History Shorts
by History Shorts Network
Latest episode
Henry Clay: The Waldo of American History
Henry Clay: The Waldo of American History
About this podcast
Dive into the past with award-winning historian Peter Zablocki in this captivating daily podcast! Uncover hidden stories you never knew existed. And don't miss Friday Conversations where Peter teams up with top experts for riveting, in-depth discussions that bring history to life.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 992 episodes
- Henry Clay: The Waldo of American History · 13 minPick almost any major moment in American politics between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, and look closely. Henry Clay is somewhere in the picture. In this episode, we go…
- Revolutionary Snipers, with Patrick O'Donnell · 37 minIn this episode of History Shorts, I sit down with military historian Patrick K. O'Donnell to discuss his new book Revolutionary Snipers: Washington's Frontier Commandos Whose…
- The Green Children of Woolpit · 14 minSometime in the twelfth century, reapers in the English village of Woolpit found two children at the edge of a field. Their skin was green. They spoke a language no one…
- The Zoot Suit Riots · 12 minIn the early 1940s, the zoot suit — high-waisted, wide-shouldered, and impossible to miss — was a badge of pride for many young Mexican American, Black, and Filipino Americans…
- How Battles Shaped Lincoln's Political Decisions · 14 minIn August 1864, Abraham Lincoln was so sure he would lose re-election that he wrote it down, sealed the note, and had his cabinet sign it without reading it. In this episode, we…
- What Happened to Jimmy Hoffa? · 13 minOn July 30, 1975, Jimmy Hoffa waited in the parking lot of a restaurant outside Detroit for a meeting with two mobsters. They never showed. He called his wife from a pay phone —…
- The Dodleston Messages · 13 minIn 1984, a schoolteacher in the English village of Dodleston borrowed a BBC Micro computer from work and took it home. Then messages began appearing on it that nobody in the…
- Saint Brendan the Navigator · 13 minSometime in the sixth century, according to legend, an Irish abbot named Brendan set out into the Atlantic in a boat of ox hides, searching for the Promised Land of the Saints…
- THE HISTORIANS #3: History's Myth of the Lone Hero, w/ Hampton Sides & H.W. Brands · 35 minWelcome back to THE HISTORIANS — the series here on History Shorts where I sit down with two leading historians for an unscripted conversation about the questions that have…
- Hayes's Dry White House · 13 minFrom 1877 to 1881, the White House served no alcohol — not at state dinners, not at receptions. For more than a century, the credit and the blame went to First Lady Lucy Hayes…
- Trailer: The Historians — America's Lone Hero Myth (H.W. Brands & Hampton Sides) · 3 minOne name on the cover. One figure on the horse. One genius who saw it all and did it alone. This Friday, H.W. Brands and Hampton Sides sit down for The Historians to ask whether…
- The Statue of Liberty Crowdfunding Hustle · 13 minWe remember the Statue of Liberty as a gift from France. The reality was a decade-long scramble for money on both sides of the Atlantic. In France, ordinary citizens paid for the…
- The Unsinkable Violet Jessop · 14 minViolet Jessop was a stewardess for the White Star Line, and she was aboard for three of its worst days at sea. In 1911, the Olympic collided with a British warship. In 1912, she…
- How to Turn History into Emotion: The Apollo Story, with John Monsky · 22 minIn this episode of History Shorts, I sit down with John Monsky, the creator, writer, and narrator of the American History Unbound series. Monsky has developed a distinctive way…
- The Battle of Grunwald · 13 minJuly 15, 1410. Before one of the largest battles of medieval Europe, the Teutonic Knights sent two naked swords to the King of Poland as an insult. By nightfall, their Grand…
- When Spain was the Richest Empire in Europe. · 12 minIn 1545, the Spanish found a mountain in the Andes that seemed to be made of silver. For the next century, Spain pulled more precious metal out of the Americas than anyone in…
- President Grant's Betrayal, w/ John Reeves · 29 minUlysses S. Grant is remembered as the general who saved the Union, and a growing number of historians rank him among the better presidents for what he tried to do during…
- Cleopatra's Forgotten Daughter · 12 minWhen Cleopatra died in 30 BC, she left behind a ten-year-old daughter named for the moon. Cleopatra Selene was marched through Rome as a prisoner, raised by the woman her father…
- WWII Operation Caesar · 12 minIn February 1945, a brand-new German submarine slipped out of Norway bound for Japan, carrying jet engine parts, missile technology, two Japanese engineers, and about sixty-five…
- The Julius Caesar Health Debate · 13 minIn ancient Rome, a seizure during a public assembly could shut down the government — it was read as an omen from the gods. So what happens when the most powerful man in Rome is…
- Incident on Hill 192 · 12 minIn November 1966, five American soldiers set out on patrol in Vietnam's Central Highlands. Four of them kidnapped and murdered a young Vietnamese woman named Phan Thi Mao. The…
- The House of Medici · 13 minEaster Mass, 1478. Assassins strike inside Florence's cathedral, and their targets are two brothers from a family of bankers. The plot has the backing of the Pope himself. In…
- Athens vs. Sparta: The Original Superpower Rivalry · 12 minAt Thermopylae and Salamis, Sparta and Athens fought side by side and beat the largest empire on earth. Fifty years later, they spent twenty-seven years trying to destroy each…
- Who Was the Real William Howard Taft? w/ Walter Stahr · 34 minWilliam Howard Taft is the only person who has been both president and chief justice, and he is still usually filed under mediocre. He called his own administration humdrum…
- When FDR Wanted Hoover to be President · 14 minIn January 1920, Franklin Roosevelt wrote that Herbert Hoover was "certainly a wonder" — and that he wished "we could make him President." Before the Depression, Hoover was a…
- How Baghdad Saved Ancient Greek Philosophy · 12 minSocrates never wrote a word. Most of Aristotle's polished writing is lost forever. And for six hundred years after Rome fell, Western Europe had barely any Aristotle at all. In…
- The Third Tier: Theaters & Prostitutes · 13 minLook up from the stage of a big-city American theater in the 1830s and you'd see three levels of seats. The pit. The family boxes. And the third tier — with its own staircase…
- The Home Remedies that Killed · 15 minFor generations, nobody had to tell you what was in your medicine. Not the morphine in the syrup that quieted your teething baby. Not the arsenic in the wafers that promised a…
- The Most Expensive American War is... · 14 minMost people say World War II is the most expensive war in American history — $4.5 trillion in today's money. But that's only direct military spending. Add veterans' care…
- Eight Days that Ended the Gilded Age · 14 minOn September 6th, 1901, President McKinley was shot twice at a World's Fair in Buffalo. His first instinct was to protect his attacker and spare his wife the news. He appeared to…
- Poland: What Does it Take For a Nation to Survive, w/ Norman Davies · 42 minWhat does it take for a nation to survive after the state is gone? For 123 years, from 1795 to 1918, Poland did not exist on the map. It had been partitioned three times, divided…
- The Search for the Last Rebel Yell · 14 minThe rebel yell — the Confederate battle cry that terrified Union soldiers across four years of war — was never recorded during the Civil War. The phonograph wasn't invented until…
- From Burnsides to Sideburns · 13 minEvery time you use the word sideburns, you're accidentally commemorating one of the worst generals of the Civil War. Ambrose Burnside told Lincoln twice he wasn't the right man…
- Thucydides Invents History · 12 minIn 424 BCE, an Athenian general arrived too late to save a city from a Spartan attack. Athens exiled him for it. In that exile, he invented something that had never existed…
- Why did Hitler Declare War on America? · 13 minOn December 11th, 1941 — just four days after Pearl Harbor — Adolf Hitler stood before the Reichstag and declared war on the United States. He wasn't obligated to. The Tripartite…
- The Dreyfus Affair · 14 minIn 1894, French Army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason and sentenced to imprisonment on Devil's Island. Dreyfus was Jewish. The evidence against him was deeply…
- The Nixon v. Khrushchev Kitchen Debate · 14 minIn July 1959, Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev stood inside a model American kitchen in Moscow and started arguing. The subject? Washing machines, refrigerators, dishwashers…
- The Rise of American Air Power in WWII, w/ A.J. Baime · 31 minBestselling author A.J. Baime joins History Shorts for a full conversation about his upcoming book, Bird Men: The Rise of American Airpower and the Machine That Ended World War…
- The Lost Romanov Fortune · 15 minWhen Tsar Nicholas II and his family were killed in 1918, the Romanovs had been associated with staggering wealth accumulated over centuries of imperial rule. The Bolsheviks…
- Nellie Bly Around the World · 11 minIn 1889, 25-year-old journalist Nellie Bly boarded a steamship in New York carrying one small bag, one dress, and a remarkable assignment: Travel around the world faster than…
- Debunking the 1637 Tulip Mania · 15 minIn 1637, some Dutch tulip bulbs really did sell for extraordinary prices. But the famous story of Tulip Mania—families ruined, homes exchanged for flowers, and the Dutch economy…
- The Lost Tomb of Genghis Khan · 15 minGenghis Khan built an empire that stretched across much of Eurasia. Then, in 1227, he died—and his burial place vanished from history. According to later traditions…
- Alexander the Great's Road to Tyre · 16 minIn 332 BCE, Alexander the Great stood on the Mediterranean coast staring at a seemingly impossible target. Tyre sat on an island roughly half a mile offshore, protected by…
- J. Colter - America's First Mountain Man · 15 minIn 1806, the Lewis and Clark Expedition was finally heading home when one member asked permission to turn around. His name was John Colter. Over the next several years, Colter…
- Reassessing the Hindenburg Disaster, w/ Catherine Katz · 34 minOn May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg came in to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Crowds were waiting. Radio was already rolling. Thirty-four seconds later the greatest…
- Warsaw 1920 - The Battle that Saved Europe · 17 minIn August 1920, the Red Army approached Warsaw, and the newly independent Polish state appeared to be on the verge of collapse. The stakes stretched far beyond Poland. Bolshevik…
- The Worst Military Decision in Ancient History · 13 minIn 415 BCE, Athens made an extraordinary decision: invade Sicily. The expedition was enormous. Confidence was high. And one of its chief architects was Alcibiades—a brilliant…
- The Rise of Catherine the Great · 13 minIn 1744, a 14-year-old German princess arrived in Russia to marry the heir to the Russian throne. She spoke little Russian, had few resources of her own, and barely knew the man…
- South Sea Company - The Original Economic Bubble · 16 minIn 1720, London was gripped by an investment frenzy. Companies appeared almost overnight, promising fortunes from everything imaginable—and sometimes from nothing at all. One…
- Two Days in Berlin 1961 - Cold War (Almost) Turns Hot · 17 minOn October 27, 1961, ten American tanks and ten Soviet tanks faced each other across Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin—loaded, ready, and separated by barely 100 meters. For sixteen…
