C-SPAN Bookshelf

Ruth Simmons spoke about her journey from poverty to academia, serving as president of Smith College, Brown University & Prairie View A&M University. She was interviewed by author Freeman Hrabowski. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zora Neale Hurston brings to life a Southern love story that explores race, gender roles, and identity, which influenced African-American and women's literature. In this episode, we speak with English Professor Gary Richards of The University of Mary Washington. The book is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Stein, our guest this week, is close to 80 years old. When he was in his 20s he wrote speeches for Richard Nixon. He wants you to know that he still calls Mr. Nixon his hero. Mr. Stein also tells you in his latest book about what he's done since those early years: "I've worked as a university teacher, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, a scriptwriter, a novelist, an investigator into financial fraud for Barron's, a columnist for the late greatly lamented Los Angeles Herald Examiner, a writer and a commentator on economics, an actor, a game show host, a talk show host, a father, and a husband." His book is called "The Peacemaker: Nixon – The Man, President, and My Friend." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Tom Cronin talked about his book, Imagining a Great Republic, a survey of American novels that have helped tell the story of the American political experiment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Martin Baron talks about leading the Washington Post as executive editor under the ownership of Jeff Bezos & during Donald Trump’s presidency. He's interviewed by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bridgette Exman discussed her actions when she was criticized nationally for her efforts to comply with a state law on "age appropriate" books in Mason City, Iowa, school libraries. About Books also reported on the latest publishing industry news and current non-fiction books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Willa Cather's novel, My Ántonia, evokes the Nebraska prairie life of her childhood and pays tribute to the spirit and courage of immigrant pioneers in America. Historian Richard Norton Smith discusses Cather's works, including My Antonia, which was written in 1918. The book tells the story of a girl who arrives on the frontier as part of a family of Bohemian immigrants, and her friendship with an orphaned boy who taught her English. The novel explores issues facing women of the time in that region, and the meaning of success in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Hancock is one of the most famous signatures in the history of the United States. Most people don’t know much more than that about him. Brooke Barbier, our guest this week, who is the founder of Ye Olde Tavern Tours of Boston, wants to change your perception of this American signer of the Declaration of Independence. Barbier's newest book is called "King Hancock." He got that moniker back in the middle of the 1700s. The author writes: "His stature eventually rose so high that he became known by both his friends and enemies by that name." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth Papez talked about the influence of Chief Justice John Roberts and other high-profile chief justices on the direction of the Supreme Court as well as American life. Ms. Papez is a litigator and partner in the firm of Gibson Dunn who previously clerked for Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and served as deputy assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NBC News' Ryan Reilly chronicled how citizens helped law enforcement find individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. He was interviewed by Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is Elmira College Professor Matt Seybold, who shares insights and introspections into the life of Mark Twain. Named among the great American novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been known internationally since its first printing in 1884 and remains popular yet controversial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is historian Stephen Budianksy, who shares his insights into the late Justice's life and work. After serving in the Civil War, during which he was wounded, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. became a scholar and jurist, eventually rising to the U.S. Supreme Court after being nominated by President Theodore Roosevelt. While practicing law in Boston, Holmes summarized a series of lectures he had delivered and had them published in 1881 as a book titled The Common Law. Holmes is known for the maxim, "The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience," and that the law develops according to the "felt necessities of the time." He served on the high court for nearly 30 years, retiring at age 90, and has been of the most frequently cited justices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Diana Henriques is the author of 5 previous books including "The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust." Originally from Bryan, Texas, and Roanoke, Virginia, Ms. Henriques spent 22 years as a reporter with the New York Times. In her latest book "Taming the Street," she writes in the preface: "My mission is to describe just one of the New Deal's most significant achievements, clearing out the vicious jungle that was the nation's financial landscape in the 1920s and replacing it with a well-tended terrain where ordinary Americans could save and invest with confidence." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson discuss the history of the AR-15 and how the weapon has influenced American gun culture. They were interviewed by author and journalist Paul Barrett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Andrew Roberts calls this week's guest Kenneth Rendell the "manuscript whisperer." Rendell's new book is about his travelling the world during his career buying and selling significant historical letters and documents, from the Renaissance to the present day. The title of his book is "Safeguarding History: Trailblazing Adventures Inside the Worlds of Collecting and Forging History." One of the stories he tells is about his role in determining whether the Hitler diaries, published in 1983, were real or fake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin McCarthy earned a place in the history books this week as the first Speaker of the House to be voted out of office. Just 9 months into his term, Speaker McCarthy was challenged by a "motion to vacate" offered by Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz. McCarthy lost by 6 votes; with all Democrats voting against him. Kevin McCarthy, a California republican, was the 55th Speaker of the House. Second in line to the presidency, the Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House of Representatives, and the de facto leader of the Majority. As Republicans mull their choice for a new Speaker, we look back to a Q&A episode from February of 2018 on the historical power and influence of the House Speaker of. Our guest is Michael Green, author of The Speaker of the House: A study of Leadership. You'll learn about the role of the Speaker and the tenures of Henry Clay, Joe Cannon, Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Economist Melissa Kearney argues that the decline in two-parent married households is a driving factor in many of America's economic issues. She was interviewed by American Enterprise Institute's Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility director Scott Winship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is Pultizer-Prize-winning Yale Professor David Blight. He expounds on the life of Frederick Douglas when he learned to read and write, and his relationship with President Abraham Lincoln. Born into slavery in Maryland, Frederick Douglass went on to become a writer, orator, statesman, and key leader in the abolitionist movement. After his escape to freedom as an adult, Douglass in 1845 wrote the first of his three autobiographies, titled The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"America is deeply divided. Our politics is broken, marked by anger, contempt and distrust. We must acknowledge that reality but not lose historical perspective. It’s bad now, but it’s been worse before—and not only during the Civil War." These are the words of Fox News contributor Karl Rove, a longtime political consultant and former senior adviser to President George W. Bush. He wrote them under the headline: "America Is Often a Nation Divided," in a recent Saturday edition of the Wall Street Journal. The piece is historical and starts back when the country began. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a dip into the Q&A archives, an interview from 2017 with former federal prosecutor and George Washington University Law School professor Randall Eliason. He talked about the ongoing trial of Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and other prominent political corruption cases that came before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney looked at the successes and failures of the last four decades of "the paper of record," The New York Times. He was interviewed by Columbia Journalism Review contributor Jon Allsop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle discusses digital libraries, legal disputes over electronic book lending, and copyright laws. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is author, historian, and magazine editor Lanny Jones. He is the author of "William Clark and the Shaping of the West. His latest work is Celebrity Nation. Shortly after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore and map the newly acquired territory and to seek a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark's two-year Tour of Discovery ended in September 1806 as the explorers returned to St. Louis with maps, sketches and journals detailing the region's plants, animal life, geography, and indigenous people. In 1814, many Americans were able to learn for the first time about the western lands upon the publishing of the book titled History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains of Lewis and Clark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Charlotte Gray, our guest this week, is a Canadian born in Great Britain who now lives in a suburb of Ottawa. Her book "Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons" is about Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt. The former Jennie Jerome was born in the United States and was the mother of Winston Churchill. Sara Delano married James Roosevelt and became the mother of FDR in 1882. Charlotte Gray writes that one of the reasons to write about these two women is that: "Their reputations, so different within their lifetimes, have both suffered since their deaths." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meg Kissinger spoke about her family's struggle with mental illness and her coverage of mental health care in America as a journalist. She was interviewed by Mindsite News founding editor Rob Waters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Colleen Sheehan, Arizona State University Professor, discusses the early life and times of the Federalist's three authors. She explains how their lives challenged their writing and thinking. Plus their lasting legacy today. In September 1787, the newly drafted Constitution of the United States was sent to the states for ratification. Responding to initial public criticism of the document, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay - under the collective pseudonym "Publius" - wrote a series of 85 essays to promote the ratification of the Constitution. The essays were first published in several New York newspapers and were later combined into a book titled The Federalist. Today, the original essays are commonly referred to as The Federalist Papers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erec Smith, our guest this week, is an associate professor of rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania. He is also the co-founder of Free Black Thought, a website that "seeks to represent the rich diversity of black thought beyond the relatively narrow spectrum of views promoted by mainstream outlets..." In a Newsweek article, Prof. Smith wrote: "We hear endlessly about systemic racism, white supremacy, the black/white income gap, and police brutality. So powerful an ideology has this narrative become that those of us who pose a credible counter-narrative—black anti-woke writers, for example—frequently find our words being misconstrued in an effort to stanch their impact." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Georgetown University law professor Cliff Sloan, author of "The Court at War," talks about the civil rights and civil liberties cases taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court during World War Two and the influence that FDR had on the justices, the vast majority of whom he appointed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Loren Grush detailed the history & experiences of the six women selected in 1978 to become America's first female astronauts. She was interviewed by former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tampa Bay Times book critic Colette Bancroft previews some of the most anticipated non-fiction books being released this fall. About Books also reported on the latest publishing industry news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Englishman Thomas Paine arrived in America in 1774 as the conflict between the colonies and Great Britain peaked. Up to that point, the colonies were said to have considered negotiation rather than separating from Britain. This week, University of Maryland history professor Richard Bell joins BTSA to discuss Paine's arguments, his life, and what led him to publish Common Sense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lindsay Chervinsky is a presidential historian who has written what she says is the first book on the presidential cabinet. It's called "The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution." It was on November 26, 1791, that President George Washington convened his cabinet department secretaries: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. It was the first cabinet meeting ever held. Among other things, we asked Lindsay Chervinsky why Washington waited a full two and a half years into his presidency to call everyone together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Richard Striner talks about his book "Ike in Love and War," about the personal life and career of Dwight D. Eisenhower, covering everything from his upbringing and military service to his two-terms as president of the United States. Mr. Striner also talks about the three women Eisenhower fell in love with over his lifetime: Gladys Harding, Mamie Doud (later Mamie Eisenhower), and Kay Summersby, a Brit who served as Eisenhower's driver during World War Two. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chalkbeat editor Cara Fitzpatrick looked at the school choice movement and the future of education in America. She was interviewed by Washington Post education reporter Moriah Balingit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It has been 32 months since the attack on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress in the process of completing the presidential election result. More than 1,100 defendants have been charged in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 110 individuals have been found guilty of felonies. Kyle Cheney of Politico has spent a lot of time during these past months covering the trial in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. We asked him to give us an overview of what these court proceedings have looked like up close. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Presidential historian and author Richard Norton Smith discusses his biography of President Gerald Ford titled "An Ordinary Man." He talks about Ford's personal life, anti-establishment politics, and post-presidential years. He also talks about the efforts made by President Ford to heal the country following the Watergate scandal and his controversial decision to pardon Richard Nixon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The title of Dartmouth history professor Matthew Delmont's latest book is "Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad." Prof. Delmont, our guest this week, writes in his introduction that: "Nearly everything about the war – the start and end dates, geography, vital military roles, home front, and international implications – looks different form the African American perspective." He points out that ultimately, over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

YouTuber Max Miller discussed his cookbook which explores history through recipes. About Books also reported on the latest publishing industry news and current non-fiction books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapman University professor Luke Nichter is the author of the book "The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968." Professor Nichter is also the creator of nixontapes.org, the "only website dedicated solely to the scholarly production and dissemination of digitized Nixon tape audio and transcripts." Nichter's book focuses on the 1968 presidential race and the contentious battle between Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, and George Wallace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge discusses her book "Generations," about the differences between the six generations – The Silents, Baby Boomers, Gen. X, Millennials, Gen. Y and "The Polars" – currently living in the United States. She argues that technological advances shape generations more than anything else and talks about the impact this will have on the country in the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Craig Nelson, in his book "V Is For Victory," reports on the number of casualties from World War II. He writes that, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, the military casualties were 1,870,000 (405,000 killed and 673,115 wounded). Then, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were over 8.9 million American war industry worker casualties (75,400 dead and over 8.8 million wounded) between 1942 and 1945. Author Craig Nelson, our guest this week, further says: "Across history, the 'arsenal of democracy' has come to mean this miracle of American manufacturing. When Roosevelt used the term, however, he meant the miracle of the American people." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest is Shahan Mufti's, who's new book, American Caliph, recounts an event that's been lost to history-- the March 9th, 1977 Hanafi Muslim siege in Washington, D.C. That day, three buildings in Washington, D.C. were seized by 12 Hanafi Movement gunmen and were held for two days. The group took 149 hostages, killed a young radio reporter named Maurice Williams, and shot then-councilman and future Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry. Mr. Mufti describes the background of the group's leader, Hamas Abdul Khaalis, the blood feud between him and the Nation of Islam, a movie about the prophet Muhammed that fueled the hostage-taking, and the tense negotiations that ultimately ended the siege. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times books reporter Elizabeth Harris discusses the review website Goodreads and how the platform can help and hurt sales, especially for lesser-known authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Metropol Hotel is located near the Bolshoi Theatre in downtown Moscow. When it opened in 1901 it was the symbol of Russia's growing prosperity. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, it was often used by Lenin to give speeches at so-called party congresses. During World War II, the Metropol became a home and office for almost all foreign journalists allowed to work in the U.S.S.R. British journalist Alan Philps, our guest this week, has written a book about those days titled "The Red Hotel: Moscow 1941, the Metropol Hotel, and the Untold Story of Stalin's Propaganda War." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By advancing his judicial philosophies of "originalism" and "textualism," Antonin Scalia became one of the 20th century's most influential justices. This week, James Rosen talks about Book One of his two-part biography of Antonin Scalia, titled "Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936-1986," Rosen who is Newsmax's Chief White House Correspondent examines Justice Scalia's life prior to the Supreme Court. We talk about Nino Scalia's early years, the importance of his Catholic faith, his first years as a corporate lawyer, his teaching career at the University of Chicago and UVA, his time in government during the Nixon and Ford administrations, and his appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Andrzejewski is the founder of OpenTheBooks.com and lives in Hinsdale, Illinois. OpenTheBooks.com says it is "the largest private repository of U.S. public sector spending." The mission is to post "every dime, online, in real time." In their 2022 annual report on government spending, Alexander Fraser, a 19th century Scottish professor of history is quoted saying: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. Democracy will continue to exist until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." Mr. Andrzejewski is our guest this week on the Booknotes+ podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, you'll meet Ilyon Woo, author of a new bestseller-- "Master Slave, Husband Wife." She recounts the harrowing journey of self-emancipation made by two enslaved Georgians--William and Ellen Craft -- in 1848. Disguised as a wealthy disabled white man traveling with his enslaved servant, the Crafts left Georgia via public conveyances, avoiding slave traders, law enforcement, and curious fellow passengers in their successful effort to gain freedom. Becoming popular speakers on the lecture circuit, they found themselves hunted by slavecatchers after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daily Beast 's Matt Lewis explored how American politics is fueled by wealth & offered reforms on how to hold elected officials more accountable. He was interviewed by RealClearPolitics columnist and associate editor A.B. Stoddard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emory University professor Dan Sinykin discusses the late novelist Cormac McCarthy and how his career was nurtured by the publishing industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Clarke, in her book "Billionaires' Row," admits that: "Part of my motivation for writing this book was that as a reporter I can't help but observe that the colorful characters who've made the New York real estate world so dynamic are increasingly few and far between…In some ways, this book memorializes that dying breed of New York real estate kingpins who took big swings and risked losing it all." The subtitle of the book describes its focus: "Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers." These supertall buildings that house $100 million apartments are located on 57th Street at the southern end of Central Park in Manhattan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices