It was a time when Americans were afraid to speak out. A swirling political and cultural hysteria was part of life. Anyone who questioned American policy was targeted and ruined. Books were taken from libraries. School teachers were being scrutinized. It was the Red Scare. In post-World War II America being called a communist was a serious charge. America was willing to abandon freedoms because of alleged conspiracies. Clay Risen joins us to discuss his new book "Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America."
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We think of the surrender of Robert E. Lee as the end of the Civil War, but the end really wasn’t clear at the time. The Galveston News reported Lee’s surrender as a positive development for the Confederacy and encouraged Texans to fight on. How did Lincoln’s peace take hold? How did a divided nation come together? Michael Vorenberg’s new book is Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War. -
The storied nightclub is where new minds learn about old instruments ... and a little about their history too. -
The release of WWII-era military documents this year has given a boost to researchers digging into Japan's germ warfare program. Japan's government has never apologized for the atrocities. -
The Wild West gunfighter is a stock figure in dime novels and cornball westerns—but what is the reality of the six-shooter packing outlaw?The new book by Bryan Burrough, The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild, separates myths from truths about the violence of the Wild West. Many of the bloody shootouts happened in the streets of San Antonio. -
The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica is celebrating the instrument and those who love it. -
AOL debuted the service in 1989. Dial-up has largely been replaced by broadband internet. -
The exhibition tells the story of the singer's life through photographs. -
The first Temple Beth-el was built downtown in 1874 and had 44 chartered member families -
Lovell commanded the mission that almost ended in disaster after an explosion that threatened the crew's oxygen and electrical supply. The inspiring story of their survival was made into a hit movie. -
Using advanced DNA-analysis techniques researchers in New York City identified three more victims of the 9/11 terror attacks that occurred nearly 24 years ago.
