C-SPAN Bookshelf

Historian Walter Stahr has written books on John Jay, William Henry Seward, Edwin Stanton, and Salmon Chase. Now comes his biography of America's 27th president, William Howard Taft, who subsequently also served as the 10th Chief Justice of the United States. Walter Stahr writes at the beginning of his book: "Taft was a modern conservative president, one who avoided foreign wars, worked closely with our allies, lowered tariff rates, and reduced the federal deficit." Stahr also writes that "Taft didn't agree with his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, that the president had some vague power to pursue the public good."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

The actor Jimmy Stewart left great success in Hollywood in 1941 to become an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. A licensed pilot, he flew B-24 bomber missions over Germany, retiring as a Brigadier General in the Air Force reserves in 1968. Executive producer Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, daughter of Jimmy Stewart, and director Aaron Burns discuss their new movie "Jimmy," a biopic of Stewart's World War II service, his difficult yet triumphal return to Hollywood, and the making of the 1946 Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who are the most influential figures in American history, and which events have shaped the nation we know today?

Award-winning, bestselling historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Douglas Brinkley join host David M. Rubenstein at the National Book Festival for a wide-ranging conversation about the people, defining moments, and turning points in U.S. history. Together, they explore America's past and the lasting impact of the individuals and events that helped shape the country.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Can we say, 'In a crocodile accident?'" This and many other stories documenting not just how people died, but how they lived - in a book from New York Times obit writer Sam Roberts. He was interviewed by Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute Harold Holzer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eugene V. Debs ran for President of the United States as a socialist five times. The first in 1900, the last in 1920, when he received close to a million votes. Shawn Gude, a native of Iowa, a former editor of Jacobin, and a current resident of New York City, is the author of a Debs biography titled "American Socialist." In his introduction, Gude writes: "The story of Eugene V. Debs' life is the story of one man's radicalization, and of the country he helped radicalize in turn." Debs dropped out of school at age 14. His base of operations and his hometown was Terre Haute, Indiana. Shawn Gude tells about his union activities, his presidential campaigns, and why he was sent to prison twice, once for six months and the second time for over two years, before his sentence was commuted by President Harding in the early 1920s.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, co-author of "The Elections That Changed the World," looks at elections going back to ancient Rome that have had an outsized impact on humanity. She discusses the elections of Lincoln, Hitler, Churchill, Nelson Mandela, and others.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author and former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (1995-99) joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss his extensive career in Congress and writing more than 40 books on topics ranging from political commentary to alternative history.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard historian Jill Lepore explores how digital technology is re-shaping society. She was interviewed by WPVI-TV anchor Tamala Edwards at the Free Library of Philadelphia in September.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simon Sebag Montefiore has written nine nonfiction books and three novels. His latest is called "The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East." The time period covered is from 1900 to the present. In Mr. Montefiore's acknowledgements, he writes: "Family is an important theme in this book, and my own has a slight link to the dynasties that ruled the Middle East. My forebearer Moses Montefiore first met Muhammad Ali the Great, ruler of Egypt, when he visited the Levant in 1827." Author Montefiore focuses on 19 different countries and many more kings, rulers, prime ministers, emperors, and sultans in his book.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawyer and activist Kerry Kennedy, author of "Ethel," discusses her mother Ethel Kennedy's early life, marriage to Robert Kennedy, and involvement in human rights causes both at home and abroad. Kerry Kennedy also talks about the Kennedy family's long involvement in American politics and the assassination of her father by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling authors Elliot Ackerman, a Marine Corps veteran, and retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis join David M. Rubenstein to discuss their military thrillers, including 2034: A Novel of the Next World War and 2054: A Novel. They explore the future of warfare, emerging technologies, global security threats, and how their military experiences influence their writing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon Else explored the lives of the scientists who worked on the atomic bombs, including the health impacts they experienced. He was interviewed by UC Berkeley Journalism Professor, Mark Danner at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in September.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Only nine men have been convicted, through military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, out of roughly 780 total detainees held there for some time since 2002. However, only 15 prisoners are currently housed at Gitmo. One of those is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who allegedly said he was the mastermind of 9/11. Mohammed has spent the last 20 years incarcerated and is said to go on trial in June 2028. John Ryan, founder of Lawdragon, has spent the past decade detailing the day-to-day activities at Guantanamo. His book is "America's Trial: Torture and the 9/11 Case on Guantanamo Bay."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Ryan and his 96-year-old grandmother Joy recount their visits to all 63 U.S. National Parks. Completed over a 7-year period, the duo visited parks from Alaska to Florida, concluding with a visit to the National Park of American Samoa in 2023 when Joy Ryan was 93. In total they traveled over 100,000 miles together. Brad Ryan chronicled their adventures in real time on social media and now in a book titled "Grandma Joy and Me."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bestselling author Min Jin Lee joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss her literary career, early life in the United States, her award-winning novel "Pachinko," and meeting King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neuroscientist Darby Saxbe describes how men's brains change with fatherhood. She was interviewed by journalist, Matthew Yglesias at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., in June of 2026.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

The name of the book is "Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit." The author, Sam Roberts, is a 50-year veteran of New York journalism. He says in his book: "I've buried 1,600 or so people during my improbable decade writing obituaries for the New York Times." Reporters who do his kind of reporting are called obituarists. Sam Roberts, in his book's prologue, says he "learned more on the job about accuracy, context, and the distinction between cynicism and skepticism than I would have in any journalism school."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purdue University President Mitch Daniels discusses his life in public service, including his time in Washington, DC, during the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations and his two-term governorship of Indiana. He also talks about his upbringing, his early years in Indiana politics, and his years as an executive at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist historian Nathaniel Philbrick joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss his bestselling books about the Mayflower, George Washington, and the California gold rush, as well as life on Nantucket.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 21st century saga of San Francisco's rise and fall -- paralleled by the arrival of tech entrepreneurs who remade the city's culture, politics, and economy - as told by journalist Jonathan Weber. In 1990, he became the first "Silicon Valley" reporter for the Los Angeles Times and later coordinated Reuters' reporting on West Coast technology. He sat down with former New York Times Technology Reporter, John Markoff, at The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California in San Francisco in June.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://megaphone.fm/adchoices