“In a democracy we are not all of the same mind, but we are all of the same purpose.” In 1939, as authoritarian regimes reshaped education across Europe, a rabbi in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region offered a different vision rooted in independent thought and cooperation. His words reveal how Americans understood democracy on the eve of World War II. Read the Full Story.
A walk through Vienna, Austria became something else entirely when small brass markers in the pavement stopped me cold. This reflection traces my first encounter with Stolpersteine, memorials to Holocaust victims placed where they once lived. Read the Full Story.
In April 1944, a B-17 named Banshee was shot down over Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, sending Shenandoah, PA native Chester Majewski plunging 20,000 feet into enemy territory. What followed was a desperate escape through mountains, hunger, and fear. His hometown newspaper captured the story that he barely wanted to tell. Read the Full Story.
The new US-Israeli air war reached the edges of one of Iran’s most important historic sites - the Golestan Palace. These moments raises a larger question about what happens when modern conflict collides with the past. This episode explores the long struggle to protect cultural heritage in wartime and why those battles still matter today. Listen to the Full Story.
In 1943, Charles H. King left Pottsville to fight for democracy. Instead, he found segregation, humiliation, and hard truths about race in the U.S. Navy. His memoir captures the moment he realized who he was in a divided America, and why that awakening shaped his life. Read the full story.
In February 1945, a Schuylkill County anti-aircraft gunner wrote home from France, describing daily life near the front as the war neared its end. His letter offers a view of war-time service far from home. Read the full story.
On Christmas Day, my family walked Fairview Cemetery near my childhood home. Among familiar names, I stopped at Harold E. Malick’s grave. A paratrooper with the 101st Airborne, he survived Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge. I always pause there. Read the full story.
My 2025 reading list leans hard into the big, difficult stuff - atomic fire over Japan, mass graves in Rwanda and Bosnia, the Molly Maguires, Irish soldiers in blue, and one unforgettable novel about a single patch of New England ground. These are the books that shaped his thinking this year about memory, violence, grief, and how we tell stories. Read the full story.
This holiday episode of the Public History podcast revisits It’s a Wonderful Life as more than a Christmas classic. We unpack the war trauma behind Jimmy Stewart’s performance, the clash between Bedford Falls and Potterville, and why Frank Capra’s critique of power still feels uncomfortably relevant today. Read the full story.
Less than three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Christmas 1941 in Shenandoah, PA balanced solemn church services and charity drives with bustling shops and eager children. Families faced empty seats of those in the service or lost in the war's first actions, yet community spirit shone through. Read the full story.