Axelbank Reports History and Today

Dec 10 2024 168 ep. 52 mins 22
Axelbank Reports History and Today Podcast artwork

"Axelbank Reports History and Today: Conversations with America’s top non-fiction authors and why their books matter right now" approaches our past and present in a way that makes anyone want to listen. National-award winning TV news reporter Evan Axelbank interviews writers of history and current events to explore how America works and how it has been shaped by both the powerful and the powerless. In conversational and engaging fashion, listeners learn about the most important events, themes and figures in American history. This podcast shows why we have no choice but to understand where we have been, to know where we are going.

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#167: Evan Friss - "The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore"

Dec 10 2024 41 mins  
If you've ever gone holiday shopping, you have probably gone into a bookshop to find the perfect gift for someone you care about. In this episode, we talk with Evan Friss about his astonishing history of how American bookstores were born, how they grew, and how they've at least tried to survive in a world where almost everything is done online. From chains to indies, he shows how b

#166: Heath Hardage Lee - "The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon"

Nov 25 2024 57 mins  
Considering the high profiles of Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Betty Ford, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, little is remembered about Pat Nixon. And that, Heath Lee argues, is the way she wanted it. On this episode, biographer Heath Lee discusses her book, "The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First Lady," explores how Thelma Catherine

#165: David Greenberg - "John Lewis: A Life"

Nov 11 2024 57 mins  
On this episode, we chat with David Greenberg about his epic biography of American icon John Lewis. We explore Lewis' background, early life, congressional career and of course, his march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Lewis was beaten, but not broken, and began a one-of-a-kind career fighting for human rights and decency among Americans. Greenberg not only explains what it was l

#164: Frank Guridy - "The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest and Play"

Oct 28 2024 44 mins  
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#163: Megan Gorman - "All The Presidents' Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money"

Oct 14 2024 64 mins  
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#162: Kevin Baker - "The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City"

Sep 30 2024 53 mins  
Despite its reputation as a game with roots in rural America, Kevin Baker explains on this episode that baseball is rooted in New York City, and that it became the engine of the Big Apple. He also explains how the city itself influenced the game through its rules, its teams, its stadiums and its superstars. From Christy Mathewson to Babe Ruth, from the Highlanders to the Trolley Do

#161: Max Boot - "Reagan: His Life and Legend"

Sep 09 2024 43 mins  
From the late 1990s until the mid-2010s, conservatives used the rallying slogan of, “What would Reagan do?” as a call to arms on the Federal budget, on taxes, on foreign affairs, and on the government’s role in our lives. He was held up as the beacon for what a president, a governor, a state legislator or a candidate for any office should try to be. George W. Bush modeled his

#160: Clara Bingham - "The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America, 1963-1973"

Aug 19 2024 44 mins  
From the publisher: A comprehensive and engaging oral history of the decade that defined the feminist movement, including interviews with living icons and unsung heroes – from former Newsweek reporter and author of the “powerful and moving” (New York Times) Witness to the Revolution.For lovers of both Barbie and Gloria Steinem, The Movement is the first oral history of the de

#159: Corey Brettschneider - "The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It"

Aug 05 2024 52 mins  
The first thing a president must do is swear to uphold the Constitution. But what happens when they betray that promise? Corey Brettschneider argues that it takes ordinary citizens to not only reign them in, but to make sure it never happens again. In "The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It," Professor Brettschn

#158: Francis Barry - "Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey Into the Heart of American Democracy"

Jul 22 2024 45 mins  
Three-thousand miles. Fourteen states. Seven hundred towns. Two spouses. One Winnebago. Francis Barry and his wife, Laurel, took a trip across the Lincoln Highway from New York to San Francisco during the height of the pandemic, and during the height of the 2020 election. Their project was to figure out America by driving along the route that was first established more than a hundr