Show Notes
When President James Garfield assumed the office of the presidency in March 1881, he stood at the helm of a deeply polarized and fragmented nation. Known as a reformer as well as a broker of compromise during his time in Congress, Garfield would scarcely have time to implement change as president before being assassinated only four months into his term. In this talk with David M. Rubenstein, biographer C.W. Goodyear discusses the life and legacy of President Garfield, a complex and often cont...
More from For the Ages: A History Podcast
Over the course of her 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II met and worked with thirteen American presidents—more than any other American or foreign leader. Journalist Susan Page sits down with David M. Rubenstein to discuss how, over nearly three quarters of a century, Queen Elizabeth collaborated with presidents from Truman to Trump, exerting political influence and growing from a shy young princess to a queen who came to define the modern British monarchy. Recorded on July 7, 2026
The 2024 presidential election cycle upended norms and expectations across the American electorate, with over 40% of Hispanic voters casting their ballots for Donald Trump. Reflecting on this unprecedented political moment, historian Geraldo Cadava explores the history of Hispanic American voters from the 1960s to the present, tracing their growth as a key demographic that has been courted across the political spectrum. Recorded on May 12, 2025
The story of the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed goes far beyond the events of “Black Tuesday.” New York Times bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorkin joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss the speculation, greed, and ignored warnings that led to that epic economic meltdown, while examining the ways in which the economic and political state of the US in the late 1920s resembles our nation today. Recorded on November 11, 2025
One hundred and fifty years before the events of January 7, 2021, the 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election—arguably the most contentious in American history, with both parties claiming corruption and neither candidate conceding—led to racial violence across the state and the deaths of at least 150 Black men in the Colfax Massacre. CNN’s Dana Bash and author David Fisher join David M. Rubenstein to discuss the little-known story of this violent moment in America’s history. Recorded on May 1, ...
The early decades of the twenty-first century may be the most revolutionary period in modern history, with tectonic shifts in globalization, technology, identity, and geopolitics. But monumental change can be found across history as humans have lived, and thrived, through more than one great realignment. What were history’s most transformative revolutions, and how can they help us to understand our own fraught world today? CNN host Fareed Zakaria investigates the eras and movements that have ...