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Arthur Herman tells how American businessmen—automobile magnate William Knudsen and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser—helped mobilize the “arsenal of democracy” that propelled the Allies to victory in World War II. Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II tells how Knudsen and Kaiser helped transformed America into an economic and military superpower.

Cities across America have banned all sorts of things: styrofoam, plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic happy meal toys, foie gras. These are just a few of the contemporary bans, of course. Today, The Takeaway looks at the biggest ban in American history — a ban that started in specific cities but spread nationwide. It lasted for over a decade, but eventually was struck down. This was a ban on alcohol.

Long before rap, there was “the dozens” – the African-American street rhyming tradition that author Elijah Wald defines as “halfway between ‘yo mama’ jokes and rap freestyle battling.” He joins us to share the surprising musical history of the R-rated comedic insults.

Today we asked our listeners to respond to our interview with Stephen Prothero, who's new book "The American Bible" attempts to bring together the core texts of the American experience.

Michael Armstrong describes the1970-72 Knapp Commission investigation into police corruption, prompted by the New York Times' report on whistleblower cop Frank Serpico. In They Wished They Were Honest he examines how the commission affected the NYPD's public image, what leads to police corruption, and the toll it takes on society.  

Paul S. Kindstedt tells the fascinating stories behind traditional cheeses and examines the role of the cheesemaker throughout world history. His book Cheese and Culture looks at the origins of cheese and its role in human history.  

John Hockenberry visits the new spying exhibit at the Discovery Center in Times Square. He peruses hundreds of artifacts from the CIA, FBI, and National Reconnaissance Office with Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former New York Times reporter who wrote the definitive history of the CIA.

Director Philip Kaufman talks about his film “Hemingway and Gellhorn.” It recounts the passionate love affair and tumultuous marriage of Ernest Hemingway and the war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, who were one of the first celebrity “power couples.” As witnesses to history, they covered all the great conflicts of their time, but they couldn’t survive was the war between themselves. “Hemingway and Gellhorn” airs Monday, May 28, on HBO.

From the jungles of Southeast Asia through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the chicken's journey to the table has been quite the odyssey, spanning thousands of years. Yet it's only in the past century that chickens came to dominate the American diet.

Scientist and explorer John Oldale shares a wealth of fascinating facts and the unexpected stories behind them. His book A World of Curiosities: Surprising, Interesting, and Downright Unbelievable Facts from Every Nation on the Planet touches on history, travel, politics, natural history and more.

Historian David McCullough is known for his biographies of monumental American figures: John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman. But McCullough second book, published in 1972, explored American history not through the eyes of a Founding Father or a President, but through one of the most important public works projects of all time: the Brooklyn Bridge.

Samuel Popkin, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego, examines the winners—and losers—of the last 60 years of presidential campaigns, explaining how challengers get to the White House, how incumbents stay, and how successors hold power for their party. His book The Candidate: What it Takes to Win—and Hold—the White House looks George H. W. Bush's campaign for reelection in 1992, Al Gore's campaign for the presidency in 2000, and Hillary Clinton's effort to win the nomination in 2008, and gives an account of what goes on inside a campaign and what makes one succeed while another fails.

Celeste Headlee, co-host of The Takeaway, speaks at the National Race Amity Conference in Boston today. Richard Thomas, professor emeritus of history at Michigan State University is also talking at the conference. He’s the creator of the race relations concept, "The Other Tradition," which focuses on the efforts of those who, during times of racial conflict, have worked across racial lines to promote friendship and peace. William Smith is the founding executive director of the National Center for Race Amity, based at Wheelock College in Boston, and is the organizer of the annual National Race Amity Conference.

Latif Nasser recounts a strange tale of 19th century scandal and spirituality. Read the article (and check out a belly dancing video from the late 1800s) here.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discusses the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia—the country where she was born—and the events of World War II that shook her life before she turned twelve. Her memoir Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War: 1937–1948 draws on the memories of her and her family, her parents' written reflections, interviews, and newly available documents to give an account of the most tumultuous 12 years in modern history.

Some 1400 years after the Prophet Muhammad first articulated God’s law—the shari‘a—its earthly interpreters are still arguing about what it means. Legal historian and human rights lawyer Sadakat Kadri clarifies what Islamic law is and is not. In Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World, he describes his search for the facts behind the myths.

When Sen. John McCain conceded the presidency to Barack Obama, McCain said: "A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time." Author Deborah Davis chronicles that dinner, its aftermath, and the lives of Roosevelt and Washington in her new book.

Robert Caro talks about The Passage of Power, book four of his monumental biography of Lyndon Johnson. It follows Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most successful periods of his career—1958 to1964, when traded his powerful position as Senate Majority Leader for what became the powerlessness of the vice presidency in an administration that didn’t trust him, and then had the presidency thrust upon him when President Kennedy was assassinated.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has spent her career working on complicated issues of history, ethnic identity, and governance, but she didn't realize the complexity of her own identity until the age of 59. In 1997, as the Clinton Administration vetted then-Ambassador Albright for the Secretary of State position, Albright discovered that most of her family was Jewish — and that many of her relatives perished in the Holocaust. That realization provided the impetus for her new book, "Prague Winter."

On Thursday, an exhibit that celebrates WPA-era artwork opened at LightSoundSpace Gallery in Rahway, New Jersey. The idea behind the show is to inspire visitors with messages that curators say resonate strongly with the economic struggles faced by many at present. Check out a slideshow of works in the show.