allies together way he did on the war in ukraine . >> senator patrick leahy, thank you for your time and congratulations onyour new book . >> thank youvery much . >> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday american history t documents as stories and on sunday book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding comes from the solvation companies and more including charter patients. >> that is a force for empowerment /are you structure, and empowering opportunityin. he's big and small . charter settings.

>> charter communications along with these television companies supports as a public service. >> good afternoon everybody, welcome to barnes and noble. today we are author martin dugard, the author of best-selling books including taking harris, and the explorers with bill o'reilly these the co-author of the killing series, the killing letters which is a bestseller so without any further ado to talk about "taking berlin" his latest book, martin dugard will. >> did you tell me if my voice is not. if you're out there are not going to hear-sanything i say . people at c-span have pulled me that you know a time when

we get to you and you have a question we will microphones you. you see on my so if you question raised your hand over and on to. thank you for coming out. it used to be a writer things like this were fairly common . you have a mouse and do signings and travel around the country because of covid the shape of the world, book signings are rare days to respond to the house talking about taking berlin which is later love. so i see my cross-country team out there, and coming out. we have some chairs up for it people want to sit. come on down. the. help me out here. we're trying to alook like i'm following. there you go. there we go o.

so let me tell you a little bit about "taking berlin" have you a story about me populatingworld . again, said is fun that i have some letters here because they usually in sweatpants pictures this is the only son iseating a lot in dallas or . taking berlin is the same in the taking series and it was something i will rsso standalone is in your training series with. is still useful to you" which is great but at some point i wanted my voice to the voice has made its way onto the page. i taking paris last year taking harris was great. they grew on his 1944) the city of paris and the events that led to the nazi. paris but also his liberation

. and it was a lot of fun. the problem with writing "taking berlin" was actually going to paris so i used during my lifetime panel from the house sees i had dgone to in your torso and was a lien on those restrictions but as any writer will send you nothing but the actual trial being location to tell the story that's. and i have to do that with "taking berlin". so "takingberlin" tells the story last 'year of the war and wanted last year or ? all with as many as 1944 and harris was liberated, it was all working on also to face, last. the war sheets everything

about our modern world since 1945. especially right now with things going on in ukraine is a carbon copy of. is left right out of the stalin label so is nice visit some history. so when i was writing this book, i could just do events in paris some of the atrocities that had been fighting in paris. because berlin is the book. berlin is, it could happen about the t pages because we all the cows da, the russians operation migration was initially there are bufindings but those are all looking themselves so with this book do was show all actions but show it through the eyes of individuals so we. we have e montgomery, winston.

we have more than your and was a journalist in rome and she was ready. she the released on the way onto ship so she is eating landings b& or you wasn't supposed to be there this will journalist also james who was to start at the age of 37, jurors in american history . later. sorted men wore a pair? you are and not often you get to write warm-up have this romance in the pool. but the backtrack you at 80 four some of the students here who wondered how you become a writer, what that life is like. i always wanted to be a writer. since i was a little kid but literally six years old, my mom when i see a later in the

first thing she said was so easily, writers, find something else. forms process and i'm a bad example of how to go into your career path because i find grace but went to college my favorite thing to do was get classes in going to be re- re-looks. he said i do the home, i will allow the file career so i read a job. i had. we had to get everyday working i was miserable. i said maybe you'll see a careercounselor . what is supposed to be doing li with your life, $350 is an anonymous amount of money to d us back then and she didn't do all these tests.

and yet i came back a week later and she had the results and said becoming a writer ? and here we are. it was one of those things we world but we have writing on the side. i haven't to work. i was at lunch and what i did was i sort of started very small. i started triathlons on for endurance ports so i started working with triathlon today henderson i was working with outside and esquire and i got to the point where i had to pick one or the other does not lose the, king's and my boss tasty lunch fires me. eli was going to be devastated and i told my wifean i fire today, it's amazing .

she said one of the most profound things are back and she finally said if you're a writer , you're all in. other careers, if you're going to do writing going to do by selecting forms last 30 years of my life is january 25 for a walk out of the corporate world andwriting . high rain hayes are presentable. i get up at 6:30, read the and then my podcast is down in iraq. my take a break 10 or 11 patents into do cross-country and track and i knew that six, seven days a week it's been way and the one thing i've learned about writing is that it's feast or famine profession but it is revitalized me. i was reflecting today when i was working the corporate world was remember i guess

25, 26, 27. everyday i go to lunch at the corporate cafeteria and i would hear these people in their 60s talking about going up or more years to retirement,two more years . when you find you don't want your sites live their life b,65 when i retire, and i'm going to wait. . it's been great. because of writing i have traveled the world. around the world slices esl. i covered permafrost met amazing people selected as a that life for all these years. i would have been world, with way i'm pretty sure i stay in will let you guys must copy smokes just as angry at the world. writing just transforms me. we're getting is 61. so i could be said he wants

and desires, 61 king way more books, more to. to sharpen my skills. saw that the best job in the world and i love is fantastic . when we can all this file will like taking in my life is to. so he sees coolb s. for instance when we were doing the latest research trip we were, it was kind of frantic because about half way through this i was working on taking all the legends but with the same size these two books currently. the literally three hours of me three hours until you all the time trying his stuff. i'm literally trying to do both this slow walk through hell was six months of creativeradius . so in the middle of all this

it was approaching and i thought wouldn't it be cool to go to paris for w valentine's day, the amazing write it off as research trip we lose paris. it's like not like where saying harris romantic things, like less of the belgian battlefield, that's senior buy a. i'm angling for the bridge too far stuff, we went to dunkirk. we went to the and all this is rick book with bill and bill know i'm in paris working on my own day . these me and he does this and last chapter so we were literally in this beautiful french seaside town that was captured by the germans in 1940 so i'm sitting in the back book and i can hear bill

adding and people were walking past us like what is the meaning of this, what is this man with hislaptop in the back of the car ? it was one of those things that remind you all the world has changed because the back book and get this remote getaway for valentine's day is surreal. it was just alittle bit different . it's the writing world, you have to be. so for people who have read that timeseries you know the style of the books . when we started the book with killing lincoln bill unleashed me to go off and it was supposed to be a law. so i set in stone the formulary we would use for all those books.

chapters, present tense, pending for chapter of a very you are able, follow sentences for the next chapter just in a timeline. in biological order and i we use up all 12 of his books to create and what i found is all the chapters are longer than i'dlike . i used to work with james patterson and he said no chapter should be longer than 12 words which jim and three ages. i need read a little more. i tried to keep all the chapters you downwards. it's about six, pages that works well for this whole goal is i love history and traditions you this writing, i've been a fan of history, history or he will ever since i was a child.

all those books that meeting want to become awriter , i have some of those fisher-price children's history books. i have been in undrinkable 30 years later where i've written martin d and the most for your old handwriting so the history thing is real with me. one of my life should be something people are drawn to . instead, all of history writing, a lot of traditional history writing is just very slow is dull as many details on the page so that you're not telling us more. what is throwing fact thatthe reader . i was reading will have 20 pages last sunday all but at some point i realized the offer tas he was doing

research the 30 pages that i want to put the book down and walk away. my goal is anyone i like. it's really like stephen king book i. i want people to turn the pages i don't want this to be a book where you open it, you read two pages before you read and you fall sleep onset page. i get these emails and it an makes me so happy. people say thanks to you i was up till 4:00 reading a book h. i want to do history should be. as you read it your friends what my reflection and you turn the pages and you can't whstop turning the pages and you want to know more and moremaybe you put down a couple hours but the next day after work way more . when i'm notwriting history,

we will . i usually like really good session. when you meet other authors stop and see what you're doing will also you need to do better because are well if raising a fiction piece transport them into nonfiction so there's always ways to i only get better. always acting in history books something you'll want to be. that's what i tried to do with "taking berlin". we opened in may 17 1944 which is this little moment in history where all the top generals and admirals and officers on the allied side gather in london to hear the plans for da so you have people and last i said it had dropped the bomb they would have destroyed the allied war 13 weeks terestingly ago.

i went to that place just because i love you this is solid nerd i. first i want to go to see what the room was like what in the opening line book i described the room and i talk about it but i described a wooden doors and i did my research and at times their gothic. they're not victorian but i was thinking maybe they were made, maybe they were and i said this is london, big oak doors but then there was something about that helen was fine. on a cell on time but i will go back and see this place and issue a. class and it seems like every time that nobody is not there anymore because the nazis, but it is your so is just under one. the book was about you.

so he chapter is short, and the like to listen close my voice. well what has in may 1940 four. weakness of your characters. the book is edited by my wife sitting over there. she want to do this . along. may 15, 1944, london england: 50 a.m. eastern churches on. all of your depository. upon is not in the long line and rip he was to be late. this morning's presentation at st. paul's coolest words in western history.

rules people a) locked at 10 am arrivals and i admission first general bernard law montgomery) and has made this clear. everyone is well those monkey always gets his way military police blocked the entrance read? on-site costs, sirens generals and admirals can't single out there summons and percentage of stars and bars, 100 officers on written organization, no admission allied military figure weights in you. except for the french, they're not in my also questions , that have worked as a way to elect waste into the left corner of is not inside

paneled walls, cigarette smoke, vision and sense those intriguing visual display. on stage for a beaches orin any set in the slopes of the audience to see it so started officers explaining the plan walkabouts what landmarks churchill will. st. paul's students and staff have relocated to reside for the duration of the war henry transformed the redesign with the roots and chimneys everywhere to 153 from his personal enforcement. planning in a press and masters orders monkey had a. each officers ecstasy on our matches often used by the school boys here is george chaisson. churchill will next to the

sea. in armchairs american general power in great britain george the six days presentation is obscene. no cameras for our interests will later joke nazi germany dictator in hitler a british officer was able a small period of the nation of europe is hardly a surprise. the whole world knows that allied troops have been training the shape of a similar purpose of along from grass sometimes are. sadly, on this very day general but racist like. of course monkey starter runs inside and churches were here, here, doubtless, is also playing at the generals

lifestyle. it is in sympathy, as no recreation eaand insists on reading novels and stories. the information from the bars and invaders. progress show hard churchill ", chill english spring as if they are soldiers also beaches from the sky. life does not know the exact 6001 50 allied soldiers transported in 590 landing craft 6939 tother naval vessels, i'm going down the rabbit hole away. me. you sure up as he has in subsection as well and so on old junior. in first.

envisioned by air will face in history reese is accompanying. you cabbies blossoming over countryside. associate story is more pragmatic. manual how to treat disabled on the return to simply left. is well aware allied forces will soon plan but the furor does not noted the day, the day as it is known nor does anyone shivering inside this lecture hall. the only man who knows answer is general eisenhowerand even he is uncertain right now . 10:00 and his he has closed and locked the doors montgomery is famous for getting the audience to minutes to cough, sneeze or blow your nose and after that there will be no interruptions those words are necessary this morning. there's client eisenhower rises. he's officers boss, supreme commander of the allied

vision force. the audience is impatient to hear each detail of this enormous plan. need alarm, salt, bridges one must capture and at night the location of the landing depots. a well trained and disciplined german force that has fortified the coastline with guns big and small. intelligence reports written confirm that field marshal erwin rommel, germany's notorious desert fox is personally overseeing atlantic wall designed to throw the invaders back into the sea . i welcome you says eisenhower on the eve of the great. the general speeches cut short as a ponderous pounding on thelecture hall doors ballroom .general montgomery standsand layers , furious. he gives no indication for the military police openedthe doors . pounding resumes. most everyone in the room

knows who might be on the other side. he is the most audacious, the one man whose absence was noted and monty'smain rival . eisenhower remains silent. the order the doors open for you the incident perpetrator away but this is monkeys show the general is not backing down i'll call. more accounting louder. reality sets in n rent montgomery's carefully presentation remains a sideshow so long as the hammering continues d. where stands on the other side of that door is a fool or a force of nature walk through he is afraid of offending a lot inside the lecture hall. prime minister, king of england on rent bernard montgomery andray orders the door swung open . to no one's surprise the six foot to suffer hair general where i had a offers, the

over strides into the lecture hall unrepentant smile on his face. winston churchill recognizes the officer immediately will order a ski to celebrate this boldmaneuver . so does general george s patton makes his entrance. so that's now the prologue. it's always tough to find a way into the book. you have to start the storyat the beginning but where is the beginning ? my beginning originally it was off all of. then i realized it was leaving, so that the people you're right about what to tell their own story and they yell at you to be more in the book so we don't start 1944 in paris, we start their we go through the d-day landings of chapter 1 which i wrote

was about that paris moment is now i think chapter 14 because there's all these people and explain when you write these things. i could hear patton's voice telling me he wanted to be more in the story and i could hearchurchill saying let's go back to the day . why are you writing about d-day, it's the biggest event in western history so that's the wonderful thingabout writing these stories .you have this dramatic event, something called taking berlin which without context you think of taking berlin, it just sounds like a very kind of blasc military book. like yet another book about how the allies captured a berlin and the war is over but i wanted to make this more human that's when why these people spoke to me, even stalin, i felt honor bound to tell their stories but do it in a way that made in human instead of just these dry historical figures. and i think as you read it, that's what you're going to come away with.

i'm pleasantly surprised that the reviews so far have been kind . what what i like about it is the i never heard of gellhorn before or who is this james gavin ? to kind of introduce these people into the world and when i write about these people , if they walked into my office there's still real. if they walked into myoffice i would not be surprised . so to be able to introduce them to the world heand hopefully tell their story in a really fast-paced intriguing way that maybe at the end of the book you don't just wait for the next book in the taking series which comes out next year. you want to know more about gellhorn. you want to know more about hemingway or the solution of their marriage in new year's day. you want to know about churchill and how he oversaw the demise of the british empire in the waning days of world war ii and was so saddened by all these rallies

, gives this great speech in missouri where he predicts everything that has happened. he protects the iron curtain . he predicts there will be a war between the east andwest for control of europe . all that stuff is just amazing. it's fascinating so you should read the book. you take this away and you don't just say as you read it you don't go i have to read this history book, i want you to say this reads like a piece of fiction, like something that what makes me want to read more and read deep into the night. so let's take some questions, anybody. and remember we'venegot to do the microphone guy . >> when you were doing your research, was there and you traveled around to europe and germany, was there anything particularly impactful stands out like any locations that you said wow, that feels like this for this book, two

significant places. first there was in the dutch city where the 82nd airborne famously, have you ever seen the movie a bridge too far, you have all these american presented they got these lindsay collapsible boats and their paddling across to where the enemy is waiting on the other side and the enemy is firing up and they don't have enough battles so they're using the pastocks of their m1 rifles to actually paddle boats. and i can't remember the number, 26 points set off, 13 made it and the way these people died was horrific because they were basically a shooting range otfor the enemy. they were in lane site, barely moving it was just horrible thing. ultimately the paratroopers triumphs, those that made the other side were furious. they went after the enemy with a vengeance so for me, it's fun to really research

something before you do the travel so that the travel is what, the cherry on top of the cake for the pie, whatever. so we got to nine hagan and kelly and i had driven from brussels, pretty good drive and you've got all these side roads and i've researched it so i knew the bridges of 82nd airborne how to capture. just intuitively i knew that if i followed a series of roads outside of town i would cross thatbridge and there it was . and miles were later we get to the nine hagan break bridge which has been rebuilt since world war ii but that's not what i wanted to see, i wanted to see where the paratroopers cross so i just kind of did a little map study and figured out it had bo to be about a mile downriver next to a factory and the factory still stands . so we get there and it's one of those things. literally my gut told me to stop the car right now.

i'm stopped at the monument that said this is where they launched the boats. i was so happy. and it's the site of the cross now. everybody's writing'about history but it wasgreat . there's a little berm, they want 300 yards down to the water and i did all that. kelly's waiting in the car. she's like okay, can weget this over with ? i'm peeking out about this but that was great and then i've been to normandy before. i've been to omaha beach. i was at the american cemetery there one time and it's this cold misty day that stayed with me but on this occasion i wanted to see exactly where general mormon lead is like chapter 4. he led the american troops off the beach and let the reindeer's lead uthe way. i kind of stood on the road

where you got the beach here, this berm here, and then you've got these houses in this clip and i realized that the road i was standing on was covered with hard wire and landmines. and the berm down below was where the american soldiers were cowering because the germans were everywhere here, just firing right at them and because of the barbed wire they had no way off the beach and all of a sudden there's this very brave general says we need to get off the beach or we're going to die so let's go dyke inland which is whathe literally said to them . i was standing at that exact spot and you think it's going to be this scene of devastation but the houses that are still there are largely the ones that survived the war, there are nice summer houses.it would be like if someone had a place in laguna beach on the water.it was that kind of thing where people went for their vacations, and it just had that feel it was hard to imagine that a ceplace that was so inviting and genteel and

the air smelled of salt and the english channel. and it was just wonderful it's hard to imagine such tragedy and bloodshed. it's one of my favorite, tom took a nice photo of me standing there. it's one ofmy favorite photos of . . >> gary. >> why didn't they like the french and invite them over? >> there's a lot to that. it had a lot to do with charles de gaulle. i can push for taking paris. we talk a lot about charles de gaulle in taking paris and what i like about de gaulle is that nobody writes about him and he's a very influential century figure but he was so arrogant. he was so awful and so insistent on getting his way t even though it came handed to

the british and americans and third nobodycould understand him. he was so sure the french , that the france needed to be liberated and the americans needed to go and get paris, not bypassed paris like they were going to. they didn't want de gaulle around because he was going to be a fly in the limits at the end of the day, they didn't need him but hemade himself, he inserted himself into this discussion about two months later . >> to preface my question i was watching bridge too far last night . i started the book. and at the beginning of the movie there's two german generals talking about what would happen if that allied troops decided to take holland and who would they send, patton or montgomery and they said ofcourse it

would be patton . one of them says i'd ratherit would be montgomery . he said eisenhower is not that stupid. my question is the whole market garden, was it showboating or did the allies think therewas a chance of going up around two berlin that way ? >> yes to all of those. one, he was shown showboating so to set the scene in world war ii not to get too deep in the weeds in the low country in belgium the british were there. patton after paris, he is south of paris a couple hundred miles south and patents style was just go. he was like the cavalry, go and attack . gary was very british. he liked to take his time, gather his men, after all his arms and only then he would attack but that was the downfall of market garden.

the whole thing was planned en and executed in a week which was not montgomery's style so he need needed to behave like patton to win this battle and he was incapable of being like patton. an interesting sidebar about market garden. is one of the great battles and i encourage you to if you feel like research a little more after you read the book. the dutch war college had done off all war study about okay, if fan enemy is going to come into holland and try to getthrow holland into germany , which way should they go and they name three or four different roads and the one road they said we should not use by any stretch of the imagination was the one montgomery used when he left the belgian border and jumped off . it didn't fail horribly but a lot of people died so it

sadly the british, the americans came out of it looking pretty good . any other questions? yes sir. >> testing. so i'd like to just get your opinion on this and kind of like a two-part question. one, why do you think people like irving are getting played to be extra historical figure and to going back to the war, is it true that the french were ruled sought by the germans for their culture? >> i'll repeat the question. the question is why is tyree irving in trouble and did the germans lose the french art treasures, i'll start withthe second one first . the french were ingenious. they took everything out of the e blue and their other major museums between september 1939 and june 1940 when the nazis came in so

they use this time to hide in the country and shadows so that's why the nazis although the nazis did lose a great deal of art they didn't get as much as they wanted to the mona lisa was not there for the taking. you know, you could tyree's troubles right now go o back to 1933 with, hitler coined the term i can't remember the german word but he coined the big lie. so if you make up alive and you make it big enough and you say it often enough people will believe it and use that line to the spirit of the jews blamed the jews for the downfall of western civilization . by the way, stalin sold a big lie concept because he loved so much from hitler. putin is using the big lie right now. all those things that happened all the way back and are with us right now. history has repeated itself. >> and it's going on right

now. i'm not going to gointo it but it's happening it's a thing . so can we take one more question? no burning questions?ue let's call it. so everyone, thanks for coming out. i'mgoing to sit here and sign books if you want to get a book signed . this is fantastic . i see friends. i see many wonderful people and thank you for coming out. i appreciate it. [applause] >> every saturday american history tv documents american stories and on sunday book tv review the latesin nonfiction books and authors. funding comes from these television companies and more including buckeye broadband.