History Author Show

May 11, 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.

Lions, tigers, and bears- these are a few of the animals you might use to describe the devotion this one classical mother felt for her children. Clytemnestra is a controversial figure in the classical landscape. Was she an avenging mother? Or is it possible she is a crazed murderer?

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.

May 9, 2016 - In this episode, our time machine door opens into the wardrobe of our First Ladies, that Narnia of fashion that trends back to the very first days of our republic, when the role of the president's wife had -- like the role of the president himself -- yet to be defined.

Our valet is Feather Schwartz Foster, a presidential historian who focuses on our First Ladies from Martha Washington to Mamie Eisenhower. She's here to share fun and little known stories from her new book: Mary Lincoln's Flannel Pajamas: And Other Stories from the First Ladies' Closet. You can find her @FeatherSFoster on Twitter, or at FeatherFoster.com, where you can sample a free chapter from today's book.

Also discussed in today's episode, a sneak peek at our summertime read: Remarkable Women of the New Jersey Shore: Clam Shuckers, Social Reformers and Summer Sojourners.

May 6, 2016 - It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster.

Our guest is Edward Brooke-Hitching, and his book is the quirky Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports. From Flagpole Sitting (can't imagine why it ever fell out of fashion) to Hot Cockles, time-travel through the most curious, dangerous and downright bizarre sports and pastimes that mankind has ever devised, tried, and realized were quietly best forgotten.

The son of an antiquarian book dealer, Edward Brooke-Hitching became an award-winning documentary director making films that examine the eccentric side of British life. For more, visit EdwardBrookeHitching.com, or follow @FoxTosser on Twitter.

Simon & Schuster’s History in Five Friday.

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

May 4, 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.

Today we are looking at ancient athletics. They were a cultural staple, but athletics might also have been responsible for handing down a comprehensive timeline of the classical world to us here in the modern age.

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.

May 2, 2016 - In this episode, our time machine touches down during the months after Pearl Harbor, as Hitler's U-boats bring the Second World War to the Gulf of Mexico. On board the doomed steam merchant ship Heredia, we'll bear witness to disaster with the Downs family, through the eyes of eight-year-old Sonny.

We'll also meet the commanders of two U-Boats, dispatched by Germany's Admiral Dönitz, and see how they combine their duty to the Reich with offering mercy to survivors of their attacks. Our steward on this journey is Michael J. Tougias, co-author with Alison O'Leary of the book: So Close to Home - A True Story of an American Family's Fight for Survival During World War II.

Mr. Tougias is the New York Times bestselling author and co-author of two dozen books, including The Finest Hours, which served as basis for the Disney movie out in January 2016. He's also given us Fatal Forecast. Overboard. King Philip's War, Rescue of the Bounty, and There's A Porcupine In My Outhouse: The Vermont Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe. You can find him at MichaelTougias.com, or @MichaelTougias on Twitter.

April 29, 2016 - This weekend, the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Churches take us back in time to the early days of the church, when Christ’s resurrection was celebrated after Passover in order to be historically sequential. After all, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder -- which some of you might have celebrated a few days ago.

This special episode is presented by Luke Historians, and features excerpts from Dan Arsenault’s lectures on "Messiah Factor" and "Is Jesus the Messiah?"

Additional information on the dating of the crucifixion is well-sourced and compiled in James D. Agresti's book, Rational Conclusions.

April 27, 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.

Today we are looking at a true giant from the classical age. He is a man who so popularized a method of inquiry, that it bears his very name. He is a man we are all indebted to; we are all students of this great and unusual man-Socrates.

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.

April 25, 2016 - In this episode, we'll step through the Guardian of Forever and meet two founding fathers who were best friends, then bitter enemies, and finally friends again: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third presidents of the United States, and the first and second vice presidents.

Our guide on this journey is Daniel L. Mallock, and his book is Agony and Eloquence: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and a World of Revolution. Daniel L. Mallock grew up within walking distance of Peacefield, John and Abigail Adams' home in Massachusetts, and was also a member of the Quincy Historical Society in the Bay State. You may have seen his previous history work in North and South. But if not, check out his website: DanielMallock.com.

And if you're going to be in the New England area this summer, catch Dan at Bunker Hill Day, June 17, 2016, where he'll speak about "John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Other Revolution" at the Adams National Historic Park in Quincy, Massachusetts.

April 22, 2016 - Today popular historian and frequent TV news guest, Doris Kearns Goodwin discusses how Theodore Roosevelt overcame serious ailments as a child to become one of our nation's most active, vigorous presidents. The insight comes in her latest book, titled, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. She previously touched on the extended Roosevelt family twenty years ago, writing No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front During World War II, for which she was awarded the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for History. You can follow her @DorisKGoodwin on Twitter.

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April 20, 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 have probably heard the name “Homer” (the classical Greek, not Simpson). He is a man that we are culturally and literarily so indebted to that his epics The Iliad and The Odyssey are often considered the first true masterpieces of the Western world.

But there are so many questions about this mysterious author. Did he write? Or was he a traveling bard? Was he really only one man? Could he possibly have been a woman? Most interestingly of all, did he even really exist?

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.