David Baerwald — The Fire Agent - with Steve Clemons

Fergus M. Bordewich — Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America's Future - with Peter Cozzens

The grand spectacle that marked America’s first century—and a moment of reckoning for a nation in flux “Those who were there felt that the wheel of history itself had turned before their eyes.” Held at Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia, the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876 attracted 10 million Americans—nearly 20 percent of the population, among them P. T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, and Mark Twain—and visitors from around the world. On display were inventions that signaled the changing landscape of American life, from the typewriter to the telephone to Heinz Tomato Ketchup. This celebration of America’s first hundred years came at a moment when its future seemed more precarious than ever—as big money threatened to overwhelm the government, underpaid workers waged the first national labor strike, feminists demanded rights for women, Native tribes went to war to repel the advancing settlement in the West, and Black Americans struggled to exercise their hard-won freedom. Looming over the fair was the presidential race of 1876—a highly contested election that would determine the fate of Reconstruction and permanently shape the Republican party as we know it today. Fergus Bordewich animates these converging crises through the lives of four protagonists—Rutherford B. Hayes, Alexander Graham Bell, railroad magnate Tom Scott, and sculptor Edmonia Lewis—revealing a country striving to live up to the promise of its founders while bracing for the tidal wave of the twentieth century. Fergus M. Bordewich is the author of nine previous nonfiction books, including Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction; The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government (winner of the 2019 D. B. Hardeman Prize in American History); America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union (named best history book of 2012 by the Los Angeles Times); and Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Jean Parvin Bordewich, who advises philanthropies on democratic governance. Bordewich is in conversation with Peter Cozzens, is the international award-winning author of nineteen books on the Civil War and the American West, including the best-selling The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West (winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize in Military History). A former army officer, Cozzens retired after a thirty-year career with the U. S. Foreign Service. He lives in Kensington, Maryland, with his wife. PURCHASE BOOK: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593803363?ic_referral=ppYf9fKBiLEdCuWzXP2K5ia24mlQZYMLQlPf8JKMGSQwM94d-DhmANXIRlzKzGpGPEtpkex7Gkgoj74QMvl9DdLnQRP605RPdgEifeJwhGqKsYeufF1femcG9FvJtyDvCptJ8Ic

Isaac Butler — The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars -with Dan Kois

The prize-winning author of The Method reveals the forgotten origins of America's culture wars-a story of late 20th century art vs. censorship, brimming with intense drama and fierce moral urgency. It's 1988, the final year of the Reagan presidency, and the curtain is closing on the Cold War. In the absence of external adversaries, the American public is on the precipice of war with itself. The religious right, newly ascendant and emboldened, is determined to seize control of America's future. And the first battles will be fought over, of all things, contemporary art. In The Perfect Moment, [https://politics-prose.com/book/9781639733491?ic_referral=yzWpsxxSNaKoJ9ec9BHY5eTX_tL8DgNUgxOOCS_fWTowM9vM_5-RvcR9tB220FlaCd7X63gt5dFopEGE0syAdKxloJN2IOR7Agl8WUa7lV3cbn7OlUQGS9c63ycPlyvfMhcHe4A] cultural historian Isaac Butler reexamines this pivotal, misunderstood American era. Archconservatives like Jesse Helms, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson fixed their sights on artists including Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, and Karen Finley, capitalizing on the provocative politics of their work to stir a nascent evangelical coalition into moral panic. It was at this moment, Butler argues, that the far right perfected the tactics it still uses today to whip its base into frenzy-from banning books and sanitizing American history, to spreading medical misinformation. All too relevant today, The Perfect Moment is an incisive and meticulously researched account of this crucial period and a stirring ode to the power of the creative spirit. Isaac Butler is the coauthor (with Dan Kois) of The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America, which NPR named one of the best books of 2018. Butler's writing has appeared in New York magazine, Slate, the Guardian, American Theatre, and other publications. For Slate, he created and hosted Lend Me Your Ears, a podcast about Shakespeare and politics, and currently co-hosts Working, a podcast about the creative process. His work as a director has been seen on stages throughout the United States. He is the co-creator, with Darcy James Argue and Peter Nigrini, of Real Enemies, a multimedia exploration of conspiracy theories in the American psyche, which was named one of the best live events of 2015 by the New York Times and has been adapted into a feature-length film. Butler holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Minnesota and teaches theater history and performance at the New School and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn. Butler is in conversation with Dan Kois, author of five books, including The World Only Spins Forward, with Isaac Butler. His most recent book is the novel Hampton Heights. In 2027, he will publish a memoir, Playing Hearts, and a collection of essays, Where Is the Light Coming From. He lives in Arlington. PURCHASE BOOK: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781639733491?ic_referral=kdzHLSDZ1nAJPOn1KJpGtfyzGpLNBGi9Ul-NaQbaDfswM6hl4LI6VR2KAwfk5LCrZXlA-t7vOIOYL6KFpbYtN7njHujr4lIIu0K3LpO2QK3L_FCfdFup-qDZ964b0II_gfwgRo0

Jesse Wegman — The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution - with John Mikhail

New York Times journalist Jesse Wegman tells the story of James Wilson, a Founding Father whose bold vision shaped American democracy but whose legacy was lost to scandal. As a young lawyer, James Wilson made a celebrated case for American independence in an essay that inspired the famous words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” He wrote the first draft of the Constitution and, along with the more famous James Madison, played perhaps the essential role in its ultimate creation. Wilson believed that the people are the ultimate source of all power. He argued successfully for a strong central government and a powerful presidency, and fought unsuccessfully for a direct vote for the president and the Senate. Appointed as a justice to the first Supreme Court, he was later brought down by reckless land speculation and died of malaria in the back room of a North Carolina tavern while hiding from his creditors. Instead of being remembered as one of the nation’s great political thinkers, Wilson was virtually written out of history. But in The Lost Founder [https://politics-prose.com/book/9781250851079?ic_referral=22Fm0EMfUArSdQYHJghcYvs_YiAAYZSOUhGeEPB4bm4wMxGlvdIYMzEsOQQh9jGIAfpZuTgSxm3fcwMq9I9RciV8HSCoB71rNMNccV_iM5ORQ5MqATpeM2vcNlEQ2UGmW1e6Lwg], Wegman brings to life the most prescient of the earliest patriots and makes a convincing argument that scandal should not diminish the life and impact of a brilliant, complicated man whose vision for his country could not be more relevant today. Jesse Wegman is a Senior Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, where he writes about Supreme Court reform and constitutional amendments. From 2013 to 2025, he was a member of the New York Times editorial board, covering law and politics, the Supreme Court, democracy, and electoral reforms. His first book, Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College, was published in 2020. Wegman is joined in conversation with John Mikhail, the Carroll Professor of Jurisprudence at Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught since 2004.  He teaches and writes on a variety of topics, including constitutional law, moral psychology, moral and legal theory, and legal history, and human rights. Professor Mikhail is the author of Elements of Moral Cognition (CUP, 2011) and over fifty articles and essays, including several on James Wilson. PURCHASE BOOK: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781250851079?ic_referral=2tSVdhxAD26kNthIp8CSc2pj5HNn8YVb5pO_X_PQxTkwM193hvP77MJ-nYtmhw64YAAohJxi0ba2_cZBEJFAuNRYU3jLrZRYvCNt9F1i9qEBGjFTjvi3XyklOX_mKJ941EUUz1A

Franklin Foer— How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization - with Ishaan Tharoor & Adam Harris

Just in time for the 2026 World Cup in North America—a new edition of the bestselling sports classic, featuring a new preface from the author. With the 2026 World Cup in all three nations of North America, the power and scope of soccer has truly become global. In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work, Franklin Foer argues that soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a unique window into the crosscurrents of modern globalization, with all of its benefits and pitfalls. Soccer clubs don’t represent geographic areas; they stand for social classes and political ideologies. Unlike baseball or tennis, soccer is freighted with ancient hatreds and history. It’s a sport with real stakes—a catalyst capable of ruining regimes and launching liberation movements. Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shattering myths and dire predictions. Instead of destroying local cultures, as the left warned, globalization has revived tribalism. Far from the triumph of capitalism that the right anticipated, it has entrenched corruption. From Brazil to Bosnia, Italy to Iraq, How Soccer Explains the World [https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063486768?ic_referral=ohWw5y0PKiPzKGqES9XHe30gcYfuuatb-gYLc08Gs20wM0ZnSoo4Z1EdIe0ff5YhhDh3vFXwDKz_MOdkZCh3A7JEVFWj2boiLfJLCZdFXiFY03pI8PyRTilGBNTkqepiA2188es] is an eye-opening chronicle of how a beautiful sport and its fanatical followers can illuminate the fault lines of a society, whether it’s terrorism, poverty, anti-Semitism, authoritarianism, or radical Islam—issues that continue to affect all of us. At a time when globalization is under attack and many Americans yearn for retrenchment and retreat from the world, this remarkable book—filled with blazing intelligence, colorful characters, wry humor, and an equal passion for soccer and humanity—continues to make sense of our troubled times. “Step aside Tom Friedman, Sam Huntington, and Amy Chua. Franklin Foer’s dark and witty tale of the soccer world reveals the meaning of globalization in all its joys and horrors.”—Robert Kagan Franklin Foer is a staff writer at The Atlantic and former editor of The New Republic. He is the author of several books, including most recently The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future. He lives in Washington, DC, with his family. Foer is in conversation with Ishaan Tharoor, a staff writer at The New Yorker. In 2021, he won the Arthur Ross Media Award in Commentary, a prize administered by the American Academy of Diplomacy. In 2024, he won the Ted Sorensen award, an honor bestowed by Network 20/20, a New York-based group that seeks to bridge the gap between the private sector and foreign policy worlds. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York. Foer will also be in conversation with Adam Harris, podcast host at The Atlantic. He is the author of The State Must Provide: Why America's Colleges Have Always Been Unequal—and How to Set Them Right [https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9780062976482]. Before joining The Atlantic in 2018, Adam was a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education covering federal higher-education policy and HBCUs. At The Atlantic, he writes about politics and education. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063486768?ic_referral=49UwrW8lTekaufwQzoQAY912hDcfJRJEcQMwXXiB_iwwM3UJRFftpCh3Q-Qm2vYq47ebH09FaoW5vYAMhVwV22q_izWeLl7LFLrTQoWb35V2gnh0IRN7GYltCUPG1GO3UKJbMEI

Sarah M. S. Pearsall — Freedom Round the Globe: A World History of the American Revolution -with François Furstenberg

In a groundbreaking global exploration of the ideas that drove the American Revolution, a prize-winning historian shines a light on the defiance of marginalized peoples all over the world. In her powerful new history of the American Revolution, Sarah M. S. Pearsall argues that the American Founding Fathers did not have a unique claim on the revolutionary spirit. The thirteen colonies that became the United States, she reminds us, were not even half of the British colonies that existed in the eighteenth century. In her sparkling and original Freedom Round the Globe [https://politics-prose.com/book/9780385548717?ic_referral=Byq_QsGVCwBnK2NAaFBqZokpAU8Hms18PZwsFIh8ERMwM6QTZ_ldPM6Ebalv0Arq93kO8w0ffshdJX--7jXEZR3Cmy5D9btrxNEGt5zdGGjU3OS2bs6dBUpqBNa5FU4KRwps0qw], Pearsall uncovers the insurgents, freedom lovers, and dreamers in India, West Africa, North America, Europe, China, and West Indian islands who shaped the nature of American rebellion and nationhood.  In each fresh and compelling chapter of Freedom Round the Globe, Pearsall plucks a keyword from the Declaration of Independence—security, happiness, respect-- finding its spark in a far-flung place. In an Edinburgh club where women were first invited into philosophical conversations, she explores what the pursuit of happiness meant to women and men of all sorts. She traces how novel forms of slavery provoked a new use of the word liberty in Connecticut petitions as well as in cries of “liberty or death.” On a Kolkata street where Indians protested relentless taxes, Pearsall finds a critique of oppressive imperial government that galvanized Americans in their protests and parties against the tea of the English East India Company. In rural Germany, boy soldiers sent abroad to die for Britain complicate who can lay claim to being civilized in a brutal war. In telling the extraordinary tales of Friends of Liberty protesting tyranny around the world, Pearsall restores these individuals and movements to their rightful place in the vital story of the American Revolution and the nation it created. The result is a stirring and surprising revisioning of our history. Sarah M. S. Pearsall is an award-winning historian with degrees from Yale, Harvard, and Cambridge, where she taught for nearly a decade. She is a professor in, and soon to be Chair of, the Department of History at Johns Hopkins. She wrote this book as both a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar and Distinguished Fellow in the American Revolution at the British Library. Pearsall is in conversation with François Furstenberg, was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington. After graduating with a BA from Columbia University, he worked for several years in Paris before pursuing his graduate studies in history at The Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently a professor. He is the author of In the Name of the Father and When the United States Spoke French.  PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780385548717?ic_referral=tlmhS1NYxZcWTqRtY5gWc3bU2UDjEjMCBhfq9LJ6-84wM28GX5Te-J3caqjRNYfpzVZVuxO5k5Sv5beFOZv9KeHT4O9aQY89hoVaQj3P3Tj00RM6lhNQasoKZfA14rI1Rnm7MUU