Welcome to History that Doesn't Suck.

I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like special episode of history that doesn't suck. For me, it's

particularly special, probably the most personal and I'll even say

most vulnerable in my nearly nine years behind the podcasting mic. See, today, as always,

I'd like to tell you a story, or rather two stories. The second of these is the introductory

chapter of my new book. And thanks to my

publisher, Simon & Schuster, I get to share it with you, my H-TDS friends, a full six weeks before

the book hits the shelves. And we'll get to that in a matter of minutes. But first, the first story is

personal because, for once, this isn't a historical figures tale.

This one is mine.

The story of why I wrote this book.

And in a way, why I started this podcast.

So, if I may, rewind.

There are a few reasons I started HTDS as a young professor back in 2017.

Among them was a frustration with our public discourse.

I believed that our nation's ability to talk to each other on important issues with struggling,

in part because our history and civics education have struggled for so many years, decades even,

that it was starting to show up in our partisan divide. There was less disagreeing while

understanding and more demonizing across the aisle. To me, the cure was to provide the most

entertaining, non-partisan history of our nation that I could possibly muster.

One that.

Done right.

...