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 that try m...

This Week on History Happy Hour: In his new book The Greatest Force , author Marcus Gibson argues that RAF Bomber Command was the No.1 factor in Germany’s defeat. Rather than being too costly in terms of crew lives and civilian casualties, he argues that the impact of bombing fully justified the effort put into it.   Chris and Rick explore this challenging topic with him. Sunday at 4PM...

This Week on History Happy Hour: In March, HHH audience member Doug McCord visited a local museum in Nelson, New Zealand, where he was deeply moved by an art installation. Created by local artist Sue Heydon, it explored her father’s journey as a WWII prisoner of war. Captured during the 1941 Greek campaign, George Heydon spent more than four years in POW camps. We will talk to Sue about her...

This Week on History Happy Hour: She led a gang of horse thieves. She participated in stickups and robberies across Texas and Oklahoma. She was romantically involved with two of the west’s most feared outlaws. Many considered this extraordinary woman the most dangerous female in the west . In this encore episode, Chris and Rick will explore her fascinating story with Dane Hucklebridge, autho...

This Week on History Happy Hour: One of America’s most critical needs in WWII was to build a merchant fleet that could carry soldiers and supplies to theaters around the globe. To build enough ships fast enough that U-Boats couldn’t sink them all. To lead its effort, the US turned to a man who had never built a ship – but he nevertheless created a network of shipyards that built...

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...

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.   We’ll discuss this with David Nasaw, author of the new book T he Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II. &nb...

This Week on History Happy Hour: It wasn’t just the Marines that fought in the Pacific – the Army actually did most of the fighting and dying in the war against Japan.   Historian John McManus returns to History Happy Hour to discuss volume two of his WWII Pacific War trilogy. In Island Infernos , he explores the U.S. Army’s dogged pursuit of Japanese forces, island by islan...

This Week on History Happy Hour: In 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?   Rick and Chris discuss this little-known, true story with guest Tim Brady, author of A Light in the Northern Sea: Denmark’s Incredi...

This Week on History Happy Hour: In 1940, French painter Henri Matisse was ill, recently divorced, and full of doubt about his own career. But when the Germans invaded, he and his family defiantly refused to evacuate Nazi-occupied France. Chris and Rick discuss what happened next with HHH alum Christopher Gorham, author of Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi Occupied France. Christopher C....

This Week on History Happy Hour: The Hispanos of frontier New Mexico spent decades engaging in various forms of resistance against the corruption, exploitation, and violent oppression that frequently plagued their homeland following the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Chris and Rick welcome James Mills, author of In the Days of Billy the Kid . Mills dives into the lives of four men...

This Week on History Happy Hour: In 1915 Winston Churchill resigned as Lord of the Admiralty in the wake of the Dardanelles disaster. Struggling to deal with the fallout, he accepted a commission and headed for the front lines – where he began the most extraordinary comeback in political history. In this encore episode, Chris and Rick discuss this pivotal year in Churchill’s life with...

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? Chris and Rick welcome 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 examines the twisted ideas...

This Week on History Happy Hour : In January 1945, as the Battle of the Bulge was coming to an end, the 29th Division readied itself to be at the point of the fourth Allied offensive in eight months.  There, along the banks of the Roer River, is where volume five of Joe Balkoski’s epic series on the 29th gets under way. In this encore episode, Joe joins us for his sixth History Happy Ho...

This Week on History Happy Hour : We’ll explore the history of the British and German war dead buried on enemy soil in the two world wars. How did Germany and Britain remember, commemorate, and reconcile the legacy of their fallen soldiers? Chris and Rick will speak with our guest, Tim Brady, author of Burying the Dead: Those who Cared for the Dead in Two World Wars . Sunday at 4PM ET, on Hi...

This Week on History Happy Hour : We travel back to the six critical months before Adolf Hitler seized power, when the Nazi leader teetered between triumph and ruin.  As financial backers withdrew, the Nazi Party threatened to fracture. Hitler talked of suicide. The New York Times declared he was finished. Yet somehow, in a few brief weeks, he was chancellor of Germany.   Our guest is Ti...

This Week on History Happy Hour : Eighty years ago, Japan surrendered to the Allies after three of the most devastating bombing attacks of the war – two nuclear weapons and the fire-bombing of Tokyo. What was the decision-making process in this endgame of World War II? Was it just the atomic bomb that brought about Japan’s surrender? This week, Chris and Rick will chat with HHH Alum, R...

This Week on History Happy Hour : A trip back to the last 12 months of the Civil War, going behind the scenes in the White House, along the battlefronts in Virginia, and into the conspiracies of spies and secret agents. Our tour guide is Scott Ellsworth, author of Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America by Scott Ellsworth. Scot...

This Week on History Happy Hour : Our guest had technical problems, so Chris and Rick engaged in an hour of History happy Talk, answering questions, chatting about tours, aqueezing in the Ghost Army wherever possible!  We will be rescheduling our guest, Tim Brady, author of "A Light in the Northern Sky" for some day in the future! Sunday at 4PM ET, on History Happy Hour, where history is alwa...

This Week on History Happy Hour : The 381st Bomb Group went into action over the skies of Europe in June 1943, and flew 297 missions before the end of the war. Based out of Ridgewell, UK, their story is the story of the 8th Air Force and the daylight bombing of Europe – hours of frozen monotony, moments of sheer terror over target, horrifying casualties, and ultimate victory. Chris and Rick...

This Week on History Happy Hour : A detailed look at the city of Naples during and after its liberation by the Allies in World War II.  Keith Lowe is our guest this week and has written about this in his new book Naples 1944: The Devil's Paradise at War. His book explores the corruption, and social breakdown that followed the liberation, highlighting the stark contrasts between the wealt...

This Week on History Happy Hour : As we approach the 80th anniversary of the atomic bomb, HHH alum Garrett Graff has come out with a new oral history of the development of the bomb: The Devil Reached Toward the Sky . Chris and Rick will explore with him the breakthroughs and the breakneck pace of atomic development in the years leading up to 1945, what it was like inside the bombers carrying Littl...

This Week on History Happy Hour : National History Day! Since 1974, National History Day has been inspiring students to study history, whether public, private, parochial, charter, or homeschool. Today, the nonprofit organization reaches over 500,000 students every year who conduct historical research to discover the past, understand the present, and be the future. For more than 50 years, high scho...

This Week on History Happy Hour : From his first visit in 1941 to his last one eighteen years later, Churchill made himself at home in the White House, sometimes staying for weeks at a time. These extended stays at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue changed the course of history. In this encore episode, Chris and Rick explore the story with Robert Schmuhl, author of Mr. Churchill in the White House: The Unt...

This Week on History Happy Hour : Between 1199 and 1399, English politics was high drama. These two centuries witnessed savage political blood-letting – including civil war, deposition, the murder of kings and the ruthless execution of rebel lords. In this encore episode, Chris and Rick discuss did into this tumultuous period with Dr. Caroline Burt and Richard Partington, authors of Arise, E...