-fiction category we want to talk to. if you are watching booktv last weekend, you saw jill lepore in philadelphia e moding about jane frack lynn. did you stumble on jane frack lynn? >> i did. well, i was reading ben franklin's published paper which are bound in 40 something volumes. you go any library and pull them off the shelves. one after another. it's such good company. he's so sneaky and charming. but every other letter he wrote was to his sister, jane. and i never heard of her. i was just mystified. how can anybody possibly understand this man who ran away from home when she he was young. the last letter he wrote on his death bed was to his sister. she's clearly important to his life. when i first read about her i was interested in understanding him. then i realized she's far more interesting. we know so little about the lives ever ordinary people. >> how ordinary was her life? >> franklin story. he -- her life was rags to rags nap is an allegory too for everybody's else life. it was unusual to climb up the social ladder the way frack lynn -- franklin did. >> flrp any portraits

. my name is jill with new rules for global finance and i'm curious, we have heard of commodities as a way to diversify your investments but then we are also hearing a lot on developing country folks that is commodities are used as a tool for investment, it is making prices on food and fuel much higher in importing countries and much more volatile i'm wondering if you have a comment on that. thank you. >> why don't i start with the first one about the commodities to. in africa or kenya. again i'm going to preface this by saying i'm not an economist. i'm a food writer but i can tell you this. in the horse of my research i've owned cassava is a product that apparently is available and quite a number of countries as a staple, as a starchy root that doesn't yet. here but apparently is in good standing to potentially become a commodity in the future. apparentlapparentl y it's rather nutritious as well and it might have implications for being a potato like substitute or a grain like substitute, so that might need number one with a bullet in my mind. i'm sure that coffee, cocoa, also if it gr

down to a long list of 10, and then down to these five finalists. "book of ages" by jill lepore, published by alfred a. knopf. [applause] "hitler's furies" by wendy lower. [applause] "the unwinding" by george pack packer. the internal enemy by alan taylor published by norton and company. and "going clear." [applause] this year's national book award in nonfiction goes to george packer. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this is an incredible honor. anyone who was at last nights 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, and the rest of farrar straus and giroux. you still do it the old-fashioned way which is still the best way. [applause] thank you to sarah of the wylie 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 your my mother and sister, nancy and ann packer, writer's b

notable books of 2013. in "book of ages," jill lepore chronicles the life of benjamin franklin's youngest sister. sheri fink investigates patient deaths at a new orleans hospital in the days following hurricane katrina in "five days at memorial: life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital." in "catastrophe 1914," europe goes to war, military historian max hastings details the events that led to the onset of world war i. journalist katy butler presents her thoughts on end of life care in "knocking on heaven's door: the path to a better way of death." in "days of fire: bush and chain ty in the white house," peter baker with the new york times recalls the working relationship between president bush and vice president cheney. national book award winning author jesmyn ward recounts the deaths of five men in her life in, "men we reaped." for links to various other publications' 2013 notable book selections, visit booktv's web site, booktv.org. >> what we know of the founders, you know, at core, the 30-second version is the guys that were against the constitution were the religious conse

them alongside jill nelson, the journalist who would volunteer slavery. said the two of us were the opposite end to respond to them. the reason i'm telling you the stories my first inkling of it was a quote from one of these men which became the title of the show. the title of the show was a black woman stole my job. i thought, i have one question for you guys. and it's about the title of the show, it bought woman stole my job. it's one word of the title. i want to know about the word night. where did you get the idea it was your job? why is that the of the show.woman got a job? without confronting men's sense of entitlement, we don't understand why many men have gender equality because this is a level playing field. you think this reverse discrimination against us. so this is what after entitlement sounds like. these are our jobs. these are the ones we were told when we were little, this is what is waiting for you. this is the funniest scenes of this entitlement that never seem goes to the castle of and the holy grail. one day this will all be fences. it's like one day this will al

of me is gratified to think it's working a bit. jill, who i know, a friend of mine, a very, very talented woman, editor of the "new york times," there was an arm written about her criticizing her for thing, and a bunch of people wrote, she's told she's too aggressive. that happens to women, not men. the awareness -- >> yes, the ability for the crowd to crowd source the response mitigates it to some degree. >> i hope "lean in" and other things people are doing helps that whereas before you had to start from scatch saying, well, i appreciate it, one of the ways i'm too aggressive, you know, we're getting help training managers is so important. a man who started the conversation by saying i didn't read the book, which, is a little weird; right? he works for me. wouldn't you pretend you read the book? [laughter] let's leave that last judgment aside. i have not read the book, but i have listened to you for the last five years, i've been working for you, and i listen to what you say. we did the performance reviews, annual ones, and he got feedback from a woman who said he was too aggre

the more big e highlight. that's senator jill brand's amendment nap would have taken the decision for prosecuting those crimes out of the chain of command. she had gotten support for more than half the senate but never got a vote on her amendment. she still was 60 votes -- she was a few votes shy of the 60 she would have needed to get it through the senate. >> what about iran sanctions? >> there is nothing in the bill on iran sanctions. part of the reason why the bill stalled in the senate last month because republicans wanted to introduce several amendments including at least one on iran sanctions. the white house has not wanted debated right now. so this comprise measure does not have anything on that. >> republican senator tom coburn of oklahoma has been vocal about his opposition to the new comprise version. what are his concerns? are those echoed by other lawmakers? >> sure. he's definitely not alone. they are angry there's not been many amendments debate order the bill in the senate. the bill that typically can table take two to three weeks of senate floor time. and it's sta

inevitable disturbances and majored jill political change. this area of the world we have had difficulties defining, switching from one access to the other or at least from one obstacle to the other. every international system looks for order and strives for stability. some would consider this realism forced cynicism. this is what we europeans are for a long time prioritizing in our approach of the arab world. we have widely underestimated frustration of our populations, the that area before the arab spring presented come some characteristics. first of all before the government -- arab spring's government which failed to create wealth, in the meantime. [inaudible] second the lack of economic perspectives coupled with daily security forces and the repression of public liberties. third, a feeling of downgrading of the international scheme especially with the lack of solutions with the israeli-palestinian countries. fourth, archaic methods of governance. words like soft power, public diplomacy, national dialogue, clinical forms where the words were missing from the little discour

. >> host: jill lepore, were there any portraits of jane franklin? did she get any of her brother's money or did anything come her way? >> guest: oh, she had many kinds of joy in her life. she was never wealthy. franklin took good care of her many this really incredibly sweet way when they were very old, he arranged to have firewood sent to her every weekend. think about if you're poor living in 18th century boston how hard it is. the biggest thing you're going to suffer is the cold in winter. she sent him cod, but what she really cherished were books. she read all her life. she was a voracious reader, and you'd think reading 12 children -- i have a hard time reading the newspaper. she read the newspaper every day, she read newton, he read almost everything benjamin franklin wrote. think about that, what an education it would have been in the 18th century to read franklin. >> host: in a different time would she -- could she have -- let me be rephrase this. did she have the intellect of franklin? >> guest: gosh, franklin once said genius without education is like silver in the mines.

finalist in the nonfiction category. if you were watching booktv last weekend, you saw jill lepore in philadelphia emoting about jane franklin. did you stumble on her? >> guest: i did. i was reading benjamin franklin's published papers which are bound in 40 volumes. and he's so fun to realize. he's such great company. he's so charming. but every other letter he wrote was to his sister, jane, and i'd never heard of her, and i was just mystified. how could anybody probably understand this man who ran away from home when he was very young, and the last letter he wrote on his deathbed was to his sister. she's clearly important to his life. so i did stumble upon her, and i was interested mainly in understanding him, but then i realized, no, she's far more interesting because we know so little about the lives of ordinary people. >> host: how ordinary was her life? >> guest: you know, franklin's story was -- he tells it as an allegory of the american rags to riches rise. her life was rags to rags, and that is an allegory, too, for everybody else's life. certainly in the 18th century it was v