. >> now on booktv, arthur herman recounts president franklin d. roosevelt's call to industrial business magnates william knudsen and henry kaiser to leaf their private sector positions and lead the war production effort during world war ii. this is a little over an hour. [inaudible conversations] >> good evening. i'm henry olson, vice president of the american enterprise institute and director of its national research initiative which is a foundation or an organization within aei, entity, that's what i was looking for, entity within aei that supports original domestic policy-relateed research and big think books of which our current speaker, arthur herman, is the author of the book that is the summit of today's -- subject of today's discussion, "freedoms forge," clearly is one of. the 2012 election is, in many ways, a debate over the 1932 election. should we continue or extend the legacy of franklin delano roosevelt in establishing the federal government as one of the preeminent directors if not the preeminent director of american economic life, o

arthur herman's book, "freedom forge," shows that none of that common wisdom is true. that, ultimately, what saved america and saved the world was not the government finally getting it right, but private industry and all of the innovation and creative animal spirits that had been herded into the corner for the previous decade that came roaring out to save ourselves and save the world. without much further ado, let me introduce arthur herman who is a noted historian and book author, he's the author of a new york times bestseller, and gandhi and churchill, the epic rivalry, which was a pulitzer prize finalist. we can only hope that freedom's forge brings so much critical and commercial attention. arthur? [applause] >> how are all of you? [inaudible conversations] thanks for coming out. the weather has been, shall we say, less than cooperative? but i'm glad to see so many faces, many of them familiar, many of them new to my audiences. i also wallet to thank -- want to thank our hosts, american enterprise institute, for all of their help not just with this event, but also

. >> now on booktv, arthur herman recounts president franklin d. roosevelt's call to industrial business magnates will y'all knudsen and henry

arthur herman has a new book out. >> great book. >> which is about the coming together. here is another moment. january 1941, after fdr has beaten wendell wilke, wilke comes to the white house and roosevelt sends him on a mission to europe to sort of reassure the european leaders that america is one. and he wrote out a -- quoted longfellow. he wrote out sail on, oh ship of states, sail out, union great, on a piece of stationery for wilke to give to churchill. so we do have the capacity for common effort and common victory. and in a noble cause. and we proved it in a divisive time then and i think we can do it now too. >> let's turn to today and see how it looks. thank you, meacham. >> well done. >> we'll start with a look at the morning papers. "the los angeles times" say votes are still being counted but so far california residents are split on whether to raise cigarette taxes by $1 per pack. money that would go to fund cancer research. with 99% of precincts reporting, proposition 29 is still too close to call. >>> financial times," vladimir putin says he will boost mil

i just read this book "freedom's forge" it's a fascinating book by arthur herman and it's about how american business helped win world war ii. you know, one thing that happened at the battle of the bulge is one german colonel was said to be crying. he was blowing up american tanks at a pretty good rate and they just kept coming, you know, this is the great detroit we want to recapture in this country and american business kept coming. without benjamin rush financing things, i think we might not have pulled off the revolution. one other is john witherspoon who was the first president of princeton who gave one of my favorite commencement addresses. boys, do not be useless and die contemptible. host: we'll leave it there. bill bennett, radio talk show host, former labor secretary. guest: education secretary. host: education secretary and author of 20 plus books and commentator on cnn. your work available on line at cnn.com. guest: you didn't want bob bennett? you got the right guy? host: we always want bill bennett. there's a headline this morning in "the washington post" and an important headl