in the stages of development? >> that is a really fascinating reston and it didn't take long to determine the history because what needed to happen for railroads to take off his they had to cut a lot of trees. and with that came improvement from the steam engine and a lot of this is centered in chicago. it was one of chicago's biggest industries. and they had to build this out of wood and his son became a

lawyer was president of the pullman company and there was a horrible strike their so with every one of these stories, how do you make better steel, iron, a lot of this happened, we go from the 1830s and 1840s and rail starts to take off because they can mass-produced and the golden spike is driven into the completion in 1869, they had to

reinvent bridges before iron, most were made out of wood. and lincoln had talked about this bridge in rock island, illinois, and the railroad into to get across the river. and this is an incident where the steamboat crash or lost control and hit the bridge. and it burned to the ground. so the steamboat owner sues the bridge company. and they bring on lincoln as an attorney and makes thises

argument. and hent makes this compelling statement that this is not an impediment, this is a public amenity. the rest of the country is going to cross the mississippi and, you know, they are not stopping commerce or people from discovering land in the west. and there's a whole chapter. including how lincoln constructed the argument as well. the public goods of infrastructure. >> hr 40 is in front of congress possibly. reparations for descendents of slaves. while lincoln think about that?c >> i think that he would think

about it thoughtfully. and it's something that we need to address inequities in all of our systems, there is an environmental situation as well, toxic plants and refineries, communities of color, there's a lot of things that i think that lincoln would've addressed. and it spoke to his sense of fairness and the ability to take advantage of the ability, it should be addressed. and i think that he would've talked to frederick douglass, booker washington, and others all the people that were talking

about it today as well. and i think he would've taken a hard look at how we do this. >> how are the canal is financed? can you explain? >> this is an interesting story about american finance. and it floated down, horribly inadequate, what they do is we're going to work private contracts that can hire their own workers and they said

probably not a good idea. and they would send notices out to ireland and say okay, they promised these guys and that is what they called them, navigators. and then they have foreign financing. lot of money came into holding these canals and of course the land grant system as well and there was some money raised and again it was mostly bonds, but there was a lot of investing.

>> john, with 19 books, what is number 20 going to be about? >> i'm hoping that it will bring about every neighborhood in the country, climate change is the existential threat. well, how do we enjoy nature in the middle of the city. and how do we clean the air and stuff like that. one thing that i have talked about is climate change, affecting everything, water systems, everything. and this would look at how we

look at how do we break it down a little bit. and that would be my next book and i would try to call it the natural neighborhood. >> what about embracing public and private partnerships. the king and the pandemic. >> a lot of these projects, what i really provided the financial structure of them is the fact that they were able to solicit eastern european investors.

and it had been misappropriated for native americans. and they can say hey, a little bit with floating bombs, but it won't be enough. and that was the story with all of thehe railroads. , all of that that came with the local systems and there was a covering the civil war and it became a friend of lincoln and eventually so much information going out west and there was a

famous house and they lost a lot of that when the stock stock market crash. so that is another great story. so he would go back to german investors because he was from germany and said the railroad that your financing, take another look at the paper, i can help you a with this and they me huge brokerage fees and became filthy rich. but the white house is still there and this is probably as interesting as anybody else from their era. >> for the final question before we close, you have done so many lincoln pieces, which is your

favorite? >> oh, goodness, david. it's like picking your favorite child, that's not fair. come on. you know, the thing that really strikes me, is a place called lincoln landing and brockport, illinois, lincoln came through there, that is what spurred by imagination he created a great city and all that comes around it and he had this vision. sometimes places have this power

to instill the vision and you know, all of us have tried, we don't completely understand them. but it's important to see what they saw in to note that to aspire to this was still a worthy goal and a moral principle. >> it is wonderful to have you back, john, to the audience, thank you for tuning in. we have some great programs coming up, including peter collins and doctor henry johnson. thank you very much. >> thank you, it has been a pleasure. i hope that we will get back to a healthy healing country again.

and i wish everyone the best. ♪ ♪ ♪ smack every sunday we document america's story. booktv bringing you the best in nonfiction books and authors. funding comes from charter communications and more. >> broadband as a force for empowerment, investing billions with infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunities and communities big and small. and charter is connecting us. >> supporting c-span2 is a public service. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> your opinion matters. the video competition.

answering the question how does the federal government impact your life. federal policies that impact you or your community. $100,000 in total cash prizes, entries will begin to be received wednesday, september 8. more information is at c-span.org. >> good afternoon, everyone. welcome to a house divided coming to you from thehe abraham lincoln bookshop in chicago. i'm here with you today and i will be the administrator for the program. and you will learn more