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.
The Partition of India – Part 2: Two Blind Eyes
As the British Raj crumbles, old animosities begin to stir in the subcontinent’s communities. Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru face a formidable new adversary in the form of Muhammed Ali Jinnah, who calls for the creation of a separate Muslim nation - Pakistan. Hindu-Muslim tensions, fueled by political polarization and corrosive rhetoric, explode into sectarian violence during the Great Calcutta Killing of August 1946.
Sources:
Akbar, M.J. Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan. 2011.
Tharoor, Shashi. Nehru: The Invention of India. 2003.
Tharoor, Shashi. Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India. 2017.
Khan, Yasmin. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. 2007.
Guha, Ramachandra. Gandhi: The Years That Changed The World. 2018.
Sarila, Narendra Singh. The Shadow of the Great Game. 2005.
Charles Rivers Editors. The Punjab. 2018.
Charles Rivers Editors. British India. 2017.
Puri, Kavita. Partition Voices: Untold British Stories. 2019.
Malhotra, Aanchal. Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects From A Continent Divided. 2017.
Von Tunzelmann, Alex. Indian Summer. 2007.
Zakaria, Anam. The Footprints of Partition. 2015.
Ahmed Akbar. Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity. 1997.
Urvashi, Butalia. The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. 1998.
White-Spunner, Barney. Partition. 2017.
Lawrence, James. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. 1997.
Hamdani, Yasser Latif. Jinnah: A Life. 2020.
Fischer, Louis. Gandhi. 1950.
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Podcast Episodes
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,…
Conflicted - Welcome
A quick introduction to the concept behind the show and your host, Zach Cornwell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
