The Most Dangerous Man in America

Franklin Roosevelt called him “one of the most dangerous men in America.”

Cato vs. The Catiline Conspiracy

Rome’s greatest orator pointed his finger at Cato the Younger and said, “Do you not see a storm coming?”

Marcus Tullius Cicero was consul for the year 63 BC, and thanks to the aforementioned storm, was a virtual dictator. But he had a number of…

Ernest Hemingway’s Last Penny

Ernest Hemingway didn’t hate his mother, but he said some mean things about her.

He claimed that the money she spent on a summer cottage for herself could have been used to send him to college instead. He once told a friend that if his mother was a…

Watch Out For Mrs. Lincoln

If one more bad thing happened today, Mary Todd Lincoln was going to lose it.

(If you’d rather listen than read, check out this episode at The History’s Trainwrecks Podcast):

Tractors For Fidel Castro

The Bay of Pigs invasion was, to coin a phrase, a train wreck.

Fidel Castro had come to power in Cuba in 1959, planting a Communist country right on America’s back porch. Having a Soviet satellite ninety miles away from American soil was, shall we say…

Fire Sale

Marcus Crassus was the richest man in Rome, which at the time meant he was the richest man in the world.

He made some of his money “conventionally” — silver mines, slave trafficking, and real estate speculation.

Teddy Roosevelt And The River Of Doubt

Former President Theodore Roosevelt was in a weird mood.

He had come in second in the presidential election of 1912, which meant he had nothing to do on March 4th of the following year while Woodrow Wilson was being sworn in.

John D. Rockefeller’s Favorite Cheese

The richest man in the world was on the run.

President Theodore Roosevelt’s Justice Department was planning to file an antitrust suit against Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company in 1906, and the states wanted to get into the action before…

General of the Armies

General of the Armies is the highest rank in the United States Army. It has only been conferred twice, but it has been heavily lobbied for in our history. The rank was given to John J. Pershing after his service in the First World War, and he retained it until his death in 1948. The rank…

His Mightiness

No one ever really knew what to call George Washington.