Booknotes+

Roosevelt Montás came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1985 at the age of twelve. He couldn't speak a word of English. He eventually went on get a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, where he currently teaches. Prof. Montás joined us to talk about his latest book, "Rescuing Socrates," in which he chronicles his journey and explains how books by St. Augustine, Socrates, Freud and Gandhi changed his life.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Many people don't want to believe that the citizens of the Southern states were willing to fight and die to preserve the morally repugnant institution of slavery. There has to be another reason, we are told. Well, there isn't." Those are the words of retired Southern-born Army general Ty Seidule, who taught at West Point for two decades. Gen. Seidule, author of "Robert E. Lee and Me," grew up revering Confederate general Robert E. Lee and believing in the Lost Cause, but eventually grew to view Confederate soldiers, including Lee, as "traitors for slavery." He joined us to talk about his transformation and the reaction he received when he made his views public.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WASPs – White Anglo-Saxon Protestants – such as Henry Adams, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Dean Acheson, and Joe Alsop, held an outsized influence on American culture and history for much of the country's history, waning only after the mid-twentieth century. Author Michael Knox Beran ("BARE"-in) joins us to talk about the power, privilege, and contributions of WASPs in the United States and the eventual backlash against them, their ideas, and their way of life.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary were the parents of four boys. Only one – Robert – lived beyond his eighteenth birthday. Author Jason Emerson spent nearly a decade researching the 82-plus years of Robert Lincoln's life, including his time as a Union soldier, minister to Great Britain, Secretary of War, and president of the Pullman Car Company. Mr. Emerson is the author of "Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln."   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From 1946 to 1958, the U.S. government conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, a chain of islands and coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean that had been inhabited for thousands of years. Walter Pincus, longtime national security reporter for the Washington Post and current national security columnist for the Cipher Brief, talks about the tests and the fate of the Marshallese people who had to deal with the fallout. Mr. Pincus tells the story in his latest book "Blown to Hell: America's Deadly Betrayal of the Marshall Islanders."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edward Moser has been a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush and a writer for the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno." He currently works as a tour guide, historian, and author. We spoke to Mr. Moser about his latest book, "The Lost History of the Capitol," an account of the many bizarre, tragic, and violent episodes around the U.S. Capitol Building since 1790.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man," wrote President Calvin Coolidge in his autobiography, originally published in 1929. An expanded and annotated version of that book, which historian Craig Fehrman calls "the forgotten classic of presidential writing," has recently been published by ISI Books. Amity Shlaes, chair of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and co-editor of the new edition of the autobiography, joins us to talk about the book and its importance today.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frenchman the Marquis de Lafayette came to America two years after the start of the American Revolution and was promptly made a major general in the Continental Army by George Washington. The year was 1777 and Lafayette, an aristocrat with no military experience, was 19. He later returned to France and helped launch the French Revolution. History podcaster Mike Duncan, author of "Hero of Two Worlds," joined us to talk about Lafayette's life and fight for liberty on both sides of the Atlantic.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keith Richburg, a native of Detroit, has been a print journalist for nearly his entire life. During his 30 years at the Washington Post he reported from countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. He is currently the director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. We chatted with Mr. Richburg about his career, his life in Hong Kong, China, the United States, and more.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After he became president in 1789, George Washington visited all thirteen former colonies to talk to citizens about the United States and what it meant to be an American. In 2018, historian Nathaniel Philbrick, along with his wife and dog, set out to retrace Washington's journey to find out how much has changed since then. He chronicled the trip in a new book, "Travels with George." We talked to Mr. Philbrick about Washington's journey and legacy and what he learned from following in Washington's footsteps over two centuries later.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices