Professor Buzzkill History Podcast Joe Coohill

Professor Richard Toye explains the background and context of Winston Churchill's famous World War II speeches, from how they were written, to how they were delivered, to how the public reacted. Not only is it much more complex than the legend has it, the full history provides us with a much greater understanding of World War II.

“The Wild West,” is one of the strongest conceptions in American history. But “where” was the west? How “wild” was it? “Who” settled it? Did settlers build the west with their hands? How many of the stories about settlers and Native Americans are myths or misconceptions? Professor Edward O’Donnell helps us explain it all, including the central role that Buffalo Bill played in creating and spreading the story of the “wild west.” 

Dr. Jesse Curtis shows us how white evangelicals in the 20th century US grew their own institutions and created an evangelical form of whiteness, infusing the politics of colorblindness with sacred fervor. They deployed a Christian brand of colorblindness to protect new investments in whiteness. While black evangelicals used the rhetoric of Christian unity to challenge racism, white evangelicals repurposed this language to silence their black counterparts and retain power. Encore Episode

Donald Trump talks about Americans being "suckers" to their allies. Is Uncle Sam really "Uncle Sucker"? Did the United States really “bail the French out in two world wars,” or is it a blustering, bigoted myth? Professor Philip Nash joins us to discuss what happened in World Wars I and II, and whether the United States was “bailing out” the French or repaying a major debt from the American Revolution. Join us as we discuss all the issues. Lafayette, the Buzzkillers are here! Encore Episode.

Well-dressed men have played a distinctive part in the cultural and political life of Britain over several centuries. But unlike the twenty-first-century hipster, the British dandies provoked intense degrees of fascination and horror in their homeland and played an important role in British society from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Dr. Dominic Janes reveals to us how the scandalous history of fashionable men and their clothes is a reflection of changing attitudes to style, gender, and sexuality. Episode 550.

Jane Marguerite Tippett discusses her new book about Edward VIII, the English king who abdicated the throne in 1936 for the woman he loved, the American socialite Wallis Simpson. She describes the complexity of his life and the almost innumerable myths about his political views, his hopes for the British monarchy, and his famous meeting with Hitler before World War II. This is fascinating new historical research. Listen and learn! Episode 549.