History Unplugged Podcast

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An Infantry Officer's Fight Through Nazi Europe, From D-Day to VE Day Jun 19, 2018

Show notes

Falling comrades, savagery of war, and the intense will to prevail in battle faced young Bill Chapman when he stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. For the following eleven months Chapman served in the most hazardous duty in the Army—dodging Nazi captures and fighting for his and his brothers-in-arms’ survival.
To talk about Bill's story on today's episode of History Unplugged is his son, retired infantry officer and author Craig Chapman. Craig reveals his father’s first-hand account of the horror, fear, and danger from the front lines of WWII’s most momentous events, from his mortar unit's landing at Utah Beach on D-Day, through the brutal fighting in southern Germany against SS holdouts and Nazi extremists in the spring of 1945, to VE Day.

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Everything You Need to Know About D-Day: H-Hour, Weapons Info, and First-Hand Accounts via Soldiers, Beachmasters, and the French Resistance Jun 14, 2018

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The D-Day landing of June 6, 1944, ranks as the boldest and most successful large-scale invasion in military history.
On June 6, as Operation Overlord went forward, roughly 160,000 Allied troops crossed the English Channel, supported by seven thousand ships and boats, and landed on the coast of Normandy.The seaborne invasion included nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers. They established a beachhead from which the Germans were unable to dislodge them. Within ten days, there were half a million troops ashore, and within three weeks there were two million.
In this episode I take a comprehensive look at the largest amphibious assault in history

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Benjamin Franklin: Diplomat, Polymath, and Member of 18th Century Jet Set—Elizabeth Covart of the Ben Franklin's World Podcast Jun 12, 2018

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Benjamin Franklin was a world traveler, consummate learner, and a polymath extraordinaire; the Founding Father was a printer, scientist, inventor, diplomat, postmaster general, educator, philosopher, entrepreneur, library curator, and America's first researcher to win an international scientific reputation for his studies in electrical theory. He even made contributions to knowledge of the Gulf Stream.
But he was just as much a product of his extraordinary world as he contributed to it. Neither Colonial North America nor the embryonic United States developed apart from the rest of the world. They were active participants in the politics, economics, and culture of the Atlantic World. The events in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and South America affected the way North Americans lived, dressed, worshipped, conducted business, and exercised diplomacy.
Today's guest is Elizabeth Covart, host of Ben Frankin's World podcast. She is here to talk about how Benjamin Franklin took an active part in the Atlantic World. He helped found the United States and influenced technological developments after his death.

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From Farm Fields to Classrooms: Horace Mann's War for Universal and Compulsory Education for Children Jun 07, 2018

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In a remarkably short span of time, American children went from laboring on family farms to spending their days in classrooms. The change came from optimistic reformers like Horace Mann, who in the early 1800s dreamed of education, literacy, and science spreading throughout all levels of American society. But other supporters of universal education had darker motives. They feared the influx of Irish Catholic immigrants and thought they'd bring their papist ideas to the young republic. Only compulsory education could break these European children of their Catholic ways and transform them into obedient, patriotic Americans with a Protestant outlook in their worldview if not in their theology.
This episode explores the origins of compulsory education, from the Protestant Reformation (and how it was used as a weapon in the religious arms races of sixteenth-century Europe), Prussia's role as the first nation with universal schooling, how America adopted compulsory K-12 education, and whether modern-day schools are actually based on a factory from the 1800s.

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Meet Joan: The Female Pope—Stephen Guerra of the History of the Papacy Podcast Jun 05, 2018

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According to medieval accounts, a woman named Joan reigned as pope, 855-857 A.D., by disguising herself as a man. The story is widely thought to be fiction, but almost everyone took it as fact in the Middle Ages, up to the point that the Siena Cathedral featured a bust of Joan among other pontiffs.
Where did the story of Joan come from, what is the purpose of creating this legend, and what narrative function does it fulfill? Moreover, is it even possible that this story is true?
Joining us to dig into the incredibly messy history of the medieval papacy is Stephen Guerra, host of the History of the Papacy podcast. We find out whether a woman ever did wear the papal tiara.

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The Most Productive People in History, Part 2: Thomas Aquinas to Thomas Edison May 31, 2018

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This is Part 2 of an exploration of the live of the most productive people in history. We will look at the life, times, and work habits of medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas (the most prolific writer before the invention of the word processor), composer Georg Philipp Telemann (who produced thousands of music compositions), sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov (who wrote 500 books in nine out of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal System) and Thomas Edison, who had over 1,000 patents to his name.

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The Most Productive People in History, Part 1: From Archimedes to Ben Franklin May 29, 2018

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They never knew how he did it. Few composers write more than one or two symphonies in their lifetimes. Beethoven spent a year on his shorter symphonies but more than six years on his 9th Symphony. But Georg Philipp Telemann composed at least 200 overtures in a two-year period. Over his lifetime Telemann's oeuvre consists of more than 3,000 pieces, although “only” 800 survive to this day.
He was not the only person whose productivity defied all reason. Greek scientist Archimedes discovered mathematical phenomena that weren't confirmed for 17 centuries. Isaac Newton invented classical physics and was one of the inventors of calculus. Benjamin Franklin wrote, published, politicked, invented, experimented, and humored, sometimes all at the same time.
This episode is part one of two that explores the lives of the most productive people in history. We will look at the cultures into which they were born and see the methods that they used to achieve such sweeping results.

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The Union's Secret Rebels: The Story of Gettysburg's Five Rebellious Double Crossers Who Returned as Foreign Invaders May 24, 2018

Show notes

The Civil War is called the war in which brother fought against brother. But few knew of the
“Gettysburg Rebels”: the five privates from that very town who moved south to Virginia in the 1850s,
joined the Confederate army, and returned home as foreign invaders for the great battle in July 1863.
I talk about this story with Tom McMillan, author of Gettysburg Rebels: Five Native Sons Who Came
Home to Fight as Confederate Soldiers. It is the story of Gettysburg’s five native sons who abandoned
their hometown ties to join the Southern cause. But that's not to say they forgot their families
altogether. At least one of these soldiers receive a leave of absence to cross enemy lines at night and
visit his family...while in full Confederate uniform.
Willing to relinquish familial ties, Henry Wentz, Wesley Culp, and the three Hoffman brothers kept
their hometown connections hidden from Confederate leaders—a decision that would ultimately
determine the fate of the Confederacy.

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How to Reach Allied Territory When Your Plane Is Shot Down in Nazi-Occupied France May 22, 2018

Show notes

Lieutenant George W. Starks' worst fear came true when his B-17 was shot down over Nazi-occupied
France. Earlier that morning, the boyish 20-year-old and his crew were assigned to the most exposed
section of the bomber formation: the “coffin corner.” Now, scattered across the countryside of
Champagne, each of the B-17’s ten American crew members discarded his parachutes and began a
wartime trek. Some were hidden by heroic civilians, a few were saved by the French underground,
others fell into the hands of the Nazis, but all miraculously survived.
Carole Engle Avriett, joins me on the podcast today. She is author of the book Coffin Corner Boys:
One Bomber, Ten Men, and Their Harrowing Escape from Nazi-Occupied France to tell these
stories. She worked with Captain George W. Starks—now ninety-four years old—to bring them to
light.

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Anthology: How Switzerland Remained Neutral In Two World Wars May 17, 2018

Show notes

How was Switzerland able to remain neutral in the two world wars? Why was a tiny mountainous nation of watch-makers, bankers, and chocolateers able to dictate their own fate at a time when nobody else could? In this episode I answer this listener question and three others, and they all have to do with critical events in European history that could have changed the continent's fate. The other three questions I answer are as follows.What if Spain had become disunified after the War of Spanish Succession?Could German Unification have taken place without Otto von Bismarck?What is the largest massacre still denied today?

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