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Prof. Greg Jackson

HTDS is a bi-weekly podcast, delivering a legit, seriously researched, hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories. To keep up with History That Doesn’t Suck news, check us out htdspodcast.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram: @Historythatdoesntsuck; on Twitter/X: @HTDSpod. Become a premium member to support our work, receive ad-free episodes and bonus episodes.

History That Doesn't Suck

“Being a Jew is not a crime, I am not a dog.”

This is the story of the start of the Holocaust. 

Serving as the scapegoat for everything from a disappearing child to the Black Plague, European Jews are used to “anti-Jewry.” But as the nation state rises in the modern world, it brings the so-called “Jewish Question” to the fore: can one be a faithful Jew and modern citizen? As modern antisemitism rises and European Jews face pogroms and the Dreyfus Affair, some begin to think they need a nation of their own. Jewish nationalism, or “Zionism,” is born.

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Great War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazism is leaning into the continent’s centuries-old anti-Jewry and antisemitic ideas to claim that the Jews are responsible for Germany’s postwar woes. Once in power, he begins systematically removing rights from the Reich’s Jewish population. This includes taking their citizenship through the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935, and an unfathomable, deadly, destructive pogrom in 1938: Kristallnacht. 

Stateless and persecuted, European Jews try to flee Nazism—can they find safety in America? We’ll see how that goes as we follow the St. Louis to America’s shores, and as the German American Bund gathers in Madison Square Garden…

____

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185: The Early Holocaust: From the “Jewish Question” to Kristallnacht

Professor Greg Jackson is touring the country with a live version of the podcast telling the story of The Unlikely Union of American states. Starting Sep 19, 2025 through July 4, 2026, you can hear the Professor history-tell in person, with video and live musicians. 

It’s not recorded for the podcast so get your tickets now at ⁠HTDSpodcast.com/live-shows

In 100 minutes Professor Jackson will take audiences on a remarkable 100-year journey that begins when thirteen distinct, disparate British colonies set aside differences to unite as something greater. Then, in less than a century of this young nation's existence, the durability of its union and commitment to its founding ideals are put to the test in a bloody civil war. 

In 2026, America will turn 250 years old, remarkably— because it nearly died a thousand deaths in just its first 100. This live stage show celebrates America’s semiquincentennial (250th birthday) by not only returning to its bold Declaration of Independence, but revisiting key events in its first centennial that gave this nation, as Abraham Lincoln spoke, “a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

____

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The Unlikely Union: New Tour Dates

“There will be no more mercy now; anyone who stands in our way will be butchered.”

This is the story of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Weimar Republic. 

A dropout. A failed applicant to Vienna’s prestigious Academy of Fine Arts. A decorated but low-ranking soldier who attempts to overthrow the state and is convicted of treason. But only a decade or so later, he’s the nation’s leader. Not just the Chancellor, not even a “mere” president. He’s Germany’s dictator. The “Führer.” 

How on earth does such an underwhelming man rise to such an overwhelming position of power? With virulent nationalism, rabid antisemitism, fearmongering, and violence in an economically panicked, democracy-doubting, and defeated Germany. This is the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Reich. 

____

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get HTDS merch

 
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

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184: The Rise of Adolf Hitler: From Failure to Führer of Nazi Germany or the Third Reich

“Italy, Gentlemen, wants peace, wants quiet, wants work, wants calm; we will give it with love, if that be possible, or with strength, if that be necessary.”

This is the story of Italy’s Benito Mussolini’s creation of fascism and rise to power in interwar Italy.

Benito starts life the way his father intended—as a socialist—and the often moving, young schoolteacher quickly emerges as a leading voice in the movement as he’s entrusted to serve as the editor of one of the party’s most important newspapers. But the Great War changes that. Benito supports it, the party doesn't, and by the conflict’s end, the returned soldier has a new idea—one that takes him across the political spectrum, all the way from the Marxist left to the nationalist far-right—a violent, war-glorifying, anti-democratic, one-party, dictatorial version of nationalism. He calls it “fascism.” 

Benito speaks of order. Economic prosperity. National pride. Some see his black-clad fighting squads, known as “Blackshirts,” as their saviors from the far-left’s communism, so feared in the wake of the recent Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Indeed, many Italians welcome his march on Rome and his growing powers as Prime Minister, and celebrate his foreign policy achievements, including a reconciliation between Italy and the Vatican. 

But as Benito kills Italy’s constitutional monarchy in all but name as he turns into a dictator, conquers Ethiopia, ignores the League of Nations, and bonds with Germany’s rising dictator Adolf Hitler, former allies are growing concerned. Some fear his anti-democratic path will also embolden Germany. As W.E.B. Du Bois questions: “If Italy takes her pound of flesh by force, does anyone suppose that Germany will not make a similar attempt?” Only time will tell.

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

 
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

 
join discussions in our Facebook community

 
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

 
come see a live show

 
get HTDS merch

 
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
 
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183: The Origin of Fascism: “Il Duce” Benito Mussolini & the Rise of Fascist Italy

This is the story of interwar preparation–not that the United States realized it was preparing for World War II, new technologies, innovation, and a constant pushing of the limits in the 1930s did indeed help Uncle Sam prepare for the fight to come.

To get us into an interwar mindset of praying for peace while preparing for war, Professor Jackson tells us the tale of the B-17 bomber and is then joined by GEN James E. Rainey, Commanding General, U.S. Army Futures Command, to discuss how the current day Army thinks about history to prepare for the future. In this informative conversation, GEN Rainey talks about the lessons, leaders, and innovations from the Army’s 250 years of service to the nation that can inform and inspire officers, soldiers, and leaders of all vocations to meet the missions of tomorrow.

General James E. Rainey is the Commanding General Commander, Army Futures Command (AFC). Headquartered in Austin, Texas, AFC is the Army’s newest major command, responsible for transforming the Army to ensure war-winning future readiness, employing 30,000 Soldiers and Civilians at 128 locations worldwide. In his previous position, General Rainey served at the Pentagon, where he oversaw the Army’s operations and plans. General Rainey commissioned as an infantry lieutenant upon graduating from Eastern Kentucky University in 1987. He has commanded at every level from platoon to division and has served in numerous combat deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He earned a master’s degree in advanced military arts and science from the School of Advanced Military Studies and another in Public Administration from Troy University. He also completed a Senior Service Fellowship at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Relations. 

Disclosure: HTDS has not paid nor received any remuneration for this episode from the US Army or any other government agency. The opinions of the guest are his own and do not represent the opinions of Professor Jackson or HTDS. We are grateful to the many soldiers who have served our nation throughout history, and proud to bring discussions like this to the public in the spirit of education and access to the leaders in whom We the People place our trust.

Books referenced in the interview:

 
The official US Army field manual number one, “A Primer to our Profession of Arms”

 
Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II by Arthur Herman

 
Prodigal Soldiers: How the Generation of Officers Born of Vietnam Revolutionized the American Style of War by James Kitfield

 
Real Soldiering: The US Army in the Aftermath of War, 1815-1980 by Brian McAllister Linn

 
America's First Battles, 1776-1965 by Charles E. Heller (Editor), William A. Stofft (Editor)

 
General Fox Conner: Pershing’s Chief of Operations and Eisenhower’s Mentor (Leadership in Action) by Steven Rabalais 

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

 
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

 
join discussions in our Facebook community

 
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

 
come see a live show

 
get HTDS merch

 
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
 
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182: A Prologue to World War II: US Army Interwar Preparation

“If he is lost it will be the most universally regretted single loss we ever had. But that kid ain’t going to fail.”

This is the story of the high-fliers in early twentieth-century American aviation. 

Wright brothers Orville and Wilbur stunned the nation and the world with their pioneering flight in 1903, and since then, aviation has spread its wings, so to speak. The Wright Brothers and other innovators like Glenn Curtiss are innovating and pushing the limit while the Great War takes aviation to new heights altogether. 

But when the guns fall silent in Europe, the roar of its plane engines doesn’t. Former doughboy pilots and an upcoming generation of postwar aviators have all sorts of uses for these aircraft: crop dusting, photography, high-flying “barnstorming” stunts, and, of course, mail delivery. And as planes get faster and flights get longer; as daring pilots like Charlie “Lucky Lindy” Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, and Amelia Earhart refuse to accept anything short of the “sky’s the limit”; as postage and fine-dining passengers take to the skies; the United States will never the be the same.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

 
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

 
join discussions in our Facebook community

 
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

 
come see a live show

 
get HTDS merch

 
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
 
 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

181: American Aviation: The Growth of the Industry Through the Eyes of Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Howard Hughes

“If this is to be a skyscraper… why not make it scrape the sky.” 

This is the story of the race for the tallest building in New York City—in the world. 

Erstwhile partners-turned-bitter rivals, architects William Van Alen and Craig Severance are both looking to build the tallest skyscraper in New York City. William is working with automobile titan Walter Chrysler to build his Chrysler Building; Craig is working with George Ohrstrom, a.k.a., the “Boy Wonder” of Wall Street”, to build the Manhattan Company Building at 40 Wall Street. It’s a battle of engineering, wits, zoning, and egos, as each alters their plans with money being no object in the fight to construct the taller (and tallest) skyscraper in the world.

But as these two rival teams duke it out, the city’s beloved Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on 5th Avenue is going under. Something new is rising there—something that just might prove a late entry and dark horse winner in this race with… a mooring mast for airships at the top? Yes—the proposed Empire State Building is threatening to blow this race out of the water and change New York City’s skyline forever.

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

 
go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

 
join discussions in our Facebook community

 
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

 
come see a live show

 
get HTDS merch

 
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
 
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180: “A Race to the Sky”: The Rise of New York City’s Chrysler, Manhattan Company, and Empire State Buildings

“Everybody says it can’t be done.”

This is the story of San Francisco’s two great bridges. 

The bustling cities of Oakland and San Francisco are separated by less than ten miles of water, but for early twentieth-century Bay Area residents, it may as well be thirty—that’s the distance traveling around the Bay. Meanwhile, the mile of water across the Golden Gate Strait makes communities directly north of San Francisco likewise inaccessible. Bridges across both stretches of water would change the game entirely, but between harsh winds, thick fog, strong currents, and over 300 feet deep water—to say nothing of earthquakes—crowded ferries seem to be the only even-if-imperfect answer. 

Or so they did. 

From deep-sea divers to catwalking “bridge monkeys,” from deeply-driven caissons to high rising towers, miles of cables, and deadly accidents–this is the tale of the unyielding dreamers and doers who pushed the bounds of engineering in the midst of the Great Depression to bridge the San Francisco’s Golden Gate Strait and Bay. 

____

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go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

 
join discussions in our Facebook community

 
get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

 
come see a live show

 
get HTDS merch

 
or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
 
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179: Bridging the Bay: San Francisco’s Golden Gate and Bay Bridges (Infrastructure pt. 2)

“I felt no distress whatever…I was perspiring freely and was as limber and helpless as a wet rag. It was an exhilarating experience.... It was then and there that I first conceived the idea of the reclamation of the desert.”

This is the story of the Hoover Dam. 

A wild, precarious, and dangerous river, the Colorado tears across the American southwest’s otherwise arid and largely uninhabitable desert. Yet, if tamed, the Colorado could reclaim countless acres; it could provide sustenance and hydroelectricity for untold millions! But that’s the catch: “if.”

From a dehydrated mirage in 1849, to the outgrowth of an overwhelmed canal in the early twentieth-century Imperial Valley, this is the unlikely tale of the dreamers; government officials; a consortium of six construction companies, blandly called “Six Companies; Frank “Hurry Up Crow; and the 21,000 workers—over 100 of whom will wind up dead—who defied the odds and pushed engineering to new heights to “make the desert bloom.” 

____

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

 go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

 join discussions in our Facebook community

 get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

 come see a live show

 get HTDS merch

 or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.

Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
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178: “A Damn Big Dam”: Taming the Colorado River with the Hoover (or Boulder) Dam (Infrastructure pt. 1)

This is a conversation to kick off the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Retired U.S. Army Major General and history buff, Bill Rapp, drops some knowledge on how the colonies weren't exactly gung-ho for a full-blown revolution before April 1775. Turns out, they were mostly ticked off and feeling rebellious in response to intolerable British policies. But a tense situation and an itchy trigger finger set it off.

The episode covers the action-packed Battles of Lexington and Concord, George Washington taking charge of the Continental Army, the intense Battle of Bunker Hill (which was actually fought on Breed's Hill), and the clever move at Dorchester Heights that sent the British packing from Boston.

William “Bill” Rapp is a retired Major General of the United States Army with 33 years of distinguished service which included combat deployments in three wars, two Defense Service Medals, two Bronze Star Medals, Master Parachutist and Ranger tabs. He was not only a respected Army officer, but also a leadership developer who served as Commandant of the Army War College and Commandant of Cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point. 

In over 42 months in combat, Bill led an airborne engineer company in the first Gulf War, commanded a 3,000-soldier brigade in the Iraq War, served as General Petraeus' personal assistant during the Iraq Surge, and commanded over 17,000 troops supplying all resource needs of the 160,000 U.S. and international force in Afghanistan in 2011-12. He also served as the Army's senior liaison to the U.S. Congress.

Bill holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University and is the author of the book about the Boston Campaign of the American Revolutionary War titled Accomplishing the Impossible: Leadership That Launched Revolutionary Change. He now consults and teaches on leadership and is working on his second book on Sioux and Cheyenne leadership at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and

go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations

join discussions in our Facebook community

get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette 

come see a live show

get HTDS merch

or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks.

HTDS is part of Audacy media network.
Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com
 
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
 
 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America 250: The Boston Campaign 1775-76: A Leadership Discussion with Gen. William Rapp

“I am not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth, but at any rate, I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time.”
 
This is the story of a hardening Jim Crow color line. Lynchings and race riots. Black troops in Brownsville being summarily discharged “without honor.” Black Americans are indeed watching as Reconstruction-Era progress erodes. What can they do? 
 
Booker T. Washington has a vision. This Southerner of self-reliance–a former slave who’s gained an education and built an incredible place of learning in Tuskegee, Alabama–believes it’s about perseverance. Economy. Work. Black Americans, he believes, will thereby prove their worth–and rights will follow. But some, like, W.E.B. Du Bois, disagree. The Northerner and prolifically publishing scholar believes in making bold demands for equality. Not tomorrow. Today. The divergence of their paths will only grow as the Progressive Era marches on.
____

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120: From Atlanta to the NAACP, or Booker T. Washington v. W.E.B. Du Bois

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