History Unplugged Podcast

For much of Christian history, the Church had little involvement in marriage, which was primarily a contract between families. It wasn’t until the fourth century that church weddings emerged, and even then, they were mostly reserved for the elite. Fast forward to the High Middle Ages, and marriage became a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church. Since then, the church has been seen as inseparable with matrimony. What changed over the centuries? To explore this dynamic is today’s guest, historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of “Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity.” We explore how Christianity’s views on sex, marriage, and gender evolved over time; that early Christian marriage was not a universal sacrament but a social institution governed by authority figures. He highlights how for much of history, the Church was more concerned with celibacy than marital sexuality. The Reformation reshaped these ideas, introducing new roles for women in religious life, from pastor’s wives to Quaker preachers. We uncover how Christianity’s past can inform its present and future. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the night of September 5, 1942, the USS Gregory (APD-3), a converted destroyer turned high-speed transport, was caught in a deadly ambush near Guadalcanal. The ship had been supporting U.S. Marine forces, ferrying troops and supplies, when it was mistaken for a larger threat by a group of Japanese destroyers. Outgunned and unable to escape, Gregory was hammered by shellfire, set ablaze, and ultimately sank in Ironbottom Sound. Lieutenant Commander Harry F. Bauer, refusing to abandon his men, fought to the end and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. As the surviving crew struggled in the water, Mess Attendant Charles J. French emerged as an unlikely hero, tying a rope around his waist and towing wounded shipmates for hours through shark-infested waters to safety. Against overwhelming odds, he kept them together until they were finally rescued. Join us as we uncover this harrowing tale of sacrifice, heroism, and the unbreakable spirit of the USS Gregory’s crew. To discuss this story is today’s guest Carole Avriett, author of “Midnight in Ironbottom Sound: The Harrowing WWII Story of Heroism in the Shark-Infested Waters of Guadalcanal.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are living through a period that is unique in human history. For the first time in more than ten thousand years, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. In the middle of this century population growth will stop, and the number of people on Earth will start to decline - fast. As Gee demonstrates, our population has peaked, and is declining; our environment is becoming inimical to human life in many locations; our core resources of water, arable land, and air are diminishing; and new diseases, simmering conflicts, and ambiguous technologies threaten our collective health. Can we still change our course? Or is our own extinction inevitable? There could be a way out, but the launch window is narrow. Unless Homo sapiens establishes successful colonies in space within the next two centuries, our species is likely to stay earthbound and will have vanished entirely within another ten thousand years, bringing the seven-million-year story of the human lineage to an end. To look at our escape options, we are joined by Henry Gee, author of “The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire.” He envisions new opportunities for the future of humanity—a future that will reward facing challenges with ingenuity, foresight, and cooperation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The determined attempt to thwart Ottoman dominance was fought by Muslims and Christians across five theaters from the Balkans to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, from Persia to Russia. But this is not merely the story of a clash of civilizations between East and West. Europe was not united against the Turks; the scandal of the age was the alliance between King Francis I of France and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Meanwhile, the resistance of the Saadi dynasty of Morocco to Ottoman encroachment played a critical role in denying Constantinople direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. By the same token, though religious imperatives were critic al to the motivations of all the key actors involved, these in no way fell neatly along the Christian Muslim divide. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V desired nothing more than to eradicate the Protestant heresy metastasizing throughout his domains, but the threat of Turkish invasion forced him to stay his hand and indulge his Lutheran subjects to ensure a common defense. Nevertheless, the collective effort to constrain the expansion of the Ottoman superpower did succeed with the ultimate victory in 1571 the tipping point in reordering the trajectory of history. To explore these facets of medieval and early modern European history is today’s guest, Si Sheppard, author of “Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a series of military defeats over the winter of 1776–1777, British military leaders developed a bold plan to gain control of the Hudson River and divide New England from the rest of the colonies. Three armies would converge on Albany: one under Lieutenant General John Burgoyne moving south from Quebec, one under General William Howe moving north from New York City, and a third under Lieutenant Colonel Barrimore St. Leger cutting east from Lake Ontario along the Mohawk River Fort Stanwix lay directly on the path of St. Leger's force, making it a key defensive position for the Continental Army. By delaying St. Leger's troops and forcing a retreat, the garrison's stand at Fort Stanwix contributed to Burgoyne's surrender at the Battles of Saratoga a month later, a major turning point in the course of the war. To look at this battle, we are joined by today’s guest William Kidder, author of Defending Fort Stanwix: A Story of the New York Frontier in the American Revolution. He offers an account of life in and around the fort in the months leading up to the siege, detailing the lives of soldiers and their families, civilians, and the Haudenosaunee peoples with a focus on both the mundane aspects of military life and the courageous actions that earned distinction. We discuss the stories of local men and women, both white and Indian, who helped with the fort's defense before, during, and after the siege and showcases an overlooked story of bravery and cooperation on New York's frontier during the American Revolution. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No language is as inconsistent in spelling and pronunciation as English. Kernel and colonel rhyme, but read changes based on past or present tense. Ough has many pronunciations: ‘aw’ (thought), ‘ow’ (drought), ‘uff’ (tough), ‘off’ (cough), ‘oo’ (through). In response to this orthographic minefield, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform, risking their reputations to bring English into the realm of the rational: Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, Eliza Burnz, C. S. Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, and the innumerable others on both sides of the Atlantic who, for a time in their life, became fanatically occupied with writing thru instead of through, tho for though, laf for laugh (and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it too). This began with the “simplified spelling movement” starting with medieval England and continuing to Revolutionary America, from the birth of standup comedy to contemporary pop music, and lasting influence can still be seen in words like color (without a U), plow (without -ugh), and the iconic ’90s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U.” To explore this history is today’s guest, Gabe Henry, author of “Enough is Enuf, Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell.” We look at the past and present of the digital age, where the swift pace of online exchanges (from emojis to social media) now pushes us all 2ward simplification. Simplified spelling may, at last, be having its day. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Slave, revolutionary, king, Henry Christophe was, in his time, popular and famous the world over. Born to an enslaved mother on the Caribbean island of Grenada, Christophe first fought to overthrow the British in North America, before helping his fellow enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, as Haiti was then called, to end slavery. Yet in an incredible twist of fate, Christophe began fighting with Napoleon's forces against the formerly enslaved men and women he had once fought alongside. Later, reuniting with those he had abandoned, he offered to lead them and made himself their king. But it all came to a sudden and tragic end when Christophe—after nine years of his rule as King Henry I—shot himself in the heart, some say with a silver bullet. But why did Christophe turn his back on Toussaint Louverture and the very revolution with which his name is so indelibly associated? How did it come to pass that Christophe found himself accused of participating in the plot to assassinate Haiti's first ruler, Dessalines? And what caused Haiti to eventually split into two countries, one ruled by Christophe in the north and the other led by President Pétion in the south? To look at this story, we are joined by Marlene Daut, author of “The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe,” exploring the-still controversial enigma that he was. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The North Pole looms large in our collective psyche—the ultimate Otherland in a world mapped and traversed. It is the center of our planet’s rotation, and its sub-zero temperatures and strange year of one sunset and one sunrise make it an eerie, utterly disorienting place that challenges human endurance and understanding. Erling Kagge and his friend Børge Ousland became the first people “to ever reach the pole without dogs, without depots and without motorized aids,” skiing for 58 days from a drop off point on the ice edge of Canada’s northernmost island. Erling, today’s guest, describes his record-making journey, probing the physical challenges and psychological motivations for embarking on such an epic expedition, the history of the territory’s exploration, its place in legend and art, and the thrilling adventures he experienced during the trek. Erling also observes the key role that this place holds in our current geopolitical conversations. He is the author of the book After the North. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The nineteenth century was a time of rapid growth and development for the game of “base ball,” and players George Wright and Albert Spalding were right in the thick of it. These two young men, the first superstars of the professional game, won the hearts of a country in search of a unifying spirit after a devastating civil war. Today’s guest is Jeff Orens, author of Selling Baseball: How Superstars George Wright and Albert Spalding Impacted Sports in America. While these two men came from starkly different backgrounds—Albert was a young, gangly pitcher from the country’s rural heartland and George the consummate athlete from the New York City area—their captivating performances on the field, along with their promotion of the game and of sports equipment, fed the public’s insatiable appetite for leisure-time pursuits and helped grow professional baseball to unprecedented heights. George Wright and Albert Spalding’s stories are woven together to paint a sweeping picture of the early days of professional baseball, the evolution of sports as a business, and the advancement of sports equipment and the sporting goods industry. Their rise as players and businessmen mirrored the rise of a nation that would lead the world in the coming century. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shortly before dusk on November 3, 1870, just as the ferryboat El Capitan was pulling away from its slip into San Francisco Bay, a woman clad in black emerged from the shadows and strode across the crowded deck. Reaching under her veil, she drew a small pistol and aimed it directly at a well-dressed man sitting quietly with his wife and children. The woman fired a single bullet into his chest. “I did it and I don’t deny it,” she said when arrested shortly thereafter. “He ruined both myself and my daughter.” Though little remembered today, the trial of Laura D. Fair for the murder of her lover, A. P. Crittenden, made headlines nationwide. The operatic facts of the case—a woman strung along for years by a two-timing man, killing him in an alleged fit of madness—challenged an American populace still searching for moral consensus after the Civil War. The trial shone an early and uncomfortable spotlight on social issues while jolting the still-adolescent metropolis of 1870s San Francisco, a city eager to shed its rough-and-tumble Gold Rush-era reputation. Today’s guest is Gary Krist, author of “Trespassers at the Golden Gate: A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco.” The story is an exploration of a nation still scarred by war and for a city eager for the world stage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

And Alexander wept, seeing as he had no more worlds to conquer. That’s a quote from Hans Gruber in Die Hard, which is a very convoluted paraphrase from Plutarch’s essay collection Moralia. There’s plenty of truth in that unattributed quote from Mr. Gruber. Alexander the Great’s death at 323 BC in Babylon marked the end of the most consequential military campaign in antiquity. He left behind an empire that stretched from Greece to India, planted the seeds of the Silk Road, and made Greek an international language across Eurasia, all in 13 short years. He became and remained the biggest celebrity in the ancient world, probably only replaced by Jesus a few centuries into the Christian era. But what if he had not died as a young man? What if he had lived years or decades more? How much more influence could he have had? We have clues about Alexander’s plans for the future – and they come from Greek chroniclers Diodorus and Arrian, writing centuries after his death. They include conquering the Mediterranean coast all the way to the Pillars of Hercules (Rock of Gibraltar), building a tomb for his father Philp that would be as large as the Great Pyramid of Giza, and transplanting populations from Greece to Persia and vice versa to unite his domains through intermarriage. To explore this hypothetical scenario is Anthony Everitt, author of “Alexander the Great: His Life and Mysterious Death.” We look at the life of the most influential person in the ancient world, and explore the ramifications of his life having even more influence. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine being stranded thousands of miles deep in enemy territory with 10,000 soldiers, no allies, no clear way home, and the only means of escape was by foot. This was the predicament faced by Xenophon and the Greek mercenaries in Anabasis, one of the most gripping survival stories of the ancient world. In this episode, we delve into the incredible journey of these soldiers, their battles against the elements, rival armies, and even their own internal strife. Xenophon’s firsthand account is not just a tale of military strategy—it’s a timeless story of leadership, perseverance, and what it means to face impossible odds (it’s been referenced by Napoleon, Lawrence of Arabia, and the director of the 1979 movie “The Warriors”). Why has this 2,400-year-old narrative inspired everyone from ancient generals to modern filmmakers? To unpack the enduring power of Anabasis, we’re joined by Alex Petkas, host of The Cost of Glory podcast, who brings a fresh perspective to Xenophon’s masterwork. Alex shares his insights into Xenophon’s leadership style, his philosophical roots as a student of Socrates, and the universal lessons we can draw from the march of the 10,000. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Privateers were a cross between an enlisted sailor and an outright pirate. But they were crucial in winning the Revolutionary War. As John Lehman, former secretary of the navy under President Ronald Reagan, observed, “From the beginning of the American Revolution until the end of the War of 1812, America’s real naval advantage lay in its privateers. It has been said that the battles of the American Revolution were fought on land, and independence was won at sea. For this we have the enormous success of American privateers to thank even more than the Continental Navy.” Yet even in the face of plenty of readily available evidence, the official canon of naval history in both Britain and the United States virtually ignores privateers. Privateers were owners of privately owned vessels granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war – filled in the gaps. Nearly 2,000 of these private ships set sail over the course of the war, with tens of thousands of Americans capturing more than 1,800 British ships. A truly ragtag fleet ranging from twenty-five-foot-long whaleboats to full-rigged ships more than 100 ft long, privateersmen were not just pirates after a good loot – as too often assumed – but were, instead, crucial instruments in the war. They diverted critical British resources to protecting their shipping, played a key role in bringing France in as an ally, replenished much-needed supplies back home, and bolstered morale. Today’s guest is Eric Jay Dolin, author of “Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution.” The story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told many times – yet often missing from maritime histories of the period is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that were, in fact, critical to American victory. Privateering provided a source of strength that helped the rebels persevere. Although privateering was not the single, decisive factor in beating the British—there was no one cause—it was extremely important nonetheless. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did Abraham Lincoln preserve democracy during the Civil War, or did he endanger it in the process? To explore this paradox, we’re joined by renowned historian and Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo, author of Our Ancient Faith. Guelzo takes us deep into the high-stakes decisions of Lincoln’s presidency, from the suspension of habeas corpus to the Emancipation Proclamation. He argues that Lincoln’s vision of democracy was rooted in a moral imperative to save the Union as a global symbol of self-governance. But was his willingness to push the boundaries of executive power a necessary evil—or a dangerous precedent? We discuss how Lincoln reconciled his wartime decisions with the principles of the Founding Fathers, why the 1864 election might be democracy's greatest test, and how his book, Our Ancient Faith, sheds light on Lincoln’s belief in the Union as a sacred trust. Whether you see Lincoln as the Great Emancipator or the reluctant authoritarian, this episode will leave you rethinking what it means to lead a democracy in its darkest hour. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Spanish conquistators slowly moved through Latin America, they encountered levels of wealth that were unimaginable. Most famously, Incan Emperor Atahualpa was captured by Francisco Pizarro and paid a ransom of a room filled with gold and then twice over with silver. The room was 22 feet long by 17 feet wide, filled to a height of about 8 feet. Such events fired the imaginations of the Spanish, who created myths such as of El Dorado, the “gilded man” who, legend held, was daily powdered from head to toe with gold dust, which he would then wash from himself in a lake whose silty bottom was now covered with gold dust and the golden trinkets tossed in as sacrificial offerings. The story was fake but it lead to real expeditions, some of which were so dangerous that they nearly killed party members. Such is the 1541 expedition led by Gonzalo Pizarro, Francisco’s brother, to find El Dorado, and his well-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana down the Amazon to find these riches. Today’s guest is Buddy Levy, author of River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana and the Deadly First Voyage through the Amazon. He reconstructs the first complete European exploration of the world’s largest river and the relentless dangers around every bend. Quickly, the enormous retinue of mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, and hunting dogs are decimated by disease, starvation, and attacks in the jungle. Hopelessly lost in the swampy labyrinth, Pizarro and Orellana make a fateful decision to separate. While Pizarro eventually returns home barefoot and in rags, Orellana and fifty-seven men continue downriver into the unknown reaches of the mighty Amazon jungle and river. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During World War II, approximately half a million German prisoners of war were held in the United States, housed in 700 camps spread across the country, from Florida to Maine. These POWs were treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, often working in agriculture and other industries to alleviate domestic labor shortages. Today, evidence of these POW camps has all but vanished, and with them the harrowing knowledge of what happened beyond the battlefield. But today’s guest, William Geroux (Jer-oh), author of “The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America,” not only exposes the forgotten history of these POW camps on American soil, but of the Nazi power games that dominated life within them. While German prisoners were protected by the Geneva Convention and generally treated fairly by their American captors, ardent Nazis in dozens of the camps began to punish and attack their fellow German inmates who failed to live up to Nazi ideology. What followed was a grisly series of murders in the heart of the United States. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United States is the most heavily armed nation in the world, with an estimated 400 million guns in private hands. But few know that this legacy can be directly traced back to a handful of gunmakers who worked in the Springfield Armory of Massachusetts in the early 1800s. Their names became synonymous with American guns—Colt, Smith, Wesson, Winchester, and Remington among them – and they made firearms portable, powerful, rapid firing, and distinctly American. They also created the nation’s industrial base by making guns out of interchangeable parts, becoming early adopters of the assembly line process. Today’s guest is John Bainbridge, Jr., author of Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them. More than just keen inventors and wily businessmen, these iconic gun barons were among the founding fathers of American industry. Their visionary work in the development of rapid-fire weaponry helped propel the U.S. into the forefront of the world’s industrial powers in the mid-nineteenth century. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For millennia, humans eked out survival atop the surface of the Earth and land had no unique value. Eventually, however, humans turned land into an advantage. For several thousand years, control of land meant control of natural resources, like water and wild animals. For several thousand more years it meant agricultural production, raising domesticated animals, harvesting timber. And finally, land became economic might invested in Kings, chiefs, and political leaders around the globe. Large landowners sat atop the pyramid of social hierarchy. Today’s guest is Michael Albertus, author of “Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies.” We see how modern history has been defined by land reallocation on a massive scale. From the 1500s on, European colonial powers and new nation-states shifted indigenous lands into the hands of settlers. The 1900s brought new waves of land appropriation, from Soviet and Maoist collectivization to initiatives turning large estates over to family farmers. The shuffle continues today as governments vie for power and prosperity by choosing who should get land. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Benjamin Franklin died on April 12, 1790, he made a final bet on the future of the United States -- a gift of 2,000 pounds to Boston and Philadelphia, to be lent out to tradesmen over the next two centuries to jump start their careers. Each loan would be repaid with interest over ten years. If all went according to Franklin’s inventive scheme, the accrued final payout in 1991 would be a windfall. Today’s guest is Michael Meyer, author of Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet. He traces the evolution of these twin funds as they age alongside America itself, bankrolling woodworkers and silversmiths, trade schools and space races. Over time, Franklin’s wager was misused, neglected, and contested—but never wholly extinguished. Franklin’s stake in the “leather-apron” class remains in play to this day, and offers an inspiring blueprint for prosperity in our modern era of growing wealth disparity and social divisions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For generations, the great palaces of Britain were home to living histories, noble families that had reigned for centuries. But by the end of the nineteenth century, members of elite society found themselves, for the first time, in the company of arrivistes. Their new neighbors—from chorus girls to millionaire greengrocers to guano impresarios—lacked lineage and were unencumbered by the weight of tradition. In the new book The Power and the Glory, the author -- and today’s guest -- Adrian Tinniswood reconstructs life in the country house during its golden age before the Great War, when Britain ruled over a quarter of the earth’s population and its stately homes were at their most opulent. But change was on the horizon: the landed classes were being forced to grapple not only with new neighbors, but also with new social norms and expectations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.