History Author Show

December 2, 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 talking about the bringers of guilt and fear. They were the bane of all criminals in the ancient world. If a man committed a terrible crime, he could expect to answer to the Furies. Your guide throu...

November 30, 2015 - Historian of First Ladies Betty Boyd Caroli introduces us to the diminutive, quiet woman who stood behind one of the most controversial presidents of the 20th Century through some of America's most difficult years. The book is Lady Bird & Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage that Made a President. But Clauda "Lady Bird" Johnson was more than just the flower lady. She was...

November 27, 2015 – It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster. For the day after Thanksgiving, we're joined by historian of first ladies Betty Boyd Caroli, whose previous books include The Roosevelt Women: A Portrait In Five Generations, and The First Ladies: From Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. Today, she introduces us to a woman who was at the center of public life for half...

November 25, 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 talking about some important topics. We will be visiting with Seneca and getting his take on a “good life”. This Roman statesman and philosopher believes that too many of us are wasting our lives a...

November 23, 2015 - The Old '76 House in Tappan, New York, is a National Landmark, one where you can eat a meal fit for overthrowing a king. The building itself predates the American Revolution by over a century, and served an active role in the fight for independence. Every major figure including General George Washington spent time at this great American tavern. In 1780, it even served as a make...

November 20, 2015 – It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster. Today, author Clint Hill shares his eyewitness account of President John F. Kennedy's assassination fifty-two years ago on November 22, 1963. Mr. Hill was the Secret Service agent assigned to protect Mrs. Kennedy that day, and the man seen leaping onto the back of the car after the fatal shots rang out in Dealey Plaza....

November 18, 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 talking about an important theme from The Odyssey. It is a theme that I’m certain you have never heard of. It’s called Xenia, and it has to do with rules of hospitality between hosts and guests. To...

November 16, 2015 - Today, we travel back 75 years to a dark period of the Second World War. But the battlefield where liberty and tyranny clash isn't Midway or Normandy Beach. It's the hallowed halls of the United States Supreme Court. Our guide into this world is Kermit Roosevelt. His novel is Allegiance, a legal thriller built around the internment of Americans with Japanese ancestry -- 62% of...

November 13, 2015 - Today we're going to hear from writer/journalist Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of  The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, and the acclaimed biography: Steve Jobs. The Innovators includes names like Grace Hopper, Lord Byron’s daughter, Bletchley Park's Alan Turing, ENIAC, John M...

November 11, 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 consider the legend of Atlantis. You read that right, dear listener, we are talking about THAT Atlantis. While it is often considered legend, there is one classical writer who tells us oth...

November 9, 2015 - In honor of Veterans Day and Remembrance Day on November 11th, Bristol writer Jacqueline Wadsworth takes us back to "the war to end all wars" in Letters from the Trenches: The First World War by Those Who Were There. We hear from soldiers on the Western Front, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli, Italy, Northern Russia -- and, of course, from the women and children suffering through the Grea...

November 6, 2015 – Today, we’re going to hear from author, journalist and producer Denise Kiernan. Her latest book is, The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. Kiernan is the author of several history books, including Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence, and Signing Their Rights Away: Th...

November 4, 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 Aristotle, a man who is often considered to be the most influential philosopher to ever live. We are looking at Aristotle’s Poetics and we will talk about how the idea of a “good story...

November 2, 2015 - For our first historical fiction author, we're pleased to introduce Jennifer Kincheloe's debut novel: The Secret Life of Anna Blanc. Join us in 1907 Los Angeles, where Anna Blanc chafes under the thumb of her controlling father and yearns for a life of crime -- solving them that is. Inspired by the wild Santa Anna winds, Anna joins a suffragette protest, lies to everyone in her...

October 30, 2015 - Today we’re going to hear from popular historian and frequent TV news guest, Doris Kearns Goodwin. Her latest book is, "The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism." She previously touched on the extended Roosevelt family twenty years ago, writing "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front During World War II...

October 29, 2015 - In this special, Halloween episode, we're traveling back to the days before the American Civil War, when doctors would take their scalpels to fully awake patients -- the pre-microbial era when the causes of common diseases remained a mystery, and when oil lamps and flammable clothing combined to engulf a staggering number of people in flames. This, was the age of monsters. Yes,...

October 28, 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 looking at the Battle of Thermopylae, an ancient military engagement that has been immortalized in popular, modern media like the film “300”. The battle took place in 480 BC. The Greeks, lead by Kin...

October 26, 2015 - What if John Wilkes Booth's gun had misfired? And what if we could blast off to a Mars colony founded by the Carthaginians, or head 250,000 years into the past when a race of giants dominate Africa? Writer and archaeologist Jordan Harbour, explores stories like these at the Twilight Histories podcast. And like a David Lynch film, things keep getting weirder. The Twilight Histori...

October 23, 2015 - Today we're going to hear from Harold Holzer, one of America's leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln's life and the politics of the Civil War era. His book is, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion. Mr. Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who covered him from his start through to the night of his assassination — when one reporter ran...

October 21, 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 looking at ancient mythology and the story of Prometheus, the creator of man and the original benefactor of mankind. Originally penned by the ancient poet, Hesiod, in about 700 BC, Prometheus is mor...

October 19, 2015 - On this episode, you'll meet five legends -- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe, and Dolley Madison -- as viewed through their relationships with James Madison. Often overlooked in death as he was in life (and having the White House burned out from under him in the War of 1812 didn't help), David O. Stewart reveals a founding father and preside...

October 16, 2015 – It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster — kicking off your modern weekend, with people from the past. Today, historian David O. Stewart focuses on James Madison, Father of the Constitution and fourth president of the United States. Overlooked in death as he was in life, Madison was the indispensable man in peace as General George Washington was in the Revoluti...

October 14, 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 visit with one of the greatest minds to ever be produced by the classical world-Plato. It's "Plato's Symposium: Always Change for Love." We will examine one of his more popular pieces of philosophy, The...

October 12, 2015 - On this episode, we'll visit a key period in Winston Churchill's life, half a century before World War Two. In the late 1800s, Churchill chased adventure in the Sudan, South Africa, India and Cuba, filing dispatches that helped build his resume, and fill his empty wallet. Simon Read describes a Winston Churchill who's part Indiana Jones, part Ernie Pyle, and part Audie Murphy. I...

October 9, 2015 – It’s History in Five Friday, presented by Simon & Schuster — kicking off your modern weekend, with people from the past.  Today, we offer up legendary history author David McCullough on his latest #1 New York Times best-seller: The Wright Brothers. It's a tale that Mr. McCullough calls quintessentially American in its power to inspire, and to set an example for us in 2015. Orvill...