you can get at truth through fiction more than you can through non-fiction. do you believe that. >> i do believe that, yes. >> rose: because? >> i think it's because it's, well for one thing you're not inhibited by what actually happened. so the excesses of your aesthetic term by whatever it's bound it can present. fiction offers a unique chance for the reader and writer to construct the world together. so if i say a man walked off a dusty road towards a whitehouse. well you just supplied a man that worked toward a house. there's a third thing we're creating together. that makes intimacy and as a writer you can try not to ever condescend, make the participatory and then 80 pages down the road we've got a man we made together who is going through something hopefully major and who is making it. not me, not you but the two of us together. now that kind of happens in know fiction but the fact the fiction writer, for example, i don't -- >> rose: let me just understand. non-fiction the other person's not a part of making the character because the character's alread

you can get at truth through fiction more than you can through non-fiction. do you believe that. >> i do believe that, yes. >> rose: because? >> i think it's because it's, well for one thing you're not inhibited by what actually happened. so the excesses of your aesthetic term by whatever it's bound it can present. fiction offers a unique chance for the reader and writer to construct the world together. so if i say a man walked off a dusty road towards a whitehouse. well you just supplied a man that worked toward a house. there's a third thing we're creating together. that makes intimacy and as a writer you can try not to ever condescend, make the participatory and then 80 pages down the road we've got a man we made together who is going through something hopefully major and who is making it. not me, not you but the two of us togher. now that kind of happens in know fiction but the fact the fiction writer, for example, i don't -- >> rose: let me just understand. non-fiction the other person's not a part of making the character because the character's already

comment on our facebook wall or send us an e-mail. booktv non-fiction books every weekend on c-span2. >>> you're watching c-span2 with politics and public affairs weekdays featuring live coverage of the u.s. senate. on weeknights watch key public policy events and every weekend the latest non-fiction authors and books on booktv. you can see past -- program and get our schedule on our website. and you can join in the conversation on social media sites. >> we're here with author and journalist with the new book. what was so great about the great comprise? >> well, most people say anything about the comprise have vaguest reck lax from perhaps junior high school say there was a crisis in 1850. the nature was the country was in the brink of civil war. most of the political culture and most americans thought war was going to take place. that the deep south was going to succeed. they were closer to possession than most americans today realize. certainly the deep south states, texas was arming other southern states were sended armed men to texas. why am i talking about texas? had there been a

[applause] >>> is there a non-fiction author or book you would like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail. or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >>> now another interview from the university of pennsylvania. stephanie mccurry sat down with booktv to discuss the book confederate wreckenning and. it's a little under a half hour. confederate reckoning. power and politicals in the civil war south. the author is history professor stephanie mccurry of the university of pennsylvania. first of all, professor, what is this painting on the front of your book? >> this is a civil war painting of a "battleship" going down. the con fred rate flag going down in flames. it's an al gore call painting. it's not military history. ting tells you about what the book is about. >> professor, if you would start by giving the demographic of the south in 1860. >> that's a crucial question. they went to war, tried to make the new nation, they were smaller than the union to start with roughly 10 million people compare to the union's 22. that was already tough row to hoe. age military -- it isn't as mu

>> how did you become an award winning novelist and now in non-fiction? >> guest: when i got the green card, i made a promise to myself i was going to go to school and be somebody in this country, and my father, even before we were undocumented, he told us that that's why e he brought us here so get an education, and he drilled that into our heads, about going to college, all the opportunities college education could provide, and my father, he only went up to the third grade in mexico, and, to me, i felt that it would be a very, you know, the way to honor his memory and his sacrifices was for me to go to college because he had been unable to do so and so had my mother, only up to the sixth grade, and so a lot of my family that i had left in mexico, and so i really wanted to honor them, you know, and to say i know you couldn't do it, but i'll do it for you, and this was something that drove my very, very much to do well in school so i ended up going to a city college, pass pasadena city college, right after high school, went there for two years, general ed

despite being about the fight against cancer, the librarian says they are no longer non-fiction due to the lies. hell has no fury like a librarian. the actual definition is fiction is famed, invented, or imagined, a made up story. look, i say it if walks like a duck, smells like a duck, talks like a duck, you get what i mean here. that's my two cents more. it's fiction, my friends. that's all for tonight's willis report. tomorrow, start of obama's administration's second term. chris horner joins me on the lack of transparaphernalia sigh of the first term. what's that mean for the next four years? also, house leadership on the debt ceiling, what's the next move there? former white house economic adviser todd buckles will be with us. thank you for watching. see you right back here tomorrow. have a good night. ♪ lou: good evening, everyone. president obama today delivered his second and final inauguration speech in front of an estimated crowd of a million people. nearly half of the 1.8 million who saw the president's swearing in back in 2009. president obama marking the occasion, pushin

fictional biography that we write. i have become fascinated by this because the more i spend time writing biography and thinking about biography -- again, i don't say this is a criticism or wish to undermine the legitimacy of the enterprise. the for their way i feel for any conflict and our confidence that we have actually gone to the heart of the matter or been accurate in the most superfluous ways. now that we have talked about how you choose your subjects, like to go from there and ask how you think these choices are reflected in the books they you bright in a covert, i suppose -- mentioned distinction i brought up the other day, but a covert, overt way. since we are now in a stage sent to be superseded, i'm sure, by some other stage where we are suspicious of the. [indiscernible] we have left behind the city to the 19th century biography for the post deconstruction last unstable narrator. i have always hated that term, the unstable narrator. but in any event, how do we appear in these books? >> well, i address this

. >>> is there a non-fiction author or book you would like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org. or tweet us@twitter.com/book is tv. >> i wrote the new book. and i did it becauselet see, i was talking to katherine lopez the national review online and she asked me why i wrote it. i said, you bet it is an awakening. stuns me that half around half of the american population completely fell for this empty mantra of hope and change. the obama administration was going to be that transcendent administration. that brought us all together. that is why president obama earned the white house. because he said he was going the great uniter. remember that beautiful inauguration address? it was glorious where he said to conservatives, i want to listen to you especially when we disagree. okay. nice, beautiful. beautiful idea. and he was going meet with conservatives in congress once a week, that was a great idea two. he meet twice. twice, two times. three days after the beautiful speech, the conservatives in congress came to the white house and they had a

i mean, it really read like non-fiction in places, which are short and as a writer you encountered some of that feeling as well. i know as a reporter who has dealt with exxon mobil a good chunk of her career, how difficult it probably was to probe this company. let's start there. white exxon mobil? added you come to the subject? why this company? how was it -- how did it differ from some of your other subjects? >> it is an interesting -- to me it was an interesting journey because, as you point out, i started out as a business reporter on wall street when i was young. then i went abroad and worked on more national subjects. after september 11 the road about the origins of those attacks and 20 years of american covert policy in afghanistan. then after that was over i thought, i want to keep writing about america and the world after september 11th. this asymmetric groping that we had as a country to understand what the text for about, what the mint, with the relationship with the middle east was. that led me to the bin laden's which was a book intended to be about saudi arabia and its mod

his fingers prints on the major american non-fiction works in the past thirty years. he surprises me and sitting in the office and tell me i edited this guy and that guy and it happens to my favorite. c-span: what if your opinion is the partest you went about anybody or anything that makes people nervous? >> guest: my guess would be the most uncomfortable aspect of the book for some people would be my depiction of general david petraeus who has been wided regarded as a hero of the iraq war and afghanistan. and i offer very different picture from what one is accustom to when you read about him. c-span: like what? what do you say about him. >> guest: i quote some of his colleagues talking about him and the knock on general petraeus from his colleagues there's a lot of envy and truth in it. whenever general petraeus shows up and takes over an assignment he makes everyone before them look like an idiot. i use stronger language in the book using quotes from military generals. and his tactic which is pee leaves the dead dog on your doorstep every time. that's a powerful ind

i write fiction, non-fiction, journalism, i go back and forth. i nservier wanted to make up my mind who wanted to be when i grow up and never have so i go back and forth between this and literary forms. one of the chapterby a couple chapters in the book i might mention and get on to the martin luther king story, one of the chapters is about making the movie doctors of auto, dr. zhit zhivago though marjorie fears his father ran geraldine chaplin his mother and their the picture in the book in the spanish edition and the american position, how that came about, was a very strange and wonderful experience and there's another chapter on what it was like to be a jew in omatiain in those da y when given the -- between franco and the vatican, which made serviery other religion illegal begin that chapter with a funny stormed i am in a bar in northen spain and the guys are trying to teach me how to pour the wonderful cider, the hard cider which perhaps you know -- you hold the bottle this wg your head, you have a glass with a very big opened last pointing

book tv streams live on line for 48 hours every weekend with top non-fiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> and now from book tv recent visit to providence for ryland also to author and pulitzer prize-winning journalist about his book. >> the prince of provinces the story of the longest serving mayor and ryland history and one of the most colorful layers you will find anywhere in that country. part huey long and part tony soprano. a city of was rated one of america's most livable. he also presided over a breathtaking array of corruption over three different decades that ultimately landed him in several prisons -- federal prison. very colorful character. i call him america's longest running a lounge act because he would be squired about this city in his chauffeur driven limousine with a big jackbooted police officer by his side. he would have a cup of hot and one hand and a cigarette in the other. you know, the keys to the city. he was really coming to me, when i set out to write a book about him really to be the embodiment of american politics, good and . and he reflected pro

recall correctly, and a children's series called "tales of the king," but a lot of her work has been non-fiction, and that, too, has coveredded a vired of subjects. some of her nonfiction dealt with the issue of single motherhood, but a good deal has dealt somehow or other with the issue of religion in human life, in politics, and in social life. this is including a book on the difficulty journalists frequently have in properly understanding religion as a motive in events, and the book, itself, is called "blind spot" don't together with roberta, and my colleague, who is here today, paul marshall, published by oxford press and won several literary prizes. it's also included work on a book entitled a table in the presence which was written by lieutenant commander kerry cash which concerns his experiences as a chaplain in combat in iraq. another portion of her work, also within the general area of religion, has focused on the fate of christians around the world, and in particular, their prevails in recent years. this included the award winning "their blood cries out," also co-authoredded with paul

and every week in the latest non-fiction authors and books on booktv. you can join in the conversation online. >> in his first state of the state address, indiana governor mike pence talked about the state of indiana's condition. this is about a half hour. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] [applause] >> speakers, lieutenant governor, senators and representatives, members of the general assembly and distinguished guests and indiana's people, i am proud to stand before you as governor of all the people of indiana. [applause] we are all hoosiers and i know that together we will writes a great chapter of the next in the book of indian history. my colleagues that are gathered here, i think my remarks will not be as brief as last week's inaugural address. but, your feet will be warmer. [laughter] and discharging my solemn duty, i come before you today to proclaim the state of our state is strong and growing stronger. because we have good government. and because we serve the great people of indiana. [applause] if we will remain bold, confident, a

it streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with top non-fiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> here is a look at books being published this week.

on weeknights watch key public policy events and every weekend the latest non-fiction authors and books on booktv. you can see past programs and get our schedule on our website. you can join in on the conversation on social implead sites. >>> recently the economist magazine held the world and 2013 festival which coincides with the world in public indication. it provides reader be a global perspective on the july coming year across the sphere of business, economic, media, and other issues. a portion of the event included remarks by lynn foresters rothschild. he discussed the role of capitalism in society and how to make it more inclusive. she said the inequality problem is one of the most important issues facing the u.s. and britain. she's chief executive of el rothschild. it's about twenty five minutes. >>> so it's my pleasure to welcome lynn foresters the executive of e. l. rothschild to join me about the capitalism discussion in society in 2013. [applause] >> thank you. >> lynn, i should say apart from being chief executive of e. l. rothschild also the director of "economist" and co-c