Booknotes+

Craig Nelson, in his book "V Is For Victory," reports on the number of casualties from World War II. He writes that, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, the military casualties were 1,870,000 (405,000 killed and 673,115 wounded). Then, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were over 8.9 million American war industry worker casualties (75,400 dead and over 8.8 million wounded) between 1942 and 1945. Author Craig Nelson, our guest this week, further says: "Across history, the 'arsenal of democracy' has come to mean this miracle of American manufacturing. When Roosevelt used the term, however, he meant the miracle of the American people."      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Metropol Hotel is located near the Bolshoi Theatre in downtown Moscow. When it opened in 1901 it was the symbol of Russia's growing prosperity. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, it was often used by Lenin to give speeches at so-called party congresses. During World War II, the Metropol became a home and office for almost all foreign journalists allowed to work in the U.S.S.R. British journalist Alan Philps, our guest this week, has written a book about those days titled "The Red Hotel: Moscow 1941, the Metropol Hotel, and the Untold Story of Stalin's Propaganda War."    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Andrzejewski is the founder of OpenTheBooks.com and lives in Hinsdale, Illinois. OpenTheBooks.com says it is "the largest private repository of U.S. public sector spending." The mission is to post "every dime, online, in real time." In their 2022 annual report on government spending, Alexander Fraser, a 19th century Scottish professor of history is quoted saying: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. Democracy will continue to exist until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." Mr. Andrzejewski is our guest this week on the Booknotes+ podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Clarke, in her book "Billionaires' Row," admits that: "Part of my motivation for writing this book was that as a reporter I can't help but observe that the colorful characters who've made the New York real estate world so dynamic are increasingly few and far between…In some ways, this book memorializes that dying breed of New York real estate kingpins who took big swings and risked losing it all." The subtitle of the book describes its focus: "Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers." These supertall buildings that house $100 million apartments are located on 57th Street at the southern end of Central Park in Manhattan.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the past 18 months, since the start of the Russia-Ukraine War, the threat of a possible nuclear war is mentioned in the media almost every day. There are 9 countries in the world that reportedly have nuclear weapons, over 13,000 in all, 89% of which are controlled by the United States and Russia. Rebeccah Heinrichs of the Hudson Institute spends most of her professional time thinking, speaking, and writing about national security and defense. We asked her to give us her analysis of the nuclear weapons issue.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we begin the 2024 presidential campaign, we hear the word "inflation" in almost every candidate's speech. One issue that is always mentioned is the price of food. Benjamin Lorr spent several years travelling the United States and the world to investigate how the food supply chain works. His book is titled "The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket." He writes that: "Most people shop for groceries with clueless abandon."    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 6, 1970, TWA flight 741 from Israel to New York was hijacked and flown to the Jordanian desert. Historian Martha Hodes, at the time 12 years old, was on that plane along with her sister Catherine, who was 13. A group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was behind the hijacking. For years, Martha Hodes, who teaches 19th Century history at New York University, only had fuzzy memories of those 6 days and nights in the desert as a hostage. In the past couple of years, Prof. Hodes decided to try to piece together her experience. The result is her book titled "My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering."     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

C.W. Goodyear was born in New Orleans. He's a graduate of Yale University and now lives in the Washington, DC area. He's also a first time biographer, having just published a book about James Garfield titled "President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier." Garfield, America's 20th president, took office on March 4, 1881. His time as president lasted only 200 days. Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau in a Washington, DC train station at the corner of 6th and Pennsylvania Avenue on July 2, 1881. Mr. Goodyear has written a full life biography of James Garfield, from the years he grew up in Ohio through his generalship in the Civil War and his 17 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former president Theodore Roosevelt died on January 6, 1919. He was 60 years old. Author William Hazelgrove, in his new book about Roosevelt, chose to focus mostly on the last two years of TR's life. It's titled "The Last Charge of the Rough Rider," and it's the focus of this week's podcast. Mr. Hazelgrove takes us through TR's feud with President Woodrow Wilson over wanting to create another Rough Rider soldier regiment to fight in Europe. Wilson turned him down in spite of the fact that both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives had approved Roosevelt's request.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simon Sebag Montefiore is a British historian. He's 57 and lives in London with his wife Santa and their two children. He's written 12 books - 9 nonfiction and 3 novels. His latest effort is titled "The World: A Family History of Humanity." Including the index, it's 1,304 pages. In his preface, Montefiore writes: "I have always wanted to write an intimate human history like 'The World' – in some ways a new approach, in some ways a traditional one – which is the fruit of a lifetime of study and travels."   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices