Gilder Lehrman Book Breaks is a new program that features the most exciting history scholars in America discussing their books live with host William Roka, followed by a Q&A with home audiences.
Programs will take place on Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m. ET.
Upcoming Book Breaks
Register for the Sunday, July 12 Book Breaks with Martha Hodes here and find the Book Break books for sale here.
July 12, 2020 - Martha Hodes discusses Mourning Lincoln
Martha Hodes, Professor of History at New York University, is the author, most recently, of Mourning Lincoln, winner of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Lincoln Prize, and named an editor’s choice by the New York Times Book Review and a best book of the year by the Wall Street Journal. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and she has presented her scholarship nationally and internationally, ranging from elementary schools to universities, from national parks to literary festivals. She is a recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Order Mourning Lincoln at the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Bookshop Store.
Register for the Sunday, July 19 Book Breaks with Khalil Muhammad here and find the Book Break books for sale here.
July 19, 2020 - Khalil Muhammad discusses The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America
Khalil Muhammad is Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. He is the former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library and the world’s leading library and archive of global Black history. Before leading the Schomburg Center, Khalil was an Associate Professor at Indiana University.
Order The Condemnation of Blackness at the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Bookshop Store.
Register for the Sunday, July 26 Book Breaks with James Shapiro here and find the Book Break books for sale here.
July 26, 2020 - James Shapiro discusses his book Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future
James Shapiro is the Larry Miller Professor of English at Columbia University and author of the prizewinning 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), Contested Will (2010), and The Year of Lear (2015). He has been awarded Guggenheim, Cullman, and NEH fellowships, and has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Order Shakespeare in a Divided America at the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Bookshop Store.
Coming soon
Martha Jones Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
Kellie Carter Jackson Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence
Last Week's Book Breaks
July 5, 2020 - Allen Guelzo discussed his book Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
Order Gettysburg: The Last Invasion at the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Bookshop Store.
View full archive of past sessions
Discussion moderator William Roka is an independent researcher focusing on the history of travel and ocean liners in the early twentieth century. He has presented at conferences in the UK, Argentina, Australia, and across the US. He was the historian and public programs manager at the South Street Seaport Museum from 2016 to 2018, and curated the exhibition Millions: Migrants and Millionaires aboard the Great Liners, 1900–1914. His paper on ocean liners and travel in the early twentieth century was published in the inaugural edition of the Yearbook of Transnational History in 2018. He currently is an education coordinator for the Hamilton Education Program at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He studied history at University College London and international relations at King’s College London.
