History Shorts

Pick almost any major moment in American politics between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, and look closely. Henry Clay is somewhere in the picture. In this episode, we go looking for the "Waldo" of American history: the Kentucky politician who became Speaker of the House on his first day, helped start a war and negotiate its end, brokered compromises over Missouri, nullification, and the lands won from Mexico, and lost three presidential races. We also look at the contradictions of a man who called slavery an evil while enslaving people his entire life.
🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian and author of Eight Days in August, Peter Zablocki. New episodes every day.
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In this episode of History Shorts, I sit down with military historian Patrick K. O'Donnell to discuss his new book Revolutionary Snipers: Washington's Frontier Commandos Whose Marksmanship Forged a New Way of War and Helped Win the Revolution.
This is the third book in O'Donnell's Revolution trilogy, following Washington's Immortals and The Indispensables. It focuses on the frontier riflemen—figures such as Daniel Morgan, Timothy Murphy, and Samuel Brady—who were among the Continental Army's earliest and most distinctive fighters. Armed with the American long rifle, a weapon far more accurate at distance than the smoothbore muskets used by most British and Continental troops, these men practiced early forms of sniping and irregular warfare.
🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian, author, and Smithsonian Magazine contributor Peter Zablocki. New episodes every day.
⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-shorts/id1717345209?action=write-review
🎵 Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4CnKo8pKZNR63aMyNuRz4D
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🔗 Website: https://www.historyshortspodcast.com

Sometime in the twelfth century, reapers in the English village of Woolpit found two children at the edge of a field. Their skin was green. They spoke a language no one understood and would eat nothing but raw beans. The boy soon died, but the girl survived, learned English, and described a twilight land where the sun never rose. In this episode, we look at what two medieval chroniclers recorded, why a famously skeptical historian believed it, and the theories — from malnutrition to Flemish refugees — that have tried to explain the Green Children of Woolpit.
🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian and author of Eight Days in August, Peter Zablocki. New episodes every day.
⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-shorts/id1717345209?action=write-review
🎵 Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4CnKo8pKZNR63aMyNuRz4D
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In the early 1940s, the zoot suit — high-waisted, wide-shouldered, and impossible to miss — was a badge of pride for many young Mexican American, Black, and Filipino Americans. In June 1943, it made them targets. For about a week, mobs of sailors, soldiers, and Marines attacked young men across Los Angeles while police arrested the victims and newspapers cheered. In this episode, we explore the wartime rationing, the Sleepy Lagoon trial, and the press coverage that set the stage for the Zoot Suit Riots — and how long it took Los Angeles to admit what really happened.
🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian and author of Eight Days in August, Peter Zablocki. New episodes every day.
⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-shorts/id1717345209?action=write-review
🎵 Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4CnKo8pKZNR63aMyNuRz4D
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In August 1864, Abraham Lincoln was so sure he would lose re-election that he wrote it down, sealed the note, and had his cabinet sign it without reading it. In this episode, we follow how the battles of the Civil War shaped Lincoln's biggest political decisions — from the shock of Bull Run, to the bloodshed at Antietam that made the Emancipation Proclamation possible, to the turning point of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and the fall of Atlanta that rescued his presidency. And we find out what Lincoln did with that sealed envelope after the votes were counted.
🎙️ History Shorts is a daily history podcast hosted by historian and author of Eight Days in August, Peter Zablocki. New episodes every day.
⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-shorts/id1717345209?action=write-review
🎵 Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4CnKo8pKZNR63aMyNuRz4D
☕ Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryShortsPodcast
▶️ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@HistoryShortsPodcast