here is the travel memoirs spent a lot of people know rick steve's because he is europe to the backdoors of travel series. he has the best travel books on the market. rick is actually very active and the travel guide is not appropriate to have a lot of political activism in travel guides. this is a long essay on the fact that when you travel that you actually are committing a political act, and when you travel you should -- you should consider where you are going and how you behave when you're in a place, and americans need to basically travel better. you can learn as much from the culture that you are going to visit, and then you see the cover has the suitcase on a. any ideas that when you come back from a place you should bring back as much of that place is possible. make america a more interesting place, make you a more interesting individual. so it's a political essay on travel. back to the idea of you being publisher. the cover, did you make that decision? how do that, about? >> that was from perseus. we struggle because we knew it couldn't look like a conventional travel guide. it

we start with rick steve, the travel memoirs. >> a lot of people will recognize europe through the back door, his travel ceres. he has the best travel -- best travel book on the market, politically is very active. the travel guide, it is not a pretty they have photo activism and travel guide because people want to make their own decisions, but this is a long essay on the fact that when you travel, you are committing a political act. when you travel, you should -- you should consider where you are going and how you behave when you are in a place, americans need to basically travel better and you can learn as much from the culture you are going to visit, you will see the cover has the suitcase on it. the idea is when you come back from a place you should bring back as much of that place as possible, make america more interesting, make you a more interesting individual. it is a political essay on travel. >> the idea of you being the publisher, did you make a decision on the cover? how did that come about? >> that originated with one of the marketing people at perseus, we struggled because

steves also writes a weekly syndicated column for the "chicago tribune." for more, visit big -- rick steves.com. >> there's lots more books and authors every weekend on book tv. our website has the entire schedule and great new features including streaming video, archives that are easy to search and simple ways to share your favorite programs. booktv.org. >> in her new book abigail thernstron says the 1965 voting acts right was official but in its current form is harmful to minorities. she said by creating majority black congressional districts in southern states, the candidates elected have limited appeal for the general electorate. from the american enterprise institute here in washington, she's joined by richard pildes of new york university law and michael carvin. this is about two hours. >> thank you very much for joining us at today's event. i'm henry olson. i'm vice president at the american enterprise institute and director of its national research initiative. the nri is an entity with aei that financially supports original research and writing on questions of domestic public

we'll start off with rick steves. >> he's the europe through the back doors his travel series and he'seally got some of the best travel books on the market but rick is also politically very active and the travel guides it's not appropriate to have political activism of travel guides but a lot of people want to make their own decisions but this is a long essay on the fact that when you travel that you actually are committing a political act and that when you travel you should -- that you you should consider where you're going and how you behave when you're in a place and that americans need to basically travel better and that you can learn as much from the culture you're going to visit. you'll see the cover has this suitcase on it and the idea is that when you come back from a place you should bring back as much of that place as possible, make america a more interesting interesting person. >> the cover, did you make that decision? did you have anything to do that? how did that come about? >> so that cover was actually originated by one of the marketing people at perseus. we struggled be

. >> rick steves author travel guide for europe and many european countries talks about his recent trip to iran. mr. stevens who was in iran filming a pbs special says the country is the most poorly understood place he has ever visited. the event hosted by the commonwealth club in palo alto california is one hour and 20 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. well, it's great to be here, normally when i talked to a group like this i'm talking about europe. people know me because i make tv shows on the guide book. i went to iran for none of those reasons. i went to iran because i think you should know people before you bomb them. [applause] you know, sometimes it's necessary to bomb people and kill them i guess but i think it's bad character to dehumanize our country so it doesn't hurt to read our country included is good at dehumanizing an enemy, collateral damage, you know the problem, not letting photographs of cast gets -- you see extended family, you just kill them all because osama. he wasn't. they are dehumanized. we don't cry. a beautiful blonde girl is kidnapped

. >> a lot of people know rick steves because he said europe through the back door in the travel series and he's got some of the best travel books on the market but rick is also very politically active and the travel guide isn't appropriate to have because people want to make their own decision how they are going to travel but this is a long essay on the fact that when you travel you actually are committing a political act and when you travel you should -- you should consider where you're going and how you behave when you're in a place and that americans need to basically travel better and that you can learn as much from the culture that you're going to visit and you will see the cover house this suitcase and the idea is when you come back from a place you should bring back as much of that place as possible. mick america a more interesting place and make you a more interesting individual. so it's a political essay on travel. >> getting back to the idea of you being the publisher. the cover, did you make the decision? how did that come about? >> that was originated by one of the marketin

[applause] >> rick steves is the author of many travel guys for europe and host travel shows on public television and public radio. mr. steves also writes a weekly syndicated column for the "chicago tribune." for more, visit ricksteves.com. >> we're at the 2009 bookexpo america booksellers convention at the javits center in new york city. i'm here with stacy publicity director of city lights book out of san francisco. what do you have coming out this fall? >> well, this fall we actually have a couple of books coming out from angela davis. we have a collection of essays. it's her first book that's been published in about four years. that covers themes that she's particularly interested in. racism, sexism, the prison industrial complex and then particularly an interesting book that we're publishing with angela is a new edition of the narrative of the life of frederick douglass, an american slave which contains douglass' narrative that was part of a course she taut in ucla in the '70s so it really brings to life that essay and we'll also include a new essay that includes that written by h

. >> rob: once again, steve mccatty and rick eckstein, control what you can control. if you can get three outs, get six outs, do that and hold your head up. it is just a question right now of some well pitched innings by the cincinnati reds pitchers. it has been a well fought series by the nationals. >> johnny: dead ball just foul down the 3rd base line. when you look at tavarez's resume, he was born in the dominican republic. started off with cleveland. went the san francisco, colorado, the cubs, pittsburgh, the cardinals, the red sox, the braves, milwaukee and he is still pitching. and still pitching effectively. grounded to second. alberto gonzalez an to first and there's one away -- on to first and there's one away in the 8th. follow the nats with our i touch. it features video aye lights and live -- highlights and audio broadcasts. visit nationals.com on your iphone on the ipod touch to purchase. a lot of nationals fans hanging around to see if this ball club can pull this out, tying it up for a run and take the lead and snap this three-game losing streak. brando