History Unplugged Podcast

The Ancient World's Best Military Technology Was Constantinople's City Walls

On May 29, 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II captured Constantinople, bringing an end to over a thousand years of Byzantine rule. The city's formidable walls, which had stoo

Edgar Allen Poe’s Self-Sabotage, Early Death, and Path to Becoming America’s Greatest Poet

In the summer of 1849, Edgar Allan Poe knocked on the door of his friend John Sartain's Philadelphia workshop, wild-eyed and without luggage. He had fled a train in New J

England's Last Knights Fought in Armor Until the 1640s

The 17th-century battlefield ushered in a new era, with formed musketeers and pistol-wielding cavalry gradually taking over from the knights and men-at-arms that had domi

Vikings Went from Christendom’s Terror to Its Best Crusaders

In 1861, an archaeologist named James Farrer broke into a grass-covered Neolithic tomb on the Orkney Islands expecting to find ancient bones and treasure. The tomb was em

Why the Most Powerful Muslim Rulers in the Middle East Considered the Crusaders a Minor Annoyance

When the First Crusade arrived at the walls of Antioch in 1097, the two most powerful Muslim rulers in Syria were not preparing a joint defense. They were trying to destr

The Gold Rush Created Get Rich Quick Schemes and ‘Move Fast and Break Things’

On the morning of January 24, 1848, a carpenter named James Marshall climbed into a ditch beside a half-finished sawmill in the Sierra Nevada foothills, stooped down, and

Every Fight in American History Was Also a Fight Over Who Gets to Eat Good Bread

Early America’s most important invention wasn’t Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod, or the cotton gin. It was the world's first fully automated flour mill, built by Oliver

Romans Quarried Marble, Cathars Hid in Caves, and Nazis Built Tank Turrets in These Same Mountains

The Pyrenees stretch 270 miles from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, separating France from Spain, and most people think of them as a natural barrier: remote, barren, a

The Roman Emperor Who Spread Christianity Most Was Arguably Augustus (Even Though He Died in 14 AD)

Rome seemed fundamentally opposed to Christianity in the first century. After all, the empire fed Christians to lions, taxed their communities, and crucified their follow

5,000 Years of Punctuation: Why It Terrified Roman Scholars and Started a Russian Revolution

The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish mon

Charlemagne Dreamed of a Sword With Four Words on It and They Predicted Exactly How His Dynasty Would Fall

Late at night in his palace at Aachen, Charlemagne had a dream. A mysterious figure approached him carrying a sword engraved with four Germanic words: raht, radoleiba, na

Cicero—Rome’s Greatest Orator—Saved the Capital From Insurrection, But Couldn’t Save the Republic From Collapse

On December 7, 43 BCE, a sixty-three-year-old man was carried in a litter down a woodland path near the Italian coast, fleeing soldiers who had been sent to kill him. Whe

Do Napoleons or Hitlers Really Matter? Whether Leaders Make History or Their Societies Make Them

On March 13, 1930, Adolf Hitler was sitting in the passenger seat of his chauffeur-driven car when a trailer truck sped through an intersection and struck the vehicle, pu

Washington’s Most Revolutionary Moment Was Surrendering Absolute Power

Washington’s most extraordinary achievement was not winning the Revolutionary War or helping found a new nation. It was something far rarer: He gave up power, twice. Firs

Japan's Military Refused to Surrender Even After Two Atomic Bombs and a Coup Nearly Succeeded

At 1:15 p.m. on April 12, 1945, Franklin Roosevelt was sitting for a portrait at his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia, when his face suddenly fell forward. He raised his

Is Patton America’s Most Overrated General?

George S. Patton is considered one of America’s greatest generals for his blitzes across Europe in World War 2. He is celebrated for breaking out of Normandy because his

Stalin’s Ordered Killing of Trotsky Created the Playbook for Modern Political Assassination

Ramón Mercader expected to easily kill Leon Trotsky, silently and instantly. He had rehearsed the blow for months, practiced the angle, tailored a pocket into his raincoa

Belisarius Reconquered Africa and Italy for Rome. Why Did Rome Destroy Him for It?

In 533, a twenty-eight-year-old general named Belisarius sailed from Constantinople with 15,000 men to reconquer North Africa from the Vandals, a kingdom that had held it

Summer of Death: America’s Heat Wave of 1936 That Killed 12,000

A coast guardsman named Earl Cunningham froze to death on Lake Michigan trying to rescue five fishermen trapped on a drifting ice sheet. His last words were "I wish I cou

New Archeological Tech Is Rewriting Everything We Know About the Ancient Past

Humanity’s story from 10,000 BC to 3,000 BC (from the end of the ice age to the beginning of civilizations) follows this pattern: primitive hunter-gatherers slowly progre