Hi, it's Alice.

Thank goodness for T.J. Styles and David Blipe.

They've dedicated their lives to understanding parts of America's past

so that we can try to figure out what the heck is happening right now.

Both T.J. Styles and David Blight are historians and biographers and wonderful writers.

Biography is a meeting ground between scholarly and literary virtues.

To understand a life, you have to understand the world.

That's T.J. Stiles. He and David Blight write about slavery and race in American history,

and each one has a remarkable talent for making that history pop off the page.

David Blight received a Pulitzer Prize for his book, Frederick Douglas Prophet for Freedom.

And T.J. Styles received a Pulitzer for The First profit for

T.J. Styles received a Pulitzer for the first tycoon, the epic life of Cornelius Vanderbilt,

and then he won again for Custer's trials, a life on the frontier of a new America. These writers are both so eloquent,

whether they're talking about the lives of their historical subjects or their own lives, that we want you to get to know them.

On this episode then, meet T.J. Styles and David Blight,

along with, you could say, Jesse James, General George Custer, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Frederick

Douglas.

This is what it takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance

from the Academy of Achievement.

I'm Alice Winkler.

Madame, this child is gifted.

And I heard that enough that I started to believe it.

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