History Does You

The four-month-long 1944 battle on Italy's coast, south of Rome, was one of World War II's longest and bloodiest battles. Surrounded by Nazi Germany's most fanatical troops, American and British amphibious forces endured relentless mortar and artillery barrages, aerial bombardments, and human-wave attacks by infantry with panzers. Through it all, despite tremendous casualties, Allied soldiers held their ground, fighting with, as Winston Churchill said, "desperate valour." So intense and heroic was the fighting that British soldiers were awarded two Victoria Crosses, while American soldiers received twenty-six Medals of Honor--ten of them awarded posthumously. On todays episode we welcome on Flint Whitlock, he is the editor of the WWII Quarterly magazine. He is the author of several books including “Desperate Valor” which was part of the Military Book Club’s Featured Selection. He has also written several books including “The Rock of Anzio”, “The Fighting First”, and “Given Up for Dead”. He is a resident of Denver, CO and graduated from the University of Illinois.

By May of 1943, the Allies had thrown out the German and Italian forces in North Africa, but what to do next. The Soviet Union was facing the bulk of the German army on the Eastern front and the political pressure to open up led to the decision to invade Sicily and mainland Italy.  After fierce landings at Sicily and at Salerno, the Allies became bogged down along several German defensive lines. To break the stalemate, General Bernard Montgomery directed the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to take the island resort town of Ortona. What followed was some of the fiercest urban fighting of the war, eventually, the battle would earn the nickname, "mini-Stalingrad". To help explain the course of the battle and the previous events we interview Dr. Mark Zuehlke. He is an award-winning author generally considered to be Canada’s foremost military historian. His Canadian Battle Series is the most exhaustive recounting of the battles and campaigns fought by any nation during World War II to have been written by a single author. In recognition of his contribution to Canadian history, he was awarded the 2014 Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media: The Pierre Berton Award. In 2007, his book, For Honour’s Sake: The War of 1812 and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace won the Canadian Author’s Association Lela Common Award for Canadian History. The Canadian Battle Series book, Holding Juno captured the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize in 2006.

Hegemonic States have been at the center of International Systems for centuries. They dictate politics, economics, and military policy. But what happens when another state rises to challenge the status quo? Usually, it ends in war, rarely do we see peaceful transitions between hegemonic systems. Today, we examine the transition between Great Britain and the United States which experienced a peaceful transition in the late 19th century and one of the few cases where this occurred. To help explain this unique relationship, we interview Dr. Kori Schake who the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Before joining AEI, Dr. Schake was the deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. She has had a distinguished career in government, working at the US State Department, the US Department of Defense, and the National Security Council at the White House under the Bush Administration. She has also taught at Stanford, West Point, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, National Defense University, and the University of Maryland. She has been widely published in policy journals and the popular press, including in CNN, Foreign Affairs, Politico, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She is also a contributing writer at The Atlantic and War on the Rocks.  An interesting episode about a critical time in American History and Foreign Policy. 

Augustus was the first Roman emperor, reigning from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He was the first ruler of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. His status as the founder of the Roman Principate has consolidated an enduring legacy as one of the most effective and controversial leaders in human history. He rose out of the ashes of prolonged periods of civil war and set the groundwork for the Roman Empire that is well known today.  To explain his life and achievements we interviewed Dr. Adrian Goldsworthy who is a leading historian of the ancient world and author of acclaimed biographies of Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Cleopatra. Some of his other work includes In the Name of Rome, Pax Romana, and Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors. A great interview about one of the most interesting figures and leaders in the ancient world.

Limited Warfare is defined as, "one in which the belligerents do not expend all of the resources at their disposal, whether human, industrial, agricultural, military, natural, technological, or otherwise in a specific conflict". This doctrine developed during the Korean War has influenced American Foreign Policy in many ways with tragic consequences. To help us understand the origin of this we interview Dr. Donald Stoker who is a senior fellow at the Atlas Organization. Before that he was Professor of Strategy and Policy for the US Naval War College’s Monterey Program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, from 1999 until 2017. In 2016, he was a Fellow of the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford’s Pembroke College. In 2017-2018, he was a Visiting Fellow and Distinguished Diplomatic Academy Fulbright Professor of Political Science at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, Austria. The author or editor of 11 books, including a biography of Carl von Clausewitz: His Life and Work (Oxford University Press, 2014),  which is on the British Army professional reading list. His The Grand Design: Strategy and the US Civil War, 1861-1865 (Oxford University Press, 2010), won the prestigious Fletcher Pratt Award, was a Main Selection of the History Book Club, and is on the US Army Chief of Staff’s reading list.  Understanding the root of term and its usage is critical to understanding the way the United States has waged war for the last 70 years. 

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has been attempting to revive its power and influence throughout the world. After U.S.-Russia relations soured under the Bush and Obama Administrations, President Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate damaging information that could affect the 2016 election. To understand this we interview Michael Isikoff who is the chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, where he is also editor at large for reporting and investigations. He digs into national security, money in politics,. Previously, he was an investigative correspondent for NBC as well as a staff writer for Newsweek and the Washington Post. Isikoff has written three New York Times best-sellers, "Uncovering Clinton" and (with David Corn) "Hubris," about the selling of the Iraq War and “Russian Roulette” which documents the inside story of Russian interference into the 2016 election.