Book Breaks

Book Breaks is a weekly interview series with historians held every Sunday at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. 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 Jon Meacham, Ken Burns, 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, college students, and college professors. 

  • K-12 students, simply log in or create an account
  • College students, professors, and K–12 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

March

March 24 - Donald L. Miller and Kirk Saduski on Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War against Nazi Germany

Fans of Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, and anyone fascinated by World War II, will want to tune in to learn more about the book behind the show, and how it was developed into a critically acclaimed and popular series. Focused on the American Eighth Air Force, Masters of the Air investigates the personalities and camaraderie that emboldened men whose lives were routinely on the line. The American Eighth Air Force’s bombing campaign over Nazi Germany was one of the longest and most dangerous of the war.

Donald L. Miller is the John Henry MacCracken Professor of History emeritus at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of seven books, including Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign That Broke the Confederacy and Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America.

Kirk Saduski is co-producer of Masters of the Air for Apple TV+. He is also the executive-in-charge of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, co-producer of the HBO miniseries John Adams and The Pacific, and co-producer of the HBO documentary David McCullough: Painting with Words.

March 31 - Harold Holzer on Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration

April 7 -Frank J. Cirillo on The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union

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 three years of past programs featuring historians such as David Blight, Eric Foner, Annette Gordon-Reed, H. W. Brands, Peniel Joseph, Jon Meacham, 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.

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