The Bookmonger

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World War II was in fact many wars, writes Victor Davis Hanson in The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Hanson describes why he avoided writing yet another chronological or operational history of World War II, how the Allies were able to suffer so many casualties and still win, and why better statesmanship in the 1930s might have prevented this terrible conflict from erupting.

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/second-world-wars-first-global-conflict-fought-won/.

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Understanding Ukraine today is impossible without also understanding what the Soviet Union did to it in the 1930, says Anne Applebaum, author of Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Applebaum describes Stalin's act of mass murder against the Ukrainian people, how knowledge of this enormity slowly seeped into the West, and how its aftereffects continue to influence Ukraine's present confrontation with Russia.

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/red-famine-stalins-war-ukraine/.

Podcast listeners: Now become a Ricochet member for only $2.50 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/join/.

Subscribe to The Bookmonger with John J. Miller in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in iTunes or by RSS feed.

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Who were the Maya and what did they believe? Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos explains in Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Chinchilla describes what compelled him to devote his professional life to the study of these ancient people, what the images they put on vases and murals tells us about them, and why they become a "lost civilization."

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/art-myth-ancient-maya/.

Podcast listeners: Now become a Ricochet member for only $2.50 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/join/.

Subscribe to The Bookmonger with John J. Miller in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in iTunes or by RSS feed.

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How did a woman who loved poetry as a student at Hillsdale College become one of the 20th century's great cryptanalysts? Jason Fagone tells the remarkable story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman in The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Fagone describes how fondness for Shakespeare turned a young woman into a codebreaker, how she hunted fascist agents during the Second World War, and how she and her husband were present at the creation of the National Security Agency.

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/woman-smashed-codes-true-story-love-spies-unlikely-heroine-outwitted-americas-enemies/.

Podcast listeners: Now become a Ricochet member for only $2.50 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/join/.

Subscribe to The Bookmonger with John J. Miller in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in iTunes or by RSS feed.

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Becoming a papal biographer will change your life-or so it seems, judging from George Weigel';s Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Weigel defends his claim that the late pope was "the emblematic figure of the second half of the 20th century," and suggests what he might say to Americans in 2017, if he could give one more homily.

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/lessons-hope-unexpected-life-st-john-paul-ii/.

Podcast listeners: Now become a Ricochet member for only $2.50 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/join/.

Subscribe to The Bookmonger with John J. Miller in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in iTunes or by RSS feed.

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It's a novel of faith, freedom, and forgiveness says John E. Kramer, author of Blythe.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Kramer explains how and why he wrote the book, whether fiction can accomplish goals that nonfiction cannot, and why he picked this for an epigraph: "One of mankind's greatest sins is inaction in the face of injustice."

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/blythe/.

Podcast listeners: Now become a Ricochet member for only $2.50 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/join/.

Subscribe to The Bookmonger with John J. Miller in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in iTunes or by RSS feed.

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Was he a kind man who did his best for Russia or a reactionary tyrant who despised the Russian people? Robert Service takes on both of these questions in The Last of the Tsars: Nicholas II and the Russian Revolution.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Service describes the revolution of 1917 as well as the execution of Nicholas and his family in 1918. He also addresses rumors that members of the Romanov family may have survived and what Americans in 2017 can learn about Russia today from its history.

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/last-tsars-nicholas-ii-russian-revolution/.

Podcast listeners: Now become a Ricochet member for only $2.50 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/join/.

Subscribe to The Bookmonger with John J. Miller in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in iTunes or by RSS feed.

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Kyle Mills continues the story of American assassin Mitch Rapp, the hero invented by the late Vince Flynn, in Enemy of the State.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Mills describes his unusual collaboration with an author who died four years ago, what it's like to continue a series started by another writer, and how much research goes into each of his thrillers.

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/enemy-of-the-state/.

Podcast listeners: Now become a Ricochet member for only $2.50 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/join/.

Subscribe to The Bookmonger with John J. Miller in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in iTunes or by RSS feed.

Sponsored by Casper

America in the late 19th century looks a lot like the America of 2017, says Richard White, author of The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, White discusses what drew him to write about "historical flyover country," why Reconstruction went so poorly, and whether President Lincoln might have made things turn out differently if he had lived past 1865.

Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/bookmonger-john-miller/republic-stands-united-states-reconstruction-gilded-age-1865-1896/.

Podcast listeners: Now become a Ricochet member for only $2.50 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/join/.

Subscribe to The Bookmonger with John J. Miller in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in iTunes or by RSS feed.