History Author Show

February 8, 2016 - Today, we're riding in Great White Coach with the father of our country. Our teamster is author Timothy Hall Breen, and his book is George Washington's Journey: The President Forges a New Nation. Aware of the fragile and fractured nature of the new republic after independence, Washington resolves -- in a day without maps or roads worthy of the name -- to take the federal government to the people.

Staying in simple inns rather than fine houses, and suffering through terrible food and bad treatment for his horses, Washington visited every one of the thirteen states, and left a candid assessment of his opinions, as well as funny moments with the people -- and a few where he nearly died.

Mr. Breen is the James Marsh Professor at-large at the University of Vermont and the author of eleven books on American history including, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence.  You can follow him @TimothyHBreen on Twitter.

February 5, 2016 - On this Friday before Super Bowl 50, we're going to focus on the name etched into the victory trophy: Lombardi. Best-selling author and historian David Maraniss shares five key facts about the NFL's greatest coach from his biography, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi.

If you'd like to hear more about the history of football this Super Bowl week, catch our interview with John J. Miller, author of The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football. It's the story of how the Rough Rider reformed the game, at a time when -- as with today's concerns about concussions -- some were calling to ban the pigskin pastime.

History in Five Friday.

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

February 3, 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.

Those of you who are familiar with ancient Greek mythology can probably name some of the Olympian deities. You might know Zeus, god of the heaven, or Poseidon, god of the seas. However, you might not know about the eldest Olympian. He was the dark and gloomy Hades, god of the underworld. Today we are going to explore why Hades was so feared and why such fear came with a healthy amount of respect.

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 1, 2016 - An advocate of the strenuous life, President Theodore Roosevelt saw sports as essential to developing physical fitness and character. So when 18 players died playing football in 1905, and people called to ban the game, TR leaped into action to reform the pigskin pastime.

The game in those days resembled rugby much more than the game the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers will play in Super Bowl 50. Joining us to discuss how we got from a time no forward pass, neutral zone or pads to the present day, is John J. Miller. His book is titled, The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football.

John J. Miller is a correspondent for National Review, contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and author of four books including a novel, The First Assassin, and the non-fiction offering: Our Oldest Enemy -- A history of America's Disastrous Relationship with France. He's also director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College -- and a proud fan of his college team, the Michigan University Wolverines.

You can follow him on Twitter @HeyMiller, like him at Facebook.com/HeyMiller, or visit him at HeyMiller.com. He also hosts a podcast you'll want to check out if you're listening here. The show is called The Bookmonger with John J. Miller.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children (free online), The Rough Riders, by Theodore Roosevelt (free online), Rough Riders (Film, 1997)

January 29, 2016 - Today’s history author, Richard Rhodes, has edited or authored several history books including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, winner of a Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction. His most recent book is Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made. The fighting took place from 1936 to 1939, and so is often lost in the catastrophe of World War Two. But the Spanish Civil War featured many of the same players, and some names from literature that may surprise you. In many ways, Spain's fighting set the stage for the carnage that was to engulf the world in flames.

History in Five Friday.

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

January 25, 2016 - In this episode, we'll be boarding a Pullman car attached to one of the great trains connecting the North American east and west coasts, all the way up into the Alaskan and Yukon territories -- and very nearly across the Bering Strait to Siberia. Our conductor on this journey is Gordon E. Tolton, author of Healy's West: The Life and Times of John J. Healy.

Gordon is a Western Canadian historic interpreter and author of the previous books, The Cowboy Cavalry, and Prairie Warships. You can join his Facebook group, Ranger Gord's Publications, for discussions of Western Canada's history and some self-described goofball humor. Follow him guest on Twitter @RMRanger, and check out his blog: RangerGordsRoundup.Wordpress.com.

January 22, 2016 – Today’s history author, Andrew D. Kaufman, author of Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times. He's going to share how, incredibly, one of the greatest works of fiction in history... almost didn't happen. Fortunately, Leo Tolstoy married the right woman, and she helped him in ways nobody else could have.

You can also follow today's guest on Twitter @AndrewDKaufman.

History in Five Friday.

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

January 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.

Today you should consider yourself warned. We are going to be discussing some adult topics. To be specific, we are going to be looking at some adult humor that sprung from the mind of one of the ancient worlds most notorious comic playwright, Aristophanes.

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.

January 18, 2016 - This week, we're flying our time machine across the Equator and into South America's turbulent past, where we'll meet some colorful characters, present at key moments of its history. They include Pablo Escobar, Butch Cassidy, Sundance, Charles Darwin, and a 14-year-old girl, Juanita, who the Incas sacrificed atop a twenty-thousand foot volcano.

Our tour guide to the Andes is author and filmmaker Kim MacQuarrie, who has won four Emmys for his documentaries. His latest book is Life and Death in the Andes: On the Trail of Bandits, Heroes, and Revolutionaries. You can follow him @KimMacQ on Twitter, and learn more about his work at KimMacQuarrie.com.

The F/X channel is developing Kim's previous book, The Last Days of the Incas, into a 13-part TV series: Conquistadors. Other books we discuss include Candice Millard's epic Amazon history: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey.

January 15, 2016 - Today’s history author, Jean Edward Smith, author of Grant, discusses the life and legacy of Ulysses S. Grant, from great disappointments and outright failures, to Civil War battlefields and, ultimately, the White House. The book bears a single word, the name of a modest man who became a legend. Grant.  Frederick Douglas called him "the last of the radicals" and he wrote memoirs so beautiful that critics have called them some of the most beautiful works in the English language.

In this week's episode, Jean Edward Smith shares with us five things you need to know about General Grant.

History in Five Friday.

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