On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman address the online controversy over Winston Churchill and World War II.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, amateur historian Darryl Cooper--who goes by the social media pseudonym "Martyr Made"--argued that it was Churchill who ultimately drove events leading to World War II.

Maitra and Stepman give their take on what led to World War II, how we should view Churchill, and the problem with the decline in the credibility of academic institutions. Maitra explains how many of Adolf Hitler's aggressive actions proved his irrationality as a statesman, but concludes that no one individual was responsible for the war taking place.

This episode covers other revisionist histories of the war, including the idea that Joseph Stalin was the primary culprit of launching World War II and manipulated the United States into giving the USSR domination over Eastern Europe.

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On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman continue their series on presidents at war with a discussion about Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

First, they briefly talk about the John Adams administration. Adams dealt with a fraught time in American foreign policy. He was able to avoid outright war with France but suffered widespread political opposition due to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Federalist policy unpopularity led to the "revolution" of 1798 and the election of Jefferson. Jefferson used the small blue water navy to deal with the Barbary pirates but much greater challenges loomed. His successor James Madison conducted America's first major war since the American Revolution, the War of 1812. Was this a conflict the United States should have avoided entirely? Maitra and Stepman discuss all these things and much more.

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On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman begin a new series about presidents in war time starting with the man first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen: George Washington.

Maitra and Stepman explain how Washington's role as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army became a model for the eventual office of the presidency. They explain how Washington crafted a brilliant strategy to ultimately defeat the British Empire, secure independence for a fledgling nation, and bestow the blessings of liberty to the new nation and its posterity.

Finally, they talk about the tricky international situation during Washington's time as president and his farewell address, which became a model of American foreign policy realism.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.