• The Bonus Army
    Oct 9 2025

    In 1932 over 43,000 protestors marched on Washington DC, demanding better treatment and pay for veterans of World War I. President Hoover and the US government responded with violence, tear gassing and shooting the veterans.

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    7 mins
  • Baseball in the Japanese American Concentration Camps
    Aug 21 2025

    When over 120,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly imprisoned in concentration camps during WWII they brought the American sport of baseball with them.


    Sources

    America's Concentration Camps by Allan R. Bosworth

    Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball by Kerry Yo Nakagawa

    Kenichi Zenimura: Japanese American Baseball Pioneer by Bill Staples Jr

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    9 mins
  • The Battle of Lake Erie
    Jul 24 2025

    In the War of 1812 the US Navy would engage the British Royal Navy in the cold waters of Lake Erie. The battle would decide the future of the Great Lakes.


    Sources


    Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron by Ronald Utt

    The Lake Erie Campaign by Walter Rybka

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/brock-meets-tecumseh.htm

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/surrender-of-detroit.htm

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/a-mere-matter-of-marching.htm

    from the National Parks Service database

    https://detroithistorical.org/sites/default/files/lessonPlans/SurrenderDetroitFINAL.pdf

    from the Detroit Historical Society

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    12 mins
  • The Surrender of Detroit
    Jul 24 2025

    In the War of 1812 the United States would attempt to invade the British Canadian colonies, using Fort Detroit as a base of operations. What started as an invasion ended as a humiliating defeat when American General William Hull surrendered Detroit without a fight.


    Sources:

    Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron by Ronald Utt

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/brock-meets-tecumseh.htm

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/surrender-of-detroit.htm

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/a-mere-matter-of-marching.htm

    from the National Parks Service database

    https://detroithistorical.org/sites/default/files/lessonPlans/SurrenderDetroitFINAL.pdf

    from the Detroit Historical Society

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    18 mins
  • The Unstoppable Dan Gable
    Mar 6 2025

    Dan Gable endured a rough upbringing, personal tragedy and athletic defeat at the highest level. But he never stopped, becoming the greatest American wrestler to ever compete.

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    18 mins
  • The Rochester Mafia Bombings
    Jan 30 2025

    In 1970 the Rochester crime family boss Frank Valenti ordered a series of false flag bombings, hoping to draw the federal authorities’ attention away from his criminal organization and onto anti-war activists.

    Sources

    Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires by Selwyn Raab

    American Mafia: The History of its Rise to Power by Thomas Repetto

    The New York City Historical Society exhibit on the Italian-American Mafia

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    9 mins
  • Poundmaker: Peacekeeping Warrior of the Cree
    Nov 28 2024

    Poundmaker was a Chief of the Plains Cree, a peacekeeping warrior who fought and defeated the Canadian government at the Battle of Cut Horse Creek. He shouldered the impossible task of preventing bloodshed, of calming the young warriors of the tribes and negotiating with an expansionist government that despised him. His story is one of the great tragedies of Canadian history.

    Visit the website at https://www.shakingamerica.com/

    Sources

    Sweet Promises: A Reader on Indian/White Relations in Canada by J.R. Miller
    Footprints in the Dust by Douglas W. Light
    https://canadaehx.com/2020/07/04/chief-poundmaker/
    PoundmakerCN.ca

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    15 mins
  • How Honda and Toyota Won the Trade Wars
    Aug 15 2024

    Honda and Toyota survived trade wars, import quotas and xenophobia in the 1960s through the 1980s to become an economic juggernaut that reshaped the American auto industry.

    Sources

    The Keiretsu Advantage by Jasper Boers from the Yale Economic History Journal

    The New, Improved Keiretsu by Katsuki Aoki and Thomas Taro Lennerfors

    Lessons from the US-Japan Trade War of the 1980s from NPR's All Things Considered

    The Import Quota that Rebuild the Auto Industry by Wells King and Dan Vaughn Jr



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    14 mins