Best Rob Mellon Podcasts (2024)

1
Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871–1918 (Katya Hoyer) 55:00

2y ago55:00

55:00

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 empi…

1
Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America (Michael Benson) 51:59

2y ago51:59

51:59

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 resistan…

1
The Clusterf#ck Crusade: The Diversion, Intrigue, and Disastrous Mishandling of the Fourth Crusade (Patrick Hotle) 56:15

2y ago56:15

56:15

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 …

1
The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land (Sally Denton) 50:45

2y ago50:45

50:45

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 commu…

1
The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler (David Kertzer) 47:22

2y ago47:22

47:22

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, Piu…

1
The President's Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to American Presidents (David Priess) 1:06:26

2y ago1:06:26

1:06:26

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 …

1
Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park (Andy Mulvihill) 51:01

2y ago51:01

51:01

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. Enter…

1
Fierce Valor: The True Story of Ronald Speirs and his Band of Brothers (Jared Frederick) 49:50

2y ago49:50

49:50

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 Lieutena…

1
Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution (Eric Jay Dolin) 1:01:59

2y ago1:01:59

1:01:59

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 Ja…

1
Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power (Marc Wortman) 56:41

2y ago56:41

56:41

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 …

1
Geography Is Destiny: Britain and the World: A 10,000-Year History (Ian Morris) 1:06:05

2+ y ago1:06:05

1:06:05

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 c…

1
The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis (Melissa Homestead) 54:33

2+ y ago54:33

54:33

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…

1
The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I (Lindsey Fitzharris) 47:02

2+ y ago47:02

47:02

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, howeve…

1
Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court (Orville Vernon Burton) 1:05:04

2+ y ago1:05:04

1:05:04

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 fift…

1
America Second: How America's Elites Are Making China Stronger (Isaac Stone Fish) 42:23

2+ y ago42:23

42:23

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 evoluti…

1
Scandalous Women Of The Old West: Women Who Dared To Be Different (Donna Pedace) 44:49

2+ y ago44:49

44:49

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 themselve…

1
George Washington's Hair: How Early Americans Remembered the Founders (Keith Beutler) 54:05

2+ y ago54:05

54:05

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 forgot…

1
Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945 (Richard Overy) 53:32

2+ y ago53:32

53:32

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 ter…

1
Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution (H.W. Brands) 53:58

2+ y ago53:58

53:58

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…

1
The Alchemy of Slavery: Human Bondage and Emancipation in the Illinois Country, 1730-1865 (Scott Heerman) 55:09

2+ y ago55:09

55:09

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. s…

1
The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird (Joshua Hammer) 42:55

2+ y ago42:55

42:55

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 …

1
Mountain Dew: The History, The Hatfield and McCoy Feud Over the Braggin' Rights to Mountain Dew (Dick Bridgforth) 47:45

2+ y ago47:45

47:45

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 Mountai…

1
Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age (Debby Applegate) 56:02

2+ y ago56:02

56:02

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…

1
Hitler's First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich (Peter Fritzsche) 58:32

2+ y ago58:32

58:32

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 th…

1
We the Presidents: How American Presidents Shaped the Last Century (Ronald Gruner) 1:00:58

2+ y ago1:00:58

1:00:58

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…

1
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women (Kate Moore) 48:28

2+ y ago48:28

48:28

The incredible true story of the women who fought America’s Undark danger The 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 Wor…

1
Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution (Woody Holton) 59:48

2+ y ago59:48

59:48

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…

1
Stalin's War: A New History of World War II (Sean McKeekin) 52:14

2+ y ago52:14

52:14

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 …

1
American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing our Nation (Seth David Radwell) 50:26

2+ y ago50:26

50:26

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 t…

1
Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition (Mark Lawrence Schrad) 49:31

2+ y ago49:31

49:31

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 i…

1
The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World (Nathan Gorenstein) 47:26

2+ y ago47:26

47:26

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…

1
Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers (Doug J. Swanson) 51:16

2+ y ago51:16

51:16

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 propert…

1
Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's Forgotten Son (A.K. Fielding) 46:52

2+ y ago46:52

46:52

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 w…

1
American Comics: A History (Jeremy Dauber) 49:46

2+ y ago49:46

49:46

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 America…

1
Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown (Steve Sheinkin) 55:36

3y ago55:36

55:36

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…

1
The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict (Elbridge A. Colby) 43:13

3y ago43:13

43:13

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…

1
The Oxford Handbook of Christmas (Timothy Larsen) 48:19

3y ago48:19

48:19

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, histori…

1
Yuletide in Dixie: Slavery, Christmas, and Southern Memory (Robert E. May) 1:00:46

3y ago1:00:46

1:00:46

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 conventiona…

1
Back From the Future: A Celebration of the Greatest Time Travel Story Ever Told (Brad Gilmore) 1:01:00

3y ago1:01:00

1:01:00

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 th…

1
The Antichrist: A New Biography (Philip C. Almond) 49:33

3y ago49:33

49:33

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, literatur…

1
Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier (Benjamin Park) 48:53

3y ago48:53

48:53

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 u…

1
The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story (Cara Robertson) 45:51

3y ago45:51

45:51

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 …

1
Eloise Asylum: The History, the Humanity and the Haunts (Cassandra St. Croix) 45:04

3y ago45:04

45:04

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 question…

1
The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War (J.L. Bell) 55:24

3y ago55:24

55:24

With a Clash Between American Rebels and Royal Authorities Heating Up, Radicals Smuggled Cannon Out of Boston—and the British Came Looking for Them In 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…

1
Robert E. Lee: A Life (Allen Guelzo) 1:03:43

3y ago1:03:43

1:03:43

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…

1
The Chicago Cub Shot For Love: A Showgirl’s Crime of Passion and the 1932 World Series (Jack Bales) 40:35

3y ago40:35

40:35

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 with…

1
Memories from the Microphone: A Century of Baseball Broadcasting (Curt Smith) 53:49

3y ago53:49

53:49

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…

1
Grand Delusions: The Cosmic Career of John De Lorean (Hillel Levin) 1:08:09

3y ago1:08:09

1:08:09

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 entrepre…

1
Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War (Jeff Shesol) 59:40

3y ago59:40

59:40

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 bo…

1
Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirteen Bestselling Books (Jess McHugh) 49:25

3y ago49:25

49:25

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 arch…

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Rob Mellon Podcasts

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