C-SPAN Bookshelf

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

Author Charlotte Gray, our guest this week, is a Canadian born in Great Britain who now lives in a suburb of Ottawa. Her book "Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons" is about Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt. The former Jennie Jerome was born in the United States and was the mother of Winston Churchill. Sara Delano married James Roosevelt and became the mother of FDR in 1882. Charlotte Gray writes that one of the reasons to write about these two women is that: "Their reputations, so different within their lifetimes, have both suffered since their deaths." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meg Kissinger spoke about her family's struggle with mental illness and her coverage of mental health care in America as a journalist. She was interviewed by Mindsite News founding editor Rob Waters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Colleen Sheehan, Arizona State University Professor, discusses the early life and times of the Federalist's three authors. She explains how their lives challenged their writing and thinking. Plus their lasting legacy today.In September 1787, the newly drafted Constitution of the United States was sent to the states for ratification. Responding to initial public criticism of the document, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay - under the collective pseudonym "Publius" - wrote a series of 85 essays to promote the ratification of the Constitution. The essays were first published in several New York newspapers and were later combined into a book titled The Federalist. Today, the original essays are commonly referred to as The Federalist Papers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices