Booknotes : Stories from American History

by Lamb, Brian

• ISBN13: 9780142002490
• ISBN10: 0142002496
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

American history is shaped by great and small events, and in recent years a generation of writers has brought these events to life. They have shared these stories with the viewers of the long-running C-SPAN author-interview program Booknotes, and here some of the best have been collected for readers to savor. In this volume, more than eighty contemporary writers and historians examine seminal moments from American history, celebrated and uncelebrated alike. Booknotes offers readers conversational essays edited from the interview show, providing an enticing selection of author-subject pairings. For anyone interested in America's rich history-and especially the devoted fans of C-SPAN's Booknotes-this is an engaging compendium of information, opinions, and new perspectives.

Author Biography

Brian Lamb, the founding CEO of C-SPAN, has been the host of Booknotes since its inception in 1989 and has read each of the more than six hundred books that the program has featured.

Susan Swain is C-SPAN's Executive Vice President and has been a host of C-SPAN television programs for nearly twenty years. She has served as executive editor for all three Booknotes titles.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xiii
Revolution and Founding 1776-1815
Alfred F. Young on a Shoemaker and the Boston Tea Party	p. 3
Pauline Maier on Declaring Independence	p. 9
Jack N. Rakove on Creating the Constitution	p. 14
Robert Scigliano on The Federalist Papers	p. 22
Annette Gordon-Reed on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings	p. 28
Roger G. Kennedy on the American and French Revolutions	p. 32
Bernard A. Weisberger on the Contested Election of 1800	p. 36
Arnold A. Rogow on the Hamilton-Burr Duel	p. 41
Michael H. Cottman on the Slave Ship Henrietta Marie	p. 46
The Young Nation 1815-1850
Joyce Appleby on the First Generation of Americans	p. 53
Andrew Burstein on Celebrating Fifty Years of Independence	p. 60
Harvey C. Mansfield on Tocqueville's Democracy in America	p. 66
Slavery and the Civil War 1850-1865
Stephen B. Oates on the Buildup to the Civil War	p. 73
James M. McPherson on Volunteer Soldiers	p. 80
Drew Gilpin Faust on Women of the Slaveholding South	p. 86
Joseph E. Stevens on the Events of 1863	p. 93
James M. Perry on Civil War Correspondents	p. 97
Brooks D. Simpson on Ulysses S. Grant's Military Career	p. 104
Douglas L. Wilson, Allen C. Guelzo, Lerone Bennett Jr., and Differing Perspectives on Abraham Lincoln	p. 111
H. W. Crocker III, Tom Wheeler, and the Leadership of Robert E. Lee	p. 118
William J. Cooper Jr. on Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy	p. 125
Rebuilding America and the Gilded AGe 1865-1901
Witold Rybczynski on Frederick Law Olmsted and the Building of Central Park	p. 133
David Haward Bain on the First Transcontinental Railroad	p. 139
H. Paul Jeffers on Grover Cleveland's Political Career	p. 146
H. W. Brands on the Events of the 1890s	p. 151
Ben Procter on William Randolph Hearst and the Rise of Yellow Journalism	p. 157
Jean Strouse on J.P. Morgan, National Banker	p. 164
Progressive Era and Reaction 1901-1929
Linda O. McMurry on the Crusades of Ida B. Wells	p. 175
Dorothy Herrmann on the Celebrity of Helen Keller	p. 179
Gina Kolata on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic	p. 185
Emily Bernard on Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten	p. 190
Edward J. Larson on the Scopes "Monkey" Trial	p. 197
Robert A. Slayton on Al Smith and the 1928 Election	p. 206
Larry Tye on Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations	p. 212
A. Scott Berg on Charles Lindbergh's Reluctant Public Life	p. 219
Peter Collier on the Roosevelt Dynasty	p. 227
Depression and War 1929-1945
David M. Kennedy on the Great Depression and World War II	p. 237
Allen Weinstein on the Early Days of Soviet Espionage	p. 245
Elizabeth M. Norman on the Nurses Captured on Bataan	p. 251
Amity Shlaes on the Creation of the Withholding Tax	p. 259
James Bradley on Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima	p. 262
Tom Brokaw on the World War II Generation	p. 269
Nicholas Lemann on the Great Black Migration	p. 274
Sally Bedell Smith, David Brinkley, Peter Jennings, and Early Network News	p. 280
Early Cold War 1945-1957
David Fromkin on Five Men Who Shaped the Post-World War II World	p. 289
Christopher Matthews on the Unlikely Kennedy-Nixon Friendship	p. 294
Jean Edward Smith on Lucius D. Clay and Postwar Berlin	p. 300
Zachary Karabell on Truman Defeats Dewey	p. 305
Arthur Herman on the Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy	p. 313
Norman Podhoretz on the New York Intelligentsia	p. 321
Social Transformation 1957-1975
Roy Reed on Orval Faubus and the Desegregation of Central High School	p. 329
Robert Dallek on Lyndon Johnson and the 1960 Election	p. 334
Jay Parini on Robert Frost and the Kennedy Inauguration	p. 339
Donald Kagan on the Cuban Missile Crisis	p. 344
Andrew Young on Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail	p. 349
Diane McWhorter on the 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing	p. 353
Ben Bradlee on the Kennedy Years	p. 358
Arlen Specter on the Warren Commission	p. 363
Jeff Shesol on the RFK-LBJ Feud	p. 368
Anthony Lewis on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan	p. 375
Jon Margolis on Stories from 1964	p. 382
Tinsley E. Yarbrough on John Marshall Harlan and the Warren Court	p. 387
Leonard Garment on Getting to Know Richard M. Nixon	p. 393
Charles V. Hamilton on the Life and Career of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.	p. 398
Elizabeth Taylor on Richard J. Daley and Chicago's Political Machine	p. 404
Peter R. Kann and Frances FitzGerald on Reporting from Vietnam	p. 410
Stuart I. Rochester on American POWs in Vietnam	p. 417
The Culture Wars 1975-2002
Irving Kristol, Nina J. Easton, and the Rise of the Neoconservatives	p. 427
Kiron K. Skinner on the Forgotten Radio Scripts of Ronald Reagan	p. 439
John A. Farrell on the Political Lore of Tip O'Neill	p. 444
Shelby Steele, Cornel West, Thomas Sowell, Randall Robinson: A Symposium on Race	p. 451
Don Oberdorfer on the Reagan-Gorbachev Summits	p. 459
Marlin Fitzwater on Reagan, Bush, and the Press	p. 466
Bob Woodward on Planning the Persian Gulf War	p. 473
John Podhoretz on the Last Days of the First Bush White House	p. 477
Richard E. Cohen on Dan Rostenkowski's Fall from Power	p. 483
Tim Russert on a Half-Century of Meet the Press	p. 489
Bonnie Angelo on Modern Presidents' Mothers	p. 495
Jeff Greenfield, Ralph Nader on the 2000 Election	p. 498
Peter Bergen on September 11 and Osama bin Laden	p. 503
Bernard Lewis on September 11 and the Roots of Islamic Terrorism	p. 509
Appendix	p. 515
Complete List of C-SPAN Booknotes (1989-2002)	p. 517
Index	p. 541
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