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In 1927 and '28, Ralph Peer, a talent scout for the Victor Talking Machine Company, set up recording sessions in a town straddling the Tennessee-Virginia border. The resulting sessions, rock critic Ed Ward says, laid the framework for all of country music.

Anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann studies the personal relationships evangelicals develop with God. In her book When God Talks Back, she explains how relationships with God are often cemented through the power of prayer.

Veteran actor rules the screen this summer, appearing in five features between June and August. Among his roles: a mystic in The Love Guru, a corrupt C.I.A. mastermind in War, Inc., and a stoned shrink in The Wackness.

Samuel Morse, best known as the inventor of the telegraph, was also an accomplished painter. His masterpiece, Gallery of the Louvre, was a composite painting of Italian Renaissance works he created as a way to bring the culture of Europe home to America.

Set in the Rocky Mountains after an epidemic has killed off most of society, The Dog Stars, by adventure writer Peter Heller, casts an unusual mood as it alternates between elegiac reflection, lyrical nature writing and intense, high-caliber action. The Dog Stars will be published on Aug. 7.

Tuesday marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the U.S. Civil War. Historian Adam Goodheart explains how national leaders and ordinary citizens across the country responded to the chaos and uncertainty in 1861: The Civil War Awakening.

The author of a critical history of Goldman Sachs says the firm has been through troubled times before — and only since the 1980s gained a reputation for being "the envy of Wall Street." Recent scandals concerning the role of former Goldman partners in government also go way back, the author says.

Commentator Leroy Sievers died over the weekend at his home outside Washington, D.C. He was 53. As a television journalist, he covered wars in Iraq, Central America, Somalia and Kosovo. After he was diagnosed with cancer, he began writing his daily blog, "My Cancer," on NPR.org. Through selections of past commentaries, Sievers says goodbye in his own words.

The recession that started in December 2007 ended in June 2009, according to a group that dates the beginning and end of recessions. The downturn lasted 18 months, making it the longest since World War II, the National Bureau of Economic Research said.

In Howard Jacobson's 1999 novel The Mighty Walzer, which is now being published in the U.S., 14-year-old Oliver Walzer wins friends and confidence by playing table tennis. That is, he wins as much confidence as one can from playing pingpong.