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  • Ep. 243 Peter Henriques, "George Washington"

    Ep. 243 Peter Henriques, "George Washington"
    2025/11/04
    Retired George Mason University history professor, Peter Henriques, starts off his author's note writing: "If anyone had told me in the summer of 2023 that I would be writing one more book on George Washington, I would have expressed extreme skepticism." In Episode 6 of this Booknotes+ podcast series in 2021, Professor Henriques told us the same thing. But at 88 years old, he's back with another book on our first president, titled "George Washington: His Quest for Honor and Fame." In the afterward of the book, Peter Henriques puts a special emphasis on George Washington and slavery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 時間 7 分
  • Ep. 242 Geri Spieler on Housewife Assassin: The True Story Behind a Suburban Double Life

    Ep. 242 Geri Spieler on Housewife Assassin: The True Story Behind a Suburban Double Life
    2025/10/28
    In September 1975, 17 days apart, two women, one in Sacramento and the other in San Francisco, attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford. The first attempt on September the 5th came from Annette Squeaky Fromm. The Charles Manson follower spent over 30 years in prison, is out on parole, and is 76 years old. The other attempt came on the non-entrance side of St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on September the 24th, 1975. The shooter, Sara Jane Moore, served 32 years in prison and died almost 50 years to the day on September the 24th, 2025. Author Jerry Spieler wrote the book "Housewife Assassin" in 2009. She talked to and exchanged letters with Sara Jane Moore on several occasions. Here's her up-to-date story about the woman who tried to kill President Ford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 時間 6 分
  • Ep. 241 Dan Wang on Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future

    Ep. 241 Dan Wang on Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future
    2025/10/21
    The book is called "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future." Author Dan Wang (WONG) was born in China in 1992. His parents moved to Canada when he was seven. In 2014, he graduated from the University of Rochester in New York. Then in 2018, Dan Wang went to live in China until he returned to the US in 2023. He then went to the offices of the Yale Law School and wrote about his comparison of China and the United States. He writes in his introduction: "A strain of materialism, often crass, runs through both countries, sometimes producing variations of successful entrepreneurs, sometimes creating displays of extraordinary tastelessness and overall contributing to a spirit of vigorous competition." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 時間 5 分
  • Ep. 240 Jonathan Mahler on The Gods of New York: NYC in the 1980s

    Ep. 240 Jonathan Mahler on The Gods of New York: NYC in the 1980s
    2025/10/14
    The names are almost all known nationally: Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, David Dinkins, Al Sharpton, Larry Kramer, and Donald Trump. These are people who were first in the news in the 1980s. Their early public lives are now featured in Jonathan Mahler's book, "The Gods of New York." The book is divided into four large chapters titled 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989. Mr. Mahler, a feature writer for the New York Times Magazine, closes his book with this last paragraph: "The existential questions that New York faced as it entered 1986 were answered. The great working-class city was gone." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 時間
  • Ep. 239 Inside McNamara at War: Philip and William Taubman on Vietnam and U.S. Power

    Ep. 239 Inside McNamara at War: Philip and William Taubman on Vietnam and U.S. Power
    2025/10/07
    Philip Taubman and his brother William have written what the publisher Norton is calling "McNamara at War: A New History." It's a full life biography of former Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara. "It's a portrait of a man at war with himself," according to the authors. "It's riven with melancholy, guilt, zealous loyalty, and profound inability to admit his flawed thinking about Vietnam before it was too late." William Taubman, seven years older than his brother at 83, is an emeritus political science professor from Amherst College. Brother Phil spent 30 years with the New York Times and is an author of several books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 時間 9 分
  • Ep. 238 Daniel Flynn, "The Man Who Invented Conservatism"

    Ep. 238 Daniel Flynn, "The Man Who Invented Conservatism"
    2025/09/30
    Daniel Flynn's book is titled, "The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer." Mr. Flynn points out in his introduction that "Meyer travels from communist to conservative, peace activist to soldier, Jew to Catholic, rhapsodist of Satan to cheerleader for Reagan, and free love enthusiast to family man." Flynn, who is a senior editor at the American Spectator and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, tells readers how he found the forgotten papers of Frank Meyer. It's in a warehouse in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Meyer lived between 1909 and 1972. He was 62 when he died. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 時間 11 分
  • Ep. 237 Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Failure: Communism in the 20th Century

    Ep. 237 Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Failure: Communism in the 20th Century
    2025/09/23
    In our last podcast, Ed Luce of the Financial Times told us about his book, "Zbig," for Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928-2017) who he calls America's great power prophet. In this episode, we're going to feature a Booknotes interview from April 2, 1989, with Dr. Brzezinski. He was the first guest for the weekly Sunday evening program that ran until 2005. His book at the time was about his longtime prediction that there would be a failure of communism in the Soviet Union. The name of Brzezinski's book was "The Grand Failure." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 時間 2 分
  • Ep. 236 Edward Luce, "Zbig" - Zbigniew Brzezinski & Carter Era U.S. Foreign Policy

    Ep. 236 Edward Luce, "Zbig" - Zbigniew Brzezinski & Carter Era U.S. Foreign Policy
    2025/09/16
    "I was initially very skeptical about embarking on a full life biography of anyone, let alone a figure as big as Zbig."Edward Luce is talking about President Carter's former national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Mr. Luce is the Financial Times' chief commentator and columnist. Luce is a native of Sussex, England, and has spent close to 20 years in the United States since the mid-90s. He is an Oxford grad. Zbigniew Brzezinski was born in Warsaw, Poland, got his PhD at Harvard, and spent time in Canada during the time his father was posted as police council general in Montreal. Brzezinski was national security advisor from 1977 to 1981. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 時間 3 分