S3E6 John McManus - Missouri University of Science & Technology

Our guest today is one of the leading historians of the American soldier John C. McManus. John is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of US Military History at the Missouri University of Science & Technology. He earned a BA in Sports Journalism and an MA in History from the University of Missouri, then received his PhD in History from the University of Tennessee (Bill says UT-Austin has the correct shade of orange; John, not surprisingly, disagrees). While at Tennessee, he served as the Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of War and Society and was also a participant in Tennessee's Normandy Scholars Program. John has taught at Missouri S&T for several years and in 2014 became Missouri S&T’s first Curators’ Distinguished Professor, an honor bestowed by the University of Missouri System. In 2018-2019, John was the Leo A. Shifrin Chair of Naval and Military History at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis.

John is the author of more than a dozen books, including: The Deadly Brotherhood: The American Combat Soldier in World War II; Deadly Sky: The American Combat Airman in World War II; Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers who made the Defense of Bastogne Possible; Grunts: The American Infantry Combat Experience: World War II through Iraq; September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far; The Dead and Those About to Die, D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach; and Hell Before Their Very Eyes: American Soldiers Liberate Concentration Camps in Germany, April 1945.  Most recently, John has been busy writing a trilogy on the Pacific War. The first book, Fire and Fortitude, won the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History. It was followed by Island Infernos: The US Army’s Pacific War Odyssey, 1944. The trilogy will end with To the End of the Earth: The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945, which will be published in May 2023. For us podcast nerds, John is a frequent co-host with Al Murray and James Holland on the popular We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast. Follow John on Twitter @JohnCMcManus3!

Join us for a fascinating chat with John McManus. We'll discuss growing up in St. Louis, U2, writing, and toasted ravioli. Shout-out to Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis!

Rec.: 12/19/2022