History Happy Hour

This week on History Happy Hour: Thomas Paine was a man whose words helped launch a revolution. In January 1776 he wrote Common Sense, which helped inspire the Continental Congress to declare Independence. In late November that same year, while serving in George Washington’s army during the Colonies’ most desperate hour, he picked up his pen again.  “These are the times that try men’s souls” he began, and his words lit a fire in the men who would soon win a critical victory at the Battle of Trenton.  

In this encore episode, Chris and Rick talk to HHH alum Jack Kelly, author of Thomas Paine’s War: The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time.

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Jack Kelly is an award-winning historian and author. He has been on History Happy Hour twice, to talk about his books Valcour: The 1776 Campaign that Saved the Cause of Liberty and God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America's Most Hated Man. He is also the author of Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America’s Independence, which received the DAR History Medal. He has appeared on NPR, PBS, and the History Channel, and has written for national publications including the Wall Street Journal. He lives and works in Hudson Valley, New York.

This week on History Happy Hour: During the Vietnam War, 300 thousand black soldiers were drafted and sent overseas. At home, Black anti-war protesters were vilified for jeopardizing the fight for civil rights.

Matthew Delmont comes back to History Happy Hour to talk about his new book Until the Last Gun is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America's Soul.

Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.

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Matthew F. Delmont is a History Professor at Dartmouth College. A Guggenheim Fellow and expert on African American history, he is the author of five books, most recently Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad. He appeared on History Happy Hour in December 2023. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and on NPR. He has a BA from Harvard University and his MA and PhD from Brown University.

This week on History Happy Hour: On May 6, 1937, the majestic German zeppelin Hindenburg arrived in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Suddenly, a titanic inferno lit up the sky, and within seconds the proud symbol of Nazi Germany was gone.

Historian Catherine Grace Katz returns to History Happy Hour to talk about her new book Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and Prelude to War.

Catherine Grace Katz holds degrees in history from Harvard and Cambridge, and received a J.D. from Harvard law School. She was on History Happy Hour six years ago, in October 2020, to talk about her book Daughters of Yalta.

This week on History Happy Hour: Author James Ellman takes a critical look at George Patton, calling him one-dimensional and flawed in his new book Patton Reconsidered: General George S. Patton Jr. as a Wartime Commander.

We’ll get into it with him to find out what he thinks Patton’s problems were.

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James Ellman is an investor, historian and author of several books including “McArthur Reconsidered” and “Seeds of Victory.” He lives near San Francisco with his wife and sons.

This week on History Happy Hour: Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle were thrown together by challenges of war. They did not always get along, but nevertheless found a way to work together – personifying resistance to Adolph Hitler during WWII and for years beyond. But that is only a small part of a complex story. Both men influenced their countries, and the world around them, long after the war was won.

Chris and Rick talk with Richard Vinen, author of the new joint biography The Last Titans: How Churchill and de Gaulle Saved Their Nations and Transformed the World.

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Richard Vinen is a professor of history at Kings College London. He was previously a fellow of Trinity College Cambridge and, an archive by-fellow at Churchill College Cambridge. He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Boston Globe, and others. He has appeared frequently on radio and television. He has published widely on British, French, and European history and his book “National Service: Conscription in Britain, 1945–1963” won the Wolfson prize for history in 2015.

This week on History Happy Hour: Roger Casement was a British diplomat knighted by the crown – who turned into a rebel. His advocacy for Irish independence led him renounce his titles and make a deal with the Germans in the days leading up to the 1916 Easter Uprising. And that led him to become a target of the British government.  

Chris and Rick talk with Rory Carroll, author of A Rebel and a Traitor, about Casement’s life and his sensational treason trial.  

Rory Carroll is the Ireland correspondent for The Guardian newspaper.  He has reported from the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Latin America and Los Angeles. His previous books are “Killing Thatcher “(US title: “There Will Be Fire”) and “Comandante: Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.” He lives in Dublin.

This week on History Happy Hour: In 1540, an expedition of 2000 explorers headed north from the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan into the unknown. Led by Francisco Coronado, their journey took them across a great swath of the US from California to Kansas, while sparking violent cultural clashes and battles with Native American Pueblo populations.

We’ll talk about the impact of their epic journey with Peter Stark, author of The Lost Cities of El Norte.

Peter Stark is a historian and adventure writer. A 1976 graduate of Dartmouth College, he is the author of the New York Times bestseller Astoria, along with The Last Empty Spaces, Last Breath, and At the Mercy of the River. He is a correspondent for Outside magazine, has written for Smithsonian and The New Yorker, and is a National Magazine Award nominee. He lives in Montana with his wife and children.

This week on History Happy Hour:  Henry Starr was a bank-robber, one of the most successful in history. Until he was caught. When he got out, he became a movie star, playing himself. Until he went back to bank-robbing.

Chris and Rick dig into his fascinating life-story with Mark Archuleta, author of The Reel Thrilling Events of Bank Robber Henry Starr: From Gentleman Bandit to Movie Star and Back Again.

Mark Archuleta is an Emmy-winning screenwriter, journalist, and performer. A fifth-generation Coloradoan of Spanish Basque descent, he grew up steeped in the history of the American West and the colorful characters who inhabited it. Archuleta loves exploring how historical fact is refracted through the prism of film and television. He lives in Green Valley, California.

This week on History Happy Hour:  We welcome back historian John McManus to talk about the third volume of his Pacific War series, To the End of the Earth. From the liberation of the Philippines to the Battle of Okinawa and finally to the end of the war, John chronicles the struggles and triumphs of the US Army in the Pacific.  We’ll talk about the march to ultimate victory, from the worm’s eye view of soldiers fighting in the mud to the battles between the generals mapping out the campaign.

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John McManus is a military historian, author, and professor of military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He also served as a visiting professor at the U.S. naval Academy McManus has published thirteen books critically acclaimed on numerous American military history topics. This is his fourth appearance on History Happy Hour.

This week on History Happy Hour: President Truman’s choice to drop the atomic bomb is the most debated decision in the 20th Century. But what if he, himself, did not fully understand the decisions being made until after the atomic bomb was used.

Chris and Rick will talk to historian Alex Wellerstein about his highly regarded new book The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age.

Alex Wellerstein is an Associate Professor of Science and Technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology. He is also a visiting researcher at the Nuclear Knowledges program, Center for International Studies, Sciences Po, Paris. He is the author of Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, and he has written for The New Yorker, Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, and many other venues. He is perhaps best known as the creator of the NUKEMAP, the world’s most popular online nuclear weapons effects simulator. He is also the author of the Doomsday Machines blog, and has taught at Harvard, MIT, and Georgetown University.