This podcast episode is a work of historical fiction written to teach listeners, in an entertaining way, about the background and major events that happened during the battle.
Jon Mikolashek is a military historian who has written extensively on US military history. We discuss his latest book about George Patton’s life during WWI. Check out the book here.
0:51 – Jon talks about how he became interested in writing on Patton
2:50 – Jon talks about his book is different from other Patton books.
5:27 – Jon talks about why he started the book in 1916.
7:41 – Jon explains why Patton modeled himself after Perhsing.
9:02 – Jon talks about how Patton got into tanks. Patton wanted command and quick promotion.
12:36 – Jon talks about how Patton approached commanding tanks.
15:52 – Jon talks about Patton picking his tank commanders.
17:53 – Jon talks about Patton’s approach to combined arms. Patton didn’t like the infantry much.
22:03 – Jon talks about an incident where Patton hits a soldier with a shovel.
22:58 – Jon talks about traumatic brain injury.
25:26 – Jon talks about Patton’s diaries and other resources he used.
29:45 – Jon talks about Patton’s relationship with his wife.
38:42 – Jon talks about Patton’s indecision to join the tank corps.
42:50 – Jon talks about the importance of WWI to Patton’s career.
48:58 – Jon is on facebook at Jon Mikolashek and twitter @slavoshek.
Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Patton, wwi, wwii, us army, mexico, punitive expedition, pershing, polo, tanks, staff officer, cavalry, infantry, salerno, billy mitchell, air power, virginia military institute, Rockenbach, renault, omar bradley, interwar
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I interviewed historian Kimberly Lamay Licursi about her new book “Remembering World War I in America” being released by University of Nebraska Press in March 2018.
1:09 – Kimberly’s interest in history began with her interest in genealogy. She began in the government field. The book came out of a seminar class she was taking and research she did at the archives of New York state. She noticed that not many books had been written about America in WWI.
3:26 – States tried to create histories of the war. Kimberly looked at movies and pulp fiction to determine how Americans remembered the war. There was even a WWI pulp fiction genre.
6:12 – Many Americans were apathetic after the war. People wanted to move forward from it and thought that maybe they shouldn’t have been involved in it. A lot of soldiers wouldn’t even participate in state remembrances for the war. Many were unemployed and poor after the war.
8:12 – Gold Diggers is a 1930s movie that mentions the Bonus Army. She looked at other movies from 1918 to 1941 such as Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Big Parade is the first to really look at the American experience in the war. Aviation movies like Wings became popular later on. Sergeant York becomes very popular right before WWII.
13:24 – King Vidor was one director who wanted to make a grand film but didn’t necessarily want to do a war movie. Warner Brothers made a WWI movie only because they were focused later on WWII.
15:29 – The soldiers who returned after the first returning wave didn’t get parades. Many soldiers resented what they had been through. They weren’t commonly thanked for their service.
17:44 – Americans didn’t see much of the war or the dead. Many dead soldiers were interned in Europe.
19:43 – Even Europeans didn’t talk about the Americans very much. Many Americans wrote memories but they weren’t popular among the public.
21:57 – A Farewell to Arms is one of the more important books about WWI for Americans. But it doesn’t really sell well until the 1950s when it came out into paperback. Academics made it popular and made students read it.
26:19 – The American Legion was prominent in trying to remember American soldiers after WWI. It was made up of veterans without much support from civilians.
28:59 – Kimberly most enjoyed reading the pulp fiction about the war. It was very light hearted and fun in many ways. Many of the writers were veterans.
34:21 – During the war many publishers were making a fortune putting out memoirs but soon after, the market disappeared. Most of the war books were supportive of the war, especially with the speech restrictions.
35:33 – There weren’t Federal efforts to get information out. Carnegie funded some national level private efforts.
36:53 – One female memoir by Ellen Lamotte called the Backwash of War is difficult to read because it presents the horror of war and was banned. Katherine Mayo wrote a popular memoir named That Damned Y. Many women wrote war memoirs who were in the war as ambulance drivers and nurses. Willa Cather and Edith Wharton wrote about the war.
39:48 – Two black women wrote memoirs about the war. A black film production company made a movie about the war and African-Americans.
43:40 – Kimberly would like to next write about remarkable women in the 1920s and 1930s. Women lost to history.
