After reading 3,000+ pages for this series, I've concluded the Jews represent history's most improbable civilization. Pennsylvania alone has almost as many people as all Jews worldwide (15 million), yet this tiny desert tribe has repeatedly altered world history's trajectory over 4,000 years. They've produced ONE-THIRD of all Nobel Prize winners while comprising less than 1% of global population and birthed three major world religions. Their continued existence and influence completely defies rational historical models—making them perhaps history's most accomplished ethnic group.
SPONSORS:
NetSuite:
More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102
Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive
Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code WHATIFALTHIST at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/whatifalthist
LINKS:
Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: / @history102-qg5oj
Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...
Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...
Bibliography:
Paul. Johnson's History of the Jews
A History of the Jewish People by Ben Sasson
Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant
Caesar and Christ by Will Durant
The Age of Faith by Will Durant
Who We Are and How we Got Here by David Reich
The Passion of the Western Mind by Tarnas
A History of Religious Ideas by Mircea Eliade
The Ordeal of Civility by Cuddihy
The Jewish Evolutionary Strategy by Kevin Macdonald
The Culture of Critique by Kevin Macdonald
The People that Will Dwell Alone by Kevin Macdonal
Pax by Tom Holland
Dominion by Tom Holland
Migrations and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
A History of the Ancient World by Ben Sasson
The Shaping of America by Meinig
American Nations by Colin Woodard
Masks of the Gods by Joseph Camble
Sex and Power in History by Amaury de Riencourt
Lineages of Modernity by Emmanuel ToddT
The Righteous Mind by John haidt
The Evolution of Civilizations by Carroll Quiggley
A History of Egypt by Breasted
1177 BC the Year Civilization Died by Eric Cline
Debt by David Grabber
A Guide to Late Antiquity by Peter Brown
Fire in the Minds of Men by Billington
Cynical Theories by James Lindsay
The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
The World's Religions by Houston Smith
Blooodlands by Timothy Snyder
--------
55:23
Explaining Every Jewish Migration | Expulsion
After reading THOUSANDS of pages on Jewish civilization, I've hit that "skeleton key" threshold where the soul of a civilization becomes clear. Like India, Judaism is an "asterisk civilization"—for every principle, there's a paradoxical counterpoint. The sheer historical complexity demands its own dedicated video. Modern discourse about Jews suffers from profound historical illiteracy—most "experts" haven't read a single book on the topic. This episode provides the essential context everyone needs.
SPONSORS:
NetSuite:
More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102
Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive
Compare news coverage. Spot media bias. Avoid algorithms. Try Ground News today and get 40% off your subscription by going to https://ground.news/whatif
--
LINKS:
Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: / @history102-qg5oj
Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...
Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...
--
Bibliography:
The Passion of the Western Mind by Tarnas
Migrations and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
Ethnic America by Thomas Sowell
A History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer
Pax by Tom Holland
Dominion by Tom Holland
Rise of the West by McNeil
A World History by McNeil
Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant
The Life of Greece by Will Durant
Caesar and Christ by Will Durant
The Age of Faith by Will Durant
The People that Shell Dwell Alone by Kevin Macdonald
The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant
Europe Emerges by Reynold
A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson
A History of the Jews by Ben Sasson
Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia by David Christian
Empires of the Atlantic World by Evans
Crusaders and Nomads by Lewis
--------
48:49
Explaining Native Mexican Civilization
The once-mighty Maya civilization—with populations LARGER than today's Yucatan—faced apocalyptic collapse in the 10th century. As unprecedented drought persisted, desperate nobles demanded increasingly extreme blood sacrifices while peasants abandoned a system clearly abandoned by the gods. The priests, whose calendar had predicted this cycle of rise and fall, watched helplessly as city-states waged total wars of annihilation. A haunting glimpse into what civilizational collapse truly looks like.
SPONSORS:
NetSuite:
More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102
Shopify: Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive
--
LINKS:
Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: / @history102-qg5oj
Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...
Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...
--
Bibliography:
Fire and Blood by Fehrenbach
Epic Mexico by Rugely
Rise of the West by McNeil
1491 by Mann
Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend
A History of Latin America by Hubert Herring
Why Nations Fail by Robinson and Acemoglu
Empires of the Atlantic World by Elliot
The Story of the Americas by Leland Dewitt Baldwin
Atrocities by Matthew White
The Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas by Hagen
Nine Nations of North America by Garreau
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
The Decline of the West by Spengler
Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant
The Soul of India by Amaury de riencourt
Masks of the Gods volume 1 and 2 by Joseph Camble
The Year 1000 by Valerie Hansen
War Before Civilization by Lawrence Keeley
The Day Before Yesterday Tamim Ansary
Spiral Dynamics by Beck
Sex and Culture by JD Unwin
The Explanation of Ideology by Emmanuel Todd
The 3D Gospel by Georges
Don't Know Much about Mythology by Ken Davis
--------
1:02:43
Was Churchill a Villain?
World events keep derailing my civilization series! As a professional historian, I felt compelled to address the recent Rogan/Cooper podcast pushing the revisionist claim that Churchill was the villain of WWII who caused millions of deaths by refusing Hitler's peace offer. Let's examine what the historical evidence actually shows about this controversial take.
--
SPONSORS:
NetSuite:
More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102
Shopify:
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive
Click here to make some cash for giving your opinion with YouGov: https://www.inflcr.co/SHLCl
Thanks, YouGov, for sponsoring this video!
--
LINKS:
Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: / @history102-qg5oj
Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...
Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...
--
Bibliography:
Liddle Hart's the Second World War 2
Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer
World War 2 by Childers
My Early Life by Winston Churchill
A History of the English Speaking Peoples after 1900 by Andrew Roberts
A Military History of the Western World by JFC Fuller
The Dictators by Richard Overy
The Rule of Empires by Parsons
Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quiggley
War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat
The World at War by Forster
If the Allies had Fallen by Showalter
History's Greatest Wars by Cummins
A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia by David Christian
Honor by Bowman
Cynical Theories by James Lindsay
Fire in the Minds of Men by Billington
Atrocities by Matthew White
The First World War 1 by John Keegan
The Second World War by John Keegan
The History of the English Speakings Peoples by Winston Churchill
Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer
15 Battles of History by Creasy
--------
1:03:31
WTF is the Left Even Doing?
We're living through a historic inflection point where the left lost the presidency but still dominates virtually every Western institution. Despite their electoral defeat, they control the bureaucracy, UN, Big Tech, media, academia, and even the Catholic Church—while the right has built no alternative power structures. The burning question is what the left will actually DO with this paradoxical position, as their own leadership seems unsure following Trump's victory. Their next moves will inevitably shape our historical trajectory as history is carved into stone before our eyes.
--
SPONSORS:
NetSuite:
More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102
Shopify:
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive
Surfshark:
Go to https://surfshark.com/whatdeal for 4 extra months of Surfshark
--
LINKS:
Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: / @history102-qg5oj
Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...
Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...
Bibliography:
The Righteous Mind by Jon Haidt
Ages of Discord by Peter Turchin
End Times by Peter Turchin
The Master and His Emissary by Ian McGhilchrist
The Storm before the Calm by George Friedman
On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
Woke Racism by John McWhorter
Leviathan and its Enemies by Sam Francis
Regime Change by Patrick Deneen
The Origins of Woke by Richard Hanania
The Unabomber's Manifesto
The Revolt of the Elites by Lasch
The Total State by Auron Macintyre
A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
Seeing like a State by James Scott
After Liberalism by Paul Gottfried
Japan and the Shackles of the Past by Taggart Murphy
Destined for War by Graham Allison
Envy by Helmut Schoeck
Cynical Theories by James Lindsay
Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck
Forgotten Truth by Houston Smith
The Economics of Discontent by Jean Michel Paul
About "WhatifAlthist" | World History, Philosophy, Culture
WhatifAltHist is a podcast from Rudyard Lynch that looks to try to find the patterns in history and anthropology so as to predict the future and understand the dynamics that result in civilizations rising and falling. It began as an enormously popular alternate history channel with nearly 600K listeners and more than 100M views on YouTube. Rudyard Lynch also hosts the podcast History 102 with Erik Torenberg, which attempts to solidly explain pivotal historical events in depth in under an hour.
Topics covered: World History, Philosophy, Civilization, Culture
WhatifAlthist is part of the Turpentine podcast network. Learn more: turpentine.co
Listen to "WhatifAlthist" | World History, Philosophy, Culture, Ancient Civilisations and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app