The Follies of War

About this episode

The episode explores the implications of industrialized war through historical context and music.

March 24, 1918: German forces crossed the Somme during Operation Michael, Ludendorff’s great spring offensive — the war machine’s last confident lunge toward a victory that never came. In 2026, with the Trump administration dismantling alliances built on the bones of two world wars, treating the consequences of war as someone else’s problem, and marching forward with the kind of certainty that history tends to punish, it felt like a good week to reach back to the era when people were still trying to make sense of what industrialized war actually meant — and some of them were brave enough to say so. “Peter Piper” — Arthur Pryor’s Band (Victor, 1905) It sounds like a march — all brass and forward momentum and purpose. But “Peter Piper” is built on a nursery rhyme tongue-twister, a piece of music that moves with great confidence toward absolutely nothing. Arthur Pryor was the second most famous bandleader in America after Sousa, and when his band played, people stood up straight. On the anniversary of the Somme crossing, it seemed like the right way to open: all that certainty, all that momentum, built entirely on nonsense. “Stay Down Here Where You Belong” — Henry Burr (Victor…

People in this episode

Hosts: Boneapart, Yulia

Topics covered

• war
• history
• music
• society
• culture
• politics

Keywords

• Operation Michael
• Somme
• industrialized war
• Arthur Pryor
• Irving Berlin
• Trump administration
• music
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Trump administration

Books & works: Peter Piper, Stay Down Here Where You Belong

Places: Somme

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