Within this episode, I break down the purpose of an introductory group activity for students entitled, "One Man's Trash" that was originally created by me and Maegann Basham in 2020. This is Part I of the two part series on this activity. The next episode will examine and wrestle with the philosophy behind it.

Three Questions to Wrestle With — Part One

1. How much evidence is enough before a historian can reasonably make a claim about the past? At what point does a reasonable inference cross the line into assumption or speculation?

2. If the same piece of evidence can mean different things depending on its context, can evidence ever truly “speak for itself”? Or does evidence only gain meaning when someone interprets it?

3. Imagine that historians 500 years from now discovered only five objects from your life. What might they correctly infer about you—and what might they completely misunderstand? What does your answer reveal about the limitations historians face when reconstructing the lives of people from the past?

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

⁠https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart⁠

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

⁠https://www.fpri.org/⁠

Council on Foreign Relations

⁠https://www.cfr.org/⁠

Global Conflict Tracker

⁠https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker⁠

Institute for the Study of War

⁠https://www.understandingwar.org/⁠

I am back! After a break this summer I return to discuss my philosophy on wrestling with history in education. I will now be coming back to record episodes and have meaningful conversations. Wrestling with History: Three Questions to Consider

1. If history rarely provides simple answers, should the goal of history education be helping students find answers, or helping them learn to live thoughtfully with complexity and uncertainty?

2. Can we truly understand a historical figure, document, or society without temporarily setting aside our own modern assumptions, or does every interpretation inevitably reveal as much about us as it does about the past?

3. If communication is the primary tool through which civilizations preserve ideas, challenge authority, and inspire change, are history teachers ultimately teaching the past, or teaching students how to participate responsibly in the future?

Within this episode I have my friend Charles North VI back on the podcast to discuss why primary sources are so damn good from his point of view.

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart

Second Time Books

https://secondtimebooksonline.com/

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

https://www.fpri.org/

Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org

Global Conflict Tracker

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/

Within this episode, APSI trainer and history teacher Kenneth LeSage and I discuss the importance of using primary sources for teaching.

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart

Second Time Books

https://secondtimebooksonline.com/

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

https://www.fpri.org/

Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/

Global Conflict Tracker

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/

Within this introductory episode I wrestle with my personal philosophy on why primary sources can be so powerful.

Article Links/References:

• Nicole Donawho, Lies, Damn Lies, and Primary Sources, July 15, 2025. (On JSTOR)
• Barton, Keith C. “Primary Sources in History: Breaking through the Myths.” The Phi Delta Kappan 86, no. 10 (2005)
• Anania, Katie. “Teaching with Primary Sources.” Archives of American Art Journal, 2022.

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart

Second Time Books

https://secondtimebooksonline.com/

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

https://www.fpri.org/

Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/

Global Conflict Tracker

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/

Within this episode, we revisit with Charles North VI to have him share his experiences of vlogging on different revolutionary and civil war battlefields. It is important to note that Charles brings with him and encourages his audience to consider books that correlate with the battle or units that he is historically following in his videos.

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart

Second Time Books

https://secondtimebooksonline.com/

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

https://www.fpri.org/

Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/

Global Conflict Tracker

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/

In this episode, I wrap up the last narrative summary of Unit 9 in AP European History with a focus on topics such as Decolonization, Globalization, Second Wave Feminism, Environmental concerns, Technology, and Globalization. Again, this is just main focus on the themes of the unit.

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

https://www.fpri.org/

Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/

Global Conflict Tracker

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/

Within this episode I take a narrative look at a summary review for the Cold War in Unit 9: Cold War and the Contemporary World in AP European History. Episode 72 will wrap of the last summary for the entire curriculum.

Audio Passage:

Winston Churchill, “The Sinews (Seen-Yus) of Peace” (known as the Iron Curtain Speech), Westminster College, March 5th, 1946.

“What I have to say about the Communist governments in Eastern Europe is not based on information which is secret or controversial. It is plain for all to see. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line, all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe lie under Soviet influence and increasing control from Moscow. This is not the liberated Europe we hoped to build.”

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

https://www.fpri.org/

Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/

Global Conflict Tracker

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/

Within this episode I went through a narrative summary of Unit 8: 20th Century Global Conflicts for AP European History.

Cited Source:

War is no longer a clash between armies, but is a clash between nations, between whole populations. Any distinction between belligerents and non-belligerents is no longer admissible… because when nations are at war everyone takes a part in it, the soldier carrying his gun, the woman loading shells in a factory, the farmer growing wheat, the scientist in his laboratory. The limitations applied to the so-called inhuman and atrocious means of war are nothing but international demagogic hypocrisies… [Total] War has to be regarded unemotionally as a science, regardless of how terrible a science.

Giulio Douhet, Italian General and father of strategic air power, The Command of the Air, referenced in the 2006 book entitled Masters of the Air by Donald L. Miller to explain the logic of “total war”, 1921. 

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

https://www.fpri.org/

Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/

Global Conflict Tracker

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/

Guiding Question: What happens when human progress accelerates faster than human wisdom?

Within this episode, I wrestle, philosophically, through the 19th Century as we go from 1815-1914 and discuss the impact of nationalism, imperialism, Social Darwinism, Art, militarism, unification, etc. This is a narrative overview of Unit 7 in AP European History.

Trapped in History Email Links:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Social Media Outlets:

Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zr3rKGzVG2ZN4x8n/

TikTok Link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZP881jy21/

Instagram: robertmalcomson

Substack Link: trappedinhistory.substack.com / @trappedinhistory

Recommended Websites:

Preston Stewart YouTube Channel (Military/History/Global Events)

https://www.youtube.com/@PrestonStewart

Foreign Policy Research Institute Link:

https://www.fpri.org/

Council on Foreign Relations

https://www.cfr.org/

Global Conflict Tracker

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker

Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/