National Politics Round-Up

GUESTS: ROBERT COSTA & JAMES B. PETERSON

Many issues are consuming Congress, the White House and the nation these days with the continual unraveling of the details of the attack on the American diplomatic facility in Benghazi; the IRS' scrutiny of conservative non-profits; and the Justice Department’s secret surveillance of AP reporters' phone records. Our guests are Washington Editor for National Review ROBERT COSTA, and Lehigh University English professor and Director of Africana Studies, JAMES B. PETERSON.

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Historian Richard Beeman's behind the scenes look at the Continental Congress

Guest:  Richard Beeman

In his new book, Our Lives, Our Fortunes, & Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, historian RICHARD BEEMAN documents the turbulent 22-months during which the First and Second Continental Congresses met in Philadelphia to chart their course for independence. From September, 1774 to July 4,1776, fifty-six delegates from 13 colonies, debated, maneuvered and dithered about if, how and when the colonies could go from being subjects of England to citizens of a new nation. The story involves a fascinating cast of characters including the relentless, obnoxious and passionate John Adams and his rival John Dickinson, a fiery Samuel Adams and a neophyte Thomas Jefferson who through an intellectual skill and good timing came to write the Declaration of Independence. Says Beeman, “it's the story of how a group of men with diverse interests and ideology came together” and "acquired a familiarity and respect for one another that is missing in politics today."