Rattlesnakes on the practice field, fist fights on the team plane, bounced checks, paternity suits, house bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, stadium fields covered in circus elephant dung, one-legged trainers, humiliating defeats, miraculous wins, All-Pro quarterbacks getting drunk at halftime, sex in a phone booth, and even a future Hall of Fame coach stealing a taxi cab. Sounds like the craziest football fiction movie that Hollywood could come up with. Well, it was all true. The 1952 Dallas Texans are nearly lost to history. This single season in the most football-mad region of the U.S., is a kaleidoscope of every larger-than-life Texas football folktale. David Fleming perfectly captures the zaniness of the zaniest team in NFL history with his new book, A BIG MESS IN TEXAS: The Miraculous, Disastrous 1952 Dallas Texans and the Craziest Untold Story in NFL History,#nfl #dallastexas #dallascowboys #davidfleming #authorpodcast #speakingofwriters #books #bookpodcast

In its duration, geographical reach, and ferocity, World War II was unprecedented, and the effects on those who fought it and their loved ones at home, immeasurable. The heroism of the men and women who won the war may be well documented, but we know too little about the pain and hardships veterans endured upon their return home. Drawing from veterans’ memoirs, oral histories, and government documents, acclaimed historian David Nasaw illuminates a hidden chapter of American history—one of trauma, resilience, and a country in transition in THE WOUNDED GENERATION: Coming Home After World War II. Nearly 16.4 million Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II. This book “is an account of the aftereffects that lived on in the bodies, hearts, and minds of those who fought, those who awaited their return, and the nation that had won the war but had now to readjust to peace.”As Nasaw makes evident, the veterans who returned to America were not the same people as those who had left for war, and the nation to which they came back was not the one they left behind. Contrary to the prevailing narratives of triumph, here are the largely unacknowledged realities the veterans—and the nation—faced, radically reshaping our understanding of this era as a bridge to today, as we mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.Nasaw presents a complicated portrait of those who brought the war home with them, among whom were the period’s most influential political and cultural leaders, including John F. Kennedy, Robert Dole, and Henry Kissinger; J. D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut; Harry Belafonte and Jimmy Stewart. In The Wounded Generation, Nasaw illustrates the indelible stories of veterans and their loved ones as they confronted the aftershocks of World War II.David Nasaw is a historian, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and bestselling author of The Last Million, named a best book of the year by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, and History Today; The Patriarch, a New York Times Five Best Non-Fiction Books of the Year; Andrew Carnegie, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and the winner of the American History Book Prize; and The Chief, winner of the Bancroft Prize. He was the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History at the CUNY Graduate Center and the president of the Society of American Historians. In 2023, he was honored by the New York Public Library as a “Library Lion.” Nasaw’s father served in the Army Medical Corps in Eritrea during World War II. He lives in New York City.#worldwar2 #authorpodcastPhoto Credit: Alex Irklievski

The epic of the American West is America’s great creation myth—and one whose telling is now as contested as oncewas the land. From a widely accepted tale of progress, redemption, and glorious conquest a new, darker story emerged: one of ghastly violence, racism, and environmental exploitation. In THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West (Dutton),acclaimed historian Paul Andrew Hutton gives readers a masterful narrative of both soaring triumph and terrible tragedy to reveal a new, surprising epic that defines America and its people.

Paul Andrew Hutton, the author of The Apache Wars and Phil Sheridan and His Army, is an American cultural historian, award-winning author, documentary writer, film consultant, and television personality. He is also Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus atthe University of New Mexico, a former executive director of the Western History Association, and former president of the Western Writers of America. He currently serves as interim curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, in Cody, Wyoming.