Booknotes+

Adam Hochschild, in his new book "American Midnight," writes about what he says is left out of the typical high school American history book, especially when the subject is the United States during and immediately after World War One. "This book is about what's missing," writes Hochschild, "It's a story of mass imprisonments, torture, vigilante violence, censorship, killings of Black Americans, and far more that is not marked by commemorative plaques, museum exhibits, or Ken Burns documentaries." Adam Hochschild joins us to discuss it all.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To people who know him well, Mark Dimunation is, first and foremost, an accomplished storyteller. Second and not least, he has been for twenty-five years the chief of the Library of Congress' Rare Book and Special Collections Division. The library has over 850,000 items in the collection, including Charles Dickens' walking stick, the Bay Psalm Book, published in 1640, and the contents in Abraham Lincoln's pockets on the night he was assassinated. Mark Dimunation, our guest this week, has a lot more to add to a conversation about his work.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stacy Schiff has written books about Benjamin Franklin, Cleopatra, and the Witches of Salem. And now it's Samuel Adams, a Massachusetts man Thomas Jefferson called the Father of the American Revolution. Stacy Schiff, appropriately born in Adams, Massachusetts, is our guest this week. Her book is titled "The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams." Mr. Adams was born in Boston and lived for 81 years from 1722 to 1803. He's also been called the most Puritan and the most populist of the American Founders. If you met him before his forty-first birthday, according to author Schiff, you probably wouldn't consider him much of a success.Includes bonus interview material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In October, the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, released its 578-page 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength. Retired Marine Lt. Col. Dakota Wood edited the Index, which includes essays and analysis from over 16 experts chosen by the Heritage Foundation. The introduction to the Index concludes: "America’s leadership role remains in question, and its security interests are under substantial pressure. Challenges continue to grow, long-standing allies are not what they once were, and the U.S. is increasingly bedeviled by debt and domestic discord that constrain its ability to sustain its forces at a level that is commensurate with its interests." Lt. Col. Wood joins us to talk about the findings.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At age 37, Vivek Ramaswamy has already built and sold several companies. Before he began his career as an entrepreneur, he managed to serve as the valedictorian of his 2003 senior class at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was a nationally ranked junior tennis player. Then there was a Harvard biology degree and graduation from Yale Law School. Ramaswamy has written two books. His latest is "Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence."     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Great Stewardess Rebellion" is about the women who changed the working conditions for stewardesses in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The author, Nell Wulfhart wrote the New York Times "Carry-On" column from 2016 to 2019. In the introduction to her book, Ms. Wulfhart writes that: "It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that in the 1960s the airplane cabin was the most sexist workplace in America." Since then, she adds, the "flight attendants' achievements are, even from today's perspective, remarkable: they forced the airlines to promote them alongside men, to pay them fairly, to treat them as legitimate workers."   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Snyder offers a full and fascinating portrait of the life and legacy of Felix Frankfurter. This is the biography of an Austrian Jewish immigrant who arrived in the United States at age eleven speaking, not a word of English, who by age twenty-six befriended former president Theodore Roosevelt, and who by age fifty was one of Franklin Roosevelt’s most trusted advisers. It is the story of a man devoted to democratic ideals, a natural orator and often overbearing justice, whose passion allowed him to amass highly influential friends and helped create the liberal establishment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles Kupchan is a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University. He has served on the National Security Council for both the Clinton and Obama White Houses. Prof. Kupchan has a doctorate and a master's degree from Oxford and an undergraduate degree from Harvard. He is the author of 10 books. His latest is titled "Isolationism: A History of America's Efforts to Shield Itself from the World." We asked Prof. Kupchan to appear on the podcast to give his perspective on Vladimir Putin and his use of propaganda during the current war in Ukraine.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jay Gould revolutionized the world of finance in the 19th century. In “American Rascal,” Greg Steinmetz tells his story. Jay Gould was a brilliant strategist in any scrap over money. For a good example of Mr. Gould’s cunning, consider how he outgeneraled his fellow robber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt in what might be called the Bovine War. The former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and current partner at a money management firm in New York City sheds light on the life of Gould and his abilities with finances. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Troy Senik says in his new book, "A Man of Iron," that Grover Cleveland was the self-made, scrupulously honest man Americans often say they want as their president. President Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms as commander and chief, a term as Governor of New York, and even as sheriff in western New York's Erie County.  In this episode, Mr. Senik, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, discusses Cleveland's political career. According to Mr. Senik President Cleveland became the most successful Democratic politician of his era, though he has become a minor icon for modern-day libertarians.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices