7 Questions with Scott Martelle, Author of 1932: FDR, Hoover, and the Dawn of a New America

 

Scott Martelle, a veteran journalist and former member of the Los Angeles Times editorial

board, is the author most recently of 1932: FDR, Hoover, and the Dawn of a New America,

which received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews. It is his seventh book of nonfiction. Born in

Scarborough, Maine, he grew up in Wellsville, New York, and wound up in Southern California

after working on newspapers in Jamestown and Rochester, New York, and Detroit, where he

participated in the 1995 newspaper strike. He currently lives in Rochester, N.Y., and can be

contacted through his website,  www.scottmartelle.com .   1932 will be published  November 28, 2023.

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

I’m not hooked on history so much as I’m hooked on stories, which, of course, is how we

relate history. Also, as a journalist, understanding the past is crucial to understanding

the present, so there was an occupational draw, as well.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

It’s given me a window for understanding how the world works, and how societies have

evolved. On a more personal level, I enjoy dipping my toes into genealogy and seeing

how the history of my family fits in with the history of the nation. Two, actually: A lot of

my European ancestors moved to Canada before spreading out to New England (I was

born in Maine). And it occasionally has given me the chance to prove or debunk some

family legends, which is fun fodder for family gatherings.

3. How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

As a career journalist, it was ever present in the work, especially covering

presidential campaigns. But it also gave me subjects to explore in books, which I’ve

found to be immensely satisfying.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

The usual response here would be to cite the old line about not knowing history

condemns people to repeat it. But even when we understand it, we still seem to repeat

it, so knowing history helps us understand how modern developments came to be. Such

as why some global clashes are so persistent and difficult to resolve without resorting to

war. Or why certain cities flourished while others did not. For example, understanding

the economic impact of the opening of the Erie Canal helps frame how the upper

Midwest developed as it did.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

Probably early 20th century, from the aftermath of the Spanish-American War through

the rise of radicalism as a counter to the robber barons, into the Great Depression.

There was a lot of great drama then, and a searching around for better ways of doing

things as technological advances changed the world.

6. What drew you to 1932 and Hoover vs FDR?

I was looking around for a different way of diving into that era, and with my interest in

presidential political campaigns, the 1932 one seemed particularly intriguing, But I

didn’t want to just write about the campaign, which has been done so many times.

Rather, I wanted to explore what was happening in the country at the tine – the context

for that critical election and why Americans were so ready to opt for a radical change in

the federal government.

7. Are there lessons or warnings from 1932 that politicians and citizens should heed nearly a

century later?

Maybe the perils of electing a president ill-equipped for the job – Hoover never did get

the politics right. He also didn’t have the ability to handle the economic crisis that befell him,

much as Donald Trump was ill-equipped to handle a crisis like the Covid pandemic. There is also

a lesson on the perils of strict adherence to political and economic ideology. As we’ve seen

many times before and since, when people feel as though the political system is ignoring them

and their needs, they take to the streets. And elected leaders can quickly fund the political

terrain disintegrating beneath them.

7 Questions with Tony Bernard, Author of The Ghost Tattoo

 

Tony Bernard grew up sailing, surfing and swimming on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, being raised with his younger sister and brother by his hardworking father Henry, a local family doctor. He initially studied dentistry at Sydney University before following his dad into medicine, undertaking his medical training at Nottingham and Cambridge Universities in Britain.

After returning to practice in Newcastle, regional NSW and Sydney, he spent his career working in the emergency department of Mona Vale Hospital, the same hospital in which his dad had previously worked for many years. More recently, he also works in the emergency department of the new Northern Beaches Hospital.

His father Henry was his hero, and it was natural that he followed him into the medical profession. Yet it was one thing to idolize Henry and another to understand who he was and what he had gone through. Over decades and during multiple trips to Europe, Tony found himself on a path of discovery, eventually writing his father's memoirs shortly before his death in 2016. What began as a journey to understand his father became the uncovering of an extraordinary holocaust survival story.

Tony lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney with his wife Jennifer and daughter Sarah.

His book, The Ghost Tattoo, was published in September or 2023. His website is https://www.tonybernard.com.au/

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history? I have had lifelong interest in history from childhood due to my father’s interest in both history  and current affairs .This stems from his life experience as a Holocaust survivor. We grew up discussing  past events particularly from the Second World War. 2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life? I studied history at high school but it is now one of my main hobbies combined with  geopolitics and  current affairs as well. At school I never fully appreciated the importance of documentary evidence.  History to me had been the telling of stories about past events. One of the things I am proud about in my  book 'The Ghost Tattoo’, is that fact that my father’s Holocaust survival story is backed by evidence.  When I showed a draft of my book to the historian at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM), he told me  that the things described my book needed to be supported with evidence and that he would help me.  In particular he helped me get access to the files of the war crimes trial at which my father was a witness. After reading the finished book, he now says that he is unaware of any other Holocaust survivor with  as much evidence backing up their story as in my father’s case. 3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career? I am a medical doctor and am very aware of the history of medicine and how rapidly medical practice  changes. And medicine like history is evidence based. We have all just experienced the biggest medical  crisis of our lives in the Covid 19 pandemic, which will be a major defining historical event of the early  21st century. 4. Why is studying/knowing history important? History explains so much of the world in which we live. And because history is the product of human  existence, it is affected by human behaviour. Thus, we see history repeated because human behaviour is  repeated. And with increasing understanding of the forces driving geopolitics, history becomes less of a  random series of events and more of a ‘predictable’ science. 5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why? Because of my father’s Holocaust experience including the loss of his parents and wife, as well as his  multiple near-death experiences, I am interested in twentieth century history, particularly the Second  World War period. The Holocaust was the defining point of difference about the Second World War,  even though there have been some attempts at genocide in previous wars ( e.g. the Armenian genocide  by the Turks in WW1). But I believe the twentieth century could really be called the Eighty Years War,  starting in the Balkan Wars around 1912, leading to WWI, which led to the birth of communism and  fascism, which led to WW2, then the Cold War, which lasted until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. One of the best things to come out of the 20th Century is the accountability of governments in  democracies to their people.  WW1 was started by unaccountable monarchies whereas by the end of  the 20th Century democratic governments around the world are held much more accountable for the  lives of their soldiers and citizens.                                                                        Tony Bernard podcast appearance 6.         What prompted you to uncover your family history as documented in The Ghost Tattoo?    Initially my father had me record his oral history of his early life and Holocaust experience for the  record for family and friends. However, the more I researched over the years, the more I learned and  uncovered, culminating in the documentary evidence I found including access to the war crimes trial  records I mentioned earlier. It was not until I wrote the final chapter of the book that I came to  understand my father’s regret and turmoil about the role he played in the Holocaust.   I just ask the reader; What would you have done in his position? 7.          What did you learn about yourself and your family from this experience?  I have come to realise that, in effect, my father is having me explain to the world his position and role  during the Holocaust. He is getting me, on his behalf, to put on the record for history, what he had seen happen in the Tomaszow Jewish Ghetto during this terrible time.

This is a photo of Hermann Wiese, the Gestapo Chief in Tomaszow in November 1942 at the time of the deportation of the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto to the Treblinka death camp.

He personally selected Bernard's grandmother Theodora for the train to the death camp.

It comes from the Hessisches Archive in Darmstadt.

This is Bernard's father's registration form at the Dachau concentration camp from 27 October 1944.