Axelbank Reports History and Today

In "Rough Diamond: The Life of Col. William Stephen Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's Forgotten Son," A.K. Fielding explains why understanding his life is essential to understanding the first half of the nineteenth century. Though his dad gets the attention for being one of the most famous and influential people in American history, Fielding argues that by understanding the relatively...

Harry Truman took over the presidency during a sea-change in American history. Along with becoming the first nuclear power, the US was about to begin a massive relief effort in Europe and grapple with racial injustice. Though he left office with low marks, during the last several decades, Truman's handling of the many crises he inherited has been applauded more loudly. Jeffrey Frank's ne...

There are few scenes as emotional as when someone gains their citizenship. They often take place after long, painful journeys that determine whether someone has a right to hold a job, live near family or vote. But as Professor Amanda Frost explains, it is emotional for an entirely different reason when someone loses their citizenship, or as she puts it, has their citizenship, "stripped.” She...

The story of the most famous shipwreck in history, the Titanic, is not complete without Bill Hazelgrove's book, "One Hundred and Sixty Minutes: The Race to Save the RMS Titanic." The basics of the crash into the iceberg are well known. The heart-wrenching details of the half-full lifeboats and the frigid waters are enough to make anyone feel for the victims and their families. But H...

To understand how America became involved in World War I, we have to transport ourselves to a different America. Troops had never been sent overseas, progressivism was the primary political force and three presidents were battling to chart the nation's future. In Neil Lanctot's new book, "The Approaching Storm: Roosevelt, Wilson, Addams and their Clash Over America's Future,&qu...

What stories can comic strips tell in a way that nothing else can? Dr. Blake Scott Ball explains in his book, "Charlie Brown's America: The Popular Politics of Peanuts," how Charles Schultz famed comic strip not only reached Americans in a way few others have, but also told the country's story when his readers were least expecting it. Dr. Ball argues Schultz used Charlie Brown...

Tall tales are nothing new when it comes to family "history." Meriel Schindler's new book, "The Lost Cafe Schindler: One Family, Two Wars, and the Search for Truth," is her effort to determine the veracity of her dad's claims about their ancestors. Were the Schindlers really related to famed-Nazi foiler Oscar Schindler and a host of other artists, doctors and importan...

If you've been there, you'll never forget it. If you haven't, you probably want to go. But what makes Yellowstone National Park a destination in the first place? Dr. Megan Kate Nelson explores how one of America's crown jewels, the two million acres that make up the one-of-a-kind place, was preserved for all of us. In her new book, "Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Pres...

With his shining red, white and gold getup, The King  walks on stage and sings a rhyming but pathetic number about how the American colonies just don't realize how good they have it living as subjects of Great Britain.  "You'll be back, soon you'll see, you'll remember you belong to me... you'll remember that I served you well."  The audience of the show, "H...

For this episode, lets look at slavery in another way. While we rightfully spend a lot of time on this show grappling with the impact of slavery both on the enslaved and on our society today, this week's show explores what it was like to be a free person of color in the South. Dr. Warren Milteer's book, "Beyond Slavery's Shadow: Free People of Color in the South," explains...

For the last two years, we have gotten a lesson in how our world can be shaped by a disease.  COVID-19 has changed our families, the economy, our social interaction and our psychology. Far from being a unique historical phenomenon, Dr. Kyle Harper argues disease and our efforts to steer clear of them are the central forces that have always shaped human history. He explains how diseases have define...

Who hasn't seen a spy movie that features a double agent who played their role so perfectly, even his best friends didn't know who he was working for? This is the real life story of how an MI6 agent played the role to a T. Kim Philby was an MI6 agent during World War II, who took a young American, Jim Angleton, under his wing. Their friendship may have been real, but Philby's life w...

When we pick up a book, what exactly are we holding? Is it a living document or etched in stone? How closely do the words on the page mirror what is in the author's head? Why have they lasted so long, and how much longer WILL they last? Dr. Leah Price is a book historian and on this episode, she answers those questions, and wrestles with whether an audiobook or a digital file can be considere...

Are you excited for big holiday gatherings where lots of politics are being discussed? No? Well Dr. Peter Coleman of Columbia University has just the solution for ending our polarized political culture, both at home and in the real world. His book, "The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization," offers numerous ways to approach our daily lives, the news, social media and our relations...

Twenty years after the worst terrorist attacks in US history, we speak with Peter Bergen, one of the foremost authorities on the threat the United States faces from fundamentalists. Bergen is a journalist for CNN who has interviewed Osama bin Laden and has now written a biography that catalogues "The Rise and Fall" of the terrorist who spearheaded the 9/11 attacks. Bergen argues that bin...

A bunch of women line up wearing next-to-nothing in hopes of impressing a batch of strangers who are grading them on everything from the way they look to the way they think. The woman with the highest score gets to be called, "Miss America," and wears a crown - and the title - for the rest of her life. The history behind that process, and how it became a cultural icon is as fascinating a...

Will an American president take orders from the Pope? As the devoutly catholic Joe Biden ran for president, he faced no such question. But sixty years before, when John F. Kennedy was running, it was not only a question, but a controversy. Listen to our episode with historian of religion in America, Dr. Patrick Lacroix, as he explains how JFK not only grappled with how to handle the question, but...

That she came to within 537 votes of becoming Second Lady of the United States has been well documented, but Hadassah Lieberman says it's time for her to tell the story of the rest of her life. Listen in as she explains what it was like to be born into a family of those who survived the Holocaust, and those who did not. After immigrating to the United States when she was under a year old, the...

There are few periods in American history that offered more hope than Reconstruction. There are also few periods that left behind such devastation. On this episode, we talk with University of Maryland Distinguished Professor Dr. Robert Levine about his book, "The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson." He explains how Andrew Johnson went...

One of America's most prominent historians, Joseph J. Ellis, joins us to discuss his new book, "The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents." The author of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning, "Founding Brothers," focuses this time on how the Revolution was viewed by  Black Americans, slaves, Natives and women as the colonists waged war in hopes of scurrying the Bri...

When women got the right to vote in 1920, the hope was that equal rights would be a natural byproduct. But in her book, "Gendered Citizenship: The Original Conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment, 1920-1963," Dr. Rebecca DeWolf explains how the ensuing fight for the Equal Rights Amendment left advocates frustrated, and women still clamoring for the right to earn a living, live independe...

Hardly a day goes by when the President of the United States isn't a topic of conversation. From TV and Twitter to baseball games and surprise breakfast stops, the person sitting in the nation's highest office has the power to get attention almost no matter what they're doing. And increasingly so, they have made an effort to use their platform to drive politics, policy and power in...

The President of the United States had been preparing for the moment for months, to claim he had won an election he actually lost. Early in the morning of November 4th, Donald Trump took to the TV cameras at the White House and said that despite early projections that Joe Biden had a chance to pull ahead in key states, he had indeed won reelection. With the now-famous phrase, "Frankly, we did...

How did Barack Obama shatter the quintessential barrier in American politics? Once he became the first Black president, did he help lower racial animosity, or did his presence incite an even-worse divide? In his new book, "The Black President: Hope and Fury in the Age of Obama," Dr. Claude Clegg explores how the 44th president left his mark on those of different races, along with the obs...

Listen as we tag along with Providence Journal reporter Amy Russo as she takes us on a history of America's First Ladies, as told in her book, "Women of the White House: The Illustrated Story of the First Ladies of the United States of America." She explains how visual representations have become so important in how we understand our first families, and how vital the role of First L...