Hoover Institution fellow Elizabeth Cobbs discusses her historical novel, The Tubman Command, and talks about how the woman known as “Moses” devised one of the largest plantation raids of the Civil War.

In a rich and varied career, George P. Shultz has aided presidents, confronted national and international crises, and argued passionately that the United States has a vital stake in promoting democratic values and institutions. In speeches, articles, congressional testimony, and conversations with world leaders, he has helped shape policy and public opinion on topics ranging from technology and terrorism to drugs and climate change. The result is a body of work that has influenced the decisions of nations and leaders, as well as the lives of ordinary people.

On a bluff above the sand and a half-mile from the ocean’s edge at low tide, which was the condition when the first Allied soldiers left their landing craft, a round circle of concrete 5 feet in diameter provides a collar for a hole in the ground. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the hole was Widerstandsnest (nest of resistance) 62, a German machine gun emplacement.

This week the Volokh Conspiracy will be hosting a symposium of posts by contributors the just-published book Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative, edited by Joshua Claybourn. There will be posts by Claybourn, columnist Eleanor Clift, Prof. Nikolas Gvosdev of the US Naval War College, Jason Kuznicki of the Cato Institute, and legal scholars Richard Epstein (NYU/University of Chicago), Gerard Magliocca (Indiana University), and myself.