American history

In The Secret War Against Hate, Steven J. Ross details the racist, anti-Semitic groups that sprang up in the latter half of the 20th century — and the spy network that worked to bring them to justice.

Before the captivity narrative about a Mexican woman abducted by the Apache in the mid-1800s; before the storyline about Geronimo's surrender; before the torrent of details about the life and peoples on the borderlands between present-day Mexico and the U.S.; there's this first sentence:

In the beginning, things appear. Writing is a defiant gesture we’ve long since gotten used to: where there was nothing, somebody put something, and now everybody sees it. For example, the prairie.

My guest is the author Rhae Lynn Barnes. In the late 1800s, as professional minstrel shows were becoming obsolete, amateur blackface shows became one of the most popular forms of entertainment, and that's where Barnes' focus is. The new book "Darkology" uncovers the hidden history of blackface.

Author Chris Jennings talks the apocalyptic religious views that fueled the standoff between federal agents and the family of Randy Weaver — and the use of force rules that made it so deadly.

Documentary producer and director Ken Burns came to prominence 35 years ago with The Civil War, a massively popular multi-part nonfiction series on PBS. His latest effort is a six-part series called The American Revolution.

Burns' PBS documentary includes the perspectives of women, Native Americans, and enslaved and free Black people — all of whom were initially excluded from the declaration "all men are created equal."

In Savings and Trust, historian Justene Hill Edwards tells the story of the Freedman's Bank. Created for formerly enslaved people following the Civil War, its collapse cost depositors millions.

Author Frank Guridy. His new book is called "The Stadium: An American History Of Politics, Protest, And Play."

Lance's new book, Chamber Divers, is about research conducted by scientists at University College London before and during World War II — including protocols for operating the miniature submarines used on scouting missions in advance of D-Day.

Psychedelic science began much earlier than you may think - back in the 1920s and '30s. At the center of that research was Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist, and her third husband, Gregory Bateson, one of the most controversial anthropologists of his time. That early history is covered in the new book by my guest, Benjamin Breen. The book is called "Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, The Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science".