Knighted i understand that ramification might not be a good thing. I also note that with things and the laws that we have in the book, even in a situation that is better, those types of things have to be able to do a better job on education. How many people in the juvenile Justice System right now are 18 . How many people in the adult Justice System graduated with honors customer when we are watching the growth of the juvenile Justice System, the adult prison system, they had some form of interaction with the juvenile system. They have now simply gotten older. They are committing more serious crimes and are now more heavily involved in what theyre doing. Thats the pipeline people are talking about. Being able to address the things that the core like education. Once a person gets involved, what is that education we can provide to give them better access and support Going Forward . The third thing and this is critically important, is this piece on economics. I remember when we were in afghanistan, someone told us something that one of my platoon sergeant said that i thought was so right. He said who is the most dangerous person we have out here . Of course the natural answer became caliban and al qaeda and taliban. His point was its the person who hasnt been working 24 months. Thats the most dangerous person we have out here. Heres why. When a person hasnt worked in 24 months, they have no problem when someone walks up and says go to the top of that rich and when you see an american combo a roll by, push send on this cell phone because that would at nate and ied. For every confirmed kill that you can show us that you have from your action, i will give you 75. That now has just become a stream of employment for this person. That person has now just become the most dangerous person we fight in afghanistan. We have to be able to think about how economics plays into this as well. Both economics, not just in terms that we need to do things in terms of hiring, but how do we create an entrepreneurial class and an entrepreneurial culture question and how do we support and grow new businesses . How do we prevent opportunities and provide opportunity for people who may have made mistakes . I think if we can do that there would be tremendous opportunities. I think baltimore could be a natural example. When you think about the foundations that we have here. Im talking about the societal foundation that we have here. Plus it means we are going to have to be elaborate and aggressive. If you look at cities who have grown over time and i think of the cities like boston and atlanta and denver, those were not by accident. It is because they were disciplined and they were focused on their growth. When you look at what a person, like one person i feature in the book is Michael Hancock and the work hes doing in denver. Denver is not growing by accident, its growing intentionally. When you look at the growth at a glance over the generations, that not an accident. That was because a group said no we are going to be deliberate about our level of growth. How do we not just come up with the cherry picking Growth Strategy but incorporate all members of our society, even those who may have made some mistakes. Those were coming home are part of the Growth Strategy as well. They have to be. What we are going to do at this time, well lets give him another warm round of applause. [applause]. Good work. You will have an opportunity at the close of this part of the presentation to purchase a copy of the book and he will take the time to find the book. Be sure to get a few copies for your family and friends as well. These are not just history but stories of many other people who are doing Amazing Things in their community to make sure that the work in the light stays lit for so many others. We will be doing that right around the corner here. Were right outside. You can get a copy of the work. Thank you, thank you you so much. You can ask questions and pass information to him. We are so happy that he put this book out. Its not just a story, its really like a how to guide. How to get into your work and find your passion to be successful and live a meaningful , well lived life. Lets give it up for him again. [applause]. [inaudible conversation] is there a Nonfiction Author or book you would like to see featured on book tv . Send us an email, book tv at cspan. Org. Or tweet us or post a comment on our wall facebook. Com book tv. All right will give the stragglers here a few seconds to grab their seat. Hello everyone. Before we get begin, all the usual housekeeping. Silence your cell phone and refrain from anyng photography both here and during the awesome book signing that will take place immediately after this event in the main library. Art welcome to the free library of philadelphia. My name is jason freeman. Oni a cool part of this job israh. Getting to introduce writers that you like and im excited to be here tonight to introduce sarah vowel. She is a clear eyed funny observer of our history. She is the author of partly cloudy patriot, take the cannoli, assassination vacation and unfamiliar dishes. Or she was an editor as well as tho original contributors toiety mcsweeney. She was published in a variety of periodicals. She has made numerous of. Appearances on the late show. Her new book offers a frank portrait of the french hero of the American Revolution and his insightful return to our young country. Interviewing her tonight is wesley stakes. Not only a frequent guestavor author, but one of our favorite interviewers of writers on this stage. He is the author of four novels, most recently, wonder kid. You may also know him by his music. He is also the founder of the cabinet of wonders radio variety show which is really a whos who or has featured a whos who of contemporary musicians and other performers. Ladies and gentlemen, before you join me, sarah has said she is going to read for a moment whicr is terrific for us. Now please join mees in welcomig sarah vowell and wesley stakes to the free library of philadelphia. [applause]. Hello philadelphia. Cspan is here taping so i wouldo also like to say hello to the five insomniacs watching this a5 5 00 a. M. On a sunday. I i just wanted to read a little bit first because you can see what happens when i can sit and think about what i want to say and how i want to say it. For i sit over there and just jibber jabber, willynilly. Ill just read one excerpt from the book. I think the onlys thing, and its toward the end, the only thing maybe you would want to know is about how marquis de fra lafayette, our beloved revolutionary war hero from in 1777 ascame over a 19yearold and was with Washingtons Army through yorktown in 1824, president monroe invited the elderly lafayette on the eve of the 50th anniversary of theati revolution to come back to america as the nations guest and it was quite a to do. Delp you remember what a big deal ite was in philadelphia. When he arrived in new york harbor, 80000 new yorkers were there to meet his ship and the population was 123,000 so he has bat on the pope. [laughter] most of the book is about his time in the war and a little bit about that return trip, but this is, i guess you could call it as tangent. Nowadays lafayette is a place, not a person. Lafayette is a boulevard in phoenix, a Pennsylvania College and a bridge across the mississippi in st. Paul. Its the alabama birth place of boxer joe lewis and three different towns in wisconsin. If so it is also Fayette County which the chicken ranch, better known as the best little for Houston Texas put on the map. It is without questionye lafayette, indiana where the founders of both cspan and guns and roses were born. When i bumped into an old vi neighbor who was visiting my hometown she asked me what i was working on and i said a book about lafayette. She inquired if i would be spending a lot of time in louisiana. I was confused wondering if she forgot that Thomas Jefferson decided against his initial impulse of appointing lafayette as the former french colonies governor after the Louisiana Purchase but then i realize shey must have lafayette as her goeto noun. Even though its a closer drive to utah, california and colorado. I clarified to her that i meantd the revolutionary war hero and therefore i was more likely to visit pennsylvania where he was shot. She nevertheless expressed her fondness for idaho. Mo this encounter aroused such indignation in my breath that i moralized upon the instability of human glory and the ewa not o to evanescence of many other scenes. No wait, thats what she did in 1870 when a random stranger in n cigar store had never heard of his revolutionary war hero grandfather. When i found out my old neighbor had never heard of my revolutionary war hero, i went and got a taco with my sister. Still it does seem eerie how one day in 1824, two thirds of the population of new york wases lining up to wave hello to lafayette and 19 decades go by and all that is left of his memory is a cajun college town. Thanks to the nationwide euphoria over the elderly lafayettes return to her of tht united statesle in 1824, countls americans streets, parts,nclu cities, counties, ships bear his name. Along with scientology founder and my arkansas born great uncle Lafayette Heinz who was named fate for short. The most meaningful is Lafayette Square across from the white house also known as lafayette park. This is the capital of protest. The place where we the people gather to yell at our president. Or as George Hw Bush once complained to parade magazine during the gulf war, he complained of the demonstrators who were beating those damn drums in front of the white house while i was trying to have dinner. Of all the rally citians sit ins, i think we can agree the one american should be most 1 proud of is the gathering of the clue clocks clan there in 1982. The three dozen or so, stay with me, the three dozen or so white supremacist who showed up to demonstrate were provided Police Protection against the hordes of agitated protesters pouring into the capital to demonstrate against their demonstrations. Freedom of expression clearly exists only in a societyt most repugnant nitwit is allowed totd spew. This hateful speech is literallt permitted. It goes on from there, there, but you know, you can read that later. Shall i come over . Oh, youre holding it like oprah. You can just have years. Thanks. Dont tell me what to do. No no no. When i think of that, lafayette, what you think of him now, despite all those things thatha are named after him,t the towns and the glory that comes with that kind of latterday same . Do you think of him now as anle obscure character and are you trying to let people know about him . Wes is british, i dont know if you can tell. [laughter] he hated british people. While i was going to say many historical figures f in america are obscure figures because the, dont remember anything. You know yes, he is obscure but, i mean, i guess, i guess, maybe you should check with your teenagers to see if they know who ben franklin is or be something. Is he an obscure figure . Key has become one. He used to be, maybe it was just the aftereffects from that tripa in 1824 but i dont know many of you have been to the monument in the Brandywine Valley that is a little streetlamp looking thing off the side of the road, but its like nowheres bill near westchester. That sounds like a town, right . Its like in a later use yard. I met her and she was really nice. When they built that monument in 1895 after he had been dead for 60 years, 5000 people showed up to celebrate this, not very impressive, no offense, monument being put up. So i think, maybe the culmination of the top at legeni comes in world war i when france was in a bit of a pickle and when the American AlliedExpeditionary Forces came to help out our old allies the french, against the germans, they marched into paris and they marched straight to the cemetery where lafayette is buried in one of the officers famously said lafayette, we are here. After that, that, people got busy. New heroes. Eah. Yes, there was hitler. Ce [laughter] he used to be a bigger deal. Im not one of those writers, ive certainly read these books where the writer is like my subject is so important. If he had never been born there would have been a zombie apocalypse. He was important and interesting i enough that i wasted three years on him but hes up there but in the revolutionary generation its kind of an embarrassment of riches. You have washington and jefferson and your hometown boy franklin, you know people were excited about Alexander Hamilton these days. I may be more partial to henrys knox, the chief l tillery officer. On what about john adams and jay madison. Theres a lot of talent there. Knox has to be the hipsters choice. He certainly the writers choice because henry knox, as you know was famously a bookseller. The owner of the london bookshop. He joined up with the militia in massachusetts and eventually, ha was the guy who, think about the guy you buy your books fromho while i tell you the story. Hopefully it still a a guy or a lady in a store. Yay. So the book guy are sent tobrit washington and theres a siegety in boston and the british control the little peninsula of boston itself but they are surrounded by all of these patriot militias who have marched into the Continental Army and they get word that ethan allen and benedict arnold, arnold, who we still like at this point have captured those and have all these weapons left over. In order to brea k b the stalemate, they need not just better weapons, they need some weapons and the thing about having artillery is that its heavy. Henry knox goes up to washington and he says my brother and iy will go get that stuff. And its 300 miles away across the berkshire mountains and its winter in washington is like, go ahead. Then, a few weeks later, the knox brothers show brother show up and they built these special sleds and they were how many w tons of heavy artillery were n hauled. They wake up the next morning and theyre impressed and they leave by ship to canada never to return. The moral of that story is never underestimate in independent[lau seller. [applause]. I know which side the bread is buttered on. Okay, we will get back to all this lafayette stuff. I have a couple of questions, one is, it juste struck me. And less your quaker which is possible in this town. Its probable. Im sorry if i was just glorifyingth violence. S mostly. That was a disclaimer. Lets come back to the quakers in a moment. Theres a lot about quakers. Canst we . We should have a quaker meeting. We should just do it now. That would be great on cspan. Just a whole room full of the people. Its justou the sound the visuals will just be people trying not to make eye contact. You must do a lot of research on your books. There must be big thick books on your subject that you have read, obviously. What youre doing is youre taking the fax in your taking the urge to educate and use people, because you are a comic writer also, and, and youre taking your love of the history in the first question i want to ask is an expression of you, but what order do those things topple out of you when you first thought of lafayette . Did you wait for a spark of an idea to come to you but then when it does, how do you keep those things in balance while youre doing it question because thats what we love about you. I use an egg timer. [laughter] dang time for a joke. No, i call them books republican dads get for christmas. There like single subject book about a person. Usually the title is a persons name and then when someone asks them what is the book about they will say a persons name. They wont havye this weird word in their title that all my goshk thats going to take 45 minutes to unravel. I always, in the beginning, i think about what im going to do that all right this straight story. With lafayette, i had a short piece for this return trip thate was very sentimental and all about, kind of a love story and the american peoples affection for lafayette. I thought i was going to write this nice book about this nice french boy. Then, i dont no, i never think things through enough. For one thing, there is a war that hes in so thats no fun. Then, i mean the reason i was drawn to him was, in 1824, the civil war is starting to bubble up. Basically, now that i think about it, the, the civil war is bubbling up across town in Independence Hall in 1774. Thats right at the beginning and the thing at Independence Hall, the first continental congress, the first thing that happens is a guy says we should start with a prayer. I second motion is to act his companion sang no way, im paraphrasing, we cant pray together, we have too many religions. Right there, was the official sounding. They were all like, we cant get along. Maybe the third thing that shouldve happened was let someone go home and save everyone the trouble. So anyway, i was drawn to him because he was french, lafayette, everyone loved everyone loved him north, south, left, right. Heus was just this other, other, like everybodys uncle from across the sea. I thought it would be nice to write a sweet, simple story about this person everyone loved. Then in order to tell that story, pretty much at every step in the research, he gets here,am hes here for maybe five months and he writes George Washington a letter from across the campus at valleypu for forge saying i l like america can defend itht herself. Like you can fight the ritesh if you would just stop fighting with each other because all they do is bicker. The congress cant get anything done and they disagree on everything. The congress and army are at odds. Theres a conspiracy within the congress and the army to oust George Washington so George Washington spends a few hours a day fighting the british and a few hours trying to keep his job from the people who are oy. Ermining him, his friends. Bo then writing about the trip ines 1824, the 1824 election was in full swing when he arrived. Its the most divisive election in American Histor