“The German delegation has come to receive the proposals of the Allied Powers looking to an armistice.”

This is the story of guns falling silent across war-ravaged fronts–the story of the Great War’s armistice between Germany and the Allied Powers.

Sailors are mutinying. Soldiers are breaking. A revolution–possibly a Bolshevist revolution–is knocking on the Second Reich’s door. German leaders are coming to accept a painful reality: they can’t carry on this war. They look to the merciful words of Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points as they seek an armistice.

But as the German delegation sits down with Allied Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch in his ornate train carriage at a secluded location within the Compiègne Forest, they find the hardened General is not there to negotiate. He presents a difficult pill to swallow. With little alternative, the German delegation moves forward. The fighting will come to a stop when the clock strikes 11 on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
___
3 Ways to dive deeper into History That Doesn’t Suck

Join our growing Facebook community


Get our monthly newsletter, The HTDS Gazette

Become part of the HTDS Patreon family



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

146: The Armistice of November 11, 1918

HTDS is a bi-weekly podcast, delivering a legit, seriously researched, hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories. To keep up with History That Doesn’t Suck news, check us out on Facebook and Instagram: @Historythatdoesntsuck; on Twitter: @HTDSpod; or online at htdspodcast.com. Support the podcast at Patreon.com/historythatdoesntsuck.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Education

Training

Language Courses

Higher Education

K-12

Educational Technology

The Prof. sits down with fellow Prof. Ben Sawyer of the Road to Now Podcast and Middle Tennessee State University to chat through the last volume episodes. Russia, the Red Scare, the second Klan, and more, while Ben gets Greg to share behind-the-scenes details on the writing process. Enjoy!

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations


join discussions in our Facebook community


get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

come see a live show


get HTDS merch

or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.


HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network. 
Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

154: An Epilogue Discussion with Ben Sawyer

“I want to say make no settlement until they sign up that every bloody murderer of a guard has got to go.”

This is the story of the largest uprising in the United States since the Civil War.

As unions spread across the Progressive-Era United States, West Virginia mine owners manage to keep them out. They have some good reasons (tough margins) and some less savory ones … like their preference for an oppressive “mine guard system” in “company towns” that effectively removes civil government and private ownership, and reduces the American citizens working in their mines to serfdom. Mother Jones inspires the miners to push back. 

Over the course of a decade, that pushback turns bloody – especially in Mingo County. But the worst of it comes just after the Great War, as the miner’s hero, Police Chief Sid “Two Gun” Hatfield, is murdered in cold blood at McDowell County Courthouse. Now, all bets are off. 10,000 miners grab their guns, ready to get revenge and free incarcerated miners. But they’ll have to go through Sheriff Don Chafin’s forces first. The two sides clash at Blair Mountain as the US Army arrives with regiments and aviation squadrons.
____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations


join discussions in our Facebook community


get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

come see a live show


get HTDS merch

or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.


HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network. 
Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

153: West Virginia’s Mine Wars: From Trouble in Matewan to the Battle of Blair Mountain

“Every official except one elected yesterday at the first municipal election of this borough had been endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.”

This is the story of the Second Ku Klux Klan.

It’s been nearly half a century since the Third Enforcement Act killed off the Klan in 1871. But amid Jim Crow segregation in 1915, the lynching of a Jewish Georgian Leo Frank, coupled with a new film, The Birth of a Nation, inspires William Simmons to resurrect the Klan. 

This new Klan has a longer list of enemies. While still opposed to Black Americans fully integrating into American society, this KKK also targets Jews and Catholics. It’s also more politically connected than the first Klan. While Klansmen will participate in violence–including the near annihilation of the Black quarter of Tulsa, Oklahoma–most Kluxers are more focused on politics. As membership swells into the millions, the Klan’s endorsed candidates will win seats in Congress, state houses, and city councils across the nation. Yet, the Klan will come crashing down almost as quickly as it rose in the 1920s. We’ll find out why.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations


join discussions in our Facebook community


get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

come see a live show


get HTDS merch

or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.


HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

152: The Second Ku Klux Klan: Racism, Anti-Semitism, & Anti-Catholicism in the 1920s

“Palmer, do not let this country see red.”

This is the story of America’s First Red Scare. On June 2, 1919, Attorney General Mitchell Palmer is just going to bed when the first floor of his home is blown apart. It was a bomb, and part of a larger plot to attack several national leaders. It’s the work of anarchists.

Shaken to the core, Mitch is determined to use his position as AG to rid the nation of such extremist, violent leftists–anarchists, Bolsheviks, and the like. Mitch turns to the Bureau of Investigation (the predecessor of the FBI) to help round up foreign Reds. He’ll find a bright young lawyer named J. Edgar Hoover particularly useful in his “Palmer Raids.”

But as famed socialist Eugen Debs goes to prison for speaking against the war and union workers get treated like they’re a part of the far left, some start to wonder: is the AG still protecting the nation from violent radicals, or is he conducting a witch hunt? With bombings scaring the nation and Wall Street, the nation must debate where to draw the line between security and liberty.
___
Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations


join discussions in our Facebook community


get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

come see a live show


get HTDS merch

or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.


HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network. 
Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

151: The First Red Scare - Bombings, The Palmer Raids, Eugene Debs, and J. Edgar Hoover

“I keep wondering if the Unknown Soldier is one of my men.”

This is the story of the United States coping with and facing the aftermath of World War I.

The American Expeditionary Force in France is breaking up but that means a lot of different things as doughboys occupy Germany, go fight in Russia, convalesce, or just head home. If only going home was so easy–for many, it’s a hard transition back to civilian life. One of the few familiar things they find in the States is a deadly strain of influenza: “The Spanish Flu.”

Meanwhile, the world is in turmoil. War still rages in much of Eastern Europe and Ireland, communism and fascism are rearing their heads, and neither the French nor British are finding their new League of Nations Mandates easy to govern. But amid all these ongoing struggles, grieving Americans whose doughboy father, son, or brother disappeared in the war find solace visiting what just might be their loved one’s final resting place: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations


join discussions in our Facebook community


get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

come see a live show


get HTDS merch

or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.


HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network. 
Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

146: The Armistice of November 11, 1918

Download our free app to listen on your phone