Event Audio

Historian Ron Smith discusses his new book Thomas Ewing Jr.: Frontier Lawyer and Civil War General.

Smith takes readers back to Bleeding Kansas, with its border ruffians and land speculators, to show how Thomas Ewing Jr. and his family played pivotal roles in the history of Kansas, Missouri, and the nation.

Adrian Goldsworthy addresses perhaps the greatest of all historical questions in a presentation based on his monumental new work, How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower.

In AD 200, the Roman Empire seemed unassailable. Its vast territory accounted for most of the known world. By the end of the fifth century, Roman rule had vanished in Western Europe and much of North Africa, and only a shrunken Eastern Empire remained. What accounts for this improbable decline?

Robert Wallace, the former director of the CIA’s Office of Technical Service, discusses his new book Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda.

Spycraft tells the story of how technology that would not appear in the public marketplace until decades later was often used to further the American intelligence-gathering cause. The book traces the development of spy gear from secret writing and bugging devices to subminiature cameras and covert internet communications.

David Atkinson of the University of Missouri-Kansas City presents Appointing the Supreme Court: From Truman to Obama.

During the last 65 years, the appointment of Supreme Court justices has developed into one of the most controversial and divisive constitutional responsibilities of a U.S. president.