History That Doesn't Suck

“What is the chief end of man? A: To get rich.”This is the story of the Gilded Age and its first three presidents: Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and Chester A. Arthur.Mark Twain calls this era a “Gilded Age”–that is, a time of great greed covered with a thin veneer hiding the nation’s decadence. Is it? We’ll assess and define this oft-forgotten time. In doing so, we’ll meet three oft-forgotten presidents. Rutherford (or Rutherfraud?) Hayes, who receives the presidency through a Reconstruction-ending compromise, is fighting for reform in the civil service. His successor James Garfield doesn’t want to be president but holds great promise. Sadly, an assassin will end his life before this last log-cabin president can even put his agenda into play. Can his compromised, spoils-system-created VP Chester “Chet” Arthur rise to the occasion? Strikes, assassination, reform, unlikely presidents: welcome to the Gilded Age.____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. 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

This is the end of the West! Meet two new researchers, Ryan Griffith and Zach Weaver, as they join Greg to discuss the latest inner workings of HTDS, the Transcontinental Railroad, Buffalo Bill, and industrialization. As they wrap up, Greg then discusses the Golden Spike Ceremony with National Park Service Lead Ranger Lucas Hugie. They do so on-site, just a stone's throw from where the Transcontinental Railroad was completed.____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. 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

“I wish to impress upon your minds that what you are about to witness is not a performance in the common sense of the term.”This is the story of the Wild West’s end and the close of the frontier.The West is settled. The buffalo are gone. The US government is seeking to assimilate Native Americans. In this environment, a religious movement promising a restoration of traditional indigenous life, called the Ghost Dance, is spreading across the continent. Fearful of it, the government sends the military to arrest Lakota Ghost Dancers. It ends in tragedy near Wounded Knee Creek. For Native Americans, this is the end of the frontier.Meanwhile, William Cody, a.k.a., “Buffalo Bill,” is keeping the Old West alive through an incredible performance: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. He’s obsessed with authenticity, only hiring actual cowboys, vaqueros, Native Americans, gunslingers, and others. For Bill, progress is the story of the frontier.Professor Frederick Jackson Turner says the frontier is over and the nation has progressed. Frederick Douglass has a different view. We’ll take in all these different perspectives as the sun sets on the Old West.____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. 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

“This is my last opportunity to make a big haul. Alaska is the last West.”This is the story of the US purchase of Alaska and the famous Klondike Gold Rush.Russia needs funds and sees its territory of Russian-America as a liability. That has US Secretary of State William Henry Seward seeing opportunities, such as fisheries and access to Asian markets. It’s an ideal match of interests for two major powers—provided William Henry can convince the Senate to approve the treaty to purchase a region twice the size of Texas.Decades later, three men find gold in one of the Klondike River’s tributaries. Although in Canada, most of the 100,000 prospectors (called “stampeders” or “klondikers”) who’ll flock here do so via Alaska. There’s wealth to be had if they can survive the journey … and avoid getting robbed blind in Skagway by Jefferson “Soapy” Smith.____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. 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

“The fight’s commenced. Go to fighting or get away!”This is the story of more gunslinging and heists.Pearl Hart needs to see her mother; is a stagecoach robbery the answer? The Earps Brothers and Doc Holiday are on the opposite of a political and economic feud with the “Cow Boys” in the mining town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory; are they disarming the “Cow Boys” in accordance with a city ordinance? Or is there more to it? Jesse James is a Civil War bushwhacker; but is it still “bushwacking” if he keeps robbing and killing after the war? Or is he a bandit? Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are fleeing to South America; but do they die in a shootout? Or will Butch prove he’s still alive by visiting his family in Utah years later?Somewhere between the legends and myths is the truth. Too bad some of it will forever remain elusive. Welcome to the Wild West.____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. 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

“I am going to hell anyhow.”This is the story of the rise of Western outlaws and gunslingers.From transportation of goods and people, to mining and even the cattle industry, a Second Industrial Revolution has overtaken the United States. Economic and political disruption are everywhere … but the law isn’t. And that’s the perfect cocktail for a golden age of outlaws. Sam Bass is robbing the Union Pacific. Henry—sorry, he doesn’t go by his legal name these days—Billy or “Kid,” is throwing down in a power struggle in the New Mexico Territory’s Lincoln County. Neither man will be long for this world. ____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. 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

“Did they not build the Chinese Wall, the biggest piece of masonry in the world?”The Central Pacific Railroad is struggling to find long-term construction workers. Many of them quickly leave the CP’s employ to pursue gold and silver in the mines of California or Nevada. But Big Four Associate Charlie Crocker has an idea: why not try hiring Chinese immigrants? The idea is semi-controversial in the eyes of many Americans, but the CP goes for it, and likes the results. Soon, the Chinese make up 90% of the CP’s construction workers, risking their lives as they dangle over cliffs, drill, and blast tunnels through the solid granite of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Both the Central and Union Pacific railroads are bearing down on Utah Territory. Politicking, corporate espionage, labor strikes, struggles of pride and honor and more will all come to bear. Despite these challenges, the transcontinental railroad will be completed. The CP’s Governor Leland Stanford will drive it (or tap it) together with a golden spike no less. We’ll witness the ceremony at Promontory Summit as it happens (two-days late thanks to the UP’s Dr. Thomas Durant) on May 10, 1869.____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. 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

“How dare you try to hog all the continent?”This is the story of the Union Pacific Railroad.The US Government has legislated that a private company be organized with government oversight to build a railroad from Nebraska to Nevada. It will meet the Central Pacific and form a transcontinental rail across the whole United States. Unfortunately, few are interested in investing in this risky endeavor in the midst of the Civil War.But one man isn’t afraid to do so. Of course, his lack of fear is equaled by a lack of scruples. He’ll wheel, deal, cut corners, extend rail, manipulate stock prices, and more in his goal to make a windfall of cash from the “Pacific Road.” This is Dr. Thomas Durant.Meanwhile, life is rough on the rails. Irish immigrants, war vets (blue and gray alike) and more, work hard while living in a world far removed from the law. Out here, might makes right and arguments are won by the fastest draw as men frequent the saloons, dance halls, and brothels following the railroad on the very tracks they just laid. These portable towns are often called the “wickedest cities in America.” Welcome to “Hell On Wheels.”____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. 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

“Every great enterprise has been ridiculed in the outset.”This is the story of the rise of the railroad.Travel on land is slow. Arduous. Inhibited by rough terrain like mountains, rivers, and bogs. That reality makes Americans view the continent’s interior as an inaccessible “Great Desert,” only to be visited by daring pioneers passing through en route to Oregon Country or California.But technology is changing. “Iron horses” are starting to run at rapid speeds across rails. And as these rails stretch across the east, some dreamers, thought crazy, are suggesting this rail could traverse the entire continent. Could the US Government support such a ludicrous idea? It seems impossible, but might such a rail help keep the massive, continent-wide nation together as Civil War breaks out? Theodore “Crazy” Judah thinks so, and teaming up with four influential, business-savvy Californians, he means to find out. This is the rise of the Central Pacific Railroad.____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. 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

“Gentlemen, what is the cause of this violence?”This is the story of HTDS's 2020.Most people wouldn’t call last year a good one. Doesn’t mean we didn’t have some fun mini-episodes and cold opens here on HTDS. Join Greg for a look at some favorites from both of those camps.____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. 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