Robin Scullin, C-SPAN  202/ 626-8797
SallyAnne McCartin  860/ 435-6464

AN INTERVIEW WITH C-SPAN'S SUSAN SWAIN

Read a biography of Susan Swain

Q:  What is the genesis of American Writers?

C-SPAN first ventured into a major historical project in 1994, with the televised re-creation of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. We went to each of the seven Illinois towns where Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas faced off for the 1858 U. S. Senate race. All of us involved with that project felt a little magic, I think, when in each town, hundreds of local citizens came out in period garb to recreate the roles of their ancestors. As a company, we became somewhat hooked on the idea of using our technology to bring history to life. American Writers is the fourth project in this lineage.

Q:  Why was the series created as a history series rather than a literary series?

Well, the simple answer is, because we're C-SPAN. Our mission is public policy and its origins and C-SPAN has been exploring both history and books as adjuncts to contemporary public policy issues for more than a decade. American Writers ties the knot—brings history and books together in one project. We felt it was an important undertaking because as historian Eric Foner said in an interview, having knowledge of history is like "having a light on when you enter a room." Also, when we learn that most issues we're dealing with today have antecedents, there's a certain comfort that the present day, no matter how vexing, is survivable.

Q:  Is there a relationship that is unexplored between our nation's writers and our history? Do you think writers influence history or reflect it?

The relationship between our writers and our history will continually be explored by each successive generation of Americans. The written word is a major source of understanding for who we are as a people.

As to writing influencing history, or reflecting it, clearly different writers have had different roles. Our development as a society has been codified in the words of civic documents, such as the Mayflower Compact, U.S. Constitution, and the Emancipation Proclamation. Citizens were persuaded to enjoin the revolution by Tom Paine's Common Sense. Many Americans' thinking about slavery was radically altered by the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. However, did Thoreau capture the thinking of the transcendentalists or influence others to join the movement? Did Jack Kerouac preserve the counterculture of the beat generation or persuade thousands of young people to his lifestyle? Did Russell Kirk set down the thinking of the modern conservative movement or propel it? Clearly, the answer is that these writers both influenced the course of history and reflected trends within the larger society.

Q:  How did you choose the writers for the series? What were some of the criteria set for inclusion?

The first pass at the list was done by an ad hoc internal group consisting of some of C-SPAN's most senior people from a variety of disciplines. Our first task was refining our goal, agreeing that our mission was to provide a historical overview, rather than create a "great books" series. We developed some broad criteria: including writers whose works—whether fiction or non-fiction, document or book—chronicled, reflected upon, or influenced the course of our nation's history; represented four centuries of American history, from the nation's founding to Vietnam; were essentially American; continued to be studied; offered some demographic, cultural, and political diversity; and, are generally available to the public. We gave ourselves the two-pronged challenge of not only selecting writers, but also selecting one of their works on which to focus. It's safe to say that these were among the most intense—and exhilarating—editorial debates I've participated in my nearly two decades at C-SPAN. Sometimes, after hours of pros and cons, we'd finally have to agree to clear our heads and go back at it on another day.

It will be surprising to people that even with a series this long, time became a factor—there are, after all, only so many weeks in a year. For American Writers II: The 20th Century, we agreed to the 15-week parameter, we found ourselves thus limited in the choices we could make.

The list we developed was circulated more broadly for comment within the company and we sent it to about a dozen academics in the fields of history, communications, and social policy with whom we've worked in the past for their comments and suggestions.

It's important to note that we lay no claims to creating the definitive list of great American writers or most critical American documents. We attempted to create a broad-brush look at four centuries of American history through the words of writers who influenced it or preserved it. We hope that what we've done is creating a starting point for a dialogue about our nation's history.

Q:  What do you think a viewer will discover by participating in the live broadcasts?

Viewers who are new to C-SPAN should be prepared for our style of television. It's very different from most of what's available on TV. We don't produce programs; we use television to bring people interesting conversations and transport them to sites of historical interest. Just like life, we're not fast paced—C-SPAN is the ultimate reality TV. Since its founding, C-SPAN has also emphasized interactive programming, so there are numerous ways people can participate in this series: The reading list has been published on our web site; we'll publish the first chapters of the selected work online; and, there will be online discussion groups. Audiences for the live telecasts can simply watch the dialogue between the historians, biographers, curators, and our callers or, can call in or e-mail questions or comments and take part in all the intellectual fun. By the way, viewers who are inspired to establish their own American Writers bookshelf can do so through Borders.com, which has agreed to stock all of the works featured on the series.

Q:  How can a class utilize a program? Have you designed ways in which teachers can develop curriculum around it?

We're hoping that classroom use of the series will be an important element in the overall success of this project. We have a staff whose job it is to facilitate teachers' use of all our programming. For this series, we have teams of teachers developing lesson plans, we are seeking curriculum certification with related teaching organizations, and we plan contests and other ways to involve younger viewers.

I should emphasize that all of C-SPAN's teaching materials are given to teachers free of charge (most can be found on our website at americanwriters.org/classroom) and that our programming is available to teachers copyright cleared in perpetuity, for classroom use. Most teachers tell us that kind of copyright policy is unheard of elsewhere in television.

Q:  When C-SPAN develops a major series such as this one what kind of outreach do you plan with each of the communities you visit?

C-SPAN already has a local partner in each of the 15 communities—the cable company that carries our programming and, thus, financially supports C-SPAN's operations. We're going to depend on our cable affiliate to help us get the word out about our visit to their town, and most importantly to distribute educational materials to schools. We also want to work with the historic sites from which we'll be doing our live telecasts to make sure that their constituencies know about the series. We always welcome visitors to watch during our live telecasts. During our last series, we met a number of people who made visits to our shoots part of their vacation plans.

Q:  You will be hosting many of these weeks: how do you prepare for a live broadcast at a historic site with two contemporary writers sitting on either side of you? Does being on-site affect the conversation?

My job as a C-SPAN host is to moderate a discussion between our viewing audience and a group of experts on the featured writer and their period of American history. The trick is knowing enough to ask evocative questions, but not to know so much that the conversation is above the heads of viewers coming to the topic for the first time. I use the basic journalistic queries, "Who, what, when, where, and why." You can learn a lot by asking simple questions, instead of offering complex theories. We will also use our cameras to give people close up looks at the physical environment of the place we're visiting, whether it's a historical house, an archive, or a site that inspired the writer. That's one of the values of getting out of Washington—seeing things firsthand as a host, and using cameras to give our audience an experience they couldn't get otherwise. Often, curators at these sites will show us priceless pieces of their collection that aren't normally on public display…and that's a thrill for the audience and for us.

Q:  What are you hoping that viewers will discover through American Writers II: The 20th Century? About themselves as Americans? About the nation?

My guess is that this series will attract two kinds of viewers: the people who want to go on an intellectual journey with us to challenge themselves through learning new things; and, the individual aficionado—the William Faulkner junkie, for example, who will learn about that program through his or her own sources and tune in or log on for a communal experience with like-minded individuals. We're well aware of television's power and its limitations combing television and the printed word makes for an interesting challenge—after all, TV is all about visuals. We'd be very pleased if we can take viewers to places they have never been, introduce them to new writers or to treasured work they haven't visited for years, and stimulate a dialogue on this vibrant and continually evolving society of ours.

Q:    How is this series being financed?

C-SPAN, as you may know, was created 22 years ago (in fact, this series launches on our network's anniversary) by America's cable companies. Our operations and programming, including this series, are funded almost entirely by affiliate fees. Our channels (C-SPAN, C-SPAN2 and C-SPAN3) are carried by cable and satellite companies as a public service.

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