Show Notes
Discover the epic and turbulent history of capitalism in this feature-length documentary. We explore how a system of exchange, born just 500 years ago, became the organizing principle of modern civilization. If you're looking for deep explorations of economic history, the clash of ideologies, or engaging bedtime history stories, this soothing narrative is for you. It's designed for deep relaxation – and it's the perfect history for sleep, helping you find a restful night.Welcome to History After Dark! This is our quiet corner of the internet, where we create relaxing history narratives and soothing bedtime stories. Each documentary explores one of the world's most captivating ideas or figures. We'd also love to hear from you in the COMMENTS . Let us know which historical topic or intellectual figure you think we should explore in a future Bedtime Biography.For a deeper understanding and for further reading, this narrative is inspired by foundational works such as Sven Beckert's "Empire of Cotton" and Silvia Federici's "Caliban and the Witch".In this documentary episode, we delve into the dramatic story of how capitalism remade the world. We begin in a world before capitalism, a world of common lands, subsistence farming, and artisans who controlled their own labour. We then trace the violent birth of "war capitalism" through the conquest of the Americas and the establishment of a global economy built on gunpowder and enslaved human beings. Follow the enclosure of the commons in England, which created a landless working class, and the brutal witch hunts that disciplined women's bodies and labour for the new economic order.Witness how the slave plantations of the American South became inextricably linked with the cotton mills of Manchester, fuelling the Industrial Revolution. We explore the harsh discipline of the factory system and the constant resistance of the workers trapped within it. Discover how this new system deindustrialized established economies in India and China, transforming them into suppliers of raw materials for the West. We trace the story through the crisis of the American Civil War, the "New Imperialism" and the scramble for Africa, and the 20th-century shift of manufacturing back to the Global South. Finally, we examine the modern era of globalization, stateless corporations, and the "race to the bottom", culminating in a reflection on five centuries of resistance and the future of the system that rules our world.CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS00:00:00 Introduction00:03:00 The World Before Capitalism00:11:30 The Rise of "War Capitalism"00:18:34 Enclosures and the Creation of the Proletariat00:27:51 The Great Witch-Hunt and the War on Women00:38:33 The Plantation-Factory Nexus00:46:00 The Great Transformation: The Rise of the Factory System00:52:20 Discipline and Resistance00:58:33 The Deindustrialization of the South01:04:48 The American Civil War01:12:39 The New Imperialism and the Global Reconstruction of Cotton01:20:56 The Return of the Global South01:28:08 The Age of Extremes01:36:03 Decolonization and the New Global Order01:44:08 Globalization and the Race to the Bottom01:51:52 The Future of CapitalismThank you for joining us! We hope you find this Bedtime Biography of capitalism both insightful and wonderfully calming.#capitalism #history #EconomicHistory #marx #industrialrevolution #colonialism #globalization #BedtimeBiography #HistoryAfterDark #relaxinghistory #historyforsleep #audiobiography #intellectualhistory
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Who really was Niccolò Machiavelli? For centuries, he's been branded history's most sinister thinker – the man whose name became a byword for evil. But others see something very different: a republican, a revolutionary, and even a hero of the people. ✊ In this episode, we travel back to Renaissance Florence to explore his life and thought – and uncover the real Machiavelli. 🤍 A special thank you to my Patreon community for all their support, especially in these difficult times. If you'd like to support my work for the price of a cup of coffee every month, please join us over at https://www.patreon.com/c/HistoryAfterDark . Our community decides the topics of future videos and you'll get acess to future Patreon-exclusive episodes on topics too spicy for YouTube or Spotify. 📚 Sources for this episode: Erica Benner, Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli's Lifelong Quest for Freedom Alexander Lee, Machiavelli: His Life and Times Maurizio Viroli, Niccolò's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli John P. McCormick, Reading Machiavelli: Scandalous Books, Suspect Engagements, and the Virtue of Populist Politics J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks
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From 1936 to 1939, a fractured nation became a laboratory of terror, where the world's most dangerous ideologies devoured each other. This was the Spanish Civil War. In it, democracy, fascism, communism, and anarchism collided on a single, blood-soaked battlefield. It started in the summer of 1936, when a deeply fractured Spain exploded into violence. Foreign powers rushed in to test their deadliest new weapons, while idealists from across the globe flocked to fight fascism. But what began as a heroic defense of a Republic soon decayed into a brutal internal purge. In this feature-length documentary, we explore the terrifying complexities of the Spanish Civil War, how a nation was consumed by international geopolitics, and the tragic betrayal of a people's revolution by its own allies. History After Dark survives on viewer solidarity. If you value deep, independent history, please consider supporting us as a YouTube Member or on Patreon for the price of a coffee every month. In return, you’ll get access to a completely ad-free experience and can cast votes for the topics of future episodes. https://www.patreon.com/cw/HistoryAfterDark If you enjoy these soothing explorations of fascinating lives and thought, please: ⭐️ Leave us a 5-star rating – it truly helps others discover our content! 🔔 Follow History After Dark for more documentaries. For further reading, this narrative draws on: 📚 Ronald Fraser, Blood of Spain 📚 Paul Preston, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge 📚 Burnett Bolloten, The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution 📚 Martha A. Ackelsberg, Free Women of Spain If you enjoy these deep dives into fascinating historical lives and events, please 👍 Like this video – it truly helps others discover our content! 🔔 Subscribe to @historyafterdarkfilms for more feature-length documentaries. 00:01:00 The Tinderbox 00:11:04 The Spark and the Storm 00:20:13 Power to the People 00:30:30 The Grand Camouflage 00:40:56 The Fatal Compromise 00:48:52 Forging the Iron Fist 00:58:30 The Shadow State 01:04:42 Terror From the Skies 01:15:32 The May Days 01:26:38 The Purge and the Puppet 01:39:02 The Grip of the Secret Police 01:45:14 The Bitter End 01:56:33 The Shadow of Spain #SpanishCivilWar #History #HistoryAfterDark #Documentary #Fascism #Anarchism
He wrote the terrifying blueprint of our modern world, then died fleeing for his life. Walter Benjamin was a brilliant Jewish philosopher who spent his life outrunning poverty, failure, and the rise of fascism. In 1940, trapped at the Spanish border and facing capture, he took his own life. The mysterious black briefcase he carried vanished into history, but the ideas he left behind would miraculously resurface to reshape human thought. In this feature-length documentary, we explore the tragic life of a forgotten genius, his desperate warnings about how fascism takes hold, and his chilling prophecy of our modern digital age – a society addicted to spectacle, screens, and manufactured desire. History After Dark survives on viewer solidarity. If you value deep, independent history, please consider supporting us as a YouTube Member or on Patreon for the price of a coffee every month. In return, you’ll get access to a completely ad-free experience and can cast votes for the topics of future episodes.https://www.patreon.com/cw/HistoryAfterDark If you enjoy these soothing explorations of fascinating lives and thought, please: ⭐️ Leave us a 5-star rating – it truly helps others discover our content! 🔔 Follow History After Dark for more documentaries. For further reading, this narrative draws on: 📚 Howard Eiland & Michael W. Jennings, Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life 📚 Esther Leslie, Walter Benjamin 📚 Michael Löwy, Fire Alarm: Reading Walter Benjamin's "On the Concept of History" 📚 Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project📚 Gil Baptista Ferreira, "Digital Genealogy: Aura, Liquidity, and Burnout in Online Identity" 📚 Neil Levi & Michael Rothberg, "Memory studies in a moment of danger: Fascism, postfascism, and the contemporary political imaginary" 🎧 ACFM, "ACFM Microdose: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction #WalterBenjamin #Philosophy #History #HistoryAfterDark #Documentary #FrankfurtSchool
It remains the most successful slave rebellion in human history. Born into bondage, Toussaint Louverture transformed a fractured uprising into an unstoppable military machine, ultimately humiliating the French, British, and Spanish empires. In this feature-length documentary, we explore the sheer tactical genius behind the Haitian Revolution, the brutal fight for the first Black republic, and the man who tore down the colonial world order. History After Dark survives on viewer solidarity. If you value deep, independent history, please consider supporting us as a YouTube Member or on Patreon for the price of a coffee every month. In return, you’ll get access to a completely ad-free experience and can cast votes for the topics of future episodes.https://www.patreon.com/cw/HistoryAfterDark If you enjoy these soothing explorations of fascinating lives and thought, please: ⭐️ Leave us a 5-star rating – it truly helps others discover our content! 🔔 Follow History After Dark for more Bedtime Biographies. For further reading, this narrative draws on: 📚 Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution 📚 Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History 📚 Philippe R. Girard, The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon 📚 Carolyn E. Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution From Below 📚 Charles Forsdick & Christian Høgsbjerg, Toussaint Louverture: A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions #ToussaintLouverture #HaitianRevolution #History #HistoryAfterDark #Documentary #BlackHistory