High Crimes and History

The clearing of #BLM protesters in D.C. on 06/01 shocked the world. What you may not know is that the Park Police have a long history of disorganization, violence, and a lack of oversight. This department in disorder is just one case study of the systemic lack of police accountability in the United States today.

The past two months of hiatus has had Trevor and Katie swearing up a storm, so we thought this would be a good time to delve into a more lighthearted episode on the history of swearing, why we swear, and how swearing has been criminalized in history. From Vikings to Shakespeare, the English language has evolved to keep ahead of criminal codes involving swearing. It’s time to find some new, strange, or funny words to put on your list.

NOTE: This episode contains offensive language, including racial, sexual, and religious words that are not censored and may be offensive. Listen discretion is advised.

The world has turned upside down in a manner of weeks. As COVID cases rise, the economy falls, and society grinds to a halt, Trevor has a surprisingly optimistic message – the end is NOT nigh. History teaches us that pandemics are era-ending, but they’re also era-beginning. We look at pandemics throughout history to gauge the economic, psychological, and sociological consequences of disease, and what we can do to make the transition.

Friday 3/20 we’ll drop another normal episode. Stay tuned.

How do you take 500 ordinary men and train them to kill 83,000 human beings? In 1942 Poland outside the village of Jozefow, the men of the Nazi Reserve Police Battalion 101 found out that all it takes is a single push.

We take some time to delve into a common listener question we get – why is Western history so violent? Trevor dives into the systems of justice, honor, shame, religion, and entertainment that helped fuel a fascination with violence that still exists today. Tying all these systems together is the example of the execution of Damiens in 1757, the pinnacle of the spectacle of suffering and the beginning of the end for many of these systems.

The gunfight of the O.K. Corral didn't end with the Earp brothers and Holliday riding into the sunset. They had been charged with murder. In a preliminary trial, the twists and turns of the prosecution and defense helped craft the legend of the Earp brothers. But at what cost? As you'll find out, the Earp brothers aren't the heroes in this story.

Due to some difficulties, the episode is up Wednesday as opposed to our usual Monday. Our apologies!

If history is a narrative, then it stands to reason that where a story starts and ends is just as important as the events itself. The traditional narrative of the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral in 1881 is that of the Earp brothers and Holliday, lawmen of Tombstone, AZ, facing down the Cowboy gang in a classic Western gunfight. Thirty seconds. Thirty shots. What it doesn’t tell you is how the Earp brothers were immediately charged with murder. Murder it may well have been. This is true story of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

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How do historians separate fact from fiction? Sometimes it’s almost impossible to do so. Take the case of Pierre Picaud – a Frenchman sentenced in 1807 for crimes he didn’t commit on the hearsay of his own friends. Upon his release, he sought his revenge. The basis for the classic The Count of Monte Cristo, Trevor attempts to unravel a case that still mystifies historians to this day.

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Deep in the jungle in the Vietnam War, an American soldier overdoses on heroin. That overdose can be traced back to the Century of Humiliation that the Chinese faced after the start of the Opium Wars. In the face of a Second Opium War and numerous rebellions, the Chinese are forced to engage in an opium trade with Europeans and their own commercial production of the substance that will bring down the Qing Empire. Sometimes the tendrils of history reach further than we ever expect them to.

What would it look like if a modern army clashed with a medieval army on the battlefield? The First Opium War answers that question. In order continue their illegal opium trade in China, Britain engaged in a series of naval battles and fort assaults against the Chinese Empire, who was woefully underprepared for a modern war. When rifles meet bows and arrows, the result is devastating, and the consequences for the opium trade reached into the 20th century.