coming up, dan balz, george packer of the new yorker and jeremy scahill dirty wars. this is live coverage here on booktv. international. those of you joining us to chapman center in the lou harrison and absurd as a volunteer for many, many .. years. it's happy anniversary to the 30 years here in our community. [applause] we are very grateful to art software in particular, american airlines and always shall. i'd also like to recognize the friends of the fair, many who are here in our first couple of rows. thank you so much for your generosity in support. we look forward to your continuing to be a friend for many, many years. miami book fair international and miami dade college work hand-in-hand to bring this book fair to us every year. it's a wonderful, this wonderful cultural affair that thousands and thousands of fairgoers are enriched by each and every year so thank you all. come on and have a seat, please. and as you know, our sessions are being streamed live by c-span. please help us to keep the fair going for another 30 years and we usually ask you to turn off y

george packer and jeremy cahill. they just won the national book award this year. jeremy scahill will be joining for a call-in program, and dan ballz. next we want to hear from gary in kentucky. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i really enjoyed the panel. it was a great discussion. you know, the problem i see -- i am just a layman, but the first call we got where he comes out so partisan, he's not welcome ... fair because he's a conservative, that's what i see wrong with the country. we are all americans and, you know, it is just destroying a country to keep us all -- i love c-span and i've been trying to call you for 15 years and i finally got through this morning. i cannot believe it. have a great day. >> gerry, before you hang up, how would you describe your politics? that's too bad. he had up after 15 years. i wanted to talk to have a little bit. cynthia in colorado. what is your reaction to what you saw thuseful the authors tag about? >> caller: i definitely want to read the book. i have a kindle and i downloaded the sample. i think c-span is so fair. th

[applause] this year's national book award in non-fiction goes to george packer. [cheering and applause] ♪ [cheering and applause] ♪ this is an incredible honor. anyone at last night's reading knows all of the nominees in this category did great work. and i feel very lucky to be given this award. thank you to my friend, john, alex star, and the rest. you do it the old fashioned way which is still the best way. [applause] thank you to danielle and david and others at the new yorker for giving me just the right balance of freedom and editorial brilliance. thank you to my friend, dexter for being there from the start. to my mother and sister nancy and ann packers. writers both so they understand. my children, charlie and julia. i won't say you made it any easier but you made it a lot more fun. [laughter] to laura, my love, thank you for sharing my life and my work. i can't imagine either one without you. and finally, i want to thank dean price, tammy thomas, jeff, and other americans who gave me the great gift of trusting me with their stories and allowing me to

. >> george packer is a finalist. >> can you spend a minute with us? >> i spent an hour with brian lamb. >> yes you did on a q&a program and we are covering you in miami as well. you will be live on booktv this weekend but you are one of the finalists in the nonfiction category. is this the first time you have been nominated? >> yes, it is. it's tremendous. it's an honor. the readings were last night and we all listened to each other from across the four categories and the quality was just incredibly high. everyone had three or four minutes. they didn't have much time to get across the field of your work but it was incredibly impressive and i felt honored to be in that company. >> which story did you tell? >> i read a passage in which one of the main characters dean price is thinking about the landscape of his home the piedmont region of north carolina and what has happened to it recently. he has a kind of -- he is sitting on his front porch at night with a glass of jack daniels and listening to the trucks go by. he knows some of them are full of chick

this goes to george packer. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this is an incredible honor and anyone who was at last night's reading knows that all of the nominees in this category is the great works. and i feel very lucky to be given this award. and thank you to my friends and the rest. you still do it the old-fashioned way, which is still the best way. [applause] >> thank you to the wylie agency for crucial intelligence and thank you to daniel zaleski and david remnick and others for giving me just the right balance of freedom and editorial trilliums. writers both understand as well and my children, charlie and julia, you did make it a lot more fun. thank you for sharing my life and my work and i can't imagine either one without you. and finally, i want to thank dean price and timmy thomas and jeff congleton and other americans who gave me the great guest of allowing in their lives so that i could illuminate some of what has gone wrong in america over the past generation. and in their own lines, some of what h

dan balz, george packer and jeremy scahill are all on the panel. george packer, "the unwinding" just won the national book award at this year. jeremy scahill's "dirty wars." he will be joining us later in the day for a calling program and dan balz, "collision 2012". so that panel would be begin in about five minutes. next we wanted from gary in paducah, kentucky. gary, good morning. >> caller: good morning. i really enjoyed the panel. it was a great discussion. you know, the problem i see, you know, i'm just a layman, okay? but the first caller we got what he comes off so partisan that he could be not welcome at the book fair because he's a conservative, that's what i see wrong with the country. i mean, we are all americans. it's just destroying the country just to keep us polarized. you know, i love c-span. honey, i've been trying to call you for 15 years and i finally got through this morning. i cannot believe the. i love c-span. have a great day. >> host: gary? gary? gary, before you hang up, how would you describe your politics? that's too bad.

some of the others still your friend include mark halprin and george packer who won the book or this week. bill ayers, representative debbie wasserman schultz, chris mathews are some of the authors you can find the entire schedule at the tv guide oracle. we look forward to seeing you tomorrow. >> next, elizabeth varon recalls robert e. lee's surrender to the ulysses s. grant led union forces said the mclean house on october 9th 101865. this is about 45 minutes. [applause] >> thank you so much for that very, very kind introduction. it's a pleasure to be here. property surrendered u.s. grant in 1865 which is for most americans a familiar tableau. the two men met your mama central virginia at appomattox courthouse. lee wore a fine dress uniform and vow gentility of the southeasterly. create test crack early and represented the hardscrabble farmers and wage earners had molded in to so formidable a fighting machine. after awkwardly exchanging pleasantries about service in the mexican war, the two men agree to the surrender terms and ended the civil war. in essence, grants term salve for t

"the unwinding: an inner history of new america" by george packer. published by farrar, strauss, and g.i. rou x. "the internal enemy: slavery and war in virginia, 1772-1832" by allen taylor. published by w. w. norton and company. and "going clear: scientology, hollywood, and the prison of belief" by lawrence wright. published by alfred a. knopf. this year's national book award in non-fiction goes to george packer. ♪ [cheering and applause] ♪ ♪ >>> this is an incredible honor. anyone who was at last night's reading knows that all of the nominees in this category did great work, and i feel very lucky to be given this award. thank you to my friend, john, alex star, and the rest. you still do it the old fashioned way, which is still the best way. [applause] thank you to sara of the wily agency for your crucial intelligence and enthusiasm. thank you to daniel and david and others at the new yorker for giving me just the right balance of freedom and editorial brilliance. thank you to my friend, dexter, for being there from the start. to my mother and

scahill, earlier you were on a panel with dan balz and george packer, and one of the questioners asked you what do you see as the difference between how the bush administration and the obama administration approach the war on terror. >> right. , i mean, i think first of all it's great to be with you here on c-span and booktv. the bush with administration, i don't want to understate how atrocious i think that period was in american foreign policy. it really was like murder incorporated. the destruction of iraq, the creation of the cia black sites, the idea that the geneva convention was -- [inaudible] the abu ghraib torture, using guantanamo, you could go on and on in characterizing it. so i don't want to get into a thing about is obama worse than bush. i covered those wars, i know what happened. under president obama i think what we have is someone who has sort of rebranded some of the more egregious aspects of the bush-cheney counterterror apparatus and i think has convinced himself that they're waging a smarter war. so they're relying on the drones much more than the bush administrat

in this blogcamellia from new yorker staff writer george packer, author of the unwinding. his account of the last 30 years in the united states. then, harvard university professor, joe lepore, author of the cages examines the life of benjamin franklin's sister, jane franklin. this is followed by alan taylor, author of the internal enemy, who recounts the impact of slaves in virginia hunt on the war of 1812. ..

packer's presentation yesterday on where we went wrong. and i've now lived in texas or 15 years, so i can live in this contrast that i'm listening to, okay? i would like to address my question to you, mark. it's kind of two-pronged. one, your title of your book is detroit city, a good place to be, or you know, and i wanted to know why you felt that way? because i've my memories and what i do to go back to the '50s, even though my hometown is very depressed like youngstown, ohio, and some of those. i understand detroit is on a grander scale. so i want to know about the title of your book. and the next question was what do you think, how long would it take to revitalize detroit and the stand in ohio that are very similar? what is it going to take to take us out of what you just described? >> thanks for the question. that's a great question. there's lots of little detroit as you know throughout the rust belt, places like youngstown, gary, indiana, and parts of cleveland. the title of my book is heartfelt but also somewhat ironic. you know, is

i fleet bank george packer, staff writer for "the new yorker," author of "the unwinding." [applause] we also thank our audience here and on the radio internet. i remind you we will autograph the book for sale on the lobby. i am doug sovern. the place where you are in the know was adjourned. [inaudible conversations] >> now, jill lepore, history professor at university recalls the life of benjamin franklin's sister, jean frink went from her national book award titled "book of ages: the life and opinions of jane franklin." [applause] >> good evening. thank you so much for the wonderful introduction. i now have to join facebook just to see the picture of your dog. i feel a little bad. it is so nice to be here. thank you offer coming. it's such a treat to be in philadelphia, franklin's hometown to talk about jane who once visited peter and didn't love it as much as she loved boston. but also to be here in a public library and celebrate the space and all that it stands for. thank you to the library. [applause] i am hoping that none of you have ever heard of jane franklin becaus

some of the others you will hear from kate helprin and george packer who won the national book award jeremy scahill bill ayers represented debbie wasserman schultz and chris athey -- chris matthews are some of the authors and you can find the entire schedule a booktv.org so we look forward to seeing you tomorrow. everything you have seen today will re-air beginning at midnight eastern time. thanks for being with us. now booktv continues. so the first of all increasingly women's identities are tied to their work in a way which me might not like and we may find disturbing and unnatural but it is in fact true. when i look at some one like mercer mayor who was recently chosen to be the ceo of yahoo! when she was visibly pregnant and then was asked you now how much maternity leave do you want to take and she said basically none. the fact that such women exist, it's not the way i would do it. i took plenty of maternity leave i feel like that is a growing -- that is the kind of woman that there can be space for in the fact that there are some stay at home dad's who are set happy stay-at-hom

this goes to george packer. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this is an incredible honor and anyone who was at last night's reading knows that all of the nominees in this category is the great works. and i feel very lucky to be given this award. and thank you to my friends and the rest. you still do it the old-fashioned way, which is still the best way. [applause] >> thank you to the wylie agency for crucial intelligence and thank you to daniel zaleski and david remnick and others for giving me just the right balance of freedom and editorial trilliums. writers both understand as well and my children, charlie and julia, you did make it a lot more fun. thank you for sharing my life and my work and i can't imagine either one without you. and finally, i want to thank dean price and timmy thomas and jeff congleton and other americans who gave me the great guest of allowing in their lives so that i could illuminate some of what has gone wrong in america over the past generation. and in their own lines, some of what h

the winner, george packer, for the "unwinding. " he'll be in our coverage tomorrow. we'll show you a little more from the past as we wait for mr. wright to get started. here's another look back at a booktv shoot here in miami. >> a little bit about where you see our culture going. you're doing what you can do -- i don't mean in general but in terms of reading, are we create agriculture of readers, nonread readers? where are we right now? >> i think the worst thing that is happening right now is we're creating a culture where people don't listen. they don't listen to the other side. there's a quote -- i read an editorial in "the new york times" a couple weeks ago, and it had to do with morality's ability to bind and blind, and it binds people -- you believe in whatever you believe about abortion one way or the other, or whatever you believe about entitlements or whatever you believe about global warming, but you're incapable of seeing the other side at all. might be any validity, and you take that into congress, and if both sides sit there and just -- they won't bend.