joining me now is the server max hastings. he has a new book coming out on world war i. up mr. astings, can we start with world war ii. is there a scholarship coming out on this time. not we met. >> but i would never have guessed when i started writing about this book in 1979, which was a long time ago, that i would still be doing it. one reason is that almost everyone sees world war ii is a good thing. it is still true with some exceptions. that 270,000 people day died in world war ii. sixty people died and the whole conflict. this was the most greatest conflict. people are still interested in us. up. you can still surprise people. so he said, well, maybe 60%. and i said what percent of british casualties are american? he said maybe 20% percentage. i said, the true figure is that it was 2% americans and 2% british. so this includes the 21st century audience in the united states. i mean, i grew up when i was a young man. my father, who adored world war ii, he was such a proponent for a british magazine. he got me up to look on it as a great adventure. many people joined the war.

. >> max hastings, how do you feel about the war overall? >> it is the one thing that we feel that we did well overall. it was right to be proud. we have to realize that we need to live in the 21st century and we cannot go on living backwards. some of the mistakes that some british statement make is a lot of nonsense about the special relationship. we do have a huge amount shared values with united states and a sort of shared language and so on. even in the second world war, they constructed this great legend. we had the bases of the nations, we each had our own perceptions of interest. especially because we hated the british empire. nowadays you do still need some politicians in the united states. because americans are so polite, including of the white house. they get the wrong idea. the idea that we can expect the united states to do us any favors because we are on the same side of the war, i am often name, forget it, it is not like that. everyone will be incredibly polite to in washington, but do not be fooled. >> what you call your book

>> guest: google max hastings. and i look forward to hearing from you. i answer every single e-mail to my website. >> host: thank you for your time. >> guest: thank you for having me. >>> for more information on these and other interviews from london, visit booktv.org, watch booktv every sunday at 6:00 p.m. over the next several weeks for more. >>> booktv covered the 2013 debaters book festival in maryland. kitty kelley presented her book "capturing camelot" and took questions from the audience. immedithe event now here on booktv.r t >>> we are gathered today in a k sense to hear from one of ther s most controversial authors inl the last few decades. tent lists of literary subjects she has enlightened, embarrassed, and endangered ranges far from dangeredt and first lady to the great powerful oprah. croers and kitty kelley personal factsgreaf include growing up in the beautiful northwest. na somehow finding her way to knox, -- new york city.mple. afr went to work in eugene's officer. it must have been your catalyst for love of investigative reporting. she