america is another name for opportunity, wrote ralph waldo emerson.t's an opportunity that starts with the pilgrims taking the opportunity and landing in the wrong place. the american attitude toward the law, the american attitude toward hardship, the american insistence on doing things to benefit the individual, all come from that cold afternoon in province town harbor. kar character is a combination of environment and experience, and the american character was being formed in those minutes when the pilgrims finally exhaustedly reached the beach. to survive, they will have to develop a fierce individualism and a craving for freedom that will spread down from the bent arm of the cape toward what will become the louisiana purchase and westward to where their feisty spirit will settle huge tracts of land and explore seemingly impassable rivers and mountain ranges. the american character has been formed by 100 forces, defining it as someone has written is like trying to nail jelly to a wall. still, to try it, it began with new england with the pilgrims l

to confront slavery and to terminate it and so for the radical republicans in the words of ralph waldo emersonwho was a radical, it's a good doctor but bad is sometimes better and the anatomy of the nation was the only way that we were going to address these on themental issues . >> to view the rest of this talk visit our website, booktv.org and type liana keith or the title of herbook when it was grand into the search box at the top of the page . >> of next, we take a look at books by political satirist pj or work and then booker prize-winning author arundhati roy and what president trump and winston churchill have in common beginning now on the book tv . >> now we like to highlight some programs from our archives with a equals arrest pj o'rourke. over the past 20 years he's appeared on both ddclose to 20 times . first up, in 2007 on a monthly call in program in-depth. pj o'rourke discussed his politics, writing and why he uses humor to address political and social issues . >> this picture on the left, isthat a real picture ? >> oh yeah. not a way. that was i would guess 71. not quite positiv