Meet the Graduates

Mark’s eclectic life includes degrees in Art and Design Communication (Auburn, University), Museum Studies (Columbia, University), a Future Studies master’s degree (University of Houston), and Teaching English as a Second Language (Chiangmai, Thailand). After a career as a museum director and since 2014, he’s guided private tours built around personal interviews with veterans of Normandy’s D-Day beaches. Recently, he finished a master’s in World War II Studies (Arizona State University and the WWII Museum in New Orleans), which provides a worldwide context for his WWII stories

ATLANTIC CROSSING TALKS

1. WWII: Explore the Battle of the Atlantic Using Tom Hanks’ Film, Greyhound. Mark outlines the most prolonged battle of World War II and why it was the only time Churchill feared a British defeat.

2. WWII: The Americans Invaded North Africa – from Chesapeake Bay in the US. President Roosevelt answered the public’s demand for action by ordering an Allied attack on Rommel’s Afrika Korps. Mark explains how the US’s first military efforts didn’t go well and why.

3. WWII: Germany Breaks the Allied Naval Codes. Mark details how postwar research shows British successes in breaking the Reich’s radio codes were matched by the enemy’s ability to read the Royal Navy’s codes, rewriting the Battle of the Atlantic.

4. WASP: Women Auxiliary Service Pilots. In WWII, civilian women volunteers ferried aircraft across oceans, freeing men for combat. Mark recounts how these female pilots endured prejudice and death threats by fellow countrymen while serving.

5. Barcelona, Hotbed of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Mark discusses the ideological precursor of the coming conflict between Democracy and Fascism through the experiences of American war correspondents Martha Gellhorn and her husband, Ernest Hemingway.

6. WWII Gibraltar: Chokepoint of the Mediterranean. Mark unravels why Hitler attacked Russia and not the famous straits, which would have severed the British supply lines to their army in North Africa.

7. A 19th-Century Bestseller on How to Create an Empire by A Civil War Naval Instructor. This mandatory reading for German and Japanese navies in both World Wars profoundly influenced today’s world, from Singapore, the Suez to the Panama Canal.

8. WWII: Life Aboard a U-Boat. Considered like rockstars by German media, the Reich’s submarine crews often lived brutal, brief lives. Drawing upon the memoirs of a U-boat captain, Mark brings to life the experience of these men.

9. WWII: Life Aboard a Canadian Convoy. Mark uses personal narratives to explore a merchant sailor’s life as he was hunted by German submarines. The Merchant Marine suffered the highest casualty rate of all the armed services in the war.
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SCANDANAVIA AND THE BALTIC

1. WWII – Why Finland’s Winter War against Russia Created Hitler’s Final Defeat. Finland’s defiance and the secret treaty between Hitler and Stalin are defined by Mark to help us understand the devious minds of the dictators.

2. WWII Spies and Lies: The Swedish American Spy Who Penetrated Hitler’s Inner Circle. Mark outlines the story of how an amateur spy infiltrated Nazi Germany and discovered the Axis’ most significant weakness.

3. WWII Atomic Secrets: How Close Did the Nazis Come to the Nuclear Bomb? Mark relates the race for the superweapon. What were the stories of the Norwegian resistance and British commandos who derailed the deadliest weapon of all?

4. WWII Danish Secrets: Falling to the Nazis without a Fight. Mark chronicles occupation, collaboration, or resistance: reason or treason in Denmark compared to other countries. The quick surrender enabled the salvation of thousands of Jews.

5. WWII Norwegian Utopia: Hitler’s Fantasy Future World. Mark draws out the Scandinavian nation’s unique niche in Nazi mythology, helping us understand the people and the story behind the Third Reich’s vision of their future world.

6. WWII Secret Societies: Nordic Origins of Nazi Ideologies. Mark unravels the networks of Hitler’s influential early supporters and their beliefs about the mysterious Germanic origins in Scandinavia.

7. WWII Gdansk: The German Homefront. What did the Reich’s private citizens do during the war? What did they know about the Holocaust horrors? Mark relates what modern German historians say.

8. WWII Berlin: Hitler’s Germania, Capital of Europe. Witnesses said the Fuhrer spent hours with Albert Speer reviewing architectural models. What did this Nordic utopia look like? Mark details the plans.

9. WWII Hitler’s Plan for Political and Economic Blitzkriegs. The Reich intended a different way of war, which worked in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Mark explains how and why the system failed and what we can learn from it today.

10. WWII The Fall of Berlin. Mark depicts the Nazi capital’s Armageddon and Hitler’s final hours through the eyes of Hitler’s secretary Traudl Junge.