Sundays at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT) on Zoom
Upcoming Session: August 24, 2025
Author: Zaakir Tameez
Book: Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation
Zaakir Tameez
Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation
Book Breaks
Book Breaks
Free
All Audiences
Every Sunday
About Book Breaks
Every Sunday at 2:00 pm ET (11:00 am PT) on Zoom
Each week our hosts interview renowned scholars and discuss their acclaimed and frequently award-winning works, followed by a Q&A with the at-home audience. Please click any of the upcoming episodes to register. You can purchase any of the books featured on our bookshop.org page, for which we receive an affiliate commission.
Upcoming Episodes
Keidrick Roy, Dartmouth College
American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism
Michael Vorenberg, Brown University
Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War
Keidrick Roy, Dartmouth College
American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism
Michael Vorenberg, Brown University
Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War
Student Competition
Students: Submit your question for the upcoming Book Breaks guest. If your question is chosen, it will be answered live on the show and you will be named History Scholar of the Week! You and your teacher will win a $50 gift certificate to the Gilder Lehrman Gift Shop.
*Your question can be about the book or the topic in general. Please submit only one question per program. Students should be in middle or high school and at least 13 years old.
In Case You Missed It: Last Week’s Episode
A. Wilson Greene
A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg, vol. 2
About the book: Grinding, bloody, and ultimately decisive, the Petersburg Campaign was the Civil War’s longest and among its most complex campaigns. In this second of three volumes, A. Wilson Greene narrates the critical months from August through October 1864. During this period, Ulysses S. Grant’s army launched three major offensives against Robert E. Lee’s defenses around Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond.
What Our Fans Say
As a High School History teacher, I love Book Breaks for so many reasons. It allows my students to listen to some of the world’s preeminent History scholars from the comfort of their own homes. The History Scholar of the Week contest adds an element of excitement and recognition that I think young people in particular, can look forward to. In so many ways, Gilder Lehrman has made the latest and greatest scholarship so much more accessible to ordinary teachers and learners.
—Martina Madden, Stuyvesant High School in New York
Book Breaks is an important and novel instructional modality that high school history teachers should embrace. I see each Book Breaks author as a co-teacher for my class and a way for students to feel more connected to the historians who wrote their textbook–Give Me Liberty!–or helped them understand historical people, sources, and events.
—Glenn Whitman, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Maryland
I’m a retired teacher, now serving as a volunteer researcher for several local historical societies. I know of no other Internet offering that compares in scope to Book Breaks. I look forward to an author interview every Sunday afternoon. It’s like attending a one-hour graduate seminar each week where viewers can ask questions via the chat. It would be a shame if I had to miss a Book Breaks broadcast, but no worries . . . they’re all there on the Gilder Lehrman website to view again anytime.
-Don Gallagher, Jr., Retired Teacher in Pennsylvania