dale carnegie would be proud i think. you have to excuse me i've had a terrible cold and so i may start croaking like a frog. just pretend it is quite natural. ever since rob wrote the thing about plutarch i've been getting my book talks dressed in a toga but i decided my legs weren't good enough so i dressed in a suit tonight. if anybody wants to talk about my book about dale carnegie this evening who is a very cultural figure in this country for reasons i hope to layout a little bit in my talk. and if you are kind enough to get the book i would be happy to sign it for you afterwards. the notion of success lays at the heart of the american dream and in fact the idea of the individual living head in the race of life, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps as the old familiar saying, i think it is better in our national dna. all of us have heard i think some version of go make something of yourself, go make something out of yourself. usually from anxious parents during our adolescence as we prepare to go off to college. an

there is an interesting story that connects into dale carnegie. kim monkey originally spelled his name carnegie. that was the way you spelled his name until he is in his 20th and he went to his new york his new york city and got an office in carnegie hall. being a shrewd boy he was, he decided he should change the name of the spelling of his last name because he said his explanation was everybody pronounced it that way anyway. so there is a little bit more to it. the other thing i found fascinating when he changed the spelling of his name, and hubert moved the day from his name. [laughter] >> carnegies advisors uniquely american. i wonder if this book had worldwide expect dan's and in what culture is was it very much accepted in? >> that is a good question, too. it is my impression from doing some reading i guess about sort of the aftermath of carnegie after his dad at the internationalization of the carnegie course in the carnegie principles sort of followed the trail of westernization and western expansion of the american economy after world war

. >> steven watts talked about the life and lasting impact of dale carnegie, author of "how to win friendsand influence people" and other book. "how to win friends" has sold over 39 copies since been published in 1937 and was named the seventh most influential book in the neck and history by the library of congress. this is about 45 minutes. >> so, tonight we're really lucky to have steven watts back. steven watts has been called i a another good biographer, a biographer of john dewey, the plutarch of modern america because of his books on walt disney, whose book on hugh hefner which he talked about here in the library, and henry ford, and now dale carnegie. he is a professor of history at the university of missouri, former chair of the history department at the university, and dale carnegie, i have a lecture that make it periodically able to get have and people forget i've given it before and then i give it in which the title of it is missouri, the center of the literary universe. we talk about t.s. eliot and mark twain, talk about things that people don't know, the best selling cookbook

and i go and and i just sit quietly in a think about little dale carnegie in the big cosmos and the sort of makes everything come into perspective. so the tale of carnegie is a little complicated. there is a renewed religiosity on the one hand, but on the other hand it's very much in the vein of therapeutic self-fulfillment brothers and a kind of more traditional protestantism. that is more or less where he ended. he was very close friends i should add that i can clinch the case of norman vincent field. he once described to him had he put it, they were working the same street. they were just working different sides of the street. [applause] thank you very much. >> thank you very much, professor watson. the book is herself from barnes & noble in the hall. >> thank you very much. >> a tv interview kevin freeman at the political action conference about his book "game plan." the book, mr. friedman discusses economic and financial terrorism and suggests ways for americans to protect themselves. >> kevin freeman, what do you do for a living? >> time and money management, investment management.

i took the dale carnegie course, and part of that is making people who don't beat well in front of crowdsecause they are nervous just do it a lot. you do it and get positive reinforcement only, and at the end, you are like, i will stand in front of 5000 people, and if it doesn't go well, that will be kind of funny. it never does go poorly because people never say that was the worst speech ever. you never get that, so it's something you can practice. you can learn to harden yourself against embarrassment. tavis: i wonder if whether or not your mission with "dilbert" when you started, isn't the same mission? has it changed? whatever you were intending us to get, has it changed over the years? >> it started out just as a job. i thought, wouldn't that be great to be a cartoonist. the things i tried were things i thought, if they work they will be a great job. focus, took a business people started taking it seriously, and it did become -- i would say a cop for business in the sense that if you are too crazy and absurd in your management practices, a lot of "dilbert" comics will get left on you

dale carnegie, said it, an consumer is emotional creature and that is how they respond. gerri: consumers are emotional. jeff, last word. jeff, can you hear me? i don't think jeff can hear me? he had problems with us. thanks for both of you coming on saying such smart things. jeff and bruce, thank you so much. we want to know what you think, here is our question tonight. do you prefer sales or everyday low prices. log on to gerriwillis.com. vote on the right-hand side of the screen. i will share the results at the end of tonight's show. we have some auto updates i want to tell you about right now. the latest on gm's recall. the trade journal, automotive news, is telling what general motors won't. it identified nearly all the fatal crashes linked to that is anything switch recall. of the crashes the paper identified, eight of 12 deaths occurred before gm allegedly fixed the problem switch in 2006. but as you know there was no recall to fix the switch. fixes were made on a case-by-case basis. in other words, if the company had told consumers at least four deaths could have

he describes the life and lasting impact of dale carnegie, author of "how to win friends and influence people." that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. >> iraq war veteran kayla williams is next on booktv. she talks about her and her husband's return from iraq and the major problems they faced reintegrating into american society. kayla williams' husband returned home after receiving a serious head injury, and both suffered from ptsd. this is about 50 minutes. [applause] >> first, allow me to express my most profound regrets for being late. i had an interview run late and then had the fun experience of traveling on the beltway which i think may be sometimes more stressful than driving in iraq because i'm not allowed to carry a weapon on the beltway. [laughter] so as my introducer mentioned, i am also a veteran, and before i get started, i want to take a brief moment to thank all of you for coming. i really appreciate you taking the time to get out before we are inundated with snow, have a little bit of fun before we get started. and to all the troops and veterans in the room, i wa