Western Civ

The Bolsheviks did not need to take over Russia. It was never a foregone conclusion. But after October 1917, it became increasingly inevitable.Western Civ 2.0 

The Russian Revolution's final result was never a foregone conclusion. Lenin made several crucial mistakes early on that might have resulted in his demise. We see that today. Free Trial Western Civ 2.0

It is that time. The Russian Revolution would be a lot different without Vladimir Lenin (Lenin is not his real name by the way...) But Lenin strikes a deal with the Germans who hope that he can steer Russia out of the Great War and he hits Petrograd like a lightning bolt. Western Civ 2.0 

The Russian Revolution did not come out of nowhere. It was not merely the result of World War One. Its legacy is long. Today, we go all the way back to the abolition of serfdom and hit the main events that lead to that critical month: March 1917.Western Civ Podcast 2.0

1916 is one of the most depressing years in human history and today we're covering it. This is the year that makes World War One the horror it is. This is the year of Verdun, of the Somme, and of countless deaths on other fronts.It is also the year everyone starts wondering: will it all be worth it?Support Western Civ

The western front grinds to a slow halt, despite the best efforts of the generals on both sides who appear to be overly committed to killing their own men in pointless offensives... Across the pond, America tries to stay neutral while watching the unfolding Mexican Revolution to the south. Western Civ 2.0 

The Eastern Front in World War One is often overlooked. But, even beyond the Battle of Tannenberg, the Eastern Front is critical not only in understanding the outcome of the war but the 20th century as a whole.Western Civ 2.0 

In this bonus, author interview, I sit down with Marc Baer and discuss his latest book: Children of Abraham: The 1,400-Year History of Jewish–Muslim Relations. Today, the dominant narrative of the relationship between Jewish and Muslim peoples assumes a long history of violent hostility. In Children of Abraham, historian Marc David Baer lays this myth to rest, showing how Jews and Muslims lived together in the Middle East and Europe, more often in cooperation than in conflict, for more than a millennium. When Islam emerged in the seventh century, Muslims and Jews were bound by shared religious tenets and common cultural practices, and for centuries afterward, they were often allies.Baer introduces readers to Muslim warriors fighting for a medieval Turkish Jewish kingdom on the Caspian Sea, Jewish viziers leading the Muslim sultan’s troops in Spain, and Jewish literary lights and political party leaders in modern Egypt and Iraq. But Baer resists the alluring fable that Jews and Muslims ever lived in interfaith utopia, and he shows how European colonization and nationalism fed the emergence of modern antisemitism and Islamophobia and helped to drive these two peoples further and further apart.Traversing the full spectrum of Jewish–Muslim relations, this is an urgent, essential history for understanding today’s unending conflicts in the Middle East and beyond.Buy The Book HERE

This is a bonus look at what I do on our other feed: Western Civ 2.0. The feed covers similar topics compared to this one but in much greater detail. The number one way you can continue to support the show and enjoy bonus content is to sign up for this feed. For only $2 per month, you get ad-free versions of this feed plus all my bonus content. You can try a free trial on HERE. 

Germany nearly won World War One in the first six weeks, just as it planned. Nearly.But it turns out that timetables are a heck of a lot easier to work out on paper than in real life....Western Civ 2.0

Somehow, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, throws the entire world into war. Of course, it was not an accident. The alliance systems, the militarism, the nationalism, all of it conspires to doom Europe to its own destruction. But it all starts with two bullets fired by a nineteen-year-old assassin.Support The Show

World War One did not happen accidentally. There were a multitude of factors that led up to the Great War. Today we cover them. Western Civ 2.0 

The period from 1877 to 1912 saw America transform from an agrarian, second-tier power, to one of the more dominant nations in the world. This is that story. SUPPORT THE SHOW

Today I sit down with Brendan Ballou and discuss a book EVERYONE should read: When The Companies Run The Courts. America has a hidden justice system. There, decisions are made in secret, and “judges” are paid for by the companies and abusers who are being sued. Victims usually lose. But when they do, they cannot appeal, and they cannot turn to real courts for help.They are trapped in this system, and quite likely, so are you. You joined it when you accepted the Terms and Conditions on a website, opened a new credit card, or started a new job. When you did, you agreed to be trapped in this secret justice system called “forced arbitration.” Through its secrecy and corruption, forced arbitration helps companies cheat their workers, helps banks deceive their customers, and helps predators act with impunity. If companies and the very powerful often seem beyond the reach of the law, it’s because they are, and forced arbitration is the reason.Yet despite the fact that forced arbitration profoundly shapes our lives, almost nothing has been written about it. Brendan Ballou’s When Companies Run the Courts changes that. It shows how forced arbitration came to be, how it makes your life worse, and how we might escape it. Buy The Book HERE.Support Western Civ

Today I am proud to welcome back renowned historian, Adrian Goldsworthy, to discuss his latest book: Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry That Shaped Ancient Greece. No period has more profoundly influenced the Western world than classical Greece, and at its center stood two cities: Athens and Sparta. Side by side, they beat the Persians, the only superpower of that age. Yet later, they spread conflict and destruction throughout the eastern Mediterranean, culminating in the horrors of the Peloponnesian War. Athens and Sparta tells the definitive history of the relationship between brutal, militaristic Sparta and brash, radically democratic Athens. Eminent historian Adrian Goldsworthy narrates their incredible rise to prominence and how they became allies, rivals, and enemies. Ultimately, Goldsworthy shows that Athens and Sparta were more than competitors vying for power. They were polar opposites in ideology and culture, both driven by the Greek longing to excel, who led radically different experiments in how to run a state. A remarkable account of ancient Greece at its height, this is the tale of the two cities that helped build it—before almost tearing it apart. Buy The BookSupport Western Civ

The era we call Reconstruction is one of the most hopeful, and ultimately, heartbreaking of American history. The passage of the Reconstruction Amendments provided legal rights to thousands of people. But the bargain of 1877 and the corruption of the Gilded Age ultimately prove too much weight for the promise of equality to bear. Western Civ 2.0

In the second half of the 19th Century, Europe goes nuclear and expands across the globe. The "Scramble for Africa" and press for colonies drove the European states to compete with one another in ways that will have disasterous consequences. Western Civ 2.0 

In this bonus, author interview, I sit down with historian Roderick Beaton and discuss his latest book, Europe: A New History. What do we talk about when we talk about Europe? Is it defined by geography? Or is it politics, or shared culture? In Europe, award-winning historian Roderick Beaton tells the story of Europe as never before—as the history of an idea, and a collective identity. Since its dramatic birth in ancient Greece, “Europe” has been defined, and redefined, by its people. Through this powerful lens, and with the narrative drive and scope of a novelist, Beaton deftly surveys Europe’s major historical developments: the rise and fall of Rome; the explosion of Christianity; the intellectual ferment of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment; the arrival of Europeans in the Americas; the violent upheavals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the uncertainties of the present. Throughout, original sources allow the voices of the past, from Tacitus to Thatcher, to speak for themselves.  Grappling with the multilayered identities that have always come with being European, Europe places the Europe of today in a long arc of history stretching back more than 2,500 years.BUY THE BOOKSupport Western Civ

In the span of a decade, Bismarck does the unthinkable. He unites Germany, changing the history of western civilization forever. Western Civ 2.0

Over a period of thirty years, Italy goes from a fragmentation of independent, kind of, states and kingdoms and into a unified, kind of, nation.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

The Crimean War really does sound the advance warning of the death knell for the Concert of Europe. If only anyone knew that...Western Civ 2.0

Here I quickly cover Russian history from Peter the Great, through Catherine the Great, and then down to the beginning of the Crimean War. Western Civ 2.0

After Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the Confederacy slowly fades. Despite Lee's efforts, Grant grinds his army down through murderous battles such as the Wilderness and Cold Harbor. Ultimately, the resouces of the Union are simply too much. But even as America ultimately wins its civil war, its greatest president falls to an assassin's bullet. Western Civ 2.0 

In three days in Pennsylvania in 1863, the American Civil War turns forever. Western Civ 2.0 

The Battle of Antietam drives President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. But Robert Lee wins two dramatic victories in this aftermath at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Western Civ 2.0

Two ironclads face off to change the shape of naval warfare while Robert E. Lee emerges from the Seven Days Battles as the lead Confederate commander.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

The Battle of Shiloh starts as an apparent Confederate victory, but the loss of General Johnston and the resulting chaos dooms the South. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, the Anaconda Plan takes hold.Western Civ. 2.0 Free Trial 

When the American Civil War begins, everyone expects a picnic. The Battle of Bull Run erases those false expectations.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

From Nat Turner's Rebellion to the Compromise of 1850, Americans did everything they could to avoid the Civil War.... and failed. Western Civ Podcast 2.0 Free Trial

In the 19th Century, Europeans carved up the globe with devastating consequences.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

In the United States today, there is no faith more dominant than Christianity. In Chosen Land, historian Matthew Avery Sutton chronicles Christians’ five-hundred-year endeavor to turn North America into their version of the kingdom of God, revealing the fruitful and dynamic entanglement between the history of America and the history of American Christianity.In the centuries after Christianity first arrived on American shores, colonizers and colonized from New England to Spanish California practiced many varieties of the faith. After the founding of the United States, the nation’s lack of a state religion forced new and evolving strains of Christianity to battle for potential adherents, as they still do to this day. As American Christianity has bent, fractured, and adapted to changing times, Christian belief has shaped everything from the promise of Manifest Destiny to Ronald Reagan’s approach to the Cold War, the rise of the Southern Lost Cause narrative to the triumphs of the civil rights movement.Buy the book HERE.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

When the potato crop failed in 1845 in Ireland, no one at the time knew just how momentous it was. By the close of 1847, Ireland's population, through death and emigration, had fallen by nearly three million souls. It still has not recovered. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

From Paris to Vienna, 1848 rocked Europe. While the revolutions themselves failed, they set the stage for dramatic changes to come. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

Political, economic, and social currents sweep Europe, bringing massive change and setting the stage for the Revolutions of 1848.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

The presidency of Andrew Jackson was instrumental in reshaping America politically, socially, and economically. Today we cover the Bank War, Nullification Crisis, and Indian Removal.Western Civ 2.0

The Congress of Vienna was supposed to freeze the map of Europe in time. It did not take long for it to thaw.Western Civ 2.0

Before we move on to more political history, I want to broadly discuss some of the changes sweeping Great Britain and then ultimately the rest of Europe driven by the Industrial Revolution. Today we focus in on "Cottonopolis" - otherwise known as Manchester.Western Civ 2.0

Simon Bolívar drives the Spanish out of South and Central America. His vision for what came afterwards, however, did not last.Western Civ Podcast 2.0 Free Trial

The Cry of Dolores sparks the Mexican Independence Movement ending in victory over Spain in 1821. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

There is no issue that dominated American politics like chattel slavery between the American War of Independence and the American Civil War. Today we go back to Bacon's Rebellion to try and explain why and then work our way all the way through the administration of John Quincy Adams.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial 

Today I sit down with author and historian James McDougall and talk about his most recent book: Worlds of Islam: A Global History. From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. Over the span of a thousand years, armies, missionaries, and merchants carried it to the edges of Europe, the coasts of Southeast Asia, and the remote interior of China. By the nineteenth century, Islam encompassed a world of great diversity, from Muslim-ruled empires to new nations where Muslims lived out their faith among many others. As empires fell and new superpowers rose, Muslims proved to be as adaptable and dynamic as modernity itself.In Worlds of Islam, historian James McDougall explores Islam’s origins and transformations as Muslims adapted to changing times and conditions, from Late Antiquity to the digital age. In the twentieth century, while monarchs in the Gulf asserted dynastic privilege and fundamentalists in Egypt and Pakistan preached social morality, revolutionaries from Algeria to Indonesia fought for national self-determination, and activists in North America and Europe campaigned for civil liberties and social justice.Sweeping and authoritative, Worlds of Islam narrates the epic story of how Muslims emerged as a community, built empires, traversed the globe, came to number in the billions, and became modern.Buy The Book HERE.Support Western Civ

The Congress of Vienna sought to put Europe back together after the Napoleonic Wars. It was not an easy task. But, by and large, the delegates were successful and peace prevailed for 99 years until the outbreak of World War One.Western Civ 2.0

Napoleon returns from exile for one last chance at empire. His defeat at Waterloo, however, seals his fate.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

Desperate to enforce his Continental System, Napoleon invades Russia. But Tsar Alexander will not fight and, instead, Napoleon finds himself cornered and finally beaten.Western Civ 2.0 

James Madison watches as Washington DC burns. But America emerges from the War of 1812 more united and confident than ever before.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

Thomas Jefferson's administration was full of contradictions and sweeping successes. Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

France, under Napoleon, reaches the apex of its power. But, within the empire, the Spanish Ulcer and Continental System begin to unravel everything he had built.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial 

Napoleon reaches the height of his powers on the frozen fields of Moravia.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

It does not take long for Napoleon to consolidate power. But reversals in the Caribbean require the First Consul to rethink his North American strategy resulting in the Louisiana Purchase.Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

We catch up on the fledgling United States. George Washington becomes the first President of the United States (obviously...) and then the Election of 1800 secures the first peaceful transition of power in American history. Well, peaceful unless your name is Alexander Hamilton or Aaron Burr, that is...Western Civ Podcast 2.0 Free Trial