows to use

or cbs which clips but in the center of the rain to say of lot told me i would with the fight with us praise him than the whole parole than that explains why he thought he could fightt and then you kept your golf shot. but alito did not think he had to except that. he paid for that and refuse to fight. in first. >> host: ed -- that first hevo said a conscientious objector. sarah take my attacks dollars i am making a lot of

money. the rorer everybody then treated as equals and then he said it rose against he was sentenced five years in prison and a band for boxing 3-1/2 years losing millions of dollars of inverse mystify revenue. finally he gets the chance to come back. and it is the key moment in the carrier as an athlete. the only two times the champion's head screwed off. right now it rose 1971 vietnam has change referral of is a mistake but he

proved his convictions and suffered error was willing to do a sacrifice if you believe that you're not in the end gets put on his we are end. he said he was unconscious on the way u down in the ground war combat. he bounces right back up and hehe lives his but he does start fighting his way back to a rematch and a shot where americans started to show the fifth guy he was so? that now people admire his tenacity even those of you agree with his political opinions.

so little is a popular figure on johnny carson all the time. and also joking around with the ability to charm of us youu could be in a bad moon around this is a draft dodging trader. they cannot resist he is a likable. when he finds his way back in the '60s as a grizzly bear. them was like a circus bear. sin the last act like he is the teddy bear all lit to embrace him. he gets his shot again this

is a fight for our black pride. and don king pulls off a bizarre spectacle under a dictator nobody has seen anything like this maybe he took 200,000 positions but he is having his sparring partners hit him because he believes he can build up resistance if nobody cannot givey now. and to be immune to a knockout. in den foreman's arms start to get tired and then ali starts to fight back.

ferguson told me he believes he was drugged by his old manager before the fight did he also told the that he gave $25,000 cash to make sure it was fair and found out later that ali p her baby tomorrow. [laughter] i asked his manager and he said that is ridiculous we only gave him 10,000. [laughter] bette e. beats george foreman becoming heavyweight champion again in and allegis says you are the champion time to retire. devoted to religion in your family. it is time to stop the ali cannot in and keeps boxing for the next six years he is

lawrence overtaking more and more punches he begins to ask his friends do you think this is hurting your getting brain damage? just watches videos. his speech is slowing down chancellor his words. but he likes to do the tv shows and the entourage. he cannot get enough. so he continues to fight finally in 1981 he takes a terrible beating loses the last two fights not the way he wants to allows but he gets a third act that we forget about him. he disappears. you ted negative year for

$3,000 to come to your car dealership to sign autographs. just to see how long it would take for people to notice. he could not getting enough of people these things and now the he ever knew about. but he disappeared and was depressed in did 1996 people might remember watching this the most amazing thing ever seen because they knew he would like it that torch there were rumors but his name is mentioned it is handed off to somebody behind the partition in he emerges in a white track suit. it isdo silent and then be

audible gasp it is ali. then they start to change it. ali. ali. then we have forget it all of the horrible things he had said even if we thought he was a traitor. there his he is shaking he cannot light the torch the flame keeps leaking we are worried he cannot pull off and the crowd begins to rorer then he has rediscovered even the press coverage in next day he is the teddy bear. but we don't want to remember him as babette further the uh warrior that he was.

but that is not why he matters today. not only to interview his wivess and brothers the have been working on this for more than three years before he passed away. i did meet his wife and they told her the same thing why they should talk to me. and i wanted this to be the book that the children and grandchildren would read. in said yes he should meet him. so i gotgr back i wrote lonnie

a letter and in the my daughter to do was lie that the time after she could write a letter. and then said my daddy really loves you. do you love my daddy? [laughter] so i stick it in the envelopepe. and lonnie said kagan and bring lot. we will be in phoenix and a few weeks. as long as it is not an interview or tape recorder still back i said i was spending five years of my life i want to meet him. so we went to see him at his house but he was not feeling well that day and did not come out of hisis room. we spent time with lonnie to

like three daughter a lot more of them she like to bebe but a few months later i found that he would be there for louisville summarized on now with his brother and i listen or nervous. what will ask? i decided to go foror run. i thought i read in on the streets how ridiculous? it but they is important but the and this little guy 60 years later deriding a with poor weather was like to be of black kid growing up? in that i thought now light color glass kim. if i get to meet him so one

of these friends grabbed me. andd lonnie introduced me i looked him in the eye and i said i of writing your biography per you didn't ask me but it is an unbelievable privilege and i am trying so hard to get a right is there anything he wanted to say? he did not answer. he looked in teeeighteen he knew what i was saying and lonnie said he knew who i was it was hard but in the way it was a good thing because it is my booking if it is his life but he lived it. and told us every day was destroying to do from the minute every step of the way

that a black man can call himself the greatest. have to do a better society tells me to do. here we have a right and responsibility. he did all those. of a when you do those to stand up to power that is when you earn the right to call yourself the greatest of all time. [applause] >> this is the ultimate treatt with the brilliant writer comes together with a -- amazing subject. lyonnesse that the microphone we have 10 or 50

minutes then after words he will sign copies of his book >> i did meyer ali one of the stories of. >> he threw his gold medal into the river? is that true? have you discovered about that?. >> cerro the bicycled mr. dowd to be true but the gold medal probably not. when he first appeared he was back from the olympics he wore it everywhere. obviously to show it off sleeping with them on. and a white motorcycle chase him out of the restaurant

and he threw it into the river is in frustration and protest that even gold medals to harvard news service to read the book was published somebody asked him and said what you talking about? he said i did not read the book. [laughter] b i asked his brother he said he definitely lost the medellin was f frantic four days where could it be? he barely took it off. and people said he definitely lost it. >> i am a vietnam veteran. also involved in the civil rights movement they found the majority of people for those that were involved in the civil-rights so there is

a basis that they would stop the civil rights movement. but a piece of the documentary limited to that quite a bit. >> diane a published author in to capture the essence in to express feelings i in in the process the of illustrating the book so when you start to ask questions y that you ever considered the authorized biography?.

>> when i started to work on the books they found that i was doing this they have divided be willing. and exchange to give me access to the family and he died in take after the money. that was the the issue but it was the type of poker went to write. with the author your subject to the up partner in their wishes. they may not want certain things and he was clear he was not as neat and talked about it a lot later in life. it is the angeles keeping track of the good things the of the bad things if there were more good things he would go to heaven. but he did a lot of bad things that needed to make up for that. in which that act of charity inai diplomacy and i did want

to write a book grey had my hands r tied so to consider that idea of the authorized book of the the the chretien. -- management team. >> ass the icon of sports. what was the love affair or made you want to write the book? the guy in interested in stories also the inventors of the birth control pill and and i was a huge 89 fianna as a kid with a poster on my ceiling but and was sad day different level old mane terry bradshaw.

and for stolidity individual sport policy had to wear a helmet of the agency how pretty she was. but he seemed like h a super hero. and unbelievable all agitator with his engagements of howard cosell. also of this figure who was taking a stake in its with the street sports book. and ali seem like the best possible. with the greatest opportunity. i was thrilled i got the tickets.

>> what about that relationship of colored carousel and ali?. >> there really was a business partnership. and howard cosell for struggle to except his name change he can be better for religion hely wants. but we did not tell hollywood actors they could not change their name. but they could not drop their jewishs name. so why do weha tell ali he cannot change his name?. >> but he saw pass that. we are recognizedg that shows the warm in human side. i don't they they were super best friends so they have a

professional aberration after reading the obituaries we praised him for his resistance and for his courage and then later, one year later we are dealing with the league football players and the nationally of the amended just seems like ali legacy has evaporated. >> tsa good question because bp would have learned something that ali sacrificed to show black athletes in particular is

coming to their political opinion. and we have a president that says we should do the jobbing keep the militia. and we are running into those same issues. if it. is deeply ingrained of those racial attitudes. >> thanks for coming to you talk to us. i have read the story 70 times for you brought it back to life. it is interesting. so lot of books that are well blown. id even recently but these are all written -- written by white men so what is the

most will build better all written by white men?. >>bu but the collection of item know why the defeat he appealedas to a lot of people in sports writers. to have very few african-american sports writers. if you lookit at who was covering it as almost all white writers it doesn't excuse it probably had something to do with that. last question.

>> so i never understood joe frazier was disheartened but thater he took it too far and i thought that frazier died better did you find out of that relationship was rectified? to read that is what he was not proud of and that eight agents gave him some bad marks for. but when ali returned he was brutal. but also the highest credit

is a shame that nobody has ever said back off. it isn't funny anymore. i the guy that would give him an edge in the rain that was psychological. but later he apologized but we got the impression maybe it was too little too late. >> this is a great baroque festival. -- but festival. [applause] [inaudible conversations].

>> as we noted the difficult part of iraq and afghanistan was figuring out what happened in the aftermath of the iraq with the rise of the insurgency is special operations are called in as the manhunt to find a centcom is and his son if they do find them he is captured and it is hoped initially that decapitation strike will put a lid on the uncertainty and there are others that are willing and ready so we find ourselves

in the prolonged insurgency campaign and around this time still lead crystal comes in as the commander with the task force that he sets up in iraq and at the time those that got the lead forces shelled the focus on the big targets but the crystal decides we cannot do that in saddam shows he looks for ways to revamp up their operations and does that effectively. hearing there is only 10 operations per month with 300 in 2006 this is made by a grant of communications technology without a lot of

thought to the thought they are getting intercepted so that we can destroy that insurgency we also have another term which is the operator's that is made the special forces and the navy seals at this time. and they want to do this surgical strike precision raid to hold a now in the middle of the night with a more traditional role of those local populations with then that community so well be feet of counter insurgency typically to secure that population by a

conventional forces we will see there is better collaboration with general-purpose forces because initially they were running around doing in this by themselves in day this off the commanders who had to explain what had happened but over time they learn to work together so there is a myth you'll have to do captured the enemy but with a division of labor to do the capture and kill all the leadership target while the professional forces to stir up though hornet's nest.

. . . .

okay thank you for coming. this is really a rough task. what ward churchill is someone i discovered while i was in prison and i actually learned from his write little and his research why i was in prison.