American Purpose's Bookstack

Episode 19: Ritchie Robertson on the Enlightenment, 1680-1790

March 19th, 2021  |  33 mins 33 secs

Ritchie Robertson joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790

Episode 18: Richard Thompson Ford on Fashion, Law, and Social Change

March 5th, 2021  |  27 mins 42 secs

books, fashion, history, law, politics

Richard Thompson Ford joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, along with his new book, Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History.

Episode 17: R. James Breiding on Small-Nation Success

February 26th, 2021  |  36 mins 17 secs

books, europe, history, politics

R. James Breiding joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book Too Small To Fail: Why Some Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World.

Episode 16: Emma Rothschild’s Generational Portrait of France

February 19th, 2021  |  29 mins 4 secs

biography, books, history, politics

"History from below” is usually an effort at social history seen through statistics and figures. Our guest this week, Emma Rothschild, takes a different approach in her new book, An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France Over Three Centuries, by recounting a vast narrative at times resembling a period novel.

Episode 15: Robert D. Kaplan on Humanitarian Bob Gersony

February 12th, 2021  |  33 mins 10 secs

biography, books, espionage, history, politics

Bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan joins Richard Aldous to discuss human rights, activism, realism, and his new book, The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government’s Greatest Humanitarian.

Episode 14: Dominique Kirchner Reill on Interwar Fascism in Fiume

February 5th, 2021  |  31 mins 34 secs

books, europe, history, politics

This week, Dominique Kirchner Reill joins host Richard Aldous to discuss fascism, resilience, the indeterminacy of history, and her new book, The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire.

Episode 13: Kevin Kosar on Congressional Dysfunction

January 29th, 2021  |  34 mins 30 secs

america, books, congress, politics, us

Congress is in a bad way. Why is this the case, when all the instruments for its revival are literally within its grasp? What can we do to encourage change? And will the Biden era move the needle?

Episode 12: Larry Diamond on Saving Democracy

January 22nd, 2021  |  33 mins 50 secs

america, books, democracy, politics, us

With the transfer of power to President Joe Biden complete, American Purpose Editorial Board member Larry Diamond joins host Richard Aldous to take the temperature of American democracy. While there was plenty to lose sleep over, is there cause for optimism about American democracy? What kind of reforms are still necessary? And how is the next generation of young Americans thinking about the challenges?

Episode 11: Satia on Progress and Colonialism

January 15th, 2021  |  34 mins 29 secs

books, history, philosophy, politics

How does writing history influence the future? How did Enlightenment thinkers help prepare the ground for Empire? And how can we rescue the Enlightenment project to build a better future?

Episode 10: Ikenberry on Democracy

January 8th, 2021  |  34 mins 10 secs

america, books, diplomacy, foreign policy, politics, us

Is liberal democracy the foundation of a lasting world order, or should we be constructing a world order to help fragile democracies thrive? And after a rough few years for liberal democracy around the globe, what are the chances that such an order can be built?

Episode 9: Teasel Muir-Harmony on the Power of the Moon Landing

December 18th, 2020  |  30 mins 58 secs

america, books, diplomacy, foreign policy, history, politics, us

Project Apollo captured the world’s imagination, and as a feat of “soft power” public diplomacy, it has few peers in the history of mankind, and has not been matched since.

Episode 8: Thomas E. Ricks on First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country

December 11th, 2020  |  28 mins 9 secs

america, books, history, politics, us

Is the America we have today, the America that elected Donald Trump and is still struggling to move on from his term in office, the country our Founding Fathers envisioned? And just what is it that this illustrious group really thought they were building?

Episode 7: Susan Glasser and Peter Baker on James A. Baker

December 4th, 2020  |  35 mins 31 secs

america, biography, books, history, politics, uk, us

Susan Glasser and Peter Baker join our host Richard Aldous to discuss their new book, The Man Who Ran Washington, a biography of George H. W. Bush's legendary White House chief of staff and Secretary of State, and a rumination about a Washington that perhaps no longer exists.

Episode 6: Ian Buruma on America's Special Relationship with the UK

November 20th, 2020  |  31 mins 55 secs

books, history, politics

Ian Buruma, author, historian, and a professor at Bard College, joins our host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as his new book, The Churchill Complex: The Curse of Being Special, from Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit.

Episode 5: Edmund Fawcett on "Conservatism"

November 13th, 2020  |  32 mins 29 secs

american thought, conservatism, ideas, intellectual history, political philosophy

Edmund Fawcett, a correspondent for The Economist for more than three decades, joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition, a companion volume to his earlier volume on liberalism.

Episode 4: Bookstack: Mark Salter on Senator John McCain’s Legacy

November 6th, 2020  |  36 mins 23 secs

biography, books, elections, history, politics

As we await the final vote tally from the 2020 presidential election, some reflections on political leadership.