Booknotes+

In the dedication of his book, "The Heart of Caring," Dr. Mark Vonnegut tells his patients, teachers, and parents everywhere, "Thank you for letting me have such a good time when I go to work." Dr. Vonnegut is a pediatrician who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979. This was after he had been diagnosed, at age 25, with severe schizophrenia. He's had four psychotic breakdowns in his life, but has managed to successfully practice pediatrics for close to forty years. Mark Vonnegut, in his newest book, writes about patients, parents, insurance companies, and his late father, the novelist Kurt Vonnegut.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the financial history of the Founding Fathers? How did their personal finances affect the Constitution and the new United States? Historian and Champlain College professor emeritus Willard Sterne Randall puts the focus on how money shaped the birth of America in his book "The Founders' Fortunes." Prof. Randall has written books about Benjamin Franklin, Benedict Arnold, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Ethan Allen. He has now turned his attention on these and other Founders and how they made and lost their money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The book "Hitler's American Gamble" recounts the five days in 1941 that upended everything. Starting with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th and ending with Hitler's declaration of war on the United States on December 11th, British historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman trace the developments during the five days in real-time and reveal how America's engagement in World War Two was far from inevitable.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 23rd of this year will mark the 55th anniversary of the Detroit Race Riot. Forty-three people died and more than 1000 were injured during that chaotic week in 1967. Our guest, Professor Clarence Lusane was there. His mother and sister were shot. We talked to him about that experience and about his academic career and activism, which has taken him around the world. Clarence Lusane is currently a professor of political science at Howard University in Washington, DC.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"I knew Richard Nixon well." At age 81, Dwight Chapin has decided, for the first time, to write about his years in politics and the Nixon White House. His book is called "The President's Man: The Memoirs of Nixon's Trusted Aide." In the first chapter, he writes: "I started working for him as an organizational field man during his 1962 California gubernatorial campaign….I became an advance man at the beginning of the 1966 off-year election cycle and then his personal aide in 1967. In the White House, as his appointments secretary, I had the office next to his." Unfortunately for Chapin, as he explains later, his time working for Richard Nixon didn't end well.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

British historian Andrew Roberts, in the introduction of his latest book called "The Last King of America," about King George III, says the following: "This portrait of a heartless, absolute sovereign is repeated almost every single day in America's print and online media. Even two centuries after his death, hardly a day passes in the United States without some reference to George III where he is still held up as an…archetypal bogeyman, attacked in the same measure by Democrats and Republicans alike." Andrew Roberts, who says the Revolutionary War-era English king was misunderstood, has also written major histories about Napoleon, Churchill, and World War Two.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In early 2001, Bethany McLean, at the time a reporter for Fortune magazine, asked the question in an article: "How does Enron make its money?" McLean's reporting, and the reporting of others, led to inquiries that were put to the Enron management. Within a few months, the company was bankrupt. Bethany McLean's subsequent book, "The Smartest Guys in the Room," became a bestseller and a successful documentary. In January 2022, she wrote about her reaction to the Theranos saga. In an essay about the trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, she wrote, "For those who believe she was guilty of a great crime, it's a disappointing verdict." She joined us to talk about it.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the dust jacket of Debby Applegate's book "Madam," it says "Simply put: Everybody came to Polly's." Polly being Polly Adler, the madam of some of the most popular brothels in New York City during the 1920s. It was a hangout for politicians, entertainers, writers, and members of the city's underworld. According to Debby Applegate, Polly's pals included FDR, Frank Sinatra, Desi Arnaz, and Duke Ellington, among many others. She joined us to talk about Polly Adler and the power Adler wielded in New York City during the Jazz Age.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In March of 2017, Lance Geiger, from the basement of his house in O'Fallon, Illinois, created a new business, a YouTube show that is now regularly seen by hundreds of thousands of people. Since that day in 2017, Geiger has been known as "The History Guy." He has produced hundreds of short documentaries on history. In his home studio, "The History Guy" is surrounded by artifacts, including military hats and ship models, and he's always dressed in his trademark dark suit, dark-rimmed glasses, and bow tie. Lance Geiger joined us to talk about the genesis of the "The History Guy" program, the work involved in putting out three episodes a week, and the success the show has attained over the past five years.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first ever televised congressional hearing was on August 3, 1948. The first witness was a man who said he didn't want to be there. He had been subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). His name was Whittaker Chambers, an American who had been a Communist spy for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. We spoke to DC-based attorney John Berresford, who has spent years studying Chambers and the story and trial of the man Chambers accused of also being a Communist spy, Alger Hiss. Mr. Berresford has presented the story of the Hiss-Chambers espionage case in a series of 38 lectures on YouTube.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices