History Shorts

When Americans watched fascists march down Main Street in the 1930s, they told themselves it was a European import—new, foreign, un-American.
Joseph Kelly says that story is wrong.
In The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818–1915, Kelly traces a homegrown political tradition from the Missouri crisis through a Southern police state and Jim Crow, then out across the nation after the Spanish-American War as Anglo-Saxon nationalism: the claim that this country belongs to a master race. By 1915, he argues, the Confederacy was gone. The lie had gone national.
 
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Ben Macintyre joins History Shorts to discuss his new book Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy.
In 1981, Tehran was still reeling from the Iranian Revolution. The Shah was gone, Ayatollah Khomeini's regime was consolidating power, and the Soviet Union was actively working to exploit the chaos. Into this dangerous environment stepped KGB Major Vladimir Kuzichkin—a highly skilled Soviet intelligence officer who would become one of the most important double agents of the late Cold War.
Codename: Redwood.
In this conversation, Ben Macintyre reveals the extraordinary true story of how Kuzichkin approached MI6, the critical intelligence he provided about Soviet plans in Iran, the personal crisis that drove him to switch sides, and the high-stakes operation that followed—one that reached the highest levels of Western governments and helped avert a potential nuclear crisis.
 
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In 1817, a mysterious young woman appeared in an English village speaking an unknown language and wearing exotic clothing.
She claimed to be Princess Caraboo, royalty from the distant island of Javasu who had been kidnapped by pirates and escaped by jumping overboard near England.
High society was captivated. Newspapers reported her story. Scholars examined her strange language. She performed unusual rituals and entertained fascinated aristocrats.
There was just one problem.
Princess Caraboo was actually Mary Baker, an English cobbler's daughter.
In this episode of History Shorts, we uncover one of Regency England's greatest hoaxes—and how an ordinary woman convinced some of Britain's wealthiest and most educated people that she was a foreign princess.
 
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Before the FBI or Secret Service became household names, there were the Pinkertons.
Founded by Scottish immigrant Allan Pinkerton in 1850, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency hunted train robbers, infiltrated criminal gangs, protected Abraham Lincoln, and developed an enormous network of private investigators.
Their famous logo—a watchful eye above the words "We Never Sleep"—helped give us the term "private eye."
But the Pinkertons had a darker role. Industrialists hired them to infiltrate unions, break strikes, and confront workers. At their height, the agency reportedly employed more operatives than the United States had soldiers.
In this episode of History Shorts, we trace the remarkable and controversial history of the Pinkerton Agency—from Civil War espionage and Wild West outlaws to violent labor disputes—and explore how a private detective organization became one of the most powerful forces in nineteenth-century America.
 
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On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles interrupted America's radios with terrifying news: Martians had invaded New Jersey.
Except they hadn't.
Welles's War of the Worlds was a radio drama presented partly as breaking-news bulletins. Some listeners who tuned in late mistook fiction for reality, and stories of nationwide panic quickly followed.
But did millions of Americans really flee their homes in terror?
Not quite. Later research suggests the legendary mass hysteria was greatly exaggerated—ironically, by newspapers eager to portray radio as dangerous competition.
In this episode of History Shorts, we separate the broadcast from the myth and uncover how a fictional invasion created a very real media legend.
 
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