Terry Gross

Historian John Dower is the author of "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II" (W.W. Norton) about the aftermath of the war on Japan, and the American military occupation. Dower says he wanted to capture a sense of what it meant to start over in a "ruined world" for people at all levels of society and how that time became a "touchstone for affirming a commitment to 'peace and democracy.'" Dower is the Elting E. Morrison Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Music historian Craig Monson talks about 17th century nun Lucrezia Vizzana who was part of a little known group of women composers. Monson is author of the new book "Disembodied Voices: Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent." (University of California Press) He is a Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Soprano singer Deborah Roberts sings on the new CD "Lucrezia Vizzana: Musica Secreta." It features music composed by Vizzana and other 17th century nuns in Italy.