All Episodes
Displaying 31 - 60 of 122 in total
92 - The Assassination of President Lincoln
Well, the Civil War is over. Mostly. The big battles are over, and though there are going to be a few more battles, everyone knows that the south has lost. The ques...
91 - Grant vs. Lee and the Surrender at Appomattox
At the same time that Sherman was burning his way through Georgia, but avoiding major battles, Grant was up in Virginia, trying to provoke major battles. In March of ...
89 - The Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg
The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, well, the draw at Antietam that forced the South to stop their invasion of the north, was seen as a huge victory in the no...
88 - The Battle of Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation
The war has been going pretty well for the south at the mid point of 1862, but the south has less men, less guns, less cannons, less of almost everything. Less manufa...
87 - Ulysses S Grant and the Battle of Shiloh
At this point, in late 1861, the war is not going well for the Union. The early battles of the Civil War were mostly Union defeats, or at least draws where the Rebel ...
83 - The House Begins to Divide
Last episode, we talked about the revolutions in Europe in 1848. The United States is about to have a revolution, I mean, another one, at least from a certain point o...
86 - Stonewall Jackson and the First Battle of Bull Run
Well, here we are, at war. Sort of. Shots were fired at Fort Sumter, but no one was actually killed in the battle. But now the battle lines are being drawn. Lincol...
85 - Fort Sumter - The American Civil War Begins
Well, here we are, right at the brink of disaster. Things are about to get really busy. The United States is about to begin a unique, and very bloody, war. It’s uni...
84 - Lincoln and the Secession of the South
Well, here we are, about to watch a house divide against itself. It’s not going to be pretty. I have to say, as I start this episode, that I really feel like we’re g...
82 - The Revolutions of 1848
Last episode, we looked at the massive flow of people that moved west along the Oregon Trail in the US, and I mentioned that it was part of one of the biggest migratio...
81 - The Oregon Trail, the Mormons, and the California Gold Rush
This past February, the San Francisco 49ers lost the super bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs, and that brings up the inevitable question, ‘What the heck is a 49er?’ Why ...
80 - The Mexican American War
Ok, just to be clear here, I’m talking about the Mexican-American war that happened from 1846 to 1848, not the current battle that is taking place on the US Mexico bor...
79 - Manifest Destiny and the Wild West
Well, we’re back in the United States after talking about Queen Victoria and the British Empire, and honestly, I think I’m going to have to spend more time talking abo...
78 - Queen Victoria and the British Empire
Last year, in 2023, the longest reigning monarch in British history passed away. That monarch was Queen Elizabeth II, and she reigned for over 70 years. That, by the...
77 - The Republic of Texas!
Sort of ironic that here we are talking about the time that Texas became an independent from Mexico, and became a republic, right at the same time that there’s a big c...
76 - Andrew Jackson and the Indians
In this episode, we are going to talk about Andrew Jackson, who is one of the most interesting men to have ever been the President of the US. In fact, if it wasn’t fo...
75 - The Congress of Vienna
So I have to start this episode by saying the Congress of Vienna, well, it isn’t a very dramatic moment. There’s no battles, no great drama, no moment of someone stan...
72 - Simón Bolívar and South American Independence
In this episode, we are heading to South America, to take a look at the independence movement that started to happen there in the early 1800’s. And the key person we ...
73 - The Monroe Doctrine and the Missouri Compromise
The new President, James Monroe, who was elected in 1816, did not want the European powers meddling in the New World, now that they were no longer distracted by Napole...
72 - The War 1812
So by the beginnings of the 1800’s, the United States was starting to solidify itself as an actual nation, and beginning to spread westward. But it was also beginning...
71 - The Industrial Revolution
Ok, we are coming to the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. But it’s not a clear transition this time. The Middle Ages basically ended with the beginning...
70 - Benjamin Franklin
Ok, I have to acknowledge at the start here that I should have probably put this episode about Franklin before Adams or Jefferson, surely before Napoleon, but I was tr...
69 - Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase
I mentioned last episode that the only other Founding Father who could really rival John Adam’s resume was Thomas Jefferson. And you could kind of say that everything...
68 - John Adams
Ok, we are back to the new world, after lingering in France for more than 50 years, so we’ve gone from France to America, and we’ve gone back in time just a bit, so we...
67 - Napoleon
Well, we’re still in France. In this episode, we’re going to talk about one of the most famous Frenchmen ever, Napoleon Bonaparte. But I should start by pointing out ...
66- The Reign of Terror and the Rise of Napoleon - The French Revolution, part 2
Well, last episode I tried to summarize the French Revolution, and I realized that there is no way to cover it in just one podcast episode, so here we are in part 2. ...
65 - Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité - The French Revolution, part 1
So in the New World, there’s a new country, with a new Constitution and a new central government. This had never happened before, it was an astounding thing in world ...
64 - We the People
Well, you probably guessed from the title of the episode what this one is about. It’s about the US constitution, which starts with the amazing line, ‘we, the people.’...
63 - George Washington and the Revolutionary War
Well, the colonists have gone and done it. They have declared themselves independent of Great Britain, who has basically laughed off the Declaration of Independence, ...
62 - When in the Course of Human Events
Ok, last episode, I talked about how the Declaration of Independence came to be drafted, and I decided that it was really such an important document that I needed to t...