C-SPAN Bookshelf

This conversation was a behind-the-scenes account of the 2024 presidential election that sent Donald Trump back to the White House for a second, non-consecutive term -- only the second president other than Grover Cleveland to achieve that distinction, and after a litany of criminal and civil investigations and two assassination attempts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

Charles Sumner was from Boston, Massachusetts. He was a U.S. Senator for 23 years from 1851 to 1874. Sumner, an anti-slavery Republican, was brutally caned on the Senate floor by pro-slavery Democrats in 1856, during the lead-up to the Civil War. The attack, which almost killed Sumner, kept him out of the Senate for over 3 years. Sumner didn't marry until he was 55 years old, but his marriage to A...

Technology reporter Nicole Kobie, author of "The Long History of the Future," talks about how technology evolves and discusses why many predicted technologies – including driverless and flying cars, smart cities, hyperloops, and autonomous robots – haven’t become a reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling author John Grisham and co-author Jim McCloskey wrote about the challenges of exonerating a person who is wrongfully convicted. Princeton Library, Centurion, and Labyrinth Books in Princeton, New Jersey, sponsored this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The patriarch, C.F. Seabrook, was hailed as the Henry Ford of agriculture. His son, Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life magazine called the biggest vegetable factory on earth. His son, John Seabrook, has written about his grandfather and father in his book called "The Spinach King." It's subtitled "The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty." Work on "The Spinach King" starte...

Progressive professor Cornel West and conservative professor Robert George talk about their decades-long friendship and teaching together at Princeton University. They also discuss their new book, "Truth Matters," a dialogue between the two on such topics as American history, great books, faith, and free speech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial Times San Francisco Correspondent Patrick McGee examined Apple's relationship with China and the impact of locating so many factories there. The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco hosted this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a word, Evan Osnos' latest book focuses on the subject of money. His book is titled "The Haves and the Have Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultra-Rich." There are 10 essays which originally appeared in his home publication, The New Yorker. The oldest one, "Survival of the Richest," ran in 2017. The newest, titled "Land of Make-Believe," was published in 2024. In his introduction, Osnos writes that: "...

David Kramer (G.W. Bush Institute), Stephanie Streett (Clinton Foundation), Alice Yates (George & Barbara Bush Foundation), and Mark Updegrove (LBJ Foundation) talk about preserving the legacies of U.S. presidents and the work their privately funded organizations do to achieve this, including through the Presidential Leadership Scholars program, which launched in 2015. They also talk about the rel...

Former President Bill Clinton talked with his co-author James Patterson about their latest novel: A mystery in the White House that leads to the first gentleman on trial for murder. Politics and Prose Bookstore hosted this event at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dave Barry's memoir is called "Class Clown." It is at least his 46th book. On the front of his book, he makes an important declaration: "How I went 77 years without growing up." For 30 years, Dave Barry wrote a weekly humor column published in newspapers, mostly on the weekends. He retired that column in 2005 but has kept writing. On the back flap of his memoir, the bio says he has more best selle...

Dr. Robert Malone, recently appointed to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, talks about his book "PsyWar," in which he argues that the U.S. government uses psychological warfare against Americans to control them. He also talks about how his career as a virologist and immunologist took a turn after he criticized the government's response to the COVID pandemic. Learn more about...

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told her own political story in Far From Home. She was first elected in 2001 and has served in the Senate since 2002. Her book covers a career ranging from the emergence of the tea party movement to President Trump's second election. Politics and Prose bookstore hosted this event at the Sixth and I cultural center in Washington, D.C Learn more about your ad choices. V...

As a follow-up to last week's interview with Lien-Hang Nguyen, here is an encore interview with former CBS and ABC reporter John Laurence. Mr. Laurence was interviewed on Booknotes, the television program, on January 17, 2002. His book is called "The Cat from Hue". It's 800 plus pages and relays his Vietnam experience as a reporter for CBS. John Laurence spent a total of 22 months there, from the...

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...

Chef José Andrés talked about the life lessons he's learned through the work he does with the World Central Kitchen, an organization that feeds people in conflict and disaster zones around the world. He spoke at George Washington University's Lisner Hall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Netflix is offering a five-part documentary series titled "Turning Point: The Vietnam War," directed by Brian Knappenberger. The series includes never-before-seen footage of the war from the CBS archives. Also included in the documentary are interviews with participants in the war, both from the North and the South. One of the most freque...

George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley discusses the history of free speech in America and the people who advanced it. He argues that the right to free speech, enshrined in the First Amendment, is a basic human right that protects all the others. Prof. Turley also talks about current attempts by government, universities, and the private sector to limit free speech in the...

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and his wife Dina McCormick discussed the importance of mentors and shared stories of successful politicians and business leaders who have had their lives changed by them. This event was hosted by the Ronald Regan Institute in Washington, D.C Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One October morning in 2018, journalist William Geroux says he was returning some books to his local Virginia Beach Library when he noticed a new state historical marker planted in the ground near the front entrance. It said the library was built on the site of a World War II prisoner of war camp. In Mr. Giroux's author's note in his latest book called "The Fifteen," he writes that he "was surpris...

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 best...

Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein argues that the lack of general civics knowledge by Millennials poses a threat to America's political and social institutions. He was interviewed by the Federalist's culture editor Emily Jashinksy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a story from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. The book by Claire Hoffman is called "Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple MacPherson." FSG, the publisher, further emphasizes that the story is "the dramatic rise, disappearance, and near fall of a woman called Sister Amy who changed the world." Author Claire Hoffman, who has a master's in religion from the Uni...

Former Newsweek editor and managing editor of CNN Worldwide, Mark Whitaker, discusses the life and legacy of the Black nationalist leader Malcolm X, who was assassinated in 1965. Mr. Whitaker, author of "The Afterlife of Malcolm X," talks about Malcolm X's split with the Nation of Islam, his relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali, and his posthumous impact on Barack Obama, Clare...

New School economic professor Teresa Ghilarducci offered her thoughts on how to make retirement in the U.S. attainable for more Americans. She was interviewed by Washington Post economics correspondent Abha Bhattarai. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices