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

The Mongols on the High Seas: The Yuan Dynasty's Massive Navy

Contrary to popular belief, Robin Hood may not have been the merry medieval outlaw of Sherwood Forest. Rather, a look at real historical figures who inspired the legend are narrowed down to the most unlikely suspect: an Anglo-Saxon hitman who may have assassinated the King of England.

Today’s guest, Peter Staveley, proposes that Robin Hood lived during the time of William II (near the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066), rather than Richard I and Prince John of the late 1100s. He argues that Robin was responsible for the death of William II, also known as Rufus, in what was long considered a hunting accident in the New Forest in 1100. This act conveniently paved the way for William’s brother to ascend the throne as Henry I. Staveley places Robin deep within the geography of South Yorkshire, with strong ties to historic Hallamshire, Loxley, Bradfield, and Ecclesfield, challenging the traditional narrative and the long-held association with Nottingham.

We explore how Yorkshire, particularly Sheffield, might reclaim the legacy of Robin Hood from Nottingham and reveal the true, rougher man behind the legend.

Staveley is author of “Robin Unhooded, And the Death of a King.”

Contrary to popular belief, Robin Hood may not have been the merry medieval outlaw of Sherwood Forest. Rather, a look at real historical figures who inspired the legend are narrowed down to the most unlikely suspect: an Anglo-Saxon hitman who may have assassinated the King of England. Today’s guest, Peter Staveley, proposes that Robin Hood lived during the time of William II (near the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066), rather than Richard I and Prince John of the late 1100s. He argues that Robin was responsible for the death of William II, also known as Rufus, in what was long considered a hunting accident in the New Forest in 1100. This act conveniently paved the way for William’s brother to ascend the throne as Henry I. Staveley places Robin deep within the geography of South Yorkshire, with strong ties to historic Hallamshire, Loxley, Bradfield, and Ecclesfield, challenging the traditional narrative and the long-held association with Nottingham. We explore how Yorkshire, particularly Sheffield, might reclaim the legacy of Robin Hood from Nottingham and reveal the true, rougher man behind the legend. Staveley is author of “Robin Unhooded, And the Death of a King.”

Contrary to popular belief, Robin Hood may not have been the merry medieval outlaw of Sherwood Forest. Rather, a look at real historical figures who inspired the legend are narrowed down to the most unlikely suspect: an Anglo-Saxon hitman who may have...

Was Robin Hood Actually an Anglo-Saxon Hitman

When Andrew Mellon arrived in Marion, Ohio, for his interview with President-elect Warren Harding in December 1920, nobody met him at the train station. The third-richest man in America picked up his worn leather valise and his cane and walked a mile down the road to Harding's house, mounted the reinforced front porch where fifty thousand supporters had gathered that summer, and told an aide: "Tell the senator I am here at his bidding. I know he's busy. Whenever he's ready I'm here." Harding appointed him Treasury Secretary. Over the next twelve years, Mellon slashed the top tax rate from 73 percent to 25 percent, balanced the budget, cut the national debt by a third, and was hailed as the greatest treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton. Then the economy crashed, Roosevelt was elected, and everything Mellon had built was turned against him.

Today's guest is Greg Steinmetz, author of The President and the Oligarch: Roosevelt, Mellon, and the Triumph of Big Government. We discuss how Roosevelt ordered his attorney general to find dirt on Mellon and build a tax fraud case even though his own advisers told him it was flimsy, why Mellon's father divided the world into "tax payers and tax eaters" and raised his son to believe that the income tax was un-American and immoral, and how the young Roosevelt was a shallow aristocrat who ignored the Triangle Shirtwaist fire until polio taught him what suffering felt like. We look at how Mellon secretly bought twenty-one masterworks from the Soviet Hermitage for $6.6 million and planned to give them to the nation, how the tax case generated 10,000 pages of testimony and was decided in Mellon's favor after he was already dead, and why Roosevelt attended the dedication of the National Gallery that Mellon built and praised his generosity without acknowledging that he had spent four years trying to put the donor in prison. Steinmetz argues that the Roosevelt-Mellon clash was the last serious fight over whether America would be a big-government or small-government country, and that Roosevelt won so completely that no president since, not even Reagan, has seriously reversed the expansion of federal power that Mellon spent his career trying to prevent.

When Andrew Mellon arrived in Marion, Ohio, for his interview with President-elect Warren Harding in December 1920, nobody met him at the train station. The third-richest man in America picked up his worn leather valise and his cane and walked a mile down the road to Harding's house, mounted the reinforced front porch where fifty thousand supporters had gathered that summer, and told an aide: "Tell the senator I am here at his bidding. I know he's busy. Whenever he's ready I'm here." Harding appointed him Treasury Secretary. Over the next twelve years, Mellon slashed the top tax rate from 73 percent to 25 percent, balanced the budget, cut the national debt by a third, and was hailed as the greatest treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton. Then the economy crashed, Roosevelt was elected, and everything Mellon had built was turned against him.
Today's guest is Greg Steinmetz, author of The President and the Oligarch: Roosevelt, Mellon, and the Triumph of Big Government. We discuss how Roosevelt ordered his attorney general to find dirt on Mellon and build a tax fraud case even though his own advisers told him it was flimsy, why Mellon's father divided the world into "tax payers and tax eaters" and raised his son to believe that the income tax was un-American and immoral, and how the young Roosevelt was a shallow aristocrat who ignored the Triangle Shirtwaist fire until polio taught him what suffering felt like. We look at how Mellon secretly bought twenty-one masterworks from the Soviet Hermitage for $6.6 million and planned to give them to the nation, how the tax case generated 10,000 pages of testimony and was decided in Mellon's favor after he was already dead, and why Roosevelt attended the dedication of the National Gallery that Mellon built and praised his generosity without acknowledging that he had spent four years trying to put the donor in prison. Steinmetz argues that the Roosevelt-Mellon clash was the last serious fight over whether America would be a big-government or small-government country, and that Roosevelt won so completely that no president since, not even Reagan, has seriously reversed the expansion of federal power that Mellon spent his career trying to prevent.

Andrew Mellon Nearly Ended Big Government Forever. FDR Destroyed Him For It

In 1784, a young German immigrant named Bernard Quaritch walked into the London office of Henry George Bohn, one of the largest booksellers in England, and told him: "Mr Bohn, you are the first bookseller in England. I mean to become the first bookseller in Europe." Bohn hired him as an assistant. Within a few years, Quaritch had opened his own shop, issued a catalogue called "Quaritch's Cheap Book Circular," and begun bidding at auctions with a ferocity that alarmed every dealer in the room. When a rival complained that Quaritch was watching him at a sale and driving up prices, Quaritch replied: "My opponents I naturally cripple as much as I can at sales." By the time he died, Disraeli and Gladstone were regular customers, his final catalogue ran to 4,066 pages with a 427-page index, and he had fulfilled his promise.

Today's guest is Andrew Pettegree, author of The Bookshop: A History. We discuss how almost nothing about the modern bookshop existed before 1800, from window displays to browsing to dust jackets to paying in cash, why itinerant booksellers were burned alive for smuggling Protestant books while elderly women were arrested in London for selling sedition, and how the railway created an entirely new retail model when W. H. Smith opened the first station bookstall at Euston in 1848. Finally, we see Amazon was not the first great disruptor in the history of bookselling but merely the latest in a series stretching back to the printing press itself.

In 1784, a young German immigrant named Bernard Quaritch walked into the London office of Henry George Bohn, one of the largest booksellers in England, and told him: "Mr Bohn, you are the first bookseller in England. I mean to become the first bookseller in Europe." Bohn hired him as an assistant. Within a few years, Quaritch had opened his own shop, issued a catalogue called "Quaritch's Cheap Book Circular," and begun bidding at auctions with a ferocity that alarmed every dealer in the room. When a rival complained that Quaritch was watching him at a sale and driving up prices, Quaritch replied: "My opponents I naturally cripple as much as I can at sales." By the time he died, Disraeli and Gladstone were regular customers, his final catalogue ran to 4,066 pages with a 427-page index, and he had fulfilled his promise.
Today's guest is Andrew Pettegree, author of The Bookshop: A History. We discuss how almost nothing about the modern bookshop existed before 1800, from window displays to browsing to dust jackets to paying in cash, why itinerant booksellers were burned alive for smuggling Protestant books while elderly women were arrested in London for selling sedition, and how the railway created an entirely new retail model when W. H. Smith opened the first station bookstall at Euston in 1848. Finally, we see Amazon was not the first great disruptor in the history of bookselling but merely the latest in a series stretching back to the printing press itself.

The Mongols on the High Seas: The Yuan Dynasty's Massive Navy

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