“Waving a match in an oil well for fun” is amongst the many period quotes that you will get in this one episode of Hardcore History. Since I have discovered that I can write on my PC and listen to a podcast at the same time [Should I patent that discovery Charles? Does that make me one of you computer guys yet?] I have upped my audio intake. The one thing that I found a bit nagging about Dan’s earlier podcast on religious fanatics in 16th Century Germany was his use of modern analogies to make the historical narrative intelligible to those with no background in the period being covered. I found this method—which I understand is required for what is essentially a radio show that may be reaching an audience that has never read a book—to be more palatable when covering American history.

American Peril is the story of the Spanish American War and its origins. Dan does a deft job of sorting through the evidence, citing sources, selecting entertaining and informative quotes, and explaining such period concepts as ‘the closing of The Frontier’, ‘yellow journalism’ and ‘gingoism’. The highly quotable yellow journalism provides entertaining insights into the asinine American mentality of the time. This was before propaganda. Imagine, instead of the CIA lying to the President and Congress, who then passes that lie on to the leash-led network press, who passes it on to us, that wars were fomented by supermarket tabloids! Now that is a comic platform for history.

My favorite quotes from this piece both concern Theodore Roosevelt, whose personal role in the war eventually landed him a seat in the White House, essentially turning it into a boxing gym and shooting range. First was Dan admitting that he—like I—had been a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt as a child, largely because Teddy’s concerns were essentially those of a boy. The other was a quote from later, when Teddy was President, when one government official says to another, “Remember, when dealing with the President, that he is six.”

I’m a Dan Carlin fan.