History Happy Hour

This week on History Happy Hour: Thomas Paine was a man whose words helped launch a revolution. In January 1776 he wrote Common Sense , which helped inspire the Continental Congress to declare Independence. In late November that same year, while serving in George Washington’s army during the Colonies’ most desperate hour, he picked up his pen again.  “These are the times tha...

This week on History Happy Hour: During the Vietnam War, 300 thousand black soldiers were drafted and sent overseas. At home, Black anti-war protesters were vilified for jeopardizing the fight for civil rights. Matthew Delmont comes back to History Happy Hour to talk about his new book Until the Last Gun is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America's Soul....

This week on History Happy Hour: On May 6, 1937, the majestic German zeppelin Hindenburg arrived in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Suddenly, a titanic inferno lit up the sky, and within seconds the proud symbol of Nazi Germany was gone. Historian Catherine Grace Katz returns to History Happy Hour to talk about her new book Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and Prelude to War. Catherine Grac...

This week on History Happy Hour: Author James Ellman takes a critical look at George Patton, calling him one-dimensional and flawed in his new book Patton Reconsidered: General George S. Patton Jr. as a Wartime Commander . We’ll get into it with him to find out what he thinks Patton’s problems were. As an Amazon Associate, HHH earns from qualifying purchases James Ellman is an investor...

This week on History Happy Hour: Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle were thrown together by challenges of war. They did not always get along, but nevertheless found a way to work together – personifying resistance to Adolph Hitler during WWII and for years beyond. But that is only a small part of a complex story. Both men influenced their countries, and the world around them, long after...

This week on History Happy Hour: Roger Casement was a British diplomat knighted by the crown – who turned into a rebel. His advocacy for Irish independence led him renounce his titles and make a deal with the Germans in the days leading up to the 1916 Easter Uprising. And that led him to become a target of the British government.   Chris and Rick talk with Rory Carroll, author of A Rebe...

This week on History Happy Hour: In 1540, an expedition of 2000 explorers headed north from the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan into the unknown. Led by Francisco Coronado, their journey took them across a great swath of the US from California to Kansas, while sparking violent cultural clashes and battles with Native American Pueblo populations. We’ll talk about the impact of their e...

This week on History Happy Hour:   Henry Starr was a bank-robber, one of the most successful in history. Until he was caught. When he got out, he became a movie star, playing himself. Until he went back to bank-robbing. Chris and Rick dig into his fascinating life-story with Mark Archuleta, author of T he Reel Thrilling Events of Bank Robber Henry Starr: From Gentleman Bandit to Movie Star an...

This week on History Happy Hour:   We welcome back historian John McManus to talk about the third volume of his Pacific War series, To the End of the Earth . From the liberation of the Philippines to the Battle of Okinawa and finally to the end of the war, John chronicles the struggles and triumphs of the US Army in the Pacific.  We’ll talk about the march to ultimate victory, from...

This week on History Happy Hour: President Truman’s choice to drop the atomic bomb is the most debated decision in the 20th Century. But what if he, himself, did not fully understand the decisions being made until after the atomic bomb was used. Chris and Rick will talk to historian Alex Wellerstein about his highly regarded new book The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Strug...

This week on History Happy Hour: Life in Berlin during World War II. What was it like for the four million people who lived there as things became increasingly desperate? Our guest is author Ian Buruma, author of Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945 . We’ll talk about the experiences of everyday citizens, soldiers, Jews, and slave laborers like his father. How did they deal with the onslaught that...

This week on History Happy Hour: This week on History Happy Hour:  Follow the money. That’s one way to discover the real story of America and its founding. Nothing gives a clearer insight into this history than the life of early America's dominant merchant trader, first bank president, and first central banker, Thomas Willing. We will dive into his story with Richard Vague, author...

This week on History Happy Hour: We celebrate America’s 250th birthday to talk about the founders’ drinking! A perfect take for HHH! Historian Brook Barbier returns to the show to talk with us live about the role that alcohol played in spurring building, and winning the American Revolution and how it shaped the nascent United States. Plus – cocktail recipes! (We’ll try some...

This week on History Happy Hour: Along with Guadalcanal in the Pacific, and Stalingrad in Russia, the Allies victory in North Africa was one of three Axis defeats that changed the course of the war in early 1943. The Africa campaign has sometimes been branded a side show, but it destroyed 40% of the Luftwaffe’s planes, ended Axis sea power in the Mediterranean and led to the surrender of 250...

This week on History Happy Hour: The Declaration of Independence came to life in a boarding house in Philadelphia under the hand of Thomas Jefferson, captured the spirit of the American cause, and lives to this day. Scholar Michael Auslin has written a history of the Declaration of Independence that starts with its writing and winds through a long afterlife of 250 years. We’ll talk with him...

This week on History Happy Hour: World War II was unprecedented in its scope and ferocity. The heroism of the men and women who won the war may be well documented, but we know too little about the pain and hardships the veterans endured upon their return home In this encore episode, we discuss this with David Nasaw, author of the new book The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II. Dav...

This week on History Happy Hour: To mark the 82nd Anniversary of D-Day, we will bring you a ninety-minute special edition of History Happy Hour looking back on the Normandy landings. Two of our favorite historians will join us to take your questions about D-Day – its planning, execution and aftermath. Joe Balkoski wrote the book Beyond the Beachhead about the 29th Division, which landed on t...

This week on History Happy Hour: September 1943, the people of Denmark banded together to rescue nearly all of their Jewish citizens from a NAZI roundup by ferrying them to sanctuary in Sweden. Why were the Danes able to do what no other country could? In this encore episode, we discuss this little-known, true story with guest Tim Brady, author of A Light in the Northern Sea: Denmark’s Incre...

This week on History Happy Hour: Chris and Rick are in Berchtesgaden to present an encore episode about The Hispanos of frontier New Mexico after the war with Mexico in 1848.  Make sense?  Probably not, but that’s the way it goes! We’ll present our conversation with James Mills, author of In the Days of Billy the Kid . Mills dives into the lives of four men little known to hi...

This week on History Happy Hour: Chris and Rick explore the story of two B-24 navigators from the same Illinois town, who find themselves in a famous bombing raid over Ploesti - and the woman who connects them.   Our guest is Jan Cress Dondi, author of The Navigator’s Letter: The Story of Two WWII Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and the Woman who Bound Them Together . Drawing on family letter...

This week on History Happy Hour: Chris and Rick welcome Robert Edsel, author of the book “ Monuments Men,” to talk about his latest book “ Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II .” We’ll talk about the occupation and liberation of the Netherlands, as well as the extraordinary, 80-year commitment of Dutch citizens t...

This week on History Happy Hour: The shocking untold story of the British royal family’s centuries-long investment in slavery and continued profiting off its legacy—from Elizabeth I to the present. Acclaimed historian Dr. Brooke Newman reveals the true story of the enslavers who were supported by members of the royal family in her new book The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History...

This week on History Happy Hour: What drove the thinking of Hitler and his followers? How did ordinary Germans come to embrace an ideology of hate and destruction? In this encore episode, Chris and Rick talk with Laurence Rees , award-winning historian and author of the new book The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History . Drawing on decades of research and previously unpublished interviews, Rees...

WE HAD A SCHEDULING ISSUE WITH THIS WEEK'S GUEST AND HE DID NOT APPEAR.  WE WILL TRY TO RESCHEDULE . This week on History Happy Hour: President Truman’s choice to drop the atomic bomb is the most debated decision in the 20th Century. But what if he, himself, did not fully understand the decisions being made until after the atomic bomb was used. Chris and Rick will talk to historian...

This week on History Happy Hour:   The little-known story of FBI agents who went undercover to hunt down U.S. traitors on foreign soil during World War II. The goal: to identify and capture U.S. citizens plotting against their own country in the shadows of war-torn Europe. To accomplish this, a small group of federal agents assumed new identities to infiltrate underground networks, interrogat...