because of people buying the book. i am just so thankful. >> thank you. stay safe, stay healthy and stay tuned. good night. >> more television for serious readers. >> i'm honored to be hosting this conversation and also the

link on the history center website. the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller when the national book critics award was named the nonfiction book of 2010 and of all time with more than 200 other colleges and universities across the united states receiving reviews and critical claim that will add to the accolade. the pulitzer prize-winning

biographer and contributing editor of "time" magazine at vanderbilt university to talk about his new book and now i thank them both for being here. to bring enlightenment we wanted

to do good choices going forward. there was a wonderful moment in the early 1960s when president kennedy made a visit to france and missus kennedy was more popular he simply said i am the gentle man that escorted kennedy to paris. i'm the guy that's here to run the traffic a little bit. isabel is one of the most important voices in america and abroad republic and it's an honor to be here. why is this book not called race? >> first of all i want to thank you for being here. it is an honor to be here with

you and i was for the first event i had [inaudible] many people might not have known and so in doing so i came to figure out the term i was using and i don't use the word racism in that book. a lot of people do that because they thought about it in that way but i don't use that term.

the term i use inspired wherever they might have been and whatever their background might have been and looking at what was that like t it like to livem crow south from basically the end of the century to the 1960s i came away. it was a way and which it was segregated throughout the south

one of the things we are experiencing in the country now is a kind of critique it is and simply americans so can you take us on a sort of global survey if

you would about geography and also in terms of longitude and time and in the formations of the tribes. one of the things i was looking

for i wanted to look at the deeply recognizable to understand how that came to be and where are the points of intersection. that was the main focus of my research to determine the respect and aspect to resources and lack thereof they accrue through the fault of no one but is responsible for the infrastructure that we now live

with in the shed know of the origination. in this system. and in india for example and in the exploration of the world where they came in contact and then began to categorize the people they found and building this country bringing in people from africa to build the country and in the process of doing that that is what happened but it

could have easily been any other number of metrics for the first categorization color is a fact and reality. it could have been any number of delineation and to the idea that it could have been used so these

are creations is that intrinsic to the human experience every country has that culture and all

other things i'm saying though that there are often religious origins and one of the reasons the justifications were created here is the story of noah where he happened to see his father and for that reason.

what are the strategies for combating these distinctions that led to justice opportunities we do not have the benefit and it was of course a tremendous part in helping to clarify. >> as you say, i haven't done a good enough job. [laughter] when it first come out and people started to read it i

heard the same thing over and over no matter what their background was or age people said over and over i had no idea. i lived through this era and had no idea. there is probably someone reading it right now that says i have no idea and i will get an e-mail. we haven't heard from all segments of the society. there's many of an many voices e haven't heard from. we were auditioning but no one talked about the experiences of surviving the jim crow system so there was so much coming out that one needs to be more aware to have a better chance of

understanding. i was approaching and we are all like people that have inherited mistaken walls and cracks in the foundations but it's not to do with of the building of this old house. none of us are responsible for the broken beams we might find but once we become aware of what the circumstances are that's one of the way that i've approached this to try to say it's not the

beauty of the language. the idea of the structure and architecture of the thing and allows us to see what we thought we knew the potential reckoning

we have the possibilities of reckoning with it and a remarkable capacity to move on quickly so good evening huck finn was saved until tuesday. we have to figure out a way to get saved past tuesday. talk a little bit about what inspectors from other cultures and especially the 20s learned from the american south. >> one of the places if i was trying to understand this in

charlottesville we saw the merging of the symbolism of both the confederacy and those that were carrying that the symbol to think about what is memory and they were bringing these together and connecting the cultures across time so i became interested and realized germany was significant so i set out to think how germany remembered and

dealt with its history and reconciled it but i discovered things and one in the years and decades they were hating all along but when they did to study

how they had to subjugated african-americans. but they came and studied segregation laws and then they went back and debated the laws as they were crafting. >> one of the beneficial for when howard thurmond went to india is the experience in

formininforming the movement ths so important can you talk about what we learned? >> we cannot be talking about the role but thank you for reminding me he went in 1959 they had been following the civil rights movement they want

to introduce you and when he heard that introduction it didn't land so easily on something he hadn't thought anyway then he thought about the work and the lives he was advocating for and marching for in the movement and that even in that moment they were not

allowed really to vote or use the facilities and they were facing great danger so he thought about it and said yes and he then later spoke about it so doctor king himself made and the connection between the hierarchy. >> what is the most illuminating example of addressing the problems and injustices?

>> i think because of the work and the 12 years of the unimaginable horror they've worked to reconcile their history but it's about what exactly happens and everyone could be on the same page about

what happened there and when you come across them where do you stand at this point on the

capacity of the american experiment, the constitutional experiment in self-government? >> going back to the metaphor of the book but i would say you don't want to think about the ranks but if you don't go into the basement in payroll because you will have to deal with it whether you go in or not so i would never give up because we

seem to be on the cusp of and awareness alaska, vermont so as long as we recognize, there is a chance to transcend the barriers and the boundaries i'm going to go to questions that have been

submitted. what were you most surprised to learn through your research? >> there are so many things it's hard to narrow down. one of the things that stayed with me is how across the centuries and across the oceans and landmasses and similar approaches from the collusion of

those so from all of these they ended up having them as one who maintain and in the united states and one case where in

chicago a young boy was swimming and was stoned to death as a result of that and maintaining the assistance. >> related, what do you think perpetuates the ideas that continue?

>> they are building and so these are the kind of things and we are not responsible for this but we are responsible for what we do with it there are some crises that cannot be managed but can be solved so one of the questions i would ask is can the

caste be solved or only managed?

>> related do you believe in the process before we can implement the report.

>> it's fascinating that in berlin it takes up a huge section there's not a necessity

to have this additional explanation because clearly what has happened the first thing is to get on the same page and know what has happened in our country and where we are excluding

african-americans from getting mortgages and one of the reasons i would like to see and recognize how it is you are

wisely doing this to inspect.

>> everyone was somehow connected and in the culture that they brought with of them that is one of the things that propelled me to write about the

migration. some of it was a landing in new york or wherever they happened to land and get even the discussions about the cornbread and the whole thing and it's what we view as american culture

so that is what propelled me to want to understand the history because it was the story how people came from different parts of the world after the war as

brilliant as they were and as masterful as they were they abandoabandoned their dreams ann go back and my father went back and became a civil engineer and that is what i seek to do.

>> when did you know you wanted to be a writer? >> i think i always was. this is literally all that i've ever done. the last question and we will let you go. how many years did you spend on the research for this? >> it's hard to say because i spend 15 years and i've been

living with it ever since so this began one from the other and then it came into higher gear several years after. it was a part of my own personal language and it had become a part of me. it was a book that i needed to

write and i am hoping that this will allow us to see what we couldn't see before and see past the barriers. >> one of the best definitions i ever came across thank you for letting me spend some time with

you and thank you for atlanta thank you to isabel thank you so much and join us on september 2nd to talk about the man you can see behind him. >> thank you both had a great night, everyone