this week, to the surprise winner john dower examine significant military attacks that led to american invasion and occupation of fraud in his new book, cultures of war to read the former mit history professor explores the attack on pearl harbor, the bombing of hiroshima, the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of iraq, finding commonality in these major events at an institutional level. he discusses his findings with institute for policy studies fellow sanho tree. >> host: professor dower, it's an honor to have you here. i've been an admirer of your work for two decades now, and your latest book, "cultures of war" is something so sweeping and impressive i want to thank you for the opportunity to sit down and have this conversation. could you start by telling us how you are a historian of japan both imperial and japan, how is it you came to write this book that links both purple heart, hiroshima, 9/11 and the iraq war what gave you the idea to make those linkages? >> guest: in this case i think it is the moment that for all of us remember where we were since 9/11, and i happened to be at tha

. >> john dower is the author of "cultures of war," he's joining us now. he's a finalist for the national book award in the nonfiction category. professor dower, what's the similarity between pearl harbor and 9/11? >> well, that's where the book began when pearl harbor happened headlines said infamy, some of them quoted roosevelt, they used the word kamikaze, they went back to pearl harbor to try to grasp the enormity of this. but then i work on, i've written on asia, i'm a historian of japan, and i've done a lot of thinking about the war. then it got more complicated because then it spun into failure of intelligence, surprise attack. then it started to get into world war ii where you had the firemen picture raising the stars and stripes, that iconic picture. and it was iwo jima. people put the two pictures up. the president began calling for a war on terror, and many began quoting roosevelt and truman. so it went from pearl harbor, 9/11 into world war ii and then they christened the world trade center ruins ground zero, and then we're in a whole different

. >> professor john dower has already won the book award for increasing the speed and he won the pulitzer prize for that book as well. he's been nominated for the 2010 national book award on fiction category for cultures of war pearl harbor, hiroshima, 9/11 and iraq. >>> book tv is on whether. from the tenth annual national book festival on the national mall in washington, d.c., a historian board to gordon wood presents his book empire of liberty history of the early republic 1789 to 1815. it's just under half hour. [applause] >> thank you three much. i'm delighted to be back here at the book festival. one of the great i think the greatest book festival in the country. [applause] i want to say a few things about my recent book empire of liberty which the subtitle is the history of the early republic 1789, 1915. it's part of the larger oxford project for the history of the united states which is nearing completion about a dozen volumes and i think there are about four, maybe four or five left to do but they've been commissioned and it should bring to an end a project that began in the 1950

john speed is the author of cultures of war, hiroshima, 9/11 and iraq. he's joining us now pity's a finalist for the national book award in the nonfiction category. professor dower, what is the similarity between pearl harbor and 9/11? >> that's where the book began where 9/11 happened. catlin's are all over the u.s. day of infamy, some of them quote could roosevelt's famous date which will live in infamy and people said surprise attack to use the word kamikaze. they went back to pearl harbor to try to grasp the enormity of this but then i have written on asia and i have done a lot of thinking about the war. denney kumble complicated because then the failure of intelligence, surprise attack, then started to get into world war ii and you have a fireman picture raising the stars and stripes the iconic picture it was hiroshima. people put the two pictures up and the president began calling for a war on terror and then he began quoting roosevelt and truman, so it went from pearl harbor and 9/11 into world war ii and then the world trade center ruins ground zero and we were in a whole different dimension of world war ii. so it began with 9/11 infamy and became much m