In a discussion of the new book Wide-Open Town, its editors – historians Diane Mutti Burke, John Herron, and Jason Roe – discuss the era of the 1920s and ’30s dominated by notorious Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast. The “openness” of the day allowed many in a community divided by race and class to challenge social boundaries.
 

Victory distant but in view, the U.S. and its World War II allies gathered in Egypt and Iran late in 1943 to map out strategy for the coming year and begin discussing what a postwar world would look like. Gates Brown of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College discusses the progress made – and the strains of self-interest that surfaced.
 

Best-selling author and two-time Newbery Medal winner Kate DiCamillo discusses her new juvenile novel Louisiana’s Way Home. Her first sequel, it revisits Louisiana Elefante, the orphaned friend of DiCamillo’s 2016 heroine, Raymie Nightingale. For ages 10 and up.
 

In a discussion of the new book All Because of a Mormon Cow: Historical Accounts of the Grattan Massacre, 1855-1856, historian Eli Paul recounts the unfortunate encounter that killed a rash young Army officer and 28 of his soldiers at a Lakota encampment near Fort Laramie, Wyoming, in 1854. It ignited the First Sioux War and a generation of fighting on the Great Plains.