Photo, left: 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots, by Thomas S. Kidd ( of 2)
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots, by Thomas S. Kidd ( of 2)
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: James Madison, by Richard Brookhiser (1 of 2)  Karl Rove:  “Richard Brookhiser has written a lively, deeply informed, and penetrating look at the small man who played such a big role in America’s founding.  Father of the Constitution, prime mover behind approval of the Bill of Rights, trusted advisor and confidant to the young nation’s first president, and its fourth chief executive himself, James Madison is also our country’s first practical politician.  He founded not just the first American political party, but also the American system of party politics itself.  For James Madison had come—after long study and extended practical experience—to believe deeply in majority rule, public opinion, and a government of, by and for the people.”
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block D:  James Madison, by Richard Brookhiser (2 of 2)   Wall Street Journal: “Madison is remembered today as one of the key framers of the Constitution and the drafter of the Bill of Rights; as the husband of the vivacious Dolley Madison; and as the president who barely escaped capture by the British punitive expedition that raided Washington during the War of 1812. But he deserves to be remembered for a great deal more. Richard Brookhiser, in the latest in his series of concise and highly readable books about the Founding Fathers, conveys the man in full and files a strong paternity suit pointing to Madison as the father of American politics.”
 
Hour Two
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America, by Scott Weidensaul  (1 of 4)
“With a novelist's flair, he conveys the experiences of ordinary people pitted against powerful and unpredictable nature. . . Mr. Weidensaul invites readers to imagine the bloody ground beneath modern America's apparently tame landscape.”—The Wall Street Journal
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:  The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America, by Scott Weidensaul  (2 of 4)  Braddock’s defeat also served to catapult Washington into the first rank of colonial personages even though he was only 23 years old. He had achieved fame throughout the colonies for his expedition with Christopher Gist to carry a demand that the French evacuate the Ohio Valley. He achieved international notoriety for his conduct at Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity. The French labeled him a cold blooded killer after the Iroquois chieftain Tanacharison tomahawked Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville and washed his hands in his brains over an insult he had received from the French commander at Fort Duquense.
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:   The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America, by Scott Weidensaul  (3 of 4)
The author and naturalist Scott Weidensaul, who grew up in the heart of the old Eastern frontier, has written more than two dozen books, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist, Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds
The attack on Fort Duquesne was part of a large-scale British expedition with 6,000 troops led by General John Forbes to drive the French out of the contested Ohio Country (the upper Ohio River Valley) and clear the way for an invasion of Canada. Forbes ordered Major James Grant of the 1st Highland Regiment to reconnoiter the area with 850 men. When Grant proceeded to attack the French position, his force was outmanouevred, surrounded, and largely destroyed by the French and their native allies led by François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery. Major Grant was taken prisoner and the British survivors retreated fitfully to Fort Ligonier.
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:  The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America, by Scott Weidensaul  (4 of 4)
 
Hour Three
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504, by Laurence Bergreen (1 of 2)
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504, by Laurence Bergreen  (2 of 2)
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block C:  A Merciless Place: The Fate of Britain's Convicts after the American Revolution, by Emma Christopher (1 of 2)
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: A Merciless Place: The Fate of Britain's Convicts after the American Revolution, by Emma Christopher (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots, by Thomas S. Kidd (1 of 2)
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots, by Thomas S. Kidd (2 of 2)
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Battle for America, by David S. Reynolds (1 of 2)
Saturday 3 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:  Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Battle for America, by David S. Reynolds (2 of 2)