rosemarie zagarri is a professor in virginia on the outskirts of washington, d.c. which is where we are now on booktv doing our university series. this book has been reissued just recently in paperback. >> guest: yes. >> host: why? >> guest: well, because i think apportionment has continued to plague the states and come before the supreme court as an issue, and i think that people all want to know what did the founders think, how did the, how did people at the time of the framing of the constitution think about these issues? and i actually think they don't provide definitive answers. i think what you see is that it was a political issue then, and it's a political issue now. what i would say is that they did strive for justice, they did strive to make sure that equal numbers of people received equal numbers of representatives so that the districts would have about the same numbers of people. and they would strive to have districts that made some sort of geographic sense, barring these few, these few oddities that i mentioned such as james madison's district. and so

. >> george mason professor who rosemarie zagarri in your book the politics of size you begin the book by saying that the deepest and most antagonistic conflict that the federal constitution convention was the controversy over her presentation in the national legislature. why is that? home is a lot of people think slavery is an issue that and i was a major issue in the was contentious but the fact is that it was only the deep eight over how people would be represented in the lower and upper house of the new congress that was the major issue that nearly stopped the convention and nearly cent of the delegates home who are that nearly resulted in the whole debate being ended, and what i think it is very little understood debate but it's what got us when this sort of a sesto em ho we have today in congress where all of the states have two representatives in the senate in other words and equal vote in the senate and representation some the basis of the population in other words what more representatives for more people in the house of representatives and so i think that 20 date will has fad

so we try to get his name out there. >> we are talking with rosemarie zagarri. she's a history professor here at george mason university. she's the author of this book "the politics of size: representation in the u.s. 1776-1850." recently reintroduced in paper book, reissued in paperback but she's also the author of this book "revolutionary backlash: women and politics in the early american republic" published by the university of pennsylvania press. what's the word "backlash" mean in your title? >> well, as i studied this period, what i found was that even though women couldn't vote for the most part or hold public office, that the revolutionary era debate over equality and natural rights generated a more large and widespread discussion about whether women had rights and what rights women should have. and women had actually been important participants in the prerevolutionary era, in the boycotts against great britain in making homespun. and attending protests, invoi invoiciinvoice in voicing their opposition to political rule they become political figures and p

zagarri, who is one woman from the revolutionary period we should know about but don't? >> mercy otis warren. she was the wife as a patriot, james warren, the sister of another patriot, james otis, from a very well-connected political family of massachusetts. but her brother, james otas, had been very active in the revolutionary cause, the resistance cause in the 17 sixties and then he went insane. unlike most women, mercy otis women had been highly educated. she was educated by a private tutor along with her brother. she kind of stepped in his place and began writing plays and poems and political tracks that attack the british tyranny and they are actually published in the newspapers in massachusetts and they were circulated throughout the colonies. so she was really important i guess you would say instigator in the coming of the revolution. interestingly enough, too she then wrote one of the first histories of the revolution published in 1805 she was a friend of abigail adams and john adams and john adams actually encouraged her authorship and venture to history so she

. >> host: we've been talking with professor rosemarie zagarri of george mason university. this is her newest book, "revolutionary backlash: women in politics in the early american republic," and just recently reissued is her book, "the politics of size: representation in the u.s. 1776-1850." >> and now, an interview from george mason university. >> host: professor tom hazlett, what's net neutrality? >> guest: it's a series of regulations on broadband internet providers that limit what your service provider provides you access to the internet presumably with high-speed service can cowith business models models and pric. so the idea of the net neutrality rules is to limit the reach or scope of your local transport network that hooks you up, takes you to the internet in terms of your data traffic and allow you, the customer, to access any kind of application or content without the discretion of the broadband provider involved. so it's, basically, rules or regulations that limit the business models and packaging of your local broadband company. >> host: well, in december 2010