On this week's episode of Bookstack , host Richard Aldous is joined by Clara Bingham to discuss her new book, The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973 . Bookstack is now a production of American Purpose at Persuasion . Follow Persuasion on Twitter , LinkedIn , and YouTube to keep up with our latest articles, podcasts, and events, as well as updates from excellent writers across our network. And, to receive pieces like this in your inbox and support our work, subscribe b...
Sep 19, 2024•35 min
Bookstack is back! On today's episode, host Richard Aldous talks to James Graham Wilson, historian at the U.S. Department of State, about James's new book, America's Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan (Cornell University Press). 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...
Sep 05, 2024•30 min
The typical Black American family has fifteen cents of wealth for every comparable dollar that a White American family holds. Exploring the historical expansion of the wealth gap, journalists Louise Story and Ebony Reed join Richard Aldous to reveal how their investigation into the U.S. financial system uncovered scores of setbacks that continue to perpetuate that gap. The result of their careful efforts, Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap ( https://www.ha...
Jul 05, 2024•27 min
The global pandemic unmasked not just the many vulnerabilities in the world’s supply chain, but also its hidden innerworkings. Reporting on the world from an economic lens for over twenty-five years, award-winning New York Times journalist Peter S. Goodman joins Richard Aldous to share insights from his latest book, How the World Ran Out of Everything ( https://www.harpercollins.com/products/how-the-world-ran-out-of-everything-peter-s-goodman?variant=41107243925538 ). While the vulnerabilities a...
Jun 28, 2024•33 min
How did Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man of simple Kansas-bred beginnings, inspire implicit trust by his historical peers, from FDR and Churchill, to Stalin and DeGaulle? And how did he become a shaper of a new world order, asserting America’s post-war dominance? Michel Paradis, author of The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower ( https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-light-of-battle-michel-paradis?variant=41106434326562 ), joins Richard Aldous for this we...
Jun 21, 2024•32 min
Is there hope to be found amidst the current political climate? How to generate solidarity in an atmosphere of growing difference? Renowned sociologist James Davison Hunter tackles these questions in his new book, Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis ( https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274370/democracy-and-solidarity/ ). Hunter joins Richard Aldous in this week's Bookstack, for a conversation about the cultural contradictions that underpin American h...
Jun 14, 2024•29 min
When President Joe Biden stated in 2022 that the United States would defend Taiwan military in the event of a Chinese invasion, he crossed a line of ambiguity that had been purposefully danced around for decades. And yet, even though such a scenario would pit two nuclear powers against each another, “The United States does not know why Taiwan is important to it,” argues Sulmaan Wasif Khan. He joins host Richard Aldous to discuss the history of the standoff and the dangers lurking ahead as relaye...
May 24, 2024•29 min
In divided times, many Americans are sealing themselves off from those who think differently. Diana McLain Smith tells a different story in her new book, Remaking the Space Between Us: How Citizens Can Work Together to Build a Better Future for All ( https://www.remakingthespace.org/book ), focusing on the tens of thousands reaching out to fellow Americans across the divides to promote understanding. She joins host Richard Aldous to discuss why the path to a better polity must begin with We the ...
May 17, 2024•29 min
Thanks to American missionaries’ successes around the globe, the face of evangelicalism is no longer White America. In Soul by Soul: The Evangelical Mission to Spread the Gospel to Muslims ( https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/soul-by-soul/ ), Adriana Carranca reveals an extraordinary tale that has been under the radar: Missionaries from Latin America are leading the way in spreading the Gospel to Muslim countries, including in former U.S. war zones. She joins host Richard Aldous to discuss...
May 09, 2024•29 min
Harry Truman was educated in Missouri public schools, never went to college, and spent a number of his adult years as a dirt farmer. Yet eleven years after first being elected to the Senate he became President of the most powerful nation on earth in the midst of momentous world events. In his new book Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World ( https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690665/ascent-to-power-by-david-l-roll/ ), David Roll suggests that from ...
May 03, 2024•25 min
Ian Fleming heroicized for all the world the British intelligence agent in James Bond. In his new book Ian Fleming: The Complete Man ( https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ian-fleming-nicholas-shakespeare?variant=41070483832866 ), renowned biographer Nicholas Shakespeare digs into the legend of Fleming himself. Like his most famous character, Fleming’s life was colorfully marked by high-stakes intelligence, alcohol, and dalliances with women. Yet Fleming was tormented rather than buoyed by his...
Apr 26, 2024•28 min
In surveying dysfunction across America, the question arises: Is the source of the trouble at the local or the national level? Seth D. Kaplan has shifted his analytical gaze from fragile nations abroad to examine the fragility of his home country. He believes America’s problems from health to politics are downstream of individuals becoming increasingly disconnected, neighborhood by neighborhood. He joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Socie...
Apr 19, 2024•32 min
Solidarity has been at the root of social change throughout history, bringing people together across their differences to challenge injustice within societies. In their new book, Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea ( https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/740355/solidarity-by-leah-hunt-hendrix-and-astra-taylor/ ), Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor examine the sociological concept that is at the heart of social transformation. Hunt-Hendrix joins host Richard Aldo...
Apr 17, 2024•27 min
There are now over a million Russians living in exile, spurred on by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Unable to safely oppose their own government at home, they often find themselves subject to harassment and disdain as immigrants. In his new book, Putin’s Exiles: Their Fight for a Better Russia ( https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/putins-exiles/ ), Paul Starobin joins host Richard Aldous for a look at the hopes and dreams of those Russians living abroad, and to explain...
Mar 22, 2024•29 min
Rejected in official circles in his day and embraced in modern times by a motley array of admirers, Spinoza was in many ways ahead of his time. His commitment to truth, universal principles, and freedom lie at the heart of Western liberal thinking. As those ideas come under attack on both the left and the right, Spinoza’s philosophical thinking is as relevant as ever. Ian Buruma joins Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah ( https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/97803002489...
Mar 14, 2024•27 min
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia not only embarked on very different political paths at home, but they viewed the future of their relationship in starkly divergent terms. In [Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States]( https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?bookslug=russia-and-ukraine-entangled-histories-diverging-states--9781509557363)_ , authors Maria Popova and Oxana Shevel show how Russia’s determination to control an independent Ukraine only pus...
Mar 01, 2024•28 min
Large threats to the well-being of humankind such as the pandemic and climate change have cemented the notion that scientists across the globe naturally work together to solve the world’s most pressing problems. In Rivals: How Scientists Learned to Cooperate ( https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/rivals/ ), historian of science Lorraine Daston traces the trajectory of such cooperation, noting that along the way scientists have as often been competitors as collaborators. She joins host Richar...
Feb 23, 2024•29 min
Amidst all the positive and negative ink dedicated to Winston Churchill, Cambridge emeritus professor of international history David Reynolds offers a new dimension. He places the leader for whom history was determined by “great men” among the other greats who both inspired and enervated him. Reynolds joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his latest book, Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the Leaders Who Shaped Him ( https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-reynolds/mirrors-of-greatness/9...
Feb 16, 2024•35 min
The remarkable shift in the economic ideas at the heart of the Democratic Party—from the embrace of neoliberalism in the ’90s to the left-wing populism that Joe Biden accommodates today—traces its origins to the 2008 financial crisis. Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders and AOC after her, put the economic frustrations of ordinary Americans at the heart of her policies, making fashionable a populism of the left that was not unlike Donald Trump’s brand of it on the right. Journalist Joshua Green ...
Feb 08, 2024•34 min
For tens of thousands of people, living in Mexico today means living in a country where criminal violence begets state-sponsored violence, and where law and justice have so failed ordinary citizens that they often take matters into their own hands. In his new book Fear Is Just a Word: A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance ( https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690664/fear-is-just-a-word-by-azam-ahmed/ ), Azam Ahmed chronicles the tale of a mother whose desp...
Feb 02, 2024•29 min
Freedom Rider and Congressman John Lewis was widely viewed as a saint no less than a civil rights icon. How to capture the full humanity of such a legendary figure, whose life was intertwined with some of America’s lowest lows and highest highs? Civil rights historian Raymond Arsenault does just that in his new biography, John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community ( https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300253757/john-lewis/ ). He joins host Richard Aldous to discuss the man he believes to be ...
Jan 24, 2024•29 min
Joseph Nye’s prominent dual roles as policymaker and foreign affairs academic have rendered him one of the most important observers of U.S. foreign policy since World War II. In his new book, A Life in the American Century ( https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=a-life-in-the-american-century--9781509560684 ), the statesman-scholar looks back on the last century’s events from a personal and historical perspective. He joins host Richard Aldous to discuss, among other things, the erosio...
Jan 17, 2024•27 min
Long gone are the days of steak dinners, piano bars, and free alcohol on flights—not to mention widely expanding markets and strong competition. Vanderbilt Law professor Ganesh Sitaraman looks to the deregulation of the airline industry in the 1970s to explain the relatively dismal state of flying today. In his new book, Why Flying Is Miserable: And How to Fix It ( https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/why-flying-is-miserable/ ), he points to a host of policy options left on the table that co...
Jan 03, 2024•28 min
Travel is exhilarating and enlightening, but what happens when it becomes an escape from things that really matter? For acclaimed travel writer Nikki Vargas, travel has been her work, her dreams—and also her crutch. She joins host Richard Aldous to discuss her new book Call You When I Land ( https://www.harpercollins.com/products/call-you-when-i-land-nikki-vargas?variant=41011396214818 ), a memoir of her winding adventures that ultimately do have a destination. This is a public episode. If you'd...
Dec 18, 2023•29 min
Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie are household names, yet much less known are the Jewish “money kings” who came to America in the 19th century. In his new book The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America ( https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/541779/the-money-kings-by-daniel-schulman/ ), Daniel Shulman tells the story of the poor Jewish immigrants whose trajectories embody the American dream. He joins host Richard Aldous to ...
Dec 05, 2023•29 min
The American economy is once again experiencing a concentration of financial power in a few hands, but this time around the actors are much less familiar. As John Coates shows in his new book, The Problem of 12: When a Few Financial Institutions Control Everything ( https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/the-problem-of-twelve/#:~:text=When%20a%20Few%20Financial%20Institutions%20Control%20Everything&text=A%20%E2%80%9Cproblem%20of%20twelve%E2%80%9D%20arises,and%20economy%20of%20a%20nation .)...
Nov 29, 2023•28 min
The ambitious, larger-than-life character of Theodore Roosevelt is the stuff of legend. Outside of his connection with the League of Nations, much less is known about Roosevelt’s closest friend, Henry Cabot Lodge. Equally abundant in intellectual gifts, Lodge helped launch to the presidency the man whose vision he shared of a United States divinely ordained to spread prosperity and peace throughout the globe. Laurence Jurdem joins host Richard Aldous to discuss the personal and political friends...
Nov 15, 2023•29 min
Was there a moment after the Cold War when the United States “lost” Russia? Thomas Graham, senior director for Russia on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, looks back to the period between 1991 and 2022 to grapple with what might have been—or, better, what was never meant to be. He joins host Richard Aldous to assess what the United States got wrong about Russia and to discuss his new book, [Getting Russia Right]( https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?bookslug=getting...
Nov 08, 2023•28 min
The October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel were launched fifty years and a day after the last great surprise assault on the country by its Arab neighbors. At the time of the Yom Kippur War, Israel was not only much poorer and weaker than it is today, but it was completely dependent for military aid on a United States preoccupied with oil and the Soviet threat. Uri Kaufman chronicles the riveting details of this larger-than-life tale at a moment when existential threats to the State of Is...
Nov 01, 2023•32 min
Betty Friedan and many of her NOW co-founders have become household names, but what of the women who built on their pioneering work? In her new book, The Women of NOW: How Feminists Built an Organization That Transformed America ( https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374601539/thewomenofnow ), Katherine Turk looks at the second-wave feminists who broadened the movement to include all women. She joins host Richard Aldous to discuss lesser-known figures of the time, along with the proponents and ant...
Oct 25, 2023•27 min
