When Hollywood Went to War
The Netflix series “Five Came Back,” adapted from Mark Harris’ book, explores the Hollywood directors who made propaganda documentaries for the U.S. military during World War II. Executive produced by...
View ArticleWorld War II Victories in the Desert
News from the front, is how this 1941 meeting of the Town Hall Club and Cercle Français could be characterized. With World War Two raging, a representative of the Free French fighting in Africa has...
View ArticleHelen MacInnes
"An adult Ian Fleming," is how Helen MacInnes, acclaimed author of international spy thrillers, is introduced to the audience at this 1964 Book and Author Luncheon. She is here to promote her recently...
View ArticleJennifer Egan on Cops and Mobsters
A lot of people first heard the name Jennifer Egan when her innovative book “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” which contained a chapter written as a teen-ager’s PowerPoint presentation, won the Pulitzer...
View ArticleThe Life and Death of a Japanese Internment Camp
Photographer Stan Honda talks about the book, Moving Walls: The Barracks of America’s Concentration Camps, which was written by Sharon Yamato and features his black and white photography. This book is...
View ArticleThe Past Is Never Dead
This week, we look at how selective coverage shapes our view of foreign borders, conflicts and historical figures — from Syria to Winston Churchill. Plus, a conversation with the editor-in-chief of...
View Article#79: Last Witness: Mission to Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. It was the first time a nuclear weapon had been used in warfare. There were three strike planes that flew...
View ArticleThe Ski Troops of WWII
The 10th Mountain Division fought in World War II for only four months, but it had one of the highest casualty rates of the war. The division started out as an experiment to train skiers and climbers...
View ArticleMarch of the Bonus Army
Author James Baldwin once wrote, “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason: I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” Criticism — and dissent —...
View ArticleThe Life of Groundbreaking Journalist Maggie Higgins
[REBROADCAST FROM November 30, 2023] A new biography captures the life of groundbreaking New York Herald Tribune reporter Maggie Higgins, who rose to prominence after her reporting on the liberation of...
View Article100 Years of 100 Things: Modernism
As our centennial series continues, Victoria Rosner, dean of the Gallatin School at NYU and the author of Machines for Living: Modernism and Domestic Life (Oxford University Press, 2020), talks about...
View ArticleWars Are Won By Stories
We are living in history all of the time. Nevertheless, there are some times that seem more historical than usual. Like now, when academics and artists and even librarians have come under attack. We...
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