Political historian Alexis Coe talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her latest book, You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington, which seeks to break the staid formula by which all other books about America's first president have been written. Coe says she is the only female historian to write a book about Washington, and discovered that other biographies written by white men have popularized sexist untruths about his single mother, while obscuring some crucial details about Washington himself and distorting his track record as a slaver. She also talks about her previous book, Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis, why we still need libraries, and how history as a profession is changing at a time when we may know "too much" about our leaders.

Featuring:

Alexis Coe (@alexiscoe), author, You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

Host:

Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large

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