The Prof. sits down with fellow Prof. Ben Sawyer of the Road to Now Podcast and Middle Tennessee State University to chat through the last volume episodes. Russia, the Red Scare, the second Klan, and more, while Ben gets Greg to share behind-the-scenes details on the writing process. Enjoy!

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“I want to say make no settlement until they sign up that every bloody murderer of a guard has got to go.”

This is the story of the largest uprising in the United States since the Civil War.

As unions spread across the Progressive-Era United States, West Virginia mine owners manage to keep them out. They have some good reasons (tough margins) and some less savory ones … like their preference for an oppressive “mine guard system” in “company towns” that effectively removes civil government and private ownership, and reduces the American citizens working in their mines to serfdom. Mother Jones inspires the miners to push back. 

Over the course of a decade, that pushback turns bloody – especially in Mingo County. But the worst of it comes just after the Great War, as the miner’s hero, Police Chief Sid “Two Gun” Hatfield, is murdered in cold blood at McDowell County Courthouse. Now, all bets are off. 10,000 miners grab their guns, ready to get revenge and free incarcerated miners. But they’ll have to go through Sheriff Don Chafin’s forces first. The two sides clash at Blair Mountain as the US Army arrives with regiments and aviation squadrons.

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“Every official except one elected yesterday at the first municipal election of this borough had been endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.”

This is the story of the Second Ku Klux Klan.

It’s been nearly half a century since the Third Enforcement Act killed off the Klan in 1871. But amid Jim Crow segregation in 1915, the lynching of a Jewish Georgian Leo Frank, coupled with a new film, The Birth of a Nation, inspires William Simmons to resurrect the Klan. 

This new Klan has a longer list of enemies. While still opposed to Black Americans fully integrating into American society, this KKK also targets Jews and Catholics. It’s also more politically connected than the first Klan. While Klansmen will participate in violence–including the near annihilation of the Black quarter of Tulsa, Oklahoma–most Kluxers are more focused on politics. As membership swells into the millions, the Klan’s endorsed candidates will win seats in Congress, state houses, and city councils across the nation. Yet, the Klan will come crashing down almost as quickly as it rose in the 1920s. We’ll find out why.

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“Palmer, do not let this country see red.”

This is the story of America’s First Red Scare. On June 2, 1919, Attorney General Mitchell Palmer is just going to bed when the first floor of his home is blown apart. It was a bomb, and part of a larger plot to attack several national leaders. It’s the work of anarchists.

Shaken to the core, Mitch is determined to use his position as AG to rid the nation of such extremist, violent leftists–anarchists, Bolsheviks, and the like. Mitch turns to the Bureau of Investigation (the predecessor of the FBI) to help round up foreign Reds. He’ll find a bright young lawyer named J. Edgar Hoover particularly useful in his “Palmer Raids.”

But as famed socialist Eugen Debs goes to prison for speaking against the war and union workers get treated like they’re a part of the far left, some start to wonder: is the AG still protecting the nation from violent radicals, or is he conducting a witch hunt? With bombings scaring the nation and Wall Street, the nation must debate where to draw the line between security and liberty.

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“I keep wondering if the Unknown Soldier is one of my men.”

This is the story of the United States coping with and facing the aftermath of World War I.

The American Expeditionary Force in France is breaking up but that means a lot of different things as doughboys occupy Germany, go fight in Russia, convalesce, or just head home. If only going home was so easy–for many, it’s a hard transition back to civilian life. One of the few familiar things they find in the States is a deadly strain of influenza: “The Spanish Flu.”

Meanwhile, the world is in turmoil. War still rages in much of Eastern Europe and Ireland, communism and fascism are rearing their heads, and neither the French nor British are finding their new League of Nations Mandates easy to govern. But amid all these ongoing struggles, grieving Americans whose doughboy father, son, or brother disappeared in the war find solace visiting what just might be their loved one’s final resting place: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

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“I reject your proposals … and shall defend myself to the last extremity.”

This Is the story of the Revolution’s new hot spot: the South.

After failing to crush the rebellion in the northern or middle states, British leaders hope to score some quick victories in the South, which they believe to be more loyal. Drawing support from loyalist and enslaved Americans, this new “Southern Strategy” enjoys a strong start as Savannah falls in late 1778.

Other events around the world are changing the war too. A French fleet has arrived in the Americas. Meanwhile, Spain isn’t allying with the United States but it is allying with France (it’s complicated). Battles are raging everywhere from Gibraltar, to the Caribbean, to the Atlantic, and the Frontier.

But as messy and global as the war is becoming, the Southern Strategy continues forward. In the South, Polish Count Casimir Pulaski gives his life for the Patriot Cause, and soon, the Continentals will suffer their greatest setback of the entire war as the British lay siege to Charleston, South Carolina. The Americans will also mourn a slaughter near the Carolinian border at the Waxhaws.

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“Stand fast, my boys, and receive your enemy!”

This is the story of a miserable winter at Valley Forge (1777-78), a possible conspiracy, and George Washington’s last major battle before Yorktown.

Continental Commander George Washington is loved by many in Congress and the Army. But he has his enemies too. Some see a path to pushing George out of leadership–but will this so-called “Conway Cabal,” which happens while Continental soldiers are freezing and starving to death, actually work? Either way, it will inspire one of the two duels we’ll hear about.

Speaking of the Continentals, they have to learn to soldier properly if they’re going to win this war. Can a recently arrived, husky Prussian with a penchant for swearing make the difference? Welcome to America, Baron von Steuben. They’ll use these new skills in the sweltering summer-time Battle of Monmouth.

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“If old England is not by this lesson taught humility, then she is an obstinate old slut, bent upon her ruin.” - Horatio Gates

This is the story of 1777’s Saratoga and Philadelphia campaigns. 

Playboy and playwright General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne is leading a Canadian-based invasion of upstate New York–and it's a tale of egos. From Britain’s Gentleman Johnny to America’s Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold, a lot of Generals are looking out for "number one." But Saratoga is more than that; its outcome will help Ben Franklin score a full-on military alliance avec la France. 

Meanwhile, George Washington is doing a dance with General Sir William Howe in PA. George loses battles; Howe loses his dog. And as the year’s end arrives, the towering Virginian is once again being doubted and facing yet another demoralizing winter’s camp at Valley Forge.

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The Episode to end all … World War I episodes. Professor Jackson sits down with Kelsi Dynes to talk through all the things that didn’t make it into the final Great War episodes and go big picture on the Meuse-Argonne, Armistice, and Treaty of Versailles.

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“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

This is the story of a Christmas Miracle at Trenton, New Jersey.

George Washington’s army is exhausted, disheartened, battered, starving, freezing–all but broken. Sir William Howe’s mighty British Army has chased these American soldiers out of New York, New Jersey, and now, across the ice-filled Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Worse still for the Patriots, the British have captured Continental General General Charles Lee and scared Congress into fleeing Philadelphia. The Revolution appears all but defeated.

But George isn’t ready to accept defeat. The Founding Father has made a list, checked it twice, and decided that the Hessian troops in Trenton have been naughty … neither patriot nor loyalist will soon forget Christmas of 1776.

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“The circumstances under which we are spending this particular Christmas are unusual.”

This is the story of the Christmases of World War I.

Germans and British troops, singing carols together. French and German troops, kicking, playing sports and exchanging treats. It may not last, but for a brief moment–for Christmas of 1914–these opposing armies refuse the orders of their superiors as they temporarily “beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruninghooks.”

In the years ahead, the United States’ forces have their own Christmas celebrations “over there.” In 1917, New York’s Harlem Rattlers, or Hellfighters, sing and celebrate as they travel to France. In 1918, all ranks of the AEF–be they doughboys or Hello Girls–celebrate a post-armistice Christmas. We’ll catch a speech by the president and a Christmas Bash at Black Jack Pershing’s headquarters where George Patton eats way too much plum pudding. And then, we’ll say goodbye to Black Jack. With a loving Christmas connection years down the road, it’s time to lay him to rest with his beloved doughboys in Arlington.

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