ranking by note it historians, from best to worst. and features perspectives interest the lives 0 our nation's chief executives and leadership styles. visit our website, c-span.org/the presidents to learn more burt each president and historians and order your copy today. ... former truck administration national security advisor you can find more information on your program guide. stomach i would like to start

would like to thank all of our supporters, these supporters and everyone for the outpouring of love for our bookstore. especially now, we are hoping to support your needs with educational supplies, books to help ease your mind, books used to stimulate your mind, puzzles and games to occupy everyone's time, all offered was shipping to anywhere in the country. we are happy to be able to bring our event series, virtual, that helps our message of being a community bookstore. we believe we can ask band your mind and bring in new thoughts to expand your mind. we are happy to offer neal bescomb books to be shipped directly to you we hope you and joy this event and support neal bescomb for you and any of your friends you can see it scrolling right at the bottom of your screen.

purchasing the books will help us to be able to continue providing you with the incredible defense directly to where you are. i am shane l1 imd events coordinator, i produce hundreds of author events each year i am personally to be bring this event to cite will be taking questions from the audience periodically throughout the event so please type your questions as a comment and i will read them to neil as they come up and we get comments i will also provide links to -- how a jewish driver beat hitler's best in the comment still see that as well. they were the likeliest rene dreyfus international driver on the racecar circuit and

then banned from the fastest cars by the mid- 1930s because of his jewish heritage. charles, headed down on his luck automaker was desperately trying to save his company as the world teetered towards the brink. and lucy shall, the -- mccarran to reclaim the glory of her driving days. not to germinate launches campaign of racial terror to question the world towards war, these three misfits banded together to challenge hitler's dominance at the apex of motorsports, the grand prix. their quest for redemption culminated and a remarkable race still talked about in racing circles to this day. but which, soon after it ended hitler tried to erase from history. bringing to light this

glorious area and to define it faster and with the most inspiring upsets of all time it is symbolic blow against synopses during the darkest hour. mitchell, the "new york times" best-selling author says it serves as a full thought throttle reminder of the power of heroes to inspire us to during dark times. neil has brought to life a gripping expertly tale of an un- likely band of dreamers who pushed everything to challenge people. >> a.j. author of goat like hell says sports, politics and passion collide in the sizzling book. bringing the excitement of motor racing on a page is no easy task, but neal bescomb succeeds. a victory over the '90s as a for us all.

tonight, neal bescomb, the award winning author and your times best-selling author, the perfect mile among others and he grew up here and st. louis so welcome from the far and now i would like to bring neal into the conversation. if you all over your watching could give a hearty round of applause for neal bescomb. >> guest: hello everybody, thank you shane for that great introduction. i went to say for anyone watching, and who's not from from with auto racing with cars, for me personally that was such an incredible and

very easy, not easy, but very enthralling read and i appreciate the comparison to boys in the vote, and to see biscuit. for other sports i don't know anything about. i think this was very appropriately matched with those books. now i will let neal talk a little bit about the book, and tell you once we have questions. two thank you again shane, it's nice to be talking to fans, as i am natively from st. louis. i came to write faster, i was in new york at a very good friend of mine i was staying with tasked me a press release the key to the wall street journal at attorney past

ms. press release he had received about this car, until little known car that had been resurrected, found in a prime château abandon, but by this american millionaire and restored and then raised. it wasn't just the sort of peculiarity is probably the best word of what this car looks like. kind of look a praying mantis on wheels. the baxter itself, those profiled at the concorde was the car, soon after the nazi invaded paris, hitler sent many of his henchmen to find the car and have it destroyed. he also sent individuals ss officers the automobile club of france, all of the records

there were stolen, taken by the non- seas and destroyed, and have never been seen since. i was very intrigued by the story of what this car could have done to engender such a response from hitler. what was it about? what was it about the event and the grand prix that made it so important? as i began to unfurl the story about rene dreyfus, who was a jewish driver, and learn his back story kind of the fact he was a reluctant hero, his father was a conservative jewish faith, his mother was catholic, he did not release of scribe to any one religion or another. as he said driving with his religion. but suddenly in the mid- 30s, and in 1938 he found himself forced into this

position of being the symbol of the jewish people against the nazi. that is a story at its heart coupled with the fact it had this tremendous female heroine, lucy shall at the heart of it. she was the rich american who could very well have just sort of wild away her days in paris and new york. and instead she was as very brave and brazen individual who became one of the earliest speed queen female race car drivers. she was one of the best monte carlo racecar drivers. and then she decided at a certain points in 1936 to take on the germans. and she would support and lead the development of the racecar and a team to defeat the nazi. i was putting much done at that point. and then began over the course

of roughly two years, researching this really known story. there's very few mention of any books. it's one of those stories you have to dig up from the past. interviewing family members, going all over france in europe and elsewhere discover the people who were involved in the story and on earth what exactly happens, what happened and who these individuals were and what motivated them. so it's a tremendously fun book. i would not even call myself a car guy at the beginning of writing, faster, but after studying three years in this world, and having the experience of even driving this restored car, i would call myself a car going out. i would love to answer questions and make this as interactive as possible this

is my first ever bookstore virtual event, so i appreciate everyone coming. he went i do have a couple of questions i wanted to ask for my reading. the first, it struck me so much was how dangerous racing was, and how many people perished from these races. whether it be spectators or the drivers, or the mechanics, the race officials, for the number staggering to you? or was it just notable to me from the reading? >> guest: no, it was actually staggering. a long time ago i wrote a book about the building of skyscrapers in the development of that in new york in the 20s. i was alarmed at that point

about how many people perished but nothing compared to the dangers of these racecar drivers. this period of time many called the golden age of racing was one of the deadliest times. cars had really gone from going at the very best 100 miles per hour over the course of a race and going 200 miles an hour with no advancement whatsoever, really and safety. today, people still die and racecar driving today, but they are in cages, they're wearing fireproof close, they have helmets, they are very insulated. at this time the 30s, even though the cars were going so much faster, they did not even wear harnesses or seatbelts. they literally had to brace their legs against the side of the cop fit, the driver seat in order to stay in the car sometimes. they had no helmets they had a

cloth cap and that was about it. and of course no cage or anything like that. it would not be uncommon for drivers for one or two drivers to perish every single weekend in the grand prix. it was absolutely devastating, and deaths, as rene dreyfus said he became intimately aware of it. it follows you in as your companion in the car. it was just something you had to expect, so it is a very lethal sport at the time. and became even more lethal as countries began staking their national pride on how fast their cars would go that's at the heart of what it's about it's that nationalism that ended up infecting grand prix racing as much as it did the olympics in 1936.

>> host: another thing that i notice, was the big comparison made to the time and current. i know there are a lot of comparisons, or a lot of things that may or may not disagree with, but you did make some very spot on comments about the racial disparity that was happening then. another thing, i'm surprised i even know about right before world war ii stopping productions of cars 40 think right now is stopping a lot of

production of their cars. they are switching to trucks. i didn't know if that was another theory comparison to the time? it's also kind of mile marker if you will. >> guest: one of the aspects of the story was so compelling to me, was the time period, i wrote about world war ii ever wrote about post-world war ii, i've never concentrated before the war. it was a time of absolute upheaval. that's more coming into and out of the great depression.

until automobile manufacturers, at that point in time, were very much impacted by that. so the automaker on the verge of bankruptcy in 1932 and 1933, had to make this critical decision. are we going to build trucks? are we going to build utility vehicles? are you going to continue with their cars, one critic said we are probably best suited for funeral procession. or are we going to try to do something different? and ultimately they decided in 1933, 34, to race again, to build sports car which was really a dramatic leap from what they were doing. generally you find the germans, mercedes and auto union also an absolute up evil at this time. trying to figure out how they

can survive and what they can do that's where hitler comes into the picture 1933 he makes it his mission to revive the german automobile company the second speech as the leader of the third reich was at the berlin motor show in 1933. he said we're going to build the autobahn, are going to revive the automobile industry, and third, i'm going to dominate grand prix racing. and so all of that came about because of the economic, social, political, upheaval that was happening at that point in time. so i would not be surprised, that there may be reflections of that, into that. so absolutely.

he went back then the racecars they were building were designed, hoping to display them today the racecars we have or absolutely not appropriate when did it branch out from being sort of a showcase for cars that you could purchase to being such a specific -- >> guest: this is very true,

this really happened in the late 20s and 30s. the difference, the split that you found. i guess the best way to maybe describe it was describe what dell aided comments the car company they went to build this big fancy racecar, with the germans did with mercedes their fledgling automobile company they decided with the help of lucy schell to fill the grand prix racecar. the head of the company, was okay, we will build a grand prix racecar, but the engine, the chassis, every part of the car be suited for building a

passenger vehicle. that we can sell to the general population that puts a lot of different parameters and roadblocks to the exact kind of car that they belt. it's much more difficult. because it does have the stipulation. if you look at what the germans did, by contrast, the german cars, whether as mercedes or auto union were called silver arrows because of their sleek, modern, aluminum design. those cars, those engines, the design, everything about them had no chance they were going to be patented. there exclusively built, designed, built to be grand prix racecars and that's it.

they were not concerned about selling those vehicles. not to the general population. their victory on the grand prix had commercial aspects to it. because it was good advertising for their company. so by our passenger vehicles they are widely built and invested in as a propaganda for mercedes and auto union but propaganda for the third reich. every aspect within millions of dollars were poured into their coffers to build these cars were a nationalistic gamut to see the best in the world. that is exactly what they were for a very long while.

>> host: switching pace a little bit, your research, so when -- the question i like to ask when you were doing your research was there something you found that was so striking and so -- that it was incredibly interesting fact that didn't fit into this book that may be something you want to work into a future book? something you are so struck by, that did not make its way into the book that you wish it could have been some way. i think that was a hard question could find things specific in the research story

of one aspect, one part of the story of nazi or post events in the story hotel, that he had to separate lives of two-story after the break of world war ii, he left the united states, and had a total dramatic and incredible second part, second existence. he joined the u.s. army, he was involved in the invasion of italy, helped free europe from the not cheese, then went back to the united states, brought his family there, brother, sister, and ended up starting one of the most successful restaurants in your

city. and became of new york and a fixture on the restaurant scene with his restaurant, that's given maybe four sentences or maybe a paragraph? you could write a whole book about that. in fact his autobiography or memoir, is called my two lives. for exactly that reason the racecar driver. part of this research through

remarkable story of the speed queens the likes of lucy shell, this whole generation of women in the 20s and 30s, really pioneered them being part of car racing, sort of fought all of the sexism, inherent sexism, and just really in many ways and broke the glass ceiling on that. you see the danica patrick's of today, they have their presence in many ways to lucy shell. to her sort of calm lottery of women who decide everything -- defy everything to do with love, racecars. again, i won't be the one doing it, if anyone is out there listening, there is a

great book tv written about these early speed queens. i strongly recommend someone do it. >> host: they won separate awards but they were racing at the same time as the male drivers? is that correct? or what? >> guest: depends on the race. in the grand prix itself, the grand prix to put in present day language is like formula one racing. there's a set dictate on the kind of car you can have, set race, and women were not involved in that, in the 1930s. separately from that though, there was all kinds of different sports car races. there were rally races, races

3000 miles from one point to the next. get there as quick as you can. as well as races like in italy, 1000 miles, or labonte's, other races like that. they're all kinds of different races that inter- mixed men and women. lucy drove, partnered with her husband almost one monte carlo rally, three times. she also competed in all female as well. those were quite popular. [inaudible] that male racers look down on the female racers. that they were -- i would venture to say they were better rally drivers than the men were.

probably quite easily. if there were the same number of women driving rallies as men,. [inaudible] c when i think you cut out a little bit there. >> guest: the women were probably better rally drivers, long-distance drivers than the men themselves. and lucy sort of proved that point. >> host: reminder for anyone is watching if you have questions be sure to put them in the comments and i will read them. also a reminder the book is available at left bank books.com. visit left bank.com. i lost the word, it's a

come-from-behind sport story, like the mighty ducks. it's a historical of sort. seabiscuit, so if you have any questions involving history, or involving car racing, i knew very, very, little bit about the history of car racing before this. i probably -- i don't even know what i thought about car racing. whether i thought it was something like that just started in the 60s, 70s unlike america and that's when nascar happened. mina been to the nascar museum, indianapolis, the speedway the brickyard, i've been there, but i was a child and i don't remember everything i read on the plaques and things like that.

when taking the museum tour, it was really -- at the sport i didn't appreciate the history of and this book does a really good job of making that sport into something that a person really likes to read micro histories that can appreciate and enjoy. : : : drawn into representing represee

third reich and did so and they were good friends at one opinion, was mass nateing. in maybe ways -- fascinating. it's no different than if you think of stories about b-17 bombers in world war ii. no one really cared that much about the bomb are 0 the plane. it's the individuals in it fighting for the u.s. and the freedom of europe. so in many ways the car is the same way and racing is the same thing. it's just a vehicle in which they fought their fight. >> host: i had a question. >> guest: i'll drink any old farced while you think of it. >> host: how -- like, honestly,

how reluctant do you think he was, you say that in the text and it's kind of demonstrated, but in a lot of ways i kind of -- the more i read but nazi history and the more i see people kind of turning the blind eye and ignoring certain aspect of the party and ignoring what they don't want to see, but in a lot of ways, even when they were ignoring and when they -- they still were supporting, and still very much in favor of, like, parts of the mission. so, whether or not they were fully complicit, which at love people in the nazi party maybe weren't but how personally for him -- i know he was very

involved early so how reluctant do you think he completely was? >> guest: it's a great question. i think the way to answer it is sort of to track this story, so, -- won "first" grand prix race in 1926. a huge celebrity. top driverrer in germany by 1932, '33. he knew of the nazi party. he was not a participant it in, not a member of it at that point in time. but then because of the great depression, a lot of car companies were abandoning grand prix racing, including mercedes and auto union, so by 1933, early '34, rudy was -- had a

terrible car accident, so it was kind of crippled, had just lost his wife in a skiing accident and had -- the only thing left in his life was racing and getting back into rating, and with the rise of hitler and his investment in automobile racing and grand prix racing, he opportunity presented for rudy was join in the nazi party, become a representative, or never race again. and i think the answer to that question for him was, not even a reluctant one, even though he didn't believe in the ideology or even necessarily -- definitely not the sort of anti-semitism. but i don't think he hesitated.

i think the joined -- i know he joined straightaway. the tried, he pitched, did everything he could to get back into shape to join the team. because racing was his life, and there was nothing else for him. so he was willing to do whatever it took to try to -- any ideology if it meant he he could race again. so, i am not apologizing in any way for rudy because it is very clear by 1936-'37 when he german aid announced sweeping sweepingd prix every year, rudy, the top of the america federal team -- mercedes team, hero of the reich, celebrated as such, meets frequently with hitler, spendings in prop began dark

wries editor mayorals, presents him as hero of the reich and even if -- having read everything about him, memoirs, people who knew him, et cetera, still had -- did not subscribe to the ideology, didn't really much care or like hitler but was willing to do whatever it took be the top racecar driver in the world. so it's a complicated story. and i think he ultimately sacrificed his soul for racing. >> host: and similarly, lucy and -- i forget -- >> guest: charles and renee. >> host: rene, they also -- they also were doing anything to be

able to race. so i mean, yeah, you can definitely see the good verse evil type playout, but similarly were very much willing to do anything to drive. to race. so you can definitely see that in their stories as well as his. >> guest: yeah, and -- >> host: on the side that -- >> guest: but they knew, right? rudy and his fellow members on the german racing team knew what hitler was doing, even before the war. they knew the sort of torture, imprisonment, of the jewish people in germany. and yet they were still willing to be representatives of that country.

so, rudy didn't even live in germany. he was living in suiterland. and -- switzerland and could have quite easily walk away but he didn't. like you said, for rene, for lucy, for rudy, there was something about the life of racing that was so much in their blood that they couldn't abandon it. and both rudy and rene both write and speak about how nothing else in life -- never, ever felt really comfortable in the world or at peace in world except when they were driving. when they were racing. like, for them, that was the highlight of their life. the best times, the best

moments. that sort of clarity of purpose, clarity of mind, that feeling of being in the flow of inning a racecar, that was everything to them and they were willing to die for it and for rudy's sake he was willing to compromise himself for it. >> host: if anyone has any -- oh, jim donohue says the become is fantastic. your best, though i am a bit partial to hyer. i was hoping it was a question but it's a comment. >> guest: thank you, jim. higher was my first book. but higher, faster, and now i'm not sure i'm doing longer. something lick that. >> host: stronger next?

>> guest: stronger, probably not. i'm not -- no body,-building book. >> host: have you started working on your next book? >> guest: i have actually. i'm sort of -- most of my books are -- i now translate into for the young adult audience so faster will be for seventh and eighth graders and ninth graders or older, called the racer, scholastic publishes them and i've done that now, this will be the fourth book like that, that sort of has been two editions. but my next book will be exclusively young adult book written originally for young adults, nonfiction, but gandhi's sort of first big nonviolent peace movement, which was the

marchin' 1930 which had sort of -- match in 1930 which had epic consequences for at the freedom of india. kind of the temperature of gandhi told as kind of a microhistory of this one seminole moment in his -- seminal moment in his life and telling the story of gandhi and the peace movements through the one dramatic, at times violent event in 1930. and i'm purpose excited to write it for the young adult audience and as my younger daughter said, probably be your best book because you are writing it for me. so, -- >> host: some of my friends have joined us. jim says that books perfect for film, which i agree. are the rights sold. >> guest: so, the rights sold to

this company called imperative entertain, right after i submitted it to the pressurer and now it's being developed, almost done, and i think they're hopefully going for directors and -- of cures i'd like to see all my books made into films. most of them are optioned but hollywood is tough. fingers crossed this will make it. it is very send send send -- cinematic, the race is the of ultimate race in 1938, this sort of very narrow french village near the mountains, just the scenery and imagining them racing in that would just be incredible. >> host: i agree. i would love to watch those

films. i love sports films. i love sports. but i just don't like sports. [laughter] [inaudible] >> guest: anyone who knees steven spielberg, feel free to send him a note. >> host: and i'll put back on my racing scarf for my audition. >> guest: did i mention i'm doing the bookplace? >> host: oh, yes, thank you. >> guest: i got these nifty book plates. >> host: go ahead. >> guest: sorry. was going to say that if anyone does want one of those fantastic book plates, just when you order the book from left bank.com you can write a note saying you

would like it signed to one and i'll contact neal to have him sign the back to you or to one of your friends or to my father, who i'm certain will love this book as much as i did. and tell us who designed those. they look -- do they design the cover and the book for plate or just the become plate. >> guest: this is the cover. this is the cover art and they just used the sort of -- this is originally illustrated for faster and they just use this on the book plate. just keep your -- if you -- i'm happy to sign it and write comments, just -- not long paragraphs because it's not a very big book plate. >> host: yeah. >> guest: happy to do it. >> host: i love the cover. the cover really is -- draws people in very well. so i wish that people were able to shop in our store to be able to see the cover.

>> guest: that would be fantastic. >> host: it's a hard time for a book to come out, especially a book that deserves so much praise and attention as yours does so i hope it continues to find the hands of readers that it needs to find. any other questions? >> guest: thank you for having me. >> host: it's our pleasure. you being from st. louis we want to support local authors. when did you move away from st. louis? i forgot to ask you that before. >> guest: in '18. basically after -- as soon as i went to college i had -- haven't lived there since but my family lives there and still have a lot of family that lives in

st. louis, and so it always has a -- i love coming back so hopefully next time i'm there i'll swing into left bank. yeah. definitely say himself we've never met. that would be fun. there is anything that you feel, like, we haven't talked about? i know there are couple of things we haven't not talk but that are leading into the -- but there is anything else you feel like readers really might be curious about that would convince them to buy the book if they haven't already been. >> guest: you know, i honestly can't just say enough about lucy shell. just because she was -- as i was telling you earlier before we

went live, i've written do it kinds of books. this is the first book where there's a sort of woman at the heart of it who is the hero of the story, and she was just so fun to write about, and it was -- sometimes different chapters easy to write, some are hard to write and i found myself every time i was writing about lucy, that the words just sort of poured out of me and she bounced from the page easily. she is such a dynamic person. she would drive with broken limbs, she would dominating the room she was in, she would bury -- come in and say exactly what was in her head.

had a lot of scrimmages of her dialogue and what she was saying and source material. just is so easy to write and fun to write and is kind of like the hidden figures kind of individual in this story, and it is just -- amazing to me i'd never heard of her having read a fair bit about racing history over time. and i can't tell you if i have even spoken to one person over the course of the last three years ever heard her name but she was the first woman known to run a grand prix race team and one of those individuals that "the new york times" should write an obituary, post dated obituary because she deserved one, and my pleasure the book was sort of -- her part in this

dramatic time. >> host: did you talk to any of the descend dents of characters in the book. >> i did. sadly lucy had two sons, one, harry, was actually a very good racecar driver himself, died racing. she had another son, phillip, who also died several decades ago. so, rene did not have any children. rudy had no children. so initially i was like, oh, dead end, dead end, dead end. but ultimately the dreyfuss family, rene's niece, evelyn dreyfus, kept through the family lore tons of scrapbooks about her uncle, hundreds of pages of

articles that have been written in french and italian and english over the course of 40 years, 50 years. what people talked about at his funeral. everything. and of course knew rene quite well, knew stories of lawsy and others so the book benefited from her overwhelming generosity in the course of this book, not only in photographs but in diaries and letters and family history and so ultimately got all of the taped interviews that rene gave over the course of years to his biographer for his book and if you know anything about writing books, only a sliver of what you research gets into the spike had the benefit of hours and hours of tapes, so

hopefully i'm able to tell the story in a visceral way that makes you feel like you're there and you understand rene and lucy and rudy. >> the next comment is not a question either but from my sister. so, i think that is really cool. i didn't realized my sister was watching. >> guest: that's great. >> host: i have a bunch of friends watching, which is awesome. i very much like this is going to be -- if my father is not watching, don't be a surprise he'll get this for -- i don't know what holiday is coming up next but probably can't wait until his birthday. >> guest: good. >> host: probably be getting a book plate for him and sending it in the mail.

>> guest: that's sweet. [inaudible] >> host: it's a goo g way to think about current events without actually thinking about current events. >> guest: uh-huh. >> host: so fast paced. i agree with the reviewers. father's day is coming up yes. father's day is coming up. i forgot about that. >> guest: i like your sister -- [inaudible] >> host: yes. she's fun. she just got the kids to bed. she's in des moines, me brother in kansas city with my parents. we're all over the mace. i'm glad that she was able to stop in and watch the event.

>> guest: the publishing of being able to do virtual events is people from all over the country and the world can join us when they have not been able to do so had we been doing this event in the store. >> guest: absolutely. i'm still looking forward to coming into the store. >> host: absolutely, yes. that experience is one that i am sad that people are missing out on, but also a fun experience. >> i think that we will probably wrap this up unless we have any other questions. think if i want to leave people 0en a little cliff hanger to encourage people to read the book and i want to thank neal for joining me this evening, it's really been a pleasure getting to meet you, getting to

hear more about the book and thank you. >> guest: thank you, shane. thank you for left bank books. have a great weekend. >> host: you can order the book at left-bank.com and i'll show you the picture of the -- i forgot to do this -- a beautiful cover so you can order -- i forgot i even did that -- had it heighting in the -- i'd hiding. order the book, get you a book plate and it will be wonderful. thank you, and we will see you next time. >> guest: thank you. >> here's a brief look at what is coming up tonight. professors ruth wilson gilmore and naomi off the thoughts on ending mass incarceration in the u.s. david morewell, former direct of

othe museum of jewish heritage recount the life of josephing me la. rand paul says there's a the of ideology on the rise in america and >> amy is a space flight historian. author, youtubeer, public speaker, and popular space personality. not unlike her subjects she is one of the only academically trained young female space flight historians. she runs runs the blog, with ovr 325,000 subscriber. aeg