History Author Show

March 2, 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.

This week, we discuss Diogenes of Sinope.  He is often considered one of the more eccentric, or at the very least untraditional, of the ancient Greek philosophers. He is credited as being one of the founders of cynicism and practiced these ideals through the eccentricities that filled his life.

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.

February 29, 2016 - Our time machine for this trip is tricked out like James Bond's Aston Martin, and we're speeding back to the height of the Cold War. Our driver on this journey is Paddy Hayes, who was kind enough to call into the show from Dublin, Ireland. His book is Queen of Spies: Daphne Park, Britain's Cold War Spy Master.

Until this book, no biography has been written about Daphne Park's incredible contributions to the crown at a time when the intelligence services were still very closed to women. From helping prepare for the D-Day landings to shoring up the Falkland Islands' defense, her adventures included being thrown into a pit, swimming the chilly Volga River to escape the KGB, and threats of execution. "I must have been arrested and condemned to be shot several times," she said. "It was a hazard that I got used to."

Daphne Park was Britain’s top woman spy, the most senior lady in MI6, a spitfire who people said once met, was never forgotten.

February 26, 2016 - Today’s history author, Matthew Hart, brings us...gold.  No, he's not making us rich.  It's the title of his latest book: Gold: the Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal.  It follows in the footsteps of his previous book: Diamond - The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair.

History in Five Friday.

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

February 24, 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.

When it comes to tragic love stories, there are none that compare to the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe. Well… that’s not entirely true. In fact, this ancient legend might have been the inspiration for one of the world’s most celebrated tales of love and loss.

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.

February 22, 2016 - This week, we sling-shot around the sun at high warp, sending us tumbling back in time to the Summer of 1832 -- and America, at war. It's not a conflict over land or of arms, but over the fiscal system of the young republic. Our guide on this journey is Paul Kahan, and his book is The Bank War: Andrew Jackson, Nicholas Biddle, and the Fight for American Finance.

The fight against the Second Bank of the United States may have been the most frustrating fight of President Jackson's life, since -- for once -- he couldn't end things by simply shooting or threatening to shoot his opponent in the face.

Dr. Kahan holds a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Temple University, an M.A. in Modern American History & Literature, and B.A.s in history and English. He's also the author of two books on Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, and another titled, The Homestead Strike: Labor, Violence, and American History Critical Moments in American Industry.

You can visit him at PaulKahan.com, or follow him on Twitter @Paul_Kahan.

February 19, 2016 - Today’s history author, Michael Shelden, is the author of Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill. You may recall hearing praise for Young Titan in our interview with Simon Read, author of Winston Churchill Reporting: Adventures of a Young War Correspondent. The Greatest Briton's early life is often overlooked, with people understandably focusing on the image of him as a heroic figure, standing on the White Cliffs of Dover, shaking his fist in defiance at Hitler across the channel.

But Churchill's path of destiny was not a straight one. What can the way he dealt with the many bumps and curves in the road, teach us about how to deal with adversity in our own lives?

For more on the Greatest Briton life before greatness, you can also hear us catch up with Sir Winston's great-grandson, Jonathan Sandys, as he discusses the future Prime Minister's youthful sense of destiny in: God & Churchill: How the Great Leader's Sense of Divine Destiny Changed His Troubled World and Offers Hope for Ours.

Simon & Schuster's History in Five every Friday.

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

February 17, 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 gladiators, and while you might be familiar with TV shows like “Spartacus” or movies like “Gladiator”, you might be interested to know that Hollywood does not tell the whole story.

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.

February 15, 2016 - Today's destination is America in the 1870s, and our guest is Sheila Myers, author of the novel Ephemeral Summer, and associate professor at Cayuga Community College. Her latest novel is Imaginary Brightness: a Durant Family Saga. At the dawn of what Mark Twain would later dub the Gilded Age, the economy suffered a panic -- what we'd call a depression -- brought on, in part, by over-speculation in railroads.

Dr. Thomas C. Durant, head of the Union Pacific Railroad, was one of those tycoons devastated by the crash. Imaginary Brightness tells the story of his children, William and Ella, whose world is turned upside down by the crash as they're torn away from their privileged lifestyle in high society London, and stuck in the wilderness of upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains.

You can follow Sheila @SheilaMMyers on Twitter, or visit her online at wwdurantstory.com.

February 12, 2016 - Today’s author, John Taliaferro, pans the camera lens of history just to the side of two great American presidents to focus on a man who worked for both. The book is All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt.

John Hay may not be a name that jumps out at people today, but he had a front-row seat with Abraham Lincoln in the early 1860s, and Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s.

History in Five Friday.

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

February 10, 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.

How many ways can you say “I love you”? There are only so many ways. But did you know that in the classical world there were more than thirty ways to express your love for another? Today we are going to look at just a few.

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.