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Rob Havers and Todd DePastino interview – WWII history book – “Drawing Fire” (Pritzker Military Museum & Library, 2020)
Check out this book here https://amzn.to/2RFQQKa
Rob Havers is a British military historian who currently serves as the president of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library. Todd DePastino was a professor of social and cultural history and helped to write the book Drawing Fire about Bill Mauldin’s life and cartoons. We spoke about Bill Mauldin, his cartoons, and the Bill Mauldin exhibit.
(THE AUDIO PLAYER IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST.)
Interview Timeline
1:07 – Rob talks about how he got involved in a project on Bill Mauldin.
2:52 – Todd talks about how he started as a social and cultural historian before studying Bill Mauldin.
5:49 – Rob talks about how the Pritzker Museum collected thousands of Bill Mauldin’s cartoons.
8:31 – Rob and Todd talk about other archives that have some of Mauldin’s work and Mauldin’s influence.
9:49 – Todd talks about how they chose what cartoons to include in the book and Bill’s life up to and into WWII.
14:26 – Rob talks about the military history shown in Bill Mauldin’s cartoons.
18:20 – Todd talks about how Bill did his cartoon work during the war in Italy by going out to the front lines.
22:54 – Rob talks about how it was that an uneducated kid becomes such a master cartoonist.
24:56 – Todd talks about how ambitious and bad-tempered Bill Mauldin had been and how he got into cartooning.
27:48 – Todd talks about how Bill Mauldin got on to Stars & Stripes.
29:13 – Rob talks about the other hotspots Bill Mauldin worked in.
31:28 – Todd talks about Bill Mauldin’s knack for finding himself in hot spots.
33:13 – Rob talks about the National Infantry Museum and an exhibit there.
36:28 – Todd and Rob talk about Bill Mauldin being an adrenalin junkie.
40:12 – Todd talks about the Bill’s writing and oil painting attempts.
43:21 – Rob talks about Bill Mauldin’s ability to adapt his style to circumstances.
45:32 – Rob talks about how a military museum chooses its exhibits.
48:01 – Rob and Todd talk about how they got celebrities to write portions of the book including Tom Hanks and Tom Brokaw.
52:07 – Todd talks about the various traumas that Bill Mauldin dealt with throughout his life and in the war.
54:08 – Rob and Todd talk about the book’s goals.
57:57 – Rob talks about Bill Mauldin being involved with cartoonist organizations.
59:35 – Rob and Todd talk about getting the book finished and published.
1:00:08 – Rob talks about the books the museum publishes.
1:03:31 – The Pritzker Museum can be found at Pritzkermilitary.org and The Veterans Breakfast Club can be found at veteransbreakfastclub.org and “Scuttlebutt” podcast.
1:06:38 – From my podcast “Technology and Space” – John B. Herrington talks about going from naval aviation to becoming an astronaut. (TechnologyandSpace.com)
1:09:48 – From my podcast “Full Contact Nerd” – M.R. Carey talks about a military robot he put in his latest novel The Book of Koli. (FullContactNerd.com)
Links of interest
http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/store/pmml-merchandise/drawing-fire-editorial-cartoons-bill-mauldin/
http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/
https://veteransbreakfastclub.org/
Contact Information
For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar and on Instagram @crisalvarezwarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.
Guests: Rob Havers and Todd DiPastino
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: Books, audio interviews, Rob Havers, Todd DePastino, academic, podcast, Pritzker Military Museum and Library, Modern War, WWII, United States,
Check out this book here https://amzn.to/2RFQQKa
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