you have to understand these together and what it was all about. >> steven barnes, ed "death and redemption" the gulag and the shaping of modern society" this is the book we have been talking about. thank you very much >> hello. >> i am from the interest did the race ago the executiveaom director of western writers of america i will be speaking with robert morgan of course, he is known widely for his poetrytry and his fiction and also known knownl widely as a historian coming over intoi the role does well best known probably for his novel gappedes buckweed -- gapped creek and he tells me as a warm personal friend of both pro. [laughter] he loves her a lot after this. [laughter] also picked up by the zero her of book club shows lourdes discernment because it is the author who is responsible for the quality of the work and into the history world when he did hid is biography of daniel boonehe went through fiveor printingse and still going and the current book is called lyons of the westhist which is a history of the period of manifest destinywhe when america fell thet continental destinyof bec

the gulag and the shaping of modern society" is the subtitle george mason university professor steven barnes is the author. what is a gulag? >> guest: in short it is the acronym for the chief administration and it is a bureaucratic

record we talked with history professor steven barnes. "death and redemption: the gulag and the shaping of modern society." professor barnes, as far as you can tell have you done our research in the soviet gulag archives and anybody else since they have been opened? >> guest: i don't know if i were to add in more than anybody else. that are other scholars have been doing work and there are a number of really good russian scholars have been doing work since the late 1980s. but i certainly am one of those have done the most. as terrific, i think it's a subject we really need to know more about. there are a lot of young scholars that are coming along today both in the united states and in the former soviet union who are doing work on this today. i ran a conference at the davis center for russian eurasian studies at harvard a few years ago and we had well over 70 applications from various scholars to participate in this conference were doing the kind of research that we need to understand this system. this book, which i think is a very importa

and steven barnes, author of "depth and redemption: the gulag and shaping of modern society." all of the interview there is the george mason college series are available online at booktv.org. >> this is booktv on c-span2, and we're on the campus of george mason university in fairfax, virginia, doing our university professors series where we have the chance to talk to professors from different universities about the books they've published. maybe you haven't heard of them, maybe they're not going on tour. we get a chance to talk with them. now joining us is professor christopher hamner, history professor here at george mason. and his newest book is called "enduring battle: american soldiers in three wars, 1776-1945." professor hamner, what three wars did you choose and why? >> guest: the book looks at the experience of american history soldiers in the war for independence, the civil war and the second world war. and i picked those three because i wanted to survey broadly the experience of soldiers fighting in three different centuries. so what was similar about their experience