Best Booknotes Podcasts (2024)

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Ep. 175 Nigel West, "Operation Garbo" 1:12:08

1h ago1:12:08

1:12:08

Rupert William Simon Allason was a Conservative member of the British House of Commons from 1987 and 1997. However, he's best known around the world as Nigel West, military historian and journalist specializing in security and intelligence matters. During the recent commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, Nigel West's name s…

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Ep. 174 Investigative Reporter Brody Mullins on Google & Law Professor Joshua Wright, and "The Wolves of K Street" 1:10:55

4d ago1:10:55

1:10:55

On Saturday, June 8th, 2024, the headline in the Wall Street Journal Saturday review section read: "The Hidden Life of Google's Secret Weapon." The author was Brody Mullins, a veteran investigative reporter for the Journal. The series ran over 3 days. The focus was on a man named Joshua Wright, a lawyer and former law professor at George Mason Univ…

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"Voices from Gettysburg" with Allen Guelzo 57:51

11d ago57:51

57:51

Gathering a treasure trove of powerful, rare, and haunting original documents, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo presents a uniquely readable and intimate oral history of the Civil War's turning point. We hear from a Union staff officer, a Confederate amputee, artilleryman, a sympathetic Northern woman, a…

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Ep. 173 Robert Schmuhl, "Mr. Churchill in the White House" 1:12:22

11d ago1:12:22

1:12:22

Robert Schmuhl is the Walter Annenberg-Edmund Joyce Chair Emeritus in American Studies and Journalism at the University of Notre Dame. He has often written about the American presidency. His newest book is "Mr. Churchill in the White House: The Untold Story of a Prime Minister and Two Presidents." Prof. Schmuhl says both Roosevelt and Eisenhower ev…

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Ep. 172 David Tatel, "Vision" 1:12:31

18d ago1:12:31

1:12:31

On January 16, 2024, after nearly 30 years, David Tatel retired as a judge on the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. On the cover of his new memoir is a photo of Judge Tatel in his black robe with his dog Vixen standing on his left side. The book is titled "Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice." He says he wrote the book to…

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Ep. 171 Historian Stacey Schiff at Purdue University 1:10:53

26d ago1:10:53

1:10:53

Six-time book author Stacy Schiff made a guest appearance in early April at Purdue University. She was a guest of the C-SPAN Center for Scholarship & Engagement. A large number of questions were asked by the students studying communications and political science. Stacy Schiff's latest book "The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams" was published in 2022. He…

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Ep. 170 Garrett Graff, "When the Sea Came Alive" 1:06:32

1M ago1:06:32

1:06:32

"June 6, 1944, is the most famous single day in all human history." Those are the words of Garrett Graff in his author's note in his book "When the Sea Came Alive." This month is the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landing in World War II. As Graff introduces the reader to his oral history of D-Day, he writes: "The official launch of Operation Ove…

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"Pennsylvania Government and Politics" with Thomas Baldino and Paula Duda Holoviak 57:18

1M ago57:18

57:18

This book provides a comprehensive examination of the Keystone State's formal and informal political institutions and players, past and present, and elucidates the place each holds in governing the commonwealth today. Covering a period of more than three hundred years, this volume presents a clear and succinct overview of the commonwealth's politic…

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Ep. 169: Erik Larson, "The Demon of Unrest" 1:08:32

1M ago1:08:32

1:08:32

In the first week of publication of Erik Larson's latest book, "The Demon of Unrest," sales put it at the very top of the bestseller list. It's about the start of the Civil War, with a focus on the five months between Abraham Lincoln's election and the day of the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, which is off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.…

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Ep. 168 Glenn Loury, "Late Admissions" 1:13:41

2M ago1:13:41

1:13:41

Glenn C. Loury is a professor of economics. He teaches at Brown University and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He calls his new book "Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative." His publisher, W.W. Norton, describes Prof. Loury on the flap of the cover: "[He] grew up on the south side of Chicago, earned a PhD in MIT’s econ…

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Ep. 167 Alan Taylor, "American Civil Wars" 1:07:27

2M ago1:07:27

1:07:27

Alan Taylor is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation professor of history at the University of Virginia. He is only one of 5 history writers who have won the Pulitzer Prize twice. His 11 books focus mostly on the early years of the creation of the United States. His latest book is titled "American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873." D…

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"Work, Fight, Or Play Ball" with William Ecenbarger 48:07

2M ago48:07

48:07

In 1918, Bethlehem Steel started the world's greatest industrial baseball league. Appealing to Major League Baseball players looking to avoid service in the Great War, teams employed "ringers" like Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, and Shoeless Joe Jackson in what became scornfully known as "safe shelter" leagues. pcntv.com/donate pcntv.com/membership-sig…

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Ep. 166 Craig Whitlock, "Fat Leonard" 1:19:55

2M ago1:19:55

1:19:55

For over 10 years, Washington Post investigative reporter Craig Whitlock has tracked the story of Malaysian shakedown man Leonard Francis, aka "Fat Leonard," and his collusion with hundreds of U.S. Navy officers, several of whom have spent time in prison. Now comes the book titled "Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy.…

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"Gen X Pittsburgh" with David Rullo 57:39

2M ago57:39

57:39

Beginning in the early 1990s, Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood began to transform from the post-industrial morass it had been suffering for the last few decades. Artists began to rent empty apartments, what were once shot-and-a-beer bars became hip dive bars and entrepreneurs found inexpensive real estate to follow their visions. It was in this…

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"Harrisburg in WWI and the 1918 Pandemic" with Rodney Ross 52:13

2M ago52:13

52:13

In 1917, at the start of World War I, among global war and a global pandemic, Harrisburgers stepped up and served. The city experienced tribulations as residents feared espionage, suspected foreigners and demanded loyalty. Hospitals struggled with the 1918 flu at their doorstep. Join author Rodney Ross as he charts the World War I era and the Harri…

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Ep. 165 Larry Tye, "The Jazzmen" 1:05:12

2M ago1:05:12

1:05:12

Duke Ellington was the grandson of slaves. Louis Armstrong was born in a News Orleans slum so tough that it was called "The Battlefield." William James "Count" Basie grew up in a world unfamiliar to his white fans, the son of a coachman and a laundress. Author Larry Tye says the Duke, the Count, and Satchmo transformed America. The book is called "…

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Ep. 164 Carolyn Eisenberg, "Fire and Rain" 1:12:00

3M ago1:12:00

1:12:00

The book "Fire and Rain" is a narrative, according to author Carolyn Woods Eisenberg, about the way national security decisions, formed at the highest level of government, affect the lives of individuals at home and abroad. Her primary focus is on the way the Nixon administration fought and ended the Vietnam War. Early in the book, Hofstra Universi…

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Ep. 163 Joseph Epstein, "Never Say You've Had a Lucky Life" 1:05:08

3M ago1:05:08

1:05:08

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 S…

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Ep. 162 Chris Moody, "Finding Matt Drudge" Podcast Series 1:06:52

3M ago1:06:52

1:06:52

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. 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 pub…

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Ep. 161 Jack McCallum, "The Real Hoosiers" 1:17:02

3M ago1:17:02

1:17:02

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 ye…

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"George Washington in the French & Indian War" with Scott Patchan 56:42

3M ago56:42

56:42

George Washington has frequently been criticized for his first military campaign, which sparked the French and Indian War. While his campaign failed to meet its objectives, Washington experienced his first taste of military command, dealing with situations that ultimately proved beyond his control, and learned lessons that made him into the man who…

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Ep. 160 Stephen Puleo, "The Great Abolitionist" 2:06:23

4M ago2:06:23

2:06:23

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 dea…

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Ep. 159 Andrew Pettegree, "The Book at War" 1:06:07

4M ago1:06:07

1:06:07

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…

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Ep. 158 Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler, "Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?" 1:10:09

4M ago1:10:09

1:10:09

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 surpr…

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"The Game that Saved the NHL" with Ed Gruver 57:20

4M ago57:20

57:20

In late 1975 and early 1976, at the height of the Cold War, two of the Soviet Union's long-dominant national hockey teams traveled to North America to play an eight-game series against the best teams in the National Hockey League. The culmination of the "Super Series" was reigning Soviet League champion HC CSKA Moscow's face-off against the defendi…

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Ep. 157 James Traub, "True Believer" 1:06:41

4M ago1:06:41

1:06:41

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…

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"Telling of the Anthracite" with Philip Mosley 59:06

4M ago59:06

59:06

"Telling of the Anthracite" explores the various ways in which anthracite history has been represented and remembered since 1960, the chosen date for the start of the "posthistorical" era coinciding approximately with the Knox mine disaster (1959) and the beginning of the Centralia mine fire (1962-), two cataclysmic and fateful events that symboliz…

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Ep. 156 Peter Englund, "November 1942" 1:09:23

4M ago1:09:23

1:09:23

The year is 1942, the month is November. The subject of Peter Englund's book is "An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War II." Mr. Englund, who is based in his native Sweden, features close to 40 people from around the world and what they were doing during that month and year of the war. He writes that: "At the start of that [November]…

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Ep. 155 Jim Trusty, Defense Attorney 1:03:47

5M ago1:03:47

1:03:47

Jim Trusty, our guest this week, is an attorney with 28 years of experience as a prosecutor, first in the state of Maryland and later with the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, DC. He has worked as an attorney for Donald Trump on several pending cases. In June last year, Mr. Trusty withdrew from representing former President Trump, citing irre…

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"That Our Daughters May Be as Cornerstones" with Chad Leinaweaver 50:40

5M ago50:40

50:40

Irving College was the first college to offer degrees in the arts and sciences to women and that two of its buildings still stand to this day. Named after famed author Washington Irving, this college for women was part of a nationwide trend in the nineteenth century to finally educate women, but a trend that was always fraught with opposition. pcnt…

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Ep. 154 Glenn Kirschner, Former Federal Prosecutor & "Justice Matters" Host 1:08:27

5M ago1:08:27

1:08:27

Glenn Kirschner, our guest this week, is an attorney with 30 years of trial experience. For 24 of those years, he prosecuted 50 murder trials for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, DC. Three years ago, he created for YouTube viewers a daily video analysis of Donald Trump's legal issues and indictments. He calls his show "Justice Matters" and…

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Ep. 153 Steven Ujifusa, "The Last Ships from Hamburg" 1:09:24

5M ago1:09:24

1:09:24

"Between 1881 and 1914, over ten million people crossed the Atlantic from Europe to America, the largest mass migration of people from one continent to another in human history." Those are the words of our guest, Steven Ujifusa, from his introduction to his book "The Last Ships from Hamburg". Over 2.5 million of these immigrants to America were Jew…

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Ep. 152 Benn Steil, "The World That Wasn't" 1:08:25

5M ago1:08:25

1:08:25

Henry Wallace was President Franklin Roosevelt's vice president during his third term, 1941-1945. FDR then chose Harry Truman as vice president in his fourth and last term. In author Benn Steil's book "The World That Wasn't: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century," he writes, "Wallace loved humankind but was mostly vexed or bored by hum…

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"On a Great Battlefield" with Jennifer Murray 57:13

5M ago57:13

57:13

Of the more than seventy sites associated with the Civil War era that the National Park Service manages, none hold more national appeal and recognition than Gettysburg National Military Park. In "On a Great Battlefield," Jennifer M. Murray chronicles the administration of the National Park Service and how it educates the public about the battle and…

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Ep. 151 H.W. Brands, "Founding Partisans" 1:08:09

6M ago1:08:09

1:08:09

Henry William Brands Jr. has written close to 40 books in the past 36 years. The Portland, Oregon, native is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, the same school where he earned his PhD in 1985. His first American history book, written in 1988, was titled "Cold Warriors: Eisenhower's Generation and American Foreign Policy." …

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Ep. 150 Nigel Hamilton, "FDR at War" Trilogy 1:17:36

6M ago1:17:36

1:17:36

When Nigel Hamilton was a student at Cambridge University in Great Britain, he stayed for a brief time with Winston and Lady Churchill at their home at Chartwell in Kent. He also spent hours talking about World War II with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. These experiences led to a life as an author about history. Nigel Hamilton first moved to the…

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Ep. 149 Kira Anne West, Defense Attorney 1:05:49

6M ago1:05:49

1:05:49

It has been 3 years since the January 6th events at the U.S. Capitol occurred. Since that time close to 300 individuals have been charged with a crime by the U.S. Justice Department. Because of the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and subsequent Supreme Court decisions, defendants have a right to an attorney, paid for by the taxpayers if n…

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Ep. 148 Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, "The Vice President's Black Wife" 1:05:13

6M ago1:05:13

1:05:13

The name of the book is "The Vice President's Black Wife." The author is Amrita Chakrabarti Myers. Prof. Myers teaches history at Indiana University. She explains best what is between the covers of her book in the first paragraph of the introduction: "This is the story of an American family. Set in Great Crossing, Kentucky, in the early nineteenth …

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Ep. 147 Ross Perot on His Life & Career 1:05:11

7M ago1:05:11

1:05:11

With less than a year to go before the 2024 presidential election, there continues to be a lot of chatter about the possible impact of a candidate on the ballot who is not a Republican or a Democrat. Over the years, third party candidates have made a difference in several elections. The third party candidate to get the largest percentage of votes w…

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FEED DROP: Convo w/ New Q&A Host Peter Slen 11:05

7M ago11:05

11:05

This week a conversation with the new host of Q&A, Peter Slen. We discuss the mission of the program, what to expect, and the best parts of hosting a one-hour conversation with interesting individuals. Make your donation at: c-span.org/donate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices…

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Ep. 146 R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., "How Do We Get Out of Here?" 42:58

7M ago42:58

42:58

On the cover of R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s memoir is a photo of him holding a 3-olive martini. It was obviously his choice and part of a message he chooses to send his readers about his life after 79 years. Mr. Tyrrell founded the American Spectator magazine in 1967. In the author's bio in the back of the book it says: "He has never had another job, …

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Ep. 145 Nick Bunker, "In the Shadow of Fear" 1:15:23

7M ago1:15:23

1:15:23

British-born author Nick Bunker, our guest this week, has written books on the Mayflower Pilgrims, the Revolutionary War, and a biography of Benjamin Franklin. Lately he has turned his attention to America and the world in 1950. His book is titled "In the Shadow of Fear." Nick Bunker, a graduate of King's College, Cambridge, and Columbia University…

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"Emotional Brandywine" with Karl Kuerner & Bruce Mowday 57:06

7M ago57:06

57:06

The September 11, 1777, battle of Brandywine, a defeat for General George Washington, is too often forgotten by historians. Brandywine was one of the most important engagements of the war, also the largest land battle. Lafayette began his rise to an American hero that afternoon when he shed his blood for American freedom. Artist Karl J. Kuerner and…

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Ep. 144 Michael Bryant (Co-Editor), "Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' and the Holocaust" 1:06:32

7M ago1:06:32

1:06:32

Michael S. Bryant, our guest this week, is a professor of history and legal studies specializing in the impact of the Holocaust. He's based at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Among his many writings he co-edited and contributed an essay to a book titled "Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' and the Holocaust." In the introduction, the editors point…

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Ep. 143 McKay Coppins, "Romney" 1:01:57

8M ago1:01:57

1:01:57

It's not normal to hear what a politician really thinks about his or her colleagues in the United States House and Senate while they are still in office. McKay Coppins of the Atlantic magazine, our guest this week, tried to change that with his bestselling book about Senator Mitt Romney of Utah. The book, called "Romney: A Reckoning," is, according…

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"Youghiogheny: Appalachian River" with Tim Palmer 57:09

8M ago57:09

57:09

Turbulent rapids and wild shorelines of the Youghiogheny River highlight natural wonders of the Appalachian Mountains, and midway on the stream's revealing path, Ohiopyle State Park is a showcase of beauty and has become a recreational hotspot where the river thunders over its iconic falls and cascades through the wooded gorges of Pennsylvania. Now…

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Ep. 142 Historians Douglas Brinkley, Joanne Freeman, Edna Medford and H.W. Brands on the Experiment of Democracy in America 1:32:32

8M ago1:32:32

1:32:32

At the beginning of November, the George Washington Presidential Library in Mount Vernon celebrated its 10th anniversary with a symposium titled, "The Great Experiment – Democracy from the Founding to the Future." Guests on this panel included: Historians H.W. Brands of the University of Texas, Douglas Brinkley of Rice, Joanne Freeman of Yale, and …

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Ep. 141 Sarah Ogilvie, "The Dictionary People" 1:04:58

8M ago1:04:58

1:04:58

Sarah Ogilvie spent 8 years studying the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Her book is called "The Dictionary People." Ogilvie, who has a PhD in linguistics from Oxford University, studied over 3,000 original contributors to the dictionary. In her introduction to the book, she writes: "I was thrilled to discover not one but three murderers…

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Ep. 140 Martin Gurri, "The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium" 1:04:09

8M ago1:04:09

1:04:09

Martin Gurri is a former CIA analyst who writes about the relationship between politics and media. Gurri was born in Cuba and came to the United States with his parents in the 1950s. In 2014 he self-published an e-book titled "The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium." It was republished in hardback in 2018. Martin…

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Ep. 139 Robert Hartley, "Purpose, Power & Prison" 57:22

8M ago57:22

57:22

When you read about the political history of Illinois, you often see the word "corruption." For instance, from January 1961 until January 2009 Illinois citizens elected 8 different men to be their governor. Four of those eventually went to prison, all convicted after they were out of office. Our guest this week, Robert Hartley, has written 11 books…

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