Dr. Nyri A. BakkalianFolks, I'm sorry about this, but #FridayNightHistory is postponed until next week, owing to unexpectedly urgent circumstances on a personal matter that require me to not be doing my usual mad dash of scripting. Thank you for understanding, and I'll see you on Friday the 27th.
This wasn't in the relevant #FridayNightHistory episode, by the way, because I don't have a citation for it.
My favorite thing about this week's #FridayNightHistory episode is a tossup between the letter to Seward from Van Valkenburgh saying "so who's in charge right now? we're not sure" and the fact that I got to call Emperor Meiji a tool.
Next week on #FridayNightHistory Season 5: #IntoTheScaleOfBattle--
Satsuma Domain's campaign of "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you" goes up in smoke and flame as Shōnai Domain and the Shinchōgumi say enough is enough and finally shoot back.
When you hear "Meiji enlightenment," remember: it was imposed in blood. This is the story of that bloody imposition: the Boshin War.
#FridayNightHistory S5, "Into the Scale of Battle" Ep. 1 is "Pax Tokugawa"
https://riverside-wings.com/2026/02/20/friday-night-history-137-s5e1-pax-tokugawa/
NEXT WEEK! The premiere of #FridayNightHistory Season 5!!
Be there!
One of my favorite things about this new season of #FridayNightHistory is just how much of it I can write basically from memory after a PhD in this exact topic.
This is also my least favorite thing about this season, because it means I have to be twice as careful about double checking myself.
New on the Patreon: an update on #FridayNightHistory Season 5, the troubles when communications from a library fail, and what the first run of 5 episodes will look like from me. #IntoTheScaleOfBattle, A History of the Boshin War, comes to your podcast feeds in late January 2026! #podcasts
This week on #FridayNightHistory, we have Bonus Episode 3, in which we analyze the 1959 film "Dokuganryu Masamune." Subscribe to support the making of our next season, and catch this and the rest of the extra content!
