The importance of language cannot be overstated in today’s overheated political climate. To think through how best to navigate the language wars, Professor Harold James joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
As his most recent book Battlegrounds comes out in paperback, General H.R. McMaster joins host Richard Aldous for a whirlwind tour of the geostrategic landscape for the United States, and the challenges the country faces in sustaining its commitments abroad. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Could it all have gone differently? Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, author of the new book Land, The State, and War: Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan, joins host Richard Aldous to talk about what the West repeatedly gets wrong in tackling the devilishly difficult problems of international development and democracy promotion. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscrib...
Welcome back, dear listeners, to Season Two of Bookstack! With the twentieth anniversary of the Al Qaeda terror attacks on New York and Washington approaching this weekend, our host Richard Aldous sat down with author Toby Harnden to discuss his new book First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Australia is the world’s test case for how a democratic country’s dependence on China can be turned against it. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher joins Richard Aldous to discuss exactly how this has happened in his new book, Red Zone: China’s Challenge and Australia’s Future. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Is there any hope for safeguarding privacy in the age of the internet? Firmin DeBrabander, professor of philosophy at Maryland Institute College of Art, joins Richard Aldous to discuss his book Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
This week, author Shawna Kay Rodenberg joins host Richard Aldous to discuss her moving new book, Kin: A Memoir, about family, forgiveness, and growing up in Eastern Kentucky. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe
In times of change at breakneck speeds, we need a different lens for understanding the world. Financial journalist and anthropology PhD Gillian Tett joins host Richard Aldous to discuss how we can use an anthropological lens to cope with an increasingly kaleidoscopic reality. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Larger-than-life figures like Edward Said often become prisoners of their own legacy. Author Timothy Brennan, a student of Said’s, joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his fascinating new biography, Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said, a book that tries to tease out the contradictions and complications that shaped one of the most influential public intellectuals of the 20th century. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, ...
With news getting comparatively less bizarre as 2021 rolls on, presidential historian and former White House aide Tevi Troy joins host Richard Aldous to talk about the history of White House intrigue as described in his recent book, Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Richard Nixon, an almost Shakespearean character, loomed over 20th century American history in ways that prefigure Trump. Author Michael Dobbs joins host Richard Aldous to discuss this deeply flawed individual, and his new book King Richard: Nixon and Watergate, an American Tragedy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was an exemplary strategic thinker. Author and policy strategist Susan Eisenhower, who happens to be one of Ike’s four grandchildren, joins host Richard Aldous to talk about her new book How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower’s Biggest Decisions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Was the Second World War really the “good war”? And are we blinded to properly assessing it by unduly focusing on the German side of the conflict? Historian Sean McMeekin joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as his new book, Stalin’s War. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
The rich history of Africans in Europe, from the third century onwards, is understudied and under-appreciated in modern society. Olivette Otele, Professor of History of Slavery and Memory of enslavement at the University of Bristol, joins host Richard Aldous to talk about her new book, African Europeans: An Untold History. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Is Britain a part of Europe or not? And why didn’t a reluctant membership in the Common Market, the European Community, and ultimately the European Union ultimately lead it to accept a full European orientation? Our guest Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government at Kings College, joins host Richard Aldous to talk about his new book, Britain and Europe in a Troubled World. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.per...
As the space race heats up once again, author Stephen Walker joins our host Richard Aldous to discuss his remarkable new book Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey Into Space. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe
From an early age, Jack, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy developed a deep understanding of the different peoples, cultures, and ideologies around the world, a keen appreciation for the challenges that such differences created for the United States, and a strong desire to reshape America’s response to them. Lawrence J. Haas joins host Richard Aldous to talk about his new book, The Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America’s Empire. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss th...
For generations, Americans have looked to education as the solution to economic disadvantage. Nevertheless, today the gap between rich and poor is widening. This week, Cristina Groeger joins Richard Aldous to talk about her new book, The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston, and discusses how education came to be seen as a panacea even as it paved the way for deepening inequality. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get ac...
In a time of division, difference, and cancel culture, what can we learn from Shakespeare (who himself has been caught in the crossfire of today’s culture wars)? On today’s episode, author Paula Marantz Cohen joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as her new book Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Roya Hakakian joins host Richard Aldous to talk about her new book A Beginner’s Guide to America. Moved to write the book amid the uproar over immigration kicked off during the Trump presidency, she talks about her own experiences as a new immigrant from Iran, the challenges and rewards of adapting to a new country, and the difficulties of leaving the familiarity of home behind. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ...
Enlightenment thinking across Europe addressed the full breadth of human experience. From the nature of beauty to practical improvements in administering prisons, the array of viewpoints and subjects stretches well beyond today’s shorthands for the era. Ritchie Robertson joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www....
Fashion matters. Clothes both tell a story about power, prestige, and privilege, and can serve as important means of critiquing and subverting these very same things. Richard Thompson Ford joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, along with his new book, Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
Why is it that some small countries do so well at tackling large, difficult problems that trip up their larger competitors? R. James Breiding joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book Too Small To Fail: Why Some Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe...
"History from below” is usually an effort at social history seen through statistics and figures. Our guest this week, Emma Rothschild, takes a different approach in her new book, An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France Over Three Centuries, by recounting a vast narrative at times resembling a period novel. What does this story tell us about the events that transpired, about the nature of time and history, and about what should matter to us today in an increasingly atomized world? Th...
An unassuming high-school dropout, the son of Holocaust survivors, Bob Gersony became the U.S. government’s most intrepid researcher and reporter, a humanitarian icon who never lost sight of the importance of reconciling values with national interests. Bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan joins Richard Aldous to discuss human rights, activism, realism, and his new book, The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government’s Greatest Humanitarian. This is a public episode. If you'd...
The multiculturalism and pluralism of the Habsburg Empire gave way to the nationalist agitation of the flamboyant poet-soldier Gabriele D’Annunzio in a small Adriatic port city in 1919. And yet the Fiume crisis played out differently than other post-World War I episodes around Europe. This week, Dominique Kirchner Reill joins host Richard Aldous to discuss fascism, resilience, the indeterminacy of history, and her new book, The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire. This is a pub...
Congress is in a bad way. Why is this the case, when all the instruments for its revival are literally within its grasp? What can we do to encourage change? And will the Biden era move the needle? The American Enterprise Institute’s Kevin Kosar joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as a new volume he has edited, Congress Overwhelmed: The Decline of Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or g...
With the transfer of power to President Joe Biden complete, American Purpose Editorial Board member Larry Diamond joins host Richard Aldous to take the temperature of American democracy. While there was plenty to lose sleep over, is there cause for optimism about American democracy? What kind of reforms are still necessary? And how is the next generation of young Americans thinking about the challenges? Tune in for the discussion, and read Larry Diamond’s Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian...
How does writing history influence the future? How did Enlightenment thinkers help prepare the ground for Empire? And how can we rescue the Enlightenment project to build a better future? This week, Priya Satia of Stanford University joins our host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as her new book Time’s Monster: How History Makes History. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subsc...
Is liberal democracy the foundation of a lasting world order, or should we be constructing a world order to help fragile democracies thrive? And after a rough few years for liberal democracy around the globe, what are the chances that such an order can be built? G. John Ikenberry joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as his new book, A World Safe for Democracy on the first episode of 2021. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acce...
