Genghis Khan built a formidable land empire, but he never crossed the sea. Yet by the time his grandson Kublai Khan had defeated the last vestiges of the Song empire and established the Yuan dynasty in 1279, the Mongols controlled the most powerful navy in the world. How did a nomad come to conquer China and master the sea? 

Kublai Khan is one of history's most fascinating characters. He brought Islamic mathematicians to his court, where they invented modern cartography and celestial measurement. He transformed the world's largest land mass into a unified, diverse and economically progressive empire, introducing paper money. And, after bitter early setbacks, he transformed China into an outward looking sea-faring empire.

Genghis Khan built a formidable land empire, but he never crossed the sea. Yet by the time his grandson Kublai Khan had defeated the last vestiges of the Song empire and established the Yuan dynasty in 1279, the Mongols controlled the most powerful navy in the world. How did a nomad come to conquer China and master the sea? 
Kublai Khan is one of history's most fascinating characters. He brought Islamic mathematicians to his court, where they invented modern cartography and celestial measurement. He transformed the world's largest land mass into a unified, diverse and economically progressive empire, introducing paper money. And, after bitter early setbacks, he transformed China into an outward looking sea-faring empire.

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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History Unplugged

After Genghis Khan Conquered the Earth, Kublai Khan Conquered the Seas

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 left hand to his temple and whispered to his cousin Daisy: "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head." He was dead by 3:35. That evening, Harry Truman, a former farmer and failed haberdasher who had been vice president for eighty-two days and had met with Roosevelt only twice, placed his hand on a Bible and became the thirty-third president of the United States. He had never been briefed on the atomic bomb. Thirteen days later, War Secretary Henry Stimson handed him a three-page memo that began: "Within four months we shall in all probability have completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history, one bomb of which could destroy a whole city."

Today's guest is James M. Scott, author of Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War. We discuss how a Hungarian physicist who did his thinking in the bathtub tracked down Einstein by asking a boy on a Long Island street corner to launch the Manhattan Project, why Oak Ridge, Tennessee, became a secret city of 75,000 people who had no idea what they were building, and how the firebombing of Tokyo killed 105,000 people in a single night months before the atomic bombs fell. We look at why Groves wanted to destroy Kyoto for its two thousand temples and Stimson stopped him because he had honeymooned there, how Japan's military leaders refused to surrender even after two atomic bombs and forced an unprecedented intervention by an emperor who had spent the war collecting marine specimens in a palace while his cities burned, and why a group of young officers assassinated the commander of the Imperial Guards and seized the palace on the eve of surrender in a coup that came within hours of succeeding. Scott argues that the historical record supports Truman's decision but lets the last word belong to the survivors, and to a war minister who committed seppuku wearing the white shirt the emperor had personally given him, with a photograph of his dead son folded on top of his dress uniform.

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 left hand to his temple and whispered to his cousin Daisy: "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head." He was dead by 3:35. That evening, Harry Truman, a former farmer and failed haberdasher who had been vice president for eighty-two days and had met with Roosevelt only twice, placed his hand on a Bible and became the thirty-third president of the United States. He had never been briefed on the atomic bomb. Thirteen days later, War Secretary Henry Stimson handed him a three-page memo that began: "Within four months we shall in all probability have completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history, one bomb of which could destroy a whole city."
Today's guest is James M. Scott, author of Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War. We discuss how a Hungarian physicist who did his thinking in the bathtub tracked down Einstein by asking a boy on a Long Island street corner to launch the Manhattan Project, why Oak Ridge, Tennessee, became a secret city of 75,000 people who had no idea what they were building, and how the firebombing of Tokyo killed 105,000 people in a single night months before the atomic bombs fell. We look at why Groves wanted to destroy Kyoto for its two thousand temples and Stimson stopped him because he had honeymooned there, how Japan's military leaders refused to surrender even after two atomic bombs and forced an unprecedented intervention by an emperor who had spent the war collecting marine specimens in a palace while his cities burned, and why a group of young officers assassinated the commander of the Imperial Guards and seized the palace on the eve of surrender in a coup that came within hours of succeeding. Scott argues that the historical record supports Truman's decision but lets the last word belong to the survivors, and to a war minister who committed seppuku wearing the white shirt the emperor had personally given him, with a photograph of his dead son folded on top of his dress uniform.

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

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 Third Army push out of their holdings along the coast, unleashing a lightning-fast armored blitz across northern France that routed retreating German forces and liberated Paris months ahead of schedule. And following the Third Army’s dramatic relief of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, the American press and public widely lionized Patton as a national hero who spearheaded the drive into Germany. When he returned stateside in June 1945, he received massive ticker-tape parades and hero’s welcomes in Boston, Los Angeles, and Denver, drawing crowds of hundreds of thousands. Officially, the military affirmed his heroism by awarding him two Distinguished Service Crosses—the nation’s second-highest valor award, explicitly citing his "extraordinary heroism" under enemy fire in both world wars. He was immortalized in the George C. Scott movie ‘Patton’, and has persistently been named in polls as the greatest American military commander of all time.

But that’s not how some of his fellow generals saw it. In 1947, Omar Bradley, who had commanded all American ground forces in Europe, wrote a single sentence that should have ended the most persistent myth of the war: "Many people give Patton and his Third Army credit for the breakout from Normandy. He had nothing to do with its planning or execution." Patton arrived after the hole had been punched and drove through open country against almost no opposition. First Army veterans had a phrase for it: "He did not break out. He walked out."

Today's guest is James Ellman, author of Patton Reconsidered: General George S. Patton Jr. as a Wartime Commander. We look at the mythology of Patton and see there’s an argument to be made his image was wildly inflated as part of a media campaign, and he had serious shortcomings as a strategist. We discuss how the single most important factor in Patton's career was a friendship with a next-door neighbor named Eisenhower who saved him from dismissal at least five times, how Patton's men posed as First Army soldiers to steal fuel convoys in a scheme that almost certainly got other Americans killed, and why four other American army commanders achieved comparable victories without any of the scandals and are completely forgotten today. Ellman argues that calling Patton a military genius does a disservice to every soldier who served under him and every general who performed as well or better without the drama, and that the traits the Patton legend celebrates, recklessness, insubordination, contempt for logistics, and mistreatment of troops, are exactly the ones the modern US military should be discouraging, not enshrining.

George S. Patton is considered one of America&rsquo;s greatest generals for his blitzes across Europe in World War 2. He is celebrated for breaking out of Normandy because his Third Army push out of their holdings along the coast, unleashing a lightning-fast armored blitz across northern France that routed retreating German forces and liberated Paris months ahead of schedule. And following the Third Army&rsquo;s dramatic relief of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, the American press and public widely lionized Patton as a national hero who spearheaded the drive into Germany. When he returned stateside in June 1945, he received massive ticker-tape parades and hero&rsquo;s welcomes in Boston, Los Angeles, and Denver, drawing crowds of hundreds of thousands. Officially, the military affirmed his heroism by awarding him two Distinguished Service Crosses&mdash;the nation&rsquo;s second-highest valor award, explicitly citing his "extraordinary heroism" under enemy fire in both world wars. He was immortalized in the George C. Scott movie &lsquo;Patton&rsquo;, and has persistently been named in polls as the greatest American military commander of all time.
But that&rsquo;s not how some of his fellow generals saw it. In 1947, Omar Bradley, who had commanded all American ground forces in Europe, wrote a single sentence that should have ended the most persistent myth of the war: "Many people give Patton and his Third Army credit for the breakout from Normandy. He had nothing to do with its planning or execution." Patton arrived after the hole had been punched and drove through open country against almost no opposition. First Army veterans had a phrase for it: "He did not break out. He walked out."
Today's guest is James Ellman, author of Patton Reconsidered: General George S. Patton Jr. as a Wartime Commander. We look at the mythology of Patton and see there&rsquo;s an argument to be made his image was wildly inflated as part of a media campaign, and he had serious shortcomings as a strategist. We discuss how the single most important factor in Patton's career was a friendship with a next-door neighbor named Eisenhower who saved him from dismissal at least five times, how Patton's men posed as First Army soldiers to steal fuel convoys in a scheme that almost certainly got other Americans killed, and why four other American army commanders achieved comparable victories without any of the scandals and are completely forgotten today. Ellman argues that calling Patton a military genius does a disservice to every soldier who served under him and every general who performed as well or better without the drama, and that the traits the Patton legend celebrates, recklessness, insubordination, contempt for logistics, and mistreatment of troops, are exactly the ones the modern US military should be discouraging, not enshrining.

Is Patton America’s Most Overrated General?

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 raincoat to conceal the shortened ice axe. On August 20, 1940, he stood behind Trotsky -- who was the principle leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russian but exiled by Stalin after losing a power struggle -- in the study of his fortified villa in Coyoacán, Mexico, raised the weapon, and shut his eyes as the blade fell. What followed was not silence but a scream so raw that it froze the room. Trotsky did not collapse. He rose from his chair, seized the assassin's wrist, bit down on his hand, and forced the weapon loose. Blood streaming down his face, he stumbled into the dining room and gave his final order: "He must not be killed. He must be made to talk." He died twenty-six hours later. Thirty years after that, on his own deathbed, Mercader told his wife: "Trotsky is waiting for me on the other side. And he is still screaming."

Today's guests are H. Keith Melton and Nigel West, authors of The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: Espionage, Scandal, and the Crime of the Century, the product of fifty years of investigation that took the authors to Moscow, into declassified Soviet intelligence files, and into the homes of the operatives' families. We discuss how Stalin's campaign against Trotsky was not a single plot but a global war of extermination that destroyed his entire family before it destroyed him, how a GPU mole named Sylvia Callen served as the personal secretary to the head of the American Trotskyist movement for nine years without detection, and how the first assassination attempt sprayed over three hundred rounds into Trotsky's bedroom and somehow failed to kill anyone. We look at how the assassin's convent-educated mother directed the backup plot that succeeded, why Ramón Mercader maintained his false identity inside a Mexican prison for a decade despite relentless interrogation, and how new medical evidence suggests Trotsky might have survived the attack if his doctors had operated differently. The authors argue that Trotsky's assassination was not a historical anomaly but a template for state-directed political murder that continues to echo from the Litvinenko poisoning to the Skripal attack today.

Ram&oacute;n 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 raincoat to conceal the shortened ice axe. On August 20, 1940, he stood behind Trotsky -- who was the principle leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russian but exiled by Stalin after losing a power struggle -- in the study of his fortified villa in Coyoac&aacute;n, Mexico, raised the weapon, and shut his eyes as the blade fell. What followed was not silence but a scream so raw that it froze the room. Trotsky did not collapse. He rose from his chair, seized the assassin's wrist, bit down on his hand, and forced the weapon loose. Blood streaming down his face, he stumbled into the dining room and gave his final order: "He must not be killed. He must be made to talk." He died twenty-six hours later. Thirty years after that, on his own deathbed, Mercader told his wife: "Trotsky is waiting for me on the other side. And he is still screaming."
Today's guests are H. Keith Melton and Nigel West, authors of The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: Espionage, Scandal, and the Crime of the Century, the product of fifty years of investigation that took the authors to Moscow, into declassified Soviet intelligence files, and into the homes of the operatives' families. We discuss how Stalin's campaign against Trotsky was not a single plot but a global war of extermination that destroyed his entire family before it destroyed him, how a GPU mole named Sylvia Callen served as the personal secretary to the head of the American Trotskyist movement for nine years without detection, and how the first assassination attempt sprayed over three hundred rounds into Trotsky's bedroom and somehow failed to kill anyone. We look at how the assassin's convent-educated mother directed the backup plot that succeeded, why Ram&oacute;n Mercader maintained his false identity inside a Mexican prison for a decade despite relentless interrogation, and how new medical evidence suggests Trotsky might have survived the attack if his doctors had operated differently. The authors argue that Trotsky's assassination was not a historical anomaly but a template for state-directed political murder that continues to echo from the Litvinenko poisoning to the Skripal attack today.

After Genghis Khan Conquered the Earth, Kublai Khan Conquered the Seas

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