Ill Literacy: Books with Benson

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Jonathan W. White, professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University, to discuss his new book, co-authored with William J. Griffing, A Great and Good Man: Rare, First-Hand Accounts and Observations of Abraham Lincoln. They chat about the excerpts of the more than 200 previously unpublished accounts written by men and women who lived during the Civil War featured in the book, what the writers thought about Lincoln, and how these letters and diaries shed new life on Lincoln’s life, his contemporary reputation during the war and before his assassination, and how his death instantaneously turned Lincoln into a revered martyr.  

Get the book here: https://www.reedypress.com/shop/a-great-and-good-man-rare-first-hand-accounts-of-abraham-lincoln/ 

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment, and Federal Member for Fenner in the Australian Parliament, to discuss his book How Economics Explains the World: A Short History of Humanity. They chat about how ingenuity, greed, and desire for betterment have determined our past, present, and future. They also discuss why Europe colonized Africa instead of the other way around, what happened when countries erected trade and immigration barriers in the 1930s, and how property rights drove China’s growth surge in the 1980s

Get the book here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/how-economics-explains-the-world-andrew-leigh?variant=42112692453410

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Cara Rogers Stevens, associate professor of history at Ashland University, to discuss her book Thomas Jefferson and the Fight against Slavery. They chat about the evolution of Jefferson’s views on race and slavery, his legislative attempts to put the practice on a pathway to extinction in Virginia beginning in the colonial period, the antislavery intentions of his lone book, Notes on the State of Virginia, and how he tried to persuade younger slaveholders to embrace emancipation.

Get the book here: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700635979/

Show Notes:

The Imaginative Conservative: Bradley J. Birzer – “Redeeming (Mostly) Thomas Jefferson”

https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/07/thomas-jefferson-cara-rogers-stevens-fight-slavery-bradley-birzer.html

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by renowned historian Richard Overy to discuss his new book, Why War? They chat about why has war been such a consistent presence throughout the human past, and indeed in the human present, and what are the major drivers and motivations for war, how each has contributed to organized conflict, and whether humanity will ever evolve away from organized conflict. They also discuss the impulses embedded in human biology and psychology, the incentives to conflict developed through cultural evolution, and how competition for resources, or conflicts stirred by the passions of belief, the effects of ecological stresses, the drive for power in leaders and nations, and the search for security all contribute to this phenomenon that is unique human.

Get the book here: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324021742

Show Notes:

The Telegraph: James Holland – “Why humanity’s appetite for war will never be sated”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/why-war-richard-overy-review/

Times Literary Supplement: Edward N. Luttwak – “Battle grounds”

 https://www.the-tls.co.uk/politics-society/politics/why-war-richard-overy-book-review-edward-luttwak

The Wall Street Journal: Dominic Green – “‘Why War?’ Review: Nature, Nurture and Violence”

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/why-war-review-nature-nurture-and-violence-e0babb7f

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Anthony Eames, director of scholarly initiatives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, non-resident fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and professorial lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, to discuss his new book, A Voice in Their Own Destiny: Reagan, Thatcher, and Public Diplomacy in the Nuclear 1980s. They chat about how the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher used innovations in public diplomacy to build back support for their foreign policy agendas at a moment of widespread popular dissent. They also discuss how ow competition between the governments of Reagan and Thatcher, the Anglo-American antinuclear movement, and the Soviet peace offensive sparked a revolution in public diplomacy.

Get the book here: https://www.umasspress.com/9781625347107/a-voice-in-their-own-destiny/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Sergey Radchenko, Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, to discuss his new book, To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power. They chat about how the Soviet struggle with the United States and China reflected its irreconcilable ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution, and how this tension drove Soviet policy throughout the second half of the 20th Century. They also discuss whether Soviet foreign policy was motivated more by Marxist-Leninist ideology or by traditional Russian imperialism and security concerns. 

Get the book here: https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/diplomatic-and-international-history/run-world-kremlins-cold-war-bid-global-power?format=HB

Show Notes:

The Bulwark: Brian Stewart – “Going to War for Respect”

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/review-radchenko-run-world-going-war-for-respect

Financial Times: Edward Luce – “To Run the World — Moscow’s quest for power and parity with the US”

https://www.ft.com/content/e8dc41b9-98a7-4ca0-8092-79d64249694a

Foreign Affairs: John Lewis Gaddis – “Why Would Anyone Want to Run the World?”

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/why-would-anyone-run-world-cold-war

Foreign Policy: Casey Michel – “Putting the Cold War on the Couch”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/05/19/radchenko-gorbachev-krushchev-cold-war-psychology/

The New Statesman: Serhii Plokhy – “Russia’s great-power complex”

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2024/06/russias-great-power-complex

The Spectator: Rodric Braithwaite – “China’s role in Soviet policy-making”

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/chinas-role-in-soviet-policy-making/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Maurice Isserman, Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History at Hamilton College, to discuss his new book, Reds: The Tragedy of American Communism. They chat about the deeply contradictory nature of the history of the Communist Party USA, the history of the American far left, and how the Bolshevik Revolution skewed the American far left. They also discuss CPUSA’s unwavering faith in the Soviet Union, how many American communists became involved in espionage on behalf of the USSR, and the organization’s decline into political irrelevance. 

Get the book here:  https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/maurice-isserman/reds/9781541620032/?lens=basic-books

Show Notes:

The American Prospect: Harold Meyerson – “Red Weather Vanes”
https://prospect.org/culture/books/2024-08-08-red-weather-vanes-isserman-review/

The Bulwark: Ron Radosh – “How and Why American Communism Failed”
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/communism-failed-maurice-isserman-reds-review

Foreign Policy: Casey Michel: “The Contradictions of America’s Communist Party”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/07/communist-party-america-history-illiberal-democracy/

The Wall Street Journal: Joseph Epstein – “‘Reds’ Review: Communism in the U.S.A.”
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/reds-review-communism-in-the-u-s-a-1e0b14d7

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Sean McMeekin, Francis Flournoy Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College, to discuss his new book, To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism. They chat about the evolution of Communism from a seductive ideal of a classless society into the ruling doctrine of tyrannical regimes. They also discuss communism’s unpopularity as a political form, yet it’s endurance as an ideology.

Get the book here:  https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sean-mcmeekin/to-overthrow-the-world/9781541601963/?lens=basic-books

Show Notes:

The New Criterion: Gary Saul Morson – “The red star returns”
https://newcriterion.com/article/the-red-star-returns/

Washington Free Beacon: Harvey Klehr – “The Struggle To Contain Communism … in One Book”
https://freebeacon.com/culture/the-struggle-to-contain-communism-in-one-book/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Spencer D. Bakich, Professor of International Studies and Director of the National Security Program at the Virginia Military Institute, and Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, to discuss his new book, The Gulf War: George H. W. Bush and American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era. They chat about how Bush fashioned a grand strategy to bring about a New World Order designed to transform international politics by focusing on great power cooperation through the United Nations, how Bush’s strategic beliefs oriented American statecraft in peace and war, and how the war’s outcome exposed faulty assumptions about the international system that underpinned that strategy.

Get the book here:  https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700636884/the-gulf-war/

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Tevi Troy, Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Senior Scholar at Yeshiva University’s Straus Center, and a Visiting Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, to discuss his new book, The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry. They chat about how the vast reach of the federal government became a critical fact of life for every business, how companies find themselves navigating a competitive landscape defined by stringent regulations, and how CEOs must influence the legislative and regulatory system. They also discuss how much the modern presidency relies on CEOs for personnel, policy insights, campaign cash, and as potential foils.

Get the book here: https://www.regnery.com/9781684515400/the-power-and-the-money/