[applause] announcer: you are watching "american history tv." all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. announcer: history bookshelf features popular history writers each week. author diane brady features john

brooks. she spoke at the holy cross club of greater boston. among the students he recruited was former supreme court justice clarence thomas -- current supreme court justice clarence thomas. this program is about 50 minutes. >> good afternoon, i would like to welcome everybody and start the program if we could. good afternoon and welcome. this is a certainly a wonderful turnout and we are happy to have everybody this afternoon. on behalf of the college as well as holy cross public radio of

boston, i want to welcome you to this monthly lunch. thank you for being here as we celebrate the publication of fraternity with author diane brady. an exceptional and accomplished journalist, diane has done all of us a great gift in telling the story of father bob brooks as well as an extraordinary group of black students and how they are tied together at holy cross in the late 1960s to help shape their lives and changed the course of history. as one reviewer commented, fraternity brings to our attention for the first time an unsung hero of the civil-rights movement. another called the book incredibly inspiring, noting that diane had captured the story not just of a group of amazing black men and their mentor but an era. senior editor at bloomberg business week diane first wrote about this time at holy cross history in the 2007 article for

business week and has worked since then to expand the story into a book. we are delighted she is with us today to share her experiences researching, interviewing and writing "fraternity." we are equally delighted to welcome eddie jenkins, class of 1972, who is over here to my right, who is one of the prominent men featured in the book. i have to kid eddie. he played for the patriot and the giants. [laughter] >> i don't think he has the superbowl ring on. you had it in new york last night. [laughter] >> we were kidding about who he might be rooting for this weekend. he remarked he was cut by the giants.

shortly after he was designated the team's player rep. he learned leadership skills at holy cross as we all know and carried them right on to the nfl. and now it is my pleasure to welcome diane brady who will offer remarks before opening before to questions. welcome, diane. [applause] diane: thank you everybody. and thank you so much are letting me come to this. where is mr. cahill, senior? thank you. he purchased 252 books and distributed them to the entire class of 1949. a compatriot of father bob brooks. so thank you for that. i think eddie got tired from showing off the super bowl ring

last night and is official, in fact, rooting for the patriots. i don't think we established that. i am a timid giants fan in the midst so i will quickly move on to the book itself. i thought i would just talk briefly about why this story intrigues me so much, and a little bit about the reporting process and bring it forward to today because that intrigues me and open the floor to questions . i will admit first of all i am sadly not a holy cross grabbed -- grad, which somebody thought naturally i must be an alumnus of the school -- the way i came across the story was one of the men in the book, we were having lunch and it was the same day that ted wells was a front-page story in the new york times representing scooter libya at

-- scooter libby at the time and going way back, he started to talk about his classmates, the other black classmates and started to talk about father brooks and i was intrigued because clarence thomas was one of those classmates and i have not read much about the interaction between justice thomas and father brooks. that got me in treated. i am a business journalist. it was not a classic business story but i am always interested in leadership. i always interested in mentoring -- i am always interested in mentoring and it took quite a while to get justice thomas to speak with me. in part because he didn't necessarily trust the agenda that i had which is i would like in fact it talk about 1968, '69 '70, those years. and what amazed me was when i did go in to see him, the depth of passion he had for wooley cross. -- holy cross. the feelings and emotions he had

about father brooks. i am not sure who was at his presentation last week when he got an honorary degree but that came up again. when you contrast how he feels about across, what he said about his experiences at yale there's a profound difference and one of the big differences is the classmates and the way he felt treated by father brooks. basically i set out to do an article. i decided that it was in fact ground for a book and this being my first book project, i went on all sorts of directions that ultimately didn't work. one of which was lots of history of the jesuits. the publisher said no to that. a lot is the history of western -- worchester, which took me a long time to pronounce.

like everyone else not from the area, not wor-cheste wor-chester wor-chester, it is worcester. my editors said i am getting confused keeping track of all these people. focus on these men and the fraternity they formed and use that as a microcosm for when they experience at holy cross and what was being experienced across the country at the time. there were a couple things i tried to be careful not to do. one was tighten the drama too much with a love interest and dialogue. the main thing that was important to me that holy cross was both special and unique but was a microcosm of what was happening in the country at that time. i am not american. i grew up in scotland. i am half catholic but brady is a handy name to have when you're at holy cross. i was born in the late 60s and never fully understood the

emotions of the time that the book opens to. it was right after dr. martin luther king has been killed. also father brooks intrigued me as someone who was a pioneer who went out and basically circumvented the admissions process. he was very controversial. those of you who read the book and who know him he was a very strong-willed man and basically went out in a car with jim gallagher, drove to the school to personally interview lot of these men, not the men who came in through other means such as eddie who came in through an

athletic scholarship and -- am i popping, can everybody still hear me? probably better. and sat in a coffee shop one night and decided who was going to get in, the two of them and -- two of them presented the bill to a college that had a million dollars in endowment at the time was quite a cost to their -- bare. what i was looking for, how do you decide anybody who is a parent in the room knows that intelligence is not something that is a hallmark of success. it doesn't necessarily lead to success. when you talk to father brooks , he was looking for leadership comedy and people who had a work ethic, people who were hoping to

reach beyond their grasp, black and white leaders believe was fighting to get women into the college. sadly for the class of '72 they did not arrive until the fall of that year and that was after father brooks became president and said he managed to shake up the trusty a little bit and get people who finally did pass resolution to let women into the college. when i look at this story and i will take your questions, what struck me when i look at today is first of all the network. the network of these men is false fraternity because this is not about one man's brief theology professor who went out to save a group of men. these are men who were highly motivated and being given an opportunity they would not have had two or three years earlier. there were african-american students but they tended to be one or two a year. as art martin would say one would come in on athletic scholarship and one would be the catholic school network and that was pretty much about it. this is the first major group that came with 20 men.

clarence thomas transferred after dropping out of the seminary. this was the first time they had critical numbers on campus. what happened was father bob brooks and the college never relied on academic standards. all of them had to work as hard or harder in many cases. i think ted wells and clarence thomas tended to close the library at night, according to everybody i talked to. they made concessions socially and understood how difficult it was. the college paid for a station wagon for them to get off of campus every time they could. he allowed them to live together on a black quarter which is very controversial. i know we have one of the editors of the crusade at the time and i remember reading a lot of articles that students were upset about this

re-segregation they called it. he understood it was difficult and he made concessions. when i talked to the men it was the idea that at the highest level at the college they understood people cared about their success. they understood people had faith in them and understood with father brooks there was an open door. he has that philosophy for 2,000 students who were there and many people here feel close to father brooks. i am sorry he was not here today, he was with us last night and he was certainly in worcester last week for clarence thomas's event. when i talked to him today he felt the college was missing out on being the best institution in this country by not reaching out and getting leaders from all parts of society. that includes women and black and white and asian.

holy cross made great strides in diversity. there has been a strong generation of leaders of women. i met jane roberts who was in the first class and many other women who were pioneers there. when i look at today one thing that is interesting is there has been great success, great faith in terms of what happened with african-americans. ted wells went on to harvard and some classmates include a lot of highly accomplished men from that generation but also a lot of disappointment and what of disappointment in what happened with the black middle class in this country, what happened with education and the erosion of opportunities. frankly, i think what also happened in terms of the decisions, some of which have been made by justice thomas in terms of opportunities affirmative-action and such and a sense that the next wave for this generation is going to be financial. it is going to be encouraging

entrepreneurship, basically giving people the tools to start their own businesses, and in inspiring the same -- i think that is my phone -- and in closing, i want to say thanks to the holy cross community because one thing this reporting process has reinforced to me is the strong fraternity and powers that this school had at the highest level of giving which is amazing especially for people at canadian university. we just don't give. we are like, the government will do it. but holy cross, when i look at the networks that have been formed, the friendships, the power of the cross as they call it and the way people , support each other and love each other across the

generations is very inspiring and a test of how leadership really happens. in this country it happens everywhere else and the love people have shown for father books for this process, that they have shown these men in appreciation for how difficult it was to be pioneers on that campus, i hope it is a story that we will come back again and again. as a reporter i have to say given the support i got from holy cross of what every story to be based on the holy cross campus. so thank you for supporting the book. i don't think it does justice to the period but at least it is a start. and others will come forward. and continue to tell the story. so, thanks again. [applause] diane: i guess i will now take questions. eddie is here. very busy not just because you're going to the super bowl. if you have a question for

eddie, before he leaves, if you want, you can come up but feel free to ask questions to him because these are, and these are their stories, not mine. does anyone have any questions you would like to ask? >> i did want to mention c-span is here today. this is being filmed and it will be shown at a future date. so we are going to pass the microphone around is what are you trying to say. so if everyone can speak into the microphone, that would be wonderful. diane: give your name, look into the camera. >> and the jesuits don't have fraternity. we do feel we are fraternity in many ways. who is first? eddie? diane: eddie, that is good. eddie: i want to thank diane for

chronicling this special experience and people who live through it. and from extended period time. i want to talk about an amazing man, bob, can you stand up please? a great track star and a great scholar and he continues to do great community service. bob does great work in the area of affordable housing. but last night we all got together at 11:30 and finished everything, and ted loves to be close to the job which is on fifth avenue above st. patrick's cathedral. we were all standing at the window and ted grace -- ted said, 40 years later what did we do that was so special that not only people remember us but on

the cover of the book i know i and we thought -- cover of a book and i said, i know i gave you that quote last night. it was within a book someone took home. but that is all right. the holy cross community would never do anything like that. in the book at a quote from our leader, martin luther king, who said, you look at the measure a person not at the times where they stand in comfort and convenience but you look at them where they stand in a moment of crisis. and that was our moment of crisis. there was the vietnam war, there was the civil rights movement, and if you remember yourself those times, do you remember what you did? do you are member those reports on television? you figured that those reports were enough and some of you even

read the commission report where they talked about two societies that were developing, one white and one black and one rich and one poor and become further apart. some of you put your toe in and did a little something. for those of you who took the plunge and lost the sense of security, you jumped in and did not know where we were going to end up. those turbulent currents of racism and cynicism pulling and pushing, we just said we don't need them anymore but we continued to swim and father bob brooks continued to swim and he said it is not important they just kept going. it is important we give them

silence. because we got to the other side the river that was formed where love overcomes racism, that is the part i challenge each and every one of you that there are additional rivers. diane talked about the economic crisis and i would add to that the incredible number of african-americans that are in jail today. more in jail than in college and we have an extraordinary problem in america we have to address. there are more rivers. don't just look at us as some memorial, old guys who did something great 40 years ago. that was our river. this is your river and your chance to jump in. thank you very much. [applause] diane: i can't top that. you know, the other thing that was interesting which came up last night and with clarence thomas as well, what has happened to the catholic school network, the elementary school network, especially in the cities, you know people say the , charter school that came in to perhaps fill the void but there was a real sense of loss.

certainly i think that these men feel and the lot of people feel this was a real steppingstone for a lot of urban families to get their kids the type of education and discipline and values that would help to make them leaders in society and there is a certain wistfulness that that network is not as strong as it was when they were students and a feeling that there would be some way to make it stronger so that as a theme as well. does anybody have any questions? go ahead. i guess we have to wait for the microphone right? >> just raise your hand. nice and high so i can see you. >> hi, my name is dean mann, and i attended. i haven't read the book yet but a couple questions. is there anything in the book about the impact of what was

going on? i say that because it was a positive influence on me. i remember playing cards in the cafeteria with clarence, i remember working on this with eddie jones and the friendship s you developed and impact of later on. i would like to also mention that what father brooks did was not just for the black students. i was from a low income family in brooklyn and he did the same for me. and that changed my life. afterwards, i worked for six years in africa. i would like to say the combination of those experiences gave me that direction. diane: i think that came up as a theme. >> i have another comment question. there was something that came up when we were freshmen which

annoyed us. i am wondering if that came up as welcome and it was the sports illustrated article about kareem abdul-jabbar -- diane: jack donahue. that comes up on the book because sam grayson is one of the men who was deeply affected. this was a sports illustrated article where jack donahue who was the basketball coach at the time of holy cross. i believe he called -- >> there was college and power and so he recruited -- diane: yes, kareem abdul-jabbar. he had made racist comments and so that does come up at the moment in the book and talked about the interaction with coach donahue over that incident but i know your time is tight. eddie, i don't know if you want to talk about that but certainly one of the themes that has come up as father brooks understood

this was not something that was simply just good for the students. he felt was good for the college he felt it was good for the other students and it is telling the books that were assigned. those who were there at the time, one of them was in 1966, art martin, saying the autobiography of malcolm x was one property in america by one of your favorite alumnus, i will let any address it because he -- let eddie address it because he knows better than me. >> what is your first name? >> in my opinion not only jumps in but swam the nile. is brian here? brian was -- one of the white students that walked out with us. i would like brian to tell his own story. diane: and the black quarter was only three quarters black. there were not enough black

students to fill the black quarter. >> three minutes or less. >> thank you. dean's point is we gained a great deal from being at holy cross during this time. meeting people from different backgrounds. i played football for one week and busted my helmet and jack dickerson was my roommate. we got along our sophomore year and decided to run together. we were back on you eat 4 and i --we were back there and i recall one interesting story and i shared that, where is father mcfallon? jack dickerson's that was an architect and a didn't know architects carried marbles. next door was a jesuit priest who lived next to father o'connor.

i think he was the resident manager of the building. and he had marbles and i remember a day they were both kneeling down on the floor in our room rolling marbles. and i thought this is pretty cool. my mother was a marble champion in 1935. i didn't realize. that is the kind of thing we were exposed to. eddie: how did you feel about the walkout? [laughter] diane: that's right, enough with the happy memories. [laughter] >> we felt there had been too many -- all the black students had been identified and only a fraction of white students, we

felt there was overt racism and we were going to support all the students and i remember it was very to mull chua's, i am thinking, i am going to walkout -- very tumultuous, i am thinking, i am going to walk out, how will i explain this to my parents? what is going to go on? then over that weekend, people realized how important it was that father brooks and ted and clarence and art martin all got together and discussed this and talked to the trustees and eventually work everything out. -- worked everything out. it was a traumatic time, a powerful time. we all learned from it. i happen to be -- one last thing yet -- i was on the college judicial board my senior year and there was a demonstration on campus and students could have other students represent them in disciplinary hearing so we had

several great students, ted wells represented the student who got in trouble, and all i could think of afterwards was i hope i never have to face ted on the other side. he is very intense and years later i saw him on so many venues. diane: he said that was the start of his pro bono work. [laughter] diane: he said he never quite recovered from not getting paid. i think there was another question over here. >> eddie, don't go away.

my question was for students like eddie, a freshman college -- i've got a freshman in college going through the process, and father brooks was making the pitch to go to holy cross. what was it like for your parents having to contemplate some things that were very difficult to think about in 1968? diane: i think it is interesting, you had several options as well. you talked to ed jones it was the only school that both let him in and gave him money and eddie was mulling over several choices. holy cross was not your top. eddie: can i just go over a quick story? i was going down south -- kathy! do you know what this is? diane: this is a pg event. [laughter]

eddie: her husband was one of the finest at holy cross history . he is a great man. glad to have you here. if any of you have relatives you would like to do like the executive program at harvard business school, this is the lady to see. but i thought i was really good, really fast coming from new york. all-america and so forth and so on. we all lined up. the players who win this race would get scholarships. we line up and we are running around the first thirty or forty killing everybody. people started passing me and i ended up finishing last. and i say gosh, who were those last four or five people? and they said, those are people in the band. i don't know if you saw that but it was that fast. i didn't get a chance to go to

florida, but thank god i didn't because they already have a fast man at holy cross. anyone else? i have done my job. i have got to go because this new job i was just appointed the new diversity, department of transportation. i've got to do my job across the board. thank you for everyone for sharing our lives with us. [applause] diane: thank you eddie. and he will waive to us from the super bowl on sunday if you are watching. ted, ted will be there too. go ahead. >> my name is jim, and i was in the class of 1970. i was one of the two students on the college judicial board for the walkout. so i sort of started from the other side, the first thing i did was look at the index and i wasn't in there. [laughter]

diane: you were one of the names taken out. you were from the archives. who is that? >> but the process that we went through, there was a serious hearing, we cross examined the event. and one was out in the open and we went at him. when we got into deliberations it was really two students against the administration and the faculty. the decision was made over the two objections. i think we were ordered to dissent. the drama was just so intense and as you said, that ended at 3:00 in the morning, we came back and this had happened which was such a brilliant move but it was incredibly intense. and the book -- i haven't gone through the whole book yet -- but it was great. diane: and i think what was

interesting was that this was in fact what they had done with a clear violation of policy. technically according to policy that had just been passed days before, it was specifically to avoid this type of situation, they had broken the laws. it is interesting to look at what it was that really bothered these men, and it was the fact of the fact -- it was the fact it was the organizers and these random black students who happen to be with the same kind of demonstration crowd that was probably show people caring about the war. father brooks clearly thought of racism. but getting people to understand the difference between the level -- letter of the law and the spirit of what was happening is

important. one thing that comes through is this wasn't a tactical move where they thought we will just get them to come back. these men thought they were abandoning their education and they knew many of them would not have other options. clarence thomas knew that he couldn't go home because he was kicked off the seminary. >> the other focus in the hearing was the fact that not only was it -- was the leaders of all of the political groups in the school and clearly what the dean's office admitted to that at the hearing was that they picked out the people that they knew. the leaders. they picked out the ones who were the leaders in this sense -- diane: an opportunity to get them off campus. yes, it was a very dramatic time. it just crystallized -- certainly with what made the

relationship with father brooks so strong that he personally fought hard to bring them back and get the college to reverse its decision. >> it is a great book. diane: thanks for sharing. >> i have a question diane. what was it like interviewing the gentlemen? where they all cooperative? did they buy into this right away? diane: i think it is interesting, like i said, justice thomas was challenging the first thing he said to me was the problem with your industry is journalists lie. and i said, thank you for having me. [laughter] diane: but you know what? i did not come in with a strong agenda about clarence thomas. he proceeded to give me three and a half hours of his time and met with me since then and the warmth that he showed, the sense of humor that i had not seen in

public settings took me by surprise and also i think how -- the very specific memories of holy cross and warm memories. what was surprising is those who read his book he wrote memoirs he spends very little time at holy cross. i think it is like, four pages? it was very little time. he was and considers himself a radical who has changed and transformed. what became clear through this process is shares many of the views he did have at that time and feel a closeness to these men that continues today. he and ed jones were closed through gil hardy. i think part of that process in recent years is he connected

with the college and i am hopeful this book is part of that but it shows a more nuanced side as to what informed clarence thomas and he understands and appreciates holy cross at this point in his life more deeply than he might have several years ago. the other men were generally cooperative. ed jones is not a wild extrovert and is a brilliant writer so writing about someone who won a pulitzer prize for literature is intimidating to say the least but very deep memories and in many ways many of the issues he fought for then he thinks continue unabated today. ted wells is a lawyer through and through. there's a difference between writing an article and writing a book. and there was some discussion with him and when i suggested the idea of a book all of a sudden the book -- you start getting into girlfriends and relationships and problems with mother and everything else which he didn't have.

ma wells was wonderful. [laughter] diane: i wanted to make sure it was accurate and everything was accurate. one thing is i didn't really go heavy on the dialogue because there were disputes over what people said, and it is natural there is revisionist history so you get multiple points of view on what happened at a certain time, how people behave and at the same time can't give them complete approval to go through and take out whatever they don't like because strips of the book a lot of interesting details. all of them were cooperative. i think they were very generous and i think the reason was father looks -- brooks. certainly for clarence thomas. the reason he did this was how strongly he feels about father

brooks. >> hi. diane: hi. >> just a couple of comments. i was class of '77. diane: all women? you got to see women come through. >> that's right. a couple of observations with regards to the black quarter. i was struck by the fact that how few both black and white students had very little interaction. especially coming from places like d.c., philly or heavy inner city areas. a lot of black folks had little interaction and a lot of white folks had little interaction and

i think it created an awkwardness that the school attempted to navigate through but still a fair amount of work to do because there was a general sense among black students that the burden was on them to reach out not necessarily in any other direction. the second point that i would make with regard to an emerging black middle class at the time that a lot of this stuff was happening, i think the world looked very different from an industry standpoint. the general motors of the world. i grew up in western new york and that was a part of our lives that promoted unskilled workers into professional ranks and people were sending their kids to college. it may be think about what is going on economically, and now i am or concerned as my kids head to college, what happens with

the diversity -- what is the way forward? diane: that is an excellent i point. wrote an article about this recently and looking at the fact that this generation -- the fight was for integration and there had been a lot of a entrepreneurship because it was necessary under jim crow. one of the things that is interesting to me is as a group, the new businesses started in the united states, 25% were had been -- 25% had been started by hispanic and black and entrepreneurs. but african-americans have lagged. one reason is because of integration, there are some cultural issues of starting a business and getting access to

capital. with the employment rate so high, a lot of accomplished african-american college graduates went into the public sector and the public sector is shrinking even as the private sector was growing. this is rigged incredible havoc on the middle class. it is an issue i know that reverend jesse jackson has made a top priority at the economic summit and it is a subject that ted thinks about and that eddie thinks about. it is important to think about where this means jobs are going to be, and frankly in silicon valley, there is a focus on venture capital. what happened in silicon valley? it is a different world. so thank you. i think that might be it. >> who else is here from the late 60's perhaps -- '60's

perhaps or the late '70's? >> i am ed joyce, class of '71. one of the interesting things to me having been there and a couple other people mentioned in the college judicial board of was there in between you and part of what came out of this was the college took the position that if an incident happened and there was a racist civil-rights element to it would -- to it, it would be considered as a defense in future judicial proceedings. i was on the board in the first one of those and it was very

difficult to deal with -- was an issue where most of the white students on campus didn't think it was a racial issue but most of the black students did. you are on this college judicial board as one of the student representatives and faculty members, and you are trying to deal with this, because you know that the blacks that have been involved have clearly been dealing with a racist issue. most everybody else on the campus didn't think it was. we had to deal with that. the most interesting part was this was the first situation where ted wells was the defense counsel, and i am a lawyer now , and look back at that being the judge seeing ted wells handled this situation and one of the defense witnesses was clarence thomas. so you are sitting there looking back 40 years and for those who don't know, ted wells was one of the most prominent litigators in the country. diane: he was, he was nominated

the lawyer of the year a couple of years ago. >> and obviously you all know about clarence thomas. but to be in the situation you are observing and even then ted was incredibly impressive. really was impressive. he was a year behind me some may be a sophomore or a junior at this time. but just to deal with -- call it a repercussion, but what came out of blacks leaving campus and the rest of the community trying to deal with it, we got through it and it worked out ok. but it was a very difficult time. diane: you forget how in passion people were and when we talk about our policies we put ourselves mentally back there and forget these were kids. they were 18-year-old and 19-year-old kids and the judgments you make at 18 and 19 are quite different. the emotions you feel and some things they ask for bordered on ridiculous frankly, especially when muslim students came to look at the grocery list of what

they expected the college to buy right down to particular brands of tea that couldn't be purchased in the boston area. that is what kids do. you push, push, push, and see how far you can get. black students took over and other building in their senior year and ran into another group that was protesting and had to divide up where they had to do their sit in and where. i think there was a time where you could not say that there was every case where they were always on the right side. in this case, i think they were, and history shows that they were but there were many things that they did that frankly the college should have fought back against that said, ok, enough already. but when i look back at this time, first of all, it is such an amazing moment of history even from the fact that the entire football team came down

with hepatitis. that was a case that was written up in the "new england journal of medicine." you had the vietnam war. you had many different groups fighting to get an equal slice of the pie and to get a chance to see this microcosm with this group of men happened to do very well and men who did not do very well. there were many men who dropped out. african-american men, white men not everybody makes in college and that was a tough time to go to college and many were coming to college for the first time in many discovered that they were not prepared. i mentioned one of the top students by far at his school in savanna, and he came and realized he was not prepared for chemistry. he had simply not gotten the curriculum that prepared him for the curriculum he had to face at holy cross. and that sort of thing happen

again and again but a chance to look at that period and look at father brooks and look at the network that was formed at the college again and again is a story i hope was inspiring to this generation who might not necessarily remember that period in history and hope the future of holy cross as well. so thank you so much for having me here. thank you for your support of the book. and i look forward to -- i hope to hear more stories as i go on and meet more of you. thanks again. [applause] >> thanks very much. that was really terrific. and it certainly puts a all in -- puts it all in perspective. it was an important era in time in holy cross history and

certainly shows the determination of father brooks , and his leadership meant a lot not only to those in the book but also those in the room and can't help but tell this one little vignette that the last time father brooks was here a -- here. a young woman -- and to go coed, without hesitation replied we thought we all died and had gone to heaven. mental lot to a lot of people. as recently as yesterday there was an op-ed piece in the boston globe. a great piece particularly about father bob brooks. i would certainly like to thank the harvard club for everything they did today. i would like to thank mike

shanahan and my assistant who is over against the wall. i appreciate everything you did. and to christine maloney. thank you for coming down. and so helpful to c-span and everything you have done as well. finally books will be available for purchase. that will be back in the room where we had a buffet. there are lots of things going on at the local club level so check the holy cross website in particular, a great raffle for a big trip. a major trip. so it is a great opportunity to support the club. we look forward to seeing you in march. thanks very much. [applause] announcer: on "history bookshelf," here from the best history lighters --