New Books Network

About Bob Wintermute

Bob Wintermute is professor of history at Queens College, CUNY.

NBN Episodes hosted by Bob:

Military History March 2, 2021

Robert E. Lee and Me

A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

Ty Seidule

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Almost right after the guns fell silent, a counter-factual and ultimately pernicious narrative of the Civil War took shape that proved to be one of the longest lasting and most …
Military History January 18, 2021

Britain's War

A New World, 1942-1947

Daniel Todman

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
The second of Daniel Todman's two sweeping volumes on Great Britain and World War II, Britain's War: A New World, 1942-1947 (Oxford UP, 2020), begins with the event Winston Churchill called …
Military History December 22, 2020

The Gallipoli Evacuation

Peter Hart

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
One of the most well-told episodes of the First World War, the 1915 Gallipoli expedition, also has its own long-ignored aspects - specifically, the story of how the Allied force …
Military History November 18, 2020

Small Boats and Daring Men

Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy

Benjamin F. Armstrong

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Two centuries before the daring exploits of Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders captured the public imagination, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were already engaged in similarly perilous missions: raiding …
American Studies August 14, 2019

Beyond the Beach

The Allied War Against France

Stephen Alan Bourque

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Did the Allied bombing plan for the liberation of France follow a carefully orchestrated plan, or was it executed on an ad-hoc basis with little concern or regard for collateral …
American Studies June 13, 2019

Implacable Foes

War in the Pacific, 1944-1945

Marc Gallicchio and Waldo Heinrich

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Serious and casual scholars and readers interested in the Pacific War would do well to commit reading Marc Gallicchio’s and Waldo Heinrich’s massive study of the conflict’s last two years …
American Studies March 6, 2019

Progressives in Navy Blue

Maritime Strategy, American Empire, and the Transformation of U.S. Naval Identity, 1873-1898

Scott Mobley

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
This episode of the New Books in Military History podcast is something of a sea change, so to speak, as we turn our attention to naval policy and strategy. Institutional …
American Studies January 18, 2019

General Lesley J. McNair

Unsung Architect of the U.S. Army

Mark T. Calhoun

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Even now, eighty years after its beginning in Europe, the Second World War continues to exert tremendous cultural and social influence on American historical writing. Perhaps one of the best …
American Studies January 10, 2019

Soldiers of the Nation

Military Service and Modern Puerto Rico, 1868-1952

Harry Franqui-Rivera

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
As the island of Puerto Rico transitioned from Spanish to U.S. imperial rule, the military and political mobilization of popular sectors of its society played important roles in the evolution …
American Studies October 29, 2018

The Other Space Race

Eisenhower and the Quest for Aerospace Security

Nicholas Michael Sambaluk

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Many people place the beginning of the American space program at 7:28pm, October 4, 1957 – the moment the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik I, into orbit. This …
American Studies August 1, 2018

Bigger Bombs for a Brighter Tomorrow

The Strategic Air Command and American War Plans at the Dawn of the Atomic Age, 1945-1950

John M. Curatola

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Conventional wisdom has long held the position that between 1945 and 1949, not only did the United States enjoy a monopoly on atomic weapons, but that it was prepared to …
American Studies June 26, 2018

Love and Death in the Great War

Andrew J. Huebner

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Coincident with the hundredth anniversary of the first American engagements in the First World War, Andrew J. Huebner joins New Books in Military History to talk about his book, Love …
American Studies May 4, 2018

Omar Nelson Bradley

America’s GI General, 1893-1981

Steven L. Ossad

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Steven L. Ossad joins New Books at Military History to talk about his award-winning biography, Omar Nelson Bradley: America’s GI General, 1893-1981 (University of Missouri Press, 2017). Following the suggestion …
American Studies April 13, 2018

The Road Not Taken

Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

Max Boot

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Counterinsurgency doctrine, the Vietnam War, and the vagaries of politics all come together in Max Boot's latest work, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam …
American Studies February 9, 2018

Westmoreland's War

Reassessing America's Strategy in Vietnam

Gregory A. Daddis

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
In the wake of Ken Burns' most recent series, The Vietnam War, America's fascination with the conflict shows no sign of abating. Fortunately the flood of popular retellings of old …
American Studies August 6, 2017

Back Over There

One American Time-Traveler, 100 Years Since the Great War, 500 Miles of Battle-Scarred French Countryside, and Too Many Trenches, Shells, Legends, and Ghosts to Count

Richard Rubin

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
The majority of the books we profile on New Books in Military History are traditional research narratives, monographs written by historians and authors seeking to present a particular campaign, organization …
American Studies February 28, 2017

The Path to War

How the First World War Created Modern America

Michael S. Neiberg

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
In The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America (Oxford University Press, 2016), acclaimed historian Michael Neiberg examines the background of war fever in the United …
American Studies November 28, 2016

Interpreting American Military History at Museums and Historical Sites

Marc R. Blackburn

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Our guest for this interview combines his academic expertise in American military history with his professional experience as an employee of the National Park Service. Marc Blackburn is the author …
American Studies October 13, 2016

Storm Over Leyte

The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy

John Prados

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Narratives of the Pacific War frequently examine the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf from the operational perspective, focusing on the desperate actions of the US Seventh Fleets escort carriers, Task …
American Studies July 25, 2016

Forty-Seven Days

How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I

Mitchell Yockelson

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
In Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I (NAL Caliber, 2016), National Archives historian and forensic archivist Mitchell Yockelson reappraises …
December 18, 2015

Carolina in Crisis

Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southwest, 1756-1763

Daniel Tortora

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Long viewed conventionally through the lens of inter-European/colonist conflict, warfare in colonial era North America is currently experiencing a resurgence as a new generation of military historians employ a variety …
American Studies October 6, 2015

Paying with Their Bodies

American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran

John Kinder

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
John Kinder brings to life the challenges and problems faced by the disabled veteran in American history from the Civil War to the current day in his evocative book, Paying …
August 19, 2015

U.S. War-Culture, Sacrifice, and Salvation

Kelly Denton-Borhaug

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
More of a conversation than an interview, Kelly Denton-Borhaug shares the insights and processes underpinning her book U.S. War-Culture, Sacrifice and Salvation (Routledge, 2014). Denton-Borhaug considers how sacrificial rhetoric has …
History April 25, 2015

Twenty-First-Century Mahan and Twenty-First-Century Sims

Benjamin Armstrong

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Alfred Thayer Mahan and William Sims - two of the most important figures in American Naval History - are the subject of our discussion with Lieutenant Commander Benjamin ("BJ") Armstrong …