Bloody Violent History

Tom Assheton, James Jackson

History: Tom Assheton and James Jackson explore the past. Man has led a bloody charge through the millennia, and we have a good look at why. Why so violent. What happened to bring about these bloody events. We discuss, we interview, and we explain how it is that history so often explodes into violence. But hey, it's not all doom and gloom: we have dogs in action, mad dictators, and brave and unsung heroes. We have Bloody Battles, Bloody Objects and some shorter Bloody Bites. History is our hinterland, the past that influences our present and future. It will be Bloody, it will be Violent ... so it goes James Jackson & Tom Assheton read less
HistoryHistory

Episodes

Contagion part 2
26-09-2023
Contagion part 2
Chapters cont... 4. Dysentery  5. Typhoid & Cholera  6. Yellow Fever, Typhus and Malaria  7. Small Pox  8. Aids to Covid  ps Biological WarfareThe second and concluding part to our dive into the story of Contagion.Mankind has defeated all comers in the struggles we have had with the animal kingdom – no sabre-tooth tiger, crocodile or shark has been able to stall the Ascent of man … except perhaps our microscopic competitors; pathogens in the form of a virus, bacteria or God forbid, fungus.  Throughout our history these miniscule machines of death have destroyed huge numbers of people across the planet.  And we, humans, seem to positively encourage their many successes with our move to urbanisation, our migrations, our wars.  Pestilence and plague seem to follow our every geopolitical convulsion.  These crafty pathogens find any convenient vector to invade our fragile bodies – they are in the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breath.From the distant past to the present day ‘Plagues’ have been sawing at the trunk of human progress:  in this episode we take a tour through their greatest hits.  Pity the poor Pangolin.so it goes,Tom Assheton and James Jackson See also:YouTube: BloodyViolentHistoryhttps://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.comhttps://www.tomtom.co.uk If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the wordSee https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information
Contagion part 1
12-09-2023
Contagion part 1
1. Introduction   2.The Plague ...  to be continuedMankind has defeated all comers in the struggles we have had with the animal kingdom – no sabre-tooth tiger, crocodile or shark has been able to stall the Ascent of man … except perhaps our microscopic competitors; pathogens in the form of a virus, bacteria or God forbid, fungus.  Throughout our history these miniscule machines of death have destroyed huge numbers of people across the planet.  And we, humans, seem to positively encourage their many successes with our move to urbanisation, our migrations, our wars.  Pestilence and plague seem to follow our every geopolitical convulsion.  These crafty pathogens find any convenient vector to invade our fragile bodies – they are in the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breath.From the distant past to the present day ‘Plagues’ have been sawing at the trunk of human progress:  in this episode we take a tour through their greatest hits.  Pity the poor Pangolin.so it goes,Tom Assheton and James Jackson Reading by David Hartley - The Black Death, 1348, Henry Knighton See also:YouTube: BloodyViolentHistoryhttps://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.comhttps://www.tomtom.co.uk If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the wordSee https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information
Royals in War part 2
29-08-2023
Royals in War part 2
Chapters cont... 4. Anglo Norman period  5. Medieval  6. Early Modern  7. C20 &21  ps The Queen MotherThe concluding section to 'Royals in War', continuing from th previous episode.  But before we go any further, please SHARE this podcast with a friend – do it nowhttps://www.bloodyviolenthistory.com/episodesTo be King, Queen, Pharaoh, Tsar or Emperor a person had to gain power over people, a person had to hold power over people and lastly that person had to pass that power onto their successor of choice.  ‘War should be the only study of a Prince.  He should consider peace only as breathing time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans’.  Yes Machiavelli; despite being tortured by a prince, was still clear headed enough to understand what a prince, a king, had to do to stay on top.  In peacetime a king can maintain his power with spectacles, tournaments and Royal progression across him realm – bread and circuses.  But when a challenge looms, war is not far behind.  The ruler must don his amour and lead his men to victory.  Or death.Even as young democracies emerged, kings, with their conviction upheld by Divine Right, would only reluctantly surrender the levers of power when a sharp blade is held to their throat.  How can monarchs gain, hold and pass on absolute power – have a listen to find out.so it goes,Tom Assheton and James Jackson See also:YouTube: BloodyViolentHistoryhttps://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.comhttps://www.tomtom.co.uk If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the wordSee https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information
Royals in War part 1
15-08-2023
Royals in War part 1
1.Setting the Scene  2. Classical World  3. Dark Ages.  Chapters 4 to 8 in the next episodeToday’s episode is Bloody and Violent, but before we go any further, please SHARE this podcast with a friend – do it now https://www.bloodyviolenthistory.com/episodesThank you.  Many of you will recognise the opening quote from the fictional TV series A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin.  It may be fiction but it doesn’t mean the sentiment isn’t true.  What Cersei said.  Before democracy, sovereigns ruled – often with absolute power over their court, their military, their subjects.  To be King, Queen, Pharaoh, Tsar or Emperor a person had to gain power over people, a person had to hold power over people and lastly that person had to pass that power onto their successor of choice.  ‘War should be the only study of a Prince.  He should consider peace only as breathing time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans’.  Yes Machiavelli; despite being tortured by a prince, was still clear headed enough to understand what a prince, a king, had to do to stay on top.  In peacetime a king can maintain his power with spectacles, tournaments and Royal progression across him realm – bread and circuses.  But when a challenge looms, war is not far behind.  The ruler must don his amour and lead his men to victory.  Or death.Even as young democracies emerged, kings, with their conviction upheld by Divine Right, would only reluctantly surrender the levers of power when a sharp blade is held to their throat.  How can monarchs gain, hold and pass on absolute power – have a listen to find out.so it goes,Tom Assheton and James Jackson See also:YouTube: BloodyViolentHistoryhttps://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.comhttps://www.tomtom.co.uk If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the wordSee https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information
A Skull - Desperate Retreats, #18 of 100 Bloody Objects
18-07-2023
A Skull - Desperate Retreats, #18 of 100 Bloody Objects
1. Fight or Flight  2. Deliverance  3. Embarrassing Retreats  4. Arduous  5. Catastrophic  6. ps TrafalgarToday we are going to discuss the contentious issue of going backwards in war.  And no, we are not just talking about certain nations driving their tanks with 10 reverse gears.  We are talking about retreat, generally seen as a bad thing and withdrawal, sometimes seen as not such a bad thing. As Demosthenes put it ‘Sometimes you need to live to fight another day’.  And we’ve seen leaders turn disaster into triumph – Rourke’s Drift, the evacuation at Dunkirk comes to mind.  The US General Smith coined perhaps the best phrase for it when describing his military reverse ferret, at the Chosin Reservoir retreat by UN forces in the early stages of the Korean War in 1950.  General McArthur ordered him to retreat and his reply, ‘Retreat, hell we’re not retreating we’re just advancing in the wrong direction’.  It’s a known feature in war that the time of highest danger for men in battle is if they run, and the retreat turns into a rout.  Many of the great massacres in battle begin with a disordered group of soldiers running from the battlefield, as happened in 1416 at the battle of Towton the greatest slaughter of men on English soil.  Today we’ll look at four categories of retreat, Deliverance, the Embarrassing retreat, the Arduous and the Catastrophic.  We should remember Churchill’s line in his great Dunkirk speech, ‘Wars are not won by evacuations’.  However, a successful withdrawal can allow those men to live, to fight another day.  Jamie and Tom discuss.So It GoesTom Assheton & James Jackson See also:YouTube: BloodyViolentHistoryhttps://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.comhttps://www.tomtom.co.uk If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the wordSee https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information
Driftwood - Disastrous Expeditions, #17 of 100 Bloody Objects
25-04-2023
Driftwood - Disastrous Expeditions, #17 of 100 Bloody Objects
1. Reality Bites   2. Cannibals   3. Desert & Jungle   4. Mountain  5. Sea  6. The Odd Triumph  7. Aviation  8. Outer Space  9.  postscriptI hope you have calibrated your compass and zeroed your altimeter - for we are about to set off on a journey of exploration.  Anyone who has led any sort of life will have embarked on an expedition or two: some more hair raising than others, but things can still go awry at Centre Parks as they do paddling up the Limpopo or straddling Crib Goch wearing your grand father's tweed suit and a pair of wellies.  But in the field of human endeavour there are some expeditions which end in a truly disastrous manner.  Humans love to explore and set records: on land, at the Poles, at sea, in the air and in outer space.  And some of these are undertaken by the amateur, who may be ill prepared or subject to bad luck.  So let's get in amongst the bodies dangling from mountain tops, frozen in the ice or bobbing amongst the waves awaiting a call from Bruce.  Jamie and Tom summon the ghost of Phileas Fogg and describe how often, on expeditions, reality bites.So it goes,Tom Assheton & James Jacksontalk@bloodyviolenthistory.comRef.Cannibal Song, Flanders & SwamMichel Montaigne Essays, Of CannibalsRonald Reagan broadcast, Space Shuttle Challenger - disaster See also:YouTube: BloodyViolentHistoryhttps://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.comhttps://www.tomtom.co.uk If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the wordSee https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information