C-SPAN Bookshelf

Danny Funt is the author of the book "Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling." In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in a 6-3 decision that legalized sports betting nationally by declaring the federal prohibition unconstitutional. According to Danny Funt, sports leagues oversight went from the position that...

Former Republican Senator and Governor of Tennessee Lamar Alexander, author of "The Education of a Senator," talks about his personal life and nearly six-decade career in politics. As a public servant Sen. Alexander worked with ten presidents, from JFK to Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Kevin Hazzard talked about Phoenix Air, a private, air ambulance service that transports patients with highly infectious diseases when governments refuse to get involved. This event was hosted by Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Theo Baker will graduate from Stanford University on June 14th, 2026. About one month prior, his first book, "How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University," is being published by Penguin Press. Praise for his book, gathered by Penguin Press, is plentiful. Author William D. Cohen writes: "[Theo Baker's] astounding reporting as a Stanford freshman led to the downfall of the un...

Adam Szetela, author of "That Book Is Dangerous!," discusses his investigation into the rise of self-censorship in the publishing industry, which he argues is being negatively transformed by social media and the culture wars in the United States. Mr. Szetela talks about the role played by the Big Five publishers, literary agents, sensitivity readers, and online pressure groups in the process. Lear...

Bestselling Historian Candice Millard joins David M. Rubenstein at the U.S. Capitol to discuss her books about Theodore Roosevelt, James Garfield, and Winston Churchill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A journalist looked at modern Russia through the eyes and experiences of its women. The 2026 San Antonio Book Festival hosted this program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvey Mansfield arrived as an undergrad at Harvard in 1949, 77 years ago. He hardly left the university until he retired as research professor in 2023. Professor Mansfield, at age 94, is still writing. Encounter Books has just published a 136-page book by him titled "Where Harvard Went Wrong." Prof. Mansfield says he's one of the conservative faculty members of his university, one of three. His b...

From the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Neil Gorsuch discusses his children's book, "Heroes of 1776," about the signers of the Declaration of Independence and other, lesser known, revolutionaries who put their life, liberty, and property on the line to gain independence from the British. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling historian, podcaster, and newsletter author Heather Cox Richardson joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss democracy and her books on the Revolutionary War and Civil War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Physician and anthropologist Khameer Kidia argues that Western mental health care treats the symptoms instead of the causes of mental illness. Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., hosts this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During his almost 40-year career in publishing, Bruce Nichols served as publisher of both Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Little Brown & Company. His book is titled "The Emerson Circle: The Concord Radicals Who Reinvented the World." The focus of the book is on famous names, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau. Author Nichols...

This week on Q&A, it's a rare interview with one of America's leading historians. We tour the New York City office and home library of Pulitzer Prize-winning bestselling biographer Robert Caro, who is currently working on the final volume of his 5-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. During the tour, Mr. Caro talks about his research and writing process on the LBJ series, and the impact of "The Pow...

Bestselling author and historian Douglas Brinkley joins David M. Rubenstein in the Capitol's Kennedy Caucus Room to discuss America's 250th anniversary and his books about Walter Cronkite, the space race, Hurricane Katrina and D-Day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PBS Newshour co-anchor Geoff Bennett talks about the history of Black comedy in America and its impact on culture and politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Craig Fehrman has written a new history of the expedition of Lewis and Clark. It's called "This Vast Enterprise." In the prologue to his 515-page book, Fehrman writes: "After departing from near St. Louis on May 14, 1804, the Corps of Discovery traveled 8,000 miles to find 'the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent for the purpose of commerce.'" The Corps was...

Jean Becker and Tom Collamore, former staffers to President George H.W. Bush, discuss the work done by advance teams for presidential events, including foreign trips, state visits, and campaign rallies. They share behind-the-scenes stories of success, near disaster, and failure, told by the professionals who prepared for these events over the past 60 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Bestselling author and CNBC journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin joins David M. Rubenstein at the New Orleans Book Festival to discuss his book examining the 1929 stock market crash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar talked about how the U.S. can revive its industrial base and win the defense technology race against America's adversaries. This event was hosted by the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sir Antony Beevor, an historian based in London, has authored 13 books which have sold at least 8.5 million copies and been translated into 35 different languages. In his latest book, he focuses on Rasputin and the downfall of the Romanovs. The country is Russia and the timeframe is the early 1900s. Sir Antony Beevor, on his official website, sums up his findings this way: "Grigori Rasputin, a bar...

This year's White House Correspondents' Association dinner will take place on Saturday, April 25th, at the Washington Hilton. In preparation, we look back at memorable performances by presidents and comedians at the annual fundraiser going back to the Reagan administration. Joining us for the discussion is C-SPAN's Director of Communications Howard Mortman, who for years has been chronicling the h...

Three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Alice McDermott joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss her novels, writing process, and work as a creative writing professor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Michael Pollan ("A World Appears") discussed the science of consciousness and the human experience with bestselling author Michael Lewis. This event took place at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bob Crawford plays upright bass, bass guitar, and violin with the Grammy nominated Americana band, the Avett Brothers. He's been with the band for 25 years. Since 2016, Mr. Crawford has had his own podcast called The Road to Now, along with Ben Sawyer. Their focus is about history. Six years ago, during his band's tour, Mr. Crawford received his master's degree online from Arizona State University...

Muckraking journalist Jessica Mitford and her 5 sisters – two of whom were intimate friends with Hitler – were global celebrities during the early and mid-20th century, known for their colorful personal lives and political differences. Born a British aristocrat like her sisters, Jessica Mitford rejected her upbringing at an early age, eventually moving to America, where she became a communist, civ...