C-SPAN Bookshelf

A year before Arkansas' Little Rock Central High School was desegregated, 12 Black students in Clinton, Tennessee, enrolled, by court mandate, in Clinton High School's 1956 Fall semester. Historian Rachel Louise Martin, author of "A Most Tolerant Little Town," talks about the experiences of the students who desegregated the first school in the south following Brown v. Board of Education and the violent reaction by the extremist White Citizens Council and others in town who championed a segregated America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Amul Thapar discussed the judicial philosophy of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas & recounted some of Thomas's key opinions. He was interviewed by USA Today Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the past 18 months, since the start of the Russia-Ukraine War, the threat of a possible nuclear war is mentioned in the media almost every day. There are 9 countries in the world that reportedly have nuclear weapons, over 13,000 in all, 89% of which are controlled by the United States and Russia. Rebeccah Heinrichs of the Hudson Institute spends most of her professional time thinking, speaking, and writing about national security and defense. We asked her to give us her analysis of the nuclear weapons issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon, author of "The Phoenix Economy," talks about the long-term social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. He argues that while the pandemic was devastating, many of the outcomes that have resulted from it have been surprisingly positive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Wesley Lowery argued that moments of progress in race matters in the U.S. are often met with acts of violence. He was interviewed by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Dean Jelani Cobb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Publishing analyst and consultant Thad McIlroy talked about the impact artificial intelligence might have on the publishing industry. 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

As we begin the 2024 presidential campaign, we hear the word "inflation" in almost every candidate's speech. One issue that is always mentioned is the price of food. Benjamin Lorr spent several years travelling the United States and the world to investigate how the food supply chain works. His book is titled "The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket." He writes that: "Most people shop for groceries with clueless abandon." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian and Politico contributing writer Joshua Zeitz, author of "Lincoln's God," talks about the impact of faith on America's 16th president. Zeitz contends that as a young man, Abraham Lincoln was skeptical of organized religion but later, as president, came to embrace the power of evangelical Protestantism, both personally and politically. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

USC public policy professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett argued that rural & urban America have more in common than what Americans have been led to believe. She was interviewed by former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On January 6, 1970, TWA flight 741 from Israel to New York was hijacked and flown to the Jordanian desert. Historian Martha Hodes, at the time 12 years old, was on that plane along with her sister Catherine, who was 13. A group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was behind the hijacking. For years, Martha Hodes, who teaches 19th Century history at New York University, only had fuzzy memories of those 6 days and nights in the desert as a hostage. In the past couple of years, Prof. Hodes decided to try to piece together her experience. The result is her book titled "My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guardian newspaper editorial writer and former China correspondent Tania Branigan, author of "Red Memory," talks about China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), during which millions of Chinese were killed and tens of millions were persecuted by the Chinese government for being enemies of the state. In the book, Ms. Branigan profiles several people who were targeted during this period and discusses the lasting impact of the Cultural Revolution in China today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author and illustrator Jerry Craft discusses attempts to remove his graphic novels from school libraries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

C.W. Goodyear was born in New Orleans. He's a graduate of Yale University and now lives in the Washington, DC area. He's also a first time biographer, having just published a book about James Garfield titled "President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier." Garfield, America's 20th president, took office on March 4, 1881. His time as president lasted only 200 days. Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau in a Washington, DC train station at the corner of 6th and Pennsylvania Avenue on July 2, 1881. Mr. Goodyear has written a full life biography of James Garfield, from the years he grew up in Ohio through his generalship in the Civil War and his 17 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This July 4th weekend, University of Michigan musicology and American culture professor Mark Clague discusses his book, "O Say Can You Hear?," about the history and cultural impact of the Star-Spangled Banner. He talks about how the 1814 poem written by Francis Scott Key became the U.S. national anthem, its widespread use today at sporting events, and renditions of the song performed by Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston, Roseanne Barr, and others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business journalist Jason Del Rey looks at the rise of Amazon and Walmart and their economic impact on the U.S. and the world. He's interviewed by Insider chief tech correspondent Eugene Kim. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former president Theodore Roosevelt died on January 6, 1919. He was 60 years old. Author William Hazelgrove, in his new book about Roosevelt, chose to focus mostly on the last two years of TR's life. It's titled "The Last Charge of the Rough Rider," and it's the focus of this week's podcast. Mr. Hazelgrove takes us through TR's feud with President Woodrow Wilson over wanting to create another Rough Rider soldier regiment to fight in Europe. Wilson turned him down in spite of the fact that both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives had approved Roosevelt's request. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Cassandra Good talks about the lives and complicated legacies of George Washington's heirs. George and Martha Washington never had children together, but they raised Martha's children, and later grandchildren, as their own. Together they made up America's first "first family." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Rebecca Grant reported on maternal healthcare in the U.S. & discussed how social & political dynamics impact pregnancy & motherhood. She was interviewed by New York Times reporter Alisha Gupta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Book Industry Study Group executive director Brian O’Leary discusses how his organization is working to improve the production and distribution of print and digital books in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simon Sebag Montefiore is a British historian. He's 57 and lives in London with his wife Santa and their two children. He's written 12 books - 9 nonfiction and 3 novels. His latest effort is titled "The World: A Family History of Humanity." Including the index, it's 1,304 pages. In his preface, Montefiore writes: "I have always wanted to write an intimate human history like 'The World' – in some ways a new approach, in some ways a traditional one – which is the fruit of a lifetime of study and travels." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emmett Till's cousin Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., who accompanied Till on his trip to Mississippi in 1955, talked about the fateful events leading up to Till's murder by two white men and his efforts to get justice for his late cousin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Kaplan's 21st book, "The Tragic Mind," revolves around what he has learned over the years from Greek philosophers and William Shakespeare. Yale University Press says that Kaplan "employs the works of ancient Greek dramatists, Shakespeare, German philosophers, and the modern classics to explore the central subjects of international politics: order, disorder, rebellion, ambition, loyalty to family and state, violence, and the mistakes of power." Mr. Kaplan, 70, was born in New York City and graduated from the University of Connecticut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slate magazine staff writer Henry Grabar, author of "Paved Paradise," talks about the evolution of parking in the United States and the consequences of that development today. He argues that the decades-long importance given to parking has negatively impacted housing costs and development, city traffic, the environment, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Trump Administration Interior Secretary David Bernhardt argued that the administrative state has amassed unaccountable power over the last twenty years. He was interviewed by American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Adam White. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former FBI Director James Comey discussed his legal thriller "Central Park West" and why he decided to start writing novels. 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

Nonfiction book lovers, we are making it easy to find all of the C-SPAN podcast episodes with authors in one place. Each week we will post episodes from the different C-SPAN podcasts that feature non-fiction authors and books to make it easier for you to find the episodes and listen. Subscribe to this week so you'll never miss a C-SPAN podcast on books! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices