Harvest of Mars: History and War
Harvest of Mars seeks to uncover the essentials of war. Essentials that have been swept under the rug or forgotten by people and societies eager to rewrite history in a way that is intellectually pleasing. This podcast seeks to open your eyes to aspects of military history that, as Paul Fussell accurately noted, never got into the books because of what he called the Disneyfication of war. Here you will get authentic insights from someone who has a genuine love for the material.If you are curious and enjoy seeing things from a new perspective, this is the podcast for you! You do not even know a lot about military history. Perhaps you enjoy stories about the past but have never taken a history course and are just curious. It’s all good. I get students all the time who are new to history and they learn a ton because I nudge people toward new things they have not thought about rather than have them memorize facts. .
Harvest of Mars: History and War
Lions Led by Donkeys?: WWI and WWII Offensives Compared
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Season 1
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Episode 8
“My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, excellent situation, I am attacking.”
– General Ferdinand Foch, 1914
In the episode, we take a look at the difference in offensives during the two world wars. It is commonly asserted that the defensive was superior in WWI, and thus the generals who ordered the attacks are often portrayed as unthinking donkeys who ordered futile attacks. Have memories of the horrors of Verdun and Passchendaele biased postwar judgements of the WWI generals? Are there other reasons that might explain why the combat in WWII was so markedly different than in WWI?