Conflicted: A History Podcast
Untangling history’s greatest controversies. Every month, we take a hard look at the historical conflicts that raise difficult questions, stoke controversy, and send our moral compasses spinning.
Conflicted - Welcome
A quick introduction to the concept behind the show and your host, Zach Cornwell.
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Podcast Episodes
Hate Thy Neighbor: Northern Ireland and the Troubles
Car bombs, hitmen, and hunger strikes. How "The Troubles" tore Northern Ireland apart. SOURCES: Toolis, Kevin. Rebel Hearts. 1995 McKittrick, David. Making Sense of the Troubles. 2000 Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Irela…
The City Of Dreams: The Aztec Conquest Part 2
Wonder and warmth quickly turn to slaughter and horror as Hernan Cortes meets Emperor Moctezuma in the explosive conclusion of this two-part series. SOURCES: Levy, Buddy. Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and…
The City Of Dreams: The Aztec Conquest Part 1
How a handful of mercenaries, explorers, and pirates destroyed the Aztec Empire and burnt its capital city to the ground. Two cultures collide in the first of a two-part series on the Conquest of Mexico. SOURCES: Levy, B…
Forbidden Children: China's One-Child Policy
The story of China’s infamous One-Child Policy, the most ambitious (and catastrophic) social engineering project the modern world has ever seen. SOURCES: Fong, Mei. One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment…
Six Days: The 1967 Six Day War
How a single week in 1967 changed the Middle East, and the world, forever. This is the action-packed, heartbreaking origin story of Israel and the Six-Day War. SOURCES: Oren, Michael B. Six Days Of War. 2002. Pressfield,…
Wonder Women
African berserkers, graceful samurai, and deadly Soviet fighter pilots. A three-part, globe-trotting tour of remarkable female soldiers and the complicated lives that they led. SOURCES: Vinogradova, Lyuba. Defending the…
They Saw Red
The Rated-R-for-Russian story of the Red Army’s horrific campaign of vengeance against Nazi Germany. SOURCES: Beevor, Antony. The Fall of Berlin 1945. 2003. Huggler, Justin. “Fall of Berlin: ‘Of course I was afraid. I wa…
The Tiger and the Turtle: Samurai Invasion of Korea
Sea battles, tiger hunts, and a mountain of human noses. This is the Shakespearean saga that triggered centuries of bad blood between Korea and Japan. SOURCES: Samuel, Hawley. The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Inv…
This Is Sparta?
A myth-busting breakdown of history’s favorite fitness cult. SOURCES: Hanson, Victor Davis. A War Like No Other. 2005. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War Plutarch. Parallel Lives Xenophon. Hellenica Cartledge,…
