W&L History Professor Barton Myers Featured in History Channel Series Myers serves as a commentator for the series “Dark Marvels,” offering the history behind some of the world’s most diabolical inventions.

By Brian Laubscher
August 4, 2023

Barton Myers, professor of history at Washington and Lee University, was recently featured as a commentator on the show “Dark Marvels” which airs Monday evenings at 10 p.m. on the History Channel.

“Dark Marvels” is a spinoff of “Modern Marvels,” one of the History Channel’s longest-running and most popular documentary shows. “Dark Marvels” explores the history and engineering behind the world’s most diabolical inventions. Myers appears in the episode titled “Treacherous Traps,” which first aired on July 24 and examines the history and evolution of booby traps that are utilized to maim and kill. Myers offers the historical context and story-telling behind the use of several famous booby traps.

“After working with the writers and production team last fall, I flew out to Los Angeles to film for part of the series,” said Myers. “I’m anxious to teach and write about my scholarly field for as wide an audience as possible so working with the talented, diverse team of writers and producers was a great opportunity. I was pleased to get to know these hard-working folks bringing history alive for a new generation of viewers.”

Myers covered several segments for the hour-long episode, citing his portrayal of Dr. Francis Lieber as his favorite segment. “Lieber was a German émigré and Columbia College scholar who helped develop the concept of laws of war during the Civil War,” he said. “An advisor to the Abraham Lincoln administration, Lieber is widely considered the first political scientist and academically trained historian.”

A frequent contributor to the History Channel, Myers will also appear in a future Dark Marvels episode titled “Superweapons of Fear” that will air on August 14. He has previously served as a featured contributor for such acclaimed History Channel documentary miniseries as Grant (2020) and Abraham Lincoln (2022).

Myers has been a member of the W&L faculty since 2013. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster and a master’s and doctorate from the University of Georgia.

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