they go by rail from algiers across from new orleans, to what is today oregon city, by rail. and then they have to march through those south louisiana swamps, buckshot, black dirt gumbo. my grandmother used to call it grow taller but because it sticks to your shoes and you grow taller. they march all the way across to the little bitty town of washington. today it is st. landry parish. and then from there, they head north east to alexandria. it takes them a week to do it. it's miserable. it's raining. the roads are bottomless. and then in the muddy pig and banks has given to voters that they will not go into a city if they look bad. so they have to stop and clean themselves up. banks is not a military man. they march in the alexandria seven days after admiral porter. and they look good. and shermans men who who are all westerners, it looked like they were westerners in the uniforms are mended. they just don't look good, but they are really prestigious fighters. they think these eastern guys have had an easy time of it. and there's a lot of animosity between the easterners and

the french prosecutor says merah, who is of algiers descent, said he was planning further attacks, including one this morning targeting a soldier. the break came in the police manhunt from this bike shop in toulouse. a customer came in asking to have his motorcycle repainted and a tracking device removed. it turned out to be the suspect's brother. that tip led police to this apartment block where merah spent the day holed up, occasionally shooting at officers outside. france's interior minister said merah claimed to have al qaeda connections and that he'd spent time with islamist groups in pakistan and afghanistan. while the standoff at the apartment continued, president nicholas sarkozy attended the funerals of three french soldiers gunned down last week. "we must be unite" said the president. "we owe it to the victims of these cold-blooded assassinations." merah told police negotiators that the killings were revenge for as he put it the palestinian children and france military mission in afghanistan. the prosecutor added he showed no remorse, just regret he hadn't had time to kill even mor

ike is in algiers with pneumonia and has nothing to do but have his daughter sara read aloud to him from "pride and prejudice" which strangely enough churchill had never read before. and at the end having had "pride and prejudice" read to him churchill says with no regrets, what quiet lives these people led. with no desire for a quiet life at all. but it's wonderful. and ike -- my book on ike is full of these moments with churchill and ike together. and they're the moments i think that made me happiest among the few moments that made me laugh outright during writing "ike." i love d to see and communicate in a book what people are really like rather than the historical figures that are presented, to the extent they are presented at all. and indeed that's one of the reasons for writing "ike" because how much are people taught about eisenhower in school today? almost nothing. how much are they taught about the second world war? are they aware how near we came to losing it or what the world would be like had we lost it. are they aware what people risked and suffered and sacrificed or what th

american dream, when people think about the american dream, they think about money, think about horatio algier's rags to riches stories, and that's part of it. but there's another part of the american dream, kind of american striver culture, that has to do with education, has to do with intellectual betterment, cultural betterment, and this is what blue collar intellectuals is about. i can't think of any of the intellectuals that better fits this american dream than a fellow named will durant. and you -- some of you probably know him as the author of that gigantic series called "the story of civilization." spent almost a half century writing the history of the world. 11 volumes. and will durant took the interesting part of -- his father was an immigrant to this country. he worked in a factory. he had one of these supersized families of 11. we don't see too much anymore. i think most pert inept for our conversation is that will durant's dad couldn't read or write. his son, in 1926, wrote a book called "the story of philosophy." and in 1927 this was the best-selling book in the united states. it's

they go by rather those from algiers across new orleans to what is today morgan city then brazier city have to march through the south louisiana swamps, buckshot black dirt gumbo. my grandmother used to collect rotella that because she'd walk through it and it sticks to your shoes and you grow taller. they march all the way across to the little bitty town of washington today in saint andrew parish. and then from there, they head north east to alexandria. and it takes them a week to do it. it's miserable. it's raining. the roads are bottomless mmn get muddy. and banks says give them orders. if you will not go into the city if they let die. so they have to stop and clean themselves a. banks is not a military man. they march in to alexandria seven days off their admiral porter and they look good. i'm sure ms. men who westerners and look like they are westerners in their uniform or ended and they just don't look good, but they're really prodigious fighters. they think these eastern guys have had an easy time and there's a lot of animosity between easterners and westerners. banks was sent o

. >> algiers lady tweets in to you, professor, in the structure of black classes, have you ever ventured in the average black life by living within? the book, "black like me." >> guest: i'm sorry? >> host: have you ever ventured into the average black life by living within, is what it says. for example, or -- for example, black like me. >> guest: well, you know, this is an instance in which i didn't have to do what the guy in "black like me" did. i guess i could write a book like "black like me," but the journalist had to do a whole bunch of things to make himself dark so that he would be taken as a black person. i don't have to do that. i can go to practically every aspect -- any place in the united states and given the way i look people will assume that i'm black, and, you know, and i've traveled pretty widely. i've indicated in the past that i've lived a very privileged life, as i have. um, one of the aspects of that privilege is that i have, i have had the benefit of seeing a wide range of black american life. so my parents were not wealthy people at all. we were, you know, just i'd

. >> host: algiers lady says in the structure of black classes have you ever ventured in the average black life by living within? >> i am sorry? >> host: have you ever ventured into the average black life by living within? is what it says. for example black like me. >> guest: this is an instance where i didn't have to be what do what the guy in black like me did. i could write a book called black like me but the journalists in black like me had to a whole bunch of things to make himself a dark so he would be taken as a black person. i don't have to do that. i can go to practically any place in the united states and given the way i look, people will assume that i am black and i have traveled pretty widely. i have indicated in the past i have lived a very privileged life as i have. one of the aspects of that privilege is i have -- i have had the benefit of seeing a wide range of black american life. so my parents were not wealthy people at all. we were working class folks, working-class community in washington d.c.. spent a lot of time growing up in the deep south with my aunt and my g

would play the same kind of role that algeria played during the 1980/1981 with the arrival of the algiers accords. and they would require a considerable degree of dialog with all of our allies in the region and i would expect the extension of specific security guarantees to the israelis in particular. that is a long-term proscription that is simply not viable over the course of the next six months. >> martin, i worried when i was making my comments that they would be characterized -- [laughter] >> the way you characterize them. and i didn't mean them that way. so let me try to pull this back. just about 20 years ago i was in government working for strobe. if i had -- [laughter] >> if i had that responsibility now, in other words, for policy, i would be working very hard on sanctions on the one hand and all these creative ideas and there have been a lot with some very smart and able people to create some sort of option that would meet iranian needs for space-saving stuff, for real fuel. i mean, i've been attracted to the idea of just getting 20 years of fuel assemblies, 20 years worth of f