Book Breaks

Book Breaks is a weekly interview series with historians held every Sunday at 2 pm ET (11 am PT) on Zoom. Scroll down to see our upcoming programs!

Each week our hosts interview renowned scholars and discuss their acclaimed and frequently award-winning works, followed by a Q&A with the at-home audience. Our guests have included David Blight, Eric Foner, Annette Gordon-Reed, Clint Smith, Peniel Joseph, and Elizabeth Varon.

How do I attend Book Breaks?

Book Breaks is completely free for Affiliate School K-12 teachers and students, and college students.

K-12 students, simply log in or create an account.
College students, professors and K12 educators, log in, return to this page, and click the button to subscribe for access to all future programming and the Book Breaks archive.

Members of the general public can purchase a one-year subscription for $25. The subscription includes

Full access to one year of weekly live programs
Unlimited access to our ever-expanding Book Breaks archive, featuring more than ninety sessions with the nation’s leading historians. View the full archive of past sessions.
Log in and make your purchase.

Can I watch a program before deciding to subscribe?

Yes! First-time viewers can watch a Book Breaks program for free. Simply log in or create an account and you will see a link at the top of this page to access the week's historian lecture and Q&A.

Questions?

Email us at bookbreaks@gilderlehrman.org.

Every Sunday at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT)

Upcoming Book Breaks

May

May 28, 2023 - G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

Against the backdrop of an expanding federal government, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover used persuasion, diligence, and intimidation—punctuated by the occasional flirtation with blackmail—to underwrite federal policies on prohibition, policing, anti-communism, and civil rights. Presidents came and went, but Hoover’s fiefdom remained, shaping government capacity and interests for decades.

Gage’s G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century was winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy, the Organization of American Historians 2023 Ellis W. Hawley Prize, and the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Beverly Gage is a professor of history and American Studies at Yale University.

Coming Soon

June 4 - Alice Baumgartner on South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War

June 11 - Gwendolyn Mink on Judy Tzu-Chun Wu on Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress

May 16 - Chole Melas on Luck of the Draw My Story of the Air War in Europe

History Scholar of the Week

Middle and high school students (age 13 and up), submit your questions for one of the historians being featured on Book Breaks! If your question is chosen, you will be named History Scholar of the Week, and it will be announced live on the program! In addition, both you and your teacher will win a $50 gift certificate to the Gilder Lehrman Gift Shop. Your question can be about the book or the topic in general. Please submit only one question per program.

Submit your question here.

The deadline to submit a question for the upcoming Book Breaks is Thursday.

Book Breaks Archive

The Book Breaks archive contains more than two years of past programs from historians such as David Blight, Eric Foner, Annette Gordon-Reed, Peniel Joseph, Elizabeth Varon, Ken Burns and more. Still deciding whether to subscribe? You can watch Ada Ferrer’s talk on Cuba: An American History (winner of the Pulitzer Prize) below to help you make up your mind.

View the full archive of past sessions

The Institute thanks Citizen Travelers, the nonpartisan civic engagement initiative of The Travelers Companies, Inc., for its support of Book Breaks.