Hello, world! Are you aging in place? “Is this what it was like during the air raids?” my 25-year old son asked me, knowing full well that we were fortunately spared from bombing attacks during the war (which to my generation could mean only World War II). Though we did hang blackout blankets over the […]
Coronavirus and the Common Good
Lacking competent or timely national leadership, Americans are stepping up in almost unprecedented ways to combat the deadly coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. My inbox, undoubtedly yours too, is flooded with announcements of cancellations. The spring sports season, cancelled. Broadway shows, shuttered. School systems in a dozen states, at last count, closed. Conferences, libraries, museums, […]
About Chris Matthews
There is no denying it. Chris Matthews was a loudmouth. Except for his surprise subdued farewell opener on his final “Hardball” Monday night, when he seemed also contrite, sad and sorry to go. Much has been said and written about him before and since, including by me back in 2011, when I interviewed him for […]
“Five for Freedom” garners high praise from Journal of Military History
Eighteen months after its publication, FIVE FOR FREEDOM: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army continues to garner praise. The latest comes from “The Journal of Military History,” a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal and the official journal of the Society for Military History. “I cannot recommend this book enough,” writes reviewer Barbara Gannon in the January […]
FIVE FOR FREEDOM: THE NEW PODCAST
Eighteen months after publication of FIVE FOR FREEDOM: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army, the book tour continues! In late September, I was interviewed by Sonja Williams, an award-winning writer and producer of documentaries and professor of communications at Howard University, for a podcast on the Biographers International Organization website. The hour-long interview, […]
Hail to the Nationals–and to Hometown Ted!
Pity the poor New York Yankees and their fans. A sportswriter for the New York Post lamented that due to the Yankee’s dramatic sixth-game, ninth-inning loss to the Houston Astros the team, which has spent $1 billion on its player payroll, would not get the chance to win its 28th World Series. Well, boohoo. Sorry, […]
A Time of Reckoning
I believe we are in a time of reckoning, both with our past and present. It’s long overdue. With much attention focused on 1619 — an anniversary to be marked but not celebrated – there seems to be a new focus on the foundational arrival of the first enslaved Africans on our shores. With the […]
Another World’s Fair: Just What America Needs–or Does It?
Could a World’s Fair put a smiley face on America? For much of our history, world’s fairs have done just that. During times of triumph – and especially of trial – these garish events have papered over our imperfections and even in the darkest of times have offered a sunny picture of the present and […]
The First TV President
I liked Ike. Ike liked TV. Not FOX News. But network news programs and musical shows. Or so TV Guide magazine for Feb. 12, 1955 tells us. “The President is Watching, Too,” the headline says. “TV Wins Generous Share of ‘First Family’s’ Leisure,” says the subhead. Leisure? Executive Time? He didn’t tweet. He didn’t rant. […]
D-Day 75 Years Later
In 1994, I had the honor and privilege of telling the story of the D-Day landing through the voices of veterans, then mostly in their seventies. Years later, in July 2009., Sandy and I visited Omaha Beach — now a public family vacation spot — and the American cemetery, with its countless rows of crosses […]