Stop the presses! How the railroad shaped a nation…and what comes next. The Great War Reexamined. Transforming the American landscape.
Stop the presses!
It’s not breaking news that the print industry is in decline, though it may be a surprise to some that it isn’t always the advent of the internet which is to blame. Sometimes, it’s just good old bad behavior, corrupt practices and stupid decisions. James O’Shea, who worked as an editor at the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, provides a firsthand account of their demise in The Deal From Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers. Chronicling the tumultuous merger of Chicago’s Tribune Company and Los Angeles’s Times Mirror Company and its subsequent acquisition by real-estate billionaire Sam Zell, O’Shea explains how the two companies entangled themselves through alternating alliances, backdoor deals and outright sabotage. Have you noticed a change in the quality of American newspapers since their glory days? Do you remember the Tribune-Times Mirror merger? Do you still read the actual paper?
Guest:
James O’Shea, author of The Deal From Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers
How the railroad shaped a nation…and what comes next
In the final installment of his epic trilogy on the Union Pacific Railroad, historian Maury Klein brings us to the present day state of the company in his new book Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration. It’s now plagued by modern day problems like labor disputes, aging infrastructure and deregulation but according to Klein the company is figuring out how to thrive in the new millennium. So what strategies did the company employ to meet modern challenges? What of its history? How exactly did the Union Pacific Railroad change the landscape of the United States? And how did one of America’s most successful companies come back from the brink of financial ruin?
Guest:
Maury Klein, author of Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration and former history teacher who taught 44 years at the University of Rhode Island
The Great War Reexamined
To many, World War II was the most gruesome, costly and terrible conflicts of the past century and yet it’s the World War I that is labeled the “Great War.” In his new book To End All Wars, author/historian Adam Hochschild offers a new examination of the WW I; why it was fought and why it became a conflict of such devastating proportions. Hochschild explores the war not just through the eyes of the vast majority of countries who participated so ardently in the conflict but through the eyes of its critics. Though few and far between, those anti-war critics who dared to speak out warned that the war would not be over quickly and would lead to immense suffering and unspeakable horror. But the critics were shunted, marginalized or ignored though many of them were intimately connected to the most prominent figures leading the war effort in Britain. Hochschild tells the story of the struggle in the “war to end all wars” between those who felt the war was something noble and whose who felt it was absolute madness.
Guest:
Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914 – 1918
Transforming the American landscape
Central Park and Prospect Park in New York, Stanford University, and the Capitol Grounds in Washington, D.C. are well known for their cultural significance and their beauty but few could identify their designer, Frederick Law Olmstead. In his new book Genius of Place, Justin Martin explores the life and exploits of the man who created these landscapes but did so much more than design some of our nation’s most iconic public places. As a journalist, Olmstead exposed the abolitionist cause to Northern and British audiences on the 1850s and 60s. He was an early environmentalist, helping to preserve Yosemite and Niagara Falls in the years before the establishment of the national park system. But Martin also delves into Olmstead’s personal life which was filled with turmoil and certainly not as serene as the landscapes he designed. Olmstead was one of the most influential people of the 19th century but he “spent his final days in an asylum, ironically one for which he had earlier designed the grounds.” How do we reconcile this great park maker, conservationist and abolitionist with the personal torment he experienced?
Guest:
Justin Martin, author of Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmstead