Albert Marrin

An exploration of the life, work, and influence of Thomas Paine.

In spring of 1918, World War I was underway, and troops at Fort Riley, Kansas, found themselves felled by influenza. By the summer of 1918, the second wave struck as a highly contagious and lethal epidemic and within weeks exploded into a pandemic, an illness that travels rapidly from one continent to another. It would impact the course of the war, and kill many millions more soldiers than warfare itself. Of all diseases, the 1918 flu was by far the...

A Polish Jew on the eve of World War II, Janusz Korczak turned down opportunities for escape in order to stand by the children in his orphanage as they became confined to the Warsaw Ghetto. Dressing them in their Sabbath finest, he led their march to the trains and ultimately perished with his children in Treblinka. Marrin examines not just Korczak's life but his ideology of children: that children are valuable in and of themselves, as individuals....

Examines the life of abolitionist John Brown and the raid he led on the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859, exploring his religious fanaticism and belief in "righteous violence,"--and committment to domestic terrorism.

In twentieth century America, no threat loomed larger than the communist superpower of the Soviet Union. The Communist Party of the United States attempted to use deep economic and racial disparities in American culture to win over members and sympathizers. Marrin shows how the miscarriage of justice in the Scotsboro Boys case, the tragedy of the Rosenbergs, and the menace of the Joseph McCarthy and his war hearings lured many Americans to the ideals...

The causes and results of the Dust Bowl and how the lessons learned are still used today.