C-SPAN Bookshelf

This conversation was a behind-the-scenes account of the 2024 presidential election that sent Donald Trump back to the White House for a second, non-consecutive term -- only the second president other than Grover Cleveland to achieve that distinction, and after a litany of criminal and civil investigations and two assassination attempts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles Sumner was from Boston, Massachusetts. He was a U.S. Senator for 23 years from 1851 to 1874. Sumner, an anti-slavery Republican, was brutally caned on the Senate floor by pro-slavery Democrats in 1856, during the lead-up to the Civil War. The attack, which almost killed Sumner, kept him out of the Senate for over 3 years. Sumner didn't marry until he was 55 years old, but his marriage to Alice Hooper ended in divorce seven years later. The 6' 4" Republican died of a heart attack in his home on March 11, 1874. Zaakir Tameez, a graduate of Yale Law School, reports in his new biography that Charles Sumner, in his opinion, was the conscious of a nation. In his introduction, Tameez writes: "This biography brings Sumner back to life, returning him to the place he deserves in the pantheon of American heroes. That said, this book is no hagiography." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Technology reporter Nicole Kobie, author of "The Long History of the Future," talks about how technology evolves and discusses why many predicted technologies – including driverless and flying cars, smart cities, hyperloops, and autonomous robots – haven’t become a reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join bestselling author John Grisham, known for his gripping legal thrillers, and Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurion Ministries dedicated to freeing the wrongly convicted, as they delve into the urgent issue of wrongful convictions. They share intense personal stories, including Ellen Reasonover's harrowing journey of 16 years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. The conversation reveals the emotional and systemic challenges within the justice system, advocating for reform and highlighting the vital work of conviction integrity units in America.

The patriarch, C.F. Seabrook, was hailed as the Henry Ford of agriculture. His son, Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life magazine called the biggest vegetable factory on earth. His son, John Seabrook, has written about his grandfather and father in his book called "The Spinach King." It's subtitled "The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty." Work on "The Spinach King" started in the early 1980s when John Seabrook was with the New Yorker Magazine. John Seabrook says: "I had a grandfather who was a champion of white supremacy, a true believer in the superiority of the Nordic Christian male." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Progressive professor Cornel West and conservative professor Robert George talk about their decades-long friendship and teaching together at Princeton University. They also discuss their new book, "Truth Matters," a dialogue between the two on such topics as American history, great books, faith, and free speech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial Times San Francisco Correspondent Patrick McGee examined Apple's relationship with China and the impact of locating so many factories there. The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco hosted this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a word, Evan Osnos' latest book focuses on the subject of money. His book is titled "The Haves and the Have Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultra-Rich." There are 10 essays which originally appeared in his home publication, The New Yorker. The oldest one, "Survival of the Richest," ran in 2017. The newest, titled "Land of Make-Believe," was published in 2024. In his introduction, Osnos writes that: "Reporting in the enclaves of the very rich, Monte Carlo, Palm Beach, Palo Alto and Hollywood is complicated. It's not a world that relishes scrutiny." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Kramer (G.W. Bush Institute), Stephanie Streett (Clinton Foundation), Alice Yates (George & Barbara Bush Foundation), and Mark Updegrove (LBJ Foundation) talk about preserving the legacies of U.S. presidents and the work their privately funded organizations do to achieve this, including through the Presidential Leadership Scholars program, which launched in 2015. They also talk about the relationship between their foundations and the government funded presidential library system, which is overseen by the National Archives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former President Bill Clinton talked with his co-author James Patterson about their latest novel: A mystery in the White House that leads to the first gentleman on trial for murder. Politics and Prose Bookstore hosted this event at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices