who starts that the work his office does. >>> well, now on booktv we want to introduce you to stephen raldolf the historian of the u.s. department of state, dr. raldolf. what do you do? i direct the history program here. i have about -- historian. from predominantly diplomatic and area study background. we have a series of missions. the one that bring you here, i think, today. we published the foreign relations of the united states series. but just to make sure we understand the context. the other third of the office or so do historical able cease and support of policy making at the state department and normal official history aspect documenting the history of the department. so incredibly productive and interesting work i get to do. the formulation series began in 1861 with a request from congress for some of the documentation associated with a diplomacy of the opening of the civil war. and it's continued ever since then. which is a series of incredible miracles, i think, that this series has survived and matured as it has. we operate under now a -- 1990 in the immediate after math of the co