C-SPAN Bookshelf

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 e...

USA Today's Susan Page spoke about the life and career of Barbara Walters. She was interviewed by former ABC News White House Correspondent Ann Compton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Publishing industry analyst Brenna Connor discussed sales trends and bestsellers in the first quarter of 2024, as well as predictions for the remainder of the year. About Books also reported on the latest publishing news and new releases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early in his newest of over 30 books, Joseph Epstein, our guest this week, writes: "I feel extremely lucky in all these realms in which I had no real choice: parents, epoch, country, and throw in religion, city, and social class." The 87-year-old Epstein, a longtime essayist for the Wall Street Journal, has written his autobiography called "Never Say You've Had a Lucky Life: Especially If You've H...

Filmmakers Zachary Treitz and Christian Hansen discuss their 4-part Netflix docuseries "American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders," about the events surrounding the death of freelance journalist Danny Casolaro (cas-uh-LARE-oh) in 1991. At the time of his death, officially ruled a suicide, Mr. Casolaro was working on a story about a series of crimes – including drug running, money laundering, and mu...

Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude spoke about his views on Black politics & how the Black community moves forward in America's democracy. He was interviewed by Harvard University History, Race, & Public Policy Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Drudge started his website called "The Drudge Report" in 1995. In those early days, he had just 1,000 e-mail subscribers. Within a short time that number jumped to hundreds of thousands. Up until the mid-2000s, Mr. Drudge was very visible, appearing on television and hosting his own radio show. After that, without notice, he disappeared from public view. Chris Moody, our guest this week, just...

In "The Lies of the Land," Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) history professor Steven Conn argues that the reality of rural America today is vastly different from the way it is often portrayed by politicians and the media. He says rural Americans have not been left behind or been overlooked and are just as connected to the forces of American modernity – militarization, industrialization, corporatiza...

Newsweek’s Batya Ungar-Sargon talks with working class Americans about their lives & policies they believe could help get them to the middle class. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Columnist Danny Heitman discussed the importance of rereading classical literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The book is called "The Real Hoosiers". The author is Pennsylvania-based Jack McCallum. He was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated for 30 years. "The Real Hoosiers" is a book about parts of Indiana, race, and basketball. To tell the story, McCallum focuses on the life of "The Big O," well-known basketball success Oscar Robertson, who is now 85 years old. Oscar Robertson started his career at Cri...

The Times of London U.S. editor David Charter, author of "Royal Audience," discusses the special relationship that Queen Elizabeth II had with the United States and U.S. presidents over her 70-year reign as Britain's Head of State. Queen Elizabeth, who became queen in 1952 and passed away in 2022, had met and had varying degrees of personal relationships with 13 of the 14 U.S. presidents during he...

Journalist Annie Jacobsen chronicled the sequence of events that would occur at home and around the globe following the launch of a nuclear missile. She was interviewed by author and national security analyst Joe Cirincione. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was a United States Senator for 23 years. He lived to be 63, from January of 1811 to March of 1874. Stephen Puleo has written the first major, full biography of Sumner since 1960. It's titled "The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union." Mr. Puleo writes: "His positions cost him dearly. Southerners despised him, sometimes feared hi...

Our guest this week is Dr. Uché Blackstock. She and her twin sister, Oni, are graduates of Harvard Medical School, as was their mother, Dr. Dale Gloria Blackstock. In fact, they were the first Black mother-daughter graduates of Harvard Medical School. Dr Blackstock's book, "Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism in Medicine," looks at some of the issues she sees facing Black doctors and pat...

NYU professor Jonathan Haidt argued that technology is harming the social development and mental health of children. He was interviewed by Harvard University Center for Digital Thriving co-director and author Emily Weinstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simon & Schuster President & CEO Jonathan Karp discussed the company's 1924 founding, its role in publishing, and some of the authors it has published. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Pettegree is a British historian at St. Andrews University in Scotland. His specialty is the history of the book and media transformations. He has written a great deal about the written word with an emphasis on libraries. His latest book is titled "The Book at War: How Reading Shaped Conflict and Conflict Shaped Reading." In his introduction, Prof. Pettegree writes: "In all nations, once wa...

Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic and New York Times columnist Carlos Lozada, author of "The Washington Book," talks about the insights he gleaned from reading the memoirs, political biographies, and official reports written by politicians and government officials in Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

In Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler's latest book, they open with this introduction: "This is a book of love stories. Every one of them involved a president of the United States, and we will tell their stories through letters they wrote. Through this collection of carefully chosen letters, we reveal the writers at their most vulnerable, providing a surprisingly intimate and deeply personal portrait that...

Columnist Rob Henderson talks about growing up as a troubled child in the U.S. foster care system, the hurdles he overcame to become successful, and what he learned about class divisions in America as a result. By age 8, after 5 years in the system, Mr. Henderson had lived in 9 different foster homes and attended 6 different schools. He eventually went on to join the military and obtain higher deg...

Journalist Jane Marie reported on how multilevel marketing businesses make their profits. She was interviewed by Business Insider senior correspondent Emily Stewart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

National Book Critics Circle board member J. Howard Rosier previewed some of the nonfiction books being released this spring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Traub's latest book is titled "True Believer: Hubert Humphrey's Quest for a More Just America." In the introduction, Mr. Traub writes: "I return to Humphrey in order to explain what liberalism was at its ascendant moment, why it mattered so much to so may people, why it abruptly lost its appeal to the majority of Americans – and, perhaps, how it might rejuvenate itself." Hubert Humphrey serv...