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What’s the case for classical studies in the 21st century? Eric Adler offers an answer in Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Adler says that there’s more value in the study of classics than most people realize, but that scholars often don’t know how to respond to public interest in their field. He also describes the reputation of Victor Davis Hanson, probably the best-known classicist in the United States but also a controversial figure among his academic peers.

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What does Alexis de Tocqueville have to say about 21st-century America? Enough to fill a new book, according to James Poulos, author of The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Poulos explains why Tocqueville looms so large in the American mind, how he first came to know this 19th-century writer, and what advice Tocqueville would give to President Trump.

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Edward Jay Epstein says he hasn’t written a “whodunit” but rather a “howdunit,” in How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Epstein discusses whether Snowden is a whistle-blowing idealist or a traitor to his country. He also describes the one question he would love to pose to the man who now lives somewhere in Russia, and suggests that there’s a lesson in all of this for President Trump.

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What’s the meaning of meaning? Now there’s a heady question–but one that Emily Esfahani Smith tackles with clear-headed, narrative prose in The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life that Matters.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Smith discusses the ingredients of a meaningful life, argues that happiness is overrated, and describes how the rise of social media and the decline of religious faith have shaped the modern search for meaning.

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It sounds like the subtitle of an Indiana Jones movie, but The Lost City of the Monkey God is the name of the new nonfiction book by Douglas Preston.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Preston explains what it’s like to find the ruins of an unknown city in an impenetrable jungle full of venom-spitting snakes and prowling jaguars, how he and his team even know to look for the place in the most remote regions of Honduras, and who were the people who lived there centuries ago.

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Scholars constantly discover new information and offer new insights on William Shakespeare, says Gary Taylor, editor of The New Oxford Shakespeare.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Taylor explains why so many people regard Shakespeare as the greatest author in the English language, how researchers have used big data to learn about Shakespeare’s collaborations with Christopher Marlowe and other writers, and why he likes Othello so much.

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William F. Buckley, Jr. called him “the greatest English novelist of the [20th] century”–and so does Philip Eade, author of Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Eade describes Waugh’s legacy, picks his best books, and explains his conservatism. Also, he answers the most important question of all: When Evelyn Waugh married Evelyn Gardner, did she take his name?

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Entrepreneurs are under attack, says Dick M. Carpenter II, co-author of Bottleneckers: Gaming the Government for Power and Private Profit.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Carpenter explains that “bottleneckers” are creating cartels to keep people from becoming everything from hairbraiders to taxi drivers. He discusses how conservatives and liberals might come together to oppose these crony capitalists, also also describes how the new technologies of the sharing economy are helping Uber and Airbnb redefine the rules of modern business.

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They’re unelected, unaccountable, and out of control–and Paul D. Moreno takes them on in The Bureaucrat Kings: The Origins and Underpinnings of America’s Bureaucratic State.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Moreno describes how and why Congress has allowed the administration state to grow in size and strength for more than a century–and what citizens and statesmen can do right now to recover what we’ve lost.

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Bernard Cornwell seeks to retell the history of England’s founding through his historical novels–and the adventure continues in his latest, The Flame Bearer.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Cornwell discusses why Alfred the Great was so great, how his main character is loosely based on one of his own ancient ancestors, and for how long he thinks he’ll keep on adding new titles to this current series of books.

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