of art history at columbia university, simon schama has presented 30 documentary's for the bbc and pbs including an international emmy award winner. mr. schama has won numerous journalism prizes including an award for history and the prize for literature, the national academy of arts and letters award and the national book critics circle award. he also loves to cook and we have seen a number of his recipes. his newest work, the american future: a history, looks at the presidential election from a historical perspective debating war, religion, race, and immigration, and the relationship between natural resources and prosperity. mr. schama examines these problems in the context of america's identity. before we bring mr. schama out, we will show you a short clip from his new documentary that shares the same name as his new book. ♪ >> it was a hard american winter. a tough time for americans. but out there, beneath the ice, something big was stirring. an awakening of the unruly animal, american democracy. this presidential election isn't like other elections. people who live here felt th

[laughter] as i am reading your book and watching pbs behind closed doors, i am impressed with roosevelt thought he could charm and the entrances chant -- in transient people like staal and now we have a president who seems to feel likewise. i don't know there's a question and there but i am wondering. your book is terrific. >> everybody can buy one and we will sign copies. [laughter] we watched last night's episode as well. a terming fdr a thames had to believe he thought he could even charm the south park 35 he would go there and as we argue, they walked all over fdr and as soon as he got there he totally capitulated pretty that he would charm the pants off and everything would work with the arabs because all's they had to do was listen to them. in fdr's case, he was ill, would soon pass away, how his stroke. he was very, very sick. one of his aides was on the ship with him thought when he read in the text of the transcript he said he is really sick i don't know if he knows, he is in st.. he was nowhere in this state fdr was when he was trying to charm everyone. >> truman does not seem

if it's not pbs, i have no clue unless it's a newscast. so i'm very interested as you proceed as the chair of fcc. you and i talked briefly about this and how important it is for our state, a very rural state. and i would like to describe here in this committee extreme rural as other people talk about rural states, the distance and the travel and the complexcy of the transportations of the climate conditions, create unique situations. i know there's talk of reform. alaska, 100% tribal which gives it special considerations. i wonder how you feel about that policy and how tribal lands is recognized in how alaska fits into that. that and the reform the principle of universal service is a core principle of communications policy that goes back to the beginnings of the communications act that has been reinforced many times by congress. that is a priority of mine. i would like to see us have as much success in universal service and communications over the next 75 y

you guys broadcast, probably a year ago, the producer for pbs, and he traveled the world and went to about 20 different countries, and their work combination of single-payer as well as private and public. and he said that those combinations were great. i do not know what happened to him. he has great documentation on how health care can work, unlike the united states, where it does not work. people just refused to say that. and phil gingrey will be on there and give the same stuff about how it is the greatest system in the world, and it is just baloney. it is propaganda. host: he will be on, as well senator bernie sanders, as this continues to unfold. inside "the politico," "what obama said and what he meant." "pouring money into a broken system only perpetuates inefficiencies. doing nothing to put our entire health care system at risk. we simply cannot afford to postpone health care reform a logger." that is a letter to president sent to congress. in this point, "do not try to slow-walk healthcare." scott joins us from new york city. good morning, democrats like. caller: good mornin

[applause] >> elizabeth bracken is a correspondent for pbs news hour with jim where. stack the solution is probably going to be choice. right now we have no choice. you drove presumably. if you want to go somewhere 95% of the time you are driving. 98% of the energy in that car is oil. we have no choice in vehicle but we have no choice in fuel. and that's the biggest problem so we have to start thinking about different types of cars that are more efficient using different types of fuels like electricity. and then so is not always a car that you have to pick. if you are old and/or you are young or you're disabled or you are injured or poor, you don't have a car. cars are not an object and that is a big part of this population here and everywhere in the world. so we need to have much more creative incentive, you know, differentiated ways of moving ourselves around. >> in your book you talk about some alternative fuels, former administration of president bush put a big investment into hydrogen. is that sustainable? >> hydrogen is a real interesting case. it has always bee

coming out next elizabeth brackett correspondent for pbs our cover her new book is "pay to play: how rod blagojevich turned political corruption into a national slideshow". [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] bodman [inaudible conversations] >> welcome to the 25th annual "chicago tribune" printer's row fast, we would like to give special thanks to our sponsors and community partners to help make this event possible. it just a few housekeeping notes before we begin today's program. please turn off your cellphone and all other electronic devices, also flash photography is not permitted. today's program will be broadcast live on c-span2 booktv. if there is time of the end for question and answer session with the author we asked them to use the microphones located in the center of the room so that our home viewing audience

. >> as i'm reading your book and as i'm watching also pbs behind closed doors, i'm impressed with roosevelt's thought that he could charm the people like stalin. and we now has a president who feels likewise. i don't know if there's a question in there. your book is terrific. >> everybody can buy it. we're going to sign copies. don't forget. [laughter] >> we watched last night's episode, too, and yes the charming of fdr's attempt -- he thought he could charm even saul. and as we argue in our book that, you know -- even saul walked all over fdr as soon as he got there he totally capitulated to him. he thought he was going to come in and charm the pants off him and everything work with the arabs because all they had to do was listen to him. of course, in fdr's case by then fdr was quite ill. he would soon pass away and have his stroke. he was very, very sick. one of his chief aids, i forget who who was actually on the ship with him thought when he read the text of the transcript between them, he said fdr is really sick. i don't know what he knows he's just been saying. and barack obama is vigor

stevens who was in iran filming a pbs special says the country is the most poorly understood place he has ever visited. the event hosted by the commonwealth club in palo alto california is one hour and 20 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. well, it's great to be here, normally when i talked to a group like this i'm talking about europe. people know me because i make tv shows on the guide book. i went to iran for none of those reasons. i went to iran because i think you should know people before you bomb them. [applause] you know, sometimes it's necessary to bomb people and kill them i guess but i think it's bad character to dehumanize our country so it doesn't hurt to read our country included is good at dehumanizing an enemy, collateral damage, you know the problem, not letting photographs of cast gets -- you see extended family, you just kill them all because osama. he wasn't. they are dehumanized. we don't cry. a beautiful blonde girl is kidnapped and aruba and we cry, you see, she's humanized and i don't want to put up with that. she's precious, they are preci

in addition to his work at the times, david is a frequent commentator on pbs, cnn, and npr and is the author of several books. and he's the reason c-span is here today. televising this session. given his busy schedule, it's a special honor to welcome him to the conference today. ladies and gentlemen, our keynote speaker, op-ed columnist for "the new york times," david brooks. >> thank you. the times is way cooler than the journal, by the way. [laughter] the atmosphere in this room is a little like the times washington bureau. about nine times more enthusiasm. i'm actually not used to this level of enthusiasm except for back in the day when i was a student at syracuse university. i wasn't really a student at syracuse. i was a student at florida state. you guys have the whistle. so i thought i would shout out florida state. i'm going to talk a little about washington. you've come here to our capital at a unique moment when we're actually like the business center of the universe. i used to cover business -- i try to cover culture wherever it's going. in the 1990's i covered silicon valle

conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] author elizabeth brackett, correspondent for pbs newshour with jim lehrer, her new book is "pay to play: how rod blagojevich turned political corruption into a national slideshow". and we will continue shirley with our coverage of the "chicago tribune" printer's row book fest with discussion on the sojourner truth and it t.r. m. howard. we'll be right back. >> us for university press in 2009 has several new titles coming out, susan ferber, a senior editor with oxford. what are some of those new titles? >> how be thrilled to, we have a range of new books and i thinki will talk more about political ones that have political implications today. real enemies, i realize there's a lot of talk about a conspiracy theory and use them on the internet -- this is an author who spent time looking at what this conspiracy there remain for american democracy and how does the fact there have been conspiracy theories over a long time since world war i, what does that mean about americans and what they think about their government and do they trust go

motivation, to make a profit and so when you turn on any cable news network news program other than pbs is corporate sponsored. they can't say anticorporate messages because the corporations are finding their entire program and corporate and owned and the corporations are some of the biggest lobbyists in washington. not necessarily on the finance front but all the issues important to them as media companies with regard to the media concentration, whether they have to pay for free airtime, etc., etc.. so it is a very difficult battle. if you think of the corporations of america being very strong and government being very strong and i think almost an equal for third leg of that triangle is the media, again, very powerful and the individual stock in the middle of the triangle, how do we get out? we could have endless elections on and on and on and which republicans take the side of big business and democrats take the side of big government and nothing changes so we have to break out of this triangle and the good news is we have the methodology to do it and that i believe is the internet. t

it wasn't on -- i wasn't publicize one channel but i'll say pbs was the other channel. if it's not on those two i have no clue what's on the regular shows unless it's a newscast. i'm very interested as you proceed as chair on the fcc. let me, if i can, and you and i talked briefly about this in the universal service fund and how important that is at least for our state a very rural state and i like to describe here in this committee extreme rural, the distance and the travel and the complexity of transportation of these locations but also just the climate conditions really creates some unique situations. under the -- and i know there's talk about reform and as that moves forward, there'll be issues of concern for us as alaska is identified if i'm not mistaken it's 100% tribal, which gives it some special considerations. and i'm curious on how and what -- how you feel about that policy and how lands, tribal issues, tribal land is recognized and how alaska fits into that. and you may can give a general. you don't have to give a specific. a specific about that and the refo

. >> the next question is, in your recent pbs program you interviewed mostly young educated people and they were pro-american. what about the old people? do they like americans? >> well, i was just there for 12 days and i don't know -- my only experience is anecdotal and everywhere i went these old ladies sitting in the village that you saw in the show, they were old and provincial as you probably could imagine and, you know, they just were laughing about the thing. i didn't feel they were angry with me or anything. i think thankfully around the world people know there's a difference between people in their government. one thing i was struck by is governments come and go but the people are still there. we have to clean up the mess of their government and our government and it's just pretty important to try to contain it, i think, you know, 'cause they get swept away with different elections and the people are still there. i didn't feel like it was a generational thing. young people are interested in the west. old people are a little more conservative and fearful of the west but i didn'