This week, Richard talks to Laurence Jurdem, author of 41: George H. W. Bush and the End of the American Establishment (Bombardier).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Liaquat Ahamed, author of 1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World (Penguin Press).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Ian Shapiro, author of After the Fall: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy, How Politicians Broke Our World (Basic Books).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Odd Arne Westad, author of The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings from History (Henry Holt).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Michael Mandelbaum, author of The American Way of Foreign Policy: Ideology, Economics, Democracy (Oxford University Press).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Frank Dikötter, author of Red Dawn Over China: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity (Bloomsbury).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard Aldous talks to Steve Israel, author of The Einstein Conspiracy (Compass Rose Publishing).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard Aldous talks to Christopher Clark, author of A Scandal in Königsberg (Penguin).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard Aldous talks to Hélène Landemore, author of Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule (Thesis).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Nicolas Stavros Niarchos, author of The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth (Penguin Press).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard Aldous talks to Georgios Varouxakis, author of The West: The History of an Idea (Princeton University Press).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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For our first episode of 2026, Richard talks to Geoffrey Ward, author of The American Revolution: An Intimate History (Knopf).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Kori Schake, author of The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States (Polity).

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Shadi Hamid, author of The Case for American Power (Simon & Schuster).

Bookstack is a production of American Purpose at Persuasion.

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Sven Beckert, author of Capitalism: A Global History (Penguin Press).

Bookstack is a production of American Purpose at Persuasion.

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Vanessa Williamson, author of The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History (Basic Books).

Bookstack is a production of American Purpose at Persuasion.

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard talks to Phillips O’Brien, author of the new book, War and Power: Who Wins Wars—And Why (Public Affairs).

Bookstack is a production of American Purpose at Persuasion.

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week, Richard Aldous talks to Phillip Taubman and William Taubman, authors of the new book, McNamara at War: A New History (Norton).

Bookstack is a production of American Purpose at Persuasion.

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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This week Richard talks to Scott Anderson, author of the new book, King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation (Doubleday).

Bookstack is a production of American Purpose at Persuasion.

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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Bookstack returns after the summer with Richard talking to author Simon Ball about his new book, Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination (Yale University Press).

Bookstack is a production of American Purpose at Persuasion.

Host: Richard Aldous

Producer: Bhaasita Athani

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