This program is presented by Pritzker Military Library and made possible by the support of the Churchill Centre.

Greg Burns interviews author Paul Reid for this edition of Pritzker Military Library's Citizen Soldier.

William Manchester was a tremendously successful popular historian and biographer whose books include The Last Lion: Visions of Glory, The Last Lion: Alone, Goodbye Darkness, A World Lit Only by Fire, The Glory and the Dream, The Arms of Krupp, American Caesar, and The Death of A President. In 1998, after completing much of the research for the final volume of The Last Lion, Manchester suffered two strokes that left him unable to write. Manchester sought a writer with a reporting background to complete his work. In 2003, Manchester asked his friend Paul Reid to complete Defender of the Realm. Reid, who now lives in North Carolina, had spent many years as a feature writer for the Palm Beach Post. But Manchester died less than two months after passing the baton to Reid. Before writing Defender of the Realm, Reid augmented Manchester’s voluminous notes with extensive research of his own. The result, after more than eight years of effort, is the most thrilling volume of The Last Lion triptych.

Greg Burns is a member of the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, specializing in business. He previously served as a business columnist and blogger, senior correspondent and editor responsible for all business coverage. Before joining the Tribune, Burns wrote for Business Week magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times.