History That Doesn't Suck

“It was almost unbelievable, but I was seeing it. Almost simultaneously, three [Japanese] carriers were wiped out. I knew what it meant. By golly, we did it!”  This is the story of a battle that chan...

“We had been promised relief but none was coming, and all of us in Bataan shared a sense of betrayal.” This is the story of the United State’s earliest—and most disastrous—days of war in the Pacific....

With the December 1941 surprise attack on the US naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, our story has officially come to the United States’ entry into the Second World War. Professor Jackson told that sto...

“This year very few Hanukkah candles were lit.” / “This is a strange Christmas Eve.” This is the story of 1941’s wartime holiday season.  It’s difficult to conjure up a more miserable picture than t...

“Man your battle stations! This is no sh*t!” This is the story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  It’s 7:55 on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. 183 Japanese aircraft descend on the United Sta...

“To be perfectly frank, the ways you and I look at the Chinese are fundamentally different. You seem to think of them as human, but I see them as pigs.” This is the origin story of the Empire of the ...

Professor Greg Jackson sits down with legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and his co-producer Sarah Botstein to discuss their newest film series, The American Revolution plus a conversation abou...

Today Professor Jackson tells the story of Eleanor Roosevelt’s “Over Our Coffee Cups” weekly radio show. Starting in the fall of 1941, the First Lady took to the airwaves with this cafe-style program ...

“No more defenses. Our army is wiped out—artillery, air force, everything wiped out.” This is the story of the invasion of New Jersey. “The War of the Worlds” is a 1938 radio adaptation of an 1897 s...

Professor Jackson takes a step back to review themes from episodes 187 through 189 (War in Europe and America’s Response), specifically the slow turn from isolationism to aid via Lend-Lease, and event...