Michael Hall
Senior Editor of Texas Monthly
www.texasmonthly.com

 

 

William I. Hitchcok
Author of The Bitter Road to Freedom:
A New History of the Liberation of Europe
http://search.barnesandnoble.com



Co-host Jack Girardi
Girardi & Keese
www.girardikeese.net






Michael Hall is a distinguished journalist and Senior Editor of Texas Monthly. His most recent article, titled “The Exonerated,” www.texasmonthly.com/2008-11-01/features2.php is an excellent work of reportage that profiles thirty-seven men, who were sentenced to a combined total of 525 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Thanks to DNA testing, their claims of innocence have finally been proved—but what happens to them now? This article is a fine example of analysis and perspective about our judicial system.  Michael also won two 2001 Katy Awards: one for Best Reporter Writing Portfolio and one for Personality Profile/Interview for his July 2001 story “Lance Armstrong Has Something to Get Off His Chest.” He won a Texas Gavel Award in 2003 for his story about capital punishment, “Death Isn’t Fair,” which was also nominated for a National Magazine Award. Hall’s stories have appeared in The Best American Magazine Writing, The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Non required Reading, and Da Capo Best Music Writing. He has also written for Trouser Press, the New York Times, Men’s Journal, and the Austin American-Statesman. Michael graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979. Before joining TEXAS MONTHLY in 1997, he was an associate editor of Third Coast Magazine and the managing editor of the Austin Chronicle.
William I. Hitchcock is a distinguished historian and author of The Bitter Road to Freedom, which depicts in searing detail the shocking price that Europeans paid for their freedom, ranging from the ferocious battle for Normandy, to the plains of Poland, to the shattered cities and refugee camps of occupied Germany. The book surveys the European continent from D-Day to the final battles of the war and the first few months of the peace. Based on exhaustive research in five nations and dozens of archives, William’s groundbreaking account shows that the liberation of Europe was both a military triumph and a human tragedy of epic proportions. He gives voice to those who were on the receiving end of liberation, moving them from the edge of the story to the center. From France to Poland to Germany, from concentration-camp internees to refugees, farmers to shopkeepers, husbands and wives to children, the experience of liberation was often difficult and dangerous. Their gratitude was mixed with guilt or resentment. Their lives were difficult to reassemble. This strikingly original, multinational history of liberation brings to light the interactions of soldiers and civilians, the experiences of noncombatants, and the trauma of displacement and loss amid unprecedented destruction. This book recounts a surprising story, often jarring and uncomfortable, and one that has never been told with such richness and depth. Ranging from the ferocious battle for Normandy (where as many French civilians died on D-Day as U.S. servicemen) to the plains of Poland, from the icy ravines of the Ardennes to the shattered cities and refugee camps of occupied Germany, The Bitter Road to Freedom depicts in searing detail the shocking price that Europeans paid for their freedom. Today, with American soldiers once again waging wars of liberation in faraway lands, this book serves as a timely and sharp reminder of the terrible human toll exacted by even the most righteous of wars.

Jack Girardi, Partner at Girardi & Keese, one of America’s Finest Law Firms, and lawyers, as always, brings out the most important key elements to the success of today’s guests.  He and his firm have been dedicated to working hard and getting the best possible recovery for its clients.

Girardi & Keese's mission is to provide aggressive representation of individuals and businesses who have been injured in some way, whether by physical harm, property damage, damage to business, or damage to economic interests. Girardi & Keese has two offices in California: Downtown Los Angeles and San Bernardino.

You can listen to these fabulous guests on ABC Radio Networks or by listening now right here.