Speaking of America: Great Conversations at the Library of Congress

Featuring interviews with eminent historians, journalists, and writers, Speaking of America brings together nineteen wide-ranging conversations from philanthropist and financier David M. Rubenstein’s long-running Congressional Dialogues series of interviews at the Library of Congress. Highlights include Ken Burns on documenting American history, Stacy Schiff on Samuel Adams, Manisha Sinha on Reconstruction, and David McCullough on the American frontier.

Published in association with the Library of Congress

Featuring interviews with eminent historians, journalists, and writers, Speaking of America brings together nineteen wide-ranging conversations from philanthropist and financier David M. Rubenstein’s long-running Congressional Dialogues series of interviews at the Library of Congress. Rubenstein and his guests bring to life notable figures, events, and trends drawn from American history and culture and beyond.

Highlights include Ken Burns on bringing American history to life, Stacy Schiff on Samuel Adams, Manisha Sinha on Reconstruction, David McCullough on the American frontier, Beverly Gage on J. Edgar Hoover, Chris Wallace on the presidential election of 1960, Evan Thomas on Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Eric Schmidt on artificial intelligence, Arthur Brooks on happiness, and David Grann on The Wager, his best-selling story of shipwreck and mutiny. Taken together, the conversations in Speaking of America all build toward the same shared message of dialogue, cooperation, and the importance of knowledge and reflection, highlighting how the study of history can enrich our understanding of current-day challenges in politics and policy.

• Publication date: 30 October 2026
• Page count: 456
• Dimensions: Height 235 mm; Width 162 mm; Thickness 29 mm
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Format: Hardback
• ISBN-13: 9781478034643