Tag: podcast

WWII Holocaust history book – “You’ve Got to Tell Them” (Louisiana State Press, 2018) – Charles Potter interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Charles Potter studied Medieval literature, worked in radio production and has recorded many audio books. When he retired to France to teach he came across a memoir about Auschwitz which he ended up translating. We spoke about the book.

1:07 – Charles talks about how he got into translating this work. He was born during WWII. Two of his brothers served in the war. He studied Medieval Comparative Literature and then became a radio producer. Then he recorded many audio books.

4:00 – He moved to France during his retirement years and got to know France better. He eventually started teaching a class about how the French present WWII to themselves in movies, tv shows and other media.

6:30 – Charles talks about why the French are so fascinated by WWII.

17:34 – Charles talks about how the French depict the Resistance.

19:18 – Charles talks about French attitudes towards the film “Inglorious Basterds.”

23:01 – Charles talks about how he got into translating this book. His French wife was associated with the woman who wrote this memoir.

30:00 – The woman who wrote the memoir was from the countryside close to Paris.

32:41 – The French didn’t want to talk about their participation in the Holocaust. It wasn’t until the 1970s that things changed.

35:46 – We talk about slang used in the camps during WWII.

38:46 – Charles talks about life in the concentration camp.

42:00 – Charles talks about what she wrote about the camp’s liberation.

49:33 – Charles suggests the movie “Son of Saul” for anyone who wants to see life in these camps.

 

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: Charles Potter

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, world war two, WWII, France, germany, Auschwitz, concentration camp, memoir, slang, commando

Napoleonic Wars history book – “The Invisible Emperor” (Penguin Press, 2018) – Mark Braude interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Mark Braude is a historian whose specialty is French history. He’s written a new book on Napoleon Bonaparte’s time on Elba and we discussed the book.

2:30 – Mark talks about his start in French history and how he started writing about Napoleon.

4:06 – Mark talks about the book.

6:45 – Mark talks about ideas on why Napoleon was sent to Elba. We talk about how the smaller characters in the book also become very interesting.

17:45 – We talk about French taverns and their interplay with public opinion.

20:59 – Mark talks about the historical valleys between periods of war.

22:35 – Mark talks about his research materials.

27:00 – Mark talks about a prison he visited on Elba where Napoleon had stayed before it was a prison and how this visit connects to the book.

33:24 – Mark talks about why no one has written on this subject before.

October 16, 2018 515am

43:53 – Mark talks about the women in Napoleon’s life.

49:06 – Mark talks about how he developed his skills in writing good narrative non-fiction.

53:18 – Mark talks about his research into the Michelin company.

55:59 – Mark has a website, markbraude.com

Links of interest

MarkBraude.com

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: Mark Braude

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Napoleon, British, French Empire, Elba, Campbell, Navy, Bonaparte

WWI military history book – “Pershing’s Tankers” (The University Press of Kentucky, 2018) – Lawrence Kaplan interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Lawrence Kaplan is a military historian who has worked for the US Army and has written numerous books on the subject. Today we spoke about his latest book on the American tank corps during WWI.

1:51 – Larry Kaplan talks about how he got into studying the American tank corps in WWI. He found a number of reports associated with the tank corps that hadn’t been discovered before or had been forgotten. Patton was one of the officers involved with the tank corps.

6:30 – Larry talks about the early development of the US Army tank corps. The French and the British helped the US in this effort. But not a lot was written about this history. Tanks were used for only 7 weeks at the end of the war.

11:20 – George Patton became the commander of the two tank battalions that were to be used in the war.

14:00 – Many of the records of these early tank battalions ended up missing. Larry found them among US Army Field Artillery records.

21:00 – Larry also collected newspaper accounts that were basically the letters home that some tank officers had sent home. He also made some extensive Congressional testimony on the WWI tank corps in WWI readable in a narrative form.

29:30 – Larry talks about what happened to the tank corps after WWI.

31:50 – Larry talks about a scandalous event that occurred during Patton’s time in WWI.

38:48 – The presence of American tanks helped US Army morale and hurt German morale.

39:39 – Larry summarizes how the end of the war went.

53:39 – Larry talks about how the tanks were moved around the theater of war. He also addresses problems with tank maintenance during combat. He gets into how an American officer named Brain was trying to develop requirements for an American-built tank.

58:30 – Larry will be publishing a translated and edited version of a Russian female soldier’s novel about serving in WWI.

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: Lawrence Kaplan

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, world war one, WWI, tank corps, armored warfare, George Patton, French, british, Germans