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History with Mark Bielski

About

Standing on the sacred sands of Omaha Beach during a recent summer, I was speaking about the 1944 D-Day invasion to a group I was leading for Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours. When I finished my talk, a college student began to add details about the enemy defenses. I was amazed. How did he become so interested in and informed about a war that was fought before he was born? A year later, it happened again. I was leading a tour of a Civil War battlefield, when a young man traveling with his grandfather thrilled the group with his descriptions of commanders on both sides.

Who knew there were so many budding historians?

We know that learning from our past ensures a better future. So, as an historian it is important for me to inform a younger audience, that as evidenced by these two young men, is not always given the credit due them.

Thus was born the History with Mark Bielski Podcast, a leave-the-textbooks-behind, more conversational discussion of history for a tech-savvy generation that still appeals to us “oldsters.” We all know there was a war and who was president, but what about the spies, the intrigues, the deceptions and the backstories? What about learning about the occasional farcical or comedic decisions made by serious figures and their sometime tragic results?

By telling the untold tales of our past, my guests and I are committed to making history come alive for future generations.