August 17

Ep. 0167: Endgame: The Not-So-Civil War Part 13

In the Spring of 1865, the Confederate military & government began to rapidly crumble.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The Battle of Natural Bridge
  • The fate of John Bell Hood’s command, including the disastrous Battles of Franklin & Nashville
  • The Confederates’ partial emancipation program, passed far too late to matter to the course of the war
  • The Hampton Roads Conference
  • Sherman’s march through South Carolina, including the destruction of Columbia
  • Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, probably his second-most quoted speech after the Gettysburg Address
  • The fall of Richmond
  • The surrender of R.E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House
  • The assassination of Lincoln
  • The surrender of other Confederate forces
  • Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, the last Confederate Army commander to surrender
  • The capture of Jefferson Davis
  • The ratification of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution
  • President Andrew Johnson’s declaration of ‘mission accomplished’ in 1866
  • A very brief word on Reconstruction

And be sure to tune in next time for an in-depth examination of different interpretations of the legacy & meaning of this war!

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July 27

Ep. 0166: Suppressing Dissent & Reinforcing Belief: The Not-So-Civil War Part 12

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • A brief word on the concept of habeas corpus
  • The ways in which dissent was suppressed & civil liberties were abrogated in the Confederacy and in the Union
  • Civil religion in both the North & South in the latter part of the war

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June 19

Ep. 0162: A Modern-Day Grunt’s Perspective, Part 4

This is the final conversation between CJ & US Army Veteran BT about BT’s military service and his ordeals since getting out. (Please excuse a little bit of minor audio issues. As you’ll hear, we had some sporadic  Skype hiccups, as well as a slightly-longer-than-usual delay, probably because BT has moved since our last conversation, and is now living a little more in the boonies than previously.)

Join CJ & BT as they discuss:

  • BT’s physical & mental health issues since leaving the Army, and the problems he’s had in trying to get adequate help from the Department of Veterans Affairs (or VA)
  • PTSD
  • Head trauma
  • Burn pits & Gulf War illness
  • How BT’s experience in the Army and dealing with the VA have changed his views on many things, and his overall take on his military experience

Wanna meet CJ and ? Come out to the 2018 Midwest Peace & Liberty Fest in Delton, Michigan! CJ will be there from Friday, June 22nd through Monday, June 25th, and will be speaking on Sunday, June 24th. Hope to see you there!

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June 12

Ep. 0161: “Disregarding the Laws of God and Man”: The Not-So-Civil War, Part 11

The end (of this non-consecutive series) is starting to come into sight, as the Union increasingly relies on ‘total war’ to completely crush the spirit of resistance among Southern civilians, regardless of any moral considerations.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • Confederate General Jubal Early’s raid into Union territory, which reached the outer defenses of Washington D.C. before being fought off and chased back into the Shenandoah Valley
  • Philip Sheridan’s decisive defeat of Early’s forces, and Sheridan’s subsequent destruction of the farms, food, and infrastructure of the valley
  • The Atlanta campaign, which saw Union General William T. Sherman facing off against the Army of Tennessee, initially commanded by Confederate General Joseph Johnston
  • Jefferson Davis’s replacement of Johnston with John Bell Hood, and the disastrously costly offensives Hood launched Union forces that outnumbered his by over 2:1
  • Sherman’s shelling of Atlanta & ultimate seizure of the city, followed by the removal of remaining civilian residents
  • Sherman’s increasingly large-scale, deliberate targeting of civilians’ shelter & means of subsistence in “total war”
  • The 1864 presidential election, in which Lincoln was reelected, ensuring that the war would continue
  • Sherman’s burning of the remnants of Atlanta and “March to the Sea” across Georgia

Wanna meet CJ and ? Come out to the 2018 Midwest Peace & Liberty Fest in Delton, Michigan! CJ will be there from Friday, June 22nd through Monday, June 25th, and will be speaking on Sunday, June 24th. Hope to see you there!

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April 28

Ep. 0160: “Remember the Maine!” & The Pageantry of American Aggression

Here’s a big beast of a DHP episode, dealing with the Deep History of the sinking of the USS Maine, the origins of the Spanish-American War, and what relevance this story might have to recent events.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The explosion of the USS Maine in Havana in 1898
  • A brief description of the so-called “Large Policy” and its proponents in the late-19th century, especially its most influential members: Theodore Roosevelt & Henry Cabot Lodge
  • The so-called “Yellow Press,” as exemplified by William Randolph Hearst & Joseph Pulitzer, and how they were working toward similar goals as the Large Policy cabal (namely, war), for their own reasons
  • TR’s appointment to the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and how he used that position for all it was worth (and more)
  • Increasing tensions between the US and Spain, leading up to President McKinley’s dispatch of the Maine to Havana, where of course, it would blow up & sink
  • How proponents of war (the Large Policy cabal & the Yellow Press) hastily jumped to conclusions on virtually no evidence that Spain was behind the sinking, and the official Sampson Board of Inquiry that concluded the ship was sunk by a mine (albeit without claiming to know who was behind it)
  • The lead up to the actual declarations of war between Spain & the US, over two months after the Maine, and a brief rundown of the troubling legacies of this so-called “Splendid Little War”
  • A closer look at the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and its oft-overlooked connections to TR & to the Maine
  • Some possible alternative explanations for the sinking of the Maine
  • A basic description of the playbook of “The American Way of Going to War” that pro-war politicians & media outlets still use to this day, for one big reason: it keeps working

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March 8

Ep. 0159: A Modern-Day Grunt’s Perspective, Part 3

Once again, CJ is joined by US Army veteran BT to talk about BT’s experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Join CJ & BT as they discuss:

  • Thoughts on various people using veterans (or “the troops”) as pawns in their ideological narratives, such as the NFL/kneeling-during-the-anthem controversy
  • Some stories from BT’s first deployment to Iraq, during which time he was a Cavalry Scout in and around Mosul
  • Some stories from BT’s second deployment to Iraq, during which time he was a Blackhawk crew chief and mechanic in Baghdad
  • Some stories from BT’s deployment to Afghanistan, again working on Blackhawks
  • Multiple cases in which BT got in trouble for pointing out safety issues with the helicopters
  • Some of the negative fallout to his mental and physical health, and the damage to his relationship with his family, due to his military service

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February 21

Ep. 0157: “I was killed.”: The Not-So-Civil War Part 10

I was originally going to do one massive episode on the coming of ‘total war’ in 1864, but it was getting too unwieldy so I decided to break it into 2 episodes, one covering Grant’s campaign in Virginia and another covering Sherman’s campaign in Georgia. Here is the first of those.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The Battle of Olustee
  • Attrition and trench warfare
  • Grant’s Overland campaign, including the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg

This episode of the Dangerous History Podcast was sponsored in part by LiveTeeOrDye.com.

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January 25

Ep. 0156: A Modern-Day Grunt’s Perspective, Part 2

This is the second part of my conversation with BT, a US Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, about his experiences. (Be sure to check out last episode – #155 – for part 1 of this if you’ve not already done so.)

Join CJ & BT as they discuss:

  • BT’s first deployment to Iraq, including the conditions  in Mosul and surrounding areas where he was deployed and the shortcomings of his training relative to what he’d actually be dealing with
  • Problems unique to dealing with a counterinsurgency situation in an urban environment, including IEDs
  • Potential issues of friendly fire
  • Problematic thoughts and behaviors that BT noticed, both in himself and from observing others, that were caused by the stressful environment of operating in a war zone, especially one in which insurgents blended in with the civilian population
  • The different types of IEDs and vehicle bombs (VBIEDs), the US military’s attempts to deal with these, and the back-and-forth race between makers of IEDs and designers of counter-measures

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January 16

Ep. 0155: A Modern-Day Grunt’s Perspective, Part 1

This episode is part 1 of CJ’s discussions with a longtime DHP listener & US Army veteran of the Iraq and Afghan Wars, a guy who goes by “BT” on the internet. Not only does BT himself have a lot of personal experiences in these conflicts, he’s also done a lot of research about these wars and related issues. These conversations will cover BT’s experiences in those wars, and the effects of those experiences, which he’s still dealing with today. Along the way, we’ll also cover the history of these conflicts, and a variety of related issues.

Join CJ & BT as they discuss:

  • The 9/11 attacks, the propaganda that followed it, and the effects on people regarding enlisting in the military
  • The origins of the 2003 Iraq War, including some of the problems with the Bush administration’s justifications for war
  • The invasion of Iraq, and the mounting problems as the invasion turned into an occupation, with a special focus on the city of Mosul
  • The beginning of BT’s time in the Army, starting in 2005, and the training he went through (and the many shortcomings of that training) prior to deploying to Iraq

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November 22

Ep. 0151: American Public Schooling & Inner-City Schools with Mike K.

In this DHP episode, CJ talks to Mike K., a DHP listener and former teacher with extensive knowledge of inner-city education based on both research and firsthand, real-world experience.

Join CJ & Mike as they discuss many topics related to education, including:

  • Mike’s background, including his studies in education (through the Ph. D. level) and 10 years of experience teaching in an inner-city school
  • The particular challenges of teaching in these sorts of schools, and how they compare to more ‘typical’ American public schools
  • A bird’s eye perspective of the evolution of schooling in America since the Antebellum period
  • De jure desegregation, followed by de facto resegregation
  • Comparing poor urban schools to poor rural schools, which face some of the same challenges, but also some different ones
  • The problems of over-diagnosing and over-prescribing psychiatric medication for children
  • The degree to which building real relationships with students based on mutual respect is a key to effective teaching
  • How real, effective teaching often requires a teacher to routinely flout rules in the current American education system, which is a dehumanizing system to both teachers & students
  • Teaching as a craft
  • The importance of teaching genuine critical thinking
  • Possible ways to cope with the current system, whether one is fully outside of it or not
  • The problems of NCLB & standardized testing, and the degree to which education is a racket
  • Possible things individuals can do with their own children or in their local community to try to improve things in some way
  • Plus CJ & Mike share some of their personal experiences and impressions of teaching

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