History Shorts

Just off a quiet back road in Salem, New Hampshire, sits a baffling jumble of dolmen-like chambers, serpentine walls, and precisely aligned monoliths known today as "America's Stonehenge." Is it a col...

16 Jul 202513min

In September 1944, while Allied troops battled overseas, the quiet Illinois town of Mattoon was seized by panic. Families awoke to a sickly-sweet odor, burning throats, and sudden paralysis, then glim...

15 Jul 202513min

Deadwood, Dakota Territory, 1876. A town of gold, grit, and gamblers. Among its rogues and prospectors walked a legend: Wild Bill Hickok, the Civil War scout turned gunslinger turned gambler. But on A...

14 Jul 202513min

In this episode of History Shorts, we explore the fascinating and often frustrating history of third parties in American politics, just as Elon Musk launches his own. From the Republican Party's origi...

13 Jul 202514min

In the borderlands of Missouri, where the American Civil War devolved into personal feuds and guerrilla terror, one name echoed louder, and bloodier, than the rest: "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Feared by U...

13 Jul 202510min

COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) remains one of the most contentious and clandestine operations in American history. Initiated by the FBI in 1956, COINTELPRO operated covertly to surveil, inf...

12 Jul 202510min

In this wide-ranging and deeply insightful conversation, award-winning author and narrative historian Hampton Sides joins History Shorts to discuss his latest book, The Wide Wide Sea, a gripping accou...

11 Jul 202532min

The tale of the "Man in the Iron Mask" is one of history's most intriguing and enigmatic mysteries. A figure imprisoned under the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, his identity and the reasons for his...

10 Jul 20259min