history

"Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis" by Robert Edsel

Joe Donahue — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:12:00 +0000

When Hitler’s armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind’s greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire.

Robert Edsel joins us to talk about the efforts to save Italy’s great artistic treasures from the Nazis.

His book is Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis.

Ideas Matter: MASS Humanities and Reading Frederick Douglass

Ray Graf — Fri, 31 May 2013 14:35:00 +0000

We are very happy to continue our new regular feature on The Roundtable, entitled – Ideas Matter: Checking in with the Public Humanities. It is our chance to check in with the Humanities Councils throughout our 7-State area to discuss important ideas and why they do indeed matter.

This morning we spotlight MASS Humanities and specifically we’ll talk about Reading Frederick Douglass. Our guests this morning are Pleun Bouricius, Assistant Director, Mass Humanities and Don Quinn Kelley, Founding Co-Chair Lift Ev'ry Voice Festival.

"The Girls of Atomic City" by Denise Kiernan

Joe Donahue — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:35:00 +0000

The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of American history from obscurity. Denise Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage.

At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians--many of them young women from small towns across the South--were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war--when Oak Ridge's secret was revealed.

Chesterwoood Vintage Motorcar Festival

Joe Donahue — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:35:00 +0000

Chesterwood, the country home, studio, and gardens of America’s foremost public sculptor – Daniel Chester French is holding their Vintage Motorcar Festival this Sunday, May 26th – rain or shine – from 10am to 4pm.

"Vintage Tomorrows" by James H. Carrott and Brian David Johnson

Joe Donahue — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:12:00 +0000

What would today’s technology look like with Victorian-era design and materials? That’s the world steampunk envisions: a mad-inventor collection of 21st century-inspired contraptions powered by steam and driven by gears.

In this book, futurist Brian David Johnson and cultural historian James Carrott explore steampunk, a cultural movement that’s captivated thousands of artists, designers, makers, hackers, and writers throughout the world.

Book Picks - Northshire Bookstore

Joe Donahue — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:10:00 +0000

This week's Book Picks list comes from Bill Lewis of Northshire Bookstore.

List after the break.

"Operation Storm" by John Geoghegan

Joe Donahue — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:35:00 +0000

Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II tells the riveting true story of Japan's top secret plan to change the course of World War II using a squadron of mammoth submarines a generation ahead of their time.

John Geoghegan has written extensively about aviation history, underwater exploration and marine engineering for The New York Times Science Section, Smithsonian Air & Space, WIRED, Popular Science, Aviation History, Military Heritage, Flight Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine.

The Book Show #1290 - Tara Conklin

Joe Donahue — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:06:00 +0000

In Tara Conklin's debut novel, The House Girl: A Novel, two remarkable women, separated by more than a century, live lives that unexpectedly intertwine.

2004: Lina Sparrow is an ambitious young lawyer working on a historic class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves.

1852: Josephine is a seventeen-year-old house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco farm—an aspiring artist named Lu Anne Bell.

Roy Ginsberg, Skidmore College - The Thatcher-Reagan alliance

Brian Shields — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:34:36 +0000

Margaret Thatcher, the first and only woman prime minister of Great Britain, left a personal style and political legacy that will be debated for years to come. Like her American ally and friend, Ronald Reagan, she took power at a time when her nation was seen by many to be in economic and international decline.

Professor Roy Ginsberg, chair of the department of government at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, spoke today with WAMC’s Brian Shields on the Thatcher-Reagan alliance.

"Who Was Dracula?: Bram Stoker's Trail of Blood" by Jim Steinmeyer

Ray Graf — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:12:00 +0000

In more than a century of vampires in pop culture, only one lord of the night truly stands out: Dracula. Though the name may conjure up images of Bela Lugosi lurking about in a cape and white pancake makeup in the iconic 1931 film, the character of Dracula—a powerful, evil Transylvanian aristocrat who slaughters repressed Victorians on a trip to London—was created in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel of the same name, a work so popular it has spawned limitless reinventions in books and film.

But where did literature’s undead icon come from?