C-SPAN Bookshelf

Historian and Yale University Professor Beverly Gage joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss her Pulitzer Prize winning biography of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and her road trip across America visiting historic sites. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, author of the memoir "Streetwise," discusses his upbringing in public housing in Brooklyn, being educated at Harvard, and rising through the ranks of one of the world's largest investment banks. He also talks about the 2008 financial crisis, which happened during his tenure as CEO, and the power and influence of Goldman Sachs executives within the U.S. government going back decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Michael Kimmel discussed the first-generation Jewish American toymakers who manufactured now-famous children's toys, including the Teddy Bear and the Rubik's Cube. P&T Knitwear in New York hosts this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a follow up to the most recent Booknotes+ featuring Seth Harp on his book "The Fort Bragg Cartel," we are replaying an interview from June 12, 2012. The guest on Q&A, the television program, was 31-year-old Michael Hastings, author of the book "The Operators," which he said is what the special forces call themselves. It is based on a Rolling Stone article that allegedly led to the dismissal of General Stanley McChrystal, who was commander of the Joint Special Operations Command from 2003 to 2008. One year almost to the day after our interview with Michael Hastings, he was killed in an automobile accident in Los Angeles at 4:25 in the morning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times staff photographer Doug Mills has won 3 Pulitzer Prizes for his work covering the White House & Washington, Super Bowls, Olympics, and many other major events. He tells us that he's taken over one million photographs of President Trump alone. In our conversation, he talks about some of the events he's covered going back to the Reagan administration. He talks about being in the Oval Office and on Air Force One, photographing the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1992, accompanying President George W. Bush on September 11, 2001, and taking the photograph of the attempted assassination of President Trump in 2024, which won him his third Pulitzer Prize. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chuck Collins discussed his book Burned by Billionaires where he examines the impact of wealth concentration on society and politics. The event was hosted by Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seth Harp is a lawyer and an Iraq war veteran and an investigative writer and journalist. His first book, "The Fort Bragg Cartel," is about drug trafficking and murder in the Special Forces. Near the end of his book, Harp writes: "Between January 2017 and September 2022, a total of 15,293 active duty service members suffered drug overdoses, and 322 of those were fatal. The Defense Department data showed that Fort Bragg had far more overdoses than any other military base in both absolute and per capita terms." Fort Bragg is located in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is the largest populated army base with close to 50,000 soldiers. It is the headquarters of the secret Delta Force. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former longtime Columbia University president Lee Bollinger discusses his book "University: A Reckoning," about the purpose and future of universities in the United States. He also talks about protests and free speech on college campuses and the targeting of Columbia, Harvard, and other institutions of higher learning by the Trump administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed discussed his 2019 arrest and imprisonment in Russia and his decision to volunteer in war against the Russians in Ukraine after his release. This event was hosted by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

London-based writer Josh Ireland is the author of three books and ghostwriter of five others. His latest is titled "The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin's Greatest Enemy." According to Josh Ireland, Trotsky led two revolutions and a civil war in Russia in the first half of the 20th century. Leon Trotsky died on August the 21, 1940. The day before, in Trotsky's house near Mexico City, a man named Ramon Mercator sunk an ice axe into Trotsky's skull. He lived for 26 hours. Mercator, who had several names, was a Soviet agent and had befriended Trotsky. This was all the work of Stalin, Trotsky's archenemy. Josh Ireland's first sentence of chapter one asked this question: "When did Joseph Stalin decide to crush or destroy or kill Leon Trotsky?" His book tells the complicated story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California governor Gavin Newsom (D) discusses his memoir, "Young Man in a Hurry," in which he chronicles moments in his life that influenced his political career. He was mayor of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011 and then served as lieutenant governor before becoming governor in 2019. Gov. Newsom also talks about his personal life, including living with dyslexia, and his relationship with billionaire Gordon Getty, a longtime political benefactor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Married journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser join David M. Rubenstein to discuss collaborating to write books profiling key newsmakers including Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Robert Wachter examined the future of artificial intelligence being used in health care. The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco hosted this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 26, 2002, our guest on the Booknotes television program was Richard John Neuhaus . His book, "As I Lay Dying: Meditations Upon Returning." The Neuhaus interview received one of the biggest responses of any during the history of the 16-year program. Neuhaus was 66 at the time and told us that several years earlier, he had a ruptured tumor that almost killed him. During a series of complicated operations, weeks in critical condition, and months in slow recovery, he was brought face to face with his own mortality. As he lay dying, he found that despite his faith, he had been quite unprepared for the experience. In 1990, Richard John Neuhaus, a writer and Lutheran minister, became a Catholic priest. He died of cancer in 2009 at age 72. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former U.S. Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY) discusses his book, "The Einstein Conspiracy," a novel based on an actual plot by the Nazis to silence physicist Albert Einstein during the 1930s. Einstein, a prominent critic of Hitler, moved to the United States with his wife in 1933 and became a citizen in 1940. This interview was recorded at Theodore's Book in Oyster Bay, New York, an independent bookstore opened by Mr. Israel in 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson joins David M. Rubenstein at the National Archives to discuss his trilogies examining the Revolutionary War and World War II and view artifacts in the Archives' vault. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Biologist Beronda Montgomery explored the botanical knowledge developed by African Americans. Harvard Book Store hosted this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Sirota, who is based in Denver, Colorado, has some very strong views about money and politics. His book is called "Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America." There are 11 chapters which reflect the 11 episodes of his podcast, "Master Plan." In order to tell his story, he points his finger at the 1971 Powell secret memo. That's former US Supreme Court Associate Justice Lewis Powell, who served on the Supreme Court from 1972 to 1987. He died in 1998 at age 90. Author Sirota, who is 50, writes that the Powell memo laid out a comprehensive step-by-step strategy for corporate America to regain control, protect its interests, and reshape the political and legal system of the United States to favor business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Washington Post correspondent Wil Haygood, author of "The War Within a War," discusses the experience of Black American soldiers in Vietnam and the struggle for racial equality, happening at the same time, back home in the United States. He also talks about growing up in Columbus, Ohio, during this period, where, as a child, he witnessed this dichotomy firsthand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Reagan administration official Linda Chavez joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss her career in public service and her works of fiction and nonfiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finance and Tech reporter David Morris reported on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX. POWERHOUSE Arena in New York City hosted this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For his book, "Five Bullets," attorney Elliot Williams wrote 95,720 words. On the back of the cover of the book, writer Garrett Graff sums up the story this way: "Never has a book about the 1980s felt more like current events than Elliot Williams's journey back to one of America's most notorious shootings, when Bernie Goetz opened fire in a crowded New York City subway…'Five Bullets' is a haunting examination of our nation's complicated fascination with vigilantes and the politics of crime…" A lot of the people who were instrumental to this story are deceased. However, the man at the center, Bernie Goetz, is still alive at 78 and still lives in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

White House Historical Association president Stewart McLaurin, author of "The People's House Miscellany," talks about the history of the White House and White House-related trivia. He also discusses the changes that presidents and first ladies have made to the White House's interior and exterior going back to President Thomas Jefferson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former FBI investigator Tim Carpenter recounted the true-life detective story spearheaded by the Bureau's Art Crime Team, which found itself on the trail of a thief who stole thousands of cultural artifacts -- and human remains -- from around the world. The Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee hosted this event Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russian Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, marched toward Moscow starting on June 23, 2023. His forces were advancing north on M4 Highway after seizing Rostov-on-Don. The rebellion against his longtime colleague Vladimir Putin was halted the next day. Literally two months later, at a little past 6pm, Prigozhin and nine others boarded his Embraer 600 jet in Moscow. Several minutes later, at 6:20pm, over Tver, Russia, 100-miles north of Moscow, the plane exploded. All 10 passengers perished, including two pilots and the flight attendant. Writer and intelligence expert, Candace Rondeaux, gives us the rest of the story in her book, "Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia's Collapse into Mercenary Chaos." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's Teasel Muir-Harmony discusses the history of the U.S. space program, from the creation of NASA in 1958 through the Gemini early flights to Neil Armstrong taking his historic first steps on the lunar surface in July 1969. She also talks about the missions that followed and NASA's current efforts to return astronauts to the moon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, examined the relationship between civilian and military leadership in America going back to the country's founding. This event was hosted by AEI in Washington, D.C Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the December 1, 2025, print edition of the Wall Street Journal, there was this headline on page R25: "These 10 books changed the way Americans thought about work." Carol Hymowitz, the author, wrote: "It began with Benjamin Franklin, who couldn't stop working or writing about work throughout his 84-year long life." Carol Hymowitz has been associated with the Wall Street Journal since she got her master's degree in journalism at Columbia University. Other books she featured in this article about work include Tocqueville, Frederick Douglass, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Dale Carnegie, and C. Wright Mills, plus others. We wanted to know how she chose these 10 books about work, so we had a chat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nicholas Boggs discusses the personal life and activism of American writer James Baldwin (1924-1987). Mr. Boggs, who spent over 20 years working on "James Baldwin: A Love Story," also talks about Baldwin's many books, his life outside the United States, and his involvement in the civil rights movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham joined David M. Rubenstein to discuss his biographies of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and George H.W. Bush, and his upcoming book on Dwight Eisenhower. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stefan Fatsis describes his experience as a lexicographer in training at Merriam-Webster to learn how words are added to the dictionary. Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA, hosted this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Horn's latest book is titled "The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines." The publisher Scribner explains the premise of Horn's book: "For the doomed stand American forces made in the Philippines at the start of World War II, two generals received the country's highest military award, the Medal of Honor. One was the charismatic Douglas MacArthur whose orders forced him to leave his troops and go to Australia. The other was the gritty Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright who became a hero to the troops whose fate he insisted on sharing." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl discusses his book, "Retribution," a behind-the-scenes look at Donald Trump's winning 2024 presidential campaign. Mr. Karl, who started covering Trump in the mid-1990s for the New York Post, also talks about his longtime relationship with the 47th president and the contrast between President Trump's public and private sides. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Buckley is a novelist, essayist, humorist, critic, magazine editor and memoirist. The only child of publishing icon William F. Buckley, Christopher's books have been translated into sixteen foreign languages. He has worked as a merchant seaman and White House speechwriter. He has written for many newspapers and magazines and has lectured in over 70 cities around the world. He was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor and the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people? That’s the question posed by humor columnist Dave Barry’s 2025 memoir titled, Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up. This week on C-SPAN's Afterwords podcast, a discussion on satire and humor with Dave Barry and novelist Carl Hiaasen. Hiaasen also has a new book titled Fever Beach. It’s a satirical crime novel, which he says was inspired by real events in Florida and the January 6th riot at the Capitol. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anne Marshall is associate professor of history and executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University. Her book is "Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform." Clay lived to be 92, had two wives and 11 children. Kentucky was his home state. As an antislavery reformer, Cassius Marcellus Clay is often remembered as a knife-wielding rabble rouser who both inspired and enraged his contemporaries. Abraham Lincoln made him minister to Russia. And yes, the boxer Muhammad Ali was originally named after him, but decided he wanted his own original name. Ann Marshall will discuss all this with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Texas at Austin history professor Peniel Joseph, author of "Freedom Season," talks about the pivotal events of 1963 that impacted the Civil Rights Movement in America. That year, which marked the centenary of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, also saw the assassinations of President Kennedy and Mississippi civil rights activist Medgar Evers, the publication of James Baldwin's bestseller "The Fire Next Time," and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed 4 little girls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times Magazine staff writer Jonathan Mahler talked about the 1980s forces, events, and characters that defined and shaped New York City. His book features Donald Trump, Spike Lee, Rudy Giuliani , Ed Koch, and Al Sharpton - and highlights New York's experiences with homelessness, AIDS, racial tensions, and the crack epidemic. The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City hosted this event Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Trillion Dollar War Machine" is the name of the book. The co-authors are William Hartung and Ben Freeman. They both do work for the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a think tank in Washington, D.C. It's a nonprofit research organization whose stated purpose is to oppose the military-industrial complex described by President Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell address. We will talk with co-author Ben Freeman, the Quincy Institute Director of Democratizing Foreign Policy. The subtitle of the book is: "How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gary Walters has served seven U.S. presidents and their families at the White House from 1970-2007, first as a member of the Secret Service and later as an usher. He served as White House Chief Usher from 1986-2007, the longest in U.S. history. Mr. Walters shares stories from his time in the Executive Residence and discusses the role that he played in managing the day-to-day operations, presidential transitions, and major events at the White House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Baseball hall of famer Cal Ripken Jr. joins David M. Rubenstein to discussed his legendary career and his work as a bestselling author, and gave viewers a tour of memorabilia from his decades in baseball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro argued that the world is divided between those who want to defend Western civilization and those who want to undermine it. This event was hosted by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After 15 books on Revolutionary America, John Ferling still has more to say about the early period in the life of the United States. Ferling is professor emeritus of history at the University of West Georgia. In the preface of his 2025 book, "Shots Heard Round the World," Prof. Ferling opens with this: "Now that America will be commemorating the 250th anniversary of its War of Independence, what pops into your mind as you hear or witness references to that conflict?" Prof. Ferling gives his answer in a 500-page book focusing on America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 4, 2026, marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In 2016, Congress established the America250 Commission to plan events to celebrate the semiquincetennial. America250 Commission Chair Rosie Rios joins us to talk about several of these events which will occur over the next year, including the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary parade that took place on June 14, 2025, and other initiatives that the public can participate in leading up to the anniversary. She also talks about serving as the 43rd Treasurer of the United States (2009-2016). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Monsters We Make, journalist Rachel Corbett examines how power operates in the digital age, exploring the systems and incentives that shape online behavior and amplify harassment and abuse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Irish American writer Frank McCourt wrote a book in 1996 that was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 100 weeks. Over the next 20 years, "Angela's Ashes" sold close to 10 million copies worldwide. It was translated into 24 languages. McCourt was born in New York City, but moved with his family to Limerick, Ireland, for his childhood years. Frank McCourt died at age 78 in 2009 of melanoma cancer. He was a guest on the Booknotes television program on September 19th, 1996. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, chosen third in the NBA draft in 2011, is the author of "In the Name of Freedom." In his book, he talks about advocating for human rights as a professional athlete. The Turkish American basketball player has been critical of the NBA and Nike for doing business with China and has called out LeBron James for staying silent on China's human rights abuses. He has also testified in front of Congress about the authoritarian rule of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Environmentalist Bill McKibben argued that solar and wind power offer the best path for addressing climate change. Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., hosted this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's encore interview is from September 21, 1997. Twenty-eight years ago. Our guest was Peter J. Gomes, former minister of the Memorial Church at Harvard. His father was from Cape Verde, and his mother was African-American. In 1991, he identified himself as gay but says he remained celibate. Professor Gomes passed away in 2011 at age 69. During his lifetime, he received over 40 honorary degrees. Professor Gomes was a registered Republican for most of his life and offered prayer at the inaugurations of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. However, in August of 2006, he changed his registration to the Democratic Party. His book is titled "The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taped on 12/15/25 Political scientist Charles Murray, author of "Taking Religion Seriously," discusses his decades-long evolution from "happy agnostic" to believing Christian. Mr. Murray, co-author of the controversial 1994 bestseller "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life," also talks about the foundations of human morality, the Big Bang, the authorship of the Gospels, and the writings of C.S. Lewis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices