lara brown. >> guest: obviously the election was contentious and uncertain and there was a lot of legal decisions and recounts. i wrote a book on the 1876 election, and 2000 has nothing on that. you know, there is this impression in our history that our elections and that our politics have been sort of more pure in times past, and really that's a false impression. when you go back in time, what you see is that the parties not only counted the ballots, but they printed them and knew where everyone lived and maneuvered around voter # -- voters. our politics are cleaner than they ever have been. another thing around hurricane katrina treen ya. one of the things fascinating to me as someone who tries to understand both political parties, from leaders from both parties is that you see ideology impending on decision making. what you see in the hurricane katrina situation is you see the state and local government should lead, and there's a problem because one democratic ideology, the federal government should lead. when you have a democratic governor and a republican president, i think what yo

." >> lara brown worked at pringston university. visit larambrownphd.com and, tevitroy.org and princeton.edu. up next from the booktv archives, an event from 2005 with thust ton clarke on john f. kennedy. .. >> good evening. welcome to the new york public lie braer. this evening's program is with the author thurston clarke. he is the author of 10 widely acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including three "new york times" notable book. his book "pearl harbor ghost" was the basis of a cbs documentary and his best-selling last hero a biography of raoul lawen berg was made inon the a award winning nbc miniseries. he is the recipient of a guggenheim fellowship, among other awards and lives in upstate new york. s eveng, he will >> he is the recipient of athe guggenheim, among other awards and lives in upstate new york. aftee progra he will talk about his book "ask not: the inauguration of john f. kennedy and the speech that changederbae america". sew after the program there will be books for sale in the back if your interested. als