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Eisenhower’s Interstates: The Modern-Day Roman Roads

Dwight Eisenhower inaugurated the US. Interstate System, which now boasts more than 50,000 miles of roads. The idea came to a young Eisenhower in 1919 when he spent 62 days with a military convoy snaking across America on its primitive road system. But the idea for a...

After Watergate, Richard Nixon Created the Career Path for All Ex-Presidents

On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the first and only U.S. president to resign from office—to avoid almost certain impeachment. Utterly disgraced, he was forced to flee the White House with a small cadre of advisors and family. Richard Nixon was a completely...

Women Warriors: How Females Have Fought in Combat Since History’s Beginning

From Vikings and African queens to cross-dressing military doctors and WWII Russian fighter pilots, battle was not a metaphor for women across history. But for the most part, women warriors have been pushed into the historical shadows, hidden in the footnotes, or...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 8: Dracula Untold (2014)

Dracula Untold has absolutely no right being as historically accurate as it is. Made in 2014, this was Universal Studio’s first attempt to use the intellectual property of their 1930s monster movies and turn it into a Marvel-esque cinematic universe. As a...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 7: The Alamo (2004)

In the final two episodes of this mini-series, Steve and Scott talk about movies that actually do a good job of conveying history, or at least as much as possible when handled by Hollywood producers enslaved to suggestions from marketing research reports. The first...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 6: The Scarlett Letter (1995)

  Demi Moore did not win an Academy Award for her portrayal of 17th-century Puritan Hester Prynne. But she did succeed in transforming Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous moral drama into a Cinemax movie that also features Indians, deadly fights, burning...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 5—The Conqueror (1956)

In our second John Wayne film, we watch the Duke put on a fake fu manchu mustache and yellow face makeup to play the role he was born NOT to play: Genghis Khan. Scott and Steve discuss the infamous film that, in addition to feature to worst casting choice in Hollywood...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 3—The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Based on Dan Brown’s mega best-selling instructional manual on how to write terrible English, Scott and Steve discuss “The Da Vinci Code,” the 2006 Ron Howard film that dares to ask the question: Has the secret life of Jesus been hidden by the...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 2: Agora (2009)

In the second episode of this series, Stephen tells us everything he doesn’t like about the 2009 film Agora, which is a lot. The movie stars Rachel Weisz (maybe the only good thing about the film) as Hypatia, a real-life 4th/5th-century philosopher in Alexandria...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 1: Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

This episode is the first in a mini-series that Scott is doing with fellow history podcaster Stephen Guerra (History of the Papacy, Beyond the Big Screen) about some of the most historically inaccurate movies that have ever appear. We kick off this series with Ridley...