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POLL: Pick the Next Extra History Series! The Theme is "1920s"
🕑 Added 2020-01-08 18:01:01 +0000 UTCHey all, we're back from holiday and here to kick off the 2020s with the 1920s!
What series would you like us to air on Extra History? Cast your vote(s) below and let us know!
Friendly reminder: You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites. The poll will end at 11:59 PM PT on Saturday, January 11.
Current Schedule: The Haitian Revolution --> Ibn Battuta --> Your vote!
Warren G. Harding: Corruption and Cute Dogs
Returning the country to normalcy after WWI, Warren G. Harding was one of the most popular presidents in American history—then he died in his first term, and the scandals started coming out. Because the indecisive and nepotism-prone Harding had packed his cabinet with friends who, immediately upon arrival, started cheating the country. There was his director of the Veterans Bureau, who fled to Europe after colluding with construction firms to run up the cost of new hospitals and split the profits (he also sold some medicine on the side). Harding's Attorney General, who took a half-million dollar bribe to arrange a company transfer. Or the Justice Department staffer who committed suicide (or did he?) after taking bribes from bootleggers. And that's not even mentioning the Teapot Dome Scandal, still one of the most infamous examples of corruption in American history. And did we mention his dog, Laddie Boy, who sat at the table during cabinet meetings? Join us on a hilarious tour of one of America's shortest-serving, and worst, presidential administrations.
Prohibition: Temperance Brings Tommy Guns
Today, we often think of Prohibition as nothing more than a failed experiment, but that view ignores something: by the 1890s, America had a drinking problem. Chicago had more saloons than all of its groceries, meat markets, and dry goods stores combined. They were known as drivers of crime, centers of political corruption, and haunts for the immigrants much of American society hated. Opposing the spread of liquor, temperance activists—many of them women—descended on the alcohol industry with boycotts and vigilante raids, smashing bottles and closing bars. But when their nearly century-long movement finally succeeded nationwide, it would turn the streets of America into the battleground for both a new, bloody type of gang war and an empowered federal police...
Making the Middle East: Arab Revolt to the Sherifian Solution
Cairo, 1921. Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence convene a meeting of British officials to chart a new vision for former Ottoman territory in Arabia and Mesopotamia. During WWI, the family of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, had risen against the Ottomans on the British promise of creating states for them—and Britain now has to make good. Already, British troops are suppressing a bloody uprising against their colonial rule in Iraq, and Hussein's sons are threatening to attack French-held Syria and Lebanon. For two weeks, a group that contains only two Arabs will sit in a Cairo hotel and divide up the Middle East—creating kingdoms, naming monarchs, planning troop movements, and solidifying support for a Jewish homeland. Episode by episode, we will see their decisions and the resulting consequences—some immediate, and some still playing out to this day.
Climbing Everest : Death on the Mountain
It's 1920, and British national prestige is in dire straits. Not only has the First World War punctured the nation's self-image, it has failed in the high-profile races to both the North and South Poles. Every great peak in the Alps has already been climbed, many by rival French and Swiss mountaineers—but one mountain remains. Increasingly, climbers are venturing to the beautiful but dangerous terrain of the Himalayas, and seeking the summit of the world's tallest mountain. Two British-Indian expeditions, supported by Tibetan and Nepalese porters, will attempt to be the first up Everest. These 1922 and 1924 Expeditions will be the first to use bottled oxygen and other technological innovations, but it will not be enough. Though the teams will win acclaim and even Olympic medals, they will also leave behind bodies on the slope—along with the question of whether a few of the dead did, indeed, become the first to summit Everest.
Comments
Joshua Evans-Lowell
I read Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson a few years ago (Very readable and informative, 5/5 stars) and I've been fascinated with this era of middle eastern politics ever since.
Mohammed Deriye
Arabia pleaseeeeeeee
