i'm washburne, eliot washburne was protestant. he was not a catholic, but he greatly admired the archbishop and he knew this is a terrible thing happening because they were killing priests executing them any was unsuccessful in saving a man's life. but nobody tried harder to get them out. that old story -- this is a man that again was quietly heroic. his sense of duty with amazing and admiral in the extreme. but also, i think you got a strong sense of duty to keep the diary. he would come in after a terrible day and see the most heartbreaking, sometimes nauseating experiences and acts of human savagery and sit down at 1:00 in the morning and right log entries and superb english. to use the command of the language is tumbling. he was a man who never really had an education as we would call it today. but this is true of the letters and diaries i worked with through the whole book. people like charles sumner, people like emma willard, the great champion of higher education or women or elizabeth blackwell, the first woman doctor in am

so he appointed washburn the, our minister or our ambassador to france, to arrest. washburn went over thinking this is going to be just what i need to recover my strength and have a little peace and quiet with my family. he arrived on the eve of the franco-prussian war, and in very short order, the germans were marching on paris, and in very short order the germans surrounded paris, and paris was cut off from the world. now, all the other ambassadors for all the other powers left the city, got out, except washburn. and he said it's my duty to stay here. and he stayed through the entire siege which lasted five months, and he stayed through the horrific, the god awful, bloody commune that followed where french were killing each other by the thousands in the city of paris. he not only stayed and served ainitially helping americans who were there, but also the germans who were there, had been living there as workers who were innocent of doing anything wrong to get them out of the city on the request of the german government, some 20,000 of them. he organized, arranged a

c-span: there was a lot of history about washburn. i wanted to ask you about the five republics and how many were in the middle of the seven years you wrote about. you remember? >> guest: i don't understand the question. c-span: there have been five french republics. i wrote down the dates. >> guest: i think there were two. c-span: first one is between 1793-1804 and the second one -- you get lost in the story. again, the second republic was '48-'52 third one was 1870 all the way to 1940. what happened in france in the 1800's. what was the overall story of what went on in the country. >> guest: you went from a king who got power and then he was thrown out by an uprising and escaped with his wife and their lives and lived out the rest of his life in england. he is a very interesting man in part because he spent a good time here in the united states when he was in exile from france because of the french revolution he had an aristocratic leineage. he came to the united states, sailed down the ohio river and down the mississippi with his b

and he was assigned to be our minister to paris in a period earlier man elihu washburne was assigned. is very interesting because he decided to recognize "the new republic" of france after the overthrow of louis philippe. when communication between america and france was still a month at best, they had to come by ship, mr. morris hadn't invented his telegraph yet to come and be decided on his own to recognize the new government of france, not waiting for the government in washington to tell them that's what he should do. a very brave decision, to say the least. and a very important decision, which was enormously welcomed news, and applauded, not just in paris by the new government, but in washington as well. c-span: how do they do indicate in those days when her over in paris, i know things change from \30{l1}s{l0}\'30{l1}s{l0} up to -- >> guest: by letter. c-span: how long did that take? >> guest: a month at best. c-span: was very telegraph near the end of the 1800? >> guest: yesterday led to cable was laid and they could communicate directly. c-span: what did that change? >> guest:

. >> filmmaker grant washburn has been surfing and shooting the giant waves of mavericks for almost twoes. he's seen some incredible surfing and some insane wipeouts. >> it's not necessarily harder to ride big waves. the stakes are higher, and they are punished more severely. so if you make a big mistake at mavericks, it will be unlike anything that would happen to any surfer much anywhere else. >>> january 30th, 1998. the el nino weather pattern makes for a winter of record surf and a big swell is coming in from hawaii. >> it didn't originally look that huge, but they actually were so thick and so powerful that they were some of biggest waves we'd seen. >> the waves are powerful enough to give the most experienced surfers second thoughts, but a few decide they can't miss this opportunity. as grant films, one of mavericks' best known surfers who goes by the name flea, goes for a wave. he doesn't make it. >> this huge wave. beat him down into -- really deep. he held his breath, got pushed into the rocks and got stuck there. >> the leash attaching the surfboard to flea's leg is wrapped ar

and banjo master bela fleck and his wife abigail washburn.hey provide separate ensembles but are now teamed up for the first time. like other rocky grass veterans, they were determined to return after the flood. >> there's little doubt the festival was going to happen at all. it was a real important year to come back and do something. >> to be a part of this incredible community that has, against all odds, found a way to reclaim this land and turn it into the festival site it once was. >> brown: it all looked and anded great. ♪ but there was also this. the so-called homeless band. the pickup group of musicians and children who lost their homes in the flood and all these months later are living in temporary housing, uncertain what happens next. barry mccrumb was playing banjo and singing. he showed us where his house once stood. >> the front door was here. >> brown: he had flood insurance but that covered just half his losses. >> they only pay for the part that touched the water which is 3.5 feet in my house but the dry wall above they won't c