Historian Edmund Morgan's latest work American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America includes essays on everything from Columbus's landing to the Salem witch trials to a piece pondering the relative merits of two early presidents of Yale University.
Leonard Bernstein does full justice to the still racy and spontaneous score of Rhapsody In Blue in this 1959 recording. As both conductor and pianist, he brings a smoky, sultry jazziness to the piece.
