C-SPAN Bookshelf

New York University journalism professor Meryl Gordon, author of "The Woman Who Knew Everyone," talks about the life of socialite and Democratic fundraiser Perle Mesta. Mesta, dubbed the "hostess with the mostest," was close to three U.S. presidents during the mid-20th century, and was known for throwing parties that brought political elites together. She served as U.S. envoy to Luxembourg following WWII, was an early activist for the Equal Rights Amendment, and was the subject of the Broadway musical and later movie, "Call Me Madam." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Adam Ratner spoke about the resurgence of measles that he's seeing as a pediatrician and the future of children's health. He was interviewed by George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health professor Emily Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a follow up to our recent podcast regarding the life and times of Anne Frank, we asked author Alexandra Ritchie to tell us more about the horrors of World War II and Poland. Ritchie, a citizen of Canada, now lives in the city which is the title of her book, Warsaw. Her focus is on 1944 and what was called the Warsaw Uprising. In her introduction, she writes, "Himmler and Hitler had decided that the entire population remaining in one of Europe's great capital cities was to be murdered in cold blood. Himmler referred to Warsaw as the great abscess, which was to be completely destroyed." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY), author of "All the President's Money," talks about his committee's 15-month investigation into the business practices of then President Joe Biden and members of President Biden's family, including his brother James and son Hunter. Rep. Comer argues that the Bidens have benefitted financially from corrupt financial dealings involving Ukraine, China, and other countries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Omar El Akkad questions if the U.S. is forsaking its core values, after covering wars around the globe & social unrest as a journalist for 20 years. He's interviewed by author and University of Oxford Modern Middle Eastern History professor Eugene Rogan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the years right before World War II started in 1939, Winston Churchill had been out of government. However, even though he was far from power, his country home, Chartwell, became Churchill's headquarters of his campaign against Nazi Germany. Catherine Carter is a curator and historian who has managed the house and collections at Chartwell. Her new book is called "Churchill's Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm." Catherine Carter reveals how Churchill used Chartwell, which is 35 miles from London, as his base during the pre-war years to collect key intelligence about Germany's preparation for war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National Geographic explorer Tara Roberts travels the world documenting underwater wrecks of some of the 12,000 slave ships that operated during the Atlantic slave trade. In her memoir, "Written in the Waters," Roberts talks about the training and preparation required to undertake the diving missions and the work done by the nonprofit organization that she dives with, Diving with a Purpose, which is primarily composed of African American divers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Kevin Fagan reports on the underlying issues of homelessness in America, tracing the experiences of two unhoused persons in San Francisco. He was interviewed by former Obama Administration HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

80 years ago, in early 1945, 15-year-old Anne Frank died from a typhus epidemic in the Nazi German-based concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. As the 7500 square foot replica of the Otto Frank family secret annex in Amsterdam opens in New York City, writer Ruth Franklin is publishing her new biography called "The Many Lives of Anne Frank." According to Franklin, the title of the book refers to the multiplicity of ways in which Anne Frank has been understood and misunderstood. Anne Frank's diary is one of the best-selling non-fiction books of all time. Reportedly over 30 million copies have been sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former mafia associate Louis Ferrante talks about "Borgata: Clash of Titans," volume two of his history of the American mafia that covers the years 1960-1985. In part two of this two-part interview, Mr. Ferrante further details what he says was the mafia's involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy and discusses Robert Kennedy's battle with mobster Carlos Marcello (mar-CELL-oh), boss of the New Orleans Mafia from the late 1940s to the early 1980s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Eve Ewing argues that education systems in the United States have been designed to reinforce racial inequality at the expense of Black & Native children. She's interviewed by Associate Press editor Alia Wong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A little over 100 years ago was the beginning of what's often been called the Great War. World War I had military casualties of over nine million and millions more of civilians. Professor Sean McMeekin of Bard College, located in New York State, has written 9 books since 2003 on subjects that include German history, Russian history, the Ottoman Empire, communism, World War II, and one titled "July 1914." This last book is the focus of our conversation with Professor McMeekin. World War I was triggered in late June of 1914 by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo, Bosnia. They were gunned down by a Serbian 19-year-old by the name of Gavrilo Princip. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former mafia associate Louis Ferrante talks about "Borgata: Clash of Titans," volume two of his history of the American mafia that covers the years 1960-1985. In part one of a two-part interview, he gives a history of the mafia in America, discusses Attorney General Robert Kennedy's war against organized crime and the involvement that he says the mafia had in the 1960 election and 1963 assassination of President John Kennedy. Mr. Ferrante also shares stories about his time as a heist expert for the Gambino crime family, which led to his imprisonment in 1994. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former president of Anheuser-Busch Sales & Distribution Company Anson Frericks offers his insight to the Bud Light controversy, declining sales & its future. He was interviewed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Richard Morrison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Levering Lewis is an American historian and retired professor from New York University. He's the author of 12 books and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for his two volumes on the life of W.E.B. DuBois. At 88 years old, Prof. Lewis has written a memoir that, as he says, focuses on "a past I barely knew." He a native of St. Louis, MO, with degrees from Fisk, Columbia, and the London School of Economics. The title of Prof. Lewis' latest book is "The Stained Glass Window: A Family History as the American Story, 1790-1958." In his prologue, he writes: "Africans in America had been both unique victims and unimpeachable critics of a nation corrupted at its inception by a political economy anchored to slavery." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reginald Dwayne Betts originally read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail" – King's defense of the use of nonviolent civil disobedience in the fight for civil rights – while in solitary confinement in prison. Mr. Betts, who served over 8 years for a carjacking he committed when he was 16, went on to become an award-winning poet and graduate of Yale Law School. He has written the Afterword for a new commemorative edition of Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Mr Betts talks about the book and the work done by Freedom Reads, an organization he founded that builds libraries in prisons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Omo Moses, son of civil rights organizer Robert Moses, talks about being Black in America through the voices of three generations of the Moses family. He's interviewed by University of Maryland, Baltimore County emeritus president Freeman Hrabowski. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Dickinson is one of the most significant founders of the United States who is not well known by the American public. Author Jane Calvert is trying to change that with her new biography "Penman of the Founding." John Dickinson is known for his 9 essays under the title Fabius, published anonymously in newspapers during the time that the states were deciding on whether to approve the new Constitution. John Dickinson of Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania was the only founding figure present and active in every phase of the American Revolution, from the Stamp Act Crisis to the ratification of the Constitution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.S. District Court judge Frederic Block (Eastern District of New York) talks about the application of the 2018 First Step Act, under which federal prisoners who have served decades in prison can petition the court for reductions in their sentences. The bi-partisan act, signed into law by President Trump during his first term, was created to address the excesses in federal sentencing during the 1980s and 90s, reduce the size of the federal prison population, and promote rehabilitation. In his book, "A Second Chance," Judge Block discusses the outcomes for 6 defendants – including mafia hitmen, a child pornographer, and a rogue policeman – who petitioned him for their release. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Washington Post's Eva Dou explains how Huawei became China's most powerful company & what that means for its global competitors. She was interviewed by author and Council on Foreign Relations emerging technologies and national security chair Adam Segal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For In his latest book titled "Waste Land," author Robert Kaplan focuses on the importance of technology in determining the world's future. Kaplan, author of 24 books, holds the chair in geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Institute. In Chapter 3 of his 177-page book, he claims: "…civilization is now in flux. The ongoing decay of the West is manifested not only in racial tensions coupled with new barriers to free speech, but in the deterioration of dress codes, the erosion of grammar, the decline in sales of serious books and classical music, and so on…all of which have traditionally been signs of civilization." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Military historian and presidential biographer Nigel Hamilton talks about the military face-off between two American presidents – Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis – during the Civil War. He discusses the early months of the war, the decision to move the Confederate capitol to Virginia, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and more. This is part two of a two-part interview with Mr. Hamilton about his book "Lincoln vs. Davis." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 216 weeks, a record, John Berendt's book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" sat on the New York Times best sellers list. It was published in 1994. It sold more than 1.5 million copies. Mr. Berendt, a Syracuse native, is today 85 and lives in New York City. A musical based on the book opened in Chicago in 2024 and will open on Broadway in 2025. During this episode of the podcast, an interview with John Berendt from 1997, when he appeared on the original "Booknotes" television program to talk about the book and its success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Military historian and presidential biographer Nigel Hamilton talks about the military face-off between two American presidents – Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis – during the Civil War. He discusses the background of both men, their rise to the presidencies of the Union and the Confederacy, respectively, and the events that led up to attack on Fort Sumter by Confederate forces on April 12, 1861, not long after both men were inaugurated. This is part one of a two-part interview with Mr. Hamilton about his book "Lincoln vs. Davis." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) shares his thoughts on having the tenacity to pursue progressive goals through strong alliances, hard work, & focus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since his first interview on C-SPAN on Booknotes in 1993, Harold Holzer has appeared on the network close to 200 times. Up to that year he had written or edited 6 books on Abraham Lincoln. Since then, Harold Holzer has added another 50 books to his name. C-SPAN viewers and listeners have had the opportunity to hear Mr. Holzer talk about Lincoln's life, from his birth in Kentucky in 1807, until his assassination in Washington, DC, in 1865. The following conversation, which is just over 5 hours, is meant to be extensive. The center of attention is Mr. Lincoln, but in this case, also the life of Harold Holzer, a New Yorker for the past 75 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former high school government teacher and host of the "Here's Where It Gets Interesting" podcast, Sharon McMahon, author of "The Small and the Mighty," profiles lesser-known Americans who have changed the course of American history. During the interview, Ms. McMahon talks about the contributions of retail pioneers Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck, former slave and philanthropist Clara Brown, Japanese American politician Norman Mineta, Founding Father Gouverneur Morris, and others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Adam Chandler argues that hard work is not enough to obtain the American dream. He's interviewed by author Alissa Quart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell has spent 40 years in the United States Senate, 17 of those as leader of his Republican colleagues. That's the longest any senator has been at the top of the leadership rung in either political party. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was elected a few weeks ago to head up the Republican majority in the Senate in 2025. Journalist Michael Tackett's book, a profile of Senator McConnell, is called "The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party." Mr. Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief of the Associated Press, conducted over 50 hours of interviews and was granted access to never-before-released oral histories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stuart Eizenstat, former Domestic Policy Adviser to President Carter and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union under President Clinton, talks about his political career and his new book, "The Art Of Diplomacy," in which he discusses the work done to achieve agreements like the Camp David Accords, the Kyoto Protocols, and the Iran nuclear agreement. Mr. Eizenstat also talks about growing up in the South during the Civil Rights Era and how that experience changed him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congressman Mark Green (R-TN) discusses division in America and the advantages of putting others before self. He's interviewed by Military Times deputy editor Leo Shane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brion McClanahan has a PhD in history from the University of South Carolina. Several years ago, he wrote a book titled "9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America: And Four Who Tried to Save Her." His view on the presidency is not the traditional one you get from most historians. On the back of his book, published by Regnery History, the liner notes claim: "The worst presidents are the ones who want to 'reform' the country through the power of the federal government, which usually means usurping the power of Congress or the people." Brion McClanahan focuses a negative spotlight on Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, and others." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"For every young kid that makes a mistake, they can look at Don Scott and say, 'I'll never give up. I can still be what I want to be in America.'" That was former Republican governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia speaking about our guest this week, the state's newly elected Democratic speaker of the House of Delegates. Don Scott talks about the hurdles he overcame, including spending almost eight years in prison, to become Virginia's first Black speaker in 405 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his latest book, "LBJ & McNamara," Peter Osnos's dedication reads this way: "To those on the Vietnam Wall on the Mall and their countless Vietnamese counterparts. It did not have to happen." In his role as publisher at PublicAffairs Books, Osnos spent numerous hours working with former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara for his 1995 book, "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam." Osnos writes: "This book describes what happened in the years between 1963 and McNamara's last day as Secretary of Defense in February of 1968. Robert McNamara died in 2009 at the age of 93. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since its founding in 1992, the Innocence Project has been responsible for getting hundreds of wrongfully convicted people in the United States out of prison. Attorney and Innocence Project executive director Christina Swarns joins us to talk about the history of the organization, the root causes of wrongful convictions, and some of the clients the Innocence Project has successfully represented over the years, including the two men convicted of killing of Malcolm X in 1965. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andy Puzder, former CEO of CKE Restaurants, took a critical look at stakeholder capitalism, which he argues is a form of socialism that will hurt the middle and lower classes in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an earlier conversation in this series, Evan Thomas discussed his 1986 book, "The Wise Men." There were 6 of them: Messrs. Acheson, Bohlen, Harriman, McCloy, Lovett, and Kennan. In this episode, we asked Edward "Ted" Aldrich to discuss his book titled "The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration That Won World War II." Mr. Aldrich writes: "FDR paired Stimson, as Secretary of War, with Gen. George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army, in the summer of 1940 in anticipation of the global war into which all three men knew the United States could shortly be drawn." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York City real estate developer Larry Silverstein, author of "The Rising," shares stories about the rebuilding of the World Trade Center complex following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mr. Silverstein - who acquired a 99-year lease on the World Trade Center just weeks before the attacks - talks about his memories from that day and discusses the business, political, and engineering challenges he faced during his 20-year rebuilding effort. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Economist and investment advisor James Rickards spoke about the potential threats that AI poses to the global economy and national security. He was interviewed by George Mason University Distingushed University Professor J.P. Singh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James M. Bradley's biography of Martin Van Buren is the first full-scale portrait of the 8th president in 4 decades. Mr. Bradley is co-editor of the Martin Van Buren papers and teaches in the public history program at the State University of New York at Albany. In his introduction, he writes: "As this biography will show, reaching the nation's highest office was not Van Buren's greatest achievement. He built and designed the party system that defined how politics was practiced and power wielded in the United States." Van Buren is known as the principal founder of the Democratic Party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Twenty-five years ago, author Malcolm Gladwell published "The Tipping Point," about how ideas and behavior spread in a society to create positive change. The book was an international bestseller, having since sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. alone. In his follow-up, "Revenge of the Tipping Point," Mr. Gladwell looks at the downside of social epidemics, including the rise of opioid abuse and Medicare fraud. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist T.J. English spoke about the rise and fall of "Los Muchachos," one of the most successful cocaine empires in U.S. history. He was interviewed by author and Brookings Institution senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well-Read Black Girl founder Glory Edim discussed the book club she began in 2015 to celebrate black, brown and indigenous women. She also discussed her latest book, "Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books that Saved Me." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A book called "The Wise Men" was first published in 1986. The cover copy says that "it was about six friends and the world they made." The names Harriman, Lovett, Acheson, McCloy, Kennan, and Bohlen are only to be found in the history books today. Co-authors Evan Thomas and Walter Isaacson were in their mid-thirties. In the updated 2012 introduction to the paperback, they wrote: "In their time, the wise men operated largely behind the scenes, little known by the public, but they achieved great things." According to Thomas and Isaacson, those great things included the shaping of the world order today, the creation of international institutions, and the forging of lasting peace in a perilous time. We asked Evan Thomas, now in his 70s: Who are the wise men of today? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Half Jewish and a member of the Hitler Youth who saw Adolf Hitler in person, Jochen "Jack" Wurfl, author of "My Two Lives," talks about surviving in Nazi Germany and his later life and success in the United States. To hide their identities after the Nazis took over in 1933, Mr. Wurfl and his brother were baptized Catholic and later joined the Hitler Youth. His Catholic father, deemed a political enemy by the state, was sent to a concentration camp in Austria, while his Jewish mother was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz, where she perished. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to professor Corey Brettschneider, author of "The Presidents and the People," the following presidents in history threatened democracy: "John Adams waged war on the national press…prosecuting as many as 126 people who dared criticize him…James Buchanan colluded with the Supreme Court to deny constitutional personhood to African Americans….Andrew Johnson urged violence against his political opponents…Woodrow Wilson nationalized Jim Crow by segregating the federal government…Richard Nixon committed criminal acts – ordering the Watergate break-in." Corey Brettschneider teaches constitutional law and politics at the Providence, Rhode Island-based Brown University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peggy Noonan, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Wall Street Journal and former speechwriter for President Reagan, discusses her book "A Certain Idea of America," a collection of her columns from over the past quarter century. She also talks about her time working in the White House and her career in radio after graduating from college. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Gorton looked at the lives & rivalry between two key figures in the early movement for birth control & reproductive rights. She was interviewed by author and UC Davis School of Law professor Mary Ziegler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Talmage Boston considers himself a full-time lawyer and a full-time historian. His latest book is called "How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents." He chose the first 4 of 8 off the face of Mount Rushmore: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. In addition, Mr. Boston chose 24 distinct leadership traits he says were exhibited by these presidents. The other 4 presidents include FDR, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. Seventy-one-year-old Talmage Boston lives in Dallas, Texas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigative journalist Maureen Callahan talks about the physical and psychological abuse, and worse, that she says was experienced by women and girls connected to the Kennedy family going back to Joe Kennedy, Sr. In her book, "Ask Not," Callahan tells the stories of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, Martha Moxley, Mary Richardson Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, and others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices