Author: WarScholar

WWI history book – “The Polar Bear Expedition” (William Morrow, 2019) – James Carl Nelson interview

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James Carl Nelson is a writer who focuses on military history subjects. We spoke about his latest book on the participation of the U.S. in the WWI Allied invasion of Russia; the only time U.S. troops have fought Russian troops on Russian soil.

0:46 – James talks about how he got into studying and writing on WWI.

2:29 – James talk about the focus of the book.

3:13 – James talks about the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and how it affected WWI.

9:40 – James talks about the equipping and supplying of these troops.

15:17 – James talks about the type of warfare these troops used in northern Russia.

17:00 – James talk about the little bit of air warfare that was going on around these troops.

19:50 – James joked about how some of the U.S. troops were taking on Bolshevik tendencies.

20:19 – James talks about medical and supply support.

22:20 – James mentions the Polar Bear Memorial Association.

24:15 – James talks about how Russia still teaches this event to students.

25:10 – James talks about the resources he used for research.

28:22 – James talks about militaria collected about this event and a museum in Frankenmuth, Michigan with some more artifacts.

38:09 – James has a James Carl Nelson facebook page.

Links of Interest

https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062852779/the-polar-bear-expedition/

https://www.facebook.com/JamesCarlNelsonAuthor/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: James Carl Nelson

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, bolshevik, russia, britain, france, US, Slovak, WWI, world war one, petersburg, moscow, woodrow wilson, western front, eastern front, 85th division, murmansk, detroit, spanish flu, mutiny, polar bear association, arkangel, frankenmuth, vickers machine gun

WWII and Cold War history book – “War in the American Pacific and East Asia, 1941-1972” (University of Kentucky Press, 2019) – Hal Friedman interview

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Dr. Hal M. Friedman is Associate Chair of History and Professor of Modern History at Henry Ford College. He has published multiple books on U.S. national security policy in the immediate postwar Pacific. He recently edited a book on the same subject and we spoke about the subject matter and the process of publishing essay collections.

0:46 Hal talks about how he got into writing on this subject and how his father had fought in WWII.

3:25 – Hal wanted to do a collection that marked the 60th anniversary of Operation Crossroads. He talks about how this collection came about.

6:16 – Hal talks about the essays in the book and the Pacific thread that binds them together.

9:25 – Hal talks about his trilogy on American national security in the Pacific basin and how those connect to this book.   The U.S. dropped Japan as the main enemy and replaced it with the Soviet Union.

11:00 – Hal brings up the term American Lake for the Pacific.

15:00 – Hal talks about the goals of the US Navy before and after WWII.

21:00 – Hal talks about how the nuclear situation was addressed right after WWII.

24:20 – Hal talks about how European colonialism affected American security plans in the Pacific.

27:04 – Hal talks about how the US tried to eject all non-native foreigners, including European Catholic missionaries, from the Micronesia Islands.

30:22 – Hal discusses the economics of the American security program in the Pacific.

44:00 – Hal talks about how he put the book together.

46:19 – Hal discusses how R1 type institutions don’t respect other institutions as much as they should.

47:52 – Hal talks about the difficulties of putting together a book of history essays.

50:00 – Hal talks about the Association of the US Army authors’ day and how helpful University of Kentucky Press has been.

52:39 – Hal talks about his next project – U.S. war plans for the Pacific from 1945-1947.

53:39 – Hal can be found at the University of Kentucky Press website.

56:36 – Hal mentions that the history field is doing badly.

Links of interest

https://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=5527#.XY_4w397mM8

https://www.tamupress.com/search-results/?keyword=Arguing-over-the-American-Lake

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Hal Friedman

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, crossroads, naval history, pacific war, kentucky, henry ford, micronesia, navy, marines, marshall, chiang kai-shek, okinawa, Soviet Union, Japan, communism, nuclear war, spruance, colonialism, Interior, AUSA, OPLANS