Ep. 395 — Erik Larson

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2020

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Erik Larson is a best-selling narrative non-fiction author. His latest book, The Splendid and the Vile, chronicles British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s first year in office during Germany’s bombing blitz of London in 1940. Larson joins David to talk about what lessons we can glean from Churchill about leadership in times of crisis, what Larson learned about writing from his favorite mystery novels, his process for choosing a subject and crafting a narrative, and how legendary journalist Bob Woodward threatened his career.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Music
0:06.0	And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with
0:12.5	your host David Axelrod.
0:20.0	Eric Larson is a brilliant narrative writer of history.
0:23.3	His books, including The Devil in the White City, about a killer lurking on the edges
0:27.7	of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago are masterpieces of that art.
0:33.0	In that book, he wove together a real life thriller with an essential bit of history of my
0:39.7	hometown.
0:40.7	His latest book, The Splendid in the Vile, is an account of life in London during the
0:45.4	Nazi Air Blitz of 1940.
0:47.8	And paint's a portrait of how Winston Churchill led the country through that crisis.
0:52.0	Unintended as they were, when he wrote the book, there are some useful lessons here for
0:56.7	our leaders today.
0:58.5	Here's our conversation.
0:59.5	Music
1:07.6	Eric Larson, it's so good to see you.
1:10.9	I'm an avid, huge reader and a huge fan of your work.
1:16.3	And I want to talk to you about the lives of two great writers, Winston Churchill and
1:20.5	Eric Larson.
1:22.2	But I want to start with Winston Churchill only because I read your latest book, The Splendid
1:27.9	in the Vile, like many people did during this crisis that we're going through this pandemic.
1:33.1	And the issue of leadership comes up.
	...

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