History Ago Go

Few people are aware that John Moses Browning--a tall, modest man born in 1855 and raised as a Mormon in the American West-- invented the mechanism used in virtually all modern pistols, created the most popular hunting rifles and shotguns, and conceived the machine guns introduced in World War I and which dominated air and land battles in World War II. Yet few in America knew his name until he was into his sixties.

Now, author Nathan Gorenstein brings firearms inventor John Moses Browning to vivid life in this riveting and revealing biography. Embodying the tradition of self-made, self-educated geniuses (like Lincoln and Edison), Browning was able to think in three dimensions (he never used blueprints) and his gifted mind produced everything from the famous Winchester "30-30" hunting rifle to the awesomely effective machine guns used by every American aircraft and infantry unit in World War II. The British credited Browning's guns with helping to win the Battle of Britain.

His inventions illustrate both the good and bad of weapons.

Sweeping, lively, and brilliantly told, this fascinating book introduces a little-known American legend whose impact on history ranks with that of the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Hop Gun IPA, The Funky Buddha Brewery, Oakland Park, Florida

BOOK:  The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World
https://www.amazon.com/Guns-John-Moses-Browning-Remarkable/dp/1982129212/ref=sr_1_1?crid=N7U6KEH3A7FH&keywords=gorenstein&qid=1642394882&sprefix=gorenstein%2Caps%2C823&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/

The Texas Rangers came to life in 1823, when Texas was still part of Mexico. Nearly 200 years later, the Rangers are still going--one of the most famous of all law enforcement agencies. In Cult of Glory, Doug J. Swanson has written a sweeping account of the Rangers that chronicles their epic, daring escapades while showing how the white and propertied power structures of Texas used them as enforcers, protectors and officially sanctioned killers.

Cult of Glory begins with the Rangers' emergence as conquerors of the wild and violent Texas frontier. They fought the fierce Comanches, chased outlaws, and served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. As Texas developed, the Rangers were called upon to catch rustlers, tame oil boomtowns, and patrol the perilous Texas-Mexico border. In the 1930s they began their transformation into a professionally trained police force.

Countless movies, television shows, and pulp novels have celebrated the Rangers as Wild West supermen. In many cases, they deserve their plaudits. But often the truth has been obliterated. Swanson demonstrates how the Rangers and their supporters have operated a propaganda machine that turned agency disasters and misdeeds into fables of triumph, transformed murderous rampages--including the killing of scores of Mexican civilians--into valorous feats, and elevated scoundrels to sainthood. Cult of Glory sets the record straight.

Beginning with the Texas Indian wars, Cult of Glory embraces the great, majestic arc of Lone Star history. It tells of border battles, range disputes, gunslingers, massacres, slavery, political intrigue, race riots, labor strife, and the dangerous lure of celebrity. And it reveals how legends of the American West--the real and the false--are truly made.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Man of Law American IPA, Southern Pines Brewing Company, Southern Pines, North Carolina

BOOK:  Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers
https://www.amazon.com/Cult-Glory-Brutal-History-Rangers/dp/1101979879/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ELY0KSAJ5DP3&keywords=cult+of+glory+texas+rangers&qid=1641796663&sprefix=%2Caps%2C282&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/

Solider, politician, miner, pioneer, scion of a Founding Father, William Stephen Hamilton led a prolific life. Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton examines the tumultuous early Republic period of American history through the life of Alexander Hamilton's son.

Born in New York in 1797, the fifth son of Alexander Hamilton, he was only seven when his father was infamously killed in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. After resigning from West Point, Hamilton moved to frontier Illinois in 1817. The famous name of Hamilton that may have acquired him rank and prestige at one time was meaningless in a Midwestern frontier society driven by the Jacksonians. Yet, despite being hurled into a clash of economic, political, and cultural cultures, Hamilton determined to live his life by his own rules. A veteran of the Winnebago and Black Hawk Wars, Hamilton was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives before moving to the Wisconsin territory, where he founded the mining town of Hamilton's Diggings (Wiota, WI). When gold was discovered in California in 1848, he traveled west, where he would die in Sacramento in 1850.

In Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton, author A. K. Fielding expands the story of the Hamilton family. Hamilton's life offers a firsthand account of the formation of the Midwestern states, the realities of life on the frontier, and mass migration caused by the California Gold Rush.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Rise Up Rye Farmhouse Ale, Gun Hill Brewing Company, Bronx, New York

BOOK:  Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's Forgotten Son
https://www.amazon.com/Rough-Diamond-Alexander-Hamiltons-Forgotten/dp/0253053943/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XMT3IUUPSDZB&keywords=ak+fieldings&qid=1640812916&sprefix=ak+fielding%2Caps%2C119&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/

Comics have conquered America. From our multiplexes, where Marvel and DC movies reign supreme, to our television screens, where comics-based shows like The Walking Dead have become among the most popular in cable history, to convention halls, best-seller lists, Pulitzer Prize–winning titles, and MacArthur Fellowship recipients, comics shape American culture, in ways high and low, superficial, and deeply profound.

In American Comics, Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes readers through their incredible but little-known history, starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting and iconic images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus; the golden age of newspaper comic strips and the first great superhero boom; the moral panic of the Eisenhower era, the Marvel Comics revolution, and the underground comix movement of the 1960s and ’70s; and finally into the twenty-first century, taking in the grim and gritty Dark Knights and Watchmen alongside the brilliant rise of the graphic novel by acclaimed practitioners like Art Spiegelman and Alison Bechdel.

Dauber’s story shows not only how comics have changed over the decades but how American politics and culture have changed them. Throughout, he describes the origins of beloved comics, champions neglected masterpieces, and argues that we can understand how America sees itself through whose stories comics tell. Striking and revelatory, American Comics is a rich chronicle of the last 150 years of American history through the lens of its comic strips, political cartoons, superheroes, graphic novels, and more.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Buzzman Mutant American Ale, Unsung Brewing Company, Orange County, California

BOOK:  American Comics: A History
https://www.amazon.com/American-Comics-History-Jeremy-Dauber/dp/0393635600/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FHZA7LKG90GU&keywords=jeremy+dauber+american+comics&qid=1640730901&sprefix=jeremy+dauber%2Caps%2C478&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/

New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin presents a follow up to his award-winning book Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, taking readers on a terrifying journey into the Cold War and our mutual assured destruction.

As World War II comes to a close, the United States and the Soviet Union emerge as the two greatest world powers on extreme opposites of the political spectrum. After the United States showed its hand with the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the Soviets refuse to be left behind. With communism sweeping the globe, the two nations begin a neck-and-neck competition to build even more destructive bombs and conquer the Space Race. In their battle for dominance, spy planes fly above, armed submarines swim deep below, and undercover agents meet in the dead of night.

The Cold War game grows more precarious as weapons are pointed towards each other, with fingers literally on the trigger. The decades-long showdown culminates in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world's close call with the third―and final―world war.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Thespian Espionage IPA, Weathered Ground Brewery, Cool Ridge, West Virginia

BOOK:  Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown
https://www.amazon.com/Fallout-Spies-Superbombs-Ultimate-Showdown/dp/1250149010/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3AMRT7ISNMB9N&keywords=fallout+sheinkin&qid=1640120467&sprefix=fallout+sheinkin%2Caps%2C276&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/

Elbridge A. Colby was the lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the most significant revision of U.S. defense strategy in a generation. Here he lays out how America’s defense must change to address China’s growing power and ambition. Based firmly in the realist tradition but deeply engaged in current policy, this book offers a clear framework for what America’s goals in confronting China must be, how its military strategy must change, and how it must prioritize these goals over its lesser interests.
 
The most informed and in‑depth reappraisal of America’s defense strategy in decades, this book outlines a rigorous but practical approach, showing how the United States can prepare to win a war with China that we cannot afford to lose—precisely in order to deter that war from happening.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Cold Snap White Ale, Samuel Adams, Boston

BOOK:  The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict
https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Denial-American-Defense-Conflict/dp/0300256434/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=elbridge+colby&qid=1639445311&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/

The Oxford Handbook of Christmas provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of all aspects of Christmas across the globe, from the specifically religious to the purely cultural. 

The contributions are drawn from a distinguished group of international experts from across numerous disciplines, including literary scholars, theologians, historians, biblical scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, art historians, and legal experts. The volume provides
authoritative treatments of a range of topics, from the origins of Christmas to the present; decorating trees to eating plum pudding; from the Bible to contemporary worship; from carols to cinema; from the Nativity Story to Santa Claus; from Bethlehem to Japan; from Catholics to Baptists; from secularism to consumerism.

Christmas is the biggest celebration on the planet. Every year, a significant percentage of the world's population is draw to this holiday—from Cape Cod to Cape Town, from South America to South Korea, and on and on across the globe. The Christmas season takes up a significant part of the entire year. For many countries, the holiday is a major force in their national economy. Moreover, Christmas is not just a modern holiday, but has been an important feast for most Christians since the fourth century and a dominant event in many cultures and countries for over a millennium. The Oxford Handbook of Christmas provides an invaluable reference point for anyone interested in this global phenomenon.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Dad's Oatmeal Cookie Stout, O'Fallon Brewery, Maryland Heights, Missouri

BOOK: The Oxford Handbook of Christmas 
https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbook-Christmas-Handbooks-ebook/dp/B08KYCFZQN/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1638937184&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/

How did enslaved African Americans in the Old South really experience Christmas? Did Christmastime provide slaves with a lengthy and jubilant respite from labor and the whip, as is generally assumed, or is the story far more complex and troubling? In this provocative, revisionist, and sometimes chilling account, Robert E. May chides the conventional wisdom for simplifying black perspectives, uncritically accepting southern white literary tropes about the holiday, and overlooking evidence not only that countless southern whites passed Christmases fearful that their slaves would revolt but also that slavery’s most punitive features persisted at holiday time.

In Yuletide in Dixie, May uncovers a dark reality that not only alters our understanding of that history but also sheds new light on the breakdown of slavery in the Civil War and how false assumptions about slave Christmases afterward became harnessed to myths undergirding white supremacy in the United States. By exposing the underside of slave Christmases, May helps us better understand the problematic stereotypes of modern southern historical tourism and why disputes over Confederate memory retain such staying power today. A major reinterpretation of human bondage, Yuletide in Dixie challenges disturbing myths embedded deeply in our culture.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Christmas Ale, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, Ohio

BOOK:  Yuletide in Dixie: Slavery, Christmas, and Southern Memory
https://www.amazon.com/Yuletide-Dixie-Slavery-Christmas-Southern/dp/0813945100/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1638405838&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/es Fork

The Back to the Future series is a timeless collection greatly revered by all audiences. The beauty of this book by Brad Gilmore is that it doesn’t present the history of the film as textbook information. He discusses these films from a place of passion and so effectively reveals how the history behind the movies is just as engaging as the films themselves.

Gilmore, a radio and television host and host of Back to the Future: The Podcast, is an expert on all things Back to the Future. Pairing his knowledge with his passion for the films, Gilmore uses this book to discuss details and movie trivia that reveal just why the trilogy has stood the test of time. As a fan speaking to fellow fans, he dives into fan theories and provides answers to many questions readers have—because they are the very questions he himself has asked.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Voodoo Ranger 1985 Hazy IPA, New Belgium Brewing, Ft. Collins, Colorado

BOOK:  Back From the Future: A Celebration of the Greatest Time Travel Story Ever Told
https://www.amazon.com/Back-Future-Celebration-Greatest-Travel/dp/1642507237/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1637273942&sr=8-1

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/

The malign figure of the Antichrist endures in modern culture, whether religious or secular; and the spectral shadow he has cast over the ages continues to exert a strong and powerful fascination. Philip C. Almond tells the story of the son of Satan from his early beginnings to the present day, and explores this false Messiah in theology, literature and the history of ideas. Discussing the origins of the malevolent being who at different times was cursed as Belial, Nero or Damien, the author reveals how Christianity in both East and West has imagined this incarnation of absolute evil destined to appear at the end of time. For the better part of the last two thousand years, Almond suggests, the human battle between right and wrong has been envisaged as a mighty cosmic duel between good and its opposite, culminating in an epic final showdown between Christ and his deadly arch-nemesis.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Lucifest Festbier, Devil's Logic Brewing, Charlotte, North Carolina

BOOK:  The Antichrist: A New Biography
https://www.amazon.com/Antichrist-Biography-Philip-C-Almond-ebook-dp-B08D6RZ2CN/dp/B08D6RZ2CN/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=

MUSIC:  Bones Fork
https://bonesfork.com/