This week on The Exchange, we commemorate Thanksgiving Day with a look back at American history.
We talk with award-winning historian Jon Meacham about his new book on the childhood influences of Abraham Lincoln, All That is Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle.
The celebrated author shows how the lessons learned in poverty in the Midwest shaped Lincoln's presidency and the course of the Civil War.
Meacham is also the author of American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels.
Also, author Kate Hickman helps us discover some of the unrecognized women who helped build the West with her new book Brave Hearted: Women of the American West. Hickman tells little-known stories about women who became business owners and professionals, Native American women who survived violent attacks and oppression, and black women who went west to escape racism and poverty.
And the author of numerous novels about Tudor royals Philippa Gregory details Stuart-era England and the early days of the American colonies in her new novel Dawnlands. Gregory also talks about the royal family's future after Queen Elizabeth II's death.
And the author of the Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil, has some suggestions for holiday wine choices.
And we have another Small Wonder from Jim Schaap, this time about the legendary Native American woman Pocahontas, her role in American history, where Native Americans continue to fight for their rights.
