History Author Show

 

The New York Sun - Upcoming Dump of JFK Documents Winds Up the Conspiracy Theorists - Dean Karayanis

November 15, 2021 - On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Was it a lone gunman or something more sinister? In this episode, we debunk the conspiracy theories with renowned investigative journalist and attorney Gerald Posner, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK.

Gerald previously appeared on the History Author Show to discuss his 2015 book, God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican, and his eerily prescient book that hit shelves on the eve of the pandemic ... Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America. His wife and research partner, Trisha Posner, also shared her chilling biography The Pharmacist of Auschwitz: The Untold Story.

 Visit Posner.com for more on today's guest, and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. You can also check out his columns in Forbes magazine.

November 1, 2021 - Adolf Hitler infamously told his naval commander-in-chief, Admiral Karl Dönitz, "On land, I am a hero. At sea, I am a coward." But those battles on, under and over the Atlantic decided the fate of the world every bit as much as action in Europe and North Africa.

In this episode, our time machine welcomes back Simon Read who brings us his wildly enjoyable new book The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler's Warships. In our archives, you can find my previous conversation with Simon, that's about 2015's Winston Churchill Reporting: Adventures of a Young War Correspondent.

Simon Read is a former journalist and the author of eight previous nonfiction books. His work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, and TIME magazine. Three of his previous books, including Winston Churchill Reporting and Human Game: The True Story of the "Great Escape" Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen, have been optioned for film and TV adaptations.

Visit our guest at SimonReadWriting.com, or on social media at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

October 18, 2021 - America's only bachelor president has had whispers about his relationship with a certain vice president for almost two centuries. But were they more than friends, and why does the answer matter in 2021?

Our time machine travels back to the pre-Civil War period, to delve into the personal lives of our 15th president, James Buchanan, and his roommate William Rufus King, the 13th vice president -- a pair that has long been the target of snickering, insults -- and more recently, of celebration.

Our guide on this journey is a historian, not a gossip columnist. Thomas Balcerski and he brings us Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King. Tom is a presidential and political historian at Eastern Connecticut State University, as well as a contributor for CNN, NBC Connecticut, and Made by History, the Washington Post's history blog. Find him on social media at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Special thanks to presidential historian Louis Picone for submitting a video question for this interview. Louis has appeared on the History Author Show three times for his books Grant’s Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon, as well as the bookenders Where the Presidents Were Born: The History & Preservation of the Presidential Birthplaces and The President is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of the Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond.

October 4, 2021 - Theodore Roosevelt is invoked in contemporary politics so often, it's easy to forget that he died in his bed 100 years ago. So who was the real flesh-and-blood man, and what would he think of his evolution into a mythical folk hero?

Our time machine travels back, to meet the real TR with Michael Patrick Cullinane, author of Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon, winner of the coveted TR Book Prize.

Michael Patrick Cullinane is professor of U.S. history at Roehampton University in London, and the author of previous books, as well as the upcoming title Remembering Theodore Roosevelt: Reminiscences of his Contemporaries. He also hosts The Gilded Age & Progressive Era podcast. Find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

September 20, 2021 - In 2020, we saw one what was long called impossible: Peace deal after another between Arab states and Israel in the Abraham Accords. What do the leaders of these nations see for the future, and how can we foster it by better understanding the past?

Joel C. Rosenberg has seen history unfold firsthand and spoken personally to the men changing their corner of world by beating swords into plowshares. Joel's latest book after a string of New York Times bestselling novels and non-fiction books is Enemies and Allies: An Unforgettable Journey inside the Fast-Moving & Immensely Turbulent Modern Middle East.

In it, Joel shares exclusive, never-before-published quotes, insights, and analysis from his conversations with some of the most complex and controversial leaders in the world including Benjamin Netanyahu (who he worked for as a strategist), Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and many others.

Visit JoelRosenberg.com or check out Joel's Fast Traffic Blog where he track "events and trends in Israel, the U.S., Russia and throughout the Epicenter (the Middle East & North Africa)." He's also editor-in-chief at All Arab News and All Israel News. His social media accounts are at Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Sep 6, 2021 - Our time machine travels back to a bright morning that turned dark, when ships of all sizes answered cries for help to evacuate Lower Manhattan after terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers. Our guide on this journey is Jessica DuLong who bring us, Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift.

Jessica DuLong is an award-winning author, journalist, historian, ghostwriter, book collaborator, proposal doctor, editor, writing coach, and a marine engineer as well. Her previous book is My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work that Built America; A Personal and Historical Journey.

Visit JessicaDuLong.com for more, or follower her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For more on 9/11, check out the History Author Show interview with Governor George Pataki about his book, Beyond the Great Divide: How a Nation Became a Neighborhood.

August 23, 2021 - Everyone has heard the timeless music of George Gershwin, but we may never have heard it in quite the same way without the love of Gershwin's life, Katharine Faulkner Swift, who he nicknamed "Kay." Mitchell James Kaplan brings us their Jazz Age romance in his novel, Rhapsody. In it, we meet a restless society wife who attends a concert that changes her life and the face of musical theater. The song is Rhapsody in Blue, composed by the young genius, Gershwin.

Mitchell James Kaplan earned his BA with Honors in English Literature at Yale, where he won the prestigious Paine Memorial Prize. His previous novels are Into the Unbounded Night, and, By Fire, By Water. Visit him at MitchellJamesKaplan.com, and on the major social media platforms where you can find me as well: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.

August 9, 2021 - In this episode, we toss the keys to our time machine into the hands of Lincoln historian Jason Emerson, who I welcomed for Q&A about his book Mary Lincoln for the Ages and several other titles related to the 16th president and the First Lady. Jason's guest hosting our interview with Michael Burlingame about An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd.

James McPherson of the New York Review of Books says that Dr. Burlingame "knows more about Abraham Lincoln than any other living person." He holds of the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois-Springfield, and is the author of several books on Honest Abe, including the two-volume Abraham Lincoln: A Life.

July 26, 2021 - You may not have heard the name Wolf the Quarrelsome. But once you meet this bold, Irish warrior -- and the woman who risked her life to build his spy ring -- you'll never look at Ireland quite the same way. In this episode, our way-back machine travels ten centuries into the past, as Viking invaders storm his island, and Wolf mounts a 15-year resistance campaign, climaxing in arguably the most decisive battle of the Middle Ages: The Battle of Clontarf.

Our guide on this journey is novelist Lt. Col. Thomas J. Howley who brings us Wolf of Clontarf: The Irish, the Vikings and the Foreigners of the World. Howley is a retired U.S. Army officer-turned-civilian operational intelligence analyst supporting U.S. government Defense and Federal Law Enforcement agencies. Meet him and his Irish wolfhound at TJHowleyBooks.com.

July 12, 2021 - Imagine you're Jewish during the Second World War, but safely in bed an ocean away from Nazi Germany, secure in the vastness of Canada. Would you march into the heart of the Third Reich, risking your life to stare down Hitler's war machine, for a country that didn't consider you a fully loyal and equal citizen?

In this episode, we meet the heroes that Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King said faced a "double threat" from Axis evil: Not just Fascism, but their survival as a people. Our guide on this journey is Ellin Bessner, a professor of journalism at Centennial College in Toronto and the author of Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II.

Although Canada had turned away European Jews desperate to escape the rising tide of anti-Semitism -- and while those already in Canada found doors to many jobs and universities slammed in their faces -- when war came, an huge numbers answered the call to fight, defying bigotry and earning valor that has been shamefully forgotten.

Ellin also hosts the CJN Daily, a podcast from The Canadian Jewish News. Visit her at EllinBessner.com or on social media at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.