History Author Show

July 25, 1016 - This week, Hildegarde Mahoney shares her memoir, Journey Interrupted: A Family Without a Country in a World at War. In 1941, seven-year-old Hillie and her family left home in New York City and set off for their native Germany. They planned to take the safe and scenic route: Across the U.S., the Pacific, and Eurasia via the Trans-Siberian Railway.

But then Hitler betrayed his alliance with Stalin, the family found themselves stranded in Yokohama, Japan -- and when the empire attacked Pearl Harbor, there was no going back.

Today, Hildegarde Mahoney has worn many hats in her life -- and one crown. She was Miss Rheingold, 1956. Today, she is the chairman of the Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute. You can sign up for their free, quarterly newsletter right here, and be on the cutting edge of brain science when you or someone you love is impacted. As Mrs. Mahoney says, "No family goes untouched."

July 22, 2016 - It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster — kicking off your modern weekend, with people from the past. Today, we meet lifelong Shakespeare fan, industrialist Henry Clay Folger, who founded the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. to serve as the leading western research and education center on the famous playwright.

We have a familiar passenger in our time machine: James Shapiro, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He’s the author of Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare, and The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606. You can hear our interview (recorded in the shadow of Shakespeare’s Central Park statue), wherever you enjoy our show.

History in Five Friday.

It’s the perfect way to kick off your modern weekend… with people from the past.

It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly- bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee.

Have you ever wondered just how all those ancient Roman buildings are still standing even after thousands of years of wars, earthquakes, erosion, and encroaching modernity? Well, the secret to the durability of ancient Roman architecture is now out, and you won’t believe the findings.

Your guide through the classical landscape is Van Bryan, Associate Editor of Classical Wisdom Weekly. You can catch Classical Wisdom Wednesday every week before your first cup of coffee, right here on the History Author Show.

July 18, 2016 - This week, we strapping our time machine to a canal boat, and sail down the modern marvel of early American commerce: The Erie Canal. The 360-mile slash between Lake Erie to Albany, and down the Hudson River to New York Harbor isn't just one of engineers and back-breaking, dangerous manual labor, but of fascinating human drama and America itself.

The book is Heaven's Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal. By the time the canal opened 1825, the nation had fallen in love with this man-made waterway. Now, you can fall in love with it, too, thanks to Jack Kelly -- journalist, novelist, and New York Foundation for the Arts fellow. His previous books include Band of Giants, which earned the Daughters of the American Revolution's History Award Medal. You can see him everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to the History Channel, or by clicking over to HeavensDitch.com.

July 11, 2016 - Today, we travel back in time to World War Two, and hear from a veteran who served on the front lines. Our guest is Roger Boas, and his book is Battle Rattle: A Last Memoir of World War II. It focuses not only on the fighting, but the scars it left on the inside.

Roger Boas was born in San Francisco, 1921, so he's just five years from celebrating his centennial. That long life -- denied so many of his generation -- has given him time to reflect on the meaning of his four years in uniform, including eleven months fighting in Europe as a field artillery forward observer with Gen. George S. Patton's Fourth Armored Division.

For his service, Roger Boas earned both a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. And raised a Christian Scientist but of Jewish ancestry, he was among the first American soldiers to find and enter a Nazi concentration camp. Experiencing so much brutality left scars on the young Roger Boas. The result, is what we today call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). But in the Second World War they called it, "battle rattle."

For more of Roger Boas discussing his experiences, visit BattleRattleMemoir.com. You can also follow @BattleRattleMem on Twitter, and like Facebook.com/BattleRattleMemoir.

Update: Lt. Roger Boas passed away a few months after our interview at the age of 95. It was an honor to meet him, and to play a small role in sharing his story. He is home at last, with no more nightmares of the war's horrors, which plagued him up to the end of his long life. Rest in peace, sir.

July 8, 2016 - On Monday, July 11, 2016, we'll commemorate the tragic death of one Founding Father -- Alexander Hamilton -- at the hands of another, Vice President Aaron Burr. With "Hamilton: An American Musical" racking up Tonys on Broadway, the face on the $10 bill is more popular than he has been in 200 years. But in this episode, David O. Stewart introduces us to the man who pulled the trigger.

Mr. Stewart is president of the Washington Independent Review of Books and author of American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America. And since we are looking ahead to the 212th anniversary of the Burr-Hamilton Duel, those of us in the Greater New York City area won't want to miss the annual gathering at the Hamilton Memorial overlooking the Weehawken Dueling Grounds in New Jersey, just across the Hudson from Manhattan.

The Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society (AHA!) will commemorate the event at 6PM, with the theme of Celebrating the New Generation of U.S. Currency. Douglas Hamilton, 5th great-grandson of Alexander, will speak at the Hamilton Memorial Bust, a year after his successful call to preserve Alexander's place of honor on the $10 bill.

If you can't get enough of our charismatic first Treasury Secretary, enjoy our previous interview with Stephen F. Knott, co-author with Tony Williams of Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America. You can also find the man of the hour in our previous chat with David O. Stewart about Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships that Built America.  We also sat down with Daniel L. Mallock on his book, Agony and Eloquence: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and a World of Revolution.  And if you're still hungry for more, visit the Old '76 House with us in Tappan, New York, the oldest bar and restaurant in the U.S. where Alexander Hamilton lived upstairs and Benedict Arnold's British conspirator was held before his execution.

We also shared history news of our own: Amanda has earned a James Madison Memorial Fellowship. The scholarship that will enable her to complete a master's degree in history with a focus on Constitutional studies. She's also been noodling with producing a film series on visiting the key year of 1787. You can book your ticket at Facebook.com/PastimeSeries, and visit the period in print through David O. Stewart's: The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution.

Hamilton was so much more than the man who "wound up on the wrong end of a gun," as the Allman Brothers Band sang it, and Aaron Burr was so much more than man who pulled the trigger. Thanks to David O. Stewart for joining to paint the full picture of the man who would be American Emperor.

July 6, 2016 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee.

You might not believe it, but if it weren’t for Cicero, the United States might never have broken away from England. And if it weren’t for the philosopher, Epicurus,  it is possible that Thomas Jefferson might never have put ink to parchment and penned the words, “…that all men are created equal.” That's right, dear listener, we are going to find out just how the classics inspired the creation of America.

Your guide through the classical landscape is Van Bryan, Associate Editor of Classical Wisdom Weekly. You can catch Classical Wisdom Wednesday every week before your first cup of coffee, right here on the History Author Show.

July 4, 2016 - On this Independence Day, our time machine takes us out to the ball game, on a July 4th neither side of the Revolutionary War could possibly have envisioned during the conflict. The place is Chelsea, England. The time: The Great War. The book is titled, Nine Innings for the King: The Day Wartime London Stopped for Baseball, July 4, 1918.

We've chatted previously with today's author, Jim Leeke, about his Civil War novel for young adults: Matty Boy. Jim is a contributor to the Society for American Baseball Research Baseball (SABR) Biography Project, the writer or editor of several books on U.S. and military history, and the creative director of Taillight Communications.

We'll also be hearing about the Anglo-American Baseball Project. It's an ambitious plan to recreate the King's Game for its centennial: July 4, 2018. Pitch in to help at AABaseball.org, or by following Jim @9Innings4King on Twitter. For more on baseball players in the Great War, enjoy our interview with Charles Leerhsen, author of the award-winning, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty. Cobb -- the victim of malicious slander falsely depicting him as a selfish, belligerent racist -- not only signed up to serve his country, he enlisted in the dangerous chemical warfare unit rather than a cushy behind-the-lines job.

In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, the special relationship between the United States and Britain as trading partners will have real-world impacts on millions of people around the globe. In a small, early way, the King's Game started us off then, to where we stand now, shoulder to shoulder in good times and bad, with George Washington honored with a statue in London, gazing straight at the Parliament against which he rebelled.

July 1, 2016 - It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster. Check them out at Facebook.com/HistoryInFive.

Today, author Stephen Coss discusses the first disease mankind wiped off the face of the earth: The scourge of Smallpox. Stephen’s debut book is The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic that Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics. In it, we meet historical figures including the young Franklin laboring at his brother’s newspaper, and the Reverend Cotton Mather, seeking redemption from the debacle Salem Witch Trials by evangelizing for the scientific technique of inoculation against strenuous opposition.

You can enjoy our full interview on The Fever of 1721 whenever you enjoy our show, or stream it at HistoryAuthor.com. Today's guest can be found @Coss1Coss on Twitter, or visit him at StephenCoss.com.

History in Five Friday.

It’s the perfect way to kick off your modern weekend… with people from the past.

June 29, 2016 – It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee.

Palmyra is an ancient city in the Syrian desert, about 100 miles north of Damascus, which was snatched up by ISIS in late 2015.  On this episode, we look at the history of Palmyra.  Palmyra was, in the words of the historian Edward Gibbon, “… a cultivated spot in the barren desert of Arabia that rose like an island out of the sandy ocean.”

Your guide through the classical landscape is Van Bryan, Associate Editor of Classical Wisdom Weekly. You can catch Classical Wisdom Wednesday every week before your first cup of coffee, right here on the History Author Show.