History Author Show

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Van Bryan – Classical Wisdom Weekly Sep 21, 2015

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September 21, 2015 - Join us in Manhattan's Madison Square Park -- next to the statue of President Chester A. Arthur -- as we travel back to the days when Latin was very much a living language. Our tour guide is Van Bryan, associate editor of Classical Wisdom Weekly: "Ancient Wisdom for Modern Minds." It's an online publishing house that shares information, commentaries, and opinions on literature of antiquity with iPad-enabled readers like us. You can also follow them @ClassicalWisdom on Twitter or get their newsletter via email, just by signing up right here. When you do, you'll get three free books: The Guide to the Greek Gods and Goddesses, an introduction to ancient ethical philosophy, and a guide to the Peloponnesian War. You have nothing to lose and so much wisdom to gain, why not give it a try? Visit "The Thirsty Philosopher," Dr. Frank McCluskey's blog.

Michael Hiltzik – Big Science Sep 14, 2015

Show notes

September 14, 2015 - From Thomas Edison to Dr. Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters, the idea of the quirky, driven scientist working in solitude is a popular one in the American imagination. But today, you need big machines like particle accelerators, electron microscopes, and super computers to advance human knowledge. So how did we get from Alexander Graham Bell in his lonely lab to Robert Oppenheimer assembling and leading a massive team to beat Hitler to the atom bomb, or the U.S. racing the Soviets to the moon? Today's book introduces us to the man behind this revolution, one that touches all aspects of our modern life. It's called, Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex. The author is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik. He's a graduate of Colgate and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia, and has written previous books on the Hoover Dam and The New Deal. You can follow him on Twitter @HiltzikM and visit his website, MichaelHiltzik.com. Additional books discussed in this episode:

Dan DeMiglio from Callahan’s Hot Dogs Sep 07, 2015

Show notes

September 7, 2015 - This journey into the past is our tastiest yet. Our guest is Dan DeMiglio, heir to a legendary Callahan's hot dog shop, a landmark in Fort Lee, New Jersey, just across the George Washington Bridge. Our goal is to do more than books here on the program, to remind people that we're all the author of our own chapter in the great human story, so Callahan's -- which closed in 2006 after fifty years serving the "so big, so good" best --seemed like a natural. In 1950, Leonard "Artie" Castrianni didn't know it, but he was writing history -- not with ink, but with ketchup and mustard. The story began when he opened a road-side food stand and gas station on the Palisades cliffs. From it, he served deep-fried hot dogs, hand-cut fries, Birch Beer and more to hungry families -- first from the nearby Palisades Amusement Park, and later to anyone who wanted a taste of the past. Callahan's was an institution in Fort Lee, and from age 7, Daniel DeMiglio -- Artie Castrianni's grandson -- had a single goal in life: To carry on the family legacy. Even when his dad and uncle sold the old place in 2006, Daniel -- then just out of college -- refused to let the delicious dog dream die. How could he? "Callahan Dan" had relish in his blood. You can follow the reborn Callahan's @EatCallahans on Twitter. You can also like them at Facebook.com/CallahansHotDogs, and find out when their food truck ("The Yellow Beast") will be in your neighborhood. It travels all around the New York/New Jersey area and like many of our locals entering their 60s, the truck has set its sights on Florida for the winter. You can also visit CallahansHotDogs.com from more on this historic family business.

Jim Leeke – Matty Boy Aug 31, 2015

Show notes

August 31, 2015 - In our last episode of August, we introduce you to our first History Author Show correspondent: Amanda Read. Amanda Read grew up across the States and overseas as an Army brat before her family settled on Fair Hill Farms in Alabama. She graduated from Troy University Magna Cum Laude in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in History and a minor in Political Science. She's done voice-over work on previous shows, performing dramatic readings from war diaries and the letters of First Lady Dolley Madison. Amanda has a love of old fashioned things, from dipping pens to vintage dresses. She even dresses her horse in period tack. She is passionate about two historical figures in particular: Isaac Newton and Harvey Wiley. Keep up with Amanda’s wide range of work at AmandaRead.com, LukeHistorians.com, or on Twitter @SincerelyAmanda. While we're meeting Amanda, we also enjoy her first interview: A chat with Jim Leeke, author of Matty Boy: A Civil War Novel for Young Readers. Amanda seemed perfect for this conversation. She not only counts both Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee as ancestors, but she's the eldest of nine children. We'll also hear from Jim Leeke again on a book for adults: Nine Innings for the King: The Day Wartime London Stopped for Baseball, July 4, 1918. You can follow Jim on Twitter @9Innings4King, or visit his website at SamsLeague.Blogspot.com. Additional Books discussed in this episode:

Jane Singer – Lincoln’s Secret Spy Aug 24, 2015

Show notes

August 24, 2015 - "What is worse? A confederate con man claiming he was Lincoln's spy throughout the Civil War, or the Union veteran who pursed his claim all the way to the Supreme Court?" That's the central question of Jane Singer's book, Lincoln's Secret Spy: The Civil War Case that Changed the Future of Espionage. In it, she introduces us to William Alvin Lloyd. Con man, bigamist, charlatan, Lloyd hobbled out of the defeated Confederacy and into the capital of the newly re-United States with a claim that made people listen: The government owed him money for serving as Abraham Lincoln's covert operative. John Wilkes Booth had shot down the Great Emancipator just a month earlier in April 1865, and couldn't refute the story. So, armed with Lincoln's signature on a travel pass and a skill for duping people -- including no less than Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who was at the president's side when he died -- Lloyd teamed up with lawyer Enoch Totten, who'd served in the Union Army during the conflict. The story of their conspiracy to defraud the American people is brought to us by my guest, Jane Singer, and her co-author, John Stewart. Jane is a Civil War scholar and author of The Confederate Dirty War: Arson, Bombings, Assassination and Plots for Chemical and Germ Attacks on the Union, the basis of the History Channel special, Civil War Terror. You can follower her at Facebook.com/JaneSingerAuthor or @JaneBSinger1 on Twitter. Her book is more than a tale of a long-ago fraud. The Supreme Court's ruling in Totten v. United States is a legal precedent that affects our clandestine operatives to this day. Here's my conversation with Jane about this intricate tale of espionage and lies.

Donald L. Miller – Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America Aug 17, 2015

Show notes

August 17, 2015 - You're familiar with our theme song, 1925's New York Ain't New York Anymore. It's the perfect segue into today's book, Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America. The story of speakeasies, Flappers and radio is brought to us by Donald L. Miller. He's the John Henry MacCracken Professor of History at Lafayette College and also authored City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America. You can learn about these and his other projects at DonaldMillerBooks.com, and even take a spin around Jazz Age Manhattan on an interactive map. If you have an eye for history -- and you do, or why else would you be here -- you'll run into a lot of old friends reading Supreme City. Names that still generate excitement and nods of recognition a hundred years later. Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Tex Rickard, E.B. White, Elizabeth Arden. Ziegfeld, Chrysler, LaGuardia, Lindbergh, Sarnoff. But how did New York City get from there to here? How did it become, as Duke Ellington called it, "the capital of everything"?

Rinker Buck – The Oregon Trail Aug 10, 2015

Show notes

August 10, 2015 - Three mules, two brothers, and a Jack Russell terrier. Together they rattle 2000 miles from Missouri to the great American Northwest in a covered wagon. That isn't the setup for a Vaudeville joke, but there are plenty of laughs found on the ruts, roads and interstates. That's right, interstates. The trip doesn't take place before the Civil War, but in our time. We can go along for the ride from the comfort of our reading chairs thanks to author Rinker Buck's New York Times best-seller: The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey. It's the first such crossing in a century, which meant our unlikely group of pioneers had to reinvent the lost art of wagon travel along the way. Mr. Buck grew up on the family farm in historic Morristown, New Jersey, and attended Bowdoin College in Maine. His career in journalism earned him the Eugene S. Pulliam Journalism Writing Award and other accolades. In his 1997 book, Flight of Passage, he shared another adventure: Piloting a Piper PA-11 across the United States in 1966. Just 15 at the time, he became the youngest airmen ever to complete the trip. You can follow his continuing adventures by liking him at Facebook.com/RinkerBuck. Additional books discussed in this episode:

Stephen Bedford – Simon & Schuster Aug 02, 2015

Show notes

August 3, 2015 - Welcome to the pilot episode of the History Author Show, a weekly program that uploads a new episode every Monday morning on iHeartRadio, iTunes, tunein Radio or your favorite personal audio outlet. We're everywhere! If you've ever felt a rush of nostalgia when reading about the way things used to be, then you’ve come to the right place -- our time machine high above Radio City Music Hall in Midtown Manhattan. There's something magical about the craft of writing, and if you want to learn to do something, the best way is to study people who do it well. That brings us to our very first guest, Stephen Bedford, Imprint Marketing Manager for publishing legend Simon & Schuster, specializing in U.S. History and current events. You can follow him on Twitter @SimonBooks, and check out his History in 5 series online. So join us as we hear from Simon & Schuster authors and others who'll join us on the show in the coming months. Books discussed in this week's episode: Links of Interest: ClassicalWisdom.com - Ancient Wisdom for Modern Minds Negro Leagues Baseball Museum ArtGarfunkel.com: Every Book That Art Garfunkel Has Read James A. Garfield National Historic Site, Mentor, Ohio

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