History Happy Hour Episode 223: Secret Science for D-Day Invasion
This week on History Happy Hour: The story of British scientists who developed cutting-edge underwater science that helped make D-Day possible.
Chris and Rick welcome Rachel Lance, author of "Chamber Divers." A long-classified tale of eccentric researchers who conducted life threatening experiments on themselves to pioneer the safe use of miniature submarines and breathing apparatuses used to reconnoiter the D-Day beaches.
Sunday at 4PM on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Episode 222: Native Nations
This Week on History Happy Hour: One thousand years ago, Native American cities in North America rivaled urban centers around the world in size and scope. But has the surprising history of Native Americans has been obscured by historians’ intent on minimizing the role of their still thriving societies?
Chris and Rick talk about one thousand years of Native American history with Kathleen DuVal, author of "Native Nations: A Millennium in North America," a book The Wall Street Journal calls “An essential American history.”
Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Episode 221: Six Plantagenet Kings and England’s Rise
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.
Chris and Rick discuss did into this tumultuous period with Dr. Caroline Burt and Richard Partington, authors of "Arise, England: Six Kings and the Making of the English State." How did these six Plantegenet Kings, colorful and complicated, manage the development of an English state that would become one of the leading nations in the world.
Sunday at 4 PM on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Epwode 220: Combat Nursing in World War II
This week on History Happy Hour: A close-up look at how WWII looked to combat nurse Lt, Mary Elizabeth Balster, who spent months caring for the sick and wounded just behind the front lines of General Patton’s Third Army. In this encore episode, Chris and Rick welcome N.C.R. Davis, Lt. Balster’s daughter, and author of "For the Boys: The War Story of a Combat Nurse in Patton’s Third Army."
The true story of a richly rebellious and intense woman trying to navigate her life and nurture her sanity while nursing the wounded and dying. Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Hapy Hour Episode 219: The 29th Division
This week on History Happy Hour: An encore episode with author and historian Joe Balkoski, our first ever five-time guest. He returns to pick up the story of the 29th Division. And of course we honored him with a special ceremony honoring Joe’s five-time guest status.
Chris and Rick talk with him about the 4th volume of his five-volume series on the 29th: Our Tortured Souls: The 29th Infantry Division in the Rhineland, November - December 1944. A riveting story of heroism and tragedy, during which thousands of 29ers became casualties in a campaign that ultimately failed to end the war.
Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap!
History Happy Hour Episode 218: Commanding Profiessionalistm
This week on History Happy Hour: He never became as celebrated as his fellow commanders George Patton and Omar Bradley, but General William Simpson, commander of the 9th U.S. Army in WWII, built a superb combat record. General Dwight Eisenhower called him brilliant, adding: "If Simpson ever made a mistake as an Army Commander, it never came to my attention."
In this encore episode, Chris and Rick will be joined by William Stuart Nance, author of a new book about Simpson and his Chief of Staff James Moore: Commanding Professionalism: Simpson, Moore, and the Ninth US Army.
Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Episode 217: Survival Tale
This week on History Happy Hour: Author Eric Jay Dolin returns to HHH, this time to talk about his book "Left For Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World." It is the true story of five castaways abandoned on the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812—a tale of treachery, shipwreck, isolation, and the desperate struggle for survival.
Dolan will discuss the surprising twists and turns throughout—involving greed, lying, bullying, a hostile takeover, stellar leadership, ingenuity, severe privation, endurance, banishment, and the great value of a dog.
Sunday at 4 PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Episode 216: France’s War in WWII
This week on History Happy Hour: After its shocking defeat to the Nazis in 1940, how did France respond? In his book "Resistance and Liberation 1942-1945," historian Douglas Porch traces how Charles de Gaulle sought to forge a French army and prevent civil war.
Chris and Rick talk to Douglas about the experiences of ordinary French men and women caught up in war and defeat, the choices they made, the trials they endured, and how this has shaped France's memory of those traumatic years.
Sunday at 4 PM, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Episode 215: Battle of Antietam
This Week on History Happy Hour: Civil War historian Scott Hartwig has been researching the Battle of Antietam for decades. Now he has written a definitive hour by hour tactical history of the battle, "I Dread the Thought of the Place The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign." Scott will take us on a deep dive into the bloodiest day in American military history.
Sunday at 4PM on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Episode 214: New York’s Female Mob Boss
This week on History Happy Hour: Frederika Mandlebaum was a nice Jewish mother living in New York in the 1870s. She was also America’s first great organized crime boss. She planned robberies throughout the country - handpicking a cadre of the finest bank robbers, housebreakers and shoplifters to turn street crime into big business.
Chris and Rick explore the story of this entrepreneurial criminal mastermind with HHH Alum Margalit Fox, author of "The Talented Mrs. Mandlebaum."
Sunday at 4PM on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Episode 213 Arctic Convoys in WWII
This week on History Happy Hour: Between 1941 and 1945, more than eight hundred shiploads of supplies were delivered to the Soviet Union protected by Allied naval forces. But more than 100 ships were lost in this duty. Each convoy was a battle against the elements, and the Germans - with both sides relying heavily on signals intelligence to intercept and break each other’s codes. The resulting ocean engagements involved aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and submarines…and the frightening weather of the Arctic sea.
In this encore episode, we explore this dramatic story with Bletchley Park historian David Kenyon, author of Arctic Convoys: Bletchley Park and the War for the Seas. Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
History Happy Hour Episode 212 – Liberation of Paris
This Week on History Happy Hour: Eighty years ago this Sunday, The Allies liberated Paris. It was the biggest party of the century, as experienced by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, J. D. Salinger, Pablo Picasso, and Robert Capa. But there was nothing preordained about this happy ending. Had things transpired differently, Paris might have gone down as a ghastly monument to Nazi nihilism.
On the very day of the anniversary we welcome back HHH alum Patrick Bishop to talk about his new book "Paris 1944: Occupation, Resistance, Liberation: A Social History."
Sunday at 4PM ET on History Happy Hour, where history is always on tap.
