Library Talks

In this episode of Library Talks, The historian and bass player for The Avett Brothers, Bob Crawford revisits the life of John Quincy Adams in his book America's Founding Son. Adams was born nine years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and he died as the United States was sliding irrevocably toward Civil War. In between he was a foreign ambassador, secretary of state, sitting president, and finally ex-president and sitting congressperson.
 
Crawford talks to presidential historian Alexis Coe about John Quincy Adams's unlikely second act that reshaped not just his legacy but the country's.

In this episode of Library Talks, Author Daisy Hernández explores one of the most contested questions in contemporary American life: who belongs. Hernández is joined in discussion  with journalist Jia Lynn Yang.
 
Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth braids memoir, history, and cultural criticism to reveal how citizenship functions less as a guarantee than as a narrative we tell about ourselves as a nation. Drawing on her own family's stories—a mother from Colombia and a father who fled Castro's Cuba—Hernández's narrative is both national and personal, and it challenges us to reframe our understanding of what it means to be an American.

In this episode of Library Talks, historian Ellen Carol DuBois discusses her new book Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Revolutionary Life with legal scholar Julie Suk. Elizabeth Cady Stanton presents a definitive portrait of one of the most influential figures in the American struggles for women's suffrage and rights.
 
From the 1840s until her death in 1902, Stanton fought for women's emancipation, advocating on issues that went far beyond the vote. Drawing on archival research and Stanton's writings, DuBois traces her advocacy for reproductive rights, marriage reform, and challenges to religious hierarchies, while also examining Stanton's conflicts with Black reformers and her support of nativist ideas—highlighting the contradictions that continue to complicate her legacy.

In this episode of Library Talks, historian Jeanne Theoharis joins the podcast to discuss her groundbreaking work, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. She is joined in discussion by fellow historian Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine.
 
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks is the definitive political biography of Rosa Parks and examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement. They also discuss the Peabody-award winning documentary based on the book.

In this episode of Library Talks, award winning director Clint Bentley joins the podcast to discuss his new film Train Dreams and the process of adapting Denis Johnson's beloved novella.
 
Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century. Clint Bentley's film stars Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, and Kerry Condon.