Best Evan Axelbank Podcasts (2025)

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#186: Seth Wickersham - "American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback" 45:57

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1d ago45:57

45:57

From the publisher: The quarterback: the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized, and worshipped. Still, long before the Super Bowl trophies, massive contracts, brand deals, and millions of social media followers comes the dream. From the backyard to Pop Warner, from high school to college, from the NFL to the Hall of Fame, be…

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#185: Claudia Rowe - "Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care" 59:28

15d ago59:28

59:28

From the publisher: "A compelling exploration of the broken American foster care system, told through the stories of six former foster youth. This powerful narrative nonfiction book delves into the systemic failures that lead many foster children into the criminal justice system, highlighting the urgent need for reform. This book is a must-read fo…

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#184: Jonathan Mahler - The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990 44:44

29d ago44:44

44:44

From the publisher: New York entered 1986 as a city reborn. Record profits on Wall Street sent waves of money splashing across Manhattan, bringing a battered city roaring back to life. But it also entered 1986 as a city whose foundation was beginning to crack. Thousands of New Yorkers were sleeping in the streets, addicted to drugs, dying of AIDS, …

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#183: Iain MacGregor - "The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb and the Fateful Decision to Use It" 1:00:07

2M ago1:00:07

1:00:07

From the publisher: "An epic, riveting history based on new interviews and research that elucidates the approval, construction, and fateful decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the Japanese port city of Hiroshima was struck by the world’s first atomic bomb. Built in the US by the top-secret Manhattan Projec…

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#182: James Bradley - "Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician" 49:04

2M ago49:04

49:04

American politics has been dominated by two major political parties for large swaths of time. They raise money, put forward candidates at every level of government, get them elected, and - for better or worse - keep them there. It's a system that was spearheaded by Martin Van Buren, the eighth president. Though his administration was a bust, he has…

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#181: J. Randy Taraborrelli - "JFK: Public, Private, Secret" 56:27

3M ago56:27

56:27

From the publisher: "In this definitive portrait of John Fitzgerald Kennedy—one of America’s most consequential and enigmatic presidents—J. Randy Taraborrelli delivers a deeply researched and authoritative biography. More than the story of a presidency, this is an intimate study of a man whose public triumphs were shaped—and at times overshadowed—b…

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#180 - Fifth Anniversay Celebration with HW Brands - "A User's Guide to History" 55:46

3M ago55:46

55:46

Happy fifth!! On this special edition of "Axelbank Reports History and Today," we are thrilled to chat with HW Brands to celebrate this show's fifth anniversary. Over the last five years, we have published 180 episodes and profiled books and authors of many stripes. We have done our best to make history relevant to today, and to give our listeners …

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#179: Russell Shorto - "Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events that Created New York and Shaped America" 56:39

3M ago56:39

56:39

From the publisher: "In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy…

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#178: Edda Fields-Black - "Combee: Harriet Tubman, The Combahee River Raid and Black Freedom During the Civil War" 56:23

4M ago56:23

56:23

Harriet Tubman is well-known for being a conductor of the Underground Railroad. She helped dozens of people escape the slave-owning south through her bravery, wisdom and skill. But as Edda Fields-Black discovered, she also helped Union troops raid rice plantations in South Carolina and free hundreds of people who were living in some of the worst co…

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#177: Rachel Cockerell - "Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land" 46:06

5M ago46:06

46:06

From the publisher: On June 7, 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews set sail—not to Jerusalem or New York, where many on board had dreamed they would go, but to Texas. The man who encouraged the passengers to go was David Jochelmann, Rachel Cockerell’s great-grandfather. The journey marked the beginning of the Galveston Movement, a forgotten momen…

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#176: Marcus Gadson - "Sedition: How America's Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis" 42:45

5M ago42:45

42:45

From the publisher: Since protestors ripped through the Capitol Building in 2021, the threat of constitutional crisis has loomed over our nation. The foundational tenets of American democracy seem to be endangered, and many citizens believe this danger is unprecedented in our history. But Americans have weathered many constitutional crises, often a…

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#175: Suzanne Cope - "Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis" 58:05

6M ago58:05

58:05

From the publisher: The gripping, true, and untold history of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during World War II, told through the stories of four spectacularly courageous women fighters From underground soldiers to intrepid spies, Women of War unearths the hidden history of the brave women who risked their lives to overthrow the Nazi occupati…

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#174: Judith Giesberg - "Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families" 57:06

6M ago57:06

57:06

Perhaps the worst punishment that can be inflicted on someone is to be forced away from one's own family. When the slave trade was active in the United States, potentially a million people were sold away from their families either for punishment or profit. After slavery ended, many of those who had not seen their families for years took out ads in …

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#173: Clay Risen - "Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America" 1:01:30

7M ago1:01:30

1:01:30

In "Red Scare," Clay Risen traces the cultural differences in contemporary America to McCarthyism and the disagreements in the 1940s and 50s over how the United States should respond to Russian efforts to influence American society. He shows how the American political system was weaponized against those deemed worthy of suspicion, and how that dest…

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#172: Rebecca Brenner Graham - "Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany" 58:48

8M ago58:48

58:48

As Dr. Rebecca Brenner Graham shows us in this episode, the story of the first cabinet secretary who was a woman - Frances Perkins - has been missing its most consequential chapter. Dr. Graham discovered the story of how Frances Perkins organized and prodded the Federal government to allow Holocaust victims to escape before it was too late. Graham …

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#171: Ronald Gruner - “COVID Wars: America's Struggle Over Public Health and Personal Freedom” 49:31

8M ago49:31

49:31

America's fight against COVID felt like a never ending battle over who had a right to be safe, to get a vaccine, to work at their place of employment and to visit places of entertainment. Rules around vaccines, restaurants, schools and businesses provided the fuel for the question of "which way worked better?" Which areas saw more deaths, kept peop…

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#170: Steve Gillon - "Presidents at War: How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK through Reagan and Bush" 1:00:03

8M ago1:00:03

1:00:03

Nearly eighty million were killed. Seventy countries were involed. Two nuclear bombs were dropped. The world was reshaped in its aftermath. World War II wasn't just an event in the lives of seven future presidents, it was the event. Steven Gillon argues seven future presidents were changed irrevocably by what they’d experienced from the moment Pear…

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#169: William Haldeman - "Meeting the Moment: Inspiring Presidential Leadership that Transformed America" 47:17

9M ago47:17

47:17

In under a week, the United States will have a new president. On this episode, former White House staffer and academic historian William Haldeman shares his new book that shows how presidents transform from merely an elected leader to someone whose mark is left for generations. He describes how six presidents - Washington, Lincoln, TR, FDR, JFK and…

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#168: Elizabeth Block - “Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing” 49:54

9M ago49:54

49:54

From the publisher: In the nineteenth century, the complex cultural meaning of hair was not only significant, it could affect one's place in society. After the Civil War, hairdressing was a growing profession and the hair industry a mainstay of local, national, and international commerce. In Beyond Vanity, Elizabeth L. Block expands the nascent fie…

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#167: Evan Friss - "The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore" 41:03

10M ago41:03

41:03

If you've ever gone holiday shopping, you have probably gone into a bookshop to find the perfect gift for someone you care about. In this episode, we talk with Evan Friss about his astonishing history of how American bookstores were born, how they grew, and how they've at least tried to survive in a world where almost everything is done online. Fro…

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#166: Heath Hardage Lee - "The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon" 57:13

10M ago57:13

57:13

Considering the high profiles of Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Betty Ford, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, little is remembered about Pat Nixon. And that, Heath Lee argues, is the way she wanted it. On this episode, biographer Heath Lee discusses her book, "The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First La…

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#165: David Greenberg - "John Lewis: A Life" 57:22

11M ago57:22

57:22

On this episode, we chat with David Greenberg about his epic biography of American icon John Lewis. We explore Lewis' background, early life, congressional career and of course, his march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Lewis was beaten, but not broken, and began a one-of-a-kind career fighting for human rights and decency among Americans. Greenbe…

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#164: Frank Guridy - "The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest and Play" 43:53

11M ago43:53

43:53

From the publisher: "Stadiums are monuments to recreation, sports, and pleasure. Yet from the earliest ballparks to the present, stadiums have also functioned as public squares. Politicians have used them to cultivate loyalty to the status quo, while activists and athletes have used them for anti-fascist rallies, Black Power demonstrations, feminis…

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#163: Megan Gorman - "All The Presidents' Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money" 1:03:46

12M ago1:03:46

1:03:46

Being president is a mixed bag. There are long days, high-stakes decisions, definitive elections and even the potential to be considered a dunce for the rest of history. But, there are also opportunities to help people in need, win the respect of the world, bring the country together, and, these days, make big bucks after their term in office. Thei…

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#162: Kevin Baker - "The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City" 52:41

12M ago52:41

52:41

Despite its reputation as a game with roots in rural America, Kevin Baker explains on this episode that baseball is rooted in New York City, and that it became the engine of the Big Apple. He also explains how the city itself influenced the game through its rules, its teams, its stadiums and its superstars. From Christy Mathewson to Babe Ruth, from…

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#161: Max Boot - "Reagan: His Life and Legend" 42:25

1y ago42:25

42:25

From the late 1990s until the mid-2010s, conservatives used the rallying slogan of, “What would Reagan do?” as a call to arms on the Federal budget, on taxes, on foreign affairs, and on the government’s role in our lives. He was held up as the beacon for what a president, a governor, a state legislator or a candidate for any office should try to be…

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#160: Clara Bingham - "The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America, 1963-1973" 43:29

1y ago43:29

43:29

From the publisher: A comprehensive and engaging oral history of the decade that defined the feminist movement, including interviews with living icons and unsung heroes – from former Newsweek reporter and author of the “powerful and moving” (New York Times) Witness to the Revolution. For lovers of both Barbie and Gloria Steinem, The Movement is the…

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#159: Corey Brettschneider - "The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It" 51:25

1y ago51:25

51:25

The first thing a president must do is swear to uphold the Constitution. But what happens when they betray that promise? Corey Brettschneider argues that it takes ordinary citizens to not only reign them in, but to make sure it never happens again. In "The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought …

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#158: Francis Barry - "Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey Into the Heart of American Democracy" 44:42

1y ago44:42

44:42

Three-thousand miles. Fourteen states. Seven hundred towns. Two spouses. One Winnebago. Francis Barry and his wife, Laurel, took a trip across the Lincoln Highway from New York to San Francisco during the height of the pandemic, and during the height of the 2020 election. Their project was to figure out America by driving along the route that was f…

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#157: Lindsay Chervinsky - "Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic" 59:36

1y ago59:36

59:36

George Washington is often given the lionshare of the credit when it comes to establishing the tradition of a peaceful transfer of power in the United States. But in her new book, "Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic," Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky argues that the second president also deserves a healthy portion o…

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#156: Dr. Andrea Balis & Elizabeth Levy - "Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare" 47:24

1+ y ago47:24

47:24

From the publisher, Roaring Book Press: Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare provides a gripping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Authors Dr. Andrea Balis and Elizabeth Levy delve into Senator Joe McCarthy's infamous hunt for communists during the 1950s Red Scare. Originally written for young a…

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#155: Julie Satow - "When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion" 48:09

1+ y ago48:09

48:09

At the dawn of the 20th Century, the center of city life could be found at department stores. One could find the latest fashion, meet friends for a cup of coffee, mail a letter, and escape the hustle of every day life. Julie Satow shows how three women made department stores not just the place to be, but into an engine of cultural change. She also …

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#154: Adam Higginbotham - "Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space" 50:53

1+ y ago50:53

50:53

On this episode, Adam Higginbotham brings us back to the moment that many say they will never forget, but also to a moment that is filled with misconception and myth. When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, seven astronauts lost their lives and NASA was confronted with its biggest failure. Higginbotham shows us how the space program cho…

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#153: Edward O'Keefe - "The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt" 47:50

1+ y ago47:50

47:50

Teddy Roosevelt is thought of as the quintessentially masculine American president. He is known for going to war, for fighting buffalo with his bare hands, and sailing down the River of Doubt. But as Edward O'Keefe, the CEO of the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library explains, TR is more a product of the women in his life than the men. His mother, …

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#152: Paul Sparrow - "Awakening the Spirit of America: FDR's War of Words with Charles Lindbergh - And the Battle to Save Democracy" 55:02

1+ y ago55:02

55:02

Paul Sparrow argues that Franklin Roosevelt is the quintessential American president, not just of the 20th Century, but in all of American history. FDR's ability to rally the nation from the Great Depression, and then carry it into a devastating but essential World War showed not just his talent, but his understanding of the stakes the country face…

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#151: Gary Cross - "Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal" 39:59

1+ y ago39:59

39:59

What does it mean to have "free time" and is it ever enough? In "Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal," Dr. Gary Cross explains how free time is both precious and deceptive. Why are people on vacation already searching the web for their next one? What counts as free time? Does technology help or hurt our experience with time spent away from w…

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#150: Susan Tate Ankeny - "American Flygirl: The True Story of Hazel Ying Lee" 40:37

1+ y ago40:37

40:37

In "American Flygirl" Susan Tate Ankeny shows how a young girl with a fascination for flying became the first female Asian-American pilot to fly for the military. Hazel Ying Lee was born in Portland, but came of age at a time when the deck was stacked against people like her. Hazel never let discrimination or expectation shatter her dreams of flyin…

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#149: James Swanson - "The Deerfield Massacre: A Surprise Attack, a Forced March, and the Fight for Survival in Early America" 50:51

1+ y ago50:51

50:51

Though few remember it, James Swanson argues the Deerfield Massacre of 1704 played a critical role in the shaping of early America. He explains how Native tribes and French soldiers brutalized a small outpost of colonists in western Massachusetts and set off a continental effort to find the missing victims and establish forces to protect the coloni…

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#148: Jason Lantzer - "Dwight Eisenhower and the Holocaust" 55:52

1+ y ago55:52

55:52

Up until the very end of World War II, even Dwight Eisenhower did not grasp the extent of the devastation the Holocaust had inflicted to the Jewish people. It wasn’t until he was among the liberators at the Ohrdruf concentration camp where the Americans found thousands of dead bodies and starving Jews when Eisenhower finally had his full call to ac…

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#147: Harold Holzer - "Brought Forth on This Continent" 52:23

1+ y ago52:23

52:23

Abraham Lincoln is often thought of as the president who kept the union together, or who contributed the legal basis for slaves to be freed in states in rebellion, but Harold Holzer, one of America's renowned Lincoln scholars, explains how Lincoln harnessed the power of immigrants to make both achievements possible. Holzer's new book, "Brought Fort…

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#146: David Head & Timothy Hemmis - "A Republic of Scoundrels" 48:54

1+ y ago48:54

48:54

The Founding Fathers are often thought of as the pathbreaking generation that fought with dignity, wrote with moral clarity, and bound the colonies together with one goal. Except, in their new edited collection, “A Republic of Scoundrels: The Schemers, Intriguers and Adventurers who Created a New American Nation,” historians David Head and Timothy …

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#145: Martyn Whittock - "American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America" 41:38

1+ y ago41:38

41:38

From costumes to professional football to a brand of high end ovens, "Vikings" have become a part of American pop culture. In "American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America," historian Martyn Whittock explains why actual vikings set sail, what they were after, and why the potential for myths to be handed down to …

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#144: John Reeves - "Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant" 44:38

1+ y ago44:38

44:38

How did Ulysses S. Grant go from being surrounded by - and benefitting from - slaves to becoming one of the most instrumental American leaders responsible for its downfall? In "Soldier of Destiny," John Reeves shows how Grant's formative years with an anti-slavery father, the challenges of his alcoholism and his experience as a military leader duri…

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#143: Matthew Algeo - "When Harry Met Pablo" 51:17

2y ago51:17

51:17

Aside from being famous and at the top of their crafts, Harry Truman and Pablo Picasso could hardly have been more different. Matthew Algeo explains how their one-off meeting was used by both men to further their goals in politics and art. In, "When Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art," Algeo explains how modern…

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#142: Lauren Lassabe Shepherd - "Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and Campus Wars" 48:40

2y ago48:40

48:40

For decades, conservative elected officials, activists and think tanks have argued that college campuses are hostile to them and their ideas. In Dr. Lauren Lassabe Shepherd's book, "Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and Campus Wars," we see how that movement was sprouted, what its arguments are and how successful their efforts have been to c…

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#141: Doug Melville - "Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals" 49:42

2y ago49:42

49:42

Doug Melville was thrilled to be invited to the screening of a movie about the Tuskeegee Airmen, a movie that he assumed would feature the patriarch of his family tree, Ben O. Davis Jr. He was proud of his family's service to the storied branch of the Air Force, a group of aviators who had fought for their country even though they were ordered to b…

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#140: Drew McKevitt: "Gun Country" 54:38

2y ago54:38

54:38

In 2021, there were 48,830 people in America who were killed by bullets fired from guns. Some of those deaths were purposeful, others accidental, and still others self-inflicted. The bullets were fired from a share of the 400 million guns owned by - or stolen from - Americans. In "Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture and Control in Cold War America…

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#139: Richard Aldous - "The Dillon Era" 45:46

2y ago45:46

45:46

The story of the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson years is one of both incredible struggle and of triumph for the United States. Between 1952 and 1968, America saw pointed racism, political divisions grow, a president assassinated and a war start. But it also saw the end of official segregation, the proof that the world understood nuclear war was no…

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#138: Douglas Brunt - "The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel" 43:38

2y ago43:38

43:38

Diesel isn't just a type of fuel. It is the name of a man who was at the center of one of the biggest stories of intrigue in the early 1900s. Rudolf Diesel was a German entrepreneur who author Douglas Brunt says was the "Elon Musk" of his day. In 1913, Brunt's body was found floating in the English Channel. Did he die naturally, did he commit suici…

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#137: Scott Shane - "Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland" 1:01:21

2y ago1:01:21

1:01:21

An early architect of what became the Underground Railroad was a former slave named Thomas Smallwood. Never heard of him? You're not alone. Former New York Times and Baltimore Sun correspondent and author Scott Shane wants to change that. His book, "Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland," describes how Small…