Booknotes+

David Gelles, a New York Times reporter and author, dives deep into the controversial legacy of Jack Welch, the legendary General Electric CEO. Gelles argues that Welch's strategies, while initially elevating GE's worth, ultimately harmed corporate America by promoting short-term gains over long-term sustainability. The discussion explores Welch's influence on CEO behaviors, the pitfalls of stack ranking, and the flawed mindset propagated by MBA programs. Gelles calls for a re-evaluation of corporate purpose and governance that prioritizes both profit and employee well-being.

Lance Morrow is an author, writer, and essayist. He joined Time magazine in 1965. During his time there, Morrow covered the Detroit riots, the Vietnam War, the Nixon administration, and the Watergate scandal. In 1976 he became a regular writer of essays for Time magazine and wrote more "Man of the Year" cover articles than any other reporter. From 1996 to 2006, he was a professor at Boston University. His several books include "Evil: An Investigation," "God and Mammon," and his latest, "The Noise of Typewriters," to be issued in January of 2023.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to Beverley Driver Eddy, little has been written about Camp Ritchie, Maryland. Dickinson College retired professor Eddy says in her book "Ritchie Boy Secrets" that on June 19, 1942, the U.S. Army opened a secret military intelligence training center. Over the next four years, it produced some 20,000 graduates, intelligence and language specialists, for service in World War Two. Some of the famous names of men who were Ritchie Boys include J.D. Salinger, former senators John Chafee and Frank Church, David Rockefeller, and Reverend William Sloan Coffin.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At least 6 U.S. Presidents recorded conversations while in office. Hear those conversations on this C-SPAN podcast. Season 2 focuses on President Richard Nixon's secretly-recorded private telephone conversations. Through eight episodes, hear Richard Nixon talk with key aides about Watergate strategy, potential Supreme Court Nominees, and hear his reaction to the leaked publication of the Pentagon Papers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Thomas Kidd, a professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in St. Louis, opens his newest book, "Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh," this way: "This is a biography of a brilliant but troubled person. Thomas Jefferson would seem to need no introduction, yet among the Founding Fathers he is the greatest enigma – and the greatest source of controversy." Professor Kidd also writes that "Jefferson left a massive collection of carefully curated papers, but he seems virtually unknowable as a man." Mr. Jefferson was our third president and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabethtown College professor David S. Brown is the author of a new book on former president Andrew Jackson. Professor Brown writes that Jackson was the first president to be born in a log cabin, to live beyond the Appalachians, and to rule, so he swore, in the name of the people. The title of the book is "The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson." He was president for two terms, eight years, from 1829-1837. Jackson, in his lifetime, was a jurist, a general, a congressman, a senator, and America's seventh president.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Booknotes the television program started in April of 1989. Our third guest was journalist Bruce Oudes. His book was titled "From: The President-Richard Nixon's Secret Files." Because the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in is on June 17th, Booknotes+ is revisiting Mr. Oudes' book, which contains over 600 pages of previously unreleased memoranda from Richard Nixon and aides during the six years of his presidency. Bruce Oudes took a deep dive into over 3.5 million pages of material that were housed at a government warehouse in Alexandria, Virginia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Any follower of C-SPAN knows the name Harold Holzer, a lifelong aficionado and chronicler of Abraham Lincoln. He has either written or edited fifty-four books on America's 16th president. President Lincoln has been Mr. Holzer's avocation over these many years while he maintained full-time work and responsibilities for twenty-three of those years as senior vice president for public affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He currently serves as director of Hunter College's Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. Recently, he talked about his favorite pastime, Mr. Lincoln, before an audience at Purdue University. Students were able to ask many questions about Abraham Lincoln and how the media has treated some of the other forty-five presidents in our country's history.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not a day goes by that Russia is not in the news, especially since the February 24th invasion of Ukraine. In the history of Russia, one of the most familiar figures, especially in the world of writing and writers, is Leo Tolstoy. He's best known for two novels, "War & Peace" (1869) and "Anna Karenina" (1878). He lived for 82 years, had 13 children, was married for 48 years, and left his wife just before he died in 1910. We asked University of Virginia professor Andrew Kaufman, author of two books on Tolstoy, to give us his take on Russia and Tolstoy's attitude toward war.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Olivier Zunz has been a professor of history at the University of Virginia since 1979. He was born and raised in France and received his Ph.D. from Pantheon Sorbonne University in Paris in 1977. Alexis de Tocqueville (TOKE-vihl) was also a Frenchman. At 25, Tocqueville traveled throughout the United States for nine months and recorded his experiences in the well-known 1835 book "Democracy in America." Professor Zunz has just published the newest book on Tocqueville titled "The Man Who Understood Democracy."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices