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 Stock Market Crash of 1929 – Part 2: Age of Illusion
As economic disaster looms in the Fall of ‘29, the American public is blissfully unaware, entranced by stratospheric share prices and the sunny proclamations of Wall Street cheerleaders. Jesse Livermore, the infamous “Boy Trader”, follows his hunches and prepares for the coming catastrophe. The Federal Reserve, rudderless and impotent after the untimely death of its leader Ben Strong, sits on its hands. “Sunshine” Charlie Mitchell, chief executive of the country’s largest bank, injects fresh life into the boom as the stock market bubble inflates to dangerous heights of make-believe.
SOURCES:
Ahamed, Liaquat. Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World. 2009.
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s. 1931
Blumenthal, Karen. Six Days in October. 2002.
Charles Rivers Editors. Jesse Livermore. 2021.
Charles Rivers Editors. Wall Street. 2020.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Great Crash 1929. 1955.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. A Short History of Financial Euphoria. 1990.
Geisst, Charles R. Wall Street: A History. 1997.
Klein, Maury. Rainbow’s End. 2001.
Morris, Charles R. A Rabble of Dead Money. 2017.
Nations, Scott. A History of the United States in Five Crashes. 2017.
Parker, Selwyn. The Great Crash. 2008.
Perino, Michael. The Hellhound of Wall Street. 2010.
Rubython, Tom. Jesse Livermore: Boy Plunger. 2016.
Thomas, Gordon. Morgan-Witts, Max. The Day the Bubble Burst. 1979.
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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
