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In Historical Controversies, Mises Institute scholar Chris Calton debunks the history you may have learned in school. Armed with facts, theory, and a Rothbardian appreciation for historical narrative, Calton enlightens and entertains in a podcast that has something to offer all audiences. See the podcast's updated Corrections and Qualifications page. See also Chris Calton's Bibliographic Essays (PDF): Season 1, History of the War on Drugs (Mises.org/EC1Bib) and Season 2: Antebellum United St ...
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Tune into health and wellness with David Benjamin, David is an advocate for healthy organic green living and in this podcast we discuss topics around nutrition, diet, detoxification, emotional health and healing, spiritual living, happiness, fulfillment and the enrichment of life in any way that relates to the mind, body or spirit. Join us, subscribe and be a part of the conversation!
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Season 3, Episode 54 After Grant’s army moved on from Pittsburg Landing, the horrors of the battle remained for the people living there. Focusing primarily on the story of nine-year-old Elsie Duncan, Chris recounts the terrible years that followed the Battle of Shiloh for the civilians left in its wake. Chris Calton recounts the controversial histo…
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This episode features a talk Chris Calton gave to Auburn’s Young Americans for Liberty on April 20, as part of the Reclamation of Liberties event. In the talk, Chris offers an overview of the history of the governmental efforts to stigmatize marijuana in order to justify criminalization and draconian enforcement policies. He traces the changing nar…
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Season 3, Episode 53 "Professor CJ" of the Dangerous History Podcast joins Chris Calton to tell the story of Shiloh from the perspective of two soldiers, from their own personal memoirs of the battle. One story follows the experiences of Henry Morton Stanley, a twenty-one-year-old Confederate. The other story involves the sixteen-year-old John Cock…
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Season 3, Episode 52 The second day of battle brought fresh Union soldiers to the battlefield. They could hardly comprehend the destruction they witnessed from the day before. The bloodshed resumed until the overwhelmed Confederates were forced to retreat to Corinth. This episode also tells the oft-neglected story of the Battle of Fallen Timbers, i…
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Season 3, Episode 51 As the Union line fell back, they condensed at the bottom of a ravine. As the thousands of soldiers in each army crowded in to fight in the narrowest portion of the battlefield, the area earned the nickname “The Hornet’s Nest.” Before the day was done, thousands of men would fall, including the highest ranking officer to lose h…
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Season 3, Episode 50 At the beginning of the Battle of Shiloh, the Confederacy caught the Union by surprise. However, one Union Colonel suspected that an attack was coming, and he formed his men into a defensive line that bought the rest of the Union troops time to join the fight. Instead of a quick Confederate victory, both armies faced a bloody b…
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Season 3, Episode 49 Following the victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, Grant’s commanding officer still wanted to remove him from command. During this time, he formed a strong friendship with William Tecumseh Sherman. As the Union army was amassing troops at Pittsburg Landing, the Confederate forces in the West were concentrating at Corinth. The…
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Season 3, Episode 48 While Confederates were facing disaster at Leetown, General Van Dorn and his Confederates at Elkhorn Tavern were fighting the Union forces with more success. But after pushing the Union forces back on the first day of fighting, they found out that they would not be reinforced by General Ben McCulloch’s 7,000 man division. This …
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Season 3, Episode 47 The Battle of Pea Ridge was fought on two fronts, one at Leetown, and the other at Elkhorn Tavern. The combat at Leetown was led by Ben McCulloch, who commanded a force that greatly outnumbered the Union opponents. But due to a series of unfortunate disasters, the Confederate assault would fall apart, demonstrating what is like…
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Season 3, Episode 46 After Grant pushes the Confederates back to Fort Donelson, the southern leaders had to decide whether to attempt escape or surrender. Ultimately, the surrender was carried out in a way that created scandal for the Confederate leaders who did manage to escape, and it gave Grant the opening to earn his nickname in the North: “Unc…
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Season 3, Episode 45 The Battle of Fort Donelson would take place over several days. Waged from two fronts, the land and the river, the battle would seem to be turning in favor of the Confederates. While Ulysses S. Grant was off the battlefield consulting with the naval commander, Captain Foote, the Confederates would push the Union back, opening t…
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Season 3, Episode 44 By taking Fort Henry, Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew Hull Foote gained access to the Tennessee River. This waterway gave them access to the Confederate heartland, and by taking the Fort, they were able to probe deep into Alabama. This earned the Union a bounty of new supplies, and also struck a tremendous psychological blow agains…
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Season 3, Episode 43 As Lincoln grew impatient with his generals, he sent an order demanding action. In the West, Ulysses S. Grant was eager to comply, while other Union generals dithered and delayed offensive operations. Confederate forces were building forts on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers – Forts Henry and Donelson – and they believed tha…
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Season 3, Episode 42 On March 9th, 1862 — the day after the ironclad Merrimack destroyed two Union warships — the Confederate navy would meet its match in battle against the USS Monitor. Both sides would claim victory in the battle, but the true legacy would be the transformation of naval warfare across the globe. Chris Calton recounts the controve…
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Season 3, Episode 41 John Ericsson’s design for the Monitor was only a skeleton when he was awarded the contract to have it built. In a race to match the feared Merrimack, Ericsson had to quickly construct a working, combat-ready iron ship that would receive its first test in combat. If the ship proved a failure, Ericsson would be forced by the US …
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Season 3, Episode 40 The Union’s response to the Confederate ironclad was an iron warship of its own. Unlike the Merrimack, the USS Monitor was a tremendous technological innovation, nearly single-handedly designed by a Swedish engineer named John Ericsson. This episode details his incredible life and the many failures that would culminate in the s…
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Season 3, Episode 39 On March 8, 1862, the ironclad Merrimack — renamed the CSS Virginia — was tested in battle against three of the Union’s most powerful wooden ships. The outcome of the battle would usher in a new age of naval warfare, in which wooden ships would be rendered entirely obsolete. Chris Calton recounts the controversial history of th…
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Season 3, Episode 38 To combat the superior size of the United States Navy, the Confederacy believed that its best strategy was to build a technologically superior — if much smaller — Navy. The cornerstone of this strategy was to recover the USS Merrimack and plate it with iron, making it the first ironclad warship in North America. Chris Calton re…
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Season 3, Episode 37 Early in 1862, General Ambrose Burnside conquered the North Carolina coast, providing an important — but often overlooked — strategic victory for the Union. Chris Calton recounts the controversial history of the Civil War. You may support this podcast financially at Mises.org/SupportHC. Subscribe today at Spotify, Google Play, …
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Season 3, Episode 36 In this mini-episode, Chris Calton briefly reviews the important themes and takeaways from the first year of the war. Chris Calton recounts the controversial history of the Civil War. You may support this podcast financially at Mises.org/SupportHC. Subscribe today at Spotify, Google Play, iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or via RS…
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Season 3, Episode 35 In this episode, Chris Calton details how technological innovations changed the course of naval warfare. By taking advantage of this new technology, the Union Navy was able to easily capture Hatteras Inlet and Port Royal Sound, which would prove strategically important in the establishment of their blockade. Chris Calton recoun…
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Season 3, Episode 34 At the outset of the war, Winfield Scott came up with his “Anaconda Plan” to blockade the entire southern coast. This looked to be easier said than done, as the Union had a very small navy. The Confederates, by contrast, had no navy at all. This episode details the ways that both countries tried to overcome these problems in or…
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Season 3, Episode 33 With many of the Civilized Indians wishing to remain neutral in the Civil War, a Muscogee leader named Opothle Yahola led a group of thousands of fugitives to Kansas. As they fled, Confederate soldiers, along with their Native American allies, gave chase, fighting a series of battles known as the Trail of Blood on Ice. Chris Ca…
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Season 3, Episode 32 After being forced to move west during the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee Nation was bitterly divided into two factions. Although they remained officially unified, the factionalism remained through the Civil War and reemerged as a division between the Cherokee who favored the Union, or at least neutrality, and those who wanted to…
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Season 3, Episode 31 In 1861, the Five Civilized Tribes — the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Seminoles — would be faced with the decision of staying neutral or choosing a side in the Civil War. To understand their decision, Chris Calton takes a look at the long history of Indians becoming, in the eyes of Americans, "civilized". Chris …
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Season 3, Episode 30. After months of growing tension between the United States and Britain, a single event nearly plunged the two countries into war. When a Union naval officer illegally boarded a British mail ship and arrested two Confederate diplomats, many British leaders saw it as a deliberate provocation, engineered by William Seward, to prov…
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Season 3, Episode 29. Even before taking office, Secretary of State William Seward had a history of making threatening statements toward Britain. After the war began, he continued to make one diplomatic faux pas after another, worrying Britain enough that they started sending troops to Canada in preparation for a possible war with the United States…
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Season 3, Episode 28. The Union defeat at Ball’s Bluff would prove to be the final straw for the Congressional Republicans, who had been growing increasingly distressed by the Union failures at the outset of the war. Their response was to form a committee tasked with investigating the war—which really meant a political witch hunt determined to find…
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Season 3, Episode 27. After General Stone’s “slight demonstration” erupted into a small-scale battle, communication errors and battlefield mistakes continued to make matters worse for the Union army. The battle would not only end in a Union defeat, but it would also claim the life of one of President Lincoln’s closest personal friends. Chris Calton…
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Season 3, Episode 26. The Battle of Ball’s Bluff was a minor battle with major consequences. In this episode, Chris Calton details all the mistakes that were made leading up to the battle, setting the stage for a Union catastrophe. Chris Calton recounts the controversial history of the Civil War. This is the 26th episode in the third season of Hist…
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Season 3, Episode 25. Lincoln believed that Kentucky, one of the four remaining slave states, was crucial to the Union war effort. Although the state was more thoroughly Unionist than other border states, such as Missouri and Maryland, the administration did not want to take any chances, sending the state’s loyalists thousands of guns and carrying …
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Season 3, Episode 24. When Virginia decided to join the South, many Unionists in the western portion of the state were opposed to the move. The Lincoln administration wanted them to select representatives for “Restored Virginia,” maintaining the pretense that they were representing all of Virginia for the Union. But the Unionist political leaders w…
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Season 3, Episode 23. As the fear of spies and traitors spread through the North, political arrests became commonplace, even in states as far north as Maine. Anybody expressing any anti-war sentiment would be assumed to be a traitor and a secessionist, and arrests were carried out according to a guilty-until-proven-innocent policy. Martial Law was …
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Season 3, Episode 22. With former Republican presidential contender John C. Frémont now in charge of the Department of the West, the policies of Martial Law would be extended to the entire state of Missouri. Included in Frémont’s declaration of Martial Law is the first emancipation proclamation of the war — a proclamation that would not sit well wi…
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Season 3, Episode 21. After an early morning victory, the Battle of Wilson’s Creek concentrates on a hill that would later be named Bloody Hill. Despite the advantages won by a successful surprise attack, the Union army would find itself on the defensive, and the battle would end with the first general officer killed in the Union army. Chris Calton…
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Season 3, Episode 20. The second large scale battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Wilson’s Creek would prove to be one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war, in proportion to the number of men participating. Lyon initiates the battle in an aggressive early morning ambush, hoping to cripple the larger Confederate forces before ordering the Un…
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Season 3, Episode 19. As the Union forces pursue the Missouri secessionists to the southwest corner of the state, they fight a number of small skirmishes that serve as preludes to the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. Chris Calton recounts the controversial history of the Civil War. This is the 19th episode in the third season of Historical Controversies. …
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Season 3, Episode 18. After the “Walnut Street Massacre” in St. Louis, more people shift their support to the Confederacy. In response, Nathaniel Lyon declares war on the state of Missouri, and wages the first small, but significant, battle of the state in Booneville.
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Season 3, Episode 17. Nathaniel Lyon, a notoriously harsh officer in the US army, is sent to St. Louis to ensure Missouri’s place in the Union. His policies have the effect of alienating much of the population of the city, which is predominantly Unionist, leading to the formation of a secessionist resistance group at Camp Jackson.…
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To celebrate the one year anniversary episode of Historical Controversies, host Chris Calton broadcast a live Question-and-Answer session in the Mises Studio on August 6, 2018.
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Season 3, Episode 16. The Union defeat at Bull Run changed the perspective on the war for everybody in the North. The confidence in a decisive war that would be won with a single battle was shattered. Northern presses spread fabricated stories of rebel barbarity, and Union politicians look for people to blame. In the South, there were no celebratio…
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Season 3, Episode 15. With new Confederate troops arriving throughout the afternoon, McDowell takes one last stand at Chinn Ridge, only to have fresh Confederate arrivals from the Army of the Shenandoah drive back his last brigade. As the Army of the Potomac retreats, the Confederates pursue them, taking several prisoners, including one Republican …
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Season 3, Episode 14. Leading the stand on Henry Hill was Thomas Jackson, where he would earn his nickname “Stonewall.” To drive Jackson off the hill, McDowell orders a Napoleon-esque artillery charge, resulting in the bloodiest fighting of the day, as the newly-rifled weaponry renders the artillery charge ineffective, and both armies fight for con…
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Season 3, Episode 13. The morning hours of the First Battle of Bull Run concentrated on Matthews Hill, where the outflanked Confederates tried desperately to hold their ground, only to be driven back by the superior numbers of the Army of Northeastern Virginia. With Matthews Hill occupied by the Union by the afternoon, the battle looked won, but th…
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Season 3, Episode 12. Three days before the major battle, regiments from the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under the command of Irvin McDowell, and the Army of the Potomac, under Pierre Beauregard, face off on the southeastern point of the Manassas battle site, resulting in a minor Confederate victory. For most soldiers, this skirmish offered them…
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Season 3, Episode 11. Leading up to the First Battle of Bull Run, Joseph E. Johnston takes command of the Army of the Shenandoah, and Robert Patterson counters with the Army of Pennsylvania. Patterson’s objective is to prevent Johnston from joining Pierre Beauregard at Manassas Junction. But, misled by poor intel, Patterson fails to attack Johnston…
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Season 3, Episode 10. Because of the close proximity to Washington DC and Richmond, Virginia, much of the Civil War would take place in eastern Virginia—between the two capitals. Virginia’s favorite son, Robert E. Lee, would be offered command of the Union army only days before resigning his U.S. army commission and accepting a position in the Conf…
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Season 3, Episode 9. After the Pratt Street Riot, President Lincoln and General Scott take more drastic measures to secure the state of Maryland for the Union. Placing most of the state under Martial Law, Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus and allows his officers to arrest civilians. One such arrest led to Chief Justice Roger B. Taney to is…
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Season 3, Episode 8. Only days after Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers, troops began moving to Washington DC, having to pass through Baltimore—a city full of secessionists. Seeing the movement of troops from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts as nothing less than a foreign invasion, Baltimore citizens resisted the movement of the troops, leading to …
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Season 3, Episode 7. After Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the “Southern Rebellion,” the Upper South states reconsidered their decision to remain in the Union. As many people saw Lincoln’s call for troops as a usurpation of Executive authority, four more states — Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee — saw themselves as…
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