. >> john mcgreevy from the university of notre dame, your book which came out a few years ago, what's the premise behind it? what did you learn? >> i wanted to look at how american ideas of freedom intersected with the catholic global tradition and what i learned is there were moments of conflict and moments of overlap. in the 19th century there was conflict over slavery. but lots of overlap in efforts to reform the economy. there was overlap in the '50s on ideas about americanization and mention over issues around sexuality, divorce, a lot of the kind of cultural issues of the last 30 years. >> more than 90 years ago, al smith ran for president. first catholic on the ticket. why was that significant and who was al smith? >> al smith was an immigrant kid from new york city. irish and german. never got beyond the eighth grade. by the 1920s, catholics are a significant percentage of the population, 20%, 25%. they faced considerable discrimination in the 19th century and even in the 1920 ws the ku klux klan. the fact that he lost so significantly was a marker that to run for president as

. >> john mcgreevy from the university of notre dame, we thank you for your time. >> what a pleasure, thank you. >>> you're watching american history tv, every weekend on c-span3, explore our nation's past, created by american's cable television companies as a

. >> john mcgreevy from the university of notre dame, we thank you for your time. >> what a pleasure, thank you. >>> you're watching american history tv, every weekend on c-span3, explore our nation's past, created by american's cable television companies as a public service and brought to you today by your television provider. >>> and i come here tonight to the al-smith dinner knowing i'm the underdog in these final weeks. if you know where to look, there are signs of hope, there's signs of hope, even in the most unexpected places, even in this room, full of proud manhattan democrats, i can't -- i can't shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me. i'm delighted to see you here tonight, hillary. >> i was thrilled to get this invitation. and i feel right at home here because it's often been said that i share the politics of alfred e. smith and the ears of alfred e. newman. it is an honor to be here with al smith. i obviously never knew your great grandfather but from everything that senator mccain has told me the two of them had a great time together before prohibition.