History Author Show

February 1, 2016 - An advocate of the strenuous life, President Theodore Roosevelt saw sports as essential to developing physical fitness and character. So when 18 players died playing football in 1905, and people called to ban the game, TR leaped into action to reform the pigskin pastime. The game in those days resembled rugby much more than the game the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers will...

January 29, 2016 - Today’s history author, Richard Rhodes, has edited or authored several history books including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, winner of a Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction. His most recent book is Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made. The fighting took place from 1936 to 1939, and so is often lost in the catastrophe of World War Two. But the Spanish Civ...

January 27, 2016 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee. You might not believe it, but if it weren’t for Cicero, the United States might never have broken away from England. And if it weren’t for the philosopher, Epicurus,  it is possible that Thomas Jefferson might n...

January 25, 2016 - In this episode, we'll be boarding a Pullman car attached to one of the great trains connecting the North American east and west coasts, all the way up into the Alaskan and Yukon territories -- and very nearly across the Bering Strait to Siberia. Our conductor on this journey is Gordon E. Tolton, author of Healy's West: The Life and Times of John J. Healy. Gordon is a Western Ca...

January 22, 2016 – Today’s history author, Andrew D. Kaufman, author of Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times. He's going to share how, incredibly, one of the greatest works of fiction in history... almost didn't happen. Fortunately, Leo Tolstoy married the right woman, and she helped him in ways nobody else could have. You can also follow today's guest on Twitter @Andre...

January 20, 2016 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee. Today you should consider yourself warned. We are going to be discussing some adult topics. To be specific, we are going to be looking at some adult humor that sprung from the mind of one of the ancient worlds m...

January 18, 2016 - This week, we're flying our time machine across the Equator and into South America's turbulent past, where we'll meet some colorful characters, present at key moments of its history. They include Pablo Escobar, Butch Cassidy, Sundance, Charles Darwin, and a 14-year-old girl, Juanita, who the Incas sacrificed atop a twenty-thousand foot volcano. Our tour guide to the Andes is aut...

January 15, 2016 - Today’s history author, Jean Edward Smith, author of Grant, discusses the life and legacy of Ulysses S. Grant, from great disappointments and outright failures, to Civil War battlefields and, ultimately, the White House. The book bears a single word, the name of a modest man who became a legend. Grant.  Frederick Douglas called him "the last of the radicals" and he wrote memoirs...

January 13, 2015 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee. Today we are visiting with Plato and we are going to discuss political philosophy. This might be a bit of a controversial idea, but Plato believed that democratic government had only one logical outcome-tyranny....

January 11, 2016 - In this episode, we're going to Charleston our way back to the Manhattan of our theme song, New York Ain't New York Anymore. Yes, it's the Jazz Age of speakeasies and Prohibition -- and our tour guide is none other than the Theater Districts most famous resident ghost, sighted from time to time in the New Amsterdam Theater. Our guest, author Laini Giles, has written our ticket t...

January 8, 2016 - Today, James Tobin -- winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in biography -- shares one of the greatest stories of defiance and overcoming infirmity in: The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency. When polio robbed Franklin Delano Roosevelt of his legs at age 39, the conventional wisdom agreed that his political career was over. Certainly nobody thoug...

January 6, 2016 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee. Let me ask you something. How many friends do you have? Are they REALLY your friends? Is it possible that your friends are using you for utility or pleasure. If you’ve never thought of these things, then don’t wo...

January 4, 2016 - In this episode, we're racing the time machine through a bunch of stops around the world and throughout history. Our ticket is The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley. We'll be guided along the way by Eric Weiner, author of the New York Times bestseller The Geography of Bliss, as well as the critically acclaimed...

December 30, 2015 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee. Today, we are going to discuss creation myths. See if you can guess this man: after being warned about a deadly flood, he builds a mighty ark and escapes the ensuing deluge. If you guessed the biblical Noah, th...

December 28, 2015 - Today, we're joined by Stephen F. Knott, who along with co-author Tony Williams brings us Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America. George Washington and Alexander Hamilton's relationship has gotten renewed attention since the smash Broadway musical, ending almost 200 years of being overlooked. From the early days of the Revolutionary War on the hills of Rutg...

December 25, 2015 - Traditionally, December 25th has been celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ. But a variety of historic factors and scholarly discoveries indicate that He was not actually born on that date. Since this isn't really news, just how did most of the Christian world settle on this date for the big celebration? Amanda Read digs deep into the reason for the season in a special epi...

December 23, 2015 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee. Today, we are going to relive one of the most epic sea battles from the classical world. It was, at the time, the largest sea battle to every take place between ancient navies. It was the battle of Arginusae. Y...

December 21, 2015 - Today we sit down with Barry Strauss, professor of history and classics at Cornell University. A leading expert on ancient military history who counts Mel Brooks as his greatest living inspiration, he has written or edited several books, including The Battle of Salamis, The Trojan War, and The Spartacus War. Visit him @BarryStrauss on Twitter or at BarryStrauss.com.

December 18, 2015 – Today, author Barry Strauss explores the political, military, and social motivations behind history's most famous murder. Mr. Strauss is professor of history and classics at Cornell University, and a leading expert on ancient military history. Visit him @BarryStrauss on Twitter or at BarryStrauss.com. And don't miss our full interview on his book, The Death of Caesar, when we u...

December 16, 2015 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee. Today we are visiting with a unique character from classical history. He was a philosopher, mathematician, he might have been a cult leader, he also is the man responsible for creating one of your favorite theo...

December 14, 2015 - Ma and Pa McGillin opened the door to their home in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln won the presidency and just after the Liberty Bell cracked. As the decades passed, their tavern endured, tucked away in an alley, as if hiding from old Father Time. Originally called The Bell in Hand, McGillin's has survived wars, economic panics, challenges from upstart chain restaurants and Prohibi...

December 11, 2015 – It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster — kicking off your modern weekend, with people from the past. Today, author Dianne Hales reveals the woman immortalized by the great master, Leonardo Da Vinci. Everybody remembers Mona Lisa's smile, and has seen her face, but no one knew her full story -- until now. You can find Dianne Hales on Twitter @DMHales, at Face...

December 9, 2015 - It’s Classical Wisdom Wednesday, presented by Classical Wisdom Weekly — bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds, every Wednesday morning before your first cup of coffee. Today we are discussing one of the most remarkable women to ever come out of the classical age. She had a knack for rhetoric, a taste for philosophy, and a keen interest in politics. She was Aspasia of Miletus....

December 7, 2015 – On this Pearl Harbor Day, we mark the Japanese attack on Hawaii, and travel back 75 years to meet Aarol W. “Bud” Irish in the European Theater where he fought the Nazis. On the Memorial Day after Bud passed away in 2006, his daughter Teresa opened her father's mysterious old Army trunk and found stacks and stacks of letters from the front. Through these, she met her father as a...

December 4, 2015 – It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster — kicking off your modern weekend, with people from the past. Today, journalist Lynn Sherr turns our time machine into a rocket ship to shatter the glass ceiling. Her new book is Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space. It's the remarkable story of humanity's first baby steps beyond earth with Sputnik, to the Space Sh...