Humans Are Evil - History Podcast

President Andrew Jackson's 'Indian Removal Act' of 1830 set in motion a 1000 mile journey of death and disease for the Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek.

In this heartbreaking story, who really should be regarded as the "civilised", and who the "savages"?

It is all too tempting to judge those in the past by today's moral norms. Do Abraham Lincoln's racist statements nullify any of his achievements? Should people who did things we nowadays find morally repugnant be condemned when they knew no better? Are any actions intrinsically morally good or bad?

 

MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING

J. D. Velleman – Foundations for moral relativism

M. Fricker - The Relativism of Blame and Williams’s Relativism of Distance

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23772194   https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dont-judge-works-of-the-past-by-todays-moral-standards

The world's most impressive seafarers and statue builders were reduced from a thriving community of many thousands to just 111 traumatised survivors. These Rapa Nui people were the victims of their harsh environment, disease, enslavement and gun toting Europeans, Americans and Peruvians. All this after they had already turned against their gods, toppling many of the famous Moai head statues.

 

MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING

T. Hunt & C. Lipo - The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island

D. Porteous – The Modernization of Easter Island

T. Heyerdahl – Aku Aku

M. Levison et al – The Settlement of Polynesia

J. Diamond - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

A. Mieth & H-R. Bork - Humans, climate or introduced rats – which is to blame for the woodland destruction on prehistoric Rapa Nui. http://www.marklynas.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Mieth-Bork_JAS_Rats-Humans.pdf

P. Bahn & J. Flenley – Easter Island: Earth Island

"Deus Vult" The First Crusade, called by the Pope in the name of God, contained the horrors of massacres and cannibalism. However, it is one of history's most misunderstood conflicts. Properly understanding this subject within its context can only help Christian-Muslim relations.

 

MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING:

J. Riley-Smith – The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam

J. Phillips - Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades

S. Runciman – A History of the Crusades

C. Tyerman – The invention of the Crusades

The Argentine Military Junta's brutal campaign of repression, torture and murder that resulted in 30,000 left wing supporters "disappearing" and 500 children taken from their families to be raised by childless members of the military.

 

MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING:

J. Hedges - Argentina: A Modern History

P.H. Lewis - Guerrillas and Generals: The Dirty War in Argentina

D.M.K. Sheinin – Consent of the Damned: Ordinary Argentineans in the Dirty War

W. Fowler – Latin America 1800-2000

CBS 60 minutes. The Dirty War. Presented by Bob Simon. 2000

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/argentina

The crazy 19th century conflict that began with a failed student believing he is Jesus' younger brother and ended with approximately 20 million dead.

 

MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING

God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan – J.D. Spence

Imperial China – F. Schurmann & O. Schell

China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution – J. Chesneaux et al

Rebellions and Revolutions: China 1800s to 2000 – J. Gray

https://www.britannica.com/event/Taiping-Rebellion

 

The "Buggery Laws" between the years 1533 and 1835 represent the peak of state sponsored homophobic persecution in Britain. This episode unearths a little known part of our history of discrimination.

 

MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING:

A Gay History of Britain – M.Cook et al

Hidden from History – M. B. Dubberman et al

Homophobia: A History – B. Fone

https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories/articles/the-men-killed-under-the-buggery-act

http://rictornorton.co.uk/homopho5.htm

http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/index.htm

Described by some as the "first genocide". This episode tells the incredible story of one of the world's greatest civilisation's last stand.

"Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed!)

 

MAIN SOURCES/FURTHER READING:

Carthage – B.H. Warmington

Destroy Carthage! – A. Lloyd

The Punic Wars – B. Caven

To be Taken with a Pinch of Salt: The Destruction of Carthage - R. T. Ridley

Cato The Elder and the destruction of Carthage – E. O’Gorman

The independence of India was supposed to be a happy occasion, but it soon descended into unimaginable violence and suffering based on attempted religious purification.

 

 

Main sources/further reading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/india-pakistan-partition-imperial-britain.html

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/the-road-to-partition/

The Great Partition: the making of India and Pakistan - Yasmin Khan

Remembering Partition: violence, nationalism and history in India - Gyanendra Pandey Partition - Barney White-Spunner

India & Pakistan – Ian Talbot

India’s Partition – Mushirul Hasan

Facts are facts: The untold story of India’s Partition – Wali Khan

Arguably the worst act of colonialism in history were up to 10 million Congolese people died in 2 decades. Main Sources:

 

Red Rubber - ED Morel

Five Years With The Congo Cannibals - H Ward

Leopold to lumumba: a history of the belgian congo, 1877-1960 - G Martelli

King Leopold's ghost : a story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa - A Hochschild

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/belgiums-genocidal-colonial-legacy-haunts-the-country-s-future-a7984191.html

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/26/649600217/where-human-zoos-once-stood-a-belgian-museum-now-faces-its-colonial-past

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/1458736/Belgian-fury-at-film-on-Leopolds-Congo-terror.html

https://www.britannica.com/place/Congo-Free-State

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/30/congo-belgium-brussels-kinshasa