Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Journalist Dana Goldstein discusses her groundbreaking history of school reform in the US and conflicts over teaching, then and now. It’s called The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession (Doubleday). Then, we check in with Katrina van den Heuvel about her interview with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Danielle Allen talks about the foundational ideas of our American Republic in her book Our Declaration, A Reading Of The Declaration of Independence In Defense of Equality (W.W.Norton, 2014)
Then Katy Simpson Smith talks about her novel, The Story of Land And Sea (Harper Collins, 2014.) It takes place just after the Revolutionary War, when ideas of equality and liberty were transforming America.
NEWSFLASH! We’re excited to announce that Writer’s Voice has a redesigned, more user friendly website. It’s built to work with all your web devices: smart phones, tablets and computers.
Explore the site, join the email list and keep an eye on exclusive features we’re rolling out in the coming weeks. Let website designer Bill Weye know how much you appreciate this new design (or tell him what else you’d like to see there). We love his work! Continue reading
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Karen Abbott talks about her latest book, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy. It’s about four courageous women of the Civil War who made history. And later, we replay our 2013 interview with Lois Leveen about her novel, The Secrets of Mary Bowser. It’s about an African American ex-slave who was a Union spy right inside the Confederate White House.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Robert Harris talks about his terrific new novel about the Dreyfus Affair and the whistleblower who blew it wide open: An Officer And A Spy. And Francine Prose talks about her new historical novel about France in the 1930’s: Lovers At The Chameleon Club-Paris, 1932.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Christian theologian and peace activist James W. Douglass tells us why he thinks JFK was assassinated. He says it was because Kennedy went up against the military-industrial complex and the national security state. His carefully researched book is JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE. On the 50th Anniversary of JFK’s assassination, we re-air this interview from 2009.
“This is the story…of a person who turned against a way that was destructive toward a way that is peaceful and just — and from that point on he and his enemy, Nikita Khrushchev, begin to work together and that’s the beginning of the end of John Kennedy.” –James W. Douglass
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
In this fourth episode of our Writers Voice special series, The River Runs Through Us, Brian Kitely talks about THE RIVER GODS, his novel-in-vignettes of Northampton, Massachusetts from its founding to today; Native American scholar Marge Bruchac tells us about the original inhabitants of the Valley, and Pioneer Valley Planning Commission director Tim Brennan discusses the history and future of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts.
Our thanks to Mass Humanities for their support for this series.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
The late Anthony Lewis on his “biography of the First Amendment,” Freedom for the Thought That We Hate. Lewis died on March 25, 2013. And Edward Ball talks with Drew Adamek about his book, The Inventor and the Tycoon. It’s about how modern media were born out of an unlikely partnership between a tycoon and an inventor who was a murderer.
THANK YOU From Writers Voice Hosts Drew Adamek and Francesca Rheannon
We want to send a big shout out of thanks to all who sent in donations to our Kickstarter Campaign to support our special series, The River Runs Through Us. We’re happy to report we exceeded our goal and have been able to heave a huge sigh of relief. Thanks SO much — and tune in to our next episode of The River Runs Through Us, coming up next week on WV. We’ll be listing our supporters on this website in the coming weeks. Continue reading
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Lois Leveen talks about the remarkable true story of Mary Bowser, a freed slave who became a Union spy right inside the Confederate White House. Her acclaimed new novel, THE SECRETS OF MARY BOWSER, is based on it. And Eve LaPlante talks about her terrific new book, MARMEE AND LOUISA. It’s about the powerful relationship between Louisa May Alcott and her mother Abigail. Continue reading
by Francesca Rheannon
Ever since I discovered Shakespeare’s historical plays at age 11, I’ve been fascinated by the Plantagenets, the dynasty of English/Norman kings who counted among their number some of the greatest scoundrels and most illustrious monarchs (some of them one and the same) England has ever known.
Alas, Dan Jones’ The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England does not include my own personal favorite Shakespearean monarchs, Henry V and Richard III. But then that hardly matters, for this sweeping 300 year history kept me on the edge of my seat as I followed the royal soap operas played out from Henry II, through Richard I (the Lionheart) and bad King John to Richard II (also the star of a Shakespeare play, but a rather mediocre one.)
The reader is prompted throughout to contemplate the fickle finger of Fate (or Karma) as monarchs triumph, only to crash and burn. Sometimes, they are able to hoist their luck up Fortune’s Wheel again, but dastardly deeds, cruel betrayals by family and friends, internecine wars — in short, all the “slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune” — are unloosed on nearly all  Jones’ primary subjects in the course of their eventful lives, often by their own actions. King Lear hath no tragic chops over Richard II, whose wife and sons tried to depose him.
But despite the tragic — and sometimes comic — elements of their history, The Plantagenets also had a profound effect on English law and custom that continues to reverberate down to our present time, as Jones reveals: the creation of the Magna Carta, for example, with its establishment of rights of the governed. As President Obama erodes the right of habeus corpus with his “targeted” killings of American citizens, we would do well to contemplate with what copious amounts of blood this right was birthed and defended over the past 800 years. And the penchant for wars in the Middle East (the Crusades then, our adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq now) has been devastating for the balance sheets of rulers from Henry II to President Bush II and the current US administration.
In The Plantagenets, Jones gives the reader many rip-roaring yarns, a good lesson in history, and much food for thought about current events.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Writers Voice inaugurates a special, six-part series exploring the literature, spirit and meaning of the Connecticut River: The River Runs Through Us.
In Episode One, historian Kerry Buckley talks about the history and impact of the Connecticut River in New England. Also, author Susan Stinson talks about her forthcoming historical novel SPIDER IN A TREE. Based in Northampton, Massachusetts, it’s about the life of 18th century Calvinist theologian Jonathan Edwards.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Andrew Nagorski talks about his book, HITLERLAND, a first-ever account of the American eyewitnesses to Hitler’s rise to power. And novelist Jonathan Rabb discusses his latest in the Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner series, THE SECOND SON. It’s about a Berlin detective in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. Continue reading
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Noah Charney talks about STEALING THE MYSTIC LAMB. It’s about the 15th century Ghent Altarpiece and why so many, from Napoleon to the Nazis, coveted it so much, they stole it. And Eric Lamet talks about his memoir as a Jewish child in Mussolini’s Italy. His book is A CHILD AL CONFINO. Continue reading
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Simon Winchester talks about his sweeping history of the Atlantic Ocean, ATLANTIC and on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire we talk with Katharine Weber about her novel TRIANGLE.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Harvey Sachs talks about his book, THE NINTH, BEETHOVEN, AND THE WORLD IN 1824.[amazon-product align=”right”]140006077X[/amazon-product]
Also, in an archived interview, Mark Lamster tells us about MASTER OF DECEPTION. It’s about Peter Paul Rubens and his secret diplomatic career. We first aired it in March of 2010. Continue reading
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Poet Diane Gilliam Fisher talks about her book, KETTLE BOTTOM. It’s about the Mine Wars of the 1920’s and the people who fought them. And we talk with Ted Nace about the movement to stop new coal plants from being built. His book is CLIMATE HOPE: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal.
The Massey Energy Company mine disaster in West Virginia is but the latest in a long and bitter history of the exploitation of the people and the land of Appalachia’s coal country. The other side of that story is how the miners fought back to win better wages and working conditions by organizing the UMWU.
[amazon-product align=”right”]0966045971[/amazon-product]
Looking at the Upper Big Branch mine, one fact stands out for those who know enough about how important that union history is. The mine was non-union. Far more coal mine fatalities happen in non-union mines than those where the workers are unionized.
Poet Diane Gilliam Fisher’s 2004 book KETTLE BOTTOM uses verse to tell the story of the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1920—21. That’s when the United Mine Workers union went up against the coal operators and their hired thugs. Many people died — mostly miners — and President Harding sent in troops to quell the rebellion. The southern coal fields didn’t win union recognition until 1933.
KETTLE BOTTOM won the 2004 Perigia Press Award, and was listed in the 2005 top ten list for poetry by the American Booksellers Association. In addition to KETTLE BOTTOM, Fisher is also the author of ONE OF EVERYTHING and RECIPE FOR BLACKBERRY CAKE. Writers Voice spoke to her in 2004.
Read Diane Gilliam Fisher’s poem Explosion at Winco No. 9.
Coal is most carbon intense fuel, according to climate scientist James Hansen. With climate chaos happening at a faster pace than even the most pessimistic scientists predicted, many are saying we should just leave the coal in the hole.
[amazon-product align=”left”]0615314384[/amazon-product]
Ted Nace is one of them. His new book, CLIMATE HOPE: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal, tells the remarkable story of the movement to stop the building of any new coal power plants in the US. In just 2 years, between 2007 and 2009, it managed to stop plans nearly a hundred coal plants from being built, out of 151 proposed. The loosely organized grass roots movement brought a burgeoning coal boom largely to a halt.
Ted Nace is the founder of CoalSwarm, a web based wiki that currently has over 2,000 articles and has become an online hub for the anti coal movement.
