Most Americans do not appreciate the extent to which victory in the American Revolution was due to the leadership of a French aristocrat. As Nathaniel Philbrick demonstrates in his new book In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown (Viking, 2018), it was Admiral Comte de Grasse’s naval victories which made possible G ... Show More
Jun 14
Derek R. Peterson, "A Popular History of Idi Amin's Uganda" (Yale UP, 2025)
Idi Amin ruled Uganda between 1971 and 1979, inflicting tremendous violence on the people of the country. How did Amin's regime survive for eight calamitous years? Drawing on recently uncovered archival material, Derek Peterson reconstructs the political logic of the era, focusin ... Show More
1h 3m
Jun 12
Richard Bennet and Alexander Noyes, "War at Arm's Length: How America Can Build Effective Partners Through Military Assistance" (Yale UP, 2026)
An in-depth examination of how the United States can build more effective partner militaries. Military assistance has a bad reputation. Large-scale attempts to build partner militaries in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam cost the United States billions of dollars and ended ignomini ... Show More
39m 40s
Jun 10
Justin F Jackson, "The Work of Empire: War, Occupation, and the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba and the Philippines" (UNC Press, 2025)
In 1898, on the eve of the Spanish-American War, the US Army seemed minuscule and ill-equipped for global conflict. Yet over the next fifteen years, its soldiers defeated Spain and pacified nationalist insurgencies in both Cuba and the Philippines. Despite their lack of experienc ... Show More
1h 17m
Apr 2025
How Did the American Revolution Start?
<p>On 19th April, 1775, just over 250 years ago, the opening salvos of the American Revolutionary War were fired at the battles of Lexington and Concord. Elite British Redcoats went head-to-head with the famed provincial Minutemen in bloody skirmishes across the Province of Massa ... Show More
1h 18m
Nov 2024
517. Nelson: The Hunt for Napoleon (Part 4)
In the wake of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797, Horatio Nelson, though a much acclaimed public hero for his bravery during the battle, is in the doldrums. Having led a harebrained attack on Tenerife, Nelson must now contend with the loss of his arm. Upon returning to Engla ... Show More
52 m
Aug 2024
488. Hundred Years' War: The Road to Agincourt (Part 2)
On the 11th of August 1415, King Henry V of England - an austere, pious, thoughtful and terrifying warlord in only his late-twenties - set sail for France. He embarked in the largest ship ever built on English soil at the head of some 15,000 ships, his nobles, brothers and hordes ... Show More
51m 38s