benjamin brown french. the gettysburg address. benjamin brown french.or someone that no one has heard of and in and of himself to not do anything to be remembered today, he is the most amazing, sensitive and intelligent eyewitness that a writer could hope for. so he really is at the heart of the book. brian: where is the diary? joanne: the library of congress. brian: were you allowed to put your hands on it? joanne: i was. and he was a wonderful source. not only did he have the 11 volume diary, and i have a picture in the book because i wanted people to see what it looked like. he had a newspaper column and he pasted some of the columns he wrote into the diary, which is wonderful. he had extensive correspondence. and he wrote poetry about politics. he was beyond wonderful. there was the point when i was writing it towards the end, his diary was not as juicy in the last few years before the civil war. i'm getting to the end of the book, and i'm like, french, where you going to give me about this union? i don't see much in the diary and i am thinking, you

benjamin brown french.emember it had a lot of personal details. it was interesting. it was not, had lunch with mr. smith, coffee with mr. jones. he talked about what he felt and saw. the more i looked at the diary and learned about him, he was the ideal person to put at the core of the book because he starts out at whatever time would be called a dough faced democrat. he was a northern democrat willing to do anything to appease the south, to promote his party and preserve the union. by the end of the book, he buys a gun in preparation to shoot southerners. when i realized the transformation he undergoes, with him at the center of the book, even though it is about more than him, the reader meets him at the beginning and watches him transform over the course of the chapters to get to that end point where he is thinking about how and where he might have to shoot other americans, that is a remarkable transition and it really shows you something about the deeper emotional logic of this union and the approach of

benjamin netanyahu led a moment of silence before his weekly cabinet meeting, while u.s. and israeli flags were projected on the walls of jerusalem's old city. at home the pittsburgh steelers and cleveland browns held a moment of silence before sunday's game at heinz field. >> the tragedy in pittsburgh is a reminder of the strong bonds that tie a neighborhood together. especially in the worst of times. many talk of the resilience there and what it means to be part of a community. one of them is journalist howard fineman, an nbc contribute history grew up in that pittsburgh neighborhood. >> i grew up there. i keep in touch with people there. i go back frequently. it is, after all, my home. it's the most peaceful, pleasant and nonviolent place you could imagine in a city that respects its ethnic neighborhoods one after another. squirrel hill is a uniquely, in my view, american jewish place. it stands for the proposition

benjamin netanyahu told the un general assembly last week the group has missile sites near the international airport reports now from beirut. lebanon is on a diplomatic offensive its foreign ministers are brown persil invited ambassadors and the media to tour sites that israel says are hiding hezbollah misfiled production facilities there within an area controlled by the iranian backed lebanese armed group in beirut. southern suburbs among them the football stadium. a political ally of hezbollah is accusing israel of lies to justify an attack against lebanon on this rule but there are many statements made affirming the four session of a curate as well. however this does not mean the present the vicinity of beirut airport. israel's military says the facilities used to convert regular missiles into more accurate guided ones are still not operational but under construction with iranian supervision. israel is accusing has a lot of knowingly jeopardizing the lives of civilians and using them as human shields three alleged missile sites are located in densely populated areas close to the airport there was no immediate reaction from ambassadors of western countries but russia's envoy is calling for