"It's history..."
"The events..."
"The figures..."
"The drama..."
"The deep questions..."
"It's Hardcore History..."
—Introduction to every episode.
Hardcore History
is a History Podcast hosted by Dan Carlin. Started around 2006, the focus of each episode varies widely from show to show but they are generally centered on specific historical events that Carlin's had a pre-existing interest in. Some episodes being one offs with Carlin musing on a subject of particular interest to him at the moment while others are multi-part installments in a three or six part series.
An "amateur historian" by his own admission, the series is notable for both the extreme length of the average episode note and Carlin's unique presentation, self-describing himself as being more of a "storyteller" than a traditional historical recollection.
In addition to main feed episodes, there will occasionally be a Hardcore History: Addendum. Usually a post-script episode of additional material or musings that couldn't be fit into a regular main feed episode.
Some of Carlin's more notable series
- Punic Nightmares (Episodes 21 - 23): Detailing the Punic Wars between Carthage and the emerging power of The Roman Republic. With particular focus on the famed second one with Hannibal.
- Ghosts of the Ostfront (Episodes 27 - 30): Centering on the brutal Eastern European Front of World War II between Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union.
- Death Throes of the Republic (Episodes 34 - 39): Multi-episode look at the gradual and violent collapse of the late-Roman Republic.
- Wrath of the Khans (Episodes 43 - 47): Series detailing the rapid and explosive conquests of Genghis Khan and his successors.
- Blueprint for Armageddon (Episodes 50 - 55): Carlin's overview of the major events of World War I. Overlapping somewhat with the actual centenary of the conflict.
- King of Kings (Episodes 56 - 58): A Perspective Flip look at the The Achaemenid Empire and the Greco-Persian Wars, ending with the conquests of Alexander the Great.
- Supernova of the East (Episodes 63 - 67): A look at the meteoric rise of Imperial Japan and it's collision course with The United States in the Pacific Theatre of World War II
- Twilight of the Aesir (Episodes 69-70): Two-parter that delves both on The Viking Age and its effects on early medieval Europe and Scandinavia's long and often tumultuous conversion to Christianity.note
This series contains examples of
- Ancient Rome: Has devoted quite a few series looking at the Ancient Romans (so far the middle and late Republican periods)
- Punic Nightmares covers Rome's wars with Hannibal and Carthage during the Punic Wars.
- Death Throes of the Republic looks at the collapse of the Roman Republic into political violence and Civil War, starting with the Gracchi brothers in the 130s-120s B.C.E to the assassination of Julius Caesar.
- Romancing The Tribes and The Celtic Holocaust looks at Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars.
- Breather Episode: Has a few of these that are usually inserted in between his multi-episodic arcs. Usually called "Blitz episodes''.
- Culture Clash: One of Carlin's Author Appeal's about history (particularly pre-globalized history) is when very different civilizations come into conflict with one another for the first time (and often with disastrous results); the Greeks and Persians in the Greco-Persian Wars or the Mongols and the people of the Middle East and Europe.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first 20 or so episodes are rather different from what the series would eventually evolve into. All having a much shorter running time (the first episode, Alexander vs. Hitler, is only 16 minutes) and are more Carlin giving his random thoughts on the subject matter of the episode.
- Evil Versus Evil: A major theme of Ghosts of the Ostfront when comparing Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
- The Ghost: Ben, Dan's co-producer on the show.
- Hordes from the East: Nomadic Steppe tribes are one of Carlin's many interests and have been the focus of a few episodes, most notable his Wrath of the Khans series.
- Irony: Carlin, like many others before him, makes note in Ghosts of the Ostfront of Stalin (one of the most paranoid leaders in world history) underestimated the one person he never should have.
- Juxtaposed Halves Shot: The episode poster for Blueprint for Armageddon V is this of Vladimir Lenin and Uncle Sam. The episode covers the start of the Russian Revolution and American entry into World War 1.
- Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: In Prophets of Doom, Carlin describes Jan Matthys as "a cross between Charles Manson and Exidor from Mork & Mindy". Carlin then proceeds to spend a considerable amount of time explaining both Mork and Mindy and Exidor for the benefit of the younger audience. Interestingly he doesn't feel the need to explain who Charles Manson was.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: A particular topic of fascination to Carlin, with him often speculating on if this will happen to our own civilization. Judgement at Nineveh examines this by looking at the fate of the Assyrian Empire; one of the world's most notable early empires collapsing relatively quickly from its peak. With its once mighty capital city of Nineveh being some unrecognizable ruins by the time of Xenophon coming across it in the Anabasis, just less than three centuries later.
- Pun-Based Title: Wrath of the Khans to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
- Stock Audio Clip: The full opening of the show (sometimes abridged) is interspersed with audio clips of famous speeches/audio clips from Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler, The Hidenburg Disaster, Edward R. Murrow, Franklin D. Roosevelt and 9/11
- Sequel Series: The Death Throes of the Republic episodes can be seen as one for the Punic Nightmares series. Picking up from Rome now being the dominant Mediterranean power and how these wars of conquest laid the groundwork for the fall of the Republic.
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Values Dissonance: A frequent topic of discussion of Carlin's when it comes to discussing what was seen as "acceptable" or "laudable" in wars of the ancient past, or even more recent than we would like to think, that we would now call war crimes.
