Épisodes

  • Episode 340: The Lion of the North

    Episode 340: The Lion of the North
    Feb 21 2025
    King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden briefly, but decisively, intervenes in the Thirty Years War.
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    21 min
  • Episode 339: Denmark Intervenes

    Episode 339: Denmark Intervenes
    Feb 14 2025
    Christian IV of Denmark intervenes in the Thirty Years War.

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    Western Civ 2.0
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    20 min
  • Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants War

    Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants War
    Feb 11 2025
    The German Peasants’ War was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. In 1524 and 1525, it swept across Germany with astonishing speed as well over a hundred thousand people massed in armed bands to demand a new and more egalitarian order. The peasants took control of vast areas of southern and middle Germany, torching and plundering the monasteries, convents, and castles that stood in their way. But they proved no match for the forces of the lords, who put down the revolt by slaying somewhere between seventy and a hundred thousand peasants in just over two months.

    In Summer of Fire and Blood, the first history of the German Peasants’ War in a generation, historian Lyndal Roper exposes the far-reaching ramifications of this rebellion. Though the war’s victors portrayed the uprising as naive and inchoate, Roper reveals a mass movement that sought to make good on the radical potential of the Protestant Reformation. By recovering what the people themselves felt and believed, Summer of Fire and Blood reconstructs the thrilling, tragic story of the peasants’ fight to change the world.

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    40 min
  • Episode 338: Cardinal Richelieu

    Episode 338: Cardinal Richelieu
    Feb 10 2025
    Cardinal Richelieu comes to power in France, altering the course of French history.

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    Western Civ 2.0
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    21 min
  • Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies

    Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies
    Feb 8 2025
    For millennia, land has been a symbol of wealth and privilege. But the true power of land ownership is even greater than we might think. In Land Power, political scientist Michael Albertus shows that who owns the land determines whether a society will be equal or unequal, whether it will develop or decline, and whether it will safeguard or sacrifice its environment.

    Modern history has been defined by land reallocation on a massive scale. From the 1500s on, European colonial powers and new nation-states shifted indigenous lands into the hands of settlers. The 1900s brought new waves of land appropriation, from Soviet and Maoist collectivization to initiatives turning large estates over to family farmers. The shuffle continues today as governments vie for power and prosperity by choosing who should get land. Drawing on a career’s worth of original research and on-the-ground fieldwork, Albertus shows that choices about who owns the land have locked in poverty, sexism, racism, and climate crisis—and that what we do with the land today can change our collective fate.

    Global in scope, Land Power argues that saving civilization must begin with the earth under our feet.

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    39 min
  • Episode 337: Fall of the Winter King

    Episode 337: Fall of the Winter King
    Feb 7 2025
    Frederick V's brief stint as the leader of the Protestant resistance comes to an end.

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    Western Civ 2.0
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    19 min
  • Episode 336: The Defenestration of Prague

    Episode 336: The Defenestration of Prague
    Feb 5 2025
    The Thirty Years War begins with the Bohemian revolt. That begins by a bunch of guys getting chucked out a window...

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    17 min
  • Episode 335: The Eve of War

    Episode 335: The Eve of War
    Feb 2 2025
    The death of Emperor Rudolf in 1612 brought his brother Matthias to the throne. While this marked a period of recovery for the Habsburg dynasty, Matthias's position was precarious. He lacked the same authority as his brother and was already 55 years old, making his grip on power tenuous from the outset. The empire Matthias inherited was one riddled with internal divisions and vulnerabilities. The Turkish truce of 1606, though bringing much-needed peace, had ironically diminished the emperor's international standing. The Austrian Habsburgs' policy of neutrality in European conflicts further sidelined them in international affairs, further weakening the perception of imperial strength.

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    Western Civ 2.0
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    13 min