History Ago Go

Dr. Patrick Hotle discusses the amazing story of the First Crusade.  He explains the economic and political conditions that led thousands to make their way across medieval Europe to Constantinople and then on to the Holy Land.  He discusses the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages and in the importance of pilgrimage and relics.  Hotle describes the Peace of God and Truce of God and how Pope Urban II's call led to a massive movement to recapture the ancient city of Jerusalem.  He discusses several key figures such as Godfrey, Bohemond, Raymond, and Baldwin.  The amazing journey led to the capture of Antioch and several battles with the Seljuk Turks.  He explains the capture of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Crusader States.  He concludes with the early history of the Knights Templar.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Absolution Belgian-Style Quadrupel, Crusader Brewing Company, Bakersfield, California

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

A small team of CIA operatives and Marines commanded by Captain Diego Cruz are protecting a tiny base in Helmand—the most violent province in Afghanistan. In a series of escalating fights, Cruz must prove he is a combat leader, despite the growing disapproval of the colonel in overall charge. At the same time, the president has ordered the CIA to capture a drug lord. But with a fortune in heroin at stake, the Taliban joins with the drug lord to wipe out the base. As the president negotiates a secret deal, Cruz must rally the Marines to make a last stand. Bringing you into America’s longest war with vivid immediacy, The Last Platoon portrays how leaders rise or wilt under intense pressure. A searing, timeless story of moral conflict, savage combat, and feckless politics.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Semper Fi PA, Stars and Stripes Brewing Company, Freeport, Maine

BOOK:  The Last Platoon: A Novel of the Afghanistan War
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Platoon-Novel-Afghanistan-War/dp/1642936731/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+last+platoon&qid=1626543443&s=books&sr=1-1

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

The Bible, we are constantly reminded, is the best-selling book of all time. It is read with intense devotion by hundreds of millions of people, stands as authoritative for Judaism and Christianity, and informs and affects the politics and lives of the religious and non-religious around the world. But how well do we really know it? The Bible is so familiar, so ubiquitous that we have begun to take our knowledge of it for granted. The Bible many of us think we know is a pale imitation of the real thing.

In A Most Peculiar Book, Kristin Swenson addresses the dirty little secret of biblical studies that the Bible is a weird book. It is full of surprises and contradictions, unexplained impossibilities, intriguing supernatural creatures, and heroes doing horrible deeds. It does not provide a simple worldview: what "the Bible says" on a given topic is multi-faceted, sometimes even contradictory. Yet, Swenson argues, we have a tendency to reduce the complexities of the Bible to aphorisms, bumper stickers, and slogans. Swenson helps readers look at the text with fresh eyes. A collection of ancient stories and poetry written by multiple authors, held together by the tenuous string of tradition, the Bible often undermines our modern assumptions. And is all the more marvelous and powerful for it.

Rather than dismiss the Bible as an outlandish or irrelevant relic of antiquity, Swenson leans into the messiness full-throttle. Making ample room for discomfort, wonder, and weirdness, A Most Peculiar Book guides readers through a Bible that will feel, to many, brand new.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Experience Paradise American IPA, Holy City Brewery, North Charleston, SC

BOOK:  A Most Peculiar Book: The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Peculiar-Book-Inherent-Strangeness/dp/0190651733/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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

The lights are coming down. Frank, Dean, and Sammy are about to take the stage. This is the moment we remember, when Las Vegas became classic. And it was at the Sands. Built in 1952 over the ashes of Hollywood Reporter publisher Billy Wilkerson’s last chance in Las Vegas, the Sands was a collective effort. Underworld figures like Meyer Lansky, Doc Stacher, and Frank Costello provided the cash. Beloved Texas gambler Jake Freedman was the public face. Manhattan nightclub king Jack Entratter kept the Copa Room filled and made the party happen, every night.  No matter how well your casino is run, you need a good hook to get the gamblers through the door. Casino owners were learning that entertainment was a pretty fair hook.  The Copa was the hottest ticket in America and, for performers, one of the most coveted stages in the nation. Headlining at the Sands–or even opening there–meant that you had made it.  For gamblers, the Sands was paradise.  Behind the scenes, Davis and Sinatra resisted the prevailing segregationist mindset of Las Vegas and helped to overturn Jim Crow on the Strip.  After Howard Hughes bought the Sands in 1967 (with Frank Sinatra explosively departing soon after) the Sands lost some of its allure, but the casino soldiered on.  In the end, the Sands went out with a bang–an implosion that brought down its hotel tower.  It had a wild 44 year run.  The Sands may be gone, but it did not fade away.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Excited State Unfiltered Pilsner, Able Baker Brewing Company, Las Vegas, Nevada

BOOK:  At the Sands: The Casino That Shaped Classic Las Vegas, Brought the Rat Pack Together, and Went Out With a Bang
https://www.amazon.com/At-Sands-Classic-Brought-Together/dp/0990001660/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1625631204&sr=1-1

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

Former Mayor Chuck Scholz explains how the city of Quincy took in nearly the entirety of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the winter of 1838-1839.  That act of charity the community extended to the Mormons was also extended to the Potawatomi Indians on their Trail of Death in 1838 and also to the many escaped slaves who fled to freedom on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War.  Chuck also talks about his time as mayor and his meetings with Mormon leaders including the prophet of their church Gordon B. Hinkley.  He discusses the standing ovation he received in Salt Lake City and the reenactment of the City of Refuge across the Memorial Bridge.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

GUEST:  Chuck Scholz

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

In the watershed year of 1962, events and people came together to reshape baseball like never before. The season saw five no-hitters, a rare National League playoff between the Giants and the Dodgers, and a thrilling seven-game World Series where the Yankees, led by Mickey Mantle, won their twentieth title, beating the San Francisco Giants, led by Willie Mays, in their first appearance since leaving New York.

Earlier that year in Los Angeles, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley launched Dodger Stadium, a state-of-the-art ballpark in Chavez Ravine and a new icon for the city. For the Dodgers, Sandy Koufax pitched his first of four career no-hitters, Maury Wills set a record for stolen bases in a season, and Don Drysdale won twenty-five games.

Beyond baseball, 1962 was also a momentous year in American history: Mary Early became the first Black graduate of the University of Georgia, First Lady Jackie Kennedy revealed the secrets of the White House in a television special, John Glenn became the first astronaut to orbit Earth, and JFK stared down Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Weaving the 1962 baseball season within the social fabric of this era, David Krell delivers a fascinating book as epochal as its subject.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Old Slugger Pale Ale, Cooperstown Brewing Company, Cooperstown, NY

BOOK:  1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK
https://www.amazon.com/1962-Baseball-America-Time-JFK/dp/080329087X

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

"The FAKE NEWS media,” Donald Trump has tweeted, “is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” Has our free press ever faced as great a threat? Perhaps not—but the tension between presidents and journalists is as old as the republic itself.
 
Every president has been convinced of his own honesty and transparency; every reporter who has covered the White House beat has believed with equal fervency that his or her journalistic rigor protects the country from danger. Our first president, George Washington, was also the first to grouse about his treatment in the newspapers, although he kept his complaints private. Subsequent chiefs like John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama were not so reticent, going so far as to wield executive power to overturn press freedoms, and even to prosecute journalists.

In this remarkable new history, acclaimed scholar Harold Holzer examines the dual rise of the American presidency and the media that shaped it. From Washington to Trump, he chronicles the disputes and distrust between these core institutions that define the United States of America, revealing that the essence of their confrontation is built into the fabric of the nation.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Freedom of Press Session Sour, Revolution Brewery, Chicago, Illinois

BOOK:  The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless Battle between the White House and the Media--from the Founding Fathers to Fake News
https://www.amazon.com/Presidents-vs-Press-Media-Founding/dp/152474526X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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

Just over a year after Robert E. Lee relinquished his sword, a band of Union and Confederate veterans dusted off their guns. But these former foes had no intention of reigniting the Civil War. Instead, they fought side by side to undertake one of the most fantastical missions in military history: to seize the British province of Canada and to hold it hostage until the independence of Ireland was secured.

When the Irish Invaded Canada is the untold tale of a band of fiercely patriotic Irish Americans and their chapter in Ireland's centuries-long fight for independence. Inspiring, lively, and often undeniably comic, this is a story of fighting for what's right in the face of impossible odds.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Smithwick's Irish Red Ale, St. James Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland

BOOK:  When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland's Freedom
https://store.thehistorylist.com/products/when-the-irish-invaded-canada-signed-by-the-author-christopher-klein?variant=39284788691009

FEATURED MUSIC: The Mary Wallopers
 https://www.marywallopers.com/

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

In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To “set Europe ablaze,” in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive  (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting, was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France.

In D-Day Girls, Sarah Rose draws on recently de­classified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the thrilling story of three of these remarkable women. There’s Andrée Borrel, a scrappy and streetwise Parisian who blew up power lines with the Gestapo hot on her heels; Odette Sansom, an unhappily married suburban mother who saw the SOE as her ticket out of domestic life and into a meaningful adventure; and Lise de Baissac, a fiercely independent member of French colonial high society and the SOE’s unflap­pable “queen.” Together, they destroyed train lines, ambushed Nazis, plotted prison breaks, and gathered crucial intelligence—laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war.

Rigorously researched and written with razor-sharp wit, D-Day Girls is an inspiring story for our own moment of resistance: a reminder of what courage—and the energy of politically animated women—can accomplish when the stakes seem incalculably high.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Kronenbourg 1664, Carlsberg

BOOK:  D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II
https://www.amazon.com/D-Day-Girls-Resistance-Sabotaged-Helped/dp/0451495098/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1622992300&sr=1-1

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

Eric Jay Dolin  returns to History Ago Go to discuss his most recent book A Furious Sky.  The conversation includes a review of the 500 year history of hurricanes in the Americas starting with stories about Columbus and early colonization.  He explains how we first started to understand the nature of hurricanes with the findings of early storm researchers like Redfield and Espy.  Dolin breaks down the great "American Storm Controversy" and how the debate increased our overall knowledge of the mighty storms.  He finishes the discussion with an explanation of the historical impact and what we can expect in the future so beware.

HOST:  Rob Mellon

FEATURED BREW:  Unholy American Trippel Ale, Coppertail Brewing Company, Tampa, Florida

BOOK:  A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZTTHPB8/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1

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