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, AUGUST 9 BOOK BREAKS WITH KELLIE CARTER JACKSON HERE AND FIND THE BOOK FOR SALE HERE.
August 9, 2020 - Kellie Carter Jackson discusses her book Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence
Kellie Carter Jackson is the Knafel Assistant Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. Her book Force and Freedom was a finalist for the MAAH Stone Book Prize Award for 2019. Her work has also been featured in the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, Time, Black Perspectives, and Quartz. Carter Jackson is also co-editor of Reconsidering Roots: Race, Politics, & Memory, the first scholarly collection of essays devoted entirely to understanding the remarkable tenacity of Alex Haley’s visual, cultural, and political influence on American history.
Order Force and Freedom at the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Bookshop Store.
REGISTER FOR THE SUNDAY, AUGUST 16 BOOK BREAKS WITH CAROLINE WINTERER HERE AND FIND THE BOOK FOR SALE HERE.
August 16, 2020 - Caroline Winterer discusses her book American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason
Caroline Winterer is Anthony P. Meier Family Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Humanities Center. She is the author of several books, including most recently Time in Maps: From the Age of Discovery to Our Digital Era, edited with her Stanford colleague Karen Wigen. For mapping the social network of Benjamin Franklin she received an American Ingenuity Award from the Smithsonian Institution. She has received fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the Spencer Foundation, among others. Winterer has also curated two exhibits of rare books and artifacts: Ancient Rome & America at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia (2010) and The American Enlightenment at the Stanford Library (2011).
Order American Enlightenments at the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Bookshop Store.
REGISTER FOR THE SUNDAY, AUGUST 23 BOOK BREAKS WITH MARTHA S. JONES HERE AND FIND THE BOOK FOR SALE HERE.
August 23, 2020 - Martha S. Jones discusses her book Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. She is president of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, the oldest and largest association of women historians in the United States, and she sits on the executive board of the Organization of American Historians. Author of Birthright Citizens and All Bound up Together, she has written for the Washington Post, the Atlantic, USA Today, and more.
Order Vanguard at the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Bookshop Store.
REGISTER FOR THE SUNDAY, AUGUST 30 BOOK BREAKS WITH CATHERINE CLINTON HERE AND FIND THE BOOK FOR SALE HERE.
August 30, 2020 - Catherine Clinton discusses her book Stepdaughters of History: Southern Women and the American Civil War
Catherine Clinton is Denman Chair of American History at the University of Texas San Antonio & Professor Emerita at Queen’s University Belfast. Clinton has authored and edited over 30 books on historical subjects, including Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom, Tara Revisited: Women, War and the Plantation Legend, and most recently, Sisterly Networks: Fifty Years of Southern Women’s Histories. In 2019 she launched Confederate Statues and Memorialization, first in the University of Georgia Press series History in the Headlines.
Order Stepdaughters of History at the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Bookshop Store.
Coming in September
Alan Taylor, Thomas Jefferson’s Education
Elaine Weiss, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
Richard Brookhiser, Give Me Liberty
Last Week’s Book Breaks
August 2, 2020 - Carol Berkin discussed her book Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence
Order Revolutionary Mothers 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.
