In America’s first hundred years, the animal you were most likely to see was a passenger pigeon. And you saw a lot of them. Flocks were so numerous they literally blotted out the sun for days and their combined weight snapped the branches of entire forests where they roosted. Yet by 1914, the last specimen, a female named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo, marking the complete extinction of what had been North America's most abundant bird numbering in the billions just decades earlier. Early Americans assumed the nation's bird populations were infinite, so market hunters fashioned homemade cannons to blast sleeping ducks by the dozens, "pigeoneers" shipped passenger pigeons by the trainload to city restaurants, and feather hunters shot rare birds worth more than their weight in gold so Gilded Age women could wear plumes in their hats. What followed was an unlikely coalition of bird-lovers like Roosevelt, gunmakers, business titans, and brave game wardens who transformed American conservation. They couldn’t save the passenger pigeon, but they saved other species from extinction, like the Canada Goose and the trumpeter swan.

Today's guest is James H. McCommons, author of The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America's Birds. We discuss how Roosevelt used executive powers to create the first federal bird refuge at Pelican Island in 1903, why the revolutionary 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act made nearly all wild birds wards of the federal government while inadvertently establishing that federal law supersedes state law, and how conservation success stories including wild turkeys, wood ducks, trumpeter swans, and bald eagles were all brought back from extinction's brink. McCommons also warns that America faces a new crisis reminiscent of the Gilded Age. Since 1970, one in four birds (about 3 billion) in North America have been lost, with backyard species like sparrows, blackbirds, warblers, and finches disappearing as indicator species foreshadowing greater environmental collapse.

In America&rsquo;s first hundred years, the animal you were most likely to see was a passenger pigeon. And you saw a lot of them. Flocks were so numerous they literally blotted out the sun for days and their combined weight snapped the branches of entire forests where they roosted. Yet by 1914, the last specimen, a female named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo, marking the complete extinction of what had been North America's most abundant bird numbering in the billions just decades earlier. Early Americans assumed the nation's bird populations were infinite, so market hunters fashioned homemade cannons to blast sleeping ducks by the dozens, "pigeoneers" shipped passenger pigeons by the trainload to city restaurants, and feather hunters shot rare birds worth more than their weight in gold so Gilded Age women could wear plumes in their hats. What followed was an unlikely coalition of bird-lovers like Roosevelt, gunmakers, business titans, and brave game wardens who transformed American conservation. They couldn&rsquo;t save the passenger pigeon, but they saved other species from extinction, like the Canada Goose and the trumpeter swan.
Today's guest is James H. McCommons, author of The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America's Birds. We discuss how Roosevelt used executive powers to create the first federal bird refuge at Pelican Island in 1903, why the revolutionary 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act made nearly all wild birds wards of the federal government while inadvertently establishing that federal law supersedes state law, and how conservation success stories including wild turkeys, wood ducks, trumpeter swans, and bald eagles were all brought back from extinction's brink. McCommons also warns that America faces a new crisis reminiscent of the Gilded Age. Since 1970, one in four birds (about 3 billion) in North America have been lost, with backyard species like sparrows, blackbirds, warblers, and finches disappearing as indicator species foreshadowing greater environmental collapse.

For history lovers who listen to podcasts, History Unplugged is the most comprehensive show of its kind. It's the only show that dedicates episodes to both interviewing experts and answering questions from its audience. First, it features a call-in show where you can ask our resident historian (Scott Rank, PhD) absolutely anything (What was it like to be a Turkish sultan with four wives and twelve concubines? If you were sent back in time, how would you kill Hitler?). Second, it features long-form interviews with best-selling authors who have written about everything. Topics include gruff World War II generals who flew with airmen on bombing raids, a war horse who gained the rank of sergeant, and presidents who gave their best speeches while drunk.

A show about American history, world history, World Wars 1 & 2, the Civil War, and much more.

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged is one of the longest-running history podcasts of its kind, with over 1,000 episodes covering everything from Alexander the Great's plans for European colonization to the untold story of Alabamians who fought for Sherman deep inside Confederate territory. Topics range from the Bronze Age Collapse to the naval campaigns of the Barbary Wars to Daniel Boone's forced adoption by a Shawnee chief. Guests on the show include history professors, Pulitzer Prize winners, consultants for historical films, and outsiders like Joakim Brodén from Sabaton. The show is hosted by Scott Rank, a history professor specializing in the Ottoman Empire and author of 12 books. And for those who love to spin the wheel of what-if, the show regularly ventures into alternate history, exploring questions like what the USSR's victory in the Cold War would have meant for the modern world, or how our current map might look if the Confederacy had survived the Civil War.

 

History Unplugged is one of the longest-running history podcasts of its kind, with over 1,000 episodes covering everything from Alexander the Great's plans for European colonization to the untold story of Alabamians who fought for Sherman deep inside Confederate territory. Topics range from the Bronze Age Collapse to the naval campaigns of the Barbary Wars to Daniel Boone's forced adoption by a Shawnee chief. Guests on the show include history professors, Pulitzer Prize winners, consultants for historical films, and outsiders like Joakim Brod&eacute;n from Sabaton. The show is hosted by Scott Rank, a history professor specializing in the Ottoman Empire and author of 12 books. And for those who love to spin the wheel of what-if, the show regularly ventures into alternate history, exploring questions like what the USSR's victory in the Cold War would have meant for the modern world, or how our current map might look if the Confederacy had survived the Civil War.
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