Conversations: What is actually taught in our history classrooms, w/ Brendan Gillis
Release Date: 05/02/2025
Russia's Invisible Rocket Man
History Shorts
He launched Sputnik. He sent Yuri Gagarin into space. He helped turn the Soviet Union into the world's first space superpower. And almost no one knew his name. Sergei Korolev was the brilliant engineer behind the Soviet Union's greatest early triumphs in the Space Race. But before becoming the architect of its space program, Korolev had been arrested during Stalin's purges, tortured, sent to the Gulag, and nearly killed by the government he would later help make famous. Even at the height of his success, Soviet secrecy kept his identity hidden. Newspapers simply called him the mysterious...
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The Persian King who Punished the Ocean
History Shorts
In 480 BC, Persian King Xerxes I was preparing one of the largest invasions of ancient Greece ever attempted. To move his enormous army into Europe, his engineers constructed floating bridges across the Hellespont, linking Asia and Europe. Then a storm destroyed them. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes responded by declaring war on the water itself. He ordered the Hellespont whipped 300 times, had shackles thrown into the sea, and commanded his men to brand the water with hot irons as punishment for defying him. The bridges were rebuilt. This time, the Persian army crossed. But...
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The WWI Sepoy Mutiny of Singapore
History Shorts
In February 1915, with the First World War raging, hundreds of Indian soldiers serving the British Empire in Singapore suddenly mutinied. Men of the 5th Light Infantry turned their weapons against their officers and seized control of parts of the colony. For nearly a week, British authority in one of its most important Asian strongholds teetered as fighting spread and colonial officials scrambled to respond. Why they rebelled remains complicated. Rumors circulated that the Muslim soldiers would be sent to fight the Ottoman Empire. Wartime propaganda, resentment of British rule, poor...
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CIA's Secret Weather Weapon in Vietnam
History Shorts
During the Vietnam War, the United States launched a secret operation with an extraordinary objective: use the weather as a weapon. Beginning in the 1960s, American aircraft flew missions over Southeast Asia seeding clouds with chemicals in an attempt to extend the monsoon season. The goal of Operation Popeye was simple—produce more rain over key sections of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, turning roads into mud, triggering landslides, and making it harder for North Vietnam to move troops and supplies south. The program remained secret for years before being exposed to the American public,...
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Was Benjamin Franklin a British Spy?
History Shorts
Benjamin Franklin was a printer, scientist, inventor, diplomat—and possibly one of the most effective intelligence operators of the American Revolution. While living in London, Franklin cultivated political contacts, acquired private correspondence, and secretly sent sensitive information back to the colonies. During the Revolution, his diplomatic mission in Paris became a center of intrigue, filled with spies, double agents, intercepted letters, secret codes, and British attempts to penetrate the American delegation. The remarkable part? One of Britain's most valuable spies was working...
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The 1835 Bat Men of the Moon
History Shorts
In August 1835, a New York newspaper announced an astonishing discovery: life had been found on the Moon. According to The Sun, famed astronomer Sir John Herschel had used a revolutionary new telescope to observe lunar forests, strange animals, crystal formations—and even intelligent, winged humanoids. The reports were detailed, scientific-sounding, and completely fabricated. Readers couldn't get enough. Circulation soared as the newspaper published installment after installment of what became known as the Great Moon Hoax. Even after doubts emerged, the story had demonstrated something...
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President Wilson Has a Stroke
History Shorts
In October 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a devastating stroke that left him partially paralyzed and severely impaired. But the full extent of his condition was kept from Congress, the Cabinet—and the American public. For the remaining seventeen months of his presidency, access to Wilson was tightly controlled by his wife, Edith Wilson, and his physician. Government documents passed through Edith's hands. Officials struggled to see the president. Major decisions were delayed or filtered while the country was left uncertain about who was actually running the executive branch. Edith...
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Robert Harris on Agrippa: Friendship, Power & the Making of the Roman Empire
History Shorts
Bestselling author Robert Harris joins History Shorts for a conversation about his newest novel, Agrippa. Harris returns to ancient Rome to tell the story of Marcus Agrippa — the brilliant general, master engineer, and lifelong right-hand man to Augustus. In this wide-ranging interview, he discusses how he approached writing from Agrippa’s perspective, the complicated friendship and power dynamic at the heart of the book, the challenges of limited historical sources, and the contemporary resonance of a republic giving way to one-man rule. He also reflects on writing cinematically and the...
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Geronimo Surrenders
History Shorts
For decades, Geronimo resisted attempts by the United States and Mexico to confine the Apache people to reservations. His small band repeatedly escaped into the rugged mountains of the Southwest, pursued by thousands of American troops across some of the most unforgiving terrain in North America. By 1886, however, the pursuit was nearing its end. On September 4, Geronimo and his remaining followers surrendered to General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. His surrender effectively brought the long Apache Wars to a close—but peace did not mean freedom. Geronimo and hundreds of...
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Did FDR Push the U.S. into World War II?
History Shorts
Did Franklin D. Roosevelt secretly maneuver the United States into World War II? Long before Pearl Harbor, FDR was determined to help Britain survive Nazi Germany. His administration traded destroyers for British bases, pushed through Lend-Lease, expanded the Navy's role in the Atlantic, and imposed increasingly severe economic sanctions on Japan—all while most Americans remained deeply wary of another world war. To Roosevelt's critics, these actions prove he was quietly leading the country toward a conflict he publicly promised to avoid. To others, they show a president confronting growing...
info_outlinePeter speaks with the Director of Teaching and Learning at the American Historical Association about the organization's newest and largest-ever survey of history education in American secondary schools.
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