Noam Zadoff, “Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back” (Brandeis UP, 2018)
Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berl...
23 Jan 20181h 14min
Hendrik Meijer, “Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century” (U Chicago Press, 2017)
As a United States senator in the 1930s and 1940s, Arthur Vandenberg was one of the leading Republican voices shaping the nation’s foreign policy. Though initially a staunch isolationist, as Hendrik M...
18 Jan 20181h 13min
Richard Carwardine, “Lincoln’s Sense of Humor” (Southern Illinois UP, 2017)
For many people today, the name Abraham Lincoln conjures up a mental image of a solemn but kindly statesman. Yet to his contemporaries, one of Lincoln’s defining traits was his humor, which he deploye...
10 Jan 20181h 4min
Crawford Gribben, “John Owen and English Puritanism: Experiences of Defeat” (Oxford UP, 2017)
Though the preeminent English theologian of the 17th century, there is much about John Owen’s life which remains obscured to us today. One of the achievements of Crawford Gribben‘s new book John Owen...
5 Jan 201850min
Vanya E. Bellinger, “Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War” (Oxford UP, 2016)
Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War (Oxford University Press, 2016) is an important and fascinating book that not only tells the story of a remarkable woman’s life during the t...
3 Jan 201840min
Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs, “Jonas Salk: A Life” (Oxford UP, 2015)
Polio was a scourge that terrified generations of people throughout the United States and the rest of the world until Jonas Salk’s vaccine provided the first effective defense against it. In Jonas Sal...
29 Dec 201759min
Scott Kaufman, “Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford” (University Press of Kansas, 2017)
Catapulted into the Oval Office by an unusual set of circumstances, Gerald Ford remains a unique figure in American presidential history. In Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of G...
22 Dec 20171h 5min
Brett L. Abrams, “Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
Today we are joined by Brett L. Abrams, author of the book Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). It is part of a series called Sports Icons a...
15 Dec 201747min
