but i wanted to see what the display was in the national archives. c-span: and we're looking at that right now. >> guest: we are. yes. c-span: you said something about an altar. >> guest: it looks like an altar. it looks like a church. it's--it's ma--it's encased in--the declaration of independence stands where the tabernacle or a monstrance would be --on an altar. on the face of the altar is the constitution and what the national archives calls the bill of rights. but there are enormous pillars. it's three steps up from the main floor in the rotunda national archives. it is like a religious exhibit full of religious imagery. one--i have actually asked students who have visited this what they thought it was like, and i was expecting them to tell me it wasn't like an altar. the one student said it was like a tomb. c-span: what's this painting? >> guest: this is --the wall to the left as you face the altar. it is the members of the second continental congress. what we have here are the members of the drafting committee that congress appointed to produc

i have used the archives so many times. so many thanks to schomburg archives for assisting me in my research along the way. [applause] indeed, i agree. i tried to let my projects arise organically one from another. and so earlier on when i was studying martin luther king jr., there was buy yard rustin -- bayard rustin. and then later when i was studying jackie robinson, there was bayard rustin. and then when i was studying thurgood marshall, there was bayard rustin. and it was pretty easy for me to target him because he was all over the place, and he was such a fascinating character. to me, he's especially fascinating because he brings together so many of my interests. he brings together civil rights, human rights, progressive religion, gay rights, nonviolence and pacifism, and the list goes on. so there we have in one person so many of these rights coming together. and mila's right to know that bayard really saw the linkages between discrimination and prejudice in ways that i think a lot of over civil rights leaders missed

he don't go into an archive or if you go into an archive with fixed ideas the best thing that can happen you is to find the basic idea is particularly wrong so it means you're actually discovering something new or something interesting. as i said i am very opposed to the german idea that he should have a -- and supported with material. that means you are selecting immaterial to support your own prejudice or your particular argument. the vital thing is to -- your mind. you will never get it entirely right. no book is ever definitive and there's always going to be moments in the future. but i think you have just got to make the best work in the best effort you possibly can. c-span: what was the first thing you ever successfully rode? >> guest: >> guest: depends on the degree of success but i suppose the one that really broke out in a way was stalingrad. there were two books before which it done fairly well but stalingrad was one the sort of went international and translated into 30 languages are more. c-span: what year? >> guest: that was in 1998. c-span: what intrigued you about stalingra

i used the archive archive so many times in so many things to schaumburg archives for assisting in my research along the way. [applause] >> i agree. >> i try to let my projects arrive organically one from another. so early on when i was studying martin luther king, jr., there was bayard rustin. and later when i was studying jackie robinson, it was bayard rustin. and then we are starting thurgood marshall in the early thurgood marshall, untied but the one the ncaa -- the attorney, and it was pretty easy for me to talk to him because he was all over the place and he was such a fascinating character. to me, he's especially fastening because it brings together so many of my interest. it brings together civil rights, human rights, progressive religion, gay rights, nonviolence and pacifism and list goes on. so there we have in one person so many of these great coming together, and mila is right to know that bayard really saw the linkages between discrimination and prejudice in ways that think a lot of other civil rights leaders missed. and he did partly because of who he was. he was somebod

we had a really good day in the tape archives today. all right, in the 1970s, american express had an awesome award winning series of tv ads that sort of defined american express as a brand. it defined them as kind of the upscale correct card for excellent types or important people. the tag line from the old ads is don't leave home without it. the tag line survived for decades there after. but the gyimmick from these brilliant ads in the 1970s, the gimmick from the ads did not survive even though it was great. watch this. >> you know me. without my clarinet, a lot of people don't. that's one reason i need the american express card. this machine is another. i put my card in here, penitentiary my special number and get up to $500 with the american express travelers checks at major airports around the country. even the king of swing can use some extra loot. >> to apply for a card, call. >> american express card, don't leave home without it. >> no way. that's benny goodman? i wouldn't -- right? so the premise of the ad is, i'm a famous pers

victor lawson has this big archive and mccormick has this big archive. one side gets to write the history and thompson -- i hope we get into this later, he was a dishonest machine politician but there are some ways in which that was better for the average chicagoan than the high-minded reformers. >> it is interesting. >> i found out about this story which is the way i started the research for it by a man named frank freed whose claim to fame was he brought the beatles to chicago and frank who spent most of his adult working life as a concert promoter here and in chicago and later at madison square garden i met him at a mutual birthday party for a mutual friend and he said i want to talk to you. he sounds like a gangster so we went and sat outside and he said i got something for you to write about. best thing i ever did and nobody knows about it. okay, frank. all of us have a story like that. he told me a little bit about it. i was really intrigued but also a bit baffled because i never heard even a piece of this story. is he recounting it right? i was a

we looked all day in the archives for it. and just before air today, we found it, deep in the nbc archives. >> do you know me? i ran for vice president of the united states in '64, so i shouldn't have trouble charging a meal, should i? why, with this, they treat me as though i had won. >> william e. miller. they treat me as though i had won. william e. miller, republican presidential candidate. barry goldwater's choice for vice president in 1964. before they picked paul ryan, the last time the republican party picked somebody roift public i had can party to be vp was 1964, bill willer. perfect for the you don't recognize me american express ad because bill miller became vice president. he and barry goldwater lost very badly. but it wasn't for the lack of awesome ads like this one. >> senator barry goldwater speaking with general eisenhower at gettysburg. >> we speak about war and peace and in this candacecy that we are engaged in, because we stress the need for a strong america, our opponents are referring to us as warmongers

because this is all being recorded by the archives. by c-span. anyone has a question, please let us know. if not, i'm going to talk about what senator kennedy was talking about. social security reform. one of the first things that president bush did after he won an election, was to try to privatize part of social security. it didn't go anywhere. what makes you confident you can have some sort of social security reform in this country, given what happened in 2005? >> well, first of all, let me say that social security is a much smaller problem. but i think you have to approach this, not putting everything on the table all at once and trying to do something in addition to social security. but if you have local capital, figure out a way to make it work -- something that doesn't cost them too much consternation -- many people say when it comes to entitlements, we need to do something from a bipartisan perspective. there are really a couple of things that change social security make it solvent for extended period of time. social security problem, if t

russia is planning to allow japan access to its archives on the transportation of japanese detainees in soviet era labor camps. japanese officials will examine about 2,000 files stored at the russian national military archive in moscow. the documents include the names of previously unknown detainees as well as details of incidents that took place en route to siberia. about 53,000 japanese died in soviet labor camps. the burial location of 18,000 of them is unknown. >>> the operator of fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant is studying how to remove fuel rods from the crippled facility. tokyo electric power company examined one unused assembly removed in mid july. it says it found no significant damage or change in the rod's shape. the utility plans to examine the fuel pellets inside the rods in the coming days. more than 1,500 assemblies remain in the water. cooler of the number 4 reactors. tepco executives expect to begin removing them next year as a step toward decommissioning the reactor. they also plan to build new tanks to store the contaminated water. tepco says the plant is pro

this next piece actually another one of the beautiful gems that i found in new york in a yiddish archivesbeen lost for so many years. i was lucky to perform it in new york for october for a big jewish audience and people fell in love with it. it's a true story and something that still exists now. this means god watches over -- this piece a girlfriend her boyfriend goes to war and she says, i was lucking to be in love for a little while. i had love and everything i could ever want and now he's off at war and i'm alone. and i don't know what will happen after this. will he kill another mother's child. will i have to live with that? god watch over my belove ed and all the mother's sons. [music] [applause] >> so, not sure how much time we have left? keep going. all right. right? all right. so the next few pieces i wanted to tell you about. one is by [inaudible] and the other is by the same composer that did [inaudible] those conductors the father of russian music. know this song is not a song that was a yiddish it was a russian song and translated to yiddish because people loved it so much wh

to get from the archives is a much easier process. so i found out that pedro victor garcia's records were kept at the records office in kansas city. and i looked up on the internet, randomly, the archive who was in charge of the guy. and i called the archivist of them got her on the phone and answer the phone. and she said that i am so, so busy today. time is of the essence. so busy. she said i'm not going to be able to get to those records until after lunch. and i said oh, i think i can wait until after lunch. because she called me dock after lunch. she found the file that i was looking for and that she would be happy to overnight it to me. again, i was surprised. your top dollars at work. what arrived the next day was a package filled with documents. they were wonderful documents for researcher. handwritten certificate of birth and confirmation from cuba. fascinating stuff to look over. there were three sheets at the bottom that i almost didn't notice at the time. the next morning over coffee, i was looking at the file again, and i

my point of view would they not be included but be part of the archive that gets reference and people can visit them if they would like to. >> ok. then just a couple of other thoughts about things that aren't addressed specifically in the language of the report, but one is the final map itself. how should we incorporate that? should that just sort of be the first item or should it be referred to as an appendix or what have you? along the similar line, district descriptions, meets and bounds. again, we didn't make a specific reference in the report. i guess we just sort of thought they would obviously be necessary components of our time work product but there is not a specific reference in the report should those documents. >> as point of information, meets and bounds will be published in the city charter. so they will be available there. you can refer to the charter in the report. >> thank you. and then the last point which i think we've discussed in this item under task force report but i don't know if we landed on anything, which is the question of the traa 'tis ticks, type of stati

archives relevant and then old books and the scraps of evidence documents in the new england archives. it is not like a modern u.s. history but he have to find things and pieced together evidence from small scraps that i find interesting. >> what is the take away and people should remember and learned? >> two things. the first is there is the dutch contribution. it is more in direct and what we're used to. it is significant they were here doing with a redoing and did not force. he could have lucerne's and quicker sam baptista and jews to become important later on. it of force them to convert but did not allow them to express their religion of any way. i want people to appreciate halla worked all that had they retained control of this area we would have had some religious diversity the new amsterdam probably would not have devolved budget of much more reform to protestant part of the world with ed diverse york that we have. and my second book is about religious toleration in new york after the english takeover from the dutch that and is the crucial part of the story. how they managed d

. >> i didn't know it until i discovered this at the archive when i was trying to page through all of these things. then i discovered an obituary that had been written about our grandfather when he died when we were much to young to remember him. it was very, very long in the texas at the time. it detailed every, all the rare plants, specimen plants, horticultural, introducing them to texas. i was so excited about all of this. i used to say to my brother, this apple thing, you have gotten from your grandfather who had a reverence. he would say that is ridiculous. when my brother announced he was going to give up his life as a trial lawyer to be an apple orchardist. my father said i have one thing to say, jews don't farm. but they did. his father clearly did. >> just to wind up, then, what are you working on next? >> i have become fascinated with the personal. this is the most excruciating difficult book. >> so you are going to turn around and do it again. >> i have been spending a great deal of time in india every year my next book is a memoir of going through india and what this has

it features archival audio as well as interviews with living artists. he can be accessed on site by dialing the telephone numbers located near the artwork or by visiting the commission's web site. the public art speaks volumes of san francisco as a world-class city with world-class art and culture. for more information, visit

on a beastly archives. caspar weinberger gave me a great service by giving me access to his formerly restricted papers and one of the best sources was a retired admiral i stumbled onto who had really detailed presidential and secretary of defense level meeting notes in some notebooks he had in a basement. they were really insightful. then i traveled a lot. i went to south beirut and some back alley safehouses when i was on a sabbatical from the government to talk to hezbollah and hamas to try to get as much of their side -- interviewed hundreds of people for this book. and i plowed through a lot of records so it really was -- and it wasn't related to anything i was doing as a government service at the time, which is -- >> host: helpful. >> guest: yeah because otherwise there would have been an overlap. >> host: because you are writing about a contemporary. not the u.s. official documents only the earliest. not that you're covering is declassified so did you have to request a lot? >> guest: i requested docum

all right, about more than a century after her death, british papers in general clinton's archives are finally studied by american scholars and they figure out there's automatic this really important or circumstantial evidence that peggy was part of the plot. there's no smoking plot. there's tons of circumstantial evidence. she knew about it and was part of the plot. and but at times, you know, she had really kind of got gotten a pass from history and city fen and i wanted to bring the story to another generation and focus the story on peggy. she's been kind of just a supporting character in a lot of biographies of benedict arnold. we wanted to center it on her. and typewrite in a different way. do you want to talk about her a little bit? >> we were in damascus, syria, not long ago, the violence erupted in disassistant cities holmes, and it took awhile to get to damascus. and you are a prominent account assistant professional of some kind. what do you do about the war that suddenly in the capital city where you have achieved prosperity and prominence? do you support the the insure, do

and up, we have archival video that we want to show you a little later, that is up other presidential nominees accepting their nominations. those will be coming up this afternoon, and then at 6:00, we will preview coverage, live from the floor and from our skype box -- i am sorry, at the forum, and also from our sky box at the forum. tonight, mitt romney accept his nomination. marco rubio will in today's game. still some rumors going on a clint eastwood will be a surprise speaker. also, on c-span.org. as you know, a lot of people are getting their news and watching tv on line. at one of the things we wanted to discover while we were here is how the online media is covering the convention and how the republicans, but are not they are embracing the onslaught online media and where people are getting their knees. yesterday, we take a discussion 8% from the pointer institution, any media critic, who has founded a couple of websites. we talked with these two journalists about what they're seeing when it comes to online media. this is coverage of the 2012 tampa,tion in r florida. we wanted

this is going to be fun to watch because we can pull out archive after archive of tape and what not that are in the archives about how they have been railing on small business, railing on the president's comment. it almost harkins back to hillary clinton's it takes a village. i thought about that when the president first said that. how is this going to play out? how are they going to put lipstick on this bpig? >> first, you don't understand that if a republican says business is doing fine, that's a pro capitalist stamp, and if obama says business is doing fine, that's a socialist statement. isn't that perfectly clear? i find this whole argument very strange. whenever i run into somebody who says i'm self-made, my first instinct is to say, you had parents, didn't you? i mean that not only in the biological sense but in other senses. you had teachers, didn't you? you had coaches, didn't you? you had people who gave you help along the way, and in the case of a lot of businesses in america, they do a lot of business with government. we have a small business administration. we have all kinds

obviously archives. caspar weinberger gave me access to his formulae restricted papers. and one of the best sources is a retired at my wife stumbled in to labor the detailed presidential and secretary of defense level of your notes in the looksee at macro space in the basement and do a really insightful. i traveled a lot. i went to south to route -- beirut when i was on sabbatical from the government to check to hezbollah and in the. i interviewed hundreds of people for this book and plow through a lot of records. supposedly to anything it was doing on the government service at the time. because otherwise it would have been an overlap and that was not even the case. >> host: because you write about a contemporary. commit the u.s. official documents, only the earliest. you're covering has been declassified. should you have to request a lot of documents? >> guest: i requested documents and works you will need to it to real release. >> host: i thought it may be useful to reflect an minute on the role of the historian's perspective this third two a political scientist or som

alright, more than a century after her death, british papers in the general clintons archives are finally studied by american scholars and they figure out, well there was all this really important circumstantial evidence that indicate that peggy shippen was certainly part of of the pot and there is no smoking gun batons of circumstantial evidence, not that i think any reasonable person would agree she knew all about it and was part of the plot. but by that time she had really kind up, she had gotten a pass from history. stephen and i think wanted to bring the story to another generation and focus the story on peggy. she has been just a supporting character in a lot of biographies of benedict arnold and we just wanted to center on her and write it in a different way. do you want to start talking about her a little bit? >> imagine you were in damascus, syria. not long ago the violence erupted in the cities of aleppo and homs and it took him out while to get to damascus. you are a prominent professional of some kind. what do you do about this war that is suddenly in the capital city where yo

now, when paul first told me that there was a small collection of ottley papers in the archives, the name did not ring a bell. later, i remembered an article i was working on years before. i had used a biography that roi ottley had wrote, but i didn't have a clue who he was, and i went over and sat down in the archives reading room and began to leaf through a very small box of papers that was essentially comprised of a couple of scrapbooks and this unpublished manuscript, and five minutes with the manuscript, and frankly, my jaw was on the table. what i was reading, to my mind, was remarkable. i worked my way through it, and then, again, no connection, a completely random event, i got an e-mail from the university press of kansas, an editor there named nancy jackson who was wondering what i was working on. i pitched her the ottley idea, and look, we're all here. [laughter] it's been a few years, but, you know, here we are. now, these are the sorts of stories that you hear when yao a garage -- you're a graduate student; right? that somebody is working through cleaning out their attic,

word that the boston college archives might hold answers spurred authorities to reinvigorate the case raised the hopes of helen and her husband, seamus. >> to me it's important that i know what's on the tape and also maybe, you know, there will be a court case. and someone will pay for what they did to my mother. >> and i would implore them to release the tapes. that's not just compassion we are looking for, it's reality, you know. this might give my wife the peace she deserves. >> reporter: but researcher anthony mcintyre says there are greater considerations. >> regardless of what individual victims may want, and what they want is fully understandable, the researcher must at all times seek to protect their sources. >> reporter: the justice department argues it is compelled to demand the interviews on behalf of the u.k. under something called the mutual legal assistance treaty that promises cooperation on criminal investigations. jonathan albano is a first amendment lawyer working pro- bono for the american civil liberties union. >> there are significant first amendment issues raised

because this is all being recorded by the archives. by c-span.if anyone has a question, please let us know. if not, i'm going to talk about what senator kennedy was talking about. social security reform. one of the first things that president bush did after he won an election, was to try to privatize part of social security. it didn't go anywhere. what makes you confident you can have some sort of social security reform in this country, given what happened in 2005? >> well, first of all, let me say that social security is a much smaller problem. but i think you have to approach this, not putting everything on the table all at once and trying to do something in addition to social security. but if you have local capital, figure out a way to make it work -- something that doesn't cost them too much consternation -- many people say when it comes to entitlements, we need to do something from a bipartisan perspective. there are really a couple of things that change social security make it solvent for extended period of time. social security problem, if

because this is all being recorded by the archives. by c-span. if anyone has a question, please let us know. if not, i'm going to talk about what senator kennedy was talking about. social security reform. one of the first things that president bush did after he won an election, was to try to privatize part of social security. it didn't go anywhere. what makes you confident you can have some sort of social securityeform in this country, given what happened in 2005? >> well, first of all, let me say that social security is a much smaller problem. but i think you have to approach this, nt putting everything on the table all at once and trying to do something in addition to social security. but if you have local capital, figure out a way to make it work -- something that doesn't cost them too muc consternation -- many people say when it comes to entitlements we need to do something from a bipartisan perspective. there are really a couple of things that chnge social security make it solvent for extended period of time. social security problem, if the

it features archival audio as well as interviews with living artists. he can be accessed on site by dialing the telephone numbers located near the artwork or by visiting the commission's web site. the public art speaks volumes of san francisco as a world-class city with world-class art and culture. for more information, visit >> we all sound very excited because we have some special guests. we have nearly -- mayor lee. [applause] and we also have our very own superintendent coranza. i am sure you want to hear a few words from the superintendent, correct? from mayor lee? the spring them a warm harvey milk will come. -- let us give them a warm harvey milk will come. >> good morning, everybody. welcome back to harvey milk academy. it is my pleasure to join all of you, the students, parents, faculty, and school administration, to kick off a wonderful year. how many students want to be mayor of san francisco? how about a mayor from the civil rights academy of harvey milk? we would be proud of that. i want to welcome everybody back. i know you had a great sum

it features archival audio as well as interviews with living artists. he can be accessed on site by dialing the telephone numbers located near the artwork or by visiting the commission's web site. the public art speaks volumes of san francisco as a world-class city with world-class art and culture. for more information, visit >> welcome to the center. [applause] hello, i am philip ginsburg, the general manager of your san francisco recreation and park city apartment. i want to thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us on this great occasion. this is such a great moment for us, not only because we're opening what is arguably the best recreation center in the city and county of san francisco, but i also get to practice my chinese. [says hello in chinese] [my name is phil ginsburg in chinese] [speaking chinese] welcome to the chinese recreation center. [cheers and applause] a for effort. we're killing time. i could try to do it again. no. all right, 61 years ago, major robinson officially opened the doors to the original chinese recreation center here

we've archived everything from day one. and we've put together a documentary of our story.it. >> you -- >> it's amazing. it's really powerful. so that will be out this year. >> now, i understand that you and ringo starr, that he's your brother-in-law. how are you two related? how is that? >> my wife. >> marjorie. >> is barbara bach's little sister. >> i see. >> which makes me his brother-in-law to ringo. >> listen, we should give a shoutout to marjorie who is with you today. marnlry convinced you that joe, you need to do this? wasn't it marjorie? >> yeah. she did a couple of things. i got married three and a half years ago. she's like the part of me that was missing. and she heard my bits and pieces that i had been working on forever but never really got any momentum to finish and she said, i really believe in this. and i think it's time you did another solo album and by the way, here's jeff lynn's number. >> jeff lynn is? >> from elo. and a brilliant -- the traveling wild bury's and producer extraordinaire. >> i wanted people to know. marjorie saw something in you that you

immigration service to the national archives. that may not seem like a big deal but to get those records you have to make the freedom of the information act request. it is much easier at the archive. they were kept in kansas city. i looked up on the internet randomly the archivist name was in charge and i called her up and got to her on the phone. [laughter] she said i am so busy today. i was bracing myself. before i could get a word out she said i don't think i can get to to those records until after lunch. i said i guess i can wait. [laughter] she called back and said she found the file and would be happy to overnight it to me. i was surprised. your tax dollars at work. what arrived was a package filled with documents. and pretend certificates and confirmation from cuba and there were three sheep's i almost did not notice. deliverer this is the xerox by knoll disk. there was a recording part of the record. land just by coincidence or a curiosity is their final? she said i have no way to listen to it to. i said what if i bring a

it's always the challenge, unfortunately, i can't go to the national archives and pull out their records. world war ii historian has that luxury because all the german and american records are there. we don't have that. it's always a challenge, but i think i've done as well as you can possibly do as -- at least in this current time. >> host: yeah. i've heard iranian academics say, you know, iran is getting better in terms of having government archives that academics can access, but they probably are a bit envious of what you were able to do in telling the u.s. side of the story. i wanted to compliment you on how vividly some of the stories are told, and i think if hollywood decides to make a movie of the book, you've already done a lot of the work for screenwriters in giving a lot of color and atmospherics. so i wanted to ask you, um, what are your favorite stories from the book? what were the ones that you found the most dramatic not necessarily that the u.s. side comes out as a hero, by just tell me from a pure kind of human interest side what were some of your vignettes or chapters of

this is one of the posters and these are archival photographs. this shows the ccc boys. many of them had been riding the rails. they were starving. they were illiterate. here they are in one of the camps, which were run by the army and it was like a military organization. they were out in the wilderness. you could leave if you wanted to. this was a civilian conservation core. this is not trickle down next. in fact, it worked. it began to float local economies. they did an enormous amount of work. they wanted millions of trees. i looked over into alabama across a great forest of trees that were 70 years old. they're planted in huge numbers. imagine the kind of wildlife that becomes. they did an enormous amount of work and when the war was here, there was ready to go fight. this was not what this was intended to do. there are a few statues. they built a lot of lodges and visitor centers. these are just beautiful. amount of landscapes of ccc. this is the park. they did the work in them. the civil works administration was short lived. it was to get the people through the win

it features archival audio as well as interviews with living artists.e can be accessed on site by dialing the telephone numbers located near the artwork or by visiting the commission's web site. the public art speaks volumes of san francisco as a world-class city with world-class art and culture. for more information, visit ♪ >> welcome to hamilton recreation and aquatics center. it is the only facility that has an integrated swimming pool and recreation center combined. we have to pools, the city's water slide, for little kids and those of you that are more daring and want to try the rockslide, we have a drop slide. >> exercises for everybody. hi have a great time. the ladies and guys that come, it is for the community and we really make it fun. people think it is only for those that play basketball or swim. >> i have been coming to the pool for a long time now. it is nice, they are sweet. >> in the aquatics center, they are very committed to combining for people in san francisco. and also ensuring that they have public safety. >> there are a lot of di