History Author Show

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John McNarry – Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum Oct 09, 2017

Show notes

October 9, 2017 - This week, our time machine flies up to the Great White North -- the very heart of Canada -- for a road trip to Brandon, Manitoba's Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, a national historic site dedicated to the memory of the men who fought and died in the skies during the Second World War. It's the only museum of its kind in the world, marking where crews from Australia, New Zealand, England and Canada trained. Prime Minister Winston Churchill called Canada "the Great Dominion," and said the Commonwealth Air Training Plan was its greatest contribution to Allied victory over the Axis powers, specifically Germany and Italy in the European Theater. Our guest is Museum president John McNarry. Visit the museum at AirMuseum.ca, join their Facebook group, or find them @CATPM_Brandon on Twitter.

Jim Leeke – From the Dugouts to the Trenches Oct 02, 2017

Show notes

October 2, 2017 - Today, our time machine follows professional baseball players, onto the battlefields of Europe in World War One a century ago. We hear the story about how the game, players, fans and the War Department clash in From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War, by author Jim Leeke. Jim is a contributor to the Society for American Baseball Research Baseball Biography Project, as well as the writer or editor of several books on U.S. and military history. We chatted a previously with Jim about his Civil War novel for young adults: Matty Boy, and talked about a single, special game along the lines of today's topic in his book: Nine Innings for the King: The Day Wartime London Stopped for Baseball, July 4, 1918. Which makes Jim, our three-peating guest. Find Jim on at AABaseball.org or on Twitter @WW1Baseball.

Dina Gold – Stolen Legacy Sep 25, 2017

Show notes

September 25, 2017 - This week, our time machine follows one woman's modern quest to recover property stolen by Nazi Germany. It was only a single theft in the National Socialist State's vast, systematic plundering of Jewish wealth, but the Wolff family's story quickly becomes our story, and we find ourselves rooting for justice. Author Dina Gold's grandmother, Nellie Wolff, told her stories of the glamorous life she had led in pre-war Berlin, and how she dreamed of reclaiming the majestic building that had housed the family business. Grandma Nellie didn't live to see the fall of the Berlin Wall, but when Germany reunified, Dina marched into a German government ministry and declared: “I’ve come to claim my family’s building.” Dina tells the story in her book, Stolen Legacy: Nazi Theft and the Quest for Justice at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin. Raised in the U.K. and is now an American citizen living in the nation's capital, she sits on the board of the Jewish Community Center and just completed her stint as co-chair on the council of the Washington Jewish Film Festival. A senior editor at Moment magazine, she started her career in London as a financial journalist after postgraduate studies at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Later, at the BBC, she worked as an investigative reporter and television producer. Learn more about this story of a generational quest for restoration online at StolenLegacy.com, and follow her on Twitter @Dina_Gold and at @Stolen_Legacy for the book. Myst Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Bob Batchelor – Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel Sep 18, 2017

Show notes

September 18, 2017 - Hello, true believers! This week, we meet a national treasure who serves as a bridge from the Golden Age of comic books to today's blockbuster, multi-film CGI universes. It's the origin story of the man who -- along with talented co-creators like artists Jack Kirby and Joe Simon -- created such iconic characters as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man. Filling in speech balloons is Bob Batchelor who brings us Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel. Bob is a cultural historian who has written or edited more than two dozen books on popular culture and American literature, including books about John Updike, The Great Gatsby, and Mad Men. He lives in Oxford, Ohio, and teaches at Miami University. Find him at BobBatchelor.com, on Facebook, or at the Twitter and Instagram handle @BobPBatchelor.

Ron Shafer – The Carnival Campaign Sep 11, 2017

Show notes

September 11, 2017 - his week, our time machine travels back to 1840 for a belt of hard cider courtesy of presidential candidate -- William Henry Harrison. A hero in the War of 1812, "Old Tippecanoe" and served in a variety of public offices, before winning the Whig nomination and making a bid for the presidency with Virginia Democrat John Tyler. In 2017, we expect the atmosphere of a Coney Island summer to surround our campaigns. We demand style and charisma. Well, 1840 is when it all began. The big money, wild rallies, self-promotion, slogans and stagecraft. Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter Ronald G. Shafer tells this colorful story in his book, The Carnival Campaign: How the Rollicking 1840 Campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" Changed Presidential Elections Forever. You can check out our guest online at CarnivalCampaign.com or follow @Ron Shafer1 on Twitter.

Eva Stachniak – The Chosen Maiden Sep 04, 2017

Show notes

Thanks to everyone who joined us for an Author's Evening with Eva Stachniak at the Kosciuszko Foundation on Sept. 12, 2017. September 4, 2017 - This week, our time machine travels back to early 20th Century Eastern Europe, where we'll meet ballerina Bronislava Nijinsky. Bronia was a remarkable dancer and woman, who charted a course for greatness despite the upheavals outside and inside her family. The Chosen Maiden blends fiction and fact seamlessly, while including cameos by giants of the period such as prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, Coco Chanel, and Pablo Picasso. Bronislava Nijinsky was born in the last decade of the Victorian Era, and the inspiration for her brother Valaslav's play which gives the novel its title: The Chosen Maiden. Our guide on this journey of historical fiction is Eva Stachniak. The Nijinskys inspired her with their lives as Polish dancers in a Tsarist Russia, that gave way to war and revolution. Born in a Poland still behind the Iron Curtain, Eva emigrated to Canada in 1981, and is the bestselling author of The Winter Palace, Empress of the Night, Necessary Lies, and Garden of Venus. Visit her online at EvaStachniak.com, @EvaStachniak on Twitter, or Facebook.com/EvaStachniakAuthor.

Paige Bowers – The General’s Niece: The Little-Known de Gaulle Who Fought to Free Occupied France Aug 28, 2017

Show notes

August 28, 2017 - This week, our time machine takes us into Nazi-occupied France, to meet a bold patriot with a famous Uncle Charles. Her name was Genevieve de Gaulle, and she did the hard work of resistance behind enemy lines, that the general urged from exile. Paige Bowers tells Genevieve's story in The General's Niece: The Little-Known de Gaulle Who Fought to Free Occupied France. It taps a rich historical well of interviews with family members, former associates, prominent historians, and never-before-seen papers written by de Gaulle herself, exploring her relationship as confidante and daughter figure to the legendary French patriot. This week, our time machine takes us into Nazi-occupied France, to meet a bold patriot with a famous Uncle Charles. Her name was Genevieve de Gaulle, and she did the hard work of resistance behind enemy lines, that the general urged from exile. Paige Bowers tells Genevieve's story in The General's Niece: The Little-Known de Gaulle Who Fought to Free Occupied France. It taps a rich historical well of interviews with family members, former associates, prominent historians, and never-before-seen papers written by de Gaulle herself, exploring her relationship as confidante and daughter figure to the legendary French patriot. For more on our guest, visit PaigeBowers.com, @PaigeBowers on Twitter, or Facebook.com/PaigeBowersAuthor.

Deborah Kops – Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights Aug 21, 2017

Show notes

August 21, 2017 - This week, our time machine heads back 100 years, to a time when surging numbers of women were demanding the right to vote. Our guest is Deborah Kops, who has written more than twenty nonfiction books for children and young adults, including her latest for ages 11 to 18. It's Alice Paul and the Fight for Women's Rights: From the Vote to the Equal Rights Amendment. Alice's name may not spark recognition and appreciation in the minds of today's Americans, but Alice Paul's bravery and dedication -- her willingness to take on policemen, presidents, and even those in her own movement -- make her a person worth remembering, and one that can inspire today's young people. Visit DeborahKops.com, or follow our guest @DeborahKops on Twitter.

Jeremy C. Young – The Age of Charisma Aug 14, 2017

Show notes

August 14, 2017 - This week, our time machine travels back to the Gilded Age and pre-World War Two America, to hear the voices of those who held crowds enthralled. Our guide on this journey is Jeremy C. Young, and his book is, The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society, 1870–1940. In it, Jeremy traces the modern relationship between leaders and supporters, back to a unique group of charismatic social movements prominent in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. It was the age of magnetism, of dramatic gestures, of Christian revivals led by riveting preachers -- and it laid the groundwork, for today's mass media. Jeremy is Assistant Professor of History at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. You have seen his editorials in many newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Seattle Times. You can find him at JeremyCYoung.com, at @JeremyCYoung on Twitter, or Facebook.com/TheAgeOfCharisma.

Clare Mulley – The Women Who Flew for Hitler Aug 07, 2017

Show notes

August 7, 2017 - This week, our time machine takes to the skies of Germany as war clouds gather on the horizon, to meet two very different women, united in history by their determination to soar in the brand new -- and male-dominated -- world of human flight.This week, our time machine takes to the skies of Germany as war clouds gather on the horizon, to meet two very different women, united in history by their determination to soar in the brand new -- and male-dominated -- world of human flight. Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg shared talent and courage, but held very different views on the Nazi state -- partly because Melitta had a Jewish grandfather, which led her to support the Valkyrie plot, which very nearly succeeded in killing Hitler. Clare Mulley joins us from the U.K. to introduce The Women Who Flew for Hitler: A True Story of Soaring Ambition and Searing Rivalry. Her previous books are The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb, which won the Daily Mail Biographers’ Club Prize -- and -- The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville. Granville was Britain's first female special agent of the Second World War. For more on our guest, visit ClareMulley.com, follow @ClareMulley on Twitter, or toss a like to Facebook.com/ClareMulleyAuthor. Special thanks to M.C. Fontaine of The Bletchley Park Podcast for connecting us with this accomplished author.

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