. >> next on history bookshelf, jeff guinn talks about his book "manson" about the life of consult leader charles manson. he reports on how manson influenced and motivating the members of the consult he called the manson family to murder seven people in august 1969. this was recorded in california in 2013. [ applause ] >> thanks a lot. when i write nonfiction, i basically start with the single premises that events never happen in a vacuum. anything is the result of many past actions where different people grew up, what they thought, how they mixed together, who they met.

>> next on history bookshelf, jeff guinn talks about his book "manson" about the life of consult leader charles manson. he reports on how manson influenced and motivating the members of the consult he called the manson family to murder seven people in august 1969. this was recorded in california in 2013. [ applause ] >> thanks a lot. when i write nonfiction, i basically start with the single premises that events never happen in a vacuum. anything is the result of many past actions where different people grew up, what they thought, how they mixed together, who they met. there's no one simple answer to anything. so when i do write these books, i try to pick a year in american history. when i wrote about bonnie and clyde, i was really writing about the depression and growing up poor in the dust bowl. when i wrote about the gun fight at the o.k. corral, which was not actually a gun fight and wasn't at the o.k. corral, but the accidental shooting in an empty lot on fremont street didn't have the same sort of ring to it when the first people were going to write this history, i wanted to write

. >>> next on history bookshelf, jeff guinn talks about his book "manson," about the life of