This Week on History Happy Hour: Today most people remember little more about John Hancock than his signature, but 250 years ago this Boston businessman was a powerful and popular patriot leader who, on multiple occasions, played a vital role in the fight for Independence.

In this encore episode, Chris and Rick dive back into the Revolution (or is it the War of Independence?) and talking to Brooke Barbier, author of King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father.

Brooke Barbier is a public historian who received her PhD in American history from Boston College, specifically researching Boston’s social and cultural life during and after the American Revolution. Two of Brooke's favorite things are history and beer, so in 2013 she founded Ye Olde Tavern Tours, which offers tours of Boston’s historic sites and taverns (beer is included!). She is the author of two books about revolutionary Boston and has been interviewed by the New York Times, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Boston.com. She is originally from San Diego, CA but has lived in Boston for many years.

This Week on History Happy Hour: During WWII, the legendary First Division, “The Big Red One,” fought in North Africa, Sicily, landed on Omaha Beach and drove across Europe and into Germany. It served 443 days in combat, with more than 20,000 casualties.

Chris and Rick will explore the rich history of the division with Gregory Fontenot, author of the new book, No Sacrifice Too Great: The 1st Infantry Division in World War II. The story of how the men of this division learned how to adapt, improvise and innovate on the job as they took on the Nazis on two continents.

Gregory Fontenot is a retired Colonel of the US Army. He is currently a consultant on for the Army and a working historian. He was the lead author of On Point: The US Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is also the author of The 1st Infantry Division and the US Army Transformed: Road to Victory in Desert Storm, 1970–1991, winner of the 2017 Army Historical Foundation award for Unit History, as well as Loss and Redemption at St. Vith: The 7th Armored Division in the Battle of the Bulge.

This Week on History Happy Hour: Author Helen Fry returns to HHH for third time to talk about her book Women in Intelligence: The Hidden History of Two World Wars. It tells the groundbreaking history of women in British intelligence, revealing their pivotal role across the first half of the twentieth century. Across both world wars, far from being a small part of covert operations, women ran spy networks and escape lines, parachuted behind enemy lines, and interrogated prisoners.

The stories of incredible women who defied convention and made history. Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.

Dr. Helen Fry is an ambassador for the National Centre for Military Intelligence (NCMI). She has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of the Second World War, including British Intelligence and the secret war, espionage and spies, and MI9 escape and evasion. She is the foremost authority on the "secret listeners," who worked at special eavesdropping sites operated by British Intelligence during WWII, and is the official biographer of MI6 spymaster, Colonel Thomas Joseph Kendrick. She has also extensively written about the 10,000 Germans who fought for Britain during WWII.  

Helen has appeared in a number of documentaries, including David Jason’s Secret Service (Channel 5), Spying on Hitler's Army (Channel 4), and Secrets of the Spies (Britbox).

This Week on History Happy Hour: In 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third major voyage to the Pacific. The incredible journey that followed took Cook from Australia to Alaska, and involved the first substantial European contact with the Hawaiian Islands…as well as the confrontation that led to his death.

Chris and Rick welcome Hampton Sides (making his second appearance on HHH) author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook.

Hampton Sides is an award-winning editor of Outside and the author of the bestselling histories The Kingdom of Ice, Hellhound on his Trial, Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers. He lives in New Mexico with his wife, Anne, and their three sons.

This Week on History Happy Hour: Franklin Rutland was a British World War I hero at the Battle of Jutland, becoming internationally known as “Rutland of Jutland.” He became a fixture of high society in Golden Age Hollywood – and a spy for the Japanese as they built their naval power in the Pacific. Then he became a double agent – could he have prevented Pearl Harbor?

Chris and Rick welcome Ronald Drabkin, author of Beverly Hills Spy: The Double-Agent War Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbor.

Ronald Drabkin's obsession with espionage history started when he was as a child in Los Angeles, where he vaguely understood that his father had been working for the US military in counterintelligence. Later he discovered that his grandfather had also been in “the business,” and it drove a voyage of discovery into previously classified documents on three continents. He is the author of many peer-reviewed articles on Japanese espionage. His career prior to writing was at early-stage startups in the US, where he was an early adopter of Google and Facebook advertising. He currently lives in Tokyo.

This Week on History Happy Hour: In the mid 19th Century, as America careened toward Civil War, Senator Charles Sumner was the conscience of the North. He denounced slavery’s evils to all who would listen and demanded that it be wiped out of existence. More than any other person of his era, he blazed the trail on the country’s long, uneven, and ongoing journey toward realizing its full promise to become a more perfect union.

This week, Chris and Rick welcome Stephen Puleo, author of a new biography of Sumner: The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union.

Stephen Puleo is a historian, teacher, public speaker, and the author of several books, including Voyage of Mercy, Dark Tide, American Treasures, and The Caning. A former award-winning newspaper reporter and contributor to American History magazine, the Boston Globe, and other publications, he holds a master's degree in history and has taught at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and Suffolk University. He and his wife, Kate, reside in the Boston area.

This Week on History Happy Hour: Everyone knows about the Doolittle Raid, in which 16 B25s took off from an aircraft carrier to bomb Japan early in the war.  But few know the story of Plane 8, which never attacked Tokyo, but headed across Japan to the Soviet Union. Was it on some sort of secret mission that has never been revealed?

Chris and Rick look for answers with Dan Hampton, author of Vanishing Act:  The Enduring Mystery Behind the Legendary Doolittle Raid.

Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Dan Hampton flew 151 combat missions during his twenty years in the United States Air Force. Col. Hampton received four Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor, a Purple Heart, eight Air Medals with Valor, five Meritorious Service medals, and numerous other citations. He is the author of eight books, and A frequent guest on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC discussing foreign affairs and geopolitics.  

This Week on History Happy Hour: 350,000 American women served in uniform during World War II. They found themselves in every service branch, in every combat theater. They were directly involved in some of the most important moments of the war, from the D-Day landings to the peace negotiations in Paris.

Chris and Rick explore their contribution with Lena Andrews, author of the bestseller Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win WWII.

Lena Andrews is a military analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. is a military analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. She has spent more than a decade in foreign policy, having previously worked at the RAND Corporation and the United States Institute of Peace. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, she received her Ph.D. in political science from MIT specializing in international relations and security studies. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and son.

This Week on History Happy Hour: In this encore episode, Chris and Rick are on the road in Normandy! Along with historians Matt Broggie, Erik Flint, and Hugh MacDonald-Buchanan, they are leading a trip on the Normandy Breakout – the seven weeks of fighting that result in victory in Normandy and pave the way for a push to Paris and beyond. This week, excerpts from talks on the ground by all five historians.

Hear the stories told in the spots where they happened!

Matt Broggie has been working with Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours since the 70th Anniversary of D-Day in 2014. He has extensive knowledge of WWII battlefields and has been published in WWII History Magazine. He is a U.S. and World History professor at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee where he also teaches soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division through the university’s campus at Fort Campbell.

Hugh MacDonald-Buchanan After attended Harrow School in London, Hugh obtained his degree at University College London and worked for 23 years in the investment banking and funds management. Throughout this period, he enjoyed arranging excursions with friends and then decided to enter the short tour business full time as a free-lance practitioner. In 2006, he qualified as Blue Badge Guide of the Year and is now thrilled to have been able to convert the cultural and historical interests of a lifetime into his work!

This Week on History Happy Hour: An advance look at an exciting, brand-new book about Dwight Eisenhower set in the months leading up to the Normandy invasion. It takes a deep dive into the period when he grew from a well-liked general into one of the singular figures of American history.

Chris and Rick welcome Michel Paradis, author of The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower. Author Alex Kershaw calls the book "Gorgeously written. The only must-read book to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day."