Roundup

Veteran TV director shares his tales [audio 20min]

TV and film director John Rich has directed some of the most well-known shows in TV history, including The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gunsmoke, All In the Family, Barney Miller, Good Times, and Newhart. His film credits include Wives and Lovers and Roustabout starring Elvis Presley. Rich's new memoir is Warm Up the Snake: A Hollywood Memoir.

When Nixon Met Mao [audio 5x15min]

This week's BBC"Book of the Week" is Margaret Macmillan's Seize the Hour, an extraordinary account of the historic day when Nixon Met Mao. In February 1972, President Richard Nixon amazed the world with a trip to China. He was the first US President to go there -- and after the long freeze in relations after World War II it was like a visit to the far side of the moon, but it was also a brilliant stroke of policy. Nixon's meeting with Mao was not just a great historical event, the visit i

The Rise and Fall of the Habsburgs, 2nd of 3 [audio 29min]

Former BBC Eastern Europe correspondent Misha Glenny presents the incredible story of Europe's most influential dynasty. By the beginning of the 16th Century, the Habsburg emperor Charles V controlled so much territory -- in Spain, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands -- that his advisors were dreaming of a united Europe. Even England was not immune from their plans.

Book explores intellectual power of William James [audio 10min]

William James was an intellectual force of nature in 19th century America. Trained as a medical doctor, he saw links between the life sciences, psychology and philosophy, and was a seminal thinker on religion. Author Robert D. Richardson has written a new biography called William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism.

The Rise and Fall of the Habsburgs, 1st of 3 [audio 29min]

Misha Glenny, former BBC Eastern Europe correspondent, presents the incredible story of Europe's most influential dynasty. From humble origins in the lowlands of Switzerland, the Habsburgs emerged to become kings of Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Croatia; archdukes of Austria; grand princes of Transylvania; grand dukes of Tuscany; and Holy Roman Emperors for centuries on end. Some were remarkably intelligent, some rather less so.

Eastern Germans feel themselves 2nd-class citizens despite reunification [video 57min]

In After the Wall: Germany, the Germans, and the Burdens of History, Marc Fisher examines the relationship between eastern and western Germany after 1990. Fisher, who served as the Washington Post's bureau chief in Bonn and Berlin from 1989 to 1994, draws on personal interviews to conclude that the country is sharply divided. Fisher is a staff writer for the Washington Post.

Presidential lives and legacies after the White House [video 55min]

In his book Second Acts, author Mark Updegrove describes how ex-presidents since Truman have dealt with the loss of power when leaving office. He describes how former presidents once faded into the background but now are living longer, doing more, and wielding greater influence. Updegrove is an executive with Yahoo! Previously he served as Los Angeles manager for Time magazine and as president of Time Canada. While at Time, he conceived the traveling exhibit"Time

Author searches for relatives who survived Holocaust [audio 34min]

Daniel Mendelsohn's new book is The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. As a child, his old Jewish relatives told stories of family members killed in the Holocaust. Medelsohn undertook a worldwide search for surviving members of his family's town. During his investigation, Mendelsohn discovered letters from the family begging their relatives in the United States to help them get out of their Ukrainian town.

Newfoundland Blue Puttees [audio 6min @14:11]

At the beginning of the First World War, in August of 1914, there was no militia in Newfoundland -- no military organization at all, to speak of. But when Great Britain declared war in that month, residents of the country did not hesitate to pledge to raise five-hundred troops -- just as a start. Those troops would form the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. They came from all over the island, these volunteers, to win the honour of being among "the First 500". As Britain's War Office could n

Belgian exhibit honors Hoover's WWI effort [audio 5min]

Herbert Hoover's reputation suffered in the U.S. as the Great Depression struck. But in Belgium, he's still seen as a national savior for organizing a World War I relief effort credited with saving millions from starving.

Antonia Fraser peers into the heart of Louis XIV [audio 10min]

Louis the XIV ruled France for 72 years. He invaded the Spanish Netherlands, battled the Hapsburgs, extended the French dominion to eastern Canada, imposed national authority, built the French navy and engineered the extraordinary gardens at Versailles. So how did the roi soleil, or Sun King, have time for all of this when he was in the bedroom so much? Lady Antonia Fraser writes tantalizingly around this question in her latest book Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun

Recording the living history of WWI veterans [audio 8min]

Veterans Day was once called Armistice Day. It marked the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, when the guns fell silent in Europe, and the American doughboys and sailors and Marines who'd gone to fight World War I could come home. In the 88 years since, these men, too, have fallen silent. More than 4 million Americans served in World War I. Only 14 are left. The youngest is 106, the oldest 115. Will Everett crisscrossed the country to interview as many of the survivors of the Gr

Elderly veterans restore WWII ship [audio 6min]

On the quiet docks of Richmond, Calif., the horn of the SS Red Oak Victory blasts a defiant call across the San Francisco Bay. The ship was named after the small town in Iowa that suffered the greatest loss of life per capita of any American town during WWII. On its rusting deck, three elderly men strain to move a heavy steel staircase for repainting. The men, veteran sailors and soldiers, average age 70, volunteer long hours in a decade-long drive to preserve and renovate the Red Oak

Obit -- Markus Wolf, head of Stasi counter-intel [audio 3min @11:02]

Back in the days of the Cold War between East and West, "Markus Wolf" was a name to be feared. As head of East Germany's dreaded Stasi counter-intelligence unit, Herr Wolf was able to steal secrets and embarrass governments with startling ease. At one point, the U.S. even labelled him a terrorist -- yet was still rumoured to have consulted Wolf about how it should run its own anti-terrorist activities. Of course, Wolf was a dyed-in-the-wool Communist. And as such, he held firmly to the

Secret prison camp was Canadian response to Cold War tensions [audio 6min @22:13]

Nothing brings out the totalitarian in an otherwise benign democracy like a national emergency. In fact, sometimes, to see how readily our elected representatives will dispense with our civil liberties, you don't even need to have a crisis from sea-to-sea-to-sea. You just need someone who knows his way around Canada's Access To Information Act. Dr. John Clearwater has uncovered just such a trove of evidence. While researching his latest book, he was given RCMP documents about preparations for a"

Tuskegee Airman's harrowing WWII tale [audio 12min]

In commemoration of Veterans Day, Tuskegee Airman Alexander Jefferson describes his service in World War II and the difficult adjustment that followed when he returned to a segregated United States. In 1941, America's skies were segregated, like everything else in the nation. Though the United States and its allies were at war with the Axis powers of Japan and Nazi Germany, the Army Air Corps refused to train black pilots. It took an act of Congress to change that, and the legend of the Tuskegee

Large collection of black memorabilia goes public [audio 5min]

Dr. Mayme Clayton owned one of the world's largest collections of black memorabilia. The retired librarian died recently of cancer in Southern California. Jenee Darden surveys her life and her collection's future.

Mandela friend pens authorized biography [audio 7min]

Farai Chideya talks with Mac Maharaj, who served 12 years in prison with Nelson Mandela. Maharaj is one of two editorial consultants on the new book Mandela: The Authorized Portrait and is also a board member of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

What happened to the millions allocated to rebuild Iraq? [audio 5min & 6min]

In the first year after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority was in charge of $20 billion of what was essentially Iraqi cash, mainly past oil revenues in a fund set up by the United Nations. The money was spent. Part 1: The problem is that nobody really knows how the money was spent. There are no records for what happened to nearly half the cash. As part of a documentary series on Iraq reconstruction, BBC World Service business correspondent Mark Gr

Former captive Terry Waite examines captivity of Allied POWs in WWII Asia [audio 45min]

Terry Waite pieces together the stories of those held in prisoner of war camps in the Far East during World War II. He talks to veterans who served so far from home.