History Ago Go

Before 1871, Germany was not yet a nation but simply an idea. Otto von Bismarck had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser, convincing proud Prussians, Bavarians and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France – all without destroying itself in the process?In a unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War. This often-startling narrative is a dramatic tale of national self-discovery, social upheaval and realpolitik that ended, as it started, in blood and iron.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Copper Legend Octoberfest, Jack's Abby Craft Lagers, Framingham, MassachusettsBOOK:  Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871–1918https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Iron-German-Empire-1871-1918/dp/0750998598/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W28Z4OL447V6&keywords=blood+and+iron+katja+hoyer&qid=1665249853&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjk3IiwicXNhIjoiMS43NyIsInFzcCI6IjEuODAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=blood+and+iron%2Caps%2C597&sr=8-1MUSIC:  BoneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one-hundred anti-Semitic groups operating openly in the United States. Few Americans dared to speak out or fight back—until an organized resistance of notorious mobsters waged their own personal war against the Nazis in their midst. Gangland-style. . . .Packed with surprising, little-known facts, graphic details, and unforgettable personalities, Gangsters vs. Nazis chronicles the mob's most ruthless tactics in taking down fascism—inspiring ordinary Americans to join them in their fight. The book culminates in one of the most infamous events of the pre-war era—the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden—in which law-abiding citizens stood alongside hardened criminals to fight for the soul of a nation. This is the story of the mob that's rarely told—one of the most fascinating chapters in American history and American organized crime.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Almost Famous New England IPA, Torch and Crown Brewing Company, New York, New YorkBOOK:  Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America https://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-vs-Nazis-Mobsters-Battled/dp/0806541792/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LJYOXW8FOQYF&keywords=gangsters+vs+nazis+michael+benson&qid=1664750956&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjI3IiwicXNhIjoiMS4wMiIsInFzcCI6IjEuMjMifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=gangsters+vs+%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1MUSIC:  BoneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Dr. Patrick Hotle discusses the ill-fated and disastrous Fourth Crusade.   Starting with a lively medieval tournament to the Crusader army working with the Venetians to the palace intrigue of the Byzantine Empire.   The story includes interesting characters, twists and turns, fights against other Christians, and spoiler alert the journey never made it to the Holy Land - if that was ever the target to begin with. HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Lost Lager, BrewDog Brewery, Columbus, OhioMUSIC:  BoneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

On the morning of November 4, 2019, an unassuming caravan of women and children was ambushed by masked gunmen on a desolate stretch of road in northern Mexico controlled by the Sinaloa drug cartel. Firing semi-automatic weapons, the attackers killed nine people and gravely injured five more. The victims were members of the LeBaron and La Mora communities―fundamentalist Mormons whose forebears broke from the LDS Church and settled in Mexico when their religion outlawed polygamy in the late nineteenth century. The massacre produced international headlines for weeks, and prompted President Donald Trump to threaten to send in the US Army.In The Colony, bestselling investigative journalist Sally Denton picks up where the initial, incomplete reporting on the attacks ended, and delves into the complex story of the LeBaron clan. Their homestead―Colonia LeBaron―is a portal into the past, a place that offers a glimpse of life within a polygamous community on an arid and dangerous frontier in the mid-1800s, though with smartphones and machine guns. Rooting her narrative in written sources as well as interviews with anonymous women from LeBaron itself, Denton unfolds an epic, disturbing tale that spans the first polygamist emigrations to Mexico through the LeBarons' internal blood feud in the 1970s―started by Ervil LeBaron, known as the “Mormon Manson”―and up to the family's recent alliance with the NXIVM sex cult, whose now-imprisoned leader, Keith Raniere, may have based his practices on the society he witnessed in Colonia LeBaron.A mesmerizing feat of investigative journalism, The Colony doubles as an unforgettable account of sisterhood that can flourish in polygamist communities, against the odds.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Sucker Punch Watermelon Sour, Three Nations Brewing Company, Carrollton, TexasBOOK:  The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Landhttps://www.amazon.com/Colony-Faith-Blood-Promised-Land/dp/163149807X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sally+denton&qid=1663638544&s=books&sr=1-1MUSIC:  BoneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, his papers were sealed in the Vatican Secret Archives, leaving unanswered questions about what he knew and did during World War II. Those questions have only grown and festered, making Pius XII one of the most controversial popes in Church history, especially now as the Vatican prepares to canonize him.In 2020, Pius XII's archives were finally opened, and David I. Kertzer—widely recognized as one of the world's leading Vatican scholars—has been mining this new material ever since, revealing how the pope came to set aside moral leadership in order to preserve his church's power.Based on thousands of never-before-seen documents not only from the Vatican, but from archives in Italy, Germany, France, Britain, and the United States, The Pope at War paints a new, dramatic portrait of what the pope did and did not do as war enveloped the continent and as the Nazis began their systematic mass murder of Europe's Jews. The book clears away the myths and sheer falsehoods surrounding the pope's actions from 1939 to 1945, showing why the pope repeatedly bent to the wills of Hitler and Mussolini.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Pope's Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Millersburg Brewing Company, Millersburg, OhioBOOK:  The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitlerhttps://www.amazon.com/Pope-War-Secret-History-Mussolini/dp/0812989945/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=david+kertzer&qid=1663123186&s=books&sr=1-2MUSIC:  BoneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Every president has had a unique and complicated relationship with the intelligence community. While some have been coolly distant, even adversarial, others have found their intelligence agencies to be among the most valuable instruments of policy and power.The details of most PDBs are highly classified, and will remain so for many years. But the process by which the intelligence community develops and presents the Book is a fascinating look into the operation of power at the highest levels. David Priess, a former intelligence officer and daily briefer, has interviewed every living president and vice president as well as more than one hundred others intimately involved with the production and delivery of the president's book of secrets. He offers an unprecedented window into the decision making of every president from Kennedy to Obama, with many character-rich stories revealed here for the first time.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Singel Belgian-style Blonde Ale, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Richmond, VirginiaBOOK:  The President's Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to American Presidentshttps://www.amazon.com/Presidents-Book-Secrets-Intelligence-Briefings/dp/161039769X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

The outlandish, hilarious, terrifying, and almost impossible-to-believe story of the legendary, dangerous amusement park where millions were entertained and almost as many bruises were sustained, told through the eyes of the founder's son.Often called "Accident Park," "Class Action Park," or "Traction Park," Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures--sometimes with tragic results. Though it closed its doors in 1996 after nearly twenty years, it has remained a subject of constant fascination ever since, an establishment completely anathema to our modern culture of rules and safety. Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill. From his early days testing precarious rides to working his way up to chief lifeguard of the infamous Wave Pool to later helping run the whole park, Andy's story is equal parts hilarious and moving, chronicling the life and death of a uniquely American attraction, a wet and wild 1980s adolescence, and a son's struggle to understand his father's quixotic quest to become the Walt Disney of New Jersey. Packing in all of the excitement of a day at Action Park, this is destined to be one of the most unforgettable memoirs of the year.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  A Sunny Day American IPA, Five Dimes Brewery, Westwood, New JerseyBOOK:  Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Parkhttps://www.amazon.com/Action-Park-Andy-Mulvihill/dp/0143134515/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3U2KWYLUVD7SQ&keywords=action+park&qid=1661136252&sprefix=action+park%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-2MUSIC:  BoneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

His comrades called him “Killer.” Of the elite paratroopers who served in the venerated “Band of Brothers” during the Second World War, none were more enigmatic than Ronald Speirs. Rumored to have gunned down enemy prisoners and even one of his own disobedient sergeants, Speirs became a foxhole legend among his troops. But who was the real Lieutenant Speirs? In Fierce Valor, historians Jared Frederick and Erik Dorr unveil the fuller story of Easy Company's longest-serving commander. Tested by trials of extreme training, military rivalry, and lost love, Speirs's international odyssey begins as an immigrant child in Prohibition-era Boston and continues through the bloody campaigns of France, Holland, and Germany. But 1945 did not mark an end to Speirs's military adventures. Uncovered by sharp scholarship, his lesser-known exploits in Korea, the Cold War, and embattled Laos also come to light for the first time.Packed with groundbreaking research, Fierce Valor unveils a compelling portrait of an officer defined by boldness on the battlefield and the inherent costs of war. His story serves as a telling reminder that few soldiers escape the power of their own pasts. HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Paratrooper Porter, Veterans United Craft Brewery, Jacksonville, FloridaBOOK:  Fierce Valor: The True Story of Ronald Speirs and his Band of Brothershttps://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Valor-Ronald-Speirs-Brothers/dp/1684511992/ref=sr_1_1?crid=DOBN07CXN24B&keywords=jared+frederick&qid=1660187675&sprefix=jared+freder%2Caps%2C449&sr=8-1MUSIC:  https://bonesfork.com/

The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America's first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation's character―above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos.In Rebels at Sea, best-selling historian Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels, mostly refitted merchant ships, that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war. As Dolin stirringly demonstrates, at a time when the young Continental Navy numbered no more than about sixty vessels all told, privateers rushed to fill the gaps. Nearly 2,000 set sail over the course of the war, with tens of thousands of Americans serving on them and capturing some 1,800 British ships. Privateers came in all shapes and sizes, from twenty-five foot long whaleboats to full-rigged ships more than 100 feet long. Bristling with cannons, swivel guns, muskets, and pikes, they tormented their foes on the broad Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  SeaQuench Ale, Dogfish Head Brewery, Milton, DelawareBOOK:  Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolutionhttps://www.amazon.com/Rebels-Sea-Privateering-American-Revolution/dp/1631498258/ref=sr_1_1?crid=OCQS2IIHBF3J&keywords=rebels+at+sea&qid=1658348628&sprefix=rebels+at%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-1MUSIC:  boneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” Admiral Hyman George Rickover (1899–1986) remains an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. A brilliant engineer with a ferocious will and combative personality, he oversaw the invention of the world's first practical nuclear power reactor. As important as the transition from sail to steam, his development of nuclear-propelled submarines and ships transformed naval power and Cold War strategy. They still influence world affairs today. His disdain for naval regulations, indifference to the chain of command, and harsh, insulting language earned him enemies in the navy, but his achievements won him powerful friends in Congress and the White House. A Jew born in a Polish shtetl, Rickover ultimately became the longest-serving U.S. military officer in history. In this exciting new biography, historian Marc Wortman explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Sea Hag IPA, New England Brewing Company, Woodbridge, ConnecticutBOOK:  Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power https://www.amazon.com/Admiral-Hyman-Rickover-Engineer-Jewish/dp/0300243103/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2K5836S72R4IB&keywords=marc+wortman+rickover&qid=1657245199&sprefix=marc+wort%2Caps%2C204&sr=8-1MUSIC:  BoneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the 48 percent who wanted to stay and the 52 percent who wanted to go each accused the other of stupidity, fraud, and treason. In reality, the Brexit debate merely reran a script written ten thousand years earlier, when the rising seas physically separated the British Isles from the European continent. Ever since, geography has been destiny―yet it is humans who get to decide what that destiny means.Ian Morris, the critically acclaimed author of Why the West Rules―for Now, describes how technology and organization have steadily enlarged Britain's arena, and how its people have tried to turn this to their advantage. For the first seventy-five hundred years, the British were never more than bit players at the western edge of a European stage, struggling to find a role among bigger, richer, and more sophisticated continental rivals. By 1500 CE, however, new kinds of ships and governments had turned the European stage into an Atlantic one; with the English Channel now functioning as a barrier, England transformed the British Isles into a United Kingdom that created a worldwide empire. Since 1900, thanks to rapid globalization, Britain has been overshadowed by American, European, and―increasingly―Chinese actors.In trying to find its place in a global economy, Britain has been looking in all the wrong places. The ten-thousand-year story bracingly chronicled by Geography Is Destiny shows that the great question for the current century is not what to do about Brussels; it's what to do about Beijing.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Laughing Monk Holy Ghost Pilsner, Rose and Crown Pub, Palo Alto, CaliforniaBOOK:  Geography Is Destiny: Britain and the World: A 10,000-Year Historyhttps://www.amazon.com/Geography-Destiny-Britains-000-Year-History/dp/0374157278/ref=sr_1_1?crid=R24C7TCGUGOM&keywords=ian+morris+geography+is+destiny&qid=1655264272&sprefix=ian+morris+geo%2Caps%2C433&sr=8-1MUSIC:  BoneS Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

What would Willa Cather's widely read and cherished novels have looked like if she had never met magazine editor and copywriter Edith Lewis? In this groundbreaking book on Cather's relationship with her life partner, author Melissa J. Homestead counters the established portrayal of Cather as a solitary genius and reassesses the role that Lewis, who has so far been rendered largely invisible by scholars, played in shaping Cather's work. Inviting Lewis to share the spotlight alongside this pivotal American writer, Homestead argues that Lewis was not just Cather's companion but also her close literary collaborator and editor.Drawing on an array of previously unpublished sources, Homestead skillfully reconstructs Cather and Lewis's life together, from their time in New York City to their travels in the American Southwest that formed the basis of the novels The Professor's House and Death Comes for the Archbishop.  After Cather's death and in the midst of the Cold War panic over homosexuality, the story of her life with Edith Lewis could not be told, but by telling it now, Homestead offers a refreshing take on lesbian life in early twentieth-century America.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Transcendental Cloudscape, Boiler Brewing Company, Lincoln, NebraskaBOOK:  The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewishttps://www.amazon.com/Only-Wonderful-Things-Creative-Partnership/dp/019065287X/ref=sr_1_6?crid=XANO588EXJF1&keywords=willa+cather+homestead&qid=1654314701&sprefix=willa+cather+homestead%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-6MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind's military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed. The First World War claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. The Facemaker tells the extraordinary story of such an individual: the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to reconstructing the burned and broken faces of the injured soldiers under his care.Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, became interested in the nascent field of plastic surgery after encountering the human wreckage on the front. Returning to Britain, he established one of the world's first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. There, Gillies assembled a unique group of practitioners whose task was to rebuild what had been torn apart, to re-create what had been destroyed. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded but also their spirits.The Facemaker places Gillies's ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine can be an art, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Dark Matter, Hoyne Brewing Company, Victoria, British ColumbiaBOOK:  The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War Ihttps://www.amazon.com/Facemaker-Visionary-Surgeons-Disfigured-Soldiers/dp/0374282307/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TJ250O6VH0FZ&keywords=the+facemaker&qid=1653953986&sprefix=the+facemaker%2Caps%2C116&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

The Supreme Court is usually seen as protector of our liberties: it ended segregation, was a guarantor of fair trials, and safeguarded free speech and the vote. But this narrative derives mostly from a short period, from the 1930s to the early 1970s. Before then, the Court spent a century largely ignoring or suppressing basic rights, while the fifty years since 1970 have witnessed a mostly accelerating retreat from racial justice.From the Cherokee Trail of Tears to Brown v. Board of Education to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, historian Orville Vernon Burton and civil rights lawyer Armand Derfner shine a powerful light on the Court's race record―a legacy at times uplifting, but more often distressing and sometimes disgraceful. For nearly a century, the Court ensured that the nineteenth-century Reconstruction Amendments would not truly free and enfranchise African Americans. And the twenty-first century has seen a steady erosion of commitments to enforcing hard-won rights.Justice Deferred is the first book that comprehensively charts the Court's race jurisprudence. Addressing nearly two hundred cases involving America's racial minorities, the authors probe the parties involved, the justices' reasoning, and the impact of individual rulings. We learn of heroes such as Thurgood Marshall; villains, including Roger Taney; and enigmas like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Hugo Black. Much of the fragility of civil rights in America is due to the Supreme Court, but as this sweeping history also reminds us, the justices still have the power to make good on the country's promise of equal rights for all.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Lowcountry Lager, Palmetto Brewing Company, Charleston, South CarolinaBOOK:  Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Courthttps://www.amazon.com/Justice-Deferred-Race-Supreme-Court/dp/0674975642/ref=sr_1_1?crid=30T9ZFZCXRMRL&keywords=vernon+burton+justice&qid=1653778788&sprefix=vernon+burton+justic%2Caps%2C185&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

The past few years have seen relations between China and the United States shift, from enthusiastic economic partners, to wary frenemies, to open rivals. Americans have been slow to wake up to the challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Why did this happen? And what can we do about it? In America Second, Isaac Stone Fish traces the evolution of the Party's influence in America. He shows how America's leaders initially welcomed China's entry into the U.S. economy, believing that trade and engagement would lead to a more democratic China. And he explains how—although this belief has proved misguided--many of our businesspeople and politicians have become too dependent on China to challenge it. America Second exposes a deep network of Beijing's influence in America, built quietly over the years through prominent figures like former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, Disney chairman Bob Iger, and members of the Bush family. And it shows how to fight that influence–without being paranoid, xenophobic, or racist. This is an authoritative and important story of corruption and good intentions gone wrong, with serious implications not only for the future of the United States, but for the world at large.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Golden Dragon Asian-style Golden Ale, Asian Brothers Brewing Company, Isleton, CaliforniaBOOK:  America Second: How America's Elites Are Making China Strongerhttps://www.amazon.com/America-Second-Americas-Elites-Stronger/dp/0525657703/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AYG8EKNNIK8D&keywords=america+second&qid=1652841634&sprefix=america+se%2Caps%2C785&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Detailed profiles of ten amazing women who lived in the Old West. They dared to step outside the traditional roles of wife and mother, and left society's conventions behind them. These women engaged in a wide range of interests and professions, and their stories will inspire and entertain. They overcame incredible odds to make a place for themselves in their chosen world, despite the sometimes strong objections of both men and women. Each blazed new trails for women who would come after them. We all owe them a debt of gratitude for their strong will and perseverance.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Freestyle Pilsner, Santa Fe Brewing Company, Santa Fe, New MexicoBOOK:  Scandalous Women Of The Old West: Women Who Dared To Be Differenthttps://www.amazon.com/Scandalous-Women-Old-West-Different/dp/B08JRP1TLH/ref=sr_1_2?crid=6NHKH1X5COAK&keywords=pedace&qid=1651453268&sprefix=ped%2Caps%2C1071&sr=8-2MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Mostly hidden from public view, like an embarrassing family secret, scores of putative locks of George Washington's hair are held, more than two centuries after his death, in the collections of America's historical societies, public and academic archives, and museums. Excavating the origins of these bodily artifacts, Keith Beutler uncovers a forgotten strand of early American memory practices and emerging patriotic identity.Between 1790 and 1840, popular memory took a turn toward the physical, as exemplified by the craze for collecting locks of Washington's hair. These new, sensory views of memory enabled African American Revolutionary War veterans, women, evangelicals, and other politically marginalized groups to enter the public square as both conveyors of these material relics of the Revolution and living relics themselves.George Washington's Hair introduces us to a taxidermist who sought to stuff Benjamin Franklin's body, an African American storyteller brandishing a lock of Washington's hair, an evangelical preacher burned in effigy, and a schoolmistress who politicized patriotic memory by privileging women as its primary bearers. As Beutler recounts in vivid prose, these and other ordinary Americans successfully enlisted memory practices rooted in the physical to demand a place in the body politic, powerfully contributing to antebellum political democratization.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Elusive Memory New England Style IPA, Good City Brewing Company, Milwaukee, WisconsinBOOK:  George Washington's Hair: How Early Americans Remembered the Foundershttps://www.amazon.com/George-Washingtons-Hair-Americans-Remembered/dp/0813946506/ref=sr_1_1?crid=10OH3SXX5E0X3&keywords=washington%27s+hair&qid=1650320153&sprefix=washington%27s+hair%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins to recast the way in which we view the Second World War and its origins and aftermath. As one of Britain's most decorated and respected World War II historians, he argues that this was the “last imperial war,” with almost a century-long lead-up of global imperial expansion, which reached its peak in the territorial ambitions of Italy, Germany and Japan in the 1930s and early 1940s, before descending into the largest and costliest war in human history and the end, after 1945, of all territorial empires. Overy also argues for a more global perspective on the war, one that looks broader than the typical focus on military conflict between the Allied and Axis states. Above all, Overy explains the bitter cost for those involved in fighting, and the exceptional level of crime and atrocity that marked the war and its protracted aftermath—which extended far beyond 1945. Blood and Ruins is a masterpiece, a new and definitive look at the ultimate struggle over the future of the global order, which will compel us to view the war in novel and unfamiliar ways. Thought-provoking, original and challenging, Blood and Ruins sets out to understand the war anew.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Spitfire English Brown Ale, Tailspin Brewing Company, Coldwater, OhioBOOK:  Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Ruins-Last-Imperial-1931-1945/dp/067002516X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3GXUJI9NJ8P5F&keywords=blood+and+ruins+the+great+imperial+war%2C+1931-1945&qid=1650139198&sprefix=blood+and+%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

What causes people to forsake their country and take arms against it? What prompts their neighbors, hardly distinguishable in station or success, to defend that country against the rebels? That is the question H. W. Brands answers in his powerful new history of the American Revolution. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were the unlikeliest of rebels. Washington in the 1770s stood at the apex of Virginia society. Franklin was more successful still, having risen from humble origins to world fame. John Adams might have seemed a more obvious candidate for rebellion, being of cantankerous temperament. Even so, he revered the law. Yet all three men became rebels against the British Empire that fostered their success. Others in the same circle of family and friends chose differently. William Franklin might have been expected to join his father, Benjamin, in rebellion but remained loyal to the British. So did Thomas Hutchinson, a royal governor and friend of the Franklins, and Joseph Galloway, an early challenger to the Crown. They soon heard themselves denounced as traitors--for not having betrayed the country where they grew up. Native Americans and the enslaved were also forced to choose sides as civil war broke out around them. After the Revolution, the Patriots were cast as heroes and founding fathers while the Loyalists were relegated to bit parts best forgotten. Our First Civil War reminds us that before America could win its revolution against Britain, the Patriots had to win a bitter civil war against family, neighbors, and friends.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Washington's Porter, Yards Brewing Company, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaBOOK:  Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolutionhttps://www.amazon.com/Our-First-Civil-War-Revolution/dp/0385546513/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14MCBU3L483L9&keywords=our+first+civil+war+hw+brands&qid=1649163061&sprefix=our+first+civil+%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

In this sweeping saga that spans empires, peoples, and nations, M. Scott Heerman chronicles the long history of slavery in the heart of the continent and traces its many iterations through law and social practice. Arguing that slavery had no fixed institutional form, Heerman traces practices of slavery through indigenous, French, and finally U.S. systems of captivity, inheritable slavery, lifelong indentureship, and the kidnapping of free people. By connecting the history of indigenous bondage to that of slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic world, Heerman shows how French, Spanish, and Native North American practices shaped the history of slavery in the United States.The Alchemy of Slavery foregrounds the diverse and adaptable slaving practices that masters deployed to build a slave economy in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, attempting to outmaneuver their antislavery opponents. In time, a formidable cast of lawyers and antislavery activists set their sights on ending slavery in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, Lyman Trumbull, Richard Yates, and many other future leaders of the Republican party partnered with African Americans to wage an extended campaign against slavery in the region. Across a century and a half, slavery's nearly perpetual reinvention takes center stage: masters turning Indian captives into slaves, slaves into servants, former slaves into kidnapping victims; and enslaved people turning themselves into free men and women.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Freedom Tower American Amber Ale, Tank Brewing Company, Miami, FloridaBOOK:  The Alchemy of Slavery: Human Bondage and Emancipation in the Illinois Country, 1730-1865https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Slavery-Emancipation-1730-1865-Nineteenth/dp/0812225171/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33YTB0LB0FVI5&keywords=the+alchemy+of+slavery&qid=1649022104&sprefix=the+alchemy+of+slave%2Caps%2C656&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

A rollicking true-crime adventure about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggs—and the wildlife detective determined to stop him.On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britain's Birmingham International Airport with a suspicious parcel strapped to his stomach. Inside were fourteen rare peregrine falcon eggs snatched from a remote cliffside in Wales.So begins a tale almost too bizarre to believe, following the parallel lives of a globe-trotting smuggler who spent two decades capturing endangered raptors worth millions of dollars as race champions—and Detective Andy McWilliam of the United Kingdom's National Wildlife Crime Unit, who's hell bent on protecting the world's birds of prey.The Falcon Thief whisks readers from the volcanoes of Patagonia to Zimbabwe's Matobo National Park, and from the frigid tundra near the Arctic Circle to luxurious aviaries in the deserts of Dubai, all in pursuit of a man who is reckless, arrogant, and gripped by a destructive compulsion to make the most beautiful creatures in nature his own. It's a story that's part true-crime narrative, part epic adventure—and wholly unputdownable until the very last page.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Red Falcon Premium Ale, Falcon Brewing Company, Ajax, Ontario, CanadaBOOK:  The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Birdhttps://www.amazon.com/Falcon-Thief-Adventure-Treachery-Perfect/dp/1501191888/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1648427880&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

This book tells the history of one of America's most popular soft drinks, Mountain Dew. The 300 page book brings you from the drink's earliest beginnings in 1946 all the way through to today's newer drinks like Mountain Dew LiveWire and Code Red. Learn about the Hatfield/McCoy feud that has been brewing for years over the bragging rights to Mountain Dew. This book gives you detailed information on who invented Mountain Dew, when they did it, and the progress of the drink through the years. We start you in Johnson City, TN where you meet Charlie Gordon, Jim Archer and Bill Kilber of "Charlie, Jim and Bill" fame. Did you know that Mountain Dew started out tasting like 7Up until Bill Bridgforth changed the taste to the flavor we know today? From Tennessee we head to Marion, VA to meet Billy Jones and learn about the Tip Corporation. Then on to Lumberton, NC where you meet the massive Minges clan that still controls Pepsi in North Carolina. And then back to Knoxville on a hillbilly roller coaster ride of who did what and when. Learn about the arm wrestling match (literally) with Pepsi Corporate for fifteen million dollars to win the rights to Mountain Dew. Learn why 900 bottles have different names and how Willy the Hillbilly got his name AND you will even get to meet the real live Willy. This book and historic pictures will definitely tickle yore innards!HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Hard Mountain Dew, PepsiCo and The Boston Beer CompanyBOOK:  Mountain Dew: The Historyhttps://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Dew-History-Dick-Bridgforth/dp/141966087X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=C1YQY28JICAQ&keywords=mountain+dew+dick+bridgforth&qid=1647834008&sprefix=mountain+dew+dick+bridgforth%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-2MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Simply put: Everybody came to Polly's. Pearl "Polly" Adler (1900-1962) was a diminutive dynamo whose Manhattan brothels in the Roaring Twenties became places not just for men to have the company of women but were key gathering places where the culturati and celebrity elite mingled with high society and with violent figures of the underworld—and had a good time doing it. As a Jewish immigrant from eastern Europe, Polly Adler's life is a classic American story of success and assimilation that starts like a novel by Henry Roth and then turns into a glittering real-life tale straight out of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She declared her ambition to be "the best goddam madam in all America" and succeeded wildly. Debby Applegate uses Polly's story as the key to unpacking just what made the 1920s the appallingly corrupt yet glamorous and transformational era that it was and how the collision between high and low is the unique ingredient that fuels American culture.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Prohibition Ale, Speakeasy Ales and Lagers, San Francisco, CaliforniaBOOK:  Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Agehttps://www.amazon.com/Madam-Biography-Polly-Adler-Icon/dp/0385534752/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17I8OO4WXSDBG&keywords=madam+polly+adler&qid=1646960168&sprefix=madam+polly+ad%2Caps%2C893&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Amid the ravages of economic depression, Germans in the early 1930s were pulled to political extremes both left and right. Then, in the spring of 1933, Germany turned itself inside out, from a deeply divided republic into a one-party dictatorship. In Hitler's First Hundred Days, award-winning historian Peter Fritzsche offers a probing account of the pivotal moments when the majority of Germans seemed, all at once, to join the Nazis to construct the Third Reich. Fritzsche examines the events of the period—the elections and mass arrests, the bonfires and gunfire, the patriotic rallies and anti-Jewish boycotts—to understand both the terrifying power the National Socialists exerted over ordinary Germans and the powerful appeal of the new era they promised.Hitler's First Hundred Days is the chilling story of the beginning of the end, when one hundred days inaugurated a new thousand-year Reich.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Desperate Measures Red IPA, Desperate Times Brewery, Carlisle, PennsylvaniaBOOK:  Hitler's First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-First-Hundred-Days-Embraced/dp/1541697456/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13GI6OJIPOII0&keywords=hitlers+first+hundred+days+by+peter+fritzsche&qid=1646603021&s=books&sprefix=hitlers+first+hund%2Cstripbooks%2C1927&sr=1-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

From the 1929 Stock Market Crash to the 2008 Financial Crisis, from victory in World War II to ignominious defeat in Afghanistan, from the birth of NATO to today's Ukraine crisis, from President Reagan's "Morning in America" to President Trump's "American Carnage," WE THE PRESIDENTS, objectively and devoid of politics, tells how American presidents from Warren G. Harding to Donald Trump have shaped America and today's world.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Presidential IPA, Diamond Bear Brewing, North Little Rock, ArkansasBOOK:  We the Presidents: How American Presidents Shaped the Last Centuryhttps://www.amazon.com/We-Presidents-American-Shaped-Century/dp/1737823101/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1FYM6ET9DY3CG&keywords=we+the+presidents&qid=1646008899&sprefix=we+the+president%2Caps%2C325&sr=8-2MUSIC:  Bones Forknesfork.com

The incredible true story of the women who fought America's Undark dangerThe Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come.Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives...HOST:  Rob MellonFEAURED BREW:  Radioactive Fallout Hazy IPA, El Segundo Brewing Company, El Segundo, CaliforniaBOOK:  The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Womenhttps://www.amazon.com/Radium-Girls-Story-Americas-Shining/dp/1492650951/ref=sr_1_1?crid=M7L9YXFCEF6N&keywords=radium+girls&qid=1645142142&sprefix=radium+girls%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Using more than a thousand eyewitness records, Liberty Is Sweet is a “spirited account” (Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution) that explores countless connections between the Patriots of 1776 and other Americans whose passion for freedom often brought them into conflict with the Founding Fathers. “It is all one story,” prizewinning historian Woody Holton writes.Holton describes the origins and crucial battles of the Revolution from Lexington and Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown, always focusing on marginalized Americans—enslaved Africans and African Americans, Native Americans, women, and dissenters—and on overlooked factors such as weather, North America's unique geography, chance, misperception, attempts to manipulate public opinion, and (most of all) disease. Thousands of enslaved Americans exploited the chaos of war to obtain their own freedom, while others were given away as enlistment bounties to whites. Women provided material support for the troops, sewing clothes for soldiers and in some cases taking part in the fighting. Both sides courted native people and mimicked their tactics.Liberty Is Sweet is a “must-read book for understanding the founding of our nation” (Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin), from its origins on the frontiers and in the Atlantic ports to the creation of the Constitution. Offering surprises at every turn—for example, Holton makes a convincing case that Britain never had a chance of winning the war—this majestic history revivifies a story we thought we already knew.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Sweet Liberty Imperial Stout, The Bruery, Placentia, CaliforniaBOOK:  Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolutionhttps://www.amazon.com/Liberty-Sweet-History-American-Revolution/dp/1476750378/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1644815180&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia—and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The Second World War was not Hitler's war; it was Stalin's war. Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin's War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler's genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941–1945 fulfill Stalin's goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary. McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain's self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin's war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American materiél from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army. This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin's armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism. A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin's War is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the current world order.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Dosvidanya Russian Imperial Stout, Destihl Brewing, Normal, IllinoisBOOK:  Stalin's War: A New History of World War IIhttps://www.amazon.com/Stalins-War-New-History-World/dp/1541672798/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1643939619&sr=1-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Two disparate Americas have always coexisted. In this thoroughly researched, engaging and ultimately hopeful story of our nation's divergent roots, Seth David Radwell clearly links the fascinating history of the two American Enlightenments to our raging political division. He also demonstrates that reasoned analysis and historical perspective are the only antidote to irrational political discourse.“Did my vision of America ever exist at all, or was it but a myth?” Searching for a fresh and distinctive perspective on the recent corrosion of our civic life, Radwell's very personal and yet broadly shared question propelled his search back to our nation's founding for a fresh and distinctive perspective on the recent corrosion of our civic life - and led to a surprising discovery. Today's battles reflect the fundamentally divergent visions of our country that emerged at our nation's founding and have been vying for prominence ever since. The founding principles that shaped the United States may be rooted in the Enlightenment era. But the origin of our dual Americas is a product of two distinct Enlightenments - Radical and Moderate.American Schism begins with a quick reintroduction to the pre-Enlightenment Middle Ages and then takes readers on an in-depth journey through the revolutionary Enlightenment period including the eventual schism that began in Europe but then found its way to American shores. Radwell shows the impact of this schism on American history from the early expansion of the U.S. through Jim Crow and The Age of Trumpism.In an optimistic and rigorous final section, Radwell lays out an analysis of our current governmental structure and a plan to move forward, demonstrating that it is only by embracing Enlightenment principles that we can build a civilized, progressive, and tolerant society - where Americans can firmly ground their different views in rationality.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Outta Line West Coast IPA, Rogue Ales, Portland, OregonBOOK:  American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing our Nation https://www.amazon.com/American-Schism-Enlightenments-Secret-Healing/dp/1626348618/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1643778919&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

When most people think of the prohibition era, they think of speakeasies, rum runners, and backwoods fundamentalists railing about the ills of strong drink. In other words, in the popular imagination, it is a peculiarly American history.Yet, as Mark Lawrence Schrad shows in Smashing the Liquor Machine, the conventional scholarship on prohibition is extremely misleading for a simple reason: American prohibition was just one piece of a global phenomenon. Schrad's pathbreaking history of prohibition looks at the anti-alcohol movement around the globe through the experiences of pro-temperance leaders like Vladimir Lenin, Leo Tolstoy, Thomás Masaryk, Kemal Atatürk, Mahatma Gandhi, and anti-colonial activists across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Schrad argues that temperance wasn't "American exceptionalism" at all, but rather one of the most broad-based and successful transnational social movements of the modern era. In fact, Schrad offers a fundamental re-appraisal of this colorful era to reveal that temperance forces frequently aligned with progressivism, social justice, liberal self-determination, democraticsocialism, labor rights, women's rights, and indigenous rights. Placing the temperance movement in a deep global context, forces us to fundamentally rethink its role in opposing colonial exploitation throughout American history as well. Prohibitionism united Native American chiefs like Little Turtle and Black Hawk; African-American leaders Frederick Douglass, Ida Wells, and Booker T. Washington; suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Frances Willard; progressives from William Lloyd Garrison to William Jennings Bryan; writers F.E.W. Harper and Upton Sinclair, and even American presidents from Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Progressives rather than puritans, the global temperance movement advocated communal self-protection against the corrupt and predatory “liquor machine” that had become exceedingly rich off the misery and addictions of the poor around the world, from the slums of South Asia to the beerhalls of Central Europe to the Native American reservations of the United States.Unlike many traditional "dry" histories, Smashing the Liquor Machine gives voice to minority and subaltern figures who resisted the global liquor industry, and further highlights that the impulses that led to the temperance movement were far more progressive and variegated than American readers havebeen led to believe.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Blah, Blah, Blah West Coast IPA, 21st Amendment Brewery, San Leandro, CaliforniaBOOK:  Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibitionhttps://www.amazon.com/Smashing-Liquor-Machine-History-Prohibition/dp/0190841575/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BBARE9VWUYKL&keywords=smashing+the+liquor+machine+a+global+history+of+prohibition&qid=1642555938&sprefix=smashing+the+li%2Caps%2C398&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Few people are aware that John Moses Browning--a tall, modest man born in 1855 and raised as a Mormon in the American West-- invented the mechanism used in virtually all modern pistols, created the most popular hunting rifles and shotguns, and conceived the machine guns introduced in World War I and which dominated air and land battles in World War II. Yet few in America knew his name until he was into his sixties.Now, author Nathan Gorenstein brings firearms inventor John Moses Browning to vivid life in this riveting and revealing biography. Embodying the tradition of self-made, self-educated geniuses (like Lincoln and Edison), Browning was able to think in three dimensions (he never used blueprints) and his gifted mind produced everything from the famous Winchester "30-30" hunting rifle to the awesomely effective machine guns used by every American aircraft and infantry unit in World War II. The British credited Browning's guns with helping to win the Battle of Britain.His inventions illustrate both the good and bad of weapons.Sweeping, lively, and brilliantly told, this fascinating book introduces a little-known American legend whose impact on history ranks with that of the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Hop Gun IPA, The Funky Buddha Brewery, Oakland Park, FloridaBOOK:  The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the Worldhttps://www.amazon.com/Guns-John-Moses-Browning-Remarkable/dp/1982129212/ref=sr_1_1?crid=N7U6KEH3A7FH&keywords=gorenstein&qid=1642394882&sprefix=gorenstein%2Caps%2C823&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

The Texas Rangers came to life in 1823, when Texas was still part of Mexico. Nearly 200 years later, the Rangers are still going--one of the most famous of all law enforcement agencies. In Cult of Glory, Doug J. Swanson has written a sweeping account of the Rangers that chronicles their epic, daring escapades while showing how the white and propertied power structures of Texas used them as enforcers, protectors and officially sanctioned killers.Cult of Glory begins with the Rangers' emergence as conquerors of the wild and violent Texas frontier. They fought the fierce Comanches, chased outlaws, and served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. As Texas developed, the Rangers were called upon to catch rustlers, tame oil boomtowns, and patrol the perilous Texas-Mexico border. In the 1930s they began their transformation into a professionally trained police force.Countless movies, television shows, and pulp novels have celebrated the Rangers as Wild West supermen. In many cases, they deserve their plaudits. But often the truth has been obliterated. Swanson demonstrates how the Rangers and their supporters have operated a propaganda machine that turned agency disasters and misdeeds into fables of triumph, transformed murderous rampages--including the killing of scores of Mexican civilians--into valorous feats, and elevated scoundrels to sainthood. Cult of Glory sets the record straight.Beginning with the Texas Indian wars, Cult of Glory embraces the great, majestic arc of Lone Star history. It tells of border battles, range disputes, gunslingers, massacres, slavery, political intrigue, race riots, labor strife, and the dangerous lure of celebrity. And it reveals how legends of the American West--the real and the false--are truly made.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Man of Law American IPA, Southern Pines Brewing Company, Southern Pines, North CarolinaBOOK:  Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangershttps://www.amazon.com/Cult-Glory-Brutal-History-Rangers/dp/1101979879/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ELY0KSAJ5DP3&keywords=cult+of+glory+texas+rangers&qid=1641796663&sprefix=%2Caps%2C282&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Solider, politician, miner, pioneer, scion of a Founding Father, William Stephen Hamilton led a prolific life. Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton examines the tumultuous early Republic period of American history through the life of Alexander Hamilton's son.Born in New York in 1797, the fifth son of Alexander Hamilton, he was only seven when his father was infamously killed in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. After resigning from West Point, Hamilton moved to frontier Illinois in 1817. The famous name of Hamilton that may have acquired him rank and prestige at one time was meaningless in a Midwestern frontier society driven by the Jacksonians. Yet, despite being hurled into a clash of economic, political, and cultural cultures, Hamilton determined to live his life by his own rules. A veteran of the Winnebago and Black Hawk Wars, Hamilton was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives before moving to the Wisconsin territory, where he founded the mining town of Hamilton's Diggings (Wiota, WI). When gold was discovered in California in 1848, he traveled west, where he would die in Sacramento in 1850.In Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton, author A. K. Fielding expands the story of the Hamilton family. Hamilton's life offers a firsthand account of the formation of the Midwestern states, the realities of life on the frontier, and mass migration caused by the California Gold Rush.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Rise Up Rye Farmhouse Ale, Gun Hill Brewing Company, Bronx, New YorkBOOK:  Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's Forgotten Sonhttps://www.amazon.com/Rough-Diamond-Alexander-Hamiltons-Forgotten/dp/0253053943/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XMT3IUUPSDZB&keywords=ak+fieldings&qid=1640812916&sprefix=ak+fielding%2Caps%2C119&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Comics have conquered America. From our multiplexes, where Marvel and DC movies reign supreme, to our television screens, where comics-based shows like The Walking Dead have become among the most popular in cable history, to convention halls, best-seller lists, Pulitzer Prize–winning titles, and MacArthur Fellowship recipients, comics shape American culture, in ways high and low, superficial, and deeply profound.In American Comics, Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes readers through their incredible but little-known history, starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting and iconic images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus; the golden age of newspaper comic strips and the first great superhero boom; the moral panic of the Eisenhower era, the Marvel Comics revolution, and the underground comix movement of the 1960s and '70s; and finally into the twenty-first century, taking in the grim and gritty Dark Knights and Watchmen alongside the brilliant rise of the graphic novel by acclaimed practitioners like Art Spiegelman and Alison Bechdel.Dauber's story shows not only how comics have changed over the decades but how American politics and culture have changed them. Throughout, he describes the origins of beloved comics, champions neglected masterpieces, and argues that we can understand how America sees itself through whose stories comics tell. Striking and revelatory, American Comics is a rich chronicle of the last 150 years of American history through the lens of its comic strips, political cartoons, superheroes, graphic novels, and more.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Buzzman Mutant American Ale, Unsung Brewing Company, Orange County, CaliforniaBOOK:  American Comics: A Historyhttps://www.amazon.com/American-Comics-History-Jeremy-Dauber/dp/0393635600/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FHZA7LKG90GU&keywords=jeremy+dauber+american+comics&qid=1640730901&sprefix=jeremy+dauber%2Caps%2C478&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin presents a follow up to his award-winning book Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, taking readers on a terrifying journey into the Cold War and our mutual assured destruction.As World War II comes to a close, the United States and the Soviet Union emerge as the two greatest world powers on extreme opposites of the political spectrum. After the United States showed its hand with the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the Soviets refuse to be left behind. With communism sweeping the globe, the two nations begin a neck-and-neck competition to build even more destructive bombs and conquer the Space Race. In their battle for dominance, spy planes fly above, armed submarines swim deep below, and undercover agents meet in the dead of night.The Cold War game grows more precarious as weapons are pointed towards each other, with fingers literally on the trigger. The decades-long showdown culminates in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world's close call with the third―and final―world war.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Thespian Espionage IPA, Weathered Ground Brewery, Cool Ridge, West VirginiaBOOK:  Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdownhttps://www.amazon.com/Fallout-Spies-Superbombs-Ultimate-Showdown/dp/1250149010/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3AMRT7ISNMB9N&keywords=fallout+sheinkin&qid=1640120467&sprefix=fallout+sheinkin%2Caps%2C276&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Elbridge A. Colby was the lead architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the most significant revision of U.S. defense strategy in a generation. Here he lays out how America's defense must change to address China's growing power and ambition. Based firmly in the realist tradition but deeply engaged in current policy, this book offers a clear framework for what America's goals in confronting China must be, how its military strategy must change, and how it must prioritize these goals over its lesser interests. The most informed and in‑depth reappraisal of America's defense strategy in decades, this book outlines a rigorous but practical approach, showing how the United States can prepare to win a war with China that we cannot afford to lose—precisely in order to deter that war from happening.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Cold Snap White Ale, Samuel Adams, BostonBOOK:  The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Denial-American-Defense-Conflict/dp/0300256434/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=elbridge+colby&qid=1639445311&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

The Oxford Handbook of Christmas provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of all aspects of Christmas across the globe, from the specifically religious to the purely cultural. The contributions are drawn from a distinguished group of international experts from across numerous disciplines, including literary scholars, theologians, historians, biblical scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, art historians, and legal experts. The volume providesauthoritative treatments of a range of topics, from the origins of Christmas to the present; decorating trees to eating plum pudding; from the Bible to contemporary worship; from carols to cinema; from the Nativity Story to Santa Claus; from Bethlehem to Japan; from Catholics to Baptists; from secularism to consumerism.Christmas is the biggest celebration on the planet. Every year, a significant percentage of the world's population is draw to this holiday—from Cape Cod to Cape Town, from South America to South Korea, and on and on across the globe. The Christmas season takes up a significant part of the entire year. For many countries, the holiday is a major force in their national economy. Moreover, Christmas is not just a modern holiday, but has been an important feast for most Christians since the fourth century and a dominant event in many cultures and countries for over a millennium. The Oxford Handbook of Christmas provides an invaluable reference point for anyone interested in this global phenomenon.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Dad's Oatmeal Cookie Stout, O'Fallon Brewery, Maryland Heights, MissouriBOOK: The Oxford Handbook of Christmas https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbook-Christmas-Handbooks-ebook/dp/B08KYCFZQN/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1638937184&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

How did enslaved African Americans in the Old South really experience Christmas? Did Christmastime provide slaves with a lengthy and jubilant respite from labor and the whip, as is generally assumed, or is the story far more complex and troubling? In this provocative, revisionist, and sometimes chilling account, Robert E. May chides the conventional wisdom for simplifying black perspectives, uncritically accepting southern white literary tropes about the holiday, and overlooking evidence not only that countless southern whites passed Christmases fearful that their slaves would revolt but also that slavery's most punitive features persisted at holiday time.In Yuletide in Dixie, May uncovers a dark reality that not only alters our understanding of that history but also sheds new light on the breakdown of slavery in the Civil War and how false assumptions about slave Christmases afterward became harnessed to myths undergirding white supremacy in the United States. By exposing the underside of slave Christmases, May helps us better understand the problematic stereotypes of modern southern historical tourism and why disputes over Confederate memory retain such staying power today. A major reinterpretation of human bondage, Yuletide in Dixie challenges disturbing myths embedded deeply in our culture.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Christmas Ale, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, OhioBOOK:  Yuletide in Dixie: Slavery, Christmas, and Southern Memoryhttps://www.amazon.com/Yuletide-Dixie-Slavery-Christmas-Southern/dp/0813945100/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1638405838&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/es Fork

The Back to the Future series is a timeless collection greatly revered by all audiences. The beauty of this book by Brad Gilmore is that it doesn't present the history of the film as textbook information. He discusses these films from a place of passion and so effectively reveals how the history behind the movies is just as engaging as the films themselves.Gilmore, a radio and television host and host of Back to the Future: The Podcast, is an expert on all things Back to the Future. Pairing his knowledge with his passion for the films, Gilmore uses this book to discuss details and movie trivia that reveal just why the trilogy has stood the test of time. As a fan speaking to fellow fans, he dives into fan theories and provides answers to many questions readers have—because they are the very questions he himself has asked.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Voodoo Ranger 1985 Hazy IPA, New Belgium Brewing, Ft. Collins, ColoradoBOOK:  Back From the Future: A Celebration of the Greatest Time Travel Story Ever Toldhttps://www.amazon.com/Back-Future-Celebration-Greatest-Travel/dp/1642507237/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1637273942&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

The malign figure of the Antichrist endures in modern culture, whether religious or secular; and the spectral shadow he has cast over the ages continues to exert a strong and powerful fascination. Philip C. Almond tells the story of the son of Satan from his early beginnings to the present day, and explores this false Messiah in theology, literature and the history of ideas. Discussing the origins of the malevolent being who at different times was cursed as Belial, Nero or Damien, the author reveals how Christianity in both East and West has imagined this incarnation of absolute evil destined to appear at the end of time. For the better part of the last two thousand years, Almond suggests, the human battle between right and wrong has been envisaged as a mighty cosmic duel between good and its opposite, culminating in an epic final showdown between Christ and his deadly arch-nemesis.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Lucifest Festbier, Devil's Logic Brewing, Charlotte, North CarolinaBOOK:  The Antichrist: A New Biographyhttps://www.amazon.com/Antichrist-Biography-Philip-C-Almond-ebook-dp-B08D6RZ2CN/dp/B08D6RZ2CN/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Compared to the Puritans, Mormons have rarely gotten their due, treated as fringe cultists at best or marginalized as polygamists unworthy of serious examination at worst. In Kingdom of Nauvoo, the historian Benjamin E. Park excavates the brief life of a lost Mormon city, and in the process demonstrates that the Mormons are, in fact, essential to understanding American history writ large.Drawing on newly available sources from the LDS Church―sources that had been kept unseen in Church archives for 150 years―Park recreates one of the most dramatic episodes of the 19th century frontier. Founded in Western Illinois in 1839 by the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and his followers, Nauvoo initially served as a haven from mob attacks the Mormons had endured in neighboring Missouri, where, in one incident, seventeen men, women, and children were massacred, and where the governor declared that all Mormons should be exterminated. In the relative safety of Nauvoo, situated on a hill and protected on three sides by the Mississippi River, the industrious Mormons quickly built a religious empire; at its peak, the city surpassed Chicago in population, with more than 12,000 inhabitants. The Mormons founded their own army, with Smith as its general; established their own courts; and went so far as to write their own constitution, in which they declared that there could be no separation of church and state, and that the world was to be ruled by Mormon priests.This experiment in religious utopia, however, began to unravel when gentiles in the countryside around Nauvoo heard rumors of a new Mormon marital practice. More than any previous work, Kingdom of Nauvoo pieces together the haphazard and surprising emergence of Mormon polygamy, and reveals that most Mormons were not participants themselves, though they too heard the rumors, which said that Joseph Smith and other married Church officials had been “sealed” to multiple women. Evidence of polygamy soon became undeniable, and non-Mormons reacted with horror, as did many Mormons―including Joseph Smith's first wife, Emma Smith, a strong-willed woman who resisted the strictures of her deeply patriarchal community and attempted to save her Church, and family, even when it meant opposing her husband and prophet.A raucous, violent, character-driven story, Kingdom of Nauvoo raises many of the central questions of American history, and even serves as a parable for the American present. How far does religious freedom extend? Can religious and other minority groups survive in a democracy where the majority dictates the law of the land? The Mormons of Nauvoo, who initially believed in the promise of American democracy, would become its strongest critics. Throughout his absorbing chronicle, Park shows the many ways in which the Mormons were representative of their era, and in doing so elevates nineteenth century Mormon history into the American mainstream.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED DRINK:  Newman's Own Old Fashioned Roadside Virgin LemonadeBOOK:  Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontierhttps://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Nauvoo-Religious-American-Frontier/dp/1631494864/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635697937&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

When Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892, the arrest of the couple's younger daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her murder trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone—rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars, and laypeople—had an opinion about Lizzie Borden's guilt or innocence. Was she a cold-blooded murderess or an unjustly persecuted lady? Did she or didn't she?HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Axe Murderer Imperial Stout, Moon Tower Sudworks, Houston, TexasBOOK:  The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Storyhttps://www.amazon.com/Trial-Lizzie-Borden-Cara-Robertson/dp/1501168371/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1635486330&sr=8-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

In America's early history, the enactment of Poor Laws and the establishment of poorhouses and asylums gave physically, mentally and emotionally disabled people a place to live and eat. But what kind of life did they have in these charity institutions? How did they die and what did they leave behind?This book examines the answers to these questions and more as they arose at Eloise Infirmary and Psychiatric Hospital. This is not only a brief history of almost 150 years of Eloise, located in Westland, Michigan, but it also introduces you to stories of the true humanity of the lost souls who experienced traumatic deaths that may have led to the current hauntings. Actual paranormal experiences people have had over the past few years along with stunning photographs are revealed for the first time. By combining the history, humanity and haunts, you will meet Eloise through the eyes of those who experienced this sometimes-unforgiving institution firsthand.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Paranoia Imperial Pale Ale, Odd Side Ales, Grand Haven, MichiganBOOK:  Eloise Asylum: The History, the Humanity and the Hauntshttps://www.amazon.com/Eloise-Asylum-History-Humanity-Haunts/dp/0578648075/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1LGRSU4I6UBAI&dchild=1&keywords=eloise+asylum&qid=1634864700&qsid=140-8553093-2922100&sr=8-1&sres=0578648075%2C0738519545%2C137630824X%2CB01N1X0BQ6%2C1401310192%2C0062574337%2C1717487173%2C1783449861%2CB076VD22TJMUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

With a Clash Between American Rebels and Royal Authorities Heating Up, Radicals Smuggled Cannon Out of Boston—and the British Came Looking for ThemIn the early spring of 1775, on a farm in Concord, Massachusetts, British army spies located four brass cannon belonging to Boston's colonial militia that had gone missing months before. British general Thomas Gage had been searching for them, both to stymie New England's growing rebellion and to erase the embarrassment of having let cannon disappear from armories under redcoat guard. Anxious to regain those weapons, he drew up plans for his troops to march nineteen miles into unfriendly territory. The Massachusetts Patriots, meanwhile, prepared to thwart the general's mission. There was one goal Gage and his enemies shared: for different reasons, they all wanted to keep the stolen cannon as secret as possible. Both sides succeeded well enough that the full story has never appeared until now.The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War by historian J. L. Bell reveals a new dimension to the start of America's War for Independence by tracing the spark of its first battle back to little-known events beginning in September 1774. The author relates how radical Patriots secured those four cannon and smuggled them out of Boston, and how Gage sent out spies and search parties to track them down. Drawing on archives in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, the book creates a lively, original, and deeply documented picture of a society perched on the brink of war.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Low Flying Panic Attack American Pale Ale, Idle Hands Craft Ales, Malden, MassachusettsBOOK:  The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War https://www.amazon.com/Road-Concord-Revolutionary-American-Revolution/dp/1594162492MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Robert E. Lee is one of the most confounding figures in American history. Lee betrayed his nation in order to defend his home state and uphold the slave system he claimed to oppose. He was a traitor to the country he swore to serve as an Army officer, and yet he was admired even by his enemies for his composure and leadership. He considered slavery immoral, but benefited from inherited slaves and fought to defend the institution. And behind his genteel demeanor and perfectionism lurked the insecurities of a man haunted by the legacy of a father who stained the family name by declaring bankruptcy and who disappeared when Robert was just six years old.In Robert E. Lee, the award-winning historian Allen Guelzo has written the definitive biography of the general, following him from his refined upbringing in Virginia high society, to his long career in the U.S. Army, his agonized decision to side with Virginia when it seceded from the Union, and his leadership during the Civil War. Above all, Guelzo captures Robert E. Lee in all his complexity--his hypocrisy and courage, his outward calm and inner turmoil, his honor and his disloyalty.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Bob's Your Uncle English-Style Pale Mild Ale, The Virginia Beer Company, Williamsburg, VABOOK:  Robert E. Lee: A Lifehttps://www.amazon.com/Robert-Lee-Allen-C-Guelzo/dp/1101946229/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=robert+e+lee+a+life&qid=1632891871&s=books&sr=1-1MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

In the summer of 1932, with the Cubs in the thick of the pennant race, Billy Jurges broke off his relationship with Violet Popovich to focus on baseball. The famously beautiful showgirl took it poorly, marching into his hotel room with a revolver in her purse. Both were wounded in the ensuing struggle, but Jurges refused to press charges. Even without their star shortstop, Chicago made it to the World Series, only to be on the wrong end of Babe Ruth's legendary Called Shot. Using hundreds of original sources, Jack Bales profiles the lives of the ill-fated couple and traces the ripple effects of the shooting on the Cubs' tumultuous season.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Perseverance Anniversary Ale, Greenstar Brewery, Chicago, IllinoisBOOK:  The Chicago Cub Shot For Love: A Showgirl's Crime of Passion and the 1932 World Serieshttps://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Cub-Shot-Love-Showgirls/dp/1467148482/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=MUSIC:  Bones Fork

In this second in a series of Baseball Hall of Fame books, celebrate the larger-than-life role played by radio and TV baseball announcers in enhancing the pleasure of our national pastime.Commemorate the 100th anniversary of baseball broadcasting. The first baseball game ever broadcast on radio was on August 5, 1921 by Harold Wampler Arlin, a part-time baseball announcer on Pittsburgh's KDKA, America's first commercially licensed radio station. The Pirates defeated the Phillies 8-5.An insider's view of baseball. Now you can own Memories from the Microphone and experience baseball from author Curt Smith. He has spent much of his life covering baseball radio and TV, and previously authored baseball books including the classic Voices of The Game.Relive baseball's storied past through the eyes of famed baseball announcers. Organized chronologically, Memories from the Microphone charts the history of baseball broadcasting. Enjoy celebrated stories and personalities that have shaped the game―from Mel Allen to Harry Caray, Vin Scully to Joe Morgan, Ernie Harwell to Red Barber.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Batting 1000 Red Lager, Beltway Brewing Company, Sterling, VirginiaBOOK:  Memories from the Microphone: A Century of Baseball Broadcastinghttps://shop.baseballhall.org/memories-from-the-microphone/MUSIC:  Bones Fork

WHEN IN OCTOBER 1982 THE FLAMBOYANT AUTO EXECUTIVE JOHN DELOREAN was arrested for possession of over sixteen million dollars' worth of cocaine, the world was aghast and fascinated.FEW STARS HAD SHONE MORE BRIGHTLY THAN HIS: he was an “A” student who didn't need to crack a book, a brilliant engineer renowned for saving Pontiac, a visionary entrepreneur who shot to the top of GM and then left it behind, a reputed Hollywood swinger, and a charismatic millionaire who seemed to care about the little people who worked for him. But there was a darker side to the DeLorean story, a side that more and more clouded his life until he was forced into what most believe was a last desperate attempt to save the two-year-old auto factory in Northern Ireland and its startling gull-winged stainless steel cars.FROM THE SHATTERED FRAGMENTS OF DELOREAN'S ACTS AND DREAMS, investigative journalist Hillel Levin—who began to look closely at the truth behind the image a year before anyone else did—has pieced together a fascinating picture of the man behind this contemporary myth. From the beginning, DeLorean's flight was fueled by a remarkable talent for financial legerdemain and corporate intrigue. Through meticulous research and interviews with the players in DeLorean's inner circle, Levin tracks the court cases and the lawsuits that accompanied his ascent, disentangles his convoluted and bizarre business schemes, explores the labyrinth of holding companies and paper corporations that channeled huge sums of other people's money into his personal control, and reconstructs the saga of the gull-winged car that, until the last, De Lorean believed would rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes. AUTHORITATIVELY RESEARCHEDFROM DETROIT TO BELFAST, packed with new information, GRAND DELUSIONS is a riveting, uniquely American story, and a cautionary tale of genius misapplied in the service of a runaway ego.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Enchantment Under the "C" Hops Double IPA, Great Heights Brewing Company, Houston, TexasBOOK:  GRAND DELUSIONS: The Cosmic Career of John De Lorean (with Afterword) https://www.amazon.com/GRAND-DELUSIONS-Cosmic-Career-Afterword/dp/1983219460/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=hillel+levin&qid=1630630334&s=books&sr=1-3MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

 A riveting history of the epic orbital flight that put America back into the space race.If the United States couldn't catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War―a perilous time when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in history, and beat the United States to every major milestone in space. The race to the heavens seemed a race for survival―and America was losing.On February 20, 1962, when John Glenn blasted into orbit aboard Friendship 7, his mission was not only to circle the planet; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America's sense of self-belief. Mercury Rising re-creates the tension and excitement of a flight that shifted the momentum of the space race and put the United States on the path to the moon. Drawing on new archival sources, personal interviews, and previously unpublished notes by Glenn himself, Mercury Rising reveals how the astronaut's heroics lifted the nation's hopes in what Kennedy called the "hour of maximum danger."HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Houston Haze IPA, Spindletop Brewery, Houston, TexasBOOK:  Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold Warhttps://www.amazon.com/Mercury-Rising-Glenn-Kennedy-Battleground/dp/1324003243MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Surprising and delightfully engrossing, Americanon explores the true history of thirteen of the nation's most popular books. Overlooked for centuries, our simple dictionaries, spellers, almanacs, and how-to manuals are the unexamined touchstones for American cultures and customs. These books sold tens of millions of copies and set out specific archetypes for the ideal American, from the self-made entrepreneur to the humble farmer. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Webster's Dictionary, Emily Post's Etiquette: Americanon looks at how these ubiquitous books have updated and reemphasized potent American ideals—about meritocracy, patriotism, or individualism—at crucial moments in history. Old favorites like the Old Farmer's Almanac and Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book are seen in this new way—not just as popular books but as foundational texts that shaped our understanding of the American story.Taken together, these books help us understand how their authors, most of them part of a powerful minority, attempted to construct meaning for the majority. Their beliefs and quirks—as well as personal interests, prejudices, and often strange personalities—informed the values and habits of millions of Americans, woven into our cultural DNA over generations of reading and dog-earing. Yet their influence remains uninvestigated. Until now.What better way to understand a people than to look at the books they consumed most, the ones they returned to repeatedly, with questions about everything from spelling to social mobility to sex? This fresh and engaging book is American history as you've never encountered it before.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Come to Light West Coast IPA, Jester King Brewery, Austin, TexasBOOK:  Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirteen Bestselling Bookshttps://www.amazon.com/Americanon-Unexpected-History-Thirteen-Bestselling/dp/1524746630MUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/

Dr. Patrick Hotle discusses the amazing story of the First Crusade.  He explains the economic and political conditions that led thousands to make their way across medieval Europe to Constantinople and then on to the Holy Land.  He discusses the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages and in the importance of pilgrimage and relics.  Hotle describes the Peace of God and Truce of God and how Pope Urban II's call led to a massive movement to recapture the ancient city of Jerusalem.  He discusses several key figures such as Godfrey, Bohemond, Raymond, and Baldwin.  The amazing journey led to the capture of Antioch and several battles with the Seljuk Turks.  He explains the capture of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Crusader States.  He concludes with the early history of the Knights Templar.HOST:  Rob MellonFEATURED BREW:  Absolution Belgian-Style Quadrupel, Crusader Brewing Company, Bakersfield, CaliforniaMUSIC:  Bones Forkhttps://bonesfork.com/