then, theresa may takes questions from members of the house of commons and updates british actions against russia for ♪ >> this week on "q&a," colorado college professor thomas cronin discusses his book, "imagining a great republic." , "imaginingnew book a great republic." you say "all the kings's men" is the best political novel ever. why? tom: it's the best american political novel appeared first, it is beautifully written. he is a great craftsman.

you could add in some people like steinbeck and others, that warren was a gifted writer. it is important because he captures the paradox of politics and power. inevitable and necessary, and you have to have power to make things happen and bring about change. it also talks about how power , and can be intoxicating for somebody who wields it, and power shapes the and for theielder, character, a captures that story. most of all, it is important because it is about moral responsibility. have the book is about governor , he is from the oligarchy in the privilege class , highly educated, a former

reporter, and he gets sucked in and becomes the bagman and the dirt collector. does horrible things and rationalizes that even a flawed is ok doing good things to work with, and only very late in the novel does he come to understand a moral awakening about good and bad. nobody in american literature has captured that as well as robert penn warren. it's why he is generally revered as the best american political novelist. brian: how many books to do read to write this book? tom: probably about 150 novels to select 40 or 50 novels i treated. tough decisions.

faulkner,et letter," cooper appeared -- cooper. in many cases, which steinbeck book to use? think her second book talks about politics better than her first book, even though it was not a literary success. a lot of great books i had to say no to. brian: i want to go way back to the 1960's. you came to this town as a white house fellow. what were you doing at the time and what impact did the white house fellowship have on your career? tom: a good question. i first came in 1963 as an intern for a republican senator he was a threes, u.s.governor, three term senator from massachusetts,

wonderful man. i was an intern for a lengthy summer for him in 1963. i came back in 1966 as a white house fellow in the west wing. was a fantastic opportunity. i was a graduate's -- graduate student at stanford and studying a look opinion polls and voting analysis and city governments and all of a sudden i was thrown into what i jokingly call the original lbj school of politics. i learned a normal sleep. that program and similar are invaluable. it encourages people to think differently and ask fresh questions about how democracy works. one of the great novels i treat in the book, is henry adams ' book, it was

written anonymously. he was worried he would get lawsuits. his protagonist is a woman, she comes to washington, not as a white house fellow, but she was a cross -- across from the white house, she is wealthy, she gets to know senators and operations thishe asks questions, is american political experiment going to work? she read the congressional record and will go to hearings and interview everybody. in way, all of the fellowship programs for people in the 20's are similar to that. it really puts you in a situation of seeing political leaders in action, seeing their flaws and the ambiguities they have to live with. , "advisee great novels and consent," nobody knows about the job of dealing with the ambiguity that

u.s. senators have to deal with. if robertson warns -- robert penn warren's novel is the best "advise andvel, consent," about a nomination hearing, is the best novel on congress. i daresay you can learn more about the u.s. senate from that book then you can from 100 political science and history books. brian: you call it the best political novel in american politics, let's look at robert penn warren, see what he looks and sounds like. >> a man comes to power, a killer, a stolen -- stalin, any man of power, because he feels and praise on some

on some -- and preys weakness. get whatontext, they they deserve and government. vice their weakness or that brings the man to his role. brian: did you ever meet him? tom: no, but i admire him. and a a true southerner student of vanderbilt, top in his class, a rhodes scholar. he went to university of california berkeley, studied at oxford and was a longtime professor. he taught for 10 years at lsu. time he belonged was dying, he met -- the time huey long was dying, he met him, and he was impressed but also skeptical about the narcissism.

long was running for president but he done a lot to make lsu a serious research university. whence somen additional pull it surprises wins -- for poetry -- pulitzer prizeet for poetry. all the king'sl " men" was about politics. he thought it was about human nature. it is really a book about moral responsibility and the urgency in the political sphere to have people be aware of and conscious of their moral responsibilities. brian: before we started, you said you saw a lot of the movies that came from the novels and

then had to read the novel. explain more about that. tom: my task was to look at political fiction. i wrote about 50 novels and novelist. it was confusing, but in some cases there are superb hollywood films, like "to kill a mockingbird" and "manchurian candidate." i thought my obligation was to the written novel, but the fact people, more people have seen the movies then read the novel. novel at leaste twice and interview the novel, but also see the film if i have not already seen it. there are some interesting observations. the most famous line in "gone with the wind" has read butler -- rhett butler saying "friendly

my dear, i don't give a dam," but it is not there in the book. steinbeck's message in "grapes of wrath" was toned down for the movie, although he admired the movie. you have nuances and differences. i encourage people to watch the movie and read the novel. brian: here is a clip about "all the king's men," ?ho was huey long tom: a governor and senator from louisiana. he was self designated as a redneck, and he would be representative of the hicks , the oil the oligarchy and lumber and cotton in that state. he was a change agent.

brian: he was assassinated. tom: in 1935. brian: in the novel? tom: he gets assassinated at the end of the novel. brian: a famous actor plays the crawford.ddrick tom: he won the oscar that year, as did the movie. it is a great movie. there is a second movie i do not recommend, second version. brian: let's watch this clip. [video clip] >> they told you a thousand times just like they told me. i am going to stay in this race, and i am on my own. listen to me, you hicks, listen to me. hick and nobody ever helped a hick but a hick. i am standing right here on my hind legs.

are you standing on your hind legs? have you learned to do that much yet? here it is, you hicks. don't let anybody stand in your way. nail up the company. give me a hammer, i will do it myself. tom: that is a good clip. populismthat agent of at work, rallying people to a cause. the cause was just. the state of louisiana was ruled by the 2% and a oligarchy pure and simple. there was a time for change and he was beating off of that. psychologists talk about people who are karmic followers, chronically in need of following someone with a populous -- populist event -- bent.

warren was agonized in this novel between celebrating the need for policy and political change and worrying about how power can corrupt and how it can intoxicate those who have power. david stark, the government -- the governor, but not starkism, if i can invent that term. m, his right-hand man. power is needed to bring about toxic but power can be a burden, if you will. sorry for the pun, but this book

is a stark warning about the paradoxes and contradictions of power. brian: where have you spent most of your teaching life? tom: mostly at colorado college. i have been blessed to be associated with them since 1979. i taught at a few universities elsewhere, university of north carolina, i worked at the brookings institution for a few years, a great experience for myself. old -- 12 years off to be a college president at a small liberal arts college in walla walla, washington. a great experience. being a college president at a small college is still being a teacher in a way, you teach students and alumni at the same time. i still have strong ties to that town and college. i have been associated for

colorado college in colorado springs for most of the last four decades. brian: which of your books has sold the best? tom: i had the good fortune of a young man to be associated with james burns and jack told this wereck peltus, who textbook authors. i became the managing author of the number one best-selling textbook in american government. we had a spinoff on state and local politics as well. copies,ld a million when i was involved. i also wrote a book called "the state of the presidency" widely used in presidency courses. we wrote a book called "leadership matters" a few years ago that wrote the -- that won the leadership award for 2015. i love writing about elections,

i wrote about democracy. i've done a lot of textbooks. this new book is an adventure for me that goes beyond political science and it is a combination of literature and politics. i'm hoping encourages more in americanield poli-lit, which is how can we learn about the american experience through -- the iment throughr the eyes of storytellers? storytellers.eat harriet beecher stowe changed the nation. many of these books change individuals. i have met young people who say, i am a public but center -- a public defender as i read "to mockingbird."

the film maker famous for the burns,war" series, ken says "killer angels was quote -- killer angels" changed his life. brian: what level changed your life? tom: i don't know that is the case, but collectively, all of these novels are altering my thinking. when you do a second or third reading of "great the breath, -- wrath," it is a powerfully spiritual book. it show you what humanity is all about and we need to help another, we need to have structures that are there for one another. the story of a family moving from oklahoma to southern california, a tragic story where they are exploited and scammed

and so on. upton sinclair's "the jungle" is similar. are of these novelists essentially saying, and i learned again and again as i reread it books, we can do better. the american clinical experiment, the idea of equal justice under the law and freedom and equality and opportunity is powerful. brian: let's look at john steinbeck, who won the nobel prize, this is back in 1962. "grapes of wrath." >> [indiscernible] singing their litanies in empty churches. nor is it game for the cloistered elect. [indiscernible] it grew out of human need for it, but it has not changed but to become more needy. brian: what was he like?

do you know? tom: i never met him, but i met his oldest sister when i was a graduate student at stanford and she hosted me for tea. steinbeck went to stanford and he never graduated. he came from a republican family in a republican town of salinas, kansas. while he was a young adult, there was a crushing of a ion in hisrkers' un town and he became embarrassed by that and he became interested in the plight of migrants. he wrote for 10 years without any success, but he found his voice when he went home to salinas and moderate and san jose. california, you said kansas. tom: and that california. thanks. awesomek wrote so many books.

he was radical in some early "in dubious battle" was about communism. but he he has made powerful contributions to american literature. , ihad a writing ability think if you do a quick reading of "grapes of wrath" you don't profit from it as much as going back and rereading it, maybe watching the film in between and going back to it. it is powerful in terms of its spirituality. it was thought by some people to be a contract for social -- for socialism. eleanor roosevelt immediately after she read it here in washington, d.c. said it was a profoundly urgent and spiritual and pro-american book. on that note, i would like to the singer, he recently had an album in which

he had one song called "the american soul," and in a recent interview he said, "the irish people are wonderful people and fans in great britain are wonderful, but they are not an idea. america is an idea. that is why we become obnoxious and boisterous about when you don't succeed. --" and if the world think he was speaking for everyone worldwide, the whole world wants america to succeed. it was speaking about aspiration, from jefferson and lincoln and the founders. writingound in "imagining a great republic" is aspirations are constantly present, even when an author is upset with america.

orit is upton sinclair sinclair lewis or philip roth or condon,bury or richard they may be critical of paranoia r failings, harriet beecher stowe, tough on our ancestry. but there is always the notion that the country stands for something and we can do better. bono was right, there is an american idea and it is worth fighting for, writing about and making documentaries and movies about. think a reading of major american political classics is bling and-- no empowering. andtand for something, these storytellers are saying

our tribe wants to be something special. not just a city on a hill, but a a city that cares and lets one another and is willing to work with one another and understand that politics is indispensable to our bringing about progress for as many people as possible. brian: when did you start this? tom: three or four years ago. brian: where were you when you started? tom: colorado college, nearing the end of my professional teaching career. necessity toe the meet peers standards and i could read and write and assign things. couple of years on what is called the american political novel, and reading together with students was powerful. laura adler had a wonderful phrase, reading alone is almost as bad as tricking alone. i love that phrase. it is true.

you need to read books like this with other people in order to get feedback. i learned enormously from students who would write a paper on some of these novels. they would sit down and have tea with me and chat about richard which, "the native son," is a start treatment of racism in chicago. it took two or three years reading -- it was a delight to read these books. brian: how hard was it to get a publisher? tom: i asked some of my regular publishers like harvard and oxford and they were polite in turning it down. it was hard. this publisher and a couple of others were quite interested. the publisher produced it within six or seven months. they have done a nice job. brian: i want to show on the screen, i think i counted 41 novels you list, just so people can see a lot of the different

names and put them up there and we will pick a couple as you look at it. harriet beecher stowe, sinclair lewis, richard wright, i'ayn rand. let's go to the next group. not anywhere near the most famous book, "the but it gave a name to the post-civil war. -- post-civil war period. may," tellen days in us about that. tom: we met chuck bailey in the white house. he was a reporter. a tall fella. had a distinguished heritage from new england. that is a great novel.

one of my students pointed out to me. it's really a book about military-civil relations, civilian control of the military. both the book and the movie are quite good. by two veteran reporters in washington, d.c. in the early part of the john f. kennedy presidency. both of the novel and the film gives us the most believable american president in american literature. even that alone. also, military coups occur regularly in latin america, africa and other nations. it could happen here. teams or author crystallizes the possibility that a coup could occur. days, the president

and staff were able to prevent the two from occurring. brian: what year was this? tom: 1962 published. brian: go to the next list. one of the ones i wanted to ask you about is "catch-22." what does that mean? tom: the original title was 8," and the publisher wanted to switch it to 22. it is fascinating. "manchurian candidate" is another word in a lexicon without reading the book. two thingsans that are asked of you and it is impossible to do both. joe heller is a bombardier in world war ii and island off of italy. the book is largely

autobiographic but in novel form. superiorof a mindless asking of his crew and of him to do things that are implausible or wrong or done just for bureaucratic purposes or the promotion of a colonel in charge. story, aboutound organizational bureaucracy, where the bureaucracy becomes overwhelming in terms of its own needs and self interest rather than the individuals and souls of the people that work in them. compunctionad no about serving in world war ii, he thought it was a just war, but the book becomes anti-bureaucracy, antiwar, historically because of the tales he tells. brian: here is a clip from the 1970 movie, "catch-22."

>> he's gone crazy. >> he has to be crazy if he keeps going after all he has. me.e has to ask >> that's all he has to do to be grounded? >> there is a catch. catch-22. anyone who wants to get out of combat, he is a really crazy, i can't ground him. >> let me see if i got this right, to be grounded,, i have but i have to be crazy to be flying. is that he hast already flown 50 missions. now he is asked to fly 60, and the next week 70. after a while, he feels as though they are not caring about him, they just want to submit

their record. it is a long, fortress -- t orturous book that should've by 100 pages or more, but it is worth reading in a classic. brian: what is the longest you sit while you read? tom: i can usually read 200 pages or so. shrugged" or "gone with the wind" you are talking 1500 pages. team whileyou have a you are doing your research? my: i have a study in colorado home, i would go off their separate from the house, and i could read at length. i would make notes and mark of want my used would

books, there are scribblings all over them. i thought my obligations in this particular venture was to interview the book and the author. when possible, i went to their , like to the concrete historical society in new hampshire. there is an american author called winston churchill who wrote a great book. the teddy roosevelt progressive movement in new hampshire. hometown harper lee's and spent a day walking around, going to the courthouse. i went to margaret mitchell's apartment where she wrote "gone with the wind." whenever possible, i try to do fieldwork and visit these places. is ayn rand, put her

into perspective after we watch this. >> [indiscernible] absolute,n laissez-faire, free, unregulated economy. i am for the separation of state and economics, just as we have separation of state and church, which led to peaceful coexistence among different religions. the same applies to economics. if you separate the government from economics, if you do not regulate production and trade, you will have peaceful cooperation and harmony and justice among men. brian: i want to add a quote from you in the book and put it in perspective. "novelists are generally regarded as left of center," but certainly rand was not. tom: she grew up in russia when

communism was developing. she was an immigrant to los angeles, was a screenwriter. theis the godmother of libertarian party, the tea .arty, and she is a cult ns. can run into randia she has had on norma's influence -- had an enormous influence. it celebrates individualism and freedom and liberty. she goes overboard, but she was a great storyteller. her books were turned down by a lot of publishers. head"nk "the fountain was turned down by 12 publishers. bestseller,l is a

and half of president trump's cabinet view themselves as influenced by her. paul ryan used to give out to everybody on his staff, a copy of her books. she did not like that she was also anti-religious and an atheist, so he would downplay that. but her theme that we have to much national planning, to much government control, is an important one in the american political dialogue and debate. anybody in politics, everybody in politics should read her work and come to terms with them individually. nobody can read her work without being inspired by some of her prototypes, rugged individualist industrialists who are making things, manufacturers. i don't think president trump reads, but he would like very much the movie about "the fountainhead." brian: did you read both?

tom: yes. brian: they are both big. tom: yes. brian: when was she most visible in our society? in the 1950's and 1960's, i assume. she lived in new york and she people sheie of influence, one of whom was alan greenspan, who view themselves as a disciple and was very unapologetic about it. he was economic advisor to presidents and a major economic guru. randi d down some of the sm. but there was some influence in president ford's period. brian: who is edward abbey? tom: he grew up in appalachia,

surfing -- served in world war ii. as rand,libertarian but with a different philosophy, to preserve the southwest. he became a radical environmentalist, almost an anarchist. he wanted to preserve the southwest, which he loved. he spent many summers and worked moab, utah, and went to school at the university of new mexico in albuquerque. he was prickly, his nickname was cactus head. particularly ecumenical. some of his writing is misogynist and racist, but he was so dedicated, like rand was, to individual freedom, he was so dedicated to preserving a place. he said the american tourist and

automobile people have their national park, the interstate highways. he did not want tourists. he was a great believer in freedom. -- here he is from 1972. the only danger to this area is too much economic development. much building, oil expiration -- exploration. development of commercial tourism. utah is one of the great adventure places left on earth and i think we should try to keep it wild and primitive. it really is the property not only of the american people, but all the people in the world. brian: where did you go to see his material? tom: his archives at the

university of arizona. he taught there for a while, he lived in tucson often on. -- off and on. there are manuscripts, speeches and tapes at the university of arizona library. , "the monkeywrench," also gave a term to literature, means foulingg things up in addition to the mechanical pull. it is entertaining, delightful storytelling, but decidedly with a point of view. he was for population control and border security, he would support trumps wall, because he did not want people coming in. very iconoclastic.

it is a book that should be read. young people enjoy reading it. it is a kind of cold book, particularly in the west, for young people. he wrote a nonfiction piece of work called "desert solitaire," kind of memoirs of being a seasonal employee in the national parks in that region from his youth. brian: in your book from time to time, we get a glimpse of what you think. this is a sentence i pulled out. they say as earlier noted, the believing the founders of our indians,ho wiped out propagated slavery and gave us the electoral college, with the greatest geniuses in the world is flawed logic at best. tom: that is probably influenced from arthur's lesson to -- arthur slessingger. the biggest thing i think is that ours is an experiment.

there are people who cheer on american exceptionalism and i would refrain that to say that ours is an american experiment. experiments can fail, as all of us who took science in high school know. experiments can fail. we continue need to reinvent and reinvigorate and renew the american experiment so that it does march on and succeed, like ono was talking about, america is an idea. which family you are born into or which zip code you live in should not predetermined the opportunity to succeed in america, and everyone should have a chance to excel and to learn. there is an american dream. one of the authors in this book is horatio alger. i would not have thought about him, but after a while, as my list got bigger, i thought i

have to work on that. brian: tell us about horatio alger. tom: he rubbed in boston and went to harvard. problems in the young ministry where he was active and he was kicked out of boston. a went to new york and had second life writing about teenagers who are fatherless, .rphans who found success his formula was, work hard, to be honest, and to strive, but also get adopted by a mentor. in a sense he was saying internships and mentorships are crucial to success. ,e wrote 100 very readable short novels. people like ronald reagan and my father and gerald ford, and probably your father, grew up reading these books in the 1920's and earlier. his heyday was from the civil war, he died about 1900. he sold about 15 million copies.

he was the harry potter of his generation. most people misconstrue horatio alger to say that anybody can go from rags to rockefeller. that is not what he says. he says if you really work hard and study and become men toward -- mentored, you can become a modest success in america. he knows that not everybody will do this and he rails in his books against bullies and schemers and usery. he has a social conscious. iggisha republican, w background, and he is talking about the american idea in a way. i ended up going to the new york public library and spending a week in the basement with the special collections, carting out these boxes of horatio alger novels literally falling apart in my cubbyhole.

they are not ready today and not much available. but horatio alger should be read , if one is an educated american. brian: what was "beloved" by toni morrison about? who escaped from a plantation in kentucky, over the ohio river, and into cincinnati. was initive slave act , so plantation owners could come after her, and the fugitive slave act allowed local , ordered local authorities to help recapture slaves. appalled at the slavery existence she and her whole family had had that she starts killing her children in a way, figuring that would be better than slavery.

but the book, it won the nobel prize, and many of her books deserve to be in my collection. i picked out "beloved" the cousin is perhaps the best-known. it is really a book about what we need to remember, and her book is urging african-americans and everyone to remember the tragedies and in humanities of slavery. brian: here she is in 2001 talking about the story that led to the book. read astory i had newspaper article about, about a woman who said, no, i am not doing that. this child is mine. her life is mine. she is my child. i will say how she lives and dies. and of course it was a crime, and a sin, but on the other hand, there is this other gesture, it was complicated.

tom: that is a beautiful clip, thank you for showing that. it is shocking to read the early passages in her book, but eventually she makes sense of it. she does not condone the mother killing the child, she tries to explain it in the context of what slavery is all about. , is the greatest representation of the plantation fantasies that margaret mitchell gave us an ", the wind -- gone with the wind." but in it is the misleading story that slaves were happy. sixth, itbeethoven's was a test world alight. -- pastoral delight. brian: what are the couple of books that did not make the cut? tom: one novelist i have been reading lately and like is david

ignatius. he has written on the cia. does. fan of what he the thrillers. but he is a serious reporter and he knows washington incited out -- inside and out. he was influenced by "harlem's ghost." there are some delightful , "centennial."s trumbo.umbo here is johnny depp in "fear and loathing in las

vegas." , hehat was a fatal flaw crushed red america selling consciousness expansion without giving a thought to the realities for the people who took him seriously. [indiscernible] loss was ours too. when he took down with him was the illusion of a lifestyle he helped create, a generation of permanent cripples, veiled secrets who never understood the mystic fallacy. the desperate assumption that somebody or at least some force is tending a light at the end of the tunnel. brian: why hunter thompson? and i met him a few times he would watch monday night football at the drum hotel bar in the mid-1970's.

he was a character. flop,ovie was a total although johnny depp had a pretty good performance. but the movie had too much juvenile pranksterism. hunterents put me onto thompson's book and kept urging me, you have to read it and they read it with me. it took me three times to read that book to find that -- and my publisher encouraged me to incurred -- two included because it is a cult favorite. there are political themes. he celebrates freedom and individualism. abbey and jack kerouac, they were all fierce proponents of freedom and liberation. one of the themes of american

politics is rugged individualism , privacy.tion hunter thompson has many things. the subtitle of that book is "a savage trip into the heart of the american dream." it is a complicated book, is a prominent example of gonzo journalism or fiction, where he puts himself in the story and makes himself central to what is going on. it is disarming, it is not like a steinbeck book. brian: you mentioned this in your book, who gave him the name gonzo journalism? tom: i think it was an editor at the boston globe. i don't know which one it was. boston, the less person standing at a drunken beer party was

referred to as a gonzo for some reason. this editor described him as gonzo journalism, gonzo writing. thompson liked it and appropriated it. others have put themselves in a narrative earlier. walt whitman and jack kerouac talked about themselves. but i think in our time, in the recent generation or two, hunter thompson becomes known as the godfather of gonzo writing. about we started talking your time as a white house fellow. in this book, you have a novel mer.illy lee bra why did you put that in? lbj."of the way with tom: that is the subtitle. it is called "the gay place," and it means the earlier

definition of gay, something raucous. i chose it because political journalists view it as a cult classic. , theiration of people generation all read the book and loved it because they knew lbj, they covered him. the austinriter for texas monthly or something, but was a speechwriter for lbj from 1957 until 1959. he would've been a contemporary dick goodod one -- win. but he was writing speeches for lbj and they had a falling out. .e went back to texas he wrote this book, he made him governor of texas. turns out to be a book

that admires politicians and the craft of bargaining and agree me and -- an agreement negotiating. governor of texas. it delightfully captures texas politics and legislative politics. it is three novels than one. one of the things i tried to do in this book was have books that talked about politics also where the country come not just washington, d.c. i have a book about politics in new hampshire, the progressive movement in new hampshire. i have a book about politics in iweb. -- in iowa. someone else wrote a book about governorship in california. and of course "gone with the wind." i tried to have books

representative of the country. brian: here is another of your quotes about politics. orse who are anti-politics don't care for politicians are giving up on the grand experiment of the american republic. politics is the lifeblood of constitutional democracy and it is the price we pay for aspiring to achieve a resilient constitutional democracy. tom: i think i also set in the same passage that politics to democracy is similar to experimental method in physics and imagination to poetry and melody to music. you have to have democracy. have a democracy must you understand that politics and politicians are crucial. they are imperfect. we are all imperfect, we have anerfect institutions and imperfect constitution, but we have to strive to make our political institutions work and

encourage good people into politics. virtually every novelist i dealt with in some way or another is saying don't give up on politics. that is the message that toni morrison and properly and philip roth and john steinbeck are saying. brian: did you ever think of running for politics? tom: i ran for congress in 1982 unsuccessfully. brian: against? tom: the congressman named tim cramer, a republican. my district was very conservative. that yous persuaded me live in a two party system, you ought to run. i was a moderate, centrist and the credit. -- centrist democrat. had i won, it would not be a good example of democracy because i was not representative. i encourage everybody to run for office once in their life, for some office.

politics is crucial. brian: what is the thing you learned as a white house fellow working around, you said bill moyers. who else? tom: john gardner. learn from did you being around them? tom: if you get to work close at hand with members of congress or the president, you learn about complexity. can you haveely sweeping change. most changes incremental. getting part of something done, and compromise, which is a dirty word to many people, is critically important. you need to get people together with different points of view and try to work something out. in this country, we are facing the issue of gun registration and background checks and

regulation. strong seconda amendment but we also believe in safe schools. people have to come together and work on these things. brian: you have a quote you use in the book by alan fleury -- dr ury. it's talking about people that come to washington, they stay 50 years, they may love, mary, settle down, build homes, raise families and die beside the potomac, but they usually feel and frugally will tell you that they are just here for a little while. tom: they are really from indiana or massachusetts. that is true. this is become a very different town in the last 50 years. people --lace where the novelists are not just washington, d.c. novelist, ward just,

i recommend him. brian: the name of the book is "imagining a great republic." thomas cronin, former president of whitman college, professor at colorado college. thank you so much for joining us. tom: it was a delight. thank you. ♪ for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at "q&a.org. ♪ >> if you liked this "q&a" was tom cronin, who -- here are others you might enjoy. -- an author

steinbeck'sohn cross-country journey. also, jason brennan who writes about libertarians and social issues. from 2010, l interview with senate historian donald richie, discusses the u.s. congress and operates. you can find these interviews by searching our video library at c-span.org. on "landmark cases," weeks or 20 versus ferguson -- we explore plessy versus ferguson. 7-1 decisionourt's established the separate but equal doctrine. this narrow interpretation of the 14th amendment was not overturned until brown versus board of education.

ted shaw,is case with a law professor and director for the center for civil rights at the university of north carolina, and president of the naacp legal defense fund. and, a legal historian and professor from harvard law a book on author of jim crow. watch "landmark cases" at 9:00 eastern on c-span, c-span.org or listen without radio app. for background on each case, order the companion book, available for $8.95 plus shipping and handling at our website. it is for the interactive constitution created by the national constitution center, there is a link on our website. announcer: this past week at the british us of commons, theresa may was asked

about the recent decision to ban the far right group "britain first." time toe minister took eulogize stephen hawking, who recently died. >> questions for the prime minister! >> thank you mr. speaker. i'm sure members of the crawford house wish to join me in heartfelt condolences to family and friends have professor stephen hawking, who died earlier today. professor hawking's contributions to science of speak for themselves. persistence,nd with his brilliance and humor, and spurred -- inspired people throughout the world. ting muslim members. sure the whole house will join me in condemning this