American Purpose's Bookstack
The books and ideas podcast from American Purpose.
We found 10 episodes of American Purpose's Bookstack with the tag “books”.
-
Episode 147: Louise Story and Ebony Reed on the Black-White Wealth Gap in America
July 5th, 2024 | 26 mins 40 secs
books, history, politics
The typical Black American family has fifteen cents of wealth for every comparable dollar that a White American family holds. Exploring the historical expansion of the wealth gap, journalists Louise Story and Ebony Reed join Richard Aldous to reveal how their investigation into the U.S. financial system uncovered scores of setbacks that continue to perpetuate that gap. The result of their careful efforts, Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap, offers valuable perspectives on the interrelated status of education, finance, and societal equity today.
-
Episode 146: Peter S. Goodman on How We Ran Out of Everything
June 28th, 2024 | 33 mins 27 secs
books, history, politics
The global pandemic unmasked not just the many vulnerabilities in the world’s supply chain, but also its hidden innerworkings. Reporting on the world from an economic lens for over twenty-five years, award-winning New York Times journalist Peter S. Goodman joins Richard Aldous to share insights from his latest book, How the World Ran Out of Everything. While the vulnerabilities abound, Goodman offers hope on how to reorient the supply chain to maintain innovation and efficiencies, while working toward the social good.
-
Episode 145: Michel Paradis on Eisenhower’s Enduring Legacy
June 21st, 2024 | 31 mins 47 secs
books, history, politics
How did Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man of simple Kansas-bred beginnings, inspire implicit trust by his historical peers, from FDR and Churchill, to Stalin and DeGaulle? And how did he become a shaper of a new world order, asserting America’s post-war dominance? Michel Paradis, author of The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower, joins Richard Aldous for this week’s episode to offer up profound insights into Eisenhower’s enduring global influence and timeless lessons in leadership.
-
Episode 144: James Davison Hunter on Democracy, Solidarity, and the Future of America
June 14th, 2024 | 29 mins 13 secs
books, history, politics
Is there hope to be found amidst the current political climate? How to generate solidarity in an atmosphere of growing difference? Renowned sociologist James Davison Hunter tackles these questions in his new book, Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis. Hunter joins Richard Aldous in this week's Bookstack, for a conversation about the cultural contradictions that underpin American history and the ongoing struggle to achieve unity in divisive times.
-
Episode 143: Sulmaan Wasif Khan on the Taiwan Standoff
May 24th, 2024 | 28 mins 56 secs
books, history, politics
When President Joe Biden stated in 2022 that the United States would defend Taiwan military in the event of a Chinese invasion, he crossed a line of ambiguity that had been purposefully danced around for decades. And yet, even though such a scenario would pit two nuclear powers against each another, “The United States does not know why Taiwan is important to it,” argues Sulmaan Wasif Khan. He joins host Richard Aldous to discuss the history of the standoff and the dangers lurking ahead as relayed in his new book, The Struggle for Taiwan: A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between.
-
Episode 142: Diana McLain Smith on Bringing Americans Together
May 17th, 2024 | 29 mins 2 secs
books, history, politics
In divided times, many Americans are sealing themselves off from those who think differently. Diana McLain Smith tells a different story in her new book, Remaking the Space Between Us: How Citizens Can Work Together to Build a Better Future for All, focusing on the tens of thousands reaching out to fellow Americans across the divides to promote understanding. She joins host Richard Aldous to discuss why the path to a better polity must begin with We the People: “We’re waiting for someone to save us, and nobody is coming.”
-
Episode 141: Adriana Carranca on the New Wave of Latin American Missionaries
May 9th, 2024 | 28 mins 58 secs
books, history, politics
Thanks to American missionaries’ successes around the globe, the face of evangelicalism is no longer White America. In Soul by Soul: The Evangelical Mission to Spread the Gospel to Muslims, Adriana Carranca reveals an extraordinary tale that has been under the radar: Missionaries from Latin America are leading the way in spreading the Gospel to Muslim countries, including in former U.S. war zones. She joins host Richard Aldous to discuss the dangerous work being undertaken by a new wave of evangelicals.
-
Episode 140: David L. Roll on President Harry Truman
May 3rd, 2024 | 25 mins 6 secs
books, history, politics
Harry Truman was educated in Missouri public schools, never went to college, and spent a number of his adult years as a dirt farmer. Yet eleven years after first being elected to the Senate he became President of the most powerful nation on earth in the midst of momentous world events. In his new book Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt's Shadow and Remade the World, David Roll suggests that from these humble beginnings Truman undertook “the most consequential transition” in American history. He joins host Richard Aldous to discuss Truman’s unlikely rise and his long string of achievements, from the Marshall Plan to the Berlin Airlift to the enduring Truman Doctrine.
-
Episode 139: Nicholas Shakespeare on Ian Fleming
April 26th, 2024 | 27 mins 40 secs
books, history, politics
Ian Fleming heroicized for all the world the British intelligence agent in James Bond. In his new book Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, renowned biographer Nicholas Shakespeare digs into the legend of Fleming himself. Like his most famous character, Fleming’s life was colorfully marked by high-stakes intelligence, alcohol, and dalliances with women. Yet Fleming was tormented rather than buoyed by his literary success. Shakespeare joins host Richard Aldous to discuss the turbulent life of the man who gave the world 007.
-
Episode 138: Seth D. Kaplan on America’s Fragile Neighborhoods
April 19th, 2024 | 31 mins 35 secs
books, history, politics
In surveying dysfunction across America, the question arises: Is the source of the trouble at the local or the national level? Seth D. Kaplan has shifted his analytical gaze from fragile nations abroad to examine the fragility of his home country. He believes America’s problems from health to politics are downstream of individuals becoming increasingly disconnected, neighborhood by neighborhood. He joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time.