Hardcore History — Episode Notes

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History · podcast

Kyle’s running notes while listening — chiefly a capture of the books and thinkers Carlin cites, episode by episode. Started 2026-01-22. Episode titles resolved against Carlin’s own series index on 2026-08-31; the source note recorded only “Ep 001”, “Ep 002”, etc.

Every book below is something Carlin referenced, not something Kyle has read — so per the anti-library convention they belong in wiki/books-to-read/, with this page as the where_seen: provenance.

HH 1 — “Alexander versus Hitler”

Carlin’s first episode, comparing Alexander the Great and Hitler as case studies in how history judges conquerors.

• Peter Green’s book on Alexander — Alexander of Macedon, 356–323 B.C.
• Oliver Stone’s Alexander (2004 film) — the movie treatment, referenced alongside the histories
• A.B. Bosworth’s Alexander book — Conquest and Empire — The Reign of Alexander the Great
• Robert Pois, National Socialism and the Religion of Nature — National Socialism and the Religion of Nature
• Detail Kyle kept: Alexander slept with a copy of the Iliad.

HH 2 — “Guns and Horses”

East vs. west as a way of fighting, and whether that difference is cultural or material.

• Victor Davis Hanson — the “western way of war” thesis
• Hans Delbrück — Hans Delbrück, the German military historian on the other side of the argument
• Carlin’s framing, as Kyle recorded it verbatim:

  “Warfare is intimately tied to the culture, and that the culture imposes restraints on what a military can do and ways that it can develop.”

HH 7 — “The X-History Files”

Pseudo-history and fringe archaeology — what Carlin treats as discredited, and why the claims persist.

• Chariots of the Gods? (Erich von Däniken) — named as a discredited book and film
• Carl Sagan — his 1968 book touching alien-influence arguments (Intelligent Life in the Universe, with I.S. Shklovskii)
• Graham Hancock — Graham Hancock, described in the note as a pseudo-archaeologist; The Sign and the Seal
• George G.M. James, Stolen Legacy — Stolen Legacy
• Martin Bernal’s Black Athena — Black Athena, the book series

HH 8 — “Scars of the Great War”

World War I and the two opposite literary responses to it.

• The Razor’s Edge (Somerset Maugham) — recorded in the note as “Sommerset Moore”
• Detail Kyle kept: Germany deliberately sent Lenin to Russia hoping to destabilise it — and he did.
• Storm of Steel (Ernst Jünger) — “darker book to show the horror of war.” Ernst Jünger coined “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” — the old-world mentality of being willing to get something out of conflict.
• All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque) — the counterweight: “more moralistic message about how war is bad.”

The pairing is the point. Jünger and Remarque wrote about the same war from the same side and reached opposite conclusions about what it was for. That contrast — whether suffering is transformative or simply waste — is the reason Kyle kept both lines.

Connections

• Dan Carlin — the host; this page is a listening log, not a review
• History · World War I · Alexander the Great — the subject matter
• The books above are tracked in the anti-library (wiki/books-to-read/), each carrying this page as its where_seen: provenance.

From Apple Notes — Hardcore history (captured 2026-08-21)

Verbatim. Note last modified 2026-02-03, created 2026-01-22. Note id x-coredata://2450E87C-596C-4FF9-A2BB-E274139997E1/ICNote/p2713.

Ep 001

Peter green book about Alexander

Oliver stone movie on Alexander

Alexander book by AB Bosworth

Robert poyce- national socialism and the religion of nature

Alexander slept with a copy of the Iliad

Ep 002

East vs west fighting

• Victor Davis Hansen
• Hans Delbrook

“Warfare is intimately tied to the culture and that the culture imposes restraints on what a military can do and ways that it can develop.”

Ep 007

Chariots of the gods - discredited book and movie

Carl Sagan 1968 book about alien influence

Graham Hancock - pseudo archeologist book; Sign and the Seal

Stolen legacy by George James

Black Athena - book series

Ep 008

The Razors edge by Sommerset Moore

Germany SENT Lenin to Russia hoping to destabilize it and he did

Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger - darker book to show the horror of war

Junger coined the phrase “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” - Old world mentality of being willing to get something out of conflict

All quiet on the western front - more moralistic message about how war is bad.