C-SPAN Bookshelf

Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson discuss the history of the AR-15 and how the weapon has influenced American gun culture. They were interviewed by author and journalist Paul Barrett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Andrew Roberts calls this week's guest Kenneth Rendell the "manuscript whisperer." Rendell's new book is about his travelling the world during his career buying and selling significant historical letters and documents, from the Renaissance to the present day. The title of his book is "Safeguarding History: Trailblazing Adventures Inside the Worlds of Collecting and Forging History." One of the stories he tells is about his role in determining whether the Hitler diaries, published in 1983, were real or fake.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin McCarthy earned a place in the history books this week as the first Speaker of the House to be voted out of office. Just 9 months into his term, Speaker McCarthy was challenged by a "motion to vacate" offered by Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz. McCarthy lost by 6 votes; with all Democrats voting against him. Kevin McCarthy, a California republican, was the 55th Speaker of the House. Second in line to the presidency, the Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House of Representatives, and the de facto leader of the Majority. As Republicans mull their choice for a new Speaker, we look back to a Q&A episode from February of 2018 on the historical power and influence of the House Speaker of. Our guest is Michael Green, author of The Speaker of the House: A study of Leadership. You'll learn about the role of the Speaker and the tenures of Henry Clay, Joe Cannon, Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Economist Melissa Kearney argues that the decline in two-parent married households is a driving factor in many of America's economic issues. She was interviewed by American Enterprise Institute's Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility director Scott Winship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is Pultizer-Prize-winning Yale Professor David Blight. He expounds on the life of Frederick Douglas when he learned to read and write, and his relationship with President Abraham Lincoln.Born into slavery in Maryland, Frederick Douglass went on to become a writer, orator, statesman, and key leader in the abolitionist movement. After his escape to freedom as an adult, Douglass in 1845 wrote the first of his three autobiographies, titled The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"America is deeply divided. Our politics is broken, marked by anger, contempt and distrust. We must acknowledge that reality but not lose historical perspective. It’s bad now, but it’s been worse before—and not only during the Civil War." These are the words of Fox News contributor Karl Rove, a longtime political consultant and former senior adviser to President George W. Bush. He wrote them under the headline: "America Is Often a Nation Divided," in a recent Saturday edition of the Wall Street Journal. The piece is historical and starts back when the country began.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a dip into the Q&A archives, an interview from 2017 with former federal prosecutor and George Washington University Law School professor Randall Eliason. He talked about the ongoing trial of Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and other prominent political corruption cases that came before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney looked at the successes and failures of the last four decades of "the paper of record," The New York Times. He was interviewed by Columbia Journalism Review contributor Jon Allsop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle discusses digital libraries, legal disputes over electronic book lending, and copyright laws. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest this week is author, historian, and magazine editor Lanny Jones. He is the author of "William Clark and the Shaping of the West. His latest work is Celebrity Nation.Shortly after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore and map the newly acquired territory and to seek a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark's two-year Tour of Discovery ended in September 1806 as the explorers returned to St. Louis with maps, sketches and journals detailing the region's plants, animal life, geography, and indigenous people.In 1814, many Americans were able to learn for the first time about the western lands upon the publishing of the book titled History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains of Lewis and Clark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices