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Abraham Lincoln had almost no military experience when he arrived at the White House in 1861. In Tried By War, author James McPherson explains how Lincoln defined the role of the American commander in chief as he led the country through the Civil War.

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to David Wisdom of Birmingham, Alabama, about his thoughts on this past week's special election in Alabama, the GOP tax bill and President Trump's first year in office.

Joshua Dubois, the former head of President Obama's Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, has been sending daily inspirational missives to the president since Obama was a senator working on his first presidential campaign. Dubois speaks to host Rachel Martin about the almost-accidental way he got the job.

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Council on Foreign Relations President Michael Froman about the U.S. attack on Venezuela, the "Don-roe" doctrine and Stephen Miller's statements about Greenland.

President Trump has reinvented the idea of an imperial presidency during his second time in office through his approach to pageantry and policy.

Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region of Iraq, is stepping down after 12 years in power. Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with NPR's Jane Arraf from the regional capital Erbil.

President Gerald Ford was the only man in history to serve as president and vice president without being elected to either post. Madeleine Brand speaks with James Cannon, author of Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History, about Ford's political journey to the White House, and his experience as president.

In February 1860, Abraham Lincoln, an unknown lawyer from the West with no formal education, delivered a speech before a New York audience that transformed him into a serious presidential contender. A new book re-examines the Cooper Union speech credited with propelling Lincoln to the White House. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with scholar Harold Holzer about his new book, Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser, Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan and Poynter Institute senior vice president Kelly McBride.

President Obama has said the financial system is no longer in a grave crisis, and not in need of the government support it required a year ago. Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard University, says though the financial system is not in the same state of crisis as last year, the government is still supporting it strongly.