Surtac wrote:

starexplorer wrote:

Kokipy wrote:

My brother says the Haitian Revolution part of Duncan’s podcast is the most fascinating fwiw

well you must know about Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast, he’s the master storyteller - I love his stuff. He also has one that focuses on early Haiti and the Haitian revolution - eye opening and horrific 

Carlin is also a favourite of mine - particularly his history of the Mongols and the one where he describes Julius Caesar as a rock star equivalent of his time.  I shall seek out the Haiti episodes.

 

I’ve long been fascinated by the Mongols, and that was a great set. The WWI episodes were amazing, the more recent several part lead into WWII mostly focusing on what was happening in Japan in the years prior to Pearl Harbor, the ones on the Assyrians…so many great ones.
if I’m not mistaken, the Haiti/France story is in the BLITZ episodes, sometimes called “HH Addendum”. #68

Oh yes, good choice! You will find that one - Destroyer of Worlds - hard to put down. Wait - that’s a book phrase. Hard to stop listening to. 
Just to be clear, I mentioned the Haiti one because Duncan did it and Kokipy brought it up. Of the recent ones, Destroyer of Worlds is probably the most affecting, and it won’t go away. It’s in my brain. Of course it has always been, as I am a child of the Cold War, but he does a great job of reviewing the fascinating early history. Why is it that we all persist in living in effect with a catastrophic apocalyptic device under our homes? It’s crazy. And all the issues were right there from the beginning, although more naked in their blunt presentation. Everyone should listen to that one.
I love the Bertrand Russell quote to the effect that one can imagine a tightrope walker persisting for an hour without falling off. Maybe for a week. But for a hundred years? So apt and scary. Nuclear war may or may not be the issue, but human error? That never goes away.
My second recent favorite is the lead in to WWII, I forget the name, but it was quite good indeed.

I saw it a few days ago at an IMAX theater. Are they called that in Australia, ‘tac? I liked it a lot, although the life and the issues are so complex, I almost feel it would have been better as a multipart miniseries, to do more justice to his pre-Manhattan Project life, and to the questions raised by the weapon itself. Such a conflicted character, “blood on my hands” and yet never apologizing or expressing actual regret for the use of the bomb itself. I think he is misunderstood to have regretted it, but in fact he remained conflicted. 
Should we view the use of the bomb from the perspective of 1945 or not? It looks potentially different from 75+ years remove, and yet we understand the perspective of people determined to put a quick end to a bloodbath that already had seen total war, 60 million dead, the firebombing of cities that caused more civilian deaths than the atomic bombs, both sides willing to see the innocent as combatants….

Very glad you are here, pence! And it’s not hard to see why you would wonder about your friend - tragic!

I did just hear a nuclear historian say that there wasn’t the deliberation history recounts on how to proceed. Truman made the decision quickly based on minimizing the loss of American lives. Later, the administration apparently put out a story of careful consideration, possible alternative sites, possibly inviting the Japanese to the Trinity test. Some of that may be true, but all discounted for various reasons.
in any case, here we are, almost 80 years later, hoping the unthinkable doesn’t happen but without the confidence that we have the means to make the world safe from catastrophe.

The experience of WWII has taught us not to use nuclear bombs on the same planet we live on. (or on any world that people live on.)