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Historian Jay Winik first appeared on the Booknotes television program 24 years ago to discuss his book, "April 1865." It became a #1 New York Times bestseller, reportedly read by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and many others. It's the narrative story of the Civil War. For his latest book, Winik stepped back four years in history to look at how the Civil War began. This time the book is titled "1861: The Lost Peace." "Northerners had little regard for the strength or determination of the South," writes Winik. Lincoln friend John Hay said the Southern Army was nothing more than a vast mob. The New York Tribune said it differently: "Jeff Davis and company will be swinging from the battlements at Washington by the 4th of July." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sir Richard J. Evans has been writing about Germany and Adolf Hitler for his entire professional life. He was knighted in Britain in 2012 for his service to scholarship. From 2003-2008, Professor Evans published a trilogy of the Third Reich with a total of over 2,500 pages. His latest book is titled "Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich." In his preface, Sir Richard, a former professor at Cambridge University writes: "The individuals who stand at the center of this book range from the top to the bottom, from Hitler all the way down to the lowest of the Nazi party." There are 22 chapters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our earlier discussion with Zaakir Tameez about his biography of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, he discussed his differences with Professor David Herbert Donald on the same subject. On December the 24th, 1995, Professor Donald talked about his book called "Lincoln" on the Booknotes television program. David Donald died in 2009 at age 88. During his teaching career, which he finished as a professor of history at Harvard, Professor Donald was praised for his "Lincoln" book by historian Eric Foner. "It is often considered the best single volume of Lincoln ever. It's the most balanced of the biographies out there," said Foner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles Sumner was from Boston, Massachusetts. He was a U.S. Senator for 23 years from 1851 to 1874. Sumner, an anti-slavery Republican, was brutally caned on the Senate floor by pro-slavery Democrats in 1856, during the lead-up to the Civil War. The attack, which almost killed Sumner, kept him out of the Senate for over 3 years. Sumner didn't marry until he was 55 years old, but his marriage to Alice Hooper ended in divorce seven years later. The 6' 4" Republican died of a heart attack in his home on March 11, 1874. Zaakir Tameez, a graduate of Yale Law School, reports in his new biography that Charles Sumner, in his opinion, was the conscious of a nation. In his introduction, Tameez writes: "This biography brings Sumner back to life, returning him to the place he deserves in the pantheon of American heroes. That said, this book is no hagiography." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The patriarch, C.F. Seabrook, was hailed as the Henry Ford of agriculture. His son, Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life magazine called the biggest vegetable factory on earth. His son, John Seabrook, has written about his grandfather and father in his book called "The Spinach King." It's subtitled "The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty." Work on "The Spinach King" started in the early 1980s when John Seabrook was with the New Yorker Magazine. John Seabrook says: "I had a grandfather who was a champion of white supremacy, a true believer in the superiority of the Nordic Christian male." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a word, Evan Osnos' latest book focuses on the subject of money. His book is titled "The Haves and the Have Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultra-Rich." There are 10 essays which originally appeared in his home publication, The New Yorker. The oldest one, "Survival of the Richest," ran in 2017. The newest, titled "Land of Make-Believe," was published in 2024. In his introduction, Osnos writes that: "Reporting in the enclaves of the very rich, Monte Carlo, Palm Beach, Palo Alto and Hollywood is complicated. It's not a world that relishes scrutiny." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dave Barry's memoir is called "Class Clown." It is at least his 46th book. On the front of his book, he makes an important declaration: "How I went 77 years without growing up." For 30 years, Dave Barry wrote a weekly humor column published in newspapers, mostly on the weekends. He retired that column in 2005 but has kept writing. On the back flap of his memoir, the bio says he has more best sellers than you can count on two hands. Barry won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He lives in Miami. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a follow-up to last week's interview with Lien-Hang Nguyen, here is an encore interview with former CBS and ABC reporter John Laurence. Mr. Laurence was interviewed on Booknotes, the television program, on January 17, 2002. His book is called "The Cat from Hue". It's 800 plus pages and relays his Vietnam experience as a reporter for CBS. John Laurence spent a total of 22 months there, from the years 1965 to 1970. In his interview, he calls his book "my life's work because I hope it will be helpful to others." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Netflix is offering a five-part documentary series titled "Turning Point: The Vietnam War," directed by Brian Knappenberger. The series includes never-before-seen footage of the war from the CBS archives. Also included in the documentary are interviews with participants in the war, both from the North and the South. One of the most frequent voices heard during the series is Columbia University professor Lien-Hang Nguyen, born in Vietnam in 1974. She is the youngest of nine children and was brought to the United States by her parents in 1975. Prof. Nguyen is the author of the 2012 book "Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One October morning in 2018, journalist William Geroux says he was returning some books to his local Virginia Beach Library when he noticed a new state historical marker planted in the ground near the front entrance. It said the library was built on the site of a World War II prisoner of war camp. In Mr. Giroux's author's note in his latest book called "The Fifteen," he writes that he "was surprised and a little embarrassed" not to know that, during World War II, the U S had 700 POW camps spread throughout the United States in 46 different states, housing 371,683 German soldiers and 49,784 Italians. His book is subtitled "Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices