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Professor Buzzkill History Podcast

Professor Buzzkill is an exciting blog & podcast that explores history myths in an illuminating, entertaining, and humorous way.
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Now displaying: February, 2020
Feb 19, 2020

Anybody who's completed an elementary school education knows that Abraham Lincoln finished his dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863 by saying that, "...we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." But I thought the background of the quote might fascinate you, and also provide more ammunition for your assault on the ignorance among your office-mates and/or neighborhood pals. Listen and learn, Buzzkillers!

Feb 18, 2020

Episode #338 - Levi and Catharine Coffin were early leaders of the Underground Railroad. Opposed to slavery from childhood, they helped over 3,000 slaves escape to freedom by the end of the Civil War. They pioneered a very broad anti-slavery approach, from direct action (the Underground Railroad) to other tactics, such as owning stores and wholesale establishments that sold goods produced only by free labor. Genuine humanitarians! 

Feb 14, 2020

Valentine’s Day is here again, Buzzkillers, and you can be certain that we’re depleting the Buzzkill bank account at a rapid clip so that we can give Lady Buzzkill all the best tokens of love and affection befitting her rank and station. And it’s always around this time of year that people ask me about St. Valentine. Did he really pass a heart-shaped note to an admirer and sign it “Your Valentine”? Was this the first Valentine’s Day card? Listen and learn!

Feb 12, 2020

All wars are bad. But why was World War II so extreme? Coming less than 20 years after World War I (the most extreme war up until that time), the Second World War’s death toll is _conservatively_ calculated at 60 million people. And some estimates are higher than that. Professor Phil Nash joins us to explain why the death and destruction were so severe, and to give us grim statistics on some overlooked facts. These include: the number of civilian deaths outweighing military deaths, and the number of Allied deaths far exceeding Axis deaths. If this episode doesn’t bring the peace-nix in you out into the open, we’ve failed to convince you. Listen and learn!

Feb 8, 2020

Our inaugural POS Saturday episode is dedicated to one of the biggest pieces of s**t in 20th century American history -- Roy Cohn. Cohn’s influence on American politics and society from the 1950s to the 1980s was almost completely negative. Along with a handful of others, he is responsible for the toxic tone and behavior that has polluted recent American politics. Professor Philip Nash from Penn State explains why Roy Cohn’s our first Buzzkill POS!

Feb 6, 2020

Professor Andrew Huebner joins us to discuss his fascinating new examination of what World War I meant for Americans. Was it to “make the world safe for democracy” or was it for home and family. Find out!

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