winner of the pulitzer prize for general nonfiction last year. nyu professor dan fagin is the author. professor fagin, what is "toms river"? >> guest: toms river is a town in new jersey. actually a small city at this point. i wrote about it because toms river was a town like any other town for a couple hundred years until the chemical industry came in 1852 in that changed everything in toms river and that tells the story of everything that happens next. >> host: worst of all, what kind of town is toms river? or what was it when your writing about it? >> guest: before the chemical industry came to town, it was a sleepy place where there were tourists for philly in new york city, but mostly they were farmers, chicken farming. it was a quiet place and then it started to grow very rapidly once the chemical industry came to town and wants the parkway came down and it became a place where there is lots of rapid growth. for a while it was one of the fastest-growing communities in the whole country. so it's halfway between new york and philadelphia jerse

while at "the new york times" he was twice nominated for a pulitzer prize for investigative reporting. several of his books were non-fiction best sellers including, among others "i pledge allegiance, the true story of the walkers, an american spy family" that was turned into a great mini series on cbs, perhaps some of you watched it in the past. "gang land" how the fbi broke the mob in 1993. "the eve of destruction." the untold story of the yam kiper war in 2003.

the operating room to put down his lot it was one story in the authoritative series that won the pulitzerrize what anybody remembers his living as the janitor. and was a hugely wrong but he often said i feel like i won the pulitzer to be a janitor and a not a journalist. but that since to me how important it is with the rest of the story, a gym packed one would have with a harder facts the retold anecdotes that somehow does not have the same power and it is just one piece of a very large in well-documented series. >> host: brooke kroeger your students have been doing the undercover reporting assignment? >> guest: once taught a course to a similar observational journalism. but at 13 weeks you cannot do anything that would matter. so the time for a really constructs. i have had people use these techniques but much longer more like for a thesis but not something done in 14 weeks i would have them take one episode to bring it down >> host: how has teaching journalism changed in the industry? >> it has changed a lot. we just had a big panel talking about the moves into the global reporting. in

i won a pulitzer and said i never thought the pulitzer could be anticlimactic. became apparent i found a wealth of material and also found my kid came in and -- you get the mail bag, this touches me. it is important for a columnist, you can be the smartest guy or gal in the world but if you don't connect then forget about it. that is how she got started. other people, i have a friend -- to make a long story short, a friend of mine got promoted and became head of the editorial board and took me to lunch and said how about you write a column. why don't you mention that. why don't we all get started one way or the other and after i got the pulitzer, you want to be an editorial writer really but i said let me have a column and you got a deal and it worked out and i did both. now i just do the column and also voice what you call them, video bloging. you don't just write a column now, you got to tweak the column, facebook it and do a video blog, but all these things roll up to get there. any way, i am standing here. >> i really enjoyed your talk tonight and i really e

his journey from md to the pulitzer prize. he over came a devastating accident with the determination to lead. a life that matters. hello. i hope you will enjoy watching this fox news reporting special as much as we enjoyed making it. >> fox viewers know where he sits on the panel. they probably know his position on most issues. but be -- but we bet there is a lot you don't know about the columnist, harvard trained psychiatrist and even occasional baseball am list. analyst. we think you should, even if the doctor has a different opinion. you were a little reticent when we started the project. what is your thought about this? >> i don't like it. >> full disclosure, i have been trying to convince charles krauthammer to sit for an interview for some ticme. >> not one where he shares his thoughts on the news of the day. >> i expect there's going to be another twist here. >> one where he pulls back the curtain, the life of an intensely private man. >> look, when i say i don't like it, i'm not adverse to the spotlight. when it comes

you have won the pulitzer prize and the nobel prize in literature.he rock 'n' roll hall of fame of books. ( cheers and applause ). let's go through some of the books you have written. "the bluest eye." "beloved." "song of solomon," "sula," among others. what is the weight you feel, or is there any weight, any burden being a nobel prize winner in literature? you know, that's-- that's hemingway. that's doris lessing, that's you. do you feel worthy? ( laughter ) >> i know that my books are worthy. which is separate from me. ( cheers and applause ). and that's-- that's the part that i really relish, that part. no, i-- actually, i read "beloved" a couple of weeks ago. >> stephen: your own book. you read your own book. >> i read my book. >> stephen: had you read it after you wrote it? >> no. unless i read it publicly. but i read it a couple of weeks ago. >> stephen: and? >> it's really good. ( laughter ) >> stephen: brava. that is great. i'm eye huge fan of my work, too. were you surprised how good your book was? >> at that time, i mean, it's been years--

we have 13 pivot surprise winners -- pulitzer prize winners.ngham, tony horovitz, adam johnson, tom reese, david remnick, marilyn robinson,, species chef, art spiegelman, alan taylor, jonathan weiner and edward o. wilson. winners of the national book critics circle, robert pulido and francine gray. just waters, newberry winners of course neil, steve schengen, rebecca stead and jacqueline woodson. [applause] the prizewinner -- okay it's very exciting to your age prize winner and then finally the six winners of the national book awards, will alexander, edward, judy, of course ursula le guin. please join me in welcoming and recognizing these great writers. [applause] now i have have to thank a few people. okay. first i have to think amazon because that's one of the terms of my new vendor agreement with them. i actually do have to thank all of the financial supporters including amazon, barnes and noble, penguin random house, the book publishing macmillan, the foundation, google, harpercollins, perseus, deborah wiley and added to a charitable trust.

his journey from md to the pulitzer prize. how he overcame a devastating accident with the determination to leave. hello, i'm bret baier. i hope you enjoy watching this reporting special as much as we enjoyed making it. fox viewers know where charles krauthammer sits on the panel and probably know his position on most issues. we bet there's a lot you don't know about the all-star panelist, syndicated columnist, harvard trained psychiatrist and even occasional baseball analyst. we think you should, even if the doctor has a different opinion. you were a little reticent when we started the project. what is your thought about this? >> i don't like it. >> full disclosure, i have been trying to convince charles krauthammer to sit for an interview for some ticme. >> not one where he shares his thoughts on the news of the day. >> i expect there's going to be another twist here. >> one where he pulls back the curtain, the life of an intensely private man. >> look, when i say i don't like it, i'm not adverse to the spotlight. when it co

while at "the new york times" he was twice nominated for a pulitzer prize for investigative reporting. several of his books were non-fiction best sellers including, among others "i pledge allegiance, the true story of the walkers, an american spy family" that was turned into a great mini series on cbs, perhaps some of you watched it in the past. "gang land" how the fbi broke the mob in

we have 13 pulitzer prize winners in the room tonight.chael cunningham, tony horwitz, adam johnson, tom reese, marilyn robinson, art spiegelman, alan taylor, jonathan winer, edwin wilson, winners of the national book circles, newbery winners rebecca, jacqueline. and finally six winners of the national book awards, and judy, ursula, ronald steel, please join me in recognizing these great writers. [applause] now i have to think if you people. first i have to thank amazon because that is one of the terms of my vendor agreement with them. seriously i do have to thank all of the financial supporters including amazon, barnes and noble, penguin random house, when dan meyer book publishing papers and the division of the central guardsmen, mcmillan, the theodore foundation, harpercollins, let's ensure, deborah whiteley into the charitable trust. please give them a hand. [applause] they made it possible for us to do this today. also a special thank you to the miami book fair really tremendous what they are doing for us. they offered to fly all of t

the first, "gilead," won marilynne robinson the pulitzer prize. "home" followed. and now "lila," nominated just this week for the national book award, filled, as one reviewer wrote, "with quiet epiphanies." exactly what we've come to expect from marilynne robinson. she has been described as a woman "who speaks in sentences that accumulate into polished paragraphs" with a mind that "skips the stones of a question across its ample surface." and of course that's how she writes, including her non-fiction work. in fact, it wasn't her gifts as a novelist that first caught my attention. it was her essays, in such collections as "the death of adam," "absence of mind" and "when i was a child i read books." those drew me to the way she writes and thinks, and to her strong belief in the power of grace and faith, and her devotion to democracy, which she fears "we are gravely in danger of losing." marilynne robinson, welcome. >> thank you. it's wonderful to be here. >> and congratulations for those reviews. >> well, thank you. >> i was particularly struck with one from "the ne

included on the best books of 2014, the problem of slavery in the age of emancipation by historian and pulitzer prize winner david brion davis. and just cause accounts the death of his roommate in new jersey when they attended deal university when he talks about his book the short and tragic life of robert peace. and then we had journalists gennie norberg shedding light on young afghan girls concealing their gender in her book. in the invisible bridge, the reemergence of patriotism is examined during the reagan credit predator the and then a look at how afghanistan and iraq have affected people's lives at home during the war. he sure to visit the complete list at booktv.org. >> throughout the 20th century, even as it became much more automated, it's one of the reasons that we put in place with the world used to be, the best primary education system which demanded a highly skilled set of workers. >> what does it do to particular jobs, or you can look at it as what it does to many jobs. what you're saying is that even if we thought this and factories, the increase in productivity nevertheless cre

remember me when you are the first pulitzer. don't forget. it was stunning. i said it's clarence page. they said how are you like i had seen her last week. i said remember when you signed my yearbook and she said i don't recall. she said i always knew you could do it. i said she says that to all the kids on the student paper that is true. maybe you might be worth listening to once in a while. i woke up early this year and i started writing my column 30 years ago and i said holy cow that's time went by fast. my second thought was i should get a book put together by columnists. and my third thought was if charles clark heinrich and if so can i. so, i went into the arduous task of combing through the college and this is something every columnist i've talked to tells me the same thing they want to forget about it and worry about the next column. going back and looking at them again can be a sobering experience. there are columns that you think you never want to see and others can be fascinating because your voice is changing and you didn't know it. i wrote this y

if i have a pulitzer prize, i would change my name to pulitzer prize. also an msnbc political analyst. history has shown that in the six-year elections, which is really tough for the incumbent president, sometimes the opposition party wins and does a good job for the next two years, like i guess has been done. other times they don't do it, like harry truman ended up beating republicans because they could do hearing after hearing after hearing. clinton got his act together after '94, came back in '96 did well. reagan de-d very well. he ended the cold war and got his vice president re-elected. first question about your old boss, the president. is he likely to make a shake-up in the way he runs the government, in his structure of the white house? >> his inclination is not to be dramatic in response to these things. he's very loyal to his people. i'm not sure i predict a shake-up. this is a natural time to look at your operation and say, what's worked, what hasn't worked, what do i need? i think he should do that. i hope he does that. he's not a guy who thr

prizes.n 3 pulitzer he was not a very successful person in many ways. he came from a family that was quite dysfunctional. in fact, when he was born, his mother was disappointed. she wanted a daughter. instead she was given a son. in fact the first six months of his life, she did not even give him a name. the family was away on vacation and the people who were there said the baby needs a name. they put names and a hat. a woman pulled out the word edmon. that became the first name. she was from arlington massachusetts. that is how he got his middle name. so you have a feeling that he comes from a family that is not very loving towards him. he suffered a good deal as a result of it. there was a great deal of catastrophe in the family, too. his father failed in businesses and became alcoholic and died prematurely. his mother almost i prematurely from diphtheria. he had a brother who died from a drug overdose. another brother who fails at business and became an alcoholic and ended up at a ward for homeless people. robinson was the only one as it turned out t

prize, pulitzer prize winner is commendable laureates. they are all the building as we speak i'm sure. the complete cross-section of america and increasingly at the world and this is where they come to do the life of the mind, which is not only not dead, but never been stronger based on the numbers we are seeing. that is a great thing, but of course that means people are heavily invested. that is to be celebrated. it helps us plan and get it right. >> host: how do you get your books? was books? what is your relationship with publishers? >> guest: we buy books there a gin. we are the largest library purchaser of books in america certainly impossibly in the world. >> host: every book i've published every year? >> guest: we are not the library of congress which receives those. so there are probably books published are often self publish now that we do not have in our collection. those people ask for, we will buy it, right? and if five people are waiting for a book, we will buy another copy. so we have expert librarians who are talking to pat

years ago this evening i stood on this stage and introduced a program featuring a new book by a pulitzer prize-winning journalist who had turned the focus of her reporting on a central figure of her life and looking inwardly and unflinchingly crafted a portrait of life and a relationship that journalists appeared in conversation on this stage with the consummate professional with foyers and sophistication when the program was over i remarked that those in the audience had been witness to one of the best book programs that you could imagine an. it was lucinda franks the book under discussion was my father's secret war a and jews interviewed by dan rather tonight we reassemble the same winning team and welcome dan rather and lucinda franks back to the stage this time to mark the publication of her newest book "timeless" love, morganthau, and me" in commenting about of her memoir about her father i spoke of the depth and honesty and compellingly human story and spoke of the absorbing whole told the book to economy with the gradual revelations it deep personal history. i would use the sabres

and eventually they won the first pulitzer prize in investigative journalism for it. so fascinating characters on the journalism side in this story as well. result, hearings were held in congress. simmons was put on the stand, ofer the rules committee congress, which is pretty fascinating reading. things getlly, exposed. one of the biggest problems for theyd and bessie is that had an affair and were found in owned.el that bessie >> oh, goodness. >> partially clothed, with 1919, by his wife and a police officer. >> oh, my. 1919, that story got buried a bit. but in 1921, when the world everywhere,ching they found that story and it appeared nationally because the new york world syndicated in and about 12 other papers as well. it was really the beginning of the end for them. klansmen still believe they were kind christian protestants who didn't bode well. they also found out that bessie running the klan, and there were no women in the klan. was a palace coup of sorts. bessie lost it all and had to get out of town. the momentum that they had caused, however -- this was mec

and everybody followed pulitzer.arted incorporating plastics and bubble tubes and color wheel. and said look, i'm not only going to play music for you. i'm going to make things happen with the jukebox. i'm going to make a piece of art of it. you'll make it fun to play these things. >> reporter: for a short period, the newest paul fuller jukebox met with the same type of anticipation reserved for the year's new automobile models. world war ii hit right in the middle of the fuller own tenure. metal was being conserved for the war effort but fuller's work continued and those that survived today are the most rare. >> there's only a handful left. it's primarily all wood. what i mean by wood is you can see even the coin shoots are all wood. where they would normally be metal is all wood. inside, exterior. everything. to any jukebox collector this is the one to own. >>> other companies tries to imitate fuller's designs but nothing could beat. >> for some reason this particular box stuck in a lot of people's minds. and still

he won the pulitzer prize for his book. his new book is called "thirteen days in september."t is a day by day account of the summit and the history that preceded it. he called the agreement one of the great diplomatic triumphs of the 20th century. i am pleased to have lawrence wright back at this table. >> it is good to be back. >> what makes it such a diplomatic triumph? >> there are very few instances where a piece has been cegotiated like this -- a pea has been negotiated like this. a historian was asked, has this ever happened before? the historian said, once. teddy roosevelt, the russians and the japanese. he brought them to the station and got them alone and negotiated peace. it was the first american to win the nobel peace prize. in all of history, there is very few examples -- there are very few examples where peace has been negotiated successfully. was not a negotiation to end the war. >> it was a negotiation that ended two parties that had been at war five times in the last 30 years. >> and who would give up what. >> it was hard fought. people do not realize what a

two years later, krauthammer won the biggest honor in journalism, the pulitzer prize.t startd in the business less than a decade earlier without even a writing script.ec he went straight from theho ceremony to see his father who had once worried about his son's jump from medicine to journalism. he was 84. >> i went to the hospital where he was. i said dad, i have something i want to give you. and i gave him the medal. and he h beamed and he showed it to all the nurses. >> it turned out to bes. krauthammer's final visit with his dad.in >> so the last time i saw him was a time when the circle washo closed and he could feel that choice had been redeemed in some way. it was a very comforting thing to remember about the last time you see your parent. >> he called the 1990s a holiday from history. the cold war was won. theol era of big government declared over. 9-11 brought a new urgency to his commentary. >> people understand there was a nexus between these weapons,n, these states and the terrorists and we have to attack them where they are. >> he began appearing on "specia

gwynne ote a bookn won a pulitzer prize. what a great book. his new book is called "rebel ll, the violence, passi and retion of actn." please welce ttherogram s. gwynne. >> thank you. nice to be here. what's the s. stand for? >> samuel carlton. >> did iask you th bbefore? >> i ihi you did. >> do you like austin? >> i d >> i gthere althe time, a lot. we have a ranch in brennam, texa >> beautiful bren >> i always want to stay at the driscoll hotel but they all pu me in the fourseasons becaus-- i don't know whyy don't like the driscoll. >> the dscoll, when lbj s president, that was where the national mia w caed. probably a better ption. >> the vernor has been a frie of mine for years. whater the hell she was doing with lyndon joson, they did this there athe driscoll. >>uh-huh. why stonewall jacon? >> jackson, i think, has been forgotten a ttle bit, because what he did in the war was etty extraordinary. the l war was a story of great transformationand the one we all pbably know as ulysses s. grant. he's leaning on a m just before the war and he be

wilson, two pulitzer prizes and 20 books. >> thirty-two. >> i'm a very self absorbed person. >> written one this year that has been nominated, the meaning and human existence. >> probably an inverse relationship between the ambition of the writer. >> what is the meaning of human existence? >> at the beginning of the book i think a lot of the content can be redlined by two expressions. we are a somewhat maladapted species in that we have ended up at the present era with the paleolithic emotion and medieval institutions and godlike technology. but actually where we come from. the way i approach it is recognizing that history makes no sense without prehistory. it makes no sense except through biology. thus we find the linkage between humanities and science on the other side. >> for those of us who flunked biology, what does paleolithic mean? >> forgive me, stone age. >> are we accidents? >> in a sense. a combination of rare evolutionary events to set the stage. studying the origin of social systems. of the first 20 or so times that advanced social order existed does not necessarily imply i

would take to get mad evacuated or to get our own evacuation. >> sabrina shankman, you're with the pulitzer-winning news news.e inside climate you turn the story into a book. talk about what this attack means for climate change. only first heard about this attack, was interesting because it is on par almost with what is expected. you can't ever say a specific polar bear attack is related to climate change because you can't get inside the head of a polar bear, but what we do know is that biologists have been predicting for a couple of years sea ice as the continues to disappear, the habitat from which polar bears hunt, there's going to be an increase in these kind of human a polar bear interactions. that is exactly what you see. matt attack was terrific, but it is one of a number that have happened. on are looking at we are course for about 35 attacks this decade, according to one of the researchers i spoke with. in the past, in the 1960's and 1970's, talking about 10 per decade. exactly what the biologists has said what happen as climate change progresses, is what we're seeing. >> and more

the building is constructed by the pulitzer prize winning cartoonist ruben goldberg. the building may have tangent recognition. the landmark states this interior building retains a high point of integrity. staff concur that they do appear to be original features. however historically private interior spaces they do not appear eligible for landmark designations. currently there is no known designation of the building. from the neighborhood valley association in support of the item. however the property owner, kenneth hersh has expressed this building not be designated. this concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions. >> no questions. so we will open this up for public comment. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment -- thank you very much. jackie nay lor, i live in the building. it's exciting to be here. i want to thank you so much and i spoke with jennifer george, ruben goldberg's granddaughter. she wishes she could be here. she's in new york. she thanks you for considering here grandfather's building for resignation. ever

he won 3 pulitz prices. he came from a family which was when he sfunctional, was born his mother was disappointed, she wanted a daughter and instead she was giving a son. in fact, the first six months of his life she did not even give him a name. was away on vacation, the people that were there said this baby needs a name. out the name edwin, it became his first name. she was from arlington, massachusetts. that is how he got his middle name. you got the feeling he was not very last and he suffered a great deal as a result. great deal of catastrophe in a family. a brother who died of another brother and failed the business became an alcoholic. he ended up in award for homeless people. the only one as that had a full life and a rather successful life. with alcohol led and depression, it is easy to think about hen you his upbringing and the social family he came from. he is a man who never married and depended upon the world of good friends and companions, tthere is monetary prizes that he would win, but he nev

eventually, he was named as one of the recipients of the pulitzer prize the guardian won story. i sat down with james ball in london to get his take on encryption, source protection and journalism in the post edward snowden era. >> james ball of the guardian, today. >> thank you. >> in your communications when he was setting up the interview, did you en crypt it? >> we did not. >> why not? >> because unfortunately, while time. >> yes? >> in theory, in practice, you can't get anything done. every day we have to compromise. if we try to tell people to be ultra secure, you know, if we are doing that is it would take us an hour to get out of the pass. it does not the mean you are not very important. >> before snowden there was assange and wiki leaks. is it possible to summarize some of the changes in journalism that have occurred as a result of what wick i leaks and assange did first? >> two distinct lessons, they learned that we should share as much of our information as we can fshlt we want to do it responsibly. we have redacted on wick i leaks and on snowden. but in instead of sa

also on the list is pulitzer prize finalist gwen's empire of the summer moon and james wilson's the earth shall weep, which explore the struggle between nailtive americans and european settlers. next, congressman coll recommends the biography of the tribe leader, tecumseh, and an account of the battle of little big or, and wrapping up, the recounting of the forced removal of the cherokees from their land in "driven west." to see what other titles recommended visit cole.house.gov. >> the basic idea of clean glass of drinking water, which i central to ghost map as a book that we live in a world for the most part here in the developed world where you go to the faucet and get a glass of drinking party and drink it and don't ever think about dying of cholera 48 hours later. and that is an incredible achievement. that you can live in a city of a million people or ten million people and have that kind of security. that took a whole history of invention and ingenuity and scientific breakthroughs and great engineering projects to make that possible. and yet while we celebrate innovation in our soc

introduce one of the most esteemed biologist and a very good friend to the library and has received a pulitzer prize twice for nonfiction of the intersection of biology and sociology and the humanities. dr. wilson explores creatures eliminating all living things are interdependent. as such he is an impassioned advocate for biodiversity advocating for the natural world. his new book "the meaning of human existence" bridges science and philosophy to create at 21st century thesis on human existence. it is valedictory work to be above the crowd of biology writers he is wise learned and wicked and vernacular. he will be interviewed tonight from dr. shepard for bioethics and policy he earned his m.d. from pennsylvania and he is also my husband which is the greatest accolade of all. [laughter] please welcome e.o. wilson back to the library. [applause] >> good evening. it is good to meet you finally and person dr. wilson and back to philadelphia. so to start off to get to know you i want to give the audience said chance as well and you are a very talented man and had done extremely well in the field y

sreenivasan: bill moushey is a journalism professor at point park university in pittsburgh and a pulitzer prize nominated reporter. for years he and his students have investigated cases of the wrongfully convicted in pennsylvania. his reporting in the pittsburgh post gazette helped get drew whitley exonerated, and he still upset by cases like whitley's >> they used to have hopeless looks in their eyes when i'd look at them across the table in a prison. but now they have helpless looks. and i think the helpless is a lot worse. >> sreenivasan: why? >> because they worked their whole lives in prison to get out of prison because they didn't do whatever it was they were charged with. and then they get out and nothing is the way they appear-- it should have been. they are just thrown on the scrapheap of life like they were the day they walked into prison. and the only difference is, is that they're only prisoners of their own homes now and not of the state. >> sreenivasan: what kind of support services exist for them after they're out? >> none. >> sreenivasan: in fact, moushey says that when th