Webcasts Home
Browse:
- Biography, History
- Culture, Performing Arts
- Education
- Government
- Poetry, Literature
- Religion
- Science, Technology
More Audio, Video Resources at the Library
TITLE: The Bonus Army: An American Epic
SPEAKER: Paul Dickson, Thomas Allen
EVENT DATE: 06/22/2005
RUNNING TIME: 54 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
Paul Dickson and Thomas Allen presented a talk about their book, the compelling story of World War I veterans whose demands for better treatment became the Bonus Army March. The bonus was finally paid in 1936, but its ultimate importance lay in paving the way for the passage of the G.I. Bill of Rights on June 22, 1944. Dickson and Allen's book talk marks the 61st anniversary of that bill's passage.
Speaker Biography: Paul Dickson was born in Yonkers, NY, graduated from Wesleyan University in 1961 and was honored as a Distinguished Alumnae of that institution in 2001. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy and later worked as a reporter for McGraw-Hill Publications. Since 1968, he has been a full-time freelance writer contributing articles to various magazines and newspapers, including Smithsonian, Esquire, The Nation, Town & Country, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, as well as writing numerous books on a wide range of subjects. He received a University Fellowship for reporters from the American Political Science Association to do his first book, "Think Tanks" (1971). For his book "The Electronic Battlefield" (1976), about the impact automatic weapons systems have had on modern warfare, he received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to support his efforts to get certain Pentagon files declassified. Dickson's most recent baseball book, "The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of our National Pastime" was published in May 2003 and follows other works of baseball reference including "The Joy of Keeping Score," "Baseball's Greatest Quotations," "Baseball the President's Game" and "The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary." The original "Dickson Baseball Dictionary" was awarded the 1989 Macmillan-SABR Award for Baseball Research. "Sputnik: the Shock of the Century," came out in October 2001 and was subsequently issued in paperback by Berkeley Books. Dickson is a founding member and former president of Washington Independent Writers and a member of the National Press Club. He is a contributing editor at Washingtonian magazine and a consulting editor at Merriam-Webster, Inc and is represented by Premier Speakers Bureau, Inc. and the Jonathan Dolger Literary agency. He currently lives in Garrett Park, Md., with his wife Nancy who works with him as his first line editor and financial manager.
Speaker Biography: Thomas B. Allen is an author and editor. For more than 15 years he served with the National Geographic Society as the associate chief of the book service. He edited the million-plus best-seller "We Americans" and has published numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including "War Games." His "Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage" is the principal source book for the International Spy Museum. The New York Public Library selected "George Washington, Spymaster," as one of the best children's books of 2004. An earlier Allen book, "Remember Pearl Harbor," was selected as one of the Notable Books of 2001 by the American Library Association. Allen was a consultant and on-screen speaker for the Documedia series "Secrets of War" for the History Channel. He has frequently appeared on television as an authority on military and intelligence subjects. He has also produced editorial contributions to web pages of the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Geographic Society and Kodak. Prior to his work at the National Geographic Society, Allen was, from 1964 to 1965, Managing Editor, Trade Book Division, Chilton Books. From 1956 to 1963, he was a feature writer on The New York Daily News. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter and columnist for the Bridgeport (Conn.) Herald and served two years in the U.S. Navy. He and his wife Scottie, a potter and member of Creative Partners Gallery, live in Bethesda, Md.