In this interview with Damien Lewis - Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author - we discuss the fascinating role of the SAS in WW2. For twenty years Damien worked as a war and conflict reporter for the world’s major broadcasters, reporting across Africa, South America, the Middle East and Far East winning numerous awards. Several of his books are being made into feature films and his books have been translated into forty languages worldwide. SAS Band Of Brothers continues Damien’s iconic WWII elite forces series: Churchill’s Secret Warriors, The Nazi Hunters, Hunting The Nazi Bomb, SAS Ghost Patrol, SAS Italian Job and SAS Shadow Raiders. This podcast is captivating from start to finish and a real 'must listen'.

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In October 1953, Vice President Richard Nixon embarked on a precedent-setting tour of the countries of South and South East Asia. The newly elected republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, reinvented the office of the Vice Presidency by elevating it from a nominal and ceremonial position to one of unprecedented responsibility in US foreign policy. Nixon’s core remit was to reinforce, consolidate and expand where possible, the American Cold War sphere of influence in Asia. As part of this tour the Vice President spent three days in Ceylon, an Indian Ocean island state, recently independent from Great Britain. In 1951 Ceylon became the only non communist Asian state to begin shipping strategic materials to the newly communist China. Nixon’s visit to Ceylon, in order to address this (and other issues) personally, would become something of a blueprint for US diplomatic operations in South Asia.

This week we interview Professor Carlton F.W. Larson on the History of Treason in America and his brand new book, 'On Treason: A Citizen's Guide to the Law'. Treason — the only crime specifically defined in the United States Constitution — is routinely described by judges as more heinous than murder. Today, the term is regularly tossed around by politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle. But, as accusations of treason flood the news cycle, it is not always clear what the crime truly is, or when it should be prosecuted.

In this interview, we discuss a broad range of questions and topics including the origins of American treason law, the American Revolution and Benedict Arnold. Robert E. Grant, WW2 and Donald Trump ...

Carlton F.W. Larson is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, where he teaches American constitutional law and English and American legal history. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, Larson is one of the nation’s leading authorities on the law of treason and is the author of the book The Trials of Allegiance: Treason, Juries, and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press). Professor Larson’s scholarship has been cited by numerous federal and state courts and has been profiled in The New York Times, The Economist, TIME, and many other publications. He is a frequent commentator for the national media on constitutional law issues.

In this episode of @VersusHistory podcast, we interview Kevin Jackson, the author of the new Audible book 'LEGION: Thirteen Ways Of Looking At Lawrence Of Arabia'. The book is a captivating and revealing novel, that explores the unknown life of Lawrence of Arabia in a quest to understand his genius. Kevin Jackson has previously worked as a teacher, director, broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 and journalist, with his work appearing in The New Yorker, The Sunday Times and The Guardian. Kevin is the author of 35 books - including Constellation of Genius, Invisible Forms, Humphrey Jennings, The Worlds of John Ruskin, Greta and the Labrador, and the Kindle best-seller Single Mayflower, which will be published as a paperback in September 2020. Kevin Jackson is a frequent broadcaster on the radio, particularly BBC Radio Three and BBC Radio 4. For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com

In this episode, we interview Historian David Gessner (@DavidGessner), the author of the new book ‘LEAVE IT AS IT IS: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness’, published by Simon & Schuster. David is the author of eleven books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism, including the New York Times-bestselling 'All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner and the American West' and the prize-winning 'The Tarball Chronicles'. In 2003 Gessner taught Environmental Writing as a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard, and he now serves as Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone. His own prizes include a Pushcart Prize, the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay, the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing, and the Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, "The Call of the Wild." Gessner lives in Wilmington, North Carolina with his wife, the novelist Nina de Gramont, and their daughter Hadley.

The book ‘LEAVE IT AS IT IS’ is many things. It’s a biography of Theodore Roosevelt and his relationship to nature—the real Roosevelt, one filled with grief, depression, and a supernatural work ethic, not a mustachioed caricature charging up San Juan Hill. It’s a travelogue winding its way through America’s national parks and wild places, an ode to the restorative power of nature, lyrically conveying the simple importance of watching elk in a field, or a lightning storm roll in. But most importantly, it is a call to action. In this age of political illiberalism and environmental degradation, LEAVE IT AS IT IS is a devastating look at what we have to lose and what is worth fighting for. Through Roosevelt, his own gleeful wonderment at nature, and the heart-rending contemporary saga of the fight for Bears Ears National Monument, we see our own world: how beautiful it can be, yet also how much damage we have inflicted upon it; how precarious its future is, and how many in power couldn’t care less. This book is simultaneously a page-turning work of history you want to finish in one sitting, and one that makes you want to put it—and everything else—down and head out to experience the solace of nature. For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com

In this episode of the @VersusHistory Podcast, we are delighted to interview Thomas Levenson, Professor of Science Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His new book ‘Money for Nothing' is the remarkable tale of the world’s first-ever financial crash, which took place 300 years ago, in the year 1720. It tells the captivating stories of a host of entertaining characters who became caught up in the world’s first financial bubble; with luminaries such as Daniel Defoe, Alexander Pope and even Isaac Newton losing out in a scheme that was ‘too good to be true’. ‘Money for Nothing’ explores how the scientific revolution extended to matters far beyond the flight of a cannonball or the dynamics of the tides, extending into the idea that empiricism and maths could make sense of everyday life; and how the invention of modern ideas about money both made the world rich and expose us to predictable hazards that we have, to date, three centuries on, failed to fully prepare for.

The South Sea Company was formed to monopolize trade with Spain’s American colonies. But it had almost no ships and did precious little trade. So it turned its hand to playing money games, until, in 1720, it launched the first great stock market boom, fraud and bust, in what is now remembered as the South Sea Bubble. The financial engineering pioneered in the Bubble didn’t go away. Instead, it evolved into the same kinds of market manipulation that brought the world’s economy crashing down in 2008. In the moment, though, it all seemed to work brilliantly. Exactly 300 years ago, in June 1720, South Sea shares hit their peak, a ten-fold gain. Britain’s punters—up to and including the King’s mistresses—had grown incredibly, impossibly rich—on paper. And then the carousel stopped and thousands lost their shirts. Isaac Newton, the Duke of Portland (England’s richest man) and others lost heavily.

Tom Levenson's superb account of the South Sea bubble dissects that huge scam—but that tale isn’t just a disaster story. It is also the story of the birth of modern financial capitalism: the idea that you can invest in future prosperity and that governments can borrow money to make things happen, like funding the rise of British naval and mercantile power. These dreamers and fraudsters may have ruined Britons, but they made the world rich.

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In the 100th episode of the @VersusHistory Podcast, we are joined by author Richard Kreitner to discuss his brand new book 'BREAK IT UP: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union' published by Little, Brown and Company. We discuss a range of issues in the podcast, including the origins of political union in America, the threats that the union has faced throughout history and its future. The book has received outstanding reviews, including this: "If you thought disunion was an invention of the slave South and is long dead and buried, think again. In Break It Up, Richard Kreitner offers a powerful revisionist account of the troubled history of the American nation, showing how secessionist movements have made their appearance at numerous times, and in numerous parts of the country. They are again proliferating today - a reflection of our polarized politics and culture and our failure to make the existing Union benefit all Americans." — Eric Foner, Columbia University, author of The Fiery Trial. Richard studied philosophy at McGill University in Montreal. Since 2012, he has been affiliated with The Nation as intern, editor, and writer and has published essays, reviews, and articles in Slate, Raritan, The Baffler, The Boston Globe, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times. His previous book was 'BOOKED: A Traveler’s Guide to Literary Locations Around the World (2019)'. For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com

In this exciting episode, we interview Professor Victoria de Grazia, who is the Moore Collegiate Professor of History at the Ivy League's Columbia University and a founding editor of Radical History Review. Her widely translated, prizewinning books include Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe and How Fascism Ruled Women. She has received the Woodrow Wilson, Jean Monnet, and Guggenheim fellowships and the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome.

Professor De Grazia's brand new book is out now, entitled THE PERFECT FASCIST: A STORY OF LOVE, POWER, AND MORALITY IN MUSSOLINI’S ITALY (Harvard University Press; August 11, 2020). it has already received glowing praise from Azar Nafisi, Robert. O. Paxton and Margaret Macmillan. Below is the description / overview of the book:

'THE PERFECT FASCIST is at once an intimate story of a marriage—retold through family letters, fascist spy reports, and court records—and a riveting account of Mussolini’s rise and fall. Attilio Teruzzi embodies fascism’s flawed moral compass. He is a handsome war hero,impetuous, vain, lecherous, and self-serving—his mediocrity and loyalty help him rise to the top. So why did he want to marry the talented American “New Woman”? And why would she forfeit her career as prima donna to wed a fascist enforcer? What qualities made Teruzzi perfect for Mussolini’s purposes? And why, as antisemitism swept Europe, did this “perfect fascist” come to have a child with a second Jewish woman?

Through de Grazia’s relentless research, storytelling skills, and deep understanding of the political and psychological dynamics of the times, we see fascism’s allure as well as the reasons for its eventual rout. We see men on a mission in the name of national glory trampling on family, honor, and the law. We see them seduced by their own astounding lies. We see them betray their own people to keep faith with the Nazi-Fascist war for a New World Order. We also, unfortunately, see the clear outline of many of the men that govern us today.'

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In this episode of the @VersusHistory Podcast, we interview Charles Freeman, who is a specialist on the ancient world and its legacy. He has worked on archaeological digs on the continents surrounding the Mediterranean and develops study tour programs in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Freeman is Historical Consultant to the Blue Guides series and the author of numerous books, including the bestseller The Closing of the Western Mind and, most recently, Holy Bones, Holy Dust. In this brand new book published by Zeus, Charles Freeman takes the reader on a monumental and exhilarating history of European thought, from the fall of Rome in the fifth century AD to the Scientific Revolution thirteen centuries later.

The process of preservation of surviving texts was strengthened under the Christian empire founded by Charlemagne in the eighth century; later, during the High Middle Ages, universities were founded, and the study of philosophy was revived.

Renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman thought provided the intellectual impetus for the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whose ideas - aesthetic, political and scientific - were disseminated across Europe by the invention of the printing press. Equally momentous was Europe's encounter with the New World, and the resulting maritime supremacy which conferred global reach on Europe's merchants and colonists.

Vivid in detail and informed by the latest scholarship, The Awakening is powered not by the fate of kings or the clash of arms but by deeper currents of thought, inquiry and discovery, which first recover and then surpass the achievements of classical antiquity, and lead the West to the threshold of the Age of Reason.

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Dr Miranda Malins (@MirandaMalins) is a writer and historian specialising in the history of Oliver Cromwell, his family and the politics of the Interregnum period following the Civil Wars. She studied at Cambridge University, leaving with a PhD, and continues to speak at conferences and publish journal articles and book reviews, as well as being a Trustee of the Cromwell Association. Her brand new book, 'The Puritan Princess', is out now, published by Orion Fiction. It focuses on the life of Frances Cromwell, the youngest daughter of Oliver Cromwell, offering a compelling and fascinating account of her life and times. The Times reviewer Antonia Senior chose the Miranda's book as the best new historical fiction offering in April 2020.

In this podcast episode, Miranda discusses a broad range of topics, including interpretations of the Interregnum and Oliver Cromwell, attitudes towards women and their role during this time, the challenges of writing historical fiction and much, much more.

For terms of use, please visit www.versushistory.com