Dan Carlin's hardcore history
It’s history. The events… the figures… the drama… the deep questions… It’s Hardcore History.
Text by Deniz Cuylan
When a friend introduced me to Dan Carlin’s podcast, Hardcore History, I was pretty skeptical, mostly because of its title. ‘Hardcore History’ makes you think of cheesy History Channel shows, desperate to get your attention, where they repeat Hitler’s hand gestures over and over again with a generic soundtrack. But I resisted to my prejudices and started listening to Wrath Of The Khans, which then became my favorite among the series. After a brief Don LaFontaine type introduction, Dan Carlin began to speak, like your intriguing, passionate but slightly irrelevant uncle. He opened the story by how the future historians might look at the Third Reich and state the positive side effects of the horrible mayhem they caused. The positive outcome being the United Nations, Human Rights, etc. His question was, if you put enough time between the historian and his subject, is it more likely to get a clearer picture of what really happened? And then he tied this idea to Mongols who raped and pillaged entire continents. From a poor villager’s perspective who lived at that time and suffered a great deal under constant Mongol threat, it was pretty obvious that they were the horsemen of apocalypse. But now we can easily say that they developed the interregional exchange between remote civilizations or provoked the emergence of centralized governments in Asia, Europe and Middle East which led to diverse, multi-cultural kingdoms and states. History was a multi sided coin. But to understand and truly enjoy this part of world history we needed to get a closer look at these so called barbaric Mongols and their Khans. I was hooked in 5 minutes. All skepticism gave way to fandom, and in the end, I found myself listening to hours and hours of Dan Carlin’s podcast. After all, that uncle was your favorite character in the family as you were growing up.
Other Episodes of Hardcore History:
AMERICAN PERIL
‘America is a schizophrenic giant, folks’ Dan Carlin states in American Peril. Torn between an over idealized version of itself and its expansive global greed. When it’s time for United States to emerge on the world stage at the turn of 20th century, there is a huge conflict between its founding idea of independence, peoples’ right for self-determination and the fierce competition for colonies all over the world. That’s when the justification of U.S. interventions presents itself as the high cause of spreading democracy and freedom. As Dan takes us through the U.S. -backed Cuban rebellion against the Spaniards to the war in Philippines, the goal of spreading democracy quickly becomes blurry and remains controversial to this day.
THOR’S ANGELS
This episode focuses on one of the key moments in history of Western Civilization. When Germanic peoples descend from Northern Europe to the heart of Rome, an unlikely marriage of Warlords and Christians takes place. Instead of teachings for turning the other cheek, Christianity becomes a tool in the hands of an ambitious conqueror. This pivotal moment alters the nature of an underdog religion and renders it as a central power in the Western World.
BLUEPRINT FOR ARMAGEDDON
Even though the sequel is more popular, The World War 1 never loses its appeal for historians and fans of history. The shear violence in global scale, triggered with the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, takes control over Europe, and spreads out to rest of the world as USA, Japan and Ottoman Empire join in. Dan’s compelling storytelling reaches its peak in these series as he captures not only the big picture but also the individuals’ perspective who were affected by this great tragedy.
PROPHETS OF DOOM
This four and a half hour long episode of Hardcore History takes on the period of Protestant Reformation and focuses on the German city of Munster being taken over by false prophets and murderous preachers. As the battle between Protestants and Catholics in Europe rises up, this walled German city becomes a playground for religious anarchy, cultish orgies and Game of Thrones type cruelties under the hands of Anabaptists.
