11 episodes
Humans Are Evil - History Podcast Jamie Dalgleish
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- History
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4.9 • 12 Ratings
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'Humans Are Evil'.
A bi-weekly history show unearthing the most shocking events, actions and characters from our past.
The episode subjects will shock you in the same way learning about the Holocaust and Atlantic Slave Trade shocked us all the first time we learned about them. Most obviously aren’t on the same scale and severity of that evil catastrophes, but will contain the same lack of humanity that has always characterised humanity throughout all of history.
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The Trail of Tears
President Andrew Jackson's 'Indian Removal Act' of 1830 set in motion a 1000 mile journey of death and disease for the Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek.
In this heartbreaking story, who really should be regarded as the "civilised", and who the "savages"? -
Should we morally judge historical figures by today's moral standards?
It is all too tempting to judge those in the past by today's moral norms. Do Abraham Lincoln's racist statements nullify any of his achievements? Should people who did things we nowadays find morally repugnant be condemned when they knew no better? Are any actions intrinsically morally good or bad?
MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING
J. D. Velleman – Foundations for moral relativism
M. Fricker - The Relativism of Blame and Williams’s Relativism of Distance
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23772194
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dont-judge-works-of-the-past-by-todays-moral-standards -
Easter Island Apocalypse
The world's most impressive seafarers and statue builders were reduced from a thriving community of many thousands to just 111 traumatised survivors.
These Rapa Nui people were the victims of their harsh environment, disease, enslavement and gun toting Europeans, Americans and Peruvians. All this after they had already turned against their gods, toppling many of the famous Moai head statues.
MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING
T. Hunt & C. Lipo - The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island
D. Porteous – The Modernization of Easter Island
T. Heyerdahl – Aku Aku
M. Levison et al – The Settlement of Polynesia
J. Diamond - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
A. Mieth & H-R. Bork - Humans, climate or introduced rats – which is to blame for the woodland destruction on prehistoric Rapa Nui. http://www.marklynas.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Mieth-Bork_JAS_Rats-Humans.pdf
P. Bahn & J. Flenley – Easter Island: Earth Island -
The First Crusade
"Deus Vult"
The First Crusade, called by the Pope in the name of God, contained the horrors of massacres and cannibalism.
However, it is one of history's most misunderstood conflicts. Properly understanding this subject within its context can only help Christian-Muslim relations.
MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING:
J. Riley-Smith – The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam
J. Phillips - Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades
S. Runciman – A History of the Crusades
C. Tyerman – The invention of the Crusades -
Argentina's Dirty War
The Argentine Military Junta's brutal campaign of repression, torture and murder that resulted in 30,000 left wing supporters "disappearing" and 500 children taken from their families to be raised by childless members of the military.
MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING:
J. Hedges - Argentina: A Modern History
P.H. Lewis - Guerrillas and Generals: The Dirty War in Argentina
D.M.K. Sheinin – Consent of the Damned: Ordinary Argentineans in the Dirty War
W. Fowler – Latin America 1800-2000
CBS 60 minutes. The Dirty War. Presented by Bob Simon. 2000
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/argentina -
The Taiping Rebellion
The crazy 19th century conflict that began with a failed student believing he is Jesus' younger brother and ended with approximately 20 million dead.
MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING
God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan – J.D. Spence
Imperial China – F. Schurmann & O. Schell
China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution – J. Chesneaux et al
Rebellions and Revolutions: China 1800s to 2000 – J. Gray
https://www.britannica.com/event/Taiping-Rebellion
Customer Reviews
Learned A lot
Good show. Accent is a little thick but I understand you. Love that you're going back to show that the nature of humans has not changed much
The title is all I need
We are useless and destructive. If all humans die off, and this might sound morbid, animals would have more food, no pollution, poaching, and the world would be green. Global warming would be a thing of the past. Another animal might become the dominant species. Maybe not though because they could become like humans. We can’t make The Perfect World, but animals can. We make ourselves overrated and animals underrated.