History Happy Hour

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 Drawing on decades of research and previously unpublished interviews, Rees examines the twisted ideas...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...

This week on History Happy Hour:   The amazing story of American women who flew for England in WWII. They were crop dusters and debutantes, college girls and performers -all trained as pilots. When war broke out, they were denied the opportunity to fly for their country. But Great Britain, desperately fighting for survival, would let anyone - even American women - transport warplanes.  T...

This week on History Happy Hour: It sounds like an episode of “Foyle’s War” come to life: murder and violence in wartime London, carried out under the cover of the wartime blackout imposed to protect against Nazi bombings. Chris and Rick tackle the real story of murders carried out as Nazi bombs blew the city apart with our guest, Amy Helen Bell, author of “Under Cover of D...

This week on History Happy Hour: In June, 1944, sailors from the mysterious 10th fleet boarded an enemy warship at sea for the first time since the War of 1812.  What’s more, it was a submarine: The U-505. Chris and Rick have visited the sub together. Now we bring you the swashbuckling tale of its capture with our guest Alexander Rose, author of Phantom Fleet: The Hunt for Nazi Submarin...

This week on History Happy Hour: Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück, the all-women’s concentration camp, still evokes horror.  Among the prisoners were a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance. They banded together not only to survive, but to make sure the story was never forgotten. We’ll be talking about this with HHH...

This week on History Happy Hour: The invasion of Normandy was one of history’s greatest military triumphs. As we approach the 81st Anniversary of D-Day, Chris and Rick explore the stirring events of June 6th with Garrett M. Graff, author of When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day. It’s a book built that looks at D-Day through the eyes of those who experienced it—from so...

This week on History Happy Hour: On June 6, 1944, 4126 specially designed landing craft carried 132,000 Allied troops to the D-Day Beaches.  In this episode, we take a deep dive into why so many different types of landing craft were, how they were built, and how well they did in the hour of crisis. Chris and Rick welcome Andrew Whitmarsh, author of   D-Day Landing Craft .   Andrew W...

This week on History Happy Hour: Sir Richard Dannatt, former commander of the British Army & Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Center, have teamed up to write a book capturing emotional turmoil and epic decision-making before, during, and after the world-defining action of D-Day. Chris and Rick welcome them to discuss that book, Churchill’s D-Day . The invasion of Norman...

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 . Chris and Rick explore her fascinating story with Dane Hucklebridge, author of a new bio on Belle Starr...

This week on History Happy Hour: When people think of fighting in the Pacific, they often think of the epic battles involving the Navy and the Marines. But it was the Army that did most of the fighting and dying in the war against Japan. Chris and Rick welcome acclaimed historian John McManus to dig into this three volume series on The U.S. Army the Pacific in World War II. Volume One, Fire and Fo...

This week on History Happy Hour: Chris and Rick are back live and celebrating five years as Hosts of HHH. And it’s a History Happy First - for the first time in five years they will be in the same place with their guest! Podcasting from Lexington, Massachusetts, on the day after the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Chris and Rick will talk to Joel Bohy, author of Bullet Strikes...