Pick the Next Extra History Series! "Weird and Unusual"

It's time for our Extra History poll! Where you get to vote on what our next Extra History Series is about!

These four topics were selected from our "Weird and Unusual" Patreon Suggestions and are listed in no particular order below.

Secret Societies: In the Shadows

Everyone loves a good conspiracy, right? One with a shadowy organization, perhaps doing weird rituals in order to shape the world behind the scenes? Well you’re in luck, because in this series we’ll look at a number of secret societies throughout history—examining their membership, their reasons for existence, and what participants got internally from belonging to a select, private group. Whether it’s the Illuminati, formed to push forward Enlightenment ideals in restrictive Catholic-held lands, the Knights of the Golden Circle, who dreamed of expanding American slavery south into Mexico and Central America, the Molly Maguires who fought for Irish railroad workers, or the infamous Hellfire Club which mostly just let aristocrats get drunk, have orgies and be blasphemous, we want to explore the WHY of these groups. While we’ve mentioned a few, we’re actually not going to show our cards totally on this one—we want to keep our options open in case we stumble across a particularly interesting or bananas order. But this is a series that will explore the cultural history of groups, why we join them, and how those outside a group can often shape (or fabricate) popular beliefs about what these groups are and what they do.

Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General

Historians often debate about what caused a certain witchcraft panic—is it societal stress, ergot poisoning, religious tension? Well the English witchcraft panic of the 1640s could be traced to one man—Matthew Hopkins. Born to a Puritan minister, we know so little of Hopkins' early life that rumors that he trained as a lawyer can't even be corroborated. However, he burst on the scene in 1644 in a spectacular and horrifying series of witchcraft trials where the 24-year-old Hopkins and partner John Stearne cut a bloody path across Eastern England, haunting parts of the country ravaged by the Civil Wars. Hopkins and his retinue would go from town-to-town as professional witch-hunters, conducting trials in exchange for pay as though they were exterminators. Targeting largely older women, Hopkins would extract confessions and "information" using sleep deprivation, leading questions, and "pricking," where female assistants used needles to identify "devil's marks" supposedly used to suckle imps. Claiming to be the "Witchfinder General" of England and to have the official sanction of parliament (untrue) Hopkins raked in unheard-of amounts of cash while sending unheard-of amounts of people to the gallows. However, opposition to his reign of terror grew, and soon Hopkins would turn to the printing press in order to answer his critics in both the clergy and parliament. Come for the weird demon familiars (like Jamara, the imp who looks like a plump, legless cocker spaniel), stay for the discussions of capitalism and social upheaval during the English Civil War.

Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Man in the World

Aleister Crowley had many phases in life: mountaineer, opium addict, occultist, cocaine addict, self-proclaimed magician, heroin addict, religious prophet and… perhaps a lifelong spy for British intelligence? Born to a wealthy fundamentalist Christian family in 1875, by the time he was 23 he’d earned an Oxford education and fallen in with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a group researching and teaching ceremonial magic. Crowley would ultimately fall out with the organization and be instrumental in its fracturing (leading to a magician’s duel with Irish poet W.B. Yeats, where the two stood staring at each other and mumbling until Yeats kicked him down the stairs). However, Crowley soon had a new revelation during his honeymoon in Egypt, as a non-corporeal being dictated to him The Book of the Law, a new religious text with its first principle being, “Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” This text became the basis of Crowley’s new religion of Thelema, which would go on to cause nearly as much controversy as his open bisexuality, libertine lifestyle and support of Germany during the First World War (which he later claimed was at the behest of British intelligence). Crowley is a strange figure who is difficult to grapple with, but his life also exposes the breakdown of traditional religion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the attempts to find new spiritual paths. Beyond shock value—and there’s much to shock, from his egomania and drug use to blatant misogyny—Crowley remains an influential figure in the development of both modern spirituality and pop culture, whose influence is still being felt.

Caligula: Mad God of Rome

Caligula is probably one of the most horrifying rulers in world history, whose violence is so over-the-top that any description of his crimes veers quickly into comedy. Who can forget that time he tried to kill his mother with an elaborately-booby-trapped party boat? Or made his horse consul? Or declared war on Poseidon and ransacked his kingdom for the spoils of war (seashells)? But there are also historians who question whether these stories are true, or whether Caligula—who was murdered in a coup—was posthumously vilified in order to justify his assassination. Perhaps he was just a regular crazy-brutal Roman emperor, rather than an outright monster? Either way, his tenure as one of the most powerful men in the world left a scar on the world’s psyche that has been used as a symbol of poor leadership from his own time to the present day.

Our Current Schedule is:

The Little Ice Age - Starting 11/4 -> Empress Wu Zetian: Hated By Gods and Men -> Sitting Bull -> Your Vote!

***Friendly reminder: The poll will end at 5:00 PM PT on Wednesday the 1st. 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. ***