The ultimate “achiever” in western history may well have been Napoleon. Here, in 2006, two historians examine his astonishing career and its consequences for the history that followed.

Hundreds of scholars have translated the Hebrew Bible into English since those appointed by King James. Robert Alter brings great literary skill and a modern Jewish sensibility to that same task – and turns up some wonderful new illuminations which he shared in this richly detailed 2004 discussion.

In the judgment of our two distinguished archeological guests, the answer is “probably.” But what they see as more certain is that Egypt laid the foundation for the classical world that followed and is thus the beginning of “our story.” James Phillips and Emily Teeter bring that long, long history into sharp and informative focus in this 2006 conversation.

1776 was the title and subject of David McCullough’s vigorous narrative of the battles of that first year when the odds that you would get in London were, to say the least, not favorable. Deservedly considered our leading “popular historian,” he joined us for this memorable program in 2005.

Brother Billy and sister Ruth joined us one memorable night in 1978 as the conversation veered toward Billy’s politically incorrect (as they would be now) social aversions. Sister Ruth who was a “lay evangelist” somehow finessed the difficult moment to the delight of the host and of Jim Wall, then the editor of Christian Century magazine.