The Dangerous History Podcast

Here it is, FINALLY — the third installment of ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest’ series, about the Athenian expedition to Sicily during the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC. Enjoy!

Join CJ as he discusses:

The Syracusan reaction to news of a huge, inbound Athenian expeditionary force, including the wise advice of Hermocrates (that wasn’t sufficiently heeded at first)

The arrival of the Athenians in the area, & initial difficulties & disappointments they began to encounter

The debate among the 3 Athenian strategoi (Nicias, Lamachus & Alcibiades) over how to proceed, the strategy adopted, & the lack of significant progress

The recall of Alcibiades to Athens for trial, & his subsequent escape

Athenian successes in Sicily that they failed to capitalize upon sufficiently to defeat Syracuse prior to the onset of the winter of 414/415

Athenian & Syracusan diplomatic efforts during that first winter

The success of Syracusan diplomacy (with the help of Alcibiades) in securing aid from Corinth & Sparta

Gylippus, the Spartan strategos sent to take command of the Syracusan war effort against Athens

Initial Athenian successes during the campaign season of 414 that (despite the death of Lamachus) drove the Syracusans to the brink of surrender

The arrival of Gylippus in the nick of time, & his stunning successes in turning the tide of the war against Athens & nullifying their efforts to circumvallate & besiege Syracuse

Nicias’ extremely downtrodden & pessimistic report back to Athens, sent during the winter of 414/413, in which he demanded that the Athenian Assembly either authorize the evacuation of his expeditionary force, or send him significant reinforcements (men, supplies, & money), along with a strong request that he (Nicias) be relieved of command if they chose the latter option

As promised, here’s a zoomed out map of the expedition to Sicily, showing 1) how far the Athenians traveled, & 2) the relative locations of significant cities on Sicily & on the adjacent ‘toe’ of Italy , plus a more zoomed-in map of Syracuse, its harbors, & the surrounding territory.

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The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War

Sparta’s Sicilian Proxy War by Paul Rahe

The Rise & Fall of Athens by Plutarch

Syracuse, 415-413 BC: Destruction of the Athenian Imperial Fleet by Nic Fields

A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson

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The post Ep. 0290: ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest,’ Pt. III first appeared on The Dangerous History Podcast.

Believe it or not, CJ has been doing the Dangerous History Podcast for 12 years now! Despite many trials & tribulations that have caused him to be slowed down or even knocked down, he has always staggered back up to his feet, wiped the blood out of his eyes, and resumed fighting the good fight of spreading brushfires of freedom via historical samizdat; and, with your help, he intends to keep doing it for at least another dozen (or couple dozen) years more!

To commemorate this anniversary, in this episode, CJ shares & expounds upon a dozen of his many favorite quotes from the early 20th century American writer & social critic H.L. Mencken, including the quote that inspired the title of the DHP. (He also opens & closes the episode with inspirational poems by Edgar Albert Guest that encourage perseverance.)

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The Collected Works of Edgar A. Guest (“Don’t Quit” & “See it Through,” the poems that CJ read at the beginning & end of this episode, respectively, are by Edgar Albert Guest, who is one of CJ’s favorite poets & who is tragically underappreciated today)

Notes on Democracy by H.L. Mencken

A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writings

The Vintage Mencken: The Finest and Fiercest Essays of the Great Literary Iconoclast

The Underground History of American Education: An Intimate Investigation into the Prison of Modern Schooling by John Taylor Gatto

Falling Down (1993, starring Michael Douglas)

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“The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto” (an extended, in-depth interview of the late, great critic of institutional schooling, conducted by Richard Grove of Tragedy & Hope)

The post Ep. 0289: A Dangerous Dozen: 12 H.L. Mencken Quotes for the DHP’s 12th Anniversary first appeared on The Dangerous History Podcast.

Here it is — the 2nd installment of CJ’s already-epic mini-series, ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest,’ set in the Peloponnesian War in 5th-century BC Greece.

Join CJ as he shares an overview of some of the events of the first half of the Peloponnesian War, including:

Spartan-led Peloponnesian invasions of Attica (the countryside around Athens), which used the traditional Greek tactic of ‘ravaging’ farms in order to try to provoke the Athenians to confront them in a decisive hoplite battle

Athens’ refusal to do so, as they followed Pericles’ strategy of being purely defensive on land while waging naval & amphibious warfare against the coastal strongholds of the Peloponnesian League

The horrific plague that afflicted Athens for the first few years of the war, which likely killed 20-30% of Athens, including, eventually, Pericles himself

The leadership void left by Pericles, which was filled by men of much less competence, none of whom ever enjoyed the supermajority support that Pericles had

The ‘Peace of Nicias,’ concluded in 421 BC, which was never fully adhered to & wouldn’t last long

The growing political feud between Nicias & the Athenian doves vs. Alcibiades & the Athenian hawks

The appeal for Athenian assistance from a few Sicilian poleis against Syracuse, the most powerful polis on that island, & the Athenian debates over the wisdom of intervening there, dominated by debates between Nicias & Alcibiades

The decision of a majority of the Athenian Assembly to intervene on a massive scale

Religious/political scandals that created serious potential problems for the Athenian expedition to Sicily on the eve of its departure

The departure, to great fanfare, of a massive Athenian & allied force to Sicily

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Amazon Affiliate Links (buy ANYTHING from Amazon using any of these links & CJ gets a small commission at no cost to you!)

The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War

A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson

The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization, Vol. II by Will Durant

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The post Ep. 0288: ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest,’ Pt. II first appeared on The Dangerous History Podcast.

CJ decided he needed a break from modern US history as he continues to recover & reset his life, so this is the first episode of a new DHP miniseries set during the Peloponnesian War in 5th century BC Greece. The series will primarily focus on a famous Athenian military expedition to Sicily that occurred right in the middle of that conflict, an expedition that, to CJ, is eerily similar in some ways to the current war with Iran.

This first episode, though, is backstory & world-building, setting the stage for the massive, complex & costly Peloponnesian War of 431-404 BC during which the Sicilian expedition occurred.

Join CJ as he discusses:

A brief overview of ancient Greek history, from the Bronze Age through the Persian invasions of 490 & 480 BC.

The growing rivalries & tensions between the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) & the Delian League (led by Athens) in the aftermath of the Persian Wars, including Athens’ increasingly aggressive & destabilizing imperialism, & Sparta’s fears about it

The rise of Pericles & the construction of the Athenian Long Walls

The ‘first’ Peloponnesian War of ~460 BC-445 BC, which ended with a treaty known as “The Thirty Years’ Peace”

The rising tensions & conflicts that caused the Thirty Years’ Peace to only last about half as long as it was intended to

The ancient Greek historian Thucydides

The escalating conflicts that led, in 431 BC, to the outbreak of the Second Peloponnesian War (sometimes just referred to as “The Peloponnesian War”), a conflict that would end up dwarfing the previous war in duration, cost, death & destruction

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Amazon Affiliate Links (buy ANYTHING from Amazon using any of these links & CJ gets a small commission at no cost to you!)

The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War

A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson

The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

The Life of Greece: The Story of Civilization, Vol. II by Will Durant

Links

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The post Ep. 0287: ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest,’ Pt I first appeared on The Dangerous History Podcast.

Good news — things have finally stabilized for CJ & his family, & he has finally fully recovered from the illnesses that caused him to be hospitalized in March!

He’s now back at the podcasting game full-force, hard at work on upcoming Dangerous History material, & this week he also returned Brave the New World, the weekly current events & media analysis show that he cohosts with Matt Carano. This DHP episode features the audio of CJ’s triumphant return to BTNW after a few months’ absence.

Join CJ & Matt as they discuss the low- & even-lower-lights of current events in recent months, & try to come to grips with the insanity that the 2nd Trump administration is inflicting on the world.

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The post Ep. 0286: Braving This Dystopian Timeline (w/Matt Carano) first appeared on The Dangerous History Podcast.