Books

Lynne Olson, a former journalist for The Baltimore Sun, is also the author of Citizens of London.

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Arts

'Angry Days' Shows An America Torn Over Entering World War II

3:30pm March 26, 2013

World War II is often thought of as a good and just war — a war the U.S. had to fight. But it wasn't that simple. Public debate was heated between interventionism, which President Roosevelt supported, and isolationism, which aviator Charles Lindbergh became an unofficial spokesman for.

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How And Why The Hollywood Star Machine Made 'Gods Like Us'

2:25pm March 25, 2013

In a new book about movie stardom and fame, Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr looks at the evolving history of the relationship between movie stars and the people who love them, and at how changing technology influences the kinds of stars the public wants.

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Dan Fagin is an associate professor of journalism and the director of the science, health, and environmental reporting program at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

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For Toms River, An Imperfect Salvation

2:03pm March 25, 2013

by NPR Staff

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation traces the story of a New Jersey town plagued by two generations of toxic waste dumping. Its author, Dan Fagin, talks about the origins of dumping in Toms River and its legacy today.

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Remembering Chinua Achebe And The Importance Of Struggle

12:39pm March 25, 2013

To remember Chinua Achebe who died last Thursday, Fresh Air listens back to an interview with the great African writer that originally aired on May 10, 1988. In it, Achebe talks about the literary trope of the white explorer or missionary living amongst the savages, and the importance of struggle.

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Richard Breitman (left) and Allan Lichtman are distinguished professors of history at American University in Washington, D.C.

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'FDR And The Jews' Puts A President's Compromises In Context

9:17am March 24, 2013

by NPR Staff

President Franklin D. Roosevelt said little and did less on behalf of Jews trying to get out of Nazi Germany; but he also won Jewish votes by landslide margins and led the Allies to victory in World War II. A new history by Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman revises FDR's performance upward.

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Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Ann Fowler.

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'Z' Tells The Fitzgeralds' Story From Zelda's Point Of View

8:13am March 23, 2013

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald wed in 1920, and the two went on to have a famously turbulent literary marriage. Would Zelda have been better off without her husband? Novelist Therese Anne Fowler says, "They were two sides of one coin."

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From One Author To Another, Letters Of Praise

8:13am March 23, 2013

Host Scott Simon reads some of the best fan mail to authors, written by authors.

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Nathan Englander grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family. He now splits his time between New York and Madison, Wis.

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Nathan Englander: Stories Of Faith, Family And The Holocaust

1:59pm March 22, 2013

In What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Nathan Englander writes about his own faith — and what it means to be Jewish — in stories that explore religious tension, Israeli-American relations and the Holocaust.

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Nigeria's Outspoken Writer Chinua Achebe Dies At 82

10:55am March 22, 2013

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, who played a critical role in establishing post-colonial African literature, has died. The author of Things Fall Apart was 82.

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Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi-American poet who teaches in Michigan. She has published five books in Arabic and two in English.

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Arts

Revisiting Iraq Through The Eyes Of An Exiled Poet

9:45am March 22, 2013

by NPR Staff

Dunya Mikhail fled her homeland in the wake of the first Gulf War, after her writing was labeled subversive by Saddam Hussein's government. She has never physically returned to Iraq, but she remembers it in her poetry.

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