Posts by Professor Buzzkill
Battle of Stalingrad, Part 1
Stalingrad. Even just the name of the city conjures up images of a brutal, months-long battle that helped change the course of the war. Professor Nash discusses the background of the battle, Hitler’s intent in attacking that part of the Soviet Union, and how the Red Army defended the area and built up the resilience…
Read MoreGerman POWs in the USSR
German soldiers were kept in the Soviet Union until the late 1950s. Professor Grunewald explains why the Soviets kept the POWs after the war, what they did with them, and why they were incarcerated for so long. Was it retribution for the millions of Soviet war dead? Were the German POWs used as a necessary…
Read MoreBirthright Citizenship: 2024 Election Special
Crikey. I used to think that no American presidential election could be more strange than the ones in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump would just throw out random, fact-free statements, and they would be taken as gospel by his followers. That part of the electorate, essentially, turned his falsehoods into their own reality. That’s happening…
Read MoreImage and the Nixon-Kennedy 1960 Election Debates
It’s September 3rd, and we’ve been told that there’s going to be a debate between the Republican candidate for President, Donald Trump, and the Democratic candidate for President, Kamala Harris, on September 10th. Given all the changes that have taken place during this tumultuous campaign, and the frankly unhinged nature of one of the candidates,…
Read MoreAn Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South
Slave trading continued in the south during the Civil War. Between Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Confederates bought and sold thousands of African American men, women, and children. These transactions in humanity made the internal slave trade a cornerstone of Confederate society, a bulwark of the Rebel economy, and a central part of the experience of…
Read MoreWomen in Nazi Germany, Part 2
Professor Nash tells us about wives and lovers of leading Nazis, women who participated in Nazi crimes, and women who worked against the Nazi regime. We look at everyone from Eva Braun, Hitler’s partner, to Sophie Scholl, one of the leaders of the White Rose resistance to the Nazi state. This episode shows that German…
Read MoreWomen in Nazi Germany, Part 1
The treatment and status of women under Hitler and the Nazis is fascinating, in all the wrong ways. If the Nazi reputation wasn’t bad enough, the detail presented in this episode shows that there’s no bottom to their depravity. Professor Philip Nash explains all in the first part of a major two-part series. These are…
Read MorePat Nixon
The real Pat Nixon bore little resemblance to the woman so often described as elusive, mysterious and “plastic” in the press. Heath Hardage Lee takes us through Pat Nixon’s life and career. And myths are busted left and right. Learn how Pat Nixon, the supposed quiet housewife, was actually a career woman, and an important…
Read MoreThe USS Indianapolis and the Famous Shark Attack – 2024 Encore
Today I am not going to bust many myths (although there are a few of those in this tale). Rather, I’m going to tell you a straight history story. But it’s also one that shows the value of diligence in historical research and the importance of righting the wrongs from the past. And those themes,…
Read MorePresidential Primaries and Conventions: Just What is the Deal with Them?
American Presidential primaries and conventions seem excessively complicated, and maybe even outdated. Could they all just be an email, as office workers say nowadays? Fortunately, Professor Philip Nash explains all! We can’t promise that we make primaries and conventions seem logical and sensible. But we do our best! Episode 558.
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