ams. we are live from the nation's capital for the 15th annual national book festival, followed on sunday with our live "in depth" program with former second lady >> the c-span cities tour visits literary and historic sites across the nation to hear from local historians, authors, and civic leaders every other weekend on c-span2's booktv and c-span3's american history tv. with congress on summer recess the cities tours on c-span each day at 6:00 p.m. eastern. >> welcome to austin, texas on booktv, located in the central part of the state, austin has been the capital since 1839, 3 years after texas won its independence from mexico.

today it is the 11th most populated city in the united states and is known for its music scene and popular festivals. with the help of a time warner cable partners, we will learn about the local history from local authors. >> for over 100 years texas was a one-party democratic state up until about 1960, almost every elected official in the state was a democrat and most of the elections that shows officials for public office took place in the democratic primary. >> is part of the treaty of guadalupe had all go, the people of mexican descent who were left in what used to be mexico and now was part of the united states worst of have -- supposed to have all the same rights as any american citizens. what ended up happening was they were relegated to second-class citizenship trade in places where you would see signs that

said we don't serve mexicans are dogs, that was very prevalent throughout texas. >> we begin our special feature with on how austin became the texas capital. >> the book i have written is about the founding of austin as the capital of the republic of texas. it is also the story of the rivalry between the two political titans of the age. on the one hand, you have sam houston, who everybody knows spirit he was a larger-than-life texas frontiersman, large man physically, very handsome, love to dress nicely, and love to speak. people drove from miles around to come hear him speak. mirabelle lamarr was short, thumpy, not a ladies man and somewhat shy. he spoke slowly. many people who met him for the first time came away thinking he was not very brigh