15-Minute History

The great revolutionary's body lay in a red coffin as it wound its way through the streets of Moscow toward the House of Trade Unions. Six men carried it, surrounded by a phalanx of guards, through the gathered throng of mourners—some genuine, others paid. Each hoped to succeed Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but only one could, and did. The mustachioed man known to his friends as "Koba" who had spent decades fighting to bring communism to his homeland was now General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and he held in his hands the keys to ultimate power in the world's largest state. His rivals, especially Lenin's closest ally Leon Trotsky, were already plotting against him, but the general secretary controlled the Party's political apparatus and had the support of leaders across the country. When Lenin was laid to rest, three men formed an uneasy alliance, a troika, to rule collectively, but Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was determined to rule alone.

Join us as we teach you about Joseph Stalin, his life, rise to power, and his lasting effect on our world today. 

Join us as we discuss Alexander the Great and how he became the ruler of the known world (with some Star Trek references).

He looked out across the field and then back at his formations. The wind was coming in from the west, throwing dust clouds up into the air on his left side. The brown of the dust blended with the armor of the enemy for a moment, blurring them into a single mass that blanketed the horizon.

Alexander turned to confirm the calvary on his left were holding their position and was satisfied to see that they were. The other army advanced on the flank. He looked at his enemies’ centerline, made some mental calculations, and steadied himself.

The moment brought a memory of watching the molding of armor when he was a boy. During his education, he was made to watch the metal mold under the pressure of the maker’s will. Violence would bend the metal and countless strikes, one after the other, would force the metal to give way.

He looked at his phalanxes. They had met the enemy on his right and left. The left was reeling back and he ordered a small formation to reinforce them. He raised his sword to signal his cavalry and charged straight into the center of the opposing line.

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Join us as we teach you about Alexander the Great and how he became the ruler of the known world. 

Join us as we discuss Clive Staples Lewis, his life, his writing, and his lasting legacy.

Three men walked along a tree-covered path in the early hours of a Sunday morning. Their conversation mixed with the sound of water flowing over rocks in a small river and the crunch of leaves beneath their booted feet. The words they spoke were steeped in deep knowledge of literature and philosophy as they wrestled with the nature of the universe and man’s place in it. The two Englishmen believed that God had created the world and sent His Son to die for mankind’s sins, while their Irish friend was a skeptic who did not believe in anything beyond this life. Then, as their talk turned to myths and the great stories of humanity’s past, a strong autumn wind came up suddenly and sent leaves scattering across the path. The sheer power of the gust filled their hearts with wonder, and they stopped and stood in its midst, as one of them put it, “appreciating the ecstasy of such a moment.”

Join us as we teach you about Clive Staples Lewis, his life, his writing, and his lasting legacy. 

Join us and our special guest Father Dominic Verner, Ph.D. candidate, for a discussion on the life and times of Bartolome de Las Casas and his effect on world history. 

Bartolomé de Las Casas was born in Spain in 1484 into a wealthy merchant family. At the age of eighteen, he emigrated with his father Pedro to the new Spanish colony on Hispaniola (the island that is today divided between the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Pedro de Las Casas obtained a large farm, or hacienda, from the governor along with dozens of slaves. As landowners, the family participated in terrible slave raids across the West Indies to bring thousands of poor souls to the colonies. Bartolomé was disturbed by what he saw, and the horrors set him on a path toward vocal opposition to his government’s inhuman policies toward Native Americans.

Join us as we teach you about Bartolomé de Las Casas and his lifelong pursuit of ending the mistreatment and enslavement of indigenous peoples. 

Five months into the First World War, as the European powers were hurling their young men into barbed wire and machine-gun fire, Pope Benedict XV issued a plea "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang." The governments of the warring nations ignored the pontiff's call, and generals ordered their men to continue to fight while the rest of the Christian world celebrated the birth of Jesus. But as midnight approached on Christmas Eve in multiple sectors along the Western and Eastern fronts, officers spoke in hushed tones in English, German, French, and Russian about giving the soldiers under their command a break from the terrors of war. Artillery that had fired constantly since the late summer fell silent, and when the new day began, all was quiet.

Join us as we teach you about the Christmas Truce of 1914. From all of us here at 15-Minute History, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. See you in 2022!

Join us as we discuss Jordan Peterson, his influences, his writings, and his effect on society today. 

Join Jon and Dan as they each discuss three historical figures and their effect on world history.