C-SPAN Bookshelf

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AW: Former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty on Understanding Today’s Russia Nov 23, 2025

Show notes

Former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty talked about her experiences covering Russia and Russian Presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. She spoke at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.

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BN+: Kenneth Feinberg, "What is Life Worth?" Nov 18, 2025

Show notes

Kenneth Feinberg is a Washington-based attorney who served as a special master of the US government's 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. Mr. Feinberg worked for 33 months, pro bono, deciding who should be compensated as a result of the deaths and injuries from 9/11. Kenneth Feinberg, who today is 79, was interviewed on C-SPAN's Q&A program about his book, "What is Life Worth: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9-11." Here is an encore presentation of that July 1, 2005, interview.

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Q&A: Rep. James Clyburn on “The First Eight” and the Rise of Black Political Leadership Nov 17, 2025

Show notes

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) talks about eight Black representatives from South Carolina who served in Congress during the Reconstruction Era. The eight included Joseph Rainey, the first Black politician elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and Robert Smalls, a Civil War hero who fled the Confederacy to fight for the Union Army. Both were former slaves. Rep. Clyburn became the ninth Black congressman from South Carolina nearly a century later.

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ABC: Walter Isaacson on the Minds That Shape Our Modern World Nov 16, 2025

Show notes

Walter Isaacson is a Professor of History at Tulane. He has been the editor of Time Magazine, the CEO and Chairman of CNN, and the CEO of the Aspen Institute. He is the author of Elon Musk (2023), Leonardo da Vinci (2017), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992). Isaacson is a graduate of Harvard College and Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He began his career at The Sunday Times in London and then New Orleans’ Times-Picayune. He joined TIME in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor, and editor of digital media before becoming the magazine’s 14th editor in 1996. He became chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.

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After Words: George Selgin, "False Dawn: The Rise and Decline of Bitcoin" Nov 16, 2025

Show notes

University of Georgia professor emeritus George Selgin argued that many of FDR's New Deal programs were counterproductive and impeded recovery during the Great Depression. He spoke at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.

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BN+: William Galston, "Anger, Fear, Domination" Nov 11, 2025

Show notes

William Arthur Galston has been a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution since 2006 and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal for the past 12 years. In the first paragraph of his latest 161-page book, he tells us what the book is about: "This book advances this proposition that what I call the dark passions - anger, hatred, humiliation, resentment, fear, and the drive for domination - fuels today's attacks on liberal democracy." Galston also says, "persuasive public speech is the main way demagogues mobilize these passions to pursue power." The name of the book is "Anger, Fear, Domination."

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Q&A: Stewart McLaurin on The People’s House Miscellany: Stories from the White House Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

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.

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2025 Printers Row Lit Fest: Maureen Dowd on the Culture of Celebrity in America Nov 09, 2025

Show notes

This week on After Words — Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd discusses her new book, Notorious, with CNN Chief Political Analyst David Axelrod. In the book, Dowd profiles some of the most talked-about figures from Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and American culture. Their conversation was recorded at the 2025 Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago.

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David Grann on Killers of the Flower Moon and America’s Hidden History Nov 09, 2025

Show notes

Author David Grann joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss his books including "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "The Wager" and visits the vault of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

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BN+: Peter Henriques Explores George Washington’s Character and Presidency Nov 04, 2025

Show notes

Retired George Mason University history professor, Peter Henriques, starts off his author's note writing: "If anyone had told me in the summer of 2023 that I would be writing one more book on George Washington, I would have expressed extreme skepticism." In Episode 6 of this Booknotes+ podcast series in 2021, Professor Henriques told us the same thing. But at 88 years old, he's back with another book on our first president, titled "George Washington: His Quest for Honor and Fame." In the afterward of the book, Peter Henriques puts a special emphasis on George Washington and slavery.

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