Cicero—Rome’s Greatest Orator—Saved the Capital From Insurrection, But Couldn’t Save the Republic From Collapse
On December 7, 43 BCE, a sixty-three-year-old man was carried in a litter down a woodland path near the Italian coast, fleeing soldiers who had been sent to kill him. When they caught up, he ordered h...
15 Sep 52min
Do Napoleons or Hitlers Really Matter? Whether Leaders Make History or Their Societies Make Them
On March 13, 1930, Adolf Hitler was sitting in the passenger seat of his chauffeur-driven car when a trailer truck sped through an intersection and struck the vehicle, pushing it across the road and s...
10 Sep 44min
Washington’s Most Revolutionary Moment Was Surrendering Absolute Power
Washington’s most extraordinary achievement was not winning the Revolutionary War or helping found a new nation. It was something far rarer: He gave up power, twice. First, when he resigned his comman...
8 Sep 54min
Japan's Military Refused to Surrender Even After Two Atomic Bombs and a Coup Nearly Succeeded
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 wh...
3 Sep 45min
Is Patton America’s Most Overrated General?
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 h...
1 Sep 52min
Stalin’s Ordered Killing of Trotsky Created the Playbook for Modern Political Assassination
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...
27 Aug 48min
Belisarius Reconquered Africa and Italy for Rome. Why Did Rome Destroy Him for It?
In 533, a twenty-eight-year-old general named Belisarius sailed from Constantinople with 15,000 men to reconquer North Africa from the Vandals, a kingdom that had held it for nearly a century since th...
25 Aug 52min
Summer of Death: America’s Heat Wave of 1936 That Killed 12,000
A coast guardsman named Earl Cunningham froze to death on Lake Michigan trying to rescue five fishermen trapped on a drifting ice sheet. His last words were "I wish I could see my wife and three child...
20 Aug 45min
