Historians – Now I've Heard Everything

Decoding the Life of Alexander Hamilton: Biographer Richard Brookhiser

July 9, 2025Bill Thompson

The smash Broadway play “Hamilton” brought a resurgence of interest in the founding father who helped shape the direction of the young nation.

Fifteen years before the play a book by noted biographer Richard Brookhiser brought Alexander Hamilton to life.

Brookhiser’s 1999 book Alexander Hamilton: American provided fresh perspective and insight to the life of the man who was barely out of his teens on this day in 1776.

Get your copy of Richard Brookhiser’s book

In his 30s Hamilton became America’s first Treasury Secretary. And in his 40s, he was famously shot dead in a duel with Aaron Burr.

But did you know he was also at the center of America’s first major political sex scandal?

So here now, from 1999 Richard Brookhiser.

Looking at The Battle of Gettysburg Through a Modern Lens, With Radios Mark Levin

July 3, 2025Bill Thompson

The first day of July 1863 was a warm, mostly cloudy summer day in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the first day of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most pivotal moments in the American Civil War.

For three days thousands of soldiers fought heroically, many suffering gruesome injuries and death.

A few months later, President Abraham Lincoln visited Gettysburg and delivered what has become one of the most familiar and revered speeches in American history.

One hundred years later, a Philadelphia man named Jack Levin, the son of immigrants, published a book about Lincoln, his famous speech, and the battle that inspired it.

And 45 years after that, the book was republished, with a new preface written by Jack Levin’s son – nationally-syndicated talk show host Mark Levin.

The book, called Abraham Lincoln\’s Gettysburg Address Illustrated, came out in 2010. And that’s when I had the chance to talk with Mark Levin about it. So here now, from 2010, Mark Levin.

Jack Levin died in 2018. Mark Levin can be heard on his national radio show, and seen on Fox News.

The Last War Chief: Joe Medicine Crow’s Life and Legacy

February 28, 2025Bill Thompson

Many of us have grandparents who can tell us stories about the old days, the “old days” usually being the 1930s, maybe the ‘20s.

But imagine being able to sit down with an old relative who could tell you firsthand about General George Custer, or even Lewis and Clark.

For several decades, starting in the 1940s, Joe Medicine Crow was the historian of the Crow Indian tribe. And much of the history he wrote down came from those aging family members he had known.

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His step-grandfather, for example. Known as White Man Runs Him, he was a scout for General Custer, and as such was an eyewitness to the Battle of Little Bighorn.

But Medicine Crow had many stories of his very own to tell. He was a noted scholar, World War Two hero, and Native American leader. He was, in fact, the last war chief of the Crow tribe.

I met him in 1993, when, just shy of age 80, he published the first of what would be several books about the Crow tribe. The book was called From The Heart of The Crow Country.

So here now, from 1993, Joe Medicine Crow.

Joe Medicine Crow was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

He died 23 years after our interview, in 2016, at age 102.

The True Story of the Mayflower: Historian Nathaniel Philbrick’s Account

December 18, 2024December 14, 2024Bill Thompson

The arrival of the “Mayflower” in the New World is one of the foundational history lessons we all learned in school.

We all know the story of the Pilgrims arriving, setting foot on Plymouth Rock. And then the first Thanksgiving, sitting down to a feast with the Native Americans

Except, most of that isn’t true.

What is true is that the Pilgrims did arrive on the “Mayflower” a week before Christmas in 1620. From there the things we were taught get a little fuzzy.

Get your copy of Nathaniel Philbrick’s book

In 2006 award-winning author and historian Nathaniel Philbrick published a groundbreaking book called Mayflower. And what you’re about to hear is going to bust some of those cherished myths wide open.

So here now, from 2006, Nathaniel Philbrick.

Nathaniel Philbrick is 68. He lives not far from where the Mayflower pilgrims arrived.

Commentator Kevin Phillips on The American History We Get Wrong

October 14, 2024October 17, 2024Bill Thompson

Back in 1976 the U.S. celebrated the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – the Bicentennial.

In about a year and a half, we’ll be marking the nation’s 250th anniversary. It’s called the “semiquincentennial,” or sestercentennial.

Either way, we may be wrong – 1776 was not necessarily the great historical focal point we’ve all been taught that it was.

So said noted political commentator Kevin Phillips in a 2012 book he called 1775.

The time leading up the actual Declaration may be more pivotal, in the long run, than the actual document itself, in spite of the famous painting of the signing on July 4th. That, too, is a myth, says Phillips.

How do we keep 1776 in proper perspective?

Kevin Phillips died in 2023. He was 82.

Here now, from 2012, Kevin Phillips.

Historian Deborah Lipstadt Takes on Holocaust Deniers

September 23, 2024September 21, 2024Bill Thompson

For the better part of four decades historian Deborah Lipstadt has been combating Holocaust denial.

She has found that there is a sizeable share of people, both in the United States and elsewhere, who are convinced the Holocaust never happened

Some have even offered so-called “proof” it Was a hoax.

Get your copy of Deborah Lipstadt’s book

In 1993 Lipstadt put her findings in a book she called Denying The Holocaust. That’s when she and I talked about it.

So here no0w, from 1993, Deborah Lipstadt .

Deborah Lipstadt is 77 now. For the last two years she has served as a special U.S. envoy against anti-Semitism

In 2023 Time magazine named Lipstadt one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Historian Allan Lichtman on Why Presidential Campaigns Don’t Matter

September 11, 2024September 8, 2024Bill Thompson

Kamala Harris is going to be our next president. So says the historian who has correctly predicted every presidential election except one since 1984.

American University professor Allan Lichtman,along with a noted expert in earthquake prediction, came up with a method of forecasting elections that Lichtman calls “the 13 keys.”

He explained them in his 1990 book Thirteen Keys to the Presidency. I talked with him when that book was first published.

As you listen to this interview, you have to put yourself back in 1990, less than halfway through George H.W. Bush’s term. And listen as Lichtman hints that Bush may already be set up to lose in ;92 – an election two and a half years in the future.

Sol here now, from 1990, Allan Lichtman.

By the way, the only election Lichtman got wrong in the last 40 years was the 2000 Bush v. Gore contest. Lichtman did correctly predicted that Al Gore would win the popular vote.

Allan Lichtman is 77 now. He has taught at American University.since 1973.

50 Years Later: The Legacy of the Nixon Resignation

August 9, 2024August 3, 2024Bill Thompson

Photo by Jim Wallace (Smithsonian Institution)

Today is August 9th — and it was 50 years ago today that Richard Milhous Nixon made U.S. hisory by becoming the first, and so far only, president to resign from office.

He was done in by his involvement in covering up a botched burglary at Democratic p[arty headquarters in Washington’s Watergate office and hotel complex in 1972.

After a long political career filled with Incredible comebacks, this was the one Nixon could not come back from.

The evening of August 8th Nixon addressed the nation with his stunning announcement. And at noon on that Friday, August 9th, Gerald Ford was indeed sown in as president. He told the nation that evening that “our long national nightmare is over.”

Thirteen years later, acclaimed biographer Stephen Ambrose published the first of what would become a three-volume biography of Richard Nixon. What made his trilogy extraordinary was his admission that he had always disliked Nixon, but grew to like and admire him.

The third and final volume of Ambrose’s biography was published in 1991, and by then Nixon had come a long way toward rebuilding his public image.

So here now, from 1991, Stephen Ambrose.

\Richard Nixon died in 1994 at age 81.

Stephen Ambrose died from cancer in 2002. He was 66.

Defining Freedom: Insights From Historian Eric Foner

July 3, 2024June 28, 2024Bill Thompson

The United States was founded on a bedrock of freedom.

But what, exactly,y, is “freedom?” Does it depend on who you ask? Or when you ask?

Renowned historian Eric Foner sought an answer. What, indeed, is freedom?

His 1998 book was called The Story of American Freedom. But while you may assume that the story begins on July 4th, 1776, Foner found far deeper roots – and far broader branches to the definite of freedom.

So here now, from 1998, Eric Foner.

The Book That Proved Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone

November 20, 2023November 19, 2023Bill Thompson

It has now been 60 years since the assassination of President John F Kennedy in Dallas.

And yet his death remains the subject of widespread conspiracy theories.

But 30 years ago, there was a definitive book written that reached the same conclusion that the Warren Commission did in the 1960s. That conclusion: Lee Harvey Oswald killed the president, and acted alone.

The author of that book, called Case Closed, was investigative journalist Gerald Posner. Using technology completely unheard of in the 1960s, Posner reached the same conclusion.

So here now from 1993 Gerald Posner.

Gerald Posner is 69. HHs most recent book was a 2020 volume about big pharma.

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