7 Questions with Author Victoria Arendt

 

Victoria Arendt was born in Toledo, Ohio. Inspired by travel and movement, she has lived in several different locations, including the vibrant city of San Francisco and the rugged mountains of Montenegro. Currently, she lives in Florida with her husband and scruffy dog named Simon. 

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

 

Like most people, the carefree days of childhood are brought to a halt with the passage of time and the death of loved ones. As a wistful, dreamy and introspective person, I wished to revisit the past, if only for a moment. That longing fueled an interest in who my people were and a question of "What was it like to live in their era?". I would dreamily drive past their homes, now filled with strangers, hoping for an imaginary trip back in time and a chance to obtain answers. Sentimental thoughts pushed me to discover more about my relative’s past and uncover fantastic historical events.       

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

 

Several years ago, family folklore began to appear in my oil paintings and a longing for unsettled answers began to boil. Then, I inherited my grandmother’s important documents. Among miscellaneous papers and memorial cards, I found letters about her son, responses to some sort of inquiry. A mystery developed and my personal determination to search for the truth pushed into a professional one. One where I began the research needed to write a historical fiction novel about events in her life.

 

 3.    How has history played a part of your professional life/career?

 

Historical fiction has always fascinated me as a clever and engaging way to learn about past events. The first historical fiction novel I wrote needed massive research to properly present the story and, during this time, I realized my love for uncovering details about the past and how to develop an outline for a book. My next book is also a historical fiction work.

 

 4.    Why is studying/knowing history important?

 

In searching history, I found myself. 

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

 

Currently, I’m under the spell of the 1930’s – 1940’s about an area of the United States known as the Rust Belt. But, before it got that nickname, it was a thriving manufacturing area. Factories were bustling and production was high, however, as decades passed, the industrial prosperity changed. I’m in that wonderment right now.

 

6.    What inspired you to write Broken Pencils?

 

Month after month, year after year, decade after decade, I had the same dream. Always the same dream. It was dusk. I was alone in my grandmother’s house, standing in her living room. An overwhelming need to close the heavy golden curtains shielding two large picture windows overcame me. Then I would wake.

 

As a child, I remember hearing snippets of information that my grandmother had another son who died. Questions were never asked and words rarely spoken about this unknown Uncle. One day, I was standing in my grandmother’s living room, alone. She entered the room heading to the back of the house. Just inches away, I asked her a question. She stopped, leaned over and quietly said, “Wait right here.” I stood in the room alone again, looking out the two huge windows to the world beyond. Uneasiness and anticipation floated through my body, my heart thumped. What was I hoping to know? In a moment, she returned holding a small black and white photograph of a baby. She handed me the image. My fingertips grasped the slim white edge of the weathered photograph, careful not to touch the printed middle. The picture felt cool and glossy between my fingers. A suspended silence threaded the air as I studied the photo of this unusual baby.

 

Broken Pencils tells the story of a young housewife struggling to keep her severely handicapped son out of the clutches of the abusive 1940’s Insane Asylum. It is a novel based on true life events.

7. What can you tell us about your next book?

 

Two books are coming soon. A historical fiction novel and an art book. Below is the synopsis for the next novel. And, below that is a snippet about the art book.

 

Champlain Street

The Battle of Toledo

 

In Toledo, 1934, during the heart of the depression and nearly 80 percent unemployment, the despair of factory workers gave the Toledo Electric Auto-Lite Co. a rich advantage over workers. Grisly working conditions, unfair production quotas and paltry wages were standard employment practices. With exposed hydraulic press machines stamping out shapes in metal, the punch press operators of Dept 2 were easily identifiable by their missing fingers. 

 

Knowing that hundreds were waiting to take their jobs, the men of Dept 2 made a difficult decision to strike for workplace safety, higher wages and, more importantly, recognition.  

 

The Electric Auto-Lite Co., in return, touted a million-dollar reserve to break the strikers and any formation of a union and, therefore, hired replacements. They used tear gas and vomiting gas against a growing picket line pushing a resilient group. However, unbeknownst to the company and the strikers, the picket lines would quickly swell with support of thousands from the most unlikely people, the unemployed.  

 

What resulted was an all-out fight for “The Battle of Toledo” that would, ultimately, bring in the National Guard and leave a deadly path of destruction.  

 

Champlain Street tells the story of this pivotal US worker’s strike. This novel is based on true life events. 

 

Coming January, 2022.

 

 

 

I also have an art book in the works. 

 

By way of painting, I attempted to dissolve the thoughts needed to write the heartbreaking true life story, Broken Pencils. The book will showcase eleven full-color images and each painting shares a title from a chapter in that historical fiction novel. The art book will share this artistic journey and is scheduled for publication at the end of 2021.

(Paintings by Victoria Arendt, from  https://www.victoriaarendt.com/ )

7 Questions With Rebecca Youngblood Vaughn, Publisher of 20 Years in the Secret Service: My Life With Five Presidents

Rufus Wayne Youngblood is best known as the U.S. Secret Service agent who shielded Vice President Johnson during the tragic Kennedy assassination. Born in Macon, Georgia, in 1924, he was raised in Atlanta and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack. During World War II, he flew in some of the Eighth Air Force’s earliest combat missions. After graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology with an industrial engineering degree, he joined the Secret Service in 1951 and protected Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon during his 20-year tenure. He retired in 1971 as the agency’s deputy director. He penned his memoir, 20 Years in the Secret Service: My Life with Five Presidents, before returning to Georgia, where he resided with Peggy, his wife of 53 years, and his family until his death in 1996. www.rufusyoungblood.com

Rebecca Youngblood Vaughn, MD, is the youngest daughter of Rufus and Peggy Youngblood. She is a physician and published author. While researching her parents' lives to write their story, Vaughn re-discovered the veritable treasure-trove of mementos from her father's 20-year tenure as a high-profile Secret Service Agent, which inspired her to publish a new edition of his memoir, 20 Years in the Secret Service: My Life With Five Presidents. The mother of two young adults, she lives in Acworth, Georgia, with her husband of 31 years. Vaughn is a speaker who brings her father’s legacy to life by sharing his frontline point-of-view of some of the most pivotal moments in U.S. history. Vaughn will be presenting at the Decatur Book Festival 2018, Labor Day weekend.


1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history? 
Medicine was my first love and main focus for many years. When I decided to leave private practice (after 25 years of practicing Dermatology) to pursue a teaching position, I elected to take some time off to study and write about my parents’ lives. I have always thought their stories of growing up in Georgia, serving our country during WWII, and their experiences, while Dad worked for the US Secret Service, were fascinating. As I researched their stories, I dove into studying history and find it so interesting.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life? 
I was so close to famous historical people and events during my childhood while growing up in our nation’s capital with my father being Deputy Director of the Secret Service that I took it for granted. We went to the White House frequently and to the Inaugurations and other ceremonies. I was very young, and I often complained about it. It was "too cold," or my shoes were uncomfortable. “Do we have to go to the Smithsonians again?” And the people who talked to me! I think back and am amazed that I had conversations with some of them. I wish I would’ve appreciated it more at the time.

3. How is history part of your professional career? 
Currently, studying my parents’ life story and the related history is my career. I have republished my father’s memoir, “20 Years in the Secret Service: My Life with Five Presidents,” adding a gallery of archival photos, and now I am scheduling presentations to give to schools and various libraries to present his story...which is history! (pun intended). I am also still writing my book about my parents' lives before the Secret Service years.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important? 
I now appreciate how understanding history increases one’s comprehension about everything. Life makes more sense when you understand the history and evolution behind it.
And with hindsight, we should learn from our mistakes.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
I enjoy studying the history of Georgia since both of my parents' families have lived here for hundreds of years. My parents were raised in West End, Atlanta, and I am fascinated by their lifestyles then. I enjoy studying the 1940s and WWII. That generation was not perfect with the enforcement of the Jim Crow laws in the South, but the way the American people came together and worked during the war, and the sacrifices they made for the love of country is refreshing.

6. What misconceptions do people have about the Secret Service and its agents?
The Secret Service is a non-political organization. The agents do not choose sides. They are assigned a “principal,” and they protect that person dutifully in the name of the Office of the U.S. Presidency. My father wrote in his book:

"In the flood of printed and spoken comment that filled the days, months, and years that followed (the assassination), there were statements to the effect that Secret Service men were “switching allegiance” almost before President Kennedy was rushed into the emergency room at Parkland. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The agents in Dallas did not have allegiance, in this sense, to an individual. Their allegiance was to the mission itself. John Kennedy was dead. He was beyond the protective efforts of the Secret Service.

As of the time we boarded the plane, we had not heard the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. The possibility that the death of John Kennedy was part of a far-ranging conspiracy that had not yet run its course was very real indeed and was in the thoughts of everyone—especially in the thoughts of the Secret Service. We did not know what we might yet encounter, but we knew that Lyndon Johnson was the president, and our mission of presidential protection was no less clearly defined simply because he had not yet taken the oath of office."

7. What's something you learned about your father and his work or life when you worked on the book?
I never truly appreciated how much responsibility my father had and how hard he worked until I started searching the photographic archives for images to add to the book. When I studied the itineraries and diaries, I had a better appreciation of the demands of his job. He traveled all over the world, often with very little notice, at days on end. I was particularly amazed at the paucity of agents assigned to protect Vice President Johnson during the early 1960s. He traveled to Vietnam and many other countries with just a few agents.  Amazingly, my father was one of two agents who accompanied VP Johnson to West Berlin in August 1961 as the Berlin Wall was being erected. The U.S. Army rolled into West Berlin as the vice president arrived and tensions mounted. The threat of war was very real between the U.S. and Russia at this time. My father and Secret Service Agent Stu Knight toured Communist-occupied East Berlin with a group of U.S. Army officers in Vice President Johnson’s stead. How about that for a day's work!

7 Questions with Jessica Spotswood, Author

Jessica Spotswood is the author of the historical fantasy trilogy The Cahill Witch Chronicles and the contemporary YA novel Wild Swans. She is also the editor of the historical anthology A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers, and Other Badass Girls and the forthcoming The Radical Element (Candlewick, 2018). She lives in Washington, DC with her playwright husband and a very old cat named Monkey. Jessica also works for the DC Public Library as a children's library associate.

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

I think I got hooked on history when I was in fifth grade and read Gone with the Wind. While I realize now that it's very problematic, at the time I was totally enchanted by Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. My grandmother was also very into genealogy at that time and compiled a family history that fascinated me. The summer I was twelve, my grandfather swam in the Senior Olympics in Baton Rouge and my grandmother took me along to tour historical houses and plantations along the River Road and in New Orleans. When I got home, I started writing the first of three sprawling GWTW knockoffs that I worked on throughout high school. They were all about headstrong girls who fought with their sisters and kissed boys and rode horses during the Civil War. (I fought with my sisters and rode horses and wanted to kiss boys?)

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

I grew up in a small town just outside Gettysburg, PA, site of perhaps the most definitive battle of the Civil War. As a child, my family took hikes and had picnics on the battlefield. As a teen, my friends and I hung out at Devil's Den and tried to take pictures of ghosts in Triangle Field. History felt tactile and ever-present to me. My father is an enormous history buff with a study full of books about generals and presidents and statesmen. I was fascinated with history, but I didn't see myself reflected in any of the history books or westerns on his shelves. Maybe that's why I fell in love so hard with Gone with the Wind; it was historical, but the heroine was a girl! 

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

My first published books, the Cahill Witch Chronicles, took place in an alternate version of 1890s New England where magic had been outlawed by the patriarchal priests of the Brotherhood. While it was alternate history, I did a lot of research into the fashion, home decor, technology, and etiquette of the 1890s and then shifted things a bit. And then in 2014 I had the idea to put together an anthology of historical fiction and fantasy about American girls throughout history, which became A Tyranny of Petticoats. 

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

I think it's important to know where we've come from in order to celebrate the accomplishments and triumphs -- and to realize the mistakes and injustices of the past so that we can hopefully prevent them from recurring. Plus, there are lots of awfully good stories.

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

I'm pretty fascinated by the latter part of the Victorian era. I think there's something about the contrast of the old-fashioned romance of the Victorian upper class - carriages and gas lights and corsets - with the beginning of modern social movements, particularly the suffragettes!

6. You recently edited A Tyranny of Petticoats. Please tell us about it.

The contributions of women - especially women of color and queer women - have too often been erased from history. Tyranny is fifteen short stories about girls throughout American history, from an escaped slave girl posing as a sailor boy on board a pirate ship off the coast of the British North America in 1710 to a black girl who's protesting Vietnam with her girlfriend and gets caught up in the riots of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 

The official blurb is: Crisscross America - on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains - from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today's most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their own course. They are monsters and mediums, bodyguards and barkeeps, screenwriters and schoolteachers, heiresses and hobos. They're making their own way in often-hostile lands, using every weapon in their arsenals, facing down murderers and marriage proposals. And they all have a story to tell. 

7. What are the hallmarks of successful young adult historical fiction?

I think successful YA historical fiction gives a sort of wonderful texture to history by strongly anchoring it in the specific details (fashion, food, music, home decor, etiquette, politics) of an era while also showing how its themes are relevant today. A great example for me is Kekla Magoon's beautiful story "The Pulse of the Panthers," set in 1968 California, in which the Black Panthers' visit to a young black girl's farm prompts her to learn the truth about her grandfather's death. It combines the personal with the political and feels very firmly set in the 1960s but also (unfortunately) still very resonant.

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 Ron Smith and Mary O. Boyle, Authors of Prohibition in Atlanta: Temperance, Tiger Kings & White Lightning

Although Ron Smith and Mary O. Boyle have both long held a dream of writing and publishing a book, the dream came to fruition because a commissioning editor for The History Press made contact. They’d been maintaining a blog about beer in the Atlanta area. The editor found some history articles on the blog and asked if Ron would consider writing a book on Atlanta beer to be part of their American Palate series. Ron recruited Mary to be co-author and they brewed up a book.

Ron’s background is in biology and environmental sciences, though he’s long nurtured a deep interest in history. Mary started in accounting and then segued to information technology. Both are detailed researchers and believe that snapshots of the moment do not cover the complexities of where people and places developed from. This is especially true in the South, where much of the history was literally burned away.

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

RS: As a kid I always liked Revolutionary War history. However, working on my family genealogy in my 30s got me moderately hooked. Researching for the books set that hook.

MB: I’ll give Ron primary credit for stoking my interest in history. I tend to be a here-and-now or looking-to-the-future person, and Ron’s thoughtfulness about the past has strengthened my appreciation for it.

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

RS: My family has interesting historic moments. One in particular is that my Great Grandfather served in the US Army during the Civil War. That’s pretty dramatic when his home county was overwhelmingly Confederate. Also, my father worked on the Apollo missions that put humans on the moon. So, it’s a bit of a “Forrest Gump” story (not the major players, but right next to their shoulders).

MB: My fraternal grandma--whom I spent a lot of time with as a child--would talk about traveling for days in a covered wagon as a little girl. She also recounted that my grandfather hung her by her dress on the coat hook of their door once when she was being ornery as a 16 year-old bride. It made me realize that to truly understand someone’s multi-dimensional view of the present, you must tap into their stories of the past. The same is true for places and organizations.

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

RS: Over the last 18+ years, I have worked next to cultural resources professionals (archeologists, anthropologists, architectural historians, etc.). I have learned a lot from their work, papers, and presentations.

MB: I tapped history in a different way…by being able to remember problems and solutions of the past to help solve tricky technical problems in my IT work. You can save a lot of time if you remember and honor lessons already learned!

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

RS: To me it’s understanding context. X affected Y, and became what we now know of as Z. This can be seen in the blending of people, their cultures, their food, their drink, to become something new…like New Orleans.

MB: In some ways, I think humans elevate themselves when they explore, document and preserve knowledge and artifacts of history. The richness of life is lost if we lose track of the events and developments that shaped who we are. Understanding the past can help dispel a lot of faulty assumptions, too, or at least make them less powerful.

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

RS: The US “Roaring Twenties” and the Gilded Age that led up to the 1920s. In my opinion, modern America was developed in the 20s: modern advertising, social change for women, wide-scale credit, “off time” for the average worker, and casting off of Victorian mores.

MB: Hmmm. I’m not tied to a specific time, but I am intrigued by events where the role of women in society changed. I love learning about particular women or groups that defied the norms and shook things up. Oddly, then, I have to give a lot of credit to Frances Willard, who in leading the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union fought for equality and took a much higher public profile than was typical for women.

6. Tell us about your book Prohibition in Atlanta: Temperance, Tiger Kings and White Lightning.

The beginning of the book was really the prohibition chapter in Atlanta Beer. That was by far the hardest chapter to write, but we kept distilling the information to a workable chapter. The feedback from readers was very positive, yet we knew that we’d only been able to present the Reader’s Digest version. In Prohibition in Atlanta, we were able to give a more thorough visit to the very long history of prohibition in Atlanta—which goes back to General (Governor) Oglethorpe’s ban of “demon rum.”

The book is about the ups and downs in regard to perceptions of alcohol, but to frame those cycles we discuss the religious, gender, race, and political climates across decades (a couple of centuries, really). There are some unexpected connections, such as that the women active in the temperance movement were also highly influential in securing voting rights for women. From the standpoint of the alcohol industry, reviewing this evolution certainly helps explain the messy remnants of blue laws and local option that exist today across Georgia.

7. What history related projects are you working on currently?

RS: I keep researching beverage history as I can. I’m currently reading Wood, Whiskey and Wine: A History of Barrels by Henry H. Work. Fascinating--and it might be useful in future writing. Maybe something more light-hearted about the history of drinks is in the shaker.

7 Questions With Gretchen Henrich, Director of Interpretive Education at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Gretchen Henrich joined the staff of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in 1999 as the Children’s and Family Program Coordinator. She has a degree in Zoology from the University of California, Davis and began her education work in zoos. In her 25-year career, she has developed both humanities and science education programs in museums.

As Director of the Interpretive Education Division, she is currently responsible for managing interpretive programs and services as outlined in the Center’s Interpretive Plan. She also works on exhibit element interpretation, hands-on exhibitions, visitor service elements, and evaluation throughout the museum.


1.         How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I would say I really got hooked on history later in my life than most. I struggled with history in school, nobody was able to light that spark in my early life. I was an animal lover, good at science and math, and I couldn’t see the relevance of history to my life or future career path. I think my true fascination with history came when I started working at the Center. The Center, where I currently work, has five museums that cover art, cultural, and natural history. The tangible objects in the museum revealed stories and meanings that helped me begin to understand history and its value. Because the museum’s collections are so diverse, I was beginning to learn about aspects of history from many sources. I was no longer learning history facts from a book, but I was challenged to look at history from lots of perspectives through a variety of resources. I am continually taught history through museum objects, fellow staff members, artists, Plains Indian tribal members, and scientists. I have such a comprehensive set of historical resources at my fingertips here at the Center, I am hooked!

2.         What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
After growing up in San Diego, I returned to the place in Wyoming where my mother’s family has roots. I am learning about my family history by being immersed in the local area. I now live in a house overlooking a man-made reservoir that flooded the town of Marquette where my great-grandparents lived. I run into people that continually give me little snippets of my own history through their stories. I recently discovered, through my coworker’s family research that I have a distant cousin working with me here at the Center!

3.         How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
I talk about history every day here at the Center. I love challenging students and adults to think about historical topics in a way that they may not have thought about them before. I like to present lots of perspectives and listen to how they process that information and form their own opinions about events in history.

4.         Why is studying/knowing history important?
I think that sense of individual identity that you get from studying history is important. Why do I have the beliefs I have? How do those who came before me shape what is happening in my world now? How do the events of the past effect society as a whole?

5.         What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
While working here at the Center, I have developed an interest in Plains Indian culture and history. It is interesting to observe throughout history how cultures clash, blend, evolve, and hold on to traditional values. I have met some fascinating people that have been willing to share their tribal cultural values and history with me and learning about their perspectives has enriched my understanding of history.

6.         What is the mission of the Education Division Buffalo Bill Center of the West?
Interpretive Education at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West embraces innovative, engaging, and thought-provoking methods of understanding cultural and natural objects and resources. The Center’s interpretive specialists blend far-reaching ideas of the West with experiences that set the stage for compelling stories of the West that unfold in an informal learning process.

7.         What are the greatest challenges and rewards of your job as Director of the Interpretive Education Division?
I think the greatest reward is when I hear someone say “I never thought of it that way before.” Or when a child says, “this is really cool.” It is so fun to watch the light bulb go on! I think the challenges for the museum field in general are remaining relevant to an ever changing audience. As a new generation begins to learn in different ways and with technology changing so fast, it is hard to keep up!

7 Questions With Amanda Read, Co-Host of the History Author Show

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

I think I loved history from the moment I could pay attention to stories. I grew up as an Army child, home educated and living abroad, who was curious about the behind-the-scenes of just about everything. Sometimes I felt like all the interesting things happened before I was born, and that I just missed out on the world's highlights. My imaginary games with my siblings often involved historical themes.

 2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
When my mother began reading aloud Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series to me when I was around 5 years old, I got excited about the notion of everyday experiences being meaningful history. After all, every bit of the past was once in the present! I started keeping a journal with attention to detail as if my writing might one day be meaningful, historical documentation. Naturally, I was partial to the written word. Sometimes I would make copies of letters I wrote to friends, and saved every letter I received (even the envelopes so I'd remember what postage looked like over the years, apparently). To this day I have a habit of not wanting to delete e-mail correspondence, because after my research experiences I think of how frustrating it is to only find fragments of letters and notebooks through which to understand life in previous eras. Ha!

3. How is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
I have a Bachelor of Science degree in history and am working on a biography of USDA Chief Chemist Harvey Wiley (1844-1930), a project that started out as a screenplay. It's a story that tells of the classic tension between science and politics, and the origins of America's large federal bureaucracy, with a chemist and suffragette's romance throughout. My dream is to create historical drama films, bringing lesser known stories of the past to life on the screen for modern audiences. There's a special place in my heart for the Biblical epic, always yearning to give people a better understanding of the ancient world. But even in my freelance writing and journalism, history never ceases to play a role. When I report on a current event, I like to consider not only "what is the story?", but "what is the backstory?" What happened explains so much of what is happening. 

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?
History gives us the opportunity to learn from the life experiences of entire generations. As a relatively young country in the grand scheme of things, the United States of America in particular has a deep well of knowledge in other countries' histories from which to draw when it comes to government, and therefore (in my humble opinion) has less excuses for error! I think studying history also helps keep current events in perspective. Whenever I get irritated by a glitch in a contemporary convenience (like weak internet connection), I have to remind myself how people had to wait on communication across long distances for so many ages! We need to be grateful for the innovative work that some people pioneered generations before us. We have so much more time for leisure than most of them did, but we aren't always using it as productively as they might have dreamed.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
That's always a tough question for me, because I have such eclectic interests. But I keep coming back to the 17th-18th centuries, known for being the age of reason, enlightenment, and revolution (but having a lot of human folly mixed in there too). Perhaps I can blame this interest on the biographies of Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal that I read when I was 9 years old. I particularly like studying what I call the "genealogy of ideas," discovering how many policies and cultural practices today are rooted in the thoughts of philosophers and other intellectuals that go back many generations. The enlightenments are naturally a big part of that study.

6. What is the premise of the History Author Show?
I once wrote (much to a history professor's appreciation) that the story of history, in a way, is a story of the historians themselves. Whenever you read about people of the past, you're reading not only about the characters within the events, but the interpretation by the characters who are recording and analyzing the events. The History Author Show interviews those characters who research and write history today - or as our host Dean Karayanis says, "we bring you the people who build the time machines."

7. What can listeners expect to hear in your shows?
Expect to hear deep conversation, laughter, vintage music, and some talented voice over artists bringing history to life!

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
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewHarffyAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewHarffy
Buy THE SERPENT SWORD: http://getbook.at/TheSerpentSword




Bamburgh Castle at dawn