In today's episode I am announcing the start of The Revisionist History Podcast Book Club (we'll shorten the name later). We'll do one historical book a month, with episodes covering parts of it each Saturday, so we can know the real history of a subject to better combat the myths. Our first book is Barbara Tuchman's World War One classic "The Guns of August." I hope you'll join us.

There are some astonishing similarities between the response to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic today. In today's episode we look at some of those similarities.

We very rarely comment on current events, as this podcast focuses on history. Today, however, there was a case of some blatant (and ridiculous) revisionist history that demands a response.

In today's brief episode we're not debunking myths, but rather inviting you to check out our other podcast, Bookish. If you love history you should be a reader, and if you're a reader you'll love Bookish. It can be found at anchor.fm/bookish.

This bonus episode is a brief plea to all of you to not be taken in by the increasingly vocal coronavirus deniers on both social and mainstream media. This deadly global pandemic is no conspiracy.

We normally do one Throwback Thursday episode a month, but given current events it seems like an appropriate time to look once again at Donald Trump and revisionist history.

In today's episode, which I admit at the outset is a bit of a ramble, we look at an aspect of history unfolding every day as we watch: the effort by those in power to write the historical narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic in real-time.

We're taking a short break from history this morning to urge you to support the people who bring you history every day: your local independent booksellers. If you are a long-time listener, you know how important books are for our knowledge of history, and preserving the businesses that bring us the most diverse points of view, historically and otherwise, is critical during the current COVID-19 crisis. Today I tell you how you can help...we'll get back to debunking historical myths next time. Stay safe and healthy.

Today's episode is both history and current events, because today we're looking at some myths about global pandemics of the past as well as debunking some about the current coronavirus, hopefully before they can become lodged in the historical record.

In today's episode we're looking at a world leader who is systematically twisting history for his own ends: Vladimir Putin.