E93 Frank Herbert: The Dune Behind Dune Gladio Free Europe podcast

1:56:38

2000 years ago, Roman began a campaign of suppression against the defiant sages of barbarian Gaul. Yet millennia later, these druids survive. Their memory would inspire generations of alchemists, aristocrats, alternative-spiritualists, and eventually the creators of Britain's most iconic horror film. On this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam continues their survey over the druids, moving from the practices and beliefs of the ancient holy men to the generations of occultists and eccentrics who have sought to recapture their arcane knowledge. The strange road of neo-druidism winded its way to inspire The Wicker Man, the immortal 1973 picture set on an island of new-age recluses who revive their ancestral beliefs with murderous results. For over 500 years, scholars and hobbyists have pored over the scant surviving references to the pagan priests of the ancient Celts, convinced that Western Europe's first recorded wise men were key to understanding the history of modern peoples in Britain and Ireland. These scholars, looking through a kaleidoscope of ideology, all believed they could use the secrets of the druids to advance their own spiritual and political agendas. Figures like Conrad Celtis, Iolo Morganwg, William Stukely, and Margaret Murray wore the robes of the druids to advance the cause of Christianity, anti-Christianity, Jacobinism, Jacobitism, freemasonry and deism. Neo-druidic belief and ritual has been used to promote a unified British imperial identity, and to defend regional Celtic cultures against English domination. Listen to this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe to see how a half millennium of European history has shaped and been shaped by memories of the druids, the world's most enduring counterculture.…

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E106 The Druids 1:30:29

7 weeks之前1:30:29

1:30:29

⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Unique among the barbarians of ancient Europe, the Celtic tribes of Britain and Gaul were led by a sophisticated priesthood. The druids, who left us no writing of their own, fascinated and frightened their literate neighbors in Greece and Rome. Described as both brilliant philosophers and murderous bloodletters, these ancient sages were fundamental to the classical understanding of the pagan world, and widely discussed even after being suppressed and outlawed as a dangerous cult. But the druids could not be defeated so easily, as scattered references persist until the middle ages, and they continue to captivate the minds of historians and occultists to this day. Pick up your sickle and venture into the sacred grove, and join Gladio Free Europe as we glean the secrets of the druids. Liam and Russian Sam go on a deep dive of virtually all available information on just who the druids were, from the classical texts of Julius Caesar and Pliny the Elder to medieval Irish poetry and startling discoveries in modern archaeological. Listen to this episode to learn all about Celtic human sacrifice, Indo-European horse worship, and St. Patrick's epic rap battle of history against his druid slave-masters. Because this is Gladio Free Europe, our episode could not be complete with a quick return to one of our favorite topics, the bog bodies.…

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E105 William Tell and the Origins of Switzerland 1:52:35

12 weeks之前1:52:35

1:52:35

⁠ Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Ready your crossbow as we venture up high into the Swiss Alps, a tyrannous bailiff might be nearby! This week we explore the William Tell, a national symbol of Switzerland, and the very real history which inspired his story. Join us as we venture back into a time before the Swiss were neutral, before they were known for their chocolate, and before they were even a state. How did this plucky assortment of cantons cohere in the first place, and how does the truth of Swiss history compare with the idyllic land imagined by Orson Welles when he quipped that in 500 years of democracy and peace they produced little more than the cuckoo clock. Through all of this, the legend of William Tell was born and reborn regularly with a new message, a new intended audience, and a new platform, but always with the same goal: the pursuit of liberty and the battle against injustice. From the Swiss Rebellion of 1654, led by the Three Tells themselves risen from hibernation, to the Napoleonic Wars when William Tell became a symbol of the Helvetic Republic, to the pan-Germanic William Tell imagined by Friedrich Schiller in the eponymous play, William Tell has lived more lives than most. Hop on our ski lift for one last look at William Tell’s winding journey, through medieval revolts, Napoleonic upheavals, and Schiller’s literary magic. Is he a flesh-and-blood freedom fighter or a cunning invention of Swiss lore? Grab your gear, the slopes are calling.…

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E104 Artisans and the Birth of Capitalism 2:02:43

15 weeks之前2:02:43

2:02:43

⁠ Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Every aspect of our modern lives is commodified and decimalized, from the minutes of our labor to the food upon our table. All goods and services we consume are produced and handled by professionals, who spend their lives developing their mobile arsenal of mental and tactile skills because they can outsource the production of food and shelter to other workers. Yet until 300 years ago, this way of life was completely alien to everyone outside a small population of urban merchants and artisans. Liam and Russian Sam are joined once again by Jackson @gracecthdralprk to explore the city before capitalism, when urban people were small, ambitious, and literate minority distinct from the peasants and princes who lived outside the city walls. This episode of Gladio Free Europe dives into early modern city life, and particularly the artisan system that was the engine of pre-capitalistic production. Drawing on the works of Yuri Slezkine, Sean Wilentz, and E.P. Thompson, this discussion looks at the early relationship between city and country, and the development of an artisan political consciousness, especially in the early United States. As the 19th century progressed and wage labor began to take hold across industrializing economies, the artisans recognized that their way of life was collapsing and refused to go without a fight. Artisan radicalism would fail, their early 19th century militancy laid the foundation for later working class agitation. The values and aspirations of these ambitious craftsmen would come to define the logic of the entire world.…

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E103 History of the Zombie 1:27:10

19 weeks之前1:27:10

1:27:10

⁠ Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠ --- Brains. Rot. A shambling gait. Everyone knows the tropes that make up zombie, but how did this strange cocktail come to be? Liam and Russian Sam paddle through dark and torrid waters in this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe to chart the origins of the zombie from Afro-Caribbean folklore to today's Hollywood monstrosities. Possibly the most enduring creature of the classic era of horror cinema, zombies continue to petrify moviegoers in ways that mummies and wolfmen and even vampires do not. But unique among this pantheon of monsters, the zombie is rooted in African religious traditions that crossed into the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade. In fact, the word "zombie" first appears as an appellation of a slave rebel centuries before it was associated with the undead. But by the 19th century, the term reemerged among practitioners of vodou, the unique religion of Haiti that blends Catholicism with traditional West African religions. In the context of vodou, a zombie came to mean the most horrible product of black magic: an empty corpse brought back to life by being filled with the soul of another, always in order to do that person's bidding. Modern movie zombies have little in common with Haitian folk religion, drawing as much from European stories of ghosts and vampires as from vodou. But elements of vodou and the folk memory of the brutality of slavery survive in unexpected ways in zombie lore. The fear of zombies may be so resilient because they remind us of the brutal domination of man over man. The act of zombification thus represents a fear that lurks in all of our hearts, and a fear that became reality for millions of Africans in the colonial era: that a simple change of fortune could strip of us our will and personhood, and that we could be forced to exist with our humanity stripped away.…

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E102 12-Step Programs and the Origins of Alcoholism ft. Jon 1:33:29

20 weeks之前1:33:29

1:33:29

⁠ Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ --- Humans have been consuming alcohol for as long as we've been human, yet the identification of alcoholism as a chronic addiction is startlingly modern. The history of alcoholism, and the various ways to solve it, provide a great look at the shifting social attitudes around addiction. Many of these disparate ideas come together in the controversial 12-Step Program made ubiquitous by Alcoholics Anonymous. Liam and Russian Sam are joined once more by their good friend Jon to discuss the past 10 million years of alcoholism, beginning with the earliest known consumption of fermented fruit by our simian ancestors and moving through the 18th century gin crisis and the Victorian temperance movement. Across the 19th century, physicians and preachers clashed over the concept of addiction as a medical condition or a personal moral failing. While the former understanding is now taken for granted, moralistic interpretations steeped in Protestant theology survive in many addiction treatments, including the 12-Step Program. Jon walks us through the origins and practice of this program, laid out in the 1930s by the enigmatic "Bill W," an alcoholic who turned to both Carl Jung and Lutheranism to help with his addiction. As his program mushroomed into a global movement, his eccentric ideology became scripture for millions of people seeking treatment. Jon describes his own experiences with this philosophy and recounts some of the more controversial aspects of Bill W's life 12-Step Programs writ large. Jon's Substack: https://dfg.substack.com…

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E101 American Centennials 2:25:28

21 weeks之前2:25:28

2:25:28

⁠ Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ --- The United States has a fairly long and established history for a state, long enough that the country is approaching its 250th anniversary in just a few years. Much has changed in that time, while other things have failed to progress far enough. To look at this history of continuity and change, we decided to dive into the American centennial and bicentennial celebrations, as well as the history surrounding them. Although 1876 and 1976 seem distant, the two years actually have a fair bit in common. Civil rights, nefarious government overreach, economic downturn, labor militancy and more were in the forefront of American minds during both periods. Whether in the Gilded Age or in the period dubbed by some "American Glasnost," the United States continued to battle demons along similar lines, and the powers that be hoped that the festivities surrounding the country's birthday would bring to mind the glorious past and future rather than the lackluster present. But whether the celebrations in Philadelphia were framed by the World's Fair or a giant concert, whether they were presided over by Emperor Pedro II of Brazil or Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, the celebrations could not drown out the grittiness of lived experience. Join us as we put that grit under a microscope and explore the bacteria found within.…

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E100 Gladio Free Europe: A Retrospective 1:17:41

29 weeks之前1:17:41

1:17:41

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Many podcasts were conceived during the pandemic, but few have proved as long-lasting as our humble broadcasts. After over three years of honing the craft and sharing so many stories, the whole gang reunites to assess our body of work. Liam, Abram, and the Sams have an engaging chat about what Gladio has meant to us and recall some of our favorite episodes. A special shout-out goes out to our listeners. You have given us the resolve to keep putting these out and I hope that you find our work engaging and entertaining. Here's to a hundred more episodes! Mentioned Episodes: E01 Yegor Letov and the National Bolshevik Party E03 Wag the Dog E09 S1m0ne ft. Pam E13 Migration and Memory E14 Les Rallizes Dénudés ft. Zach E28 Quo Vadis ft. Maggie E41 Spiritualism in the 1800s E47 Dirty Harry E57 The Golem E58 Cyrus Teed and Koreshanity E60 Legendary Ancestry Claims E67 The Bog Bodies E67.5 Even More Bog Bodies E84 The Ainu Before Japan E87 The Meiji Restoration and Hokkaido ft. John Bellamy Poster…

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E99 The Birth of the Middle Ages and Henri Pirenne 2:00:23

31 weeks之前2:00:23

2:00:23

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Liam and Russian Sam continue their exploration of the fall of the Roman world, as described by revolutionary historian Henri Pirenne. Writing between the world wars, the great Belgian scholar used cutting-edge research methods to analyze changes in the economy and society of the 6th century, describing a Roman world in Western Europe that lumbered on without Rome. According to Pirenne, the greatest shock to this unstable system was the rise of the Islamic Caliphate in the early 7th century, which broke off contact between east and west, turned the Mediterranean into a "Muslim lake," and gave the Eastern Roman Empire a challenge far greater than the Goths or Persians of old. Across the next 200 years, the once-Roman world would adapt to this great new change. The ensuing turbulence in the west would lead to the rise of the Carolingian Franks and the new Empire of Charlemagne, which would bring Western Europe out of antiquity and truly into the Middle Ages. This episode of Gladio Free Europe is a roller-coaster across the 7th and 8th centuries, featuring colorful personalities such as the gold-nosed Byzantine Emperor Justinian II and the legendary feuding queens Fredegund and Brunhilda. Come listen to see how arcane questions of the nature of Jesus led to bloodshed across the Mediterranean, and decide for yourself whether or not the fall of Rome happened with the collapse of the Roman empire in 476, or the birth of a new empire on Christmas Day, 800. Further Listening: ⁠E13 Migration and Memory⁠ ⁠E15 The Last Kingdom⁠ ⁠E33 Late Roman Empire⁠ ⁠E36 The Franks ft. Natasha⁠ ⁠E49 The Arab-Norman Civilization (Part 1)⁠ ⁠E50 The Arab-Norman Civilization (Part 2)…

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E98 The Fall of Rome and Henri Pirenne 1:51:19

38 weeks之前1:51:19

1:51:19

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- On September 4, 476 the barbarian general Odoacer deposed the last Roman emperor in the West and proclaimed himself king of Italy. After 500 years of existence, the Western Roman Empire was gone. But if you were living there at the time, would you have even noticed anything had changed? Liam and Russian Sam return to one of their favorite historical subjects, an area that has energized and terrified generations of scholars for 1500 years: the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire. Considered to mark the end of classical antiquity and the start of the middle ages, this event was traditionally understood to be the fundamental cataclysm of the history of Europe, perhaps even the history of the world. But on the eve of the Second World War, aging Belgian historian Henri Pirenne proposed an alternative view: that the collapse of the Roman Empire and the rise of the barbarian kingdoms only amounted to a change in management. The real transformation of the Roman world into the medieval world would not happen until centuries later, when the empires of the Muslims and the Carolingian Franks built new political and economic systems that replaced what had been left by Rome. This is the key argument of Mohammed and Charlemagne , Pirenne's most famous work published posthumously in 1937 and one of the most revolutionary texts in medieval history. Still hotly debated today, Pirenne's thesis upended a seemingly adamantine tradition of scholarship established by the Italian humanist Petrarch in the 14th century, and elaborated by later historians such a Edward Gibbon, which viewed the medieval period as a detestable Dark Age that had to be redeemed by the discovery of Roman glory. While not rejecting outright the notion of an early-medieval Dark Age, Pirenne put forward a strong argument for continuity across the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries, interrupted not by the invasions of barbarian peoples but instead by the later rise of the Muslim caliphate. New religious divisions severed the arteries of trade and communication that united the Mediterranean world. And when a new Roman Empire emerged in the west the following century, Pirenne argues that this realm of Charlemagne did not restore Roman civilization as once was believed, but instead created a new imperial system just like their Arab contemporaries. Listen to this week's Gladio Free Europe to decide for yourself if the end of the Western Roman Empire did or did not mark the end of the Roman world. Further Listening: E13 Migration and Memory E15 The Last Kingdom E33 Late Roman Empire E36 The Franks ft. Natasha E49 The Arab-Norman Civilization (Part 1) E50 The Arab-Norman Civilization (Part 2)…

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E97 B. Traven and the Treasure of the Sierra Madre 2:07:33

42 weeks之前2:07:33

2:07:33

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Liam and Russian Sam tunnel beneath the hills of Mexico to uncover the remarkable history behind the 1948 film "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and its creators. Based on a 1927 novel about three American gold-hunters torn apart by greed, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is one of the only modern novels whose author is effectively unknown. Attributed only to the mysterious "B. Traven," a German residing in Mexico, speculation over the writer's identity takes us through the German Revolution of 1919 and rumors of secret illegitimate sons of industrialists and Kaiser. Celebrated in its time for its stark depiction of human brutality, the novel ascended to immortality when director John Huston adapted Traven's story in an usual western in 1948. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Huston's father Walter as prospectors, the film is regarded among the greatest riches of classic Hollywood cinema. Listen to this episode of Gladio Free Europe to dig through the dirt of deception and intrigue surrounding both the novel and the film, and decide for yourself just who was B. Traven. --- Further Listening: E07 Hernán and Aztec Empire ft. Paul Guinan E41 Spiritualism in the 1800s E66 Hail, Caesar!…

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E96 Ármin Vámbéry and Hungarian Orientalism ft. Turan Explorer 2:11:25

45 weeks之前2:11:25

2:11:25

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Liam, Russian Sam, and Turan Explorer continue their journey across the vast steppe of Hungarian Turanism in this episode on Ármin Vámbéry, the all-time Orientalist white boy whose remarkable wanderings were fundamental to the development of the Hungarian obsession with the East, and the rise of a political movement that would convince millions of Central Europeans that they were in fact Central Asians deep down. Coming from the humblest of beginnings in Slovakia, Vámbéry overcame abject poverty, brutal antisemitism, and Hungarian Slovakia entirely due to his remarkable language learning abilities and unyielding perseverance. After being hired as a language tutor at the age of 10, he found friends in the local elite of Hungary, eventually pursuing his dream of visiting the Ottoman Empire as a young man. Quickly becoming a favorite of the Turkish aristocracy, one of the only non-Muslims to be called "Effendi," Vámbéry then traveled even further east while posing as an Islamic Dervish, first to Persia and then to the much more remote lands of Central Asia, to cities like Bukhara and Khiva that had not been visited by any European for centuries. After his return, Vámbéry was celebrated across Europe as one of the 19th century's most prominent orientalists. His research and memoirs were of great interest to the British and Russian governments, who each had their own imperial designs on the regions he visited. But in his homeland of Austria-Hungary, Vámbéry's research inaugurated a national obsession with Central Asia, believed to be the homeland of the Hungarian people. By the end of his life in 1913, this Turanist movement had become the most powerful force in Hungarian nationalism, and Vámbéry its prophet. Just as theories of white supremacy were taking hold everywhere else in Europe, Hungarian nationalists proclaimed brotherhood with the peoples of Turkey, Uzbekistan, Japan, and many other nations abroad. After his death, the dismemberment of Hungary following World War One caused a rise of ultra-nationalism throughout the nation, and a subsequent failed revolution led by communist Bela Kun shifted Turanism in a violent anticommunist direction. Turan Explorer covers the ways Turanism adapted to the increasingly antisemitic climate of the 1920s and 1930s, even though many earlier Turanists, including Vámbéry, had been Jewish themselves. Last, Russian Sam explores the ways that Hungarian Jews adopted a form of Turanism as a nationalist mythology specific to their own community. Though now-debunked, the popular Khazar theory envisioned Jewish Hungarians as the blood relatives of their Christian neighbors, and shows how this strange obsession with the East could unite disparate groups as much as divide. Turan Explorer is on ⁠Twitter⁠ , ⁠Tiktok⁠ , and ⁠Youtube⁠ . He also has a podcast, available on ⁠Spotify⁠ and other platforms.…

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E95 The Origins of Hungarian Turanism ft. Turan Explorer 1:47:13

46 weeks之前1:47:13

1:47:13

⁠⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- This week, we have a very special guest coming to us from the steppe via transfer in Central Europe. This episode is all about the constitutive elements of Hungarian Turanism, the ideology that traces Hungarian origins back into Asia and often comes with a political program for what to do with that knowledge. In this multi-part series, we set the stage for a later exploration of Turanism as a doctrine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But before we go there, we must dive into the murky origins of the Hungarian people as derived from linguistic and genetic evidence, and how Hungarians of the medieval and early modern period conceptualized this migration. We have medieval chronicles deriving a biblically-based genealogy of the Hungarian people, we have early modern legal thinkers of the aristocracy constructing a doctrine of racial supremacy over their class inferiors, this one has it all! What relationship do the Hungarians have to the Turkic peoples? Are the Hungarians descended from the Huns of Attila? Was the progenitor of the Arpad dynasty sired by a bird? Find the answers to these questions and more on this episode of Gladio Free Europe. Turan Explorer is on Twitter , Tiktok , and Youtube . He also has a podcast, available on Spotify and other platforms. Closing song: Gabor Szabo - Galatea's Guitar…

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E94 The Long 2014 ft. Grace Cathedral Park 1:41:31

47 weeks之前1:41:31

1:41:31

⁠⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen. Vladimir Lenin surprisingly did not say these words about 2014, a year that saw monumental pivots in culture, technology, and world events and arguably never ended at all. Liam and Russian Sam are joined this week by their good friend Jackson or Grace Cathedral Park , a longtime advocate of the concept of "The Long 2014." They discuss how the last years of the Obama administration inaugurated a lasting vibe shift, from rise of Netflix to the brutal emergence of ISIS, or the ways that the parallel development of Black Lives Matter and the odious GamerGate galvanized masses of young Americans into extremely different forms of political rebellion. Join Gladio Free Europe for our most recent historical exploration yet, and decide for yourself whether the Long 2014 has yet come to a close.…

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E93 Frank Herbert: The Dune Behind Dune 1:12:48

48 weeks之前1:12:48

1:12:48

⁠⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- The Dune series has gone through a revival of late thanks to the film adaptations of Denis Villeneuve, but what are we to make of it? In this episode we explore Dune through the lens of its author, Frank Herbert. His beliefs defy easy political classification according to today's preconceived notions, making him difficult to situate. Herbert was a libertarian who was deeply uneasy with market forces, a localist with great sympathy for indigenous and anticolonial causes, and a dyed in the wool environmentalist who voted for Reagan, on top of being a fiend for psychedelics and an inveterate JFK hater. What are we to make of all this? In addition to Herbert's personal beliefs and political philosophy, we explore the many different real-world influences that filled in the details of Herbert's world. Although the series is set some 20,000 years in the future, traces of currently existing human cultures persisted and gave color to this world, from the martial spirit of Caucasian and North African liberation fighters to a liberal mishmash of Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, and other beliefs which continue to inform the faiths and actions of the peoples of this world. So just who was Frank Herbert, how did this inform his writing, and what went into the worldbuilding of the Duniverse? Find out on this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E92 Irish Latin Americans and the San Patricio Battalion 39:29

51 weeks之前39:29

39:29

⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Since the 17th century, nearly 10 million Irish people left their homes for an uncertain life abroad. While stories of Irish settlement in the United States and Canada are well-known, the lives of tens of thousands of Irish people who settled in Latin America are much more obscure. In the first Gladio Free Europe solo episode, Liam runs through the long history of the Irish presence in Latin America. As early as the time of Shakespeare many Irish people began pledging their service to the formidable Spanish Empire, out of desperation, defiance, or duty to their Catholic faith. These Irish volunteers, later termed "the Wild Geese," were deployed on Spanish military adventures across the entire known world, but saw their most notable success in the American colonies. Some Irishmen would settle in Latin America as members of the colonial elite, while others would shake the foundations of the Spanish empire and push toward independence. The Irish experience in Latin America would have its most brilliant moment in the middle of the 19th century, after Spain had been evicted from the American continent and a new hegemon emerged. At the start of the Mexican-American war, a group of mistreated Irish recruits and survivors of the great famine defected from American service to join the enemy. Driven by both Catholic and republican ideals, these men would form their own unit to defend the Mexican state against United States aggression. Although the San Patricio Battalion would be short-lived, they played a crucial role in halting the American advance and their sacrifice is a testament to over two centuries of Hispanic-Hibernian cooperation. Ending song: El Caballo by The Chieftains…

Gladio Free Europe

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E91 King Philip's War and the End of Native Sovereignty 1:49:21

1 year之前1:49:21

1:49:21

⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- In 1675, the Puritan colonies in North America were fighting for their lives. A brilliant young commander named Metacomet assembled a Native American coalition that upended a half-century of colonialism, pushed the English back to the coast, and would come very close to obliterating settler life in New England. In this episode of Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam return to colonial New England to cover King Philip's War, a conflict that is little-known today, but provides one of the greatest "What Ifs" of American history. The psychological terror of Metacomet's revolt, and the brutal English reprisals that followed, would have enormous implications on the development of racial hierarchy and the expulsion of indigenous peoples. And while Metacomet was not even 40 when he was drawn and quartered by the English, he would live forever in the nightmares of the Puritans and the memories of Native Americans, as one of the greatest icons of resistance and rebellion this continent has seen. --- Related Episodes: E59 Indigenous New England and the First Thanksgiving E90 After the First Thanksgiving E84 The Ainu Before Japan…

Gladio Free Europe

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E90 After the First Thanksgiving 1:15:20

1 year之前1:15:20

1:15:20

⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- In November 1622, the great diplomat Squanto died while leading a trade expedition with his English allies. Only a year had passed since he formed a treaty between the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the indigenous Wampanoag people. While the early years of English-Indian relations were marked by cooperation and accommodation, including the famous Thanksgiving feast, Squanto's passing marked a descent into a period of slowly ramping hostilities, culminating in the first war fought between English settlers and Native Americans. This episode of Gladio Free Europe explores the continuing history of colonial New England, across the 1620s and '30s as the English population rapidly swelled, in large part due to the establish of the new Massachusetts Bay colony which would quickly overshadow Plymouth and the original Pilgrims. While the Pilgrims and Puritans maintained warm relations with some native peoples, such as the great Mohegan chief Uncas, competition over land and resources drew them into conflict with others. Though little known today, the Pequot War would have particularly grave consequences on English-indigenous relations, as it set the precedent for mass slaughter of Indian women and children and ended with the enslavement of the entire Pequot nation. Massachusetts and Connecticut are not remembered as slave societies, but captive Native Americans formed an essential role in the colonial economy and helped normalize the institutions of slavery and racial segregation across the English colonies. Listen to understand how the peace of the First Thanksgiving collapsed into the bloodshed and subjugation that defined the American colonial experience, and try to uncover how the consequences of this turn towards violence shaped our country for the worse for centuries to come.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E89 Katherina Kepler and the European Witch Hunts 1:49:48

1 year之前1:49:48

1:49:48

⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- In 1615, just days before the New Year, famed astronomer Johannes Kepler received the news that would change his life. His mother Katharina had been accused as a witch. Over the next 6 years, the Keplers would battle these charges with every means at their disposal, just as the world around them began to collapse into the carnage of the Thirty Years' War. Gladio Free Europe continues our foray into the dusky world of European witchcraft with our account of the witch of Katharina Kepler. Liam and Russian Sam explore how at the cusp of modernity, one of the figures most responsible for heralding changes in science and reason found himself battling against the forces of superstition. While a belief in witchcraft is now rightfully considered archaic and irrational, many people in this time attempted to reconcile theories of black magic with modern techniques of logic and rhetoric. This makes Katharina's charges, and her son's attempts to fight them, an amazing chapter of the history of both science and magic in Early Modern Europe. This episode touches on so many topics and themes explored on this podcast in previous years. The story of Katharina Kepler is a incredible skeleton key for understanding the changes that erupted out of Germany over 400 years ago and, in that bloody process, gave us the modern world.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E88 Krampus and the Demons of the Alps 1:04:47

1 year之前1:04:47

1:04:47

⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Each Christmas season, the mountain peoples of Europe are beset by monsters. Fearsome figures like Krampus, Perchta, and the Kuker descend into quaint hilltop villages, sometimes to spread holiday cheer, sometimes to hasten the coming of spring, and sometimes just to sew chaos and discord. These figures are all part of similar winter celebrations found across the Alps, stretching from their western foothills in France all the way to the Dinaric Alps of the Balkans. Due to the primal nature of these traditions, in which men and women wear the skins of beasts and the faces of demons, scholars and churchmen have wondered for decades if these Christmas festivals could really be a remnant of much older traditions. On this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam explore the history of these Christmastime monsters, and the widespread traditions of people wearing their costumes to parade through the streets. While drawing a straight from Krampus to ancient Alpine paganism is not particularly easy, some of these figures offer interesting parallels to what we know of the traditional pantheons that Christianity supplanted. Historians today are much hesitant to attribute modern beliefs to paganism than they might have been in the time of the Brothers Grimm. But it's clear that these traditions are among the oldest in Europe, with interesting to the development of witchcraft lore and even the spread of deadly witch hunts across medieval and Early Modern Europe. Join us on a trip to the snowy highlands of Austria, Germany, Slovenia, and Bulgaria and decide for yourself if these winter monsters may be our last remnant of the pagan world.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E87 The Meiji Restoration and Hokkaido ft. John Bellamy Poster 1:50:09

1 year之前1:50:09

1:50:09

⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- This week, friend of the pod John Bellamy Poster commandeered a gunship and made his way onto Gladio Free Europe to discuss 19th century Japanese history in the backdrop of the unique historical manga Golden Kamuy . Exploring the pivotal moments that reshaped Japan, John takes us through the monumental arrival of Commodore Perry's black ships, an event that broke Japan's 220-year-old policy of isolation and precipitated a domino effect of change. We delve into the Meiji Restoration, an era of rapid modernization and westernization, which saw the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and the reinstatement of imperial rule. The Boshin War, a civil war that symbolized the end of the samurai era, is examined through the lens of its influence on Japanese society and politics. Lastly, we traverse the rugged terrains of Hokkaido and discuss the beginning of its colonization, shedding light on the cultural and economic impacts this had on the indigenous Ainu people, as well as Japan itself. Interspersed with references to the gripping saga of Golden Kamuy , John explains how this historical manga offers a visceral narrative that intertwines these significant events with the lives of its richly developed characters. Join us on Gladio Free Europe for a journey through the transformative epochs of Japan, brought to life by history and manga alike.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E86 Transylvania P. 2 1:23:47

1 year之前1:23:47

1:23:47

⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- We return to the dark foothills of the Carpathians in our continuing history of Transylvania. This episode focuses on Europe's most infamous countess, Elizabeth Bathory, accused of torturing and killing up to 600 hundred young girls gathered from across Central Europe. While it's now agreed that Elizabeth Bathory was not a vampire, and didn't even bathe in anyone's blood, whether or not she was a serial killer has led to some interesting debate. Join us as we lay out the facts of the Bathory case and decide for yourself if this enigmatic nobleman woman was Transylvania's Jeffrey Dahmer or the innocent victim of a Habsburg conspiracy. Afterward, we chart the the development of the 19th century interest in both vampires and Eastern Europe, beginning with Lord Byron and culminating in Bram Stoker's 1897 masterpiece Dracula—not only one of the most influential novels ever composed, but also an amazing window into the imperial anxieties of late Victorian Britain. Protect your neck, kid! We're back to Transylvania.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E85 Transylvania P. 1 1:22:42

1 year之前1:22:42

1:22:42

⁠⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Americans are known for many things. Geographic insight of Eastern Europe is not one of them. Yet every American over age six can tell you which Romanian region is the home of Count Dracula. Thanks to the incredible popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Transylvania has a unique place in the American and British popular consciousness, totally beyond that of any other province in this part of the world. To see how this came to pass, we have to understand the ways that Dracula is a snapshot of Victorian fears, fascinations, and colonial psychoses and explore the real history of this long-contested region. In this two-part series, Liam and Russian Sam pore over the ancient tomes to uncover both the history of Transylvania and the strange, circuitous path that gave this region its uniquely macabre reputation, from the first invasions of the Magyars that terrified Christian Europe, to the establishment of German colonies that may have inspired by the Pied Piper legend, and ultimately the blood, brutal career of Vlad the Impaler. Although he never actually ruled Transylvania, the real-life Dracula's persecution of German-speakers became one of Europe's first media spectacles, giving this proud eastern boyar an afterlife that he still enjoys today. Don't forget the garlic as you join Gladio Free Europe on this excursion down the Danube, as we venture into the land beyond the forest.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E84 The Ainu Before Japan 1:52:13

1 year之前1:52:13

1:52:13

⁠⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- In 1869, the Meiji Emperor declared the northern island of Hokkaido to be sovereign territory of Japan. In a process direclty inspired by American colonization, Japanese settlers were brought in to "civilize" the territory, a process which would have terrible consequences for the indigenous inhabitants -- a non-Japanese people known as the Ainu. Japanese colonists and western onlookers derisively viewed the Ainu as isolated primitives, at best isolated remnants of the ancient Jomon people ancestral to the mainland Japanese. This is nonsense. The Ainu and their predecessors have a rich history of interaction with the peoples of Asia, including the Japanese, and have an illustrious history that goes back many hundreds of years. This episode of Gladio Free Europe charts the course of Ainu history before the conquest of Hokkaido. Using archaeology and archaeogenetics, cover the ancient mingling of various Northeast Asian peoples who populares the island and investigate longstanding claims that the Ainu are related to various outside groups. Chinese early Japanese sources also give us incredibly insights into early relations between Hokkaido and the outside world. We discuss the fearsome Emishi people, a medieval community that has long been associated with the Ainu, who feature prominently in the film Princess Mononoke, and recount how the expansion of Ainu people into mainland Siberia led to a long war against the Mongols. By the Sengoku Era, feudal warlords began competing for access over the growing Hokkaido trade, which led to the establishment of Japanese settlements on the island. In this period, the Ainu came under Japanese occupation without falling under the protection of Japanese law. This exploitative situation had profoundly negative consequences for the indigenous people, leading to two major revolts against the settlers. While the Ainu remain colonized by Japan today, their survival exposes the myth of homogeneity central to Japanese nationalism. Please join us for this discussion on one of Asia's most intriguing and inspiring peoples.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E83 Fritz Lang's Fury and the Brooke Hart Kidnapping 1:45:27

2 years之前1:45:27

1:45:27

⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- In 1936, acclaimed German exile director Fritz Lang made his American debut: Fury . The ripped-from-the-headlines story of a deadly false accusation was acclaimed by critics as the best drama of the year, but audiences and studio executives shunned the film for its dark content and uncomfortable social commentary: particularly how Lang shed light on the crimes of his adopted country, including the brutal crisis of lynching. With Spencer Tracy playing the accused, and by setting the film in the Midwest, Fritz Lang would fear for the rest of the life that he was a "coward" for not addressing the inherently racist character of lynchings in the South. But this film was based directly on a true series of murders, and one which — though lacking a racial angle and committed outside the South —helped spur the fight to end lynchings everywhere. These murders began with the disappearance of Brooke Hart, a popular San Jose 22-year-old whose bright future was cut short in 1933 when he was kidnapped and held for ransom. Before any money could even change hands, the police traced the ransom call to two locals with a shady past who confessed to not only kidnapping Brooke Hart, but killing him that same night. Incensed, everyday citizens of Bay Area, including many respectable professionals, stormed into the local jail and subjected the two suspects to horrific torture before hanging both men from a tree. This event, often hailed as the "last lynching in California," was not condemned but celebrated by members of the press and even the governor. This blatant murder of the two suspects, a complete miscarriage of justice, eventually made its way into the national press. The early American Civil Liberties Union led a push to raise awareness of the killings of these men, an awareness which helped fight the broader plague of lynchings in all parts of the nation. This episode of Gladio Free Europe explores those three San Jose murders and the production of Fury within the broader cultural context of the 1920s and '30s. Although these killings may not resemble our idea of a lynching today, they were part of a centuries-long American tradition of rabid violence in the name of revenge and domination. Fritz Lang's film helped shed light on these atrocities, and remind Americans that this was not a problem isolated to the South. Since the 18th century, lynchings have been committed in all parts of the country. And some of the most brutal lynchings, many of which were just as racially motivated as the reign of terror in the South, were committed in Hollywood's backyard.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E82 God-Kings of Southeast Asia 1:13:16

2 years之前1:13:16

1:13:16

⁠Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Put on your rubber boots, we're continuing our exploration of Southeast Asia as we excavate the deep jungle ruins of the Classical Age. From the Khmer Empire to Champa to Srivijaya and beyond, the early medieval period of Southeast Asian history is marked by the emergence of incredible states and empires whose histories, though tantalizingly obscure, hint at great narratives of conflict and cooperation. This episode of Gladio Free Europe travels across the kingdoms and trade federations today comprising countries like Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Of particular interest is the figure of the deva-raja, the god-king, who could command the ability to construct enormous monuments to Hindu gods and the principles of Buddhism beyond the scope of anything in Europe at this time. Join us to learn about the pirate-kings of Java, the Burmese King Arthur, Malay sea-cossacks, and how the far-reaching journeys of Austronesian merchants led to the introduction of Southeast Asia's most popular religion, Islam.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E81 The Start of Southeast Asia 1:17:50

2 years之前1:17:50

1:17:50

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠ --- For thousands of years, voyagers from all across the known world have docked their ships in the harbors of Southeast Asia. The diverse countries that make up this region have played an essential role in human history, witnessing the first waves of migration out of Africa, the development of the earliest oceanic trade networks, the synthesis of political and religious ideas from both China and India, and the birth of overseas colonial empires. But to most people in the west, the history of this region is entirely unknown. This episode of Gladio Free Europe charts the course of early Southeast Asian history, starting with the miniature early humans of paleolithic Indonesia and ending with the formation of the great ancient civilizations of Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Liam and Russian Sam dive through the deep past to uncover ancient migrations, lost kingdoms, the marriage of indigenous traditions with foreign ideas, and the beginnings of a trade system that would connect the farthest points of Eurasia and transform the entire world. Listen to this week's episode to find out why Southeast Asia may be the most interesting place on earth.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E80 Los Angeles Labor War p. 2 1:00:28

2 years之前1:00:28

1:00:28

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠ --- It's October 1910 and Los Angeles is on fire. The California labor war had reached its highest level of violence with the bombing of the LA Times Building, and now the world wanted to know who was responsible. Some thought radical anarchists planted the bombs while others thought the LA robber barons had lit the fuse themselves to defame the worker's movement. Liam and Russian Sam they recount the riveting manhunt and ensuing trial, full of larger-than-life figures like grandstanding detective William Burns and crusading labor lawyer Clarence Darrow. Join us this week on Gladio Free Europe as we dive into the aftermath the deadliest terrorist attack in US history up to this point, and how the outcome of this highly publicized trial would set the course of California society for the next hundred years.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E79 Los Angeles Labor War p. 1 59:11

2 years之前59:11

59:11

Support us on Patreon⁠⁠⁠ --- On September 30, 1910, the L.A. Times declared that anarchism has been defeated in California. The city of Los Angeles would be rid of trade unionists. Less than 12 hours later, these same anarchists and trade unionists would strike back in the grandest act of terror thus committed in the United States. This deadly bombing launched a nationwide manhunt and one of the most publicized trials in American history, while also pushing both capital and labor in increasingly radical directions. Though not well-known today, this event in 1910 is an essential element of the prehistory of California politics and the formation of the American radical left. In this episode of Gladio Free Europe, Liam and Russian Sam delve into the brutal world of turn-of-the-century class struggle to learn what drove the labor movement to carry out this cataclysmic attack and how the captains of industry responded. On one side of the labor war was the militant trade union movement, dominated by the radical Ironworkers. Their allies included radical allies like Emma Goldman and passionate liberals such as famed lawyer Clarence Darrow. At the front lines were working men and women who had taken too much for too long. Los Angeles meanwhile was occupied by the most viciously reactionary economic elite of any American city. Colorfully repellant robber barons like General Harrison Otis fought organized labor with tooth and claw while spending their free time promoting white supremacy and eugenics. Ultimately, this labor war would end with capital triumphant. But the cinders of 1910 would not cool. This explosive Los Angeles night would foreshadow a turbulent century of further class struggle, posing painful questions that are still not resolved.…

Gladio Free Europe

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E78 The Flavorful Life of Yevgeny Prigozhin 1:03:27

2 years之前1:03:27