. >> woodruff: and perspective from historians jeffrey stein, michael beschloss, and richard norton smith, and newshour regulars mark shields and david brooks. >> ifill: plus, hari sreenivasan reports on syrian americans who say they are being watched by syrian spies in the u.s. as their families are being harassed at home. >> when they were beating my wife, she was screaming, why are you killing me? why are you hitting me? they said we're doing this to teach you a lesson because your son is demonstrating against us. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it is countdown to caucus night in iowa, and six republican presidential hopefuls worked right up to the end.

and to learn more about tours with historian and author richard norton smith go to presidents and patriots.com. you're watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> tommy, 14 years. seven months. come on, tommy. yoo-hoo. >> thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. >> next weekend, book tv and american history tv explore the history and literary culture of beaumont where the texas oil industry got its start. saturday beginning at noon eastern on book tv on c-span2, john roberts on beaumont's literary culture and the challenges of running an independent bookstore. also jay lee thompson on teddy roosevelt's post presidential expeditionings to africa and europe and on american history tv sunday at 5:00 p.m. eastern, january 11th, 1901, the lucas gusher at spindletop hill changed the economy of texas and helped usher in the petroleum age. and with the oil came the rough necks and with the rough necks advice. tour the dixie hotel on crockett street,ec

and edited manuscript published 50 years after completion and discusses his findings with richard norton smith, former director of the hoover presidential library. >> host: george nash we are all customers to former presidents writing books more than others. what is unusual about herbert hoover the writer and the magnum-opus in particular? >> it may be true the herbert hoover wrote more than any other president. he wrote more than 30. tiahrt might be a competitor. i haven't got an exact count. jimmy carter has done quite a number as well. those would be to people in the same general vicinity perhaps and nixon with his many foreign policy books in his years after the presidency. hoover was a devoted writer and i think the intellectual and whoever is on display in the book that has just been published freedom betrayed. your question is what is unusual. let me frame it a bit. this was initially an installment of hoover's multi volume memoir that he has began to write an earnest in 1940 and he actually published three volumes in his lifetimes but volume for come five and six were never published i

manuscript published 350 years after its -- 50 years after its completion and discusses with richard norton smith. >> host: george nash, we're all accustomed to former presidents writing books, some more than others. what's unusual about herbert hoover, the writer and the magnum opus in particular? >> guest: it may be true that herbert hoover wrote more books than any other president. he wrote more than 30. t.r. might be a competitor, i haven't done an exact count -- >> host: jimmy carter. >> guest: jimmy carter has done quite a number as well. those would be two people in the same general vicinity, perhaps, and nixon with his many foreign policy books in his years after the presidency. hoover was a devoted writer, and i think the intellectual in hoover is on display in this book that has just been published, "freedom betrayed." now, your question is what is unusual about "freedom betrayed." let me frame it a bit. this was initially an installment of hoover's multivolume memoirs that he began to write in earnest in 1940, and he actually published three volumes in his lifetime, but volumes four, f

we will leave it there an come back a little later in the program, michael beschloss, richard norton smith, jeff stein, thanks all three. >> thank you. >> we are still in iowa, judy, we are finally see some actual numbers coming out of iowa and we are going to take a look. it is actually kind of interesting because it confirms some of the conventional wisdom which we have seen which is that ron paul so far with 16 percent of the caucus reporting, is at 24 percent, right on his heels, in fact, such a small difference of only a couple hundred votes is mitt romney at 23 percent, and rick santorum, who has that late surge at 23 percent, no surprises there so far, judy. >> no surprises, and, gwyn, what that tells me right off the top of the bat is that the ron paul organization was every bit of what they said it was. the paul people have been telling us for days, you know, we have a program where you can come to iowa, if you are a student or somebody who wants to help us out and spend christmas with ron paul, and we will put you up, they said, at an inexpensive motel in iowa and you will work t

i am very delighted with your program this morning and you're having richard norton smith on. the question i wanted to ask is what was george washington's affiliation with the episcopal church or what we now know in america as the episcopal church? i have been to the church in alexandria, i think. where there is a pew mark of a george washington. i just wondered how is he fit into that scene? host: thanks so much alexandria claims george washington in lots of displaces. guest: in old town alexandria, washington did attend services at christchurch. he was a vested member there. there are stories about his christianity. some say that almost never took communion. there are those who believed it was a formalistic tie that he had to the third, the tide with his status in society. i'd think it was more than that, something that evolved. if you look at what he went through, the crises, the agonies, the anguish, the fact that this country was every day on the brink of extinction and that before he became president. i think washington over and time and found that he had a different vie

and to richard norton smith who has been our consultant in this project and really the brainchild behind it when we first got started thank you both for all your hard work. we close our last program with the look at his theme song, election night, 1992, as he is reading his supporters. >> having just said that, you have to play our campaign theme song, crazy. ok? here we go. crazy. ♪ crazy for feeling so lonely crazy crazy for feeling so blue i knew you'd love me as long as you wanted crazy >> for information on our series, go to a website at c- span.org. you'll find a schedule of the series, biographies of all the candidates, historians appraisals, in speeches all at c-span.org/thecontenders. our coverage leading up to the iowa caucuses continues tomorrow on "washington journal." we will look at the role of christian conservatives with steve scheffler. after that, a breakdown of the gop field with simon conway. later, a look at the final des moines register iowa poll ahead of tuesday's caucuses with pollster j. ann selzer. that is live tomorrow on c-span. >> our road to the white house