History of the G-Men
The story of the G-Men begins in an era when America had no permanent federal detective force, relying instead on private agencies like the Pinkertons. Reformers pushed for an in-house corps, and in 1908 Attorney General Charles Bonaparte quietly created the Bureau of Investigation. Initially small and unarmed, its agents pursued cases like antitrust violations and land fraud, but World War I and the Red Scare expanded its reach. Scandals in the early 1920s brought in a young J. Edgar Hoover, who professionalized and modernized the Bureau. The rest, as they say, is history DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/ EPISODE SPONSOR: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/get-it-now
19 Aug 13min
The Search for 'Little Albert'
In 1919–1920, Johns Hopkins psychologist John B. Watson conducted the now-infamous “Little Albert” experiment to show that fear could be conditioned in humans, pairing a loud noise with a white rat until the infant subject, nicknamed Albert, reacted with distress to the rat and other furry objects. While the study became a classic example in psychology textbooks, it was deeply flawed: it involved only one child, lacked proper controls, and offered no deconditioning to reverse the fear. More importantly, Albert’s identity remained a mystery for decades - or, not. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/ EPISODE SPONSOR: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/get-it-now
18 Aug 11min
Conversations: The Warsaw Ghetto & the Holocaust, w/ Katarzyna Person
In this powerful and deeply human episode of History Shorts, historian Dr. Katarzyna Person, Director of the upcoming Warsaw Ghetto Museum and author of The Hour of Revenge, joins the show to explore some of the most haunting, silenced, and complex chapters of Holocaust history. From her lifelong work on the Ringelblum Archive, a secret collection of documents buried beneath the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, to her research on Jewish honor courts, revenge, and survival in the post-war years, Dr. Person unpacks what it means to write history from inside moral catastrophe. Together, we discuss memory, justice, trauma, motherhood, and the role of historians in confronting historical truths many have long avoided. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! LEARN MORE AT: www.historyshortspodcast.com SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/ EPISODE SPONSOR: https://www.thecollector.com/ THIS WEEK'S THE COLLECTOR.COM'S ARTICLE SELECTION: A Tragedy of Hate: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Anne Frank Heroically Lives on Through Her Diaries
17 Aug 23min
Andrew Jackson Arms His Slaves
In 1811, Andrew Jackson, traveling with enslaved men along the Natchez Trace, confronted a challenge to his authority when a Native agent demanded proof of ownership for his slaves. In a dramatic response, Jackson armed his enslaved people and used them as a display of control to overpower the agent, emphasizing his belief in absolute power, while highlighting the complex and violent dynamics of slavery in the frontier South. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SPONSORED BY THE PODCAST REPUBLIC: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/ LEARN MORE AT: www.historyshortspodcast.com SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
16 Aug 9min
Conversations: Why the Scopes Trial Still Matters Today, w/ Brenda Wineapple
In this episode, we sit down with Brenda Wineapple, acclaimed historian and author of The Impeachers and Ecstatic Nation, to discuss her latest work: Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation. At the center of this riveting new book is the Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925, where a Dayton, Tennessee courtroom became the stage for a dramatic clash between science and religion, modernism and fundamentalism, and democracy and mob rule. Wineapple brings to life the drama, the contradictions, and the enduring stakes of the trial that pitted Clarence Darrow against William Jennings Bryan, turning what was supposed to be a test case into a national spectacle. But she also peels back the mythology to show how much more was at play: race, power, populism, and the meaning of American identity. We explore what the trial tells us not just about the 1920s, but about our own age of cultural division and constitutional conflict. Is the fight over what we teach in schools ever really about education? And what does it mean to “keep the faith” in a pluralistic democracy? DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SPONSORED BY THE PODCAST REPUBLIC: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/ LEARN MORE AT: www.historyshortspodcast.com SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
15 Aug 31min
The RMS Titanic Prophecy
In 1898, American author Morgan Robertson penned a novella titled Futility: Or the Wreck of the Titan. The plot centered around an enormous, luxurious ocean liner named the Titan that strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks, killing hundreds of passengers due to an inadequate number of lifeboats. When the Titanic met its tragic end in April 1912, striking an iceberg, sinking in eerily similar conditions, and killing over 1,500 passengers, many readers and historians alike were stunned by the similarities. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SPONSORED BY THE PODCAST REPUBLIC: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/ LEARN MORE AT: www.historyshortspodcast.com SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
14 Aug 11min
The Failed Lincoln Assassinations
Apart from the bullet that claimed his life in April of 1865, at least two other times during his life, Lincoln found himself the target of gunfire. Though these earlier incidents did not result in death or even injury, they foreshadowed the dangers he would face as a president presiding over a divided and combustible nation. These lesser-known episodes of near assassination paint a fuller picture of a man who, long before martyrdom, walked with death on his heels. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SPONSORED BY THE PODCAST REPUBLIC: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/ LEARN MORE AT: www.historyshortspodcast.com SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
13 Aug 11min
Sex, STDs, and the Lewis & Clark Expedition
The epic journey of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark across the uncharted American West has long been celebrated as one of the most remarkable feats of exploration in U.S. history. But beneath the heroic narrative of adventure and scientific discovery lies a more uncomfortable, yet historically vital reality: venereal disease—particularly syphilis—was a constant and deeply disruptive problem for the men of the expedition. It was a hidden affliction that not only shaped individual fates but also reflected the broader medical, social, and sexual dynamics of early 19th-century America. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SPONSORED BY THE PODCAST REPUBLIC: https://www.podcastrepublic.net/ LEARN MORE AT: www.historyshortspodcast.com SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast ADVERTISE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/advertise SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast LEARN MORE: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com/
12 Aug 11min
