7 Questions with Kevin Hicks of History Squad

Kevin Hicks is a veteran soldier and policeman.  Kevin set up the History Squad over 20 years ago to deliver live history workshops in schools and costumed guided castle tours and has now set up Squaducation in order to create 60 second histories.  This new online history resource delivers hundreds of bite size history films with ready made lesson plans and a clever sharing function so teachers can safely share films with students.  Spanning Ancient History right through to World War One, 60 second histories is a resource well worth exploring.  Squaducation.com The History Squad Website is www.historysquad.co.uk

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

I first became hooked on history as a young boy around ten years of age.  I had listened to the stories of both my grandfathers who had fought in the second world war and also to the experiences of my mother and father who lived through the Blitz in Birmingham, England.  So playing at ‘war' was what we kids did until I discovered Robin Hood!  My father took me to Sherwood Forest to see Robin Hood’s tree which is known as the Major Oak.  Well that was it, at the tender age of 6, I was to be Robin Hood and with a subsequent visit to Warwick Castle I was well and truly hooked on history and still only a boy of around ten years of age. Within two years I had my first real long bow and quickly realized that I could shoot, I think it must be in my blood.

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

It is fair to say that history is the single most important part of my life outside of my family; any trips we make always have a history angle bur fortunately my wife is very tolerant and my son follows in my footsteps.

3.      How is history part of your professional career?

If it wasn’t for history I wouldn’t have the career I have today.  I was injured as a soldier in the British Army by a bomb blast and injured again as a serving Police Officer which meant that I was medically discharged.  After a period of convalescence I was invited to give a talk and display about our English Civil War at a local school.  I had been involved with a re-enactment society and therefore had the musket and uniform of a 17th Century musketeer.  After this first successful display I was invited to another school after which a teacher made a simple throw away comment that it was a shame that it was the musket I fired and not the longbow.  I asked her why and she told me that they would love to find someone to shoot a longbow at a local castle for her school group.  Within three weeks I had taken her school group around Chepstow Castle and it was so successful I still take school groups to Chepstow to this day, over twenty years later.  During this period, History Squad was born as I created a series of history workshops and delivered them in the classroom.  As an historical interpreter and educator, I now deliver workshops that span from Ancient Egypt right up to my own experiences during the Cold War in Berlin. I have around 150 schools on my books, and as well as the live school visits I make, I have also set up a company called Squaducation and created an online history film resource for schools called 60 Second Histories, so my professional career for the past 23 years has been nothing but history.

4.      Why is studying/knowing history important?

I have a great belief that we as people should know who we are and where we are from, if you know and understand your own past and heritage then perhaps you find your place in the future

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

I have several favorite periods of history, Medieval, WWI, The rise of the Nazis and the Holocaust.  With regard to the Medieval period, I have shot the longbow for over fifty years and have been fortunate to have worked at some of the finest Castles in England and Wales as well as Sherwood Forest so Medieval history really is part of my life.  The study of WWI came about because of the loss my family suffered, my great grandfather was killed in 1918, he died as he charged over the top during the second Battle of the Somme.  In studying the action he was killed in I was drawn into the study of the whole period and occasionally travel over to France and Belgium with school groups to study the Battlefields.

6.      What is the History Squad and how did it come about?

History Squad came about due to demand from schools, if a teacher asked if I could cover a new period I carried out the research and created a character to fit the role.  At first I called my little business Through the Eyes of a Soldier as all of our characters were military but as I expanded the range of characters, many of which were civilian and we became more professional, History Squad was born.

7.      What are the keys to creating engaging historical presentations?

For me, I believe that the story is the hook.  Whether it is a class of children or hundreds of adults in an audience, it is always the story that engages people and then making it real is very important too.  I am very lucky having fought as a soldier as I can use my own experiences of combat to tell the story of others. Also researching every aspect of a subject, what the people ate and why, where did they go to the toilet, it’s these personal and sometimes intimate details that count and help to keep students hooked. 

7 Questions With Erin Hromada, Office of the House Historian

Erin Hromada has worked in the United States House of Representatives for eighteen years.  Currently, she is director of the Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives.  She has an undergraduate degree in history from what is now Meryhurst University in Erie, PA.  She also earned an MA in history and a MLS from the University of Maryland.  The Office website is http://history.house.gov/

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

I realized that history was my favorite subject in 3^rd grade.  At that point it was more Social Studies oriented, but I loved learning about different cultures and the world.  After reading Johnny Tremain in 7^th grade, I was hooked on the Revolutionary War and the Constitution.  I still have my high school copy of the Federalist Papers.

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

Outside of work, I am always talking about history.  Whether it is talking to my three young sons or my neighbors, history is never really in the past. 

3.  How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?

I have what I would call my dream job.  Every day I get to go to work to preserve the institutional history of U.S. House of Representatives.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

To be a good citizen, you need to know the history of your country.  This allows you to answer the questions about how we got there and we should be going.  Knowledge is power.

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

I still enjoy the Colonial Era of U.S. History.  The founding fathers stood up for what they believed in and then created a government. 

6. What is the origin and mission of the Office of the House Historian?

Our office existed off and on since the bicentennial.  The Historian’s Office works with the Office of Art and Archives.  Together, the offices preserve, collect, and interpret the heritage of the U.S. House, serving as the institution’s memory and a resource for Members, staff, and the general public.  Our website is: http://history.house.gov and our Twitter is @USHouseHistory .

7. What are some of your favorite stories or little known facts about the House of Representatives?

I love the quirky stories about the House.  The section on Historical Highlights on our website has been baby for a number of years.  Some of my favorite stories are about Former Speaker Joe Cannon.  I have also authored a blog post titled, “We Can't Make This Stuff Up” and “We Can't Make This Stuff Up Either".

I also love to talk about Jeannette Rankin of Montana. She is the first woman to serve in Congress.  This year is the Centennial of her service.  What makes Rankin even more interesting is the fact that she was elected before women had the right to vote nationally.  

7 Questions with Ben Smalley, The Specialist on YouTube

Ben Smalley grew up in Athens Georgia, received his Bachelors in Social Science Education from UGA and his Masters in Social Studies Education from Georgia State.  He currently teaches Honors and AP US History and coaches Varsity girls soccer at Pebblebrook High School in Cobb County. Check out his new Youtube Channel, “The Specialist."

1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I got hooked on history when my 10th grade AP US History teacher explained that history was a fluid interpretation of the past rather than a static memorization of facts.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
I love to see how history connects to current events and absolutely love to travel to historical places.  It is so amazing to see and experience something you have read/taught about for years.

3. How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
I currently teach Honors and AP US History, I just started a youtube channel that is heavy on history, and I am working on using 360 degree camera technology to take students on virtual field trips using virtual reality headsets and smartphones.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?
History can explain everything that is happening in the world we live in.  It is important that we understand history and try to build on our shared successes and failures in order to make the world a better place.  

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
I love 1920s America!  There are so many amazing things happening at once and I think it marks the beginning of the modern era.  I was also recently on a Mongolian Empire kick after listening to the podcast Hardcore History.

6. What is The Specialist?
The Specialist is a list show with intelligence.  The channel has short 1-3 minute videos with lists that are geared toward engaging my students, but also have a "did you know?" dinner party vibe as well. For example, in 9 Things You Didn't Know About The Civil Rights Movement you will find out that Rosa Parks was inspired by a 15 year old girl who refused to give up her seat on a bus before she did.



7. What will viewers gain from The Specialist and what’s your vision for its future?
The random viewer will gain a quick burst of knowledge that blends entertainment and education, while the student/teacher will gain a great supplementary tool that will hopefully fuel their hunger for learning.  My goal is to continue to add new videos, increase viewership, and get valuable feedback from my audience.

7 Questions with Matthew Christopher, Author and Preservationist

Matthew Christopher has had an interest in abandoned sites since he was a child, but started documenting them a decade ago while researching the decline of the state hospital system. His new book, "Abandoned America: The Age of Consequences" (JonGlez Publishing), is now available worldwide through major booksellers. His photography has been featured in numerous publications and broadcasts. He has lectured on the art of ruins, abandoned spaces, preservation, and mental health history for Preservation Austin, the Pennsylvania State Museum, Preservation Pennsylvania, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and many others, and his work has been displayed in galleries across the US. His website has gained international attention and is considered one of the leading collections of images of abandoned spaces.


How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I've always had an interest in history, but it was the history of the asylums and mental health care that really spurred my interest in photography. I worked in an inpatient psychiatric facility and started reading about how care had evolved over the years; it's one of the more fascinating aspects of American culture. There was an abandoned asylum in Philadelphia, Philadelphia State Hospital, that kept coming up and I decided to go visit it. After that, I was hooked, and my interest in photography came about as part of my desire to share what makes these places so unique and special.

Masonic Temple, Cleveland

What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
Obviously ruins are interesting on a superficial aesthetic level, but learning about how they fit into our culture and the lives of people who passed through them adds another layer of meaning and in my opinion makes them much more significant. I really enjoy learning about what makes each place interesting and finding the stories that make them come alive again.

Abandoned Asylum

 How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
My website, Abandoned America, has chronicled American ruins over the last ten years. My first book, "Abandoned America: The Age of Consequences" came out last year, and the follow up, "Abandoned America: Dismantling the Dream", will be released sometime this fall. Each book is not only a collection of photographs, but a journey through the histories of these sites and personal reflections on what they've become. 

Why is studying/knowing history important?
I suppose history is important for the same reason memory itself is: without it, you're sort of floating through the present without any context with which to interpret it. It also is the way we save those who came before us from passing into oblivion, much as we hope that those who come after us will remember us and that our lives will not be erased forever. History may not make us immortal, but it hopefully keeps us from being forgotten.

What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
It shifts. For quite a while I was interested in the history of asylums and state hospitals. I still am, but the fun thing about what I do is that it allows me to explore many different facets of our past. I think if I had to concentrate in one area, the prison system might be what I'd look at next. I think the darker areas of our identity, and how we have chosen to deal with difficult social issues, reveal the most about who we really are.

What is Abandoned America?
Abandoned America is my collection of photographs from over 10 years of exploring abandoned spaces across the American countryside: factories, schools, hospitals, churches, prisons, asylums and institutions - any site I can find and gain access to, really. It's an effort to not only remember the histories of these sites, but to preserve something of this present moment as well, when we are losing so many significant parts of our past to redevelopment, blight, and neglect.

Abandoned Children's Development Center

 What do the sites you photograph have to tell us about American history?
The sites I've visited each represent unique aspects of our past. I've photographed what was once the largest mall in America, the boneyard where all military aircraft are retired, the hospital where tuberculosis was effectively cured, a derelict ocean liner that is larger than the Titanic, enormous steel foundries and auto manufacturing plants, the laboratories where cellular, satellite, and laser technologies were developed, brownfield and Superfund sites where companies have devastated the surrounding environment, and massive coal breakers. The collection includes what was at the time the most expensive public school in the US, palatial theaters which I doubt we will ever build anything comparable to again, and power plants whose turbine halls are so large they're mind-boggling. There's a bit of everything, really, and that is what makes it so fun and interesting to explore.

7 Questions with Stephen Knott, Co-Author of Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America

Dr.  Stephen Knott is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval War  
College.  Prior to accepting his position at the Naval War College, Dr. Knott was Co-Chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. His books include The Reagan Years; Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth; Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency; At Reagan’s Side: Insiders’ Recollections from Sacramento to the White House; Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics, and Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America (2015). 

1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I got hooked at quite a young age. My father loved history, and I remember him reading to me out of children’s history books when I was a child. He would also take me to historic sites such as Gettysburg, Fort Ticonderoga, and to a number of sites throughout New England. I grew up in Massachusetts, so I happened to be born in a state with a rich history, especially from the revolutionary war-era. Lexington-Concord were not all that far removed, as was the Freedom Trail in Boston. So in a sense I was born into a ready-made historical environment.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
My father was older than most dad’s when I was born, and he had a great-uncle who had fought in the American Civil War (for the South, ironically). He also remembered having his hair cut by a Civil War veteran when he was a child. The personal connection my father had with the Civil War had quite an impact on me.

Our love of history was a deeply shared bond between the two of us. My Dad was a skilled painter, so I would occasionally find a photo or a painting in a book that I liked and I would asked him to do a copy for me. He would, and the walls of my bedroom were lined with these paintings of battles from the American Revolution or the Civil War. I still have many of them, and they are treasured heirlooms.

3. How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
When it came time to enter college it was an extremely close call whether I would major in history or political science. I ended up majoring in the latter, but only because some advisor told me that political science would be more “marketable.” So my doctorate is in political science, but American history has always been my first love.  My books tend to focus on the American presidency, but with an historical focus. In fact, the way I teach American government, and the entirety of my research efforts, are all conducted through the lens of history. I tell my fellow political scientists that I am a “closet historian.”

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?
It’s a cliché, but there really is nothing new under the sun. Our toys and our trappings may change, but human nature is fixed in my view. Therefore, I believe we can learn a lot from the actions and actors of the past. That said, I am sometimes shocked at the lack of historical knowledge on the part of political scientists; it strikes me as next to impossible to be a good teacher of American politics or international relations without having a deep understanding of history.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
American history, 1776-2015. OK, that was a weak attempt at humor. But I do love the entirety of American history, although I am probably the weakest on the Gilded Age and somewhat on the progressive era. My favorite period would be the founding era and the early American republic, the Civil War, and the 20^th century from World War II to the present. My love of history comes naturally to me; I honestly don’t understand people who seem to care less about it. That is very alien to me….  

6. What was the basis of the bond between Washington and Hamilton?
Theirs was an unlikely bond, for Washington and Hamilton could not have been more different. Washington was a gentleman-farmer from the patrician colony of Virginia and the owner of a great estate enriched by the labor of African slavery.  Hamilton, on the other hand, was as John Adams brusquely put it, the “bastard brat of a Scotch peddler” and an immigrant from the West Indies.  A self-made man, he made his way to America on his own and earned his positions in the army and in the government.  Despite their differences, Washington and Hamilton shared a lot of common ground. Unlike many of their great contemporaries, Washington and Hamilton saw war up close and personal; they were brothers in arms in a sense, and as any combat veteran will attest to, combat is a bonding experience like no other. As a result of their wartime experience, they concluded that the collection of states that fought the American Revolution needed to take the next step and begin, in Hamilton’s words, to “think continentally.” They wanted Americans to think of themselves as Americans, not as Virginians or New Yorkers. They were both guided by a sense of American nationalism and worked closely together to assist in winning the American Revolution, adopting the Constitution, and creating the institutions necessary to secure liberty at home and respect abroad.

7. How would the U.S. have been different if Hamilton didn’t exist?
Hamilton’s economic vision was contrary to that of Jefferson’s, and as such the United States might not have moved (or at least not moved as quickly) in the direction of becoming a manufacturing nation. I would also argue that Hamilton’s economic policies (a national bank, tariffs to protect American manufacturing, and the stabilization of the nation’s finances which enabled the nation to establish a good credit rating) all contributed to the overall rise of the United States as an economic superpower. It is also possible that the Union might have disintegrated more rapidly than it did had there been no Washington and Hamilton. Their vision of an America where its citizens thought “continentally” was accomplished in part by creating institutions which would bind the people to the national government, not their respective states. For example: the aforementioned national bank; or the assumption by the national government of the state debts from the Revolutionary War; or Washington’s proposal for a national university (which did not come to pass). All of these steps contributed to a sense of American “nationhood.”

Additionally, Hamilton laid the theoretical blueprint in The Federalist Papers for an “energetic executive” – a blueprint followed closely by the first president. From the beginning to the end of this most important first presidency, Washington followed Hamilton’s advice, much to Thomas Jefferson’s distress. Remove Hamilton from Washington’s cabinet, and you would have set a number of very different precedents. Interestingly, Washington understood how vital Hamilton was to his presidency, supporting Hamilton through the embarrassing revelation of his extra-marital affair, while at the same time cutting off all contact with Jefferson, who had deceived him on multiple occasions.

7 Questions With Claudio Saunt, Author of West of the Revolution

Claudio Saunt is the chair of the history department at the University of Georgia, the Co-Director of the Center for Virtual History (http://www.ehistory.org/ ), and Associate Director of the Institute of NativeAmerican Studies  . He teaches and writes about early American and Native American history at the University of Georgia and am currently at work on a book about Indian Removal. His most recent publication is West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776.

1.      How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I was not hooked until college, when I took a class with James Shenton at Columbia University.  He was a legendary teacher, who could keep a room full of kids on the edge of their seats with his gripping lectures.  Yet I never focused narrowly on history and still don’t.  I like to read science journalism and am interested in cartography and population genetics, among other subjects.

2.      What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
Perhaps it is more interesting to ask what role my personal life has played in the history I have written.  In some ways, all history is autobiographical.  In my case, I grew up in San Francisco and developed an interest in the people and places who rarely appear in traditional accounts of early America, which focus so narrowly on the thirteen British colonies, and often even more tightly on a handful of founding fathers.

3.      How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
I am the chair of the history department at the University of Georgia as well as a teacher and author, and I keep busy both as an administrator and as a scholar. 

4.      Why is studying/knowing history important?
History students learn to analyze, to sustain an argument, and to write, all qualities that employers value and that are useful in a wide range of pursuits.  They also learn that the world is more diverse and complex than appears from our own small corner of globe.   I’m also a firm believer that good history makes for good citizens and that it is difficult to carry on an informed public conversation without some knowledge of historical context.  Without an understanding of slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, for example, it is impossible to have an intelligent discussion about race in the United States.

5.      What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
I am interested in early America, a place and time full of diverse people and places, with stories that continue to amaze me, even after twenty-five years of studying the era. 

6.       Tell us about your book West of the Revolution?
In 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, the Continental Congress declared independence, and Washington crossed the Delaware.  We are familiar with those famous moments in American history but know little about the extraordinary events occurring that same year far beyond the British colonies.  West of the Revolution explores the rest of the continent not covered by the thirteen colonies then in rebellion against Great Britain.  In 1776, the Spanish established the first European colony in San Francisco and set off a cataclysm for the region’s native residents. The Russians pushed into Alaska in search of valuable sea otters, devastating local Aleut communities. And the British extended their fur trade from Hudson Bay deep into the continent, sparking an environmental revolution that transformed America’s boreal forests.  I tell these stories and more in West of the Revolution.

7.      What surprising things will readers learn from your book?
There are so many because we teach so little about early America in our US history classes. For starters, it will probably come as a surprise that the thirteen colonies that declared their independence from Britain in 1776 covered not even 4% of the North America.  All kinds of formative events were occurring elsewhere.  The Sioux Indians, for example, exploring the Great Plains, “discovered” the Black Hills in 1776.  The mountain uplift has since become their sacred homeland.  The Osage Indians were building their own empire in the heart of the continent in the 1770s.  “The truth is,” Jefferson would admit in 1804, the Osages “are the great nation South of the Missouri.”  The Kumeyaay Indians, in the vicinity of present-day San Diego, launched their own war for independence a few months after the “shot heard round the world” in distant Massachusetts marked the beginning of the American Revolution.  More generally, the book opens up vistas that we rarely get to see survey in traditional narratives of the period.

7 Questions With Amy French, The Roaming Historian

Amy French holds a Ph.D. in history. She is a tenured history professor and owner of Roaming Historian (a company offering travel and historian services). When she's not in the classroom, she and her husband enjoy traveling the world's most treasured sites, cities, and cultures. As the Roaming Historian she encourages others to explore the past with her one place at a time.http://roaminghistorian.com/

1.   How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
When I was almost four years of age, my parents took me to see the Egyptian exhibit at the Chicago Field Museum. I was mesmerized by the artifacts, but the piece that fascinated me the most was a mummified cat. I immediately pelted my parents with questions about it. Why was it mummified? Was it their pet? Did they worship it? My parents encouraged my curiosity by purchasing a subscription to an archaeological journal (they didn't have a lot of stuff for kids back then), which I devoured monthly. They continued to take me to museums and center our family vacations around historical sites, so I have my parents to thank for cultivating my life-long love of history.

2.  What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
The past seems to command my present. I'm always looking to explore historical sites or sift through archives. I like to think that I live in the moment, but whose moment I live in is a different story.

3.   How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
I'm a history professor so history plays a huge part of my career. My husband and I also own a company, Roaming Historian, which allows me to share my passion for history with a broader audience than my college's student body. As the Roaming Historian, I encourage others to integrate history into their travels. I help travel destinations promote their history to travelers and offer other travel services, as well as history services (research, consulting, speaking engagements, etc.). I am incredibly fortunate that I have two positions, which I love, that let me share my passion for history with others!

4.   Why is studying/knowing history important?
Besides the fact that it is just the coolest subject on Earth? Studying history opens up a world of possibilities and inspires us to be great (or not to make the same mistakes as others). Through learning the past we build an appreciation of other cultures and become engaged, global citizens. I love having a complex, diverse past to explore, and studying history continually sharpens my abilities to think critically and analytically.

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

It is difficult to choose just one era, but an aspect that I greatly enjoy is labor history, especially that of women. Coming from a working-class background, I was the first in my immediate family to go to college. My grandmother had a scholarship, but her father wouldn't let her accept it because she was a woman. I identify with the history of laborers and want to tell the story of people who are like me.

6.   How and why did you get to be the Roaming Historian?

Initially, I started writing about my travels for my friends, family, and students. As an avid watcher of travel shows and reader of travel articles, I noticed that a lot of them included history or were about historical sites. Since these were popular shows and magazines, I saw an opportunity to share my passion and expertise with a broader audience—so I became the Roaming Historian. As the Roaming Historian, I offer travelers ideas and opinions from a professional historian; I'm also able to offer my professional services in a variety of other ways.

7.   What are some of your greatest memories of trips you’ve taken as the Roaming Historian? 

Rome is the city where I connect to its past most deeply, but Athens is a close second. As I wandered down Rome's cobblestone streets, my spirit felt at peace. It felt like I was home. I love Rome's culture: its food, historical sites, joie de vivre, and respect for heritage. Athens is another great city where I have wonderful memories. Climbing the Acropolis and gazing upon the Parthenon gave me chills. I couldn't believe that I was visiting the birthplace of democracy, and that I was standing where noted scholars may have once stood. Both are fantastic cities! Ephesus, Turkey is another great memory. To wander through a huge archaeological site fulfilled my childhood dreams and made me realize that my life had come full circle. I still have the same insatiable curiosity for the past that I did when I was a child. Thankfully, my professional and personal lives allow me to live my dreams daily.

7 Questions With Matthew Harffy, Author of The Serpent Sword

Matthew Harffy lived in Northumberland as a child and the area had a great impact on him. Decades later, a documentary about Northumbria's Golden Age sowed the kernel of an idea for a series of historical fiction novels. The first of them is the action-packed tale of vengeance and coming of age, THE SERPENT SWORD. The sequel is THE CROSS AND THE CURSE.

Matthew has worked in the IT industry, where he spent all day writing and editing, just not the words that most interested him. Prior to that he worked in Spain as an English teacher and translator. He has co-authored seven published academic articles, ranging in topic from the ecological impact of mining to the construction of a marble pipe organ.

Matthew lives in Wiltshire, England, with his wife and their two daughters.

When not writing, or spending time with his family, Matthew sings in a band called Rock Dog.

1.       How and/or when did you get hooked on history?
I think living in Europe and having parents who would take me to amazing historical sites sparked an interest in history from a early age. I grew up in England and lived in some fabulous places that were steeped in history. We lived for a few years in the village of Norham in Northumberland, where I would play in the ruined Norman castle on the hill overlooking the Tweed valley. Later we moved to Spain, and went to places such as Toledo, with its cathedral and castle, and the monastery palace of El Escorial. Being surrounded by such rich history, how could I not be hooked? 

2.      What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
My wife loves history too, so when we travel anywhere, we are both interested in visiting local monuments and museums. That, and our mutual love of books, are constants in our relationship and we have tried to instill the same passions in our daughters. 

3.      How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
History is of course a major part of my writing career. I've only published one novel and it is historical fiction, so I spend a large proportion of my time researching history and reading other historical fiction novels.

4.      Why is studying/knowing history important?
Knowing history is important because by understanding the past, we can try to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. It is the typical answer, but I think it is really true. It is a pity that more people don't seem to care about the lessons of the past.

5.      What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
For the last few years I have been immersed in early seventh century Britain researching for my novels. It is a fascinating time, with Christianity emerging as the primary religion of the British Isles. It is a time of clashes between the Germanic peoples known as the Anglo-Saxons and the native Britons. It is a time where the island of Britain is splintered into several small kingdoms, each vying for supremacy. England as a concept did not exist and the land would not be unified for many centuries. It is a dark age of battles, heroism, intrigue and religious conflict. It is a wonderful time to write about, with so many stories, and so little in the way of hard facts. Perfect for a novelist.

6.       What drew you to the world of the Bernicia Chronicles?
As I have said in the previous answer, the period is full of interesting characters and powerful stories. The land of Bernicia itself is what nowadays is called Northumberland, along with part of modern-day Scotland. I lived there for a few years as a child and I fell in love with the rugged landscape, rocky coastline and ruined castles. It is so barren in places, it is easy to imagine Anglo-Saxon warriors trudging through the windswept hills of the Cheviots towards the fortress of Bebbanburg (Bamburgh), atop its crag of rock, standing sentinel over the iron-gray waters of the North Sea.

7.       What will history lovers get out of your books?
They will get a feeling of total authenticity as they sit beside the protagonist, Beobrand, on mead benches in smoky halls while scops sing epic tales of dragons and night-dwellers. They will feel the rush of terror and excitement as shieldwalls clash. They will be taken on a journey into the dark past of the British Isles as Beobrand searches for his brother's killer, seeking to bring justice to an untamed land. And readers will learn of the history of those faraway northern kingdoms as the Angelfolc (the Angles) fought to gain control of the land from the Waelisc (the Welsh) who inhabited the island before their arrival. 

Links:
Website: http://www.matthewharffy.com
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Buy THE SERPENT SWORD: http://getbook.at/TheSerpentSword




Bamburgh Castle at dawn

7 Questions With Pamela Newkirk, Author of Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga

Pamela Newkirk is an award-winning journalist, a professor of journalism, and a director of undergraduate studies at New York University. She is the author of Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media, which won the National Press Club Award for Media Criticism, and the editor of Letters from Black America. She lives in New York City.


1.      How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
My dad was an antiques dealer and collected black memorabilia -- vintage posters, photographs, rare books, postcards and letters -- that had been tucked in bureaus and trunks acquired in estate sales. The ephemera of early black life was all around me and I became fascinated by the lost history -- by the many influential people and movements that were not included in history books. When I discovered the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which was founded by someone like my father who valued the ephemera of black life, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. 

2.      What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
It has played a very meaningful role in my life and has taught me the value of cherishing family history which feeds into our collective history. Unfortunately much of the history of African Americans and other marginalized people is left out of the historical narrative. For so long their artifacts were  not valued by major institutions and, as a result, they became devalued by African Americans themselves.  

3.      How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
While SPECTACLE is solely a historical work, all of my previous books have a historical dimension. My first book, Within the Veil: Black Journals, White Media explores the efforts by African American journalists to work in mainstream newsrooms, beginning during the Civil War. .However most of the book addresses contemporary issues. That was followed by two epistolary collections. The last, Letters from Black America, includes 250 letters penned by African Americans from the 1700s to 2008. The correspondents include slaves, surgeons, soldiers, parents, politicians and is a multidimensional portrait of black life in letters. 

4.      Why is studying/knowing history important?
Because it enables us to recognize progress or regression. Hopefully we won't continue to make the same mistakes.  It is the foundation that generation after generation builds on. 

5.      What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
The early twentieth century was fascinating. Cities like New York were becoming beacons of art, culture, architecture and attracting tens of thousands of immigrants from around the world,  bringing with them their languages, customs, and culture, Also new disciplines, like anthropology, were being created. A truly fascinating period and historians have only scratched the surface. There's so much more to unearth.

6.       Tell us about your book Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga?
SPECTACLE is the story of a young Congolese man who in 1906 made national and global headlines after he was exhibited in the Bronx Zoo Monkey House, at times with an orangutan. He had been captured in the Congo and was held in the zoo against his will. This episode illuminates racial attitudes at the dawn of the twentieth century in one of the world's most progressive cities. It also shows how deeply pernicious attitudes about Africans were embedded in science, in media and in popular culture. Also, a century later, the entire episode had been sanitized and the man who most exploited Ota Benga was depicted in accounts as his friend and savior.

7.       It is a story that few people are aware of.  Why is it important today? 
This episode reveals the progress we've made in a century, but also exposes the roots of outlandish beliefs that had been grounded in science, and  that linger still.  Ota Benga's exhibition was not the creation of one bad egg. There was a wide web of complicity among some of the city's most eminent men and institutions, including The New York Times, the mayor, leading scientists, along with tens of thousands of New Yorkers. Nearly a quarter-million people flocked to the zoo to see a diminutive caged African in the monkey house.

Also, it was important to correct the historical record.