this is about an hour. >> beth leech is a professor of political science at rutgers university. she teaches and publishes on interest groups, lobbying, and policymaking. she received her bs che from the school of journalism at northwestern university and her phd from texas a&m university. her roles involve interest groups, social movements and mass media and the public policy process. she is the author of several books, including the award-winning lobbying and policy change, who wins, who loses and why. meeting at grand central, understanding the social and evolutionary groups of cooperation and the other book is the importance of groups and politics and political scientists science. she is a expert as well and she is a former newspaper editor. before i have her come up, i would like to share a copy of the book, it is available to purchase it in a highly discounted rate. we hope that you will buy them. i wanted to introduce some of the people who are here. howard marlowe, please raise your hand. robert walker, form is congressman and julie stewart, families against mandatory min

. >> next on booktv, beth leech profiles various lobbyists working in washington, d.c. to highlight the role they play in our political m. this is -- political system. this is about an hour. >> beth is a professor of political science at rutgers university. she teaches, researches and publishes on interest groups, lobbying and policy making. she received her bsj from the ma dill school of journalism at knot western university -- northwestern university and her ph.d. in political science from texas a and h university. her primary research interest involved the role of interest groups, social movements and mass media in the public policy process. she is the author of several books including the award of of of -- award-winning "role of policy change," "meeting at grand central: understanding the social and evolutionary roots of cooperation," and the other book is "basic interests." so professor leech is a widely consulted expert on interviewing methods as well, and she's a former newspaper editor. so before i have her come up, i'd like to show you a copy of the book. it's a

so, without further adieu, give you beth leech. >> you can clap. [applause] >> thank you, laura, and thank you too -- everyone here for eaving me here today. so, in the audience, how many of you are lobbyists? how many of you are policy advocates? okay. i have to admit it's also strange for me to be here talking to a roomful of lobbyists about lobbying because usually it's the other way around and i'm the one asking the questions and listening to what you have to say. but we'll turn the table for just a minute, and talk a little bit about what motivated know write this book. i was motivated to write the book in part because of what laura said. the idea that the general public has a very inaccurate view of who lobbyists are and what they do. when i talked to people, when meet someone outside of washington, till them i study lob using. the reaction is usually something akin to i just said i study corruption and con artists. but from what actually know from my previous research, i could tell them that lobbyists spend more time with public officials wh