Booknotes+
Episodes
Ep. 55 Jeffrey Hooke, "The Myth of Private Equity"
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The list is long and, to a lot of people, confusing. We're talking about the language of money. How would you do if you had to define the following: s...
Ep. 54 John Mearsheimer on Ukraine, International Relations, and the Military
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
During his 40 years in the political science department at the University of Chicago, John Mearsheimer has not avoided controversy. His article and su...
Ep. 53 Mark Vonnegut, "The Heart of Caring"
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the dedication of his book, "The Heart of Caring," Dr. Mark Vonnegut tells his patients, teachers, and parents everywhere, "Thank you for letting m...
Ep. 52 Willard Sterne Randall, "The Founders' Fortunes"
08 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What is the financial history of the Founding Fathers? How did their personal finances affect the Constitution and the new United States? Historian an...
Ep. 51 Brendan Simms & Charlie Laderman, "Hitler's American Gamble"
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The book "Hitler's American Gamble" recounts the five days in 1941 that upended everything. Starting with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7...
Ep. 50 Clarence Lusane on the 1967 Detroit Race Riot, His Life & Work
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
July 23rd of this year will mark the 55th anniversary of the Detroit Race Riot. Forty-three people died and more than 1000 were injured during that ch...
Ep. 49 Dwight Chapin, "The President's Man"
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"I knew Richard Nixon well." At age 81, Dwight Chapin has decided, for the first time, to write about his years in politics and the Nixon White House....
Ep. 48 Andrew Roberts, "The Last King of America"
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
British historian Andrew Roberts, in the introduction of his latest book called "The Last King of America," about King George III, says the following:...
Ep. 47 Bethany McLean on Elizabeth Holmes & Theranos
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In early 2001, Bethany McLean, at the time a reporter for Fortune magazine, asked the question in an article: "How does Enron make its money?" McLean'...
Ep. 46 Debby Applegate, "Madam"
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the dust jacket of Debby Applegate's book "Madam," it says "Simply put: Everybody came to Polly's." Polly being Polly Adler, the madam of some of t...
Ep. 45 Lance Geiger, The History Guy
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In March of 2017, Lance Geiger, from the basement of his house in O'Fallon, Illinois, created a new business, a YouTube show that is now regularly see...
Ep. 44 John Berresford, The Hiss-Chambers Espionage Case
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The first ever televised congressional hearing was on August 3, 1948. The first witness was a man who said he didn't want to be there. He had been sub...
Ep. 43 James Golden, "Rush on the Radio"
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"What's your question or comment for Rush?" That is how James Golden – aka Bo Snerdley – would greet callers to Rush Limbaugh's daily, 3-hour radi...
Ep. 42 Isabel Wilkerson, "The Warmth of Other Suns"
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1915 and 1970, six million African Americans moved from the rural South to cities in the North in search of a better life. Author Isabel Wilke...
Ep. 41 Jay Cost, "James Madison"
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1787, between May and September, James Madison gave 167 speeches, made 72 motions, and served on four committees at the Constitutional Convention i...
Ep. 40 Roosevelt Montás, "Rescuing Socrates"
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Roosevelt Montás came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1985 at the age of twelve. He couldn't speak a word of English. He eventual...
Ep. 39 Ty Seidule, "Robert E. Lee and Me"
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"Many people don't want to believe that the citizens of the Southern states were willing to fight and die to preserve the morally repugnant institutio...
Ep. 38 Michael Knox Beran, "WASPs"
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
WASPs – White Anglo-Saxon Protestants – such as Henry Adams, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Dean Acheson, and Joe Alsop, held an outsized influen...
Ep. 37 Jason Emerson, "Giant in the Shadows"
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary were the parents of four boys. Only one – Robert – lived beyond his eighteenth birthday. Author Jason Emerson sp...
Ep. 36 Walter Pincus, "Blown to Hell"
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From 1946 to 1958, the U.S. government conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, a chain of islands and coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean th...
Ep. 35 Edward Moser, "The Lost History of the Capitol"
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Edward Moser has been a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush and a writer for the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno." He currently works as a tour gu...
Ep. 34 Amity Shlaes on Calvin Coolidge's Autobiography
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man," wrote President Cal...
Ep. 33 Mike Duncan "Hero of Two Worlds"
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Frenchman the Marquis de Lafayette came to America two years after the start of the American Revolution and was promptly made a major general in the C...
Ep. 32 Keith Richburg, Director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Keith Richburg, a native of Detroit, has been a print journalist for nearly his entire life. During his 30 years at the Washington Post he reported fr...
Ep. 31 Nathaniel Philbrick, "Travels with George"
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After he became president in 1789, George Washington visited all thirteen former colonies to talk to citizens about the United States and what it mean...
Ep. 30 Erik Larson, "No One Goes Alone"
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Erik Larson is the author six nationally bestselling nonfiction books, including "The Devil in the White City," which was on bestseller lists for year...
Ep. 29 Craig Whitlock, "The Afghanistan Papers"
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, through FOIA requests and lawsuits, the Washington Post obtained hundreds of interviews conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghan...
Ep. 28 Kathleen Smith, "Moscow 1956"
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On February 25, 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a secret speech to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in whi...
Ep. 27 Susan Ronald, "The Ambassador"
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph P. Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy dynasty, served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938-1940. By the end of his tenure, he ...
Ep. 26 20th Anniversary of 9/11
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty years ago on September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. took the lives of nearly 3,000 people, over 2,600 of which were in New York City...
Ep. 25 Chester Morgan, "Liberal Redneck"
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Theodore Bilbo (1877-1947) served twice as governor of Mississippi and was elected to the U.S. Senate three times. He was a liberal, a strong supporte...
Ep. 24 David Shambaugh, "China's Leaders: From Mao to Now"
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
George Washington University professor David Shambaugh has written nearly 30 books on the subject of Asia, a great majority of which focus on China. ...
Ep. 23 Derrick Bell, "Faces at the Bottom of the Well"
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you research the origins of critical race theory, one of the names you'll find is Derrick Bell (1930-2011). Prof. Bell, Harvard Law School's first ...
Ep. 22 Jenny Hartley, "Charles Dickens: A Very Short Introduction"
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
British author Charles Dickens is credited with creating some of the world's best-known fictional characters. To find out more about Charles Dickens, ...
Ep. 21 Ken Cuthbertson, "Inside: The Biography of John Gunther"
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Veteran Canadian journalist Ken Cuthbertson talks about the life and work of American writer John Gunther (1901-1970), author of the popular "Inside" ...
Ep. 20 David Stewart, "George Washington"
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Historian and attorney David Stewart talks about the political career of George Washington and his evolution from an egotistical military hero to Foun...
Ep. 19 Robert Novak, "The Prince of Darkness"
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The late columnist Robert Novak (1931-2009) was nicknamed "the prince of darkness" by friends and enemies alike in Washington, DC. He appeared on C-SP...
Ep. 18: Peter Osnos, "An Especially Good View"
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Longtime reporter, editor and publisher Peter Osnos has published books by four American presidents, two Russian presidents, George Soros, Natan Shara...
Ep. 17: Carol Leonnig on the Rise and Fall of the Secret Service
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Washington Post's Carol Leonnig reports on the overall record, including serious failures, of the Secret Service from the assassination of John F....
Ep. 16: Michael Dobbs, "King Richard"
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Based on the Nixon tapes and the personal memoirs of Nixon administration officials, author and former Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs tells th...
Ep. 15: David Stokes, "JFK's Ghost"
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"I'd rather win a Pulitzer Prize than be President of the United States," said John F. Kennedy in 1953. In 1957 he was awarded the prize for "Profile...
Ep. 14: Dan Glickman, "Laughing at Myself"
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A longtime Washington, DC, legislator and official known for his humor and friendliness, Dan Glickman (D-KS), author of "Laughing at Myself," was a me...
Ep. 13: Liz Carpenter's Washington
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Reporter and speechwriter Liz Carpenter (1920-2010), known for her acumen, humor, and Texas drawl, served as executive assistant to Vice President Lyn...
Ep. 12: Douglas Brinkley on Bob Dylan & Chuck Berry
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Historian and bestselling author Douglas Brinkley has written dozens of books spanning topics such as American presidents, politics and culture, World...
Ep. 11: Christopher Bonner, "Remaking the Republic"
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
University of Maryland professor Christopher Bonner discusses his book "Remaking the Republic," about free black Americans and the limits of legal cha...
Ep. 10: Holman Jenkins, Wall Street Journal Columnist
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Wall Street Journal editorial board member and columnist Holman Jenkins joins Brian Lamb to talk about the media, politics, the COVID pandemic, global...
Ep 9: Doris Kearns Goodwin, "No Ordinary Time"
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin appeared on Booknotes in 1994 to talk to Brian Lamb about her book, "No Ordinary Time," about the White Hous...
Ep. 8: Jason Hershey-David's Tent DC
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Lamb talked with Jason Hershey, founder of David's Tent DC, a 24/7, inter-denominational ministry located on the National Mall, where Christians...
Ep. 7: Randall Robinson - Off to St. Kitts
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Randall Robinson, author, human rights activist and founder of the TransAfrica Forum. He talks with Brian Lamb about his work and his decision to leav...
Ep. 6: Peter Henriques – A New Portrait of George Washington
24 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Peter Henriques discusses with Brian Lamb his book, "First and Always," about the strengths and flaws of the George Washington. Mr. Henrique...
Ep. 5: Harlow Giles Unger – Thomas Paine, Forgotten Hero of the American Revolution
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Harlow Unger chats with Brian Lamb about the work and legacy of Thomas Paine. Mr. Paine's political writings inspired American revolutionari...
Ep. 4: Thomas Ricks – The Founders, the Greeks, and the Romans
17 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Lamb talks with longtime journalist and author Tom Ricks about his book, "First Principles," which examines the influence of the work of Greek a...
Ep. 3: Craig Fehrman – The Words of Our Presidents
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and historian Craig Fehrman talks with Brian Lamb about his selection of the best writing done by U.S. Presidents. His book, "The Best Pre...
Ep. 2: Christina Shutt – Incoming Executive Director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum
10 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Christina Shutt talks to Brian Lamb about her goals for the Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum after she takes over as executive director this summ...
Ep. 1: Eleanor Herman - Sex with Presidents
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Eleanor Herman joins Brian Lamb to talk about her book, "Sex with Presidents," about sex scandals involving U.S. presidents going back to th...
Trailer: Booknotes+
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Booknotes is back with more compelling interviews in a new podcast Booknotes+. Taking the concept from his long running one-hour Booknotes TV program...