Booknotes+

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

It's a story from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. The book by Claire Hoffman is called "Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple MacPherson." FSG, the publisher, further emphasizes that the story is "the dramatic rise, disappearance, and near fall of a woman called Sister Amy who changed the world." Author Claire Hoffman, who has a master's in religion from the University of Chicago, says Aimee Semple MacPherson may not be known to many today, but she was a global star at the inception of global media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In several recent episodes of the podcast, we have featured books about the World War II era. An important figure from that time has been mentioned but not discussed during any of those interviews. Her name is Elizabeth Bentley. She was the first person to reveal, to the FBI and the Congress, the names of people living in the United States and spying for the Soviets, both Americans and foreign-born operatives. To better understand this former communist spy turned informant, we asked Kathryn Olmsted, author of "Red Spy Queen," a biography of Elizabeth Bentley, to tell us the late spy's story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kenneth Rogoff is professor of economics at Harvard University and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist. In his most recent book, "Our Dollar, Your Problem," he argues that America's currency might have reached today's lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good luck. However, as Professor Rogoff nears the end of his 345-page book, he writes, quote: "If rapidly rising debt is left unchecked, and there seems to be little political appetite to rein in massive deficits, the United States and the entire world is in for a substantial period of global financial volatility marked by higher average real interest rates and inflation." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices