The History Guy

Welcome to the History Guy Podcast: Counterfactuals. What is a counterfactual? At it’s most basic, it is a ‘what if’. It’s a way of understanding history as it is by discussing what it could have been.

 Today we talk about a 1944 supreme court decision that fundamentally altered the American electorate and set the stage for civil rights victories that culminated in the Civil Rights Act: Smith v. Allwright.

Welcome to the History Guy Podcast: Counterfactuals. What is a counterfactual? At it’s most basic, it is a ‘what if’. It’s a way of understanding history as it is by discussing what it could have been.

On today’s episode we talk about the deadliest accident to ever strike a presidential cabinet: the explosion of the cannon on board the USS Princeton in February, 1844. The explosion killed both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy, and fundamentally changed the trajectory of the era.

On today’s episode, we talk about an event often thought to have ended the “High Renaissance” period: the sack of Rome by a mutinous contingent of German and Spanish mercenaries in May, 1527. Often forgotten, it had a profound impact on history.

Welcome to the History Guy Podcast: Counterfactuals. What is a counterfactual? At it’s most basic, it is a ‘what if’. It’s a way of understanding history as it is by discussing what it could have been.

Today, we talk about one of the deadliest diseases in human history, and one we often don’t think about at all today: Rabies. How has it changed the world, and what might be different without it?

On today’s episode we talk about an unsung hero of the modern age: the elevator. Without them, the world wouldn’t be the same.

On today’s episode we talk about a man whose influence on the trajectory of American history is undeniable and pervasive, but whose name you may never have heard of: John Hay, a secretary to President Lincoln and Secretary of State under Mckinley and Teddy Roosevelt. What might the world be like without him?

On today’s episode we talk about a pivotal battle in a poorly remembered war: The battle of Paardeberg in the Second Anglo-Boer War. The war would consolidate all of South Africa under British Colonial rule, and radically transform the Canadian military. But what if it didn’t?

On today’s episode, we talk about a little remembered campaign of the Civil War fought west of the Mississippi, when a former Missouri governor attempted to shake things up as hope for the south dwindled. Ultimately it all went wrong - but what if it didn’t?

On today’s episode, we talk about an incredibly deadly creature, which has determined the course of nearly all human history just by existing: The Mosquito. How has the mosquito determined the course of war, and what wars might have gone differently if it didn’t exist?

On today’s episode, we talk about something that has held together history, literally. Even though there’s probably a roll in just about every household in America, we often overlook the utility and ubiquity of duct tape. But what would we do without it?

On today’s episode, we talk about the USS Wyoming and the 1863 battle of the Shiminoseki Straits - a seemingly minor event overshadowed by the American Civil War. But this battle might have altered the course of history. 

On today’s episode we talk about the first commercially successful ‘plastic’, the beginning of the plastic revolution that has so altered human society. But what if it happened differently?

On today’s episode, we talk about a soviet submarine disaster in the Atlantic, which averted potentially disastrous outcomes only by the heroism of its crew. But what might have happened if it went differently?

On today’s episode, we talk about the beautiful islands of Samoa, which were the background to a clash between the relatively nascent empires of the United States and Germany in the 1880s. As the crisis came to a head, however, nature put a dramatic end to human ambition. But what if it had gone differently?

On today's episode, we discuss the Blight that nearly wiped out wine, and how wine and indeed the world might be different if it had unfolded differently.

On today’s episode we talk about one of the most fraught elections in American history, where violence, initmidation and outright fraud precipitated a constitutional crisis - the 1876 election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden.

On today’s episode, we talk about the mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line on New Years Day, 1781, and how it might have altered the trajectory of the American Revolution, and everything after.

On today's episode, we talk about a forgotten part of the Battle of the Bulge - Elsenborn Ridge, where outnumbered allied units held against veteran German divisions, and what the chances were that the Reich could have turned the tide in 1944.

On today’s episode we talk about what is often called the last invasion of mainland Britain - a disastrous and almost farcical series of blunders that ended in abject disaster. But what if it didn’t?

Today we talk about the most numerous bird on the planet - the chicken - and how the world might be different if we never domesticated it.

On today’s episode, we talk about some of the first steel-hulled ships the United States ever built, and how those first few ships might have set the tone for the entire 20th century.

On today’s episode, we venture to Asia to talk about a battle that determined the course of Chinese history, and that has become such an integral part of Chinese historical mythology that it is sometimes difficult to sort fact from fiction. What might have changed if the battle went a different way?

On today’s episode we talk about one of the most ubiquitous human creations in the modern world: Concrete. What would the modern world look like without this grey material we all take for granted?

On today’s episode, we talk about a little-remembered presidential visit in the wake of Pearl Harbor - Christmas, 1941, when Winston Churchill risked the U-boats of the Atlantic to visit his new allies in the White House.

Today we talk about a little remembered battle that could have been a turning point in the First World War - a battle between the German High Seas fleet and the Russian Baltic fleet in the Gulf of Riga.

On today’s episode we talk about the little remembered espionage side of the civil war, particularly the CSA’s more outlandish ideas to take the war to the Union. And of course, we talk about what the world might look like if it all happened differently.

On today’s episode we talk about a bird that was once so numerous that Americans thought it would be impossible to kill them all. Until, suddenly, they did. What might the world look like if the passenger pigeon hadn’t gone extinct?

On today’s episode we talk about the incredible popularity and influence of an odd product: Ketchup. What would the world be like without it?

On today’s podcast we talk about the year 1983 - called by some “the most dangerous year” in modern history. In the fall of that year, Western and Communist powers may have nearly stumbled into the one thing that neither side wanted - all-out nuclear war. How might the world be different if that close call went another way?

On today’s episode, we talk about one of the most famous battle in Roman history, when 50,000 Romans were killed in a single day. How would the world be different if that battle went differently?

On today’s episode, we talk about one of the largest naval battles in history, Leyte Gulf, and the task group that was never created: Task Force 34. A series of decisions often called mistakes led to one of the most famous underdog fights when the small force called Taffy 3 faced down Japanese battleships in the Battle off Samar. If any of those decisions had gone differently, the world might have taken a different path.

Today we discuss one of the most powerful earthquakes to strike Europe in recorded history, an earthquake which knocked down Lisbon in a single, violent day in 1755. The aftershocks would be felt throughout history, however, as a shocked Europe came to terms with the power of nature. What might have happened if it went a little differently?

On today’s episode, we tackle a forgotten empire that once ruled the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, and that once ranked with the likes of Persia, China, and Rome. The mighty Aksum declined before 1000 AD - but what might have happened if it all went a bit differently?

On today’s episode we talk about one of the most important naval events in modern history: the pivotal battle of Tsushima, fought during the Russo-Japanese war. The battle was crucial in the rise of Japan as a military and imperial power, setting the stage for huge parts of the 20th century. But what might have happened if it all went different?

On today’s episode, we talk about Calendars - specificall the Gregorian Calendar, and how and why it became the calendar we all use today. What does the calendar mean to us, and what might it mean if we used a different one?

On today’s episode, we visit one of the most significant maritime accidents of the middle ages, when William Adelin, grandson of William the Conqueror and the only legitimate male heir to the throne of England, was killed with the sinking of the White Ship in 1120. His death would have dramatic consequences for the European continent and English history. But what if it had all gone differently?

On today’s episode, we travel to 1943, and one of the earliest battles American soldiers fought with Nazi Germany, in the mountainous regions of Tunisia. There, the fortuitous arrival of artillery stemmed the tide after German forces broke through American defenses at Kasserine pass. But what might have happened if it all went differently?

On today’s episode of the History Guy Podcast, we talk about one of the most important parts of the Columbian exchange, and possibly the reason that Europe was able to colonize and dominate much of the world in the early modern period: The Potato.

On today’s episode we tackle the counterfactuals of some of the most popular peoples in history: The Vikings. In the tenth century norse colonists began settling in Greenland, where they found surprising success in some far-northern reaches, before making landfall in North America. The settlements had all faded away by the 1400s, but what might have happened if it had all gone differently?

On this special, 100th episode of The History Guy Podcast, we head back to the 1800s and the beginning of America’s expansion into the Rocky Mountains by taking a look at Ashley’s 100, a group of trappers, mountain men, and explorers who ventured into the West, helping to define an era and open up the land for settlement. How might things be different if they didn’t?