Rick Beyer's Blog

History Happy Hour

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 15:37:00 -0700

For the last four months or so I have been co-hosting a weekly Livestream called with my friend, and fellow Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours historian/guide, Chris Anderson.?When we started out, we just thought we��d chat a bit about history and see if anyone wanted to join us. It has blossomed into a weekly show featuring? an amazing array of insightful history authors. It has been so rewarding to hear from them and to be able to give our audience a chance to chime in with questions.
The show is broadcast live Sundays at 4 PM Eastern on the Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours Facebook and Youtube Page.? An easy way to find the links is to go to the
We are currently booked well into November.? Here��s a sneak peek at just a few of our upcoming guests:
��????? July 26, Author and journalist A.J. Baime, talks about his new book Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul.?
��????? August 23, Hampton Sides??plunges us into the most dramatic days of the Korean War as he recounts the U.S. Marines�� legendary Chosin Reservoir Breakout from his newest book, On Desperate Ground.?
��????? September 20,?Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter President Dwight D. Eisenhower, discusses?her grandfather��s flair for taking command and her new book How Ike Led.?��????? ?October 18 we��ll talk to Chris Wallace about his new bestseller, Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World?
We��ve learned some fascinating stuff from previous guests.? A small sampling:
We talked to Andrew Roberts about his book Churchill: Walking With Destiny.? Andrew told us he writes up to 5000 words a day , and dsiscussedabout the importance of doing on-site research.? ��I think it's essential. I think as a military historian, unless one goes to the battlefields, it's like a detective not bothering to go to the scene of the crime. You absolutely have to be there.�� (As tour historians, we couldn't agree more!) He also gave us a guided tour of his study, with some amazing items.?
Joe Balkoski talked to us about the 29th Division, which landed on D-Day and fought all the way across France, suffering terrible casualties. He told us a moving story about the day the division lined up to receive the presidential unit citation in March 1945.? The commander of the division wanted the flag of every company to be carried by a D-Day veteran for the ceremony.? ��Lo and behold, every single rifle company in the? 115th Regiment (one of three regiments in the division) did not have a single D-Day veteran left. And it's a very poignant story because it was a different division by 1945.��
When we spoke to Lynne Olson about her book The Secret War of Madame Fourcade, we asked her about how this young French woman was able to lead a resistance network of thousands during wartime in a very conservative country,? ��I��ve wrestled with that ever since I started the book,�� she said.?��Its a question that I asked everybody that I interviewed. People said she was just an extraordinary person, that she had an aura of authority about her that made men, military men, agree to her as their leader.��? One person she interviewed, who knew Fourcade growing up, said he was scared of her, in awe of her.? ��He said she didn't operate according to society's rules. He operated according to her own rules. Basically, she acted like a man.��
Dan King shared his insight on Japanese fighter pilots, Don Farrell joined us from Tinian about war in the Pacific, James Stejskal gave us inside details on Lawrence of Arabia . And so many more.
All of these interviews are so viewers can?dip in and out at will.? And we have a comprehensive reading list on all the subjects.
Not sure how long we are going to keep doing this, but its great fun for the moment, and we are glad to provide some programming that is informative and hopefully entertaining at the same time!

posted by Rick Beyer on July, 21

The Real Story Behind Mark Rylance???s Character in the Movie Dunkirk

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 06:23:00 -0700

(Warning: spoileralerts plus the rantings of one irate historian!!)

Christopher Nolan???s riveting screen telling of this epic World War II tale is breaking box office records. Enjoyable as it is, the film does a terrible disservice to one historical character, and left us all the poorer for it.

History offers few more inspiring military tales than the???Miracle at Dunkirk.????In May of 1940, German forces advancing through France wereon the verge of capturing an entire Allied army that had retreated to thecoastal town of Dunkirk in a desperate bid to escape across the English Channel.

The British Admiralty put out the call for every small craftit could find to help stage an emergency evacuation. Yachts, fishing boats,motor launches, tugboats, any vessel that could pull men off the beaches.Despite constant attack by German bombers, this motley fleet rescued more than300 thousand men and brought them home to England. Winston Churchill called ita ???miracle of deliverance.???

As he set about making his movie, Nolan chose not to use actualhistorical figures. Or at least so he said. "We have fictional characters with fictional names;we're not trying to tell anyone's story here," he told ?"Fiction frees you to be able to convey to the audiencethe?greater truth of something. Which is why you end up wanting to combinecharacters or invent characters."?

One of those characters is the quietly heroic Mr. Dawson,played beautifully by Mark Rylance. In fact, however, he is not fictional at all.? He???s a very real person with a simple name change. And because of this transparent fictionalization, the real hero gets abslutely no credit in the movieor attendant publicity.?

His name was Charles Lightoller.? Lightoller owned a 58-foot-power cruiser.Navy officers informed him they were going to commandeer his vessel for therescue. Lightoller would have none of that. Instead, he captained the boat himselfwith just his son and one other teenage boy. Determined to rescue every man hecould, he crammed more than 130 soldiers on his small motor yacht. His sonliterally laid them down on top of each other down below, then all over thedecks. Once Lightoller had taken aboard every man he could, he piloted thedangerously overloaded vessel back across the English Channel, dodging bombsand bullets all the way.

Here???s an excerpt from Walter Lord???s Book The Miracle of Dunkirk.

???The entire Luftwaffe seemed to bewaiting for him. Bombing and strafing, the enemy planes made pass after pass.Fortunately Sundowner could turn on asixpence, and Lightoller had learned a few tricks from an expert. His youngestson, killed in the first days of the war, had been a bomber pilot and oftentalked about evasion tactics. The father now put his lost son???s theories towork. The secret was to wait until the last instant, when the enemy plane wasalready committed, then hard rudder before the pilot could readjust. Squirmingand dodging his way across the Channel, Lightoller managed to get Sundowner back to England without ascratch.???

If you???ve seen the movie, this will strike you as instantlyfamiliar.. The ???fictional??? Dawson???s story tracks Lightoller???s almost perfectly??? down to the son in the RAF who was killed, and the evasive maneuver heperformed to avoid being sunk by the Luftwaffe. The only difference is that inthe movie version, the young boat hand is killed. Nolan didn???t create Mr.Dawson out of his imagination ??? he brazenly stole the story of CharlesLightoller and changed the name to thinly cover the theft.

I don???t contest his right to do so. Since the time ofShakespeare, and undoubtedly even earlier than that, people making art out ofhistory have used creative license to shape their stories, and literature isthe better for it. I have no problem with chosing to use a composite character for the purposes of storytelling. But if you make a movie about a historical subject, and use areal person???s story with only minor changes, why not honor them, and honor thereal history by using their name? What a shame that audience???s rooting forRylance???s character aren???t let in on the secret that he was real.

Here???s what really hurts: In fictionalizing the character, Nolan left out the best part!

Lightoller???s zeal to rescue as many men as possible was undoubtedlydriven by memories of a night at sea nearly 30 years before. It was anunforgettable night: lifeboats heading out half full???cries of distress in thewater...despair at not being able to do more.

You see, Charles Lightoller was the second officer on the Titanic.

He was one of the rare heroes of that terrible night inApril 1912, when 900 people perished in the icy North Atlantic despite his bestefforts. In 1940, fate offered him a second chance as a lifesaver . . . and hetook it. It is a story sublime in its equal parts of irony, heroism, and heart.

The portion of the movie Dunkirkthat tells Mr. Dawson???s story is exciting and moving. Once you know thereal story, however, it becomes dishwatery pale, at least to this historylover. Congratulations to Mr. Nolan on making a fine film. But shame on him forreplacing real history with an ersatz version that fails to do justice to oneof the true heroes of the Miracle at Dunkirk.

He is also the author of

Thanks to Marilyn Rea Beyer for the editorial oversight!

posted by Rick Beyer on May, 19

The Real Story Behind Mark Rylance��s Character in the Movie Dunkirk

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 06:23:00 -0700

(Warning: spoiler alerts plus the rantings of one irate historian!!)
Christopher Nolan��s riveting screen telling of this epic World War II tale is breaking box office records. Enjoyable as it is, the film does a terrible disservice to one historical character, and left us all the poorer for it.
?History offers few more inspiring military tales than the ��Miracle at Dunkirk.��?In May of 1940, German forces advancing through France were on the verge of capturing an entire Allied army that had retreated to the coastal town of Dunkirk in a desperate bid to escape across the English Channel.
The British Admiralty put out the call for every small craft it could find to help stage an emergency evacuation. Yachts, fishing boats, motor launches, tugboats, any vessel that could pull men off the beaches. Despite constant attack by German bombers, this motley fleet rescued more than 300 thousand men and brought them home to England. Winston Churchill called it a ��miracle of deliverance.��
As he set about making his movie, Nolan chose not to use actual historical figures. Or at least so he said. "We have fictional characters with fictional names; we're not trying to tell anyone's story here," he told ?"Fiction frees you to be able to convey to the audience the?greater truth of something. Which is why you end up wanting to combine characters or invent characters."?
One of those characters is the quietly heroic Mr. Dawson, played beautifully by Mark Rylance. In fact, however, he is not fictional at all.? He��s a very real person with a simple name change. And because of this transparent fictionalization, the real hero gets abslutely no credit in the movie or attendant publicity.?
His name was Charles Lightoller.? Lightoller owned a 58-foot-power cruiser. Navy officers informed him they were going to commandeer his vessel for the rescue. Lightoller would have none of that. Instead, he captained the boat himself with just his son and one other teenage boy. Determined to rescue every man he could, he crammed more than 130 soldiers on his small motor yacht. His son literally laid them down on top of each other down below, then all over the decks. Once Lightoller had taken aboard every man he could, he piloted the dangerously overloaded vessel back across the English Channel, dodging bombs and bullets all the way.
Here��s an excerpt from Walter Lord��s Book The Miracle of Dunkirk.
��The entire Luftwaffe seemed to be waiting for him. Bombing and strafing, the enemy planes made pass after pass. Fortunately Sundowner could turn on a sixpence, and Lightoller had learned a few tricks from an expert. His youngest son, killed in the first days of the war, had been a bomber pilot and often talked about evasion tactics. The father now put his lost son��s theories to work. The secret was to wait until the last instant, when the enemy plane was already committed, then hard rudder before the pilot could readjust. Squirming and dodging his way across the Channel, Lightoller managed to get Sundowner back to England without a scratch.��
If you��ve seen the movie, this will strike you as instantly familiar.. The ��fictional�� Dawson��s story tracks Lightoller��s almost perfectly �C down to the son in the RAF who was killed, and the evasive maneuver he performed to avoid being sunk by the Luftwaffe. The only difference is that in the movie version, the young boat hand is killed. Nolan didn��t create Mr. Dawson out of his imagination �C he brazenly stole the story of Charles Lightoller and changed the name to thinly cover the theft.
I don��t contest his right to do so. Since the time of Shakespeare, and undoubtedly even earlier than that, people making art out of history have used creative license to shape their stories, and literature is the better for it. I have no problem with chosing to use a composite character for the purposes of storytelling. But if you make a movie about a historical subject, and use a real person��s story with only minor changes, why not honor them, and honor the real history by using their name? What a shame that audience��s rooting for Rylance��s character aren��t let in on the secret that he was real.
Here��s what really hurts: In fictionalizing the character, Nolan left out the best part!
Lightoller��s zeal to rescue as many men as possible was undoubtedly driven by memories of a night at sea nearly 30 years before. It was an unforgettable night: lifeboats heading out half full��cries of distress in the water...despair at not being able to do more.
You see, Charles Lightoller was the second officer on the Titanic.?He was one of the rare heroes of that terrible night in April 1912, when 900 people perished in the icy North Atlantic despite his best efforts. In 1940, fate offered him a second chance as a lifesaver . . . and he took it. It is a story sublime in its equal parts of irony, heroism, and heart.

The portion of the movie Dunkirk that tells Mr. Dawson��s story is exciting and moving. Once you know the real story, however, it becomes dishwatery pale, at least to this history lover. Congratulations to Mr. Nolan on making a fine film. But shame on him for replacing real history with an ersatz version that fails to do justice to one of the true heroes of the Miracle at Dunkirk.

is a New York Times bestelling author, an award-winning filmmaker, and a lifelong histry enthusiast. ?The story of Charles Lightoller appears in his book ?He is also the author of??and

Thanks to Marilyn Rea Beyer for the editorial oversight!

posted by Rick Beyer on March, 12

Is Donald Trump Aaron Burr?

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 13:43:00 -0800
An administration official communicates secretly with the ambassador of a not-so-friendly foreign power. The ugly word treason is thrown around. It makes for inflammatory headlines. But not lately �C these events took place two centuries ago. The administration official was Vice President Aaron Burr, and the incident offers a fresh reason to ask:
Is Donald Trump Aaron Burr?
This thought first occurred to me last summer, when I arose before sunrise each morning to work on my book tracing the thirty-year rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. With the presidential campaign in full swing, news stories and social media boiled over with bitter denunciations of candidate Trump. I was struck by how closely they matched the venomous salvos from Hamilton during the election of 1800. The words below are Hamilton��s, but they easily could have come from the 2016 campaign.
��This man has no principle public or private.��
��He loves nothing but himself; thinks of nothing but his own aggrandizement, and will be content with nothing, short of permanent power in his own hands.��
��I could scarcely name a discreet man of either party in our State, who does not think Mr. Burr the most unfit man in the U. S. for the office of President. Disgrace abroad [and] ruin at home are the probable fruits of his elevation.��
These intense criticisms, mirroring those of the 2016 campaign, left me wondering how much Burr and Trump really do have in common. Then came recent reports of Trump aides and cabinet members apparently covering up meetings with the Russians, giving the question new significance.
In the summer of 1804, less than a month after killing Alexander Hamilton, Vice President Burr reached out to British Ambassador Anthony Merry with a tantalizing scheme to help Britain weaken the United States: sever the western territories from the east to create a new country with himself at the helm. Merry believed Burr was motivated by ��his great ambition and spirit of revenge�� against President Thomas Jefferson, who had cut all ties with his ambitious vice-president shortly after the contested election of 1800.
After leaving the administration in 1805, Burr and his collaborators, including rogue American General James Wilkinson, began raising troops for a shadowy military expedition. Wilkinson (who later turned out to be a spy for Spain) eventually ratted Burr out. President Jefferson directed that his former vice-president be arrested and tried for treason. Burr was ultimately acquitted for lack of evidence.
In the news this past week, it was not Trump, but his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who turns out to have met with the Russian ambassador during the campaign and then failed to disclose it in his nomination hearings. But given the many odd overtures from Team Trump to the Russians, it still brings the question to the fore.
Is Donald Trump Aaron Burr?
They are different in many ways. Burr was a lawyer and seasoned pol, a military man, an abolitionist, a feminist and an advocate of immigrant rights. One thing they have in common: both made brilliant innovations in political campaign techniques. And like Trump, Burr was a far more complex character than he is given credit for.
There are, however, more unsettling similarities between the two men.
Like Burr, Trump has a knack for inspiring fear and loathing in his opponents. Like Burr, Trump has been flexible in his political allegiances, less interested in ideology than in acquiring power. And like Burr, Trump found himself ostracized by the political establishment after a long career, and then gave the appearance of flirting with the enemy to gain the power he sought.
People of great ambition and ego often find ways to justify odious behavior. Burr may have convinced himself that America was in such trouble that only radical action could save it from utter collapse. Perhaps he imagined that only by founding a new country could he achieve the founders�� now-corrupted goals. Conspiring with America��s enemy might have seemed less like treason than simply an expedient way to create order out of chaos. Burr was ultimately acquitted for lack of evidence in a sensational treason trial. We may never know whether his plot posed a real threat to the nation.
��I am the only one who can fix our problems,�� Donald Trump declared during the campaign. Convinced America is in peril, at odds even with many in his own party, he might conclude that normal rules don��t apply. Such an attitude could conceivably result in actions and alliances that Americans would find deeply disquieting. That would put him snugly in Aaron Burr��s shoes.
is the author of He lives in Lexington, MA. ?2017 by Rick Beyer. All Rights Reserved.

posted by Rick Beyer on March, 12

Rivals Unto Death Q&A

Mon, 20 Feb 2017 07:46:00 -0800
Thanks to John Bell for conducting this??in the blog ?Great to share explore the story of my new book Rivals Unto Death with such a knowledgeable questioner!?

posted by Rick Beyer on September, 18

10 Real things that Real Celebrities Really said to me. For Real!

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:20:00 -0700

��That is such a stupid remark . . . I don��t want to talk to you any more.��
-NBC News Anchor David Brinkley, at the Democratic Convention in 1976
��That��s a good question, Rick.��?
- Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, at a press conference during the 1976 Presidential Primary.
��You can��t be scared of me.��?
- Actor Sam Waterston, offering advice on how to direct him on the set of Timelab 2000, 1998.
��Arise, Sir Rick. You have been knighted!��
-Former Monkee Davy Jones, mock knighting me on the set of Meet the Royals, 2003 ?
��So, Boston doesn��t want to see my boobs?��
-Oprah Winfrey, during a WCVB promo shoot, when I asked if she could put on a jacket over the nearly sheer blouse she was wearing.? Circa 1995.?
��And just to show you impressed I am, I even bought The Greatest Music Stories Never Toldand have started enjoying that.��??????????????????????? -Satirical singer/songwriter Tom Lehrer, praising my credentials while firmly turning down a request to co-operate on a documentary.? His missive was the single most amusing rejection letter I have ever read!? 2014?
��But you did it so beautifully.��
-Actress Mary Tyler Moore, trying to make me feel better about loudly kicking a metal trash basket during a radio interview at WDCR. 1977.
��Yo, Rick, we gonna do this thing?��
- Director Spike Lee, on the phone, asking about an AIDS PSA we were supposed to do with Magic Johnson. Sadly, the answer turned out to be no. 1992.?

��Rick, if I were gay, it would be you!��
-Talk show legend Larry King, in a book autograph he scribbled on the set of a CNN promo shoot.? When he came out of the van for the next shot, he announced our impending nuptials to the crew. 1996.

posted by Rick Beyer on February, 18

Remembering Jack Masey

Tue, 22 Mar 2016 17:41:00 -0700

The first thing you noticed was the grin. That great big crooked grin, uninhibited, eyes sparkling, body shaking with laughter about something. It doesn't seem to show up in most of the pictures, ?but it is how I will always remember him.
I first met Jack in the spring of 2006, interviewing him about his experiences in the WWII unit known as The Ghost Army. The thing that struck me most (after the grin) was how often he used the word ��delicious.�� And the way he said the word, with such relish. Usually with that wolfish crooked grin. All of life, with its panoply of characters and cultures from the sublime to the ridiculous, it was all a delicious feast for Jack Masey and one he enjoyed with remarkable zest.
I can��t believe Jack is gone from this world. As my Ghost Army co-author, Elizabeth Sayles said, ��I hoped he would live forever.��
His wife, Beverly, wrote of his ��full throated enthusiasms,�� and the way he loved people ��deeply?in that big outrageous Masey-way.�� My wife Marilyn called him ��the man who invented charm.�� Any get-together with Jack was always punctuated by frequent outbursts of laughter��or just frequent outbursts! Rarely have I met anyone who radiated infectious energy and enthusiasm. And believe me, it was delicious.

Jack Masey caricature of
Ghost Army soldier Bill BlassTypical of Jack was the way he viewed his fellow soldiers during WWII. They were delicious too. ��I��d only known Brooklynites or Manhattanites. Now suddenly I was thrown in to another world. I��d never met people like this. I thought, ��My God, I��ve got the raw material out here. I��m going to draw every one of these crazies.�� And I did.�� He caricatured every man in his company in a delightful volume he titled You on KP. In the midst of war, in Luxembourg City, he collected money from his buddies arranged to have 150 copies printed, one for every man. For many, it became their most treasured WWII artifact.
Jack viewed his WWII experiences in the Ghost Army as a bit of a lark. ��I learned a lot, fooling people, and deceiving people,�� he laughed. ��And it stood me in good stead my whole life.�� But he was also delighted and proud of the attention that the Ghost Army has received in recent years. He called often to find out what the latest was about the documentary, book, movie, and offering lavish praise and enthusiastic support.?
After the war Jack went to Yale School of Art and Architecture, (during which time he penned a few caricatures for Esquire), then went to work for the U.S. State Department staging trade exhibits around the world. He was the Chief of Design for the 1959 American exhibition in Moscow that famously became the site of the ��kitchen debate.�� Nixon and Khrushchev squared off in the kitchen of the exhibit��s model house. The fireworks began when Khrushchev told Nixon he did not believe an average American family could have a kitchen like that. Jack told me he was right. ��We widened it a little bit to get a lot people through,�� he laughed.?
But his amazing career spanned so much more, both while he worked for the government, and later after he founded his own company, Metaform, with designers Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar. Trade exhibits in Kabul, New Delhi, Brussels, Berlin. The American Pavilion at Expo ��67, the Statue of Liberty Museum, Ellis Island Museum, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, these are just a few of the many exhibits midwifed by Jack Masey.
Jack didn��t play it safe in his work. When it came to the American Pavilion at Expo 67, he wanted it to be bold, groundbreaking, maybe even ��kooky,�� to use a word from one of his memos of the time. He worked with some favorite collaborators, such as Chermayeff and Buckminster Fuller. He also brought in some of his Ghost Army buddies to help. He got Bill Blass to design the guide uniforms, displayed some of Ellsworth��s Kelly art, and commissioned a film from Art Kane. The result, according to Michigan State History graduate student Daneila Sheinin, ��transformed the ways in which architecture, design and exhibits could come together in a stunning visual end point.��?
With all of his many achievements, and friendships with everyone from Bill Blass to Julia Childs, Jack never took himself too seriously. He could easily have been superior, pretentious or condescending, but I imagine it never occurred to him. Instead, he was a beloved mentor to many. He frequently talked to graduate students interested in his international design work, and high schools students interviewing him about the Ghost Army. To all he showed his patience, good will and enthusiasm.
Jack did not want a public remembrance, which is painful to the many people who would like to have gathered to celebrate and honor him. A skeptic, but not a cynic, he was a man full of optimism and hope for his friends and for the world. Most of all, he was a person who gave enthusiastically of himself to others. Beverly said that Jack suffered from heart failure near the end, but I don��t believe it. His great big heart never failed anyone.?
Jack Masey. Delicious.

posted by Rick Beyer on February, 13

Ghost Army Audio Book

Sat, 16 Jan 2016 09:39:00 -0800
Yes, we are pretty excited that?The Ghost Army of World War II ?is now available as an audio book from Audible.com. It is beautifully narrated by actor Tom Stechschulte. ?And you can listen to the first chapter for free! ?If you want more after that, you do have to buy it! ?:)

More on the audio book and how to

posted by Rick Beyer on March, 20

The New Colossus Updated

Sun, 06 Sep 2015 14:20:00 -0700