History Author Show

   April 18, 2022 - If a group of World War Two-era journalists invited you out for drinks, ready to open up about their interviews with everyone from Gandhi and Neru to Mussolini and Hitler, what would say? Readers get that opportunity with Deborah Cohen who brings us Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War. In this episode, our time machine welcomes aboard journalists John Gunther, H. R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson, who have do their job before and during the war, confronting the likes of Hitler and Mussolini, but also isolationist forces who think dictators might not be so bad. Deborah Cohen is the author of The War Come Home: Disabled Veterans in Britain and Germany, 1914-1939, Household Gods: The British and Their Possessions, and Family Secrets. She is also the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History at Northwestern University, focusing on modern Europe. Visit her at DeborahCohen.com or @DeborahACohen on Twitter. Special thanks to Cara Robe

   April 4, 2022 - What would you do if your estranged father died, leaving behind piles of Nazi-era documents related to the fate of your family's café in the world wars? In this episode, our time machine travels back to the inter-war years, to meet a Jewish family rocked by the turmoil of Austria-Hungary and them Germany coming out on the losing side. Our guide on this journey is Meriel Schindler who brings us The Lost Café Schindler: One Family, Two Wars, and the Search for Truth. After her father Kurt's death, Meriel was left to confront their broken relationship, and untangle the truth behind the tales he spun -- stories of an extraordinary family tree featuring Franz Kafka, Oskar Schindler, the Jewish doctor who treated Hitler’s and his mother, and others. Only one thing was concrete: The café that the Nazis stole when her family was forced to flee. Find our guest at MerielSchindler.com, or at @MerielSchindler on Twitter. Special thanks investigative journalist Gerald Posner for submitting a video

   March 21, 2022 - Who were the young American pilots who launched their fighter jets into the wild blue yonder during the first Gulf Wear, aiming to pry tiny Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's fist? In this episode, we'll travel back to January 17, 1991, as Desert Shield transforms into Desert Storm high in the skies over Iraq. Once there, we'll meet those American airmen -- and the teams on the ground that kept their F-15C's flying against Soviet MiG-29 Fulcrums -- with internationally acclaimed military historian and U.S. Army veteran Mike Guardia who brings us Skybreak: The 58th Fighter Squadron in Desert Storm. Mike Guardia served six years on active duty as an Armor Officer and is widely praised for his acclaimed biography Hal Moore: A Soldier Once…and Always, chronicling the life of LTG Harold G. Moore, whose leadership you may recall from the Mel Gibson's portrayal in the film We Were Soldiers. Mike has been nominated for the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Book Award not once but twice. I

   March 7, 2022 - Best-selling author Eva Stachniak joins us to discuss her latest novel, The School of Mirrors. "During the reign of Louis XV, impoverished but lovely teenage girls from all over France are sent to a discreet villa in the town of Versailles. Overseen by the King’s favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour, they will be trained as potential courtesans for the King. ... The students at this 'School of Mirrors' rarely ask questions, and when Louis tires of them, they are married off to minor aristocrats or allowed to retire to one of the more luxurious nunneries." It's a rich and enjoyable story, focusing not just on the ribald details, but on the relationship between a mother and her daughter, who succeeds despite the many obstacles to women at the time, but longs to know the truth about her father's identity. Eva Stachniak was born in Wrocław, Poland, moved to Canada in 1981, and has worked for Radio Canada International and Sheridan College, where she taught English and Humanities. She is

   February 21, 2022 - It was once an unattainable dream, kept out of reach by lynch mobs, police dogs and firehoses. But in 2008, Barack Obama fulfilled the promise of that all men are created equal. In this episode, we take a look back at the man who changed the face of the Oval Office forever, just in time for Presidents' Day and Black History Month. Our guide on this journey is Professor Claude A. Clegg III who brings us The Black President: Hope and Fury in the Age of Obama. He is the Lyle V. Jones Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a joint appointment in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies and the Department of History. Visit him at ClaudeClegg.com and @ClaudeClegg on Twitter. Special thanks to Bijan C. Bayne who offering up a question for Professor Clegg. I previously interviewed Bijan for his books Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball and Martha’s Vineyard Basketball: How a Resort League Defied Notions of Race a

   February 7, 2022 -  Theodore Roosevelt's life is the stuff of myths and legends, a persona he carefully cultivated over his decades charging through public life. But what did those who shared his private moments think of the Rough Rider? We'll get freshly uncovered insights from those who knew him best, meeting the 26th president through the eyes of friends, families and confidants, through 14 lost oral histories from the 1950s. Our guide on this journey is Michael Patrick Cullinane who brings us these never-before-heard stories in Remembering Theodore Roosevelt: Reminiscences of his Contemporaries. We previously caught up with Michael when we compared our busts -- our TR busts, that is -- to discuss his book, Theodore Roosevelt's Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon, which earned the TR Book Prize. (Watch or listen here.) Michael Patrick Cullinane is Professor of U.S. History at the University of Roehampton, London, and host of The Gilded Age and Progressive Era podcast. Find him at Mic

   January 24, 2022 - What happens when an acclaimed author on figures from George Washington and James Madison to Aaron Burr and Andrew Johnson, turns his historical searchlight inward to his own family's American story?  David O. Stewart does just that in his novel The New Land, Book One of the Overstreet Saga. This is attorney-turned-author David O. Stewart's fifth appearance on the show. I previously caught up with him to chat about his non-fiction books George Washington: The Political Rise of America's Founding Father, Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships that Built America, and the epic, American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America. We also discussed The Lincoln Deception, a novel in his Fraser and Cook Historical Mysteries. David's new trilogy lands on the rocky shore of Broad Bay, Maine, in 1753, where we meet Johann Oberstrasse, a Hessian mercenary who's had enough of war after being hired out to the King of England. Johann's wife, Christiane, resolves that their son will never

   January 10, 2022 - Surrounded, low on supplies, and on the verge of surrender, the soldiers of Argentina -- many young, barely trained conscripts -- wrote home in the waning days of the Falkland War, telling tales of hardship that bore no resemblance to the propaganda woven by the military junta back in Buenos Ares. Ricky D. Phillips brings us these up-close accounts for the first time in Last Letters from Stanley: The Unpublished Argentine Battle for the Falklands, who we previously chatted with about his book The First Casualty: The Untold Story of the Falklands War. Visit Ricky at his military history blog, Making History, or find him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.

   November 13, 2021 - How did a college dropout from Missouri, grow up to win five Marconi awards and rescue AM radio -- to have one U.S. president carry his bags into the Lincoln bedroom, and another award him the Medal of Freedom? It's the amazing life story of radio's greatest of all time, Rush Limbaugh, from his long-time friend James Golden, known better to tens of millions of listeners as Bo Snerdley. The book is Rush on the Radio: A Tribute from His Sidekick for 30 Years, an intimate portrait of someone who strove for excellence every day, even as he battled terminal lung cancer. This is a unique and special episode for host and guest, since Dean joined Rush's TV show in 1995 and rejoined the website in 2000, having been part of the EIB Network team ever since. The result is a unique and heartfelt interview. His most recent Washington Times column cites some of the parallels between Rush opening up talk radio to all voices and upstart Rumble's efforts to take on YouTube. The piece is titled, "Al

   November 29, 2021 - How did a high school hockey team go from being the very worst in the country to the top 5%, and what lessons can we apply to our own lives from that historic turnaround? In this episode, our time machine steps onto the ice twenty years ago with the lowly Ann Arbor Huron High School River Rats. Our player-turned-coach is best-selling author John U. Bacon, who rescued a team with a tradition of losing so engrained, they hadn't won a game in a year and a half, going 0-22-3. He brings us Let Them Lead: Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from America’s Worst High School Hockey Team. John U. Bacon teaches at Northwestern and the University of Michigan, and has written several New York Times bestsellers, including Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines, Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football, and, Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football. For history beyond sports, enjoy our archived conversation about The Great Halifax Explosion: A

   November 15, 2021 - On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Was it a lone gunman or something more sinister? In this episode, we debunk the conspiracy theories with renowned investigative journalist and attorney Gerald Posner, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK. Gerald previously appeared on the History Author Show to discuss his 2015 book, God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican, and his eerily prescient book that hit shelves on the eve of the pandemic ... Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America. His wife and research partner, Trisha Posner, also shared her chilling biography The Pharmacist of Auschwitz: The Untold Story.  Visit Posner.com for more on today's guest, and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. You can also check out his columns in Forbes magazine.

   November 1, 2021 - Adolf Hitler infamously told his naval commander-in-chief, Admiral Karl Dönitz, "On land, I am a hero. At sea, I am a coward." But those battles on, under and over the Atlantic decided the fate of the world every bit as much as action in Europe and North Africa. In this episode, our time machine welcomes back Simon Read who brings us his wildly enjoyable new book The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler's Warships. In our archives, you can find my previous conversation with Simon, that's about 2015's Winston Churchill Reporting: Adventures of a Young War Correspondent. Simon Read is a former journalist and the author of eight previous nonfiction books. His work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, and TIME magazine. Three of his previous books, including Winston Churchill Reporting and Human Game: The True Story of the "Great Escape" Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen, have been optioned for film and TV adaptations. Visit our gues

  October 18, 2021 - America's only bachelor president has had whispers about his relationship with a certain vice president for almost two centuries. But were they more than friends, and why does the answer matter in 2021? Our time machine travels back to the pre-Civil War period, to delve into the personal lives of our 14th president, James Buchanan, and his roommate William Rufus King, the 13th vice president -- a pair that has long been the target of snickering, insults -- and more recently, of celebration. Our guide on this journey is a historian, not a gossip columnist. Thomas Balcerski and he brings us Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King. Tom is a presidential and political historian at Eastern Connecticut State University, as well as a contributor for CNN, NBC Connecticut, and Made by History, the Washington Post's history blog. Find him on social media at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Special thanks to presidential historian Louis Picone for sub

   October 4, 2021 - Theodore Roosevelt is invoked in contemporary politics so often, it's easy to forget that he died in his bed 100 years ago. So who was the real flesh-and-blood man, and what would he think of his evolution into a mythical folk hero? Our time machine travels back, to meet the real TR with Michael Patrick Cullinane, author of Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon, winner of the coveted TR Book Prize. Michael Patrick Cullinane is professor of U.S. history at Roehampton University in London, and the author of previous books, as well as the upcoming title Remembering Theodore Roosevelt: Reminiscences of his Contemporaries. He also hosts The Gilded Age & Progressive Era podcast. Find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

   September 20, 2021 - In 2020, we saw one what was long called impossible: Peace deal after another between Arab states and Israel in the Abraham Accords. What do the leaders of these nations see for the future, and how can we foster it by better understanding the past? Joel C. Rosenberg has seen history unfold firsthand and spoken personally to the men changing their corner of world by beating swords into plowshares. Joel's latest book after a string of New York Times bestselling novels and non-fiction books is Enemies and Allies: An Unforgettable Journey inside the Fast-Moving & Immensely Turbulent Modern Middle East. In it, Joel shares exclusive, never-before-published quotes, insights, and analysis from his conversations with some of the most complex and controversial leaders in the world including Benjamin Netanyahu (who he worked for as a strategist), Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and many others. Visit JoelRosenberg.com

  Sep 6, 2021 - Our time machine travels back to a bright morning that turned dark, when ships of all sizes answered cries for help to evacuate Lower Manhattan after terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers. Our guide on this journey is Jessica DuLong who bring us, Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift. Jessica DuLong is an award-winning author, journalist, historian, ghostwriter, book collaborator, proposal doctor, editor, writing coach, and a marine engineer as well. Her previous book is My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work that Built America; A Personal and Historical Journey. Visit JessicaDuLong.com for more, or follower her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For more on 9/11, check out the History Author Show interview with Governor George Pataki about his book, Beyond the Great Divide: How a Nation Became a Neighborhood.

  August 23, 2021 - Everyone has heard the timeless music of George Gershwin, but we may never have heard it in quite the same way without the love of Gershwin's life, Katharine Faulkner Swift, who he nicknamed "Kay." Mitchell James Kaplan brings us their Jazz Age romance in his novel, Rhapsody. In it, we meet a restless society wife who attends a concert that changes her life and the face of musical theater. The song is Rhapsody in Blue, composed by the young genius, Gershwin. Mitchell James Kaplan earned his BA with Honors in English Literature at Yale, where he won the prestigious Paine Memorial Prize. His previous novels are Into the Unbounded Night, and, By Fire, By Water. Visit him at MitchellJamesKaplan.com, and on the major social media platforms where you can find me as well: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.

   August 9, 2021 - In this episode, we toss the keys to our time machine into the hands of Lincoln historian Jason Emerson, who I welcomed for Q&A about his book Mary Lincoln for the Ages and several other titles related to the 16th president and the First Lady. Jason's guest hosting our interview with Michael Burlingame about An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd. James McPherson of the New York Review of Books says that Dr. Burlingame "knows more about Abraham Lincoln than any other living person." He holds of the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois-Springfield, and is the author of several books on Honest Abe, including the two-volume Abraham Lincoln: A Life.

   July 26, 2021 - You may not have heard the name Wolf the Quarrelsome. But once you meet this bold, Irish warrior -- and the woman who risked her life to build his spy ring -- you'll never look at Ireland quite the same way. In this episode, our way-back machine travels ten centuries into the past, as Viking invaders storm his island, and Wolf mounts a 15-year resistance campaign, climaxing in arguably the most decisive battle of the Middle Ages: The Battle of Clontarf. Our guide on this journey is novelist Lt. Col. Thomas J. Howley who brings us Wolf of Clontarf: The Irish, the Vikings and the Foreigners of the World. Howley is a retired U.S. Army officer-turned-civilian operational intelligence analyst supporting U.S. government Defense and Federal Law Enforcement agencies. Meet him and his Irish wolfhound at TJHowleyBooks.com.

   July 12, 2021 - Imagine you're Jewish during the Second World War, but safely in bed an ocean away from Nazi Germany, secure in the vastness of Canada. Would you march into the heart of the Third Reich, risking your life to stare down Hitler's war machine, for a country that didn't consider you a fully loyal and equal citizen? In this episode, we meet the heroes that Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King said faced a "double threat" from Axis evil: Not just Fascism, but their survival as a people. Our guide on this journey is Ellin Bessner, a professor of journalism at Centennial College in Toronto and the author of Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II. Although Canada had turned away European Jews desperate to escape the rising tide of anti-Semitism -- and while those already in Canada found doors to many jobs and universities slammed in their faces -- when war came, an huge numbers answered the call to fight, defying bigotry and earning valor that has been shamefully forgott