American Politics with Lynne Olson

Robert Merry discusses Lynn Olson’s early life and how she became interested in public policy, politics, history, and her sterling journalistic career, including as a Moscow correspondent. Focusing on her writing career, he examines how it began and how she ultimately settled on World War II as a central topic area. Robert dives into similarities or analogies between the times of her research and today. An audience Q&A follows their conversation.

Lnne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of history books, worked as a journalist, first with the Associated Press as a national feature writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP’s Moscow bureau, and a political reporter in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national politics and eventually the White House. Olson’s latest book, Madame Fourcade’s Secret War, The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against the Nazis, was published by Random House in March to enthusiastic reviews.

Lynne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of history books, worked as a journalist, first with the Associated Press as a national feature writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP’s Moscow bureau, and a political reporter in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered nationalpolitics and eventually the White House.

Olson’s eight acclaimed books, focusing mostly on World War II, include two New York Times bestsellers. Her latest, Madame Fourcade’s Secret War, The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against the Nazis, was published by Random House in March to enthusiastic reviews.

Her bestsellers were Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour and Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941. Both the American Library Association and Amazon praised Citizens of London as one of the best books of 2010, while Those Angry Days was named by the New York Times and Kirkus Review as one of 2013’s finest books.

A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Arizona, Olson spent 10 years in jour-nalism with the Associated Press and the Baltimore Sun. At the AP, she wrote from New York, Moscow, and Washington, while her Sun career included Washington stints as political reporter and White House correspondent. She is married to noted journalist and author Stanley Cloud, a former foreign correspondent and Washington bureau chief for Time magazine and executive editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.