Kenneth C. Davis's Blog, page 78
May 8, 2015
May 13-Speaking at Porter Square Books
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5,2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
On Wednesday May 13, I will be appearing at Porter Square Books in Cambridge Mass., to talk about my new book, The Hidden History of America At War: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah.
I hope you will join in.
For more information about Porter Square Books.
Don’t Know Much About® Harry S. Truman
Harry Truman “Gave’ Em Hell.” I gave him a A. Born on May 8, 1884, the 33rd President of the United States.
President Harry S. Truman
(Photo: Truman Library)
It was on his birthday in 1945 that Truman was able to tell Americans that the war in Europe was over with the surrender of Germany.
THIS IS a solemn but a glorious hour. I only wish that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day. General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly over all Europe. For this victory, we join in offering our thanks to the Providence which has guided and sustained us through the dark days of adversity.
Described as “a minor national figure with a pedestrian background,” Truman was a World War I veteran and a Senator from Missouri when Franklin D. Roosevelt chose him to become his running mate in the 1944 election. Truman became vice president when FDR won his fourth term and then took office on April 12, 1945 when FDR died.
When he took office, Truman had been largely left “out of the loop” by Roosevelt as World War II entered its final months. Truman did not know of the existence of the “Manhattan Project” and the development of the atomic bomb until he became president. Then he had to make the decision to use it against the Japanese.
Fast Facts
•Truman was a member of the Sons of the Revolution and the Sons of Confederate Veterans
•He wanted to attend West Point but poor eyesight kept him out. He enlisted in the Missouri National Guard and served as the commander of an artillery battery in World War I.
•Before entering politics, he was a farmer, bank clerk, insurance salesman and owner of a failed haberdashery store.
•As president he once threatened to punch the nose of a newspaper critic who had given his daughter a poor review after her debut singing recital. Margaret Truman went on to greater fame as a mystery novelist, beginning with Murder in the White House published in 1980.
•After Grover Cleveland, Truman is the only president who did not attend college. He attended law school briefly but dropped out.
After the end of World War II, Truman had to shift America’s attention to the new “Cold War” with the Soviet Union and his policies of “containment” and the Marshall Plan to rebuild war-torn Europe were hallmarks of his presidency.
Harry S. Truman died on December 26, 1972. This is his New York Times obituary. The Truman Library and Museum is located in Independence, Missouri
Read more about Truman, his life and administration in Don’t Know Much About® the American Presidents.
Don’t Know Much About® the American Presidents (Hyperion Paperback-April 15, 2014)
May 7, 2015
Mother’s Day-A “Hidden History”
Let me be among the first to say Happy Mother’s Day. Husbands and children everywhere: Don’t forget.
But amidst the brunches, flower-giving and chocolate samplers, there is a story of another “Mother’s Day” that is worth remembering this weekend.
Julia Ward Howe, a prominent abolitionist best known for writing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” published what became known as the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” originally called “An Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World.”
Julia Ward Howe (1907) Source: Library of Congress
In 1870, Howe wrote:
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. . . . From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice! Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
Source and Complete Text: Library of Congress
Howe’s international call for mothers to become the voice of pacifism found few takers. Even among like-minded women, there was greater urgency over the suffrage question. Her passionate campaign for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” begun in 1872 fell by the wayside.
Mother’s Day, as we know it, is not the invention of Hallmark; it started in 1912 through the efforts of West Virginia’s Anna Jarvis to create a holiday honoring all mothers for their sacrifice and to assist mothers who needed help.
Today, Mother’s Day is largely a commercial bonanza — flowers, chocolates and greeting cards. Is it possible to truly honor Howe’s version of Mother’s Day and work towards her original vision of Mother’s Day?
If only we remember the history behind the holiday and what she thought it should be.
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5, 2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
May 6, 2015
Kirkus Review-The Hidden History of America At War
KIRKUS REVIEWSix turning points in military history and American democracy.
Don’t Know Much About… series author Davis (America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation, 2008, etc.) begins with the 1781 battle that decided the American Revolution. In Yorktown and its aftermath, we learn that George Washington favored a large standing army, despite the insistence of many that a diffuse corps of “citizen soldiers” would be a better safeguard of democracy. From Yorktown, the author moves to the 1864 Battle of Petersburg, Virginia. Davis defines specific moments when the U.S. military’s role and self-image changed significantly. His stories are always analytically rigorous, and thus he describes at length the so-called “water cure” as it was employed as a method of torture by Americans during the Spanish-American War. Throughout the book, the author is careful to emphasize the critical role of African-Americans, both in the acknowledged triumphs of groups like the U.S. Colored Troops and in the disgraces visited upon black servicemen. Davis also makes sure to give voice to the fact that the actions of the Greatest Generation were not always so valiant. Russians were not the only soldiers who left a swath of brutalized women in their wake. While the Americans were not given the same license as Soviet troops avenging more than 25 million casualties, they still committed crimes. Davis’ chapter on Vietnam offers a damning view of a military beset by those more interested in “management” than “leadership”—e.g., Gen. William Westmoreland. In the final chapter, on Fallujah, the author discusses the sickening scene of charred American mercenaries hanging from a bridge, failures of military policy, and a sense that the best military in the world is only as good as its civilian leadership.
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5, 2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
May 4, 2015
“War Stories”-The Hidden History of America At War
This video is a brief introduction to my new book, THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah (to be published May 5, 2015 by Hachette Books and Random House Audio)
“His searing analyses and ability to see the forest as well as the trees make for an absorbing and infuriating read as he highlights the strategic missteps, bad decisions, needless loss of life, horrific war crimes, and political hubris that often accompany war.”
–Publishers Weekly *Starred Review Link Full Review
More Advance Praise for THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5, 2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
“There’s only one person who can top Kenneth C. Davis—and that’s Kenneth C. Davis. With The Hidden History of America at War, he’s composed yet another brilliant, thought-provoking, and compelling book. . . Davis offers a hard-hitting and sometimes critical look at some of the most consequential wartime decisions made by presidents and policy makers, but his admiration and respect for the men and women who have served and sacrificed so much for this nation is unwavering.”
—Andrew Carroll, editor of the New York Times-bestsellers War Letters and Behind the Lines
“With his trademark storytelling flair, Kenneth C. Davis illuminates six critical, but often overlooked battles that helped define America’s character and its evolving response to conflict. This fascinating and strikingly insightful book is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand our nation’s bloody history of war.”
—Eric Jay Dolin, author of Leviathan and When America First Met China
“A fascinating exploration of war and the myths of war. Kenneth C. Davis shows how interesting the truth can be.”
—Evan Thomas, New York Times-bestselling author of Sea of Thunder and John Paul Jones
Who Said it (5/4/2015)
The flags of freedom fly all over Europe.
President Harry S. Truman
(Photo: Truman Library)
“This is a solemn but glorious hour. General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly all over Europe.”
–President Harry S. Truman, “The President’s Press Conference on V-E Day” (May 8, 1945)
Source: Harry S. Truman: “The President’s News Conference on V-E Day,” May 8, 1945. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.
Read more about the Fall of Berlin and the end of World War II in THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR: Untold tales from Yorktown to Fallujah
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5, 2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR-Speaking Calendar
Porter Square Books
List of Speaking Engagements:
May 6 Kramerbooks Washington DC 6:30 PM
May 13 Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA 7:00 PM
May 14 RJ Julia Booksellers Madison CT 7:00 PM
May 17 US Army Heritage and Education Center Carlisle, PA 1:00 PM
May 18 Enoch Pratt Free Library Baltimore, MD 6:30 PM
May 23 Barnes & Noble William and Mary Williamsburg, VA TIME TBA
June 6 Printers Row Lit Fest Chicago, IL TIME TBA
June 11 Fraunces Tavern Museum New York City 6:30 PM
June 14 Barnes & Noble Tidewater College Store Norfolk, VA TIME TBA
June 18 Mount Vernon Public Library, Mount Vernon, NY 6:30 PM
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah (May 5-Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
May 1, 2015
The Fall of Berlin-May Day 1945
The Reichstag in Berlin, pictured in June 1945, a few weeks after Berlin fell to the Soviet Red Army. (Source: Imperial War Museum)
For Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s commanders, the grand prize was the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building. Stalin had pitted his generals against one another, daring them to be the first there. The Russians wanted to fly their flag over the dome of the Reichstag in time for May Day, the international celebration of socialism. And they achieved their goal. On May 1, 1945, the red hammer and sickle flag flew over Germany’s fallen capital….
The Americans did not take part in the land battle and wouldn’t reach Berlin for several weeks after the city fell. The British and American role in attacking Berlin had been the large-scale air campaign meant to bomb Germany into submission. In postwar American history books, the contribution of the Soviet Union in fighting Hitler—along with the astonishing toll the war had taken on Russia— was largely brushed aside as the tensions between the American and Western European countries on the one side and the Soviet Union and its bloc of communist nations grew increasingly fraught during the Cold War.
Excerpted from “Berlin Stories” in THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5, 2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
April 30, 2015
Death of Hitler-April 30, 1945
Stars and Stripes reported Hitler’s death on May 2, 1945
Told the next day that Berlin’s defenders were nearly out of ammunition, Hitler and Braun committed suicide. She took poison; he used a shot to the temple. Their bodies were cremated by loyal followers in a garden not far from Hitler’s bunker in the Reich Chancellery.
Under the terms of Hitler’s will, Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, the German naval commander, became the president of Germany. It was Donitz who would soon officially surrender to the Allies, bringing the war in Europe to a close.
The shock of the Red Army’s arrival in Berlin was more than just a grotesque nightmare that confirmed the worst fears of Berliners, and would play out mercilessly in the city in the months ahead. It was the end of the world as Berliners knew it. The people of Berlin, the home of the Thousand-Year Reich, had been pummeled by airstrikes, more than three hundred of them since early 1944, when the daily raids on the city began.
Excerpted from Chapter Four, “Berlin Stories,” THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5,2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
© 2015 Kenneth C. Davis All Rights Reserved
April 29, 2015
“Two Societies, One Black, One White”
The news and images out of Baltimore are unfortunately all too familiar. “Civil Disorders” are nothing new and a sad reminder of the violence that tore across the country in the 1960s.
Grand Rapids Michigan-1967
Responding to a series of violent outbursts in predominantly black urban neighborhoods, President Lyndon B. Johnson established an 11-member National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders on July 28, 1967. Later known as the Kerner Commission after its chairman, Governor Otto Kerner, Jr. of Illinois, the Commission issued a stark warning in 1968:
Governor of Illinois Otto Kerner, Jr., meeting with Roy Wilkins (left) and President Lyndon Johnson (right) in the White House. 29 July 1967 Source LBJ Presidential Library
“Our Nation Is Moving Toward Two Societies, One Black, One White—Separate and Unequal”
The Committee Report went on to identify a set of “deeply held grievances” that it believed had led to the violence.
Although almost all cities had some sort of formal grievance mechanism for handling citizen complaints, this typically was regarded by Negroes as ineffective and was generally ignored.
Although specific grievances varied from city to city, at least 12 deeply held grievances can be identified and ranked into three levels of relative intensity:
First Level of Intensity
1. Police practices
2. Unemployment and underemployment
3. Inadequate housing
Second Level of Intensity
4. Inadequate education
5. Poor recreation facilities and programs
6. Ineffectiveness of the political structure and grievance mechanisms.
Third Level of Intensity
7. Disrespectful white attitudes
8. Discriminatory administration of justice
9. Inadequacy of federal programs
10. Inadequacy of municipal services
11. Discriminatory consumer and credit practices
12. Inadequate welfare programs
Source: “Our Nation is Moving Toward Two Societies, One Black, One White—Separate and Unequal”: Excerpts from the Kerner Report; American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY)
and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (George Mason University).
Issued nearly half a century ago, the list of grievances reads as if it could have been written last week.
But this list identified 45 years ago speaks to the gross inequities in modern America — a rising tide of economic inequality that increasingly cuts across racial lines. According to the Associated Press:
Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.
(Source: Associated Press “Signs of Declining Economic Security” July 29, 2013)
Nearly half a century later, the Kerner Commission’s warnings still ring true: “Moving Toward Two Societies…Separate and Unequal.”
Read more about the unrest of the Civil Rights era in Don’t Know Much About® History. The crucial role of race in the American military is also treated in the forthcoming The Hidden History of America at War. (May 5)
The Hidden History of America At War-May 5,2015 (Hachette Books/Random House Audio)
Don’t Know Much About History (Revised, Expanded and Updated Edition)
