PODCAST · history
The Old World with Will Tanner
by Will Tanner
Life Before Liberalism
Episodes
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The Gentleman Defeated: Lee Surrenders to Grant's Union Machine at Appomattox
This is the tale of how the Confederacy was defeated in the spring of 1865, tracking General Ulysses S. Grant's final victoyr at Petersburg after General John B. Gordon failed assault on Fort Stedman and the disaster at Five Forks. What followed was the chaotic evacuation of Richmond, the retreat...
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Lee Vs. Grant: How Lee Stopped the Union Juggernaut Against All Odds
In the autumn of 1863, after Gettysburg, the war in northern Virginia became a series of maneuvers between a depleted Union army and Robert E. Lee's weakened Army of Northern Virginia. Lee also had to detach James Longstreet to help Braxton Bragg in the West, leaving the Army of Northern Virginia...
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Triumph to Tragedy: The Great Partnership of Lee and Jackson (Part 2)
After the Maryland campaign and bloody draw at Antietam, the Army of Northern Virginia rested and refitted in the Shenandoah Valley before returning to the Rappahannock. During this pause, Robert E. Lee refitted, disciplined, and reorganized his army to reflect his faith in Jackson while the…
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The Great Partnership: Lee & Jackson's Rise to Glory (Part 1)
This episode traces the incredible, glorious partnership between Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson during the American Civil War. It begins with their contrasting backgrounds and temperaments, explaining why they together formed an especially effective command team for the Army of Northern...
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The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, and What We Must Learn from It
In the late 19th century, the British landed elite still seemed secure. A small group of aristocratic and gentry families owned the supermajority of the land, much of the best urban property, and many mineral rights, while also holding political office and shaping society through cultural...
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The Decline and Fall of America's W.A.S.P. Aristocracy, And What We Must Learn from It
This episode examines the rise, dominance, and disappearance of the WASPs, the old American families from the Northeast who dominated business, society, and politics for much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It distinguishes them from the Southern gentry, and defines them as an upper...
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John Smith: The Mercenary Who Built America
This is the retold story of the life of Captain John Smith, the military hero who saved Virginia, with a focus on how he represents the model American in many ways. I tell the tales of his upbringing, his Crusade against the Ottomans, his escape from slavery, his feuds with the Virginia Company,...
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From "Granny Lee" to Savior of Richmond: How Robert E Lee Almost Won the War after a Year of Disappointment
This is the story of how Robert E. Lee came to command the Army of Northern Virginia, and then used it to save Richmond while almost crushing McClellan in the Seven Days Battles. It is a story of early war debacles and embarrassments, prudent decision-making behind the scenes that led to...
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How the Virginia Gentry Became a Ruling Class
This is the in-depth story of how the Virginia gentry built itself into a true ruling class. Focusing in particular on "American Revolutionaries in the Making," this explores how the planter class of Old Virginia used a system of obligation, duty, and cultivated excellence to go from being…
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The Habit of Command: How the Virginia Gentry Raised Its Sons
This episode explains what Henry Adams called the "habit of command" in the Virginia gentry, showing how Virginia planter families developed a quiet assumption of leadership, public duty, and authority that helped define them from the colonial period through the 19th century. In it, I show how…
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Virginia Warrior: Robert E. Lee's Agonizing Road to War
After his Mexican-American War triumph and success at Fort Carroll, Robert E Lee faced a decade of frustration that culminated in his being the man who stopped John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and soon faced the impossible choice between leading the armies of his nation or his native state when...
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"The Best Soldier": Robert E. Lee's Mexican War Heroics
After watching him perform so valiantly as an officer in the Mexican-American War, General Winfield Scott would publicly declare Robert E. Lee to be "the very best soldier that I ever saw in the field." This is the story of what Lee accomplished as a middle-aged scout and engineer in the Mexican...
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Creating Christian Nobility with Evan Amato
In this episode, Will and Evan Amato discuss the idea of Christian nobility and what it means to be truly noble within the European and Christian tradition. The conversation begins with Pope Pius XII's speeches to the Roman aristocracy, especially his question of what nobility means at a time…
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Young Robert E Lee
This is the story of how Robert E Lee was forged into the Marble Man of legend while still a young man, showing how his early life in Alexandria after his mother and father lost Stratford trained him in excellence and taught him to use his good qualities to great effect. From there, he then got…
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How Robert E. Lee's Mother Forged the Marble Man | Anne Hill Carter Lee
This episode is about Anne Hill Carter Lee, the mother of Robert E. Lee, and how her life shaped his character. While only a few letters of hers and one portrait of her survive, her son repeatedly said he owed everything to her. Robert E. Lee's life of duty, self-command, thrift, piety, and quiet...
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Black-Horse Harry Lee: The Scandal That Lost Stratford and Disgraced a Dynasty
This is the tragic story of Henry Lee IV, known to history as Black Horse Harry Lee. Most influential as a friend and ally of Andrew Jackson's, but most infamous for a scandal that shocked the Virginia gentry to its core, Henry went from being a promising young man to the disgrace of Virginia in...
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The Swamp Fox: Francis Marion's Partisan War Alongside Light Horse Harry Lee
This is the story of Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of Southern Campaign fame, whose partisans worked with Light Horse Harry Lee and Lee's Legion to cut off Lord Cornwallis from his bases of Loyalist support and supply, which provided a substantial contribution to Patriot victory in the broader...
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Disgraced Cavalier: How Light-Horse Harry Lee Lost His Fortune and Family
This is the tale of how debt, speculation, and imprudence turned Light Horse Harry Lee from a celebrated Revolutionary War hero praised for his cavalry raids, his tactical brilliance, and his closeness to George Washington into a disgraced scoundrel known throughout Virginia as a dishonorable…
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Cavalier of the American Revolution: Light Horse Harry Lee's Military Career
This is the story of Light Horse Harry Lee, the dashing Cavalier of the American Revolution, and how he helped win the War for American Independence through his talented command of Lee's Legion. It is the tale of how he developed his skills as a horseman and leader in his Leesylvania estate,...
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Light-Horse Harry & Robert E. Lee: The Lees of Leesylvania
This is the story of the family that produced Light Horse Harry and Robert E Lee: the Lees of Leesylvania, the Virginia branch of the Lee family that produced a long line of planters, soldiers, politicians, and lawyers. In it, I contrast the Leesylvania Lees with the Stratford Hall Lees and show...
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The Virginia Gentry's Cursus Honorum: How to Build a Virtuous Aristocracy
Why were the Founders so excellent and our modern leaders so awful? Because they cultivated and developed themselves into great men rather than relying on credentialism and technocracy. This episode discusses the Virginia gentry as a ruling class that developed itself in virtue, duty, and the…
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The Virginia Gentry: How America's Only Aristocracy Formed in Old Virginia
For centuries, the Virginia gentry has been drenched in myth, romance, and Cavalier legend. Here, we cut through the romanticism of Old Virginia to discuss the reality of America's only real landed aristocracy. We describe the origins and formation of the Virginia gentry, how tobacco culture and...
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Forgotten Founding Father: Francis Lightfoot Lee, the Duty-Bound Virginia Gentleman
Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Savior of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Drafter of the Articles of Confederation. Respected by Northerner and Southerner alike. Known as the "sweetest" of the Lee family, and probably the most politically effective. Francis Lightfoot Lee is one…
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The Merchant Diplomat: William Lee's Secret Dutch Treaty and the Victory at Yorktown
A younger son of Thomas Lee, William Lee was the best businessman in the Lee Family of Virginia and used his skills as a merchant, trader, and radical London politician to help win the American Revolution through a clever bit of "militia diplomacy". Listen ad-free here:...
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Arthur Lee: The Forgotten Founder, Spy, and Diplomat Who Armed the Revolution
Without Arthur Lee, America would not have won the revolution: one of the earliest revolutionaries and most important pamphleteers, he became a spy and diplomat whose efforts secured the arms that won the battle of Saratoga. Yet now he is all but forgotten. Why? He was described by John Adams as…
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The Virginia Gentry: America's Only Aristocracy and What We can Learn from Them
In this episode, Will discusses the history, formation, and immense accomplishments of the Virginia Gentry with J Burden. The two cover why the Virginian planter class was different from the planters of the Deep South and the WASPs of the North, making it the only real American aristocracy. They...
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The Conway Cabal: Did Richard Henry Lee Betray George Washington?
This episode investigates the vital, lifelong partnership between George Washington and Richard Henry Lee, examining the persistent historical rumors that Lee sought to undermine the Commander in Chief in favor of General Nathanael Greene during the desperate winter at Valley Forge. Long before…
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The First and Forgotten Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee's Creation of America
First of the Founding Fathers to openly call for independence, the first to call for union of the states, and the first to call for a bill of rights, Richard Henry Lee was one of the greatest Founding Fathers and is the Founder most remarkable for the number of "firsts" to his name. It was also...
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Founding Brothers: How One Generation of Lees Won the Revolution and Built America
In the winter of 1750, the death of Thomas Lee left his six sons to inherit a massive empire of Tidewater land and transatlantic commerce—an inheritance that would ultimately forge them into the most formidable family alliance of the American Revolution. Steeped in the stern classical traditions…
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Father of Four Founding Fathers: Thomas Lee of Stratford Hall
How does a younger son, marginalized by primogeniture, forge America's most formidable revolutionary dynasty, siring four of the greatest Founding Fathers and two signers of the Declaration of Independence? This is the epic saga of Thomas Lee, the father of the Founding Fathers, builder of...
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The Reluctant Patriarch: Richard Lee II and the Lees of Virginia
This is the tale of how the Lee Family of Virginia became a fledgling American aristocracy after Richard Lee I died in 1664, leaving behind the foundations of a great family fortune: a large commercial and landholding empire divided between Virginia and London. In this episode, we dive into how...
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The Lee Family of Virginia: Descended from a Norman Knight?
This episode examines the Lee family of Virginia and their claim to descend from a Norman named Reynard de Lega through the landed gentry of Shropshire, namely the Lees of Coton Hall and Nordley Regis, the arms of whom they long claimed, and to whom they insisted they were related. It traces the...
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Richard Lee I, the Emigrant: Founder of the Lees of Virginia
This is the story of the dynast who founded the Lee Family of Virginia: Richard Lee I, also known as Richard Lee the Emigrant. In it we tell the story of his rise in Virginia, from his start as a Clerk of the Quarter Court and Indian trader to his time as great landed proprietor and Secretary of...
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Who Were the First Families of Virginia?
This episode introduces the First Families of Virginia, explaining how a small group of younger sons of the gentry and merchant families became a class of elite colonial families came to dominate first the Tidewater, and then Virginia. It begins by describing how younger sons hoped to rebuild...
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What Was Life Like Growing Up in Rhodesia During the Bush War? with Alice Henningway
Listen ad-free here: https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/what-was-life-like-growing-up-in If you are interested in what life was like in Rhodesia in the 1970s, during the height of the Bush War, from the perspective of a woman who grew up on a frontline farm often attacked, this is the…
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The Virginia Series Sources: What Books about Colonial and Early Republic Virginia You Ought Read!
These are the works I read to study and learn about the history of Virginia, from the earliest days of colonization into the modern, postbellum era. Collectively, these are a good way of learning about practically every aspect of the Old Dominion over that time period, from managing a plantation...
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The Knights of the Golden Circle: A Secret Filibustering Order Almost Built an Empire of Slavery
This is the tale of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a pro-slavery, semi-secret, and paramilitary society in the 1850s and early 1860s that aimed to conquer a vast territorial sphere comprising much of the Caribbean world, centered on Havana, and used filibustering in an attempt to realize that...
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Building Christian Heroes with Chase Davis
In this episode, Will and J. Chase Davis discuss his new book, Offensive Christianity, through the lens of where the modern church went wrong, and how to reclaim the Christian spirit of days past. They discuss the egalitarian drift of the church and where it began, how the Enlightenment and rise…
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The Real Story of Pocahontas: Betrayed by Her People, Adopted by the English
This is the true story of Pocahontas, not the Disney one. This is the tale of a beloved little princess in the Powhatan Confederacy named Matoaka known for her curiosity, hence the nickname "Pocahontas" that became invariably associated with the tale of Virginia's earliest days. She was used in a...
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The Cradle of the Revolution: How Virginia's Greatest Gentlemen Began the American Revolution in 1766
Listen ad-free here: https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/the-cradle-of-the-revolution-how In this show, Will argues that Virginia, rather than Massachusetts, was the cradle of the American Revolution. To do so, he begins with the French and Indian War, describing the cost of it to both Virginia...
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The Life of John Smith: Virginia's First Hero
In this episode, Will tells the tale of the life of John Smith, the mercenary-turned-explorer who was the first great Virginia hero. This is the tale of how Smith won his knighthood by defeating three Ottoman Turks in single combat, how he ended up as a leader in the original settlement of...
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John Rolfe: How the Hero Twice Saved Virginia
Listen ad-free and access the transcript here: https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/john-rolfe-the-hero-who-twice-saved This is the tale of the heroic John Rolfe, the English farmer and gentleman who saved the fledgling colony of Virginia not once, but twice. In this episode, we describe how...
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The Golden Age: How the Virginia Gentry Cultivated the Founding Generation
This is the story of Colonial Virginia in its fullest flowering. From its unique culture to its excellent people, from the glorious Georgian mansions for which it is still remembered to the political leaders its tobacco plantations produced, this is how the special society that grew out of the...
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The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe: The Birth of Virginian Chivalry
The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe: 12 Virginia Gentlemen who embarked upon the Transmontane Expedition with Governor Alexander Spotswood as he sought to open new lands to settlement, defeat the attempt of the French to box Virginia in, and bend the Topping People to his will. A romantic…
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1622: The Indian Massacre that Almost Destroyed Virginia
The Great Massacre of 1622 almost destroyed Virginia. Understanding that the ever-larger numbers of settlers and their accumulation of land would destroy his people and their way of life, Great Chief Opechancanough, the brother of Powhatan and uncle of Pocahontas, bands the Powhatan people…
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Virginia's Military Culture, and How It Created the American Military Culture with Paul Fahrenheidt
In this episode, Will and Paul Fahrenheidt discuss Virginia's unique military culture. They begin with its origins in the British militia system and Indian fighting, then discuss how the mercantile backgrounds of the first families impacted it, and then discuss how it became a tremendous force…
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Bacon's Rebellion and the Birth of Virginia's Golden Age
This is the tale of Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion against Governor Sir William Berkeley, the long-ruling governor of Virginia who went from beloved Cavalier to despised despot. It is the story of how the engrossment of Virginia's lands by the Virginia gentry, the sub-penny trap in tobacco prices…
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The Virginia Cavaliers: Myth or Reality?
Were the famed Virginia Cavaliers truly the architects of the Old Dominion, or are they merely a phantom of Southern chivalry's imagination? Did those proud and defiant Royalists, the "Distressed Cavaliers" of legend, ever actually flee to the Tidewater to escape the dreary tyranny of Oliver...
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An Interview with Charles Murray: The Real Reasons Apollo Succeeded
How did NASA boldly advance the Apollo Program over the course of a decade to accomplish the greatest feat of mankind: the landing of humans on the Moon and their safe return to Earth? In this episode, Will sits down with Charles Murray—renowned author of The Bell Curve and Coming Apart—to…
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Tobacco and Plantations: The Making of the Old Dominion
his is the tale of how tobacco created the plantations in Virginia for which the Old Dominion is known, and how those plantations entrenched and solidified the power of the famous "Topping People" of Virginia, those First Families of Virginia and Virginia Gentry who ruled the state for decades.…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Old World with Will Tanner have?
The Old World with Will Tanner currently has 137 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Life Before Liberalism
How often does The Old World with Will Tanner release new episodes?
The Old World with Will Tanner publishes regularly with 137 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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Who hosts The Old World with Will Tanner?
The Old World with Will Tanner is created and hosted by Will Tanner.
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