Episode 132 - The Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll Hi, my name is Clayton Mills. Welcome to ‘A Short Walk through our Long History’ - a podcast where we look at the events of history, and examine how those events shaped our modern world. Website: shortwalkthroughhistory.com email: shortwalkthroughhistory@gmail.com Yes, that intro was the song Subdivisions, by Rush. My normal intro music is an acoustic clip of that same song. One of my all time favorite rock 'n roll songs. How in the world can I do one pod...
Apr 22, 2026•35 min•Ep. 132
Ok, yes, I know, I’ve already talked about the Cold War, just a few episodes ago, but I feel like I need to spend another episode talking about all the important things that happen in the late 1950’s and 1960’s as a part of the cold war, that I didn’t get to talk about in the previous episode. A lot of things are about to happen, and they are all important to our modern world, and they are all related to the ongoing cold war between the west and the communists. In fact, the polarization of the w...
Mar 07, 2026•23 min•Ep. 131
We talked last episode about the Communist Revolution in China, and apparently there was a two for one special on revolutions, because this episode also has a revolution, but this one is VERY different than what happened in China. Part of the reason that the revolutions were so different was that what is about to happen in India is not a communist revolution. Communist revolutions are usually destructive, as the old order of things is being aggressively done away with, and so communism is expect...
Mar 06, 2026•17 min•Ep. 130
We were talking last episode about how the western allies tried to contain the spread of communism in Europe, but I mentioned that Communism was spreading in Asia as well. This is about to be a problem in China, which, on the face of it, seems an unlikely hotbed for communism. Back in 1912, before both world wars, the last Chinese dynasty, the Qing dynasty, collapsed. The Qing had ruled China since the 1600’s, but the dynasty had fallen into disarray, and China was really being ruled by a loose ...
Feb 10, 2026•26 min•Ep. 129
As you might remember from episode 124, which was about the Allied victory in Europe, Germany was basically cut in half by the invading Soviets in the East, and the Allies in the West. The Soviets had captured Berlin, and they had also occupied the eastern part of Germany. But they also had occupied all of eastern Europe, including Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. And they had no intention of giving those countries up....
Jan 27, 2026•18 min•Ep. 128
Ok, WWII is over, and so I’m done talking about famous battles and cool fighter planes for a while. But I do feel that I need to go back and talk about a really important and horrific story of WWII, and how that affects our modern world. And that is the story of the Holocaust. It’s not a pleasant thing to talk about, but it’s really important, and has a big impact on the world after WWII, and on our modern world as well. And just a bit of a warning here, this episode is a bit longer than most, b...
Dec 17, 2025•35 min•Ep. 127
Well, here we are, finally. The Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan have been defeated. Hitler has committed suicide, at least that’s the official story, Mussolini was captured and hanged, and the Japanese emperor had to go on a nationwide broadcast and admit that he was not a deity. The Allies were firmly in control of all the Axis lands, and the countries that they had conquered. If you look at a map of the high-tide mark of the Axis control, which was probably mid-1942, they controlled a...
Oct 24, 2025•24 min•Ep. 126
Well, here we are. Humans are about to devise the technology that could realistically end the world. For the first time, humans have the ability to basically eradicate all of life on earth, and it’s only restrained by, well humans. Yikes. The war in Europe ended in May of 1945, but the war in the Pacific was still going on. We talked about the turning point in the Pacific, the Battle of Midway, a couple of episodes ago, but since then we’ve only talked about the war in Europe. So we need to go b...
Oct 23, 2025•25 min•Ep. 125
Well, VE Day is the sort of nickname that the world press gave to the day when victory in Europe was achieved. So VE stands for victory in Europe, which obviously is where we are going with this episode, but we’ve got a ways to go yet. And the eventually victory over Japan is going to be called VJ Day, but that one doesn’t get all that much traction, for some reasons that we’ll go into next episode. But lots of newspapers and countries around the western world were very excited about VE Day, and...
Oct 21, 2025•19 min•Ep. 124
Well, here we are. This episode is about one of the most massive, high-risk and pivotal events of the last 100 years. Seriously, if you had to pick one day that was the most important or consequential days of the last 100 years, I think you might have to pick June 6th, 1944. It wasn’t quite the same ‘turning of the tide’ event that Midway and Stalingrad were, but in some ways, June 6th 1944 was an even bigger deal than either of them. Website: shortwalkthroughhistory.com email: shortwalkthroughh...
Oct 17, 2025•23 min•Ep. 123
As the Soviets were fighting the Germans all along a 1000 mile long front, they were demanding that the Allies in the west do something to open a second front against the Germans. We’ll get to the Allies eventual response to this in a couple of episodes, but the western allies had the same problem invading Europe that the Germans had had when they were thinking about invading Britain. That problem was the English Channel. In order to send an invasion fleet across the channel to land in France, t...
Jun 25, 2025•15 min•Ep. 122
Every once in a while, there is a great moment or battle that really changes the course of history. Yes, yes, I know I said that exact thing at the beginning of the last episode too, but I need to say it again, because this episode is, once again, a pivotal moment in human history. And instead of it being decided by a few crucial minutes, this battle will take about half of the year of 1942. And unlike the Battle of Midway, where the casualties were measured in the thousands, the casualties in t...
Jun 12, 2025•16 min•Ep. 121
Every once in a while, there is a great moment or battle that really changes the course of history. The Battle of Salamis, Caesar crossing the Rubicon, Charles the Hammer winning the Battle of Tours, The Battle of Hastings in 1066, Luther nailing the 95 theses to the door in Wittenberg, the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the time I defeated my neighborhood HOA by installing a whole pallet of grass sod in my front yard even before they mailed me a nasty letter. I got other nasty HOA...
Jun 09, 2025•25 min•Ep. 120
Ok, it’s the beginning of 1942, and for the Allies, things are looking, well, kinda bleak. France, one of the great powers of the world as recently as 1939, is now occupied by the Nazis, who are in total control of the north and west of France, and who have installed a puppet government in the south and east of France. Great Britain is alone in Europe, and it very dependent on imported goods, but Nazis are threatening British shipping in the Atlantic with both surface boats and U-boats. The Sovi...
May 30, 2025•18 min•Ep. 119
Last episode, we left the German soldiers freezing off ihr Gesäß in the the early, harsh Russian winter of 1941. But there was more going on in the winter of 1941 than just frozen Germans. I mentioned back in episode 113, which was about the rise of Hitler and fascism, that the Germans had made a pact with Italy and with Japan. Both the Germans and the Empire of Japan regarded the Soviet Union as their most dangerous potential enemy, which is why they signed a treaty. This is actually going to w...
May 20, 2025•25 min•Ep. 118
Last episode, I said Hitler might have done better in the long run if he hadn’t had Germany attack Great Britain. Well, after that mistake, he decides to double down, and make an even bigger mistake. He is about to fall victim to one of the classic blunders - never get involved in a land war in Asia! Well, technically, he doesn’t get all the way to Asia, but he was trying to. Anyway, it’s going to be an even bigger mistake than not continuing to bomb the RAF bases in south and east England. And ...
May 06, 2025•22 min•Ep. 117
I’m going to make a quick confession to you here: The Battle of Britain is one of my three favorite parts of all of human history. The other two would be the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus, and then the American Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, and the Constitution, all of that right as the US was being founded. And then this, the Battle of Britain. Why is this one one of my favorites periods? Well, it’s got it all: a clear villain, a heroic underdog who fights valiantly,...
Apr 26, 2025•26 min•Ep. 116
You might have noticed that I kind of used the same title twice in a row, which might seem like kind of lazy writing, but I really couldn’t think of a better title to describe what is about to happen. Since Germany had such easy success in the blitzkrieg of Poland, Hitler decide that they could do it to France too. And basically, that’s exactly what they do. In fact, they were maybe even more successful in France. Website: shortwalkthroughhistory.com email: shortwalkthroughhistory@gmail.com...
Apr 10, 2025•22 min•Ep. 115
Ok, here we are, poised right on the edge of World War II. I’m going to try to not bog down as much as I did on the US Civil War, but I still have 9 episodes planned to cover World War II. Is that bogging down? I can’t imagine doing it in less episodes than that. Too much interesting and important stuff is about to happen. Also, what happens during the war, including who wins which battles, who gains and loses territory, and what happens to governments during and after the war will make a big di...
Apr 04, 2025•17 min•Ep. 114
Well here we are, about to introduce one of history’s most notorious villains. I’m talking about Adolf Hitler. He really is remembered as one of the worst, most dangerous people of all time. If you took a survey and asked most people ‘Who is the worst person who ever lived?’ I bet Hitler would be the runaway winner. Also, if you asked people, ‘Who had the worst mustache of all time?’ Yeah, Hitler, again. Website: shortwalkthroughhistory.com email: shortwalkthroughhistory@gmail.com...
Mar 30, 2025•21 min•Ep. 113
This episode, we’re going to talk about the great depression. Last episode, we talked about the stock market crash of 1929, and mentioned that it was one of the causes of the Great Depression. The Great Depression left a very strong mark on the people who lived through it. We’re getting to the point in history where a lot of us know people who have lived through the events that we’re talking about. My grandparents, for example, lived through the Great Depression. My parents were born during it. ...
Mar 27, 2025•19 min•Ep. 112
The 1920’s was a very prosperous time for America, and for much of the world. As I mentioned last episode, during the 20’s the American economy became the largest in the world. Yet postwar prosperity was precarious. Much of the American boom was a speculative affair. Fueled by optimism, and fueled by borrowing. Customers were urged to buy on credit or to borrow from the banks, and thus the banks earned large profits. The stock market was riding high. But at any sign of a credit squeeze or a loss...
Feb 22, 2025•25 min•Ep. 111
Well, the war to end all wars was over. After a period after several months, the surviving soldiers began to return home. The Treaty of Versailles was signed, and Europe began to try to rebuild and re-organize. The political and social landscape of Europe was very different after the war. The Austro-Hungarian empire was gone, as was the Ottoman Empire. Lots of lands and peoples had seen their geographical boundaries re-drawn, some of which were logical, and some of which ended up causing more tr...
Jan 21, 2025•14 min•Ep. 110
We’ve been here on World War I for seven episodes, if you count the 2 on the Russian and Soviet revolutions. See? I’m getting more concise. It took me 10 episodes to get through the American Civil War. This time, I tried to not get quite so bogged down in explaining the battles, even though that is one of the parts that is most interesting to me personally. But now I get to explain a few last battles in World War I, and then some about how WWI shaped our modern world. And the big battle that is ...
Dec 06, 2024•29 min•Ep. 109
Well, last episode, we left the chaos of the eastern front and the founding of the new country of the Soviet Union. In this episode, we’re going back to France and Belgium and we’re going to look at the turning of the tide on the Western Front. And do you know what turned the tide? Yep, several million farm boys from the United States. This isn’t only going to change the war, it’s going to change America’s perception of itself. Website: shortwalkthroughhistory.com email: shortwalkthroughhistory@...
Nov 16, 2024•13 min•Ep. 108
здравствуйте, еще раз, товарищи. добро пожаловать в советский союз For Lenin, transforming a society from near feudalism to communism was a tall order. To do that, you have to change a capitalistic economy into a centrally controlled economy. You have to destroy private ownership of land, homes, and capital. You have to destroy institutions that supported the capitalist system, like schools, universities, and government offices. You have take full control of the media, and suppress any dissentin...
Nov 07, 2024•25 min•Ep. 107
здравствуйте, товарищи. добро пожаловать в русскую революцию. One of the weirder and more catastrophic side effects of the First World War was what happened to Imperial Russia. We’re about to see not just one but two Russian Revolutions, and then several years of civil war within Russia, that is going to leave the whole country in shambles for many years to come, and is going to set up some of animosity that will lead to World War II, the Chinese Communist revolution, the Cold War, the Space Rac...
Oct 31, 2024•23 min•Ep. 106
One of the unique aspects of World War I was simply the huge scale of the battles, with numbers of soldiers, sailors, and even airmen that the world had not seen in a long time. Some of the Roman battles back in the day involved over 100,000 men on each side. Way back in episode 8, on the Persian Wars, I mentioned that the Persian army under King Xerxes might have had as many as a million men. But World War I dwarfed even this. There were more than 5 million men on each side over the course of t...
Oct 16, 2024•16 min•Ep. 105
World War I was a very different war than all the other wars fought before it. There main reason for this was that military technology had advanced incredibly quickly in the previous 50 years, as had manufacturing technology and capability. Because of the advances of the industrial revolution, factories could now turn out rifles and cannons by the thousands, and bullets and shells by the hundreds of thousands. And the weapons themselves could fire farther and more rapidly, and more accurately th...
Oct 14, 2024•16 min•Ep. 104
Last episode, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian empire, all of Europe began to mobilize their armies, and move them to the borders of the countries around them. If you are the leader of a country, and your neighbor begins to mobilize an army right at your borders, what do you do? Well, of course you let them in and put them up in nice hotels in your big cities, and give them all free benefits and eventually the right to vote, right? Yes, of course you do...
Oct 07, 2024•21 min•Ep. 103
