HISTORY This Week

July, 1845. Dr. Smith Boughton, the man behind the mask of "Big Thunder," is sitting in a Hudson jail after a trial that ended in a hung jury.The Anti-Renters had to celebrate Independence Day with cannon fire and readings of the Declaration, but without their leader. The rebellion across Upstate New York is escalating: an undersheriff with a bully's reputation is terrorizing farm families in the Catskills, masked Calico Indians are massing at rent sales, and before summer's end, a lawman will lie dying in a tenant farmer's bed. New York now has to decide: are these rebels murderers, or is the system they're fighting the real crime? What happens when the Anti-Renters trade their tin horns for the ballot box? And how does a local revolt over rent end up shaping the politics of a nation?Special thanks Reeve Huston, emeritus associate professor of history at Duke University and author of Land and Freedom: Rural Society, Popular Protest, and Party Politics in Antebellum New York; Victoria Kupchinetsky and Misha Gutkin, director and producer of the film Calico Rebellion; David Fleming, the town supervisor of Nassau, NY; Nancy Newman, professor at SUNY Albany and author of the book Songs and Sounds of the Anti-Rent Movement in Upstate New York; and the Association of Public Historians of New York State.You can find all the books we’ve used to make recent HISTORY This Week episodes at historythisweekpodcast.com.

Today, to celebrate America's 250th birthday, we have a special announcement: we are launching HISTORY This Week+ to all of our followers! (historythisweekpodcast.com/subscribe)This is something we’ve wanted to do for a while… we’ve been listening to your feedback: you don’t love the ads, you want more history. Well, HTW+ solves both of those problems.We are offering two tiers of our premium subscription, allowing you to unlock ad-free listening and gain access to bonus content, especially extended cuts of our interviews.When producing these episodes, the majority of our interview tape is left on the cutting room floor, and our interview with Ken Burns is no exception. We spent over an hour with Ken and his producing partner, Sarah Botstein, discussing the launch of their documentary, The American Revolution.As a preview of what you’ll get with an HTW+ subscription, we’re bringing you this interview in its (mostly) original form. Enjoy Sally’s conversation with Ken and Sarah, and sign up for HTW+ at historythisweekpodcast.com/subscribe.Reach out with any questions at [email protected].

July 4, 1839. Sixty-three years after 1776—and centuries after the medieval period—feudalism is alive and well in the United States.High on a rocky plain in upstate New York, a crowd of tenant farmers gathers in the village of Berne to read aloud a declaration of independence… but not the one you're thinking of. These families are still bound to a landlord by perpetual leases their grandfathers signed, owing bushels of wheat and a share of every sale for as long as the land exists. Today they're done. They call their leases "voluntary slavery" and vow to "take up the ball of the Revolution where our fathers stopped it." It's the opening shot of the Anti-Rent War,  a revolt that will pit disguised farmers against sheriffs and posses across the Hudson Valley, and force New York to ask whether a feudal bargain has any place in a republic. How did manor lords survive the Revolution? And what would it finally take to break their grip?Special thanks Reeve Huston, emeritus associate professor of history at Duke University and author of Land and Freedom: Rural Society, Popular Protest, and Party Politics in Antebellum New York; Victoria Kupchinetsky and Misha Gutkin, director and producer of the film Calico Rebellion; David Fleming, the town supervisor of Nassau, NY; Nancy Newman, professor at SUNY Albany and author of Songs and Sounds of the Anti-Rent Movement in Upstate New York; and the Association of Public Historians of New York State.You can find all the books we’ve used to make recent HISTORY This Week episodes at historythisweekpodcast.com.

June 28, 1971. It’s the second annual “Unity Day” rally at Columbus Circle in New York City, organized by the Italian American Civil Rights League. Joe Colombo is the very public face of the League, a group that actively fights discrimination and ugly stereotypes against the Italian-American community, such as their association with organized crime and the Mafia. The problem? That same Joe Colombo is a leader of the Mafia, one of the heads of the “Five Families” in New York. It’s an open secret; many people across the city know who he really is, and the FBI is hot on his tail, trying to catch him in the act. On this day, Colombo’s dual life—as a media-facing advocate and as an underground criminal—will come crashing down in a violent display.Special thanks to Don Capria, co-author of Colombo: The Unsolved Murder; Selwyn Raab, veteran Mafia reporter and author of Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires; and Geoff Schumacher, vice president of exhibits and programs for The Mob Museum in Las Vegas.You can find all the books we’ve used to make recent HISTORY This Week episodes at historythisweekpodcast.com. **This episode originally aired June 28, 2021.

Malcolm Gladwell and President Barack Obama introduce us to one of the most chaotic,complicated, and fascinating times in American history, revealing why Reconstruction stilldefines our country today.Listen to Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise on Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts.Reconstruction begins where, for most Americans, the story of the Civil War ends: The North isvictorious and slavery is abolished. But what happened next was one of the most importantdecades in American history, a moment when our country grappled with its original sin andimagined — and briefly enacted — a more perfect union.Drawing from archives, letters, diaries, court records, eyewitness testimonies and some ofAmerica’s most accomplished scholars and storytellers, Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promiseexplores this unprecedented historical moment in rich, kaleidoscopic detail. The series unpacks atime when a determined band of reformers attempted to radically reimagine American society —from the Constitution to the roots of its economy to the very nature of citizenship itself.Reconstruction was a time when Americans struggled over fundamental questions about ourcountry. Who gets to be a citizen? Who has the right to vote? Who can own property? In short,who belongs? Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise explores what America might havelooked like if Reconstruction had truly succeeded, and how the ultimate backlash toReconstruction prevented our country from becoming a truly multiracial democracy.Guiding us through this extraordinary moment in American history is best-selling author andhost of Revisionist History Malcolm Gladwell. He’ll have help from luminaries, historians, andstorytellers such as President Barack Obama, Jelani Cobb, Wyatt Cenac, David Blight, KaiWright, Kellie Carter Jackson, Ashley C. Ford, Manisha Sinha, Kidada Williams, and Eric Foner.This is a series about why America has yet to make good on the promise of Reconstruction, andhow it still might.An Audible Original in partnership with History Channel. Produced by Higher Ground andPushkin Industries.

June 15, 1865. German-American statesman Carl Schurz is traveling to Washington to meet with President Andrew Johnson when he stops at a friend’s home in Philadelphia. That night, during a séance, a teenage medium claims to summon the spirit of Abraham Lincoln… and delivers Schurz a mysterious command from beyond the grave.Soon, Johnson sends Schurz on a fact-finding mission through the defeated South. What he discovers will help shape the course of Reconstruction and expose the violence threatening America’s fragile new democracy.Today, Sally speaks with bestselling author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell about Reconstruction’s forgotten history, the battle over how it has been remembered, and why the questions it raised remain unfinished today.Listen to Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise now on Audible, or anywhere you get your podcasts, starting June 18th. Link: https://lnk.to/reconstructionHWGet in touch: [email protected] Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcastFollow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

June 8, 1191. The Crusaders and Muslim forces are locked in battle over the city of Acre. On one side is Saladin, the great Muslim leader who has already recaptured Jerusalem. On the other, an armada arrives carrying England’s king: Richard the Lionheart.The Crusades will become one of the defining conflicts of the Middle Ages. But for centuries, their history fades into legend… until a Scottish writer named Walter Scott brings them roaring back. His novels turn knights, tournaments, and holy war into blockbuster entertainment. But Scott’s message was more complicated than simple nostalgia: he saw the Crusades as reckless, violent, and hollow. His readers mostly saw the armor.How did a Scottish poet revive this religious war and turn it into an international phenomenon? And how did his underlying message get lost, warped, and then repurposed to justify even more violence?Special thanks to Ian Duncan,  professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh.You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com.Get in touch: [email protected] Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcastFollow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

June 6, 1944. As thousands of Allied soldiers prepare to storm the beaches of Normandy, they climb down rope nets into small wooden landing craft bobbing in the dark waters of the English Channel. Within hours, these boats will carry them into the largest amphibious invasion in history.The craft are known as Higgins boats, named for their inventor, Andrew Higgins: a hard-driving New Orleans boatbuilder who built his reputation designing vessels that could speed through swamps, crash through obstacles, and go places other boats couldn't. Higgins was stubborn, abrasive, and relentless. The Navy repeatedly dismissed his ideas. He refused to go away.How does a small-time New Orleans boatbuilder force his way into the military industrial complex? And what exactly is so special about these boxy little Higgins boats?Special thanks to Dr. John Curatola, Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. His book is Armies Afloat: How the Development of Amphibious Operations in Europe Helped Win World War II.You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com.Check out new episodes of History's Greatest Machines with Dolph Lundgren on the HISTORY Channel, premiering on June 1st. Stream the next day at History.com.Get in touch: [email protected] Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcastFollow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

Search "World War II with Tom Hanks" wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop every Tuesday. World War II with Tom Hanks reexamines history’s most devastating conflict for a new century. Across twenty hours, the series traces the war’s full arc–from the rise of fascism to Hiroshima–uncovering the decisions, hidden networks, and lasting consequences that continue to shape our world. Episode 1 – The Beginning In September 1939, enabled by a secret pact between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, Germany invades Poland with its lightning style of tank warfare, plunging Europe back into war. Adolf Hitler can now pursue his longed-for racial war, as the world watches in horror, and the stage is set for global conflict. This episode features interviews with (in order of appearance): Dan Carlin, podcaster, Hardcore History Alexandra Richie, professor, Collegium Civitas Robert Citino, senior historian, National WWII Museum Cameron Zinsou, associate professor, Command and General Staff College Geoffrey Wawro, professor, University of North Texas Jadwiga Biskupska, associate professor, Sam Houston State University Simon Sebag Montefiore, historian and author Roger Moorhouse, historian and author Leah Wright Rigueur, associate professor, Johns Hopkins University James Bulgin, Imperial War Museum General Wesley Clark, US Army, Ret. Sean McMeekin, professor, Bard College

May 30, 1945. In Washington, Secretary of War Henry Stimson calls General Leslie Groves to his office and demands answers: which Japanese cities are about to become targets for the atomic bomb? What follows will pull Stimson—a deeply religious statesman who believed in restraint, but also in overwhelming force—into a profound crisis over morality, destruction, and what modern war is becoming. How did Henry Stimson grapple with the bomb? And after helping usher in the atomic age, how did he reckon with what he’d done?Special thanks to Evan Thomas, journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II.You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com.Get in touch: [email protected] Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcastFollow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

May 23, 1934. On a muggy Louisiana morning, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow speed toward the Texas border. They’ve been on the run for over a year—wanted for robbery and murder—and the lurid news accounts of their exploits have made them famous. But today, Bonnie and Clyde’s legendary crime spree comes to an end … in a hail of bullets.Why did some come to view these Depression Era outlaws as agents of chaos the country needed? And what was the real motivation behind their crimes?Special thanks to our guest, John Neal Phillips, author of Running With Bonnie and Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults.** This episode originally aired May 22, 2023.Get in touch: [email protected] Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcastFollow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

May 12, 1949. After eleven months under Soviet blockade, the people of West Berlin flood into the streets to celebrate. The lights are back on. The autobahn is open. The siege is over.But just months earlier, West Berlin seemed doomed.Surrounded deep inside Soviet-controlled territory, more than two million Berliners are suddenly cut off from food, fuel, electricity, and supplies after Joseph Stalin seals the city’s borders. Many fear the Western Allies will abandon Berlin altogether. Instead, American and British leaders gamble on something unprecedented: supplying an entire city by air.In this episode, how the Berlin Airlift became the largest sustained airlift in history—and the first major showdown of the Cold War. Along the way: the flamboyant American commander known as “Howlin’ Mad” Howley, Soviet attempts to break the city’s spirit, pilots landing in near-zero visibility every few minutes, and the high-stakes crisis that helped create NATO and reshape the postwar world.Special thanks to Giles Milton, author of  Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World. You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com.

Family Lore is a weekly narrative podcast that celebrates and investigates ancestral mystique. Each episode begins with a guest sharing a fascinating family legend, followed by a historical deep-dive to uncover the truth and meaning behind the tale. Available now: link.pscrb.fm/f0281/FLFD

May 9th, 1942. In the Lustgarten, a sprawling park in the center of Berlin, a strange new attraction opens to the public. It’s a maze of tents, glowing under red lightbulbs. Inside: a staged vision of the Soviet Union. Filthy streets, starving children, torture chambers. A horror show.The man behind it all is Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda, and the most powerful figure in Berlin. Posters, radio broadcasts, films, classrooms… his message is everywhere. The enemy is at the gates. The war must be won. No matter the cost.And Berliners are watching. Some believe it. Some look away. Some quietly resist.Because beyond the spectacle, the war is beginning to close in. Bombs fall on the city. Neighbors disappear. Truth itself becomes something the regime can manufacture.This is life inside Nazi Berlin at the center of World War II.How do ordinary people live under a system built on propaganda and fear? And when the story begins to crack… what happens next?Special thanks to Ian Buruma, professor of human rights and journalism at Bard College, and author of Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945.For more on this story, search for “Inside the Nazis’ Supernatural Obsession” on Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to HISTORY This Week (aired Jun 2, 2025).Get in touch: [email protected] Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcastFollow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

February 4, 1955. In a New York courtroom, the Comics Czar takes the stand. He’s in charge of enforcing a new code, meant to keep comic books from corrupting America’s youth, and he’s here to prove that his work has cleaned up the industry. But that afternoon, a noted psychologist named Fredric Wertham argues that his work has not nearly gone far enough. When the hearing comes to a close, the committee is left to decide: what is the future of the comic book? Why did one of the country’s leading psychologists see them as a major threat to American children? And what can the Great Comic Book Scare teach us about moral panics? Special thanks to our guests, David Hajdu, author of The Ten-Cent Plague; and Jeremy Dauber, author of American Comics: A History. ** This episode originally aired Jan 31, 2022. Get in touch: [email protected]  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweekpodcast Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

Editor’s note: This episode originally aired January 9, 2023. Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr. passed away in February 2025 at the age of 100. Lt. Col. James Harvey III still resides in New Jersey, now 102 years old. -- January 11, 2022. Lt. Col. James Harvey arrives at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada for the first time in 73 years. He’s there to accept a plaque celebrating the last time he was there, for the Air Force’s first-ever weapons competition. Back then, Harvey and the other Tuskegee Airmen on his team had squared off against the best military pilots around. They tackled high-skill tests of simulated aerial warfare… and they won. But over the decades, the official record of their victory was lost or neglected. Who were these exceptional Black pilots? And what did it take to rescue their accomplishments from obscurity and bring them into the light? Special thanks to our guests: Lt. Col. James Harvey III; and Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., who passed away in February 2025 at the age of 100. Lt. Col. Stewart was the co-author of Soaring to Glory. Thanks also to Zellie Rainey Orr, author of Heroes in War, Heroes at Home, and to Daniel Haulman, retired historian at the Air Force Historical Research Agency and author of Misconceptions About the Tuskegee Airmen. -- Get in touch: [email protected]  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweek Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

November 30, 1954. At about 12:45 in the afternoon, a space rock comes plummeting through the roof of a house in Sylacauga, Alabama. It bounces off a stand-up radio, ricochets around the living room, and collides with the thigh of Mrs. Ann Hodges, who’s been napping on the couch. Newspapers declare: “experts agreed unanimously that Mrs. Hodges was the first person known to have been struck by a meteorite.” What happened to this space rock after it crashed to Earth and thrust itself into volatile human affairs? And what happened to the human beings whose lives were upended by this rarest of rare events? Thanks to our guests: Dr. Julia Cartwright, planetary scientist at the University of Alabama; Billy Field, professor at the University of Alabama and screenwriter; and Julie Love Templeton, attorney in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Dr. Cartwright is involved in a number of art/science collaborations to engage and educate the public about meteorites and planetary science. You can find out more on her website, https://le.ac.uk/people/julia-cartwright. Keep an eye out for Billy Field’s latest project, TheStoryAcorn.com, which launches in January 2023. The website will feature history from the Civil Rights movement, told by those who lived it. The website teaches students to gather stories from their own communities and share them with the world. Thanks also to Mary Beth Prondzinski, former collections manager at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, and to the Alabama Museum of Natural History. ** This episode originally aired November 28, 2022. -- Get in touch: [email protected]  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweek Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

October 4, 1915. President Woodrow Wilson designates Dinosaur National Monument as a national historic site. That’s a big deal, right? There must’ve been a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony, maybe even a parade. But no. In 1915, nobody really cares about dinosaurs. But that is all about to change. And when it does, it is largely because of two paleontologists. Two guys who started off as best friends … until their growing obsession with unearthing and cataloging dinosaur bones would turn them into rivals. Then enemies. How did the competition between a pair of paleontologists lead to unprecedented dinosaur discoveries? And how did their rivalry unhinge them both?  Special thanks to guest Dr. Hans Sues, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. ** This episode originally aired October 3, 2022. Get in touch: [email protected]  Follow on Instagram: @historythisweek Follow on Facebook: ⁠HISTORY This Week Podcast⁠ To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com

May 16, 1920. Tens of thousands of people surround St. Peter’s Basilica to honor Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who died nearly five hundred years before. Joan’s feats in battle—and her visions of God—have become legendary since her heyday during the Hundred Years' War. And today, the Catholic Church is making her a saint. But Joan was a real person – and while many supported her during her lifetime, many others wanted her dead. Who was this curious figure? And how did her faith turn the tides of a seemingly endless age of violence? Special thanks to Nancy Goldstone, author of ⁠The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc⁠; and Charity Urbanski, associate history professor at the University of Washington. ** This episode originally aired May 15, 2023.

April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. But in just five years time, the emperor will be dead and Cixi will be planning a coup to take power for herself. How will she ever succeed? Special thanks to our guests: Jung Chang, author of Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, and Professor Ying-chen Peng, author of Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making in Art.**This episode originally aired April 24, 2023.

April 10, 1912. As the RMS Titanic pulls away from a crowded port on the south coast of England, it almost crashes. Just in time, it’s able to turn off its engines and prevent a collision with a smaller ship. Four days later, though, a serious disaster will not be avoided, and the Titanic’s first voyage will be her last. But during her brief life, the vessel is a microcosm of the Gilded world around her. How did this opulent luxury liner come to exist? And how did it foretell the dangers of wealth, technology, and arrogance that shaped the world around it, and the world we live in now?Special thanks to our guests, Susie Milar and Gareth Russell, author of The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era.**This episode originally aired April 4, 2022.To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

February 26, 1924. 10 Defendants enter a courtroom in Munich. They are being charged with an attempted coup. They tried to overthrow the government of the Weimar Republic… and almost succeeded. All eyes are on the second defendant to enter the room. When the judge reads this man’s name into the record, he identifies him as a Munich writer named Adolf Hitler.Today: Hitler’s first attempt to seize power. How did his 1923 coup fail? And why would Hitler later say that this failure was “perhaps the greatest good fortune of my life?”Thank you to Thomas Weber for speaking with us for this episode, author of the book Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi. Thank you also to our guest Peter Ross Range, author of 1924: The Year that Made Hitler. We also read David King’s book The Trial of Adolf Hitler in researching this episode–it’s a great resource if you want to learn more about this story.**This episode originally aired February 21, 2022.To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com

February 11, 2005. FBI agents bust down the door of a cinder block house near the University of Kentucky campus. Amid flash grenades and screaming teens, they arrest three students – plus a fourth student in a nearby dorm. The crime? Stealing almost $750,000 of rare books and manuscripts from the library at Transylvania University. Why did four freshmen decide to actually go through with their real life version of Ocean’s Eleven? And how did they plan to get away with it?Special thanks to our guests, BJ Gooch, retired special collections librarian; Eric Borsuk, whose memoir is called American Animals: A True Crime Memoir; and Tom Lecky, rare book and manuscript specialist.To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com** This episode originally aired February 6, 2023.

History repeats itself this week with an episode from the HISTORY This Week archives: Sept 5, 1698. Tsar Peter the Great of Russia returns home from a year-long European tour. When noblemen, religious figures and friends gather to welcome him home, Peter pulls out a straight razor, holds it to their throats, and…forcibly shaves their beards. This event will go down in history as a first step towards Russian geopolitical power. Before Peter’s reign, Russia was an isolated nation that was largely ignored by the rest of the world. How did Peter the Great almost single-handedly drag Russia onto the world stage? And how did his great beard-shaving endeavor lead to the Russia we know today?Special thank you to our guest Lynne Hartnett, Ph.D., professor of History, Villanova University and Understanding Russia: A Cultural History. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.