History

Ken Burns' 11-hour documentary took five years to make, and features period music, readings of soldiers' letters, and moving shots of battlefield sites. TV critic David Bianculli says it's a show to watch and treasure.

Writer Barry Lopez reads from a new essay, called the Rediscovery of North America, about contemporary views of indigenous landscapes, which developed during the era of European conquest.

Ellis Island reopens to the public soon. Commentator Maureen Corrigan shares her disappointment that she'll have to pay if she wants her grandparents' names inscribed on the new American Immigrant Wall of Honor.

Levy founded the new Citadel Underground press, which has been publishing new editions of books written by individuals from the 1960s counterculture. Levy was ten years old in 1968; witnessing radical social movements emerge as he grew up shaped the person he is today.

The white anti-apartheid activist and African National Congress member survived a car bomb explosion, though the blast left him severely injured. Sachs later left South Africa for Mozambique, then England. His new memoir about the experience is called Running to Maputo.

Kurt Vonnegut's new novel is set in 2001 in a radically reconfigured America. The complex, self-referential plot reveals unique insights into the United State's past, says book critic John Leonard. It's Vonnegut's best book in years.

After serving in the Vietnam War, Peacock sought solace in nature. While camping in the woods, he had several encounters with grizzly bears. He wrote about his observations of the animals in his new book, Grizzly Years.

Scientist Zhores Mevedvev was the first scientist in the West to determine that the Soviet Union suffered a nuclear accident in 1957, three decades before Chernobyl. He has a new book called "The Legacy of Chernobyl," about the latter disaster -- which contributed to the Soviet Union's glasnost and perestroika reforms. Medvedev's father was exiled from Russia; Medvedev himself faced persecution for his research and activism.

Chestnut earned his law degree at Washington D.C.'s Howard University, but soon returned to his hometown of Selma, Alabama, where he opened a law office -- before legal protections like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed. His new memoir is called Black in Selma.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer joins Fresh Air to talk about the scientific and cultural history of the Red Planet. He advocates for robotic and human exploration of Mars -- an endeavor that would lead to greater technological innovations and international cooperation.

Historian William Taubman edited and translated a biography of the last years of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, as told by Nikita's son, Sergei. The book, titled Khrushchev on Khrushchev, gives new insights into the elder Khrushchev's fall from power after repudiating Stalinism, and his final days as a virtual pariah in the Soviet Union.

Mubarak Awad grew up in the Occupied Territories; he later became a U.S. citizen, but returned to Palestine to advocate for civil disobedience as the best way to resist Israeli rule and discrimination. He joins Fresh Air to give his perspective on the intifada and Palestinian organizations like PLO, whose violent actions Awat sees as acts of resistance, not terrorism.

Part I of the Fresh Air interview. Stone's newest movie, about the rock band the Doors, will soon be in theaters. The director is a Vietnam War veteran who earned a Purple Heart; his was experiences informed his early movie, Platoon.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the memoirs of Andrei Sakharav, a Russian scientist and political dissident who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Leonard says the book is more than autobiography -- it's a guide for global citizenship.

A new edition of photographer David Douglas Duncan's 1951 book This is War, which captures images of Marines in Korea, has just been published. Duncan is also known for his several photos of Pablo Picasso.

Architect Andrés Duany (pronounced ahn-drays due-wahn-nee). Duany's specialty is taking on the American suburb. He eloquently argues that the 'burbs stifle the quality of everyday life, and he has concrete proposals on ways to make our neighborhoods livable again. (The first of a two part interview--today what's wrong with the suburbs, tomorrow how to make them better).

World music critic Milo Miles examines the vocal music of South Africa, and he examines the career of the country's leading vocal group, "Ladysmith Black Mambazo."

Veteran journalist Dusko Doder. Doder and co-author Louise Branson have just written a comprehensive biography of Mikhail Gorbachev, titled, "Gorbachev: Heretic In the Kremlin." It's published by Viking. Dusko Doder is the former Moscow Bureau chief for the Washington Post. Branson covered the Soviet Union for the Sunday Times of London.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Homeward Bound," historian Elaine Tyler May's look at family life in the 1950s.

Filmmaker James Toback. His new film is called "The Big Bang."