. >> michael korda is the former editor in chief of simon & schuster or and author of numerous books including "journey to a revolution." find out more at harpercollins.com and search michael korda. >> we're at the national press club talking with andrew young about the new book, "walk in my shoes." can you tell us how you came up with the idea for doing this book? >> well, he came to interview me when i was mayor, and he was in second grade. and we started a friendship. i was impressed with him as a second grader, and then he's been through dartmouth and london school of economics, now he's a banker with jpmorgan. and we're 50 years apart. so it's an intergenerational dialogue. we don't agree on anything. and we say things and do things to provoke each other intellectually. but what that does is it makes for lively kind of salty ideas. >> well, what are some of these debates that you two havesome. >> we have debates on, really, most things. i think one of our biggest debates is on the economy and why that's -- unemployment right now, how we should go about solving that. civil rights

. >> up next michael korda recounts the life of lawrence of arabia, an archaeologist and oxford scholart.e. lawrence departed for cairo as a british intelligence officer in 1916 and a year later service as a key figure in the arab revolt against the ottoman turks. mr. korda discusses his book at the carnegie council of ethics in international affairs in new york city. >> lawrence of arabia has been a fascination for me ever since i was a child. the path to writing about him became for me not a challenge, but an enormous pleasure. if only he had died in battle. i have lost my son. i encountered brave, the bravest of my tribe. my heart desired that his was too. a man whose hand was never closed but was always open. tell them, tell them in england what i say, of manhood, the man. in freedom, the free. a mind without equal i can see no flaw in him. these are the words of his friend of learning of lawrence's death of a motorcycle accident in 1935. another friend, author of the novel and another 39 steps, wrote i do not pretend to have understood tv lawrence. there is no brushfire enough to c

. >> about 20 years ago michael korda who was the editor in chief of simon and schuster told us in an interview that ronald reagan was paid between $8 million and $9 million for his book. >> yes. >> they printed between 3 and 400,000. he sold maybe 20,000. you've been number one for seven weeks on the new york times list, supposedly have two million in print. what's the difference? why did ronald reagan fail and you succeed? >> i don't know. that's an interesting question. i'd be -- you need to ask the publishers that. >> but what's your sense of why you did so well? >> i think people wanted to know what it was like on september the 11th. i think people wanted to know why i made the decision to remove saddam hussein. i think one reason the book is successful because it's not a book that is mean spirited or settles scores. in other words, i didn't want to call names. i didn't want to get all involved with typical washington speak. what i wanted to do was describe in a sober fashion what it was like to be president --what the environment was like and how i made a variety of decisions. a

. >> up next michael korda recounts the life of lawrence of arabia and archaeologists in an oxford scholar. te lawrence departed for cairo is a british intelligence officer in 1915 and a year later surfaced as a key figure in the air provoked against the ottoman turks. esther corder discusses his book at the carnegie council of ethics and international affairs in new york city. this program lasts an hour.