richard holbrooke's widow came to us, a bunch of people, and said, you know, we think you guys would be perfect to put together a book that really captures richard holbrooke's spirit and what he stood for and the work he did. and our plan was always to publish on the upcoming anniversary of his death in december. samantha power is the editor. we have wonderful contributors writing about different parts of holbrooke's life and career, you know, vietnam, bosnia, afpak, and we also have some excerpts from his own work including his wonderful book and a lot of, you

i remember going in to see ambassador holbrooke.the situation in pakistan is completely unacceptable. what are we going to do? very complicated in my to the way -- [mumbling] and he said it is not good enough. i want you to come back with a solution. i totally understand why this happened. we all feel like this. the situation in somalia. the situation in syria. this is horrible. people are being killed, pirates, terrorists, famine. we have to sort this out. what do we do about the situation? i feel that temptation about situations i know the least about. the less i know about the situation more liable i am to feel it is clear we do what we need to do. there are two things we need to make sure of. back to something that do know about which is afghanistan or the very microbe which is rebuilding the old city of kabul it seems more absurd. i know how it works in the united states. it is as though somebody said the situation in south chicago is unacceptable. i want you to sort it out in two years. maybe you are a community organizer. it

displaced every mosque and catholic church in the bosnian -- >> charlie: you would have said to holbrook and the president don't come here. >> if i said that i would have beenotally wrong because in fact what happened between 1995 and 2003 was nothing short of a miracle. 415,000 people demobilize so you end up with an army of just a few thousand. nearly 200,000 properties returned a million refugees come back in, crime right -- >> charlie: why did they work mill temporarily -- why did it work militarily. >> it worked i think because the bosnians turned out driving this. the a lot of the problems presented tothe president were centuries ofthnic hatred were not. they were the actions of a few men from the top down. curiously when we started to return refugees into those areas, it wasn't the level of popular resistan. >> charlie: it was like they were living side by side. >> it turned out a lot of these militia groups were financed by the governments. when the money went away they collapsed. the smart thing the community did was very prudent. they didn't try to force through too much chang

captures richard holbrooke's spirit and the work he did. our plan was to publish on the anniversary of his death in december. samantha power and wonderful contributors writing about different parts of his life and career. vietnam, fa snapped -- bosnia and excerpts from his own work like his wonderful book and his speeches and essays. it gives an incredible portrait in his own words and about reflections on his career by people who knew him. >> we have been talking with susan weinberg, publisher of publicaffairs books. one of the purpose it -- perseus groups in prince. publicaffairs.com is the web site. >> these of the best-selling hardcover nonfiction book according to the new york times. this reflects sales as of august 18th.

i remember going to see ambassador holbrooke of four -- four years ago and said the situation is completely an acceptable. what will we do? >> but he said go get them. i will give you three months. way and come back with a solution. no. i am understand how this happens. but you look at this and say it is horrible. people are being killed, pirates kumbaya terrace, famine, we have to sort this out. what do we do about the situation? >> i feel that to temptation most wrong way about the situation sino the least about. the less i know of a situation in the more libel i am to feel threatened. there are to clear things that we need to make sure. but going back to what i do know about, is would choose good now to give an example of know if it works in the united states, but if somebody said the situation in south chicago is completely unacceptable. literacy, crime, i wanted you to sort it out in two years. maybe you are a community organizer or social worker in say i have been working there 20 years rehab programs running and it is a complicated system. don't give me problems come give me solution

the militant holbrooke one hundred whoever is elected by the people will be the right one it happened in that this is the right of our nation i just see them a little bit of a call a manhunt they have the right to freely elected anybody they wish. real well sam i am a university professor. and i have reserved. profession then i will continue to serve the nation anywhere i please university there will be no problem let me ask you know what you will most miss about the job would you most enjoyed about the job in the final few minutes that we have now. yes can i ask you what you would most miss about the job and what you most enjoyed about the job in the final few minutes we have now. know whether. i've missed myself with. time to yourself ok. president of iran thank you so much for taking the time to be without international know your terms preciousness very much appreciate your time your job live a young should have undergone a ha ha ha i just i just want to say just one sentence for your people and for the viewers. we really love all human beings thought it was designed. and this is f

course, you know the backdrop of the movie is the civil rights movement and i play a character lily holbrook go back to do again because i had to get into that ignorant psychology that isn't fun. >> are you worried about any controversy that this role will bring you? >> i haven't really thought about that, i mean because it was a book first, and because -- >> people are familiar with it. >> exactly, and it is the character that everyone loves to hate. i hope there's a little bit of safety built in there, but i don't know. i haven't really thought about it. >> let's talk about the other big production you've got this year, by is baby number two. >> yes. >> how many months pregnant are you now? >> i'm almost five months. >> how is it all going? >> it is, it's amazing. baby is healthy, and it's been a healthy pregnancy. it's been a little more challenging than my first pregnancy, but i think, i think that's kind of good, actually, because my first pregnancy, you know, everything was great and wonderful, and i thought i was, you know, could do everything all at once, and after i had the baby tha

and we think it gives an incredible portrait of holbrooke both in his own words and reflections on his career by people who knew him very well. >> we've been talking with susan weinberg, publisher of public affairs books, one of the perseus group's imprints. public affairs books.com is the web site. >> what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. .. the author and historian reveals many british citizens fought on both sides of the civil war for a host of personal and political reasons. she talked about this lesson on influence in the war of secession with pulitzer prize-winning eric foner. >> host: very happy to be speaking with amanda foreman, the author of the new book, "a world on fire". gained a great deal of attention, a fascinating book. we're going to have a nice conversation about britain, the american civil war, and writing about a civil war history. hello. >> hello. >> maybe we can just begin by asking you -- somebody said there are about 50,000 books on the american civil war out there of one kind or another. why did you -- when and why did you come to the conclus

a professor of international politics at tufts policy an advisor to the late ambassador richard holbrooke here in washington. good to see you. the arab spring, let's take it from there. what message are these scenes from the streets of tripoli sending to assad and the protesters in syria and the other arab leads? >> there's two sets of messages going. one is to the arab spring. one says arab dictator regardless of how atrocious his actions are in the end cannot survive. to diktors like assad and others in power, the lesson is you have to prevent a way nato to support supporters against you. without international support the rebels would not have survived. i think assad and dictators are worried. >> knowing how desperate and defiant muammar gadhafi is, what can we expect from him? is there going to be some sort of horrific attack, counterattack, last stand or running and hiding out in the bunkers and finding an escape route? >> i think the most likely scenario if he is not captured is that his presence could keep an insurgency in certain areas going. >> this could be like the hunt of sadda

. >> her name is jen holbrooke. 5 years old. you, in her area where she was hit, they've obviously been facing plenty of problems right there. it also getting to be adorable because of the extent of the taj she faced there was that tree that did not crash into her house. those are some of the kinds of things we're getting. let me show you what brooke was just referring to. this screen behind me. this is called open story. it has taken off like never before in the history of cnn. what we have here is on the main page of cnn.com people have been sending in their ireports. their ireports have followed the path of irene. at any point along the path you were able to just click on a picture. it automatically brings you over to what one of these pictures or videos is. you can then take a look at that area. if you have people you're concerned about in that area, want to see what's been going on, it's all at your fingertips there. this is flooding in farrockaway. this video came to us this morning around the 10:00 a.m. hour. we are also