thoughtsen what call -- and a discussion of race and caste in american and a talk about china's am boeing replace the united states as the world's leeding power. for full schedule visit booktv.org or consult your program guide. in... ... alongside contributor of the cds moderator ilisa barbash. tonight's event as part of the ongoing series as we remained digital for the time being were so excited to continue the work of bringing authors and their writings to our

community during these difficult times. especially now to the support of authors and their beloved community, they are able to make events like this happen. tonight's event we will conclude in time for your questions for if you like to ask the speaker something look at the q&a button we can submit all of your questions but we will get through as many as time allows. fear to the chat section of this presentation there be a link for you can purchase your copy of to make their own weight in the world. if you arty have your book or would like to contribute to the series in the story in your own way out i will also be posting in the chat for a place for donation button. we proceed any support you can extend to us at this time. lastly you may know if you have been with large virtual gatherings, technical issues may come up. we do apologize in advance for that. if problems do occur we will do our best to resolve them as

quickly as possible. and now it is my absolute pleasure to introduce tonight speaker, deborah willis as if for photographer university professor and chair of the tisch school of the arts at new york university. she is the author of several books including reflections in black, a history of black photographers. 1842 the present and in visiting mastication. black americans with slavery. john stauffer is the professor english and african and african-american studies at harvard university. he is the author and editor of 20 books and over 100 articles including giants the perlow lives of federal douglas and abraham lincoln a national bestseller. and black hearts of men. sara lewis is an associate professor at harvard university and the department and history of art and architecture and the department of african. she is a founder of divisions

injustice project and is the author of several books including upcoming projects, and a book on race, photography all from harvard university. ilisa barbash is a curator filmmaker of anthropology at peabody museum of archaeology per cheesy codirector the feature film in and out of africa as well as curator of the book cross-cultural filmmaking, handbook for making documentaries. tonight they'll be discussing their magnificent, their book to make their own way in the world : the powerful. [inaudible] ancient men and women of african descent who were captured in 15 of the cruelest images taken in american history. in a brilliant write up of this book, ask the trends essential questions as their correct way to regard these

images. throughout this book scholars, whose works spanned several backgrounds, histories have convened to offer new previously unimaginable ways of viewing these images, seeing them as they have never been seen before. and unearthing the long discarded truths of the soul and life progressive deeply honored to be hosting this event tonight. without further ado i will now turn things over to our esteemed panelists. >> hello everybody. thank you benjamin and thank you to the harvard bookstore for hosting us here. we are delighted to be here to be able to share this very complicated book with you. in order to make this conversation make a little bit more sense i'm going to go through a little bit of what the book is about. what they look like so you know have an idea of what we're talking about. were going to start by sharing my screen.

so to make their own way in the world, the enduring legacy is a narrated book with interdisciplinary contributions from 23 different authors and artists the photographs were made in the 1850s in columbia, south carolina by studio photographer a harvard's scientists will be agassi. i guess intended to use the images to support, he believe that rather than all humans descending from one origin, people of different races were of different origins. a theory of scientific racism that was discounted even in its time by some of agassi's

colleagues. agassi publicly presented this only once. it was then lost to history until the rediscovery and a peabody museum in 1976. since the rediscovery, the photographs have prompted intensive discussion, study and controversy. in this preface to this volume, henry lewis junior makes this important observation. as we have seen in so many cases around the globe, museums can come into possession of exploited images. this case to me, the underlying original sin is the fact that the enslaved men and women were not afforded the right to give or withhold their consent to be photographed. it may have been legal to take those images at the time, but

it was profoundly unethical. i think that was and remains the heart of the issue. so the starting point, each author explores a different aspect of the images beginning with the title forward, who are these people. an earlier research conducted a deep dive into archives in columbia south carolina and yielded new information about these individuals. as a carpenter born in africa. enslaved on the plantation of colonel wade hampton the second period the light of which construct the hampton manchin. there's evidence of the 1870 census that after emancipation, he lived alone in richland county.

john, you can see his label on the f upper left-hand corner. i should mention when they were discovered, within the cases there were labels that described the people within them. so as soon as they were discovered we knew the names of the people who were photographed. jim of the coaster islands they were concerned by sw greene who is likely a mechanical engineer. so it is possible that gemma worked on building projects in columbia. on the case that contained alford's photograph. that is the third one down on the rights, offered is described and quote belonging to jay loma.

the social work was an engineer named john loomis who live near columbia richland county. he was also a farmer so might've often worked as it mechanic artisan or other farmer. the other individuals in these images were enslaved by benjamin franklin taylor. it's likely they toiled at least part of the time in the cotton fields of taylor's grub field plantation. vote jackie will work as a driver or coin kind of overseer, and his daughter. it was from congo and his daughter who may have worked as a blacksmith. it is likely that his partner was a woman and they had at least five children including hester, molly phaser, july and delia.

this book explores the life of these individuals will impact the photographs have had and continue to have on the ongoing american discussion of race and racial justice. i would like to begin this conversation by looking at that impact both historically and upon the individual contributors to the book. and i would like to start, doctor deb. when you first saw the stereotypes, when he first heard of them perhaps in 1977 when they were in the news, what was your initial reaction to the discovery of these images? and how has that influence your subsequent work in your field of photography and photographic history? stomach thank you, it is good to be here with sara and john and all of you who are 100 people out there in the

audience there around the world. it was an impact. you know, a lot was going on and 76 based on the bicentennial. a lot of discoveries focusing on african-american history, new books were written. a number of people for saving families, or saving their collections. so having the opportunity to discover an article in the newspaper, i had just graduated from -- i was from undergraduate school. i was stunned by the article. i was fascinated by the stories because at the time i was researching the history of black photographer. i was also interested in researching the history of

finding black people photographed during that time. so personal memory for me was really embracing. it gave me a sense of hope to show how photography shaped history at that time. and so i was curious about the discovery. i know it was in the "new york times" when i read it. on the photographs still are in my minds eye. the profile image. they did not have the exposed images of the breast. but i remember seeing an overlap of images in the paper. and that is what i recall. looking at those images aren't really encouraged me to it continue my research and want to know more about the images. they stayed with me until later on, later bryan wallace's acacia and there were other pieces written

during that time. it was early on the 70s when i first encountered the images. systemic wonderful. john, elinor raichlen made the link between agassi and her research as a staff member of the peabody. but other questions about agassi's relationship to the images remain. john, you write in your acacia not suitable for public notice agassi's evidence about why agassi might've put these images away. and why they remained hidden for all of those years. can you tells what you found? >> it has been a major question that is one of the reasons that led me to it it. agassi was the nation's leading scientists. he create the harvard school of science, he was in fact one

colleague called him a shameless self promoter. he liked to promote himself and his evidence. and after commissioning the types and bringing them back to cambridge, he held the cambridge scientific club meeting where he showed them to fellow scientists and intellectuals. and journalists were brought in. in fact it was covered by the press. they journalists said, the gary types were powerful evidence. and yet agassi the only so-called public meeting in which she shares these to anyone outside of his very private sphere. and he puts them in a drawer. as you point out they

disappear until 1976. agassi was huge he was the major scientist huge self promoter he was in the news every week. he was constantly showing images of fish and other animals because he was seen to this day as inventing or discovering more species of fish and other animals than anyone else. the smallest differences, he would announce them a new species. and he felt there is evidence. he felt these types provided proof which is a profoundly racist skew produced or printed in two ways. their separate species on their separate origins.

which in fact agassi tried to argue against religious people. include everyone as the genesis for chinese and all these different races. so agassi essentially based on a lot of research and collaboration with colleagues one as agassi would have very close friends close friend of charles sumner a real champion of civil rights.

agassi was close to emerson who by 1850s was an abolitionist. henry longfellow hosted dinners, hosted integrated dinners were he invited african-americans to his home. along with longfellow's wife was even more of an adventitious. his anti- slavery. agassi is also friends with a lot of leading southerners who loved his theory. in fact right after he had this scientific club meeting, he was invited to receive a professorship at south carolina. the university of of charleston and south carolina. beginning in 1851 until the civil war, every winter he

spent a few months living in south carolina with these wealthy proslavery athletes in south carolina. in that relationship with southern lead there's an northern anti- slave leaders was important. if he is going to expose the evidence he's going to lose one group of those friendships. it was 1850, the same year was a revolutionary. , dell gets from nine southern states convened at a convention and considered succeeding in 1850. they decided not to but they came close to succeeding in 1850. boston massachusetts were deeply divided so for to take a position on antislavery it

could not sit on the fence. you cannot say antislavery comments proslavery is irrelevant to me. new have to take a position. it's not different from my view today which of extraordinary rise, protest movement black lives matter that has been very successful. i'm inspiring these daily or weekly protests. and so the one reason he shows his reputation his public status as a scholar, as a person who is always in the news north and south over providing or circulating, disseminating the evidence he feels is accurate. the other reason that i think he tabled is there is a

profound difference between how northerners and southerners viewed especially photographs of african-americans who were nude. as you pointed out most of these photographs they are nude. agassi has, emmett anatomical poses same way he did fish and other animals from a scientific perspective. they are nude in the u.s. north for regardless nude photograph was with circulation. in the south, it was quite common for slaves to be stripped nude at auctions or prorated partially nude or nude at auction. they were seen as property. so for agassi to disseminate

news of evidence, he would have received a huge amount of criticism. the upshot is he doesn't for his personal reputation, for his emphasis on his own fame and continuing to disseminate real life and making public the evidence of his scientific meeting is going to damage his reputation. >> he really did try to sit on the side. becky really did. the very fact that he could remain friends with, two of the pseudoscientists in the south became leaders of the confederate during the civil wa war. it's also friends with sumner who was a leading senator competition whose very close friends with lincoln and advising lincoln every step of the way. so that was a major reason. everyone knew him.

even his close friends realize he was a shameless self promote promoter. and that was very important to him. he made an effort to be in the news every day. he is one of the nation's leading public figures. wanted to be known throughout the nation not just one area or one community. >> i'm going to get to little technicality because two of the subjects of the seven subjects are completely new. five of them are not. now i want to talk to sara. this is a very important part of sarah's work. one of the most disturbing aspects of these is the enforced or forced disrobing of the people in the photographs.

beautifully entitled consistent reveal. you mention the chilling gesture of forced a partial address in the composition can you expand on this in any way you wish? i was thinking in the context of depictions of people of color throughout the history of western art. >> thank you lisa. i just want to express my gratitude to the panelists and you. it is such an honor to be part of this profound project in which we can honor those who have had their agency stripped from them in ways i will describe. and do justice to those legacy. the article or chapter i have in this book speaks to what is

an unusual feature of any portrait. these objects should not be seen as portraits at all. these apart from the full frontal moves as you describe are a state of half dressed. their clothes have been forcibly stripped down. what you see in the most chilling fashion is there clothing is bunched around their waist. and what that does is it really has the double portrait. scientific racism that way in which there is a forcible mood to deprive agency of subjects as greg describes in the book not even enslaved captive. that use of clothing also did something very specific in the history of representation. in the 19th century you start to see that state of

half dressed. i was doing two things. first, moving an object from being a work that is more situated in the history of art to one that moves into the history of natural science. and that move from art and science is seeing in these objects. that template of forcible undress. another reason for what john is describing as a failure of these objects in the end is that template became used in abolitionist context to actually expose the inhumanity and emblematic image were looking at his cordial back exposed. or in 1858 and disrobing

herself to both shame, what other men would have asked her if she was in fact a woman. but here she is inhabiting a templates. you are seeing a doing as well. that is a janice one. consider how that template lived on the 20 century as well. create some those objects an extraordinary example of the weaponization through compositional templates to denigrate human life and then honor it as well. to how to do it in two minutes? >> no. [laughter] was such a complicated question stock but the history of western art in the nude. thank you. expected to jump in for a second period it's really important to see to reimagine

how the history is difficult as it is today, and they 70s i saw families. saw bodies who were enslaved and thought of them as the evidence of labor. but to see them was a way to connect. two different types of debate about what images to preserve and black families as well as the experiences of people who were enslaved. it's amazing to listen to it 40 years later. the all of the complicated ways we have been able to

identify ways to see these images and how complex this experience has been. specifically as sara mentioned, the undress to body the partially undressed body. that is the colorful dress, skirt that we see at the of some of these images. i'm just imagining the violence of that stripping and what that means. >> i would love to speak to that or add to that justin's context of thinking through how we are in lineage with these objects and use with these families. i might anticipate your question one of these regions these objects are so gripping as a scholar is that they do position us as extensions of the history there.

i learned about them when i walked into the harvard art museum as a student. i learned the home constitutes the foundation of that museum. cambridge city has on a blue and white marker. and here at this point and i cried on the wall back such an important point. i think the 1995, 96 and delia,

she inscribed words on them. made them her own and said something new doing the same thing about kerry's early work? and not necessarily she wanted to represent looking at the experience of black people who have been photographed as typed. and how do we address the appearance of photography.

and then at the same time there's a visual evidence of existing as a type. and also having the scientific story we have will bid in through this narrative that's part of popular culture at the time. and scientific culture of the time. but also today, is kerri experienced it, to create, to make them live with the redeye that's in the image. and also to embolden through glass the sense of a tombstone. he became a scientific subject, either etched on their way of reading these images this

allows me to try to share my screen again without all of my garbage that is on my screen. i'm going to show kerri, for images that are part of a 30 plus acacia about african american, photographic stereotype, i'm going to do that now. then i will go into the photo acacia she produced specifically for this book and asked sara to speak a little bit about it, and deb as well. because deb's contribution, one of her many contributions to the book is an interview with kerri. so we all know what you're talking about, suspect while we are doing that.

>> okay. so it was interesting because both sara and i included these images in our acacia. but in different ways. so deb you pointed out that kerri was using. subject so the test basically was photographing the subjects. and going type in terms of the whole aspect of the profile. she's actually taking text from different narratives that she has read to the archives. in debate. so she really recognizes people were debating about the existence of black bodies are in. so she is creating in that

narrative. in the circle she uses as a metaphor as a focus for us, just as we focus on me go through microscope. she's looking in that way and creating the set of narratives for it. out of john or want to follow-up on that? >> i think that is very good. i loved the metaphor of the microscope. she is exposing the attempt to dehumanize humans by treating them in these anatomical and scientific ways. in one sense, the coverage of this cambridge scientific club meeting, reflected in a sense what you have said.

and one of the lines they said was these images are not suitable for public notice. that they should not be just broadcast without context to the world. that these are images that are very disturbing. but i love that analysis. >> as ui. of course we do. i think i would only add is that, it's actually observation what of my students this semester made. the black mat in the black frame when seen directly after looking at the actual stereotypes. starts to become a response to that black case of the type itself.

which you know those of us have seen it notice a thick object. these would have been pocket held objects in the 19th century, imagine walking around with one of these in your pockets. that experience of dehumanizing to that degree, one of the students rightly saw the decision to create these rounds and matt black frames is response to the objects themselves as a relates to the framing which i thought was important additional layer on that many interventions here. >> i would add that the red color is i think meant to refer possibly to the red velvet that is in the cases with the imprint on them. and so kerri puts her imprint on these red objects. >> i see it as blood. >> i do too, i do too.

>> i also see it, that is why i love the metaphor of the microscope. at that time it was a very private viewing experience an individual but his or her eye on the microscope and you sell the object you were looking at. is usually framed. and the light within the microscope was different than the natural light. in the redeye i very much see as invoking the blood. >> another way to bolster the blood reading is to think about her choice of the word you. >> and sticking with the red, i want to mention the background behind deb is the cover of the book. which is a work by kerri that

is kerri mae williams that has been colorized by her and splattered with dark marks. and that is from i believe 1862 image of enslaved people working in fields. so it was a theme, obviously a theme that they're interested in. if we move on to the works that kerri did for the books, i think we have a few words to say about this before we get to questions. kerry's acacia is some thirtysomething pages long. sara did you want to talk about it? tobacco certainly can. it is such an extraordinary project and book. i recently, over the past four years with a graduate student in architecture, put together

the first anthology on this work. it was the october file. it allowed me to it think through her body of work. i think ultimately, for the sake of time i will compress much of what i would say to this. ultimately i think kerri speaks to not the marketplace ultimately but the drama of history. that is her stage, that is the audience. and many reasons for that actually. but ultimately i think katherine gomez is right when she describes it as history's ghost. i think that is a way to see how her muse of her body as she does here in the louisiana project, as a way to allow us to see the present, the past, potential, and future anew.

largely her project to reframe our notion of what is possible through an examination, often times of the past. from here i so it happened and i cried the most vivid, profound and chilling examples of that. in the end i think her aesthetics art defined as rocketing to force us contend with the unspeakable. and in times, she does this through helping those have been forgotten, unnamed. and really she does this often by marshaling, so beautifully written about the power. and to consider how it is formulated the aesthetics of power over time. so it is really crucial that

they use their voice. to the interviews she can back up the essential work as part of this. >> so i was thinking of you encountering at these various moments in recent history. 1976, and then i'm sorry 1976 and 1996 was kerry's first work. from there i saw what was happening and i cried. he really delved in deeply into kerry's photo acacia which is kerry's new encounter with these types. what do you think this acacia says in 2020 now. although kerri made it a few years ago. what does this say that was news that we need to pay attention to? >> was happening and now we

think about the public debate from the 19th century, we are having public debates now about the monuments having the importance of the archives or the absence of archives. so what we are experiencing now is an opportunity to look at the record and see the multiple stories that have been neglected in some way. but also have been resurfaced. but in a sense she paid two different historical narratives from the female body, the experience of dress, of objectifying the body will be think about the experience of women who were enslaved.

so there are multiple stories that have not been discussed. john talked about images that could not be shown in the north or the south based on christian values. we also know that some of these images circulated in private bathrooms and private food was because of pornography. so some of these images are photographic with the sense of the exposure of the mail genitals and vast experiences. there are overlapping ways of reading. so today we are still grappling with this history of the body in many ways. also, how the archives are actually opening up a way to tell a different story. but of multiple histories. and at different times.

i think that is important to experience. >> thank you. we do have a couple of question questions. i would like to give the audience a chance to weigh in. going to stop showing the scree screen. this actually, i will start with john he was there from the very beginning of this project. how did the project begin? how does a group of scholars from different backgrounds converge on one set of photographs? >>'s what really begins with you, lisa. [laughter] many years ago about doing a radcliffe institute workshop essentially. it is a form in which access will allow us to bring together scholars from all over stereotypes from multiple

perspectives. an lease that you are interested in there was good scholarship mostly from our historians and there is a lot of questions who came to art history. and it was pointed out how to understand and interpret the path has influence and implications of the present. and how to think about the future. i tell my students all the time, as 1984 with the novel in which the party says who controls the past controls the future, controls the future, controls the present. this was a way of trying to obtain a broad understanding. we actually had two of the seminars. i thought they were very successful. lisa you sort of launched and spearheaded.

that really led to the book because of the enthusiasm by scholars from all different fields. and in some cases, scholars who had not had that much exposure or experience, background in photography. but understood the crucial implications of trying to do some sort of justice with the past and connecting it to the present. >> so i'm going to give john more credit. the project would not have gotten off the ground without john being engaged with it. and so together he and i invited 15 -- 20 scholars to a radcliffe exploratory seminar in 2012, and talked about what we do about these? if you could write about these

, what did they tell us? and everyone started by reading molly rogers wonderful book. and molly is an incredible research. we all tried to figure out how to build on it. and by 2015, they'd come to harvard. some people had dropped out. in some people started writing their articles. and really they had archived this. , we had people from english literature history, photography, art history, a whole mixture of people. and then we have a question here from someone about why at the end we include the story, the voices of students and young researchers in the volume alongside the essays to

establish scholars and professors. i will say something and then i went to ask sara something. to me, having been at the peabody seeing young people come in through courses taught by sara and robert bernstein who is also one of the contributors to the book, it is a very hard experience. i watch these students go through a kind of transition. and so i know sara can speak more to that. she had about ten students, she decided to ask them if they wanted to give a written

response, and their responses were so honest and free about their feelings. we, who spent years honing our articles, put them in a special place marie asked to try to cope with the emotional impact. and i personally of looking at these images and tried to do that to the best of my ability. but these students did not. they were completely honest. and so i have to ask sara, what is it like teaching with these images? it must be really hard. suspect my first i want to thank the students i know are in the audience. he mentioned them coming. because precisely what you are speaking to, lisa, i want to thank the students for their

trust in me as a professor. in introducing these objects to them. every year, and now i guess i have taken approximately 150 students through? >> i think so. >> every year i debate whether i will introduce these objects to the students. in part because, and i really can't speak here to the degree of preparation that is required on my part to prepare students for this experience. whether i have the emotional fortitude to witness that transformation in every single person that semester. what is taking place for the students is not just an intellectual shift. they are leaving often times redefine i think what emerges,

i really respect the privacy and never reveal a question that they asked. but the theme really hovers around justice. how can they as students that happen to be a society, better create a community in which this would never take place and, to answer your question, lisa it is certainly profound. good is an extraordinary privilege to be able to consider through that experience how we can best honor the lives robbed of their own agency in the photograph we speak about the objects or how i teach the objects. maybe it's you and i would start together it peabody with the students.

that day lasts for the entire semester and beyond. it is the moment the course has been building towards. 1920s, the courts, can begin to actually see those objects. even when i showed them briefly on the screen, it just simply does compare to the actual experience. course there's often times a kind of silence that speaks to pregnant possibilities and see the questions, the disbelief on the part of the students looking at these objects. and knowing that harvard students, are inspired as well. i know they have the sink through how they're going to view what many of us don't have the opportunity to do. which is to have your lives

shifted productively, positively because of what you have seen. and there's the acacia in the students tf of mine with vision and justice. that is a peace of the acacia speaks so powerfully to the transformation that eyewitness time and time again student teaching options. >> i have been told a couple of times by students who have questioned why we showed these images? and i wonder, i believe we should. i wonder if any of you want to speak why it is important even if it can be traumatic? >> we only have about two minutes left. will have two minutes left. >> it is a long story.

this 85, five students in the class. most of the students could not experience these images. they said that they never even had a class on slavery how would you? they did not know the history. they cannot even imagine the history. they said some people were from europe. they said they did not have this racism in europe. and then one of the students wrote a paper and realize were agassi was born. so just opened up a whole new history for them. a whole new understanding of humanity for them. an understanding how to use the archives to move forward with the future. i think it is very important for a research tool to look at photographs.

it's important to understand the history per they can't talk about it if they don't know what happens. they can't empathize if they don't know what happened. and that is what is important about it. >> i doing to add one thing. basically agree with everything that people have said. i do think it is impossible to grasp how slavery structured in this country in a democracy without understanding these objects in the events. i don't think there's anything that can replace that. but it think it is important to teach about these objects especially today. we have daily reminders of the fragility in this country. nothing's being secured by law but by culture. we're living in this moment with a failure to really see one another. having fatal consequences. these objects i think speak to the origin of this journey we

are all a part of. >> i like to add briefly moves her wonderful comments. i gain control of the humanities most of the 20th century. slavery was completely sanitized for most of the 20th century for a few ready history was by a white man typically and it was seen as benevolent or into the 1980s is partially benevolent. images and the voices of people with african americans were basically excluded. you could read a 500 page book and never be introduced to a nonwhite person. those through throughout the humanities. there's a disproportionate number of leaders who were themselves southerners. it was a way of trying to

redeem the south after the civil war. it was open and explicit about that in their correspondence. so all the more reason to essentially introduce students whose parents and grandparents were not able to be exposed to it. to confront the pass in a much more authentic, realistic and accurate way. and to properly contextualize the interpretation. that can be very emotionally disturbing. snack it is so wonderful to spend this time with you all. i'll just spin off from what john just said. actually that is kind of what this book is trying to do. you take it home, you look at it and you have to confront

the images. you can do in your own time. for you to reckon with. i think that is exceedingly important. >> i think we need to remind the images by evelyn and her chapter. the family images of free blacks at the same time a black photographers who photograph black families. it's important to acknowledge her acacia is central. >> that is true. there are a number of essays that touch on important subjects we did not get to. but everyone, trayce her history through images right back to slavery, including a photograph of the great aunt.

but is paired with a tragic story. and that is paired with an acacia by matthew that talks about enslaved peoples own uses of photography. that is very new research. it is something john worked with matthew at one point. it's a kind of research none of us knew much about. these are very important. [inaudible] the thing is what those two articles do is they also talk about the empowerment of

student david argues that more people see near douglas speak during the golden age of moratorium, that any other white or black then mark twain. and douglas was truly one of the literally, two or three most significant figures in the united states during his lifetime. and again, for a good part of the 20th century, the significance of that history was erased. and that was done politically by whites. >> okay. [inaudible]. heath pulled the chair out from under us. i can think of a better way to end this then to talk about frederick douglass. and the things that he has

offered us. here we go. thank you all and was so nice of this kind of a reunion. a collaboration, thank you. it. >> it was so wonderful to see you deborah. zuma can be very alienating. so this was a real treat for me to be able to, if only virtually to spend time with you. >> it is likewise always of pleasure . >> this is minute truly amazing event and i am so honored to have been able to participate in it even as a host. and that the audience was able to witnesses as well. i want to take a moment to thank our wonderful speakers again. and all of you for spinning your evening with us and showing up for the others. in the publishers the bookselling in our incredible staff here in harbor bookstore. we sincerely appreciate your support. it took out the bucket the link

below. thank you again for your time and your support and for spinning a part of your friday evening with us. have a great night everyone and stay well. >> thank you and goodbye. you're watching book tv, on "c-span2", every weekend with the latest nonfiction books and authors. both tv and "c-span2". it created by americans cable television company. today, were brought to you by to provide this service to the viewers. here's a look at some of the most notable books of 2020 according to the wall street journal. and money, npr's jacob goldstein explores the history of currency. martin sherwood looks at the cold war with focus on the human missile crisis and gambling with armageddon. in the quarter, historian margaret mcmillan describes how

military conflict has affected our lives. also in the wall street journal's list of 2020 notable books is simply 43. author james collins highlight invasion of italy during world war ii. and eric larson study prime minister winston churchill's leadership in the london blitz, in the splendid and the vile . >> is when the starts in the book. the wind churchill became prime ministers, that was the greatest day in his life. that was the thing he wanted most of all. and he became prime minister and somewhat of a rebellion in the house of commerce. and the consensus was that chamberlain, was a fire prime minister was not up to the challenge of dealing with hitler and in germany. but that same day, was the day the hitler and the so-called - it became a heart thing. when hitler invaded the other

countries. so in the situation, or churchill and his greatest day of his life, also facing the darkest days in the history of the world. this is not known, churchill just simply added spice to the challenge for the idea being in charge. by this great empire such a dire time really kind of thrilled him. >> most of these authors have appeared a book tv and you can find their programs in their entirety a booktv.org. just like the authors name in the search bar at the top of the page. >> there is a light at the end of the tunnel. it's a . fantastic probably in vigorous. so our first speaker will be joanne mcneil, author of the book how a person becomes a leader. she's in curator of the art