Ep 3.35: Leo’s Demons and the Descent Toward War

As the 20th century barrels toward its darkest hours, this episode opens with a haunting scene: a St. Louis priest‑chaplain whispering the Prayer to St. Michael over the hood of a jeep while German artillery thunders in the distance. From that moment, we widen the lens to confront the century Pope Leo XIII foresaw—a century in which human dignity is assaulted on every front. We trace the chain of upheavals that shaped the world between the wars: the preventable carnage of World War I, the vengeful Treaty of Versailles, the global economic collapse, and the ideological poisons that filled the vacuum. Communism, born of revolution and sharpened by famine and terror, spreads across continents. Racial pseudoscience and Social Darwinism take root in Europe and America. And in Germany, the writings of Count de Gobineau and the resentments of a broken nation help prepare the ground for Adolf Hitler’s rise.