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Ep. 204 Jane Calvert, "Penman of the Founding" Feb 04, 2025

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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.

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Ep. 203 Robert Kaplan, "Waste Land" Jan 28, 2025

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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."

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Ep. 202 John Berendt, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" Jan 21, 2025

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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.

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Ep. 201 Lincoln Scholar Harold Holzer on His Life & Work Jan 14, 2025

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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.

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Ep. 200 Michael Tackett, "The Price of Power" Jan 07, 2025

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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.

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Ep. 199 Brion McClanahan, "9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America" Dec 31, 2024

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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."

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Ep. 198 Peter Osnos, "LBJ & McNamara" Dec 24, 2024

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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.

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Ep. 197: Edward Aldrich, "The Partnership" Dec 17, 2024

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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."

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Ep. 196 James Bradley, "Martin Van Buren" Dec 10, 2024

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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.

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Ep. 195 Evan Thomas, "The Wise Men" Dec 03, 2024

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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?

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