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October 5th, 1871. In what some call the wildest town in the Wild West, bad blood has been building for a long time. Wild Bill Hickok, the sheriff of Abilene, Kansas, is facing down Phil Coe, a saloon owner with a history of antagonizing the law. Then, the guns come out. This kind of shootout isn’t uncommon in the Old West, but it’s a lot more complicated than good guys versus bad guys. And to understand it on a deeper level, you just have to play a video game.
Red Dead Redemption is a wildly popular gaming franchise, filled with train robberies, cattle rustling, and gunfights. And today, we take a close look at the real history behind the second game in this legendary series. Who are the inspirations behind its main characters? And how can understanding this video game help us to learn the true story of the Wild West?
Special thanks to our interview guest, Tore Olsson, author of Red Dead’s History: A Video Game, An Obsession, and America’s Violent Past.
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HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes starting September 16th! In the meantime, listen to a favorite classic from the archives.
September 11, 2001. On a clear and sunny day, Captain Richard Thornton is piloting his ferry boat back and forth between New Jersey and New York City. But when he hears an airplane flying too low to the ground, he knows something is wrong. After the World Trade Center’s North Tower is struck, Thornton instinctively drives his ship down towards Lower Manhattan. He will soon be joined by countless other marine craft: ferries, fishing boats, tugboats, and more. With the roads, bridges, and trains that connect the island of Manhattan to the rest of the world shut down, this collection of civilian, commercial, and military boats manages to carry more than 500,000 survivors to safety. How did this impromptu evacuation, which was larger than Dunkirk during WWII, come together? And how does one ferry boat captain reflect on the shared sense of duty he felt on that fateful day?
This episode originally aired on September 6, 2021.
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