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Peter Lion – The American St. Nick: A True Story Dec 21, 2016

Show notes

December 21, 2016 - We're uploading our Monday, December 26, 2016, episode a little bit ahead of schedule -- call it an early Christmas gift. Our guest is Peter Lion, who brings us The American St. Nick: A True Story. It's the unique tail of a World War Two G.I., who ended up playing a big role in tiny Luxembourg. In the lull between the Nazi withdrawal and the Battle of the Bulge, Corporal Richard Brookins helped bring to life the idea of his Jewish comrade, Harry Stutz. Cpl. Stutz learned that St. Nicholas Day had been banned during the occupation as un-German, meaning many children of Wiltz had never experienced it. His inspiration grew into a parade like no other, with Cpl. Brookins in the back of a Jeep, leading the procession through town. Brookins hardly thought about his role as the war dragged on, but the people of Wiltz never forgot, even after their city was destroyed and many of the children killed in Hitler's doomed counter-offensive. The American St. Nick tells the story of how Wiltz tracked down Brookins years later, and informed him that he'd become a legend. At 93-years-old earlier this year, Luxembourg gave him their highest honor, and in the mean time he'd been back to perform his role several times -- and when he's not there, someone from Wiltz is given the honor of filling in. Not just as St. Nick. But as the American St. Nick. You can catch the PBS documentary on this true tale of Christmas cheer, all through the month of December. It's produced by The World War II Foundation, also under the name The American St. Nick. You can learn more at AmericanStNick.com or by following Peter on Twitter @AmericanStNick.

Edward T. O’Donnell – Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality: Progress and Poverty in the Gilded Age Dec 19, 2016

Show notes

December 19, 2016 - This week, our time machine swerves Into the Past Lane. Our guest is, Edward T. O'Donnell, host of the Into the Past Lane podcast and author of Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality: Progress and Poverty in the Gilded Age. You may not know who Henry George is, but his ideas swirled around the campaign for president throughout the recent election, and his approach to solving political and economic problems are timeless. Ed earned his Ph.D. in American History from Columbia University, and is an Associate Professor of History at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. You can follow him on Twitter @InThePastLane, give his show a listen at InThePastLane.com/Podcast, and find him online at EdwardTODonnell.com.

Irene Levy Baker – 100 Things to Do in Philadelphia Before You Die Dec 12, 2016

Show notes

December 12, 2016 - This week, our time machine goes looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike, and finds it at the birthplace of Ben Franklin, the Constitution, and cheesesteaks. We previously visited the City of Brotherly Love for our interview at McGillin's Olde Ale House est. 1860 and Dr. Mütter's Marvels, with side trips to check out the Paoli Battlefield and to meet Simon Cameron, "Lincoln's Scandalous Secretary of War." Now, Irene Levy Baker joins us with an eye on touring more of Philly's historic sites in her book, 100 Things to Do in Philadelphia Before You Die. And if you purchase your copy through 100ThingsToDoInPhiladelphia.com and mention you heard Irene on The History Author Show, Irene will sign your copy. It makes a great gift! You can also find Irene @100Philly on Twitter, and Facebook.com/100ThingsToDoInPhiladelphia.

Lt. Jim Downing – The Other Side of Infamy: My Journey Through Pearl Harbor and the World of War Dec 05, 2016

Show notes

Featured in The New York Sun - Americans, Who Walked on the Moon, Cower in the Face of an Orange Sky - Dean Karayanis December 5, 2016 - In this episode we meet 103-year-old Lt. Jim Downing, the second-oldest survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, who will speak at the 75th commemoration in Hawaii on December 7th, 2016. Jim not only witnessed his ship, USS West Virginia, go up in flames on that day of infamy, but he later served in the Korean War, and in 1956 stumbled into the H-Bomb test at Bikini Atoll. A man of great faith and soon to be the oldest male author in the Guinness Book of World Records, Jim Downing is also a spiritual leader with The Navigators, a worldwide Christian ministry. This unique and inspiring veteran joins us to share his memoir, The Other Side of Infamy: My Journey Through Pearl Harbor and the World of War. If you enjoy this first-person account of the war, check out our chat with Roger Boas, who's a few years short of 100 and a veteran of George S. Patton's Third Army. He shared many war stories and his struggles to adjust to civilian life in Battle Rattle: A Last Memoir of World War Two.

Nathan Stoltzfus – Hitler’s Compromises: Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany Nov 28, 2016

Show notes

November 28, 2016 - This week, our time machine touches down during Adolf Hitler's reign in Germany, to answer a big question: How? How did this failed Austrian painter -- a little-noticed corporal in the Great War -- persuade the German people in droves to follow him into the abyss of total war? The usual answers are charisma and a ruthless stamping out of domestic dissent. But here on the History author show, we always seek out a fuller picture than we get in most history books. Nathan Stoltzfus does just that, challenging the traditional view of the asparagus sucker's rise to power in the book, Hitler's Compromises: Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany. Of course, none of this is to soften the image of Hitler as evil or excuse his crimes, but to give us a deeper understanding about how he seduced a nation. Professor Stoltzfus received his Ph.D. in Modern European history from Harvard in 1993, and is the Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of Holocaust Studies at Florida State University. His previous books include Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany, and Protest in Hitler's “National Community” -- Popular Unrest and the Nazi Response. You can follow him on Twitter at Nate_Stoltzfus. For more on Hitler's domestic efforts to implement his will at home, check out our interview with Winston Churchill's great-grandson, Jonathan Sandys, as we chat about his book, God and Churchill: How the Great Leader's Sense of Divine Destiny Changed His Troubled World and Offers Hope for Ours.

Sam Roberts – A History of New York in 101 Objects Nov 21, 2016

Show notes

November 21, 2016 - The Flushing Remonstrance of 1657, a precursor to our own First Amendment protections of religious liberty. The Spaldeen we discussed in Geoff Griffin's Brooklyn Bat Boy: A Story of the 1947 Season that Changed Baseball Forever. This week, New York Times Urban Affairs Correspondent Sam Roberts puts some serious miles on our Time Machine, and fills its trunk with the everyday objects that defined Gotham since it's earliest, pre-colonial days. Bagels. Subway tokens. His book is A History of New York in 101 Objects, now in paperback. And like the city itself, the book is an ongoing conversation. Sam Roberts encourages readers to email him at ObjectsOfNYC@gmail.com to argue for their favorite object, or against something he already included. Who knows? Maybe your object will be among the next 101 that define Greater New York. You can catch Sam's columns in the paper, follow him @SamRob12 on Twitter, or check out one of his eight previous titles including, Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America.

Joseph Madison Beck – My Father and Atticus Finch: A Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in 1930s Alabama Nov 14, 2016

Show notes

November 14, 2016 - This week, our time machine may sound like it's taking a sideways journey into the fictional world of Harper Lee's iconic book, To Kill a Mockingbird. We touch down in 1930's Alabama, and find a small town rocked when a black man is charged with raping a white woman. Only one local lawyer dares to defend the accused. That man was Foster Beck, and his son, Joseph Madison Beck, joins us to tell this eerily familiar tale. Mr. Beck's book is My Father & Atticus Finch: A Lawyer's Fight for Justice in 1930s Alabama. Like his father, Joseph Madison Beck practices law. He also teaches at Emory Law School, and has lectured at universities throughout the United States and abroad. As you'll read, the evidence against Charles White is thin, but can even Foster Beck's heroic defense and an open-minded judge save him from a death sentence? Brighten your day.

Marcelino Truong – Such A Lovely Little War Nov 07, 2016

Show notes

November 7, 2016 - This week, we bring you our first book in a graphic format, and our first guest time-traveling with us from France. Marcelino Truong is author and illustrator of Such a Lovely Little War: Saigon 1961-63. This graphic memoir shows us America's early involvement in the Vietnam War, through the eyes of young Marcelino, the son of a Vietnamese diplomat and his French-born wife -- whose bipolar disorder adds another dimension of conflict to the family’s life. You can learn about our guest and enjoy more of his work at MarcelinoTruong.com. Note that his website is in French, but, his illustrations speak to everyone regardless of language.

Kathleen Shanahan Maca – Galveston’s Broadway Cemeteries / Ghosts of Galveston Oct 31, 2016

Show notes

October 31, 2016 - This week, is Halloween, so we're piling into the Munsters Car, cranking up the Dark Shadows music, and talking about two books that would fit neatly Morticia Addams' nightstand. Our guest is genealogist and author Kathleen Shanahan Maca, who brings us Galveston's Broadway Cemeteries, and Ghosts of Galveston. One of the oldest cities in Texas, Galveston has suffered many tragedies -- hurricanes, yellow fever, fires, and a major Civil War Battle -- and those who didn't survive, started to fill its cemetery, starting in 1839. It's also why people have a lot of fun with ghost stories, and use people's fascination with things that go bump in the night, to preserve their very real history. You can visit this week's guest at KathleenMaca.com, follow her @AuthorMaca on Twitter, and like her at Facebook.com/AuthorKathleenShanahanMaca -- which you'll certainly want to do if you enjoy old photographs of this great old Texas town on the Gulf Coast.

Harold I. Gullan – Cradles of Power: The Mothers and Fathers of the American Presidents Oct 24, 2016

Show notes

October 24, 2016 - This week, with an eye on the upcoming U.S. presidential election, our time machine visits the childhood of the 43 bouncing baby boys who've served in the Oval Office -- which, yes, means changing Grover Cleveland's diaper on two, non-consecutive occasions. Dr. Harold I. Gullan brings us, Cradles of Power: The Mothers and Fathers of the American Presidents. There have been so many great authors writing about first ladies, including Feather S. Foster, who you heard chat with us about her book, Mary Lincoln's Flannel Pajamas: And Other Stories from the First Ladies' Closet. Yet you'll search in vain to find a book about the mothers and fathers of our presidents. This week's guest, fills that space on our bookshelves. Hal Gullan earned a master's degree in education from St. Joseph's University and a Ph.D. in history from Temple University. He has previously touched on the subject of molding young minds into leaders in his books, First Fathers: The Men Who Inspired Our Presidents, as well as, Faith of Our Mothers. And, with an eye on Election Day 2016, you might also want to check out his title, The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S. Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948.

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